VISIT TO MARY SEACOLE LIBRARY, BIRMINGHAM CITY UNIVERSITY

ASLIB MIDLANDS

VISIT TO MARY SEACOLE LIBRARY, BIRMINGHAM CITY UNIVERSITY

THURSDAY 17TH JULY 2008 2.00 PM TO 4.00 PM


This FREE half-day visit is an opportunity to visit this stunning new library - one of the largest specialist health libraries in the country. As well as admiring the building there will also be the chance to learn about the wide range of electronic support services offered to students and to see a virtual ward with virtual patients.

Birmingham City University's newest library, the Mary Seacole Library, was officially opened on 27th June 2006. Located on the Edgbaston campus, the library occupies the whole ground floor of the state-of-the-art Seacole building which was awarded a Built in Quality award, for the Education category, at Celebrating Construction 2007.

The library was named after the pioneering nurse and heroine of the Crimean War – Florence Nightingale without the (mythical) lamp! It serves more than five thousand nursing and midwifery staff and students of the Faculty of Health and is part of a £30 million development at Birmingham City University.

This is the first library in the country to have a LiveReader, a machine designed specifically to help students who are either visually impaired or dyslexic. The machine uses a touch screen combined with CCTV technology to scan text, allowing it to be manipulated by changing text size, font and colour, and it will also read the text aloud.

Further innovations have included the launch of a 24 hour electronic enquiry service – Ask the Library. In 2007 the Mary Seacole Library piloted the use of RFID technology, which combined with self-issue and self-return, has greatly improved the ease of use of the library.

The Mary Seacole Library is in Westbourne Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 3TN, about 2 miles west of the city centre and is on a number of bus routes from the centre. For directions and further details see http://www.library.bcu.ac.uk//whatswr.htm.

And why not combine your visit with a trip to Birmingham’s botanical gardens, just across the road? (http://www.birminghambotanicalgardens.org.uk/)

If you would like to attend the visit please contact Chris Kostrzebski, IMI plc Business Development Support, Lakeside, Solihull, Birmingham B37 7XZ, email: Christine.kostrzebski@imiplc.com, tel: 0121 717 3904