Helen Clough

Bright orange background featuring the OU logo and text that reads: 'We're Hiring! E-Content Manager/Librarian. Join the award-winning Open University Library.'

We’re #hiring an E-Content Manager/Librarian to advise on, develop, purchase and manage online library content, ensuring collections support students, course production and academic research.

For more information and to apply 👉 https://ow.ly/4byh50Yemfx

Closing Date: 4 March 2026

#LibraryJobs

Bright yellow background featuring the OU logo and text that reads: 'We're Hiring! E-Content Manager/Librarian. Join the award-winning Open University Library.'

We’re #hiring an E-Content Manager/Librarian to shape, licence and manage our online library collections, making sure they meet the needs of students, teaching and research.

For more information and to apply 👉 https://ow.ly/RM8h50Yem7M

Closing Date: 4 March 2026

#LibraryJobs

Come and join the Open University Library as an E-Content Librarian / Manager!

This is a full-time permanent post based in Milton Keynes with hybrid working supported.

jobs.open.ac.uk/job/E-Conten...

The image is a white background with gold triangles in three corners, the bottom right corner has the logo for the Information Literacy Award. The logo is all text in gold with the letters iLA in a large font with a thin line below it. Underneath this line it says Information Literacy Award in block capital letters. The black text on the white background says "Winning the Information Literacy Award has been a significant highlight in my professional career. On a personal level, the award has given me visibility within the sector, strengthened my confidence, and provided a powerful reminder of the difference collective work can make." Rebecca Mogg, Library Education Lead, Cardiff University (Winner in 2025).

Nominations for the @infolitgroup.bsky.social & @ucl.ac.uk Department of Information Studies Information Literacy Award close in one week. The award is open to all practitioners, researchers & academics working in the #infolit field in the UK. Self-nominate or nominate others ➡️ buff.ly/hB0446A

A glass fronted library building in the rain

Attended my first in-person @merciancollab.bsky.social senior staff meeting today. We were hosted by Aston University Library

Bright yellow background featuring a quote from an OU student about SCONUL Access that reads: "The SCONUL Access scheme gave me the opportunity to find a welcoming, positive and quiet place in which to study. As a low-income, distance learning student, I feel this has been instrumental in my successes so far as an OU student."

Need a calm place to study? 🤫

With SCONUL Access, OU students can use quiet study spaces in university libraries near them. 📖💻

Fewer distractions, proper desks, a fresh study spot - whatever helps you focus.

Find your local options 👇
https://ow.ly/PiIm50Y3Bh2

The Open University OU students volunteer to join the Library Services Student Panel for a year and take part in research to help us understand the student experience.

For folks interested in our @oulibrary.bsky.social student panel, there's some useful information here on our website but feel free to reach out - more than happy to connect you with our engagement & insight team! #csguk2025 university.open.ac.uk/library/libr...

Academic libraries lead digital transformation in different ways and for different reasons: here's a quick overview of how the pilot libraries in the Jisc digital transformation library lens programme are using the new library lens framework and why digitisation.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2025/10/2...

BBC Four - Storyville, The Librarians Documentary about the US librarians who are risking their safety to defend free speech.

Recommended viewing: Storyville: The Librarians, BBC4, Tuesday, 7 October. Explores how librarians across the US are risking their safety to defend free speech as book bans and censorship threaten democracy from within. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

The course badge featuring multi-coloured lines veering off from each other, with the text 'Digital and Information Literacy - Level 1' and 'The Open University'.

Do you have #OUstudents starting Level 1 this autumn?

Encourage them to get a head start with our free, badged Digital Information Literacy course! 👇

learn1.open.ac.uk/course/view....

They’ll build essential #studyskills & earn a digital badge to show off online.

Black and white photo from 1975 of a television studio for an Open University programme. Text reads: 'You're invited! Heritage Open Days at The Open University. 17-19 September 2025.'

Heritage Open Days return to The Open University from 17–19 Sept with campus tours, new exhibitions, a choir performance, and a brand-new Archive Cinema experience! 🤩

🎟️ Free to attend – tours require booking!
🔗 Full schedule & info: www.open.ac.uk/library/libr...

#MiltonKeynes #Heritage

The CALC conference is back with another excellent line-up this year. The only UK library conference dedicated to critical library practice aka #critlib, and an amazing event in my experience. Check it out. #calc25

Higher education consortia call on @clarivate.com to drop its proposals on ending perpetual access: www.sconul.ac.uk/News/View?g=... (via #SCONUL)

OPINION: A librarian's summary of, and response to, the Clarivate announcement - UKSG Siobhan Haimé takes a look at detail the Clarivate announcement and its practical (and possibly unintentional transformational) effects.

A must read on the Clarivate announcement to end perpetual access to print, e-books, & digital collections by end of year. Siobhan Haimé suggests this disaster for libraries could be “an opportunity to radically explore alternative models to protect equitable access.”
www.uksg.org/newsletter/u...

Pink, purple and white wildflowers are in front of a white OU sign with the blue logo

Guess who just enrolled on Bluesky? 🤔

[Hint: it's us]

Read It Forward campaign poster for Bookshop.org: "10% of all children's book sales go to BookTrust and Scottish BookTrust in February 2025", featuring book covers of Varjak Paw, The Outlaw Varjak Paw, Phoenix and Tyger by SF Said, illustrated by Dave McKean

What a wonderful initiative! Buy any children's book from @bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social this month, and as part of their #ReadItForward campaign, they will donate 10% of every sale to the children's reading charities @booktrust.org.uk & @scottishbooktrust.bsky.social!
uk.bookshop.org/contributors...

We're pleased to announce that our 2025 conference will take place on 18 June & 1 July. Day 1 on 18 June will be online and day 2 on 1 July will be in person at Manchester Metropolitan University. Watch this space for more info coming soon! #ALN25

The logo for the CILIP Information Literacy Group. It says Information Literacy Group surrounded by small lines in different shades of green, blue and purple in a circular shape.

The @infolitgroup.bsky.social is proud to announce the return of the Information Literacy Award at #LILAC25. The award is open to all practitioners, researchers & academics working in #infolit in the UK: www.lilacconference.com/awards/infor... Nominations close 14 Feb (17:00 GMT)

I’m confidently leaving all my workload until January as if that’s months away rather than… *checks calendar*… in a week and a half 🥲

Why you should be planning your nomination for the Information Literacy Award header in purple, with a newspaper cut-out of a hand holding a trophy

Do you know someone who is an outstanding practitioner of Information Literacy?

In our latest blog post, you can hear from previous winners of the Information Literacy Award, and find out more about how to nominate someone yourself 👇
infolit.org.uk/why-you-shou...

It’s 1st of December. Mull everything. Mull the wine, mull the cider, mull your tea, mull the tap water, mull the cat, mull the carpet, mull the chairs. Mull it all! Get your hair cut in a mullet. Mull the Kintyre. Mull the halls with boughs of holly. Get everything mulled. FULL MULL AHEAD!

Cake in shape if pink and green tshirt - a mending mushroom is on the middle with threads of icing connected to gingerbread people

A pink-ish 3 tier cake, iced on the corners and dusted with petals. The bottom layer has green and black icing people. The second has a black building and the top shows interconnected strands of green and black icing.

A carrot flapjack tray back with a race course laid out with a sweetie bootlace. Little flags give different pronunciations of phenomenology. Above there is a mobile of dangling weather symbols

White-ish triangle cake with yellow and green splodges and a translucent globe as decoration

Another year, another thrilling #BakeYourResearch competition in @oulibrary.bsky.social! Ismay was a worth winner with her Gingerbread Men-ders cake, and Liz shone with her Embedding Impact cake, winning Tastiest Bake. Thanks @riobanerjee.bsky.social for organising!

Following the hashtag with interest

Robert Whan cont. Have a dashboard which shows a heat map of user engagement times, conversations per day, AI answer sources being counted, feedback averages. Chatbot is dealing with about 2,000 enquiries a month

#CSGUK24

Robert Whan from Queens is talking about the processes involved in setting up MS copilot as a chatbot, inc. online content review, kill switch, privacy, phrasing, scope.

Upfront with users that the chat is AI and they can type CHAT to speak to library staff immediately

#CSGUK24

Maria Carnegie cont: one approach to progression in customer services: regraded a post down and advertised internally and had a successful appointment which is going well.

#CSGUK24

Maria Carnegie from Durham talking about development and progression in customer services.

Her response to "I don't want to progress" is to remind people that even if you want to stay in your current role, you need to engage with development

#CSGUK24

Iulia Cinpoes, Uni of Westminster:

Customer engagement = 70% is virtual. Cultural shift for advisors. Produced visualisation of virtual queue vs in-person queue to show there are far more people waiting virtually

#CSGUK24

Hearing from Charlene John from Uni of Westminster. She was employed in 2023 and has a retail background, not HE or libraries.

Customer focus starts at the top.

Team of 40 that work in silos. Introduced team away days: fun, external speakers

#CSGUK24

Q: Is there something in the environment of a library that encourages good behaviour?

A: Different zones. People respect the quiet zone. Traffic light system: red = quiet.

Good lighting promotes study

Set aside space for people to talk

#CSGUK24