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A quadruple collaboration: students, librarians, academics and industry developing a peer to peer support initiative
Carol HollierUniversity of Nottingham
Jenny CoombsDe Montfort University
Working together teamwork puzzle. Used under a reusable licence and
and attributable to thegoldguys.blogspot.com
Background and aims
• Invited to join a collaborative project with Loughborough
• STEM funding• Encourage more use of the library by students in
STEM subject areas• Sustainable student ambassador scheme
© Copyright John Fielding and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons License
Incentivising students
Stakeholders
• Librarians• Academic representative from each institution• Research Assistant• Sponsorship from Jaguar LandRover• Recruited 2 ambassadors at each institution
© University of Nottingham
What we did (1st year)
• Literature review• Focus group• Recruitment• Stands
– Focused on area students wanted to promote
– Carried out a survey• Conference presentation
© University of Nottingham
What we did (2nd year)
• Each institution ran their own scheme• Offered Advantage Award incentive
– Requirement for us to provide training– Requirement for students to reflect on skills acquired
• Four students “employed” • Each identified an area of
focus
© University of Nottingham
Collaboration between the students
Team working
“It has also helped me to
appreciate different points of
view and the necessity to
adapt and adjust to other
people’s learning and working
styles”Marketing
“…thinking outside
the box to get a larger
audience”
Planning and organisation
“Allowed me to appreciate the role
of taking initiative for personal
growth and excellence”
Leadership
“The ability to put the idea
through is vital for any
position as it requires high
levels of understanding,
flexibility and initiative to
enthuse other people of one’s
idea”
Collaboration with students
• Broke down barriers• Better understanding of:
– For librarians• students’ issues• students’ experience of our libraries
– For students:• challenges faced by library• knowledge of advanced searching skills
• Promotion of resources
“...so I hope that I will be able to
do the same with fellow students
in using the different resources
and not just Google everything
they need!”
Collaboration with academic staff
– Fed into peer support agenda within the Faculty– Gave academic integrity to the scheme– Provided budget– Helped with liaison with industry – Engaged department with the library more generally– Collaborative presentation
at conferences
© University of Nottingham
Collaboration with industry
• Provided incentive • Employability integrity• Showcased students to a
big employer• Additional workload• Relevance to subject area?
“To my knowledge this
scheme is sponsored by
Jaguar Landrover, as a
mechanical engineer this
would be a good
opportunity to get to know
the company a bit better.”
Does a collaborative approach work?
• Working with the students has been mutually beneficial
• Students gained from working alongside peers• Importance of academic integrity of the scheme• Industry input can add employability benefit
– Time to manage vs incentive?
• Does the time justify the outcome?
Further information
• Coombs, J., Hollier, C. (2014) Developing a peer to peer library support scheme. ALISS Quarterly 9 (2), 9-11.
• Coombs, J., Hollier, C. (2013) Developing a peer to peer library support scheme. Libraries and student engagement: a marriage made in heaven, Birmingham City University, December 2013. Available at: http://library.bcu.ac.uk/librariesandstudentengagement/coombs/coombspage.htm
• Clifford, M., Gadd, E., Coombs, J., Hollier, C., Franklin, G. et. al. (2012) Engaging the disengaged indefinitely, and with no budget: creating a sustainable model for student library ambassadors. 4th International Symposium for Engineering Education, 2012, The University of Sheffield, July 2012. Available at: http://isee2012.group.shef.ac.uk/docs/papers/paper_23.pdf
