Library Services Library Action Plan 2024-25
Library activities
What we've done and what we're planning to do over the next academic year
AberSkills
Two years ago we completely revamped AberSkills. Since then, we have been reviewing the resources and content to make sure it meets our users needs.
We asked all staff and students for their feedback in March and here's what you had to say: Suggestions Harvest.
AI and your work
Library Services have been working on developing and gathering guidance on the safe and acceptable use of AI for your work, studies and research.
We have created the following guidance specifically for students:
- Using AI for your studies comprising:
- AI and the Library LibGuide / AI Blog series
- AI outputs referencing advice - generally and by subject
- “Using AI responsibly in your studies” an AberSkills workshop
You can find links to these, and guidance for staff and researchers all in one place here: https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/is/help/ai/
Our new AU Library News newsletter launches
Following feedback from users who said they would like to know more about the library, we launched a monthly email newsletter in January.
Subscribe here or click the link to view the archived editions.
New Royal Literary Fellow
The Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow is a professional, published author whose role is to help people strengthen and improve their academic writing skills. Students of any discipline, at any level of study (from 1st year to postgraduate), or staff, are welcome to book a session.
Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch will be the new Royal Literary Fellow as of September 2025.
New study areas on Level E, Hugh Owen Library
Our new student space on Level E opened in summer 2024. The new quiet study area contains study spaces, computers and monitor hubs, an accessible desk and 6 new bookable group study rooms.
Since September 2024, these group study rooms have been booked 3,556 times
User experience (UX) research on library services
We use student and staff feedback to evaluate and develop our library and learning services. We have found that surveys are increasingly unreliable as methods of gathering feedback, so we have dedicated our regular Sample Weeks to user experience research. You can read more about this in the paper for Performance Measurement and Metrics by our Academic Engagement and Customer Services manager Elizabeth Kensler*
You can see more information about our activities and what we've learned on our Feedback page, including How Students Feel about Noise in Libraries
*Kensler, E. (2024), "New approaches to improving the student experience at Aberystwyth University libraries: from library surveys to cognitive mapping", Performance Measurement and Metrics, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 101-108. https://doi.org/10.1108/PMM-01-2024-0004
Our first cohort of Nursing students
This is the first year we have supported third year Mental Health Nursing and Adult Nursing students. Their modules and placements end at the end of July 2025.
Congratulations to our new nurses and our Healthcare Subject Librarian, Simone Anthony, for helping them on their way.
NSS 2025 Results
Our Library Services continue to outperform the UK sector average for student satisfaction
'How well have the library resources supported your learning?' - 91.2
UK Benchmark 90.4
Explore the NSS 2025 survey data dashboard here
Library use
since 1 august 2024
Library Visits
Visits to the Physical Sciences Library 18,346
Visits to the Hugh Owen Library 203,120
New Level E Study Room Bookings
3,556
Interlibrary loans
Borrowed 482
Loaned 888
Items loaned
34864
Click & Collect orders collected
8,343
More Books ordered
318
Books bought for Reading Lists
1,837
5 most borrowed books
- Veterinary anatomy of domestic animals
- Economics
- Criminal law
- Essential cell biology
- The French experience 1
Most requested book
Most accessed database
118,400 full-text downloads
Most borrowed ebooks
- Oxford English Dictionary
- Biology: a global approach
- Exploring digital libraries : foundations, practice, prospects
- Elliott and Quinn's contract law
- The information society a study of continuity and change
Spend
since August 2024
Books and ebooks
£120,254.16
Journals and eResources
£1,126,055.94
The majority of the Library Resource Budget is spent on resources requested by academic staff to support learning, teaching and research. 85% of the budget is available for recurrent expenditure such as journals and databases & 15% goes towards non-recurrent expenditure such as reading material for research, and materials on reading lists including books, digitized book chapters & articles
LibGuides
LibGuides contain information, resources and links relevant to specific subjects or general topics.
Our Subject Librarians maintain a range of LibGuides as a one stop source of library help and support.
Our Referencing and Plagiarism guide has been viewed more than 50,693 times since August 2024.
Reading Lists
- 96.6% of Aberystwyth University's modules are covered by an Aspire Reading List
- 2094 published reading lists ready for academic year 2025 / 26
- These reading lists contain 82852 resources
Digitisation
We offer a Digitisation Service here at the Hugh Owen Library for module Reading Lists or for individual research requests. Under our scanning license from the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA), we create digitised resources from our own library’s collections or provide access to content in a national repository contributed by publishers, universities across the UK or the British Library when needed. The nearly two thousand digitised resources that we currently host enable students to freely access texts wherever they are, in a fully accessible format.
Similarly to digitising resources for Reading Lists we are also able to digitise texts for students who require accessible copies. We create these fully digital copies from our own library collections or where possible arrange with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) to source fully accessible copies straight from the publishers via their BookShare service.
Alongside Digitisation, we also help build and maintain the hundreds of live Reading Lists available to students. At the start of each academic year, we relink all Reading Lists to a Blackboard module or help create new ones full of resources selected by the lecturer. Throughout the year we review the lists on request and test newly added resources to ensure that they are fully functional and ready for student engagement.
Subject Librarians
Subject Librarians provide information skills training and in-depth subject support for all students and staff at Aberystwyth University
- 3262 Staff & students taught across the Faculty of Humanities
- 2276 Staff & students taught across the Faculty of Sciences
- 301 hours of teaching
- 635 new and returning students attended a library tour
- 57770 attendees at all library sessions
Resource Discovery
Our Resource Discovery Team ensures the University’s research and study materials are easily discoverable and accessible through Primo, the library catalogue.
They describe resources - from ebooks and journals to rare books and databases - using international standards, enabling search by subject, author, publisher, and identifiers like ISBNs. The team also preserves the University’s unique research outputs, such as theses, and supports open access publishing through publisher agreements, or Transformative Agreements, and open access licences.
What is Open Access?
More and more amazing research resources are being made open access – that is, freely available via the internet.
Take a look at the Aberystwyth Research Portal to see the range of Aberystwyth student thesis topics and recent research publications by AU lecturers.
Transformative Agreements
A transformative agreement is a deal between universities (or their libraries) and publishers that helps make academic research articles free for everyone to read online.
How Does It Work?
Old Way: Universities paid publishers so students and staff could read articles (but most people outside the university couldn’t).
New Way (Transformative Agreement): Universities use that same money to pay publishers to make their researchers’ articles free for everyone to read (open access).
What this means
- More people can read research
- Helps researchers publish their findings
Skills
Digital Skills
We are supporting students and staff at the University to assess and develop their own digital skills
- 8 training sessions
- 6 one to one sessions
- 32 DigiTips
Digital Skills Webpages
We have introduced our three-step process to our webpages. Starting at Step 1: Explore your Digital Skills to Step 2: Discuss your Digital Skills and Step 3: Develop your Digital Skills.
You can also find all of our homemade resources such as infographics and DigiTips and expand out to highlighting exciting free external resources such as Code First Girls.
AberSkills
- 9424 unique views of the webpages
- Bilingual AberSkills organisation in Blackboard Learn Ultra as a repository for all workshop resources.
Skills Key Highlights
- Creation of new bitesize academic writing infographics for AberSkills: covering how to write essays, business and scientific reports, presentations, academic posters and effective notetaking strategies.
- Skills feedback and skills needs project: Implemented a comprehensive project with staff and students aimed at gathering feedback and assessing the skills needs of students.
- Skill identification and improvement: A new 'What skills do I have?' resource to help students identify their current academic skill set and pinpoint areas for improvement, facilitating their academic growth and success.
- Expanded workshop offerings: Increased the range of bilingual workshops on emerging technology, e.g. AI. Digital Skills team organised the Jisc ‘Everyday AI tools’ session as part of Aber Digital Week.
- Additional drop-in services using the Skills Hub in the Hugh Owen Library: Maths and Stats helpdesk, Digital Skills drop-in and Science skills support.
- Revised and refreshed Digital Skills and AberSkills webpages: For a modern look and easier navigation.