The Library April/May/June 2013
The library wrapped
Contents April/May/June 2013
The Library, Goldsmiths P
Evelyn Jamieson
UKSG Conference 2013 Bournemouth 8th – 10th April
Lucy Lambe Evelyn Jamieson
Managing Student Behaviour in the 21st Century
Helen Stephen
ALISS visit to Bethlem Archives and Museum Service
Lesley Ruthven, Nicola Stephenson
Goldsmiths Open Day, Saturday 15th June 2013
create a seamless instructional tool.
UKSG Conference 2013 Bournemouth 8th – 10th April
Earlier in the year I was awarded a sponsored place at the 36th UKSG (United Kingdom Serials Group) Annual Conference. The conference was huge (over 900 delegates) with a focus on scholarly information from the perspective of both academic libraries and publishers. Day One The first plenary sessions of the conference were focused on open access and moving forward from the Finch Report, with discussion of both Gold and Green open access models and how librarians can support open access at their institutions. There was the opportunity to attend two breakout sessions on Monday. The first I attended, writing and ethical use of sources in students’ work presented by Solveig Kavli from the University of Bergen Library was an excellent presentation about the construction and evaluation of an online information literacy course called Search & Write. The project was a great example of library staff working with academic writing support staff to
Day Two Two speakers stood out on Tuesday, from plenary session 3 ‘Digital Students: new learning and information habits’. The first was Lynn Silipigni Connoway who drew together evidence from several user studies she had worked on, quoting students whose preferences were clearly for the ‘convenient’ internet over the library that’s a short drive away. I thought Connaway’s call to action was particularly apt: ‘it used to be that the user built the workflow around the library, now we must build our services around the users’ workflow. It used to be that resources were scarce and attention abundant. Libraries were the only game in town. Today, attention is scarce and resources are abundant’. Joshua James Harding was the second stand out speaker, with his insights from the student perspective being a roaring success with the delegates. Speaking of his frustrations with current e-books that fail to meet his study needs, Harding surely provoked some serious thought from the publishers in the audience. As well as these inspirational talks about the future of libraries and academic publishing, I was also able to gain some practical knowledge that was relevant to my current role in serials. ‘TERMS and conditions apply: refining best practice in Electronic Resource management’ was a great introduction to the TERMS project which is crowd sourcing ideas for best practice. I picked up some valuable tips to take back with me, particularly about license negotiating and marketing. Day Three The highlight of Wednesday was Jason Scott from the Archive Team who proved to one of the most passionate speakers of the conference as he relayed the work of the archive team, a group who archive websites on the internet that are due to
be deleted, such as the entire usercreated content of Geocities. He convincingly argued that these seemingly meaningless personal websites are important cultural artefacts that need to be preserved for future researchers, and that we should not trust big companies to preserve these websites for us. I also attended a breakout session on Altmetrics by Mike Taylor and Paul Groth. The speakers were both fantastic, and really sold the uses and opportunities presented by the advent of altmetrics and its future development. Coming back from the conference, I tracked down the altmetric.org add-on we have on Scopus, and I’ll be watching with interest as the data grows. Thoughts Looking back at the conference, I must say I agree with everyone who told me about the high standard at UKSG: from listening to many experts I learnt so much in a short amount of time and developed whole new areas of interest that I’m looking into now. The conference had the right mix of forward-looking ideas and practical skills, and the knowledge I’ve picked up is already proving to be useful in my professional life. Presentations on Slideshare Presentations on You Tube (not all breakout sessions are included) UKSGLive blog Eve Jamieson
New library bag - £3.00
Managing Student Behaviour in the 21st Century – Understanding liaison and library strategy: Goldsmiths 26th April 2013 This CPD25 workshop, organised by our very own Elizabeth Williams, looked at managing student behaviour and setting boundaries to maintain an environment conducive to academic study. The day was split into several talks, including excellent presentations from Veronica Lawrence and Josh Paul. Ash Carlton, from ACENTERPISE, started the day by giving tips to aid assertiveness, conflict resolution, and emotional intelligence, and it is his talk that we are focusing on for this write up. He began by asking the room to describe our pet hates when it came to student behaviour. Lucy’s pet hate, when students don’t read signs, was addressed at the very beginning. Ash believes that students do not read signs anyway, and that they are a waste of time. There seems to be a lot of evidence for this, but they are useful for backing up
what you are saying when challenging student behaviour.
Our collection of pet hates set the scene for dealing with the issues relevant to us. Ash extracted three main categories of student behaviour: Thoughtlessness, Pathetic Helplessness and Arrogance. He then asked us to work in groups to advocate for our 3 imaginary students who embodied those behaviours. This exercise led us to a few justifications for our imaginary students: External Pressures, Environmental, Vulnerability and Just Having a Bad Day. It also allowed us to put ourselves in the shoes of the library user and realise that inappropriate or unacceptable behaviour probably doesn’t come from the nature of the student but from the circumstances. We then had a discussion on what we should do when dealing with this sort of behaviour, the main point being, “don’t take it personally!” We then discussed how cultural differences can lead to misunderstandings in customer service. So a well-meaning gesture like nodding your head when
someone is talking to you, might actually mean “no, no, no, no” to the person you are trying to help. Ash explained that some cultural differences in communication and body language can actually cause us to take a negative view of a situation unnecessarily. When students speak loudly or ask direct questions (instead of the extra polite way of asking questions in English using ‘can you’ and ‘may you’) it can appear rude or confrontational. It is important not to react negatively to these kind of behaviours, as they may purely be symptoms of cultural or language barriers. The second part of the morning session was about challenging and criticising students, for instance asking someone to stop talking in a quiet zone. We thought this could be really helpful with our summer patrolling. There were several dos and don’ts, but the most useful lesson of the day was the “Gears” system: 1. Say what is happening – “You’re talking in a quiet zone” 2. Say what you would like the person to do – “Could you keep your voice down or move to a group study zone?” 3. Tell them what will happen if they continue – “If you don’t stop, I’ll have to ask you to leave/get security” 4. Ultimate sanction/follow through – “Please leave.” This system gives the student every opportunity to back down and save face, and means you will probably not need to move beyond number 1 or 2. It is also simple and easy to remember. The workshop was a great opportunity to discuss the problems that all academic libraries are having. It gave us some solid strategies and techniques for dealing with
challenging behaviour and the Gears system has made us feel more confident when approaching students. Lucy Lambe, Eve Jamieson
ALISS visit to Bethlem Archives and Museum Service – Thurs 25 April 2013 http://www.slam.nhs.uk/ourservices/hospital-care/bethlem-royalhospital
fresh air has always been thought to be beneficial, the hospital moved: first to Moorfields (Finsbury Circus) in 1676 and then in 1815 to St Georges Fields (now the Imperial War Museum), to escape the growing development of London. The older hospital buildings were very grand. Drawings show the outside of Moorfields to resemble Buckingham Palace (except with Cibber’s statues of Melancholy and Raving Madness). On the current site each ward has its own single storey house among beautiful grounds. The statues are no longer at the gates but in the museum! In the 19th century the Bethlem differed from most county asylums in that they were very selective about the patients admitted, who: 1 2 3
Admissions Block © South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust 2013 This ALISS visit attracted library/information staff from a wide range of organisations including the National Portrait Gallery, the Zoological Society of London and the Royal College of Psychiatrists as well as academic library staff. The Bethlem Royal Hospital is the oldest psychiatric hospital in the UK and since 1930 has been on its fourth site in leafy Beckenham. Originally, part of a religious order, it opened in 1247 in Bishopsgate on the current site of Liverpool Street Station and after the dissolution Henry VIII made it one of five royal hospitals. As clean
were examined by two independent doctors; had to be thought to be ‘curable’; could only stay for 1 year.
However, there was a small ‘incurable’ ward and a unit for criminal patients until 1865 when Broadmoor opened. The artist Richard Dadd who murdered his father while mentally ill was transferred there, but the Bethlem has several of his paintings in their collection. The Archive and Museum Service do much education work both on site and in schools. To illustrate one type of group activity we looked at admission books from the late 19th century and did an exercise answering questions about a randomly chosen patient. There were separate books for male and female but otherwise the patients were entered chronologically. Our young woman teacher from Wandsworth was admitted with delusions thought to be brought on by ‘over studying’. She stayed for just
over a year including a few months at a convalescent unit near Goldalming and then was ‘discharged well’. Nowhere do patient’s records mention treatment. In the 1850s ‘treatment’ consisted of being in a calm, pleasant and mildly stimulating environment with recreational activities – music, gardening, sports, etc. There is no suggestion that patients were encouraged to talk about their feelings and distress, past experiences and problems.
display or research. However, next year the Archives and Museum Service is moving to new accommodation in the Admissions Block where there will be space for researchers and education as well as permanent displays and exhibitions. I hope ALISS will arrange another visit when this is up and running. Helen Stephen
We were also shown some of the collection of photographs taken of patients on admission and discharge in the late 19th century. These were used at the time for physiognomy studies.
Costa coffee machine and new rubbish recycling bins on the ground floor in the library
Goldsmiths Open Day Saturday 15th June 2013 11.00 – 16.00 Occupational Therapy Building After this we visited the tiny museum full of art work done and donated by patients and/or families. The art in the collection is online at: http://www.bethlemheritage.org.uk/galle ry.asp. There is also gallery space next to the Occupational Health building which runs a busy exhibition schedule http://www.slam.nhs.uk/about-us/artand-history/bethlem-gallery. Currently, much art and archive material is scattered in various storage places in the south east so is not available for
We had our biggest staff presence ever here on the Open Day on Saturday 15th June 2013. There were five of us giving tours of the library - Daniel, Shirin, Stephanie, Shazara and myself. Also, Helen and Craigie Lee looked after a library desk in the Great Hall and Lesley ran a Special Collections Event in the Special Collections Reading Room. We took round 122 people, 32 people visited the desk in the Great Hall and 115 visited the Special Collections room. Nick Holmes, who organised Open Day, has said he would like the library to have a stall in the marquee next year, which should bring us into contact with more people. Certainly, Helen and Craigie Lee marketed
the tours and Special Collections event and we had more visitors to the library than ever before on an Open Day.
overview/explanation of the collection. Comments
Special Collections Event Here are some extracts from Lesley’s report about the Special Collections Event:Format • Guests were brought to the Special Collections Reading Room at the end of their Library tour. • On arriving each group was welcomed to SC, told that these items are usually locked away in the store but were made available for them, and given a very brief overview of the collections on hand. • As guests approached a particular item I told them one or two interesting things about that collection. Collections • Items unsuitable for handling (those more prone to damage or theft) were displayed in the showcases, grouped by collection. These items were from Women’s’ Art Library, Goldsmiths Textiles College, Lloyd, MacColl/Seager and LIFT. • A wide variety of books and a few archive items were placed on the central table. Guests were encouraged to flip through them. These items were from WAL, Lloyd, MacColl, Oram, Special Collections and Showcases. • Each collection had an accompanying sign giving a brief
‘They were much more interested in what they could flip through than the items in the showcases (though being able to display fragile/rare items in the showcases was useful).’ •
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Visitors were getting tired toward the end of the day (had been walking around a lot) but were still interested in staying A few students wanted a chat about Goldsmiths in general. They seemed to really like having someone to talk to one-on-one and I think I did a lot to make them feel welcome and comfortable. Visitors tended to engage with items that reflected some aspect of themselves, e.g. a prospective student of Jamaican background went straight for a book of Jamaican folk songs and a Scottish father of a prospective student liked a 19th century of Scottish reels. These were good as they started conversations.
To consider for the future • Some students asked if there was anything for their department. Even though SC doesn’t represent every department, consider making sure there are some ‘literature’ books, media books (e.g. Terence Kelly Collection, Rossell Collection, Thomas Collection), LIFT papers for drama students, etc. This time I went with things I was most familiar with and ended up with a lot of art and music. • ‘The way we were’ (S 378.421 – book of photographs from Goldsmiths in the early 1960s) was
very popular. Prospective students and their parents in particular engaged with each other (and me) over this. Consider assembling photographs from the College Archive. Can be put on the table in one of the poster-hangers for protection. Unfortunately we all forgot to bring a camera, this year. Lesley Ruthven, Nicola Stephenson The Library April, May, June 2013 Edited by Nicola Stephenson n.stephenson@gold.ac.uk