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Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Dedicate more time to sharing research globally

Image of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine Building

"Currently, our digitization of LSTM archives is far from comprehensive, and what we would really like is to make the material more widely available to potential researchers… Our adoption of WMS has undoubtedly helped us to re-focus our energies in these important areas."

Julia Martin
Former Head of LSTM Information Services, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) closely collaborated with the University of Liverpool until 2013. At that time, LSTM became a Higher Education Institution (HEI), which opened up more funding options, enhanced its global reputation and allowed it to award qualifications in its own right. Due to this shift, and in support of LSTM's goal of enhancing student experience, the library staff started to assess their systems and operations. When the library was affiliated with the University of Liverpool, it was effectively a departmental library. But with these changes, the library had an opportunity to operate more independently, and they implemented WorldShare® Management Services (WMS) to help.

LSTM as a whole was moving a lot of its operational systems to the cloud, so WMS seemed like a good choice for the library. WMS interoperates with LSTM's Salesforce student information system, which can remain the "single source of truth" about LSTM students.

WMS helps LSTM expand its global reach and reputation through building relationships.

With the introduction of WMS, which has WorldCat® as its foundation, LSTM became part of a worldwide community that shares similar goals, therefore helping to raise the school's global reputation. Additionally, students were able to access the collective collection of the world’s libraries through WorldCat, which enhances their experience of the library. WMS allows more staff time to be freed up, allowing staff to focus their efforts on further research support activities. 

WMS has helped LSTM library staff offer more to their students and support the potential for new breakthroughs every day. It also helps the library staff add to the information available to users worldwide and enhances LSTM's global reputation.

Map showing location of Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Library at a glance

  • Founded in 1898, LSTM is the oldest institution of its kind in the world
  • Attracted 561 taught students and 114 researchers from 70 countries in 2016
  • Took 24th place out of 128 institutions in 2014’s Research Excellence Framework results, according to Times Higher Education
  • Houses resources with specialisms in parasitology, vector control, infectious diseases and public health in disaster management scenarios

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