Explore the world of film, theatre, and TV with LJMU Library’s video resources.

The Library gives you access to video content from Box of Broadcast, National Theatre, Digital Theate +, Kanopy and Academic Video Online. You can find a range of content from Global Icon interviews to feature film movies. We’ve highlighted a number of our favourite film and theatre productions below, and/or you can explore our Video Databases for yourself.

Our fave film picks include:

Oppenheimer (2023) Film/Biography. A drama about the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer’s role in the development of the atomic bomb, nominated for 13 Academy Awards this year.

Nope (2021) Film/SciFi. Oscar-winning filmmaker of ‘Get Out’ Jordan Peele reimagines the summer movie with ‘Nope’, an expansive pop epic of uncanny science fiction.

Lady Bird (2017) Film/Comedy. Directed by Greta Gerwig (‘Barbie’, ‘Little Women’) and nominated for five Oscars, ‘Lady Bird’ is a warm, affecting comedy about a high schooler (Saoirse Ronan) who must navigate a loving but turbulent relationship with her strong-willed mother over the course of her eventful and poignant senior year of high school.

Last Night In Soho (2010) Film/Drama/Horror/Thriller. Anya Taylor-Joy stars in Edgar Wright’s story of a young girl, passionate in fashion design, who is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters her idol, a dazzling wannabe singer. But 1960s London is not what it seems, and time seems to fall apart with shady consequences.

Moonage Daydream (2022) Film/Documentary/Music. An exploration of the life and work of global music icon David Bowie, including Bowie in his own words and 48 musical tracks.

To explore more films, head on over to Kanopy.

Our top theatre pics are:

Much Ado about Nothing (2011) Theatre/Comedy. Catherine Tate and David Tennant star in this version of Shakespeare’s famous comedy directed by Josie Rourke.

Frankenstein (2011) Theatre/Drama. Jonny Lee Miller plays Victor Frankenstein and Benedict Cumberbatch his creation in this performance of Danny Boyle’s smash-hit theatre production of Frankenstein.

Angels In America Part One: Millennium Approaches and Angels In America Part Two: Perestroika (2017) Theatre/Drama. Andrew Garfield, Russell Tovey & Nathan Lane star in Tony Kushner’s epic Pulitzer, Tony and Olivier Award winning two-part play about life, death, faith and love during the AIDS crisis in 1980s New York.

Present Laughter (2017) Theatre/Comedy. Noël Coward’s lavish two-act play is an amusing insight into the life of egocentric actor Garry Essendine (Kevin Kline), whose secrets, lies and affairs come to a head amidst an existential crisis.

Yerma (2017) Theatre/Drama. Simon Stone directs this version of Lorca’s classic tragedy about honour, family and female empowerment. Billy Piper won an Evening Standard Best Actress award for her portrayal of a young woman driven to the unthinkable by her desperate desire to have a child.

Into The Woods (2017) Musical Theatre. Hannah Waddingham stars in Stephen Sondheim’s musical ‘Into the Woods’, weaving together many famous fairy tales in an allegorical story of family, love, growing up and the hazy areas between right and wrong.

Interested in seeing more theatre? Then explore Digital Theatre + and Drama Online

We’d love to have your feedback!

Please tell us what you think by completing our quick survey (estimated time: 3 minutes). This will help us to plan future activities – plus LJMU students can enter a prize draw for a £50 Amazon voucher.

New trial: British Illustrated Periodicals, 1869-1970

We are now trialling British Illustrated Periodicals, 1869-1970 until 29th February 2023.

Founded in 1842, The Illustrated London News (ILN) became a pioneer in global print media, not only constituting the first illustrated magazine in the world but also, in 1855, printing the first colour newspaper. With time, the ILN acquired and launched several other publications, which produced some of the most remarkable media content of the 19th and 20th centuries, and documented key events and developments in both British and global history.

Arranged into carefully curated collections, and incorporating more than a million images, British Illustrated Periodicals, 1869-1970 includes material from nine of these ‘sister’ titles: The Graphic (1869-1932); Sporting and Dramatic News (1874-1970); The Sketch (1893-1959); The Sphere (1900-1964); The Tatler (1901-1965); The Bystander (1903-1940); Illustrated War News (1914-1918, and 1939); Britannia and Eve (1929-1957); and London Life (1965-1966).

Spanning over a hundred years of the ILN’s history, these titles cover a wide variety of topics, from High Society in the late Victorian era to the World Wars; and from international sports to the cultural milieu of Britain’s ‘Swinging Sixties’. Prominent contributors to these publications include celebrated illustrator Louis Wain ; crime novelist Agatha Christie, and writer Bram Stoker. Due to their eclectic nature, these collections yield crucial material for researchers and students working in many disciplines, such as politics, history, art history, gender studies, and war studies. Encompassing a diverse range of media forms (including satirical cartoons, art deco illustrations, and photography), they reveal valuable insights into the development of contemporary print culture, in Britain and abroad.

You can login only whilst on campus by following this link and if prompted using your LJMU institutional login username@ljmu.ac.uk and password. For off campus use, you will need to use the virtual desktop.

We would be very interested in your feedback. Either get in contact with your Academic Engagement Librarian, comment using Reply below or via Ask the Library.

Mintel Webinar – A Review of Christmas 2023 : UK Festive Season Outlook

Join expert Nick Carroll, Category Director of Retail Insights, as he explores a wealth of data and insights gathered after the holiday season, offering you valuable information to navigate challenges and opportunities throughout the remainder of the year.

Uncover key takeaways and actionable strategies based on the unique challenges faced by retailers and brands during the 2023 Festive Period, ensuring businesses are well-prepared for future retail landscapes.

Don’t miss the chance to gain a forward-looking perspective on emerging trends and effective strategies that can shape your approach to the post-holiday retail landscape, setting the stage for success in the evolving festive market. Join Nick Carroll and Mintel for an insightful discussion tailored to guide retailers and brands through the aftermath of the holidays.

Click on this link to register for this event. 

Webinar commences  6 February 2024 at 10 am until 10.45 

Westlaw Access

The Library subscribe to Westlaw UK , International and Practical Law and have been alerted to their intention to clean up our account by removing any students that have not accessed the service for the last 15 months.  Should any user legitimately require access after being removed, they can register as a new user via the normal process.  They will, however, lose any user preferences they have saved. If you’d like to retain any user preferences please login to Westlaw prior to the roll out week beginning 5^th February 2024. If there are any concerns please raise this with your Academic Engagement Librarian.

New Resource: The Subculture Archives

We are delighted to announce that we now subscribe to the Subculture Archives.

Subculture archives is educational & cultural research resource of primary sources exploring 100 years of youth culture through the scenes, styles, and the sounds that forged them. From Rave, Punk, Rockabilly to Grime.

Subculture archives is formed from the collections of the Museum of Youth Culture – an emerging museum dedicated to the styles, sounds and social movements innovated by young people over the last 100 years. Championing the impact of youth on modern society, the Museum of Youth Culture is a non-profit Heritage Lottery & Arts Council Funded collection incorporating photographs, ephemera, objects and oral histories celebrating our shared youth culture history. From the bomb-site Bicycle racers in post-war 1940s London, to the Acid House ravers of 1980s Northern England, the Museum of Youth Culture empowers the extraordinary everyday stories of growing up in Britain.
Throughout the pandemic the Museum received thousands of submissions from the general public through a highly successful online campaign, ‘Grown Up in Britain’ inviting the public to submit their own photographs showing us what it was like growing up across the country and challenging traditional stereotypes about young people; of which constitutes a large part of the collections at the Subculture Archives.

As always, we would love to hear any feedback you may have about the resource by using the ‘Reply’ below or if you would like assistance, please Ask the Library 

SciFinder enhancements

SciFinderⁿ have recently introduced some enhancements that we think many of you will find useful in your studies and research.

View similar reactions from a search result:

A single click within a reaction search result now allows you to easily explore similar reactions. Based on your preference, you can display results that vary in scope related to the specific reaction centre.

·       Broad results will retrieve reactions sharing only a reaction centre.

·       Medium results will display those that share a reaction centre and adjacent atoms.

·       Narrow results will show those that share a reaction centre and extended atoms and bonds.

Additional enhancements:

·       Evidence displayed in retrosynthesis — View critical evidence directly in a retrosynthesis plan to review conditions of each step.

·       Expanded substance experimental properties — Access additional properties, including transition temperatures, fluid properties, dissociation constants, and more.

·       Solvent information in experimental spectra — View solvent information directly in the spectra table display and understand those of interest.

·       Sort suppliers by price — Utilize pricing information when sorting a list of potential vendors.

More information about the enhancements can be found here.

SciFinderⁿ isn’t just for Chemistry students, it also covers other scientific literature such as engineering, medicine, and materials. Also, biomedical literature and new sequence searching is particularly relevant to biologists.

If you are new to SciFinderⁿ you will need create a username and password by visiting this link.

As always, we would love to hear any feedback you may have about the resource by using the ‘Reply’ below or if you would like assistance, please Ask the Library 

New Subscription

We have recently subscribed to the Bloomsbury Education and Childhood Studies Core collection and the Comparative & International Education collection.

Education and Childhood Studies Core collection is an online resource that offers a systematic and comparative look at key education levels and the study of cognitive and psychosocial development through early childhood and youth.

Content Highlights:

• 650+ peer-reviewed articles on six levels of education and childhood across 30+ countries

• Country Overview articles that provide accessible introductory information on Early Childhood Education, Childhood, Youth, Primary Education, Secondary Education, and Higher Education

•The entire Education Around the World reference series, comprising 18 volumes and covering every single country in the world

• 120+ academic eBooks on comparative and international education

• A collection of over 60 policy reports from the World Bank Group Open Knowledge Repository

• The Comparative and International Education module: a collection of 142 market-leading eBooks from Taylor & Francis, providing students and researchers with global perspectives on education.

• Links to external resources, educational data, and statistical information

• Downloadable tables and enhanced graphs for easy viewing

Comparative & International Education collection includes 142 Taylor & Francis and Routledge eBooks, perfect for students and researchers looking for global perspectives on education.

Key subject areas covered include:

• Decolonising curriculums

• Social justice and education

• Higher education reform

• Global development

• Transnational education

• Citizen education

As always, we would love to hear any feedback you may have about the resource by using the ‘Reply’ below or via Ask the Library

Update: Kanopy – offsite access issues

We can confirm that the access issues experienced yesterday have now been resolved.

Apologies to anyone impacted by these issues.

New Trial: SAGE Skills: Business and SAGE Skills: Student Success

We currently have an exciting trial for both SAGE Skills: Business and SAGE Skills: Student Success.

Business Skills is a new interactive digital resource that enables students to practice real-world business and professional skills. Students and researchers can identify personal knowledge gaps and skill sets in need of development. Whether progressing in a linear fashion through a full skill module, learning best practices for a particular skill, or hone in on a very specific topic.

Student Success is an interactive digital resource that empowers students to learn the practical academic personal skills needed to thrive during your time in higher education and beyond. Whatever your academic interests or skill needs, you can choose from a range of 10 modules and over 1,100 skill topics that can be applied across and discipline or course you decide to pursue during your time at University.

You can login to both if prompted using your LJMU institutional login username@ljmu.ac.uk and password.

The trial will last until Friday 28^th July and as always, we would love to hear any feedback you may have about the resource by using the ‘Reply’ below or via Ask the Library

Fancy paid business experience with a global publisher?

Gale is an international publisher of digital archives and other library resources such as eBooks. Gale’s primary sources include full archives of newspapers like The Times, The Telegraph, the Daily Mail and The Economist, as well as period and topical archives like Eighteenth Century Collections Online and Archives of Sexuality and Gender.

Gale are recruiting students to undertake awareness-building activities, so more students find out about, understand and use these fascinating archives! Students from all year groups can apply.

Deadline = 1 July 2023

The role lasts for the 2023-24 academic year and requires set activities for which Gale Ambassadors are paid £700. Plus, the role is great for your CV…

· Business experience – work directly with a global publisher.

· Run your own marketing activities – refine ‘marketing copy’ and images to make successful use of social media.

· Public speaking – run presentations and training sessions with your fellow students, obtaining valuable public speaking skills.

· Have your work published on a company blog – great, shareable evidence of your work.

· Network – connect with staff and students at the university, other students internationally, and numerous colleagues at Gale.

· Improve your own research skills and discover primary sources for your own essays – potentially improving your grades!

Interested?

Click here for more info and how to apply!