I recently visited University of Warwick Library to look at their researcher support. It’s great to go out and meet other colleagues and see what they are doing.
Like many other Universities, Warwick University Library was restructured into 3 divisions (Client Services, Academic Services and Digital Services) in 2009. Client Services supports general enquiries, roaming and customer service; Academic Services supports teaching & learning, learning spaces, subjects and research and Digital includes Archives, e-access and cataloguing and the Institutional repository (WRAP). WRAP is 5 years old, large and has 53,000 items, 8,200 of which are full text. The entries in WRAP are quality control checked by Library staff to make them as accurate as possible.
The Library webpages have recently been redesigned http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library
The Library research staff pages cover 3 main areas: Disseminate (open access), Collaborate (Research Exchange, Research Match etc) , Consult (getting published) http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/staff/research/
Warwick has learning spaces called grids eg the Teaching grid which is a collaborative space for academics and researchers who teach and Learning Grids which are flexible group study spaces on different sites with advisers. The Library manages these spaces and Library staff sometimes work in them.
The Research Exchange is a research community and network for Postgraduate and Early Career Researchers.
The Postgraduate Hub is a new work and study facility for all postgraduate taught and research students. is a new work and study facility for all postgraduate taught and research students.
Research Match (Currently being relaunched) enables researchers to find University of Warwick researchers with similar research interests, and start new interdisciplinary collaborations.
These booths are apparently the students’ favourite furniture.
Library Researcher Development takes place within the context of the wider University and the Library is willing to collaborate with other departments such as Careers & Skills and the Graduate School to have a presence in their skills programmes. I believe that Warwick’s variety of physical and online learning spaces and branding makes it successful.