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The focus of the Library's 2009 Staff Conference was on Seeing the Bigger Picture: Celebrating Diversity in Libraries.
As stressed by the keynote speaker, Paul Sturges of Loughborough
University, this theme encompasses both the increasingly diverse
backgrounds of library users and the need to cater for a wide variety of
learning styles - printed materials alongside computers, private space
for individual work alongside group study areas.
Seminars and workshops on this and other strategic developments were followed by teambuilding workshops - these included architectural model making ("Grand Designs"), a botanical tour looking at plant diversity, and imaginative ways with icing sugar ("Ready, steady, ice - the return"), as well as library-related themes.
Michael Jahn, who has retired after 40 years as History Subject Librarian, had a long association with UCL. This began in 1962 when he came to UCL as an undergraduate and continued, with a short break working in other libraries, until July 2009. Michael was a true subject specialist, able to draw on his academic expertise - his MPhil thesis was on suburban development in the second half of the 19th century - to support staff and students using the Library's History and related collections. Further details of Michael's career at UCL can be found in the Summer 2009 issue of the Library Newsletter.