Annual Report 2022–23
Infographic report celebrates the library's digital successes, research and education focus and commitment to community and customers.
The Libraries Annual Report 2022–23 presents some of the Libraries’ key achievements in digital transformation, empowering research at Leeds, student engagement and education and exceptional customer experience.
The colourful infographic is packed with statistics demonstrating continued improvement across all areas of strategy and services in our first, uninterrupted academic year since the COVID lockdowns.
This annual report highlights the sheer breadth and depth of the role that the libraries play in enhancing and enriching University’s research, education, civic mission and student experience.
As part of our Digital Futures strategy, we published our sector leading AI report and began to lay down our innovative Digital Libraries Infrastructure program which will transform access to our cultural collections.
One example of how we empower our research community and provide holistic support for the whole open research lifecycle was our Research Profile Bootcamp, providing targeted and practical support for researchers at Leeds. Our partnerships with schools support researchers and strategic decision-making through data and expertise as an active partner in local and international scholarly communities.
A key strategic goal is to provide Enriched Experiences for our users by improving services and access. This is recognised in an increased Customer Service Excellence Compliance Plus rating, while the library survey revealed that user satisfaction has increased to 88%. We also tripled our Instagram following and launched our library newsletter meaning we are communicating more often with students about things that are important to them.
Access to the Libraries was improved with the launch of the web app Spacefinder, with over 18,000 students using the new tool. We also opened our Library Makerspace in the Edward Boyle Library and have welcomed over 2,000 visitors from all parts of the university to create, repair and experiment in a supportive space.
Our support for academic and digital skills development reached 32,479 students through in-curriculum and co-curriculum teaching. There were large increases in the number of one-to-one support sessions provided to students and almost 7,000 skills enquiries were answered.
Our cultural and civic engagement created a landmark exhibition about the Brontës which brought national and local press coverage in The Guardian, the BBC and The Times, as well as attracting many more first-time visitors to our Galleries spaces. The Galleries saw an increase in visitors and event attendees and was awarded the Visit England Hidden Gem award – the only venue in the region to receive this accolade.
Masud Khokhar, University Librarian and Keeper of the Brotherton Collection, said: “This annual report highlights the sheer breadth and depth of the role that the libraries play in enhancing and enriching University’s research, education, civic mission, and student experience. Customer experience and achieving excellence are core to our mission and I am proud to see that the hard work of the library staff has resulted in improvements in almost every metric over the last year.”
View and download the Libraries Annual Report 2022–23
