This article is from the August 2002 Issue of Update.
Over the next four years the British Council will be transforming its libraries and information centres. This will be possible through a large investment, the result of a successful bid to the government in its comprehensive spending review in 2000. The main idea behind the proposal is to use the latest and continually changing opportunities offered by the new technologies to help us achieve our strategic objectives. These are to:
- build appreciation of the UK’s creativity and scientific innovation among people overseas;
- strengthen their engagement with the diversity of British culture;
- increase recognition of the range and quality of learning opportunities from the UK;
- promote the learning of English;
- strengthen educational co-operation between the UK and other countries;
- enhance awareness of the UK’s democratic values and processes;
- work with other countries to strengthen good governance and human rights.
The implication is that our information work should integrate all the other areas of traditional British Council activity — in the sciences, the arts, English-language teaching, governance — with government-led Information Society initiatives. And the staff involved in the activities should also be working together to plan, organise and deliver the events.
The umbrella term for the new concept is ‘knowledge and learning centres’. Perhaps a better term is ‘knowledge and learning services’ because we do not need a building from which to operate. One of the most exciting activities is the ‘virtual’ British Council — our web presence — through which we promote our own work and the UK as a whole.
So, what are knowledge and learning centres (KLCs) all about? The key ideas are to:
- reach more people more quickly and more cheaply;
- give them more access to information, ideas and experiences;
- provide flexible learning opportunities;
- help them connect with people with similar interests in other countries;
- help them have a greater appreciation and engagement with the UK.
None of these ideas can be separated from the others and each provides great opportunities for information staff to contribute.
Expanding from an already high base
In 2001-02 we had more than 300,000 library members. We answered 1.8m enquiries about the UK and studying in the UK. We ran 40 seminars and conferences in the UK in which about 1,000 experts from 107 countries participated. At any one time, we are teaching English to about 130,000 people in our 129 teaching centres overseas. There are about 2.5m hits per month on our website hosted on our Manchester server (for about 50 countries).
We want to reach more people. We can do this through the web itself but there are two other ways in which we can extend our current activities — video-conferencing and e-communities. We will be installing high-quality VC facilities in about 15 offices over the next four years. Elsewhere, we will work in partnership with the World Bank’s Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) and its distance learning centres.
The opportunities offered by the video-conferencing and e-discussion cut across many of our traditional activities. In March, as part of our seminar ‘Tackling corruption and establishing standards in public life’, in Oxford, we held a two-hour video-conference in our Oxford office between the 40 participants in the UK and 35 experts in New Delhi, India.
And ‘Global approaches to environmental democracy’, held in Bath, 26-31 May, was complemented by an international e-conference between 10 and 21 June. This brought together a cross-section of public and private sector representatives, NGOs and members of the wider public. The contribution from the e-conference provides the basis for the seminar report, which will be given to all the national delegations at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August.
Information services can support these events by providing appropriate bibliographies and web links, and widen their impact by such things as discussion groups and introductory sessions on internet searching in the British Council premises for younger people.
Distance learning for self-development
Another key area is self-development. Many young, and not so young, people want to keep learning to improve their job prospects or keep up their professional knowledge. The British Council for many years has supported the efforts of British educational institutions to encourage students to study in the UK. However, the costs are high, and many people are not in a position to leave their jobs and families for a year or more. We want to provide more flexible learning opportunities, through distance and online learning. We now have a distance learning team responsible for taking forward these opportunities.
There are several models to follow. In India, three ‘managed learning’ courses are offered. These combine online study, video-conferenced lectures and seminars with UK-based tutors and more immediate face-to-face meetings with Delhi-based tutors. Again, information staff can add to the learning experience by offering internet searching skills, promoting the e-journals to which the library subscribes and providing hands-on support in using the resources.
Another model is online courses such as those offered by Learndirect. In India, ‘tasters’ of several short courses are offered and, depending on take-up, this could be widened to other countries.
Bringing people together
The knowledge and learning services concept brings something new in helping people from different countries connect with each other. In the past this happened only through our international seminars.
An example is the discussion on our Culturelab-UK website.[1] Digitallab explores how science and technology influence the world of entertainment. Gaming guru Peter Molyneux participated in a computer games debate in May. The challenge is to take these discussions forward; to pick up on concerns and issues for those who participate and involve them in future debates and events.
Another way of bringing people together is through alumni groups. Many universities have these and British Council offices in many countries have set up their own country groups. One which crosses country boundaries is the Chevening Group.[2] The British Council has run this Foreign and Commonwealth Office scheme for many years, by which high-fliers come to the UK, usually for one year’s academic study. It is anticipated that these young people, between 25 and 35 years of age, will achieve a position of influence in their own countries and bring their UK experience to national and international affairs in the future. Before too long, we hope to create a global online community of Chevening scholars.
The focus on the electronic does not mean that we have forgotten the printed word on paper and face-to-face communication. Most of our knowledge and learning centres will contain books, journals and newspapers. The book collections may be smaller but they will change more often and directly reflect the interests of those who come to the centre. Fiction is an enduring interest and we will set up reading groups in some countries.
English-language teaching
English-language teaching is also dependent on the printed word and face-to-face communication, although the web is increasingly important. Our Learn English [3] and Global Village are extremely popular with students around the world. Global Village is an international community of British Council students learning English who can access the site at any time to practise the language with other British Council students and teachers anywhere in the world.
Our portal Teach English [4] aims to cover everything a teacher needs, from the latest methodology to looking for a job, to links to professional organisations and free sites for learners. Teachers can keep up to date by networking through our English-Language Teaching Contacts Scheme (ELTeCS)[5] which has 4,000 members, with seven regional discussion lists.
The arts
The visual, musical and performing arts remain central to the British Council’s work. For more than 60 years we have been collecting works of art, craft and design. This large and valuable collection is now accessible through an online catalogue.[6] More than 1,500 items are listed (many with images). Copyright protection prevents us putting together virtual exhibitions but we hope to feature a ‘picture/item of the month’ with links to British galleries and museums. British Council offices and other institutions can borrow particular items for their own exhibitions.
The Selector is a weekly, two-hour radio show which ‘aims to promote the new sounds, talents and musical culture of modern Britain’. The programmes are produced by Somethin’ Else for the British Council and are available for syndication to radio stations around the world, from Hong Kong to Hungary and Sierra Leone to Singapore. An estimated 25m people hear this music in 14 countries. All the information is available through the web.[7] Although the music itself is not heard through your PC it is only a matter of time.
Around the world
The first KLC opened in New Delhi in January (see pictures opposite); the second in Belgrade in mid-March (see this page). Plans for later in the year include Accra, Kuala Lumpur, Paris, Cairo and Ankara.
In Delhi we have a lending library of 24,000 books and 100 hard-copy journals. We have audio and video cassettes for use on site and for borrowing and about 200 CD-Roms accessible through the PCs in the centre. We have an electronic library of journals, databases (Emerald, Institute of Management, Infotrack, LexisNexis), newspapers, directories and dictionaries, encyclopaedias and newspapers. We have study and reading space for about 60 people, and 70 PCs, spread between the reading and information zones, the video-conferencing suite and the managed learning zone.
The Belgrade KLC is smaller. It has a cyber centre, 9,000 books and videos for borrowing, journals and newspapers, and e-subscriptions similar to Delhi. The video-conferencing suite takes up to 60 people. The emphasis in Belgrade is on partnerships. Several NGOs working in governance and education see the potential of the KLC for updating the skills of senior public sector officials who may have neither the time nor the English-language ability to benefit from a course in the UK. A key partnership for Belgrade, and the British Council as a whole, is with the World Bank Institute’s GDLN. The Belgrade KLC is one of its distance learning centres and this provides easy access to the wealth of materials being developed by the World Bank Institute for countries in transition. The British Council will take a key role in working with UK institutions to develop short courses (up to eight weeks) which can be offered to GDLN and other distance learning centres around the world.
The main design criterion for our KLCs is flexibility. Our buildings, in 109 countries and 218 cities, are an expensive asset which we must use to their greatest potential.
Furniture can be flexible too. In New Delhi the video-conferencing suite can double as a conventional conference venue and also provides space for study and internet access when not in use. The desks include flat-screen computers and keypads in the desk itself. In Belgrade, all the library shelving is on wheels so that the layout can be reconfigured to suit changing requirements.
By the end of 2006 we expect to have more than 60 knowledge and learning centres. To evaluate the early ones we are using the 'scorecard' approach to monitor performance (processes, outputs, customer satisfaction and impact). We are collecting anecdotes, press highlights, quotations and observation for a ‘storyboard’ which fleshes out the numerical data of the scorecard. We are also keeping a formal record of ‘lessons learned’ and project update reports.
References
1 www.culturelab-uk.com
2 www.chevening.com/home
3 www.learnenglish.org.uk
4 www.britishcouncil.org/learning-elt-teach-english.htm [accessed 13 April 2005]
5 www.britishcouncil.org/english/eltecs/index.htm
6 www.britishcouncil.org/arts/vad/collection/collection.htm [dead link 13 April 2005]
7 http://music.britishcouncil.org/selector
Fiona Clarke is Content Director, Knowledge and Learning Centres (fiona.clarke@britishcouncil.org