UCD Library Newsletter - Winter 2014

Issue 3

UCD Library Newsletter January 2014 www.ucd.ie/library

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Winter 2014 Newsletter

WELCOME In this New Year issue you will find news of our welcome programme for new students, as well as features about a major new collection of new images in UCD Digital Library and a major new Dr. John B. Howard cultural heritage University Librarian, UCD collection, the Thomas Kinsella Collection. We highlight a range of service improvements for our users including the introduction of online fines payment, improvements in the wireless network and provision of power sockets, extended selfservice provision and our pilot of early opening at the James Joyce Library. We report on the continuing success of the Library Link space and the learning supports being offered there and also introduce the findings of a survey of our users concerning priorities for library space development.

There is much else besides and I hope that you enjoy reading this issue.

UCD Library

Subject Guides Your one-stop shop for quality information in the arts & social sciences

http://www.ucd.ie/library/supporting_you/guides/

libguides.ucd.ie 2

A new collection & a new exhibition for Special Collections

THOMAS KINSELLA: THE POET AND THE BOOK An exhibition of highlights from the Thomas Kinsella Collection is now on display in the Special Collections Reading Room, James Joyce Library.

This collection, donated by the poet to UCD in July 2013, contains approximately 700 items, mostly books and pamphlets, with some ephemeral material. The books form a discrete collection reflecting the phases of Kinsella’s career in poetry.

The exhibition takes visitors through various periods of Kinsella’s career. It includes his first publications in the UCD student publication of the 1950s, the National Student, his work published by the Dolmen Press, including Another September, Three Legendary Sonnets and The Táin, publications from his own Peppercanister Series and items of literary criticism and anthology.

On November 14th a large gathering of invited guests assembled for the official opening and preview of the exhibition.

At the launch UCD president Hugh Brady formally accepted the collection and expressed the University’s gratitude to Thomas Kinsella’s daughter, Sara O’Malley, and his son, John Kinsella, who both represented the Kinsella family.

He was followed by Dr. John Howard who spoke of how the collection complemented the existing literary collections in the Library, including those of Patrick Kavanagh, Mary Lavin, Frank McGuinness and the library of Austin Clarke.

Irish Times Poetry editor and Chairman of Poetry Ireland, Gerard Smyth, described UCD as being a leading centre of Kinsella studies and mentioned the work of Gus Martin, Maurice Harmon, Caitríona Clutterbuck and Lucy Collins.

On August 13th 2013, Thomas Kinsella visited UCD Library Special Collections to formally donate his personal library to UCD. He is pictured, above, with Dr John Howard, the University Librarian and below with his wife Eleanor and daughter Sara, and with Eugene Roche, Ursula Byrne and John Howard from UCD Library

Sara O’Malley conveyed the good wishes of her father, who, she said, valued his book collection as a record of the emergence of a new generation of poets in the post-Yeats era, and as a record of the establishment of a new form of professional literary publication. Given his connections with UCD over many years, he considered that he could not have found a more meaningful place for his collection.

This exhibition, which was curated by Dr. Lucy Collins, will continue until spring 2014 in the Special Collections Reading Room, James Joyce Library.

The private launch of the exhibition Thomas Kinsella: The Poet and The Book was held on November 13th in the James Joyce Library. Evelyn Flanagan, Special Collections Librarian and Dr Hugh Brady discuss the exhibition (above) and below members of Thomas Kinsella’s family in the exhibition space in Special Collections

THOMAS KINSELLA: THE POET AND THE BOOK Exhibition

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS READING ROOM JAMES JOYCE LIBRARY, UCD

Celebrating the very generous gift of the personal library of Thomas Kinsella to University College Dublin

Opening November 15th Mon-Fri 10.00-13.00 & 14.00-17.00 Further information and enquiries: http://www.ucd.ie/library/kinsella special.collections@ucd.ie or (01) 716 7067

Further details are available on our website at www.ucd.ie/library/kinsella

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A major addition to the UCD Digital Library

PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE DESMOND FITZGERALD PAPERS

By Seamus Helferty, UCD Archives This collection of almost one hundred and eighty photographs, mainly from the studio of W.D. Hogan, came to UCD Archives in the papers of Desmond FitzGerald. As Minister for Foreign Affairs, FitzGerald was responsible for the operation of the Free State Publicity Department, directed by Seán Lester; and it is safe to assume most of the photographs in this collection originated from the work of the Department.

A soldier on duty outside a ruined building (1916) http://digital.ucd.ie/view/ucdlib:30688

While there are small groups of photographs relating to the Easter Rising and the war of independence – and the photographs of Sackville Street/O’Connell Street in the immediate aftermath of the Rising are particularly redolent and atmospheric – the majority of the photographs were taken during the civil war and are a uniquely valuable visual diary of that most unhappy period of modern Irish history.

Given that the photographs were commissioned by the Government’s Publicity Department, it is hardly surprising that a significant proportion of the civil war photographs depict the mayhem and destruction wrought by the actions of anti-Treaty forces – the destruction of the FourCourts at

“..the photographs were taken during the civil war and are a uniquely valuable visual diary of that most unhappy period of modern Irish history.” the outbreak of the Civil War being the most spectacular example –and the disciplined operation of the Free State Army. There is a major series of photographs of troops preparing for action, on guard and defensive duties, particularly in the aftermath of attacks by anti-Treaty forces, operating artillery, on patrol in the countryside and on board ship preparing for coastal landings.

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Hogan was not an embedded war photographer in the modern sense. Many of the photographs are taken in the aftermath of military engagement, when groups of civilians, particularly small boys, congregate almost immediately, curious and at ease. The comfortable interaction of the civilian population with Free State forces can be seen as a constant theme in many of these photographs.

Labour Commission and Cork LCC, Town Hall, Cork (War of Independence) http://digital.ucd.ie/view/ucdlib:30703

Irish Free State Army officers standing at ease and smiling outside a heavily fortified building (Civil War) http://digital.ucd.ie/view/ucdlib:30760

Irish Free State Army soldiers grouped behind heavy field artillery (Civil War) http://digital.ucd.ie/view/ucdlib:30731

Photographs held by University College Dublin, UCD Archives. Published by UCD Digital Library.

The demeanour of the civilians pictured in the almost thirty photographs taken by unidentified photographers during the period of the pogroms in Belfast, is altogether different. Disconsolate groups of women and children are photographed in the ruins of their burnt-out houses; or evacuating their homes in panic, loading their furniture and possessions onto carts.

The collection also contains some images of Irish Army units in more formal poses, including an interesting panorama of the first IRA unit in Irish Free State Army uniform (4 February 1922) and a fine group photograph by the Lafayette studios of the officers and men of the Army Equitation School, possibly taken at the time Desmond A large, jubilant group of Irish Free State FitzGerald was Minister for Defence (1927-32).

Army soldiers and civilians (Civil War) http://digital.ucd.ie/view/ucdlib:30750

A final group of portraits and photographs of historical occasions from 1921-2 includes interesting images of Harry Boland with Ernest Blythe, Michael Collins in sporting mode with a group of Kilkenny hurlers, and the former UCD premises at Earlsfort Terrace during the Treaty debates.

Left: Badly damaged buildings and people looking among the ruins (1916) http://digital.ucd.ie/view/ucdlib:30695 Middle: A large group of people, mainly children, standing in a street of terraced houses (Civil War, Belfast) http://digital.ucd.ie/view/ucdlib:30829 Right: The Four Courts : view across the roof tops of Usher’s Quay and Usher’s Island (Civil War) http://digital.ucd.ie/view/ucdlib:30710

HIBERNIA : Historic Ireland’s Built Environment and Road Network Inventory Access Data recovered from the project “Historic Ireland’s Build Environment and Road Network Inventory Access” (HIBERNIA), which had been a web enablement of two earlier inventories: the Dublin Environmental Inventory (DEI) and the Dublin Docklands area master plan inventory (DDAMP) (both undertaken by the School of Architecture, Landscape and Civil Engineering, University College Dublin).

The combined inventories include historical, geographical, and architectural information collected from 1993 to 1995 for 1,280 of Dublin’s buildings. http://dx.doi.org/10.7925/drs1.ucdlib_24080

5 Digital images: © University College Dublin, National University of Ireland, Dublin.

A much-requested service goes live

All libraries now have machines

On November 20th a long established wish to provide online fine payments was achieved.

Samantha Drennan, Head of Library IT Services, collaborated closely with Bridin Walsh and Cormac Shaw from IT Services MSU on this project and fines payment is now fully integrated into the UCard system.

For semester 1 we went live with self-service kiosks at our Richview and Blackrock sites for the first time, and all of our libraries now have this provision.

ONLINE FINES PAYMENT

Library users can now pay library fines online using their UCard. They can initiate a payment by accessing their UCard account: SISWeb/Infoub > “My UCard” tab > “Pay a Library Fine”

SELF-SERVICE LOANS

The self-service kiosks enable us to maintain our service quality with fewer staff, and also enable our users to borrow, renew and return items during unstaffed service hours.

There was a promotional campaign to encourage use at the new locations, and across the service over half of our circulation transactions are now self-service ones.

Alternatively, they can view their Library Account in the UCD Connect Library tab and initiate payment there.

An example of promotion of self-service - plasma screen marketing at the Blackrock Library

Our users make their priorities clear to us on a mobile chatterboard piloted during November

A major promotion of this new online facility will be undertaken this semester

AND GOING LIVE JANUARY 20TH...

Online Group Study Room Booking 6

Users’ top priorities are addressed

A pilot at James Joyce Library

In surveys and informal feedback the practical issues that our users bring up time after time are a wish for more plugs to allow for the number of mobile devices now in use in the libraries, and improvements to the network in the libraries, particularly the wireless network at James Joyce Library.

As part of our Strategic Plan we are committed to developing and implementing policies that provide for optimal library opening hours. One of the most obvious problems we wanted to deal with was lobby space congestion as users wait to gain entry to the James Joyce Library at 08:30 – particularly during the pre-exam periods. In consultation with our colleagues in Buildings and Services we opted to pilot 07:00 am opening from November 13th.

POWER & WIRELESS

Following the addition of over 100 power sockets in January, mainly to levels 3 and 4, in August we added nearly 200 further sockets to desks, this time mainly in the Level 2 lakeside area of James Joyce Library..

And, like other locations on campus, the Library has benefited from the IT Services move to UCD Wireless.

An informal survey on the James Joyce Library spaces in November elicited many comments which show that our users have noted and appreciate the increase in socket provision, but this is still the number one item on our user wish list and, as many indicated in comments, the ideal now would be to provide one socket on every individual study desk – when asked to prioritise essential features of a study space 78% of respondents included a power source in their top 4: power was also the number one facility required in group study rooms.

EARLY OPENING

This service enhancement proved very popular with users and we saw numbers availing of the early opening increasing as we approached exam time: by early December we had up to 370 users in the building before 08:00 am. Our access control system allows us to analyse who is using the space and we noted with interest the significant number of students following taught post graduate programmes who are “early birds”. We will be reviewing the early opening pilot in January and given its success we would hope to be able to offer this service again in the pre exam period for Semester 2 Some comments from our users: “Excellent idea. It now accommodates people who prefer to start their days early as well as those who prefer to do work in the evenings” “The early opening time also allows students the opportunity, who have a high volume of lectures and workloads, to get assignments etc done before 9am lectures interrupt, whereas previously there was only a 30 minute window to do this” “I think the 7am opening of James Joyce is fantastic” “It gives students who feel they work better earlier in the day a chance to get study done before classes begin. It is also quieter and easier to get a good seat”

The importance of still more power sockets was highlighted by users in our space survey

“Please have this year round” “I know that it is easier to study earlier than later; the extra hours are helpful” “Great idea. Our course has 3 8am lectures during the week so it’s very helpful”

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Introducing academic information

THE LIBRARY WELCOME FOR NEW STUDENTS As always the Library, and our Welcome Group, put a lot of planning effort over the summer into our welcome for new students, and delivered a comprehensive welcome package during September.

Our Aims

• Reach all students new to UCD including Undergraduates,Postgraduates, International, Mature, Access and other student groups; • Present the Library and Library staff as friendly, approachable, helpful and informative; • Present the Library as a necessary and integral part of University and academic life; • Work as closely as possible with academic and administrative units across UCD; • Embed the Library into UCD Orientation; • Provide an Orientation programme that is part of UCD Library’s Service Plan.

Librarians provided Mature Students with four customised hands-on training sessions as part of their “writing academy” presemester 1. The Client Services team provided 7.5 hours of dedicated tours for “Access to University Students.”

“I just wanted to write so that you can be absolutely certain that your contribution to this year’s access students is of enormous value, and crucial to their success in UCD. Some of our learners may never have been inside any library, much less one as formidable as ours.”

Thomond Coogan, UCD Adult Education Access Co-Ordinator

Promotional Materials

An interesting array of cost effective promotional materials was developed to engage our users and raise the profile of UCD Library.

Andrew Slattery of the Library Welcome Group, with one of the winners of our goodie bag

Web & Social networking

Library banners and display units were all updated this year

Widening Participation

Orientation activities were planned that would ensure students falling under the “widening participation” umbrella could access Library services and begin University on the best footing possible. College Liaison

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We created an engaging online presence attracting new & current students to UCD Library. Our website, Facebook and Twitter campaign disseminated key information about our services, facilities and staff.

Collaborating across UCD

We created positive working relationships with other Units in UCD and ensured the Library was fully embedded into the University Orientation schedule.

New Student Information Desk

The New Student Information Desk provided a physical presence to welcome and engage new students to the James Joyce Library, raise awareness of library services, and field basic library-related questions. All UCD Library Units provided excellent staff for the New Student Information Desk and there were 1521 visits.

The New Student Information Desk at James Joyce Library, a prominent location near the entrance

Collaboration brings results

LEARNING SUPPORT @ LIBRARY LINK Library Link (http://www.ucd.ie/library/ supporting_you/support_learning/ librarylink/), an enclosed space on Level 1 of the James Joyce Library, continues to be used very successfully, with the Maths Support Centre continuing delivery of their extensive and popular programme, and for the first time the Writing Support Centre sharing the space to deliver their 1-1 tutorials Feedback from students in November showed that the location for student supports was popular, and students also made useful suggestions regarding other supports that could be located here and stressed the need for additional promotion of the services.

Library Tours and Visits

Library tours and visits welcomed and oriented students to the physical spaces, services and staff in UCD Libraries. These were an embedded part of first year programmes. Client Services staff provided tours of the James Joyce Library. All student Peer Mentors provided library visits for their first year groups. 194 students attended staff led tours of James Joyce Library and 2,350 students were brought to their Library on a Peer Mentor Library Visit.

The room, equipped with projector, whiteboards, mobile tables and around 50 chairs, can be booked without charge for individual presentations at select lunchtime or early evening slots: if you are interested please contact libadmin@ucd.ie “Invaluable resource. Library a suitable location, bright and warm.”

“Excellent idea to centralise supports” “I find the maths support centre especially helpful the staff are always happy to help...” “..excellent idea - the writing support really helped me with my essays”

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Feedback from 1,100 users

THE LIBRARY THAT LISTENS: WHAT 1100 OF OUR USERS WANT FROM LIBRARY SPACES A series of user feedback activities, planned for the 2013/14 academic year, kicked off

whiteboard (chatter board) which we piloted for the first time.

We received 1,100 responses, 84% of whom were from undergraduate students. Although all UCD Colleges were very well represented, the majority of respondents (53%) were from the Colleges of Arts & Celtic Studies and Human Sciences. The results provided useful feedback and broad indications of spaces our James Joyce Library users would like to see us develop in the shorter term.

General findings 91% of respondents liked the refurbished spaces, with the Library Hub, our social learning space, being the most popular. One user said it was “very welcoming, gives a sort of ‘exclusive but for everyone’ feeling which makes me proud to be able to use it” Suggested improvements included more seats, more power, having social learning

One of the promotional items for the monthly focus

with a November theme: The Library that Listens.

We asked users for their opinion about the development of new types of study spaces, developed as part of the recent refurbishments in the James Joyce Library, and what their preferences are for developing new learning spaces in the future. We provided a questionnaire (online and print) along with the option of filling in their “library wish list” on a mobile

Students filling out our space questionnaire

spaces on each floor of the Library, and providing similar comfortable spaces for quiet study, throughout the Library.

Most users (72%) like the location of the Maths and Writing Support Centres in the Library Link. They suggested other similar services they’d like to be provided here, or in adjacent locations, inc. – English improvement, chemistry support, revision and referencing support etc.

Users giving their views on the library chatterboard

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They also would like: more tutors available; longer sessions; a better booking system; and services be better advertised. – See the item on Library Link - page 9

When we asked users to suggest the next refurbishment project, based on a list of the spaces they themselves use in the Library there were two clear preferences: refurbishing the general study spaces around the library was selected as a first choice by 73% of students and the first or second choice of 62%; While creating an enclosed silent study space somewhere in the Library was the first or second choice of 58% There was a lot of interest in a completely new type of Library space – presentation and practice rooms More bookable group study rooms are needed –64% of respondents reported having some group work as part of their assignments, yet 31% couldn’t get a room when they wanted one. Improvements that would make these rooms meet user needs include: more power sockets; whiteboards; and large screens to share presentations. (The Library Hub space was also popular for casual group work).

Users would like relaxation areas in the Library where they can eat, drink and make phone calls: some users would like a formal study area of the Library too where drinking coffee and tea is allowed There was strong support for increasing the number of PCs provided in the Library, notwithstanding the high mobile device ownership in evidence.

There were also interesting individual comments and suggestions for future consideration, covering everything from bean bags to relax or snooze, to “study with a baby” rooms.

During November we also took the opportunity to promote our Chat service this service has expanded to include Health Sciences and Richview Libraries and to remind library users about the ‘Comments and Suggestions’ option (online and print) via our website or using our suggestions boxes at all sites.

TRAINING THE TRAINER FUNDING An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.

(Benjamin Franklin) In December 2012, UCD Library was awarded three tranches of funding as a result of three submissions to the UCD Staff Development “Training the Trainers” budget. The flexibility this gave to the Library was crucial to us due to the training requirements which resulted from the recent realignment of Library staff and services as part of a Strategic Planning process.

Library advocacy/user needs, qualitative data handling and GIS support were the three projects supported by this funding.

In all the submissions, the Library was keenly aware of the needs of our user community and we attempted to fully utilise this funding to upskill relevant staff in ways which could transfer across the Library and also operationalise and realise- in a short period of time- the requirements and promise of new services as detailed in the Library’s strategy.

From January to December 2013 the initiatives were rolled out. Intensive followup work, networking and evaluation were required by the Library to ensure that benefits we had confidently predicted in the submission stages came to pass. However, life would have no enjoyment if everything ran to plan, and the Library tussled with the usual set of “challenges” prevalent in running these kinds of projects - key staff left at key moments, unexpected delays arose due to peaks in workloads and unavailability of staff, and changes to service provision necessitated a reorientation of proposed training.

Yet, in keeping with the Robert the Bruce ethic that prevails currently within the Library, “if at first one does not succeed try, try again”, and the Library has enthusiastically availed of the opportunity given to us by this funding.

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Addition to history of UCD Library

RCScI LEDGER UCD Special Collections recently acquired an accessions ledger from the Royal College of Science for Ireland (RCScI) and the early years of UCD from the Taoiseach’s apartments on Merrion Square.

education in Ireland with its emphasis on practical teaching and laboratory based learning. It also made important societal contributions with it’s strive towards gender equality.

First page of accessions ledger 1907 The RCScI accessions ledger

These buildings originally housed the RCScI from 1911 until they were closed during a bomb scare in 1922 and then part of the building was taken over for use as offices by the Free State government.

The RCScI existed between 1867 and 1926, and grew out of the amalgamation of the Museum of Modern Industry with the Government School of Science applied to Mining and the Arts. Its first Dean was Sir Robert Kane who had set up the Museum of Modern Industry in 1846, and who’s lobbying for a higher scientific institution in Ireland - along with recommendations that a College of Science be set up from the 1864 Report of the Select Committee - led to its existence. In 1924 control of the college was given to the Department of Education.

The University Education Act passed in June 1926 brought about the incorporation of the RCSI into University College Dublin Faculty of Science which remained in Merrion Street until the 1960s, when it relocated to Belfield. UCD School of Engineering occupied the Merrion Street location until 1989 when it moved during renovations to government buildings.

The RCScI made a very important contribution to the development of science

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The accessions ledger records all the books purchased by the RCScI from August 1907 until July 1923 with the final entry being Leonard Eugene Dickson’s History of the theory of numbers.

The entries do not resume until July 1930 indicating that the library may have been in abeyance for a period of 7 years.

The final entry recorded is in October 1954.

This is a very important addition to the history of UCD Library.

Invitation to join informal group

LIBRARY USER PANEL Interested in providing feedback on UCD Library? Join our new mailing list • We will seek informal feedback on particular services or ideas for innovation - a few times a year • We will provide informal lunches from time to time to thank those who participate If you are interested in joining the panel and being added to the mailing list • Please email outreach@ucd.ie • Use the subject heading “User Panel” • Include your status and your subject of research or study where relevant

Long-term identifiers made easy

UCD Library has joined leading international libraries and data centres in becoming part of the California Digital Library’s EZID service community. Membership in this service achieves an essential component of the strategy for development of the UCD Digital Library for compliance with international standards for long-term access to data and to enable data citation.

The EZID service enables assignment of two types of identifiers for persistent access to online data and information: DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) and ARKs (Archival Resource Keys). DOIs are widely used in scholarly publications as a means of providing a network address that will reliably connect users with publications in the long term; they also therefore enable reliable citation of publications. The DOIs assigned through EZID, however, are intended to facilitate persistent access to and citation of digital data. These DOIs relate to DataCite, a service that has been established to help researchers find, access and reuse data of all kinds. ARKs are widely used in the library, archive and museum communities for identifying and locating digital data; they can be used “behind the scenes” to facilitate management of components of datasets that would not appropriately be cited on their own. Their use can, then, be complementary to the use of DOIs.

“By subscribing to the EZID service, UCD Library becomes a service provider to the UCD community at large for registration of digital content with DataCite and for assignment of DOIs to data of all kinds” explains UCD Librarian John B Howard. “The EZID service provides the flexibility of using both DataCite DOIs and ARKs,” he continues, “and allows the assignment of distinct DOI

namespaces for the UCD Digital Library and the Irish Social Science Data Archive (ISSDA).”

DOIs will be assigned to all web-accessible data held in the UCD Digital Library. Initial use will be to identify datasets from Professor Debra Laefer’s Urban Modeling Group at University College Dublin and a collection of dramatic photographs documenting the aftermath of the 1916 Rising from the Desmond FitzGerald Collection in UCD Archives (see page 4).

The UCD Digital Library is an institutionally supported, preservation-oriented trusted digital repository that holds a heterogeneous collection of resources from UCD’s cultural heritage repositories and an increasing number of data assets captured or produced

by UCD research activities. It is accessible at http://digital.ucd.ie.

For more about the California Digital Library’s EZID service, see http://n2t.net/ezid.

For more about DataCite see http://www.datacite.org.

For more about DOIs, see the DOI Handbook, http://www.doi.org/hb.html.

Leabharlann UCD UCD Library

Library Book Bags €3 each.... two for €5 Fun or Formal Blue or Yellow ...

4 choices On sale now in UCD Library 13

Sculpture re-located to the Library

FLIGHT OF BIRDS The ‘Flight of Birds’,is now housed in the James Joyce Library. This beautiful bronze sculpture is the work of the well known Irish sculptor Jarleth Daly. It was created in 1974, just 5 years after he graduated from the Limerick School of Art. Located on Level 4, it now shares the space with our extensive ornithology collection, which includes the library of the late British palaeontologist, and curator of the Natural History Museum, Cyril Walker, and which was donated to UCD Library in 2009.

Our aim, as part of our refurbishment work, is to use colour, art work and exhibition spaces to enliven library spaces making them more inviting and inspiring. We are grateful to Ruth Ferguson, the UCD Curator who is helping us achieve this aim through the display of UCD art in the Library.

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A new comprehensive summary

UCD Library 2013-2014 plan

NEW LIBRARY GUIDE

OUR OPERATIONAL PLAN

A new overview guide on all aspects of the UCD Library Service is available in compact folded A6 format. You can view the guide online at http://www.ucd.ie/t4cms/Guide131.pdf or if you require printed copies for visitor packs please get in touch with libadmin@ucd.ie

The Library plan for the coming year is now available to view online at http://www.ucd. ie/library/news_publicity/strategy/library_ space/. A summary of our main achievements during the last year can also be accessed from this page.

The Library repeated its popular Lucky Dip at the UCD Open Day

A BUSY DAY IN THE O’REILLY HALL The annual UCD Open Day for prospective students, their parents and second-level educators was held on Saturday, 9th November in the O’Reilly Hall. As in previous years the Library was represented with a well-placed stall near the entrance and lots of free promotional material to give away. Over 12,000 visitors attended the event and we were busy from the start, fielding queries about our services and facilities, and conducting our Lucky Dip give-aways which included pens, pencils and our popular Library Book Bag. This sought-after bag proved to come in handy for holding all the literature and other material handed out on the day. To give visitors a flavour of our facilities, a laptop displayed a slideshow of images of the five library locations on campus, and allowed us to give short demonstrations of our catalogue and other resources to interested attendees.

The day was a success and is always a good way to promote awareness of our services to students well before they arrive to begin their university careers.

Look out for LibQual!

The Library will be running our main general survey of all users again this year to see how you feel the Library is performing and this will be running during the last two weeks of February, commencing February 17th.

Our monthly promotional focus for Jan. 2014

Ursula Byrne, Head of Development and Strategic Programmes is shown (right) with Sorcha O’Rourke, a 3rd year Social Science student.

Sorcha was the lucky winner of our prize draw for those filling out our space questionnaire in November, during Library Ireland Week, and was very pleased to receive her iPad mini.

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