Library staff pushing book trolley

Library staff

Committed to your learning

Our staff are committed to the learning experience and are constantly working towards developing Library services to meet our users' rapidly changing needs.
On this page, learn more about the Academic support team, Customer experience team, Management team and Content and scholarly communication team.

Academic Support Team

Each UWL course has a Subject Librarian assigned to it. 

Your Librarian can: 

  • Assist you with library enquiries, can provide subject-specific support and training.
     
  • Help you to trace, access and use the most relevant academic resources for your course, using a balance of print, online and audio-visual materials.
     
  • Provide information literacy and skills training (eg in using online databases, in researching or referencing resources for your project or dissertation), for groups or individuals, by arrangement with tutors or by appointment with individual students.
     
  • Order, purchase and manage resources recommended by teaching staff to help support their students.

Customer Experience Team

Our Customer Experience Team are dedicated to ensuring that you get the best experience you can from using the library and its services.

Management team

  • Davina Omar - Director of Library Services

    Davina Omar - BA (Hons), MSc, MCLIP, SFHEA

    Davina Omar is responsible for the effective leadership, management and strategic direction of the Library Service ensuring the delivery of a dynamic and measurable student and staff-focused library service. She is also responsible for the UWL Archive Service.

    Davina was previously the Head of Academic Support at UWL with responsibility for managing the Library’s academic support to the University’s Schools and Colleges, leading the effective delivery of academic library support services, managing the development of the Library’s resources collection and developing the UWL Archives Service.

    Prior to joining UWL, she was the Information Specialist for the Science, Engineering and Computing faculty at Kingston University and previously had been the Subject Liaison Librarian for the School of Engineering and Design at Brunel University.

    She is the former Chair of the Publicity & Public Relations group, which is a special interest group of CILIP, and she is also the former chair of the ASLIB Engineering and Technology group. Her professional interests include information literacy, inclusive collection development, marketing of libraries and evaluating impact of services and resources.

  • Julian Roland - Head of Library Service Delivery

    Julian Roland - BA (Hons), Dip Lib, MCLIP

    Julian is responsible for the library's front line services, customer engagement and our marketing and communications.

    Julian has over thirty years experience of library work and prior to joining the University of West London was Interim Head of Library Resources and E-Strategy Development at London Metropolitan University. 

  • Lenka Shipton - Head of Content and Scholarly Communication

    Lenka Shipton - BSc (Hons), MSc

    Lenka leads the team responsible for the provision of all types of Library resources, scholarly communication and Library systems. 

    Prior to joining UWL in January 2020, Lenka was the Digital Repository Librarian at City, University of London. In this role, Lenka was involved with scholarly communication, open access, developing relationships with the scholarly community at the Institution and related systems development.

    Email: lenka.shipton@uwl.ac.uk

Content and scholarly communication team

Our Content and Scholarly Communication Team is responsible for a range of functions in support of UWL students and staff.

For general help or advice, you can contact the team by email at library@uwl.ac.uk, and we will respond to your enquiry as soon as we can.

Head of Content and Scholarly Communication - Lenka Shipton

  • Acquisitions, Subscriptions and Document Delivery

    We manage the acquisition of print and digital books and journals, audio-visual and specialist material into the Library stock, and the interlibrary loans service.  This involves close working with our Academic Support Librarians to identify resource needs in support of our Schools and Colleges, and working with consortia and specialist suppliers to ensure timely delivery of material, quality of service and value for money for the university. We collate statistical information to support planning and purchase decisions. 

    • Acquisitions & Subscriptions Librarian – Susie Strachan
    • Assistant Librarian – Mary Blomley
    • Assistant Librarian – Keira Ennis
    • Assistant Librarian – Eileen Jamieson
    • Assistant Librarian – Monika Gasiorowska​

  • Scholarly Communication

    We manage the UWL Repository which showcases our academic research across the University.  We continuously work to develop the functionality of this service in order to enhance the discoverability and accessibility of the University's research and scholarship outputs.  Our staff support academic colleagues depositing material to the UWL Repository as well as having an overview of the associated technical needs and challenges.

    We also advise around other emerging areas of scholarly communication, including supporting open access publishing through New Vistas (via the Janeway platform), advising researchers on their approaches to research data management (RDM), planning for research impact, and various issues around digital identity for our academic colleagues.

    • Open Research Manager – Marc Forster
    • Open Research Librarian – Eilish McLaughlin

  • Systems

    We are responsible for a range of Library technologies including LibSearch and self-service, our laptop loan scheme, Library app, and our resource discovery systems. We look to innovate within the systems we have as well as looking forward to future needs.

    Systems Librarian – Vacant

Get in touch

Student reading in library

In-person: Visit the Help Zone, ground floor at our Ealing & Reading sites. Find out the library opening hours.

Email us: library@uwl.ac.uk

Social media: Twitter

Telephone:  Ealing: 020 8231 2405  /  Reading: 020 8209 4434  (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm)

Need help? Chat with us.

 

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