Library & LR news

The team has been busy with a variety of tasks over the summer period, with our main project being the replacement of barcodes in the 700 – 745 dewey run. This area was chosen as it had the most of the old style barcodes that are either in the wrong place, or cannot be read by the self service machines. Over 3000 barcodes have been replaced which should improve the use of self-service in the new semester.

There has also been the usual summer shelf tidying project and the majority of the library is now back in perfect order.

Following the shelf tidying we carried out a missing book search for the main, law, oversize, local history, dvd and video collections and found 145 of the 782 missing items.  A further 565 item records were then deleted – for items that had been missing for over 6 months. 

The team has also been working with the ASLs to reclassify some of our subject areas, and also to delete the hundreds of books that have been weeded this summer to free up some much needed space. 

With the Reference collection being moved back to the ground floor, space has been made on the first floor, and the team has been busy moving the floor’s stock back into the free space and easing the overcrowded areas. The fish journal collection has also been relocated from the first to the third floor.

New shelving for the second floor is due to arrive any day, and then we will be able to ease the stock congestion on that floor as well and get all the overspill items back in their correct places.

Damaged books have been mended, claim returned items found, and over 75 tapes from the old video collection have been converted to dvd; something of a time consuming undertaking!

Thank you too to those kind souls from the other teams who have helped us in these endeavours!

The team has also been involved in the Managing Behaviour group, preparing the promotional material for its ‘Learn To Love Your Library’ message, the Marketing group, preparing the promotional displays for the 5 year celebration, and the Enquiry Desk groups which have included the relocation of the ground floor help desk phones, and training to improve the consistency of service for all the help desks.

Our DART equipment has been improved and relocated for greater use, we have been helping the ASLs with digitising, and have prepared the Library Essentials workshop for student induction, and will deliver six sessions during September and October, and a further six in November. Many of us have also had book ordering training in preparation for further assisting the ASLs in the new semester

The E-Team has been working with Paul, checking through our many databases to update and improve the accuracy of the information for our electronic journal A-Z provision. 

For light relief we visited Nottingham Trent University in a glorious sunny day in August and thoroughly enjoyed meeting the staff there, swapping stories and best practices, and viewing another library.