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Murray Edwards College
University of Cambridge
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    Ms Kirstie Preest

    01223 762202/ 07736 125233
    Murray Edwards College
    New Hall
    University of Cambridge
    Cambridge
    Cambridgeshire
    CB3 0DF

    Librarian; Tutor

    Fellow

    Murray Edwards College is a warm welcoming College which fosters a supportive atmosphere for its members. The College allows its students to grow and develop their skills, enabling them to achieve their goals.

    Degrees and honours

    • BA (Joint Hons) English and History from Glyndŵr University (formerly NEWI).
    • Post Graduate Diploma in Information and Library Management from Liverpool John Moores University, MA (incorporated into the University of Cambridge).
    • FCLIP (Fellow of CILIP – Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals).
    • SFHEA (Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy)

    Research interests

    • Kirstie is specifically interested in improving services to students, student wellbeing, teaching library and information skills and developing the use of virtual learning environments to support student learning.
    • Her current research interests focus on teaching skills within the Librarian’s role and peer support. Kirstie has developed a Teaching and Learning for Librarians course with a library colleague. A shortened version focused on moving teaching online was been created for 2021. They hope to obtain HEA accreditation for this course in the future.
    • Kirstie is also interested ensuring inclusivity for all students in relation to the library's book stock and when teaching library skills for academic study.

    Biography

    Kirstie is a Chartered Librarian with 25 years experience of academic and health libraries within a variety of subject areas. She previously worked at a number of university libraries, including University of Westminster, University of Chester, UCL and Kings College London. Her role as Librarian involves looking after the College’s library, archives, records management and GDPR.  She currently sits on the following committees within College: Academic & Welfare Policy Committee and IT Strategy Committee. 

    Publications

    Book Chapters

    • Kirstie Preest & Claire Sewell, 2023, "Increasing Inclusive Instruction: Building a bespoke in-house teacher training programme at the University of Cambridge” in process.
    • Kirstie Preest and Samantha Percival, 2017, "Tales of the unexpected: UX and its wider impact" in Priestner, A (ed.) User Experience in Libraries: Yearbook 2017.  UX in Libraries.

    Articles

    • Kirstie Preest, 2022, Source Foward: Special Libraries Association Conference, 2022, Sunrise (Newsletter of Cilip East of England), November, Issue 21.
    • Kirstie Preest, 2016, Presenting at LILAC, Sunrise (Newsletter of Cilip East of England), July, Issue 11.
    • Ryan Cronin, Isla Kuhn, Kirstie Preest & Catherine Reid, 2015, Teaching about teaching: The Librarians in Training Teaching Skills: Peer Support course, CULIB (Cambridge University Libraries Information Bulletin), Lent, Number 76.
    • Kirstie Preest, 2014, Portfolio Building Course, Sunrise (Newsletter of Cilip East of England), Nov, Issue 6.
    • Kirstie Preest & Deborah Furness, 2004, Virtual Learning with WebCT, Librarynewsonline - The newsletter of UCL Library Services, Autumn, Issue 14.

    Presentations

    • Kirstie Preest & Claire Sewell, July 2022, Teaching the Teachers: creating a Bespoke Solution to Library Educator Development. Special Libraries Conference in Charlotte, NC.
    • Kirstie Preest, July 2022, Going Global Panel: Exploring Approaches to Innovation Across the Globe at the Special Libraries Conference in Charlotte, N.C. - panelist.  Kirstie spoke about using ethnographic research to improve library services and the established library wellbeing programme.
    • Kirstie Preest & Claire Sewell, April 2022, Increasing Inclusivity: Developing a HEA Accredited Teaching Course for Librarians, Librarians’ Information Literacy Annual Conference (LILAC) in Manchester.
    • Kirstie Preest, Claire Sewell & Lynne Meehan, June 2021, Barriers to Teaching and Learning: Building the Inclusive Online Classroom. Inclusive Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Theory and Practice conference (Virtual). 
    • Kirstie Preest & Claire Sewell, January 2021, Barriers to Teaching and Learning: Building the Inclusive Online Classroom, Cambridge Information Literacy Network Conference.
    • Kirstie Preest, March 2018, Implementing the CILN Framework at Murray Edwards College Library, OXCAM Conference in Oxford.
    • Kirstie Preest and Samantha Percival, June 2017, Tales of the unexpected: UX and its wider impact, UXLibs III conference in Glasgow as part of the UXLabs session.
    • Kirstie Preest, Isla Kuhn, Catherine Reid & Ryan Cronin, April 2015, Peer supported learning development of teaching skills – a Cambridge collaboration, Librarians’ Information Literacy Annual Conference (LILAC) in Newcastle.
    • Kirstie Preest, 2004, Integrating Information Skills training into first year Geography methods class using WebCT at a Seminar on Virtual Learning Environments, “Virtually There: Virtual Learning Environments & Libraries”, which she co-organised for CPD25 & University College & Research London.
    • Kirstie Preest & Valerie Shaindlin, April 2023, Inclusive Library Spaces.  OXCAM Conference. The presentation looked at using universal design to design services and spaces that would allow inclusivity for all students.  Examples and best practice highlighted what had been implemented at Rosemary Murray Library over the last thirteen years, including those subsequently implemented after the Alterline Report last year.
    • Kirstie Preest, May 2023, Wellbeing Programme at Rosemary Murray Library. Cilip North East Virtual Conference “Beyond the Horizon: wellbeing in an uncertain world”.