Clair Castle and Mike Todd-Jones in the chemistry library.
Head librarian Clair Castle says that library access varied a lot of the past year in response to all the changes caused by Covid restrictions, and she and Deputy Librarian Mike-Todd Jones thank everyone for their patience and cooperation with the hurdles. Access to our library varied over 2021 alongside the changes to social distancing guidelines. Fortunately, that meant that the space was open to more and more users as restrictions gradually lifted. By the end of the year, the library was mostly used as a venue for supervisions.
It is unknown what new challenges 2022 will bring, so, if you'd like to use the library then check the 'Welcome to 2021-22' page. This has the most up-to-date guidelines on who can use the library, when operational hours are, and what services are available. Clair notes that one small helpful thing that users can do is to search this page for answers to questions as a first resort.
One of the highlights of the last year for Clair was transferring the graduate training courses from in-person to online. Normally, these cater for around 90 students per year and, this year, Clair had the programme up and running online for a smooth introduction to the facilities.
With more and more services going online, the library resources are no exception. A useful webpage to bookmark is ‘How to access online resources remotely’. Clair emphasises that she is happy to be contacted if you are having difficulty accessing texts using the online resources; they can be a bit fiddly.
And finally, an exciting new addition to the library space is the electronic legal deposit terminal which has access to a lot of extra content. The phrase to look out for when searching for materials is "Online access restricted to designated PCs in the UL and most Faculty and Departmental libraries". As the library is now affiliated with the University library, we are now entitled to a copy of everything that has been published in the UK by a publisher. For more information on when this terminal will be available for use and how to print from it, check out the Chemistry Library blog.
Many happy returns for 2021!
