The SCONUL Focus, issue 69 2017, has articles from 4 SCURL member institutions: https://www.sconul.ac.uk/publications
Karen McAulay of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Gavin Willshaw of the University of Edinburgh
Paul Cannon of the University of Glasgow
Helen Muir of Queen Margaret University
Edinburgh Napier Iniversity Library has announced that the pilot for the new Group Study Room Booking System is now live and students now book the Craiglockhart Group Study Rooms online.
SLIC have trained over 160 library staff to deliver Code Clubs to 8-11 year olds and with over 50 clubs now introduced across Scotland and over another 60 planned.
SRUC and UHI have selected Encore Duet and associated products to provide resource discovery services with a live date in January 2018.
In April 2017 the RGU had a very successful Look Again festival with a range of activities both on campus and in the city centre. The festival was supported by Aberdeen City Council and Creative Scotland and many of the campus events were inspired by the University’s Art and Heritage Collections.
For the sixth year running the National Museum of Scotland is the most visited museum in the UK outside of London and is number 15 in the top 20 UK visitor attractions.
The Mitchell Library lent 80 photographic prints, albums and a city plan from the Thomas Annan Collections in Special Collections and Glasgow City Archives to the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. These library loans form the core of an exhibition “Thomas Annan: Photographer of Glasgow” said to be the first to surevy Annan’s career and legacy.
The OU Library Services has a specialist team of six Librarians who design and deliver “Live Engagement” events. The team are frequent contributors to the University’s Livestream events, and have run session on fake news and also referencing.
The UHI is a member of the Rowan Partnership with SRUC and participated in an APUC-facilitated mini-competition to procure a new Library Management System from the existing APUC framework. The contract has been awarded to Innovative for their Sierra system (May 2017) with an August 2017 implentation.
The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland has awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Dance to Darcy Bussell, former principal ballerina with the Royal Ballet.
The University of Aberdeen’s Sir Duncan Rice Library is exhibiting content from their Special Collections relating to cookery books. Modern recipe books regularly top the non-fiction bestseller lists and their authors, the “celebrity chefs”, are household names. This exhibition showcases a selection of cookery books and food-related pamphlets from the University of Aberdeen’s Special Collections. They date, predominantly, from the 1800s, a period during which a fashion and a passion for food was fed by the dramatic increase in book publishing. The names of the cooks may not be familiar, but their books sold like hot cakes.
The exhibition accompanies a touring display from the National Library of Scotland on the subject “400 years of Scottish Food and Drink.”
The University of Edinburgh is about to start anouther round of refurbishment of the Main Library building to cope with increased usage, increased student numbers and future changes of use of the space. Shepley Bulfinch architects from Boston were commissioned to carry out an occupancy review from December 2016 to March 2017. The review was used to support the case for funding to carry out design work in preparation for a major refurbishment and extension to the building. The University has agreed to fund the design work. It is expected to have a design team on board by early 2018.
The University of the West of Scotland is engaged in a design of a new Library and Maker Space for the Lanarkshire Campus which will replace Hamilton Campus and open its doors to students in August 2018.
The National Library of Scotland has welcomed Dr Hugh Dan MacLennan as their Sports Writer in Residence for one year from March 2017. The role is to promote Scottish sport heritage as a uniquely useful reminiscence tool.
The Library is continuing with the 5 year stock review to create space for new study areas and have refurbished and equipped 10 small group study rooms, adding these to the online room booking system.
The joint success of the University of Stirling and INTO University Partnership has led to the construction of a new three-floored INTO Academic Centre on campus. The Centre provides teaching and social learning space.
The University Library is planning for a refurbishment of the current ground/basement gloor to convert it to a public floor with 375 additional seats in 2019. This will necessitate moving a substantial number of Library staff, and the General Collections store, to the University’s new Eden Campus at Guardbridge, four miles from St Andrews.
The most recent Library redevelopment opened in July 2016 increasing capacity in the Library by over 250 seats with an active learning zone on Level 2 where students can configure the space to meet their needs.
The Main Library of the University of Dundee is undergoing £1.6m renovation of one floor in the summer 2017, bringing enhanced flexibility to match learning requirements.
Queen Margaret University hopes to embark on a review of the Learning Resource Centre in the coming year as the building has now been occupied for ten years.
The major £6m library building refurbishment programme has commenced and the programme will run continuously throughout the next two years consisting of five phases with each phase upgrading part of one or more floors simultaneously. Library stock will be rationalised to free up floor space for enhanced group study facilities, and completely renewing plant, furniture and fixtures.
The rebuilding of the Mackintosh Library carries on apace and the space will reopen in 2019. A prototype replica of one of the library bays is under construction to be shortly followed by a prototype replica of the chairs.
The Academic Liaison team are moving to a new space within the Library branded as the library Ask and Learn space. It utilises the mezzanine floor on Level 1 and the space includes 4 consultation pods at which the team will carry out appointments, drop-ins, and a teaching/seminar room accommodating 20 people.
Abertay University has embarked on Phase 1 of £4.5m refurbishment project encompassing all floors of the Library with a completion date of August 2017. Phase 2 will be completed in summer 2018.
One of the world’s largest collections of work by Glasgow Style designer Talwin Morris has been launched online by the Visual Arts Data Service (VADS) for free use in education and research at: http://www.vads.ac.uk/collections/GSATM.html
SCURL has renewed the subscription for 2017 to Project COUNTER so please make use of the content enabling you to count the use of electronic resources: https://www.projectcounter.org
The Digital Preservation Coalition event on procuring digital preservation solutions in Edinburgh on 21.03.17: book here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/procuring-digital-preservation-a-briefing-tickets-31962236911
Three SCURL members have contributed articles to the latest issue of SCONUL Focus, 68: https://www.sconul.ac.uk/page/focus-68