tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67723990454668278432024-03-14T01:07:57.562-07:00Librarian CornerAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11888960978133965756noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6772399045466827843.post-17792162339119813032017-03-10T01:21:00.001-08:002017-03-10T01:21:05.270-08:00The Challenges of Obtaining Student Feedback in a Single-Staffed, Silent Setting<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Below is a copy of the article which I have just had published in COLRIC's Quality Impact journal.<br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">'Effective management is only possible with effective evaluation.' So says <em>The CILIP guidelines for secondary school libraries</em>. (Shaper, 2014, p.80) and <em>The innovative school librarian</em> (Markless, 2016, p.84) highlights the importance of learning from students. This is especially true in my setting. We are a sixth-form college of around 360+ students with one silent study Library - which I single-staff - and a couple of other study areas available around the site. These are open-access and unstaffed. I get very few enquiries in the Library (something which I am working to improve) and those students that do speak to me tend to do so quickly so as to keep the space silent. I therefore have little opportunity to engage in lots of meaningful conversations and judge how effective the service is, and almost no opportunity to speak to non-Library users. But without their input, how do I know the level of impact that I am having? How do I know what services and resources they prioritise? How can I ensure that I am meeting their educational and personal needs?<br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><strong>The Library at Dereham Sixth Form College</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: small;">In November 2015, during my first year in post, I implemented the first of a new, annual Library questionnaire. My solution to the problem of not having much opportunity to speak to students was to devise a paper and online questionnaire that could be completed independently of me by all students, whether Library-space users or not. This still left issues, however. If students were completing the questionnaire on their own, how could I ensure that enough were filled out? Furthermore, not being present meant that there was no chance for me to explain and promote resources and services that students may have been unaware of, or be able to ask clarifying or follow-up questions. In spite of this I knew that alternative methods of feedback, such as focus groups, was going to be unachievable in terms of the numbers of responses I wanted to the questionnaire was my best option.<br /><br />I ran the questionnaire over two weeks towards the end of November. I timed it so that Year 12 hadn't yet left for study leave for their internal December exams, but that there had been enough time for them to get to know the services and resources. During the two weeks I left a paper questionnaire at every desk and computer space in the Library and in the two main other study areas. I also sent all students a link to the online version via their College email and promoted it through the College's Twitter and Facebook account. I emphasised that even those who didn't use the Library could provide valuable input and feedback.<br /><br />I included COLRIC-recommended questions and asked about Library use, the effectiveness of the space and environment, borrowing, relevance of print resources, awareness of journals and online subscription resources, the potential helpfulness of an online catalogue, new resources, whether we should introduce overdue fines, customer service and Library welcome and information literacy inductions. At the end I also asked respondents to say whether they were Year 12 or Year 13 and which courses they were studying to enable me to analyse responses based on year group and subject.<br /><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3oAyXSORcRgyIqmVMWxWFS5KZ40NlrNscK5le08q7PW7qGXQYMOdOinYNqnynLy_xAN2Ef2iR2bFYr2nhv3oVSCEnK79P36CfI-a3nyHNGqycUkbT_-b8ZUSMY1Ta7LfRXuS2uSh0e1jC/s1600/questionnaires.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3oAyXSORcRgyIqmVMWxWFS5KZ40NlrNscK5le08q7PW7qGXQYMOdOinYNqnynLy_xAN2Ef2iR2bFYr2nhv3oVSCEnK79P36CfI-a3nyHNGqycUkbT_-b8ZUSMY1Ta7LfRXuS2uSh0e1jC/s400/questionnaires.JPG" width="400" /></a><br /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><strong>The 2016 questionnaires<br /></strong></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I received a good number of responses in that first year - 208 overall with 121 of those being paper questionnaires and 87 being online. On analysing the results I did find some issues, however. Not all the paper questionnaires were fully completed and a couple of issues with the online software I used meant that some questions had to be adapted slightly and some students managed to skip questions that should have required an answer. Furthermore, my concerns about not being able to ask follow-up questions or clarify answers turned out to be quite frustrating! On the up side my non-involvement did give the students the opportunity to be completely honest and I know that some responses would not have been the same had I asked the question myself. (This did also lead to some very stupid answers as well!)</span><br />
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The overall outcome of the questionnaire was positive. I received valuable statistics and insights into usage and opinions of the service. I was also able to create an action plan for the rest of the year which included purchasing a new Library Management System with Online Catalogue, raising awareness and visibility of journals, introducing welcome inductions for new Year 12s, updating signage with regards to behaviour expectations, re-arranging desks to promote more individual study, dealing more promptly with those students who were not working appropriately, and developing in-depth information literacy sessions for classes along with bookable 1-to-1 sessions.<br />
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To try and improve responses this year I made a couple of changes. First, I solved the issues with the online software and second, I re-deigned the print version so that it had 16 questions which took up two A4 sides, instead of the 19 questions taking up three sides from the previous year. I also changed some of the questions allowing me to focus on different aspects of the service.<br />
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Last year I must have had some very eager students because this year I found I was really struggling with numbers! By the end of the first week this year I had only received 74 paper and 16 online questionnaires, compared to 118 paper and 68 online questionnaires during the same period last academic year. I wasn't promoting it any less but something had clearly changed. Perhaps those who had completed one in Year 12 didn't want to do so again in Year 13? Or maybe students just aren't checking their College email or are getting too many emails and the message got lost in their inbox. It's impossible to say. Luckily, during the second week, the College held the first of its two Flexible Learning Days so I took the opportunity to ask every tutor to give the questionnaire out to their tutor groups. During the second week I also stopped putting a questionnaire at every workspace and just handed them out to students I spoke to and left a few in the other study spaces. This meant that I finished with a total of 208 paper questionnaires, although I didn't receive any further online responses, giving me 224 overall - an increase of 16 from 2015.<br />
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The questionnaire has still proved a very useful feedback method. Again I have gained valuable insights and been able to draw up an action plan that includes targets around;<br />
<ul>
<li>Changing the emphasis on raising awareness of resources to why and how they can really help, with relevant, practical examples</li>
<li>Looking into the possibility of reader development with high school students</li>
<li>Starting a Library blog or similar to cover subjects such as how to use specific journals and online resources, how to evaluate content, etc. to reach those who don't receive an induction</li>
<li>Contacting teachers and speaking to College leadership to embed research skills inductions into first term tutorials and to embed subject-specific inductions into subjects</li>
<li>Develop ways to effectively promote the Library around College</li>
</ul>
Next year I shall definitely use Flexible Learning Day again during the second week to 'mop up' any non-respondents. I shall continue with the online version in order to give students the opportunity to complete it online. However, I don't think that leaving it to be completely independent is the most effective way so I will speak to students more and dedicate some time during each day to talk to students in the Library, and in the other study spaces, and complete the questionnaire with them. That should help to not only increase my response rate but also allow me to explain and promote resources and services and build on answers to create those all-important meaningful conversations.<br /><u> <br /></u>Markless, S. (ed.) (2016) <em>The innovative school librarian</em>. 2nd edn. London: Facet Publishing.<br /><br />Shaper, S. (ed.) (2014) <em>The CILIP guidelines for secondary school libraries.</em> 3rd edn. London: Facet Publishing.<br />
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</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11888960978133965756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6772399045466827843.post-35006526570067215592016-11-17T04:33:00.001-08:002016-11-17T04:33:18.143-08:00Building a Library to Fit its Users<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Below is a copy of the article that I recently had published in COLRIC's November issue of <em>Quality Impact</em>.</span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Building a Library to Fit its Users</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Last summer I left Surrey after nine years of supporting approx.
10,000 students in an FE/HE college and moved to Norfolk. I now manage the
library service at a sixth-form college of around 400 A Level and BTEC
students. After settling in there were two things that struck me: the service
did not feel like one aimed at a 16-18 demographic and the level of resources
and support available were significantly lower than those available to equivalent
students in a larger FE college. 16-18 education is a transition period,
enabling students to transform their learning and develop skills to take them
further, either in education or into the workplace. I felt our existing
service, however, was not giving our students the potential to fully develop
into modern, independent learners. Students were only able to search for or
locate Library resources by browsing the shelves, they were unable to access
the same level of resources as their counterparts elsewhere and, I felt, lacked
knowledge about the different resources they could access and the appropriate
skills to search for and analyse the quality of content online. With these key
issues in mind I spent the last year implementing key developments and
transforming the service.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">If you walk into our Library you would probably think there
aren’t many books. With a very small budget I am unable to regularly update
stock. Instead, I have to find the most cost-effective ways of providing
up-to-date resources and this has resulted in greater focus on print journals
and online resources which stretch learning and provide access to regularly
updated information throughout the year. It has the added benefit of helping
our learners become more familiar with using alternative resources. To
encourage their use I email monthly updates of articles and promote access to
our online resources from home through our new College website.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The Library had been without a functioning online catalogue
for a while and we desperately needed to upgrade our LMS. However, I felt the
existing system was not age-appropriate and so made the case for moving
supplier. Alongside this I undertook a weeding project to help make up-to-date
resources more visible and began applying the Dewey Decimal System. Now,
instead of relying on me all the time, I can train students in how to search
for books and articles, make judgements as to appropriate resources and locate
them on the shelves.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">In addition I created an information literacy skills service.
This includes class/tutorial sessions which I’m beginning to embed into
different subjects and individual one-to-ones. These sessions focus on key
areas and help learners go beyond the resources I can provide: planning
research and effectively using/combining keywords; relevant resources available
through the college; additional high-quality resources available freely online;
and judging the quality of online content. Finally, to ensure I continue
providing a service which meets learners’ needs, I have implemented an annual
Library Questionnaire. I will shortly be running the Questionnaire for this
year and am looking forward to Year 13’s responses to the developments they
have experienced over the year along with suggestions from both years groups as
to how we can take things further. Already, though, I am receiving feedback
demonstrating the impact the changes have made:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Current Year 13 student Nesta James: ‘Booking a one-to-one
session was incredibly helpful to my studies, particularly for the research I
undertook doing my EPQ. Being able to be shown all of the resources that we
have access to was so useful, and also being given help with how to reference
was something I found really valuable.’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Peter Elphick (Head of Media): ‘The standard of my students’
research skills and their use of sources in both their Year 1 and Year 2
coursework components has improved markedly. I thought this was down to me (!)
but on discussion with the students they confirmed that the library’s
accessibility and Rachel’s organisation and clarity of message has been behind
this transformation. … She has made the Library’s resources simpler to access
and more professional in content and so the students are using them.’</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">College Director, Phyllis O’Grady: ‘Speaking from my
experience as an EPQ supervisor, individual tutorials with Rachel to properly
understand effective selection, use and evaluation of secondary resources along
with correct referencing has been invaluable. Students’ reports have invariably
moved up a grade and gone from decent A Level standard essays to works of
serious academic quality. Students have expressed delight and confidence at
having thoroughly mastered these skills a full year before starting
university.’</span></div>
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</span></span><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11888960978133965756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6772399045466827843.post-45861384423219314212016-06-06T06:17:00.001-07:002016-06-06T06:17:06.498-07:00Library Training<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">It is the first week back after the May half term and I am about to take on a new Library volunteer. She has approached me as she is keen to pursue a career as an academic librarian and would like to gain some relevant experience for the rest of this term and into next year - no pressure on me then!</span><br />
<br /><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">This is about to plunge me into a new and third type of training experience.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">My first experience came in my previous post where I played a significant role in training new staff members and, later on, Graduate Trainees. These each followed a training programme that we had devised with the ultimate aim being that they were competent in working in our Learning Resources Centres, be able to deal with the day-to-day tasks required of them, oversee the senior level tasks assigned to them where relevant and be able to handle the wide variety of enquiries we received.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAPy9oiF6kgKPsmFWFQPR-D8GFG0sN9F8ET3uAPUwtj7hKdgubfqrKahmnx2YfEgdJ-x8X3leNnmX_ugtrjQvzobhBgiq3hMgY80GhKIWEqZrzQ05E8bYOpMJYGldenkKvYWApB7f6Wa4j/s1600/Volunteer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAPy9oiF6kgKPsmFWFQPR-D8GFG0sN9F8ET3uAPUwtj7hKdgubfqrKahmnx2YfEgdJ-x8X3leNnmX_ugtrjQvzobhBgiq3hMgY80GhKIWEqZrzQ05E8bYOpMJYGldenkKvYWApB7f6Wa4j/s320/Volunteer.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">My second experience began with my current post. At the beginning of the academic year, Year 12 students were given the opportunity to sign up to a wide range of enrichment clubs, groups and activities, one of them being Library Volunteers. Whilst three or four initially signed up I only had one student who was really interested and spent an hour a week with me until the Easter break. Whilst she showed enthusiasm, however, she didn't have a particular interest in working in libraries. Therefore I had the challenge of giving her a meaningful experience in just one hour a week where she could walk away with a selection of transferable skills that she could then outline in a CV and apply to other work. Ultimately, she was able to take away the following, to varying degrees - for example, we had very few shop sales whilst she was here and my link of how she had developed an awareness of the importance of the visual display of materials and how they are organised to maximise space by re-arranging the prospectus collection to one copy stored alphabetically and creating new box labels is a bit tenuous to say the least!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><ul style="border-image: none;">
<li>Contributed to raising the profile of resources, developed her attention to detail and ability to consistently conform to cataloguing standards by adding details of new journal articles into the Library Management System.</li>
<li>Developed an awareness of how national events can be linked to local organisations and activities by helping to promote National Poetry Day and encouraged peers to take part in activities organised by the Library.</li>
<li>Demonstrated an ability to follow set guidelines in order to identify resources appropriate for weeding. Developed communication skills by liaising with me to discuss relevance and an awareness of the important of recording details of withdrawn items for audit purposes.</li>
<li>Developed an awareness of the importance of the visual display of materials and how they are organised to maximise space by re-arranging the prospectus collection and re-vitalising labelling.</li>
<li>Contributed to the effective organisation of materials to aid retrieval by helping to devise a classification scheme for the IAG collection. Demonstrated communication skills further by liaising with me in order to classify difficult to place titles.</li>
<li>Developed an awareness of the importance of visual and verbal communication in restrained activities, i.e. how a poster needs to catch the eye and convey appropriate messages about the contents and benefits of the IAG collection and how to do the same through only a few lines included in a library welcome induction.</li>
<li>Developed use of Excel spreadsheets to record changing stock quantities and financial transactions.</li>
</ul>
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My new and third experience of training is now going to contain elements of both - my new volunteer will only be committed to one hour a week and she will require specifically library-related tasks but without being trained to the extent that she could run the Library by herself.</div>
<br /><br />
To tackle this I have decided to think back to my time training new Graduate Trainees and devise a programme that includes all aspects of working in an academic library - from opening the Centre, daily duties such as scanning the newspapers, taking shop sales and issuing and returning to cataloguing new resources, helping me with my classification project and managing journals - approaching each as though I were fully training her but leaving some tasks at just an introduction in one session and not continuing them each week. This way, I hope, she will get a flavour of the entire range of work involved and be able to also be involved in longer term projects without being bogged down by small tasks repeated each week. I'll have to see what she thinks at the end!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11888960978133965756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6772399045466827843.post-90368399392717120402016-05-17T07:32:00.001-07:002016-05-17T07:32:50.032-07:00Including Library provision in Ofsted ratings<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">CILIP recently published a news item in their May issue of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Update</i> entitled, ‘Plea to include
library provision in school ratings’. In the article it explains how the
Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ALT) has called upon inspectors to look
at the quality of library services as part of their inspection. This motion
backs up CILIP’s own view that Ofsted should update the scope of their
inspections.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">My personal view is in agreement with ALT and CILIP,
particularly in schools and colleges delivering 16-18 provision. At Key Stage
Five there is an important shift in the focus of library services. It moves
away from primarily focusing on literacy development and reading for pleasure
to developing information literacy skills and encouraging independent and
active learning.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The 16-18 organisation in which I work receives its Ofsted
inspection as part of the inspection of its associated high schools. However,
the service that I provide for my students here is different to that provided
for under 16s and links directly to the themes that Ofsted consider in their
inspection, i.e. quality of teaching, learning and assessment and the personal
development, behaviour and welfare of learners.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">For example:</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I deliver in-depth research skills inductions to A Level and
BTEC students on information literacy. These
inductions encourage students to think about how to plan a search for
information, which resources might be most appropriate, how to effectively
search and use online resources, including the internet (plus how to deal with
the amount of information they find and refine results further) and how to
judge the quality of information.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I provide and support the use of a wide range of information
resources from printed books, academic and trade journals to online databases,
improving digital literacy and developing students’ skills in being able to
deal with information in a variety of formats.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I promote reading for pleasure through activities tied in to
national initiatives such as National Poetry Day, World Book Day and World Book
Night and provide and promote non-course related resources. These activities
encourage further literacy development and a lifelong enjoyment of reading.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I offer the opportunity for students to volunteer as a
Library Assistant helping them to develop a range of transferable skills
including attention to detail, awareness of accessibility, promotion and
customer service.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The majority of the learning and development linked to these
services takes place outside of the classroom and, unless directly asked about
the library services, a student speaking to an inspector may only focus on
their experience of teaching and course-related enrichment. I believe the value
of library services shouldn’t be underestimated. Being able to effectively
prove our worth and impact on student outcomes can be difficult but at least
being included in an Ofsted inspection would provide evidence of our influence
where statistical or qualitative data might be lacking.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Furthermore it would help to identify and place emphasis on
services where improvement was required. One of the significant things I became
aware of when starting this post was the difference in the level of resources
and services available to post-16 learners in an FE College (where I had previously
worked) to those in my organisation. This was primarily due to budget and the
skills and experience required of the post-holder. The choice of where a
student goes to study their A Levels can make a significant difference in terms
of library support. Where 16-18 provision occurs within a high school, school
librarians need to provide both types of support – literacy and independent
learning – in equal measure. In my experience (and I realise I’m making a
sweeping generalisation here!) this isn’t always the case.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Those services that deliver fantastic provision should be
recognised for their work and those that aren’t providing as much support as
they could be should be identified. I feel that an excellent library service
should be one that fosters student learning and development out of the
classroom just as much as subject lessons do in and is just as important.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11888960978133965756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6772399045466827843.post-2462332212830986252016-03-03T02:54:00.002-08:002016-03-04T02:26:17.779-08:00Getting back into teaching<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Almost any academic librarian nowadays will tell you that
teaching is part of their role, usually delivering study skills or research
skills sessions to their students. In my previous blog post (<a href="http://rachelcchavez1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/the-reality-of-downsizing.html" target="_blank">The reality ofdownsizing</a>) I discussed how I’m hoping to build the reputation of my Library
service as one that is at the heart of the College in delivering research
skills support. I hadn’t delivered a research skills induction for several
months since moving to my new post. However, yesterday I was back in the swing
of things, delivering five back-to-back, 20 minute sessions on Advanced
Research Skills to groups of Year 12 students who are thinking about starting
their EPQ process.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The EPQ – Extended Project Qualification – is a stand-alone
Level 3 award which allows students to develop and extend their knowledge of
their curriculum subjects or pursue an area of personal interest. It is based
on a topic chosen by the students and can take the form of a 5000 word report or
an ‘artefact’ accompanied by a 1500 word report. It is an opportunity to show
potential universities and employers that they have well developed, independent
research, time and project management skills. Grades are based on both the
final piece of work and the process which students record in their project log.
Students are graded based on how well they identify and use resources, carry
out research, develop their ideas to realise an outcome and then reflect on the
outcome and the process.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">My role was to prepare students for the secondary research
involved in their EPQ process, whether they are still trying to decide on which
topic to focus on, or whether they are looking for in-depth information to
support their chosen title.</span></div>
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</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I planned my session around 6 main themes: planning your
research; high-quality and reliable resources available through the College;
tools and techniques to effectively search the internet; judging the quality of
information on the internet; recording all sources for referencing; where to go
for help.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It felt really good to be delivering research skills
inductions again. As I was several months out of practice I did have to write
myself a script to make sure I didn’t miss anything out but had prepared well
so I wasn’t bound to it. I tried to encourage student engagement by asking them
questions throughout but, as is often the case with this age group, I got very
little response! I wasn’t too worried though as I noticed a lot of engagement
and silent participation in the session with most students looking at me and
making lots of notes.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Whilst I saw around 120 students these were only the Year
12s that were interested in starting the EPQ process. However, each tutor
attended the session with their group and has seen the type of support I can
offer so I’m hoping that further induction bookings will start to come in.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The only thing I didn’t prepare for was the afternoon slump!
I was keyed up all morning as I worked through the sessions until lunchtime,
however after lunch I couldn’t get motivated to do anything!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11888960978133965756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6772399045466827843.post-82525293602484619432016-02-03T07:53:00.000-08:002016-02-03T07:53:50.706-08:00The reality of 'downsizing'<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I have been in my new post now for five months having moved from a large FE and HE College to a small Sixth Form College overseen by the two local High Schools. There have been a few changes that I'm having to get used to.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><strong>Resource and service provision</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">The first thing that I became aware of was how service provision can greatly differ depending on where a student chooses to study their A Levels. If they choose to go to an FE College (like Kingston) they could have access to copies of their course textbooks and recommended reading, e-books and e-textbooks, a range of journals and journal databases, subscription online resources aimed at 16-19 year-olds, general interest materials, research skills inductions and the support of professional librarians. If they choose to go to a small Sixth Form College (like us), or continue at their High School, financial restrictions mean that the same level of provision simply isn't possible.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">Knowing what students at Kingston were able to access I have been trying to introduce new services here. Whilst I am unable to subscribe to large journal databases, such as JSTOR or General OneFile, I am currently trying to encourage our English department to have a look at Literary Reference Center. The subscription cost is much more manageable and I know that our English Literature students are required to search for recent criticism on the texts they are studying. Whilst small, this database would at least provide them with access to appropriate material and give them an idea of how the type of database they might use if they go on to Higher Education could work.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">One of the most useful resources for our students is the collection of Philip Allan Review titles. We currently subscribe to seven. Due to the discounts we would receive through our local consortium I could subscribe to the Philip Allan Online Archive and have access to all fourteen titles for less cost. However, the Archive does not include the current years' issues and so I would have to continue the print subscriptions as well to ensure that students continued to receive articles related to their current topics. Therefore, some subjects will continue to miss out on this excellent resource. Unfortunately I am just not in a position to be able to provide a useful online resource, accessible from home that supports the majority of students.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">We have subscriptions (managed outside the Library budget) to five subject areas in Kerboodle and four of these provide an e-textbook. However, I am unable to provide any further e-book provision and the amount I have available to spend on print books is very limited. I recently did a little splurge as we're coming to the end of the financial year but could only include 11 titles - still very exciting when they arrived!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">I am also trying to promote my services as a professional librarian. One of the key aims of the College is to produce independent learners and I am in a key position to help achieve this. Having gained positive feedback in my student library questionnaire I have begun to offer a bookable one-to-one service for students who would like help with finding high-quality resources or referencing their work (a requirement for those who choose to take the EPQ). This has not been picked up yet but it's still early days. In conjunction with this I am also promoting the induction service I can offer to tutors whereby I can come into their class and deliver a session on research skills or using our online resources. Again, uptake for this has been slow but I have begun to have discussions with staff in some subject areas and I plan to get myself into some departmental meetings in the summer term to try and build inductions into next year's course delivery.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><strong>Perceptions of the Librarian and the Library</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">One of the features of our College is that a lot of our teaching staff come over from the two local High Schools. Understandably, they are used to the service of a school library and the role of a school librarian. Beyond providing a traditional library service this usually involves a focus on literacy and reader development, not research and independent learning. The biggest challenge I'm facing, therefore, is to change the perception of the Library as a College-wide service and the role I can play in that. It was admitted to me on interviewing for this role that the College hasn't had a qualified librarian in post for a long time. Whilst this is not necessarily a negative thing it has meant that the Library hasn't gained a reputation for being a central College service for research and enquiry support. I believe this is one of the causes for the slow up-take in classroom inductions. At A Level, students need to be able to supplement their work with high-quality sources and know how to effectively search and deal with the amount of information they can access online. I am determined to work to place the Library at the heart of this College in terms of research support and make sure that every student has access to the research skills support that I can offer and, over time, prove the impact that the Library can have on students' results, despite the limited budget!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">With all this in mind I have to say I don't regret the move at all. Even with these challenges, on a personal level, it's a great opportunity as I can work to improve resources and services, ground them into course delivery and then be able to say that I have achieved this, all on my own.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11888960978133965756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6772399045466827843.post-8500264291995258072016-01-20T03:58:00.002-08:002016-01-20T03:58:36.991-08:00Student Views - running the Library Questionnaire<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">During two weeks at the end of November I ran the first of a new, annual Library Questionnaire with our students. At the moment our students don't really engage with the Library beyond using it as a study space. Few resources are borrowed, very few information enquiries are made and there is little course integration, for example through resource lists or inductions. The purpose of my questionnaire, therefore, was to gauge awareness, gain opinion and collate data that I could use with teaching staff and College management to help drive forward improvements. I also included a couple of questions supplied by COLRIC (Council for Learning Resources in Colleges) so that I can benchmark myself against other institutions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">My experience of questionnaire planning, delivery and analysis with the LRC team in my previous post had prepared me well for going it alone. So what had I learnt?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><ul>
<li>Each question must have relevance. It might be you want to find out something specific you can't get from your other statistic gathering. It might be you need to obtain some evidence to include in a review or proposal. Or you might want to use it to help raise awareness of a resource/service which then provides year-on-year data demonstrating your promotional success (or lack of!). Either way, if you cannot specify exactly how you will use the results then it is not a relevant or useful question.<br /></li>
<li>Don't ask about something you can't change. If you know that there is no <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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budget/space for new computers in the immediate future, for example, don't ask students whether they think there are enough. Instead, ask them whether they can always access one and then you can look at introducing or changing booking allowances. What's the point of asking if you can't do anything about it?<br /></li>
<li>Encourage negative comments. It's great to know if you're doing things well but in order to make effective improvements you need to find out what your students aren't happy with. When applying an agreement scale to a question, for example, start with Strongly Disagree. That way students have to think about whether there is anything they're not happy about before they reach the options to agree.<br /></li>
<li>Encourage details and give provision for follow-up. If you ask whether students want new resources it's not very helpful if you get an anonymous response asking for "more resources for biology". (Particularly if you have biology courses at several different levels.) Unfortunately, I was unable to go through my questionnaire with students as they completed it, encouraging further details, and so left myself open to ambiguous responses like this. It is therefore important to ask for more information about the student themselves (aside from any institutional equal opportunities monitoring), e.g. which course they are studying and what year they are in. This then allows you to follow up with subject tutors to find out about topics and resource requirements in that area.<br /></li>
<li>Analyse your respondent demographic. As well as identifying trends across the questions as a whole it is also interesting to analyse your responses at a deeper level, looking at who your students are and how they responded to other questions. For example, are there response groupings, i.e. several responses of the same type coming from the same year group or course? This could then help you identify priorities in resource provision or promotion without the need being specifically requested in other parts of the questionnaire.</li>
</ul>
I have completed my first phase of analysis, identified the 'headline' results and drawn up an action plan. Despite planning well I did encounter some issues.<br />
<br /><br />
I had to leave students to their own devices to complete the questionnaire. The Library is<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOZnwxCDSZr3KbZTo43Jzm6gJMaie8iVDMnM_YVzTrXWkHadV3PPNecexa04t5CFWqbTlTKHAeedySrg4o-cMak_KsQduxv27XAr9FzP92BlDtqRttja1wG2xrRlZ1o1P1zCiO-WRrtIZZ/s1600/Questionnaire+2+for+blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOZnwxCDSZr3KbZTo43Jzm6gJMaie8iVDMnM_YVzTrXWkHadV3PPNecexa04t5CFWqbTlTKHAeedySrg4o-cMak_KsQduxv27XAr9FzP92BlDtqRttja1wG2xrRlZ1o1P1zCiO-WRrtIZZ/s320/Questionnaire+2+for+blog.jpg" width="320" /></a> a silent study environment so I couldn't go through the questions with students. There are two other study areas in the College and I regularly replenished questionnaires there to increase responses. However, because I am a team of one, I was unable to spend a lot of time in these areas talking to students. The benefit of this is that students feel they can be more honest. However, this means that in future years I won't be able to guarantee a certain number of responses. Furthermore, I found that not all questionnaires were completed the whole way through and some respondents didn't take it very seriously. (I feel confident that the requests for me to change the Library into a spaceship, install a wood burner and swimming pool and introduce a trolley service I can safely ignore!)</div>
<br /><br />
To encourage responses I also created an online version using Survey Monkey and this raised issues of its own. Firstly, due to the limitations governing the number of questions you can have in the free part of Survey Monkey, some questions had to be arranged slightly differently and this may have affected the responses. More worryingly, despite setting the majority of questions as requiring an answer there were still several instances of questions being skipped. In spite of these issues I received 208 questionnaires back (121 paper and 87 online) - almost half of our student population - and so received enough full responses to make the results meaningful.<br />
<br /><br />
Having developed an action plan the final stage is to let your students know what you are doing. You asked them for their opinions so it is only right that you tell them what their contributions have resulted in. Inspired by my previous College's method I put together a 'You Said, We Did' announcement. I posted this on our website and social media and emailed a copy to all students. To encourage engagement it is important that your users know their input is valued.<br />
<br /><br />
For next year's questionnaire I will:<br />
<ul>
<li>Sort out the issue with Survey Monkey.</li>
<li>Try and reduce the number of questions (this year I am implementing several new services which I wanted to gauge interest in. The number of questions - 16 - may also have been why some students failed to complete the questionnaire).</li>
<li>Possibly spend some time with students in the other study areas to go through the questionnaire with them and develop conversations.</li>
</ul>
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</span>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11888960978133965756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6772399045466827843.post-91833038535534072972016-01-11T06:09:00.000-08:002016-01-11T06:09:35.728-08:00A Period of Change<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I have been out of social media in a professional context for a while. My last Tweet and blog post were both in July 2014! There have been a couple of reasons for this. During the first year we saw significant changes with regards to staffing in the LRC team which meant that I just didn't have the time to monitor my Twitter feed or compile new blog posts. Then, in the summer of 2015, I got a new job in a Sixth Form College and my husband and I relocated from Surrey to Norfolk! There were a number of reasons for the move but it's one I have no regrets about. Part of the reason it has taken another six months for me to get back into social media is that I am responsible for the College's Twitter presence. In my head that meant I - MUST - HAVE - THE - COLLEGE - TWITTER - ACCOUNT - OPEN - ALL - THE - TIME! I've now come to the realisation that, actually, I can alternate between the two during the day - what a revelation!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">So, let me tell you about my new job. I am the Educational Resource Manager / Communications Officer at Dereham Sixth Form College in Norfolk. We are a small College - our current cohort is just over 430 students across Years 12 and 13 - and offer a number of A Levels, Applied A Levels and few BTECs including the BTEC Extended Diploma in Sport through DESA - the Dereham Education and Soccer Academy. We also offer the EPQ (Extended Project Qualification). I started just before the students returned in September and so have now completed my first term ... ... and I'm loving it!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">As you'll see from my job title my role is divided into two areas. As Educational Resource Manager (still really excited about having the word Manager in my job title!) I am responsible for running the Library and its services. I am a team of one and so I man the enquiry desk for the majority of the day but also have the freedom to run and manage the service as I want. I am the first qualified librarian that the College has had in a long while and so there are many things I have been developing and implementing already (more on that later). As Communications Officer I oversee and maintain all publicity and communications from the College through parent emails, our website and its news area, Twitter and Facebook, the College newsletter and media relations. That sounds like a lot to try and be dealing with but, when your Library is a silent study space and your students are impeccably well-behaved (compared to previous experiences) my days are filled and stress-free.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">My Library</span></em></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">There have, of course, been some changes it's taken a little while to get used to. In my old post I was part of a team of LRC staff comprising qualified librarians, graduate trainees and part-time assistants. Here, as I mentioned, I am a team of one. Dereham Sixth Form College is run with a small team of fixed, College-based staff, then further teachers come over from our two main feeder High Schools (which also jointly manage the Sixth Form) to assist with the teaching. Despite spending a lot of my day without much contact with other staff, I have never felt alienated from our core College team. They are all very friendly and have made me feel extremely welcome.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The other main change I'm dealing with is a change in organisation identity. Kingston College is an FE and HE College and so is run independently. Dereham Sixth Form College is run and managed by the two High Schools in Dereham, along with the management staff from the core College team. This means that we are not independent and we are not an FE College. I have a significantly smaller budget and therefore cannot afford the number of resources that A Level students at a larger FE College can access. In some cases, we are not entitled to access certain resources, such as the free Ebooks for FE collection through JISC, for example. The move has really highlighted to me the continuing difference in resource provision, and therefore levels of service, that an A Level student can receive depending on where they choose to study.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">During my first term I have been getting to know the College systems and processes, the students, and the resources in the Library. I have also been implementing a number of changes and new developments:</span><br />
<br /><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><ul>
<li>The book stock is grouped by subject but has no classification system. I have begun a long-term project to classify the book stock with the Dewey Decimal System in conjunction with liaising with relevant teachers to complete an effective weed of each subject area.</li>
<li>I have inherited an old, no-longer-supported version of the Library Management System Eclipse. This has developed a number of bugs and is far more suited to a school library's collection than a Sixth Form. Furthermore, the online catalogue interface decided to give up long ago! I have put forward a business case to change our LMS to Heritage (which I used in my last post and IT have previously had experience of) and the College Director has given the go ahead.</li>
<li>Before Christmas I ran the first of a new, annual Library Questionnaire. My experience of helping to run a yearly questionnaire at Kingston fully prepared me so that I felt confident in the types of questions I wanted to ask, how to manage the questionnaire and how to deal with the responses and develop an action plan for responding to the feedback.</li>
<li>I am in the process of trying to get teachers on board so that I can develop and deliver a set of research skills inductions focusing on using our Online Resources, developing research skills and finding high quality resources and referencing. Furthermore, I am about to offer bookable one-to-one sessions for students on research skills and referencing.</li>
<li>Due to the timing of my start date the College Director was kind and didn't involve me with the new student induction programme. However, I am now in a position where I can develop an effective welcome induction to the Library along with some new Library cards (these were disbanded when Eclipse stopped reading the barcodes but, since the College does not issue ID cards to students, I want to re-introduce them to help me learn names quicker rather than having to ask all the time!)</li>
<li>I have significantly developed our Twitter account and our relations with the local press. This term I also created the first issue of our new College newsletter, <em>The Sixth Former</em>.</li>
<li>IT Support and I are combining my design skills and their coding skills to create a brand new, in-house College website. As part of my interview for this role I was asked to be prepared for a discussion on how I would develop and update the website so I already wanted to make changes in terms of re-defining our audience, re-organising content and improving accessibility. Now, we're getting to build one completely from scratch which is very exciting (rather than being limited to the format of our current site without incurring large re-design costs from our hosting company).</li>
</ul>
<br /><br />
<div style="border-image: none;">
In addition, I have found myself working in a number of new areas. The College offers a range of enrichment activities and the Director suggested I take on some student library volunteers and be involved in running a book club. I now have one regular volunteer who comes to me once a week and is currently helping me overhaul the careers collection. I want to make her experience valuable so I'm making sure that each task I give her, whether it be collection management or cataloguing new journals, outlines clear, transferable skills that she can develop for the future. I've never been involved in a book club before - I found that analysing texts during my English Literature A Level put me off doing the same when reading for pleasure! We chose a couple of books to read between the group over the Christmas break (I've read <em>The hundred year-old man who climbed out of the window and disappeared</em> by Jonas Jonasson) and we have out first meeting this week. I'm leading the discussion of this book with the Director leading the discussion of the other title (<em>Seeing stars</em> by Simon Armitage). It will be interesting to see how I do! In my Communications Officer role I have found myself contacting a local business asking for support to raise sponsorship money for our Half Marathon Team, getting in touch with an exhibition space about the possibility of exhibiting A Level artwork and regularly working as a press officer at our events.</div>
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I have also found myself dressing up as a witch for Halloween, in spots and stripes for Children in Need and in a Christmas jumper for Text Santa!<br />
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The change in post for me has meant a number of adjustments - a change in work duties and focus; a decrease in salary; an increase in accountability and responsibilities; a decrease in stress. All have been changes for the better, however, and I feel that I have seamlessly fitted into my role and College life. As one colleague said, "It feels as if you've been here for years!" All in all my first term has been full, varied and great fun!</div>
</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11888960978133965756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6772399045466827843.post-20369436357631453172014-07-03T08:56:00.000-07:002014-07-03T08:56:09.162-07:00JISC E-Factor 2014: It's all about learning and teaching<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Last week I went to the JISC E-Factor conference. This year was my fourth in a row (as well as presenting 2 years ago) and as usual it didn't disappoint. The E-Factor is an opportunity for organisations across the country to come and showcase their examples of best practice using e-learning. It doesn't matter how big or small the project - you can always learn something new. <a href="http://efactor2014.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">The official site for this year's E-Factor is here</a> (I will also be linking to sections of the site below.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The day is divided so that there are twenty 20-25 minute showcases in total across two rooms. This does mean that you have to choose which showcases you want to watch but ten still leaves plenty of variety! There is also an exhibition from a number of e-learning and technology suppliers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The first showcase I saw was delivered by <a href="http://efactor2014.wordpress.com/ealing-hammersmith-and-west-london-college/less-teaching-more-learning/" target="_blank">Martin Compton from Ealing, Hammersmith & West London College</a>. I was impressed that 150 tutors had completed his e-teaching course! I'm also interested at having a look at Blendspace - an online tool that allows you to neatly collate a range of resources on one 'canvas'.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Next I quickly swapped rooms and went to hear <a href="http://efactor2014.wordpress.com/showcases-2/barnet-and-southgate-college/e-learning-quality-standards-and-online-cpd-courses-for-moodle/" target="_blank">Angela Rideau from Barnet and Southgate College</a> talk about how they have developed their quality standards for Moodle course pages and, along side it, an online CPD course for tutors to enable them to have the confidence to develop their course to bronze, silver and gold standards. The lack of consistency across the quality of Moodle courses is something I have noticed in my role supporting its use and I'll be interested to see how our College deals with the issue.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The last showcase before the tea break was delivered by <a href="http://efactor2014.wordpress.com/havering-college-of-further-and-higher-education-2/" target="_blank">Sue Withers and Andrew Moller from Havering College of Further and Higher Education.</a> I liked the vision they displayed through their imaginative use of Wikis as a) a place to store links to students' digital portfolios and details of HE interviews b) a central place to collate feedback for each student for every module of the course and c) a central place for each student to store their formal writing (such as personal statements). Particularly with the last use it removes the difficulties of keeping up to date with versions of documents and means that work can't be lost or forgotten!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Some of <a href="http://efactor2014.wordpress.com/croydon-college/" target="_blank">Andrew Checkley's tips from Croydon College</a> about enhancing teaching and learning included having a starter activity right at the beginning of the session; using Bloom's taxonomy to help structure content; using Moodle's forum; using Moodle's auto-linking function from the glossary tool; and including self-assessments. I'll be looking into the glossary and auto-linking tools.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><a href="http://efactor2014.wordpress.com/westminster-adult-education-service/" target="_blank">Tanu Varma from Westminster Adult Education Service</a> gave some really positive messages about how you shouldn't feel limited by the absence or limited availability of technology when looking at e-learning. She gave some great examples of how this has been developed in her service.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The last session I saw before lunch was delivered by <a href="http://efactor2014.wordpress.com/showcases-2/barking-and-dagenham-college/let-google-drive-your-classroom/" target="_blank">Danielle Watts and Bilal Bobat from Barking & Dagenham College</a>. I particularly liked how, using two of their students, they practically demonstrated the benefits of Google hangouts and Google Docs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">After lunch <a href="http://efactor2014.wordpress.com/showcases-2/a-gamification-session-a-lighter-look-at-technology/" target="_blank">Adam Blackwood from JISC RSC South East</a> gave a very entertaining presentation demonstrating the extent to which mobile technology (in literal terms, as opposed to just mobile phones) has developed and is around us. I loved the fact that he had a QR tie! The main theme of his session was gamification and I liked some of the ideas he demonstrated to make learning more engaging.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Next I swapped rooms quickly again and went to see <a href="http://efactor2014.wordpress.com/orchard-hill-college/" target="_blank">Simon Gale from Orchard Hill College</a>. I particularly liked how they had used such as tools, blogs and discussion groups which not only made information more accessible to their students but in helping to create them develops their communication skills.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I've recently been working with a member of staff to develop a Functional Skills page in Moodle for the College. The next showcase I saw was delivered by <a href="http://efactor2014.wordpress.com/blending-english-and-maths/" target="_blank">Daniel Blaszczyk from West Thames College</a>. It was interesting to see the approach they had taken in creating and delivering content for this area.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The final showcase of the day was a very inspiring one. It was delivered by <a href="http://efactor2014.wordpress.com/showcases-2/barnet-and-southgate-college/digidesk-social-enterprise-student-eambassadors-fixing-the-system/" target="_blank">Angela Rideau and a number of students from Barnet and Southgate College</a>. Here, they have created a dedicated 'Digidesk', staffed voluntarily by students, where both students and staff can go for help with e-learning tools and technologies. I think this is a brilliant service. Not only do the students running the service benefit by developing a range of skills, it means support is always available and raises the profile of e-learning across the College.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">A few years ago we made some significant developments with e-learning technologies in the LRC using Xerte (which we still regularly use for creating interactive learning packages), XtraNormal (cartoon-making service), Windows MovieMake (to create enhanced podcasts) and Jing (screen capture tools). I delivered my own showcase demonstrating how they could be used in an LRC setting. Since then, however, and due to a number of factors, we haven't really pushed this further. I'm keen now to see how we can expand our knowledge and support in this area and develop our services and the role of e-learning within the College.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11888960978133965756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6772399045466827843.post-49946234156303813012014-03-17T09:14:00.002-07:002014-03-17T09:14:59.652-07:00My second HUG<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh33GabPiO1Lt5zeEnc3Wu0Qp9b4n9ARxUaPvSePApmSPUddr6L7YKLrB_MCtOXbX9dhM9yaY4asMJ97KDFoTki5X8YGTRKBvszDCmzP9q2PhvhvGWOJ9YPpiwK7mKTHNx8xLT-uM-JRTxt/s1600/hug.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh33GabPiO1Lt5zeEnc3Wu0Qp9b4n9ARxUaPvSePApmSPUddr6L7YKLrB_MCtOXbX9dhM9yaY4asMJ97KDFoTki5X8YGTRKBvszDCmzP9q2PhvhvGWOJ9YPpiwK7mKTHNx8xLT-uM-JRTxt/s1600/hug.jpg" height="141" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On Thursday 6th March I attended my second HUG (Heritage User Group) meeting. The Heritage User Group is a community of users of the Library Management System Heritage who work closely with, but independently from, Heritage's developers, IS Oxford. <a href="http://www.hugonline.co.uk/" target="_blank">You can find out more about the group here.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The morning's presentation was delivered by Neville Jones from IS Oxford who demonstrated the new developments within their Cirqa system. We still haven't yet upgraded to Heritage Cirqa (although should be soon) but I was glad to see that some of the previously frustrating aspects had been improved (such as the past inability to renew all items in one go). I was also impressed by the improved clarity of reader messages when managing their account online.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The afternoon began with a brief AGM and were followed by two presentations by members of the committee. Emily Armstrong and Julian Dawson demonstrated their use of Heritage's 'favourites' listing feature to create reading lists. We have been using this feature for a number of years so I didnt' really learn anything new. The second presentation on tidying up your data I found much more useful. Whilst I look after a lot of Heritage's 'housekeeping' tasks there are areas of our system which I haven't really looked at. Following the meeting I am keen to start looking at our authority files for keywords, for example, and tidying them up as well as checking for duplicate names and titles.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The only negative aspect I found was that Neville was around for the entire day in order to field a Q & A session. Whilst the Group is independent from IS Oxford I felt that the structure of this meeting left little room for questions and good practice sharing amongst colleagues.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I wrote the following to conclude my blog about my first HUG meeting and I stand by it still:</span><br />
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"<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><em>Overall I found the day extremely useful and would recommend that anyone who uses Heritage become a member of the Group. You have access to a range of helpful resources and advice and the opportunity to discuss with others their experience of Heritage. Of course, this isn't the only Heritage forum environment - there is the Marvin mailing list and the HUG sub-groups. However, for very little membership cost there are big benefits."</em></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11888960978133965756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6772399045466827843.post-10067867487710148612013-12-05T03:56:00.000-08:002013-12-05T03:56:26.980-08:00Weeding Project<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzdmcYN4CFmI6Z7exBMBALBX7Oqkt0tVCqntiaOPN31DOeOkbpm_Y6yqudvnwMA5bm7RfnsWQnvYH7fWKgd6V3IrSQ6qjS87olr8f4EXZW2Djj-HgsRn3P8O-dxaR6xqXQA2BmwluYyYaJ/s1600/Orla_Kiely_Garden_Fork_and_Trowel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzdmcYN4CFmI6Z7exBMBALBX7Oqkt0tVCqntiaOPN31DOeOkbpm_Y6yqudvnwMA5bm7RfnsWQnvYH7fWKgd6V3IrSQ6qjS87olr8f4EXZW2Djj-HgsRn3P8O-dxaR6xqXQA2BmwluYyYaJ/s200/Orla_Kiely_Garden_Fork_and_Trowel.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">(Orla Kierly garden spade &<br />fork from amantidirect.co.uk)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Over the 2013 summer break LRC staff undertook a weeding project in response to student feedback claiming that they didn't have access to up-to-date resources. The aims of the project were to refresh the look of the shelves by withdrawing old and tatty material and to withdraw individiual print titles whose remaining presence could be detrimental to learning. Therefore, it was decided that we would focus initially on three subject areas - ICT/computing, engineering and business - with a different member of the team responsible for each. I also chose to look at removing old editions where new editions were available in stock and removing titles which supported old exam boards.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I used Heritage to identify print titles which hadn't been borrowed along with titles with edition numbers and, in conjunction with the College prospectus, titles which supported old exam boards. Within the three subject areas the following criteria were then applied when looking at each item:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">age and relevance to subject - is the information now out of date/have there been new developments?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">condition - is the item in need of repair/beyin repair?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">whether surplus to requirement - do we have unnecessary multiple copis either through non-use, being an old edition or ebook version available in stock</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I applied the following rules when looking at old editions and unsupported exam boards:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">keep the most recent edition in stock and withdraw all previous editions</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">if the exam board is no longer supported for that subject withdraw all titles (unless published since the most recent exam board changes in 2008-2010)</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I reviewed each item selected for withdrawal as my job role gives me a more overall perspctive of our collections. However, I 'rescued' less than 10 titles. Our Front of House team then began the withdrawal process, deleting each title from Heritage and applying the appropriate withdrawn stamps. The items were then boxed up for collection by Better World Books.</span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Reflections:</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">This has been a new project for me as I have not been involved in a large weeding project before. As a result, there have been a few areas in which I have revised my initial approach.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I was too harsh when withdrawing old editions and we agreed that in future we should keep the previous edition. This is in line with university practices.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">After some initial deletion had taken place by the Front of House team we decided that it would be wise to compile a list of withdrawn titles for auditing purposes. A hand-written list was compiled of the items already deleted from Heritage and this was then initially continued to record further items. However, a suggestion from within the team prompted an important time-saving change. The new process now involves changing the status of the item to 'withdrawn'. A report can then be run listing these items before they are deleted in one go on Heritage. This has helped speed up sections of the withdrawal process and provides a more accurate list of withdrawn items.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Overall timescale: whilst we initially agreed that we wanted all items to be withdrawn off the floor and moved to the staff area by the start of term, there has not been a final deadline for the withdrawing process. This has meant that the project is actually still ongoing. It has also meant that I have had to produce the report and run the global delete mentioned above early in order for our OPAC to give an accurate reflection of stock (all items set to withdrawn are then hidden from view on the OPAC resulting in some titles displaying with no accessions). In future, the latter end of the project needs to be managed more closely to ensure that it doesn't drag on.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The next stage for me is to revew the comments made by the team with regards to their recommendations for collection development. I shall also be working with another colleague to plan the next stage and area of focus.</span><br />
<ul>
</ul>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11888960978133965756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6772399045466827843.post-38537551893663786622013-06-21T08:29:00.000-07:002013-06-24T07:48:59.507-07:00"It's all about ... Motivation" - JISC RSC London's e-Factor 2013<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Yesterday I attended JISC RSC London's conference e-Factor 2013. Held annually e-Factor is based around a different them each year and brings together educational institutions to showcase their work in learning and teaching with technology. This year's theme was: "It's all about ... Motivation". This was my third time attending and I found it an inspiring as ever. Twenty showcases ran throughout the day - two showcases ran in unison in separate rooms - and there were exhibitions from a number of suppliers who were on hand during the breaks to give demonstrations of their products. (For full details and the report <a href="http://efactor2013.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">visit the e-Factor 2013 site here</a>.) The day also offered plenty of opportunity for networking. Therefore, I do recommend planning in advance what you want to see so that you get the most out of the day. Last year I presented by own showcase (<a href="http://rachelcchavez1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/e-factor-2012-its-all-about-learner.html" target="_blank">click here for my blog post of the experience</a>) - this meant I wasn't really playing attention to the showcases before mine! This year though I was attending entirely as an observer so, with my itinerary in hand and iPod charged (search for #efactor2013 on Twitter), I went prepared to be fully inspired and motivated.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Following the initial registration, refreshments and welcome from Graciano de Santana Soares (JISC RSC London Regional Manager) it was straight into the first showcase with Newham FE College. Newham spoke about how they use Adobe Captivate to create podcasts and assessment-based learning packages on employability skills for engineering students. I thought these were a really good way of enhancing learning outside the classroom and securing assessment whilst keeping the content engaging.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Next, Barry Spencer from Bromley College demonstrated his use of augmented reality. I didn't even know what augmented reality was so, if you're in the same boat as me, it basically means taking a physical object and enhancing it with online materials. Barry gave an example of how, using the Aurasma app, students can scan 'trigger images' using the smartphone or tablet and open additional content. I thought this was a really clever use of technology and, unlike a written web link or QR code you can make the trigger interactive and visually appealing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The following showcase really interested me. West Thames College spoke about how they have developed two awards to support student progression. The Employability Award and the Research Skills Award are delivered online as learning packages. I think it is brilliant to offer a dedicated programme in which students (and even staff!) can actively develop their skills and provide evidence on their CVs. My interest was in the Research Skills Award so, in the break that followed, I tracked down one of the delegates from the LRC to learn more. During the break I also visited the stand run by Xtensis who were exhibiting their product XtLearn.net. Xtlearn allows you to combine a range of resources in a very visually appealing way along with the ability to link to the collection from Moodle. I thought this might be a good way of resolving the scrolling issue when uploading lots of resources to Moodle.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">After the break the next showcase I saw was from JGA Group. They explained how they have started to use Moodle and other e-learning tools, such as videos, podcasts and e-portfolios, to support their work-based learners. It was good to see that the use of e-learning has expanded beyond the FE/HE sector into private sector training too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Next, Saqib Safdar from Woodhouse College delivered a great presentation demonstrating how the use of one iPad has revolutionised the way he delivers maths lessons. He wirelessly links the iPad to the projector and uses the app Doceri to turn the screen into an enhanced, interactive whiteboard. This leaves him free to move around the class. It has also given his students more confidence as they can put their work on screen using DocSan and explain and amend it without having to stand in front of the group. Often when we think of iPad projects it involves giving iPads to the students, but this showcase demonstrated how much of an effect giving just one iPad to the teacher can have.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The last showcase I saw before lunch was from Barking & Dagenham College who have revived the use of netbooks, and Chromebooks, with students. Loading only a simple operating system and promoting GoogleDocs (for access to word processing, etc) keeps running speeds high and allows students to be flexible with their learning. Their LDD department also highlighted how their students struggle with their VLE's built-in ILP and have solved the problem by creating and sharing their own on GoogleDocs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">During the lunch break I visited the stand run by PlanetPC who were demonstrating their product PlaneteStream. Their product enables you to create your own video archive, including programmes broadcast on Freeview channels, and I was interested in how they are then able to add details of the content into your library management system.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I began the afternoon listening to a great presentation by Bernadette John from King's College London. She spoke about digital professionalism and how important it is for students to be aware of their digital presence and the impact it can have on their employability, particularly within her field of healthcare. Bernadette and King's College have taken a proactive lead and developed their own social networking site for students in which they can discuss real-world examples of digital profiles along with an annual e-learning course embedded into Moodle. Similarly with West Thames College I like the fact that King's College are not only providing the information but are helping to ensure that students fully take it in.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Next City Lit spoke about how they have implemented blended learning and flipped learning with their PTTLS and PGCE courses. I was interested in flipped learning as I wasn't really aware of what it involved. I found out that in a flipped learning environment the students use a variety of resources to learn about the main concepts at home, prior to the lesson. Then, in class, the teacher can focus on anything the students wish to clarify and also extension activities and learning that would have typically been set as homework. Khorshed, who presented, also brought with her one of the students from the PGCE course and it was good to hear about it directly from a student perspective. </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">City of Westminster College followed on the same theme of flipped learning. This time it had been applied to motor vehicle groups. John Doherty, a motor vehicle tutor, explained how he had seen nothing but a positive impact on his students resulting in them being more engaged and confident within the class.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The final showcase of my day was delivered jointly by Ealing, Hammersmith & West London College and Waltham Forest College. The presented their 'eTeaching' course. This is an online course aimed at teachers which looks at "developing free resources using easy web based tools to enhance teaching and learning". Along with using a range of tools such as presentation tools, video tools, blogs and animations staff also have the chance to discuss the pedagogy of e-learning and e-safety. I thought this was a brilliant CPD opportunity for teachers as not only are they expanding their knowledge but they're creating engaging and exciting materials and resources they can use in their lessons.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The conference ended with reflections by Cathy Walsh, CEO/Principal at Barking & Dagenham College who raised a point that I agree with - the day was really well attended with over 200 names on the delegate list covering a range of posts. However, in order to ensure that these examples of best practice are spread across institutions, and not just residing in small pockets, more individuals from senior management need to attend and see what is going on.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">As always I had a great day and have taken away lots of inspiration which I will pass on to my own team.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11888960978133965756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6772399045466827843.post-17191573706288895722013-06-12T04:45:00.001-07:002013-06-12T04:45:12.247-07:00Heritage Training & Forum JISC RSC Joint Event<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Yesterday I attended an event organised by JISC RSC-Eastern. Held at the Jisc Offices in London the event comprised of a Heritage forum following by training on basic reports from an IS Oxford trainer. </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The forum was well attended with representatives from a range of FE institutions. Top of the forum discussion was Cirqa. Several people are looking to upgrade and were keen to hear other's views on it. Unfortunately, only one attendee is actually running with Cirqa so we weren't able to get a range of experiences. Other topics that came up included:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">issues with Heritage versions 4.2.9 & 4.2.10 freezing. This prompted a short discussion on the effects that Windows 7 and different software can have when conflicting with Heritage.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">issues with managing SDI notifications</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">problems with sending emails from Heritage, particularly in relation to pre-notifications</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">sending notifications by text</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">success (or not!) of installing the Heritage Moodle block</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">practical issues surrounding stocktaking</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">embedding resources from JISC Collections into the catalogue</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">search hints in the OPAC and their effectiveness</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">After lunch, and a chance to chat more informally, Peter Way from IS Oxford delivered his training session. He began by reminding us of the various ways that we can find help with Heritage from the system cue cards, the manual and helpsheets to the Marvin mailing list and Heritage Support. He then gave a brief overview of Cirqa highlighting the benefits (access anywhere - no longer tied to a network; faster running reports; no longer having both the in-built enquiry and the OPAC) and mentioned the support available to upgrade along with the option of having IS Oxford host the system for you. We then began the main content of the training session looking at basic reports from which I got a few useful tips that I can apply to my own reports.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I did feel that the forum lacked a little focus (at one point Maryse Fisher who kindly organises these for us did worry that we would finish far too early!). Perhaps this could be overcome by each attendee having to prepare one or two items for discussion, along with a brief update on any service changes or improvements they have recently implemented on Heritage. Overall though the day provided an excellent opportunity for networking and discussion opportunities.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11888960978133965756noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6772399045466827843.post-16607551610379692852013-06-07T07:46:00.000-07:002013-06-07T07:46:04.250-07:00#uklibchat 6th June 2013 - Collection Management<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Last night I took part in my first #uklibchat on Twitter. The theme was collection management. My job role is Information Advisor (Resources and Content) in an FE/HE College so I thought it could be useful. There will be an official summary written up by @uklibchat but, since this was my first, I thought I'd write my own reflections too.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I saw promotion for the chat on Twitter and started following @uklibchat. Prior to the chat an agenda is made available online on which anybody can add a discussion topic. I added: <em>How do you manage weeding of physical stock? How much do you involve tutors?</em> Aside from removing un-repairable items weeding is not something I've tackled yet on a large scale. Therefore I was interested to see what approaches other take. The full agenda was as follows:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">1. Are you responsible for collections management in your organisation? What kind of collections do you manage?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">2. What has been your most challenging task or decision related to collection management?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">3. How do you think the increase in e-resources will affect how library collections are managed?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">4. How do you manage weeding of physical stock? How much do you involve tutors?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">5. In academic libraries, to what extent are collection management staff involved in Open Access?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">6. Do you usually collect suggestions from your users to by new materials for your collections?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">7. In what ways will Open Access developments impact on collection management?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">8. Any tips on collection management/weeding when you don't have any circulation stats?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I started with a couple of hurdles - trying to cook and eat fajitas at the same time as following was a bit tricky plus, this being my first Twitter 'chat' it took my husband to show me how to add Tweets whilst still following the conversation (oh dear!!). I got there in the end though! From those of us who posted, attendance was predominantly those working in academic libraries. However, not everyone introduced themselves so it wasn't always clear from what library context a particular comment was based on. Item 2 on the agenda asked us to identify our most challenging task or decision related to collections management. I commented: <em>Trying to monitor demand when students don't tell us they can't find the book or don't reserve</em>. @Annie_Bob, @cy3_ and @shibshabs also highlighted their frustration at the lack of input from tutors across subjects, particularly with regards to reading lists. This is a frustration I share, although it is more significant for our HE courses who have extensive reading lists than our FE.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Item 3 looked at how the increase in e-resources will affect the way collections are managed. This is less of an issue for academic libraries. E-resources to support students have been available for years and can increase the learning flexibility of the student, i.e. they don't have to visit the library every time they need high-quality information. However, I think a collection will always need printed materials, yes even duplicates of the online information, to support all learning preferences.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Next we moved on to my question about weeding. @Annie_Bob said that at a previous institution they used to give sheets of stickers to tutors who would walk the shelves putting stickers on items to be weeded. I like that approach and it could be co-ordinated with looking at usage statistics to ensure nothing students regularly use is withdrawn in error. However, @Annie_Bob did admit: <em>Of course the hard part is getting them into the library</em>. To try and solve that problem @cy3_ commented on how they hold a 'weed and feed', drawing tutors in with the promise of food!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">A couple of the agenda items discussed Open Access which we are not involved in. We then discussed whether we gather stock suggestions from users and the consensus was yes - we want them to use our libraries! @Annie_Bob also mentioned that her institution has recently started a PDA trial (Patron Driven Acquisition) and this is something we'd like to do for our ebook collection. The final agenda item asked for tips on collection management and weeding when circulation stats are unavailable. I commented that you then have to rely more heavily on reading lists and tutor input and this was backed up by @poetryghost from a public library perspective by talking to patrons and staff. @Bibli_Jo_phile also highlighted the benefits of assessing the condition and publication date of items.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The chat drew to a close at 8.30pm after a good two hours' discussion. I like the idea of a 'weed and feed' although, to make the task more appealing to staff, maybe we could make a selection of items to withdraw first and they simply come to see if there's anything they want to 'save'. I found the chat a really good way to network with other professionals - for free! - and I've gained some new Twitter feeds to follow. I shall keep an eye out for any more relevant topics in the future.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11888960978133965756noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6772399045466827843.post-30972982232583962072013-06-03T01:47:00.001-07:002013-06-03T01:47:11.508-07:00Evaluating online resources<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Over the past few months I have been compiling a list of online resources that the Head of Learning Resources would like me to look into.Up until now I haven't had the time to do so. I have five resources to look at. Because I've left it so long it now seems a little daunting. Therefore, I have set myself some parameters - I will spend 30 minutes looking at each one and answer the following questions:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">what is the resource, who owns it and who is it aimed at?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">what is its content and coverage?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">how easy and intuitive is it to use?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">would it enhance and compliment our existing collections?</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>HELM</strong> (<a href="http://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/heml/">www.lboro.ac.uk/research/heml/</a>)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">HELM stands for Helping Engineers Learn Mathematics. It has been developed by a consortium of five English universities and aims to <em>"enhance the mathematical education of engineering undergraduates by the provision of a range of flexible learning resources"</em>. The resource comprises of 50 workbooks each containing maths for engineering simply explained, worked examples and case studies/ In addition there are enhanced course ware objects and computer-aided assessment. The resource attempts to ensure that engineering students achieve the basic maths skills they require and covers the maths and statistics knowledge covered in the first and second years of a typical undergraduate degree.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Each workbook opens in a PDF format with each section outlining the prerequisites and learning outcomes. Workbooks may need to be printed if supplied as PDFs in the actual resource in order for students to complete the exercises. Users can access all of the learning resources for free. 37 institutions are listed as HELM users on the website including 5 FE Colleges.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The site was last updated in 2005. We could recommend this resource in the 'The LRC also recommends' section of our e-resources page as it is free. However, I think we should ask engineering tutors whether it would be appropriate to promote to our students or whether the level of knowledge would be too high.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>TED.com</strong> (<a href="http://www.ted.com/">www.ted.com/</a>)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">TED is a <em>"nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design."</em> The purpose of TED.com is to make <em>"the best talks and performances from TED and partners available to the world, for free."</em> Over 1400 videos are available on the site.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I found the site to be quite un-intuitive. The most relevant section for students would be 'talks'. You are then presented with the most recently uploaded videos. You can filter by subject choosing from technology, entertainment, design, business, science ans global issues. The other filtering options allow you to narrow down videos with subtitles in a particular language, by event, by length and by most popular/commented on, etc. The information from the results give the name of the speaker, the title of their talk and when it was posted along with the number of views, comments and tags such as "<em>informative"</em>, "<em>fascinating"</em> and <em>"inspiring"</em>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The videos play within the page and can also be enlarged to full screen. There is a search box which will find results that contain your term in the title or description of the talk. The search doesn't appear to follow Boolean as when I searched for 'sustainable AND architecture' it brought results on the topic which also contained the word 'and'.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I think this could be a valuable site as it provides up-to-date thinking on current issues and topics of discussion within the fields. I searched for 'sustainable architecture', 'media representation' and 'ethics in biology' and found some really relevant material. However, I think we would struggle encouraging students to use it. The site is not intuitive to academic use and, although near the top of the page, the search box is very small. The resource would also be very different to the more 'reference' based materials that the students have access to. It would need good promotion within inductions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>ScienceDirect.com </strong>(<a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/">www.sciencedirect.com/</a>)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">ScienceDirect is <em>"a leading full-text scientific database offering journal articles and book chapters for more than 2,500 peer-reviewed journals and more than 11,000 books."</em> It is managed by Elseveir with whom you need to set up an account. Prices for subscriptions are unclear on the site. However, when searching as a guest user prices for individual articles are shows in dollars - does this mean that the journals and books with the collection will have an American bias? (Having said that, the introductory video guide uses a British voice-over.) Advanced search, although not obviously placed, allows you to add additional search terms and limit by subject and year.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The 'Backfiles' collection (back issues) can be purchased as a complete set or per each pre-defined subject-specific package. There is a one-off purchase with no annual fees for as long as you remain a ScienceDirect subscriber. Users will then have full access to the Backfile articles plus abstracts of all non-subscribed material. You can obtain more recent articles via pay per view or by subscription to the journal on ScienceDirect. ScienceDirect College Edition provides "<em>affordable"</em> access to dedicated subject packages in the physical, social and health sciences, complemented by content from online books and pre-1995 journals.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">It is possible to request a free trial and this resource would nee further investigation. We would need to complete ebook offering with subject covers and Dawson availability as well as journal title and subject coverage with our existing subscription to Science Reference Center.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Ovid Medicing & Sport Science Package</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">This package gives access to core resources on sports science. It is offered as part-purchase part-subscription and contains access to 12 months of current issues from <em>Strength and Conditioning Journal</em> and <em>ACSM's Health and Fitness Journal</em>; over 135 back issues of <em>Strength Conditioning Journal;</em> 4 e-books (<em>100 questions and answers about sports, nutrition and exercise; Sports medicine consult; 4-minute sports medicine consult</em> and <em>Evidence-based sports medicine</em>) along with access to the Medline database. Free trials and customised quotations are available.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The journals and first ebook may be useful for the new Foundation Degree in Sports Coaching and Analysis that the College is offering. A BSC in Sports Science and a BSC in Sports Coaching and Analysis are also in the prospectus. We would need to discuss the relevancy of the content with the appropriate tutors.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>JISC Collections </strong>(<a href="http://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/">www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/</a>)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I had a look through the list of free e-resources and we already have access the relevant ones for us. These are: the e-books for FE project; Encyclopaedia Britannica e-Books free trial; JISC MediaHub for FE; and Primal Pictures Anatomy and Physiology Online. From the full catalogue there are relevant resources that we have previously had access to, such as Grove Art Online and ChildLink. Resources that may be relevant that could be investigate are: Credo Reference (provides access to a range of reference materials); Digital Theatre Plus (provides streamed films of leading British theatre productions for educational use supported by additional content); and JISC eCollections for FE (provides access as a package to JISC Journal Archives, JISC Historic Books and JISC MediaHub - all parts can also be purchased in combination and separately).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Evaluation of method</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I found that limiting myself to 30 minutes on each resource was a very productive method. I split my screen so that on one side I could see an online countdown timer and on the other I could evaluate the resource. Often I found that I didn't take the full 30 minutes. This method helped focus my evaluation and prevented me from either losing interest or from losing sight of my goals by trying to evaluate too extensively. I feel now that I have a good evaluative overview of each resource and make recommendations for further investigation.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11888960978133965756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6772399045466827843.post-8573800920638498082013-04-19T01:49:00.003-07:002013-04-19T01:50:51.491-07:00Interacting with students and managing behaviour<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">In our team meeting slot this week we were joined by Yvonne, the
College’s new Head of Student Support. Due to her previous employment we wanted
to draw on her experience of interacting with students and managing behaviour.
Our plan is to hold a workshop with her on our next Team Improvement Day. The
purpose of this week’s meeting was to discuss issues and concerns that we would
like to cover in the workshop. The meeting was split into two so that Yvonne
could first meet with our Front of House team and then with the Senior Team.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">In our section of the meeting Yvonne asked us to think about the types
of situations in which we personally struggle and would benefit from some
training. I find that I struggle in two areas – first, what to do when I’ve
gone up to speak to a student and they are intentionally ignoring or blanking
me. This was raised by a few colleagues as something they also struggle with.
We discussed what we do at the moment in that situation. I ventured that if the
student was on their own I might try sending them a message via our computer
booking system. If the student was in a group, try and focus on one or two
individuals who are paying attention and use them to help attract the attention
of the whole group. Yvonne explained that there is really no right or wrong
approach to dealing with this situation but that it is important to acknowledge
how it makes us feel and to reflect on how we have managed ourselves in each
approach that we take. She also suggested bringing another member of staff in
and approaching the situation as a pair. This is something I haven’t tried
before – we tend to ask another member of staff to ‘give it a go’ rather than
going in jointly.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The second situation in which I struggle is to develop conversations
further with students and be assertive in my decisions in terms of getting them
to improve their behaviour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example,
approaching a group of students crowded around a couple of PCs I would normally
explain that it isn’t appropriate for them to behave like that and ask if they
have any work they can be doing. However, I fail to build on that initial
interaction and find out why they’ve come in (i.e are they on a break/part of a
lesson etc.) and precisely what work they’ve come in planning to do with the
aim of helping them to plan individually what they want to achieve from their
time in the LRC. After my initial interaction I might have to then return and
chase them along but again, at this point, I fail to really get involved.</span></span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Yvonne also briefly mentioned how we must be fully aware of how we are
ourselves before we approach a student - for example, are we already wound up
or irritated, a feeling that could be passed on to the student – how a lot of
communication is not passed on verbally but through our manner, and how we must
build the confidence to approach a student in the first place. I would like to
think that this is an area in which I am quite successful. I feel confident to
approach students and I always approach situations calmly addressing students
as ‘ladies’ and ‘gentleman’ (in the belief that they can behave as such – if the
start to prove me otherwise then they come down to ‘guys’ or ‘girls’ and ‘boys’!).
I also address them quite quietly so that it is clear I am talking to them but
without bringing any other students nearby into the situation.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">From the initial discussion with Yvonne I have identified areas that I
need to work on: explaining more why I want a student to do something; become
involved in the interaction more and develop conversations; be strong in my
convictions and build maintain the interaction so that a positive result is
achieved on both sides. I’m looking forward to the workshop with Yvonne to see
what new techniques I can learn.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11888960978133965756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6772399045466827843.post-20066482254658591572013-03-18T07:26:00.001-07:002013-03-18T07:26:12.153-07:00Heritage User Group Winter Meeting<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">On Wednesday 6th March I attended the winter meeting of the Heritage User Group. Heritage User Group (or HUG as it is known) is a group of people who use the Library Management System Heritage. It is independent from (although has strong links to) IS Oxford who develop Heritage. The aim of the group is to support users providing an environment in which to share information, discuss problems and highlight future needs. Heritage User Group also has a number of localised sub-branches. (You can find out more at their website: <a href="http://www.hugonline.co.uk/index.htm">http://www.hugonline.co.uk/index.htm</a>) The main group meets twice a year and this was my first attendance.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Neville Jones from IS Oxford began the day's meeting with a demonstration of the new features available in Heritage Cirqa. We are likely to upgrade our version of Heritage in the summer (either to version 4.2.10 or to Cirqa) so it was really useful to see a demo. Neville highlighted the new features along with improvements and functions that have been removed, all the while showing everything on screen. I was impressed by the developments available in Cirqa (although some functions, such as the option to renew all items in one go via the OPAC, haven't yet been made possible). I was able to gather lots of useful technical how-to info from Neville's presentation and the question and answer session at the end highlighted several useful tips that I hadn't thought of before. Furthermore, Neville was able to spend a little time advising me on an issue I am currently trying to resolve with our OPAC results display.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I think it would be more prudent to upgrade to Cirqa rather than 4.2.10 for our next upgrade although I am undecided whether we should remain hosted within our own IT department, or allow IS Oxford to host (an option with Cirqa). We don't have any other services which are outsources so it would be a new experience for us.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">After a very nice lunch the afternoon kicked off with the AGM. We heard brief reports from the chairman, treasurer and secretary on the current status of the group. The rest of the afternoon then consisted of short presentations showcasing different innovate uses of Heritage within different institutions. The first was Rob Collier from Oxford & Cherwell Valley College. Rob spoke about how he uses information obtained from Heritage to send out texts to students, for example, overdue reminders. Our marketing department does order text bundles for the College. However, in the past, we have had an unfortunate experience in send out texts (unrelated to overdues) which has made us very cautious!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Following Rob were Julian Dawson from ARUP, Gill Kaye from an NHS library and Ian Cockrill from Gower College, Swansea. They each spoke about how they have applied SDI within their own institutions. SDI (Selective Dissemination of Information) runs off the subject field within catalogue records and sends an email alert to any users who have that subject allocated to them about new resources that have been added to it. I think SDI can be a very useful marketing tool to help inform tutors of new resources. We don't currently use it and, for us, it would mean setting up from scratch subject listings and planning how we market the service to staff. Having heard the three speakers I found it interesting how they each took different approaches. For example, whether subjects of interest are 'forced' onto users by the library team or whether users are invited to join, and how strictly or not they match subjects to Dewey classifications. I thought Ian suggested a very good tip regarding the design of the email alerts. He spoke of a colleague in another institution who, when they started sending SDI alerts, had several staff coming in demanding to know why they had been sent overdues for items they didn't have! They did see a lot of irate members of staff but also several who hadn't been to the centre in years! Therefore, Ian made the point that the design of the email is key in ensuring that its meaning is quickly established and not confused with other Heritage generated emails.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Next, Gill spoke again about the reality of upgrading to Cirqa. Her library had just upgraded and had been 'live' for 12 days. They opted to have IS Oxford host their server and paid for additional support during the upgrade process. It sounded fairly straightforward and Gill said that overall they were very pleased with both the upgrade process and Cirqa as a system.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Emily Armstrong gave the final presentation which looked at how Heritage can be integrated with your VLE, specifically Moodle. This was the least useful presentation for me as the subjects that she demonstrated - embedding live reading lists and inserting the Heritage 'block' - are ones that we have already implemented.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Overall I found the day extremely useful and would recommend that anyone who uses Heritage become a member of the Group. You have access to a range of helpful resources and advice and the opportunity to discuss with others their experience of Heritage. Of course, this isn't the only Heritage forum environment - there is the Marvin mailing list and the HUG sub-groups. However, for very little membership cost there are big benefits.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I next plan to attend the summer meeting of my local HUG branch in May/June.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11888960978133965756noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6772399045466827843.post-33760824008036115742013-01-09T07:50:00.000-08:002013-01-09T07:50:28.963-08:00Staff Development<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">At the end of last academic year we have two consecutive staff development days to round off the term. For the first time I 'led' a small group during an activity. I found this helped me to be more engaged with the task and, if I'm honest, more willing to carry out the activity (more on that below).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">It all began on the morning of Thursday 20th December with the whole of the Student Services division congregating in the LRC's HE Centre. The Director of Student Services started with a presentation on recruitment and success rates. It was interesting to see how much competition the College now faces from provision across other College and Sixth Forms. He then got us thinking about self-assessment and the College's strengths and weaknesses in preparation for work on our SARs (Self-Assessment Report) - this generated some lively opinions amongst some! Following this we divided back into our divisions to work on our own SAR.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The Director of Learning Resources divided us into groups in which we focused on specific aspects of the service and thought about its strengths and areas for improvement along with what evidence could be provided to back up our statements. I led a small group looking at use of resources and e-resources. I found this activity a really good way of not only highlighting our recent successes, but also of bringing to light certain aspects for improvement which have been overlooked in the past. Here's an overview of my groups' discussion:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Strengths: significant improvement in provision of print and e-books following an increase in budget which allowed for collection project end of 2011/2012; purchased new e-resource Key Note to support business and subscribed to free e-resource Primal Pictures Anatomy & Physiology Online; upgrade of LRC PCs improved experience of accessing LRC eResources; this academic year has seen a considerable increase in the number of LRC resources embedded into Moodle courses; staff have worked to improve liaison with BTEC business tutors; LRC works hard to promote resources and can identify several publicity methods.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Weaknesses: 2011/2012 student questionnaire shows low awareness of resources; LRC awareness of reading lists and assignment details across College is patchy; analysis of usage data from Learning Resources pages in Moodle shows some areas rarely viewed; Moodle courses containing LRC content not widespread; no consistent monitoring of induction takeup, specifically e-resources/starting your research inductions; low use of DVD collection; past few years have seen a decline in the level of access provided to physical resources due to changes in opening hours.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">At lunch we all headed back to the HE Centre for lunch and the annual quiz and raffle (in which I won a bottle of wine!). The afternoon began with a presentation from one of our Vice Principals on the changes to Ofsted's Common Inspection Framework after which we finished with an LRC senior team meeting tidying up loose ends from the morning's activity.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The following day was more laid back with updates and brief training. I gave an E-resources update highlighting new e-books purchased, changes to existing LRC eResources and new LRC eResources. One activity my colleague ran was based on teamwork and I thought she came up with a very ingenious idea: she had given us an activity to do first in small groups. For the second part, she gave each group a small jigsaw which we had to put together in our team and to shout out as soon as we'd completed it. Well there we were, all shouting FINISHED!, and she was going round saying that we hadn't! We soon twigged that in actual fact our individual jigsaws fitted together to complete a bigger picture, so we had to come together as a whole team to complete it - I thought this was a great idea. The College closed at 2pm that day so after we had finished we all headed off to the pub for a very well-deserved drink!</span><br />
<ul>
</ul>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11888960978133965756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6772399045466827843.post-53209380519289838032013-01-07T06:05:00.002-08:002013-01-07T06:05:39.022-08:00Reflections and wisdom<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">2012 was a good year. Highlights included: <a href="http://rachelcchavez1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/new-starts.html" target="_blank">getting married</a>; presenting <a href="http://rachelcchavez1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/e-factor-2012-its-all-about-learner.html" target="_blank">at the JISC eFactor Showcase in London</a>; being <a href="http://rachelcchavez1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/what-term.html" target="_blank">promoted to the position of Information Advisor (Resources and Content)</a> and being involved in a <a href="http://rachelcchavez1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/2012-collections-project-books-books.html" target="_blank">collections project</a> ordering books, books and more books (appealing to the traditionalist in me!).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I don't really have any new year's resolutions for this year. So instead, I thought I'd share with you some wisdom. Now, I have to admit that this wisdom isn't my own! My husband and I decided that, for our calendar this year, we would purchase one called <em>The wisdom of kids</em> created by Zavacopoulos and The London Studio. Some very insightful views follow. My personal favourites are September (no.9) and October (no.10)!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>1.</strong> What's the moral of Cinderella?: 'Good things happen when you wear the right shoes' (Sophia, age 10).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>2.</strong> Getting your priorities right: Love is the most important thing in the world, if you don't count football' (Andrew, age 10).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>3.</strong> Who is the boss, mummy or daddy?: 'Daddy is the boss, until mummy comes home' (Chloe, age 7).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>4.</strong> Why do grownups love wine?: 'It helps them live long. Cos it's grapes it's 1 of your 5 a day, so basically it's a health drink' (Alice, age 6).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>5.</strong> What are the signs of ageing?: 'Old people have huge CD's that they call records' (Selina, age 6).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>6.</strong> Is it better to be single or married?: 'It's better for girls to be single but not for boys cos they need someone to clean up after them' (Anita, age 9).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>7.</strong> When is it okay to kiss someone?: 'When they're rich' (Pam, age 7).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>8. </strong>The difference between men and women: 'Women have boobies. They have one for hot milk and one for cold milk' (Michael, age 5).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>9. </strong>If you can't remember your age: 'Just look in the back of your pants. Mine say five to six' (Tina, age 5).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>10. </strong>How to make someone fall in love with you: 'Shake your hips and hope for the best' (Camille, age 9).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>11. </strong>The best present for a girl ...: 'Boxer chocolates' (John, age 6).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>12. '</strong>I tried to eat brussel sprouts but my mouth wouldn't let me' (Robby, age 4).</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11888960978133965756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6772399045466827843.post-76179979089538173292012-11-23T02:10:00.004-08:002012-11-23T02:10:58.927-08:00What a term!<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">There has been very little time to be involved in anything 'extra-curricular' since the beginning of term. It has zoomed by and I'm only now just able to start checking Twitter and the blogs I follow again. To get me back into the swing of writing for my blog I thought I'd start with an overview of what's kept me occupied for the last couple of months!</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Staffing the Enquiry Desk and other Centres and helping lots of new students with basic queries such as printing and using self-issue.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Working out how to solve the problem of matching up returning student records on our LMS now that the College has introduced a new ID system.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Delivering introductory inductions to groups of new students.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Training new member of the Front of House team.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Preparing and delivering in-depth information skills inductions in lessons.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Training and observing colleague to deliver referencing inductions.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Preparing and delivering training to teaching staff on how to use and utilise Moodle.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Managing collections requests and acquisitions.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Troubleshooting issues as part of the Moodle Support team.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Promotion to position of Information Advisor (Resources and Content).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Showing round interview candidates for new post.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Training and mentoring new member of the senior team.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Involvement in 'Study skills afternoon' for Access to Science students delivering referencing refresher and introducing guest speaker from Examstutor.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Attending senior team meetings.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Housekeeping tasks for our LMS.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I hope as the term starts to calm down that I'll be able to get involved again in some development opportunities. It has been mooted that I'm to sit on a new cross-College committee starting next week so looking forward to that.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11888960978133965756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6772399045466827843.post-72296577525941492992012-08-20T05:03:00.000-07:002012-08-20T05:03:00.355-07:00New starts<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">It's almost the start of the new academic year which, to me, like New Year, is a time for new or fresh starts. I also got married last month so another cause for feeling like the start of something new.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">When I was at school and university the start of the new year always meant sorting out my desk at home and buying new stationery. At school it also meant the start of a new system whereby whenever I was given homework, I would start it that evening. (I don't think I even managed to keep that up until the October half term!) I now work in a College and so the start of a new academic year now means new stationery (still!) and a renewed enthusiasm and motivation to make the most of each task and interaction. I have even given my blog and Twitter page a fresher look with a new background design!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">At home at a time of new starts I always come up with what seems a lovely plan to fit in regular exercise around my working week - but I rarely manage to sustain it! Also to keep more on top of the housework which, week by week, has varying degrees of success! Linked back to the 'sorting out my desk at home' I have bought several new lever arch files in a pretty design to display all my family history work rather than having boring files in boxes. I also have plans to go through our filing cabinet of important documents and have a good old sort out.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Thinking about it all of my new starts revolve around being more organised in various forms. I come from a family of 'list-makers' and am always making lists of to do jobs. I think this is probably one of my biggest strengths and I know that I'm happier and calmer when I'm more organised. I'm also very critical though and, as you can see from my new starts, always thinking I can do better!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11888960978133965756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6772399045466827843.post-74017898347539954842012-06-29T06:28:00.000-07:002012-06-29T06:28:15.670-07:00e-Factor 2012: "It's all about the learner"<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">On Wednesday I attended JISC RSC London's e-Factor 2012. The day brings together practitioners from a variety of organisations to share approaches and examples of best practice in e-learning and e-technologies. Last year I attended as a delegate but this year I answered the call and offered to present a showcase. Although I've delivered inductions to large groups of students before I've never presented at an event so was looking forward to the challenge.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">To begin with I had to write a proposal of 200 words describing my showcase which would fit under one of the following categories:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Enhanced teaching and learning through the use of innovative and creative technology</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">CDP/staff development models that make effective use of technology</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Learner Voice - learners are involved in shaping delivery/staff development/quality systems/contribute to how technology is used</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Organisational efficiency - through the use of technology</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I chose the first category and developed my proposal with the title <em>Embedding creative e-learning technologies to enhance learning resources delivery, both in and out of the classroom</em>. I sent in my proposal at the end of March and, a month later, received an email saying it had been accepted! Now I had to deliver! I began planning my showcase properly about a month ago, working out what I wanted to say and choosing examples of our work and, by the middle of June, felt that it was ready to go. I took the opportunity to run through it whenever I could.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The day finally arrived and, wanting to look eager, I arrived soon after 9.00am when registration opened. When I arrived though everyone had been evacuated outside whilst the fire alarm was going off - exactly the same thing happened last year, maybe it's jinxed! After we were allowed back in I met up with a couple of colleagues and we took our seats for the Welcome given by Graciano Soares, Regional Manager for RSC London. He outlined the plan for the day linking the theme <em>It's all about the learner</em> with the current climate and changes in OFSTED's inspection approach. My category was next....</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The first showcase was presented by West Thames College who shared how they enhance teaching and learning through the use of video casts and social media. I particularly liked how their tutors had really thought about what their students actually do and came up with using Facebook to develop a web page and Twitter to provide study support. Their use of video casting in plumbing is a great way of enhancing learning in a very practical subject. As a librarian, I really liked the section in the video where the tutor explains how to use their textbook to help them study! He was quite right in saying that often, students on courses like these, either think they don't need a textbook or are frightened of using one. I was next up and for the next 15 minutes it was just me on stage, behind a lectern, with a microphone and my presentation facing 60-70 people! (My script is <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ftT1_oTItFnpvNDJ2eqqVP87lt8GMxkIu8aV90XR_OM/edit" target="_blank">available here</a>.) I began with a Prezi (<a href="http://prezi.com/yaszyeqa-l5r/kc-fonts-embedding-creative-e-learning-technologies-to-enhance-learning-resources-delivery-both-in-and-out-of-the-classroom/" target="_blank">available here</a>) as a visual aid whilst I explained why I feel this area of e-learning is important. I then showcased four e-learning technologies. First was XtraNormal - a cartoon creation tool - which we have used to create a short, humorous (hopefully!) cartoon on why students should renew. Second I showed two examples of enhanced podcasts we have created using Windows MovieMaker to combine images/Powerpoint slides with audio and music. Next I briefly spoke about Jing - a screen capture tool which will capture a video of what you do on screen along with audio. The fourth technology was Xerte and I showed how we have used it to create a suite of interactive revision and study skills guides. To finish off I played a video that had been created by the College as part of the KUBE project (Kingston Uplift for Business Education). The project looked at ways of combining face to face and online modes of curriculum delivery and included Xerte units and podcasts. The video had students and staff highlighting the impact and benefits of using these technologies. My showcase went really well and I was congratulated afterwards by my colleagues, delegates and our Principal who was there to give the Plenary at the end of the day. Questions were invited after each showcase. I wasn't look forward to this as, whilst I'm confident speaking about something I'm well prepared for, I'm not very good at coming up with answers on the spot. However, I was pleased that I could answer the four questions directed at me well! Finishing our section were VITAL who demonstrated how they had been involved in projects which successfully used Kindles in class. I thought Kindles were a great idea for encouraging reading for pleasure - the anonymity of what you're reading can be a big draw - but felt that it was difficult to extend this into academic work as many textbooks aren't available on Kindle.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">In the second section of the day I chose to watch the Organisational efficiency category. St Dominics Sixth Form College were first up showcasing their use of Google Docs to manage and hold the dissertation style EPQ project for A level students. All the work was uploaded and stored in Google Docs with the College's IT team having very limited involvement. I thought it was a very effective example of when cloud computing works well. Second were Stanmore College who explained their 'Plan-Do-Review' cycle of technology with regards to Moodle whereby they are currently developing their new ILP2 area in Moodle. One of the features I liked was their use of ePace tests to highlight strengths and weaknesses in skill sets to aid teachers in planning class activities. Third were Redbridge Institute who have been investigating free software to provide a timetabling programme, accessibility solutions for students with learning or physical differences and video tools. In the latter they highlighted Freemake which can edit and convert a range of different video file types -something I want to look into. Last were Newham FE College who have used Adobe Captivate to develop interactive learning packages in a similar way that we use Xerte. I thought the look of the final product was more professional than Xerte but it would be interesting to see if it had the same range of functionality.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">After lunch I went to the 'Creative Lab 2' category. In this Westminster Kingsway College showed how they use screencasts to record lessons in 3D modelling for students to refer to later; Ealing Hammersmith and West London College showed how they use comic strips to liven up classes; Coulsdon College showed how they have used iPads and Apps in their art and French classes; and Newham Sixth Form College showed how their tutors are using Moodle to create an effective and interactive learning experience.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I really enjoyed the day and the chance to see what other organisations have been doing. </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I found that presenting helped network as several people came and spoke to me during the day and I felt that I 'was' someone rather than just a body in the crowd which gave me more confidence to go up and speak to people. I did find it was very frustrating not having a business card or something similar to hand out with my contact details! I'm really glad I took the opportunity to present at this event. Not only will it look good on my CV but it's a new experience and on a personal level I can say - yes I can do that! </span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6772399045466827843.post-66959707200270745872012-05-24T06:00:00.003-07:002012-05-24T06:00:40.688-07:00London Dawson Day 2012 - Success through synergy<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Yesterday I spent a very enjoyable day at this year's London Dawson Day run by Dawson Books and, this year, held at the very impressive headquarters of the Institution of Civil Engineers. The theme of the day was <em>Success through synergy</em> and the presentations highlighted the successful collaboration between Dawson and Bertrams and academic institutions.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">After the initial sign in, tea and coffee and networking, the day began with a presentation by Jason Cherrington, Sales Director for the Bertram Group. He gave us a business update outlining the benefits of Dawson joining with Bertrams and re-assured us of Dawson's strong performance in the market. Following Jason were Karen Carden, Bibliographic Services Manager at the University of the Arts, and Heather Sherman, Head of Technical Sales at Dawson. In their presentation Karen spoke about the reasons for and process of centralising their bibliographic services across the six Colleges that make up the University and, also, how they have developed the centres to be self-service orientated - they hit 90% self-service in November! Heather talked about how Dawson helped them with the centralisation and streamlining some of their processes further. She also highlighted how Dawson can work with other suppliers, for example 3M in this instance to collaborate with RFID.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Before lunch Hugh Ferguson, Former Deputy Director General of the Institution, gave an overview of the history of the Institution and its location at One Great George Street. Having a passion for social history I very much enjoyed his presentation. Little did I know as well that the Great Hall, where I began the day, had been used as the setting for the Law Council dinner in the film <em>Bridget Jones 2: the edge of reason</em>! Back in the Great Hall we had a very nice lunch - I had salmon - although there wasn't really enough places to sit or perch at! For the remainder of lunch I went round the exhibitions from publishers, and Heritage (the LMS), with a couple who work at The National Archives. In our programme was a 'treasure hunt' so we went round the stands finding out the answers to the questions. Sadly we didn't win the grand prize of an iPad 3!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">At 1.30pm we were back in the Telford Theatre for the last two presentations. Chris Foreman, Collections Development Manager at the University of Roehampton, and Jude Norris, Marketing and Technology Director for Dawson, kicked off the afternoon. Chris and Jude told us about the collaboration between the University and Dawson to manage the implementation and development of patron-drive acquisitions (PDA) for e-books. I am interested in PDA so it was good to hear how it works and the pitfalls and successes they've had along the way. The second presentation was from Keynote Speaker Ed Fay. Ed is the Digital Library Manger at the London School of Economics and he spoke about the Digital Library there and its role in preserving digital material.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">A 2.30pm we had a final opportunity to visit the exhibitions and do a bit of networking - with the help of some very nice cookies! - before the prize draw for the iPad3 and raffle. I came away with £20 of John Lewis vouchers! I would recommend attending. It's a great chance to network, establish links with publishers, learn about developments and what others are doing and meet the Dawson team who are both very friendly and enthusiastic about how they can help you. A very enjoyable day all round!</span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6772399045466827843.post-67622066328448267822012-05-14T03:52:00.000-07:002012-05-14T03:52:05.879-07:00From CoFHE and UC&R to ARLG: the past, present and future<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">attended this event on
Wednesday 9<sup>th</sup> May which was held at CILIP for London and South East
members of the newly formed Academic and Research Libraries Group (ARLG). The
group has been created by merging two of CILIP’s existing special interest
groups – Colleges of Further and Higher Education (CoFHE) and University,
College and Research (UC&R) – and is the first within CILIP to be created
in this way.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The two main speakers
were Anne Rowlands (co-Chair of the national ARLG committee) and Annie Mauger
(Chief Executive of CILIP). Both spoke about the background to the merger –
Anne from the CoFHE/UC&R view and Annie from the CILIP view.</span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Anne spoke of the
increasing overlap between the work of the two groups, especially now that
Colleges are being given the opportunity to offer their own foundation degrees.
Anne also highlighted the process that has been involved in creating the merger
and the next stages that are required in consolidating the committee and
regional groups. Alongside this she highlighted some of the current concerns
with members.<span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="color: #31849b; mso-themecolor: accent5; mso-themeshade: 191;"><span style="color: black;">The</span><span style="color: black;"> national ARLG committee is split with an equal representation from FE
and HE. My concern is how this translates into the regional committees and
whether there will be any monitoring to ensure equal representation at local
level</span></span></span><span style="color: black;">. Anne also introduced the group’s mission: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To engage with “professional” issues of interest to information
professionals working in Further Education, Higher Education and Research Libraries
and to shape all levels of academic libraries of the future</i><span style="color: #31849b; mso-themecolor: accent5; mso-themeshade: 191;">.<span style="color: black;"> I have a
slight problem with the end of the statement when it refers to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all levels</i> as this implies some form of
influence over school libraries as well.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Annie spoke about the
background of the merger in the context of the changes CILIP is going through.
She praised both CoFHE and UC&R for taking the leap and being the ‘pilot’
on what she hopes will be a series of changes to the special interest groups to
ensure that they are up to date and relevant.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The remainder of the
evening consisted of two lightning talks highlighting examples of success
stories from both the FE and HE sector. Genevieve Clarke from The Reading
Agency and Stephen Wickens from Westminster Kingsway College began by
showcasing the success of The Reading Agency’s Six Book Challenge with a group
of the College’s ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) students. We
have run the Challenge in the past with ESOL students and a group with learning
differences. Both have been very successful with the students enthusiastically
engaging with the Challenge – it’s something we hope to run again. Genevieve
and Stephen were followed by Ella Mitchell from the University of East London
(UEL). Ella presented the award winning Info Skills site at UEL which supports
undergraduates through identifying, finding, evaluating and referencing
information. I think it’s an excellent site, not only visually, but also the
way in which they support differing learning preferences by providing guides, videos,
demonstrations and quizzes.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #31849b; mso-themecolor: accent5; mso-themeshade: 191;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Overall I was a little disappointed
by the first half of the event as I seemed to have different expectations to
the actual purpose of the meeting. I was hoping to find out more about how the
London and South East area of ARLG would be going forward but it seems that
there still needs some work done on a national level before we can see what
will be happening locally. I was also surprised by the low number of attendees.
17 attendees were listed and only 7 of them (myself included) weren’t a speaker
or already involved on the ARLG London and South East Committee. It may have
been the start time (5.30 may have been an awkward time for some), or lack of
communication (although it was advertised on mailing lists), or simply lack of
interest which would be sad.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I used to be a fairly
regular attendee of the CoFHE LASEC (London and South East Circle) in 2008/2009
but for various reasons stopped going. With the merger I see a good opportunity
to get involved again and look forward to seeing how ARLG develops in this
region.</span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6772399045466827843.post-48676567269274093022012-05-08T07:36:00.000-07:002014-02-14T01:43:19.755-08:00Was it worth buying?<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">In <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">November last year I posted</span> a comment on <a href="http://practicallibrarian.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/circulation-measure-of-library.html" target="_blank"><em>The Practical Librarian</em>'s blog about measuring circulation</a>. The blog post discusses the limitations of using circulation statistics alone as a method of measuring library performance. In my comment I spoke about how I planned to measure the usage of items purchased following tutor requests in the hope of obtaining a better picture of the impact of our stock management. I was curious to see whether usage reflected the demand perceived by tutors.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Six months later and I've just taken a look to see what the statistics can tell me. Unfortunately, there are so many variables affecting the usage that I've found the exercise to be almost pointless! Since September we have ordered 79 titles following a request from a tutor. First I want to discuss those that have been borrowed.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The level of usage cannot give an accurate picture of the demand as there are several factors that can give the illusion of genuine issues and some factors that mean not all use if reflected in the statistics:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">transit between LRC sites - we have reader records set up for each location and issue any items in transit to them so that we can track where they are</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">mis-use of self-issue - we have seen several instances in the usage information where a student has managed to issue, return and then issue a book to themselves in quick succession!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">display browsing - from January I have put all new stock on display. It is impossible to tell whether borrowing from the display is as a result of browsing or whether the book was particularly sought for. I've watched with interest over several days as one particular students 'borrows' the BTEC textbook for sport from the display whilst he works on a computer and puts it back when he's finished!</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Out of the 79 titles 30 have not been borrowed but, again, I can't make any assumptions about why this might be:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">tutors may not be recommending the titles to students, or they may be but the students just aren't bothered!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">by the time the book is shelf-ready the topic has passed and it won't really be needed again until the same time the following year</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">the title might be the course textbook so the tutors simply feel we 'ought' to have it in the LRC</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">This exercise, although not a success, is a great example at demonstrating how we cannot rely on statistics alone and that if we are going to use them we must carefully consider whether there are any other factors that can significantly distort the image they give.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">In terms of what I was trying to achieve I've had to accept some truths:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">in a tutor's eyes every title they request is deemed important</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">we must trust that they are passing these recommendations on to their students</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">On the other hand, there are also some truths that reinforce the role of the librarian in collections management:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">the librarian is best placed to judge how many copies should be bought (tutors often want several, particularly of the core textbooks) through local knowledge of use, demand and student behaviour</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">relevant titles should be promoted to students through their course areas in Moodle - we can't expect them to be enthusiastic or expert searchers.James Clay expands this point further in his <a href="http://elearningstuff.net/2012/05/04/100-ways-to-use-a-vle-45-adding-an-url-or-a-web-link/" target="_blank">blog post</a> on adding resources to VLEs.</span></li>
</ul>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0