Merry Christmas – the perfect gift

Happy holidays readers!

Had trouble with gifts this year? Well search no further!

Ladybird Books have released hilarious spoof guides ‘for adults dealing with modern problems’. The Guardian has a great article on them here.

Using the same old-style Ladybird artwork from their original guides for children, the writers have added some clever (and very funny) captions for the modern adult.

With eight books in the series released this year, including such wonderful titles as ‘The Ladybird Book of Dating’, ‘The Hangover’ and ‘The Mid-life Crisis’, there’s a guide for each of your friends and family.

I sure know I’d love to get one!

See you next year folks,

Michelle De Aizpurua

Writing a Performance/Professional Development Plan

Every job I have had after graduation has required that I write a Performance Development Plan (PDP), sometimes called a Professional Development Plan. This outlines what I aim to achieve during the year, how these aims link with the strategic directions of my employer, and it enables that employer to review what I am doing.

There was however, very little guidance on writing one. This can be quite frustrating for a new graduate, with so much to learn already and every one expecting you to know about this strange PDP beast. Luckily, my recent employer sent me on a full day workshop to learn about writing these goals and targets.

So, a few tips 🙂

What implication does the Emoji have for the future of linguistics?

Read this super great web comic/article by Sam Wallman on the legitimacy of Emojis as a form of language.

Published as part of the Wheeler Centre’s ‘Interrobang‘ series – the concept being simply that it was a ‘festival of questions’. Anyone could submit a question and it may be discussed by “the world’s most inquisitive thinkers”. Described as a “feast of frequently unanswered questions” the most controversial, revealing, funny and insightful ideas were chosen.

This question was asked by ‘@toastfor_dinner.’

I was especially fascinated by the quote from Vladimir Nabokov in 1969 regarding the ‘smiley’, as well as what the most used emoji in the world was. A truly interesting discussion, I know I love using emojis to add certain ‘vibes’ to my writing 😉 :P.

Enjoy,

Michelle De Aizpurua

View at Medium.com

eBook Collections in Libraries

The RIPS Law Librarian Blog posted about the ‘Issue’s surrounding eBook collections in law libraries‘ in September 2015.

With the rise of all-digital ‘bookless’ libraries and constant revelations about eBooks, it’s a topic of interest to me, especially as their post referred specifically to the law library context (in which I am currently employed).

At first it seemed everyone was saying the eBook would mean the death of the printed book, and eventually become the primary mode for reading. (See news articles from 2010 – ‘The future of books is a real page-turner‘ and 2013 – ‘Popularity of ebooks spells the demise of printed versions‘). There was almost a mass hysteria predicting these doomsday scenarios for the poor printed book.

But now however, everyone’s changed their tune.

Embedding Information Research Skills with Dr Karey Harrison

At the university I have been working at, I was able to attend an inspiring peer learning seminar.

It’s focus was on embedding information research skills within courses and was presented by Dr Karey Harrison. I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to think about how we can encourage students to develop their research skills, especially since I was recently a student doing this myself!