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Convergence,

de-convergence and

super-convergence –

Library Services at King’s

College London

Gavin Beattie

Associate Director, Research &

Learning Liaison

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Outline

• King’s College London

• Library Services at King’s

• De-convergence, super-convergence

• Research and Learning Liaison

– Library Liaison Managers

– Information Specialists

– Collection development

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King’s College London

• Founded in 1829, one of top 30 universities in the world

• Fourth oldest University in England

• Multi-disciplinary

• Top seven in the UK for research funding

• Over 25,000 students from 140 countries

• Part of King’s Health Partners AHSC with Guy’s & St

Thomas’, King’s College Hospital and South London &

Maudsley

• Five campuses in London – the most central University in

London

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Library Services at King’s

• King’s was founded in 1829, but Library Services has

only been in existence since 2011

• Six libraries, plus Special Collections and Archives

reading rooms

• 2 million printed volumes, access to over 50,000

journal titles

• 1.5 million visits annually

• Almost 2 million books borrowed annually

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Library Services in the King’s structure

• Formerly Library and IT functions were integrated as

Information Services & Systems (The L word was

banned!)

• De-converged from IT and ‘super-converged’ into

Students and Education Support Directorate (SESD)

• SESD covers the whole student lifecycle from

Admissions to Graduation

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Library Services at King’s - 2013

• Higher profile

• Library budgets have more protection

• Record investment in materials over the past two

years – following a period of decline

• Learning more about the wider Directorate –

Admissions, Student Admin, Student Services,

Governance, Quality and more

• However, having to renegotiate our relationship with

IT Services post-divorce

• RLL still liaise on behalf of IT

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New (ish) Library Services structure

Director of Students &

Education Support

Director of Library Services &

Employability

Research & Learning Liaison

Customer ServicesInformation Resources

Archives & Information

Management

Careers & Employability

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Research and Learning Liaison

Associate Director, RLL

Library Liaison Manager (IT

Training)

Library Liaison Manager (Learning

& Teaching)

Information Specialists – Arts &

Sciences (x5)

Library Liaison Manager (NHS)

Information Specialists – Health

(x5)

Library Liaison Manager

(Research)

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Library Liaison Managers

• Library Liaison Manager (IT Training)

– Manages our IT training programme

– Provides support for college-wide training system

– Manages a Library of software

• Library Liaison Manager (Learning & Teaching)

– Line management for the Arts & Sciences team

– Overview of L&T support

– Skills and curriculum integration

– E-learning

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Library Liaison Managers

• Library Liaison Manager (NHS)

– Line management for the Health team

– Manages relationship with NHS partner trusts (King’s Health

Partners)

– Keeps up-to-date with NHS developments

• Library Liaison Manager (Research)

– Lead for Research support

– OA, CRIS, Repository

– Collection development

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Information Specialists – changing roles

• Subject specialists → Liaison / support / training

– Traditional roles focused on developing Library collections

– Now emphasis on relationships, promotion, supporting

students and staff, training as well as ensuring collections

meet academic needs

– Members of Education Committees, Staff-Student

Committees etc…

– Most have or are working towards PG training qualifications

– Collection development is shared with academic Schools,

Information Resources staff, library users

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Collection development

• Reading lists and requests from academics go

directly to Information Resources

• ISs still do some selection, and also liaise with

departments to maintain wishlists for e-resources

• Move towards demand driven acquisition (DDA) of

ebooks

• Inter-library loans are now free

• However – King’s is a research University and it is

still important to spend time building research

collections

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August September October November December January February March April May June July

DDA E-Book Expenditure 2011 onwards

2011-12

2012-13

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Current structure for RLL

• Retains the traditional and valued named contacts

• Managers have functional responsibilities so develop

knowledge and expertise, give advice to Library

Leadership Team and champion new developments

• Recognised leads for important areas

• Information Specialists get so busy with their schools

and departments it can be difficult for them to engage

with projects and new initiatives

• Streamlined processes for collection management

save time, but have reduced our subject knowledge