July 26, 2016, by Kate Snaith

Five minutes with… Elizabeth Newall

Name?

Elizabeth Newall

Job title?

Senior Librarian, Teaching & Learning Support

So, what does that mean?

I manage a team of 4 librarians who teach students information and digital literacy skills. We work with academic departments and schools to provide different types of information skills teaching at different points in the curriculum when students need them most. We also design and run online courses such as “On Course for You Masters”, a Nottingham Open Online Course (NOOC), which you can find in Moodle.

That sounds interesting! What have you been up to recently?

Well, we were very excited to welcome two new members of the team this month so we can further develop our offering. Otherwise, business as usual as we work on materials and projects ready for the new academic year.

Is that all?

Yes, I think so.

ARE YOU ABSOLUTELY SURE? YOU WOULDN’T LIE TO ME WOULD YOU ELIZABETH????

Well I did win a Lord Dearing Award

What’s that? You were given a prestigious Lord Dearing Award which reflects excellence in teaching? The Award the University has been giving to members of staff who have made an outstanding contribution to creating a challenging, creative and innovative student learning environment since 1999? Which you received at a graduation ceremony last week?

Yes. That also happened.

CONGRATULATIONS! That is a very impressive accolade. Was there a particular piece of work which was recognised / you are most proud of?

Ah, two questions in one there – sneaky!  In answer to the first, I guess it was down to my having led an institution-wide review of information skills provision, the design of a suite of interventions embedded within taught curricula and a NOOC for PGTs. But in answer to the second, more than anything else I’m proud of my team.  They have worked incredibly hard in such a fantastically collaborative way to support the changes I wanted to bring about and still have the energy and drive to develop their own areas of expertise on top of that. The award wouldn’t have come my way without them.    

What next?

The team will continue to work on teaching various information skills to taught course students, and we are moving into the doctoral arena this autumn as we have recently been given responsibility for teaching postgraduate researchers.  As we do so, we will be developing some more online materials, so keep your eyes peeled in “Central Short Courses” and Library Matters where we will highlight them.

Thanks Elizabeth. Finally, if you could have a super power, what would it be and why?

Well obviously it would be to cure the world’s ills like everyone else, but if I could have one that wasn’t so altruistic, I’d love to be able to teleport myself and gallop across the American West whenever the mood takes me.

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