Collections Project

So, what has the University Library done for you lately? Here are some recent developments, several implemented following students’ requests. 

Improvements to Library environment

• New study spaces created and refurbished on the 5th Floor [2009-2011]
  

  Work peacefully in a recently refurbished 5th Floor study room

• 50 additional power sockets for laptops installed on the 2nd, 3rd and
  4th Floors facing Palmer/Carrington Buildings [Autumn 2009]
• Eyelets in study desks to secure laptops [Autumn 2010]
• Refurbished and additional toilet facilites [Spring 2011]
• Improved access to Wi-Fi [2010]
• New voiced closing message and fire alarm; upgraded fire-stairs and refuges with inter-coms [2009-10]
• More Study Rooms and a Silent Study Room [2008]
• New Course Collection / Cafe / Knowledge Exchange and Study Rooms  [2007]

Improvements to Library services

• Opening to midnight Monday-Thursday term-time and Easter Vacation [from April 2009]
  

  Study until midnight, Monday to Thursday!

• Library homepage redesigned incorporating students’  information priorities [Sept 2010]; Entire website redesigned based on student views [2007]
• ‘Roving’ Library staff introduced to help you where you need it [Autumn 2010 and 2009]
• Upgraded Unicorn Library catalogue provides new e-resource-only searching, your recent loan record and username/password access [Autumn 2010]
• University Library news blog delivers alerts and news faster [2010]
• Improved, popular online help including the crucial referencing, database and literature searching guides [Autumn 2010]
• Online ‘Closed access’ requests [Autumn 2010]

Improvements to Library collections

• Access to e-resources has greatly increased. You now have access to:
  • nearly 22,000 e-journals
  • over 9,000 e-books, including 100s of reliable references sources you can search together through Credo or Oxford Reference Online
    

    Enhanced funding buys more Course Collection texts

• Enhanced Course Support funding buys extra copies of textbooks [2008 onwards]
• A scanning project provides online course texts directly via Blackboard. (You may not even realise this comes via the Library!)
• Showing a floor number on Unicorn and redesiged shelf labels helps students find stock more easily [2008 on]

Future developments

We plan to introduce further study space on the 2nd and 4th Floor reading rooms by 2013 as part of our ambitious Collections Project. Running since 2009, it’s a long-term strategy to create space for study, and Bulmershe books and journals, by reviewing all Library stock and relegating lesser-used research material to an off-campus Store. 

Helping you – our ‘constant’

Throughout every change, we remain passionate about helping you find the information you need to achieve the highest standards. Use our experience and training to get ahead through: 

Contact us for personal help

• Information Desks – for quick queries 
• Liaison Librarians – personal contacts supporting every department / school 
• Specialist supporters:
  • Disability Co-ordinator
  • Research Support Co-ordinator
  • Contact for international students
• Loads of reliable links and advice on the Library website

rr

From Monday 4 October, you will only be able to Request items from closed access collections at Main Library online via Unicorn and no longer using small green printed slips. Just click on ‘Request item from Closed Access’  on the left-hand side of the catalogue record from wherever you are and have it ready for collection when you visit!

This streamlining will help us prepare to bring you material smoothly from our new off-campus Store by 2011 as well. (More information on our Collections Project  page.) 

Exceptions are:

• Online card catalogue items: please request this at the Main Library Ground Floor Information Desk
• Bulmershe Library ‘closed access’ items: please request these at Bulmershe Library Information Desk.

If you have any further questions, please contact Nick Hollis, Circulation Services Manager.

We have relocated some books and journals between Main Library’s 3rd and 4th Floors to make it easier for you to find them.

• Printing, publishing and typography (655) is now with the rest of the 650s stock on the 4th Floor.
• The real estate and planning collection (710–719) is now with the 700s on the 3rd Floor.
• We have also incorporated books in these numbers from Bulmershe Library.

Please ask at the 3rd or 4th Floor Information Desks if you need help finding anything.

This move is part of our ambitious Collections Project 2009-2013, reprofiling Library collections and spaces to better meet Library users’ future needs. Firstly, it gets us closer to our aim of running the Call Number sequence straight through the Library, from 2nd up to 4th Floor. It is also a useful pilot for bigger moves next summer when Main Library receives stock from Bulmershe Library which closes in 2011. Watch this Library space! 

For more information, see Collections Project webpage

Faster inter-library loan delivery is just one benefit you’ll soon see now Reading has joined the UK’s other research intensive university libraries to create a national, distributed journal collection for future researchers.

What is UKRR?

The UK Research reserve (UKRR) for printed journals is being created to guarantee at least three copies of each item will be securely retained nationally, including one at the British Library for quick inter-lending. Funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) with £9.8m over five years, this project also allows participating HE libraries to safely withdraw duplicated, low-use issues to create more study space.

UKRR’s pilot phase saw eight universities, led by Imperial College, re-purpose 11,000 metres of shelf space with over 8,000 titles being added to the Reserve. Reading has been selected to join the project, which now involves all the top research ‘Russell Group’ universities and five other important ‘1994 Group’ universities.

Benefits of membership

• Quicker delivery times and improved service levels from the British Library’s document supply / Inter-Library Loans service.
• The chance to acquire journals from other university libraries to further enhance research collections in Reading’s areas of strength.
• We choose which items we contribute to the Reserve.
• Knowing researchers can access Reserve copies means we can confidently withdraw printed journal parts where the University no longer needs them (eg where they are surplus to anticipated research needs, or available electronically and not needed in print as well).

UKRR and our Library Collections Project

UKRR aims fit well with the University Library’s Collections Project - to create additional study space and re-organise holdings at Main Library Whiteknights in anticipation of Bulmershe Library’s closure in 2011.

In line with our Collection policies, we are already consulting Schools about which journal volumes we might withdraw for the UKRR, and which to retain at Main Library or the new, low-use Store.

If you would like to know more about the UK Research Reserve or the Library’s Collections Project, please contact the Collections Project Co-ordinator, Vicky Bird v.l.bird@reading.ac.uk.