Presentations
Tuesday 3rd July
Graham Titley (University of Plymouth)
ILLs for socially excluded groups
Notes of the workshop
Judith Walton,
Durham University Library
Presentation
(Microsoft PowerPoint file, 9KB)
Graham Titley kindly chaired this session using
a PowerPoint slide show to gently guide the discussion. First
under the slide "Who do we mean by socially excluded
groups?" the group agreed that the term "socially
excluded group" was not limited just to asylum seekers
and refugees, or to itinerants. We agreed that it happened
at all levels: economic and personal. It could happen because
of age or disability, or could relate to specific groups such
as children in care, people in prison or (in an academic library
situation) to distance learners.
Next under the slide "Is this a 'public library' problem
or does it affect other areas too?" the group agreed
that it wasn't. In libraries we tend to take the term "socially
excluded" in its broadest sense and use it for any type
of potentially excluded group. As Graham pointed out all HE
establishments have services for disabilities within their
libraries so HE libraries must take it just as seriously as
the public libraries. The discussion moved on to areas where
ILL can exclude some groups of our customers: aspects included
borrowing microfilm theses (no use to blind students), use
of SED to deliver articles (we don’t send full instructions
on their use), PDFs are generally not created to be used with
assistive technology and we all print out in black on white,
when coloured paper may be easier to read from. Generally
we rely on delivering the item to the user and letting them
change it to their needs, for example copying onto coloured
paper.
The third slide "Do we actually 'want' to provide a
service to these groups of people?" lead to a discussion
on access policies. In general the group agreed that as long
as users have the relevant ID then they generally gain access
to stock. In HE schemes such as 'Walk-In Users' provide access
to electronic journals whose licenses permit walk-in access.
These services though are only available to anyone who can
pass the security to get into the library. Southampton Public
library (in an area with a high number of asylum seekers)
reported that they had removed the requirement for an enrolment
form and give very basic computer access to anyone. This is
particularly important because applications for Home Office
forms and bidding for local Council accommodation is conducted
on-line, so access to computers can also help remove a source
of exclusion!
One problem faced by increasingly international communities
is that of obtaining material in the relevant languages. As
librarians we are very good at sourcing English language material,
but other language material is getting harder to locate. The
"Non-English Language Fiction Collections Database"
[from CONARLS]
provides a starting point for locating foreign material, however
it was mentioned that this was not necessarily up to date
and not all libraries will loan this material via ILL. An
alternative solution for Public libraries is to rent collections
of books in foreign languages. This can help relieve a problem
in a particular location, but these books cannot be loaned
to other areas via ILL. One academic librarian pointed out
that it is getting easier (and quicker) to obtain material
from abroad.
The group then went on to discuss whether we offer a full
or restricted service (slide 4) and we were forced to agree
that if we can’t afford to buy all the material required
by our users then they are getting a restricted service.
Graham Titley suggested that we (as ILL librarians) will
have to change to enhance our roles. The number of ILL requests
is decreasing and we will be increasingly contacting other
libraries (especially internationally) to arrange loans -
to do this we need to evolve better networking between libraries
and a better way to share and develop skills, particularly
with other languages. We waste time inventing the wheel each
time when another ILL librarian has discovered the solution
before you. This struck a chord and the group went on to discuss
the problems they have with international requesting and suggested
that template request letters should be compiled in a range
of different languages and be made available on the FIL website
as a useful resource to save time trying to translate requests.
After all requests are essentially the same format, but librarians
do not have the language skills to converse in the wide range
of languages required by our role. Pooling resources like
this would really benefit the ILL community. This concluded
the discussion on a buoyant note, and the feeling was that
if this succeeded then it would be a positive outcome from
the conference.
Presentation
(Microsoft PowerPoint file, 9KB)
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