LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY
ARTS AND HUMANITIES & SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL SCIENCES
JOINT FACULTY LIBRARY COMMITTEE
19 November 2015 at 4.00.p.m.
Present:
Dr Jeff Bowersox
Prof Richard North
Ms Vanessa Freedman
Miss Giulia Garoli
Miss June Hedges
Ms Janet Horslen
Prof Jonathon Kennedy
Dr Matt Kuldkepp
Ms Liz Lawes
Dr Althea Legal-Miller
Mr Nick Mann
Mr Kieron Jones
Ms Lesley Pitman
Prof Jeremy Tanner
Dr Tabitha Tuckett
Miss Sara Wingate Gray
SELCS
English (Committee Chair)
Library Services
Library Services
Library Services
Library Services
Political Science
SELCS
Library Services
Institute of the Americas
Geography
Library Services
Library Services
Archaeology
Special Collections
BASc
Apologies from: Ms.Sarah Burn (English and Philosophy), Prof Simon Dixon (SSEES),
Professor Jan Kubik (SSEES) Dr. Jordan Landes (Senate House), Dr. Fiona Leigh
(Philosophy) Ms. Brighid Lowe (Slade), Dr. Bob Mills (HIstory of Art), Katie Meheux
(Archaeology)
Preliminary Business
1. MINUTES
The minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 21 May 2015 were approved as an accurate
record.
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Matters Arising
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MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES
16.1 Following on from the Open Access requirements update provided by Mr Adam
Cresswell and Ms Catherine Sharp at Library Committee on 21 May 2015, it was
reported that the REF date had been moved from 2020 to 2021. Further information
would be communicated via Library Committee and directly from the Open Access
Team in due course.
18.7 Special Collections and UCL East Consultation still to be carried out.
Matters for Discussion
3. REPORT FROM UCL LIBRARY SERVICES
Library Restructure 2015
A proposal for a new Library Services organisational structure had been sent to all Library
staff on October 15th for consultation in accordance with UCL’s Organisation Change
Management Policy. Staff had been invited to group consultations, individual meetings and
asked to submit comments to a dedicated email address. The proposal was led by the
Assistant Director: Public Services and the Assistant Director: Support Services. The
consultation period was due to end on 30th November 2015.
Following the express concerned that the lack of books affected the student experience, it was
reported that Paul Ayris was meeting with finance to discuss budgets and the need to increase
resources to meet the higher demand. The outcome of the meeting would be reported back to
the Committee. Also, the Library proposal was more of a role reassignment process and that
no one would be losing their jobs. Martin Moyle had been invited to the Committee meeting,
but was unable to attend due to a prior commitment.
Concerns
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The potential effect on Users.
The potential weakening of the relationship between departments and the library.
Why the proposal was hidden: some Colleagues had found out about it by chance.
A potential disconnect, if the User is not included in the feedback.
Committee members were encouraged to contact Paul Ayris as Director of Library Services
with their concerns individually. Comment was made that it was difficult to provide feedback
without an in-depth knowledge of the plans.
ACTION; Professor North to speak to Library Services and update the Committee.
4. June Hedges gave a brief update on other areas of Library activity – see report attached:
Library Faculty bulletin: November 2015COMMITTEE CHAIR’S REPORT
RECEIVED
Professor North had written to Paul Ayris about the Library Restructure proposal.
5. PROGRAMME CHANGES - June Hedges
See ‘Library Faculty Bulletin: November 2015’ (attached).
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The request was made that where new programmes were approved, library resources should
be identified in the business case to ensure that funds were available to purchases resources
for students on the programme. Currently monies were being taken from other budgets.
Likewise where there are changes to modules, staff should contact subject leads because
currently they were not always being updated.
Following xpress concerns that the lack of books affected the student experience, and that the
library budget, even while it had not been cut, was being diminished by the increase in student
numbers, it was reported that Paul Ayris was meeting with finance to discuss budgets and the
need to increase resources to meet the higher demand. The outcome of the meeting would be
reported back to the Committee.
6. ORAL/WRITTEN REPORTS FROM DEPARTMENTAL LIBRARY COMMITTEES,
SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND SENATE HOUSE LIBRARY.
 English
Staff were reported to be happy with the online purchasing system.
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ESPS
Greek and Latin
Hebrew and Jewish Studies
Information Studies
The Department of Information Studies DLC met on 7 October 2015. The Chair of the
Committee gave a short report on the previous JFLC, and the subject librarian, Vanessa
Freedman (now subject librarian for Information Studies. gave a verbal report on matters of
current interest, including the state of the DIS budget, and recent new reader services.
There was some discussion of journal subscriptions, and the online reading lists.
The merger with the Institute of Education was raised, and whether this would result in any
changes (a number of DIS students use the IoE library). It appeared that things would
continue in much the same way.
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History of Art
Institute of the Americas - Dr Althea Legal-Miller (currently covering for Kate
Quinn) Teaching Fellow at the Institute of the America raised the following issues
digitisation and the need to increase resources to make this easier for Departments. The
meeting was informed that a central resource is available for digitisation requests and
they should be contacted with any queries. A comment was made about the process
being too lengthy and it was accepted that the process which had been in current
operation for a number of year may need to be reviewed.
ACTION: June Hedges to look in to the possibility of reviewing the current
digitisation process.
3-hour loan items which were said to be limiting for users. JH reported that the Library
are looking in to their 3 hour short-loan provision, they do not currently have a loan
period between a week and 3 hours and that reference copies were hard to track
because they can be used anywhere in the library. 3 hour loan items solved the problem
of many users wanting to access popular items.
Political Science
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The ongoing issue of the state of the Womens’ toilets in the Main Library was raised. The
matter has been raised with Estates but this continues to be an issue of concern.
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Philosophy
SELCS
Slade
Anthropology
Archaeology
The matter was raised of UKRR scheme which was adopted to eradicate duplication and
enable users to acquire early copies of journals. The idea was that the earlier copies would
be replaced by e-versions, and that a copy would remain available in the London area. This
was said to not be true for all archaeology journals because in some cases users would
sometimes want to gain access to a high quality version and earlier copies are sometimes
owned by societies, and so not necessarily available for loan, especially as there was a plan
for some societies to be moving out of London. A request was made for
a) a list of journals detailing what had been destroyed, and what was available
b) an undertaking to be given to ensure that removal does not happen without the
knowledge of the Subject Librarian and staff. It was reported that Lesley Pitman and
Robert Clarke are in talks about this matter and that it was customary for subject
librarians to email a list around in advance of taking any action.
Jeremy Tanner commented that where journals were no longer required by the institution
they should not be pulped, and that attempts should instead be made to donate them to
other institutions in the developing world (for example).
 Economics
 Geography
 History
SSEES
Attempts are being made to change EU copyright law to allow text and data mining across
Europe in line with UK practice. Dr. Paul Ayris was said to be involved in this work and any
updates would be given at future meetings.
Special Collections (Tabitha Tuckett to send)
Due to ongoing problems with the toilets in the Science library, part of the Special
Collections area used for temporary storage and by staff processing material in transit was
affected by flooding. While no damage to the collections was incurred on this occasion, it
emphasises the need for more suitable increased storage and working spaces. The number
of departments that Special Collections is supporting with teaching and learning has
increased and a number of exhibitions are planned for 2016.
Slade - Brighid Lowe (Slade School of Fine Art)
Dr Lowe had appended a statement, which reads as follows:
Apologies for my absence at the forthcoming Joint Faculty Library Committee, I have a longstanding meeting (in relation to a Slade project) with a documentary film company.
As Chair of the Slade Library Committee, and in light of the Library Restructure 2015, I
wanted to have minuted the Slade’s position on any proposed changes (either in name or
remit) to the post of ’Subject’ Librarians to ‘Liaison’ Librarians.
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In the area of Fine Art (I also include its many overlaps with Art History, Critical/Theoretical
Studies and Film Studies) specialist knowledge of the discipline and specialist knowledge of
contemporary art publishers, galleries and artist run small presses, are of critical
importance.
The subject knowledge of the librarian is the key both to the quality and relevance of the
collection, and also to its effective management: the two are symbiotic.
The Slade School of Fine Art, like other leading art schools, does not have set curriculums or
courses structured by reading lists. Instead the Library is heavily used by all levels of Slade
students, to develop their own individual artworks and ideas.
Fine Art is not a conventional academic discipline, it is a fast moving professional world, and
as such it is represented mainly by diverse non-academic publishers, that emerge at a very
fast rate. The subject librarian is required to have a great deal of specialist knowledge in
order to maintain the relevance of the collection.
Effective ‘liaison’ (a term that I feel would mean very little to students) comes from specialist
subject knowledge, and any weakening of this principle would be firmly opposed by the
Slade.
Senate House – a written statement from Jordan Landes (History)
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Friday 27th of November is History libraries and research open day. This research event will
include an open fair of over 30 libraries and archives, panel talks on using libraries and
archives, and one-on-one sessions providing research guidance. UCL Institute of the
Americas, Library Services and Special Collections will be taking part, as well as the UCL
Institute of Education library.
Collections acquisitions budgets have been increased by an average of 10%.
The next exhibition in Senate House Library is around the theme of the library as secular
reliquary, with displays of objects that have been collected over the years of the library's
existence.
Matters for Information
7. To NOTE the date of UCL Library Committee meetings for 2015/16:
 25 February 2016
 19 May 2016
8. Any Other Urgent Business.
None
Distribution: Members of the Joint Faculty Library Committee MA
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Library Faculty Bulletin: November 2015
1. Resources and Collections
Book funds: book funds re-opened in August 2015. While there were no cuts to budgets, there was no
inflationary increase nor did Library Services see any uplift to cater for increased student numbers.
E-book purchasing projects
There will be two evidence-based acquisitions (EBAs) running in 2015/16:
1. We have extended the existing Wiley Online Library EBA for another twelve months until 30
November 2016.
2. From 1st September 2015 to 31st August 2016 we will have access to more than 20,000 Cambridge
University Press e-books through Cambridge Books Online
Catalogue records for these CUP e-books will be loaded as soon as possible and will include a message in
Aleph telling you the title is part of the EBA. Users will see a message in the SFX menu telling them access to
the e-book is part of an E-books on demand@UCL scheme.
A quick reminder of how EBA works…..
Under this model, users are given access to some or all e-book content on a supplier platform for an agreed
period of time, usually 6 or 12 months. The library deposits with the supplier an amount of money
equivalent to an agreed % of the purchase price of the content which users are given access to. At the end of
this period, the library selects which content to purchase in perpetuity based on usage statistics provided by
the supplier, up to the value of the money deposited.
We will have additional access to Jstor via a patron-driven acquisition model starting in January 2016. This
will mean that any registered UCL user can trigger the purchase of a title available via the Jstor platform
through a certain level of use. This will be the third PDA we have had with Jstor, the previous 2 being
incredibly popular. Our last period of access, which ran from May – July 2015, resulted in the purchase of
some 630 titles.
Alumni access
UCL Library Services have negotiated with Project Muse, Jstor and Sage for UCL alumni to have access to
online resources. Alumni will need an AWC (Alumni Web Community) ID for this. Details on how this is done
are available on the DARO website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni/benefits
2. Space and Estates Matters
New Graduate Research Grid: The project to create a new Graduate Research Grid (to replace that being
closed in the basement of the Wilkins Building) on the 4th floor of the Science Library has been delayed due
to unforeseen structural issues. The new facility is due to open in January 2016. This space will provide
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around 50 study spaces for postgraduate students. The Research Grid will offer a combination of quiet,
individual study space and some more open, collaborative working space.
In the interim, a temporary research grid has been set up in the space affectionately known as the French
Corridor in the Main Library. Full details are available online:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/articles/2015/new-research-grid-main-library
Self-Service expansion
Self-service has been extended to a number of library sites over the summer. The School of Slavonic and
Eastern Europeans Studies and several biomedical sites – Ophthalmology, Royal Free Medical School Library,
Institute of Child Health, School of Pharmacy – are all now offering self-service borrowing. More information
on the on-going project to provide self-service at UCL libraries is available:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/sites/building-news/rfid-and-self-service
3. Skills in Seconds
Colleagues across the Academic Support Team have been working over the past year to produce a series of
informational and instructional videos to help students get to grips with some of our library services and
systems. This excellent suite of 10 films – known as Skills in Seconds (available here:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/training/skills) – has already proved popular during the induction period and
we encourage academic colleagues to link to specific films, or refer students to them.
4. Research Data Management Support
New web pages (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/research-support/research-data) to support researchers in all
disciplines with research data management issues, including funder policies and requirements, were
launched in September 2015. Our Research Data Support Officer is currently visiting faculty and departments
to publicise this information and to discuss what research data needs researchers have. A survey will be sent
to all researchers early next year to help UCL develop services and support in this area.
5. UCL Library Services Organisational Change Proposal
A proposal for a new Library Services organisational structure was sent to all Library staff on October 15th for
consultation. Staff have been invited to group consultations, individual meetings and to submit comments
via a dedicated email address. The proposal is being led by the Assistant Director: Public Services and the
Assistant Director: Support Services. The current consultation period is due to end on 30th November 2015.
Faculty contacts:
Academic Support Manager: June Hedges (j.hedges@ucl.ac.uk)
Subject contacts: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/subject-support/
UCL Library Services web page: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/library
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