A new library in Bloomsbury: relocating the UCL SSEES Library

Purpose – The paper seeks to describe the processes involved in an academic library building project, from the choice of site and appointment of the architects to the move itself. The focus is on finding solutions to problems caused by limited space, fixed deadlines and innovative design, and ensuring that the Library needs are fully understood throughout a complex project involving other interest groups over a number of years. Design/methodology/approach – The experience of the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies Library is used as a case study to describe various issues around library design, working with architects and project managers, and managing a library move. Reference is made to the impact of the 7 July bombings in London on library staff. Findings – The case study outlines the importance of Library involvement in every aspect of the design, the impact of decisions about internal layout on library capacity, the adaptability of library staff to unusual and difficult working conditions, the possibility of providing a limited service in an incomplete building, the importance of balancing aesthetic and functional considerations in the final design, and the impact of those design decisions on the long-term functioning and use of the Library. Originality/value – The paper describes most of the processes and problems likely to be encountered in a major library building project and will be useful to any library setting out on such a project

Toward the Environmental Design of Library Buildings

published or submitted for publicatio

Library Design in Combinatorial Chemistry by Monte Carlo Methods

Strategies for searching the space of variables in combinatorial chemistry experiments are presented, and a random energy model of combinatorial chemistry experiments is introduced. The search strategies, derived by analogy with the computer modeling technique of Monte Carlo, effectively search the variable space even in combinatorial chemistry experiments of modest size. Efficient implementations of the library design and redesign strategies are feasible with current experimental capabilities.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Plyades: A Python Library for Space Mission Design

Plyades: A Python Library for Space Mission Design Designing a space mission is a computation-heavy task. Software tools that conduct the necessary numerical simulations and optimizations are therefore indispensable. The usability of existing software, written in Fortran and MATLAB, suffers because of high complexity, low levels of abstraction and out-dated programming practices. We propose Python as a viable alternative for astrodynamics tools and demonstrate the proof-of-concept library Plyades which combines powerful features with Pythonic ease of use

A design for a reusable Ada library

A goal of the Ada language standardization effort is to promote reuse of software, implying the existence of substantial software libraries and the storage/retrieval mechanisms to support them. A searching/cataloging mechanism is proposed that permits full or partial distribution of the database, adapts to a variety of searching mechanisms, permits a changine taxonomy with minimal disruption, and minimizes the requirement of specialized cataloger/indexer skills. The important observation is that key words serve not only as indexing mechanism, but also as an identification mechanism, especially via concatenation and as support for a searching mechanism. By deliberately separating these multiple uses, the modifiability and ease of growth that current libraries require, is achieved

Outreach 2002: A collaborative schools project

In 2002, QUT Library conducted Outreach 2002, a collaborative trial project in which teaching staff from the Library and MacGregor SHS (MGSHS) developed models for the design, development and delivery of information literacy within the senior school curriculum

Digital libraries and information literacy issues within virtual learning environments : an e-learning impasse?

The DIDET digital library and VLE approach places much of the responsibility for managing the digital library work flow into the hands of students, as well as academics and librarians. Student responsibilities include the application of metadata, as well as conventional information literacy competencies such as ascertaining information resource provenance, investigating intellectual property rights and/or digital rights management implications, before depositing digital resources within the library. This has obviously laid bare numerous research issues relating to future digital library and VLE design, student information literacy, the use of ICT in education and design, and related pedagogical issues, all of which are worthy of further investigation within the UK HE community and will be elucidated in this paper. More importantly, this paper will argue that such a model signifies a definite impasse in the evolution of e-learning models and questions the degree to which current information literacy models are effective in specific e-learning contexts. The paper will conclude by further recognising that greater student information literacy skills are necessary to unlock the potential of such radical approaches to e-learning and digital library creation

Can you hear me now? Creating a Library Class in an LMS to Reach Out to Students

In the Fall of 2016, SWBTS (Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) Libraries designed a Library Blackboard course into which all students would be enrolled. The course was not a class for which students were physically present and received a grade. This class served as an online resource for assisting students in building research skills as well as a place that students could discover library services. This essay covers the design and layout of this course as well as how it has impacted library services

Digital libraries: What do users want?

This is the post-print version of the Article of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2006 EmeraldPurpose – The purpose of this study is to determine user suggestions for digital libraries' functionality and features. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was conducted as part of this study, in which users' suggestions for digital libraries were solicited, as well as their ranking opinions on a range of suggested digital library features. Findings – The study revealed that, regardless of users' information technology (IT) backgrounds, their expectations of digital libraries' functionality are the same. However, based on users' previous experiences with digital libraries, their requirements with respect to specific features may change. Practical implications – Involving users in digital library design should be an integral step in the process of building a digital library – in addition to the classic roles of evaluation and testing. Originality/value – In previous digital library user studies, users were involved implicitly (e.g. observed) or explicitly (e.g. diary notes). However, they were never asked to suggest digital library features or functionalities, as this was left to usability and domain experts. This study approached digital library design from a new perspective, giving users an opportunity to express their suggestions on future functionality and features of digital libraries. Moreover, in contrast to previous work, this study has explicitly taken into account the IT abilities of those interacting with a digital library

How the Open University library uses Facebook Live to reach, engage and support students

The Open University’s Library Services (http://www.open.ac.uk/library/) has a specialist team of 7 librarians, the Live Engagement team, who design and deliver real-time online teaching using Adobe Connect. There is a programme of generic library and module-specific sessions. Whilst we reach a lot of students through these sessions, we like to try out new ways of engaging with students and hope to reach those who don’t attend formal library training