Congratulations and hwyl fawr to Lloyd Roderick who is taking up a new role at the National Library of Wales after ten years of sterling service in the Academic Engagement team.
Prior to joining us, Lloyd had achieved a PhD in Fine Art at Aberystwyth and gained wide-ranging experience in the sector, working at the Advanced Institute of Legal Studies, the Courtauld Library and Newport public libraries amongst others. As Subject Librarian for Art, History & Welsh History, Law & Criminology and Welsh & Celtic Studies, Lloyd has forged excellent relationships between the University Library and academic departments and will be much missed by all who have worked with him across the University. He has been an excellent team player, a prolific teacher of information skills and has brought strong subject knowledge to his responsibilities.
One legacy he leaves for the Academic Engagement team is the midday Friday “guess the library occupancy” quiz – no prizes, it’s just for fun! We’ll keep it going in your honour Lloyd 🙂
Good luck in your new job from all of us. We’re glad you’re not going far and look forward to seeing you again soon.
As another academic year draws to a close, we’re excited to share some of the milestones and key developments from your Library Services in 2024–25.
It’s been another busy year for the library as our users continue to borrow thousands of books and ebooks, access thousands of journal articles, and make use of our expanding range of digital resources and physical spaces. Reading lists remain a core part of your academic work and our library staff are always working to make sure the books, articles, and resources you need most are at your fingertips. Our Subject Librarians continue to provide specialist support and advice to all staff and students and our Resource Discovery team help facilitate and disseminate the University’s world-class research.
Browse our Library Action Plans to find out how Library Services have supported your teaching, learning, and research at Aberystwyth University over the past year.
As the academic year draws to a close, it’s the perfect time to reflect on the wonderful contributions made by our Professional Pathways students during their work placements with us in the Library.
This year we were delighted to welcome three students who worked across different teams within Library Services and quickly became integral members of staff.
Our Placement Students
Tayyibah Shabbir, Communications, Quality and Marketing team
Tayyibah brought a unique blend of psychological insight, first-hand experience as an Aberystwyth student, and a genuine passion for reading; qualities that made her an invaluable addition to our service. Her love for libraries was also apparent right from the start and we hope her time with us has helped nurture that passion!
Tayyibah quickly became a driving force behind several of our initiatives. She coordinated creative book displays in the Hugh Owen Library to mark key events such as University Mental Health Day and Valentine’s Day, bringing both awareness and a sense of fun to our spaces.
University Mental Health Day books display
Valentine’s books display on Level F, Hugh Owen Library
Her understanding of the student experience also proved instrumental in the launch of our AU Library News newsletter. Tayyibah helped shape content that resonated with students throughout the academic year, ensuring that our communications remained timely and relevant.
Her analytical skills truly shone in her work on service evaluation and user experience. Tayyibah assisted with data collection through a variety of research techniques, including helping with our What Students Think About Noise in Libraries workshop and conducting observational studies at our Library Floormaps kiosks. The insights she gathered have already helped us identify areas where some students need more support in navigating the library. Thanks to her recommendations, we’re now developing new resources to make finding books and using our services even easier.
Tayyibah’s achievements were recognised at the Professional Pathways celebration event on 11th June, where she was invited to present on her placement experience.
Tayyibah Shabbir receiving her certificate for successfully completing her Professional Pathways placement from Professor Anwen Jones, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education and Student Experience)
Kirill Kulikovskii, Academic Engagement team
Kirill Kulikovskii, a Computer Science student, had his Professional Pathways placement with the Academic Engagement team in the Library. He developed a Python script for use to identify broken links across a range of resource types in Aspire Reading Lists which have now been fixed. He also liaised with IT staff to arrange for the script to be added to the University’s company portal so it can be downloaded and used by staff to check for new broken links occurring in the future.
Kiril’s app in the University’s Company Portal
This was a really successful placement and Kirill was nominated and shortlisted for the Undeb Aber Student Staff Member of the Year Award 2025.
Ewan Price, Digital Skills team
Ewan Price completed his Professional Pathways Placement with the Digital Skills Team. He firstly created a series of DigiTips to help students and staff develop their digital skills, Ewan’s DigiTips ranged from using graphs in Excel to being more effective in Teams through using commands.
Ewan also helped maintain our Digital Skills Library through checking all the resources to make sure they were still appropriate and applicable to our users – staff and students alike.
Lastly, Ewan’s biggest project was to create a brand-new SharePoint site “Digital Essentials for Staff” to help new staff navigate all things digital they may need to know when they begin working at Aberystwyth University. Ewan successfully harvested resources, mapped a logical layout for the site and worked collaboratively with the other members of the working group to decide on content and design. He also developed his facilitation skills and communication skills by liaising with stakeholders at the university to collect feedback to improve the resource before it will be launched.
Ewan was a great asset to the team over the last few months and made completing these projects possible with his expertise in Computer Science and a new perspective to how we deliver our resources.
Looking Ahead
We are incredibly proud of what our Professional Pathways students have achieved during their time with us. Their enthusiasm, curiosity, and willingness to learn, as well as their individual skills and insights brought fresh perspectives and energy to our work. It has been inspiring to watch their confidence grow as they took on new challenges, collaborated with colleagues, and saw the positive impact of their work on library users.
We wish them the best of luck in their future careers!
Navigating the world of healthcare can feel incredibly overwhelming. The feeling of being time-poor while juggling personal commitments, lectures, and clinical placements can be intense. So, when it comes to research for assignments or understanding complex conditions, it can be hard to know where to start.
Rather than time spent on endless online searches that can lead you down rabbit holes of questionable websites and outdated information, your library invests in premium healthcare databases like CINAHL, MEDLINE, British Nursing Database (and many more!) for a reason – they are goldmines of credible, peer-reviewed research specifically for healthcare.
Our Database Search page is fully integrated within our main library search tool and can be found at the top of Primo, so no need to remember any separate URLs.
The Database Search is divided up into different subjects so you can browse resources applicable to your course. Alternatively, you can search by key terms and draw results from the whole of the collection.
Befriend these databases for:
Reliable, up-to-date evidence: These databases curate information from reputable journals.
Targeted Information: Use specific keywords and filters to pinpoint articles directly related to your topic, whether it’s wound care, mental health nursing, or diabetes management.
Evidence-Based Practice at Your Fingertips: These databases help provide the foundation for understanding the “why” behind the practice, helping deliver the best possible services based on solid research.
Academic Success: Using credible sources from these databases will strengthen your arguments, demonstrate critical thinking, and ultimately lead to better grades.
Expanded knowledge: Broaden your understanding of healthcare topics for career preparedness.
