Information for Academic Staff

Library Services support your teaching and the curriculum.

In this section we will take a look at:

• How the Library Learning and Teaching team can support your teaching.
• Academic skills sessions to suit your students.
• Reading Lists
• Course planning and improvement
• Support for Collaborative Partner courses.

The Library Learning and Teaching Support Team (LL&T) of experienced Librarians and Senior Library Administrators are responsible for supporting the development of the information and digital literacy skills of our students throughout their studies, to enable them to become independent learners.

Our librarians act as library contacts for academic colleagues, and work with them to develop their students’ information skills. Each academic area has a designated subject librarian. 

Library staff offer targeted support designed specifically for particular aspects of the curriculum, organised in collaboration with academic staff, helping your students to develop the information skills they need for their course.

For example, librarians provide:

• targeted taught sessions on the skills students will need to find and use sources as part of a module. These sessions can be incorporated into your module timetabling.
• support sessions aimed at students working on a particular research assignment.
• specialised asynchronous resources to support students with literature searching or referencing in the context of their course.

Further information on what the Library can offer can be found in the Library Learning and Teaching Team Offer for 2024-25. If you would like to request a session, please submit a Teaching Request Form.

Please contact your subject librarian if you are interested in incorporating tailored library support into your curriculum delivery, or if you would like to discuss the current provision.

Academic staff can request Skills Centre webinars to be arranged at a certain time to fit into your students’ schedules. These online sessions can cover a range of essential academic skills topics such as critical writing, reflective writing, and structuring assignments.

To find out more, or to request a session, go to the Skills Centre’s Information for Staff Sharepoint pages.

The library provides a Reading Lists Online (RLO) system which allows all module reading lists at SHU to be integrated with the library collection and automatically linked from Blackboard module sites.

More information about Reading Lists Online - and about the support library staff provide for module leaders creating and managing their RLOs - can be found on the Reading Lists Online tab on this guide.

Any requests for resources that are required for teaching should be included on a module Reading List.

Library services play an important role in the evolution of teaching and the curriculum, through activities such as:

• participating in Student Voice meetings or Academic Quality Boards.
• contributing to validation and curriculum review processes.
• implementing action plans to respond to feedback such as the National Student Survey.

By involving library staff in the development of your teaching and curriculum, you can ensure that these development processes are informed by how your courses relate to library resources, information skills, academic skills, and other elements under the library services umbrella. This two-way communication also allows library services to make informed decisions about how we can support your courses as effectively as possible.

If you have any questions about the role of library services in course planning and improvement for your subject area, please contact your subject librarian. 

SHU library support for teaching extends to SHU-validated courses at collaborative partner courses. Library staff can provide inductions and tours for students on collaborative partner courses and work with colleagues at partner colleges, so that these students feel confident in their identity as Hallam students.