The extension to library opening hours during Trinity 2000 led to the recruitment of two additional helpers, Mathieu de Bakker and Catherine Scutt, and also necessitated use of student helpers Debbie Lee, Richard Coxson, Carlo Bosi and others. The librarian is grateful to all of them, as well as to the library s regular staff of Julie Crawley, Cathie Gaherty and Toni Rogers, for another year s work successfully accomplished. Toni attended computing courses in autumn 1999 which in part have led to her buying her own home computer. Cathie s post was paid for by the Music Faculty, which continues to give excellent support to the library, while the extended hours in Trinity term were paid for by the university s Libraries Committee. This in part reflected that year s large undergraduate intake, but also revealed an increase in issues of material on closed access for example, in the library s General Reserve and Reference Textbook sections, caused by greater reliance on reading lists in particular courses.
Several challenges await the library in the coming year.
The first is retrenchment across the university, which has already manifested itself in cancellation of plans to continue with the extended opening hours begun in Trinity 2000.