It has been 2 years since we moved our Library subject guides over to the LibGuides platform and the Subject Guides Group thought this would be a good time introduce them to wider LCCOS colleagues and any Library staff who have joined us recently, while also providing a refresher for anyone who needs it. If you haven’t already, we encourage you to take a look at our guides.

What are subject guides?

Subject guides are a starting point for finding key library resources on a particular subject or discipline. Individual guides are developed and maintained by Subject Liaison Librarians and Site Library teams. Additionally, there is a  Subject Guides Group, that provides oversight and support to guide authors, as well as looking at future enhancements to guides as a whole.

What is in a subject guide?

In addition to key databases, you can find information about ebooks, locations of physical book collections, journals/ejournals, databases, audio-visual resources, special collections, and other libraries outside UCL that hold relevant resources. Subject guides don’t just list resources though. They include guidance on literature searching, and referencing, and refer students to our LibrarySkills@UCL web pages where appropriate for further support.

When might I use a subject guide?

1. If you receive enquiries about finding library resources on a specific subject (e.g. via LibChat, or LibAnswers), subject guides can help you to identify who to refer enquiries to, while also providing the enquirer with a starting point for independent research.
2. If you are doing independent research yourself, for academic study, or related to your role, our guides could be helpful to you.

We welcome your comments and suggestions. Contact the guide owner if your feedback is about a specific guide, or Lindsay Ure if you want to share your thoughts about our guides overall.

After a short pause the clock is ticking again and One Pool Street will be open and operational from Monday 14 November.

This includes the library space and services managed by Igho Wekpe. At the point of opening we will launch UCL East as a Click & Collect pick-up and return location to support our students living and studying at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The Library’s LibAnswers queue is already live and active, and the site web page has been updated with opening hours information now visible.

Next week, 7-11 November, will see lots of activity behind the scenes as LCCOS colleagues set up the library, participate in essential H&S inductions and familiarise themselves with their new work and teaching spaces, while students will be moving into the accommodation towers.

Until the Marshgate building opens in 2023, facilities at the new campus will be based at One Pool Street, the location marked with a dot nearest to the London Aquatics Centre on the map showing the UCL East campus and UCL at Here East nearby.

Accommodation for staff includes an 18-desk agile space available on a first-come first-served basis, equipped with 34” screens, docking ports for laptops, keyboards and mice. There is also a café on site and additional support provided at the campus includes a dedicated wellbeing lead. Staff visiting the campus for work purposes can make a claim for expenses incurred on top of their normal costs of travel to work by following the UCL expenses policy.

As we are approaching the final couple of weeks before we open the doors and meet new students, this is my opportunity to explain a little about the work which has been done in preparation relating to library support and induction at UCL East.

Over the past few months, we have been busy preparing resources to support students, with the exciting new postgraduate programmes that will be launching.  UCL East will initially have a ‘Click and Collect’ Service, for the first year with no physical library until 2023, when the Marshgate building opens, which Igho discussed in his blog post a few weeks ago.  This has led us to think creativity about resource provision for students.

I have been working closely with Course Programme Leads, Acquisitions, e-Resources and TLS to ensure we have as many online materials as possible to support items on reading lists – if these are eBooks, journals, databases, or digitised resources, as well as establishing links with Special Collections about the support they can provide.  Working with TLS, we have run information sessions to support new colleagues at UCL East to curate their reading lists, and to understand some of the features of Reading Lists@UCL.

The Library will be having a presence at the induction fair at UCL East on 30th September to meet and greet new students and advise them about the services available to them, so please do come along and say hello if you’re on campus.  Induction sessions have been planned for the first few weeks as well as the start of integrated library skills support, woven into programmes to support students throughout their studies.  We have spent time, as part of the Induction Working Group to ensure webpages have been updated, to incorporate UCL East to help students feel they are fully part of the UCL community.  With so many of the programmes being uniquely multi-disciplinary, this has involved collaboration with other Subject Liaison Librarians and Site Librarians to draw upon their expertise and specialist knowledge.

Craig Martin
Subject Liaison Librarian, UCL East

We have recently been working alongside Sodexo to improve the flooring surfaces around our spaces and we are pleased to inform you that we will now be focusing on the Student Centre.

This coming weekend, Saturday the 3rd and Sunday the 4th September, we will be carrying out a deep clean to all of the carpets in the public spaces within the building, to help us ensure all spaces are meeting the best environment possible for our staff and students, and enhance the student experience, ready for the new academic year commencement on the 26th September 2022.

In order for us to carry these works out, safely and to ensure the space is cleaned thoroughly, we will be closing off floors, one floor at a time, throughout the weekend, as programmed below:

4th, 3rd & 2nd  floors will be cleaned on Saturday 3^rd September, between 05:00-15:00

1st, B1 & B2 floors will be cleaned on Sunday 4th September, between 05:00-16:00

If you require any further information please contact the F&P team and we will be more than happy to assist you.

Our team information can be found at the following link Facilities & Project Team

A post with many pictures this week. Work to finish One Pool Street is frantically underway and we currently have most things crossed that our Library space will be open on time.

One Pool Street will be mainly student accommodation providing a home for 500+ students, but it will also include research labs and studios, a lecture theatre that doubles as a cinema and bike parking for 300+ bikes! Our main focus, though, is the Library space on the first floor of the building. For the first year (2022/23), this will form the hub of our services to staff and students based at UCL East. We’ve already had an update on what services will be available in the UCL East Library space. Last week we also got some new photos of the site: it looks like there is still a lot to do, but the level 1 lecture theatre/cinema is certainly taking shape.

Once we have access to One Pool Street we will be able to start work making sure that the space, which will include 35 study spaces. A further 42 study spaces will be available in the Social Commons on Levels 1 & 2. In addition there will be space for the 3 library staff that will be running the site. Staff working space within One Pool Street will be limited in the first year.

Over the next few weeks we will be posting updates about our steps to prepare for the opening of our service at One Pool Street on the new UCL East Campus. Today we’re taking a look at Special Collections’ presence and projects they’ve been working on.

Photograph of UCL East under construction, Spring 2022. Pool Street is visible on the left of the river with Marshgate on the right.

Content

Initially Special Collections will have two full-time members of staff based at UCL East: myself (Academic Liaison Librarian / Archivist) and Anna Fineman (Outreach Programme Manager). I am leading all academic teaching and related projects at East; Anna is expanding and developing our brilliant Outreach programme, working with communities in the four neighbouring boroughs to campus (Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest). We’re currently recruiting for an additional Conservator and a Teaching and Collections Assistant who will also be based at Stratford.

Special Collections is heavily involved in the new Public History MA which begins at Pool Street this autumn; we’re leading sessions, developing group projects for students to work on and supporting all areas of delivery of this course. It’s a really exciting degree, exploring history in non-academic contexts and we’re ready to learn as much from the students and activities as we can.

Collections

A big part of our presence at UCL East will be engaging with our collections in lots of innovative ways, and getting to know the material we hold is crucial. We’re currently identifying items that will likely be used in teaching and outreach and working with our brilliant conservation and digitisation teams to get everything as ready as we can. We’re also meeting staff working in the new spaces at Pool Street (the Urban Room and Memory Workshop) and Marshgate (Culture Lab) to figure out logistics and opening projects.

Collaboration

UCL East is a big melting pot of academic ideas and departments – especially for Special Collections who will be based in spaces led by the new School for Creative and Cultural Industries (SCCI). I am spending a lot of time meeting academics to talk about how Special Collections can support the many new courses starting at East over the next few years – it’s really exciting starting from the ground up, even if it does involve a big spreadsheet to track it all! Anna is also collaborating with our East Bank partners, building on the incredible work the Outreach team has already been doing at East for a while.

If there’s anything you’d like to know about or would like to collaborate with Special Collections with, please do get in touch! We’re always happy to hear from you.

Photograph of One Pool Street under construction

SCIENCE LIBRARY CLOSURE: DMS WATSON BUILDING Main drain descale cleaning Saturday 23^rd and Sunday 24^th July 2022

Our team information can be found at the following link Facilities & Project Team

We have received confirmation the UC Estates and the contractor with regards to essential work taking place.

This weekend will see the annual main drain, descaling and cleaning taking place in the Science Library from 0830hrs, Saturday 23^rd July 2022 and Sunday, 24^th July 2022 for the whole weekend. The works will be carried out by Kent Drainage Ltd, under instruction from Estates.

This will mean that all the toilets in the building will have to be shut down, so it has been decided to close the Science Library for the duration of the works, and reopen at 0845hrs, Monday, 25^th July 2022.

These are essential works and help us strive to maintain the health & safety of all our students and staff.

If you have any questions in regards to this project please contact the F&P team and we will be more than happy to assist you.

We are delighted to announce the replacement of 384 old, defunct, tired chairs, for new, modern, comfortable, cantilever chairs in the Main Library, across most areas of the first and second floors, this does not include the Donaldson, Jewish or Dutch reading rooms.

This will enhance the look of the library, while creating a modern environment with maximum comfort, which embraces the student experience.

The chairs will be the same model that we have recently installed in the Dutch reading room and lobby, and in the SSEES Library, which have been very popular, with both students and staff.

The install will take place over two days, on Monday the 25th July, starting on the second floor and then Thursday the 28th July, installing the first floor.

In order for the install to take place, safely, we will be closing the library on both days, and reopening at 14.00, opening hours will be as follows:

Sunday 24th July: 11.00-21.00

Monday 25th July: 14.00-00.00

Wednesday 27th July: 08.45-00.00

Thursday 28th July: 14.00-00.00

If you have any questions in regards to this project please contact the F&P team and we will be more than happy to assist you.

During a St. Valentine’s Day campaign this year, colleagues reached out to our customers to ask them what they love, or don’t love, about our libraries. They were encouraged to submit comments with attractive displays and the chance to win a £10 voucher.

194 feedback slips were submitted across 9 of our libraries, and although this wasn’t a large enough sample to be representative of all customers, it does highlight some areas where we are doing well, and other areas where there are opportunities for improvement.

The majority of comments were positive, with 61% stating that they love our libraries, 21% wanting to break up with our libraries, and 18% having mixed feelings!

The most prominent message, 29% of all comments, was an appreciation for the work of staff, emphasising how important these interactions are to the experience of using our services and facilities. Comments included the following:

• Love the library staff. They go out of their way to help. <3 Thank you
• All the lovely staff members! The library has given me a friend and really helped me so much this year! Thank you!
• I like the kind staff who smile at me in the mornings.

The most common topics by number of comments were:

A summary report for the St. Valentines feedback campaign  is available. This report was revised on 01/07/2022.

Thank you again to everybody who took part in this campaign! We will be planning new feedback campaigns for 2022/23.

The LaSS Library Feedback Display

Volume of feedback by “Love”/”Break up” or “Both”: 119 Love, 40 Break up, 35 Both.

Post written by Jonathan Fowles. (Post updated on 04/07/22)

Science Library Signage and Wayfinding

Our team information can be found at the following link Facilities & Projects Team

We have just received confirmation from the contractor with regards to work taking place next week.

Tuesday 21^st June 2022 from 8.00am contractors will be attending the Science Library to replace some damaged map signage and make good any repairs that are required, this will not cause any disruption to staff or students but there will be a presence in the corridor areas with ladders.

If you have any issues or queries regarding this please contact the Library Facilities & Projects Team at lib-facilities@ucl.ac.uk