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Doors open on new Library social learning spaces

Library ground floor

First thing this morning, the ground floor of Goldsmiths library reopened, on schedule, after a major refurbishment.

It had been closed throughout June and July, giving us time to take on board and implement feedback from our students and staff and create a new flexible, welcoming learning environment that supports the ways different people learn specifically for social and group study.

As with any university, Goldsmiths Library is the heart of the campus. It’s open around the clock, only closing at Christmas and New Year. It’s a go to place where staff and students can access services and resources.

It was important to us that provision of these was not interrupted, so we relocated the main entrance to the side of the building for the duration of the works. This gave us the fantastic opportunity to co-deliver services alongside our IT colleagues building on the brilliant relationship we already have from working together at weekends – Thank you IT colleagues for being amazing!

So what does our refurbished ground floor look like? We’ve gone for muted colours, plants and wood so the space feels calm and natural. Now when people arrive, they enter through new proximity reader access gates. Comfortable sofa areas have been created, where people can hold relaxed conversation and enjoy coffee breaks. There are window seats to take in the views of New Cross, which are already proving popular. And, if people prefer, they can use one of our new booth spaces with screens that provide discreet places to work together on presentations and essays.

All the feedback we’ve had from students and staff so far has been really positive about how the space looks and feels, which we’re thrilled about. But, as important as it is to create an attractive, welcoming environment, libraries have to work to support study. Alongside spaces for individual working they need to provide spaces that encourage creativity, collaboration and social learning.

The ground floor of Goldsmiths Library now has a proper events space. This will be used to increase the visibility of and access to our special collections and archives.

It will give academic staff and Post Graduate Researchers the opportunity to publicly share their work and build on the success of the popular Research Cafes. Here, students will have the opportunity for learning outside their courses and departments will be able to collaborate with the Library on events, such as International Games week. If you have ideas do get in touch with your Subject Librarian.

Flexibility and creativity are a key element of the new ground floor. We’re going to have a fantastic interactive installation that will encourage playfulness and give library users a way to engage with the space and reflect on their emotional wellbeing.

Our new maker space provides 24/7 access to a variety of equipment encouraging creativity. We currently have a sewing machine, binding machine and lots of paper based craft equipment and we’ll be developing the space with library users as we go. It’s a work in progress but more details are available at https://libguides.gold.ac.uk/makerspace

On the rest of the ground floor group study tables allow different sized groups to work together. Visitors can configure spaces to meet their own learning needs using the new flexible furniture and ceiling power units. We’ll be trying out different learning and teaching activities and we hope you will find new ways to work in groups too.

We are all delighted and excited by the Library’s new ground floor and are looking forward to seeing what you, our students and colleagues, make of it.

That work has completed on time is a tremendous relief and a great achievement. Thank you to our colleagues in Goldsmiths Estates and Facilities, IT services and to everyone who supported making this happen. We really appreciate the effort everyone went to, and I am sure students and staff will too now they are using the spaces.

Library staff carry out a variety of activities throughout the year to look at how the spaces are actually used by people and we collaborated with the Anthropology Department to observe student activity and use of the library spaces in 2017. Surveys, reports, complaints and compliments all fed into the project and our Subject Team works closely with departments on aligning library resources with the needs of the departments and their students.

Receiving and acting on user feedback has been crucial to this project. The next time you visit the Library, let us know what you think of its new entrance hall and the improved facilities we’ve provided throughout the ground floor social study area. Leave feedback at https://www.gold.ac.uk/library/contact/anonymous-feedback/

Improving the Library Social Learning Spaces

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During June and July we’re going to be refurbishing the ground floor of the Library.

A number of significant improvements are planned, but making these a reality will require all of the ground floor, including the Library entrance and café, to be closed for the duration of the works.

To ensure that students and staff are able to continue to access all the Library’s facilities, a new temporary entrance will be set up at the side of the building, opposite the Amazon Lockers.

At the end of July, when work is completed, we will have a wonderful new collaborative and flexible space on the ground floor that is full of life.

Improvements will include an events space allowing departments to collaborate with the Library on events and increasing the visibility of our Special Collections. A maker space will be created to encourage student creativity. There will be booths with screens for more private work and group study spaces with flexible furniture.

Why are we making these improvements?

Goldsmiths’ Library is open 24 hours a day. Only closing for Christmas and New Year, it’s seen as a ‘go to’ space where all students and staff can access services and resources.

Ensuring the Library is an attractive, welcoming physical learning environment that supports the way people learn is a key element of university life.

It needs to be able to support a range of online and offline activities that reflect the way students want to and are asked to learn.

Students are increasingly working together on projects. One of the aims of this refurbishment is to create flexibility and blended learning spaces that allow collaboration and exploration to happen while also motivating and inspiring students and being adaptable to changing needs.

Acting on student and staff feedback

We continually listen to student and staff feedback and use this to respond to student behaviours and needs, and adapt our spaces and services where possible.

Some of the different sources of feedback that we’re using to feed into the project are:

User experience (UX) activities
- Library staff carry out a variety of UX activities throughout the year to look at how the library spaces are actually being used by people
- Library Services collaborated with the Anthropology Department, MA Anthropology, to observe student activity and use of the library spaces in 2017
Student Feedback
- Student Library Reps (including reports from SLRs and focus groups)
- Departmental Representative Annual Reports (Campus Space 2018 and Student Communities 2019)
- PGT student experience survey
- PGR student experience survey
- NSS comments
- Complaints, compliments and comments (received through email, LibChat and staff feedback)
Departmental feedback
- Our Subject team works closely with departments on aligning library resources with the needs of the departments and their students.
- The Library User Group (LUG) is made up of academic representatives and students from each department. It meets termly to discuss Library development in line with their needs.
External factors
- Library Services commissioned an external consultant to audit and comment on the physical spaces at the Library with representatives from across the student body.
- We have visited exemplar libraries and looked at current trends in library and learning design to inform the refurbishment.
Library Statistics

Where are we now?

Right now we’re in the middle of appointing contractors to work on the ceiling, electrics and lighting over the summer.

We have already appointed CDEC to install the different technology we need, and BOF to work with us on the furniture.

Before Easter a group of us visited furniture studios in Clerkenwell to test some of the different furniture and help us refine what we’re going to be using in the spaces.

Benefits

When work is finished at the end of July, we will have flexible, technology rich social study space designed with student needs in mind and student experience at its heart.

It will be a focal point for study, events and student life that will give people space to think, explore and collaborate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The newly refurbished space will feature:

An events space
- providing an opportunity for academics and PGRs to share research publically, building on the success of our Research Cafes
- giving students the opportunity for learning outside their course
- giving departments the chance to collaborate with the library on events, such as the International Games week
- increasing the visibility of and access to our special collections and archives
A maker space
- providing open to all, 24/7 access to a variety of equipment
- encouraging creativity
Booth spaces with screens
- providing a discreet place to work on presentations
Sofa areas
- allowing relaxed conversation and comfortable coffee breaks
Flexible furniture
- enabling people to configure the spaces to meet their own learning needs
- enabling us to trial different teaching and learning activities
Group study tables
- allowing different sized groups to work together
An interactive installation by Random Quark
- encouraging playfulness
- enabling library users to engage with the space and reflect on their emotional wellbeing

Alongside the fully refurbished ground floor, improvements will be made throughout the building that will positively impact on the student experience.

These will include powered doors to our Assistive Technology Centre, proximity readers and new access gates at the front of the building, plugs in the first floor silent study rooms and the post graduate room on the second floor, a new exhibition space and improved furniture in the Prokofiev room.

The provision of Library Services is not, of course, exclusively down to the physical building, furniture and equipment. It is enhanced and created by excellent resources, workshops, events, teaching, staff support, professionalism, technical expertise and people.

We will continue to deliver and build on successful initiatives and activities that happen in the Library, such as our Academic Skills Drop in sessions, Research Cafes, Workshops, Ask a PAL sessions, Art space sessions and one to one tutorials and be open to new ideas, working with you to co-create a collaborative environment.

The next few weeks may be a little disruptive but we will have much improved facilities as a result and will be able to deliver an even better student experience

We’ll keep you posted!

Building a modern law library

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We start teaching LLBs at Goldsmiths in September 2019. We’ve not done so before. How then were we to build a law library from scratch? What could we do without? What were must-haves? Are there advantages to brand new collections? Are there disadvantages?

For a start, our collection, like our LLB itself, is very forward-thinking. It wouldn’t have been right if we tried to duplicate old law libraries with shelf after shelf of collections of law reports, legislation and paper journals, all gathering dust through lack of use. Buying all the physical sets needed for such a collection would have been very difficult to justify, especially in a time when, for environmental reasons amongst others, we don’t want a hugely paper-based collection. In addition, space at Goldsmiths, like in most solicitors’ firms and barristers’ chambers, is at a premium.

Going digital

Law has always been ahead of the game when it comes to digital resources and so for many years libraries in law firms have been getting larger digitally, while getting smaller physically. Our collection very much mirrors that model. As a result, we have a very real-world collection, with a strong emphasis on digital resources.

Like most academic libraries we have subscriptions to Westlaw, Lexis Library, HeinOnline and Nexis. But unlike most academic libraries we have also gone for a subscription to Practical Law – a service which is heavily used in law firms. And now that Practical Law and Westlaw are partner databases, they integrate seamlessly.

We have also gone for large collections of eJournals and eBooks from major law publishers, eg over 1,500 OUP titles, over 3,000 CUP titles and all the newly published Hart eBooks. We are also one of the first universities to buy access to Sweet & Maxwell’s set of student eTextbooks (all of which are fully integrated into Westlaw, with hyperlinks from the text directly into relevant cases and legislation).

Fully available collection

We have made sure that all the modules on the LLB have core student textbooks available digitally, so that there will be no waiting to access these textbooks and you can access them from anywhere in the world. But don’t worry if you do prefer paper copies, we do have them too for these core student textbooks.

We do also have one set of law reports, a very key set – the All England law reports – in paper, so that students can get a feel for a physical set. But, as with most solicitors and barristers, our students will mostly use digital versions of law reports and legislation from our various databases.

Preparation for the workplace

Sometimes digital collections can take a bit of know-how to be able to use them fully. Students will be given as much help and training as they need from Greg Bennett, the law librarian, who has worked at magic circle firm, Slaughter and May and the Institute of Advanced Legal studies, amongst other places. So by the end of their time at Goldsmiths, students will be fully prepared to use the kind of legal libraries that they will have in their careers ahead.

The main advantages of our new collection at Goldsmiths are that it is fully bespoke to the needs of the students; it will teach them how to use the actual resources that they are likely to encounter in their careers; and it is friendly to the environment. You might consider that there is a disadvantage in that it doesn’t “look” like a traditional law library. But then, we at Goldsmiths, like to do things differently 🙂

LGBTQIA+ Month in the Library

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As part of LGBTQIA+ Month we are celebrating the contribution LGBTQIA+ communities have made to society through a series of events and initiatives.

12^th February 4pm -7pm LGBTQIA+ Art Film Lounge

In Special Collections & Archives Reading Room watch a selection of short films from Women’s Art Library on VHS! Current suggestions…

Michelle Naismith, ‘Rock my Prehistory’, 2000; Sadie Benning, ‘Me and Rubyfruit Program’, 1989-92; Vanda Carter, ‘Moth Fight’, 1985; and Charles Atlas, ‘It’s a Jackie Thing’, 1999, ‘Dyke TV’: ‘Dyke blend / Lesbian bed death / Disgraceful Conduct / Child of Mine / Shades of Desire’; and ‘Body of a Poet: A Tribute to Audre Lorde’

https://www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id=12275

13^th February 1-2pm LGBTQIA Research Café

In Library Social Space we have 3 Goldsmiths researchers giving 10-15 minute talks on LGBTQIA+ informed research.

Anna Carlile (Education) – Balancing equalities: LGBT+ education in schools serving faith communities
Benno Gammerl (History) – How same-sex love changed
Luke McGuire (Psychology) – Understanding and challenging sexual orientation and gender identity-based prejudice in childhood and adolescence

https://www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id=12246

13^th February 6-8pm Film Night – Watermelon Woman

Screening in Library Social Space of Cheryl Dunye’s 1996 film Watermelon Woman. Cheryl Dunye plays a version of herself in this witty, nimble landmark of New Queer Cinema. A video store clerk and fledgling filmmaker, Cheryl becomes obsessed with the “most beautiful mammy,” a character she sees in a 1930s movie. Determined to find out who the actress she knows only as the “Watermelon Woman” was and make her the subject of a documentary, she starts researching and is bowled over to discover that not only was Fae Richards (Lisa Marie Bronson) a fellow Philadelphian but also a lesbian.

Liberate All Through February (and beyond) – Music, Books, Films

Music:

A Spotify playlist of music by, about and for LGBTQIA+ is here https://open.spotify.com/playlist/49LfoLSwh5jKLsjf3JNF5I

Books:

Book display at the front of the Library and we have put together a LGBTQIA+ Reading List https://rl.talis.com/3/gold/lists/01D4C337-0E93-98BE-6B78-A54B6C001A55.html

We welcome futher suggestions for the Reading List and if we don’t have the book you can suggest we purchase it as part of the Liberate Our Library initiative https://www.gold.ac.uk/library/using/finding-resources/suggestions-for-purchase/item-request-form/

Films:

Kanopy Film list, if you miss any of the screenings we have or just want to see more you we have put together a list of films you can stream

https://rl.talis.com/3/gold/lists/BD6BED68-FA59-DFA6-D48F-5D2C1D5A4A4C.html

Welcome to the new gold.ac.uk/library

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Since the summer of 2018 we’ve been working on redesigning, reorganising and rewriting the Library section of the Goldsmiths website to make it easier to find information about the Library.

New design

The Library landing pages are in our new design for services and information on gold.ac.uk that are being rollout out this academic year (they are also on gold.ac.uk/it and gold.ac.uk/careers). These have been designed and tested, with the help of Library users, to highlight regularly used sections and bring forward useful information.

New page structure

Using the experience Library staff have of what students, staff and visitors want to know, and checking with our group of Library test users, we’ve reordered the pages. Much of the main information has been updated and rewritten to make it clearer.

Library Search

We know many people go from Google to the Library landing page and then into Library Search. You can now use Library Search straight from gold.ac.uk/library.

Opening Hours and Live Chat

Even through the Library is normally open 24/7 most of our Library test users said they wanted to know the opening hours. We now have them on the landing page, along with the green ‘Live Chat’ button so you can chat with Library staff during Help Desk opening hours.

Using the Library

This section has been expanded to cover everything you need to know about using the Goldsmiths Library, whether you a student, staff, alumni or a visitor.

It also has information on how to order items from other libraries, make suggestions for purchase, or the other libraries you can visit.

Subject Support

Goldsmiths has seven Subject Librarians who provide specialist advice across the academic subjects studied here. The Library landing page now has direct links into their Subject Guides. They are also on the new Subject Support section, along with who the Librarians are and further support and advice.

Special Collections

Goldsmiths Special Collections are unique and valuable resources. You can now access information on them from the navigation at the top of gold.ac.uk/library. We are going to be improving the pages for them, adding more information and details.

Were these changes helpful?

Most pages on gold.ac.uk/library now have a ‘Was this page helpful?’ box on the bottom right. Use this to send us feedback to help us to continue to improve the Library pages. If there is a problem please take the time to tell us, so we can look into fixing it.

Enhancing Academic Skills Spring Term

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The Spring term core workshops for the Enhancing Academic Skills programme start next Wednesday.

If you’re looking to brush up on your academic skills, there are four core workshops, each run twice. No need to book, just turn up to the workshop that interests you.

Do you want to know how to make the most of lectures and seminars? Or learn how to read and interpret texts for effectively? Maybe you need more help finding and using library resources? Or want to know how to write and plan great essays?

If you attend all four, you can apply for the Academic Skills Certificate, which can be included on your Higher Education Achivement Report (HEAR).

Check the dates/times for each session in the flyer below. All sessions at held in the Prokofiev Room, on the second floor of the library (top of the main stairs).

eas-both

Academic Book Week

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Next week (23-28 January) is Academic Book Week, designed to celebrate the diversity, innovation and and influence of academic books.

There will be a series of events around the country and you can keep abreast of developments by following the #AcBookWeek hashtag.

One initiative for Academic Book Week is to ask the public to vote for the most influential academic book on modern Britain from a shortlist of twenty, chosen by academics, most of which are available in Goldsmiths Library. These might be books that are on your reading lists or perhaps a title takes your interest. If there’s a title you feel strongly about, why not vote for it?

You can vote here and more information about Academic Book Week is available on its website.

The top twenty books that shaped modern Britain are:

A Brief History of Time (Stephen Hawking)
Gender Trouble (Judith Butler)
Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (A.V. Dicey)
Modern Ireland 1600-1972 (R.F. Foster)
Orientalism (Edward Said)
Poverty in the United Kingdom (Peter Townsend)
Purity and Danger (Mary Douglas)
Revolt on the Right: Explaining Support for the Radical Right in Britain (Matthew J. Goodwin and Robert Ford)
Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain (Peter Fryer)
The Double Helix (James Watson)
The English and their History (Robert Tombs)
The Female Eunuch (Germaine Greer)
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (John Maynard Keynes)
The Invention of Tradition (Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger)
The Making of the English Working Class (E.P. Thompson)
The Uses of Literacy (Richard Hoggart)
The Selfish Gene (Richard Dawkins)
The Road to Serfdom (Friedrich Hayek)
The Scottish Nation (Tom Devine)
Ways of Seeing (John Berger)

Using our reading list system, we have compiled an online reading list for this selection. Click on a title to find more information and real-time availability on the shelves.

There is also a display at the front of the library, including copies of each of the titles.

New Audiovisual Resources: Film Platform and Kanopy

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Following successful trials, the library has now subscribed to two new audiovisual resources; Film Platform and Kanopy. Both provide access to rare documentary films that might otherwise never be seen beyond the festival circuit, whilst Kanopy also provides access to arthouse film as well. Both platforms are well used by US universities but Goldsmiths is one of the very few UK universities using either, let alone both.

Film Platform

film-platform

Film Platform works with leading filmmakers to provide educational access to international documentaries that introduce new concepts, expose students to fresh perspectives and enhance classroom discussions. They work with distributors, such as Cats & Docs, First Hand Films and The National Film Board of Canada. Films are accompanied by study guides, including press kits, articles and interviews with both filmmakers and their subjects.

Film Platform works with academic advisory boards to ensure the films in their collection are suited to universities and their students. Chris Berry, formerly of the Media and Communications department at Goldsmiths, now at King’s College, is a board member.

You can search by film titles or browse by collections, and there are two ways of doing this:

Curated collections (curated by academic staff, researchers, festival directors), including collections on Perfomative Documentaries and Media/Activism
Subject collections, including Human Rights, International, Social and Political Affairs and Gender Studies

Films can be shared via social media/email and clips/playlists can be easily created. Academic notes and information about the film’s festival appearances and awards are also available.

To access Film Platform and start streaming, just visit the E-Resources A-Z list, choose ‘F’ and click on the link to Film Platform. Alternatively, use this link, ensuring you sign-in with the usual username and password.

You can see their latest trailers here. Information on how to stream films is also available here.

Kanopy

kanopy

Kanopy works with over 3,000 universities worldwide, distributing documentaries, indies and foreign films, classics and the odd blockbuster movie too! They work with distributors such as California Newsreel, Criterion, Documentary Educational Resources and Kino Lorber.

There are over 26,000 films in the Kanopy collection. You can search for titles (and Kanopy starts predicting results once you enter words) or browse by a range of subjects, including:

Film and Popular (including documentaries, early film, foreign language film)
Global Studies and Languages (including African studies, Asian studies, Latin American studies and more)
The Arts (including design, literature, music, performance art, photography, visual art)

Much like Netflix, results can be arranged by theme, e.g. race and class studies, gender studies, etc. Or when you search by topic, e.g. Russian film, there are numerous filters you can use to further narrow your search, e.g. suppliers, filmmakers, year of production, etc.

Each film has a transcript and you can click to any point in this transcript to skip the film along to this part. It can be shared via social media/email and also embedded into websites/VLEs. You can also create clips if you only need to stream a certain part of the film, and you can also add to playlists.

To access Kanopy and start streaming, just visit the E-Resources A-Z list, choose ‘K’ and click on the link to Kanopy. Or just follow this link and enter your username and password.

Help on using Kanopy is available here.

Art Films

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montage

To supplement our extensive audiovisual collections, we’ve subscribed to a number of video streaming services that provide access to rare documentary and feature films that will enhance your learning experience, but also just be enjoyable to watch.

Art Films is a platform providing content that can entertain, educate and inform. Art Films allows you to stream hundreds of exclusive educational videos from top artists and independent producers with unlimited, simultaneous usage.

You can search for a title that interests you but you might find the browse facility more productive. There are films in numerous art-related disciplines, which you can easily browse by, including:

Architecture
Communication/Culture
Dance
Design
Digital Art/New Media
Film/Cinema
Language/Literature
Media/Television
Music
Performing Art
Photography
Theatre
Visual Art

In the Film/Cinema section, there is a particular emphasis on Australia Cinema (Art Films is an Australian company), which includes access to almost every film by the late well-respected Dutch-Australian auteur, Paul Cox, whose films such as ‘Man of Flowers’ and ‘A Woman’s Tale’ won a number of international awards and helped raise the profile of Australian cinema.

To access Art Films on-campus visit the A-Z Resource List and select Art Films. You shouldn’t need your username and password on-campus. To access Art Films off-campus, use the following link. You will need to log-in with your username and password.

If any films are unavailable, please contact Kevin Wilson as these films can probably be activated by us.

Statista

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capture

We’re pleased to accounce that the Library has a new subscription for access to the Statista database, the fascinatingly addictive statistics portal. So if you want to enhance your essay with a population graph…

statistic_id381055_inner-london-uk-_-population-2014-by-borough