Check out some of the changes our LIS team has made as a direct result of your student voice feedback:
Library learning and teaching
Following feedback from students and discussions with lecturers, our library teams have continued to develop a range of teaching and learning support to enhance the student academic journey:
- Our library team have worked alongside lecturers in the Law School this academic year to create a co-curricular session for Level 4 students that was highly interactive using the key legal databases Westlaw and Lexis+.
- We have reviewed library support for subject areas including Biomedical Science, Law, Fine Art, Graphic Design, Acting & Drama, and Nursing as examples. We have worked with programme leads to develop further information literacy sessions to support students. These interactive sessions range from searching for information systematically, utilising topics students are thinking about for their assessments (therefore directly benefitting the students in attendance by making the information resources relevant to their current course work), and using the range of databases and audio-visual resources where appropriate within session content.
- These sessions have developed student research skills and are an important component aiding lifelong learning and employability skills to take beyond university.
Examples of student feedback:
“The librarians have been helpful to learn the law databases and being able to navigate the library and how it can help my studies” and “I like the library and appreciate all the information sessions”.
“A student who thanked me for the session said I had highlighted and explained Library Search, online journals and searching within specific databases very clearly and recommended that every student at every level have a session with a Librarian”.
Initiatives to support our university community
- To support Education students who are on placement the library offers a monthly twilight webinar at 5pm
- We have held a Children’s book group in collaboration with the School of Education. This group supports associate teachers to improve their knowledge of children’s literature and following the Open University Reading for Pleasure pedagogy
- Coffee morning/drop-in sessions were held at Marriss House Library in September 2023 to welcome new students. These were extremely successful, and we received excellent attendance and feedback. These sessions enabled students to meet library staff and familiarise themselves with the library.
- Each Wednesday our Digital Workplace Services team have been offering online audio-visual training for university staff. These sessions focus on best practice use of our audio-visual resources to ensure the technology to deliver lectures runs as smoothly as possible for you.
Changing structures within our department to support you
- Behind the scenes our IT and AV team merged to form the Digital Workplace Services team. The team provides a single point of contact for a wide range of technology support needs. There are a variety of ways to contact the team – via the Helpdesks in our libraries, our LIS Service Desk and through IT Services located on the lower ground floor of Seaborne Library.
Over the Summer a comprehensive refurbishment of the Seaborne Library entrance floor areas was undertaken, following a spaces evaluation survey with student input. The refurbishment included reviewing accessibility, availability of technology, study spaces and teaching spaces. As a result, the following changes were made to enhance the library environment for our university community for the 23/24 academic cycle:
Accessibility
- Removal of unnecessary doors
- Installation of powered doors
- Individual booths with natural or artificial light (And UV shielding)
- Creation of sensory space (LED colour lighting & bean bags) Derived from ALN conference as best practice.
Technology
- Increase in digital display screens with multifunctional abilities (signposting, notices, booking information)
- Addition of movable digital screens for collaboration
- Addition of Media suites for podcasting and video editing
- Flex zone – work your way. (Multiple setups for laptop use)
Study Spaces
- Inclusion of whiteboards in each space
- Multi-height group tables
- Pods for smaller groups
Teaching Spaces
- Large configurable teaching space with duel mobile screens
- Two smaller seminar rooms with mobile screens – one with wall-to-wall whiteboards
- Simultaneous screen presentation – all three rooms display the same content.
Whilst refurbishing our entrance floor areas in Seaborne Library, the opportunity was also taken to relocate and enhance the Postgraduate Centre in the lower ground floor of Seaborne Library following feedback from staff and student representatives. Changes include:
- Fully 24/7 365 access controlled space
- Accessible to all PG students regardless of taught or research
- Creation of space in line with requirements:
- Kitchen area
- Social area
- Digital signage (signposting PG events)
- PodsSeminar room
Research boards
You may have noticed our LIS Service Desk interface has changed. We changed our system over the course of last year which has enabled:
- 24/7 incident and request management
- AI Bot & live agent
- Review and development of processes to support the customer experience