Intellectuals like to see themselves as constructors or producers of knowledge – artists and academics, too, make things! Indeed, the Institute of Education, and all of UCL, are huge construction, manufacturing, and storage sites, by which I do not mean the noise of building outside my window or yours.
Researchers and students write up their findings and theories, pass them on in presentations and post them online; editors put them in print or electronic journals and books, produce and market them; librarians collect and sort all this material so that the cycle of reading and research keeps going.
All this is happening every day – and every night – at UCL, and while you have all seen lecture theatres – and hopefully also libraries – from the inside, you may not be aware that publishing is also going on around you.
More and more academic papers are made available online in open access, free to read for everyone, some in entirely open-access journals at UCL IOE Press.
Books see the light of the world also thanks to UCL IOE Press, which had started as IOE Press before UCL times and had incorporated Trentham Books.
If you want to look at some of their publications after having seen these striking book covers, there are two places to go to: the catalogue, UCL Explore, to find out where they are, and then the shelves of the Newsam Library at the IOE.
And if you take one idea away from your time at UCL or indeed your time in the UK, I suggest the mission statement of UCL IOE Press, which is true for the whole of the Institute of Education:
“… we remain passionate about furthering education in its broadest sense, for all, and supporting those who make it possible. Our work is rooted in a commitment to truth, critical reason, and social justice.”
Here are the library catalogue records for the books shown above: Scott & Scott; Luckin; Knight; Hoskins & Barker.
Thanks to UCL IOE Press for the images of the book covers; please check with them for copyright before re-using.
Newsam News 