User Education

Inductions

In-person Library induction tours were held from Monday to Thursday in the first week of the Michaelmas Term 2021. There were six Library tours (three in the morning and three in the afternoon) each day, each lasting about twenty minutes. Students had the opportunity to familiarise themselves with, and ask questions about, the layout of the Library, the facilities and resources available, and in particular, the location of materials related to their own subjects.

At the request of the College Senior Tutor, we adopted a different format for organising the tours from our customary practice. Instead of specifying times for subject-based tours, the tours were voluntary, with students able to book them on Moodle. Consequently, student groups were a mix of different subjects.

Of 126 students who booked tours over the four days, 108 actually attended. On reflection, this new format for conducting tours was not successful. The number of students taking advantage of the tours was lower than expected, particularly in subject areas most populated with students, such as History, Mathematics, Economics and Engineering. Subsequently, some students requested Library staff to organise tours specifically for their own subjects. In view of last year’s experiences, we have decided to revert to our original format for Library tours, namely, groups that are timetabled and subject-based.

Janet Chow Academic Services Librarian

Dissertation Support Group

This year we decided to turn the virtual study groups that we offered during the pandemic into something more permanent. We felt that the structured work, positivity and peer support that was evident in these study groups would lend itself well to a dissertation support group. We decided to create something that was a combination of guided study sessions with some teaching elements. It ran once a week throughout the whole academic year, with extra sessions (requested by students) in both the Christmas and Lent holiday periods. The sessions were staffed by Rebecca Le Marchand and Adam Crothers.

The group was set up as a drop-in group with no obligation to attend every session. It gave students an opportunity to do a regular hour or two of work on their dissertations and discuss their work with each other. It also gave them a chance to set personal targets and mini deadlines for themselves. The group also benefited from some specific presentation sessions, each one focused on a different aspect of dissertation research or writing.

Some students started attending early on in the summer, but many more joined as the new academic year began. By the Easter holidays the group had 24 members. About 10 of these students attended most of the group sessions. A few students chose not to attend the study sessions but instead receive support by email and copies of the presentations. We also had some MPhil and PhD students attend who appreciated the structured time and sense of community within the group.

The group was a place where students could chat about how their work was going, articulate their problems and thereby clarify things for themselves. The students were tremendously supportive of each other, and the group quickly became a place where they felt safe to speak with honesty and always find sympathy and understanding.

The students who were involved in the group completed an anonymous feedback form after the sessions finished in June 2022. The feedback was very positive indeed. The vast majority of students found the sessions to be of the right length and frequency and they found that they got lots done. The presentations were also really well received with most students rating them at 4 or 5 out of 5 for relevance and usefulness. Everyone who filled in the feedback form said that they would recommend the group to other students. Rebecca Le Marchand won a Student Led teaching award as a result of this work.

Rebecca Le Marchand Library Assistant