This blog has been replaced by a new LCCOS Staff News blog, hosted on SharePoint.

Background and purpose

The LCCOS Staff News blog began life as the Library Staff News blog on the WordPress platform. Following the formation of LCCOS, the departmental intranet was established on SharePoint and it was decided to use the same platform for the staff blog. This move will enable the restriction of content to LCCOS staff only (not possible here on WordPress) for targeted internal communications, as well as delivering a truly LCCOS branded forum.

The purpose of the blog, or news channel, is to allow LCCOS staff to share work-related updates and stories with colleagues. These can take a longer form than is possible on email or Teams, and posts are also archived in a more enduring way for future retrieval.

The blog complements Peer Review, the LCCOS staff newsletter which focuses on getting to know the people of LCCOS.

Visit the new blog

Read more about the new blog and how to use it.

We are pleased to announce the launch of the LCCOS UCL200 page on the LCCOS staff intranet. This page contains information about the range of displays, events, activities and publications that will make up our contributions to the programme of UCL200 events. Find out more about what LCCOS colleagues will be facilitating in 2026 and ways in which you can take part and attend.  

The page is split into displays, projects and events and publications activity. Colleagues can view more information about the nature of each activity, including estimated dates, locations and associated project leads.  

This page will be updated with more activities, displays and content over the coming year, as well as information about upcoming tours and events.  

If you have any questions about LCCOS UCL200 events, please contact either the relevant project lead listed on the page, or June Hedges and Bethan Smith for general queries.  

Do you know a colleague or group of colleagues within LCCOS who goes above and beyond to support students’ learning? Celebrate their impact by nominating them for a UCL Provost Education Award.

The teaching and learning services (TLS) team and the copyright team are delighted to share a few recent updates on recent activities.

For more information please contact Pam Clarke (TLS) or Christine Daoutis (Copyright).

Reading lists and copyright joint event, November 2025

 

On 25 November, TLS and Copyright ran a walk-in event at the IoE to raise awareness of our services. We asked students and staff to complete a short survey about reading lists, offered them promotional materials including new bookmarks and postcards designed by the LCCOS communications team, and promoted recently published books by UCL Press. Part of the event focussed on playing the Copyright for Humans game created by Christine Daoutis, to spark conversations with students and staff around the use of reading lists and copyright materials.

We ran the event from 11 am to 2 pm, just outside the entrance of the IoE library. Over 300 students stopped to chat with us, to admire Colin the Copyright Literacy Nerd and grab some freebies. Of those students who stopped by, 145 completed the reading lists survey – you can see the results here:

Q1. When using your RL what works well.pdf

Q2. What would you change to improve your list.pdf.

Nearly 80 students also played the copyright game. This involved completing a sentence displayed on a board by choosing an answer card and sticking it on the board. The game offers a very wide selection of possible answers, reflecting how differently people approach copyright.

How would you complete this sentence?

Copying a whole book used for a course without permission is…

Or this sentence?

Using an image without permission is…

Here are some of the answers chosen by our players:

• A crazy idea.
• Depends on the purpose.
• Crossing to the Dark Side.
• Music to my ears.
• Academic misconduct.
• I think it’s fine if it’s fair use…or fair dealing?
• I’m not answering without my lawyer.
• Fine until you’re caught.
• Intellectual property is theft.
• ‘A very cunning and subtle plan’.
• Inconsiderate.
• I had the answer but ChatGPT ate it.

Overall, the event was a great way to engage with our audiences, particularly students from across UCL who visit the IoE library. It was an opportunity to showcase work done ‘behind the scenes’ by the TLS team, promote copyright literacy and highlight the value of open resources, including open access books.

This was also a great example of cross-team collaboration. Huge thanks to our IoE library colleagues, the Office for Open Science, the LCCOS Communications team, UCL Press, Library Skills and the UCL Brand team for all the practical help, ideas, promotion and materials.

Copyright and TDM event, November 2025

On 12 November, we ran an in-person workshop for UCL researchers who use Text and Data Mining (TDM) in their projects.

TDM has very wide applications, from biomedical research to computer science to digital humanities. The copyright team, the e-resources team and the subject librarians receive various queries that relate to accessing and using subscription materials for TDM. Some of the examples are covered by the licences we have; some may be covered by the UK TDM exception covering non-commercial research; and others are quite more complex, for example if they involve the use of AI, require sharing with projects partners abroad, or lead to the development of applications competing  with the original resources. The workshop offered participants an opportunity to learn more about this area and discuss specific scenarios and compare their approaches.

The event started with Kirsty Wallis setting the scene and making those very important connections between TDM and open science. This was followed by a presentation by our invited speaker, Alex Fenlon, Head of Copyright and Licensing at the University of Birmingham, who gave an engaging and thought-provoking overview of this area. We also had contributions from the ARC, highlighting how their centre supports TDM projects. The session concluded with the interactive part of the session, where participants discussed scenarios based on real queries and summarised their discussions for the group.

The event was quite well attended, with 16 people joining us on the day, including UCL research staff, research students and LCCOS staff. Feedback was excellent, commenting on how engaging the external speaker was and how the scenarios helped frame the conversation.

The event is the first in a series run in 2025-2026 to promote copyright literacy, strengthen support in specific areas, and further develop the UCL Copyright Literacy Community. The series is organised in collaboration with Imperial College, with the same events running at both institutions. We aim to share our approach with other institutions who wish to address copyright literacy and will be presenting our work at RLUK and CILIP events next year.

Thanks to everyone who helped promote this event, including the Office for Open Science, the LCCOS Communications team, Library Skills  and subject librarians.

Playful and festive copyright

Our playful approaches to copyright this year included:

• Playing Copyright for Humans on several occasions: at our two walk-in events, in online sessions and in person with Computer Science Masters students.
• Contributing to the development of online copyright escape rooms led by Coventry University: copyright and museums escape room, Halloween escape room.
• Running a scary(?!) Halloween session on 31 October.

It is apt to close the year with our annual Copyright Christmas quiz. We hope you enjoy it!

We wish everyone a well-earned and relaxing break.

 

Around 1000 new students, from across all levels of study, will join UCL in January 2026. Many of them are affiliate students (on degree programmes at other universities with some time spent at UCL) and / or international students.

The LCCOS Library Induction Working Group invites LCCOS colleagues to spare some time within your usual working hours to contribute to induction events on Friday 9 January and Monday 12 January 2026 as part of our Library Induction Taskforce.

• Support Services Fair: Help staff a stand, promote our services and answer questions. We need two people on each 1 hour shift on Friday 9th 10.30-15.00 and one person on each shift on Monday 12th January, 10.30-15.00, Roberts Building Foyer.
• International student library seminar – 1 hour session, including a presentation and Q&A for international students so they know what to expect from our libraries. We need one presenter and one support person to facilitate Q&A on Friday 9 January 11.45-12.45, Roberts Building G06 LT.

If you would like to get involved, with consent from your line manager, please express your interest by completing this form: January 2026 – Library Induction Taskforce Signup.

We will be piloting using LibStaffer to schedule the rota, which will allow everyone involved to claim slots, receive reminders about their slots, and allow us to communicate easily with everyone contributing. The LibStaffer schedule will open on Monday 15th December for you to claim slots and we will send instructions ahead of that date.

Many thanks.

Angela Young (on behalf of the LCCOS Library Induction Working Group)

LILAC 2026 will be held at Sheffield University from Monday 30 March – Wednesday 1 April 2026. LILAC is a hugely inspiring and motivational conference, focusing on information literacy in libraries, and is relevant to anyone involved in teaching library skills or with an interest in information literacy. It comprises 3 days packed with seminars, workshops and lectures, a networking evening and conference dinner.

Copyright considerations in Text and Data Mining: in-person event, 12 November 2025

Text and Data Mining (TDM) involves reproducing large amounts of text and data for computational analysis. The UCL library already has extensive guidance both on accessing materials for TDM and on related copyright issues. However, specific copyright questions arising in different research scenarios need to be addressed on a case by case basis.

If you support researchers with TDM, use TDM in a project or simply want to find out more, register for the Copyright considerations in Text and Data Mining event on Wednesday 12 November at 9.30 am. Following an overview of this topic by an external speaker, you will have the chance to discuss specific scenarios with others and discover further resources and support. Please also share with any of your academic contacts you think would be interested.

Copyright sessions for LCCOS staff

Many thanks to the 23 LCCOS colleagues who joined one of our copyright sessions in September and provided some very positive feedback. Several people also suggested that we extend the length of the sessions as one hour is a bit too short. Future sessions will last 90 minutes.

• Join us for the next LCCOS copyright session on Friday 31 October from 11 am to 12.30 pm, on Teams. We will focus on copyright exceptions—which can be scary enough of their own—with a Halloween flavour to make things even scarier. Complete this Microsoft form to register and to submit any questions in advance.
• You may also want to join one of our scheduled sessions for UCL staff and students. Copyright and the use of images and Copyright for Humans are two sessions that may be of particular interest to you.
• Contact me at daouti@ucl.ac.uk to arrange a bespoke session for your team.

Copyright deities, Oasis impersonators and supporting academics: a report on ICEPOPS 2025.

Image by macrovector on Freepik.

 In September I attended the International Copyright-Literacy Event with Playful Opportunities for Practitioners and Scholars (more easily remembered as ICEPOPS).

The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Copyright, safe spaces and sanctuary’: a topical theme, given the recent evidence for copyright anxiety among Higher Education copyright practitioners. With the additional challenges brought in by the shift to AI, there is a need to consider new approaches to how we support copyright literacy.

In the playful spirit of Icepops, Irene Barranco-Garcia (Imperial) and I (UCL) introduced an icebreaker activity aiming to tackle impostor syndrome by encouraging participants to identify with one of the Greek gods. Interestingly, most people wanted to be Apollo (supporting the arts and humanities), Poseidon (to help navigate the choppy waters of copyright), or Aphrodite (communicating the beauty of open science) with just one Ares, prepared to fight the copyright wars for all of us.

The audience was brought back to earth with a keynote by Monica Westin (Director of Open Policy at Cambridge University Press): a thought-provoking talk on Atomic Scholarship: Reassembling authorship and research impact in the age of AI-synthesized knowledge. The (very) short story is that Large Language Models (LLMs) are able to extract bitesize chunks of text, allowing them to support free access to knowledge without reproducing original works. This, in turn, has implications for the way we address authorship, attribution and measures of scholarly impact and ultimately for the role academic libraries play in supporting research. This is a quite a technical paper (see relevant preprint and contact me if you would like to discuss this further).

Highlights from lightning talks included:

• The development of scenario-based copyright guidance for different audiences (students, PGRs, lecturers etc) on a SharePoint site (Diane Crawford-Leighton, University of Exeter). Of particular interest to me was the linking of these resources to an online community – this is similar to what we have started here at UCL.
• ‘The sunflower is mine’ by Douglas McCarthy (Open Future). This was yet another engaging talk exposing the paradox of galleries and museums licensing copies of works that have long been out of copyright. I already use Douglas’s articles quite extensively in my teaching sessions; this latest presentation will inform my guidance on images.
• Copyright support for arts students (presentations by Andrew Gray (University of the Arts) and Lisa Moore (University of the Creative Arts). Both speakers highlighted the value of discussing copyright court cases in teaching sessions and the impact of embedding open approaches in art projects.
• My own contribution (jointly with Irene Barranco-Garcia). We presented three scenarios demonstrating emotional support for postgraduate students coming to us with copyright questions. As part of this, we introduced the first draft of a copyright advisor competency framework, addressing the values, behaviours and skills a copyright professional should have to be able to support PGRs. There is interest from others in the UK copyright community (Oxford, City, Sheffield Hallam) to collaborate on this.

Please contact c.daouti@ucl.ac.uk if you have any questions.

New students have already started arriving on campus, and with central induction events kicking off in just a couple of week, all LCCOS colleagues are now invited to sign up to contribute to student welcome and induction events as part of the LCCOS Induction Taskforce. Claim your slots for the activities of your choice by adding your name to our Induction Taskforce Scheduling 2025 spreadsheet. You can contribute as much or as little as you wish, just make sure you have your line manager’s agreement.

In addition to our regular in-person events during International Student Welcome Week (Mon 15 – Fri 19 Sep) and Welcome week (Mon 22 – Fri 26 Sep), this year we are introducing a couple of online induction sessions, so you can help out even if you are working remotely on those days.

Please sign up to help with the following activities:

• International Student Library Seminars: 10.15-11.15 every day w/c 15th September in Cruciform Lecture Theatre 1.
• Library Welcome Seminar (online): 11.00-11.50, Thu 25 Sep. Based on the format of our usual International Student Library Seminars, but open to any students.
• Support Services Fair: 10.00–15.30 every day Mon 22 – Wed 24 Sep in the Student Centre.
• Introduction to Explore sessions (in-person and online): 12.00-12.30 and 12.30-13.00 every day w/c 22 September in the Science Library G15 Teaching Cluster room, and online on Friday 22 September 11.00-11.25
• Getting Started spaces in Main and Science libraries: 10.00-16.00 every day w/c 22 September, and wraparound at Main Library towards the end of w/c 15th Sep and start of w/c 29th Sep.

Full briefing will be provided in an online briefing on Wednesday 10 September 11.00-11.50am, which will be recorded for any Taskforce members unable to attend. Briefing information will also be provided in a document.

Find out more about about all our welcome activities on our Getting Started: Events and activities website.

Contributing to the Induction Taskforce is a great opportunity for anyone across LCCOS to get involved in meeting and greeting new students, to work with colleagues from across LCCOS, and to develop your experience and skills.

Here’s what some Taskforce members said when reflecting on their involvement in previous years:

“It’s always good to meet the new students and welcome them. It was good to work with other library team members. It was a very good opportunity to learn from them as well.”

“I learned from this experience and really appreciated the opportunity to contribute.”

“I really liked helping with the Explore session, and engaging with the users in a class setting and on a one to one basis in something specific like searching Explore.”

If you have any questions, please contact Angela Young.

Dates for LCCOS Senior Management Team (SMT) Surgeries Sept 25 – Jun 26

Being part of a large and complex department can be challenging wherever you sit in the structure in terms of communication, and it is really difficult to make sure everyone feels that they know what is going on and how they can engage with both ongoing work and the future development of the department.

As a department we are continuing to work to improve our internal communications and this has included the recent launch of the LCCOS Communications Strategy 2025-27 which was developed with consultation across the department.

The LCCOS intranet site has loads of new content and responsibility for specific areas of work has been devolved to relevant sections to take ownership and ensure information is as current as possible. The About Us pages are particularly helpful in understanding how the department is run and is where you will find team profiles, the staff directory, lists of committees etc.

The first two meetings of the new LCCOS Staff Experience Committee took place in May and July and it will continue to meet every couple of months.  It is starting to identify priorities including an action plan following the recent UCL Staff Survey, how we can  foster a strong sense of belonging for new starters, and how to get better at  celebrating staff achievements across LCCOS. 

As a first step, SMT Surgery feedback will be added as a standing item to the group’s meeting agenda.  Notes from the meetings can be accessed via the Staff Experience Committee page on the intranet – scroll down to the Our Meetings heading at the bottom of the page.

Meeting notes can only be shared once they have been confirmed by the Committee as accurate, so the published notes are always one meeting behind (if not available already, notes from the May meeting will be shortly).

SMT Surgeries

In addition, a small working group has been established to review how we record, monitor and disseminate actions relating to issues raised at the monthly SMT Surgeries to ensure that participants are kept updated and that (where appropriate) this is also shared more widely across LCCOS.

Finally, this year’s SMT Surgeries have now all been scheduled. They are an opportunity to engage directly with senior managers, raise issues and ask questions 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 normally via Teams, but please feel free to request face-to-face if you prefer and we will do our best to accommodate it. The times and dates below all fall between 10 am and 4pm, but we can arrange surgeries for colleagues who work evenings and weekends – please email me directly (rosalind.evans@ucl.ac.uk).

You are welcome to directly contact any member of SMT any time – and there is an online SMT Feedback form which includes an option to submit anonymous feedback.

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

12 Sept 10 – 11: Martin Moyle (Director of Services) & Margaret Stone (Director of Digital Services and Service Improvement) – email margaret.stone@ucl.ac.uk

16 Oct 2 – 3: 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

10 Nov 11 – 12: Peter Dennison (Director of Customer Service) & Rozz Evans (Head of Collection Strategy) – email rosalind.evans@ucl.ac.uk

16 Dec 3 – 4: Kate Cheney (Director of Site Library Services) & Andy Pow (Head of Finance, LCCOS) – email a.pow@ucl.ac.uk

13th Jan 2 – 3: Martin Moyle (Director of Services) & Sarah Jillings (Head of Museums & Cultural Programmes) – email s.jillings@ucl.ac.uk

9th Feb 11 – 12: Sarah Aitchison (Director of Special Collections) & Karen Jeger (Head of Collection Services) – email k.jeger@ucl.ac.uk

20th Mar 11 – 12 : Peter Dennison (Director of Customer Service) & Becki Bashan (Head of LCCOS Learning Spaces, Facilities and Safety) – email r.bashan@ucl.ac.uk

14th Apr 10 – 11: Kate Cheney (Director of Site Library Services) & Lara Speicher (Head of Publishing) – email l.speicher@ucl.ac.uk

14th May 11 – 12: Martin Moyle (Director of Services) & Rozz Evans (Head of Collection Strategy) – email rosalind.evans@ucl.ac.uk

17th Jun 2 – 3: June Hedges (Director of Liaison and Support Services; Deputy Director of Services) & Sarah Aitchison (Director of Special Collections) – email s.aitchison@ucl.ac.uk

17th Jul 11 -12: Margaret Stone (Director of Director of Digital Services and Service Improvement) & Peter Dennison (Director of Customer Service) – email p.dennison@ucl.ac.uk

Ahead of what looks like a busy and exciting academic year, the copyright team is offering opportunities for LCCOS colleagues to build on their copyright knowledge, discuss specific issues that arise and take part in small scale collaborations.

1. September Q and A sessions for LCCOS staff

These are 45-minute informal sessions run on Teams, before the start of term. Drop in to say hello and ask any questions arising in your role. Not sure what to ask? The session will start with the top five copyright questions asked by LCCOS staff.

Dates (no need to register: just add the Teams link to your calendar).

• Wednesday 3 September at 3 pm; Teams link
• Monday 8 September at 2 pm; Teams link
• Friday 19 September at 11 am; Teams link

2. On demand bitesize sessions

Please contact c.daouti@ucl.ac.uk to arrange a short session for your library or team, in person or online. You can arrange this ahead of the new term or any time that suits you in term 1. A bitesize session (ranging from 15 mins to 1 hour) can be a general introduction/refresher or cover a more specific topic, e.g. an overview of open licences, an overview of copyright exceptions, a session on using images or working with AI.

3. Knowledge exchange meetings

Our teams have a lot of overlapping areas, with copyright already being a large part of library, museum and special collections roles. Please contact me c.daouti@ucl.ac.uk if you want to have a chat. We can share our knowledge and existing practice and find areas where we can work together.

4. Online tutorials

 

UCL Copyright Essentials is an introductory copyright course that takes about 30-40 minutes to complete, in your own time. You will learn about copyright protection, permissions, exceptions and open resources, with a bit of Star Wars on the side. For those with teaching responsibilities, Copyright and your Teaching is a more in-depth online tutorial focussing on licences, fair dealing and open educational resources.

5. UCL Copyright literacy community

 

Our community is growing on Teams, with 89 members to date. Join the community to follow and discuss copyright news, chat with others acrossUCL about copyright, and if you want to, take part in projects. Examples that would support your professional development include participating in events organised for the community and collaborating on new resources.

 

 

 

 

 

Please contact Christine Daouti c.daouti@ucl.ac.uk if you have any questions.