Librarian's introduction

Time has passed so quickly I can hardly believe that we are publishing our second annual report which tracks progress with our Imagine2030 vision.

Highlights of the year include the launch of the Office for Open Research, the opening of the British Pop Archive ‘Collection’ exhibition and celebrating the work and achievements of our brilliant Library staff at our first annual conference, ‘Together’. Our hybrid working pilot proved extremely successful and we are now embedding hybrid working for all of our Library teams.

Work on the delivery of Imagine2030 through our Lead Priority Areas gained pace in 2021/2022 and several major new pieces of work were initiated:

• Defining the scope and re-writing the vision for Digital Library Manchester
• Engaging with a wide cross section of partners to continue to deliver a great taught student experience for Our Students
• Establishing underpinning principles and a roadmap to deliver Manchester Library Digital Scholarship
• Appointing a design team for John Rylands Next Chapter who will enrich and transform the researcher and visitor experience at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library
• Developing a set of principles to inform the development of a new collections strategy within Manchester Modern Collections to further increase the breadth and depth of one of the UK’s most outstanding collections.

I continue to be amazed by the skills and creativity of our diverse community at The University of Manchester Library and hope you will be inspired by what you read here too.

Here’s to another successful year.

Professor Christopher Pressler,
John Rylands University Librarian and Director of The University of Manchester Library.