Conference build-up 4

Collaboration in libraries and learning environments

Maxine Melling and Margaret Weaver will open conference proceedings on Friday 17th May with our keynote address for the day. They will draw on their experience and knowledge, including information gleaned whilst editing their recent Facet publication, to identify current trends in library services and what this means for library staff.

The changing environment in public services requires different approaches to be taken to how services are delivered to customers. This may result in the development of shared services, the convergence of many different services to provide a seamless customer facing experience, or the development of more active collaborative networks. Maxine Melling and Margaret Weaver have been closely involved in the changes associated with these developments. They have co-edited a book of essays, published by Facet, which offers an overview of the key challenges and opportunities arising as well as presenting some case study material. This paper will provide delegates with an analysis of current trends and some personal reflections on what this means for those responsible for those working in and leading library services during times of change.

About Maxine 

Maxine Melling is Pro Vice-Chancellor  (Operations) at the University of Gloucestershire. Her portfolio includes responsibility for strategic planning and administration as well as for Executive leadership of a wide range of the University’s professional services. Maxine began her career in academic libraries and has held management posts in further and higher education institutions. Before moving to the University of Gloucestershire she was Director of Library & Student Support Services at Liverpool John Moores University. During her career in libraries she held a range of responsibilities within the profession, including Chair of the SCONUL Working Group on Performance Measurement, membership of Sconul’s Executive Board,  Chair of the North West Academic Libraries Group and Chair of the Northern Collaboration Group. Maxine continues in her role as a Trustee of Gladstone’s Library in Hawarden. Maxine’s interests and publication record are in areas including customer service, e-learning support and quality systems. Most recently she has published on the trend towards the development of so-called super-converged services, which aim to present seamless support services to customers.

About Margaret 

Margaret Weaver is Head of Library and Student Services at the University of Cumbria. She started working in public libraries in Manchester before moving to the academic library profession in 1991. She has worked in a number of north-west universities - at Manchester Metropolitan University, Huddersfield University and University of Central Lancashire before taking up her current role at Cumbria. Whilst at Huddersfield Margaret was instrumental in a JISC funded project on the design of interactive learning materials to develop students’ information skills and founder of the Learning Gateway - a new concept in learning space - at her current institution, which has a wide influence on the designs of other libraries. Margaret has presented and written widely on the pedagogy of learning spaces, integrated learning support and super-converged services. She is chair of North West Academic Libraries (NoWAL) and a Trustee of the Kelsick Educational Foundation.

Collaboration in libraries and learning environments

Maxine and Margaret's book, Collaborating in libraries and learning environments, from Facet Press, was published in December 2012.  

The changing environment in higher education requires different approaches to be taken to the provision of professional support services. This may result in the development of outsourced shared services, the convergence of many different student-facing services or the development of more active collaborative networks. This collection of essays considers the changing context and broad principles affecting the ways in which we need to manage and provide services and offers case studies of changes that have already taken place.

For further information, including access to Chapter 1 online, please see the Facet web site.

Cover image courtesy of Facet Press.

News from WHELF

WHELF have recently issued a news update and this includes content  that will be of interest to colleagues not working in HE Libraries. Their email distribution list WHELF on www.jiscmail.ac.uk has recently been opened for all to join. 

WHELF: Wales Higher Education Libraries Forum
March 2013: an update  
 
WHELF actively promotes the work of higher education libraries in Wales and provides a focus for the development of new ideas and services.
 
At our recent meeting in February, these were some of the topics under discussion:

1. WHELF Strategy and Vision

A working group led by Sue Hodges is developing a new strategy and vision for WHELF. The purpose of this new strategy is to outline a clear vision for WHELF over the next two years and to set a new direction and culture following recent changes within Wales and within the HE sector generally. We are all working within an environment where there is a constant need to deliver innovative services within financial constraints.

This new strategy is an opportunity to reposition WHELF within Wales as a collaborative partnership: one which will help us meet the current political agenda and demands from our own institutions and one which will help us realise cost benefits via potential shared services and collaborative e-resource deals.

2. Welsh Higher Education Libraries Shared LMS Services 

The final report of the Library Systems Shared Services Feasibility Study (Wales) has been presented to WHELF. It explores the potential for a shared Library Management System across all higher education institutions and the NHS libraries in Wales.

It has recommended that setting up an All-Wales Consortium with formal governance is the best option for provision of a shared service. A cloud solution hosted by a vendor (or open source vendor) is the preferred option, because this will provide the most cost-effective resilient solution.  The report was accepted in its entirety and WHELF have agreed that they want to pursue the option of developing a shared LMS in line with the report's recommendations.

A summary of the report is available on the WHELF website. 

3. Walk-in Access Wales

WHELF’s project to enable walk-in access to electronic resources in Welsh HE libraries is almost complete.  A toolkit will be published shortly and a walk-in access solution has been implemented at the pilot site at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, as well as at Cardiff University and Cardiff Metropolitan University.

On 1st February over 30 librarians from public, further education, national and academic libraries and staff from JANET UK and CyMAL came together to discuss walk-in access to electronic resources. Following the excellent presentations there was a lively debate, followed by workshop sessions on advocacy and marketing together with technical solutions and access management. Presentations and detailed notes from the discussions and workshops can be viewed here.

4. Welsh Higher Education Electronic Library (WHEEL)

A new steering group has convened to look at further development of collaborative purchase of e-resources in Wales. Find out more.

5. The Welsh experience of World War One 1914-1918

The WHELF WW1 digitisation project, led by the National Library, is going well and is on schedule for completion in July. Most printed and paper archival material has been scanned. There are some very interesting stories and photos on the blog, including how the materials are being used for teaching students. The digital collection will be available online and People’s Collection Wales, a project partner, is currently inviting the public to become a part of the project by bringing their materials along to one of a series of events where staff will be on hand to scan letters, photographs, certificates, postcards, diaries and any other documents or memorabilia.
Find out more here

6. WHELF News

Members of WHELF past and present met at the National Library of Wales on 7th February. The occasion was to celebrate and mark Andrew Green’s forthcoming retirement from the National Library and his huge contribution to WHELF over the many years he has chaired the group. His energy, expertise and commitment to WHELF will be very sadly missed. Photo. 

In the interim it has been agreed that Janet Peters will take on the role of Chair, so WHELF is still in safe hands!

Thanks were also expressed to Rebecca Davies who has been looking after WHELF finances very ably for the past few years as Treasurer. We are grateful to Julie Hart who has now taken on the role of Treasurer.

Finally ... this is my last bulletin for WHELF as I am leaving in April to spend more time on our B&B and holiday cottage in Pembrokeshire. I have very much enjoyed working for WHELF, especially as it has given me a wonderful  opportunity to meet so many of you over the last few years. I will always be grateful for your friendship and support. If you would like to find out what I'm doing, please have a look at our Facebook page (all "likes" welcome!) or our website. 

Sue Mace

Development Officer

WHELF: Wales Higher Education Libraries Forum

http://whelf.wordpress.com/

https://twitter.com/WHELFed

Learning spaces and student experience

Coffee Shop Learning Spaces. (c) Goodmami
Used under CC BY-SA 2.0   

Librarians, university and college estates professionals, academic staff and architects gathered at the National Assembly Senedd Building on Monday 11 March in order to discuss creating effective learning spaces. The discussion was varied, interesting and thought-provoking and benefited from the multi-professional delegate and speaker list. Flexibility, adaptability, agility, “factoring in” the basics (lighting, temperature, colour, sound etc), as well incorporating spaces for social and informal learning were key themes.

The University of Newport Learning Spaces Pedagogic Research Group hosted this one-day conference drawing a wide range of colleagues mainly from architectural practice,  the university and college sector. The university is actively investigating learning space design and utilization  included work undertaken by Martin Edwards on the Newport Campus Learning Centre previously reported by CILIP in Wales . SIP Funding is helping to extend the work being undertaken in Newport.

Richard Mazuch (IBI Nightingale) took us back to basics with sense sensitive design. The basics of light levels, colour, vistas, sound, touch, temperature and atmosphere -  all have proven impacts on learning through physiological, psychological, emotional and physical means.  Using research based on school and health care settings (but with much wider relevance) we know, for instance:

·         that good levels of natural lighting in school classrooms can increase productivity by 18-20%

·         build-up of CO₂ in classrooms lacking ventilation negatively impacts learning and attentiveness

·         dimming lighting in intensive care wards results in staff moving around more quietly and noise levels being reduced significantly to the benefit of patient outcomes

Richard demonstrated that it is possible to design these factors into new builds and many refurbishments. However, there are  simple things that can be done to effectively and cheaply enhance the learning environment.

• Poor natural light levels? Invest in natural light bulbs which are now widely available and relatively inexpensive. 
• Introduce appropriate colour, either through paint, or through colour projecting devices. The latter could be used to subtly change the environment throughout the day. Investigate colour psychology to find out more! 
• Olfactory planning - often forgotten! We can improve the smell profile of our spaces. Citrus oils will enliven the environment and increase productivity. 
• Sound – extensively used in retail, but not often considered in libraries. Should we be benefitting from the Mozart effect? Do we reap benefits from adjacent bird song or the gentle noise of the wind in trees?

Throughout Richard’s presentation we were entertained with phrases such as “articulate the environment” and “choreograph temperature and colour”. These are great reminders that we can add much to our learning spaces through pro-actively controlling and managing the sensory aspects of our environments. In doing so we will reap significant rewards and benefits.

From my time as an FE and HE librarian from the 1990s, I am fully familiar with the mantras of flexible design, zoning and purpose-relevant design for creating effective learning spaces. These seem to be as relevant today as they were then.

In case studies from Bournemouth (Glenn Turner, IBI Nightingale), Birmingham (Toni Kelly) and Newport Universities (Martin Edwards , Stephen Godber and Molly Owens) we received wisdom hard-earned from practical experience. From my time as an FE and HE librarian from the 1990s, I am fully familiar with the mantras of flexible design, zoning and purpose-relevant design for creating effective learning spaces. These seem to be as relevant today as they were then. 

Equip spaces with movable furniture for flexibility and agility;  provide spaces for group working, silent study, and working with technology. However, where this has moved on is through the increasing preference of a “cafe culture” for learning, and the technological freedoms enabled through WiFi. Students now appear to prefer to work in coffee shop type environments - areas providing a variety of seating and table types, lighting levels, sound and activity levels. With WiFi and highly portable devices we see a “Martini Culture” – anytime, anyplace, anywhere.  Our spaces should accommodate these changes in preference, but also continue to provide a variety of learning environments. Learners are not all the same. Indeed, at different times the same learner may wish to use the spectrum of available learning spaces.

With WiFi and highly portable devices we see a “Martini Culture” – anytime, anyplace, anywhere.  Our spaces should accommodate these changes in preference, but also continue to provide a variety of learning environments.

Bournemouth discovered that there is no single model for social learning space. What works well for undergraduates may be less appropriate for postgraduates. Similarly, what works in one space might not work in another. If the coffee shop model doesn’t work, might the business lounge model be more appropriate?  Do we forget to adequately design the small social learning spaces, like those found in lobby areas for lecture theatres, corridors or otherwise under-utilized shared spaces? Does uncertainty and poor client-briefing to architects lead to expensive over-design of spaces? For instance will large spaces ever need to be split with expensive movable partition walls. Will staffing and time ever be available to reconfigure such partitioned spaces?

At Birmingham it was felt that students embraced  independent and active learning, and that faculty were changing their programmes to reflect and boost these changes. However, learning spaces need to change too! Toni discussed establishing pilot active learning classrooms, usually focusing on spaces that had been historically under-utilised, or were clearly no longer fit for purpose. A lecture theatre once refurbished could still accommodate high numbers of students, and could be used in a traditional lecture scenario. However, by incorporating some swivel seating the theatre style could readily be used to encourage group discussion, and thus a more active classroom. We were also reminded to delve a little more deeply into the reality of room utilization statistics, and to supplement these with anecdotal or qualitative evidence. A 25-seat room might not be used because it is the wrong size, or set up in an inappropriate way. It might be under-used because it is too cold, has no natural lighting, poor ventilation, or is in a disfavoured area of campus.

Newport City Centre Campus.

The Newport City Centre Campus has provided a shiny new build, a beacon of a building, but has also placed the Learning Centre in a vast Atrium Space. Martin’s research engaged with students and identified areas for improvement including improved silent and group study spaces, IT provision and environmental factors. Do we really understand how patrons use our spaces and what their expectations of them are? Martin will extend this study by drawing on learning from public space design to see if further improvements can be made.  Stephen provided a fascinating perspective as an Estates Manager, balancing extensive backlogs in estate refurbishment, but also demonstrating very real awareness of student and faculty needs.

The perspective of an creative studies academic was provided by Molly, illustrating with striking examples of how uninspiring classroom spaces can disable creativity and productivity. By introducing a learning space with flexible furniture,  predominantly based around group seating and with the injection of colour, Molly has created a space that students and staff like to be in. Such configuration isn’t always appropriate and so Molly has embraced  the “outside classroom” – booking alternative facilities, organising talks from external experts, outside visits, and by using social media. In combination these changes to the learning environment  have reaped significant benefits for Molly and her students.

Dr Bela Arora, host for the day, provided a succinct and comprehensive summary. Bela closed by urging delegates to return to their institutions and initiate conversations hopefully leading to the creation of better learning spaces and therefore improved student experience. To do this organisations should encourage and respond to joined up, richer conversations, effectively utilizing and responding to different professional perspectives of policy, pedagogic practice / evidenced based practice, estates and design professionals.

This was an excellent, thought-provoking day. It was reassuring in that even small, relatively inexpensive changes, can  make significant differences. All delegates, I felt, could take away inspiration and quickly implement  them back in their settings. The day benefited from the mix of librarians, academics, architects and estates managers, and it was reassuring to note the huge sense of common purpose and shared experience within the room. By factoring in sense sensitive design, acknowledging changing learning styles favouring collaborative and social learning, providing spaces that foster creativity and contentment, and in taking into account technological developments, we can design, build or re-engineer spaces that will not only work for learners, but will benefit our staff, and serve as a draw for future students.

Ironically, the event itself suffered from a poor learning environment. But this goes to prove that learning does occur despite the environment! Delegates were crammed into the Senedd’s Media Suite, confronted by a flickering TV monitor, seated on unforgiving hard furniture, in a room that was constantly too cold. But our enthusiasm and attention were not defeated or dampened.

With sincere thanks to the speakers, Bela and her colleagues for an excellent event.

Since this event Dr Bela Arora has established the Innovative Learning Spaces group on LinkedIn. You may also care to follow Bela on Twitter @Bela_aror

‘Exploring Spaces’ - understanding the learning spaces that libraries provide



Martin Edwards attended the Experiences of the International Higher Education Teaching and Learning Association (HETL) conference on ‘Exploring Spaces’ (Orlando, Florida, January 2013) with financial support from the Kathleen Cooks Fund. This is Martin's overview of a project to review learning spaces at the University of Wales Newport and some of his experiences of attending and delivering a paper at the Conference.





The location for HETL’s ‘Exploring Spaces' conference depicting part of the university campus at the University of Central Florida, Orlando



Background

 

Back in May 2012, the Higher Education Teaching and Learning Association (HETL) called for papers on the theme of ‘Exploring Spaces’ for a conference to be held at the University of Central Florida, Orlando. At the University of Wales, Newport, staff in the library service had received a ‘learning and teaching’ grant to try and understand the learning space the libraries provides for its users, with an original remit to:

• To gain a better understanding of space (physical and virtual) and how this meets the learning and research needs of our learners (staff and students)
• To investigate whether teaching can be supported with our learning centre resources
• To investigate whether there is a difference between a learning centre and a library and if so, how this impacts on the learning experience.

The rationale for this came on the back of a university restructuring process which laid more emphasis on learning centres and less so on libraries.  We were also keen to see how much the notion of an information commons had progressed in a decade or so since its inception.

The Conference Experience

The conference itself was hugely different to both the library-specific and non-library conferences I had attended in the UK.  The scale of it (both the size of the campus and the number of delegates and speakers) may at first have appeared overwhelming, but I was impressed with the efficiency of the organisation, the structure of the programme and the pace of the change from keynote speakers to symposia to roundtable presentations and panel discussions.  HETL was a new association to me and I was impressed with its global coverage and the commitment of staff from across the world (who were mostly present at the conference).



UWN Newport City Centre - The Learning Centre including an information point, some of the IT study spaces and (towards the back) a social space.



My presentation focused on the qualitative and quantitative methodologies we had employed at Newport to try and identify a relationship between the learning styles of our students and the study spaces we provide. It is clear that there still needs to be a demarcation between the silent / individualised and the group / blended learning areas.  Strong support was also shown for more IT zones and bookable study rooms.  This has largely been achieved at our new campus in the city centre, but is something we are still working on at our older campus at Caerleon.  Other points raised in the presentation noted the need for social spaces, and this is something I am starting to look at in conjunction with the Newport Riverfront Arts Centre, aiming to deploy techniques from the commercial and non-education sector into higher education libraries.

I was also part of a roundtable group identifying the relationship between learning spaces and student experience. This involved attending other presentations on library themes including:

• the design of a bespoke ‘Learning Ground and Sandbox’ at ‘Portland State University’
• non-linear approaches to teaching students information literacy / fluency from ‘To The Point Research/Google, Inc’, and
• managing media technology and services (both on-demand borrowing and service support) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

It was good to gain an insight into what other higher education libraries in other parts of the world are doing and the Q&A session at the end reinforced the notion that we share the same issues and problems, including:

• how to support research in higher education (whether through faculty or a dedicated graduate research centre);
• bridging the digital divide and avoiding disintermediation (both for users and front-line staff), and
• the growing role of marketing and use of social media.



A ‘snapshot’ of some of the findings at Newport, with a demand for improved spaces of all types, replete with improved environmental factors.  This is something we have started to address by laying less emphasis on printed stock and opening up floor space and study rooms.



The role networking plays in such a large conference is invaluable and it was really useful to have informal discussions with academic staff from a wide range of disciplines as well as library people. For instance I had a good dialogue with the Head of Service at Bishop’s University, Quebec and it would be invaluable to continue communications with him to learn about the outcomes of the design and construction of their new library.

The Future

In relation to HETL, I would like to stay informed and become involved with activities in the future.  In relation to the work done at Newport on learning spaces, as mentioned above, I am embarking on a research investigation at the Riverfront Theatre and Arts Centre as part of a Strategic Insight Programme and aim to bring ideas about space from another sector and service back to the library to increase the engagement we have with our learners and researchers.  Part of my presentation will also be delivered at the forthcoming event ‘Learning Spaces and the Student Experience: Do Spaces Matter?’ at the Senedd, National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff on March 11 2013. 

Acknowledgements

It is with sincere gratitude that I acknowledge the funding from the Kathleen Cooks Fund which made my visit to the HETL Conference possible. Thanks to Dr Bela Arora, who also participated at the conference and has been instrumental at setting up a learning spaces forum at the university.  Thanks also to Angharad Evans and Madeleine Rogerson for all the work and research they performed at Newport when we initially received the learning and teaching grant.  As the university mergers with Glamorgan University to become the University of South Wales, then this is an ideal opportunity to re-examine the learning spaces we provide across multi-campuses.

Martin Edwards is Team Leader in User Services, Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) at the University of Wales Newport.

CILIP Cymru Wales is grateful to Martin for providing permission to publish this report.

Walk-In Access Wales Event

The Carmarthen Campus of University of Wales Trinity Saint David played host to an excellent event reviewing progress and experience gained in providing walk-in access to members of the public to subscription electronic resources within university libraries. A wide range of librarians, mostly from higher and further education and public library authorities, attended the event providing lively and informed debate.

I tweeted during the event using the hashtag #wiaw and a record of these and associated tweets is available in this TweetDoc. 

It seems that many university library services have had Walk-In Access (WIA) on their agendas since the publication of the SCONUL / UCISA  HAERVI (HE Access to e-Resources in Visited Institutions) report in 2008. However, only in more recent times have factors coincided to enable some university library services in Wales to establish pilot WIA schemes. Recent focus on open access to the published outputs of public funded research  and the Finch Report have perhaps helped to swell the impetus for open access more widely, and in this context WIA too. 

Coincidentally, I think that most would agree that WIA isn't an ideal solution, and it most certainly isn't a desired end-point for open access. Enabling non-HE Library members on-site access within a University Library to e-resources still doesn't make it really easy for members of the public to access and use these  electronic subscriptions. But this is one stage further forward, and the learning  gained will be invaluable in devising and adopting easier, more ambitious solutions for the future. There will also be additional bonuses of  helping universities with goals of greater community and alumni engagement, improving usage and return from costly subscriptions, marketing and promoting the institution, and building on links with other library and information providers within their region.

Three sessions from colleagues at the University of Wales, Cardiff University and Cardiff Metropolitan University did much to discount some common myths relating to WIA and to highlight some different technical solutions used in providing access. 

Some myths: 

• Subscription licenses won't allow us to offer WIA. True in some cases, but also several large subscription deals such as NESLI and EduServ do allow access. Even some big publisher packages such as EBSCO allow WIA as a standard condition in their licenses. The list appears to be expanding. Check with other WIA schemes to see what they are providing and then double-check your equivalent subscription's license agreement.  (For instance: SWRLS - Libraries in the South West of England; or Scotland SCURL Walk-In Access Project). 
• Purpose of usage may be a problem as WIA is generally restricted to educational /  non-commercial use only. All walk-in users are asked to agree and sign a terms of use document. With appropriate documentation, support, training and guidance then this process should minimise the risk of infringing WIA use to the host institution.
• HE Libraries will be inundated with WIA requests, and that these users may  pose challenges to staffing / service standards. However, the reality is that WIA users are likely to be very low volume: tens per year, rather than hundreds or thousands. (In many cases university library services haven't yet actively marketed WIA arrangements, preferring to take a  "soft launch" approach for these pilot projects). Furthermore, the majority of the most likely WIA users will be ex-higher education students, and so will already have lots of search experience and knowledge, and so may not require extensive support. Institutions may also be able to control access times and manage user expectations by asking potential users to contact the organisation in advance. 

Some technical stuff:

• Most pilots WIA schemes have focused on providing access to IP authenticated resources. The   control of appropriate access via IP authentication guarantees to database providers that the resource has been used "on-site" and so is a straightforward access criterion to us. Other authentication systems, such as ATHENS or Shibboleth, haven't been successful for WIA so far.
• In many cases WIA users are provided with guest accounts to access to OPAC machines or other specified quick-use machines. These tend to be sited in libraries, close to service / help points. 
• All have developed local and different routines for allocating guest access, verification / ID checking etc. It would be good to standardise these in the future for the benefit of users. Similarly, some allow access with printing, whilst others allow downloading to USB memory sticks, and again consistency may be beneficial in aiding users' expectations and usage experience.
• Buy-In and support from Institutional IT Services has been essential. 

These are only very quick notes, and I hope that the presentations will be available via the project's blog shortly. There were also two parallel sessions in the afternoon which I haven't commented on here. Again the blog may provide notes from these. One output from the project will be a WIAW Toolkit which will help other institutions to roll-out WIA in their organisations. 

Some concluding thoughts:

• WIA should only be considered as a way-marker, and not an end in itself. We should also think about where we would like to be going in the future. A Utopian dream?  A wide range of HE subscription e-resources collaboratively procured for HE, FE and public use across all of Wales? Compare this with E-Books Wales or Public Libraries E-Resources offers and perhaps this isn't so Utopian! We should capitalise on our small nation status to provide such innovative, resource sharing solutions.
• Need to focus on user experience: reducing barriers and hurdles to usage wherever possible. This means standardising as far as possible. Standardisation would also enable economies of scale through pan-Wales marketing, evaluation, metrics etc.
• We should continue to use WIA as a  opportunity to develop an improved understanding of our local partner services, their collections and resources, and their user groups. Perhaps we can easily identify key user groups where initiatives may provide big wins. For WIA might this include U3A groups, local alumni, local historians / local studies experts? Similarly WIA could form a useful topic of continuing bilateral discussion and action between the Welsh Higher Education Libraries Forum (WHELF) and the Society of Chief Librarians in Wales. 

This was an excellent event and I know that this blog is far from a complete summary of the key learning points from the day. But this may spark comment, further debate, or links to other reports and accounts from the day. 

My thanks go to Alison Harding and Bronwen Blatchford for organising the event, and to the speakers who provided fascinating accounts of their own experiences to date.

Kathleen Cooks, a conference and a cat: the Third Discover Academic Research Training and Support Conference 28-29 June 2012

This posting is enabled through the kind permission of Jess Emerton who received financial assistance from the Kathleen Cooks Bequest Fund to attend the DARTS3 conference in June 2012. This is Jess' report from the Conference.

 

Attending conferences is expensive, so I’m grateful to Kathleen Cooks, a librarian in Llandudno, who bequeathed a sum of money for the benefit of libraries and librarians in the country because one of the ways the money is used by CILIP Wales is funding librarians to attend conferences.  My recent application was successful and I was delighted to receive the award, mainly because the costs would be greatly reduced for my institution but also because it recognised the value of my attendance and the strength of my application.  If anyone else is thinking of applying for the Kathleen Cooks funding, I would recommend doing so.  The application process was straightforward and CILIP Wales were very helpful throughout.

The conference was the Third Discover Academic Research Training and Support Conference (DARTS 3) on the subject of library support for research in Higher Education.  It was held on the 28^th and 29^th of June 2012 in Dartington Hall, Devon.  The conference was organised by CILIP University, College and Research Group, South West (now part of the new Academic and Research Libraries Group).

 And the cat of the title?  Well, it was a resident moggy who wandered amiably in and out of the conference room during the sessions and was a symbol, for a cat lover like myself, of the engaging nature of the conference.  Those who organised the conference managed to combine a friendly, relaxed atmosphere with an interesting programme and a beautiful venue (see photos!)  It was a place where conversations about research support and wider aspects of librarianship could, and did, prosper and for a fairly inexperienced conference attendee like myself, the discussions I had and the connections I made alongside the formal sessions meant it was an ideal example of the benefits of taking time out to attend such an event.

I identified three main themes within the conference: librarians in new roles, research data management and supporting researchers:

Librarians in new roles

The Research Libraries UK (RLUK) recent major report ‘Re-skilling for Research’ looked at the changing needs of researchers and what we as librarians can do to better support researchers within our institutions.  Some of this may involve new roles for librarians and three of the sessions explored ideas around this.

The RLUK report was used as a basis for an activity in the session run by Neil Smyth from the University of Nottingham which was about engaging with business.  In the activity we highlighted which of the potential new roles were new, challenging or scary and Neil then went on to talk about the opportunities which can be created by taking on new roles.  He gave examples of working with researchers in new ways such as attending meetings to discuss highlight notices (intended to stimulate research proposals under specified themes) and taking on actions such as contacting a commercial partner (Neil brought in a publishing partner for one project).  This was a different slant on librarianship, which highlighted that it is part of the role of an academic to engage with business, so it should also be part of our role in supporting their research.

Another new role could be supporting researchers using social media and Jez Cope talked about the Connected Researcher workshops he runs at the University of Bath (similar to our own Connected Researcher workshops).  I liked the way Jez ran the activities in the workshops.  He gave the researchers a goal he wanted them to achieve and they got there through working things out for themselves and helping each other rather than via instructions.  For example he just asked them to send a tweet (with the workshop hashtag) rather than going through step-by-step how to use twitter.  Other useful interactions then happened naturally.  This approach was something to think about in relation to the teaching I do.

Three extra links from Jez’s session worth sharing: the Diigo bookmarks from his workshops, the RIN report ‘Social media: a Guide for researchers’; a data sharing web site called ‘Figshare’ which could be used to upload data associated with research papers. 

What about librarians as researchers?  Miggie Pickton from the University of Northampton used her session to ask us to consider the benefits of carrying out research ourselves and we came up with a huge number, both to the individual, the organisation and the profession.  During another activity we thought about the barriers to carrying out research, but for each barrier Miggie made us come up with a possible solution which led to a very positive session.  Miggie also talked about the successful Library and Learning Services conference held recently at Northampton.  It was inspiring to hear about the focus on research at Northampton, where it is an objective in appraisals and senior staff are expected to bid for funding, conduct research projects, present at conferences and publish.

There is much to inspire and excite within these challenging new roles.

 

Research data management

The issue of how best to manage and store research data is a hot topic in Higher Education at the moment.  While institutions are getting to grips with managing and storing research outputs in institutional repositories, the data created and used in the research is generally not being managed in an effective way.

Two sessions focused on the role of librarians in research data management.  Judith Stewart from UWE ran a session which asked us to think about who in our institutions is leading on research data management.  Having librarians involved in research data management chimes with many of our professional skills (identifying needs, managing and curating information, training) and fits in with some of the roles highlighted in the RLUK report.  Judith talked about the JISC funded project on research data management they are running at UWE and the benefits the library has found in terms of raising its profile within the institution.

The session by Gareth Cole from the University of Exeter (also running a JISC funded project on research data management) particularly focused on the training required by researchers and by library staff in the area of research data management.  We all completed a questionnaire about training during the session, the results of which have been written up in a couple of blog posts.  I agreed with Gareth’s emphasis on the importance of training PhD supervisors on managing research data as well as students; I certainly find that getting supervisors on board is key to influencing my PhD students.

So, lots to think about - what is currently being done about research data management in our institutions and how should we be involved as librarians?

Supporting researchers

It’s great to hear about ways other Universities are supporting researchers and even better if they share the material they use and make resources reusable.  So a big thank-you to the East Midland Research Support Group eMRSG, represented here by Elizabeth Martin (DMU) and Jennifer Coombs (University of Nottingham),who outlined their online tutorials for researchers.  There is a module on disseminating your research, with one on reference management to come.  A great feature is the short ‘talking heads’ videos, featuring real-life researchers, which come across as relevant, credible and engaging.  The tutorials can be reused in whole or in part and are available via JORUM.

Preparing for the Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a key priority for universities and Anna Dickinson from the REF team kicked off the conference with a really useful outline of the REF.  I hadn’t been aware before of the range of ways the impact of research could manifest itself or the fact that journal impact factors are not taken into account in the assessment.  Discussion after Anna’s presentation included questions about open access in relation to the REF; open access has been a big news story of late and it surfaced here and throughout the conference.

Find out more

This UC&R South West blog post links to the conference presentations on Slideshare and to various blog posts about the event.  The post also includes some photos of the beautiful venue… but none of the resident cat I’m afraid!

Jess Emerton, Subject Librarian, Cardiff University
(Copyright for the text and photographs remains with Jess Emerton).

Engaging science and technology students - report of a study day

Susan Glen, Deputy Subject Librarian at Swansea University, received financial support from the Kathleen Cooks Fund to attend the Universities Science & Technology Librarians Group meeting at the University of Portsmouth on the 4th December. The day focused on engaging students and provided Susan with some great ideas for livening up teaching sessions and developing social media presence. Susan has kindly allowed CILIP Cymru Wales to disseminate her report of the day.

Universities Science & Technology Librarians Group 4th Dec 2012

A meeting for science and technology librarians held at the University of Portsmouth on the topic of engaging students

Linda Humphreys, Bath: Engaging chemistry students: finding data and drawing compounds

Linda had had some problems getting teaching sessions with chemistry students at appropriate times until two teaching fellows were appointed who introduced a key skills module and saw the benefit of library input. She now teaches them plagiarism and referencing, finding chemical and physical data and using Reaxys. She talked about some useful tools she uses for finding chemical and physical data. Although we don’t have a chemistry department is useful to be reminded of them for chemical  engineers and biochemists.(Details at http://www.bath.ac.uk/library/subjects/chem/). Students have problems in deciding which tools to use when they may give different data – she has to teach them ways of deciding the reliability of the source and how to cross-correlate to check results. Students were engaged with the sessions because they were directly related to course work.

She had also introduced voluntary sessions in the second year to teach ChemBioDraw, a software package for drawing chemical structures. This was mainly because students struggled with it but nobody on campus taught it. This led to an interesting discussion about what subject librarians should teach. Others had been asked to teach things like book reviewing and mind mapping which are outside our usual role. Most felt that it is worth teaching things outside our traditional role if we are able to as it helps to make academics take notice of us, although many have colleagues with different views. One librarian will only teach a mind mapping session if students have had a proper literature searching session so uses it as a hook. Lynda.com was mentioned – an online site which has material to teach many different software packages. The discussion also touched on which referencing software people teach. Many teach EndNote but some felt the balance would tip towards free sites like Mendeley and one university had introduced training sessions on different tools to allow their researchers to choose.

Timothy Collinson / Emily White, Portsmouth: “Engaging students using social networking”

Portsmouth had built up good student engagement by encouraging staff to be creative. Emily had been on the loans team and is now a senior library assistant on the enquiry team. She has done a lot to build up their Facebook presence, including using historical shots of the building to build up a timeline. Emily told us that building up a history and telling a story can help to create an emotional connection. It is important to remember that students will probably only go to your Facebook page once and thereafter will just see your posts in their own news feed. Posts with photos receive 2 or 3 times more clicks than those without. They get lots of people viewing their Facebook page apart from those who “follow” it.

The library also has a Thing of the Day blog which mixes quirky material such as bizarre web sites with informational posts,Youtube and Pinterest sites, a Google Plus site and Twitter feed. The Google Plus site is not used well but others are. They try to keep a friendly, conversational style and as a result the number of enquiries they receive via social media have built up as they are seen as approachable. Timothy emphasised that you need to think about listening to what students are saying and consider it as a conversation rather than sending out lots of information.

There was discussion about how much time all this takes. Portsmouth have several people who are interested and it doesn’t usually take a huge amount of time though they don’t monitor it exactly. The enquiry team monitor incoming enquiries as they would for anything else. There is some cross posting but they don’t automatically feed all material to all channels as they feel that different social media sites have different purposes and identity. Management had been dubious initially and they had had to struggle to be allowed time to do things but they can now see the benefit.

Timothy and Emily were very enthusiastic and I picked up some useful ideas and intend to read their paper in Aliss Quarterly at http://eprints.port.ac.uk/1508/ (Exterminating

boredom: synergy and creativity in an academic library). In the discussion a librarian from Southampton mentioned that they have involved students in posting on their facebook page which has been popular.

Adam Edwards, Middlesex: “It’s a library knockout! engagement activity”

Adam talked about ways he tries to engage students in his teaching sessions. He is currently working for a teaching in HE qualification. He tried out a good, simple idea on us – handing out cards with book, journal, trade journal, web page etc which we had to match with a definition and what they are good for – a good ice breaker type activity for literature searching sessions. He also gave us an evaluation form and some photocopies of material which we had to judge using the form – none of them were actually suitable for academic work so it would be a good way to get students thinking about this. He advised putting people in groups of 3 as that is the optimum number to get them discussing properly. This session was a timely reminder that you can use quite simple games / activities as a good learning tool and I would like to work something similar into some of our own literature searching sessions to make them more lively.

Library Tour

We had a tour of Portsmouth University Library. They are clearly dealing with some of the same issues as ourselves – for example, they have tried some 24 hour opening and have had issues with students having pizza delivered as well as cleaning issues, they are moving some staff to make group study rooms for students, as are we and they have constant requests for more plugs. They are intending to dispose of some scientific journals to make room for student study space – around 50% have only been borrowed once in the last ten years so these will probably go. A lot of the issues are probably due to the challenge of trying to make 60s and 70s buildings fit the changing needs of modern students.

I felt that this was a useful day. I picked up some information about chemistry information which will be useful to me and also some ideas about how to liven up teaching sessions and develop our social media presence. As the speakers were all enthusiastic I felt this gave me an injection of enthusiasm to try some things out for myself and it is always useful to hear what other subject librarians are doing as we face many of the same issues. Thanks to the Kathleen Cooks Bequest fund for this opportunity.