UAL wins Outstanding Library Team THE Award

The University of the Arts London’s (UAL) libraries has won the ‘Outstanding Library Team’ Times Higher Education (THE) Award due to their extensive special collections online, it is also known as the ‘Oscars of higher education’, according to a statement.

The award recognises the team’s creative approach to digitisation as they comprised material samples, their developments and properties, manufacturing processes and they produced interactive online workshops and virtual teaching rooms.

Additionally, blogs, online guides and online zine resources, a small batch of independently or self-published booklets, were offered to students so that they could contextually discuss and visually access digitised content.

The judges said that UAL’s submission was: “a clarity of approach, underpinned by pedagogical practice, that has been sustainable after the end of the Covid period and would be scalable to other parts of the sector.”

James Purnell, UAL president and vice-chancellor, said in a statement: “The award is fitting recognition for our colleagues who have pushed beyond traditional ideas about digitisation. These innovations have improved the way we embed our special collections and objects in digital learning and will expand how we offer access to our distinctive holdings in the future.

John Gill, THE editor, added: “The response required, and delivered, in the face of a global pandemic was unique, and many of the awards submissions reflected those unprecedented circumstances. But universities’ great strength is not just that they respond to circumstances, but that they also provide a level of constancy at times of uncertainty and change.

“2019-20 was not just a year of pandemic disruption, it was also a year in which incredible achievements were made in all the areas you would hope and expect: world-changing research, brilliant learning and teaching, international and industrial engagement.”

Photo credit: Times Higher Education