Leigh Garrett
Head of Resources, Discovery & Liaison | Student Services
lgarrett@uca.ac.uk
Hello and welcome to the Connect newsletter which highlights service and resource updates to help you make effective use of your library and learning services.
Welcome to the Spring Edition of Connect!
Welcome to 2025! If you are new to the university and library the best place to start is the Welcome to the Library which offers lots of information about library resources and services.
A few highlights for this term -
and remember we are here to help - Contact the Library.
Leigh Garrett
Head of Resources, Discovery & Liaison | Student Services
lgarrett@uca.ac.uk
Help us to help you! The Annual Library Survey will be open till 31 March 2025. By completing this survey, you will be helping your library to meet your learning, teaching and research needs and shape the future library services and resources.
The survey only takes a few minutes to complete and is completely anonymous. Although you are welcome to leave your contact details if you want to help contribute to the shape of your library in the future.
To share your views now – Annual Library Survey 2025.
Leigh Garrett
Head of Resources, Discovery & Liaison | Student Services
lgarrett@uca.ac.uk
The latest PhD theses from UCA students in 2024 are now available on the university's research repository UCARO for you to access.
This latest research covers a range of topics, including:
The PhD theses are accessible online to students, staff, external researchers, and members of the public worldwide. These latest additions add to the existing online collection covering over 20 years of doctoral research at UCA.
Amy Robinson
Digital Curation Manager | Student Services
arobinson@uca.ac.uk
The Library and Zandra Rhodes Foundation have been collaborating on a project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund since March 2024. You can find out more about the project, and read a recent update post, at Colourful Heritage.
The project brought together Zandra and some of her colleagues and collaborators for a new series of interviews. These took place in Zandra’s flat which is as colourful and vibrant as the Dame herself.
The questions ranged from where they find inspiration and their favourite garments and collaborations, to what advice they’d give to young designers and creatives looking to start their careers. You can get a seek preview of the videos which complement those created as part of an earlier JISC project at Zandra Rhodes and Colleagues Interviews.
Marie Hitchcock
Discovery Services Manager | Student Services
marie.hitchcock@uca.ac.uk
Did you know that students who make good use of the library are more likely to get a better degree?
Analysis of library usage and degree outcomes for 2024 shows that students who take out more loans and view more online library resources are more likely to get a better degree than those who make less use of the library.
So be a smart student and make good use of your library!
Leigh Garrett
Head of Resources, Discovery & Liaison | Student Services
lgarrett@uca.ac.uk
Did you know that the University Archives holds a wealth of information about the history of the University and its founding art colleges?
It offers a unique insight into the nation’s educational commitment to arts education and creative industries over the years.
Formal fine art education begun in the middle of the eighteenth-century with the founding of the Royal Academy Schools in 1768. By the second half of the nineteenth-century schools for art design were established across Britain, in response to an interest in art as an industry. Government grants were made available to establishment schools that could provide art, design and technical education.
Canterbury School of Art was given to the city in 1882. Originally the Sidney Cooper School of Art, founded 1868, and located in St Peter’s Street where it remained until 1971.
Epsom Technical Institute and School of Art opened 1896 on Church Street where it remained until 1980.
Farnham School of Art, dates from 1871, was housed in the Town Hall, before moving in 1877 moved to a purpose-built studio at 17 South Street, and again moving in1939 to 25 West Street where it remained until 1969.
Guildford School of art was established 1843, it existed in several different forms and locations: The Guildford Institute, Guildford Working Men’s Institution, and the Technical Institute. It moved to Stoke Park Mansion in 1939 and closed in 1968.
Maidstone College of Art, art classes started 1867 in the Picture Gallery of the Charles' Museum in St Faith's Street. In 1893 it moved into a new building next door and stayed there until 1968.
Rochester School of Art began in 1886 and based in The Guildhall. In 1907 it moved into its purpose-designed building in Eastgate, off Rochester High Street where it remained until 1970.
Covering over 150 years of history the university archive records consist of prospectuses, student magazines, reports, minutes, news clippings and photographs.
For access archives@uca.ac.uk or to view the records ArchiveSearch (and take a look at University Archive).
Felicity Croydon
Archivist | Student Services
felicity.croydon@uca.ac.uk
The REF have announced a new Open Access Policy, and the Library will be providing help and advice to academic staff on what they need to do.
The key requirement is that journal articles and conference papers with an ISSN must be uploaded to UCA Research Online (UCARO) as soon as they are published, or they won’t be eligible for REF. One significant change from the last REF exercise is the reduction in embargo periods. All journal articles published after 1 January 2026 will need to have a maximum embargo of 12 months, which is a reduction from the current maximum of 24 months.
For help, please see our guides to open access and depositing in UCARO or contact us at ucaro@uca.ac.uk
Amy Robinson
Digital Curation Manager | Student Services
arobinson@uca.ac.uk
Last term, the Digitisation Studio was privileged to host two insightful visits, highlighting our studio's cutting-edge technology and its role in preserving creative works.
Visit from the University's President & Vice-Chancellor
On Thursday, 21st November, we welcomed UCA President & Vice-Chancellor, Jane Roscoe and Gay Clothier, Head of the VC Office, to the Digitisation Studio. Senior Digitisation Officers, Elodie Duncan-Duplain and Lorna McColl conducted an engaging tour, showcasing our high-resolution scanners, state-of-the-art photography setup, the studio’s role in supporting students and staff with their creative projects as well as its contribution to supporting UCA's Library and Archive and Special Collections. The visit offered a great opportunity to share the Studio's achievements and ongoing developments with senior colleagues.
Visit from University of the Arts London
The following week, on Thursday, 28th November, we were delighted to receive a visit from former UCA employee Lisa Harris, now the Learning Resources Manager at the University of the Arts, London, accompanied by her colleague Chris Foreman, Associate Director. This visit was particularly special as Lisa previously worked as the Digitisation Manager at UCA. It was wonderful to reconnect and share how the studio has evolved over the years.
During the visit, Lorna demonstrated our current workflows, equipment and new approaches to digitisation. The conversation extended to discussing UAL’s plans to establish their own digitisation studio, with Lisa and Chris seeking advice on recommended equipment and best practices. We look forward to continuing these conversations and seeing how digitisation develops at UAL.
Lorna McColl
Senior Digitisation Officer | Student Services
lmccoll2@uca.ac.uk
Elodie Duncan-Duplain
Senior Digitisation Officer | Student Services
elodie.duncan-duplain@uca.ac.uk
If you are using an AI tool, such as ChatGPT, to generate images or information to help with your assignments, you need to make sure that this is acknowledged and referenced correctly.
Remember to check your assignment guidelines in your Unit handbook before using AI.
The UCA Harvard Guide contains a useful section on referencing AI. As with other sources, AI references should consist of an in-text citation and a corresponding entry in your Bibliography, and in the case of images, an image caption and then a corresponding entry in your List of Illustrations.
Text
AI text you have generated and then used in your work should be cited as if it was personal communication, such as an email or an interview. If the conversation is only available for you to see and can’t be shared easily via a URL, you should provide a screen shot or full transcript of the prompts and responses from your conversation in an appendix so that the reader can refer to it. Some AI tools provide a link that saves and links back to your conversation.
In text citation example:
Bibliography example:
Images
If the image you have generated has a URL which can be shared, then you can follow the standard format for online images, using the AI tool as the ‘creator’. If the image cannot be recovered and does not have a URL use the format for unpublished images (see examples below).
Illustration list entries:
Fig. 1. OpenAI DALL-E (2025) Treehouse Cinema Concept. [AI Generated Image] At: https://chatgpt.com/share/6780ee3e-51e4-800d-bbd4-658d3d9015c5 (Accessed 10/01/25)
Fig. 2. Imagine Art (2025) Sustainable eco architecture inspired by microscopic leaf structure. [AI Generated Image] In possession of: the author: Epsom.
Antonia Lewis
Senior Liaison Librarian | Student Services
antonia.lewis@uca.ac.uk
Liaison Librarians and Learning Development Tutors are available on each campus to help you!
If you need help finding research sources for an assignment, such as books, journal articles, reports, images, video content or websites or have questions about referencing and reference management tools you can make an appointment with your campus Liaison Librarian.
Your Learning Development Tutors are also on hand to help you with understanding your assignment brief, academic writing, time management, organising and structuring your ideas, presentation skills and applying feedback to improve your work.
To find our more and to book your tutorial now see - Tutorials. Tutorials can be in person or online.
Antonia Lewis
Senior Liaison Librarian | Academic Services
antonia.lewis@uca.ac.uk
The Library has published a new guide to open access books to support academic staff and PhD students with their research.
The new guide covers:
Amy Robinson
Digital Curation Manager | Student Services
arobinson@uca.ac.uk
Make sure that you take time to explore LibrarySearch, which will help you to find and access academic print and electronic books, as well as journal articles, in your library.
Although it is tempting to rely on Google to look for information, you may find that content which you either have to pay for or does not contain reliable academic quality research. LibrarySearch offers easy access to the full content of academic sources such as peer review journal articles and books.
To get started either enter your topic keywords in the search box or use a specific book or an article title. You are likely to get a large number of results you can filter these to find what you need. You can select different content types or formats, library locations and publication dates. Results can be bookmarked and returned to later. LibrarySearch can even help you to format your references in the UCA Harvard Style for your bibliography.
More information about LibrarySearch and the library collections see - Finding and Accessing Resources.
Antonia Lewis
Senior Liaison Librarian | Academic Services
antonia.lewis@uca.ac.uk
Last year the Library made a significant investment in your learning and teaching to ensure you have the resources you need to be successful.
To help make it easier for you to find all the resources and support on offer the Library developed and implemented new navigation and search tools for myLibrary and myUCA. New guides were written, and webinars offered, on Studiosity and how to use AI tools ethically and responsibly.
The Library also delivered 40,000 student hours of workshops, 1,500 individual and group tutorials, and answered 3,800 enquires. The longitudinal reading preferences study was undertaken to help inform future resource and service planning.
This work resulted in a significant increase in the use of library resources, over 2.5 million searches, loans and views during 2023/24.
And your library resources and services scored 88.4% student satisfaction in the National Student Survey and 94.3% and 92.9% in the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey, the highest levels across all the University’s scores.
Thank you for your support!
Leigh Garrett
Head of Resources, Discovery & Liaison | Student Services
lgarrett@uca.ac.uk
Have you heard of metadata? Without it, you'd be lost in a library! You would not be able to use LibrarySearch to find the books and other resources you need. Metadata is data about data, in the case of libraries it is the information about collections and resources, for example, the names of authors, titles of books and articles, languages and other information which helps everyone easily find what they need with only a few key words.
In the UK, the way that libraries organise metadata using a set of guidelines called the Resource Description and Access toolkit. These guidelines give Librarians a formula to follow which helps them decide how to organise their resources. The Librarians adapt these guidelines, where needed, to meet the creative nature of our resources and students.
For example, in the record below we have titles, author, call number, ISBN, publication date and a summary; and if you click the title you'll see lots more information about this book such as number of pages, location, language and subject terms -
Information Design Unbound by 
Gabriela Mazewski
Collections & Metadata Officer | Student Services
gabriela.mazewski@uca.ac.uk
