Academic Library Visits

On the 20th July I embarked upon a Chartership visit to two university libraries.  I have been a user of academic libraries but always worked in the public library domain so was very interested to see how things were different or similar.

The University of Southampton Library was the first.  We arrived at the Hartley Library and I found the reception area very imposing and spacious.  There was an area for social study with flexible furniture arrangements, however this was quite uninspiring.

The Library is sprawling and set over five levels.  Each level has a floor plan and currently a lot of change is happening so there were empty shelves and a great deal of movement.  There are study rooms available and a good balance of social and quiet study space. 

A special visit to the Archives and Special Collectionshad been arranged.  This was especially exciting for me due to my background in Local History Librarianship.  It was incredible to see the special collections all correctly preserved with climate control and in-house digitisation and conservation.  The Hartley Library also houses BOPCRIS the digitisation centre which contains an impressive robotic Digitising Line book scanner from 4Digital Books.

Finally we got a chance to speak to the stock department.  In public libraries the move has been towards smaller stock teams with electronic ordering and supplier processing.  This was very much in contrast.  Orders begin on paper and this same request goes through a number of people and the paper request ends up with the book.  This probably highlights a funding issue, the University Library can still afford the bigger stock team.

The University of Portsmouth Library was the next stop.  This Library has recently been redesigned and I think it is a really great space.  The idea of the Library and Street as the same place is visible here.  A central walkway opens up the library and floors are visible from other floors.  This creates an open and inviting space.  The library is lit up and the community can see students studying all night.  This very public profile has raised the opinion of the students as their hard work is visible.

We heard about a very successful staff training programme where library staff were given a topic and had to create an informative poster.  This led to staff realising that academic liaison librarians had to have a visible presence for students and led to the University Library staff winning a prize at the Umbrella poster presentations as they had learnt how to design effective posters!

The University Library has a Facebook and Twitter presence and has recently redesigned the website.  All of these are working well.  Web 2.0 presences for establishments was recommended as effective and the new website seems very usable.