Victoria: Ok. Well we're here in Oxford University's Computing Services. I actually work in what is called a section of the computing services called the Research Technology Service, but more specifically I work on a free academic service called the Humbul Humanities Hub, which works to discover, evaluate and catalogue quality online resources for learning, teaching and research in the humanities, but specifically for UK higher education. My role on the service is as content editor for modern languages, so I am in charge of developing the collections of online resources for modern languages and undertake a lot of cataloguing myself, so I spend a lot of time surfing the web, finding resources and evaluating them, and writing descriptions of them. Then I also supervise an extensive team of cataloguers all working within different modern languages subject areas. But as well as that I undertake quite a bit of communications work, so spreading the message of our service to the academic community, and various other projects as and when they arise that complement the service that we offer. Sabine: And how did you come to do this job? What is your background, your educational background? Victoria: Right. Well, I did my first degree in Spanish and French many years ago, and spent a couple of years not really knowing what to do. So I went to live in Spain to teach English, and while I was there I discovered that my love with Spanish was so great that I had to come back and do more studying, so I did an M.A. in Spanish, which then has developed into PhD in Spanish literature, which I finished two years ago. While I was completing the thesis, I needed work, so at that point in time, I thought I wanted to work in publishing, so I got a job at publishing house here in Oxford, working on EFL materials, which was a great experience but not sufficiently academic related to maintain my interests. So, I saw this job advertised. It was in Oxford, it looked very interesting, and I got it. So since then it's developed in quite an interesting way, the work that I do, I've become very aware of how technology can feed into teaching and research in the humanities, which is a whole new field for me. And it also means I can maintain my interest in modern languages in general. Sabine: Has the use of technology changed much in the last years in the language learning and teaching area, do you think, and if so, what has changed most? Victoria: Well, as far as I am aware, there is an abundance now of freely available online resources developed by academics across the globe or by individual scholars or individual societies. When I was teaching, I taught Spanish in Manchester for four years, I had little or no awareness of what is available on the web for teaching or research, and it's only been through this job that I have now that I've become aware of these kind of materials, so, as far as I understand it there is a lot more material available on line than, let's say, there was a few years ago, and gradually the academic community's becoming aware of it, and integrating it within their curriculum within their research. Whether this technology, these online resources have had a significant impact on research and teaching is questionable, but I think, it's developing. Sabine: And you said earlier on, you do a lot of research on the web in general, do you think the web is is it improving or what direction is it moving in? Victoria: That's hard to answer, really. Certainly, I get the impression that academics, for example, are more savvy, they're more clued in as to what makes a good web resource and what kind of things they should put online. Certainly with the introduction of virtual learning environments, more and more institutions have virtual learning environments, which lecturers are using to post notes and other learning resources for their students, so I'd say that was a major development. Sabine: Is there an interesting project that you are currently working on that you can tell us a little bit about? Victoria: Yea. Humbul likes to develop a number of what we call value added services or extra materials, things to that we can use to promote the service in a better way, one of which is a series of Internet resources, booklets, so far we have produced internet resources for English and for history, and they've been a great success. It seems that people appreciate having printed information even if it's about online material. So, I've recently been writing a similar booklet for modern languages. So, I spent past couple of weeks going through Humbul's collections, and picking out the best resources, and then writing very short descriptions of them and compiling them into booklet, which I finished writing today, actually. So, it's about to go to the designers. Sabine: And how do you work here? I mean do you have a kind of work routine or is every day different? Victoria: Every day is pretty much different, and that's purely because the work that I do is so varied. I have a number of different responsibilities, and my priorities will shift according to whatever demands are being made on me at any particular time, so I tend to I'll come in in the morning, and I'll check all my e-mail first and foremost, and then I check I go to Humbul's live website, and I check which records have recently been made live to make sure people have done their job properly, basically. And then I will check various queries coming in from outside, and answer any immediate, pertinent queries. And then I'll just get on with whatever job I may be left in a day before. I tend to at the end of each day try and make a list of things I need to do the next day or I make a list at the beginning of the week of jobs that must be done, and so this week, I've been focusing on writing the booklet, but next week, I don't know what I'll be doing, actually. I am involved in producing a new leaflet for Humbul at the moment so, I think I'll be looking at proofs for that leaflet and sending them back to the designer, and things like that, but it's really difficult to pin down what I do in a set routine every day. Sabine: Is that something that you like about a job, or what is the thing you like most about your job? Victoria : No, that's a good point, actually. I like it to be varied, I would hate it to be the same thing each and every day. So, yea, I'm always trying to I like I'm on the look out for new things I can do, what could I be engaged with next? So I have to be kept interested in the work. Sabine: And while you said you lived abroad, obviously in Spain, does that create a difference or something? Victoria: In terms of working that's hard for me to say because I worked, you know, in a very different capacity in Spain, because I was an English teacher, which is far more stressful than what I'm doing now, so it's hard to make that comparison in the work place, because I have not had an experience, for example, of working in a Spanish office, so I don't really know how they operate, if it'd be similar to how it is here. Though I would say that the office environment here is completely different from the office environment in the publishing house I worked in. Sabine: Did it change anything else in your life sort of being abroad and coming back? Victoria: Yea, I absolutely it instilled a sense of adventure, and a real desire to travel and explore and I came back from Spain thinking I want to live in Spain for the rest of my life, but I couldn't, I couldn't because one, I couldn't be an English teacher for the rest of my life, and two, at the time it was difficult for me to find a professional job over there, but I've always thought one day maybe I'll go back and live in Madrid, and I think I'd be most happy there, so yea, it's given me a sense of be able to critique living in the UK, and knowing what's wrong with it, but also knowing what's good about it at the same time, so yea, it's nice to go away, but it is nice to come back home. Sabine: OK. % % Acknowledgements, availability and copyright % -------------------------------------------- % Acknowledgements: The project has been supported by the University of % Tuebingen. The video interviews have been carried out and recorded by % Sabine Braun, Stefanie Hahn, Petra Hoffstaedter and Kurt Kohn. The % speakers have agreed to the use of the materials for non-commercial % research and education purposes. % % Availability of the ELISA corpus: The ELISA corpus is made available by the % Department of Applied English Linguistics at the University of Tuebingen. % It is freely available at this website for study, teaching and research % purposes, and copies of the transcripts may be distributed, as long as this % statement of availability appears in the text. However, if any portion of % this material is to be used in educational presentations and publications, % permission must be obtained in advance. Commercial use of any form is % excluded. For further information about permissions, please contact Dr. % Sabine Braun at s.braun(at)surrey.ac.uk. % % Copyright of the ELISA corpus: Department of Applied English Linguistics, % University of Tuebingen. %