Academic staff & researchers' guide: Support for Teaching

Resources are purchased from the Library budget which is allocated annually, or from funds provided by other sources, for example, directly from Faculties.  The Library Service endeavours to purchase material in the most appropriate and cost-effective way. 

There are three strands to the budget from 2020:

1. Subscription and continuous costs:  The largest proportion of the budget is committed to fund year on year costs, like journal subscriptions, ejournal collections, ebook collections, etextbooks and subject databases. 

The remaining budget is distributed between reading list and the non-reading list funds, using FTE and average books price calculations.

1. Reading Lists Driven Purchases:  The majority of purchases to support learning and teaching should be reading list led.  To that end, essential items on reading lists (linked to Blackboard) are purchased automatically as ebooks, subject to defined price ceilings.  Non-essential (i.e. background or suggested reading) will also be available via FINDit, but a purchase will be activated only after a defined number of accesses by students.  This model is often referred to as ‘demand-driven acquisition’ (DDA). To facilitate the streamlined purchase of ebook content all items recommended by module leaders should exist on an Aspire Reading List with an indication of their relative importance.
2. Non-reading List Requests: A smaller proportion of the library book budget is available to purchase non-reading list or books classed as ‘further reading’.  This will include print or ebooks that will enhance the collection, but are not linked to a module reading list.  This is managed by the Faculty Librarians in Library Services in partnership with staff within the Faculties and is also designed to support student purchase suggestions.  However, there will be regular reviews of the DDA spend throughout the year to ensure maximum spend by the end of the year. Any surplus could be used to support the purchase of non-reading list requests.

The financial year runs from 1st August - 31st July and funds have to be spent and items received in the Library by the end of the financial year.  Thus all print orders need to be placed by the end of May to enable funds to be spent before the end of the financial year.  No funds can be carried forward to another financial year.

Students enrolled on courses that use Blackboard can access their reading lists online, provided lecturers pass the information to the Library. 

The Digital Resources Librarian, Rachael Johnson, coordinates the creation of online reading lists and module links to it. 

Send us your lists
It is important to send us this information well in advance of the start of your module to allow us enough time to get books on the shelves or obtain electronic copies of material.

Online Reading Lists
We are now able to put your reading lists online and incorporate them into your Blackboard modules.

More information, including  "how to guides" can be found here.

The Library has also created a Youtube playlist to help you to create and edit your own reading lists.  You can access the online reading lists system here.   

If you would like to make your reading list available online please contact your Faculty Librarian.

As a member of academic staff you can recommend  books, eBooks or DVDs for the library to purchase.

New requests for journals and databases are also considered annually, but may have to be balanced by cancellations due to funding restraints.

Contact your Faculty Librarian to discuss your requirements.

You can also use the recommend a book form.

Arranging information literacy sessions for your students

Faculty Librarians provide Information literacy sessions for your students throughout the year.

These sessions introduce basic strategies for searching electronic databases, journals and the Internet.

We work with you to tailor the session so that it is relevant and subject specific. More advanced sessions can also be arranged for students about to start their dissertation for example.

Please contact your Faculty Librarian to arrange a session. As we aim to tailor these sessions to suit your students' needs we will need sufficient time to prepare.

More details can be found in our Information Literacy framework.

Our subject guides provide students and staff with key information about our collections. 

Each subject guide introduces key resources and the specialist support that the Library provides students and staff - books, journal articles, primary and specialist sources such as archives, government publications, working papers, legal materials and datasets.

If you want to discuss an exisisting guide or request a new subject guide, please speak to your Librarian.

BoB - On Demand TV & Radio for Education (Learning on Screen)

BoB is Learning on Screen’s on demand TV and radio service for education that lets you record and view TV and radio online from over 65 free-to-air channels including an archive of over 2 million programmes. View on campus or at home (UK only).

BoB is available to staff, students and researchers at member universities and colleges across the UK.

Complete programmes or clips can be embedded into Blackboard, see the BoB guide for further details. Find out more and login. 

Please keep your Faculty Librarian informed during the various stages of planning your course curriculum so that the best possible library provision can be made to support the courses.

New Courses

Normally the Library has available a contingency fund which is primarily used to support new courses or ones that have been considerably rewritten. You will find more details about this fund under the section on Funding and Budgeting

Similarly, it will help Faculty Librarians to make the necessary adjustments to the provision of library resources for modules or courses if you inform them when modules or courses are withdrawn from the teaching prospectus.

Validation Events and Professional Accreditation

To help you prepare for a new scheme validation, revalidation or professional accreditation visit your Faculty Librarian who can provide documentation on the Library and its services as well as information specific to the particular course or Faculty (including financial information). Contact your Faculty Librarian in good time so that up-to-date information can be prepared.

Your Faculty Librarian can also be present at the validation event to respond to issues about learning resources if required. As part of an accreditation visit, your Faculty Librarian can provide a brief tour and presentation of learning resources.

Please liaise well in advance of the visit so that this can be arranged.