Library support for international students

The university of Lincoln has a rapidly growing number of international students over many countries means the library welcomes a diverse range of students with a wide variety of study experiences. As the importance of appreciating the students’ experience of library services is increasingly important, the library produced a new role of library international co-ordinator to seek to improve the library experience for all international students.

Fortunately, myself has undertaken this new post, and started from last year December. With three years experience of studying at the university of Lincoln, I have been familiar with the existing library system in Lincoln. Additionally, as an international student myself, I understand the difficulties in adapting the differences for students who study abroad.

Since this new role started, I have been working on an internationalisation plan for the library services becoming easier and more accessible for international students.

For students, we appreciate their experience and feedback with using the library services, the new International Library Student Advisory Group is one of the significant practices for us to engage with students. We hold meetings in a 6 to 8 weeks basis throughout the academic year with a group of students to advice on provision of library services and facilities. The first meeting has been successfully launched in March 2015.

In addition,we established a community site on Blackboard of the Library Support for International Students alongside a variety of different social media platforms from international students. This aims to influence the support materials and creative content specifically for supporting international students.

Furthermore, the library organise several events and activities throughout the year to engage with students while studying in the library. For example, the library has been running the De-Stress week events at the busy time in the academic calendar aims to relieve stress caused by upcoming assignment deadlines. Also, we have involved the library with a range of events around the university such as Global Week event hold by the Business school.

Overall, the feedback from the students about the library are normally positive, but as the library is still looking into different methods which would potentially help with supporting international students, we are hoping the library services would be an outstanding place for all international students.