Six Hot Picks: Anne Ferrier-watson
SIX HOT PICKS FROM ANNE FERRIER-WATSON
1 RESEARCH IMPACT
While universities are very interested in “research impact” I noticed many of the tools that purport to capture it do not always serve arts and humanities researchers well.
Research impact refers to the influence scholarly and creative enquiry has upon wider society, intended as well as unintended, immediate as well as protracted. It includes the influence such research has upon future researchers within the discipline as well as in other disciplines and on public policy, quality of life, social cohesion, business innovation, the environment, artistic and creative practices, commercial and economic activity, administrative and institutional development, and political and cultural understanding. (p. 7)
2 PHILOSOPHY
At the University of Waikato’s 2019 Learnfest – Dr Dan Weijers convinced me that his philosophy course is both interesting AND useful for work and life. Have a go yourself. Choose a topic you care about deeply then:
1. Understand the basics.
2. Establish a view.
3. Justify your view to yourself (consistently).
4. (Compellingly) justify your view to everyone.
5. Identify and critique arguments against your view
6. Critically assess your own view.
3 LIBRARY CARPENTRY & OPENREFINE
Anton Angelo, the Research Data Coordinator at the University of Canterbury, and Library Carpentry instructor, recently taught my colleagues about Openrefine, a tool for exploring, transforming and cleaning messy data.
Arts and humanities researchers involved in textual analysis can and do use this tool to help them. Library Carpentry is a diverse, global community of volunteers who build software and data skills within library and information related communities.
4 THE POWER OF RECORDS AND ARCHIVES THE WORLD OVER
I love to read literary and historical novels, histories, and (auto) biographies. These wonderful sources of education, elucidation and escapism could not be written without the painstaking work of archives the world over.
5 MUSIC INDUSTRY
Audioculture – ‘the noisy library of New Zealand music’ – tells the stories of 100 years of New Zealand popular music culture by working with artists, historians and music industry people. If you thought Spotify was good, you’ll love Audio Culture. There is something for all ages. Seriously! It’s all online, and it celebrates NZ music, the people, the labels and scenes. You can listen to music via Spotify and Soundcloud, watch via NZ On Screen and Youtube, listen via Radio NZ, and so much more.
6 ART TRANSFORMS US
In 2001 I saw A Beautiful Mind in which Russell Crowe plays John Nash, a gifted mathematician who suffered the debilitating illness called schizophrenia. The film’s depiction of hallucinations showed me just how visceral they are to those experiencing them. That film positively impacted my practice as a mental health support worker.
Anne Ferrier-watson; I’m an Academic Liaison Librarian at the University of Waikato. I have just finished my MIS and I completed the following study which presented to the 2019 LIANZA Conference ‘Traditional metrics, altmetrics and researcher profiles: A survey of faculty perceptions and use.’ Outside of work I would love to spend more time pedalling and paddling in the great outdoors. In 2020 I plan to learn French so I can bike around France with my beloved.