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Welcome to the M25 Consortium Conference 2026

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Welcome to the M25 Consortium Conference 2026

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Hoping to bring you a little sunshine today

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Accurately tracking our member usage of online resources to be able to platform the service in comparison to other member benefits offered.

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Roadshows in the foyers ; library bingo; pop-up library desks, corridor chats ... all seemed to work and increased our usage stats

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We're getting less pushback on weeding, which is allowing us to make new study space available. Those new spaces are always popular and definitely get used more than the old textbooks did!

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We have for a number of years had a successful art in the Library initiative. This year after the restructuring we have found a way to continue this work. It brings student work in to the Library spaces and helps to create a strong sense of belonging!

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Developing new relationships with new structures

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Developing new relationships with new structures

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As we are moving into new ways of working with the establishment of a product management model within the newly formed directorate. We are finding some benefits of collaboration in that we have been able to make several efficiencies with server space and make improvements to our Library systems and some of their integrations.

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The Library is continuing to receive highly positive feedback from our students, with one student commenting in a recent student staff liaison meeting 'the Library has become our rock this term'. In terms of demonstrating the Library's worth to senior institutional managers such comments in public forums are worth their weight in gold!

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We are learning that meaningful improvements to the library environment do not always come from large-scale or high-cost initiatives. Small, incremental changes can have a significant impact too. At our library, efforts to clearly articulate noise policies, review signage and messaging to ensure consistency, and extend Friday opening hours by just one hour have all contributed to a more positive library environment.

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We recently celebrated 100,000 images from our Archives being uploaded and shared via JSTOR

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We've launched a new events programme, including a film club, Green Libraries week and crafting workshops - all ways to encourage wider use of our libraries and contribute to the wellbeing of our community.

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Delighted that the team were nominated in the Superb Support Staff category at this year's Student Awards. This award goes to a member or team of non-academic staff at any level who has gone above and beyond in providing support for students. Great to be acknowledged by the students in this way.

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Drop-in sessions facilitated by the library staff but not in the library space. Encouraging students (and staff) to take a break from their busy day for some mindful activities. More information in my Lightning Talk.

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We have started a project to conduct oral histories with our alumni and past employees to be part of our centenary celebrations in a few years time. It has been a real positive thing to mention we are doing (especially when HE is having such a lot of stressful things happen to it) and been really well received across the university

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A series of pop-up library stalls and drop-ins, sometimes alongside other student services, in a new central Learning Lounge space and other locations outside the libraries has been a good way of meeting students wherever they are studying, bringing library support to them and promoting our special collections.

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Our option to request postal loans via our Discovery has been a real success with our membership which is scattered across the UK. Free return of items for members also helps.

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Supporting University of Sanctuary status by offering library access to local refugees, and showcasing the institution's history around protecting those seeking asylum.

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We have a great focus across the organisation on wellbeing - so the library - which is multipurpose shared with teaching - hosts Yarn club, mental health cake gettogethers, international womens day chats etc. All good for raising awareness and putting the library at the centre of the organisation. Next step - to engage more students to come in and study. We are tiny (450 students) and they just come in one day a week.

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Following on from the success of staff residency programme, we have a new initiative aimed at our students. We invite students to create some artwork in response to a book they have found and used from the Library collection. They create an artwork which is displayed in the library and provide some brief context about the book and how they have used it. Displays last for 2 weeks and so far we have had a dozen students engaging in this project

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Increasing visibility through usage by various departments (Shut up and write sessions for FHEA) special talks in the library by experts, greater liaison with academics , moving displays closer to the front desk

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New research and publishing support in the library 

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New research and publishing support in the library 

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I'm in the process of setting up a research and publishing support services in the library for the first time, so alot of this has been learning as we go. We've been figuring out what academics really need, where we can step in, especially around open access support and the repository. We've been trying to build something that's genuinely useful rather than just focused on compliance. We're only 6 months in, so it's been a mix of quick wins and longer term thinking about what the service can becom.e

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Supporting students through religious festivals

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Supporting students through religious festivals

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We've worked quite closely with our Student Union to provide resources for students who might be fasting through Ramadan - as we are a 24hr library; students need to replenish themselves throughout the day in some format - we are trying to be mindful of the various accessibility needs across our diverse demographic and that libraries have multipurpose duty to provide all sorts of resources to support teaching and learning.