X Close

LCCOS staff news

Home

News for colleagues within the LCCOS department.

Menu

Archive for the 'Communication' Category

Professional Registration Questionnaire for LCCOS

By Craig Martin, on 28 November 2023

Aside from obtaining a formal qualification (e.g. Masters / diploma / apprenticeships), there are several options available to LCCOS colleagues who wish to advance their professional knowledge, experience and skills. This can provide evidence for your expertise and commitment to professional development in the sector through attainment of a professional qualification. This survey will give us an understanding of the current status and future aspirations of LCCOS colleagues in relation to these qualifications, which will inform how we can best support staff who would like to work towards them.

To get a full picture, we kindly request all within LCCOS complete the survey by 12th January 2024.

All responses will be treated in confidence.

Please get in touch if you have any questions.

Many thanks

Craig Martin, Subject Liaison Librarian
Angela Young, Head of Library Skills

 

 

Dates for LCCOS Leadership Surgeries November 2023 – Jun 2024

By Rozz Evans, on 17 October 2023

We’re delighted to announce the latest series of dates for our regular LCCOS Leadership Team surgeries.

LCCOS Leadership Group Surgeries

These surgeries are just one of several ways that colleagues are able to engage directly with senior managers if they want to.

You can raise issues and ask questions about any aspect of LCCOS or how it is run.  Suggestions for improvement are also welcome. You might want to share things that have worked really well in your job or team that you would like to see taken up more widely. We are always interested in your ideas!

One of the most important things about working for LCCOS is that no matter what our roles we are united by all wanting to do the very best job we can and provide a service we can all be proud of.

It is also an opportunity to raise problems, but please do make sure that you speak to your Line Manager first if your feedback is of a personal/sensitive nature or relates to another colleague or Library user.

You can attend on your own account, as a representative of a group or team, or come along in small groups.

Surgeries are currently scheduled to run via Teams, but sometimes it will be possible to conduct them face-to-face. Please feel free to request this if you prefer it and we will do our best to accommodate it.

The times and dates below all fall between 9.30am and 4pm, but we are very happy to arrange surgeries for colleagues who work evenings and weekends – please email me directly (rosalind.evans@ucl.ac.uk) and I will arrange it.

Site visits and meeting attendance

Members of the LCCOS Leadership Group are also available to visit sites and join team meetings. You can request this either via your section head, or by directly contacting the relevant member of LCCOS Leadership Group if there is someone specific you’d like to invite.

Online Feedback form

Finally, there is an online feedback form if you prefer. If you put your name on it, you will receive a response, but you can also post anonymously if you are more comfortable with this.

Scheduled dates

Dates are scheduled as below. Please email the named person to book as indicated. I will be sending out a monthly reminder via the lccos-allstaff@ucl.ac.uk mailing list.

  • 20 Nov:  10:00 – 11:00: Paul Ayris (Pro-Vice-Provost, UCL LCCOS) & June Hedges (Director of Liaison and Support Services; Deputy Director of Services) – email j.hedges@ucl.ac.uk 
  • 14 Dec:  14:00 – 15:00: Martin Moyle (Director of Services) & Lara Speicher (Head of Publishing, UCL Press) – email l.speicher@ucl.ac.uk
  • 17 Jan:  11:00 – 12:00: Andy Pow (Head of Finance, LCCOS) & Rozz Evans (Head of Collection Strategy) – email rosalind.evans@ucl.ac.uk
  • 16 Feb:  11:00 – 12:00:  Margaret Stone (Director of Digital Services and Service Improvement) & John Maisey (Head of Visitor Services) j.maisey@ucl.ac.uk
  • 19 Mar: 15:00 – 16:00: Karen Jeger (Head of Collection Services) & Peter Dennison (Head of Customer Service) – email p.dennison@ucl.ac.uk 
  • 22 Apr: 11:00 – 12:00: Paul Ayris (Pro-Vice-Provost, UCL LCCOS) & Sarah Aitchison (Director of Special Collections) – email s.aitchison@ucl.ac.uk
  • 22 May: 14:00 – 15:00: Martin Moyle (Director of Services) & Kate Cheney (Director of Site Library Services) – email k.cheney@ucl.ac.uk
  • 18 Jun: 14:00 – 15:00: Peter Dennison (Head of Customer Service) & Michelle Wake (Site Libraries Manager and Senior Librarian, UCL School of Pharmacy) – email m.wake@ucl.ac.uk

Do feel free to email me directly if you have any general queries, comments or questions about the LCCOS Leadership Surgeries.

Facilities & Projects Team Blog – Student Centre Closed for Lift Repairs  

By Collette E M Lawrence, on 8 September 2023

Student Centre Closed for Lift Repairs

On Saturday 9th September 2023, the Student Centre will be Closed from 7.00am and reopening on Sunday 10th September 2023 at 7.00am, please be aware of this if you are directing colleagues and students to this space, and if you are within the building.

This closure is to enable noisy works to be carried out  and also allow the flood repairs to Lift 3 and the track guide repairs to be completed at the same time, finally reinstating lift 3 back into service.

We apologies for any inconvenience caused by these works and we appreciate your continued support and patience.

If you have any issues or queries regarding this, please contact the LCCOS Facilities & Projects Team. Our team information can be found at the following link Facilities & Project Team

Facilities & Projects Team Blog – Cruciform Building Electrical System Testing

By Collette E M Lawrence, on 29 August 2023

Cruciform Building Electrical System Testing

Some of you may already be aware, as this has taken place on some of our LCCOS sites already, we are currently working with Estates colleagues to carry out essential electrical testing across the UCL community. These tests are to ensure that all distribution boards, data facilities, electric circuits, power, and lighting are working correctly and meet legal requirements.

There are plans to carry out essential works on the Cruciform Buildings electrical systems on Saturday 2nd September 2023. This is to allow us to undertake these works, the building will be closed to isolate power to areas of the Cruciform.

 Please be aware that the Cruciform Building will be closed for the duration of the full building shut down on Saturday 2nd September 2023, and reopening, as usual, on Sunday 3rd September 2023.

We apologies for any inconvenience caused by these works and we appreciate your continued support and patience. If you have any issues or queries regarding this, please contact the Library Facilities & Projects Team.

Facilities & Project Blog – School of Pharmacy Fixed Wire Testing

By Collette E M Lawrence, on 14 June 2023

Some of you may already be aware, as this has taken place on many of our LCCOS sites already, we are currently working with Estates colleagues to carry out essential fixed wire testing across the UCL community. These tests are to ensure that all distribution boards, data facilities, electrical circuits, power, and lighting are working correctly and meet legal requirements.

The School of Pharmacy Building will experience a full building shut down, on each riser, on the following times and dates:

  • Riser A, Friday 16th June 2023, between 09.00-12.00
  • Riser D, Wednesday 21st June 2023, between 09.00-12.00
  • Riser C, Friday 23rd June 2023, between 09.00-12.00

The library will be closed for this testing to take place, and only essential staff will be permitted on site, resulting in the library space being closed for the duration of the above times and dates.

We apologies for any inconvenience caused by these works and we appreciate your continued support and patience.

If you have any issues or queries regarding this, please contact the Library Facilities & Projects Team.

Facilities & Projects Team Blog – Student Centre Fixed Wire Testing

By Collette E M Lawrence, on 19 May 2023

Student Centre Fixed Wire testing in June 2023

Some of you may already be aware, as this has taken place on some of our LCCOS sites already, we are currently working with Estates colleagues to carry out essential fixed wire testing across the UCL community. These tests are to ensure that all distribution boards, data facilities, electric circuits, power, and lighting are working correctly and meet legal requirements.

As part of the ongoing Estates fixed wire testing, the program has now reached the Student Centre.

From Thursday 1st – Friday 9th June 2023, the Student Centre will be having testing taking place, for health and safety reasons, and to try and minimise disruption to staff and students, due to sporadic loss of power and lighting please be aware of this if you are working in the areas of testing on the specific days.

In an attempt to try and minimise disruption for staff and students the F&P team have been working hard to plan these essential works with Estates and the contractors, HMC Compliance Limited. And have split the testing into floors and sections, as best we could.

We apologies for any inconvenience caused by these works and we appreciate your continued support and patience.

Contact us

If you have any issues or queries regarding this, please contact the LCCOS Facilities & Projects Team. Our team information can be found at the following link Facilities & Project Team.

Facilities & Projects Team Blog – Meeting room updates  

By Collette E M Lawrence, on 5 April 2023

Meeting room updates: Please see below important information with regards to the availability of the following rooms:

  • Room 115 in Wilkins Building, this room is now available to book 5 days a week.
  • Room 106 in Science Library will not be available from 30th May 2023 – 25th September 2023. This is due to AHRC funded project taking place in Petrie Museum, and this room has been booked out to support this refurbishment project.

If you have any issues or queries regarding this, please contact the Library Facilities & Projects Team. Our team information can be found at the following link Facilities & Projects Team

CPD25 course: Supporting staff and students with autism and learning difficulties, 07.12.22

By Sharon A James, on 24 January 2023

Back in December 2022 Sharon James and Sarah Turk attended this online course. Below are their write-ups of the presentations.

First presentation, delivered by Clare Caccavone

The first presentation, “Progressing neurodiversity and making adjustments” was delivered by Clare Caccavone, Programme Director at Ambitious about Autism. This charity provides support, specialist education and employability services for autistic children and young people. Clare informed us that 56% of autistic children have been unofficially excluded from school, 4 out of 5 autistic young people experience mental health issues, and only 29% of autistic people are in employment.

Features of autism include difficulties with social communication, social interaction, routines, and sensory overload. To bring this to life we were shown a helpful short video in which young people with autism talked about stimming, a coping mechanism that helps with anxiety. It involves repetitive actions such as rocking, hand flapping, feet tapping, sniffing a scent or squeezing a hand toy. The video is from the Ambitious about Autism YouTube channel. We also watched this Sensory Overload video that allows the watcher to experience what it is like to be overwhelmed by everyday noise and confusion.

Ambitious about Autism are proud of a pilot they ran, the Higher Education Network, where they worked with 17 universities, trained over 100 employers, and enabled more than 170 autistic students to benefit from paid work. Aiming to create a more neurodiverse workforce, they are also working with five universities this year.

Finally, we were given some tips for when working with neurodiverse students and colleagues. These include:

  • In your workplace, notice what could present a challenge for others.
  • Provide advance warning of any changes, cancellations or closures.
  • Allow the use of self-calming strategies that are not harmful.
  • Use someone’s name before talking so that you have their attention.
  • Don’t assume what you have said is obvious; reiterate what will happen and why.
  • Allow more time for information to be processed.
  • Give staff and students any questions you have before meeting up with them.

I found this presentation very helpful, especially the practical tips. The videos were also informative and allowed me to better understand the experiences involved in being neurodiverse.  As a frontline worker I feel that this training will help me when communicating with all library users and colleagues.

Related link

Ambitious about Autism website.

by Sharon James

Second presentation, delivered by Daniela de Silva and Eleri Kyffin

The second presentation, “Inclusive recruitment practices at the University of Westminster, Library and Archive Service”, was delivered by Daniela de Silva and Eleri Kyffin from the University of Westminster Library. We learned about how they have transformed the recruitment process to make it more inclusive and support neurodiverse applicants.

When invited to interview, all candidates now receive a Recruitment Welcome Pack which includes the names and pictures of the interview panel, information about the team and post, interview tips and guidance along with the interview questions (or the topics for questions for senior roles). It was interesting to learn that feedback gathered from both the interview candidates and the interview panel members was on the whole very positive. Whilst some candidates found that having the questions in advance made them more nervous, the majority felt it was very helpful. The interview panel found that even with the questions in advance they could see the candidates’ strengths and weaknesses, and follow up questions could be used to probe a bit deeper.

As a recruiter who sometimes feels that the interview process may not allow a candidate to do themselves justice, it was very thought provoking to hear the positive experiences of both the panel members and candidates at the University of Westminster. What I found particularly inspiring was that whilst this began as a way of making their recruitment more inclusive for autistic candidates, it actually could have the potential to make the process more inclusive for all. Definitely food for thought!

by Sarah Turk

Reminder: Logging into Alma

By Tom Beauchamp, on 4 January 2023

ISD has advised that the Shibboleth authentication route to log into Alma will no longer be available from Thursday 5 January 2023, as it has been replaced by Microsoft Azure AD, as used when logging into Explore or accessing your UCL email account (see blog post Change to Logging Into Alma, 15 August 2022). This means that you will need to update any old Alma bookmarks to the new short URL.

Facilities & Projects Team Blog – Fixed Wire Testing-Science Library Shut Down

By Collette E M Lawrence, on 8 December 2022

Fixed Wire Testing-Science Library Shut Down

As part of the current fixed wire testing, and to incorporate these essential works, the Science Library will be closed from 21.00 on Sunday the 11th December 2022 and will re-open at 15.00 on Monday 12th December 2022.

This will allow the works to be completed, which includes the fixed wire testing on the ground floor and entrance areas, as well as a full electrical shut down of the building, whilst ensuring all disruption is kept to a minimum and safety of staff and students is a priority, the tests include the security and access gates, as well as high occupancy areas, including the mezzanine cluster and the teaching space, along with the loss of lighting

Staff will not be permitted to work in the building on the day of the closure, for safety reasons, however, please be aware that your offices will be available on completion of the shutdown, after 15.00.

All systems will be back up and running and the building reopened from 15.00 on Monday the 12th December 2022.

We thank you for your continued support and patience, but if you have any issues or queries regarding this, please contact a member of the team. Our team information can be found at the following link Facilities & Projects Team