On 2 March 2016, I presented my termly Report to UCL Library Committee. The Report is arranged under the headings of the six Key Performance Areas of the Library Strategy.

The text of the Report can be found here, and I will highlight some of the many activities which the Library has undertaken to support the Library Strategy and UCL 2034.

Under User Experience, we looked at the tremendous progress Library colleagues have made in implementing RFID technology in all UCL’s libraries. The final phase of activity has begun with installations planned for the UCL Ear Institute and Action on Hearing Loss Library, the UCL Institute of Neurology, the UCL Institute of Orthopaedics and the UCL Institute of Education Library.

Under the Key Performance Area of Staff, Equality and Diversity, I was able to report that the Library has recently approved an Equality Statement. Also, on 2 February, the UCL President and Provost presented the 2016 UCL Professional Services Values Awards. The award category for Excellent Service – putting UCL’s goals and customer needs first by working in partnership – attracted 20 entries and was won by the Main and Science daytime and Evening/Saturday teams. Congratulations to all concerned.

Under Finance, Management Information and Value for Money I presented the SCONUL Strategic dataset, which now benchmarks UCL Library Services’ excellent performance against benchmark partners in the UK – Research Libraries UK, Imperial College, King’s College London, Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Manchester. In 2014/15, UCL Library Services received 2,302,680 visits from users. King’s received 1,951,386. An area in which UCL excels particularly is that for total information expenditure where UCL outperformed both Oxford and Cambridge.

The fourth Key Performance Area is Systems and Processes. I was able to highlight the tremendous amount of work which the Library has put in to the paperwork for the forthcoming Higher Education Review (HER) – a review of UCL as an institution – by the Quality Assurance Agency in May. A model of good practice is the Merger Report which UCL Library Services compiled with the Newsam Library and Archives, UCL Institute of Education, which ran to 200pp.

The fifth Key Performance Area is Sustainable Estate. I was able to report on the opening of the Research Grid in the UCL Science Library, with 74 seats, which opened on 1 February. We also celebrated UCL’s retention of the EcoCampus Gold award. The Report from the independent audit references the work of UCL Library Services staff: ‘The Science Library, including PC clusters, was viewed. It was discussed how the library team are very active in the Green Impact scheme and that appropriate power down software is in place for PCs, multi-functional devices, etc.’

Finally, I reported on Communication, Open Access and Outreach. UCL’s Open Access Team has compiled and is advertising its strategy for alerting UCL researchers to the OA requirements for REF 2021. UCL Press, the UK’s first fully Open Access University Press, continues to punch above its weight. For the week ending 19 February 2016, the 8 books published by UCL Press have been downloaded a total of 16,855 times with 1,162 print sales – a remarkable achievement for a Press which is not yet a year old.

Every member of Library staff should feel congratulated on their contributions in recent months to the corporate life of the Library. It is a fantastic achievement and could not have been done without your enthusiasm and good will.

Paul Ayris

Director of UCL Library Services