Academic Staff Guides
Academic Liaison Librarians
If you need additional support, please email your Academic Liaison Librarian: alls@londonmet.ac.uk
How Academic Liaison Librarians (ALLs) can support your teaching?
ALLs support the teaching, learning and research work of the University by offering the following services:
- library orientation/induction for new members of staff and ongoing support for existing staff
- inductions, library tours, and information literacy teaching for students of all levels
- training in the use of reference management software
- advice on identifying resources to support your teaching
- advice or training on the creation of reading lists
- attendance at course committee meetings
- production of library resource statements for course validations and accreditations
- advice on copyright
- advice on digitisation (scanning) chapters and articles for modules via the reading list system
- identification of Open Access resources specific to subject areas
- we produce subject guides to key resources in subject areas across the schools
- access to the Special Collections
- teaching sessions on using primary resources from the Special Collections
Contact your ALL to arrange information literacy sessions for your students, tailored to the needs of the course, module, assignment or project and delivered within the course timetable. We generally find that a series of short sessions are more effective than one long session. The TUC ALL also offers training and advice on information literacy centered on the use of special collections.
Commonly covered in information literacy sessions are: plagiarism and referencing, literature searching, practical demonstrations of search techniques and tools, managing references (free software), obtaining materials from other libraries and accessing other libraries, searching the internet and critically evaluating sources, using primary sources and copyright.
ALLs are happy to provide refresher sessions and appointments for staff and their students.
The University has had a reading lists system in operation since the beginning of the 2018/19 academic year. Lecturers are expected to update their module reading lists in advance of teaching, giving sufficient notice for Library Services staff to be able to review the list and make any acquisitions for items not currently in stock. Be aware that items only available in print format may take weeks to be delivered and thus available to students from the library shelves. Please indicate whether items are core or additional reading as this assists the students and allows Library services to prioritise budget spending. Please avoid recommending out of print items to students as they may find it difficult to obtain copies.
For more information see the Reading lists: a guide for academics.
We encourage you to discuss new resources with your Academic Liaison Librarian. Ideally most new items for modules should be added to reading lists prior to the start of the new academic year, but be aware that the reading list system allows for reading lists to have items added during the course of the academic year; just remember to select 'publish' once you have made your additions.
The University has an Educational Recording Agency (ERA) licence and a subscription to BoB (Box of Broadcasts) National, a shared online off-air TV and radio recording service for the UK higher and further education institutions. BoB currently contains an archive of over one million recorded programmes and allows staff and students to choose and record broadcast programmes from over 60 TV and radio channels, which are then added to the online archive with no expiry date.