Library Services Strategy
2016-2018
Tim Wales
Director of Library Services
Approved at Academic Board, 27 April 2016
UWL Library Services Strategy 1
Contents
1 UWL Library Services in 2016 3
1.1 Library vision 3
1.2 Library mission 3
1.3 Library values 3
1.4 Current satisfaction indicators 4
1.4.1 National Student Survey (NSS) Library scores 4
1.4.2 Module Evaluation Surveys Library Analysis 4
1.4.3 Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) Library scores 4
1.4.4 UWL Library & IT Student Survey 2016 5
1.5 Library Services SWOT analysis 5
2 Internal context 6
2.1 University Priorities 6
3 External context 8
3.1 Relevant trends in UK academic libraries 8
3.2 Relevant wider HE sector trends 8
4 Strategic Priorities 9
4.1 Customer service 9
4.2 Collection development 11
4.3 Digital literacy and study support 14
4.4 Research support 16
4.5 Technology, facilities and staff development 17
5 Key Performance Indicators 18
UWL Library Services Strategy 1
1 UWL Library Services in 2016
1.1 Library vision
Library Services aspires to be at the heart of the student and academic experience at UWL, offering relevant, up-to-date learning, teaching and research resources, study spaces and support services at the point and time of need in a collaborative, effective and efficient manner.
1.2 Library mission
Library Services supports the UWL student’s educational journey from pre-registration applicant to alumnus via:
· Provision of relevant, up-to-date print and electronic learning resources integrated into the curriculum and the associated technologies
· Provision of flexible study environments for different modes of learning
· Delivery of responsive support services and integrated digital literacy training in collaboration with Schools
We support the creation and dissemination of University knowledge externally and help foster a research environment and culture.
1.3 Library values
Library Services aspires for every member of our staff to be….
· Happy in their jobs
· Finding their job offers intellectual stimulation and challenge as well as meaningful opportunities for staff development
· Innovative and creative, trying new things in the interests of improving the service
· Student-centred
· Highly responsive to feedback from wherever it comes
· Aspiring to be sector-leading (and achieving at least modern London-leading)
· Visible, accessible and friendly
· Willing to go the extra mile for students and staff
· Engaged with other teams and services across the library - able to contribute to cross-service working groups and projects
· Supported by managers and staff in each service
· Engaged with the University more widely - able to contribute to University wide working groups and projects
· Engaged with their professional community
· Up-to-date in their professional knowledge
· Good communicators
1.4 Current satisfaction indicators
1.4.1 National Student Survey (NSS) Library scores
Our final year undergraduate students have given us the following satisfaction scores in the last 5 years:
2011 73%
2012 77%
2013 75%
2014 74%
2015 73%
These place us in the lowest quartile of higher education libraries in the UK and some 14% below the sector average NSS Library satisfaction score.
Analysis of the NSS 2015 open comments gave a clear indication of the three main areas for concern in current Library provision which were impacting our score (lack of resources, lack of campus library and insufficient opening hours).
The latter two have already been addressed ready for NSS 2016 thanks to the opening of the Paul Hamlyn Library in September 2015 complete with term-time 24/7 opening, but the main one, lack of resources, will need to be addressed by this strategy even though remedial work has started.
1.4.2 Module Evaluation Surveys Library Analysis
Data for Semester 1 2015/16 has recently been made available and has given us the first proper feedback from students who have been using the new Library and associated new features and technology since September 2015. Importantly, unlike the NSS data, it also enables us to target efforts and resources at specific modules/courses
Again, lack of resources was the main negative aspect identified followed by lack of library at Paragon, various IT issues and information literacy (IL) challenges (although IL support was also the most highly valued Library service in the comments). Certainly, the lack of library at Paragon issue does permeate through some of the negative aspects but it is too soon to gauge whether this a long-term problem or a shorter-term need for returning students to habitualise themselves to new study patterns over the next 18 months.
1.4.3 Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) Library scores
UWL entered the UK HE PRES survey process for the first time in early 2015. The overall Library resources satisfaction score from research students was 70% which echoes the NSS score in being 14% below the sector average score.
However, further analysis reveals that STEM subject satisfaction was much higher than Social Science subject satisfaction (82% versus 60%). As with the NSS results, the focus is on resources but there is a greater challenge for teaching-intensive university libraries to satisfy researcher physical collection needs compared to research intensive university libraries. Focus is therefore usually on e-resources and reciprocal local library access mechanisms as a proxy for acquiring substantive print holdings for research purposes.
1.4.4 UWL Library & IT Student Survey 2016
The first ever Library Student Survey was conducted between December 2015 and January 2016, joining forces with the annual IT Survey to reduce overall survey fatigue in a print and online version. This was intended to be the first opportunity to get some formal student feedback on the new Paul Hamlyn Library facilities after four months of operation to enable us to identify any significant problems as well as get a mid-year gauge of student satisfaction (excepting those third year).
The response rate was disappointing and statistically insignificant but the responses were not out of line with the results in the surveys above (the on-going importance of print resources and 24/7 opening hours to students) and gave us some qualitative insight into areas not covered in the formal surveys above (e.g. library helpdesk/support satisfaction and student feedback on proposed future service developments).
1.5 Library Services SWOT analysis
A SWOT analysis is conducted annually as part of the business planning process. Below is the latest table for the March 2016 planning round based on a self-appraisal by the Library Services Management Team.
· Paul Hamlyn Library space
· Investment in latest stock circulation technology/self-service RFID
· 24/7 opening
· Library team/staff culture changes
· High satisfaction scores in some subject areas
· Library representation
· Adjacency to London collections / · Latent demand for Paragon Library
· Library integration into course and teaching processes (esp. reading lists)
· Historic underinvestment in library collections
· Lack of granular authentication & usage data
· Fragmented online presence & Blackboard
· Low satisfaction scores in some subject areas
· Fragmented enquiry support
· Relatively small size
OPPORTUNITIES / THREATS
· Library System Upgrade Project
· Special collections
· Bookfund uplift
· Research, Open Access & REF 2020 support
· Berkshire Hub expansion
· Library Strategy & Collection Development Policy
· Digital/information literacy
· E-textbooks
· School initiatives / · Publisher monopolies
· Disintermediation
· Student expectation
· Budget uncertainty
UWL Library Services Strategy 1
2 Internal context
2.1 University Priorities
The following three UWL strategies should be supported by a Library Strategy:
UWL Strategy / Themes / How can Library contribute? /Ambition 2018 / High quality student experience / Library Services strives to provide a high quality ‘third space’ for students at SMR & FH as well as through its services and e-library
Link learning to the world of work / Library Services provides lifelong digital literacy skills training and employs UWL students
Create and disseminate useful knowledge / Library Services now actively manages UWL IP through the UWL Repository and collection development
Be enterprising and entrepreneurial / Library Services supports development fundraising projects and initiates its small-scale entrepreneurial activities
Be financially and environmentally sustainable / Library Services applies VFM criteria to all of its budgets and actively assesses use of all assets. Encourages sustainable use of its study environments
Improve the infrastructure / Library Services physical and systems estates has been transformed in the last 2 years in line with the sector with further enhancements planned
Develop staff expertise / Library Services offers development resources and training as well as professional support for its own staff
Connect with our community / Library Services will run events in conjunction with Schools and ultimately promote archival resources
Engage with wider world / Library Services facilitates resources access for UWL Partners and engages with its professional community network to represent UWL interests
Learning & Teaching Strategy / Creativity & core skills / Information literacy mapped onto skills ladders for every course using appropriate models and every first year student offered a library orientation session
Research-Informed Learning, Teaching and Assessment / Ensure collection and staff training programme supports staff CPD in teaching and assessment. Promote best practice/case studies in use of library resources.
Employability / Offer [industry] certification of selected Library training and offer graduate internships
Applying Useful Knowledge / Collection is up-to-date and supports entrepreneurship
Technology-Enhanced Learning / Library e-resources and services fit seamlessly into TEL /blended learning environment
Engagement / Harness library usage data to help monitor engagementy
Research & REF strategy / Capturing quality research outputs for future REF submission
Developing the research environment / Provide an easy to use. Integrated repository infrastructure supporting research output submission and dissemination, REF2020 compliance and research reporting
Develop other Open Access infrastructure with Schools and IT to meet emerging needs and sector expectations
Help research impact and measurement agenda by piloting new data services and implementing ORCID identifiers
Collection development to support research
UWL Library Services Strategy 1
3 External context
On-going sector scanning and conference participation reveals the following trends in the academic library sector at macro (national/international) levels and micro (subject) levels:
3.1 Relevant trends in UK academic libraries
• Longer (24/7) opening hours
• New builds with learning spaces, often co-located with “one-stop shop” student-facing services and retail facilities
• Open Access publishing support, including rebirth of university presses for book and journal publishing
• Research support infrastructure investment (research data, research information systems etc)
• E-Library investment, including consolidated discovery and catalogue systems
• Shared, converged or de-converged services
• Focus on new management information data sources (learning analytics, altmetrics) alongside traditional VFM considerations of e-resource packages
3.2 Relevant wider HE sector trends
• The student becoming an active consumer rather than a passive recipient with the tuition feeds model
• Increased reliance on international markets/partnerships for growth
• New forms of online, part-time learning with the MOOC issue unresolved
• Teaching Excellence Framework anticipation
• Research Excellence Framework review
UWL Library Services Strategy 1
4 Strategic Priorities
Taking into account the internal and external contexts highlighted in the previous Sections and the feedback and input from internal stakeholders and Library staff, the following four strategic priorities are proposed for the 2016-18 period (mapping onto the Ambition 2018 timeline) and will be discussed in turn.
Customer service
Collection development
Digital literacy and study support
Research support
Technology and staff development
4.1 Customer service
This priority has deliberately put first to remind ourselves that satisfying our customers (especially but not exclusively our students) should be our primary objective. Although the other strategic priorities also support customer service, there are some specific objectives that we can do in our pursuit of excellence.
4.1.1 Submit Library Services for Customer Service Excellence ® accreditation
This is already planned for 2017 and Library Services would be the first UWL Central Service Department (CSD) to go through the process. This will serve as an external validation of the changes made to the Library Service since 2014 and touches all of the Library Services functions. We would seek to share the lessons learned from our experiences with other CSDs who wish to put themselves forward.
4.1.2 Enhance enquiry support
We will need to take into account any further development plans with regard to student-facing enquiry support in the wider University but there are other new initiatives that we can adopt anyway, such as:
· Create one single Library phone number with associated triage and determine need for a library enquiry management system across all channels as part of CSE submission to aid management and reporting
· Pilot of 24/7 email enquiry support from e.g. the new SCONUL OCLC shared enquiry service to match Paul Hamlyn Library term-time 24/7 opening.
· Pilot concept of ‘embedded librarians’ with Schools to provide information and copyright advisory support local research and teaching needs, physically/virtually co-located
· Virtual “chat” boxes added to internal/external Library web pages to offer alternative real-time contact method to phone & email.
· Review with Disability Support and IT what our services for disabled students (whether registered or not) should be in terms of dedicated contact, mediated services etc to meet best practice.
4.1.3 Enhance service to alumni via new membership scheme
Discussions with the Development Office reveal strong support for a standard versus enhanced library membership scheme for UWL alumni.
The former would see all alumni be entitled to access UWL physical libraries and borrow print stock items. The latter, in return for an annual membership fee, would entail the benefits of the standard plus e-resource access to a specially negotiated and licenced suite of e-resources (journals, e-books and selected databases) with ring-fenced password access. This collection would fit in with lifelong learning and graduate employability support.
4.2 Collection development
This is the most important strategic priority for improving our overall satisfaction scores as evidenced by the survey analysis in Section 1 above.