Students, teaching and learning practitioners and researchers across all disciplines will routinely need to use their university library and learning resources, spaces and services. This has led to the idea that a library is the heart of a university – something so fundamental that, without it, a higher education institution could not survive. While few would debate such sentiment, the location of that beating heart can differ across institutions.
The positioning of a library within a university structure will have significant implications for how it operates – within an ICT department, teaching and learning unit or student services. A previous Campus resource has covered the benefits of locating a library and an IT department in the same place. Here, I’ll consider six advantages of a library being co-located within a teaching and learning directorate.
It reflects the library influence on teaching and learning outcomes
The 2025 National Student Survey included one question specifically addressing learning resources, but many more will be influenced, perhaps not explicitly, by the library. “Teaching on my course” questions after on-course sessions delivered by librarians are one example.
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Likewise, “academic support” questions could include academic skills training provided by library teams – such as learning developers, who are often based in libraries. The questions on “assessment feedback” could cover the help provided by library teams to enable students to understand feedback and how to use it to improve future work. Integrating the library with a teaching and learning unit ensures the wider influence of the library is not overlooked and assists a holistic approach to teaching and learning enhancement action planning.
It positions librarians as pedagogic specialists
I have previously written of the importance and benefits of including third-space practitioners in curriculum development. Through working directly with course teams and students, librarians will develop significant insights into what works when designing courses and assessments.
However, often librarians do not always have structured opportunities to share their insights – for example, by feeding into new course developments or review cycles. Co-locating a library within a teaching and learning-focused directorate emphasises that librarians should be routinely consulted as part of curriculum development. This is reflected in the co-creation strand of my university’s curriculum framework.
It promotes a service user experience culture
University libraries have excellent track records of spearheading customer service enhancement. Many university libraries are signed up to external customer service schemes or have developed bespoke library excellence frameworks, and championed user experience design, undertaking research to better understand the needs and behaviours of service users. This in turn informs the delivery of services and design of learning spaces.
This ethos and methodology are transferable to wider teaching and learning practices – informing the design of curriculum, teaching rooms, specialist facilities, social learning and virtual learning environments. Given that this work may be routinely led by teaching and learning units, positioning library teams to co-lead and drive forward makes perfect sense.
It amplifies a relational practice ethos
A Campus spotlight guide recently addressed the importance of building belonging. Library support staff are often very experienced at building positive relationships with students, and supporting individuals who may be experiencing periods of challenge or crisis. This reflects a relational customer service approach, focusing on understanding the needs of an individual rather than providing a quick transactional solution.
These interactions can provide rich insight into the student experience, but the knowledge of library support staff is often untapped. An integrated directorate creates meaningful opportunities for the library support team to share their experiences directly with teaching and learning leaders. This in turn can help inform the development of relational teaching and learning approaches.
It ensures seamless induction
New staff joining a university will attend an induction that addresses learning and teaching expectations, processes and systems. Splitting these inductions across directorates can lead to duplication and inconsistent messaging.
Positioning educational developers, learning technologists and librarians in the same directorate promotes a collaborative approach to new staff induction planning and delivery. The same applies to student induction planning, in terms of academic skills collaboration between librarians and learning development tutors.
It harnesses library systems and data
Libraries typically have dedicated systems that they manage locally, including reading list software and library discovery tools, which play a fundamental role in teaching and learning. Positioning a library team to regularly work alongside teaching and learning focused practitioners, such as educational developers, learning developers and learning technologists, ensures the use of these systems is taken into account when developing new pedagogic policy or approaches. Similarly, libraries provide a rich source of data, which can help to inform relevant teaching and learning developments.
Of course, there is no single “correct” option in terms of where to locate a library, and what works at one institution may not translate to another. That said, where a library is based will always have significant implications for teaching and learning.
If your library isn’t located within a teaching and learning unit, it is even more important that librarians and library support staff be meaningfully and regularly included in the development of teaching and learning policies and approaches.
Steve Briggs is director of learning, teaching and libraries at the University of Bedfordshire.
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