#DULibIntroducing Kate Williamson

In the next of our series introducing members of staff, #DULibIntroducing meets Information Assistant Kate Williamson.

Kate Williamson (and Archie!)

Please tell us your name, full job title, and a brief description of your role.

Kate Williamson, Information Assistant. I work at the Bill Bryson Library in a customer service role. You will usually find me at the Help and Information Desk helping with queries, finding books for people, fixing printers, and passing out the ever so popular staplers and pens. I am also part of the team that processes resource requests, which is our service to help provide staff and students with Scan and Deliver requests, Postal Loans, Inter-Library loans, and book purchases through our Acquisitions team.

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Study skills guidance

We have a wide range of guides available to help our users get the most of what Library and Collections offer. These include:

  • Subject guides
  • Site guides
  • Service guides
  • Archives and Special Collections guides
  • Museum guides
  • Research skills guide

The research skills guide offers advice and support on finding and managing information, keeping up-to-date, and the subject guides point to the different resources available for staff and students working in particular disciplines.

Until recently, one area we felt we were not offering specific support for was study skills – but that has change now, with our newest guide!

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Graduate intern update: Elisabeth

Graduate intern Elisabeth Prestgard updates us on what she’s been up to in the last month or so…

Hello everyone! Since I last updated you there have been many changes that I’d like to tell you about. Now that the new term has started, the library is open for all students, and as a result it has become a lot busier. When I work at the help and information desk, there are a lot more students queuing up and asking questions. Providing frontline customer service is one of my favourite tasks, because I get to assist people while learning more information about the library. With all the students now allowed in the library, I actually get to see what the library was like before the pandemic!  

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5 things I wish I had known about library e-resources as a student

By Customer Service Advisor and postgraduate student Gracie Sharp

Navigating the vast array of physical and electronic resources offered by the library can be a daunting task for many students, and it can be hard to keep track of where to find this information in the ocean of university emails we receive on a daily basis. I know from personal experience that as a student sometimes you just don’t have the time or mental energy to devote to finding these resources, and that’s okay.

Since becoming a Customer Service Advisor at the Bill Bryson, whilst also studying for a master’s degree, I have become more aware of certain, very helpful, e-resources offered to us by the library. Which is why I’m writing this blog post as a low down of some online resources that just might make your life a bit easier.

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The importance of being eBooks

Although academic eBooks have been around for years, current circumstances have meant that they have very suddenly become more important than ever. Reduced access to physical collections and distance learning have resulted in eBooks becoming an ever-more vital format. Earlier in the year, during lockdown in particular, our acquisitions team wrote about how things had rapidly changed for them with ordering items to support research, teaching & learning at the university.

Even well before the Covid pandemic we have seen over the last few years how increasingly accessing a key text in e-format has become the favoured option amongst taught students in some subjects. And as a result, for some time now we have been purchasing our key texts in electronic format to meet that demand, where possible.

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Ask DULib: Our Virtual Enquiry Desk

It’s very easy to still think of libraries in purely physical terms. You walk in  – (lidded) coffee in hand – tip your hat to the friendly librarians, and pull a beautiful, hard-back tome from the shelves, feeling primed to escape into its milky white, or perhaps slightly yellowing, pages. Delightful.

pexels-photo-768125
Photo from pexels.com

As you can probably tell, I get a lot of joy from working in a place that holds so many physical books, but as a Library intern this year, I have also found it really exciting discovering the joys, practicalities and usefulness of the “virtual library”.  Our online resources are constantly expanding and evolving, with new e-books and online access being made available weekly, if not daily, in our catalogue.

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