Roehampton University Library Annual Report 2010

The Library, Helping you discover...The Library, Helping you discover...

ANNUALREPORT

2009 – 2010

Library and Learning Services

WELCOME

The 2009 – 2010 academic year was intended to

be a year in which the Department focussed on continued

improvement of its services to enhance student satisfaction

and one without any signifi cant major projects, following major

changes in the preceding year. The report demonstrates that

things don’t always go quite to plan!

The report demonstrates many successes with greatly

improved scores in the NSS, and much praise for other services

such as Digitisation, Search and Collect and Academic Liaison

Services. However, it also shows quite a lot of new activities as

well, including the addition of the former Academic Learning

Support Advisers to the newly created Academic Liaison Services

section, the decision to move to Moodle in one year instead of two

and continued changes and improvements to the building.

Senate’s decision to create a Library Committee for

the fi rst time, coincided with a new academic structure for the

University and this enabled us to engage at an early stage with

the new Departments on a range of both service oriented and

fi nancial issues. Decisions were taken by the Committee to

move to e journals wherever possible instead of print journals, to

initiate a new allocation model for the Learning Materials Funds,

to digitise the VHS video collection, to increase the number of inter

library loans, to buy e books wherever possible, and to agree new

Service Standards, which will for the fi rst time also be available

online for students and staff as the year progresses so that users

can see how well the Department is doing.

Several members of staff are also involved in the

University’s initiatives with e publishers and etexts, which are

proving to be interesting projects.

2009 – 2010 saw the second year of a three year

commitment to increase investment in Library resources for both

learning and teaching, and for research, in response to student

and staff requests during the Library Review and in various

surveys. This has helped to establish a Key Text Reference

Collection and to substantially improve the e-resources for both

books and journals.

The increases in student satisfaction, combined with

the new initiatives, could not be achieved in a consistent way

without staff who are very focussed on enhancing the student

experience, and who are responsive to change and have an ability

to rise to unexpected challenges and opportunities. Thanks go to

all of the Library and Learning Services staff, but in particular to

the Heads of Service who have both individually and collectively

ensured that developments happen in an effective and

creative way.

Sue Clegg

University Librarian and Director of Learning Services

The Library, Helping you discover...

Library Facilities and Business Services

2009 – 2010 was a year of change for this team, the Administration

and Finance teams started to get to grips with new University systems such as

new Agresso and online ordering as they were introduced and changes/reductions

in staffi ng levels and types of work brought about by the Flexible Futures scheme.

LLS fi nance staff were part of the Agresso/Web Requisitioning pilot and are on

the project group which has proved invaluable as systems have progressed.

Perhaps the biggest change for the team and the Library was

that permanent security was removed from the Library as a result of a

Security Review and Flexible futures thus the Library Welcoming Team in

particular had to adapt to new ways of working and different shift patterns

in order to maintain extended opening hours without security presence.

Whilst there were initial teething problems things soon settled and the

team are now working well with Security giving back up when needed.

Michela Wilkins

Head of Library & IT Facilities & Business Services

Library User Services Team

Having started the previous academic year with signifi cant changes in the way

we work and provide services, the Library User Services team started 2009-2010 with a

more established and focused approach. The team has been reasonably stable in terms of

establishment of staff this year with 1 FTE leaving and 0.5 FTE moving to another post. All

vacancies were recruited to with part time posts.

As part of their core tasks, front line Learning Advisers and Senior Shelvers are

providing support for membership and ID cards, fi rst line subject support, stock management

tasks, advice on Library services and processes, Digitisation and roving on fl oors of the Library

to offer support and advice to students where they need it. In addition, Library tours and

induction, administration tasks and support of self service are routinely undertaken in aiming

to provide the best service possible.

We continue to offer temporary employment to students for Shelving, Search and

Collect service, Student Roving, Digitisation and summer project work. The Search and Collect

service received a commendation from the Health Professions Council (HPC) who accredit the

Arts and Play Therapy programmes, as an example of innovative good practice.

The Library User Services managers have been working specifi cally on management

skills and developing themselves and the team in working to more challenging targets focused

on getting the best out of all of the team for improved service delivery.

Faye Jackson

Head of Library User Services


Academic Liaison Services (ALS)The past year has been one of new beginnings for ALS. The team

began its fi rst academic year as a combined liaison service of subject librarians

and eLearning advisers with several new staff replacing team members who had

moved on. They were joined by the ALSAs in January who took up their new roles

as Academic Learning Advisers (ALAs) and had their numbers strengthened with a

further 2 FTE posts as a result of the University’s continued commitment towards

supporting student learning.

We began the move from the Blackboard vista/WebCT platform to

Moodle in September 2009 and completed the transition a year ahead of the

previously planned timescale. Whilst the focus for training and support was

on Moodle during the year we continued to see growth in the use of StudyZone,

Turnitin and a range of other learning technologies.

In the spring the subject librarians began to gather reading lists for all

modules to develop a central collection in preparation for the introduction of Talis

Aspire. This led to a signifi cant project to standardise the format of all lists during

the later part of the year and through the summer involving teams from across

Library and Learning Services.

The end of the academic year also saw the ALAs beginning to work

across the new Departments, providing a range of well-attended study skills

sessions, planning for the introduction of student mentoring and supporting

marketing and student services to identify students for their buddying scheme.

Phil Cheeseman

Head of Academic Liaison Services

Collection Development Services (CDS)Another busy year for CDS saw the departure of Pat

Simons to pastures new and Chris Foreman appointed as Collections

Development Manager.

The past year also saw us continue to acquire more Electronic

Resources – over 20,000 were added to our collection - and to negotiate

with publishers and agents to move these resources over to seamless

(Shibboleth) authentication wherever possible for the benefi t of

our users.

Continued, and improved, use of Shelf-ready suppliers

meanwhile helped us to get physical items onto the shelves faster

than ever before with 88% of our physical stock now arriving “fi t for

the shelves”!

In the world of Archives, we acquired both the Queens

Archive and The Centre for Marian Studies which are now housed

within our Archives and Special Collections area on the 4th fl oor of the

University Library.

Chris Foreman

Collections Development Manager

To anticipate and enable

people’s needs


“

”

Helping you discover creative opportunities

for learning

I think my overwhelming experience in the Library is positive, especially as

it relates to the library staff. I would like to see more quiet study areas

NUMBERS

AND

FIGURES

National Student Survey 2009-2010

Saw a 9% increase in satisfaction with Learning Resources.


DO YOU USE STUDYZONE?

89% of people that responded use

studyzone daily or weekly

2% never use studyzone

HOW OFTEN DO YOU USE THE LIBRARY?

73% of returns noted that they visit the Library

daily or weekly.

1% never visit the Library

The fi gures see an increase of 3% on Library

visits from 2009 results


RY?RY?

ibrary

rary

Library Student Survey 2010

DIGITISATION REQUESTS 2006 – 2010

Digitisation Service demand has continue to increase since the

pilot project started; considering the academic years 2008-09

to 2009-10 the demand has grown by more than 22% and if we

compare 2007-08 to 2009-10 the increase is by more than 89%.

MOST POPULAR LOANABLE E–BOOKS


MOST POPULAR LOANABLE ITEMS

WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE US TO FOCUS OUR STAFFING RESOURCES?

ALTERNATIVES PERCENT % VALUE

Helping to fi nd resources 76.2% 940

Supporting my studies 39.9% 492

Help to use resources 33.8% 417

Returning stock 30.7% 379

Help using StudyZone 5.3% 65

Help using computers 4.4% 54

NUMBER OF RESPONSES 1233

RESOURCES

& SERVICES


Moodle

After a decision to use Moodle as our Virtual Learning

Environment instead of the Blackboard vista/WebCT platform,

the project to move to StudyZone:moodle was completed in one

year, instead of two years as we had initially planned. During

the project we also integrated the VLE with the student records

system and users now log in with their University network account

details. Training opportunities for all staff took place in supporting

the movement of content from one version of the VLE to Moodle,

resulting in enrolments on more than 800 Moodle sites to start

the new academic year.

Improved CORE repository

During 2009 – 2010 we developed the Learning and

Teaching repository (CORE), integrating it with StudyZone:moodle.

The new functionality allows students to browse resources, with

access to materials to support learning. The developments

include improved search and RSS feeds. Staff are now able to add

content to the CORE repository and link to it from within Moodle,

which will enable sharing of resources and access to larger

resources, which overcomes the limit of information that can be

stored on Moodle.

Learning Materials Fund remodelling and resource

list management

During discussion at Library Committee in

2009 – 2010 a new model for distribution of funds in the Learning

Materials budget was developed to take into account and prepare

for the new academic structure. Essentially a proportion is top

sliced for subscriptions that we have a commitment to, such as

eJournals and databases, there is a single reading list fund to

support purchase of module reading list materials according to

the Collection Management Policy, and Departmental allocations

for development of collections.

In addition to the new funding model a signifi cant

amount of work was undertaken by Library staff to gather all

module reading lists in preparation for the introduction of a central

resource list management tool in 2010 – 11. Approximately 1150

lists were collected, collated and converted to a standard format,

an administrative task that demonstrated a cross-team initiative

throughout Library and Learning Services.

Digitisation Service

During 2009 – 2010 the Digitisation service in

relation to scanning of material under the Licence signed with

the Copyright Licensing Agency has seen an increase of 22% on

2008 – 2009 and an increase of more than 89% from

2007 – 2008. We can see from statistical evidence that some

academic Departments make more use of the service than others

and the Digitisation and Document Delivery Co-ordinator made

better use of promotional opportunities during 2009 – 2010

by visiting Programme boards and Lecturers to advise on the

services offered. Feedback on the service from those that use it

show consistently high levels of satisfaction.

VHS digitisation

Having audited the existing Audio Visual collection the

Library Committee supported the proposal to convert the existing

c. 5000 item off-air recordings currently held in VHS format to

DVD format and establish a digital collection of off air recordings

on BOB Flash using in house resources in as short a timescale

as feasible. The benefi ts of the project include the updating of

outdated technology, preventing inevitable deterioration of the

collection and a signifi cant improvement in the users experience.

The project continues in 2010 – 2011 in an attempt to complete it

as soon as is practical.

Helping you discover and develop

your potential

EXPERIENCE

& THE

ENVIRONMENT


Study Rooms

The Library now has 14 study rooms varying in size.

Some can be booked in advance via an online booking system that

was implemented this year and others are for drop in use. Two of

the rooms have priority booking for students who are registered

with the Disability Service and the Library as having special needs.

During this year most of these rooms had their facilities upgraded,

most have computers and some have a mix of projectors and

interactive whiteboards to allow groups or individuals to practice

giving presentations. These changes were initiated as a direct

response to the Library Survey in the previous year.

Key text collection

The University’s commitment to providing additional

fi nances to support the expansion of our Key Text Reference

Collection over a three year period saw the collection grow further

during 2009 – 2010 with the second year investment of £51,000.

In September 2009 our newly extended Key Text Reference area

was launched, which included the Quick Reference collection,

allowing more shelf space for Key Texts and additional study

spaces for students to work with reference materials. The area

was better secured and accessibility to the collection and study

space improved.

Induction

September 2009 saw our induction change from

a standard PowerPoint and listening session into various

different strands which we hoped would engage students

more. Also we developed an online version which would

remain on our web pages all year round so that people who

missed induction or started later still had a point of reference.

http://studentzone.roehampton.ac.uk/library/introduction/

index.html

Formal induction took the form of a short fi lm about

the Library which had input from Library staff, Students Union and

students and was followed by a tour of the building. This proved

very popular and has been further developed for the academic

year 2010 – 11.

Virtual Librarian - Online Enquiry Service

In September 2009, we launched our new Online

Enquiry Service - branded as Virtual Librarian. Using the same

technology as the IT Helpdesk and the Property & Facilities

Management service desks, we have customised the software to

work in a Library and Learning environment. The online service

allows students and staff to access a wide range of Frequently

Asked Questions, at any time of day, to try and solve their queries.

If they can’t fi nd the answer they need they can submit a request,

which a member of Library staff will respond to directly. We

have service level standards relating to time taken to respond to

queries and monitor that on a monthly basis. From an information

management perspective we are able to collect statistics on

usage, in particular by specifi c areas and categories of questions,

view peaks and troughs in service and in the long term use the

data to make informed decisions on future planning.

Student rovers

Increasing needs for students to get the help when

and where they need it in the Library led to the employment of

student roving support in the fi rst 6 weeks of the academic

year 2009 – 2010. When Library staff are frequently involved in

enrolment and inductions at the start of term, the student rovers

provide support to users often visiting a large library for the fi rst

time. Helping guide and advise on locating material, orientation

and basic library skills, student rovers provide a more consistent

approach to roving on the fl oors of the Library, which usually

forms a regular part of core business for the Library User Services

team. Assisting users who are new to the Library at the very start

of their University experience increases student satisfaction and

provides additional employment opportunities for our current

students.

To provide a building and

environment where you can

fi nd inspiration for learning and growing

DEVELOPING

THE TEAM

& STAFF

SUCCESSES


Talking at external events

Several staff from across the Department were

involved in training sessions internally within the University and

at events externally, including:

• Brian Kilpatrick, Technical Development Manager, and

Anne Pietsch, Academic Development Manager

Cpd25 Event: Information Skills For Library Staff : Using VLEs

And Other Electronic Methods, Novel Approaches, Theory And

Examples From Practitioners

• Gary Corcoran, Enquiry Services Librarian

Cpd25 Event: Knowledge, Skills, Tools And Behaviour To Ensure A

Successful Roving Assistance Service

• Claire Griffi n, Academic Learning Adviser

SEDA: Creating Communities of Learning through Peer Mentoring

Schemes

• Janice Kiugu, eLearning Adviser

M25 Learning technologists about new and emerging classroom

technologies

• Andy Hoang, Janice Kiugu, eLearning Advisers, and Val

Mitchell and Jenny Stowar, Academic Learning Advisers

Spoke at the Learning and Teaching conference within the

University

In addition to this the Academic Liaison Services Team

have been heavily involved in helping support the Creative Futures

programme and have provided training on podcasting, social

networking, online collaboration and mashups.

Cpd25 is a Staff Development and Training

Organisation working in association with the M25 Consortium of

Academic Libraries.

The M25 Consortium of Academic Libraries is a

collaborative organisation that works to improve library and

information services within the M25 region and more widely

across the East and Southeast.

To create a

customer friendly experience

STAFF

IN FOCUS


NICOLA O’KEEFEJULIE EASTMAN

Debt Doctors

Most of us get into trouble occasionally with money

- Library Debt Doctors has really helped students manage their

Library fi nances. We teach them how to keep their Library account

in order in the future and together we work out a payment plan

which enables debts to be cleared whilst the student can carry on

using Library resources and borrowing books at the same time.

Julie Eastman

Learning Adviser

Summer Success Sessions

Over the summer, the Academic Learning Advisers

(ALA) held a series of academic development sessions entitled

‘Summer Success Sessions’. They comprised of study skills

sessions covering the essentials, including essay writing, critical

thinking and referencing. Students were then invited to attend

the drop-in clinics to speak to an ALA on a 1:1 basis to obtain

further advice on their assignments. The sessions were a success

with nearly 90 students attending the study skills sessions and

over 20 1:1 sessions taking place during the drop in clinics. The

attendance of students ranged across all programmes from both

Undergraduate and Postgraduate level. Due to the success of the

sessions the ALA team will continue to run academic development

sessions to enhance students’ academic capabilities throughout

the academic year.

Nicola O’Keefe

Academic Learning Adviser

Helping you

discover collaborative knowledge sharing

and ideas

“I feel that the services offered by the Library are very helpful and organised. I highly appreciate the efforts of all the members who are involved in its working and would like to congratulate them for their hard work

”

Documents

Roehampton University Library Annual Report 2010