CILIP UC&R East Midlands Members’ Day:
Making an Impact
Kimberlin Library, De Montfort University, Tuesday 28th June 2011
Measuring and demonstrating the impact academic libraries make on students, teachers and researchers, and on our institution’s overall performance is crucial if we are to continue to develop our services in the coming years under the new funding arrangements. The UC&R committee has put together this programme to help members keep abreast of developments in the field and gain practical understanding of the systems and processes involved.
Programme
10.00 Registration and refreshments
10.25 Introduction: Chris Martindale
10.30 Making an impact: The JISC Library Impact Data Project - Paul Stainthorp
11.20 Making an impact: The subject librarian and collaborative research: reflections on the PITSTOP Project - Jason Eyre
12.00 World Cafe
12.45 Lunch
1.30 Evaluating library impact: how to outwit government, fight fashion - and develop libraries? - David Streatfield
2.40 Making an impact at work through voluntary professional involvement and demonstrating its value to employers - Maria Cotera
3.40 UC&R Annual General Meeting
4.00 Close
Making an impact: The JISC Library Impact Data Project
Paul Stainthorp will give an overview of the JISC-funded Library Impact Data Project (LIDP). This project, led by the University of Huddersfield, is testing the hypothesis that there is ‘a statistically significant correlation across a number of universities between library activity data and student attainment’. To do this, the team is gathering and analysing library activity data (book loans, gate count figures, e-resource accesses, PC logins) from eight UK university libraries, and comparing that data with student attainment. Paul is the electronic resources librarian at the University of Lincoln and currently project manager for the JISC-funded resource discovery project 'Jerome'.
Making an impact: The subject librarian and collaborative research: reflections on the PITSTOP Project
Online discussion boards are an effective way of promoting collaborative learning and a sense of community. PITSTOP focused on the use of mediated discussion boards and the effect their use had both on the quality of information students used in their work and the way that this information is applied in a practice setting. Key questions included whether this medium could help students integrate new knowledge and theory into their practice, change their practice, or help them test the feasibility of possible interventions. The presentation will be given by Jason Eyre, who is Assistant Librarian for the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at De Montfort University. His professional interest in teaching and research, and in subject support, led to the development of the PITSTOP collaborative learning project.
Evaluating Library Impact: how to outwit government, fight fashion - and develop libraries?
David Streatfield will examine the tensions between government pressures to control public service provision and library managers' efforts to better understand and develop their services. He will show how changes in political agendas influence all aspects of library evaluation, including the types of acceptable evidence, the methods used and even the language employed to describe evaluation. He will then outline a 'user-friendly' approach to library impact evaluation focused on developing more effective library services. David is Principal of Information Management Associates, a research, training and consultancy team focused on education, health and libraries. He is currently preparing a new edition of the book which he wrote with Sharon Markless - Evaluating the Impact of your Library (Facet, 2006).
Making an impact at work through voluntary professional involvement and demonstrating its value to employers
In this case study Maria Cotera, Past President of CILIP Career Development Group, will talk about her experiences as a committed CILIP activist and how she has used this for the benefit of her organisation, and provide some tips for those of you who are already involved in committees, or would like to be, and are seeking employers' support to undertake voluntary roles.
World cafe
The World Café discussions will focus on the following questions:
1. How do we currently measure impact and how can we improve?
2. Is library induction important for student achievement and how effective is it?
3. Are we working effectively with academic staff and other colleagues – how should we develop liaison activities?
4. How can libraries support the widening participation agenda and how can we access additional resources to do this?
5. How will students’ expectations of libraries change with rising fees and how should we respond?
6. Are libraries significant in helping students make the transition from FE to HE?