go. Like the library it is right at the heart of the campus.”
Paperless environment
The student centre has taken a major step away from paper resources – there are no print collections at all. However UCL has been investing heavily in its digital offer for over a decade and Paul says there were no qualms about taking that decision at the planning stages.
“We started an initiative in the library to provide digital readings for our stu- dents of all the core material that they would need to use as part of their taught courses,” says Paul. “We have been working on that for about 10 years, but it was scaled up to mirror the student centre development.
“We have a digital version of the reading list and, with various licences and agree- ments and copyright clearance charges where applicable, you can provide digital readings to registered members. We have now covered around 67 per cent of all modules offered in UCL with digital read- ings, and that’s quite a high percentage. Not many universities in the UK can say their online readings for taught courses reach that level of penetration.”
Digital-centric
The majority of the library service’s £8m annual budget goes on digital resources, so the trend is embedded. Paul says: “That gives me confidence that a paperless environment will work because so much of the core reading list is already available digitally and will be available across the student centre through wireless networks and hardwired computers at the student centre. At the end of the day, there are so many paper libraries close to the student
24 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
centre that students can always make the short walk back to the library if they need a paper copy of something because they can’t get the resource digitally.”
Paul explains how library staff supported faculty through the move to a digital-cen- tric reading list, saying there is now buy-in across the teaching staff. That buy-in was crucial to a successful implementation and Paul says: “Lots of advocacy from our teaching and learning support team with academic departments and with individual academics. Helping them convert their lists to digital readings, finding substitute read- ings if the original required reading was either not available or copyright clearance was too expensive to justify the purchase.
“We also had lots of student support for
it. The development of the service was really championed by the students, because they were the ones who said ‘This is how we want to use our learning resources’.”
What students want
Emphasising the idea that students and the student experience are driving UCL’s future is clear. The National Student Survey (NSS) has been invaluable in moulding both the strategic future of UCL and the new student centre – which is in large part a response to the need for more learning spaces across UCL. The student centre does not end UCL’s development and Paul says the university is already looking at the prospect of “another building of that capacity and sophistication to carry on meeting student need”.
Research experience Paul Ayris
While there are no plans to dramatically increase the numbers of students at UCL, currently around 40,000, there is a desire to further improve the quality of the offer. There is also recognition that the new centre is largely, although not exclusively, meeting the needs of taught students. The next strategic elements will be trying to bring another 1,000 student learning spac- es online and better supporting postgradu- ate research (PGR) students, whose needs are different to those on taught courses. Paul said: “I’m looking at two things for what happens after the student centre and one of those is how do we improve the research experience for taught and post-graduate research students. We do make some provision for PGRs already but it is not enough. That provision is through- out the campus.
March 2019
UCL Learning Centre
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