Too much noise in the LRC? [Image by jorivando]

Social software is something of a mixed blessing for librarians. On the one hand it offers a potential way to reach out to and communicate with our users; but on the other hand many librarians bemoan the fact that some students seem to be sat at our library PCs just using sites like FaceBook instead of doing their assignments. This means that students needing to use the PCs for work may be losing out; sometimes this social use leads to disruption and noise; and there may be further concerns about related topics such as academic standards, e-safety, network security etc. It is no wonder that it is a topic that occurs often, usually as a survey:

• A recent survey on the CoFHE list about managing behaviour in the LRC [February 2010, results yet to be announced]
• Alyson Tyler mentioned a potential new Web 2.0 survey of libraries in Wales on the FE-LRC-WALES list. The survey would include finding out if libraries/institutions block access to social software sites. They’re hoping to run the survey in March or April. [February 2010]
• A survey on LIS-LINK asking whether libraries ban FaceBook, some responses can be read here and here. The conclusion was that “the overwhelming majority do not, and have no plans to, ban facebook use” The anonymised results can be downloaded here. [November 2010]
• One of my colleagues in the JISC Regional Support Centre West Midlands asked LIS-LINKers whether they banned YouTube access; out of 41 replies only three institutions blocked YouTube outright [October 2009]

Three main aspects

The whole issue of managing access to (and use of) social software in education is something that is continually being debated, not just by librarians. There are three aspects.

1. E-safety / student safeguarding: managing access to social software in order to protect students (concerns like cyberbullying). There can be an element of giving students the skills to navigate the web safely, and obviously information literacy is an important driver here. If this area is of interest then tools like this online safety planner can be useful. Also there will be a free JISC Legal webcast on the area of safeguarding and e-safety on 3rd March 2010, from 2 pm. The webcast will focus on relevant statutory duties, areas of liability for institutions, tips on writing an e-safety policy and guidance on appropriate incident response. RSC London also has a Moodle area on e-safety (’Login as a Guest’).
2. IT security: managing access in order to protect data, networks and equipment, rather than people (concerns such as computer virus transmission, bandwidth usage). Obviously this is the domain of the IT department and the rest of the college may not have any involvement at all here.
3. Management of student behaviour in a learning environment: in terms of making sure people are not disruptive to other learners, and are not using scarce resources (e.g. high-demand PCs) for social purposes at the expense of students who need them for educational purposes. This is the aspect I will look at in more detail below.

[Image by kilikilo]

Options for managing user behaviour

Last week I gave a talk to some library undergraduates at Aberystwyth University’s Department of Information Studies. The talk was about the FE and HE library sectors, as well as some current themes such as e-books, information literacy, library 2.0, access management, and resource discovery tools. As part of it I wanted to give them a brief example of a realistic scenario an LRC manager in FE might come across, in order to give context to the other things I had been saying (and to make sure that the students were still awake!) The scenario I set was as follows:

• Each person in your group is an LRC Manager for a different campus of Coleg Dysguda, but facing the same issue.
• In each LRC is a block of computers. However there are frequent complaints from students that can’t get on a PC to do work – because other students are using them for FaceBook or other social purposes.
• Firstly, decide if you want to do anything about this issue or not.
• If you do, what interventions could you propose to deal with this?
• Finally, the group can discuss as many ideas as you want, but you can only take ONE proposal to the senior management in the college. So you have to agree on what you will do, if anything.

I was impressed that the students came up with realistic options and managed to think of most of the ways an LRC might deal with this issue. I have included the options they thought up below, along with some others I think should be included. Many institutions could combine a number of these.

Block access to the web sites

Obviously some insitutions just ban access to these technologies outright, either for students and staff, or just students. In the past this was more likely to be done in FE libraries than HE. But are we then missing out? It is worth considering these points:

• In some cases there may be legitimate uses for social software, sometimes tied to courses. For example the ‘Study on the Effective Use of Social Software by UK FE & HE to Support Student Learning & Engagement‘ found that “social software tools support a variety of ways of learning”.
• Increasingly institutions have entries on sites like FaceBook, so the institution has to be careful about seeming inconsistent if it then implements an outright ban on such websites. As an exemplar of what can usefully be done with social software, it is worth looking at Gloucester College. Their usage of FaceBook was highlighted in the BBC site last Autumn. Also the FaceBook in Education site has some examples of the positive use of FaceBook in education.
• Caroline Rhys of Deeside College pointed me to the new Ofsted report ‘The safe use of new technologies‘ (February 2010) giving recommendations for managing social software rather than locking it down.
• Blocking sites is certainly an easy option, but we need to be aware of what we may be losing in terms of the above, as well as an opportunity to educate students. In ‘Harnessing Technology, Safeguarding Further Education and Skills learners in a digital world‘, published by Becta, it says:

“Organisations are finding that a blocking and banning approach, which merely limits exposure to risk, is not sustainable. Organisations need to focus on a model of empowerment; equipping learners with the skills and knowledge they need to use technology safely and responsibly and managing the risks, whenever and wherever they go online; and to promote safe and responsible behaviours in using technology at college, in the workplace, in the home and beyond.”

• RSC London have summarised the issue in one of their blog posts.

So, what other options are there?

Separate area or PCs for social use

There could be separate PCs that allow certain social uses (possibly placed in an area that can be monitored, but safely away from quiet study areas). Once these short stay PCs are established other areas could become ‘FaceBook-free’ zones for quiet study.

Get more PCs

The downsides of this option are that it depends on budgets, and it doesn’t prevent disruption and noise (unless combined with other solutions). Space is often an issue in LRCs and there may not be room for more desktop PCs, but this is where laptops available for loan to students can take the pressure off. This solution deals with the scarcity of PCs, and increases facilities for all students.

Booking system

Having a system whereby students can only use the PCs (or a selection of them) for limited times e.g. 1 hour slots. This answers the issue of scarcity to a degree, shares access more equally and prevents individuals from hogging PCs for social use. It doesn’t solve the issue of disruption though. These systems don’t need technology to work, but I will discuss automated booking systems as an option later.

Separate times for social use

Here the LRC would only allow social use at certain times (such as lunch times), but with restrictions in place during the rest of the day.

Acceptable Use Policies (AUP)

Simply having a clear Acceptable Use Policy can make a difference – letting the users know what they can and can’t do. At the most basic level it could just be a policy of priority so that students working on a PC get priority over those ’socialising/playing’. Whatever the content, there is a clear element of user education required in establishing any AUP.

As well as being an option in itself, an AUP would work best in conjunction with one or more of the other solutions mentioned here.

Developing an AUP is a good process to go through anyway, and as part of it the LRC could adopt a risk management approach, touching on issues of e-safety as well as behaviour management. As part of the development you would obviously need to consider how it will be enforced and monitored. Library patrollers? The duty of staff based near PC areas? Or the use of technology solutions? I will discuss some of those below.

For those considering an AUP there is some schools’ guidance here, which has some points relevant to FE. It is also a topic to discuss with other library managers, possibly sharing policies that have been developed. See also this discussion about library policies from LIS-WEB2 (here and here).

Ask the users

If there are no acceptable use policies in place at present it may be worth considering them, possibly preceded by a debate within the college involving students and staff. It would be useful for giving everyone a voice, and to make sure that nothing too draconian is applied. Survey them, have focus groups over coffee, find out what they think, decide what you could and would allow as a compromise. The advantage here is that they become stakeholders.

PC booking and monitoring systems

Software and technology solutions can be useful. There are systems that allow monitoring of what is being done on each PC, enabling remote enforcement of policies (many allow you to pop a message up on a user’s screen, and lock their access if required). There are also booking systems to share out usage, so that everyone gets a chance to use a PC. Most commercial systems combine these two functions. Some systems have other uses for directed teaching.

Note that having a system doesn’t necessarily mean monitoring students’ screens all the time – once students get used to a policy and realise that it is enforced they tend to be more aware of the LRC policies and realise that there is no point trying to circumvent them. So the systems can be a deterrent to abuse.

RSC Wales has some information on PC booking systems on our Information Area, and links to actual systems that can be used in our Delicious account.

Conclusion

There are many other management options, this list is not comprehensive. Some may work in one circumstance but not another. That is where raising it as an issue for discussion with other managers is the best option – only when you speak to people that have tried a particular approach can you find out what worked and what didn’t! There are no easy answers to this subject, but by sharing experiences we can get a better idea of what works best.

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!

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.

I have just got back from a two-day event investigating the potential for a cross-sectoral information literacy framework for Wales (announced in October). The event was funded by CyMAL, organised by WHELF (Wales Higher Education Libraries Forum) and the Regional Library Partnerships, and took place at Gregynog Hall. Attendees were drawn from the broad spectrum of public, FE, HE, and school library services, as well as other interested stakeholders such as DCELLS. A comment overheard many times was how great it was for everyone to come together under one banner to share experiences and find a way forwards. I believe that information literacy as a broad term underpins every single aspects of what libraries and learning resource centres do, and therefore a co-ordinated approach to promoting its value in Wales can only be a good thing.

I should point out that this was not a passive conference – all the delegates had to do something, which was to work together in sector group workshops to discuss the importance of information literacy to that sector, how an information literacy strategy could help, how sectors could collaborate, and how these aims could be achieved. It was a pleasant change to be a delegate at an event but to also be able to drive the agenda forward as an active participant.

Monday started with various talks which helped to set the context of where we are now in Wales, and what unites the various library sectors. I’m not going to attempt any fancy thematic separations, I just want to give a summary of  the talks for the benefit of those in FE who couldn’t attend. Comprehensive rather than selective: prepare for me to move into wordy-mode…

‘Information literacy – the Welsh context’
Huw Evans, Head of Advice & Support, CyMAL: Museums Archives and Libraries Wales

Huw reminded us of the core skills that you need to be information literate, and the fact that information literacy does make a difference in people’s lives, before demonstrating how information literacy maps to One Wales (the agenda for the WAG coalition of Labour and Plaid Cymru – not the One Wales WAG sustainable development policy). He emphasised the importance of partnerships, a message many of the speakers agreed on. Another message that we heard again and again was the importance of evidence to demonstrate impact the of information literacy; we still have a way to go before there is consistency in provision.

‘Information literacy in the curriculum’
Marjorie Page & Jennifer Davies, DCELLS

Marjorie and Jennifer are DCELLS subject specialists. They said that information literacy is not a common concept or phrase in schools, nor a discrete part of the curriculum, though schools are moving gradually towards a generic skills emphasis where it would be relevant. They argued that the 3-19 skills framework in Wales includes elements of information literacy, since a lot of the framework is about communication and use of ICT. It is non-mandatory but underpins it statutory National Curriculum subject orders. Marjorie gave advance notice of two potentially relevant new literacy-related guidance publications that will be launched in 2010 – about the teaching of reading and writing. Also we were told that there will be new Key Skills in operation from next September – called Essential Skills Wales, they will merge Key Skills and Adult Literacy Basic Skills.

‘Information literacy and school libraries’
Alison Bagshaw (LRC Manager, Llanishen High School) and Liz Smith (Librarian, Pembroke School)

Alison confirmed that information literacy in school libraries is patchy across Wales – partly because libraries and school librarians (let alone qualified staff) are not a statutory requirement. There is  a lack of understanding of information literacy amongst many teaching staff, and they are not aware of how information literacy can help them develop their students into independent learners. Some may not want to admit that they don’t have good research skills. We were then given some examples of information literacy implementation in schools, including posters and models that helped children to remember concepts such as the ‘who what when why where’ criteria for evaluating resources. The conclusion was that information literacy needs fully embedding in the curriculum, with librarians and teaching staff working in partnership.

‘Information literacy in FE’
Carolyn Howe, Learning Centre & Reprographics Manager, Coleg Glan Hafren

Carolyn gave an excellent overview of what’s going on in the FE sector – I took lots of notes! She also described the ’shape’ of the sector for those not familiar with it, including the core facts such as 24 colleges (which mergers may cut down to 16), and 250,000 learners in Welsh FE annually. In FE information literacy mostly targets full-time students, though it has an impact on part-timers too. There is no central Welsh FE strategy, though the FE quality toolkit ‘Services Supporting Learning in Wales: a Quality Toolkit for Evaluating Learning Resource Services in Further Education Colleges’ does include some information literacy. However not all colleges have resources to act on them. Nonetheless there is lots of activity going on, with awards won for developments in these areas. Carolyn then gave an overview of the many ways in which colleges teach information literacy, though she pointed out that it may not be referred to by that name, but as ‘research skills’ or ’study skills’. Getting tutors on board is vital, with the greatest successes coming when sessions are delivered with the tutors or embedded into the curriculum. Finally Carolyn reiterated the importance of measuring impact and evaluating our work.

‘Information literacy in HE’
Cathie Jackson, Senior Consultant in Information Literacy, Cardiff University

Cathie gave a summary of how information literacy is taught in HE – from lectures to 300 students, to small group teaching, to guidance at helpdesks. The priority is to embed it into a module, so students understand its importance. There are training needs for the staff too, and some institutions have invested heavily in staff development, encouraging staff to do PGCEs or become Fellows of the Higher Education Academy. Some HEIs in Wales have information literacy strategies but generally they are library-focused. They do not have the central strategic place that information literacy does at Sheffield University. Cathie suggested that maybe libraries have to let go of information literacy a bit so that it becomes adopted by the university as a whole. Cathie then gave a summary of a number of relevant JISC reports about learning literacies, including words of warning from Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World:

“Information literacies, including searching, retrieving, critically evaluating information from a range of appropriate sources and also attributing it – represent a significant and growing deficit area”

Cathie ended by saying that we want progression in student information literacy skills throughout their education; we need to join the ends up, so that there is a continuum that goes on to lead to successful lifelong learners.

‘A National Information Literacy Framework for Scotland: How did we get here?’
John Crawford, Library Research Officer, Glasgow Caledonian University

John is well known for his work in establishing a framework in Scotland, and I had attended a talk by John and Christine Irving at a previous LILAC. There are many valuable lessons to be learnt from the Scottish experience, and John began with a history of where the framework came from, back in 2003. He warned that it takes a long time – years – to fully develop and embed a framework. In Scotland the framework doesn’t have statutory authority, but parts of it are being recognised. It is currently being restructured and is now web-based, backed up by examplars of good practice.

Key lessons:

• Working with partners is a key success factor. Information literacy is not just for librarians – we need to also include business and employers, adult and community learning etc. otherwise we are not joined up and not working together. We need to extend to people who are not in the library sector but who have an interest in information literacy.
• Training should be given to all trainee teachers so that they understand information literacy; then we won’t have situations where children are just sent to search for something on web without having concepts such as key terms, appropriate sources, and resource evaluation taught to them.
• The Government talk about e-skills and digital literacy, but don’t yet recognise information literacy as an essential skill for the modern employee.
• We need to develop a community of practice, networking with our partners. Librarians are good at talking to each other about information literacy, not so good at talking to other people – yet that is what we need to do. Hang it on to other groups’ objectives; get convincing examplars of good practice; focus on what the end customer needs and what they can gain from information literacy.

‘International perspective – national frameworks’
Sheila Webber, Senior Lecturer, University of Sheffield

Sheila started by describing the genesis of the international logo for information literacy (see the top of this post), which was picked from 190 submitted designs. Expect to see this elsewhere, especially when a Welsh version is created.

Sheila’s talk was a chance to get the wider, international picture. She pointed out that national information literacy strategies are still a pioneering idea, and the major successes have been in small countries like Finland and Scotland. She went on to give tips on advocacy and awareness-raising, including examples of declarations and initiatives.

When pointing out that information literacy isn’t just relevant to education Sheila made many points that agreed with those made by John Crawford. For example:

• Governance / citizenship: rarely is information literacy stated outright in government publications, usually they refer to it in a roundabout way or call it digital literacy. It was noted that some governments are against information literacy, since censorship-heavy regimes may not want citizens to know things. An illustration of how empowering information literacy can potentially be.
• Information literacy is relevant to sectors such as health (evidence-based health and medical work make this a rich area) and business (which can be difficult to target, partly because business’s definitions of information literacy vary and may be more collaborative).

Sheila ended with a summary of the factors that can lead to successful initiatives, and left us with the positive message that information literacy can also be important just to enhance your life generally – it can make us happy, motivate, and empower us to engage with politicians and the media.

No rest for the literate

That was quite a lot to take in for one day – but it wasn’t over yet! At 8.30pm we got back together in sector groups to begin our workshop discussions. I was the facilitator for the FE group, which included Ian Cockrill (Swansea College), Carolyn Howe (Coleg Glan Hafren), Jean Sullivan (Coleg Sir Gar), Julie Jones (Coleg Powys), Marjorie Page (DCELLS) and our fast-writing note-taker Mandy Powell (CILIP Cymru). During the discussions that evening and the next morning we examined core information literacy questions and how they related to the FE sector. As a very brief summary:

• “Why is information literacy important for the FE sector?”
  It not only enables our learners to succeed in the course they are undertaking, but it also prepares them for whatever comes after – be it employment, training, university, or anything else!
• “What would you want an information strategy to achieve for FE?”
  For many years library staff have been doing bottom-up training; what is needed now is for there to also be a top-down approach from policy makers and senior management and for the two to meet in the middle.  Ideally a strategy would lead to closer collaboration between library and teaching staff: building up relationships; training teaching staff in information literacy; partner teaching. A policy would ideally help policy makers and senior management to have an awareness of and interest in the LRC, and to recognise the expertise it contains.
• “How could information literacy skills transfer between sectors?”
  There are many examples of a smooth transition from FE to HE (e.g. access courses priming students successfully). A similar transition needs to be in place for schools to FE/HE, which may required directed and sustained funding to school library services for resources and trained staff in order to develop a cradle-to-grave progression (rather than the current ‘adolescent-to-grave’ progression in many cases).
• “What actions are needed to achieve these outcomes?”
  A Wales strategy itself could help in working with policy makers, managers, inspectors etc. We need collaboration between the different sectors.
• “Who are your decision/policy makers and fund holders? How can you best influence them?”
  Funders such as WAG (CyMAL / DCELLS).
  Inspectors and assessors e.g. Estyn, Exexcel, WJEC.
  SMT and curriculum managers.
  Influencers such as Colegau Cymru / JISC – for case studies and best practice.
  To influence them: dogged advocacy; showing best practice; lobby ministers.

It was great facilitating such an eager group with so many ideas – I didn’t need to crack the whip at all, just listen and learn from all the great points and examples!

This morning we had the last few sessions in the thorough programme.

“Information literacy in public libraries – the lifelong learning agenda”
Gareth Evans, Business Development Manager, Caerphilly

The tour of the landscape in Wales continued with the view from public libraries. Gareth gave the background of partnership projects based around the learner’s needs such as Gateways to Learning (56 libraries took part, including public, FE, HE, and prisons). Gareth linked these to the Public Library Standards and Libraries for Life Strategy 2008-11, asking how can we measure our success at delivering information literacy?

Some of the success factors in projects and schemes included having a learner-centred approach, and accreditation (via OCN). However there were some challenges in staff engagement, such as the potential lack of confidence of library assistants when they have to formalise their knowledge in teaching, and issues around whether they are paid adequately to do it. However this only applied to about a proportion of the staff.

Gareth concluded by reminding us that no sector can do it on their own, information literacy has to be developed with partners and tied to the curriculum. Information literacy is a vital umbrella for many other literacies such as health literacy, core skills, citizenship and employability skills, and digital and media literacy.

Where do we go from here? Putting it all together

The sector groups then fed back on their discussions so that we could pull elements from them together for an all-Wales approach. Janet Peters (Cardiff University) and Cathie Jackson did an excellent job of the unenviably difficult task of constructing  an action plan for taking things forward. It was based on the conclusions of each group plus group discussion as the plan was developed. It included timescales and assigned tasks to progress an information literacy strategy for Wales.

So where now? Presentations and documents will be made available later, probably via the Library Toolkit (I will incorporate the link here once I have them). A draft statement will be drawn up, and a steering group will be sought that incorporates representatives of all the relevant stakeholders and sectors. We will use the FE-LRC-WALES list to seek an FE representative once that is in place, and the steering group will probably first meet in February.

This may have been the start of a new era for raising the profile of information literacy in Wales as a unified collaboaration. Keep your eyes peeled for a Gregynog Proclamation!

[See also: the WHELF blog; Sheila Webber's Information Literacy Weblog; and the Scottish Information Literacy Blog.]

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.

Another reason for my lack of time for blogs is that I only work for RSC Wales on Mondays and Tuesdays (for the rest of the week I work as a librarian for Aberystwyth University), normally job-sharing with Sam who covers the RSC role Wednesdays to Fridays. Sam is on maternity leave (and is doing really well!), so I’ve been on my own for a while, but now there is now extra learning resources support because Owen Phillips is providing maternity cover until Sam returns. LRC staff will no doubt be hearing from him soon!

Newport, Tuesday 13th – Wednesday 14th October

Ironically (considering I hadn’t had time to blog here for a while), I was in Newport on these days, teaching librarians how to blog! I ran a number of workshops which gave the background on Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and blogging, before looking at examples of library blogs from Wales. The librarians who came to the sessions were all great, and we had some thought-provoking discussions about how and why blogs can be used, as well as a hands-on where many trial blogs were created.

Getting to the fun part of the workshop...

Cardiff, Thursday 15th October

I was in Cardiff to visit Coleg Glan-Hafren with other RSC Wales staff. We discussed a range of e-learning topics, including technologies like voting systems, and ways of assessing the use of technology to enhance teaching and learning. Then I got to do my favourite thing – have a tour of the LRC! Carolyn Howe, the LRC Manager, showed me round. I enjoyed their Online Book Club displays, and took samples of the colourful leaflets and bookmarks that go with them. Students are encouraged to read the books, post reviews, read other students’ reviews and discuss them online via Moodle. This is a good way of encouraging reader development even when a group is unable to meet at regular times. Students can even write short reviews on the bookmark, and the data will be uploaded by LRC staff – a good example of making things easier for students! Another example of LRC staff going out of their way to be helpful is that some of the most relevant journal articles are indexed and records are added to the OPAC. This increases the use of the valuable print journals and aids resource discovery for students.

Coleg Glan-Hafren uses a PC booking system to ensure fair use of the PCs (which had the pleasant side-effect of  improving LRC staff and student relationships!). The LRC takes the innovative (and successful) line of not having fines for overdue books – instead they use the PC booking system to block the offending student’s access to the workstations until the items are returned, which ensures that the books do get returned – quickly! The system is also used for room bookings. There is a kiosk for students to book things themselves which frees up staff time for more valuable work, as well as encouraging student independence in the allocation of their own time.

Coleg Glan-Hafren is promoting the E-books for FE project, and even has a search box on every PC desktop that takes users straight through to relevant books. Currently Coleg Glan-Hafren uses OpenAthens and IP to provide students with access, but the college is considering moving to Federated Access Management in the future.

Aberystwyth, Friday 16th October

I made one of my rare appearances at CyMAL on that date, for a Libraries for Life meeting. I made suggestions concerning improving information dissemination about regional courses in Wales, and the importance of documenting library refurbishments funded by CyMAL in order to benefit other libraries. The truth is that the notion of new build as a cure-all is flawed, partly due to: the expense; the all or nothing nature and dangers when things go wrong (see here, here, here and here); and the environment/resource issues. However renovation and innovation are much more interesting, and there are a huge number of libraries in the position of being based in a building that they consider to be unsuitable, and looking for ideas. So what is needed is more imaginative focus on what can be done with existing estate. Refurbishments can have a stepped approach e.g. lower level funding for furniture, wi-fi, flexible learning and teaching spaces; but with more ambitious plans for if funding is available (restucturing, replace walls, moving entrances and staircases etc.) which avoids the ‘all or nothing’ danger inherent in new build projects. Fully documenting and promoting this kind of work is important for making people aware of the options.

Deeside, Tuesday 20th October

A visit to Deeside College with other RSC Wales staff (Owen Phillips, Helen Hodges, and Christine Davies). Deeside College has now merged with the Welsh College of Horticulture, so it was interesting to discuss the ways in which the best practices of both institutions can be combined. We also discussed a topic dear to many librarians’ hearts – the blocking of Web 2.0 resources. YouTube and other video sites have now been unblocked at Deeside College, since they are relevant to teaching (e.g. the catering courses use lots of clips from professional chefs). However some social networking sites such as FaceBook remain blocked. The debate about the educational utility of Web 2.0 continues! Where do you stand? Frivolous use of resources and time, or invaluable tools for education? I imagine most people fall between the two extremes, which is why the debate is so important so that policies can achieve the best balance.

The Learning Zone (LRC) is a two-floor open space which acts as a one-stop shop for many services. Patrick Cox (the LRC and E-learning Manager) told us that the Learning Zone is wi-fi enabled and students can bring their own laptops, or borrow a laptop from LRC bank of laptops. LRCs lead the way in providing flexible options like this, catering for different student learning styles and needs.

Wrexham, Wednesday 21st October

While in the North we visited Yale College, as the final leg of our tour! Owen and I spent time with Joanne Stewart and Maria Lewis, finding out more about the LRC.  The multi-floor LRC is heavily used, spacious and welcoming, with great use of exhibition space and displays of student art. There was also an interactive whiteboard in an open teaching area of the library, used during induction and information skills sessions – a great way of taking information out of closed rooms and into the relevant spaces and showing the teaching that LRC staff do.

There is also wi-fi in the Yale College LRC – users register their MAC addresses and can then use laptops, iPod Touches etc. There are more access points being added around the college, and also a trolley of rechargeable laptops for flexible access.

The LRC promotes reader development in many ways, from displays expanding on topics near the relevant book stock, to an ‘LRC Book of the Week’ on the staff intranet. The LRC is also hoping to embed resources within the relevant course areas on the VLE, which can be a great way to increase the visibility of quality resources and weaken the grip of Google! The LRC is keen on using Web 2.0 tools to communicate with users – there ia a blog and accounts for Twitter, Flickr and Netvibes (I’ll add links here once I have them).

Visiting all three college LRCs (Glan-Hafren Deeside, Yale) was great, you can see how popular and central to the college they all are by the buzz of use. If I was an FE student again I’d love to use any of them for my research.

Swansea, Friday 23rd – Monday 26th October

Across Wales again – but not for work this time! A long weekend in Swansea to enjoy one of my favourite eating places, my new hobby of kayaking, and a chance to do a bit of creative writing.

Windblown sand on Swansea beach

Morning view on holiday

Has your institution signed up to the E-books for FE deal yet? [In the sense of having submitted a signed agreement form.]

If no, are there any particular obstacles that have prevented you from setting up access for your institution? [1 response]

1.    we are not members of Shibboleth or Open Athens

Has the site for your institution been set up by Ebrary, with access for your users?

If yes, how long did it take? Any other comments? [6 responses]

1.    a couple of weeks after signing the agreement.
2.    couple of days
3.    Fairly quick after initial problem – they got our details a bit wrong
4.    A couple of weeks – as expected, given the volume of FE subscribers I’m surprised that others have felt this timescale was so slow!
5.    About 2 weeks after completing licence agreement
6.    Around 5 weeks from sending off completed agreement.

What access method did you select?

Do you have any comments about the options offered by Ebrary? [5 responses]

1.    It would have been nice to have on-site access by IP as well
2.    Original offer should have been remote access and IP not one or the other. I understand that this issue has now been resolved.
3.    Not having IP access is a disadvantage. It will make it harder to promote the database and encourage staff to access it
4.    Would have liked IP access as well as evidence suggests this is what students tend to use but this what outweighed by the need for off campus access for those who need it
5.    Would have liked a vareity of options rather than just one. We are still trying to get Shibboleth to work and so IP access would also have been helpful. We may find that 3 months are spent getting the shibboleth access sorted!

Have you downloaded the MARC records for the titles into your library catalogue?

If yes, were there any problems? What LMS do you use? Other comments? [6 responses]

1.    No problems. We use Heritage, and they were very helpful in making it easy for their users by liaising with Ebrary over this.
2.    For some reason the records won’t download in Heritage. I’ve informed Heritage support and we are in dialogue.
3.    To be honest I’m not sure if we have or not (and person who would know is on leave)!
4.    Autolib, they have just sent me a link for downloading the records.
5.    Heritage LMS – provided file and worked fairly easily
6.    Use Alice (Softlink) – not yet aware if we can download MARC records

Do you have any plans for promoting the e-books next term? E.g. demos to teachers, or pointing out titles useful to certain courses, or promoting Ebrary platform features? [13 responses]

1.    yes – demos for staff and students. pointing out useful titles for staff, and also to stick on Moodle site. Promote on web pages and Library Moodle.
2.    We will be adding stickers to books that are also available via the ebrary. Main point of entry will be via our Moodle page. Some tutors have already been introduced to the ebrary, but not all. We will be actively promoting the ebrary via posters and other displays and will likely run workshops throughout the year.
3.    Yes, staff development sessions and promotion of ebook libraries. Also including ebook libraries in the student inductions.
4.    Inductions, collection per course of useful titles, inform Heads of Department to disseminate resource,
5.    Yes – but not yet firmed up. We’ll use a range of concurrent measures and also promote them to students in induction. Will monitor promotional activity and effectiveness and be ready to report back.
6.    Yes. Will certainly demo it to teachers, but have not thought of a coherent strategy yet. I’m waiting to get it on our OPAC first.
7.    Yes – face-to-face demonstrations, e-mailing bookshelves to tutors etc
8.    Will be incorporated into ‘advanced inductions’ have already done some staff development sessions with tutors
9.    No plans as yet, as we are short of staff time to do this at present.
10.    Yes, website links, catalogue links, demo’s during research sessions.
11.    Yes; demos to staff, holding drop in sessions for staff and students; getting ourselve invited to Faculty meetings; holding drop ins for staff during STaff Development days, advertising on the widget – you name it we’ll be doing it!
12.    Yes – will provide demos and point out useful e-books in inductions
13.    Not yet – need to get access first

There is an extra allocation for textbooks of relevance to Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. If there are any textbooks that you would like to see available in this, enter their details below. The comments will be passed on to the E-books for FE Project Manager. [4 responses]

1.    University of Wales Press titles would be particularly useful as these are often either out of print/print on demand and generally hard to get hold of. Some example titles:
A History of Wales 1906 – 2000, Gareth Evans (9780708315941)
A History of Wales, 1815 – 1906, Gareth Evans 9780708310281)
Hope and Heartbreak: A Social History of Wales, 1776 – 1871, Russell Davies (9780708319321)
Organise! Organise! Organise!, Ryland Wallace (9780708310786 )
Welsh-language textbooks such as:
GCSE Mathematics / TGAU Mathemateg (9780340927366)
IT / Technoleg Gwybodaeth (9781845210977)
2.    At this moment in time nothing comes to mind but would like the opportunity to be able to submit requests in the future should anything deem appropriate
3.    More books for our Business and Professional faculty would be nice e.g. hairdressing, beauty, introductory business books.
4.    Relevant FE vocational titles – again person who would know which key texts are available in Welsh is on leave

Ebrary have agreed to look into creating a Welsh interface for their e-books platform. Would this be useful to your institution? Would you promote it?

Comments (on Welsh interface) [7 responses]

1.    Welsh is already promoted quite well within our LRC and we would happily promote a Welsh-language interface. Usage of the Welsh language in the xxx area isn’t great but both members of LRC staff are able to speak Welsh as well as a few other members of staff. I envisage that it would be particularly useful for our outreach learners, many of whom are based in more ‘Welshy’ areas.
2.    Not terribly useful in reality but would be good politically.
3.    This should be a given in Wales even if colleges have a small Welsh language cohort.
4.    The uptake probably wouldn’t be great, but it would help college satisfy its Welsh language obligations.
5.    We already have a bilingual catalogue and KnowUK was also available bilingually
6.    Usage would be minute, to be frank.
7.    Not sure how much usage it would have but would a good feature.

Many thanks to those college LRCs that responded to my survey: Barry College, Bridgend College, Coleg Ceredigion, Coleg Glan Hafren, Coleg Harlech, Coleg Llandrillo, Coleg Meirion Dwyfor, Coleg Powys, Coleg Sir Gar, Gorseinon College, Swansea College.

With Devolve Me, a student can upload a photo and see themself as they might have looked millions of years ago. It is a good example of the many small, single-function teaching and learning sources that can tie into a lesson whilst also being fun for the students.

In the interests of research I had a go myself, moving backwards through time. I am sure H.G. Wells would approve.

Homo heidelbergensis (500,000 years ago):

Homo erectus (1.8 million years ago):

Homo habilis (2.2 million years ago):

Australopithecus afarensis (3.7 million years ago):

Something I’ve been talking about is EduApps, an initiative developed by JISC RSC Scotland North & East. EduApps is sbout free portable software in your pocket including bundles of applications specifically designed for teachers and learners, as well as accessibility tools. Currently there are over 90 open source and freeware software applications which can be entirely used from a USB stick on a Windows computer. The software is available in various combinations, and there is an article about the project in the latest edition of ALT-N. It is worth librarians knowing about this and trying it out, but it could be possible to go further e.g. lending memory pens with accessibility software on to students, or with teaching software on for the lecturers. Or you could make sure that some of the software is on the workstations and laptops in the LRC. Let me know about any innovative LRC uses!

I also have a new laptop – a teeny Samsung NC10. It is so portable that it is easy to take to meetings and on visits; yet in the office I just plug in a keyboard, mouse and external monitor and it works like a full desktop. I haven’t installed an open source operating system – it has XP on, and I can’t be bothered changing that at present – but as an experiment I have tried to only use open source software on top of that. So obviously Firefox and Thunderbird for web and email, but I have also tried something I have always meant to do – use OpenOffice in earnest. So I installed it as my only office suite, rather than just as a backup.

So far I have found that I don’t miss Microsoft Office at all, which has been a revelation. ‘Writer’ replaces ‘Word’; ‘Calc’ replaces ‘Excel’; ‘Impress’ replaces ‘Powerpoint’. I have had no problems opening documents (Writer can even open Word07 .docx files by default), or saving in the most common formats. It just works, and is simple to use.

The other thing I like is that OpenOffice resembles Microsoft Office 2003, rather than Office 2007. Great! I like menus; I like buttons that stay the same on a toolbar. So that has been winning me over.

Tip: Don’t use OpenOffice version 3.0.1, only version 3.0.0 or earlier. 3.0.1 has problems with tables in .rtf and .doc files.

One thing I noticed with my new office suite was the absence of Frontpage, so for now I have reverted to a plain text editor when working with HTML (cleaner but slower), until I choose an open source HTML editor.

An exciting new, free JISC-funded resource launched last week, relevant to many subjects. A Vision of Britain Through Time gives access to over two centuries’ worth of acts, figures, surveys, maps, election results and travel writing, showing how 15,000 UK places have changed.

Project director, Dr Humphrey Southall, of the University of Portsmouth, says:

Through the site we are offering an unprecedented amount of information detailing how Britain has changed over many centuries. Simply keying in a place-name or postcode unlocks a vast treasury of facts, figures, images and descriptions – from mediaeval boundaries to what the 2001 Census uncovered via, perhaps, a town’s appearance on a 19th century map, a comment by a touring agitator, a crop report from the 1930s and more. The range and depth of the information makes it a terrific resource for professional and amateur historians who want a complete picture of what a place was like at a particular point in history, but the site isn’t only a way to look back. The content is already in demand from researchers and forecasters watching for changes and trends of relevance now or in the future.

JISC digitisation programme manager, Alastair Dunning, added:

This new site is an excellent example of what JISC is enabling, and why. By helping the project to improve its historic boundary maps and add new, fully cross-indexed, content, JISC is making it easier for scholars across all disciplines, to access data. While also granting free access to researchers from other sectors, including healthcare planners, local government, climatologists and the ever growing number of people who are interested in
local and family history.

Read more about JISC’s digitisation programme.

I decided to put it to the test, so spent an hour exploring the site with my nephew. We compared facts and figures for Aberystwyth and Manchester, and discussed the implications of some of the graphs and statistics.

The negatives:

• Sometimes we got a bit lost, for example not all the maps had an explanatory key; or it would be unclear as to the differences between some sets of data.
• The site contains Google Ads (possibly a first for a JISC-funded project, and hopefully not the start of a trend), and the commercial advertising makes it look less like a quality academic resource. I do a lot of information literacy work to do with website evaluation, and one of the areas relates to bias/website purpose and includes looking out for advertising as one of the potential criteria for evaluation. I was running a session on this recently so the advertising seemed to stand out.

The positives:

• The site includes a wealth of valuable material, especially if you are willing to dig around and explore.
• The site led us to lots of discussion points.
• The four e-learning tutorials were a useful way in to navigate some of the themes.

Some LRC staff have asked me about changes to JISC banding if colleges merge, since we have an number of possible college mergers in Wales. The JISC band has an element based on FTEs, and the JISC band determines subscription cost: therefore a change in band following a merger can result in an increase in subscription e-resource costs. The following advice was put together with the help of JISC Collections (many thanks Brian!).

Q: Where can I find out more about JISC banding, and what my institution’s band is?

The JISC Collections website has a page about this.

Q: Is there an obligation on the college LRS to tell each e-resource provider about the merger?

There is an obligation to tell the publisher about the merger as this is a change in your status, and to avoid any potential breaches of the licences you hold.

Q: How would the new JISC band be decided?

Once the mergers are confirmed as going ahead JISC Collections needs to be informed. They will forward the emails onto their consultant who advises them on JISC Banding. He needs the following information from you about the projected funding for the merged colleges, so that he can calculate your new JISC Bands following the mergers:

• Anticipated funding from DCELLS
• Anticipated funding from HEFCW (if any)
• Anticipated research council funding

The College finance departments should be able to help you with these figures but if you need clarification on this, let JISC Collections know.

Q: Will the librarian have to renegotiate e-resource contracts and pay more for the remainder of any agreement?

• If the resource was not a JISC Collections deals: it will depend on the individual service provider as to what they do e.g. if there is not long left on the current agreement they may just leave it, and move the college to the new band when the new subscription year starts.
• If the resource IS a JISC Collections deal: any JISC Collections agreements which each respective college has currently subscribed to will continue as they were until the agreements end e.g. KnowUK and NewsUK at JISC Band G for College X and Britannica Online at JISC Band J for Y. Once these agreements have been renewed the College can then join the new agreements with the new JISC Band (the subscription will cover all sites at that point). With the free of charge resources (for example Film & Sound Online, Jorum, NewsFilm Online, and Hairdressing Training), you may need to re-sign the licences so that both sites are covered under the licence i.e. as the new college.

Q: What if a college subscribed to a resource and the one they are merging with didn’t?

• If the resource was not a JISC Collections deals: contact the resource provider.
• If the resource IS a JISC Collections deal: If one institution subscribes to one or more resources but the other does not then JISC Collections can contact the publishers on your behalf to see if access can be extended to staff and students at the non-subscribing site. An additional fee may be payable to the publisher in order for this to happen.

Q: If a resource is used by one college (e.g. an agricultural college) and unlikely to be relevant to the one they merge with, will they still have an increase in subscription cost because of a change of JISC band, even though the number of people using a resource won’t go up?

• If the resource was not a JISC Collections deal: contact the resource provider, explaining the situation. It may be that you don’t have to increase the subscription, especially if you can restrict access to students on the course (possible if the college is using Federated Access Management/Shibboleth).
• If the resource IS a JISC Collections deal: The answer to this can get a little complex. If it is a resource which one of the colleges had subscribed to prior to the merger then they can continue to pay at the JISC Banded rate they were paying prior to the merger (they would simply choose not to extend access to the other sites). Once the agreement is renewed they would normally have to pay at the new JISC Banded rate as the licence would cover the whole institution. In those cases where an FE College merges with a HE institution JISC Collections can arrange for the FE staff and students to subscribe to an FE only agreement on the basis that access to the resource is restricted to the staff and students on the FE campus and courses. Because of the complexity of this area, you should definitely contact JISC Collections to discuss the situation.

Update 25 Jan 2010: Mark Ludlam of Gorseinon College has created a useful blog post about college mergers.