With the Christmas and New Year break almost upon us, we’ve reached that time of year where it’s helpful to take stock and reflect on what we’ve accomplished over the past year. The Library is always a busy place and this year has been no different – have a look at our infographic below to see our 2019 in numbers:
What else have we been up to?
Getting out and about:
Throughout the year members of the Library team have been taking our services and resources to you. In 2019 we’ve held ‘pop-up libraries’ throughout the university and hospital to mark the release of new resources or to celebrate events like World Book Day. We’re also always on hand at Fresher’s Fayres to get new students acquainted with the Library and to give away our all-important freebies (our sticky notes were gone in a matter of hours!)
Members of our Research Support Team also held pop-up stands to mark World Digital Preservation Day (thanks to our Principal Jenny Higham for snapping the photo below!) and our Research Publications Librarians produced an excellent poster for Research Day, demystifying the language around Open Access.
Keep an eye out for us in and around St George’s in 2020: whether you have a pressing Library-related question or just fancy a free pen, we’re happy to meet you all.
Creating our home in Canvas:
Our Liaison Team have been busy this year developing the Library module in Canvas – St George’s virtual learning environment. Students can check their individual course pages for details of what to expect from their scheduled Library sessions, find teaching and learning resources and try their hand at our referencing quiz. There’s plenty more in the pipeline for 2020, so watch this space for more interactive resources and support.
The Library module also became home to our first ever online Library induction. New students were presented with a scenario in which they needed to control an infection outbreak by finding evidence-based information in the Library. The induction quiz then takes students on a tour of different Library resources and services and tests their knowledge along the way.
Everyone who completed their induction was automatically entered into our prize draw, which featured lots of exciting prizes provided by the Library and local businesses. There were 21 prizes up for grabs – here are a few of our lucky winners!
New for 2019/2020:
At the tail end of 2018 we welcomed our Careers Team colleagues to the Library – keep your eyes peeled for careers-related guest posts from them in 2020! You’ll find their information stands opposite the Library Helpdesk and detailed support and guidance on the Careers module in Canvas.
The new academic year kicked off with a flurry of new initiatives in the Library. We were thrilled the help facilitate the arrival of The Big Read at St George’s and our staff book group got together to read this year’s pick: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. We also started the year by introducing new Study Break Passes to help combat desk hogging and promote fairer use of the Library study spaces. At the end of August, the University began trialling a pilot year of free printing for students in response to student feedback and in October launched a brand new website to make it easier to find important information for staff and students alike.
As ever, your feedback remains vital to the development of Library services and resources. We held a series of focus groups in November and as we head out of 2019, our focus group team are still working away on the final report and action plans arising from your feedback which will help shape our service in 2020 and beyond.
What else have we improved as a result of your feedback? Have a look at some of these Library-focused changes below or visit the You Said, We Did pages on the University website for more.
The above is only a snapshot of what Library staff do behind the scenes to support teaching, learning, research and practice in the University and the Trust. If you’d like to know more about what we do, have a look at our Libraries Week posts from October that celebrate the work of our various teams and our Archives and Special Collections. We’re looking forward to continuing all of this hard work in 2020, but with the Library closing over the Christmas break we’re also excited about putting our feet up with a mince pie (or two).
St George's Library blog 