Royal Free Hospital Medical Library closed on Saturday 24th October

The Royal Free Hospital Medical Library will be closed on Saturday 24th October owing to essential plumbing repair work in the ceiling. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. Normal services will resume on Monday 26th October.

Royal Free Hospital Medical Library closed 09.00-11.00 on Friday 16th October

The Royal Free Hospital Medical Library will be closed until 11.00 am on Friday 16th October owing to essential ceiling repair work. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. Normal services will resume at 11.00am.

Excellence award for Royal Free Hospital Medical Library

In Spring 2015, departments across UCL once again took part in UCL’s Green Impact, and the Royal Free Medical Library got involved as well.

The library was already one of the few which had reached platinum status and the Green Team of the library now had the task of maintaining that status by initiating a project that would promote sustainability and concern for the environment.  It was decided that we would organise a lecture series and invite speakers who we knew would provide excellent presentations that would educate and motivate all those who attended.

The first speaker to visit was John Fleetwood from the Woodland Trust.  He is a highly inspirational speaker and did not disappoint as he injected humour into his talk, as well as fascinating personal experiences.

The Woodland Trust is the UK’s largest woodland conservation charity, and it campaigns to protect ancient woods, restore damaged woods and inspires people to visit woods and plant trees.  More than half a million trees are planted every year with the help of 300,000 members and supporters. 

John stressed the importance of our woodland, especially our ancient woodland, as so many species, including the endangered, depend upon it.  Some of these creatures include red squirrels, dormice and bullfinches, not forgetting the ground flora such as bluebells.  John also described how we are one of the least wooded countries in Europe; with as little as four per cent of woodland cover.

Miriam Rice from the Green Team receiving the Award for Excellence in Sustainability 2015 from Vice-Provost Professor Anthony Smith

For the next talk, Dimitra Rappou, Vicky Karidopoulou and other members of the Waste Prevention Team from the North London Waste Authority arrived to greet a packed room of staff and students.  They were generous with the free gifts, and our role in preventing food waste was clearly emphasised.  The UK produces 15 million tonnes of food waste every year, and almost half of that is produced by householders.  25 percent of all the food we buy is thrown away unopened, and the overall waste includes, for example, 236,000 chickens every day.

All of this is so relevant to our environment as the waste produces methane, which adds to climate change, but there was plenty we could do to change our behaviour.  We should never shop when we are hungry, and we should think carefully before taking advantage of buy one get one free deals. 

The team then looked forward to the final talk from Greenpeace.  Athen Ayren from Greenpeace explained why the organisation is so successful – people did the right thing when they felt they were being watched.  Athen described her role as a volunteer, and gave many examples of where Greenpeace had lobbied companies to get them to change.

Both Mattel and Lego had used packaging made from materials from rainforests and Greenpeace got them to use properly sustainable materials instead.  Similarly, Greenpeace made an impact against McDonalds in 2006 when the company had been using soya which came from illegal crops in the rainforests in order to feed its chickens.  Man-size chickens invaded branches of the fast-food chain and McDonalds announced that it would only be using soya from non-rainforest sources from then on.

The speaker lamented of the attitudes of people towards the environment, especially when they tried to find any excuse for not accepting that climate change existed, or asserting that members of Greenpeace were only in it for themselves.  Greenpeace did not take money from corporations and believed in non-violence.

The North London Waste Authority had left many free gifts and leaflets, so the Green Team set up a display stand in the library.  The stand went on to be a great success, and the free items were taken away by readers.  The message of sustainability and environmental awareness has reached a lot of our stakeholders, making our efforts worthwhile, as we are pleased to say that we were presented with the Green Impact Award for Excellence in Sustainability 2015 at a ceremony in the Wilkins Building on 15 September.

What's new at the Royal Free Hospital Medical Library

We are pleased to announce that a number of new facilities are now available at the Royal Free Hospital Medical Library:

Self-service

A new self-service facility using the same RFID technology as other UCL site libraries is now in operation at the Royal Free Hospital Medical Library. The self-service project has been implemented over several months and has involved the installation of a self-service kiosk and new entry gates. The  kiosk is located opposite the Issue Desk and allows items to be conveniently issued, returned and renewed. The process is quick  (it allows multi-item checkout and return)and printed receipts are available to provide a record of transactions and due dates.

If you require a demonstration or have any questions please ask, library staff will be only too happy to help, or you can view an online demonstration.

New study spaces

On the ground floor of the library we have 32 new study spaces. All have an individual desk light, power socket and USB charging points. There's no need to hunt around for somewhere to plug in your laptop or mobile device and no more trailing wires. 

New NHS PCs

The Training and Electronic Study Area (TESA) on the first floor of the library now has more than 40 new Royal Free PCs. The set up in this room is now similar to that in the basement Elearning Zone. Simply use the switch on the black box on the desk to switch between the NHS PC or the UCL PC. The new NHS PCs are directly on the Royal Free network so have full multimedia capabilities. This means you can now use the TESA to carry out your mandatory elearning (MaST training). Timetables on the doors indicate when the room is available and when it is reserved for training events.

Opening hours

Why not take advantage of our extended opening hours to try out these new facilities? The library is open from 9am - 10pm Monday to Friday, and from 9am - 5pm on Saturdays.

Library opening hours - August

During August the Royal Free Medical Library is closed on Saturdays and Sundays. We are still open from 9am - 10pm Mondays to Fridays.

Self-service update

The preparation of stock for self issue and return is now underway at the Royal Free Hospital Medical Library. Extra staff have been recruited to undertake this work and the process is running smoothly with minimum disruption to services and study space. Users may have noticed that the entrance to and exit from the library is currently via one gate but this is only a temporary arrangement while stock processing is taking place. New gates and a self-service unit will be installed in the coming weeks. Further updates will follow as installation progresses.

Royal Free Hospital Medical Library - Bank holiday opening

The Royal Free Hospital Medical Library will be open from 9am - 6pm on bank holiday Monday, 25th May.