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WCM-Q community ‘checks out’ new and improved library

Sinéad O'Rourke of the Distributed eLibrary (right) explains the new services and facilities on offer at the Open House event.
Sinéad O'Rourke of the Distributed eLibrary (right) explains the new services and facilities on offer at the Open House event.

More than 250 people attended the 2019 WCM-Q Library Open House to discover the new and improved services and facilities on offer.

Faculty, staff and students were in attendance at the annual event to view the newly revamped Reading Room space and learn about the library’s strengthened offerings in publication services and systematic reviews. In addition, the library team were on-hand to offer information on a range of library services and events, including search tools, databases and the recently launched Library Wednesdays sessions. 

The event also marked Open Access Week, a global movement promoting universal free access and use of scholarly research in order to widen participation and maximize scientific advances, held 21-27 October.

The revamp of the Reading Room, which was completed in late summer 2019, included the installation of soft seating areas, as well as new individual workspaces with privacy screens and integrated power supply.

Jamie Gray, Director of the Distributed eLibrary, said: “We are always grateful for the support we receive from the WCM-Q community at our annual Open House events, but we were thrilled to see so many new faces in the Reading Room today. This year’s record attendance allowed us to showcase our unique skills in such areas as systematic reviews and publication support to a new audience. We were also delighted to be able to highlight the improvements we have made to the Reading Room space.”

The library, officially called the Distributed eLibrary, provides students, faculty and staff at WCM-Q with access to a vast range of high-quality biomedical information resources via computer clusters at many different locations in the WCM-Q building or on personal devices via the wireless network. Users can also access the collection from home or other external locations via the WCM-Q library website.

The library also offers a collection of printed materials, a document delivery service for materials that are not in the collection, searchable databases and catalogs, and assistance and instruction from staff members on searching and using information effectively.