Library Support for Teaching and Research

Academic Liaison Librarians are specialists in their subject areas and are available to advise and support you and your students. You can get in touch by email at alls@londonmet.ac.uk 

ALLs can support your teaching and research in the following ways:

• 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 see- also Zotero: reference management software - Referencing, academic integrity and avoiding plagiarism - LibGuides at London Metropolitan University
• 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- see also Copyright and Intellectual Property - LibGuides at London Metropolitan University
• Advice on digitisation (scanning) chapters and articles for modules via the reading list system- see also Scans and digitisation - Reading lists: a guide for academic staff - LibGuides at London Metropolitan University
• Identification of Open Access resources specific to subject areas- see also Open Access - Resources for Research and Doctoral Students - LibGuides at London Metropolitan University
• 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 centred on the use of special collections.

Common topics in information literacy sessions

• Plagiarism and referencing.
• Literature searching.
• Practical demonstrations of search techniques and tools.
• Managing references using software like Zotero.
• 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's reading lists system, Talis, allows you to create lists of core reading (required, or mandatory reading), or additional reading for your module, or programme.

Through Talis you can order books, e-books, DVDs and other resources for your students for teaching.  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.

Although they are called 'reading lists', your list may contain a variety of sources including videos, web links, images, as well as links to books, e-books and journal articles.

Reading lists will be available online, accessed through WebLearn, or directly on London Metropolitan University - reading lists

They're a key way of encouraging engagement with resources as they let students plan their study with access to required module reading and can link to electronic resources and live library catalogue records.

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.  You can also add items throughout the course of the academic year but remember it may take some time for materials to be acquired.  Always remember to press Publish when you have made any changes to your reading lists.

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.