Goldsmiths SU has successfully campaigned for changes in the opening hours of the colleges library and ICT facilities. I’m interested in exploring what other ways the information that is stored in the library building can opened up to the benefit of students and staff alike. I’m not so much speaking about new things that the library can do, rather I am interested in ways in which existing services and resources could be linked up, extending their use. Currently recommendations for reading / viewing / listening are distributed to students as files to download from learn.gold.ac.uk (which we usually print) or in hard copy (which we then annotate). Students then navigate to the library website to find out whether a given publication is even available, and what its shelfmark is. However, there is the potential to make the process of recommending, finding, borrowing and even commenting on the value and relevance of a particular library resource more seamless by linking-up the library website and learn.gold site. ...

I’ve invested a lot of time in researching and testing tools to support my studies. i wanted to to break away from so-called ‘productivity tools’, as in all my years of using software like Visio, Word, Outlook, I’ve never really been productive: too much of my time and effort has been wasted in taming the application, or repeated manually generating my desired formatting - perhaps counter-productivity tools would be more accurate. I’m in my third year of studying for a BA. I’m researching my subjects and my ideas, reading lots, annotating my reading, working on assignments, editing and revising my work. I work in different locations and at different times and I want access to my work where and whenever I am. As such, a piece of hardware, a laptop or a pda is not the whole answer to these needs, I need software to support my study too. bring on the tools. ...

Cllr Chris Leaman writes “The rumour and subsequent petition started after a report which recommended library closures was released into the public domain. This report was based on a strategy to libraries that was agreed under the previous Labour administration. The current executive have rejected this plan and asked for a new strategy to be written. I understand that the new strategy will not recommend library closures. The new draft library strategy should be published in the next few weeks....

I have heard rumors locally about the closure of Cricklewood library and todaysigned a petition, organised by Friends of Cricklewood Library to keep it open. I’ve emailed Brent Council and the Lib Dem Councillors to try and discover more truth or otherwise about this rumor.

Daniel Finkelstein puts the boot into the Lib Dems and encourages leadership machinations ahead of the party conference season, goading Ming into a long walk along a short pier. “Remarkably few people will shout through to the kitchen: ‘Hold dinner for a moment, love, Sarah Teather’s on.’ " - I must be one of the remarkable few.