Weeding Project

(Orla Kierly garden spade &
fork from amantidirect.co.uk)

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.

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:

• age and relevance to subject - is the information now out of date/have there been new developments?
• condition - is the item in need of repair/beyin repair?
• whether surplus to requirement - do we have unnecessary multiple copis either through non-use, being an old edition or ebook version available in stock

I applied the following rules when looking at old editions and unsupported exam boards:

• keep the most recent edition in stock and withdraw all previous editions
• 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)

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Front of House team then began the withdrawal process, deleting each title from Heritage and applying the appropriate withdrawn stamps.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.

Reflections:
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.

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

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.

"It's all about ... Motivation" - JISC RSC London's e-Factor 2013

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 visit the e-Factor 2013 site here.) 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 (click here for my blog post of the experience) - 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

As always I had a great day and have taken away lots of inspiration which I will pass on to my own team.

Heritage Training & Forum JISC RSC Joint Event

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. 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:

• 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.
• issues with managing SDI notifications
• problems with sending emails from Heritage, particularly in relation to pre-notifications
• sending notifications by text
• success (or not!) of installing the Heritage Moodle block
• practical issues surrounding stocktaking
• embedding resources from JISC Collections into the catalogue
• search hints in the OPAC and their effectiveness

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.

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.

#uklibchat 6th June 2013 - Collection Management

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.

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: How do you manage weeding of physical stock? How much do you involve tutors? 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:

1. Are you responsible for collections management in your organisation? What kind of collections do you manage?
2. What has been your most challenging task or decision related to collection management?
3. How do you think the increase in e-resources will affect how library collections are managed?
4. How do you manage weeding of physical stock? How much do you involve tutors?
5. In academic libraries, to what extent are collection management staff involved in Open Access?
6. Do you usually collect suggestions from your users to by new materials for your collections?
7. In what ways will Open Access developments impact on collection management?
8. Any tips on collection management/weeding when you don't have any circulation stats?

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: Trying to monitor demand when students don't tell us they can't find the book or don't reserve. @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.

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.

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: Of course the hard part is getting them into the library. To try and solve that problem @cy3_ commented on how they hold a 'weed and feed', drawing tutors in with the promise of food!

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.

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.

Evaluating online resources

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:

• what is the resource, who owns it and who is it aimed at?
• what is its content and coverage?
• how easy and intuitive is it to use?
• would it enhance and compliment our existing collections?

HELM (www.lboro.ac.uk/research/heml/)
HELM stands for Helping Engineers Learn Mathematics. It has been developed by a consortium of five English universities and aims to "enhance the mathematical education of engineering undergraduates by the provision of a range of flexible learning resources". 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.

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.

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.

TED.com (www.ted.com/)
TED is a "nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design." The purpose of TED.com is to make "the best talks and performances from TED and partners available to the world, for free." Over 1400 videos are available on the site.

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 "informative", "fascinating" and "inspiring".

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'.

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.

ScienceDirect.com (www.sciencedirect.com/)
ScienceDirect is "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." 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.

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 "affordable" access to dedicated subject packages in the physical, social and health sciences, complemented by content from online books and pre-1995 journals.

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.

Ovid Medicing & Sport Science Package
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 Strength and Conditioning Journal and ACSM's Health and Fitness Journal; over 135 back issues of Strength Conditioning Journal;  4 e-books (100 questions and answers about sports, nutrition and exercise; Sports medicine consult; 4-minute sports medicine consult and Evidence-based sports medicine) along with access to the Medline database. Free trials and customised quotations are available.

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.

JISC Collections (www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/)
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).

Evaluation of method
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.

Interacting with students and managing behaviour

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.

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. 

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.  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. 

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. 

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.

Heritage User Group Winter Meeting

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: http://www.hugonline.co.uk/index.htm) The main group meets twice a year and this was my first attendance.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.
I next plan to attend the summer meeting of my local HUG branch in May/June.

Staff Development

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).

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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!

Reflections and wisdom

2012 was a good year. Highlights included: getting married; presenting at the JISC eFactor Showcase in London; being promoted to the position of Information Advisor (Resources and Content) and being involved in a collections project ordering books, books and more books (appealing to the traditionalist in me!).

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 The wisdom of kids created by Zavacopoulos and The London Studio. Some very insightful views follow. My personal favourites are September (no.9) and October (no.10)!

1. What's the moral of Cinderella?: 'Good things happen when you wear the right shoes' (Sophia, age 10).

2. Getting your priorities right: Love is the most important thing in the world, if you don't count football' (Andrew, age 10).

3. Who is the boss, mummy or daddy?: 'Daddy is the boss, until mummy comes home' (Chloe, age 7).

4. 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).

5. What are the signs of ageing?: 'Old people have huge CD's that they call records' (Selina, age 6).

6. 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).

7. When is it okay to kiss someone?: 'When they're rich' (Pam, age 7).

8. The difference between men and women: 'Women have boobies. They have one for hot milk and one for cold milk' (Michael, age 5).

9. If you can't remember your age: 'Just look in the back of your pants. Mine say five to six' (Tina, age 5).

10. How to make someone fall in love with you: 'Shake your hips and hope for the best' (Camille, age 9).

11. The best present for a girl ...: 'Boxer chocolates' (John, age 6).

12. 'I tried to eat brussel sprouts but my mouth wouldn't let me' (Robby, age 4).