New learning spaces
Many of you have already been to visit the new library on our Docklands Campus.  The space is extraordinary, with a colossal open area flanked by the rising tiers of the library floors, containing books, study and social spaces. The ‘trading floor’ contains 500 PCs, configured into teaching pods and open access clusters. The building also contains the Business School, a 400-seat lecture theatre and the “Hub” with group study, media and skills development facilities.

Black History Month
The library was able to take a leading role in our university’s celebration of Black History Month in October. We arranged an exhibition of selected materials lent by Texas Southern University and from our own archives. Bernard Forrester, Archivist and Co-ordinator of Special Collections at TSU joined us for a week during Black History Month. He gave a lecture on “Black histories and the hidden mysteries of African Heritage” followed by emotive poetry readings and a debate on “Why, in celebrating black achievement, is it still important to study the history of the African slave trade and slavery?” Other events included workshops for local school children, and a seminar led by three black law lecturers from UEL.

Archives
We were fortunate to have acquired the Hackney Empire Archive and the LIFT Archive (London International Festival of Theatre) and have been awarded half a million pounds to create the East London Theatre Archive as part of the second phase of the JISC Digitisation Programme. We are leading a partnership including the V&A Theatre Collections, the Arts and Humanities Data Service and many remarkable local East London theatres.

Charter Mark
UEL achieved Charter Mark status in November, the first English university to attain the award as a whole institution under the new regulations.  Library services were specifically commended.

Information skills
We have successfully launched a new online course both on our public web pages and within UEL Plus, our University’s virtual learning environment. Additionally we have installed PLATO, a teaching package designed to encourage students to learn about referencing and plagiarism. We also continue to increase the amount of time our Subject Librarians spend delivering face-to-face training to students with 10% more sessions than last year.

Electronic resources
In August we launched a new front-end for accessing our extensive collection of electronic resources. After careful consideration we purchased a suite of products from Serials Solutions including an A-Z journals list, a federated search engine and an open-URL link resolver. While the usage of electronic resources has increased each year (indeed we saw a healthy rise of 64% last year), by making access easier and clearer for our users we anticipate further substantial increases.

 
Judith Preece
Docklands Library and Learning Centre Manager
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Gavin Beattie
Electronic Courseware and Resources Manager
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