The Office Move plan has now been approved by the SMT following changes in response to feedback from two rounds of staff consultation. The aim is to put teams together where possible, provide suitable space for all staff and even out the occupancy of rooms. We are also taking this opportunity to create an extra meeting room in Science, two new meeting rooms in Main and an extra student study room in Senate House Hub.  The final relocation plan is below, this only impacts Main, Science and Senate House Hub. If your room is highlighted in grey then you will not be moving:

Team managers will be contacted about room design and an A3 floor plans of the room their team are moving into provided. The Buildings Team will assist with room layouts for each team. Below is the schedule for the Office Moves that runs from now until March 2017:

Please send all queries and feedback to lib-buildings@ucl.ac.uk

Since the re-structure on the 1st April this year the Library Buildings Team have had a working pattern focused on liaising with Estates and contractors. This has meant the team starting early in the morning, at 07:30, to ensure that projects are kept on track and delivery and installation runs smoothly. This is a fairly standard practice within the Construction Industry.

However, this has caused problems with the Buildings Team being unavailable to meet and interact with other Library Staff as they would usually leave at 15:30. This has made organising meetings difficult with limited time in the afternoon to meet before the Buildings Team home time.

From Monday 12th September the Library Buildings Team will be operating to a new schedule with more availability in the afternoons. The new team availability will be 07:15 – 17:15 Monday to Friday. Please continue to contact lib-buildings@ucl.ac.uk as this will be monitored by the Team during the above times, but individual staff may not be available.

The Buildings Team can be available outside of the above times with prior arrangement.

Following the circulation of the initial plan for Post-restructuring staff office moves we have received good feedback from staff and have been reviewing all comments and suggestions. We have highlighted three teams of staff who will have significant changes from the published plan. We have considered changes to be significant if the team was not moving in the original plan or if the team will move to a different building. We will be contacting the managers of the three teams on Monday 5th September to inform them of the proposed changes and these three teams will then have three weeks (ending on the 23rd September) to provide feedback.

We will review the new feedback and then publish a final Staff Office Move Plan. The plan will then be implemented between the end of September and December 2016. A proposed schedule will be circulated to managers at the start of October.

Apologies for the delay in this process. We wanted to ensure the plans would work, rather than rush to undertake staff moves and then find we had to move teams twice. Please bear with us, this is a very complicated move plan with 30 offices and more than 100 staff moving.

Dear Colleagues,

We still have some spaces on the “Bite Size” events arranged by the UCL Library Services Staff Training Committee, so please do take a look at the training opportunities below:

1. CPD Roadshow
Date: Tuesday 12th January 2016
Time: 3pm to 4pm
Facilitator: Michelle Wake (Chair UCL Library Services Training Committee and Chair of cpd25)

Description: Come along for an overview of the training opportunities within UCL and externally for all UCL Library staff, there’s sure to be opportunities to suit everyone.
Audience: All (especially for those unable to attend the session at the 2015 UCL Library Services Staff Conference)

Location: Science Library, Room 417
Maximum Number of Attendees: 30

2. Introduction to Copyright
Date: Monday 18th January 2016
Time: 10.30am to 11.30am
Facilitator: Chris Holland (UCL Library Services Copyright Support Officer)

Description: Everything you wanted to know about copyright but were afraid to ask. Chris Holland will take you through the basics of copyright with some interesting examples and the opportunity to ask questions.
Audience: All

Location: Science Library, Room 417
Maximum Number of Attendees: 30

3. UCL Press
Date: Thursday 21st January 2016
Time: 1pm to 2pm
Facilitator: Lara Speicher (Publishing Manager, UCL Press)

Description: UCL Press is the first fully Open Access University Press in the UK. Re-launched in 2015, UCL Press publishes scholarly monographs, edited collections, scholarly editions, textbooks and journals, all in Open Access form, freely available to download from the UCL Press website, UCL Discovery and other open access platforms. UCL Press welcomes new proposals from UCL academics in all subject areas, and is actively seeking new proposals. Lara will talk about the establishment of UCL Press, how the Press runs, its future developments and will highlight the benefits to UCL academic staff for choosing to publish with UCL Press.
Audience: All Library staff and UCL School of Pharmacy academics.

Location: UCL School of Pharmacy, Room M1
Maximum Number of Attendees: 30

4. UCL Arena Open
Date: Tuesday 26th January 2016
Time: 3pm to 4pm (with the option of attending to 4.30pm for those who have additional questions)
Facilitator: Dr Rosalind Duhs (Principal Teaching Fellow and Associate Director CALT and Director of UCL Arena)

Description: In a session specifically designed for UCL Library staff Rosalind will provide an introduction to this continuing professional development scheme, which is for those who teach, train or support students’ learning (https://www.ucl.ac.uk/teaching-learning/arena/open). Accredited by the Higher Education Academy Arena Open gives you a chance to gain both a UCL Arena Fellowship and the corresponding HEA Fellowship, which is a nationally recognised award.
Audience: Staff who teach, train or support learning (e.g. facilitate learning about finding library resources, encouraging students, offering support).

Location: Science Library, Room 417
Maximum Number of Attendees: 30

5. Why Health and Safety should not be difficult
Date: Thursday 11th February 2016
Time: 9.30am to 10.30am
Facilitator: Jay Woodhouse (UCL Library Services Departmental Safety Officer and Security Manager)

Description: This session will review the basic concepts of risk assessment, what are risks and hazards and how do they relate to your day to day work. How to use a common sense approach to health and safety in the workplace, gearing it to the level of danger in your workplace and the work you do. Why are we writing war and peace to cover our health and safety and is there an easier way for use to do this. Review the HSE attitude towards the implementation of Health and Safety in England and their Myth Busters programme.
Audience: All

Location: Science Library, Room 417
Maximum Number of Attendees: 30

Please book by completing the Training Request Form at https://www.ucl.ac.uk/libnet/training.

More events to follow throughout the year!

Best wishes,

Michelle

As you may be aware, UCL’s fifth staff engagement survey will be launched next week. From Monday 9 to Friday 27 November, you will be able to provide feedback on what matters to you as a UCL employee.

What will happen?
On Monday 9 November, you will receive a personal email from ORC International via this address (if employed as of 1 October) : UCLEmployeeSurvey2015@orcinternational.co.uk.
OCL International is an independent survey provider and are managing the survey process. The email will include an embedded link to complete the survey. It will take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete and you are given time to complete it whilst at work.

What if I don’t receive the email?
If you do not receive your survey email on Monday, please check your spam folder. If you inadvertently delete the email, you can contact the ORC helpline UCLEmployeeSurvey2015@orcinternational.com (this will be live during the survey period) for a further link to be sent. As each link is unique to you so please do not forward your link to others to access the survey. You will also be sent weekly reminders to complete the survey by 27 November.

Is my feedback confidential?
The survey is managed by our partners ORC International and is entirely anonymous. No one from UCL will be able to access any raw data from respondents. Visit the survey FAQs for more information on confidentiality.

What is the purpose of the survey?
UCL need your input to measure staff engagement with UCL strategy and vision; measure leadership and management and benchmark against the previous 2013 survey. It’s your opportunity to share your views that will develop into new projects and initiatives making UCL a great place to work. It is important that as many staff members complete the survey to ensure a representative picture is given.

When you complete the survey…
It feeds into league tables along with the incentive of £5 per completed survey to the student hardship fund. There is also a chance for you to enter a prize draw to win a tablet or reader of your choice up to the value of £500.

When will I hear the outcomes of the survey?
The target to distribute survey local results to staff is by 28 February 2016. Please visit the latest timetable.

Need more information? Have a look at the staff survey website.

Your participation in the staff engagement survey is greatly encouraged and appreciated.

Further to the blog post of 20/02 about the changes to the Parental Leave policy and updated Library Services overtime guidance, I wish to clarify the implementation date. 

Any overtime that is worked up to 31 May 2015 will be processed by the Personnel Team according to current arrangements. 

 Any overtime that is worked from 1 June 2015 will be processed according to the overtime guidance which is available at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/libnet/personnel/enhanced-overtime-rates. This new guidance re-states UCL HR’s official position.

Nova is working with me to look at how we support staff who are managing/delivering services at evenings and weekends. The outcome of this piece of work will go to Library SMT (via SMT Working Group), with a view to address these issues.

As colleagues will know, the Institute of Education merged with UCL on 2 December to form the UCL Institute of Education.

2015 will see a great deal of activity as colleagues across UCL Library Services seek to align the two service offerings. The accompanying WORD document details 8 Working Groups which have been established to look in detail at all aspects of library service provision. These are in the following areas:

• User/Reader Group
• Technical/IT Services Group
• Academic Support Group
• Archives, Special Collections and Records Group
• Bibliographic Services Group
• Strategy and Planning Group
• Space Management/Health and Safety Group
• Research Support Group

These Groups will meet between January and June 2015 and consider the questions listed in the Work Required column. It is up to each Group to arrange their meetings and to agree 2 co-chairs and a secretary to oversee and record the discussions. Each Group will need to send me a 1-page report each month so that we can report on progress to the UCL-IOE Merger Operations Group.

The output from the Working Groups will be a consolidated Report, outlining Next Steps, which I will compile based on the findings and recommendations of each of the Working Groups.

With best regards.

Paul
UCL

This term’s public newsletter is now available.

Articles in this issue include news about exciting developments in our estate and services and lots of exposure for treasures in our Special Collections.

Read and savour.

The membership of the Library’s SMT (Senior Management Team) has been refreshed to mirror the strategic priorities which the Library faces. SMT is a primary policy making group in the Library. Its actions and decisions set the framework within which initiatives and projects are progressed throughout the whole of the UCL family of libraries. SMT also has the remit to oversee and monitor the Library’s successful performance against targets, set either by UCL or by external regulatory and other bodies. The Leadership Team is a companion committee, which oversees the development and implementation of the Library Strategy.

Purpose of SMT meetings

• To discuss and agree changes to Library Services policy positions and to discuss and plan the introduction of new policies.
• To discuss and agree the position of Library Services on and response to institutional initiatives. In such instances, the aim of any SMT discussion is to ensure equity, consistency and coherence library-wide.
• To discuss the impact and the implications for Library Services of new ideas and initiatives, emanating from a decision or development at UCL’s senior management level, or within the regional/national/international HE/NHS environment, and where appropriate to plan the actions to be taken.
• To discuss, agree and plan the implementation of policy directives received from the Professional Services Leadership Team.
• To discuss and agree priorities within Library Services and ensure that resources are allocated appropriately to reflect these priorities.
• To decide major resource allocation issues and to review income/expenditure against financial targets as needed.
• To provide a forum for progressing bids for external funding.
• To provide a forum for information exchange between SMT members about major new developments and ideas, so that the linkages between different areas of work are made and so that the efforts of staff are most usefully directed.

Senior Management Team membership

• Paul Ayris, Director of Library Services (chair) and Leader of the KPA on Communications, Outreach and Open Access
• Kate Cheney, Leader of the KPA on Staffing, Equality and Diversity
• Christine Dami (Financial Services), with special responsibility for Financial Services
• June Hedges, Leader of the KPA on the User Experience
• Nova Larch (Public Services), with special responsibility for Public Services
• Andrew McDonald, Associate Director, with special responsibility of outreach and public engagement
• Ben Meunier, Assistant Director (Public Services) and Leader of the KPA on Sustainable Estate
• Martin Moyle, Assistant Director (Support Services) and Leader of the KPA on Systems and Processes
• Margaret Stone, ISD Business Service Owner for Library IT (Support Services)
• Andy Pow, Group Manager (Financial Services) and Leader of the KPA on Finance, Management Information and Value for Money

The new SMT met for the first time on Monday, 8 December 2014.

Dr Paul Ayris

Director of UCL Library Services & UCL Copyright Officer

Chief Executive, UCL Press

Chair of the LERU Chief Information Officers Community (League of European Research Universities)

Adviser to the LIBER Board (Association of European Research Libraries) on EU matters and Horizon 2020

Colleagues

As you may know, I have been undertaking a review of the roles on the Library’s SMT to prepare us to implement the new Library Strategy (to be approved by Library Committee before Christmas), the Professional Services Strategy and UCL 2034.

Last week we held interviews for two new roles on the SMT, following external advertisement of these roles. The posts comprise 2 Assistant Directorships – for Public Services and Support Services. The full remit of each role is outlined at the end of this email. I am happy to inform you that we have appointed Ben Meunier to the role of Assistant Director (Public Services) and Martin Moyle as Assistant Director (Support Services). Both Ben and Martin will begin their new roles on 1 December 2014.

The detailed remit of each role is as follows.

Public Services

• Issue Desks at the UCL Main and Science Libraries
• Enquiry Services delivered from the Main and Science Library
• Membership and Disability Support
• Photocopying & Shelving
• Interlending & Document Supply plus the Library’s Stores delivery service
• Communication activities across UCL Library Services
• Space and Estate management
• Health and Safety
• HR functions

Support Services

• Digital libraries, digital curation, and web and desktop support
• Academic Support Group
• Teaching and Learning Support Section
• Bibliographic Services
• Open Access Teams and services
• Storage Services, particularly the Wickford Store
• UCL Special Collections
• UCL Records Office

I look forward to working with all colleagues in UCL Library Services to deliver on the institutional priorities which UCL has set in its new range of strategies.

With best regards

Paul