All LCCOS colleagues are now invited to sign up to contribute to student welcome and induction events as part of the LCCOS Induction Taskforce. To join the Taskforce simply claim your slot(s) now for the activities of your choice by adding your name to our Induction Taskforce Scheduling 2024 spreadsheet. You can contribute as much or as little as you wish, with your line manager’s agreement.

We need your help to deliver the following activities:

• International Student Library Seminars: 12.15-13.00 every day w/c 16th September in the North-West Wing.
• Support Services Fair: 10.00–15.30 every day Mon 23 – Wed 25 Sep in the North Cloisters.
• Explore demonstrations: 12.00-12.30 and 12.30-13.00 every day w/c 23 September in the Science Library G15 Teaching Cluster room.
• Getting Started spaces in Main and Science libraries: 10.00-16.00 every day w/c 23 September, and wraparound at Main Library towards the end of w/c 16th Sep and w/c 30th Sep.

Full briefing will be provided in an online briefing on Thursday 12 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 last year:

“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.

Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD).The purpose of GAAD is to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital access and inclusion, and the more than one billion people in the world with disabilities/impairments.

In LCCOS, we are committed to removing barriers that may prevent students, staff or visitors from making the most of our services. Ensuring all content that you share is accessible with the people who will use it is vital. You should anticipate additional requirements to make content accessible.

There are a few small things you can do. Let us know in the comments if you have any further suggestions, questions or comments.

1. Make your Microsoft documents accessible

It’s relatively easy to make Word and PowerPoint documents accessible by following a few easy steps:

• Use appropriate document headers.
• Add meaningful hyperlink text.
• Give every slide a unique title.
• Make sure slide contents can be read in the correct order.
• Add alt text to images.
• Check font size and colour contrast.
• Ensure videos are accessible.

When finalising a document, you should use the Microsoft Accessibility Checker which reviews documents and offers an easy way to make improvements such as adding alt text to images and checking content order on slides.

This is especially important if you are uploading the document onto Moodle as Blackboard Ally, will automatically create accessible formats from Word and PowerPoints, but the original document must be accessible.

Read more

• Make your Word documents accessible (Microsoft Help Pages)
• Make your PowerPoint presentations (Microsoft Help Pages)
• Blackboard Ally (UCL news article from 2019)
• Blackboard Ally-What it is, why use it

2. Use alt text

Alt text or ‘alternative text’ explains what an image is showing. It is read by screen reader software

You can easily add alt text to images in MS documents, on webpages and on most social media platforms.

VPEE recommend the following for writing alt text:

• Keep it short – just describe the most relevant aspects.
• Mention colour if it’s relevant.
• Include keywords appropriately for improved SEO, if relevant.
• Use proper nouns and names, if relevant.
• Use plain language and spell out acronyms.
• Skip writing ‘photo of’ etc.

Read more

• UCL Accessibility on Social Media Guidelines

3. Colour contrast / Avoid using colour alone to convey meaning

Colour is a powerful way to communicate and we’re not saying you should avoid using it, but make sure that colour alone is not used to convey meaning. For example, if you use ‘traffic lights’ or ‘Green and Red’ for stop and go, make sure the words ‘Stop’ and ‘Go’ are also included.

If you are using colours other than black and white, check the colour contrast. UCL provides guidance when using the brand colours. There are several tools for checking contrast freely available online.

Read more

• UCL Colour Palette
• Contrast checker tool from Web Accessibility in Mind.

4. Videos and recordings

When creating videos or recordings, you should consider alternative ways for people to engage with the content. Does it have clear audio and captions so that people can follow along?

This could also help people who aren’t able to play the audio or similarly are listening to a recording while doing something else.

Several programmes now have automatic captions. As anyone with an accent can attest these are not always accurate, but they are definitely getting better all the time. If you are uploading a recording, I would recommend checking over the captions just in case.

Read more

• 5 reasons why you should caption your video content (UCL VPEE)
• Lecturecast and other multimedia (UCL Digital Accessibility)
• Present with real-time, automatic captions or subtitles in PowerPoint (Microsoft Help pages)
• Use live captions in Microsoft Teams meetings (Microsoft Help pages)

5. Avoid PDFs or at least make sure they are accessible

PDFs are not great in terms of accessibility. Screen readers cannot always read them and unlike most webpages they are not responsive, meaning users may struggle to read smaller text. I would encourage you to think carefully about whether you need to create a PDF. Often a web page or Word document will be more suitable for your purposes.

If you do need to create a PDF, then make sure it’s accessible. The easiest way to do this is to turn an accessible MS document into a PDF (making sure to check the ‘Document structure tags for accessibility’ option first).

It can be difficult to make a PDF accessible after this. You can add tags using tools like Adobe Acrobat Pro, but the more visual and complex the design, the harder this is to do. One solution is to share alternative file formats. UCL have done this on their strategy pages, providing a ‘glossy’ PDF and a plain text Word document of the same item.

Read more

• PDF documents (ISD guidance)
• Create accessible PDFs (Microsoft Help Pages)
• Creating accessible PDFs (Adobe Help pages). This is more advanced.
• Why GOV.UK content should be published in HTML and not PDF. An interesting blog post from the Government Digital Service outlining why PDFs are not great.

What support is available to staff and students at UCL?

• Digital Accessibility Services
• UCL Digital Champions Network
• UCL Library Services – Accessibility

Reading accessable content from LCCOS

Thanks to Paula Dale and Jonathan Fowles for contributing to this list. Please also check our social media accounts for related posts using #GAAD. 

UCL Undergraduate Open Days are taking place on Friday 28 and Saturday 29 June 2024. Campus will be buzzing, and prospective students and their families are invited to come into the Main Library and Science Library, find out about LCCOS services, collections and resources and undertake our online self-guided library tours. In the Flaxman Gallery in the Main Library, we will have a staffed stand to welcome attendees, give information about LCCOS and answer questions, enabling us to showcase what LCCOS is all about, and inspire prospective students to come and study at UCL.

All LCCOS staff are invited to contribute to staffing the welcome stand. Full briefing will be provided. If you do not normally work on the days of the open days, you may claim time in lieu (any Grade of staff) or overtime (Grades 1-6), so if you don’t quite have enough annual leave left for that summer holiday you are dreaming about, this could be just the opportunity for you to earn extra time off!

Staffing of the stand will be in 1 hour shifts from 10.00-16.00 on both days. We invite you to contribute to between 1 and 3 non-consecutive shifts on either or both days, depending on your availability and the number of volunteers.

This is an opportunity to meet and work with other colleagues from across LCCOS, to broaden your experience of providing customer service and develop or enhance your professional skills.

To get involved, with consent from your line manager, please sign up by Friday 14 June and we’ll come back to you to finalise your contribution.

Sign up to contribute to the UCL Open Day LCCOS welcome stand

If you have any questions, please contact Angela Young angela.young@ucl.ac.uk

Contributed by Peter Dennison, June Hedges, Angela Young

• Support Services Fair: Help staff a stand, promote our services and answer questions. We need two people on each 1 hour shift on Friday 5th and Monday 8th January, 12.00-15.00, South Cloisters.
• International student library seminar – 45 minute presentations with Q&A for international students so they know what to expect from our libraries. We need one presenter and one support person to usher attendees and help facilitate Q&A on Friday 5 January 12.15-13.00 and Monday 8 January 13.15-14.00.

To get involved, with consent from your line manager, please indicate the activities you would like to support on this form and we’ll come back to you to finalise your contribution.

Many thanks.

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

Student Centre Closed for Lift Repairs

On Saturday 9^th September 2023, the Student Centre will be Closed from 7.00am and reopening on Sunday 10^th 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

With only a few weeks to go before new students start arriving on campus, there is still time to get involved in the exciting activities we have planned to welcome students to our libraries. Thank you to everyone who has signed up for the Induction Taskforce so far. There are lots of activities to get involved in, and you can contribute as much time as you like:

• Support Services Fair: welcome students at the library stand in the cloisters (hour-long shifts), every day Monday 25 – Wed 27 Sep, 10.30-15.00.
• Introduction to Explore: get involved in leading or supporting these short demonstration sessions on how to use Explore. A great opportunity to get involved in library skills teaching. Every day Monday 25 – Friday 29 Sep, 12.00 and 12.30.
• International Student Library Seminars: help present or facilitate questions in these sessions to help international students navigate our libraries and resources. Every day Wed 20 – Fri 22 Sep, 12.15-12.45.
• Getting Started spaces: meet and greet students in the Main or Science libraries, (hour-long shifts) throughout the induction period, 10.00 – 16.00

You can now claim your slot(s) for any of these activities:

• Claim a slot for the activity / activities you would like to help with.

If you haven’t yet signed up, but would like to help, with consent from your line manager and prioritising support for induction activities at your own library site as required, please:

• Sign up for the Induction Taskforce 2023 – it’s important to complete this form so we can include you in communications to the taskforce.

Please share induction activities you are doing locally at your library site, or in support of particular academic departments, and any induction materials you have put together for particular cohorts, to help colleagues with inspiration, ensuring best practice and saving duplication of effort. See the ‘Induction sharing’ tab in the Library Skills Team site.

Key dates for UCL student induction:

Wednesday 30 August: First day of term for Initial Teacher Education Programme (IOE)

Monday 18 – Friday 22 September: International students welcome week

Monday 25 – Friday 29 September: Induction week

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 2^nd 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 2^nd September 2023, and reopening, as usual, on Sunday 3^rd 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.

In this edition of Induction insights 2023:

• Sign up to be part of the Library Induction Taskforce.
• Helping students understand what to expect from their library when they start university.
• Sharing induction materials.

1. Sign up to be part of the Library Induction Taskforce

The Library Induction Working Group invite all library staff to get involved with meeting, greeting and supporting our new students by contributing to our face to face, central library induction activities as part of the Library Induction Taskforce. This is an opportunity to meet and work with other colleagues from across Library Services, to broaden your experience of providing support to students and develop or enhance your professional skills. Contribute as much or as little as you are able over the induction period, mainly in the week commencing 25^th September 2023.

Activities include staffing a stand at the Support Services Fair or a ‘Getting Started’ space in Main and Science libraries or contributing to demonstrations of Explore or welcome talks to international students.

If you would like to get involved, with consent from your line manager and prioritising support for induction activities at your own library site as required, please sign up.

• Library Induction Taskforce Signup 2023

If you routinely contribute to central induction activities every year, please ensure you still complete the form so we have a complete record of everyone who will be involved to help facilitate communications.

2. Helping students understand what to expect from their library when they start university.

For students starting at university for the first time, getting to grips with navigating UCL’s many libraries, collections and extensive online library resources can be overwhelming and daunting. We have produced a short guide with tips to help smooth this transition. Initially presented as a Sway, we plan ultimately to turn this into a video, and have deliberately framed it so it is relevant to anyone about to start at university, not only at UCL, so it can be useful to people before they have a confirmed university place. It is available on the Pre-arrival page of the Library Skills pages. Please share in any communications where it might be relevant.

• Transition to university: What to expect from your library.

3. Sharing induction materials

At the recent Induction Exchange (part of the LCCOS Staff Summer School (Get an enrolment key for the Moodle course)) we discussed the benefits of sharing induction materials put together for academic programmes or library sites. These might include videos, Sway presentations, quizzes, etc. Sharing can inspire, ensure best practice and save duplication of effort. Please share your local induction materials in the new ‘Induction sharing’ tab in the Library Skills Team site. Materials shared by colleagues at the ‘Induction exchange’ and previous staff training events are already listed.

• Induction sharing

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 23^rd 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.

The library Induction Working Group is excited to be planning welcome for new students to our libraries for the 2023-24 academic session, and in this series of ‘Induction insights 2023’ blogposts, we’ll be keeping you posted on what will be happening, how we can support you locally and how you can get involved in activities.

What will be happening?

• Library induction stand at the Support Services Fair in the cloisters during induction week, Monday 25 – Thursday 28 September, and at the new Marshgate site at UCL East on Friday 29 September.
• Face to face drop-in sessions for people to learn about Explore and accessing library resources throughout induction week.
• Face to face activities during the week commencing 18 September to welcome international students to our libraries.
• Online support materials, including our online library induction and self-guided library tours.

How we can support you locally?

Local, tailored inductions for students in individual faculties, departments or academic programmes, or at individual library sites, are vital to complement centralised activities and instil a sense of belonging. We have compiled recommendations on how you might deliver local inductions and what content to include, but you also might want to consider:

• Joining the ‘Induction exchange’, an online event for LCCOS colleagues to share ideas and best practice around induction activities being delivered as part of the LCCOS Staff Summer School on Tuesday 4 July, 10.00-12.30 via MS Teams.
• Creating an online self-guided library tour, if your library site does not already have one. We can provide guidance and support on the best format for your library to be ready for the start of session, from a quick guide to a video or interactive tour.
• Offering activities at your library site to mirror those being delivered centrally, such as activities for international students or sessions to help students navigate Explore and online library resources.

Get in touch if you’d like to find out more.

How can you get involved?

To staff our exciting induction events, we’ll be seeking members for our Induction Taskforce. This is a great opportunity for anyone across LCCOS to get involved in meeting and greeting new students, and to develop your experience and skills. More information to follow in future ‘Induction insights 2023’.

Watch this space for more exciting updates on library induction.