As I look back on my time in the 2023/2024 In2research programme, I’m reminded of just how much it has reshaped my academic journey and future aspirations. This programme has been a gateway to new experiences, challenges, and invaluable connections that I will carry with me for years to come. My research placement at UCL’s Department of Information Studies has been particularly impactful, offering me a platform to engage deeply with my area of interest: the preservation of Bengali archives and heritage here in London.

Having grown up in a Bengali household, the opportunity to work on a project so closely tied to my cultural heritage felt incredibly meaningful. My research centred around uncovering and documenting the experiences and histories of the Bengali diaspora, a topic that is often underrepresented in mainstream heritage discussions. This placement allowed me to explore how historical narratives are shaped, archived, and shared, opening my eyes to the immense value of preserving cultural heritage for future generations.

One of the most enriching aspects of the placement was the trips I took to key heritage sites in the UK. Visiting the British Library and the Black Cultural Archives not only broadened my understanding of archival practices but also challenged my previous notions of how histories—especially those of minority communities—are preserved. At the British Library, I explored extensive collections of materials related to the South Asian diaspora, giving me an appreciation for the meticulous work that goes into preserving such histories. The Black Cultural Archives, on the other hand, offered a community-driven perspective on heritage, where local histories are preserved to ensure that the contributions of minority communities are recognised and celebrated.

These visits had a profound impact on my research approach. I started to see archives as more than just repositories of documents and artefacts; they are living, breathing testimonies to the experiences of people whose stories may otherwise be forgotten. Engaging with these materials gave me a deep sense of responsibility to ensure that the stories of the Bengali diaspora are preserved for future generations, not just as a historical record but as a source of pride and identity for the community.

Of course, the journey was not without its challenges. A key difficulty I faced was engaging with some of the local heritage groups and individuals I had hoped to collaborate with. Cultural preservation is a sensitive issue, and navigating the balance between academic research and community engagement proved tricky at times. Some groups were reluctant to share materials or participate in interviews, which initially felt like a setback. However, this challenge taught me one of the most valuable lessons of the entire experience: the importance of persistence and building trust with communities.

Throughout this period, I was incredibly fortunate to have the support of my supervisor, Dr. Andrew Flinn at UCL. His vast knowledge of archival studies and community-driven heritage work was a constant source of inspiration. Dr. Flinn helped me navigate the complexities of my project, offering advice on everything from research methodologies to ethical considerations in community engagement. His guidance played a pivotal role in helping me push through difficult moments and broaden my understanding of the power of archives in preserving cultural narratives. Additionally, I received mentorship from Dr. Purva Tavri at Kingston University, whose insights helped me refine my research methods and contributed significantly to the depth of my analysis.

One of the standout moments of my journey was attending the Community Archives and Heritage Conference at UCL. The event brought together academics, archivists, and community representatives to discuss the role of archives in preserving local histories. Being part of these discussions gave me a broader perspective on the challenges and opportunities involved in archiving minority histories, as well as the role that younger researchers like myself can play in this important work.

My placement at UCL also included practical experience in a wide range of tasks, all of which deepened my understanding of the archival process. From collecting archive materials to conducting desk-based web research, interview, transcription, and data analysis, I was involved in every stage of the research process. This hands-on experience was invaluable in developing my research skills, particularly in interviewing and transcription, where I learned how to engage with participants in a meaningful way and accurately capture their voices. I also had the opportunity to present my project findings to PhD students and staff members at the Department of Information Studies, which boosted my confidence in academic communication and strengthened my ability to articulate complex research topics to diverse audiences.
Beyond the academic skills I gained, this experience has had a profound impact on my future plans. It has solidified my desire to pursue a postgraduate degree, particularly in areas related to cultural heritage, archival studies, and community-driven research. The programme has equipped me with the tools and knowledge to continue exploring these fields, and I’m excited to see where this journey will take me next. I now feel more prepared to take on the challenges of postgraduate study, and I’m eager to apply the skills I’ve gained to new projects and initiatives in the future.

In closing, I want to express my gratitude to the In2research programme for giving me this opportunity. It has been an incredibly rewarding experience, both personally and professionally. For anyone considering In2research, I wholeheartedly encourage you to apply. It’s a unique opportunity to grow, connect with like-minded individuals, and explore your research interests in ways you might not have imagined. Whether you’re interested in academic research, cultural heritage, or simply looking for a way to challenge yourself, this programme offers something for everyone. It’s a decision you won’t regret, and I’m grateful to have been part of this incredible journey.

Key Highlights:

• Full-time research placement at UCL within the Department of Information Studies
• Supervised by Dr. Andrew Flinn (UCL) and mentored by Dr. Purva Tavri (Kingston University)
• Responsibilities included collecting archive materials, conducting desk-based web research, interviewing, transcription, and data analysis
• Participated in external events such as the Black Cultural Archives (BCA), the British Library exhibition, and the Hong Kong Diaspora in London community archives workshop
• Attended the Community Archives and Heritage Conference at UCL
• Shared project findings with PhD students and department staff at UCL

Congratulations to Library and Information Studies (LIS) students who have been rocking the professional world with all their amazing achievements this year! We are extremely proud of all the many ways in which our students contribute to the field and thank all the many people who make this possible, including UCL staff, professional mentors, award juries, peer reviewers and more.

To begin, it’s been another bumper year for prizes and bursaries, with UCL students receiving several prestigious awards for research and professional development. Congratulations to Oona Ylinen (MA, 2023), who was awarded the Sherif Prize for her dissertation research on international Resource Description and Access (RDA). Oona presented her work at the Sherif annual meeting and is the sixth UCL student in the last seven years to receive this award. Current student, Emily Peart, has been awarded both the 2024 BIALL Student Award and a Music Libraries Trust bursary while we were over the moon that the Rowena Macrae Gibson bursary to attend the 2023 LILAC conference was awarded to current students, Sae Matsuno and Amelia Haire. The 2023 Alan Hopkinson Award to attend the IFLA congress in Rotterdam was awarded to Huzefa Ghadiali (MA, 2022), while current student, Tessa Roynon, received a special mention in the 2023 Anthony Davis Book Collecting Competition.

A huge congratulations also to current and previous students who have published on their dissertation topics over the year, including Brooke Cambie (MA, 2022) who published her research on sexual assault in public libraries in Public Library Quarterly and Maud Cooper (MA, 2021), who published her studies on the information literacy practices of emerging artists in the Journal of Information Literacy (Vol. 17, No.2). Well done, also, to current student, Sarah Pipkin, who published her coursework exploring public perceptions of Special Collections Libraries in the Journal of Library Administration (Vol.64, No.3), and Andy Lacey (MA, 2022), who published his coursework exploring literacy programming in prison libraries in Library and Information Research. Two students were further invited to present cataloguing coursework at the School Library Association’s New Development in School Libraries conference, including Núria Solé-Bonet (MA, 2023), who presented on Engaging Students in Reading Series through Effective Cataloguing and Tessa Roynon (current student) on Adapting Dewey for a Secondary School Library. Beyond coursework, several students participated in UCL Arts and Humanities grant-funded projects this year, with current student Sae Matsuno and Catherine Drewry (MA, 2022) publishing findings from their study of LIS education and EDI in the Journal of Information Science. Current students Joel Davie, Katherine Knight and Emily Peart participated in a Changemakers project designed to leverage AI to reduce the barriers to student engagement with advanced technology topics.

Finally, well done to students who have been appointed to professional committees, including current Naoise Standing, who has been appointed as a committee member on ARLG London and South East as well as the CPD25 Task Group for the M25 Consortium, and Amelia Haire, who has been appointed as Secretary for the Neurodivergent Library and Information Staff Network. Congratulations, also, to current student, Isabel Evans, whose voluntary work in UCL’s Special Collection was recognised in the Observer in May.

It’s been another successful year for our amazing cohort of LIS students- congratulations to each and every one of our students who have all contributed in so many ways to our thriving academic and social environment this year. We look forward to seeing where your career takes you!

To begin with, congratulations to all our prize winners -it is very exciting to see students’ hard work and thought being rewarded by the broader profession. Heading the list of awards this year is Catherine Drewry (MA, 2022), who was awarded the Sherif Prize for her dissertation work assessing the capacity of the Coronavirus Infectious Disease Ontology (CIDO) ontology as a gold standard for modelling biomedical information. Catherine presented her work at the Sherif annual meeting and is the fifth UCL student in the last six years to be awarded this prize. Congratulations also go to Andrew Frampton (MA, 2022), whose MA dissertation was awarded the E.T. Bryant award for a valuable contribution to music librarianship. The list continues with Matthew Bland (current student), who was awarded a BIALL Professional Studies Bursary; Brooke Cambie (MA, 2022), who was awarded the BIALL Conference Bursary; Lucy Dodge (current student) who was awarded the Rowena Macrae Gibson bursary to attend the LILAC conference, Douglas Knight (current student), who was awarded a Music Trust Bursary to attend the IAML conference, Louise Savage (current student), who was awarded a bursary for the Critical Approaches to Libraries Conference, and Naoise Standing (current student), who was awarded not one but three bursaries, including the Critical Approaches to Libraries Conference bursary, the Academic Libraries North Conference bursary, AND the UK e-Information Group residential bursary for the CILIP Conference. WOW! Lastly, well done to Frankie Marsh (MA, 2020), who was awarded the Journal of Information Literacy’s inaugural Ross Todd Award for Best Research Paper for her dissertation research in April 2023.

Secondly, well done to students who have published their dissertation research in various professional journals this year. Alex Hewitt (MA, 2022) published his dissertation research into affect, emotion, and information literacy in the Special Critical information Literacy Issue of the Journal of Information Literacy (2023), while Ella Burrows (MA, 2022) had her dissertation work examining digital literacy, activism and Instagram published in the regular issue of the Journal of Information Literacy (Vol.17, No.1). This year also saw the publication of Madeleine Ahern’s (MA, 2021) dissertation research into managing works of art in non-art libraries in Collection Management.

Students have further been presenting dissertation and coursework at various conferences, including the CILIP Annual Meeting 2022, where Imogen Loucas (MA, 2022) presented on sustainability and libraries, and the LILAC conference where Naomi Smith (MA, 2022) and Kristabelle Williams Pearce (MA, 2018) were invited keynote speakers, and Andy Lacey (MA, 2022) presented on his dissertation research examining the information literacy practices of the homeless. Students have also presented at the Critical Approaches to Libraries conference, including Jess Jordan (MA, 2021), who presented on best practices for decolonisation in academic libraries, Kris Massengale (MA, 2021), who presented on IFLA LRM, queer theory and Marxism, and Naomi Smith (MA, 2022), who presented her dissertation research on critical approaches to library technology policies. Brooke Cambie (MA, 2022) presented her dissertation research into sexual harassment in public libraries at a CILIP Scotland event to celebrate WINspiration, Feminism and Libraries, while Huzefa Ghadiali (MA, 2022) presented his information literacy dissertation research at the BOBCATSS conference in Oslo.  August also sees presentations from Andrew Frampton (MA, 2022) and Meg Webb (MA, 2022) at the IAML conference in Cambridge.

Lastly, UCL students have also been giving back to the profession through committee work. Andy Lacey (MA, 2022) has been appointed as the Public Library representative for the Information Literacy group, while current student Lucy Dodge has joined the ARLIS Cataloguing and Classification committee. Current student Ellen Woolf helped to launch the ECLAIR Early Career Library and Information Resource Community where she also holds the Digital Coordinator role.

Congratulations to current and recently graduated LIS students who have been contributing to our field in so many ways this year! It is testament to their passion, curiosity, and drive that we can celebrate so many fantastic achievements.

Firstly, congratulations to our prize winners, including Amelia Brookins (MA, 2021), who was awarded the 2021 Sherif Prize for her dissertation work examining costume rental houses through the lens of knowledge organisation. Her research revealed “how costume houses reflect the information organisation processes of supporting users, classification and cataloguing in databases” and was presented at the 2022 Sherif AGM. Congratulations also to current student, Sae Matsuno, who was awarded an ARLIS award for research into the use of volunteers in specialist libraries, a project that builds on her INST0021 Managing Information Organisations coursework. Current students Hozefa Ramgadwala, Huzefa Ghadiali and Naomi Hart were also selected to receive an ARLIS conference bursary.

We are additionally pleased to celebrate publications from current and recently graduated students this year, which speaks to the quality of their work as well as the importance of their ideas. It’s also great to see how this work contributes to the advancement of knowledge in a range of sectors and professional contexts. In the field of cataloguing and metadata, Abi Chapman (MA, 2020), who was awarded the 2021 Sherif Prize, published her dissertation research on video game cataloguing in the Journal of Library Metadata, while Gaby Reyes’ (MA, 2020) work on social tagging appeared as a chapter in the Handbook of Research on Emerging Trends and Technologies in Librarianship. Most recently, Frankie Marsh (MA, 2020) and Eve Lacey (MA, 2017) co-authored a chapter on critical decolonising work at the University of Cambridge in the recent Facet title, Narrative Expansions, while Frankie also found time to publish her dissertation research on the decolonisation of information literacy in the June 2022 issue of the Journal of Information Literacy. Congratulations also to Hozefa Ramgadwala, a current student, who published a book review in the same issue of the Journal of Information Literacy.

LIS students have also been active at professional conferences and events, including Sae Matsuno, a current student, who presented at the ARLIS Taking the Plunge professional event and Huzefa Ghadiali, another current student, who spoke about the historical bibliography of an English translated Qur’an at the first Al-Mahdi Institute Graduate Islamic Studies Conference. Sae Matsuno also co-organised and presented the initial stages of her dissertation research at the recent UCL-sponsored Unlocking narratives: The roots of decolonising work in UK libraries and archives online event. We were additionally privileged enough to hear from two recent graduates at the 2021 UNESCO Media and Information Literacy week event; Maud Cooper (MA, 2021) presented on emerging artist information literacy practices while Antony Njuguna (MA, 2021) spoke about teaching strategies for international student information literacy instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most recently, current students Melanie Brown, Alice Bertolini, Arfa Choudhury and Beth Saward presented the digital libraries they created as part of their coursework for INST0024: Using Technology in Information Organisations during the first inaugural online event, Celebrating Students’ Achievement and Work on ED&I: A View from UCL-DIS Digital Collections.

Lastly, LIS students have been contributing to committees and groups: David Smith (MA, 2021) and Frankie Marsh (MA, 2020) have been appointed as inaugural members of the New Professionals Committee on the Information Literacy Group. It is also great to see Jake Hearn (MA, 2019) featured in the CILIP Information Professional Magazine.

Chapman, A. (2022). Trials of Metadata: Emerging Schemas for Videogame Cataloguing. Journal of Library Metadata, 21(3-4), 63-103.

Lacey, E., Skinner, J., Panozzo Zénere, C., Greenberg, C., & Marsh, F. (2021). Cataloguing, classification, and critical librarianship at Cambridge University. In Crilly, J. & Everitt, R. (eds). Narrative Expansions: Interpreting Decolonisation in Academic Libraries. Facet Publishing.

Marsh, F. (2022). Unsettling information literacy: Exploring critical approaches with academic researchers for decolonising the university. Journal of Information Literacy 16(1), 4-29.

Reyes, G. P. (2022). Social Tagging and Secondary School Libraries: Insights from the AO3 Framework. In Handbook of Research on Emerging Trends and Technologies in Librarianship (pp. 201-231). IGI Global.

An open access article by Dr. Julianne Nyhan and Dr. Kim Sloan in Oxford University Press’, Journal of the History of Collections

Abstract: Focusing on Sir Hans Sloane’s catalogue of ‘Miscellanies’, now in the British Museum, this paper asks firstly how Sloane described objects and secondly whether the original contents of the cabinets can be reconstructed from his catalogue. Drawing on a sustained, digitally augmented analysis – the first of its kind – of Sloane’s catalogues, we respond to these questions and offer an initial analysis of the contents of the cabinets that held the miscellaneous objects at Sloane’s manor house in Chelsea. Knowledge of how and why Sloane catalogued this part of his collection has hitherto remained underdeveloped. We argue that his focus on preservation and documentation in his cataloguing did not preclude a research role, but rather was founded on immersive participation. Our work was undertaken as part of a Leverhulme Trust funded research project, Enlightenment Architectures: Sir Hans Sloane’s Catalogues of his Collections (2016–19), a collaboration between the British Museum and University College London.

Permalink (free access).

UCL Staff and Students will be celebrating Global Media and Information Literacy week this year by co-hosting two free online events designed to explore and celebrate the contributions of the Department of Information Studies to information literacy research and practice. Running from 24^th-31^st October, Global Media and Information Literacy Week is an opportunity to think more closely about the role that information plays within human social interactions, and more particularly, within academic, workplace and everyday contexts. Events will be held online on the 28^th and 29^th October and are free.

These events are carried out under the auspices of FOIL, the Forum on Information Literacy, which is a new information literacy research group that has been cofounded at UCL, Department of Information Studies. FOIL represents a space for academic researchers who are active in the field of information literacy research in the UK, to discuss and challenge ideas, and to engage in critical reflection on theory, practice and praxis-oriented research. Its goals include establishing and nurturing a research environment in which information literacy researchers in UK Universities will discuss theoretical and methodological issues related to information literacy, and advancing a research agenda and programme of works that addresses the theoretical and methodological issues of information literacy in academic and applied contexts. Other members of FOIL include academics at the University of Sheffield, the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University.

On the 28^th October, DIS staff members Professor Annemaree Lloyd, Dr Charlie Inskip and Dr Alison Hicks will be participating in an event entitled “Information Literacy in the United Kingdom: past and future” alongside colleagues from the University of Sheffield, Strathclyde University, University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University. This event will address the questions: (1) What has been the UK narrative about information literacy? and (2) What will be the UK narrative about information literacy?

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/124218423649/

On the 29^th September, recent DIS graduate Tsveta Rafaylova will be presenting on her recently completed MA research on workplace information literacy within a professional tax services firm. Tsveta’s dissertation was supervised by Dr Alison Hicks and focused on exploring the role that information literacy played in helping a professional services firm pivot to home working during the COVID-19 lockdown. Tsveta will be joining MA graduates from the University of Sheffield and the University of Manchester in this panel designed to showcase MA research.
Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/foil-masters-emerging-voices-in-media-information-literacy-research-tickets-124536394709

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to radically refine people’s information experiences. The study, Risk and Resilience in Redefined Information Environments, which is being carried out by Professor Annemaree Lloyd and Dr Alison Hicks at UCL’s Department of Information Science, investigates how information literacy practices and literacies of information help people to mitigate risk and develop resilience during a time of upheaval.

The ongoing health crisis has produced complex and multi-layered information environments that span a range of new information sources including scientific, medical, mental health and government advice. This information is further tailored, repackaged and communicated by multiple actors across multiple information channels, including social media, peer review and governmental websites. New ways of interacting with others (in work, education or everyday situations), which are being encouraged as a result of government social distancing policies, further impact how information is shared and disseminated within a community.

The multiplicity, complexity and range of information environments created in response to the pandemic is problematic and has the potential to create social, economic, health and educational risks. New challenges also emerge, including confusion about where to find information when traditional methods and strategies, or established information landscapes are disrupted, or when there is a need to become informed about an unfamiliar topic. Risk may also be created when people are forced to develop rapid new ways of determining the veracity and trustworthiness of rumours and hearsay that they find through websites, social media channels and amongst friends and family. These information problems may further cause people to cut themselves off from or avoid information as a way to manage overload or mediate stress, anxiety and mental health issues. In effect, these ongoing uncertainties can have implications in terms of people’s capacity to understand crisis information environments and build information practices that scaffold informed decision making and broader questions of resilience.

The Risk and Resilience study is a two-phase study that is being carried at UCL’s Department of Information Studies. The study is currently being conducted with participants across the UK and aims to develop a detailed understanding of the risks that people face during the pandemic, including in everyday, workplace and caring contexts; the information sources and information literacy practices that are used to mitigate risk; and the barriers and challenges that enable or constrain the development of resilient information practices.

The findings of this study will enable information researchers to develop clearer insight and understanding of how people develop knowledge of and mitigate risk, construct information landscapes and develop resilience strategies during times of crisis and upheaval. It will establish foundational knowledge about people’s information practices from which to develop future responses for information, civil contingency, emergency services, welfare and public health professions.

If you are interested in participating in this study or would like further information about the study, please contact Professor Annemaree Lloyd annemareelloyd@ucl.ac.uk or Dr Alison Hicks a.hicks@ucl.ac.uk

iConference 2020, which took place in March 23-27 2020, had been planned as a standard international conference to be hosted in Sweden. However, due to the coronavirus, rather than delegates flying into Sweden or alternatively cancelling, it was successfully moved online. The coronavirus pandemic brings challenges but also innovative ways of communicating and reconsidering academic discourse and practices. The iConference organizers responded quickly to this situation and the Conference was transitioned to an all-virtual form in less than two weeks.

Our PhD student, Cindy Fu, engaged in the programme, as a speaker with her supervisor Dr Elizabeth Lomas (Associate Professor in Information Governance), in a session for interaction and engagement, which was held by Zoom. A conference organiser was online at all times to ensure the technology was working. Cindy and Elizabeth’s session focused on, “putting information behaviour on the cognitive map: exploring information seeking behaviours of academic researchers”. It was aimed at engaging participants with a mapping technique called cognitive mapping, and exploring their information seeking behaviour in the research context, Cindy has used cognitive mapping within her PhD research to consider UCL student information seeking behaviours. She has supplemented the mapping with log analysis and interviews. This particular iConference session was set up as a workshop with activities, which did require some additional thinking and planning with the move online. 25 people logged on. Cindy took the lead in the session, presenting on the development of cognitive mapping in terms of its origin, development, approaches and examples of how it has been applied in research. In this workshop, participants were then set a mapping exercise, which gave them a chance to interact and actively think about this approach. They were required to provide a map, which could include, text or drawings of their information seeking behaviour as an academic researcher. Every two minutes, Cindy called out to change the colour of the pen being used. This enabled the progression of a participant’s thoughts to be visualized. Participants then uploaded and discussed their maps and the value and limitations of this approach. Below is an example of Cindy’s own map (figure 1).

Figure 1: An example of Cindy’s map of her information seeking behavior for research.

Having shared maps, participants could put up a virtual hand up to speak or type comments into the chat function which Elizabeth then monitored and read out. A number of the participants discussed how they might apply this approach within their own research. The workshop format proved to be just as viable online as a normal face-to-face session. The distinction was that participants could choose to be less visible in their participation if they wished. There have been follow up questions since the session and for those that are interested Cindy (yaming.fu.17@ucl.ac.uk) is happy to be emailed and to share her slides.

Dr Alison Hicks, Lecturer in the Department of Information Science, also contributed to the 2020 virtual iconference programme. Together with a colleague from the University of Copenhagen, she successfully led a workshop, Transition in user-centred information studies – the what, why and how?, which focused on exploring the concept of transition and its potential impact on human-centred information research. Lively discussion followed on from short presentations that explored the ways in which transition has been examined within Library and Information Science research, as over 30 people logged in to collaborate and interact with participants from around the globe. Alison also presented a paper that was co-authored with UCL colleague, Professor Annemaree Lloyd. Their short paper, Peeling back the layers: Deconstructing information literacy discourse in higher education, employed a discourse analysis method to explore the outward and inward-facing narratives of information literacy that are present within key professional texts. This paper forms part of a larger research programme that aims to critically interrogate the epistemological premises and discourses of information literacy within higher education. Overall, Alison found that the online presentation format was very successful; she enjoyed seeing who was present at her session as well as the

opportunity to ask questions orally and through the chat text box. While the time zone restrictions meant that she was not able to attend all the sessions that she wanted to, overall, she found that thanks to the impressive efforts of the hosts, the programme was stimulating, accessible and well-thought through.

This was a unique experience and one that may be considered for conference formats post-coronavirus.

Congratulations to recently graduated LIS Students!

Two recently graduated Library and Information Studies students received good news this week!

Verity Attwell (MA 2018) has had an article based on her MA dissertation accepted for publication in School Libraries Worldwide, “In all areas, I cater to the majority”: An investigation of LGBT+ provision in school libraries from the librarian’s perspective.” Verity is a school librarian at Fettes College, Edinburgh and her dissertation focused on LGBTQ+ representation in school library collections and activities.

Ellen Haggar (MA 2018) has had an article based on her MA dissertation accepted for publication in the Journal of Documentation,  “Fighting Fake News: Exploring George Orwell’s Relationship to Information Literacy.” Ellen is a Research and Outreach Librarian at Institution of Mechanical Engineers and her dissertation focused on analysing Orwell’s wartime diaries through the lens of information literacy.

Congratulations to Verity and Ellen.

Alison

In November 1917, the President of the Library Association, Sir John MacAlister, wrote to the Provost of UCL ‘to enquire whether it would be possible to institute at University College a School of Librarianship…to be established in co-operation with the Library Association’. The London School of Economics had offered a course in librarianship in co-operation with the Library Association (LA) between 1902 and 1915, but that had lapsed during the War. The arrangement had been that the LA paid the fees of the lecturers whom they also recommended, while the LSE provided teaching space and other expenses, however, initial healthy numbers dwindled to 3 or 6 students by 1915. After some further discussions, a proposal was sent to the Professorial Board, which set up a Committee to confer with the Library Association. The Committee reported positively on the proposal on 22 March 2018, having reassured itself that the LSE did not propose to resume its earlier course. The Director of the LSE concluded that ‘the number of new recruits to librarianship…was so small as to preclude any hope of making an institution of the kind successful’.

Recommendations went to the College Committee, ‘that it is desirable to institute a School for Librarianship at University College, provided that the necessary Endowment Fund is forthcoming’. The Library Association had been in communication with the Carnegie Trustees seeking an annual grant to support the School which was ‘receiving their sympathetic consideration’. A Joint Sub-Committee between UCL and the LA was invited to prepare a scheme for submission to the UCL Committee. The ambition was to have ‘something founded upon the lines that will enable it to develop into a University School of librarianship comparable with the great Schools of Librarianship in the United States’.

The proposal was to establish a staff comprising a Director, a Secretary, and Teaching Staff in four core areas of study, ie Bibliography, Classification, Cataloguing, Library History, Organisation and Routine. Special courses would also be provided in Literary History, Palaeography and the Study of Archives, and Indexing. The LA proposed to transfer its extensive library of ‘Technical Library Literature’ to UCL. The Carnegie Trust agreed to fund the School for five years initially at the rate of £1500 per annum. The scheme was approved by the University of London Senate and the plan was to start teaching in October 1919.

In June 1919, UCL College Committee approved a statement of the duties and terms of appointment of the Director of the School of Librarianship and agreed to appoint Dr E A Baker, Secretary to the Education Committee of the LA and on the Joint Committee. A row then erupted between the University Senate and the LA, after the LA Council passed a resolution disapproving of Baker’s appointment and insisting that the Directorship be advertised. It seems that some members of the LA had hoped to start a school at a northern university and were seeking to derail the UCL proposal. However, after reconsideration and lawyers’ letters, the University and UCL prevailed and Dr Baker’s appointment was confirmed in August 1919. Sir Frederick Kenyon was invited to deliver the address at the opening of the School of Librarianship in October 1919.

In its first decade, 387 full time and 289 part time students completed courses, some sponsored by local education authorities such as London County Council which sponsored 50 places for London librarians. The School expanded to occupy most of the Henry Morley Building at UCL. The Carnegie Trust renewed its grant for a second five year period. In 1930, UCL started to fund raise for a capital investment of £50,000 to secure the School’s future.

Elizabeth Shepherd

Sources:

UCL Special Collections, Records Office UCLCA/CC: UCL Minutes of College Committee, 17/10/1917 to 2/07/1918, Meeting 5/03/1918; Meeting 30/04/1918; Meeting 3/06/1919.

University of London Library: University Correspondence Central File, 1918-1919 CF 1/19/208, including letters from Carnegie Trust.

University of London Library: UL 3/7, miscellaneous papers on the School of Librarianship, 1901-1930.