March 17, 2021, by Emma
Libraries in numbers – supporting the university community
Read on to find out more about how Libraries have been supporting the university community with achieving their academic goals.
From providing access to online resources and bookable study space to introducing new help channels and online training and study sessions, University of Nottingham Libraries has continued supporting students, staff and researchers throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
Access to our libraries and study space
Following the temporary closure of our libraries in March 2020, Libraries staff worked hard planning for the re-opening of our in-person services, including the introduction of new Covid-secure measures and processes to help keep our staff and library visitors safe.
- 27,000 Click and Collect requests for books available in our libraries have been processed since July.
- 93,000 bookings have been made for individual study space in libraries using our new online booking system, Click and Study. That’s over 250,000 hours!
- 24 bookable group study spaces have been made available for socially distanced group study in locations outside of libraries across our campuses.
- Extended opening hours – whilst our libraries originally opened with reduced hours, most libraries are now open until 9pm on weekdays with Hallward Library open until 9pm at the weekend too.
During the temporary closure of our library buildings, we introduced three new help channels to make it easier than ever to contact Library staff.
- Over 450 live chat queries have been answered via the Libraries website.
- Over 80 enquiries answered via the weekly Instagram Q&A. Follow Libraries on Instagram
- Five Ask Libraries drop-in sessions take place every week on Microsoft Teams to support students with finding resources.
Access to resources
With many members of the university community working or studying off-campus over the last year and staying home during periods of self-isolation, we have worked to provide the university community with easy access to our collections and other resources, wherever they are based.
Eligible students also have access to our brand-new free postal loans and freepost book returns services.
- 1,350 scans of book chapters and journal articles have been supplied via the new Scanning for personal use service.
- Over 18,000 books on 2019/20 reading lists were available online.
- More than 2,700 additional online links were added to reading lists between June and December 2020.
- Scans of over 80,000 pages of content are currently included on reading lists. This content is taken from 392 different journals and 2,403 different books and is provided via our Scanning for teaching service.
- 5,000 active users of the Library Access browser extension have been provided with easy access to eresources in our collections.
- Over 150 online resources have been trialled over the last 12 months, including JoVE (journal of visualised experiments), newspaper archives from Cengage and ClinicalKey, Medieval and Early Modern sources as well as multi-disciplinary resources from ProQuest. View all trials.
- Additional temporary resources provided by academic publishers at the start of the pandemic were made easy to find and access via NUsearch, the Libraries website and Library Matters blog.
Developing your academic and information skills
In previous years we have introduced students to our library services with in-person tours, drop-in sessions and lecture visits. In 2020/21, we moved these induction and information skills sessions online with new on-demand resources, webinars, drop-ins and virtual study sessions.
- More than 6,000 students have attended our live online sessions this academic year.
- Over 25,000 visits to our on-demand online information and academic skills resources.
- Five online subject guides (one for each Faculty) have been created to help students find the key resources for their subject area including classmarks for print items, databases and specialist resources.
- Three virtual study sessions take place every week to provide focused study time alongside other students
Support for online teaching
Our Learning Technology team has been supporting staff and students with the transition to online learning and making the most of the wide range of technologies available, including Moodle, Xerte, Microsoft Teams and many more.
- Learning Technologies have facilitated and supported over 17.2 million Moodle visits and 48,000 online exam sittings over the last year.
- Over 1,100 people have joined the daily Digital Learning drop-in sessions over the last year for support.
- Over 2,000 people have attended a suite of training courses including using Moodle, Microsoft Teams and how to embed accessibility in teaching and learning materials.
- Over 5,000 Xerte projects, supported by our Learning Content Team, have been created by academic staff over the last 12 months to provide high-quality learning materials.
- 40,946 people from across the globe have enrolled on our nine FutureLearn courses
Support for research
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, the Libraries Research Support team has continued to support researchers across the university with planning, publishing, sharing and preserving their research.
- Over 900 email enquiries have been answered by the team on a wide range of research-related topics, including data management plans, systematic reviews and open access applications.
- Fifth University in the UK to have a SafePod. A brand-new SafePod was successfully installed in Hallward Library last December. Once the SafePod Network is live, it will provide accredited researchers with access to secure datasets from participating Data Centres across the UK.
Viking and Early Medieval Studies students handling Museum objects in a hands-on teaching session
Manuscripts and Special Collections and the University Museum
Despite the impact of national restrictions on opening our exhibition and museum spaces, our colleagues working in Manuscripts and Special Collections and the University of Nottingham Museum of Archaeology have continued to carry out important activities to develop and promote our collections and support staff, students, researchers and the general public.
- 3,491 DH Lawrence manuscripts have been digitised by Manuscripts and Special Collections.
- 611 archives and special collections enquiries have been answered.
- Our Reading Room has been open by appointment to staff and students for access to archives or special collections material, browsing the East Midlands Collection and silent study.
- £250,000 of external funding has been raised by Manuscripts and the Museum to support future programmes of activity and the acquisition of collections.
- The University Museum has continued its work with students including teaching, research, working with the community and a new collaboration with the Digital Transformation Hub to produce 3D images and videos of its collections.
- PhD Learning Facilitators have been working directly with primary schools after being trained in the Museum’s new Remote Learning Programme.
- Almost 100 people attended the Museum’s Money and Medals Network training event, held in collaboration with the British Museum and Somerset Museums. Attendees were regional, national and international.
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