Newcastle University

Outstanding Library - Outstanding Library Team!

The University Library has won the Times Higher Leadership and Management Award for the Outstanding Library Team.

The award was given for a range of initiatives that the Library has undertaken during the last year to improve its services to students and for rising effectively to meet their expectations.

The Times Higher judges were particularly impressed by the Library's innovative ebook service which has made available over 100,000 new ebooks. Students can browse the books online and have the option to continue reading them for up to a week, at which point the Library pays a fee to the publisher for the "loan". When an ebook has been used four times in this way, it is automatically purchased for the Library's permanent collection and then remains available to be used by any number of students at the same time. The service effectively allows students to determine which books the Library purchases, and enables the Library to respond directly and rapidly to their needs.

In making the award, the judges said that "... the Newcastle entry stands out because it puts students at the heart of changing one of the most fundamental library services and points the way forward for transformational improvement in access to information".