Future of Senate House library -

The short answer is - it's still undecided. But we were just given this update at work.

Senate House library

On 12 December 2008 the Collegiate Council, which comprises the Heads of the 19 Colleges of the University of London and the Dean of the School of Advanced Study (SAS), received the Final Report of the Review of Senate House Library (SHL), undertaken by CHEMS Consulting. The Review follows an extensive consultation with the Colleges and other stakeholders. It sets out three options for the future for further consideration and recognises the interdependence between SHL and the SAS libraries (which together comprise the University of London Research Library Services, ULRLS).

The options are: Option 1 - Refocus the current provision of ULRLS; Option 2 - Develop ULRLS as an expanded network of arts and humanities libraries, working in collaboration with other research libraries. This proposal is being developed by SAS. Option 3 - Merge the operations of ULRLS with UCL’s own library, to create a new service run by UCL, with guarantees provided over access and services. This proposal is being developed by UCL.

At its meeting the Collegiate Council decided to delay making a final recommendation to give sufficient time for the latter two options to be developed in more detail. In the meantime, the Collegiate Council agreed to the immediate implementation of the efficiency savings identified for option 1a. SAS and UCL have been given a deadline of 12 March 2009 to complete their respective proposals. All the options will be resubmitted to a special meeting of the Collegiate Council to be held in April 2009. Finally, the Collegiate Council’s recommendations will be considered by the University’s Board of Trustees at its meeting on 13 May 2009. To access the full report, visit http://www.shl.lon.ac.uk/news/review_of_shl.pdf.