College library is presented with prestigious National Award

The Principal and Head Librarian at Northampton College were presented with the prestigious Association of Colleges (AoC) Beacon Award for the Effective Integration of Libraries/Learning Resources Centres in Curriculum Delivery on Friday 20 April.

The award, sponsored by CoLRiC, was presented by Margaret Phillips, Council for Learning Resources in Colleges in the College’s fantastic library at their Booth Lane campus along with a cheque for £5000.

The Library team designed and delivered Information and Study Skills sessions in a highly effective collaboration with curriculum colleagues to help students devise research plans, access information from a variety of sources and produce correctly-referenced material for assignments.

Over 4,000 students took part and feedback was excellent, with 97% claiming that the sessions helped them enormously with their ability to produce high quality evidence of their understanding and knowledge. Importantly, some module grades were seen to rise by 10%.

Lauren Beddin who is studying HND Theatre at Northampton College said, “I had a gap in my education after I had done my A Levels and I was quite worried about coming back. As a result of the help from the Library team, my assignments are now getting A grades instead of Cs. My presentation skills have improved – I used to always read off cue cards but I don’t need them anymore.”

Len Closs, Principal, Northampton College said, “This award is testament to the excellent commitment and dedication of our library and lecturing staff and we will continue to work hard to ensure our library resources enable students to excel in their personal development and studies.”