Supporting student success

Colleagues in LCCOS are developing innovative approaches to service delivery in partnership with students, to help them achieve their academic potential and thrive at UCL.

Case studies

• Support for the use of Generative AI in learning
• Women, the workplace and UCL’s eugenics legacy

Support for the use of Generative AI in learning

LCCOS has continued to prioritise support for student success through further development of guidance on the use of generative AI (GenAI). Following our publication of UCL guidance on Acknowledging the use of GenAI and referencing GenAI in September 2023, a focus in 2023-24 has been to expand and develop related guidance on other elements of the library research process.

Development of our guide to Generative AI and library skills in 2023-24 enabled its full launch in September 2024 and it is a core resource linked from the UCL Generative AI Hub. It aims to outline the capabilities and potential for use of GenAI in the library research process, but also highlights the need for caution and critical evaluation. The guidance includes:

• Limitations of GenAI in the library research process
• Generative AI as a source of information
• Generative AI summaries
• GenAI-assisted searching
• Effective prompting

The guidance on acknowledging the use of GenAI and referencing GenAI has also been refined to clarify that GenAI should be acknowledged where it has been utilised as part of the process of creating academic work, and that the nature of the task determines whether it needs to be acknowledged or not.

In addition to the online guide, support for the use of GenAI has been developed through:

• Good Academic Practice in the Use of Sources: an online tutorial launched January 2024, which includes guidance on using GenAI as a source of information.
• Incorporation of related guidance and support where relevant into library training sessions.
• Monitoring and evaluation of the integration of GenAI in library resources, with guidance and training developed accordingly so students and researchers can utilise them effectively, for example ProQuest Research Assistant.
• Advice and tailored training and support on copyright in relation to GenAI, with general guidance on GenAI and copyright in development.

The LCCOS AI Group continues to monitor developments, assess impact and recommend priorities for awareness and adoption of GenAI across LCCOS.

Women, the workplace and UCL’s eugenics legacy

As part of ongoing collaboration, the Special Collections team works with students undertaking UCL East’s Public History MA each year to deliver projects that benefit both students and the LCCOS community. In the Second Term of 2023-24, one of Special Collections’ projects partnered with the Eugenics Legacy Education Project (ELEP) to explore the role of women working in UCL’s Galton Laboratory during the early 20th century. 

Jo Baines (Academic Liaison Librarian / Archivist), who led the project, was inspired by ongoing work from Project Archivist Leah Johnston to uncover the role of women working in the Galton Laboratory. Jo thought that the Public History project could be a great chance to highlight the Galton Laboratory publications recently digitised by the Special Collections team and develop this research into the printed collections alongside the archives research already being undertaken.

Six students worked on the project with Jo between January to April 2024. The group researched the women working on the Galton Laboratory publications, edited Wikipedia entries, and devised two workshops to present the results of their research.

The students also worked with student journalist Defne Kutay to discuss their work. Defne noted how the group uncovered evidence of women’s unaccredited labour throughout the Galton Laboratory:

“Throughout their research, students have noticed that very few academic papers published by the laboratory were authored by women. In most cases, papers were co-authored by other men, such as the director of the laboratory Karl Pearson. Yet in the body of the text, references were given to numerous women contributors who were actually the ones doing the calculations.”

(Defne Kutay)

The workshops run by the students were hugely successful, with particular credit going to Mad who designed the events in a way that encouraged dialogue across the UCL community. The students also made space for guests to view the physical publications alongside highlighting the digital resource, noting that the physical evidence helped to show the realities of eugenics research.

Public History co-lead Dr Anna Maguire reflected on the project:

“Being able to work with UCL Special Collections and the ELEP team provided students with a fantastic opportunity as part of their group research projects on the MA Public History to undertake significant original research and shape our historical understandings of UCL. Students were able to develop their abilities to work through difficult subjects and communicate painful legacies in a supported environment and were empowered to act as historians in the real world.”

(Dr Anna Maguire)

The collaboration will have a long-term impact on both Special Collections and ELEP. Special Collections are reflecting on feedback given as part of the project about content warnings and how to deal with challenging themes in heritage material, and ELEP are also using the project as one of their signature case studies. Jo and Leah are continuing to work together on resources and research about UCL’s eugenics collections – ensuring that LCCOS can have a positive impact on UCL’s challenging institutional history.