Author: hhoward2

This is Information Security Awareness Week!

Monday 3rd – Friday 7th October 2016:
This week is Information Security Awareness Week 2016. This year the focus will be on why information matters to all University students and staff, and how you can take some simple steps to quickly protect your personal data and research content.
The main event on the afternoon of 5th October will see invited internal and external speakers present and discuss some of the issues. These will be very accessible and are aimed at all audiences, regardless of technical abilities. Bookings are now open via the following event channel:
https://www.events.ed.ac.uk/index.cfm?event=book&scheduleID=21717
The Security team will also be active on Twitter during the week, with hints, tips and useful guidance. Follow them on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/UoEInfoSec and with #UoEInfoSec
 

Explore the University art collections

Find out more about the amazing art and object collections that the University cares for, at http://collections.ed.ac.uk/
The collections include artworks, photographs, musical instruments, rare books, manuscripts, archives and special collections.
To find out how to access these wonderful collections, contact the Centre for Research Collections (CRC):
Centre for Research Collections
Edinburgh University Library
George Square
Edinburgh
EH8 9LJ
Tel: +44(0)131 650 8379

Digital skills training

Information Services Group (ISG) at the University of Edinburgh offer a wide range of courses to support digital skills development. Their current programme encompasses a variety of workshops on working with data, including:

  • Creating a Data Management Plan for your Grant Application (Wednesday 12-Oct-2016, 12:00 – 13:30)
  • Good Practice in Research Data Management (Friday 07-Oct-2016, 09:30 – 13:30)
  • Handling Data Management using SPSS (Monday 12-Sep-2016, 09:30 – 12:30; Monday 14-Nov-2016, 09:30 – 12:30)
  • Introduction to NVivo (Tuesday 27-Sep-2016, 09:30 – 12:30; Tuesday 01-Nov-2016, 09:30 – 12:30)
  • Introduction to Visualising Data in ArcGIS (Wednesday 28-Sep-2016, 14:00 – 17:00)
  • Introduction to Visualising Data in QGIS (Thursday 01-Dec-2016, 14:00 – 17:00)
  • Managing your research data: why is it important and what should you do? (Monday 10-Oct-2016, 11:30 – 13:00)
  • NVivo: Beyond the Basics – Queries (Monday 03-Oct-2016, 14:00 – 17:00; Monday 14-Nov-2016, 14:00 – 17:00)
  • Using EDINA Digimap (Wednesday 28-Sep-2016, 09:30 – 12:30; Thursday 01-Dec-2016, 09:30 – 12:30)
  • Working with personal and sensitive data (Friday 14-Oct-2016, 12:00 – 14:00)

All courses must be booked via the Digital Skills website
If you are unable to attend a course you have booked, you should cancel through the Event Booking channel.  Attendance is recorded, and failure to attend without prior notice may affect your future bookings. For over-subscribed courses ISG frequently offer standby places to people on the waiting list, so please ensure you arrive in good time or your place may be reallocated as a standby.
 

RSA Open: ECA Library Prize winner announced

Cecile Simonis awarded the ECA Library Prize at this year’s RSA Open Exhibition.
We are happy to announce that the Royal Scottish Academy judging panel has chosen artist and printmaker Cecile Simonis, as the recipient of the 2016 ECA Library Prize, for her work “Drones”. Cecile has won a year’s free borrowing membership at ECA Library. Cecile studied in Belgium and Italy, and is now resident in Edinburgh. She teaches drawing and printmaking and has strong connections with Edinburgh Printmakers Workshop. More information about her work can be seen at
We look forward to welcoming Cecile to ECA Library.
‘Drones’, by Cecile Simonis, with permission of the artist.

ECA professor wins Antoinette Forrester Downing Book Award

The Society of Architectural Historians has announced the 2016 recipients of the SAH Publication Awards.
The Antoinette Forrester Downing Book Award, honouring excellence in a published work devoted to historical topics in preservation, has been won by Miles Glendinning, for his book, The Conservation Movement: A History of Architectural Preservation (Routledge, 2013).
Miles Glendinning is professor of architectural conservation at the University of Edinburgh (ESALA at ECA), and director of the Scottish Centre for Conservation Studies.
The Conservation Movement: A History of Architectural Preservation will shortly feature in a display in the Art & Architecture Library, at Minto House, Chambers Street, Edinburgh.
Congratulations to Professor Glendinning.

Thought for the day…

“Painting, sculpture, any act of artistic creation, has a special relationship with slowness. As the American writer Saul Bellow once noted, “Art is something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos. A stillness which characterizes… the eye of the storm… an arrest of attention in the midst of distraction”.
– Carl Honore, In Praise of Slowness: challenging the cult of speed, HarperCollins, 2005.

Partial View: display by artist in residence Susie Wilson

This Spring, our 2016 artist in residence Susie Wilson made a selection of artists’ books from the ECA Library collection, for her display “Partial View”, which was held at ECA Library, Evolution House, during Semester 2.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Says Susie, of her selection of artists’ books:
“There is no definitive description of an artist book as by its very nature it is an elusive art form. The ECA Library’s collection reflects this. Artists’ books invite participation and the interplay between the viewer and the book creates an intimacy that isn’t found in other art forms. For me, an artist book should be a dialogue between form and content, each enhancing the other.”
The display completed the first part of Susie’s residency, following several very successful and well-attended workshops, such as this one where students were shown how to make their own books:
Susie and her workshop group, making book forms.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
We would like to thank Susie for her hard work and commitment to her residency, for sharing her skills with our students, and for creating a beautiful display!
The next part of the residency will be when Susie delivers a new artist’s book that she has made in response to her research at ECA Library, in summer 2016.
 

Antonio Freiles book display at ECA library

In April 2016 we were pleased to have a guest display of books by Antonio Freiles, at ECA Library, in Evolution House.
The display was curated by book artist and print maker Jane Hyslop.

Antonio Freiles is an artist who lives and works in Messina, Italy, and his work has been exhibited widely across Europe.
He works with artists’ books and in particular with handmade paper. Through this medium he explores the concept of painting-substance, the indistinct place where any difference between colour and support, between the composition and time of realization, between structure and space, is lost.
Freiles gives these sheets of hand-made paper the role of ‘pages’. Through these he aims for a kind of ‘total experience’, both for himself in that he is artist, editor, page designer, graphic artist, printer and inventor, and for the viewer who discovers the work visually and through tactile experience.
Freiles is deeply involved with Spazio Libro d’Artista, Catania, which houses an important collection of artists’ books.
Artist’s book by Antonio Freiles, with permission of the artist.

Forthcoming display to be curated by artist in residence

A selection of artists’ books, photograph by Jane Furness.
ECA Library welcomed book artist Susie Wilson to the Library on 1st February and Susie has been busy exploring the extensive artists’ book collection held at the Library as part of her research residency, which continues to mid-March.
With over 1500 artists’ books to explore, from Ed Ruscha to Katie Paterson, we are excited to see which books Susie will choose for her forthcoming display in the Library, and we wonder what themes she will discover and explore.
The display is due to open Week Beginning 21st March.