December 2020 issue
Welcome
Represent is a campaign launched and led by the library to help better depict our incredibly diverse pool of students, staff, and local population. It started in 2019, as an initiative of Heena Karavadra, our Academic Librarian, driven by a desire to create an environment where issues such as race, tokenism and representation are openly discussed, a little literary bubble where each and every single one of us(students and staff) feels represented. The concept is simple: students are asked to recommend titles from underrepresented voices; which include, but are not limited to, BAME, LGBTQ+, and Disabled authors or books raising issues relating to racism, sexism, or any other type of discrimination: the represent campaign is yours to shape.
Titles recommended so far
With over 150 titles recommended since its creation last October, Represent has received no shortage of submissions from you, the people.
However, one group in particular was responsible for a large amount of the titles submitted last year – the UoL Book Club. This student-led society decided to get involved with the campaign at an early stage because they felt its aims resonated with their own. Believing in the importance of being able to read “widely and diversely” in books where the reader felt themselves adequately represented, the Book Club went about submitting titles based off books that its members had encountered during Black History month and LGBTQ+ Pride Month.
Inherent to their subject matter, many of these titles tackle issues of inequality and underrepresentation faced by marginalised communities. Through their submissions, the Book Club believes that it has supported Represents aims to reflect the “incredibly diverse range of voices in our students, staff and local population”, and hopes that its work will go some way in diversifying the library’s collections.
Books
Here are a few books, you might find to your liking:
The Good Immigrant by Nikesh Shukla
The Good Immigrant USA by Nikesh Shukla
My Sister The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
Remnants Of Partition by Aanchal Malhotra
Read at Leicester
University libraries are not just about reading for your course. You can also relax and read for fun too, with the Read at Leicester leisure collection. Put your feet up this holiday and grab a book! One of our favourites is My Sister The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite.
Accessibility promotion
The Represent Campaign is also dedicated to improving the experiences of students and staff who visit the David Wilson library and access the library services from their own homes, who class themselves as having some form of disability that makes accessing the library and its digital services more difficult.
To start with we, the Represent Campaign team, are making this newsletter available in different formats so it is more easily readable and accessible for those who would benefit from such changes.
We also want to promote SensusAccess, which is a free self-service cloud based re-formatting tool that is available to both students and staff at the University of Leicester and allows you to convert electronic documents into different alternative formats. It works by uploading the document you want to convert onto SensusAccess, and they will convert it for you and send it back to your university email account within minutes. This can be used on braille services and is available in fifteen languages. This can also be used on audio services which allows you to convert files into MP3 files, DAISY Talking Books and DAISY Books with spoken math, and this service is available in twenty languages. This can also be used on E-book services and so you can convert documents into EPUB, EPUB3, EPUB3 with media overlays and MobiPocket ebook formats and for those who have low vision the base line of the body text in an e- book may be raised to allow for more appropriate text scaling. Lastly, SensusAccess allows otherwise inaccessible documents such as image files and PDF files to be converted into more accessible formats and this service also supports conversion of Microsoft Office and PowerPoint documents into tagged PDF files.
In addition to SensusAccess, AbilityNet which is a UK charity offers online free factsheets, free IT support at home and a free helpline to help those with varying disabilities use computers and the internet in their own homes, in educational settings and the workplace. One section in particular that we think will be useful since most staff and students are mostly working from their own homes is ‘My Computer My Way’ which offers step-by-step guides on the different ways that you can make your own laptop or PC more accessible if you have any vision, hearing, motor and/or cognitive impairments.
The University of Leicester IT services has recently created an Accessible content creating course which is primarily aimed at staff, but students can enrol on it too and it teaches you the different ways to create more accessible documents. To enrol onto the course, go to Blackboard, search ‘Accessible’ and then choose Accessible content creation ITSX2020 to self-enrol.
Lastly, since the pandemic began, we know that a lot of students don’t have access to laptops at home or their laptops don’t support software they need to make documents more accessible to them in addition to software that Is necessary for their course and that is why the David Wilson Library is proud to offer flexible loan laptops to students at the University of Leicester and they can be borrowed for upwards of a month, subject to availability. To borrow a flexible loan laptop, students will need to provide their University ID card and pick them up from the Library Help Zone on the ground floor of the David Wilson Library.
Get involved
Archives
Please check out the Archives and Special Collections, where students can donate rare books and records, and special items relating to the history of Leicester! Digital memorabilia are also welcome. There are archives for local history, the Leicester Mercury, and student life too! http://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/
Volunteering
If you want to add some skills to your CV and help your library at the same time,
volunteering is the perfect opportunity! ‘So that they may have life’ honours the founding of the University of Leicester and the people behind it, and Unlocking Our Sound Heritage is doing ground breaking work to preserve rare sound records across the UK before they are lost.
https://le.ac.uk/library/get-involved/volunteer
https://le.ac.uk/library/special-collections/enhance/what-we-collect
Library Services
Good news! The David Wilson library will still be open during lockdown! Here’s all you need to know about their opening times before and after Christmas: https://le.ac.uk/library/about/opening-hours
Which services are currently available?
Students can:
-book a study space in silent study or a PC room
-drop into the library without booking a study space
-borrow a laptop from the extended loan service
-meet with the Academic Skills Centre online for support with writing, maths, research, and many other skills: https://le.ac.uk/library/academic-skills
Need an article or book that the library doesn’t have? Check with your module convenor and request a document from another library at: https://www97.lamp.le.ac.uk/document-supply/
