ubject librarianYour Subject Librarians

Here at the library, we try our best to provide students with the support they need during their studies. Alongside information Assistants who provide support at our library helpdesks, we also have a team of specialised Subject Librarians. They have specialised knowledge in the different schools and subjects at Napier, and they are prepared to give you more in-depth support. As they aren’t an immediately visible team, it can be easy for students to not realise the amount of work that the Subject Librarians do for the university. And it ranges from managing our catalogue of books, writing the LibGuides, or hosting training sessions related to library and research matters.
For that reason, we’d just like to take a moment to quickly explain who our subject librarians are. And go over some of the ways they help you study.

Who is your subject librarian?

We have five Subject Librarians here at Napier, one for each of our schools. And you can usually find them at their respective campus libraries. A list of our Subject Librarians (along with their contact details) is on the MyNapier library help page.
At our Sighthill campus library, we have Catriona Robertson as the Subject Librarian for the School of Applied Sciences (as well as the Department of Learning and Teaching), and Dawn Adams for the School of Health and Social Care.
At Merchiston, we have Joyce Templeton at the School of Computing, Engineering & Built Environment, and Sarah Jeffcot with the School of Arts and Creative Industries.
And at Craiglockhart, we have Keith Walker for the Business School, which includes our law degree courses.

What is a subject librarian?

You can contact our Subject Librarian team using the details above. Or you can arrange a  1:1 appointment. These 1-on-1 sessions are great if you have any research concerns. For example, if you’re unsure about how to use some of the more specialised and complicated databases, then you can get in touch with the Subject Librarian for your school and get the guidance you need.
The Subject Librarians can also advise you on understanding different referencing styles, a skill that is especially helpful during assessment season!

However, the 1-on-1 sessions are not the only way that the Subject Librarians support your research. The first line of support is our  LibGuides, a collection of in-depth guides that walk you through different aspects of research. These guides are tailored to each of our schools and various aspects of research (such as reference management or literature reviews), so you can get the exact help you need. If you ever find yourself with a question about how to go about your research, then be sure to go have a look at the appropriate LibGuide page before contacting the Subject Librarian, because they may have already written up a guide that answers your exact question!

Subject Librarian and Reading Lists

Alongside handling your questions directly, the Subject Librarians also support your learning by working with university academics and the library’s Resource Acquisitions team to help manage the catalogue of books we have available.
Each Subject Librarian is responsible for helping oversee the library collection for their respective schools. When your lecturers put together the reading lists for your course, the Subject Librarians help manage them. And make sure the reading material is easily available to you, either physical or online via Library Search.
Before we start a new trimester, the lecturers review their reading list. And if they feel books are needed for the upcoming trimester, they will inform the Subject Librarians. Who, in turn, will see where we get access to the book. This way, the Subject Librarians are also doing a great deal of admin work to support you.

We hope that this brief overview has helped you to better understand the role of our Subject Librarians.  And the roles they play to support your learning.
And we hope that those of you who feel you need extra support in your studies.

We have loads of library support posts to help with upcoming deadlines.

By Matthew Ferrie