Meet CoOLSIG Officer Liesl Rowe
Liesl Rowe, working at Leeds Beckett University, is the newest member of the Alt CoOL SIG. Read on to find out more about Liesl.
Where are you based?
I’ve been based in Leeds since 2021 and have worked at Leeds Beckett University for just over a year as their Senior Digital Library Advisor (Copyright). I’m responsible for answering any copyright queries; delivering training on copyright; and managing our digitisation service.
Online Channels
My email is l.rowe@leedsbeckett.ac.uk
I can be found at:
LinkedIn: Liesl Rowe | LinkedIn
X: @libraryxmachina
BlueSky: littlebutfierce.bsky.social
What do you like?
I’m passionate about making copyright understandable and relevant to a wider audience. Students and staff at my institution often mention anxiety around ensuring they’re complying with guidelines or are unsure how it’s relevant to them. Working at a university with a thriving arts department, I think it’s crucial that they understand how to protect their own work as well as know how to respect others’ copyright. As such, I love finding cases of copyright coming to the attention of the general public and using that as a route to talk about key concepts, everything from the new edition of Dungeons and Dragons through to Mickey Mouse entering the public domain for the first time.
A bit about you
I started working in libraries in 2017, starting out in an inner-city London school as their Assistant Librarian before moving into acquisitions in HE. I got my start in copyright through working closely with academics to ensure that they had all the items they required for module development and processing digitisations.
A lot of my work is trying to pre-empt colleagues’ copyright issues so we have resources in place for them to utilise. This has included a leaflet on how academics can best protect their work and two “Copyright in Three Minutes” animated videos, one aimed at staff and one aimed at students. I’ve also taken a keen interest in AI developments: I’ve been working closely with a colleague to review different ways we can make use of AI as a library team, whilst also setting out some guidance for users so they follow best practice from a copyright point of view.
Hobbies/interest
As a history graduate, it’s probably not a huge surprise that some of my hobbies have a historical angle: I’m an enthusiastic fencer and have entered a few competitions wielding the foil. Many of my weekends are spent visiting museums or stately homes. I’m also very fond of cooking. During the pandemic, I was very passionate about replicating many of my favourite restaurant dishes as a way of handling lockdown and this has grown into a passion for trying out new recipes. One of my greatest delights is to recreate dishes from history or whatever media I happen to be watching.
Theatre is one of my greatest passions in life. Despite having left the capital behind now, I do make a point of going to London a few times a year to indulge in seeing as many shows as possible, everything from Shakespeare through to the latest musicals.