Visit to the new Oxford Brookes University Library

Our last visit of 2015 was to the new Oxford Brookes University Library - many thanks to Emily Green for writing the following summary of the visit. Thanks too to the staff at Brookes for being so accommodating! 

On a rainy afternoon in November, librarians from the Thames Valley and beyond, made their way through the vast John Henry Brookes Building to the new Oxford Brookes University Library. Upon arrival, we were greeted with generous servings of coffee and cake, and a warm welcome from Helen Workman, Director of Learning Resources at Brookes.

Helen began by admitting that her and her staff were still very proud to show off their new library which opened in February 2014. After telling us a little about the history of the University, she outlined some of the key issues involved in planning and designing the new library and the building in which it sits.

With planning permission sought in 2007, the award-winning building took seven years to complete. Alongside the library, it now houses student services including the Students’ Union, the Careers Service, and numerous teaching and social spaces.

The library itself is designed around several key requirements identified by staff and students. Thus it is IT compliant, easy to navigate, welcoming and secure, and incorporates a range of study and social spaces, as well as staffed and non-staffed services.

Having polished off our coffee and cake, we now had the chance to see all of this first hand. Our thanks go to Helen Whittaker (Academic Liaison Development Team Leader), Vicki Gledhill (Metadata Librarian), and Dave Nolan (Planning and Communications Team Leader) for being our tour guides for the afternoon.

The first stop on my tour was the new Special Collections Reading Room. After showing us around, Archivist Eleanor Possart explained a little about Brookes’ main collections, and showed us some of their particular treasures. I particularly enjoyed learning more about the history of the university and about the publishing and literary prizes collection. I was also struck by the warm welcome we received and was pleased to hear that everyone is welcome to use the collections, whether or not they are academics or members of the University.

Our tour then proceeded to the rest of the library. With many questions along the way, we wound our way through staff offices, book stacks, and study spaces; marvelling at the size of the building, and pausing to consider interesting features. Everywhere we went, there was an obvious focus on the design of different spaces for different purposes and I really liked this aspect of the library. Whilst individual areas feel self-contained and have clearly been designed with specific purposes in mind, the library as a whole feels open, flexible, and engaging, and its students and staff seem to be thoroughly enjoying it. Helen and her team are rightly proud of this library and I hope to revisit as a reader in the future.

Emily Green – Assistant Librarian, University College, Oxford.

Visit to Oxford College Libraries, 20th July 2015

On 20th July, CILIP TV ran a visit with CILIP Library and Information History Group (@CILIP_LIHG) to see a choice of Oxford College libraries. Alefiyah Oakford has kindly written an excellent summary of the afternoon with fab photos by Tasneem Hassanali:

Our tour of the Oxford Libraries took place on a warm, sunny Monday afternoon. There was a good turnout which included many budding photographers!

We had a choice of attending Queen’s College Library or Merton College Library for the first part of the tour.  I decided to choose Queen’s College Library as I thought it would be interesting to see and find out more about the recent refurbishments.

Queen’s College Library

Queen’s College Library is often described as ‘one of the most beautiful Baroque buildings in Oxford’* and we certainly were not disappointed on our tour of the Upper Library which was built between 1692-1695.  The refurbishment project took place between 2013-2014, not only was this essential to preserve the historic aspects of the building and its contents but also to improve conditions for the library’s users.

The ceiling plasterwork in the library was amazing.  We learnt how during its refurbishment a birdcage scaffold was erected so it could be intricately cleaned.  UV filtering blinds were installed to protect from light damage and, to modernise the library, new wiring, lighting, heating and ventilation was installed. 

We also had the opportunity to view the impressive statute of Queen Philippa (the College founderess) and the globe set, which was refurbished in 2002, with globe cases created in 2007 to help conserve the globes, as well as the beautiful English Orrery which reproduces the movements of the planets. 

                                         Queen's College Library, photo courtesy of Tasneem Hassanali

Magdalen College Library

The next part of the tour took us to the Old Library at Magdalen College which was built with the College in the 1470s.  The tour covered the history of the library and gifts bequeathed to the library.  We were guided around various exhibitions that aimed to examine the libraries of a range of people and what their bequeathed books tell us about them and about society at that time.   

The impressive exhibitions included that of William Waynflete (founder of Magdalen College), Thomas à Becket, John Fitzwilliam, Thomas Wolsey and Olga and Jack Levinson – to name but a few!        

Perhaps one of the most exciting items we were shown were fragments of possibly the earliest known New Testament (possibly the oldest book!) which had been found in Egypt and sent back to the library.

We also had the chance to visit the atmospheric Magdalen College Chapel and viewed  a copy of ‘The Last Supper’ painting which is believed to be painted by Giovan Pietro Rizzoli known as Giampietrino, a pupil of Leonardo da Vinci.

Magdalen College Library, photo courtesy of Tasneem Hassanali

 

St. Hilda’s College Library

The last leg of our tour took us to the Kathleen Major Library at St. Hilda’s College.  This light and airy library was built in 1935 so provided a sharp contrast to the two previous libraries we had visited.  During the tour we learnt about the history of the library and its collection.  The library felt very welcoming and overlooks the River Cherwell.  The library is spread over three floors with several reading rooms and we had the opportunity to wander through the library building and examine its collection.       

A timeline was on display which showed ‘The History of St. Hilda’s College Library’ from 1893-2004.  It was extremely informative and useful in showing how much things have now changed.  

                                                St Hilda's College Library, photo courtesy of Tasneem Hassanali

I thoroughly enjoyed the Oxford College Libraries tour, especially seeing three very different libraries and the changes that have taken place over the history of these libraries.  What made the event so memorable and interesting were the knowledgeable insights provided by the guides and librarians who were able to tell us lots of interesting facts and stories about these wonderful libraries.  A huge thank you to them and also to Sonja from CILIP TV and Erika from CILIP LIHG for organising this great event!

Alefiyah Oakford BSc (Hons), MA, MCILIP

* http://www.queens.ox.ac.uk/library/refurbishment/

 

Bodleian K B Chen China Centre Library Visit

Helen Matthews very kindly wrote up the recent CILIPTV visit to the the Bodleian K B Chen China Centre Library, which appears below- bonus points for being so prompt, especially at this time of year, Helen!:

On 17^th December a group of librarians and information specialists visited the Bodleian K B Chen China Centre Library, located in the grounds of St Hugh’s College (one of the colleges of the University of Oxford). The library is inside the Dickson Poon University of Oxford China Centre Building having moved from the Institute for Chinese Studies. The £21m building was funded by a number of benefactors, most notably the Hong Kong philanthropist, Mr Dickson Poon CBE (from whom the building derives its name), who donated £10m. The library is named after the late Mr K B Chen, recognising the gift from his son, Mr Henry Chen, to the college.

Joshua Seufert, the Chinese Studies Librarian, provided the tour of the library and China Centre Building. The Centre is built on what used to be tennis courts. The library is in the basement of the building but has plenty of natural light pouring in as it looks across a garden area that has been lowered from ground floor level, which the building wraps around. The building caters for those with disabilities with wide doorways for easy access and a lift, which the spiral staircase wraps around. Within the building you find images of the Chinese coin and the fleur de lys, the latter of which forms part of the College’s crest. Doors with the Chinese coin on lead to the China Centre areas whilst the doors with fleur de lys on lead you towards college areas.

The building brings together various people and departments of the University involved with Chinese studies into one place, rather than having them scattered around the city. We went into one of the lecture theatres which seats 100 people but can be split in half for two lectures to take place at the same time with fewer people. Some of the Bodleian Library’s Chinese special collections have been reproduced to display on the walls of the Centre, including the Selden map of China, bringing the library out to the rest of the building.

The library is one of the Bodleian Libraries, which offers benefits like being part of the Printing, Copying and Scanning (PCAS) service and offering the opportunity to order material from the Book Storage Facility in Swindon to the library. In fact, the library has seen an increase in library users including members of St Hugh’s College and St Antony’s College who are ordering material from the Book Storage Facility to the library because of its convenient location to them. There is a room dedicated to this material where library users can collect the material they ordered and read it in the library.

The library has 6 carrels, which can be used by readers for more quiet and private study. With these carrels they can book cabinets in which they can keep personal belongings. As well as space for private study there is a group study room with a projector and speakers for people to use as a meeting place.

The library has a special classification system for its material called Harvard-Yenching devised by Alfred Kaiming Chiu for the Harvard-Yenching Institute. Although the classification system has been phased out, the China Centre Library, and a few other libraries, use and update the classification system. New material, however, is being classified using the Library of Congress.

We were particularly intrigued by the library’s journal display, a case which had a panel for each journal title which was lifted to reveal past issues behind it inside a cubby hole. Before moving into the new library, 50m of journals were disposed of as well as 200m of material that had to be disposed of due to last minute ceiling height reductions, which means a loss of shelf space. Joshua explained that the new library has more space for library users to work at, which the previous library did not, which has meant a slight reduction in shelf space.

The tour was followed by a Q&A session as an opportunity for us to find out further information. The visit to the K B Chen China Centre Library was insightful with an great tour guide. It is excellent that the library has been included in the development of the brand new building and the amalgamation of various departments within the University in order to best provide for students and academics of Chinese studies.

A day in the life of a librarian: Nora Khayi, St Hugh’s College Library, University of Oxford

This month's posting in the "day in the life" series is from Nora- our fantastic Secretary for CILIP in Thames Valley, and who is also Publicity Officer, for the South East Member Network- so a very busy lady indeed! Here is her account of a typical day:

I am the Librarian at St Hugh’s College Library in Oxford: The Howard Piper Library. The College has about 700 students (undergraduates and graduates) and is situated in beautiful grounds in north Oxford. The view from my office window looks out on our renowned garden and always surprises me by its splendour.

The Howard Piper Library is one of biggest college libraries in Oxford. This is notably due to its historical heritage: founded in 1886, the College was for woman only and, as they were not allowed into the central library until the early 1920s, Women's College libraries tend to have been built up larger collections to respond to that issue. St Hugh’s has about 80,000 books held mainly on open access. We also do have a small Special Collection with such wonders as a 1st edition of Hobbe’s Leviathan. I am responsible for the management and development of the collection as well as for providing information, resources and services to members of the College. Managing the library collection includes managing risks, opportunities, challenges and value of the collection. So let me talk you through a typical day in the library…

I arrive in College between 8:30 and 9:00 and the first thing I do is to have a coffee while checking my emails. The Senior Library Assistant goes through the morning daily tasks and there are always unexpected tasks for me such as emailing our students regarding food in the library, or our security alarm. Going through my emails I respond to queries from students and Fellows, as well as dealing with emails regarding overdue books, meetings, or training. At any time, I like walking around the library – students then have the opportunity to catch me and ask questions, or just have a chat, and I have the opportunity to remind them that no cans of coke or other liquids as well as no chocolate bars are allowed in the library.

This morning I have a meeting with the management team of College. The team constitutes Head of Departments in College in a roundtable where we discuss particular topics, events of the week and share good practices. This usually could take up quite a bit of time depending on what is happening in College. There are also a lot of emails that are circulated from this team which requires time.
One of my primary tasks is acquisition of new and relevant materials for the students. We do not specialise in any subject and I work very closely with our College Fellows who in the best scenarios are very willing and proactive at providing reading lists and emailing me every time there is a new publication of a relevant book in their subject.

I also liaise with subject librarians in the different faculties to obtain new reading lists. I spend a fair amount of my time liaising with academics and librarians and ordering books. Moreover, we also have a book suggestion form that students use to recommend books from their core course reading lists. This is rather popular among our students and on a daily basis I look into their recommendations and correspond with them. If their request is successful, I’ll order the book and let them know.

Most days, I’ll have a small pile of books that the Senior Library Assistant leaves on my desk which requires cataloguing, I also have regular meetings with the team, the archivist, the bursar, and I write policies and proposals for our library committee to discuss and approve. While term is going ever so fast, I am thinking ahead and planning projects for the vacation periods – the most recent ones have been to write an in-house classification scheme for our English section to follow the curriculum and to reclassify over 7000 books over the summer. All of this is happening while we cover the enquiries of students walking into the office because they couldn't find a book, or who need a book from the stack, or can’t find an article, or just need a stapler!

At some point in the day I have lunch, probably sat next to one of our Fellows, where discussion on the library continues, and as a result, books will be bought, Fellows will come to the library to look at their section, reading lists will be sent…or in some cases a discussion goes on and nothing will happen. I have to say that I feel very lucky at St Hugh’s, Fellows really value and appreciate the Library and are ready to get involved.

While I am writing this note, I’m looking through the office door, the lobby area is full of students working away, my emails have grown since the last time I checked and I have a pile of books on my desk waiting for me…the day is not over yet

Ruth Jenkins: Switching Sector- HE to NHS

The evening saw a very interesting talk from our speaker, Ruth Jenkins- who moved from the University of Reading Library to the healthcare sector. Based at Prospect Park Hospital in a mental health library, she works in a small team, providing information and library services to NHS staff. Ruth very kindly gave permission to make these photos available, so that those reading this report can gain some context of the library she is based in.

Interior of Library

Ruth stated that the NHS healthcare librarians were all extremely supportive, and she recommended anyone in a similar career move to subscribe to relevant mailing lists, as this has been very useful to her.

Ruth spoke about how many of the staff who utilise the service are often not in the hospital, but our in the community, so much of her work is remote. The Library provides current awareness bulletins of new research, in over 70 topics including bibliotherapy, therapy for eating disorders and also electro-convulsive therapy.

Much of her work focuses on assisting with literature searches, processing Inter-Library loan requests and in staff training. One thing she has had to do is become much more aware of the importance of planning her search, as the research evidence is often a key part of diagnosis and treatment, as can be seen from the diagram below:

The role of the Library in combination with patient assessment and clinical expertise

Ruth often conducts and assists with literature searches- not a task for the squeamish! Her previous role at University of Reading Library involved liaison with the Education and History departments, which was a full time fixed term post for 3 years- after some time in the role, she saw the vacancy at Prospect Park and thought she’d give it a go. Ruth recommends that those considering switching sector ensure that they identify their transferable skills during their application, and that they do their research prior to interview. She made sure that she had a few questions to ask the interviewers too, so they could see that she had thought about her application.

Ruth found the organisational culture to be the biggest difference between the university library and the NHS. At the University she was seen more as a teacher, whereas there are very sharply defined roles in the NHS. However, at Prospect, she is more likely to be directly incorporated into groups and work closely alongside healthcare professionals. The library is smaller at Prospect, so she gets more variety in her work, and the spread is different. Ruth does more 1-2-1 sessions, whereas at the University, she was more likely to see groups. She is invited to meetings more at the NHS. Due to the fact that many staff work in the community, much of her work at Prospect is done online via the Internet. This does however, mirror the spread of online learning in the higher education sector. Another important difference was that there was less autonomy in the NHS than in the University library.

Ruth identified several similarities between the two roles that she has worked in, which sided her successful transition. These were the need for good information skills, the need to develop user search skills, being embedded into a team or department and the different levels of experience that users have with research.

Ruth’s top tips for those considering a sectoral switch:

• 1- Identify your transferable skills
• 2- Read up on the subject you wish to support, and be aware of the library/information issues
• 3- Go for it! You won’t get the role if you don’t apply!

Exterior of Prospect Park Hospital

Personally, as someone that has only ever worked in one sector, I found the session very informative and also reassuring that should I need to change sectors, that this would be potentially possible. I think we sometimes forget as a profession that we have many skills that are of huge value across sectors and even across professional boundaries. Many of those I spoke to that evening felt invigorated and inspired to consider career moves that they might previously have shied from. Food for thought.

A day in the life of a librarian: Anna Richards, University of Reading

A version of this post was first published on the LISNPN (lisnpn.co.uk) website

Following on from Vicky's 'day in the life' post here is the experience of another liaison librarian, this time at the University of Reading. Unfortunately I kept forgetting to write down exactly what I was doing on one set day so my post is more like a description of typical tasks I may do from one day to the next.

My job title is Trainee Liaison Librarian and there are three of us at Reading. These posts aim to give you a range of experiences within an academic library and to support you through Chartership, giving you a solid start within the profession. My liaison responsibilities include Classics and Philosophy and I also work with Library User Services (LUS), which handles registration and circulation of stock.

A typical day starts with an hours' stint on the Ground Floor Information Desk with my LUS hat on. My role here is to be the first port of call for any questions about using the Library, to handle any new registrations, and to help with any account queries. I often also complete my other daily LUS tasks whilst on the Information Desk which are to help with SCONUL Access and External Borrower registrations and to answer emails that come through to the general library email account.

I then may move on to ordering new items, particularly at the beginning and end of terms as we get new reading lists through. Most of the reading list checking is done by other members of staff but I decide how many new copies of an item we need and place the order with the Acquisitions department. It's been very interesting for me to learn the different ways my subjects use Library resources and research material – Classics is much more book heavy than Philosophy, for example. As well as ordering new items from reading lists I also liaise with the departments regarding new journal subscriptions and new e-resources, as well as any other orders they may have.

At the moment I am planning and preparing for some teaching sessions I have coming up and this is another big part of my liaison role. As a liaison librarian you have to prepare and present teaching sessions of varying sizes, from lectures to small group workshops. At first it can be quite daunting but there's a lot of support in the Library and I find it very rewarding to know I'm helping students in their studies. You are also expected to volunteer to help with general Library sessions, such as the Inductions for first years or Endnote training sessions. Personally I prefer smaller workshops as I feel that you are better able to teach students how to use Library resources effectively, but it's a good challenge to think of how to make lectures more engaging. I've recently completed the University's Academic Practice Programme, which is primarily aimed at new academics. This gave me a good grounding in teaching practice and made me really think about new ways of teaching students.

As well as having liaison and LUS roles I am the Shelving Supervisor for the Arts and Humanities floor and the supervisor of the students who work in the Library as part of our shelving operations. As the Shelving Supervisor I have regular meetings with my shelving team to discuss any issues that I or they may have noticed or to discuss any changes we might want to make to our processes. The Library has recently undergone refurbishment so this was a busy time for shelving moves! The students who work in the Library also help with our shelving operations and as their supervisor I am in charge of recruitment and training as well as creating their weekly rota. This has been a challenging but very rewarding role.

Other activities I may have include staffing the Information Desk on the Arts and Humanities floor, updating the Library website for LUS or for the Arts and Humanities team, holding drop-in sessions in Classics and Philosophy, subject cataloguing of new books in my subjects, creating the termly newsletter for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, attending meetings in my departments or within the Library and, of course, sending and answering many emails!

So the role of a Trainee Liaison Librarian here at the University of Reading is very varied but that allows you to experience many different aspects of working in an academic library and gives you a wide range of skills and experience to draw on. It has definitely been a very rewarding experience.

Anna Richards

A day in the life of a librarian… Vicky Bird, SOAS

This is the first in a series of posts that will examine the work that librarians in a variety of fields, and at different levels, undertake in the course of a typical day.

Victoria Bird, Politics, Economics, Finance and Management Subject Librarian, SOAS Library. Friday 4th July

I work for the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies, in London, which has about 8000 students, roughly 50-50 split between Undergraduate and Postgraduate level. I support about one fifth of the total students. My work is varied- no day is the same, but that's one of the things I really like about it. Sometimes I get to help the students with their research enquiries, sometimes I am selecting stock for addition to the Library. CILIP have an outline of the kind of thing that Subject Librarians do on their website. SOAS is a really special place to work: we have students studying the most fascinating topics and I feel very privileged to work here. The day I selected to write about was 4 July 2014:

Delays on the train mean that I get in about 10am- when I am supposed to be starting work at 9.30am! Commuting from Reading to London is something I never thought that I would do and can be very trying, but these delays are thankfully fairly rare, and SOAS is a unique place to work, which makes up for the aggravation caused by signalling problems. I won’t be able to make up the time today, but arrange with my line manager that I will stay later on Monday. First stop is the kettle: after that start, I need some tea!

I begin my day proper by sorting out some access questions for a research assistant who is hoping to obtain access one of our databases. Like all libraries, we are tied by our licencing restrictions, which can cause problems for this type of user. This enquiry came in yesterday and has necessitated speaking to a range of people within both the library and the department to resolve, as our access arrangements have changed recently. I reply with the relevant information on steps that are needed to gain access to the database.

I then tackle the range of emails that have built up, which doesn’t take long. One is from a departmental colleague, who is responding to my email about arranging information skills training for her students next academic year. This is one of my favourite bits of the job, and one I want to develop further in concert with the department, so the email is very welcome. We arrange to meet when we both return from leave for a coffee and to plan!

I email my colleagues in our E-services team to suggest that we should consider moving DataStream bookings online, using Google Calendar- something we already utilise for personal diary management. At the moment, we rely on a paper booking system, which is awkward when I’m trying to book sessions away from the enquiry desk. We agree that I will create a prototype and then see what happens over the summer.

Next up is my annual reports. All subject librarians at SOAS Library have to produce an annual synopsis of their activities over the year- including such topics as book acquisition, training sessions given and so on. I scurry the last few points down and then submit them. My lovely departmental administrator came through with exactly the information I needed!

Between 11am-12pm, I am on the enquiry desk, covering for a colleague who is doing my usual slot later on in the day in exchange. It’s fairly quiet on the desk, so in between enquiries, I examine the content of a few eBook packages as I have some money in the finance fund I’m hoping to use for this. Some of the titles in packages are usually less relevant here at SOAS, due to our specialised focus on the Asia, Middle East and Africa regions, but eBooks are increasingly popular with our students and staff, many of whom have to complete fieldwork abroad- or may just live a long way away.

After my desk duty, I return to my office and Kobir, a colleague who is working on the implementation of VuFind (our new discovery layer) comes to talk to me about our plans for user testing. We’re also getting a new Library Management System- called Kuali Ole- so it’s exciting times for us and I’m pleased to be able to contribute to this project.

There is just enough time before lunch to write the website introduction for our new database, GTA China, which we’ve just acquired. This database looks at stock market data for companies in China, and is really very in-depth and detailed. Our colleagues in Finance and Management will make good use of it in their research, and a Master’s student is already utilising it for their dissertation. I’m looking forward to learning more about this resource.

After lunch, I deal with my book requests. We welcome book purchase suggestions from library users, and I have two today. We already hold one, but I place an order for the other title- letting both requesters know my decisions via email. It’s important to double check these forms to ensure that we are making the best use of our funds, as sometimes items are available nearby and may not fall into our Collections Development Policy. It also helps me to keep in touch with what fields our researchers are moving into. A timely and measured response is vital, so that researchers know what is going on and are not held up in their work.

I then turn to working on the VuFind testing documents. I have to draft a consent form and also draft a test document for those taking part to record their impressions of the new system- together with identifying any problems, in addition to the (hoped-for!) positive feedback. I send a speculative email to a member of the university’s Ethics Committee asking if they will be willing to look at this to ensure that we conform to the guidance for such projects.

Then, it’s time to hop on a bus to my Pilates lesson, having just joined a new gym (as a result of commuting and lots of very nice treats brought in by colleagues, I’ve got a little rotund over the two years I’ve worked here). I’m currently trying out all of the various courses, and this is the first time I’ve done Pilates. I find it a soothing antidote to the chaos of the morning, which eases me into the weekend. Thankfully, for once, the commute home is smoother, and I use the time to relax with – what else – a good book.

Visiting Oxford Brookes’ new library

This blog post was kindly written by Helen Matthews, Assistant Librarian (Periodicals) Nuffield College Library. She is also responsible for the rather fab photos. You can contact Helen via Twitter @helen_281.

Wednesday 2nd July saw an eager group arrive at Oxford Brookes University’s new library in Headington. The library opened in February 2014 and is located inside the university’s new John Henry building. Taking up 6,500m², the library holds a dominant place on campus. We were led to the library’s large staff room for tea and (delicious) cakes whilst we were given an introduction by Helen Workman (Director of Learning Resources & University Librarian).

We learnt that plans for the new building started as far back as 2007 when architects were appointed. The library’s brief for their place in the new building was:

• to be an inspirational space for study, learning, and research
• for it to be easy for users to access information
• to facilitate improvement of library services
• to be IT enabled
• to be easy to navigate
• to have a range of working spaces
• to have self-service machines

The creation of the new library wasn’t without its issues. Because of neighbours living next door to the campus, the building lost a floor but gained a basement in return. The building was supposed to be ready to open in September 2013 in time for the new academic year but eventually opened in February. Opening in term-time meant that the old library had to be closed on a Friday as material was moved to the new library. Impressively, this was achieved in four days and the new library opened the following Wednesday.

Once we had finished devouring cake, the group was split into two and we were given tours by Jan Haynes (Head of Service Development and Delivery) and Dave Nolan (Head of Buildings Development). The immediate impression was of a large, light, airy, and open space with an atrium, called the Forum, which the library wraps around. Heading up to the fourth floor offers an excellent view of the Forum on the ground floor where there is a café and casual seating area. Here people were working independently and in groups, and using their laptops whilst consuming their purchases from the café.

The library houses 300,000 books, a collection that was weeded before being moved from the old library, and has 1,000 study spaces. There are student presentation rooms and group work spaces where the furniture is moveable to adapt to peoples’ needs. There are also coaching areas for taster sessions, a help zone for one-to-one assistance, training rooms, carrel-type desks for more independent study, a special collections reading room (which is still under construction), and an assistive technology suite. During the planning period, focus groups were held to find out what people wanted from the library space, which included testing furniture, as well as a wider consultation that included everybody in the university.

Although the library is complete (except for the special collections reading room), staff are still reviewing and making amendments. Because the space is so open and (some) of the furniture is moveable, they are able to change the layout of working spaces and adapt them to what people need. Similarly, the different noise zones are monitored and considered for change.

Visiting Oxford Brookes’ new library gave a sense of what a modern library should be. Returning to the library’s brief, they have been successful in creating an inspirational space. The architecture itself lends to this with the suspended lecture theatre and pink windows that bathe corridors in a soft light. The library has excellent facilities that meet the needs of the modern student and makes their experience rewarding. Attention to detail, like the frosted windows with microscopic cellular images, is a subtle touch that makes you feel like you are in a place that has been carefully constructed with the users’ in mind through every step of the building’s creation. Although signage is being revised and working areas monitored with the potential for change, this simply shows how library staff seek to continually improve the users’ experience and meet their requirements.

We were interested to learn that the library is open to anybody with no restrictions on who can walk in and consult its material, which helps to fulfil the library’s aim to provide easy access to information. Head counts reveal that use of the library is increasing, which shows that libraries are able to adapt to the modern world and that people still appreciate them.

This was an excellent trip with informative tour guides and I would encourage people to visit this new library.

Calling all Berks/Bucks/Oxon HE and FE Library staff...

Do you work in HE or FE in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire or Oxfordshire? Would you like to  get out of the Library a bit more, keep up to date with current Library issues in FE and  HE, network with colleagues from across the sectors, and give your professional development a boost?

Then read on...

The CoFHE (Colleges of Further and Higher Education) and UC&R (University College and  Research) groups of CILIP are merging to form the Academic and Research Libraries Group,  ARLG.  In the Berks/Bucks/Oxon area, this means CoFHE Mid-West and UC&R BBO are  dissolving, and re-forming as ARLG BBO. And we want you!

Even (especially) if you've never been involved in a professional group before, this is  a brilliant opportunity to get started. In the past CoFHE and UC&R have organised local  training events on many themes, from diversity in libraries to e-books, from managing  difficult customers to libraries and Web 2.0. But it doesn't all have to be conferences  and events - would you benefit more from a blog, a mailing list, Twitter feed, informal  evening get-togethers? We want your ideas - and your participation. Being part of a  local group is a great (and inexpensive!) way to broaden your perspectives, boost your professional development, get involved in activities beyond the scope of your day job  (marketing, budgeting, chairing seminars...) and enhance your CV - all while getting to  socialise and network with other local librarians.

We're holding an inaugural meeting/round-table discussion, for all interested education/research based librarians working in the region, on: Tuesday 29th May 2012, from 2 -  4.30 pm, in the Board Room at Oxford and Cherwell Valley College's Oxford campus (Oxpens Road, OX1 1SA - see http://www.ocvc.ac.uk/info/Find_us/Oxford.aspx ). The College is a short walk from the station and from city centre bus stops; there is a public car park at the Oxpens ice rink opposite the college.  There'll be refreshments, so please email Rob Collier from this list: http://www.cilip.org.uk/get-involved/special-interest-groups/c-of-he/circles/mid-west/pages/committee.aspx.