Self-service coming to the Royal Free Hospital Medical Library

From August 2015 the Royal Free Hospital Medical Library will operate an RFID self-service system for book loans, renewals and returns. 

This will improve services to all library users by reducing queues at the desk and saving time. The self-issue machine will be situated close to the Issue/Enquiry point on the ground floor of the Medical Library. As part of the project almost 20000 books will need to be tagged and new equipment installed. Planning for this project is already well underway with work scheduled to take place in June and early July. We predict minimum disruption to services during this time. Regular updates will be forthcoming.

Easter opening hours and Sunday opening

Medical Library opening hours over the Easter period 2015 are as follows:

• Thursday 2 April 09:00 - 18:00
• Friday 3 - Monday 6 April - CLOSED
• Tuesday 7 April - normal opening hours resume

Starting Sunday 12 April 2015, the Royal Free Medical Library will be operating the following opening hours, to end of July 2015:

Monday-Friday 09:00-22:00

Saturday 09:00-17:00

Sunday 11:00-17:00

All regular staffed library services will be available during these opening hours, including during the new Sunday opening hours.

Open Access pilot launched at the Royal Free: UCLP Open Access – a UCL Discovery service

UCLP Open Access means making research publications from UCL Partners freely available online via UCL Discovery. 

Open access maximises the dissemination and visibility of research worldwide. It makes authors’ work accessible to all fellow researchers, and to society as a whole. There are no payment barriers for readers of open access publications, so everyone can read them free of charge.

The new UCLP Open Access service is being piloted at the Royal Free: Royal Free Hospital Library staff will be supporting staff at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust in making all types of research outputs open access – including articles, proceedings, book chapters, working papers and more: all research outputs will be eligible to be deposited in UCL Discovery, UCL’s and partners’ Open Access repository, copyright permitting. All research outputs that are deposited will also be available via Google searches since Discovery is indexed by Google.

The pilot will test and finetune procedures, with a gradual roll-out of the functioning service more widely within UCL Partners. Royal Free London NHS Trust researchers are invited to arrange submission of their research outputs upon acceptance for publication. Further information.

Royal Free Hospital Medical Library goes green!

The Royal Free Hospital Medical Library is hosting an exciting programme of green events:

The Woodland Trust, Thursday 12 March, 12.30pm-1.30pm

John Fleetwood will continue on conservation focusing on creating and valuing our woodland.

North London Waste Authority, Wednesday 18 March, 12pm-1pm

Dimitra Rappou will be helping us to avoid food waste, think about the harm of wasting food and will also look at the health angle.

Greenpeace, Monday 30 March, 10.30am-11.30am

Athen Ayren will be taking us through the work of this magnificent organisation. 

All events are free of charge and will take place in the Medical Library at the Royal Free Hospital, Rowland Hill Street, London, NW3 2PF.  Limited Fairtrade refreshments will be available – so please arrive early!

Contact: Miriam Rice or Sue Adams, 020 7794 0500 ext 33202 or rlibrary@ucl.ac.uk