Brunel University Library – Annual Report 2012-13

Part 1: Annual Report Academic Year 2012-13

  • Executive Summary

This report highlights progress against the targets set out in the Library’s Service Development Plan 2008-12. Although this Strategic Plan was scheduled to end in 2012, due to uncertainty over the status of the new University Strategic Plan the new Strategic Plan was not signed off until 2013 and so the previous plan will be used for reporting in the last academic year.

Progress against each of the “top ten strategic imperatives” is described. Key actions and achievements are then given for each of the University’s five strategic imperatives using the sub-headings from the Service Department Plan.

For the Library the key events of the year were as follows:

  • Increase in student satisfaction with the Library evidenced by the NSS
  • Achieving over 6,800 full-text items on BURA and rising to 5th in the list of UK repositories
  • Obtaining the Library’s third successful JISC bid for phase 2 of the UKRISS project led by Kings
  • Being Highly Commended by the THE Awards in London for Outstanding Support for Students
  • Top scoring for Brunel in the THE Student Experience Survey
  • Introducing a number of changes to improve the student experience and work more closely with students in developing the service e.g. development of Talis Aspire, introduction of LibChat and LibAnswers, new online booking systems for GSRs and financial databases
  • Increasing growth of ASK
  • Trial of full 24 hour opening for the period between Easter and the end of exams
  • Meeting financial challenges by making efficiency savings and demonstrating VFM

Usage of the Library has decreased from 1,027,936 visits in 2011/12 to 967,035 visits in 2012/13 (this marks a 5.9% decrease against a 7.1% decrease in student numbers). In addition to this, the average number of users in the Library during the day has decreased from445 to 434 (a 2.5% decrease against a 7.1% decrease in population). This demonstrates that whilst we have a smaller student population, those students we do have are making more use of the Library. Visits from external users have increased from 5,320 to 5,357 (a 0.7% increase but a major increase from 2,701 in 2010/11).

The Library has once again increased its satisfaction rating in the NSS survey with 91% of students now stating that they were satisfied with the Library in 2012/13. This marks the fourth year in a row that the Library has improved its satisfaction rating, increasing by 10% in that time. This continues to rate the Library as the aspect of Brunel University that students are most satisfied with and moves us up to a score of 4.5, 2nd in London and 7th in the sector. In the THE Student Experience Survey (February 2013), the Library scored 6.1. The overall average score awarded to Brunel was 5.6. In November 2012, this performance was recognised nationally when the Library was highly commended by the THE for our Outstanding Support for Students.

Report on delivery against “top ten strategic imperatives” from Library Strategic Plan 2008-12

  1. That we develop our electronic library (journals and e-books) to support research and teaching at Brunel

The budget cuts in 2012/13 led to the cancellation of a major e-journal package. However, despite this the remainder of resources were maintained and the Library can now boast over 300,000 e-books and 58,000 e-journals. The catalogue has also undergone a number of developments to improve the ease with which users can search for and locate e-resources.

  1. That we improve our support for taught courses through better management of reading lists and roll-out of the digital readings service

The support for taught courses through better management of reading lists and roll-out of the digital readings service has also improved with the Library now receiving 89% of reading lists (1,261) for taught courses from academic schools in 2012/13. The digital readings service has continued to grow with the digitisation of an additional 106 articles from reading lists in 2012/13.

  1. That we expand BURA in line with University Research Strategy and successfully implement University policy on electronic theses

BURA continues to grow at an impressive rate, now holding over 6,800 full-text items. It also continues to rise in the rankings now being listed at number 3 (of 144) in the UK in the Top Institutional list, and at number 5 (of 155) in the UK in the Repositories list. BURA currently stands at 636 (of 11,997) in the University world rankings.

In terms of electronic theses, 803 are now held nationally through the British Library EThOSscheme anda further 280 were requested through EThOS in 2012/13.

  1. That we significantly extend library opening hours, so that the Library is open all (or almost all) the time during term-time and longer than at present during vacations and university holidays

The Library has continued to operate our model of 24/5 opening during term-time. In 2012/13, we also trialled full 24/7 opening from Easter through to the end of the exam period. This was well-received by students, caused no issues for the Library and therefore we will be preparing a business case for the University to move to this model throughout term-time in 2013/14. On-going developments in terms of making more content available electronically can also be seen as extending the Library’s availability outside of core hours.

The Library has also extended vacation opening hours by providing two nights a week during the summer when the Library opens until 7pm, enabling students in full-time employment or on placement to use the building and access resources.

  1. That we provide information/research skills across all Schools and that this is updated in line with the changing needs of students and the curriculum

The Library has continued to provide information and research skills across all schools and subject disciplines. Since 2008, the number of Library staff hours spent teaching has increased by 57%. This has resulted in the number of person-hours received increasing by 28%. In addition, in August 2009 the Library introduced the ASK service enabling it to offer seamless provision of all the information and academic skills now required by students and staff. The work done by ASK in 2012/13 has seen another increase of 16% in terms of the students seen compared with 2011/12. The greatest increase was in the arena of in-school workshops. ASK recorded 309 in-school sessions this year, which represents an 86% increase on 2011/12.It should be noted that this increase was achieved with no increase in staffing. In addition,student feedback has also been very positive. For those students who received individual advice, 94% would recommend the service to other students and87.5% stated that ASK’s advice had a positive impact in making them feel confident about their studies. Furthermore, 95%of students who attended the central workshops rated them as ‘Very Useful’ or ‘Useful’.

  1. That we successfully implement the process review and staff restructure to create a flexible responsive service based on a culture of continuous improvement in service delivery and staff development

The staff restructure was successfully implemented in summer 2008 leading to the creation of a more flexible, responsive service based on a culture of continuous improvement in service delivery and staff development. A minor restructure was undertaken in 2012, leading to slight changes in team structure and Management Team responsibilities. The process review is on-going but has completed work in several areas e.g. shelving where the time taken to re-shelve items has been reduced by a third and shelving backlogs are a thing of the past.

  1. That we engage on an on-going basis with students to ensure that our services are based on student feedback and reflect the needs of students

The Library has developed a culture of on-going engagement with students to ensure that our services are based on student feedback and reflect the needs of students. This can be seen through the development of the Library Twitter account and Facebook site, both of which came into being in 2009/10 and now have 1,458followers (an increase of 359 this year) and 3,140 fans (an increase of 1,217 this year) respectively. The Library has also launched LibAnswers and LibChat. These activities are co-ordinated by the Library’s Customer Relations Manager, a post that was created in 2010 to drive forward developments in this area. LibAnswers handled over 11,800 queries in 2012/13 in addition to the 5,179 phone calls that were handled through the Library’s Call Management system. LibChat, which was launched in September 2012, has been used to hold 930 conversations with students during 2012/13, occupying 5,945 minutes. In addition to these, the Library trialled a system of SMS reporting for students during the exam period, which generated 284 messages over 27 days. Bookmark Daily (the Library’s blog) continues to be popular with views increasing from 11,854 in 2011/12 to 13,284 in 2012/13, an increase of 12%. Engagement with students also takes place at School Staff Student Liaison Committees, which are attended by SLLs.

  1. That we are embedded in the work of Schools and seen as a vital component of School activities

The Library, through its team of Subject Liaison Librarians (SLLs), continues to be embedded in the work of schools and seen as a vital component of school activity. The majority of the information literacy teaching that is done by the SLLs is delivered as part of the standard curriculum and, in some cases; this includes contributing to the assessment of the students on the module as a whole. In addition to teaching commitments and attending regular school meetings, e.g. School Boards, SSLCs, etc., the SLLs are also involved in a wide range of school activities, including sitting on conference organising committees, attending away-days and contributing to programme reviews. The addition of ASK to the Library has re-enforced this position with over 7,885 students being taught through in-school workshops in 2012/13, an increase of 60%. Of the 445 first and foundation-year students who used ASK in 2010/11 and 2011/12, only two have since withdrawn from their course. In other words, there is a 99.8% retention rate for students who make use of ASK services.

  1. That we completely refurbish the ground floor of the Bannerman Centre to create a world class student and learner support centre at the heart of the campus

The installation of RFID in September 2010 enabled the Library to remove the old cumbersome issue desk on the ground floor and redesign the entrance area. This redesign included the establishment of a new welcome desk and signage at the front of the Library and a separate, smaller help desk located within the eye-line of anyone entering the Library. The area around the previous issue desk was opened up to create new space for consultation between students and service departments e.g. the PCC and a new café area was created with vending machines which have generated income in excess of £20,000 for the University. This also improved visibility of the ground floor as a whole, which was further enhanced by the addition of new furniture and additional PCs. In 2012/13, this area was further developed with the move of Computing Support into the Library from the John Crank building, in order to provide IT help to students at their point of need.

  1. That we refurbish the other floors of the Library, over a period of years, to create an attractive flexible study environment for students and researchers

In May 2011, the University finally took the decision to fund the refurbishment of the Library as part of the rolling green fund to improve building efficiency. As part of these works, repairs were made to the flooring and new carpets, ceiling and lighting were installed. The Library also took the opportunity to rotate the shelving layout by 90° thereby meeting DDA requirements and improving visibility and lighting across the entire floor. Feedback by students and staff to the changes was extremely positive and this has led to an improvement in user behaviourin subsequent years. Work continues on an on-going basis to ensure that these floors remain attractive and flexible to students and researchers.

Ann Cummings,

Library Services Director

August 2013