I thought I would bring together a few tools or sites that I had played with over the last year:

• QR codes
• Cartoons
• Animoto
  
• Crosswords
• Quizzes

QR codes

The basics of these have already been covered by Sam. I have been following examples of use, from US studies of their potential, to commercial uses such as Google’s ‘Favorite Places’. I also tried things out using my work mobile phone, and was impressed at how easy it was. You just have to download some software to your phone if it isn’t already on there (I used QuickMark software but I have also heard good things about the Kaywa Reader). Then you can point your phone camera at QR codes and in a fraction of a second the code is deciphered and displayed on the screen. You can make your own (e.g. try here or here), or point at the code below.

How might libraries use QR codes? Below are a few ideas:

• QR code on textbooks in the library – scan to get a subject guide to resources that area (e.g. catering), including classmarks to look at, core texts, useful magazines, websites etc.
• Fiction collections – scan the code to get the e-book version, e.g. from
  Project Gutenberg if it is a classic text.
• Reference collection book – scan the code to go through to a reference
  website on that subject (e.g. online dictionary or style guide), or the library’s own virtual reference collection.
• Posters linking to the relevant web pages. Or notice boards could have
  QR codes next to headlines, which when scanned take the user through to a blog entry on that subject.
• Used as part of induction, for an innovative quiz where there are blocks of QR code information around the library, with a sort of treasure hunt following QR code clues on signs and hidden in some books. Students would be lent a phone if they don’t have their own. The hunt would involve using library resources such as the OPAC, and only if things are done in the correct order will they get the correct final code (which might open a safe; be a classmark for a book with a voucher in; it could be a map reference; or something more imaginative).
• Library cards could have QR codes with user information on, or to take the user to their library account on their phone so they can renew books etc (after some other form of authentication too, of course).
• Other uses for QR codes on a physical item, enabling users to see the
  catalogue record, reviews, similar items etc.
• On the OPAC so users can get locations, classmarks and item details onto their phone for finding item on shelves, or adding to bibliographies. This was done at Aberystwyth University as one of the mobile phone enhancements (the OPAC also has the ability to send an SMS with item details to a mobile phone). To view the QR code function, search the OPAC then click on the “QR code” link in the “Availability” section when viewing a record.
• To provide context specific help and information in the library, as
  at Huddersfield University.

Will any of this be commonplace in LRCs in 5 years? Let me know if you are
using them yourself!

Update 27 April 2010: I have just become aware of this article by Andrew Walsh, ‘Quick response codes and libraries’ (2009).

Cartoons

Librarians are always looking for ways to get information across to users. Pictorial methods are attractive, but not many of us have any artistic talent. That is where sites like Bitstrips come in, since with Bitstrips it is easy and quick to create a cartoon. You can design your own characters to appear in it, or use the hundreds that are provided on the site already. The system is easy to use – pose the figure, choose a facial expression, stick some props in the background, and add a text or speech bubble; then tweak until you are happy with it. The end result is that you can link to the cartoon on Bitstrips, or download it as an image to use in newsletters and on notice boards. Bitstrips are obviously aware of educational uses, since they have recently launched ‘Bitstrips for Schools‘.

I created a few for my RSC Wales job, see the RSC Wales LR Netvibes account. Also in my other role at Aberystwyth University, to promote our federated search tool. The fact that it is so easy to edit the cartoons means it is simple to go back in and create a Welsh version.

Animoto

I have always been a fan of Animoto. It is a site that lets you upload images and select music, and they get mixed together into a video slideshow which can then be viewed online, embedded on a webpage, or downloaded. In the early days you had to add words to an image yourself if you wanted text, but nowadays there are options to include titles and subtitles, and even to incorporate video clips. The basic version which creates short 60 second clips is free to use; however I took out a subscription so that I can create videos of any length.

I have used Animoto in various ways.

• Sometimes when I am doing a teaching session I like to have looped music and video playing as people come in and settle down: to help create an informal atmosphere, act as a border between the ‘outside world’ and the session proper, and possibly to raise some questions in advance of the session. This is an example I used in a session I ran on using multimedia resources.
• An attractive way of getting a simple message across.
• To promote a new service (ac yn Saesneg)
• As an ‘attract mode’ running on a laptop when you are on a stall e.g. a recent stall I ran demonstrating e-book readers had this animation playing to pull people over.
• A fun way of introducing people with photos and names.
• For your own projects outside of work e.g. presenting a poem, holiday snapshots.

Crosswords

LRCs often like to offer quizzes as ways of summarising information or reinforcing it later. Crosswords are an easy way to do this, something some users might enjoy (though they shouldn’t be over-used, and many students will hate them – it is just an alternative way of giving information). Creating a crossword by hand is a daunting task, and thankfully unnecessary! Lots of software is available. My favourite is Eclipse Crossword, which is free and simple to use, yet powerful and fast. If you haven’t tried it before, why not incorporate a quick crossword into one of your information literacy sessions, leaflets, inductions or competitions, or use one as part of a promotion of resources and services?

Quizzes

At the end of a teaching session it is good to include some way of reviewing the content. Institutions with voting systems or interactive whiteboards can use those, but there are many other options for running a quiz. One of my favourites at the moment is ‘Multiple Choice Quiz Creator‘, which resembles ‘Who Want To Be A Millionaire?’ in format and sounds. I like the fact that you only need a laptop/PC, speakers, and (ideally) a projector. Sometimes I get a student to take part, helped by the rest of the people at the session; sometimes I get people to call out answers; other times I put the lecturer on the hotspot (depending on the vibe of the session and how relaxed people are!) It has proven to be a fun way to finish off with a laugh, with a prize of some sort for the winner (e.g. a USB memory stick or some pens). The quizzes are free to play (since the display software has no limits), but the quiz creator programme itself is only free for thirty days. You can download sample quizzes here if you want to try it out.

These kind of videos are ideal for
….showing how to access online resources, logging in via Athens / Shibboleth, how to use the library catalogue etc. etc.
….making all the above available permanently via the web for students who miss induction (or distance learners)
….pre-recording a demo to take the pressure out of a teaching session
….creating visual learning materials to cater for different learning styles or learners with poor literacy skills
and much more! Videos can be uploaded to your website, intranet or VLE, or hosted on sites such as YouTube.

I’m at LILAC at the moment – the Librarians’ Information Literacy Annual Conference.

LILAC is a three day event starting this morning. I travelled to Liverpool with a librarian colleague from Aberystwyth – Joy Cadwallader – and the train wasn’t delayed! All connections made! A minor miracle, which seems even more auspicious when you take into account the gloriously shining sun. It almost made it worth getting up early (anyone who knows me well will testify to the importance of the ‘almost’ qualifier).

It may be worthwhile and appropriate to run through the original 5 W’s of information literacy that have been with us since Neolithic man: Who, What, When, Why, Where.

Who – myself and five others:
Lucy Collins, Cardiff
Michele Davies, Swansea
Nicola Watkinson, NEWI
Ellen Harris, Trinity
Amanda Bennett, UWIC

What – LILAC.

When – Until Wednesday. Today is Saint Patrick’s Day, which is apparently why I keep seeing drinkers in green wigs, and at least one librarian is touring Irish pubs in the city instead of coming to the LILAC social.

Why – We have received sponsorship from WHELF (the Wales Higher Education Libraries Forum), using a CyMAL grant. For this reason I consider us the ‘WHELFare Cases’. Our outcomes will include a talk at the HE Gregynog Colloquium, an article in Y Ddolen, and a report to WHELF.

Where – Liverpool.

[Enforced mingling at break- and lunch-times. BTW that is an apple core.]

I have been to four talks today:

“The library? Why would I go there?” – Library use by undergraduate students in China, India and Greece Anja Timm

This was the keynote speech – and at a time when institutions are keen to gain extra income from international students it is important for us as librarians to be aware of the different backgrounds and research cultures overseas students may have. For example they may expect much more supportive relationships with staff; or perhaps not consider citation to be important. Only by understanding our users’ beliefs and assumptions can we tailor effective programmes of information literacy to their needs.

Innovative Design: Using Problem-based Learning to Teach Information Literacy
Alexis Smith Macklin

For this and the following sessions there was a choice of up to five parallel strands. This was the first of two talks I went to today from a US perspective.

Alexis described how she began by benchmarking the current information skills of students in order to prove that there was a need for work in this area. Recent research has shown that our current students are comfortable with technology – but that is not the same as them being information literate. To be able to show this is a powerful weapon in then being able to do something about the situation, just as the first step at an addiction club is to admit that you have a problem (so I am told).

Moving on from this, Alexis worked on a program to get students to become more critically aware of their use and assessment of information. Students worked together in supported groups, and the results were impressive.

Crosswords, Library Bingo and Quizzes: Getting more active learning into our teaching.
Andrew Walsh & Sarah Munks

100 ways to liven up sessions – as well as bingo, quizzes and crosswords, Sarah and Andrew touched on the Cephalonian Method; use of music; voting systems (electronic or paper-based); and many other methods they used in a series of inductions where each one tried a new approach. Many of these methods were tried out on the audience in this sessions – I am very pleased with the bingo marker I got to keep.

Many of us have used or tried these methods in our own sessions, but it was good to see it all brought together with some fresh ideas and that most important ingredient – enthusiasm!

Teaching Every Student: Strategies for Reaching a Diverse Audience Online
Nancy O’Hanlon

The second US speaker, Nancy gave a succinct and enlightening summary of the many ways in which our users may differ in their abilities and demands, and how we can cater for those needs with flexible approaches to information literacy and information provision (from web accessibility to catering for different learning styles). Some of the tools demonstrated are things that I intend to investigate in more detail later.

It is not all work-think-work though, since librarians like to play too. The social evening took place at the Sefton Park Palm House, and I felt most refined standing near the amazing sub-tropical greenery of this fantastic building, the moon visible above through the roof, while an ensemble played a range of music, amongst which I recognised Gershwin and – appropriately, given the host city – a classical rendition of The Beatles (”When I’m 64″). I stayed until the last bus – it wouldn’t have been right to leave early when it was a free bar.

[Sefton Park Palm House - from the review here]

The other software used to create the Deeside panorama is AutoStitch, which ’stitches’ separate images together; these are just a few of the software options available (contact me if you want to know more).

Before stitching the images together they can be edited – this was used as a way of inserting numbers tied to a key in the Deeside College panoramas, so that students can find out what a particular door leads to, or what help is available at a certain desk. It is also possible to make the panorama have hotspots that link to the relevant webpage (or popup information).

There are lots of options for creating virtual library tours in this way, and I would be interested to know of any other examples people have come across – feel free to contact me or leave comments.

The first two have been very successful, and were on the theme of ‘Skills for Success’, aimed at staff delivering information literacy training. The third takes place this Thursday 24th January (!), and will be taking things to the next level with ‘Strategies for Success’. I will mention each event in more detail below.

I should add that I have received copies of most of the presentations given (with permission to distribute upon request) as a further means to disseminate the information from the events.

North Wales ‘Skills for Success’ event, Deeside College, Wed 28 November 2007

The two ‘information literacy skills for success’ events (one in North Wales and one in South Wales) were aimed at staff who are involved on the front line, planning and running information literacy and induction sessions for learners. We intended to focus on some practical tools and skills to improve the success of these sessions, with a particular focus on ‘hard to reach’ learners; also to offer participants the chance to update their knowledge of some new developments.

Lis Parcell and myself introduced the day, using a variant of the Cephalonian method to get the announcements out of the way. This led to useful discussion of the Cephalonian method as a form of induction. Combining the participant feedback from both events, it was felt that the possible downsides were:

• Staff reluctance to use the method – but won over eventually? [Tip - it helps to pair up with another librarian the first few times.]
• Student reticence – shy students, or they feel the method is patronising?
• Potential technology failures
• Problems with SEN students?

However the possible benefits of the method were:

• Engages students – unexpected, mulitmedia, drama!!
• Students remember more?!
• Encourages questions + interest
• Broke down barriers (between staff and students) – informal
• Cues to all information (helps the presenter)
• Fresh for the presenter – staff enjoyment!
• Tip – base the questions on the most common questions asked at LRC desks

We then showed a video about the learner’s voice and experiences – which is the thing information literacy is aimed at in the final analysis.

Priscilla Dawson, LRC Manager from Swansea College, then talked about critical success factors for information literacy, and ran a workshop where we tried to identify what some of those critical success factors might be – they may be different for each institution, at different times, with different students and so on.

Patrick Cox is the LRC Manager at Deeside College, who had kindly offered to host the event. He then gave a case study of what Deeside had been doing in terms of information literacy and induction. The LRC at Deeside College – The Learning Zone – is central to the college physically, and also now has a strong virtual presence in the college virtual learning environment (Moodle). The rotating panorama of the Learning Zone for students was particularly impressive! It was also an eye-opener that since revising the whole induction process and incorporating the VLE into it LRC staff now look forward to inductions in September!

Anthony Beal then gave a talk about the experience from West Cheshire Colleges, so that we could share experience across borders. Anthony’s talk led to lots of people scribbling down tips and links that could be useful later.

Anthony Beal distilling what information literacy is about

Lisa Charnock then gave an overview of the Virtual Training Suite, Intute, and new features such as Informs. I had accidentally used the acronym ‘RDN’ (the old name for Intute), and she was very gracious in correcting my mistake! The day ended with a hands-on session using Intute; I used the time to improve my interactive whiteboard skills.

As an aside, I have used four different interactive whiteboards recently – a Mimeo; the short-throw system at Swansea; the Hitachi system at Deeside; and the system at Aberystwyth University. They are all fun, and I like the idea of getting fit by flailing your arms to check your email, but unfortunately they are too expensive for my living room (I did seriously look into it…)

Me doing an information literacy equation, it is very advanced stuff…

South Wales ‘Skills for Success’ event, Swansea College, Friday 14 December 2007

Much of the programme for this event, generously hosted by Swansea College, was similar to the event in North Wales – so that everyone had the chance to participate. Therefore there was an introduction by myself and Lis, then a session on critical success factors for information literacy run by Priscilla Dawson. The case studies and speakers for the rest of the day were different though.

Helen Hodges from Coleg Gwent gave a case study of what the learning centre has been doing with its presence in the college VLE, and how it tied in with information literacy training.

The West Cheshire College case study was this time given by Leo Appleton, and included a game of buzz-word bingo. Leo coped very stoically with an operating system blip during the talk – it is good to have speakers at an event who are more reliable than Microsoft Windows!

Leo talking about the West Cheshire College programme

After lunch the session on the Virtual Training Suite, Intute and Informs was this time given by Emma Place, and I avoided saying RDN at any point. She led most people for the hands on session; at the same time there was an optional look at accessibility equipment, which reminded me of a present-giving by extra-terrestrials, as we opened various boxes then tried to work out what the item did and what the various brightly-coloured buttons were for (the TechDIS site helped us there).

‘Information literacy: strategies for success’ event, University of Wales Newport, Caerleon Campus, Thursday 24 January 2008

This event takes place in two days’ time. It is aimed at FE Learning Resource Service managers and others interested in strategic approaches to the development of information literacy, and should help participants develop a strategic approach to information literacy and increase its impact in their organisation.

One definition of information literacy is “knowing when and why you need information, where to find it, and how to evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical manner”. Information literacy skills are something which all learners and staff need, at a level appropriate for their studies and for their work.

The emphasis will be on developing strategies to engage with hard-to-reach audiences, and the focus is very much on the starting point of the learner.

The programme for the day is expected to include:

- Models of information literacy
- Linking to the curriculum
- Impact and evaluation
- Strategic issues
- What has worked for you?

The event will also be an opportunity for staff to exchange news of information literacy developments in their organisation, and thus further build capacity across Wales.

We are delighted to welcome as the trainer Sharon Markless, of the Institute for Learning and Teaching, King’s College London.

Case study of the Classroom Performance System (CPS) trial at Coleg Gwent, Pontypool Campus Learning Centre during September 2007

The Learning Centre team used the CPS as part of the LC Inductions during September/October 2007. Approximately 55 group inductions (a total of 600 students) were completed for a wide range of students from various subject areas including Construction, Hair & Beauty, Business and IT, Care and Childcare, General Education, ILS and ESOL. The inductions consisted of a tour of the Learning Centre, an introduction to Learning Centre Online and a quiz – using CPS. The quiz was used as a bit of fun and to reinforce information already given and consisted of 10 questions [images below].

We had a few problems initially with running the quiz as one of our colleagues (who has since left) set up the quiz when we first borrowed the system in May. However the instructions that came with the system were comprehensive and fairly easy to follow and we overcame our initial difficulties.

The quiz itself was easy to deliver and worked well, although we did have a few problems with the keypads not registering for all users. It seemed that when we had a large group of students all crowding around the Smartboard not all of them worked, even though the batteries were fine. We don’t have any written feedback but generally the quiz was well received by both staff and students and most comments were positive. General students’ thoughts were that it was fun and they would like to use it again during their studies. Teaching staff were also positive about using the system in the classroom. Many could see the benefits of using it as part of teaching and assessing their students.

The benefits for us of using the system are that it was a fairly easy piece of software to use; it made our inductions fun and more up-to-date which helped to engage more students. Only negative was that not all handsets worked regularly but maybe in a classroom setting this would be overcome.

Following our trial, it is the Campuses intention to purchase a system should we have the relevant funds available. We have a quote from Qwizdom for 32 handsets and 1 receiver and if purchased we plan to use the system again for future Learning Centre inductions, open days etc. and loan to teaching staff for use in the classrooms.

[Below are images of the questions asked.]

Voting systems

Our Optivote voting system was used in some sessions by Coleg Gwent recently, which were apparently well received. I am thinking of collecting a few case studies on the use of voting systems in FE – please let me know if you would be interested in discussing their use in your college! (This may lead on to perhaps collecting case studies on other aspects of resource use in the future). Our RSC Wales Del.icio.us account has links to voting system suppliers.

[Optivote handsets and receiver]

Information literacy

As you may know, CyMAL has given the FE Learning Resources Managers’ network a sum of money to run more information literacy events, and RSC Wales is helping to organise them. Strand 1 – ‘Skills for success’ will be comprised of two events, one in North Wales (Deeside college, Wed 28th November) and one in South Wales (Swansea College, Fri 14 December). This will be followed by Strand 2 ‘Strategies for Success’, a one-day course aimed at managers and run by Sharon Markless (Thursday 24th January at the University of Wales College Newport Caerleon campus). For the Strand 1 events we want to have a couple of short examples of what librarians are doing to increase the success/impact of information literacy or induction sessions. It might be something online, it might be a classroom based activity, it might be marketing – anything really, as long as you have something achievable that you can show or describe in an enthusiastic way! If you are interested in perhaps talking about something from your college then please let me know. It would also be a chance to disseminate your work across the professional community in Wales. I often hear of interesting innovations (e.g. this September Coleg Powys used the Cephalonian method in their LRC inductions), and it is good to get those messages out to a wider audience.

I am also working on a Moodle module about Information Literacy (currently looking at what other UK RSCs have done) and need to get on with it, but other things have been taking precedence… As the Pet Shop Boys would have said, it is always on my mind…

Our RSC Wales Del.icio.us account has a ‘bundle’ (yes, that is the technical term) set up for information literacy.

Second Life

See my blog entry below. Zombie Greenwood lives! There are many possibilities here. If any FE librarians want to test it out as a communication medium then just let me know and I will teleport over!

Federated Access Management [FAM]

One Welsh FE college has expressed an interest in moving from Athens to FAM, and we are looking into it.

It is possible that there could be a UC&R Wales event on this in Spring 2008.

See the RSC Wales Del.icio.us account Access Management bundle for more information.

RSC Wales Del.icio.us account

You may have spotted the mentions of this above! I have been tidying, removing dead links, repairing broken URLs, updating, re-tagging, adding new categories, merging others etc. If anybody wants to suggest links or changes then just let me know. Hopefully it will be a useful resource. I have a few more routine updates to do when I get the chance. View it here – then feel free to bookmark it!

Welsh Heritage User Group

I had been involved in talks on the future of this group. Ian Cockrill (Swansea College) then did a survey of all Heritage users in Wales to gauge support, but due to the small number of reponses it was decided that, at this point in time, establishing a Wales Heritage User group appears non-viable. However Ian will continue to represent the FE/HE sector and Wales at the national user group, which Heritage users can join, and he offered to raise issues at that forum. There may be an option of a library management system event in the future – something that is under consideration.

RSC Wales website

The RSC Wales website has been updated recently. I have been updating some of the useful documents originally created by Samantha Edwards, and will be making them available on the website as soon as the new access arrangements are finalised. In the meantime subscribers to FE-LRC-WALES will have received some of them (free e-resources etc.)

[The new-look RSC Wales website]

College queries

Obviously these go on all the time, from queries about LMS bids to requests for copyright-cleared image sources.

One interesting query was about accessing electronic copies of articles to store in the institutional VLE. Some of you may be aware of the British Library’s new Higher Education Scanning Service, which could be a really useful resource in Wales, but the HESS service is currently HE only. I have spoken to staff at the British Library who were very helpful and said they would be looking to possibly roll the service out to the FE sector. However there may be some issues that need clearing up with the Copyright Licensing Agency [CLA] first. I have been in touch with the CLA and am awaiting a definitive response on the issue. If I get any news I will inform FE LRC managers.

Open Source Library Management Systems [LMS]

In FE in Wales we have seen proprietary VLEs replaced with the all-conquering Open Source Moodle. Just about every Welsh FE college is using Moodle, or about to, leading to a situation where colleges can easily share resources and be involved in a community-support situation.

Could this happen with Library Management Systems? There are a few possibilities listed on the RSC Wales Del.icio.us account, and a few of our colleges are looking at them. But there are many crystal ball questions: What is the situation elsewhere? Could an Open Source LMS become the de facto standard in FE libraries? Which are the best? What support could RSCs offer? Is the situation similar to what happened with Moodle, or not?

There does seem to be a growth of interest in this area. In the last few weeks I have been in communication with the head of a research consultancy and with a lecturer writing an article, both unrelated conversations, yet both people were interested in the potential for Open Source LMS.

I have raised the issue in the national RSC Forum, and will see what happens, and also what the findings of the lecturer I was in contact with are.

Team meeting

Thursday 27th September was an RSC Wales team meeting in Swansea. A good chance for me to catch up with the rest of the team – and a personal challenge to me, since I have to be up before 5am, and leave the house before 6am to walk into Aberystwyth to catch the X40 bus to Swansea!

The RSC LTRG group are the Learning Resources Advisors from each of the RSCs around the UK – LTRG stands for ‘Learning and Teaching Resources Group’. The meetings for both days were at the Holiday Inn Express, Portsmouth, at Gunwharf Quays.

Monday 17th July

As well as the general business of the meeting, there were a number of talks.

First was Liam Earney of JISC Collections, talking about recent developments and looking at how the RSCs can work more effectively with JISC Collections. JISC Collections is one of the main sources to go to in order to see what e-resource deals are available to LRCs.

Scott Gibbons from Coutts Library Services then gave a talk on the Coutts E-books service, MyiLibrary. A couple of Welsh FE colleges have already signed up to MyiLibrary.

[I interrupt this broadcast in order to have a ranting fit against the modern trend towards cutesy pronoun-appropriating egoism in names - from the iPod, to MySpace, to Windows ME, to the Nintendo Wii (pronounced 'We'). Coutts managed to beat that by combining two of the terms in the name of their e-books platform. I am just waiting for a company to offer 'MyIBookmineME'. Ah, the egocentrism of popular culture. Sorry, rant over, normal service is resumed.]

The Coutts platform has a number of features:

• Unlimited multi-user access (if you pay a slightly increased fee).
• Based around the idea of buying individual titles, not bundles you may not need.
• Their platform only shows what you have subscribed to.
• They don’t always have the latest edition of the textbook available online (often due to publisher restrictions, but still something worth being aware of).
• Their system has built-in DRM (Digital Rights Management) – so if you avoid DRM, then you need to be aware of this.
• You own the books you purchase in perpetuity, though have to pay an annual access fee (based on JISC banding, c. £150 for most FE institutions if they are in bands E-J). You can get the books on a CD if you ever stop paying the access fee.
• You can access titles via IP, referring URL, Athens or Shibboleth, or a combination.
• If you subscribe then you can send Coutts ISBNs from reading lists: they will then send you the prices and availability of the titles on MyiLibrary (a free service).
• Currently they have c. 70,000 titles, and are adding more all the time.
• About half of the titles are pdfs, the others are html format.

Peter Godwin from London South Bank University then gave a talk on ‘Information literacy meets Web 2.0′. This was especially useful because I am hoping to work on an information literacy course on the RSC Wales Moodle, that can be used by FE colleges (similar to Hannah’s Podcasting course). Let me know if there is anything you would suggest including!

Peter covered lots of the tools used in Web 2.0 – blogs, wikis, RSS, social bookmarking, media sharing such as Flickr and YouTube, podcasting and so on. It stimulated a lot of thought – in terms of LRC usage, maybe we could get media or drama students involved, and get them to do a video about your library/LRC, then upload it to YouTube: so that as well as being promotional you could use it in inductions or incorporate it into your VLE? YouTube can also be used as a trigger for discussion, e.g. the ‘Librarian’ video Peter played (or the start of this one here) which could be used as part of a student ice-breaker induction to show what the library ISN’T like! Another video we might use is this one – I went to University with the person who wrote the song in this clip (’Cursor Miner’). The video has the classic line ‘Librarians are often sexy’, so obviously that one could also be a debating point with new students…

Annette Crosbourne of Highbury College then talked about effective LRC use of Moodle at the college. VLEs have obvious uses for the lecturers, but sometimes it is less clear how an LRC can use them, so this was an interesting case study.

The evening involved exploring Gunwharf Quays; chatting with my colleagues; and sampling food, lager, and some fine whiskies.

[LTRG after hours - photos courtesy of Lis]

Tuesday 18th July

This day was given over more to discussion of various LTRG issues and relevant resources and tools. Lis and I gave a brief talk about Services Supporting Learning in Wales: A Quality Toolkit for Evaluating Learning Resource Services in Further Education Colleges (link). We discussed the background and how the quality toolkit has been used in Wales (advocacy, benchmarking, inspections and so on). Although the toolkit was created for self-evaluation, the next step in the development of the toolkit was a Peer Evaluation scheme, which has been trialled and is due to become more widespread across Wales in the near future. Basically one or two professionally qualified librarians from other colleges come and evaluate your service (operating on a reciprocal basis whereby you then agree to participate in the assessment of someone else’s service). Peer evaluation is becoming seen as an important counterpart to benchmarking, valued by assessors, so this is an exciting development.

Following the meeting Lis and I got two trains back to Swansea with no trouble; and after a quick meal at The Retreat, I got the bus back to Aberystwyth – home for 10.30pm!

[Me using a 'powerball' after the meeting - photo courtesy of Lis]