Transformation: the institutional perspective

Russell Burke, Royal Holloway

The first afternoon session at the Association of Subscription Agents conference provided the institution perspective on transformation. Russell Burke, Information Consultant at the Bedford Library, Royal Holloway University of London opened by outlining the two complex landscapes: for publishing and HE students.

Students need to easily navigate through information literacy landscape and the online landscape is more complex than print was. Even if students have good information literacy skills they still need to know what is changing and is new. They rely heavily on agents and publishers for information and consider whether to pass on direct or repackage via own support tools.

One of the good things about library search is the at-a-glance view of what they can get access to. They don't push it as a tool for researchers. But it can be used for a summary research survey. They also provide literacy training for all levels of users and use social media and other awareness tools to try and ensure whole range of students know what's available.

Where does open access fit in with this? With students, they focus on basic issues (do I have to use the library?) as bringing in OA too early could be problematic. To be fully information literate, users need to know the source of all references in their research and study. They need to understand if from a pre-print or published article. the challenge is to identify what users need to know and then ensuring they understand what htey need to know at right time.

Jill Emery, Portland State University

Jill Emery is Collections Librarian at Portland State University. They are a relatively young university, founded in the 1940s post-war, diverse in subject areas. They don't have the resource of an Ivy League institution. The commodification of HE, internationalisation and split purchasing between subscription/one-time purchases have impacted on them. They need to prove value of investment to those paying the bill (parents, endowments, etc).

Today's reality is focused on purchasing and the big deals remain. They are looking at PDA/Article purchasing and an 80/20 split between subscriptions/one-time. Staff attrition and open access are affecting them. So they are looking at new services.

Anything will be considered to lessen the student costs including DIY and stacks replaced by collaborative work areas. They are committed to local library publishing and are looking at monograph publishing and have developed 21st century collections which are highly curated, locally focused with the aim of global impact (e.g. Dark Horse comics, Films on Demand). They are trying to support local authors and make content out of the university available globally. They also try to supply as many resources as possible in mobile  environment.

Rob Johnson, Research Consulting

Rob Johnson, Director at Research Consulting, spoke about UK open access activity. While the UK is a big influencer within global research (and the government has understandably tried to take a lead with policy making in this area) out of 2.2 m globally research articles published per annum, it only publishes c.140k articles or 6.4% of the total. So what happens to the rest of global research output?

When reflecting on what intermediaries can do he suggested they can explore:

• transaction management - including publisher pre-payments
• improved author experience (but perhaps not yet?)
• data, data, data (streamlining processes for managing compliance; promoting adoption of standard metadata forms and unique identifiers).

Chris Banks, Imperial College

Chris Banks, Director of Library Services from Imperial College London, outlined how they have a particular interest in open access due to the profile of their institution: 14k students of which 6k are postgraduate, c. 3k academics = lots of high level of research. She also noted that c. 92% of their budget is spent online.

The Finch Group findings 'at the time' were believed to be the best way to achieve a step change. The resulting push for Gold open access has created some interesting developments. Within the university, they have set up some interesting new working relationships. The research office is interested in library services as they have keen interest in compliance with funders and in some instituions they are managing funding of APCs.

Some library services are developing submission forms which seek to minimise the complexity for academics. The finance office are interested in the accountability for spend of Wellcome/BIS/RCUK/Institutional funds. There is a focus on raising awareness amongst academics and increasing understanding of the new RCUK mandates; information about journal compliance; copyright and licensing awareness; Green vs Gold open access, etc.

Banks held recent workshop that mapped disciplinary engagement with OA. Arts, humanities in 'don't know, don't care' section of map....
— ALPSP (@alpsp) February 24, 2014

Banks finished by considering both old and new players in the aggregation industry. Is there another point where agent/aggregator could work with research information systems with the SHERPA data/ CRIS data nodes perhaps?

'I can get it all for free on Google, yeah?' Russell Burke from Royal Holloway University on information literacy

Russell Burke, Information Consultant

At Royal Holloway University, they spend a lot of time coaching and training potential and current students on information literacy. Russell Burke, an Information Consultant there, outlined what they cover and who they train.

At Royal Holloway they provide training tailored to subject department needs. They cover pre-sessional and sixth formers as well as undergraduates from first to third years. They also train postgraduates including taught masters and PhD researchers and graduate skills. They work with staff although there are varying degrees of engagement between departments. Embedded training is used as well as IS and one-to-one sessions.

Practical sessions are delivered that focus on hands-on activities, using the online resources themselves, and use of more interactive and visual tools such as:

• Prezi
• Video tutorials (in-house and YouTube)
• Online VLE training and quizes using moodle
• Group work
• exploring the use of games and gaming 

An example information literacy session for first year undergraduates would include: finding items on your reading lists; developing a search strategy; online resources and services - LibrarySearch, Web of Knowlege, MLA International; searching information sources - hints and tips; citation and referencing - RefWorks; accessing online resources off campus; and using other libraries.

They also help students with finding material on reading lists through their online reading list system, the Moodle (VLE), via handouts (for vintage academics!), and via LibrarySearch. Often, students are thrown when it comes to book chapters as they are so used to searching digitally for journals articles. So they also provide an example of reference to a book. Getting them to think about their essay question or research topic is also covered. The focus is on what they need to find out and searching for information - you can't just type in your essay title. Students are encouraged to ask what it is they are looking for, to think around the topic, and to consider what the essential terms they will need to search for.

Guidance is provided on developing a search strategy. Identify keywords that define your research question. Select relevant information sources. Evaluate and modify your searches and select and save results, then locate copies of promising texts.

Analysing and evaluating information is also crucial. You need a critical evaluation of information sources:

• Origin - where is your information from? Can you get access to the online full text or print material?
• Content - is it an academic journal? A published book, a newspaper or a public website or a blog?
• Relevance - read the abstract (summary) so they know it's relevant.

With citation and referencing, students are guided to acknowledge the author of the source. This will enable the item to be traced (by their lecturer, something most students pick up on first). But it also shows evidence of the scope and depth of your research. Then they have to understand the appropriate reference style (layout etc). They cover legal issues such as plagiarism - something that is incredibly important to the institution - and then provide guidance on selecting and saving results and full text.

Fancy a game?

Other issues that are covered relate to RefWorks: bibliographic management software; capturing, saving and organising references; how to access it via the e-reousrces or an A-Z list; and how to access online self-help tutorials. They also teach them about the various different systems and standards, of which there are many!

Burke closed with a useful tip: they use gaming as an icebreaker for students. It works to engage and present information in a more digestible form and helps with newer students.