University of Sussex Library

As noted in the previous bulletin, we have recently embarked on a major refurbishment project which is expected to last until spring 2011. Most areas of the building will be directly affected and some parts will be re-designated for use by departments previously sited elsewhere on campus such as the University bookshop and our Careers and Employability Service. Work will continue throughout the year and the programme is extremely tight, however, once completed we expect to be able to provide the best possible services to our users in an environment that meets the differing needs of all.

RFID

As part of the Library’s refurbishment project we are in the process of implementing RFID self-service technology supplied by Intellident. We have 4 SmartserveLite self service kiosks for issues, one with a cash and change payment module. A fifth, which also has a payment module, will come on stream in the next few weeks.  We also have a 6-bin self returns sorter which has 2 ‘sortation’ units, one of which is outside the security gates so that users can return items without coming into the library. The machine can sort up to 15 books a minute. All books are now arriving from our main supplier with RFID tags inserted and programmed. Over the summer we employed 12 taggers to work alongside our own staff tagging our book collection. Over 600,000 items were tagged in a three month period.  For DVDs we are using Intellident’s Smartsafer boxes. Our users have really taken to the self issue machines and with a little help from our staff soon become familiar with how to use the returns sorter. They can already see the improvement on our previous barcode based system of self issue and return, particularly since multiple items can now be issued at the same time and self service no longer involves lining up barcodes with scanners. The ability to issue and return items outside of staffed hours is also greatly improved.  We expect to achieve as near 100% self-issue/return as possible and see a significant improvement on the throughput for shelving. This will free up staff time for more pro-active user focused services and contribute to an enhanced user experience.

Effective Researcher seminar series

The Library has held a series of Roberts-funded seminars addressing some of the key issues for researchers, including demonstrating impact, changes to research assessment, managing and sharing research data and the move to open access publishing.

The seminars were open to everyone engaged in, or supporting, the research process at Sussex.

The seminar series proved to be an excellent and popular opportunity for researchers to update themselves on some of these important issues and to debate them with others across the University.

New catalogue is launched for Special Collections

For the first time catalogue records of the archival collections held in Special Collections in the Library at the University of Sussex are available from a single cross-searchable online catalogue using the CalmView interface.

The University of Sussex holds a number of internationally acclaimed archival collections, mostly relating to twentieth-century literary, political and social history. These include the papers of Rudyard Kipling, the New Statesman Archive, a series of collections relating to the Bloomsbury Group, including the Monks House Papers (Virginia Woolf), and the Leonard Woolf Archive in addition to over 60 other manuscript collections. We also hold the Mass Observation Archive which contains the papers of the social research organisation of the 1930s and 40s and continues to collect new material in the present day.

http://specialcollections.lib.sussex.ac.uk

Sally Faith
Jane Harvell
Adrian Hale