I quite enjoy ‘day in the life of a librarian’-type articles, comparing what I do and how my own time is spent with that of other librarians! Similarly, some people may wonder what an E-learning Adviser (Learning Resources) actually does. There are many elements to the job Sam and I share. At its core we work with our supported community to identify needs and problems where technology can help, in order to benefit learning, teaching and research. For Sam and I our supported community is primarily LRC managers and librarians, but it is not limited to them, since learning resources are also relevant to teachers, ILT champions, other sectors such as Work-Based Learning and Adult and Community Learning; and learning resources usually involves working with technical staff.

At the macro scale we help develop strategies, work with networks and encourage peer support, promote relevant resources and technologies and best practice, direct people to relevant services that can help (such as the various JISC services). We monitor new technologies and assess their usefulness for enhancing teaching and learning.

As well as the big stuff like that we also respond to queries (receievd by phone or email, or arising from visits to LRCs). I feel that this is an important part of the service – we are one of the places you can turn to with technology questions. We may not always give the direct answer ourselves, since in many cases the solution might be to put the person in question in touch with the person/college/service that has the answer. But our knowledge of the sector and our contacts locally and nationally (e.g. in RSCs across the UK) means we have a wealth of experience to call upon.

During some weeks about half my time is spent responding to queries that come my way via various means. I thought it might be interesting to look at some of the ones I have dealt with in the last month just to show the range of topics and technologies that are relevant to learning resources; also in some cases to share any useful things that were discussed. This is just a selection of those I dealt with, I have missed out some queries about particular resources and franchised courses. It also doesn’t include queries dealt with by Sam (if I included those too then this would be an epic post!) If this is useful then we might do a combined one in the future. So, in no particular order, here are some direct queries from a month in the life of an E-Learning Adviser (Learning Resources). What has been on the minds of librarians in Wales in the last 30 days? Read on to find out.

E-books for FE Project / E-book readers / Exemplary LRCs / Access management / Film-related queries / Hairdressing Training / Grants and funding for staff development / Voting systems / Second Life / RSS / And to finish…

E-books for FE Project

One college asked for more information on the 18 new e-books available as part of this project.

The new titles are:

Anatomy and Physiology for Therapists
Child Care And Early Education
Core Themes in Health and Social Care
Nail Artistry
Beauty Therapy Work Based Learning Level 1 Candidate Book
Beauty Therapy Work Based Learning Level 2 Candidate Book
Beauty Therapy Work Based Learning Level 3 Candidate Book
Equality in Early Childhood
The Official Guide to the City and Guilds Certificate in Salon Services
An Holistic Guide To Massage
‘An Introduction to Children with Special Needs 2nd Edition
The Art Of Dressing Long Hair
BTEC National Business Student Book 1
BTEC National Business Book 2 2nd Edn.
Carpentry & Joinery L1 Candidate Book
Play and Care for Children 4-16
BTEC First Construction Student Book
Microsoft Office Excel 2007: Introductory Concepts and Techniques

Details should have already gone out about accessing the new titles and adding OPAC records, so make sure you are subscribed to the E-BOOKS-FOR-FE@JISCMAIL.AC.UK mailing list to be kept updated. Anna Vernon is the project manager and can add you if you are not on the list already.

With the E-books for FE project there is also the E-select Framework, which enables the college to pay to add extra titles to the Ebrary platform if you wish to build the collection further.

Some colleges are in the process of setting up access to the E-books for FE project. For the colleges without OpenAthens or Shibboleth it is a bit more difficult and RSC Wales is helping out when it can.

E-book readers

This is a topic that turns up regularly, and we have only covered them in detail once in the blog (with an addition here). One librarian asked about whether e-book readers are being used and promoted much in colleges yet, or in universities. Perhaps it could be a way of saving paper in terms of all the PDFs students normally print out!

A lot of libraries in the UK are buying these devices, then often wondering what to do next. As such I wrote an article for the next issue of Sconul Focus which has a summary of my thoughts and further links – it should be freely available online in July and I will link to it then. In the meantime I’m happy to forward a pre-print if you contact me. The article isn’t wholly in praise of the devices. The RSC always adopts the viewpoint that we should use technology where it is appropriate, and to understand the appropriateness you first have to be aware of the potential uses and limitations. We never promote technology just for the sake of it.

It is true that e-book readers can display pdf journal articles too, they are not just limited to books, but I think that unless a student owns their own device (so they have guaranteed access) they are still likely to print articles even if the library makes devices available. This is perhaps inevitable with a lot of technology loan stock, since people will always go for the quickest option if they feel time-pressured.

There are a few links in our Delicious account which could be useful. Do let Sam and I know if you try any services with these devices, we love to hear what colleges think! It helps to inform our opinions and subsequent advice to others.

Exemplary LRCs

One college was very interested in visiting exemplary LRCs and libraries from any sector outside of Wales (since they have seen many of the new buildings and are aware of most of the good practice here). They were interested in good use of technology and exciting learning space design.

This is a good example of where being in contact with my lovely colleagues in the Regional Support Centres elsewhere pays off! Contacts in a few UK areas sent me suggestions of possible places to visit in their regions. Obviously this is limited to a small selection of the many fantastic colleges in each area. Some recommendations were:

• The Fylde College in Blackpool.
• Liverpool Community College’s new building which won’t be ready until 2011.
• There will be a new LRC in Crewe at South Cheshire College next academic year.
• Warwickshire College has a variety of centres across the six sites.
• Birmingham Metropolitan College’s Sutton Coldfield Centre has a newly refurbished LRC which is very colourful, flexible and innovative.
• Aston University library is having a major refurbishment at the moment.
• Warwick University’s Learning Grid (student-run) is an interesting learner-centred space.
• There are several recently completed new builds in the Midlands area: Joseph Chamberlain College, Walsall College, Newcastle Under Lyme College.
• South Bristol Skills Academy – opening for learners in September this year but there may be tours in the Summer – will be very open plan and potentially fun.
• Gloucestershire College – Technology Exemplar College.
• South Devon College – Technology Exemplar College. South Devon College was also one of the colleges featured in the JISC InfoKit Technology Enhanced Learning Environments.

Access management

I had been asked about third party support for setting up Shibboleth. There is a JISC Guide to Third Party Providers for FAM which is the best starting point. Soon almost half of the FE colleges in Wales will be using Shibboleth if all the ongoing projects come to fruition.

I also had a query about institutions merging where the libraries were using a particular access management system and how they might manage it.

Film-related queries

One college had been approached by the Motion Picture Licensing Company which apparently claimed that as a library they should take out a subscription. I have spoken to a few librarians who have been contacted by various copyright licensing and performing rights organisations, sometimes with quite intimidating hard-sell letters that imply that without taking out a licence they are breaking the law. In many cases this is extremely misleading and taking out a licence is unnecessary. If you are unsure of where you stand then it is worth contacting JISC Legal for free advice. Never pay for licences automatically as a result of these letters. There is only a limited pot of money, and it is far better going towards learning resources to support the students and staff than paying for licences that you may not need.

Film is a medium that raises many legal questions for libraries. One college asked about recording from the TV. They hade an ERA (Educational Recording Agency) licence but wanted to check that they were making full use of it, and whether they could record and store TV programmes to stream later on. The ERA have a useful FAQ which covers what can and can’t be recorded, what can be done with the recordings, labelling etc. Obviously to get the most out of the licence your staff need to know about programmes ahead of broadcast so that they can be recorded. There are many online services with television listings – one that is used in educational institutions is TRILT (Television and Radio Index for Learning and Teaching). There is a basic search for free which only goes back a few weeks, but does let you search for programmes on selected topics in the future, just by typing in keywords. If it is heavily used then it is possible to get access to the full version by joining the BUFVC, though that costs c. £474 p.a. The main advantages are access to lots of materials which support media courses; custom auto-alert emails for forthcoming programmes up to 10 days in advance; and the ability to get DVD copies of programmes which have already been broadcast but which weren’t recorded by the college. Details here.

As to recording and playing back TV, an ERA licence allows a college to do this:

“How can I store recordings? Recordings can be made directly onto video or audio tapes, DVDs and CDs. Digital recordings may also be stored on a licensed establishment’s server. Appropriate security systems must be in place to ensure that only authorised students and teachers can access the recordings. Access is limited to within educational establishments unless an ERA Plus Licence is secured to cover agreed off site access (see section on ERA Plus).”

So there is also the ability to take out an ERA Plus licence for further streaming options if you want to provide off-campus access.

While talking about online TV and education, this is a bit of a tangent, but Teachers TV is a really good resource for teaching staff – useful  for anyone that is interested in education.

Hairdressing Training

Following a revamp of Hairdressing Training one college pointed out that free access to Hairdressing Training is due to expire in July 2010 and asked what will happen after that date. Unfortunately it is impossible to say for sure at present – JISC Collections are still in negotiations about it, and are awaiting confirmation of funding.

Basically there are two elements to Hairdressing Training. There is one part that has been bought in perpetuity and so will always be free. Those are the bits that can be accessed on the site without logging in. Even after July they will still be available.

Then there are the parts that are only available after registration and logging in. JISC Collections is still in negotiations about that area, and hope to get a definite response soon – if the funding is available they will extend the access again. Either way they hope to make an announcement in the near future.

Grants and funding for staff development

We received a query from a librarian who wanted to go to our Learning in a Digital Wales event, but there was no budget left in the college’s staff development fund to cover the costs, so we were asked if there were any grants or bursaries that might help with the cost.

CyMAL could potentially help here – they fund bursaries for staff conferences. The information required is available here: scroll down to click on the ‘workforce development support’ document which outlines what they will pay for (usually conference fees only). Then you would need to put in an application to CyMAL. Alyson Tyler said the turnaround is 1-3 weeks. The Information for Applicants document is on the same page, along with the application form.

CILIP Wales and CoFHE may fund conference costs too.

Voting systems

One college had been in touch about the Turning Point voting system and its use in LRCs. This may be something to look into again, or to discuss in an LR Managers’ meeting. What are people’s experiences? Do the benefits outweigh the set-up and training time?

Second Life

I had some questions from a college about Second Life and other virtual worlds, and how students might collaborate online in a virtual world.

RSC Wales have a collaborative area in Second Life which we use for meetings, and it is a good place to start – let us know if you ever want us to show you around!

Our Delicious account has various links which might be of interest for general information. The virtual world snapshots of activity in HE and FE are also worth reading. The latest one says:

“As with all the previous snapshots, Second Life remains the virtual world ‘of choice’ for UK academics who responded to the survey. However, also as with previous snapshots, other virtual worlds are in use, such as OLIVE at Coventry University for emergency planning, and OpenSim at Leeds for handling large numbers of art and design students.”

RSS

I also started looking into a query today about RSS and using it to promote library news, linked to the OPAC.

And to finish…

I can’t resist adding a new technology I came across last week, raised as part of a discussion about noise in libraries. The SoundEar is a ‘visual noise indicator’ with a built in microphone that displays a green light to indicate that it is monitoring. As the pre-defined noise limit is approached more of the ear lights up, and when the noise limit is exceeded the device signals this by lighting up the red ear and the word ‘Warning!’. It is designed to be placed on the wall of an area which you want to keep at a reasonable level of noise (e.g. a workstation room). Apparently it can be useful as a way of getting students to self-regulate their noise levels by giving visual feedback. So now technology can even help to keep libraries and computer rooms as places suitable for learning!

When I started with RSC Wales back in June 2007 one of the first things I did was attend a JISC Access Management (AM) event. And here I am again a few years on, having just got back from the 2009 event which I attended hoping to find out what the current access management landscape looks like. What has changed and what have we learned in the interim?

I’ll blog about some of the sessions and some of my thoughts, with  inevitable emphasis on the areas most relevant to libraries and LRCs. I haven’t been Tweeting with the rest of the Twittoratti, but there was plenty to digest on the #fam09 tag.

If you want to find out more about the event you can view the programme, download many of the presentations or visit the FAM09 social site.

First, a recap of the access management options for e-resources

Shibboleth (by which I mean Federated Access Management) was the main option under discussion. It requires either in-house support, or you can pay a third party to set to it and provide support until you have enough in-house experience.

A related option, offering the same functionality, is to pay for a subscription to the OpenAthens Service, to gain Shibboleth-like features. I think of the Shibboleth/OpenAthens options as being like looking for somewhere to live.

OpenAthens is like renting a nice appartment. It is nice to live in, but you can’t do what you like with the apartment (e.g. replacing the windows if you don’t like them), and you will never own the apartment – if ever you stop paying the rent you get kicked out and have nothing to show for the years you paid for. Though while you do pay rent, someone else will (hopefully) be responsible for repairs to the property.

Shibboleth is like buying a house. There is a cost at the start, and you the one reponsible for maintaining the property. You can do that yourself if you have the skill; or pay someone else to do so, and maybe when you understand more go on a DIY course yourself and start to do your own maintenance.

There are two other common access management options, though I can’t think of a way of extending the house analogy to them without it being contrived, so I’ll just describe them straight. One option (often used in conjunction with Shibboleth) is to use the more traditional IP plus proxy solution to on-and-off campus access to resources and services.

There is also sometimes the option to have a single, fixed username and password for off-campus access, which can be workable for small e-resource portfolios. This option is gradually disappearing for many resource providers though.

Some of the sessions I attended

Identity and Access as UK Priority, Sara Marsh and Peter Tinson

This session was a summary of where we came from (beginning in 2004), where we are, where we’re going, and potential barriers to getting there, so was an appropriate conference opener. Sara likened herself to the jam of the talk, sandwiched between Peter’s opening and closing bread. I was glad to see that the bread was wholemeal.

The early landscape was one where there were few Shibbolised resources and a lack of in-house skills. Organisations lacked institutional access management strategies, and IT departments felt that access management was just about access to e-resources, and was therefore only a library issue.

And now? All but a few of the big publishers offer Federated Access Management as an option, and those that don’t offer it are under increasing pressure. UCISA and SCONUL surveys found that access and identity management is now in the top ten strategic issues listed by their members, so the importance has risen (though the issue is not at the top of the list).

What is needed for the future? Two main things stood out. Firstly access and identity management/Federated Access Management needs to get into top-level strategies. Secondly we need more examples of the benefits early adopters have gained from Federated Access Management in order to make the strongest possible management case.

Federated Access, the Library Experience, Sarah Pearson, Richard Cross and Francis Lowry

The experiences of two institutions (the University of Birmingham and Nottingham Trent University) in implementing Shibboleth. Many of the things said rang true to my experiences of being involved with a university implementation.

Sarah Pearson spoke about the Birmingham experience. In Birmingham they have used Shibboleth to implement single sign-on (SSO) to Metalib (their federated search tool) and EZproxy, but not to the VLE yet. They try to push users through Metalib as the primary means of accessing e-resources, since then the library can make access more seamless to users.

Sarah showed a diagram of the various ways in which a user at the University of Birmingham accesses e-resources (see below – click to enlarge). It illustrates the complexity of managing the various access options – a diagram like that can be a valuable thing for any library to create in attempting to identify areas which need work.

Collaboration for the University of Birmingham Shibboleth implementation was between:

• Serials Team (Library Services)
  They activated e-resources, customised links, implemented authentication, and did troubleshooting.
• Digital Library Team (IT Services)
  Managed Metalib and SFX installation including interaction with the IdP (Identity Provider)
• Networks Team (IT Services)
  Setup and maintenance of IdP and interaction with BIIS registry

See Sarah’s presentation for the implementation timescale and process – it shows the complexity of the move from the librarian’s perspective, all the processes involved before you even reach the user education element! Issues such as contacting service providers, finding out what information to provide, obtaining WAYFLess URL information, testing etc is all time-consuming, and if you need to manage resources in a federated search tool like Metalib there are extra steps.

One issue Sarah raised was the fact that some users will navigate directly to a resource rather than going through the library portal, so they will have to deal with WAYFs. Her team has now incorporated that route into their user education (guidance on Metalib and in induction).

Then Richard and Francis gave the Nottingham Trent University perspective. Nottingham Trent University were early Shibboleth adopters, and the central message I took away from their part of the presentation was the positive one that they had experienced no problems, Shibboleth has been stable with no downtime, and it all just worked from day one – on which day it was heavily used by students to take advantage of Microsoft’s free DreamSpark offer (it requires an institution to be using Federated Access Management for their students to benefit – another reason to switch!)

A valuable piece of advice from the presentation was that they never refer to Shibboleth when communicating with users, they only talk about the ‘University username and password’. Obviously they refer to it among library and IT staff though.

In terms of transition, they had a roadmap and a blog to inform staff. They also created a wiki that includes every e-resource they subscribe to and how users access it (since terminology varies from provider to provider), so that staff know how to help off-campus users for each resource. Bear in mind that the help staff on campus won’t see login screens, they will be automatically validated via IP, so this kind of information is invaluable for user suppport. Richard and Francis lamented that there is no consistency of terminology in how Service Providers refer to the login options, necessitating this approach.

The main lessons Richard and Francis wished to share:

• Plan early
• IT and library staff must work together (a partnership emphasised in other talks too)
• Communicate with Service Providers – don’t assume anything
• Don’t expect glowing praise from users – access management should be invisible to them if it works (but expect complaints when it doesn’t!)

They concluded that it is an ongoing process of development, it is not all over on the day that Shibboleth is installed. Also Shibboleth is not a solution to everything, but it is an important and flexible building block in the organisation’s infrastructure.

There were some similarities between the setup at the two universities. For example, both institutions currently use a combination of Shibboleth, IP/EZProxy and other methods (for a minority of resources). Both are currently using Shibboleth 1.3 but are planning to move to version 2.

Both also agreed on some of the challenges:

• There are personalisation issues when using dual authentication (e.g. Shibboleth plus IP). However they can be dealt with e.g. Nottingham Trent University migrated accounts wholesale where possible (e.g. for Refworks) and when that wasn’t an option they supported users individually in migrating settings. In a few instances users had to rebuild their personalisation from scratch.
• Not all Service Providers use a standard WAYFless URL structure, and many don’t include the ability to deep-link it e.g. to a particular e-book or database. Those that do have WAYFless structures may not tell you. There is a lack of standards here.

Tech 101 for Librarians, Andy Swiffin

Andy tackled the issue of terminology, trying to unravel the acronyms, as well as placing the emphasis on why and how you deploy an IdP (Identity Provider). He emphasised the relative simplicity of the process – if you have a web server with Tomcat, and have an identity source e.g. LDAP or Microsoft Active Directory, then you can do it easily. Andy has done a Shibboleth install and configured and tested it in just 12 minutes!

Why adopt FAM?

The same answers came up in a number of sessions, so it makes sense to just summarise the common answers here.

• Increased user privacy.
• KISS – Keep things simple for the user by enabling single-sign-on (SSO) for internal and external resources.
• Granularity – Federated Access Management enables fine-grained authorisation, so it should be possible to save money by only buying a specialist resource for the group that needs it, rather than paying for a subscription for the whole institution that will only be used by a few people. Obviously the ideal from a librarian’s perspective is to offer access to everyone, but as Sara Marsh pointed out – if it is a choice between paying for access for a group that needs something, or not getting the resource at all because access for the entire organisation is too expensive, the former is better than no access at all.

Social gaming

After the evening meal on Monday there was a games room for socialising to take place in. Four Nintendo Wiis were set up so that people could compete in Mario Kart, boxing, baseball, ten-pin bowling, Wii Fit and winter sports; along with giant Jenga and Connect 4, table football and air hockey. I put in some sterling defence work on the table football, but my gaming ability was a major letdown at ten-pin bowling, and for some reason my bowling ball always ended up in the gutter or – even worse – rolling away from me in the wrong direction. I’m almost certain that it was a faulty controller :-p but it made it look like I couldn’t hold my own in a Wii-ing contest.

Today I was in Newtown at the ILT Champions Meeting, to give a brief talk about Federated Access Management. It sparked a bit of discussion about the need for different solutions for different colleges, depending on their needs and starting point.

In the UK as a whole 33% of FE (and 80% of HE) institutions have joined the UK Access Management Federation, ready for the academic year 2008-9. Those figures are roughly comparable to the figures for Wales, and it is expected that they will be higher for 2009-10 once the systems are fully established and colleges have had the extra year to make a final decision on implementation.

OpenAthens pricing from Aug 2008

For colleges that want to continue to use Athens as their authentication system after August 2008, here is a link to the new OpenAthens pricing by JISC band. There is further information in the flyer here.

RSC Wales Athens / Shibboleth survey results

I will take this opportunity to circulate the results of the Athens / Shibboleth survey conducted by Samantha Edwards (between January and March 2007). The free text comments have been anonymised as far as possible). It seems a number of people are planning to move to Shibboleth, though lots of people were happy with Athens – the only problem being the need to pay for it after August next year.

What is your college institution? / Response Count

Barry / 0
Bridgend / 1
Coleg Ceredigion / 0
Coleg Glan Hafren / 1
Coleg Gwent / 1
Coleg Harlech / 1
Coleg Llandrillo / 0
Coleg Llysfasi / 0
Coleg Meirion Dwyfor / 0
Coleg Menai / 0
Coleg Morgannwg / 2
Coleg Powys / 1
Coleg Sir Gar / 1
Deeside / 0
Gorseinon / 1
Merthyr Tydfil / 0
Neath PT / 1
Pembrokeshire / 1
St Davids / 0
Swansea College / 1
WEA South Wales / 0
Welsh College of Horticulture / 0
Yale / 0
Ystrad Mynach / 0
North East Wales Institute (NEWI) / 0
Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama / 0
Swansea Institute / 0
Trinity College / 1
University of Wales Lampeter / 0
[answered question 13 / skipped question 0]

What is the current usage of Athens at your institution? (Select any that apply) / Response Percent / Response Count

None / 0.0% / 0
Registered for service but not used / 15.4% / 2
Accounts issued on request / 69.2% / 9
Self-Registration / 15.4% / 2
Bulk Upload / 7.7% / 1
Athens DA / 7.7% / 1
[answered question 13 / skipped question 0]

Are there any issues that deter your usage of Athens?

No, it is now being very well used (85 students have registered this academic year) as a result of publicising the service more strongly. We have 42 journals that are accessible online via an Athens account. The students who use this service are mostly, but not exclusively, HE students who find that we have the journals they need. The FE students are mostly on Access to HE courses.Yes, for example, not long ago I tried to access EMERALD with Athens, but it did not work.

Yes, students have to self-register in this institution. Last year, we merely handed out Athens passwords – ready to use. Many students don’t have e-mail addresses, so we first have to set up an e-mail address for them. The whole procedure takes about 15 mins per student.

Lack of funding to purchase subscriptions, and a dearth of relevant free resources. There may also be an issue with the perception of Athens as a ‘place’ on the web, rather than a gateway to resources.

No

It can be time consuming to issue accounts on request for larger courses, however although we’ve considered moving to Athens DA we have not been able to justify the cost and time involved at present.

Keen to move to Shibboleth, so haven’t put work into Bulk Upload or alternative system.

The Learning Centres are keen to use Athens (or equivalent). Athens was previously administered by our ILT Manager who has now left the college -usage was very low. We now have a new ILT Manager and have started discussions re Shibboleth as a future solution.

Students don’t know about it or the resources available to them.

No

Has Shibboleth been trialled or implemented at your institution? / Response Percent / Response Count

Yes / 7.7% / 1
No / 84.6% / 11
Not Sure / 7.7% / 1
[answered question 13 / skipped question 0]

Have you any future plans within your institution to trial or implement Shibboleth technology?

I need to know more about the implications of using Shibboleth.No, I would prefer to carry on using Athens for the time being, at least until 2008, but would wish to keep up to date with developments.

We had some meeting about it, or some member of the staff, I think, reported about it when he returned from some seminar; I also have some papers on it, but never, actually tried it.

The Athens administrator at this college has not mentioned any such plans, if they are in place.

Yes. We are currently taking advice from the RSC on the timing of swtiching to Shibboleth.

In initial stages of discussion with Senior Management, and Technical Support.

Possibly, depending on documentation and support issues.

No, not yet.

We would like to implement Shibboleth at some point, but are unlikely to do so in the near future.

Yes – ILT / Computer services working towards this.

Only at early discussion stage at present.

Yes, we hope to implement it by July 2008.

We are looking to move towards Shibboleth, but it doesn’t look as though it is a priority yet.

Would you like more information or training on any of the following? (Select any that apply) / Response Percent / Response Count

Athens DA / 38.5% / 5
Athens Administration / 23.1% / 3
Bulk Upload / 23.1% / 3
Self-Registration / 15.4% / 2
Shibboleth & the UK Access Federation / 84.6% / 11
Other (please specify) / 38.5% / 5

I want to access different electronic articles with a single password, not complecated staged process!I have a meeting with Richard Dunning from Eduserv on Friday 16th to discuss

Dependent on the timing of the switch to Shibboleth, we may need further training on Athens, for our library assistant.

Examples, step by step configuration guides etc would be useful. Implementation workshops, or even an advertised list of consultants, experience, timescales and prices.

We need to be clear when AthensDA is coming to an end, the cost impact of continuing, the cost of implementing Shibboleth, and what Shibboleth will do for us. Once we have this information we can then put together a solid business case and take it forward.

[answered question 13 / skipped question 0]

I have been very busy since I started with RSC Wales, and have decided to create a blog to record my travels. My travels may prove to be a challenge, since I intend to make them all by public transport. My blog can record the experience of doing this!

Other reasons for this blog include the need to be familiar with the whole range of Web 2.0 tools and services that may be useful to education and libraries; also to give a flavour of some of the work that RSC Wales does. As my profile shows, I am an e-Learning Advisor with RSC Wales, and perhaps this blog will help me to understand what the job involves.

My first month has been exciting and informative, and involved more travelling around Wales than I had probably done in the last ten years! There was lots of settling in to begin with, and a few days spent in Swansea getting to know the RSC Wales team. The RSC Wales annual conference was held at Gregynog, Newtown, in my first week (Wed 16 – Thu 17 May), which was a trial by fire I suppose, since there were so many people to meet. Gregynog is a lovely place to visit – the image below shows the main house.

[Gregynog Hall]

On Tuesday 22nd May I went to a demo of some voting systems. The Promethean system also included a demonstration of their interactive whiteboard, and looked like it could have many uses for presentations, teaching, voting, groupworking and so on. The other system was Interwrite PRS, which is mostly aimed at the HE market, and includes offline modes and a display screen (on some handsets), and has its own possible uses.

Tue 29-Wed 30 May – more travelling, this time to Birmingham for the JISC Federated Access Management Event. Federated Access (whether through Shibboleth or some other system) could open up a lot of doors in the near future – not just in terms of access to e-resources, but also in terms of interoperability between institutions, and within institutions. It is an area I will discuss in more detail in later posts, no doubt – and I will be happy to discuss the options and ‘federated access roadmap’ with FE LRC staff (just give me a few more weeks to understand how it all works!). Three things that I got out of the event:

1: One session I found particularly useful was the one exploring the impact of the move towards federated access management on libraries, including a discussion of the Athens administrator role, changes to library processes and the impact on the end-user. The slideshow from the presentation is available online.
2: For those wanting to set up a system themselves, but lacking the internal skills, Netskills are piloting a 3 day Federated Access Management (FAM) workshop for technical staff, aimed at teaching how to set up Shibboleth at their institution – from nothing up to a fully working server in three days. Taking part in the pilot could be a good way of getting the training for free (as long as the attendees agree to provide feedback on the course). As far as I know the intended dates for the pilot of this event are 18th – 20th July (Newcastle University). Further information will become available via the Netskills website.
3: For those who would rather just pay someone else to do the dirty work (!) it was announced that Salford Software have come up with a charged service whereby they come into an FE college and set up a federated management system. Apparently costs vary, but for a college with a good technical infrastructure it would be a fixed fee of £5,000, with support costs on top of that if required. It would cost more for a college that needs a full audit and some changes to systems. However it is another alternative if short on IT expertise.

June arrived, and I needed a break! So I had a night away with my family near Harlech. On the way there I realised I was passing Coleg Harlech – one of the colleges I am meant to liaise with.

“Stop the car!” I yelled.

“Why?” asked my Mother, in a panic that something had gone wrong.

“I need to visit a library!”

I got out and visited the college library (which is apparently modelled on the National Library of Wales – and I could see a resemblance in the way the balcony overlooks the central area). I chatted to Delyth Heath about college library services for a while before continuing with my holiday.

Which seems a good point to finish my first blog. Here are a few holiday photos.

[Me and my nephew on top of Harlech Castle]

[Resting in the garden at Tremeifion]

[View from the Tremeifion conservatory]