Cataloguing, collaboration and cathedrals

The University of Kent holds multiple Special Collections, of which rare and special book cataloguing standards have historically been inconsistent. In order to improve the profile of these collections, a review was undertaken to improve these procedures. This decision coincided with the University of Kent collaborating on a unique and exciting cataloguing project with Rochester Cathedral. This poster showcases the outcomes of this collaborative project between Rochester Cathedral Library and the University of Kent, and the subsequent policy developed to catalogue rare books to an enhanced RDA/DCRM(b) hybrid. This was an innovative and essential step towards developing an otherwise non-existent cataloguing standard for rare book materials, which is still under development in the rare books community

University of Kent: Services to support your research, 2018

Use this guide to signpost your colleagues to the support available to them throughout the lifecycle of their project at the University of Kent

Ableism and Exclusion: Challenging Academic Cultural Norms in Research Communication

Academic institutions are abelist. This, however, does not have to be the case. How do individuals involved in research management address this culture? In the context of the drastic changes in Higher Education since the 1990s, and an increasing emphasis on equality and inclusion, initiatives such as Athena Swan and the Race Equality Charter have led to more awareness of exclusionary practices. However, statistics on disability highlight serious issues in relation to disclosure rates for staff and staff report being stigmatised and their career choices undermined or invalidated. This can be particularly true for those who research into or around ableism. In this environment how can research managers raise awareness and empower all academics to ask for and gain adjustments to support their work? How has the Covid-19 pandemic and the impact on higher education institutions and their finances affected this issue? In this paper we consider some of the challenges of conducting research on ableism in academia and what it can tell us. We then discuss the changes that can be made to research management that would help address and challenge the ableist academic culture. This would be achieved through raising expectations, placing inclusivity and accessibility at the heart of research communication and encouraging, equipping and challenging the academic community to embed these practices in the dissemination of their research

Something old, something new: rare books and RDA [at the University of Kent]

The library collections at the University of Kent include a full range of accessible lending resources, as well as a unique selection of book collections held within its Special Collections and Archives. The entire lending library’s bibliographic content was migrated from AACR2 to RDA in 2013. Although our rare and special book collections were subjected to some minor RDA enhancements, they were not fully integrated. With an exciting collaborative cataloguing project on the horizon in early 2015, between the University of Kent and Rochester Cathedral, a defined RDA/DCRM(b) hybrid standard was imperative to the success of the venture. With a short deadline ahead of us our efforts became focused on defining a working process to develop a unified cataloguing standard. This article focuses on this working process, the drivers for this, and the cataloguing practice that has emerged as a result of it. This article is the result of a paper that was given at the Rare Books & RDA Seminar 2015

Embedding accessibility in research support and scholarly communication systems and processes: A Reflective Case Study.

In the context of the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations (2018) this reflective case study examines the improvements we are making to accessibility across our research systems. We share our methodologies and break down the steps we are taking to embed inclusive practices.  We explore how these steps went and what we have learnt from the process. We are committed to future digital content accessibility in research and scholarly communication at the [Organisation name] and this project shows how it can be achieved using existing resources and be applied to other situations. &nbsp

Open Access Issues and Potential Solutions Workshop

This report provides a summary of the discussion and findings of the Open Access Issues and Potential Solutions workshop held as part of the End-to-End Project. The workshop was highly interactive and feedback received indicated it was extremely valuable, stimulating a useful exchange of ideas

Research report for supporting practice research works (P1623, 2.2)

Documents best practice in supporting practice research works at other HE institutions including; policy, definitions, vocabulary options, metadata, workflows, repository advice and features, digitisation offers, case studies and advocacy. Report collated through visits to Goldsmiths and University of Creative Arts, conference calls to University of Westminster and Glasgow School of Arts and desk research of other UK and Australian HE Institutions