Art and design blog

We have some beautifully visual books in the library which are part of the Portrait of Humanity and Portrait of Britain series:

• Portrait of Humanity volume 4
• Portrait of Humanity volume 5
• Portrait of Humanity volume 6
• Portrait of Britain Volume 7

Johannah Churchill is a lecturer in Contemporary Photographic Practice at the university and she says: “For photography students the books are something to aspire to and something to draw inspiration from. Each of the books showcase 200 new portraits from national and international photographers, selected from thousands of entries, allowing the privilege of a glimpse into the lives of their subjects, and celebrating what connect us.  They’re such a valuable resource for students to draw upon - a wide selection of contemporary photographers and subject matters – I think what I like most is when students find an image in there and then do a deep-dive into favourite photographers’ work.”

Thanks to Johannah for sharing her insights into how these books are useful for our students studying photography. Do pop into our St Peter's Library to discover the delights of these books and the photographs included in them.

It is always a delight to promote research by academic colleagues in the university. Craig Ames is the Programme Leader for our BA Photography and Digital Imaging course. He has recently donated five of his creations to the library - thanks Craig!

You can find the details of the books below which are all available to consult and borrow from the Library@DavidGoldman:

• Ames, C. (2023) Evidential 
• Ames, C. (2022) New topographies: Images of an algorithmic landscape
• Ames, C. (2022) Photographs of British algae: AI impressions
• Ames, C. (2023) The waters of Thera
• Ames, C. (2022) Twentysix image returns

The Carnegies are long-running UK children’s book awards – they recognise outstanding reading experiences for writing and illustrating in books for children and young people. The Carnegie Medal for Illustration is the award for an outstanding book in terms of illustration for children and young people. More information is available on the Carnegies web page.

In the library we are fortunate to have a number of the books which have won this illustration award in recent years.

• Becker, A. (2023) The tree and the river (winner of the 2024 prize)
• Nguyen, T. and Zdung, J. (2023) Saving Sorya: Chang and the sun bear
• Pinfold, L. (2011) The black dog
• Reynolds, J. and Novgorodoff, D. (2020) Long way down: the graphic novel
• Smith, L (2017) There is a tribe of kids
• Smith, S. (2019) Small in the city

We encourage all illustration, design and creative writings students to borrow and read the books.  Explore them to discover the style of illustration, how the stories have been written and how the illustrations enhance the stories. 

…. and who knows, you could be a winner in future years!

Digital US is an online digital skills module brought to you by Student Journey, available to all Sunderland Campus students through Canvas. Completing Digital US will enable you to make a confident start with the University of Sunderland's key digital systems and develop the digital competencies and capabilities which are central to academic success, student life, employability and personal and professional practice.
 

Your Academic Liaison Librarian, Suzie Williams, regularly writes blog posts for you on this Art and Design Library Subject Guide.

The posts cover a wide range of topics including details about new books we have bought for you to use, promoting key resources in your subject and much more. You can sign up to get an email alert to any new posts - there are a couple of posts each month so you won't be inundated with emails, and you can choose to unsubscribe at any time. 

Just go to the Art and Design blog page and enter your email address where it says "Subscribe." Happy reading!

“The Carnegies are the UK's longest running and best-loved children's book awards, recognizing outstanding reading experiences creating through writing and illustration in books for children and young people. The Carnegie Medal for Writing is awarded by children’s librarians for an outstanding book written in English for children and young people. The Carnegie Medal for Illustration is awarded by children’s librarians for an outstanding book in terms of illustration for children and young people” (Source: The Carnegies).

The shortlist for both awards have been released and may be of particular interest to our BA Illustration students and staff, and those linked with our BA Creative and Professional Writing programme.

(Image sourced and used with permission https://carnegies.co.uk/2025-longlists-announced/)

Back in March 2024, our Project Cataloguing Archivist, Ellie Clewlow, published a blog post giving her first impressions of the Kate Adie Collection.

Kate Adie is a British journalist who was the Chief News Correspondent of BBC television news from 1989 to 2003. She is particularly known for her reports from world events and conflicts, including the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege and the Tiananmen Square student protests in 1989, as well as wars in the Gulf and the former Yugoslavia.  

Consisting of 240 boxes and nearly 1200 news clips, the Kate Adie Collection documents her life, from childhood and student life, through a career in local radio and broadcast journalism for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and then on into her work as an author, public speaker and supporter of charitable causes. 

One year on and 240 boxes, 1200 film clips and 2350 catalogue entries later, Ellie shares an introductory guide to the Kate Adie collection to assist future researchers, alongside images of some her personal highlights from the Collection.

Her article highlights what you can find in the collections and some fab tips on how to search effectively to discover the hidden gems of the collections. 

Some of our library ebooks come from the publisher Taylor and Francis. 

Their e-book reader has recently changed so if you have made any personalisation to any Taylor and Francis ebooks you'll need to follow the guidance in our FAQ on how to manage this change before 16th February.

“The Carnegies are the UK's longest running and best-loved children's book awards, recognizing outstanding reading experiences creating through writing and illustration in books for children and young people. The Carnegie Medal for Writing is awarded by children’s librarians for an outstanding book written in English for children and young people. The Carnegie Medal for Illustration is awarded by children’s librarians for an outstanding book in terms of illustration for children and young people” (Source: The Carnegies).

The longlists for both awards were released on 12th February 2025 and may be of interest to our BA Creative and Professional Writing students and staff, and to students doing our Design programmes.

• Carnegie Medal for Writing 2025 Longlist
• Carnegie Medal for Illustration 2025 Longlist