Wednesday, 14 December 2016
UWA: Information and Digital Literacy
As in all the other university libraries I have visited, there are research committees and teaching and learning committees at all faculties and library staff are members of the various committees.
As I have said before we should try to get invited to similar groups/committees at NTNU. Many researchers and teachers at NTNU don't know what the library and librarians can offer, and being part of these committees would help communicating our services and skills.
Also LibGuides are a very important tool or service for both students and staff at the university. There are LibGuides for all major subjects and general topics like reference management, citation styles or "Getting started in the library". Have a look here for all LibGuides:
http://www.library.uwa.edu.au/information-resources/guides
I have been talking about LibGuides for many years, and I have suggested several times to purchase this tool. LibGuides are useful and professionally designed, and they are used in very many libraries/universities worldwide.
Under "Student learning" on UWA's webpage you find "StudySmarter" that helps UWA students getting more out of their study, communication, maths, English language, writing and research skills.
Under that page you have a service called WRITESmart. This service offers drop-in sessions, workshops and other programmes for all students.
Drop-in sessions are offered on weekdays between 10am and 12pm at the Reid Library (biggest branch library at UWA). One will get expert advice and feedback on assignments, study, research and referencing.
The free practical workshops provided are open to all students and there is a huge range of topics covered each semester. Here you have the detailed plan from August to November 2016:
http://www.student.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/2903430/ProgramCalendar_2016_Sem2.pdf
UWA Library will also start working on Curriculum Mapping soon, together with teachers and other university staff. If you do not quite know what Curriculum Mapping means, here you have some links to definitions and explanations:
http://edglossary.org/curriculum-mapping/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curriculum_mapping
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/virtualwkshp/curriculum_mapping.shtml
I also got to know that at Curtain University senior librarians have an office in the various faculties. We have been discussing "office time" (kontortid) at NTNU University Library for a long time, but only a few subjects librarians have established this.
As I have said before we should try to get invited to similar groups/committees at NTNU. Many researchers and teachers at NTNU don't know what the library and librarians can offer, and being part of these committees would help communicating our services and skills.
Also LibGuides are a very important tool or service for both students and staff at the university. There are LibGuides for all major subjects and general topics like reference management, citation styles or "Getting started in the library". Have a look here for all LibGuides:
http://www.library.uwa.edu.au/information-resources/guides
I have been talking about LibGuides for many years, and I have suggested several times to purchase this tool. LibGuides are useful and professionally designed, and they are used in very many libraries/universities worldwide.
So I still don't understand why we can't have them at NTNU!!!
Under "Student learning" on UWA's webpage you find "StudySmarter" that helps UWA students getting more out of their study, communication, maths, English language, writing and research skills.
Under that page you have a service called WRITESmart. This service offers drop-in sessions, workshops and other programmes for all students.
Drop-in sessions are offered on weekdays between 10am and 12pm at the Reid Library (biggest branch library at UWA). One will get expert advice and feedback on assignments, study, research and referencing.
The free practical workshops provided are open to all students and there is a huge range of topics covered each semester. Here you have the detailed plan from August to November 2016:
http://www.student.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/2903430/ProgramCalendar_2016_Sem2.pdf
As you can see, some of these workshops are like the ones that the Student Service at NTNU is offering. We really should collaborate much more with them!
UWA Library will also start working on Curriculum Mapping soon, together with teachers and other university staff. If you do not quite know what Curriculum Mapping means, here you have some links to definitions and explanations:
http://edglossary.org/curriculum-mapping/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curriculum_mapping
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/virtualwkshp/curriculum_mapping.shtml
Does anybody know whether NTNU does Curriculum Mapping? Then we should be part of this work!
I also got to know that at Curtain University senior librarians have an office in the various faculties. We have been discussing "office time" (kontortid) at NTNU University Library for a long time, but only a few subjects librarians have established this.
Thursday, 8 December 2016
UWA: Communication, Marketing and Outreach
On another day I had a meeting with Alissa and with Katie, and we talked about the Library's Social Media Strategy and the University Library Engagement Framework.
The UWA Library currently maintains two official social media accounts, one on Facebook (only one for the library!) and one on Twitter.
There is a social media team in charge of the accounts and each member works two shifts per week. Unfortunately I can't remember how many people are in the team and how many hours these shifts last. Anyway, the team is is responsible for monitoring the official feeds daily, creating frequent interesting content (at least three posts per day on Twitter and one unique post on Facebook per day), and responding to direct messages from clients within a certain time. This team also represents UWA Library on other social media accounts, like the UWA Students page.
Most important: there is a social media activity plan, that means much of the content throughout the year is planned.
It was also interesting to hear about an informal survey the library has conducted in 2013. This survey revealed that Facebook was the fourth most popular method that students would like to engage with the library - after email, in person and via askUWA. The survey also showed that students were interested in hearing about opening hours (84%), new resources (84%), new services (82%), IT outages (80%), research support (72%) and ebooks (61%). They were less interested in connecting with staff (33%) and finding out about library news and events (37%).
In addition, there is a YouTube account for UWA Library. You will find lots of useful and interesting videos there and we can get nice ideas for our own videos that we hopefully will produce soon!
I liked very much the video for new students that was called Information Services Undergraduate Orientation or the one about Open Access Funding Mandates and the UWA Research Repository. Just type UWA Library on youtube.com and you will see all the videos, either made by the library or the university.
Another interesting thing is that there is a "Research Week" at UWA once a year. Then the UWA Library runs a session about how to use social media.
This framework is such a useful document and I was impressed by its content. The chapter "About the Engagement Framework" of one of the first versions of the framework states:
"The University Library's Strategic Directions 2015-2010 outline the rationale for stakeholders engagement:
Our aim is to provide innovative and relevant library services to support the University of Western Australia to be a leading global university. This will be achieved through the provision of excellent staff, services, collections and spaces and a focus on the deep understanding of user needs through collaboration and partnership.
This document sets out an engagement framework in supporting of meeting this aim. The Library has a wide range of mechanisms and channels for engagement, and recognises that it needs strategic, consistent and systematic ways to engage with stakeholders and communicate its value on campus.
By establishing and regularly reviewing our engagement framework in the context of UWA strategies and priorities, the Library will be better positioned to communicate effectively about the Library's value and contribution.
This is an internal document for Library staff. It will be updated regularly to reflect current engagement priorities and messages. This document will enable staff to communicate key points effectively in these engagements. It is not intended to be prescriptive but to support Library staff in communicating around our wide range of services."
By working with this document all library staff will have better knowledge about priorities and key messages of the library's services and engagements. And thus the staff is able to communicate the library's value and offered services much better.
Social Media Strategy
The UWA Library currently maintains two official social media accounts, one on Facebook (only one for the library!) and one on Twitter.
There is a social media team in charge of the accounts and each member works two shifts per week. Unfortunately I can't remember how many people are in the team and how many hours these shifts last. Anyway, the team is is responsible for monitoring the official feeds daily, creating frequent interesting content (at least three posts per day on Twitter and one unique post on Facebook per day), and responding to direct messages from clients within a certain time. This team also represents UWA Library on other social media accounts, like the UWA Students page.
Most important: there is a social media activity plan, that means much of the content throughout the year is planned.
A very good example of what to use Twitter for is to tweet about the most used/accessed document in the institutional repository once a week. We could do this as well!!!
It was also interesting to hear about an informal survey the library has conducted in 2013. This survey revealed that Facebook was the fourth most popular method that students would like to engage with the library - after email, in person and via askUWA. The survey also showed that students were interested in hearing about opening hours (84%), new resources (84%), new services (82%), IT outages (80%), research support (72%) and ebooks (61%). They were less interested in connecting with staff (33%) and finding out about library news and events (37%).
In addition, there is a YouTube account for UWA Library. You will find lots of useful and interesting videos there and we can get nice ideas for our own videos that we hopefully will produce soon!
I liked very much the video for new students that was called Information Services Undergraduate Orientation or the one about Open Access Funding Mandates and the UWA Research Repository. Just type UWA Library on youtube.com and you will see all the videos, either made by the library or the university.
Another interesting thing is that there is a "Research Week" at UWA once a year. Then the UWA Library runs a session about how to use social media.
University Library Engagement Framework
"The University Library's Strategic Directions 2015-2010 outline the rationale for stakeholders engagement:
Our aim is to provide innovative and relevant library services to support the University of Western Australia to be a leading global university. This will be achieved through the provision of excellent staff, services, collections and spaces and a focus on the deep understanding of user needs through collaboration and partnership.
This document sets out an engagement framework in supporting of meeting this aim. The Library has a wide range of mechanisms and channels for engagement, and recognises that it needs strategic, consistent and systematic ways to engage with stakeholders and communicate its value on campus.
By establishing and regularly reviewing our engagement framework in the context of UWA strategies and priorities, the Library will be better positioned to communicate effectively about the Library's value and contribution.
This is an internal document for Library staff. It will be updated regularly to reflect current engagement priorities and messages. This document will enable staff to communicate key points effectively in these engagements. It is not intended to be prescriptive but to support Library staff in communicating around our wide range of services."
By working with this document all library staff will have better knowledge about priorities and key messages of the library's services and engagements. And thus the staff is able to communicate the library's value and offered services much better.
I mean this should be a matter of course, but in real life it often is not.
I have a print version of the Engagement Framework and you are welcome to borrow it.
Saturday, 26 November 2016
UWA: Research Support Services and Training
The UWA Library provides a lot of research support services, in particular for staff, postgraduates and honours students.
Examples of these services are:
- Research Data Management Services
- Support with Scholarly Publishing and Repository
- Copyright Support
- Support with Research Impact Measurement
At each UWA branch library there is staff (often liaison or subject librarians) to provide advice and support to researchers, either in individual consultations or to groups.
The library offers a Research Support Programme of regular workshops which are designed to develop research skills and assist with common challenges in the research lifecycle.
Some examples of workshops (that we surely can learn from!):
1. Overview of Library services
"The University Library supports HDR (Higher Degree Research) students and early career researchers in a number of ways. This introductory session will provide an overview, and suggest how you might benefit from library support at different stages in your research process.
2. Literature searching
"Scholarly literature searching is much more than a few keywords! Find out how to carry out thorough, efficient and effective searches using UWA tools and scholarly information resources provided by the University Library."
3. Advanced Google for researchers
"Harness the power of Google to find scholarly materials to support your research, find out how advanced Google functions can enhance the quality and efficiency of your searches."
4. Staying up to date
"Setting yourself up to keep abreast of new publications, news and developments in your field can save you hours of time through your research project. This workshop will cover technologies, tools and tips to simplify this aspect of your life."
5. Research Data Management
"All researchers have an obligation to manage their research data and ensure compliance with UWA and funder policies. This workshop will provide an overview of best practice relating to data storage, IP, metadata, documentation, sharing, disposal and more."
6. Maximising and Measuring your Research Impact
"Understanding the impact of your research is essential to your future success. This workshop will cover citations and other evidence of impact, the h-index, journal rankings and impact factors, researcher profiles, and focus on strategies to maximise impact. This session will be useful for researchers completing the Research Performance Evidence section of grant applications and anyone needing to demonstrate their research impact."
7. Where to Publish
"Deciding where and how to publish is an important step in the research process. This workshop will cover a range of factors to consider, and introduce the tools and guides that can help. Open access publishing and the UWA Research Repository are covered."
Here you can have a look at the Library's webpage for Research Support:
http://www.library.uwa.edu.au/research
As you can see there are also a lot of online guides/LibGuides!
UWA Perth: library strategy and strategic teams
When I had a meeting with Jill Benn who is the University Librarian (library director) at The University of Western Australia (UWA) and with Scott Nichols who is the Associate University Librarian, they were talking to me about the library's organisational structure, about their work with the library strategy, and - most interesting - about the different strategic teams.
Regarding the organisational structure, I don't have an updated chart for the library. The main reason is that one is working on a new structure for the whole university, including the library. But I have a print document describing the various positions, functions and sub-functions. And, there is an interim management structure for UWA and it is very interesting that the library is organised under the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research. It is also interesting that there is no Vice-Chancellor Education (but a Pro Vice-Chancellor, Education Innovation). The reason for that is the focus on research at UWA. If you are interested, have a look at the structure here:
http://www.governance.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/2915615/Interim-Mgmt-Structure.pdf
The most important item we were talking about were the Strategic Teams at the library. These teams are cross-functional teams and there are five of them:
As an example, here you have the scope and responsibilities of the Research Strategy Team:
Scope:
"The team will provide a strategic direction for the development of innovative library research services to support the University's strategic goal to be recognised as a global leader in internationally renowned research. This will include establishing relationships with and working with:
Researchers, research centres/institutes and research groups to develop an on-going understanding of researcher needs.
The ORE (Office of Research Enterprise) and GRS (Graduate Research School) to ensure that University requirements relating to research are met and supported.
Other relevant areas of the University to promote and market library research support services and initiatives.
External organisations (including vendors) to ensure knowledge and awareness of new and innovative research related systems and tools."
Responsibilities:
"The team will have responsibility for the following in relation to the research portfolio:
1. Monitoring developments, best practice, and innovations in research locally, nationally, and internationally.
2. Identifying opportunities for development of research support services and innovation.
3. Developing an understanding of the client needs.
4. Developing activities to promote and communicate research support and services, including training sessions for staff and students.
5. Gathering and analysing statistics and feedback to ensure key objectives are being met.
6. Identifying research support skills needed by Library staff and coordinating training to meet these needs.
7. Ensuring research support procedures are documented and current.
8. Partnering with relevant areas across the University to ensure research support services delivered from the Library are complimentary and support wider goals of the University
9. Developing and maintaining relevant webpages, signage, and publications related to research support.
10. Making recommendations on policy to the Library executive.
11. Monitoring progress of operational planning projects relating to research support."
That is really a lot of responsibility, but I think it is necessary to push development and make sure that library services are aligned with the university's strategies and goals.
Jill, Scott and I also discussed the work on the Library Strategy.
At UWA Library they establish different groups for the different strategic directions (five in the newest plan). These groups then write a paper about the topic (i.e. internationally-renowned research) and send it to all staff for feedback and ideas. In this way the management ensures a proper involvement of all staff in the strategic plan!
Afterwards there is the process of operational planning and all staff can come up with proposals for projects!
http://www.library.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/2778114/University-Library-Strategic-Directions-2015-2020.pdf
I also have a print version and I think we can learn a lot from this strategy (layout and phrasing).
Regarding the organisational structure, I don't have an updated chart for the library. The main reason is that one is working on a new structure for the whole university, including the library. But I have a print document describing the various positions, functions and sub-functions. And, there is an interim management structure for UWA and it is very interesting that the library is organised under the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research. It is also interesting that there is no Vice-Chancellor Education (but a Pro Vice-Chancellor, Education Innovation). The reason for that is the focus on research at UWA. If you are interested, have a look at the structure here:
http://www.governance.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/2915615/Interim-Mgmt-Structure.pdf
The most important item we were talking about were the Strategic Teams at the library. These teams are cross-functional teams and there are five of them:
- Research Strategy Team
- Education Strategy Team
- Collection Strategy Team
- Marketing and Communication Strategy Team
- IT and Inquiry Support Strategy Team
As an example, here you have the scope and responsibilities of the Research Strategy Team:
Scope:
"The team will provide a strategic direction for the development of innovative library research services to support the University's strategic goal to be recognised as a global leader in internationally renowned research. This will include establishing relationships with and working with:
Researchers, research centres/institutes and research groups to develop an on-going understanding of researcher needs.
The ORE (Office of Research Enterprise) and GRS (Graduate Research School) to ensure that University requirements relating to research are met and supported.
Other relevant areas of the University to promote and market library research support services and initiatives.
External organisations (including vendors) to ensure knowledge and awareness of new and innovative research related systems and tools."
Responsibilities:
"The team will have responsibility for the following in relation to the research portfolio:
1. Monitoring developments, best practice, and innovations in research locally, nationally, and internationally.
2. Identifying opportunities for development of research support services and innovation.
3. Developing an understanding of the client needs.
4. Developing activities to promote and communicate research support and services, including training sessions for staff and students.
5. Gathering and analysing statistics and feedback to ensure key objectives are being met.
6. Identifying research support skills needed by Library staff and coordinating training to meet these needs.
7. Ensuring research support procedures are documented and current.
8. Partnering with relevant areas across the University to ensure research support services delivered from the Library are complimentary and support wider goals of the University
9. Developing and maintaining relevant webpages, signage, and publications related to research support.
10. Making recommendations on policy to the Library executive.
11. Monitoring progress of operational planning projects relating to research support."
That is really a lot of responsibility, but I think it is necessary to push development and make sure that library services are aligned with the university's strategies and goals.
I hope that our library can establish cross-functional teams again, so that we can ensure that all branch libraries and all staff offer the same services and support, and also to be able to focus on the development of our services!!!
Jill, Scott and I also discussed the work on the Library Strategy.
At UWA Library they establish different groups for the different strategic directions (five in the newest plan). These groups then write a paper about the topic (i.e. internationally-renowned research) and send it to all staff for feedback and ideas. In this way the management ensures a proper involvement of all staff in the strategic plan!
Afterwards there is the process of operational planning and all staff can come up with proposals for projects!
Isn't this fantastic???
Here you have the University Library Strategic Directions 2015-2010:http://www.library.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/2778114/University-Library-Strategic-Directions-2015-2020.pdf
I also have a print version and I think we can learn a lot from this strategy (layout and phrasing).
Tuesday, 22 November 2016
The University of Western Australia (UWA) in Perth and its library: pictures, facts and figures
The Homepage of UWA states:"The University of Western Australia, the State’s first university, was established in 1911 and opened two years later with 184 students. Today the university enrols over 24,000 students, in eight faculties: Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts; Arts; Business School; Education; Engineering, Computing and Mathematics; Law; Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences; and Science."
In 2015, there were 3,677 staff (full time equivalent) working at the university. UWA is also very proud of its Nobel prize winners: Professor Barry Marshall and Emeritus Professor Robin Warren were awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease.
The main campus of the UWA is just very beautiful.
You only need to walk a few minutes and then you are right at the very broad Swan river.
There are lots of green areas on the campus and all the facilities you need, including lots of sports facilities, residential homes and cafés and restaurants.
The UWA Library was established in 1964 and celebrated its 50th anniversary two years ago. Above you can see a part of the outside area of the Reid Library, one of the branch libraries. Today UWA Library has about 100 staff and six sites (branch libraries), in addition to the Special Collections.
Some years ago the process of refurbishing the library spaces started.
"The Reid Library refurbishment project has transformed the ground-floor of the library with a state-of-the-art design, where it has become open and light and makes the most of its beautiful and central location on campus. The number of student spaces for collaborative and informal learning has increased from 350 to 700. There has been improved access to wifi, power points and locker space, increased and upgraded bathrooms and the new Quobba Gnarning café. Other highlights of the refurbishment include:
- A new entrance off Saw Promenade
- A range of collaborative learning spaces to meet different learning styles
- A learning suite for interactive tutorial style teaching for up to 60 students which can also be booked and used by students when not being used for teaching
- Relocation of the resource room from the first-floor to the ground-floor of the library to improve accessibility
- A dedicated space for WriteSmart (a daily help service for students delivered collaboratively by Student Services and the library)
- Full refurbishment including new furniture, carpet and paint."
After the refurbishment of the ground floor, Reid Library has received up to 80% more visits daily than at the same time the year before. It really has become a central space for learning.
Research Skill Development Framework and Work Skills Development Framework at Monash University
As I have already mentioned in another blog post, Monash University has adopted the Research
Skill Development Framework as the backbone for the University's educational
strategies.
I had a meeting with Lyn Torres, Information Research Skills Manager at the library, and she explained the framework and told me about how the library and university are using it. I was incredibly impressed about Lyn's skills and enthusiasm and I wished we would have someone like her at our library.
The Research Skill Development Framework "presents a conceptual, non-prescriptive model for curriculum and assessment design that explicitly and coherently develops students' research skills within disciplinary content, at the course and unit levels." Subject/liaison librarians and learning skills advisers are applying the framework and working very closely together with teachers and academics when designing curricula/courses.
The Research Skills Development Framework looks similar to the skills frameworks or information literacy frameworks at other universities/libraries. However at Monash University Library they decided to stay very close to the original framework by John Willison and Kerry O'Regan (I have been talking about it in earlier blog posts).
That means the framework includes six facets of research: a) Embark & Clarify, b) Find & Generate, c) Evaluate & Reflect, d) Organise & Manage, e) Analyse & Synthesise and f) Communicate & Apply. There are five levels of students' autonomy or research levels: Level 1: Prescribed Research, Level 2: Bounded Research, Level 3: Scaffolded Research, Level 4: Self-actuated Research and Level 5: Open Research.
The Australian government and the Australian universities have been focusing more and more on students' employability skills during the last years. Therefore Monash University Library has adopted the so-called Work Skills Development Framework that was developed by Sue Bandaranaike (James Cook University) and John Willison (University of Adelaide). It addresses work-readiness as part of the Higher Education teaching and learning agenda, and enables the interpretation and articulation of students’ work skills gained through study and participation at the university.
The library offers to help with the design and incorporation of employment skills within curricula.
Have a look at the Work Skills Development Framework here: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/rsd/framework/frameworks/WSD-2009_2014.pdf
I had a meeting with Lyn Torres, Information Research Skills Manager at the library, and she explained the framework and told me about how the library and university are using it. I was incredibly impressed about Lyn's skills and enthusiasm and I wished we would have someone like her at our library.
The Research Skill Development Framework "presents a conceptual, non-prescriptive model for curriculum and assessment design that explicitly and coherently develops students' research skills within disciplinary content, at the course and unit levels." Subject/liaison librarians and learning skills advisers are applying the framework and working very closely together with teachers and academics when designing curricula/courses.
The Research Skills Development Framework looks similar to the skills frameworks or information literacy frameworks at other universities/libraries. However at Monash University Library they decided to stay very close to the original framework by John Willison and Kerry O'Regan (I have been talking about it in earlier blog posts).
That means the framework includes six facets of research: a) Embark & Clarify, b) Find & Generate, c) Evaluate & Reflect, d) Organise & Manage, e) Analyse & Synthesise and f) Communicate & Apply. There are five levels of students' autonomy or research levels: Level 1: Prescribed Research, Level 2: Bounded Research, Level 3: Scaffolded Research, Level 4: Self-actuated Research and Level 5: Open Research.
Colleagues, please have a look at the framework and think about how we can use it in our library and teaching! http://www.monash.edu/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/156760/research-skills-development.pdf
It was also interesting to learn that the library teaches academic staff to understand and use the framework. This teaching happens in collaboration with the department that teaches new staff about how to teach.The Australian government and the Australian universities have been focusing more and more on students' employability skills during the last years. Therefore Monash University Library has adopted the so-called Work Skills Development Framework that was developed by Sue Bandaranaike (James Cook University) and John Willison (University of Adelaide). It addresses work-readiness as part of the Higher Education teaching and learning agenda, and enables the interpretation and articulation of students’ work skills gained through study and participation at the university.
The library offers to help with the design and incorporation of employment skills within curricula.
Have a look at the Work Skills Development Framework here: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/rsd/framework/frameworks/WSD-2009_2014.pdf
It really was impressive at Monash University Library and I realised that staff at NTNU University Library (including me!) need to get up-skilled a lot!!!
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