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2020 Who we are and what we do

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Library Services at The Hive

We are based in our unique and award-winning building, The Hive, Europe’s first integrated public and university library.

We are a highly skilled team with a strong, collaborative ethos. We work closely with our users and each other to deliver high quality services.

Our mission, vision and principles commit us to aiding student success and academic scholarship, placing us at the heart of our learning communities and promoting accessibility, equality and diversity in all of our services.

 

 

Our leadership team

Dr Judith Keene

Director of Library & Professional Administrative Services, MCLIP

Judith is very proud of her team’s excellent services, and regularly writes and presents about leadership. She takes every opportunity to share our innovative practices and enjoys introducing visitors to The Hive. Judith’s PhD looked at environmental change since the last Ice Age, and she remains fascinated by the natural world.

 

Kate Courage

Head of Academic Engagement

Kate has over 20 years of experience in academic libraries, having worked at the Bodleian Libraries and at the University of Warwick, latterly as Academic Support Manager for Teaching and Learning. Her professional interests include Information Literacy pedagogy, improving the student experience and amplifying the student voice. Her particular passion is co-creation and she looks for every opportunity to work with students as equal partners to improve everything we do.

 

Sharon Stevens

Head of Open Scholarship and Content

Sharon joined the University from the Social Care Institute for Excellence, where she led the development of online resources and supported research teams.  Prior to this she worked in academic libraries in the UK, Canada and the NHS.  Having begun her career in academic liaison supporting teaching and learning, she moved into content development and research support, including supporting systematic review teams, the development of researcher skills and support for open scholarship.  

 

Libby Symonds

Head of the Technology Enhanced Learning Unit, MA, PGCLTHE, FHEA

With over 20 years’ experience in her field, Libby is passionate about improving the student experience through the use of technology. She is currently working on a range of projects that help students engage both on and off campus.

 

Dr Stephanie Jones

Hive Library Services Manager

Stephanie is an experienced customer services’ manager, having cut her teeth in catering and hospitality management. She turned to a career in libraries after teaching and studying for a PhD in English Literature, where she became passionate about engaging with resources and educating young minds.

 

Deirdre Windsor

Financial Administrator

Deirdre is an experienced administrator who keeps the whole department running with incredible efficiency. She manages our budget and provides expert support for our many and varied projects, from system tenders to advanced management information.

 

 

Our teams

Library Academic Engagement

Students need to develop academic skills to succeed at university and beyond. We work in partnership with our academic colleagues to support the learner journey and embed the right teaching at the right time in curricula. We are experts in helping staff link Resource Lists to teaching practice (video 5:53). We also work with our students to evaluate and design new and existing services, making sure the student voice is at the heart of everything we do.

 

Content and Open Scholarship

It’s really important that our resource collection meets the learning, teaching and research needs of students and academics. Through direct requests and evaluating curricula, student satisfaction and usage data, we’ve created a highly-used collection. A robust set of resources is only the start; we are committed to providing a great user experience across our online services and systems, so that resources and services are easy to find and understand. The right information is only ever a couple of clicks away.

We believe in the importance of open access research, both ethically and for its importance to the University. We manage a key piece of this puzzle – our institutional repository, Worcester Research and Publications (WRaP). We advise and support our academic colleagues on all matters relating to open access publication. We also manage our varied Research Collections and work with researchers on projects that use them.

 

Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Unit

Great teaching is great teaching however we choose to deliver it, and the University is known for its high quality learning experiences. We help staff embed digital practice into their teaching and support them to deliver technology enhanced educational design. We manage a range of tools, systems and processes, and deliver digital training skills to both staff and students.

 

Hive Library Services

Our front of house team pride themselves on their outstanding customer services for all users of The Hive, no matter their age or reason for visiting. We make the building a welcoming and accessible place for all. We also manage The Hive’s exciting events programme, so that there’s something for everyone, from Bounce and Rhyme to Professorial Lectures.