Library Faculty Team Environment & Technology Annual Report 2012-13
Alastair Sleat
Emma Delaney
Ludo Sebire
Introduction This report summarises the key activities undertaken by the Librarians that support the Faculty of Environment and Technology (FET) in 2012-13, demonstrating how the library has supported students and academic staff.
Who are we? FET Library support is provided by the Faculty Librarian, Emma Delaney, along with Alastair Sleat (Subject Librarian) and Ludovik Sebire (Assistant Librarian). Together we aim to be involved in the work of the Faculty, contributing to various activities via Faculty meetings and projects. Alastair and Emma are members of the Faculty LTSEE Committee, and also try to attend Departmental Committees where possible. In addition, Emma and Alastair are part of programme design teams, while Emma attends ASQC and CAP, and was part of the PG Curriculum Review Steering Group. There is also plenty of informal liaison and the Library Team welcomes appointments with Academic staff, researchers and students. Ludovik works particularly closely with DGEM, to the extent that he accompanies a year 2 field trip to Brittany in March. This is preceded by a library session where students are taught how to perform a literature search on an area of particular interest before they go.
Innovations from your FET Librarians Librarians on Tour For the second year, the FET team has operated its regular Librarians on Tour near the Q Block reception area. This helps to make our faces known to students and to FET staff, and is now being adopted by other Faculty library teams. During 2012-13, we chatted with over 100 students and staff about a variety of subjects, including: 
Where to find UWE Harvard guidance, how to access online examples of dissertations, signing up to RefWorks and Referencing workshops, suggestions for new journals, getting the best from Knovel, handing out Construction Information Service tip sheets (as well as sweets, pens, post-its and bookmarks), using eBooks... and many more.
We have particularly found that it is a good way to meet staff and discuss things face to face.
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FET Library Online Workbook This year we launched the FET Library Online Workbook, developing the long-established Engineering Workbook using technology enhanced learning techniques. This teaches level 0/1 students the information literacy skills needed to get them started with academic study using an online tutorial and an assessed quiz. It employs a variety of pedagogical methods, enabling students to practise and share the techniques being taught. This has mostly replaced face-to-face library sessions for these students, getting better engagement and learning, and freeing us up to concentrate on other student groups where taught sessions have the best impact (see below). Number of Level 0/1 students receiving information literacy sessions (face-to-face vs online):
2011-12
TOTAL: 569 students
2012-13
Face-to-face teaching
TOTAL: 589 students
Engineering workbook
Face-to-face teaching FET-LOW workbook
It was designed to be embedded into specific modules and assessed, counting for between 6% and 14% of the total marks. On the 7 core modules in which it was embedded, 87% of students completed the assessment, compared with the 46% of expected students who turned up to face-to-face classes in the preceding year. Of those, 71% scored 70% or above in the test, with a good proportion getting 100%. And the students loved it!
Information skills teaching - Face-to-Face Reducing our Level 0/1 face-to-face teaching load had the impact of enabling the team to be able to focus its efforts on Level 3 and PG students, where student motivation to engage with information is better, ensuring our time is well spent. This resulted in us spending 69% of 71 hours of teaching time with Level 3 and PG students this year, against last year where we spent only 43% of our time with these students. Overall, more students are being supported in more effective ways.
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Other teaching developments An online library tutorial was created for the MA Joint Distance Learning Town & Country Planning induction, and more of these are being developed, for example for students on CPD courses within EDM.
NSS scores 1
We are ever mindful of the importance of NSS scores, and are pleased to note the combined average score for Q16 across FET 2 programmes is now 87.2%, a rise of 2.9% from 2011 and above the UWE Average of 86%. We continue to target and work with the programmes where scores for the library are lower than average, or have dropped significantly.
LibQual Feedback A recent library survey garnered over 3500 responses from across UWE. Overall satisfaction rates UWE higher than comparator University libraries, higher than the SCONUL mean, and higher than Oxford University. So we’re quite pleased about that! The responses from FET mirror the overall trends that the library has great staff and the study spaces we provide are appreciated, but we need to do more to make our spaces more inspiring, and continue to improve access to journals and books, especially when accessing from home. The continued engagement from FET staff to use their Reading Strategies to support students effectively and set appropriate expectations is appreciated, but there is more that we can do.
Ask A Librarian: Alongside dealing with queries every day by phone, personal and team emails, we are engaged with our central online enquiries service, providing expert support to our students and staff. With this service people can contact us via email or 24/7 chat. Most queries are dealt with by a bank of librarians from UWE or the co-operative of librarians from the Open University and across the USA, but where needed, enquiries get forwarded to your FET Librarians. The numbers of queries the team has dealt with are as shown.
Ask-A-Librarian queries dealt with by FET Librarians (2012-13) 25 20 15 10 5 0 Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Jul Aug
Negotiations and Budget Savings FET Librarians look after the subscriptions to over 30 online databases, often negotiating deals with suppliers on an annual basis to get the best licensing terms at the lowest cost that we can. This year our negotiations have saved FET money on resources such as ICONDA, SAE, Geobase, iSurv and BCIS. Our Journals Review, led by Alastair, uncovered £9000 of savings that we were able to re-focus on different areas of the evolving curriculum.
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NSS Question 16: “The library resources and services are good enough for my needs” Average calculated excluding data from programmes where the sample size was too low to be listed separately.
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Refworks Refworks referencing software continues to be well used, with the Library providing regular tutorials on it. Around 11% of registered accounts are from FET (a figure which may seem low, but with over 10,000 HLS users registered, the figures are slightly skewed). Over 1700 people from FET have actively used their account since April 2012.
UWE Harvard
FET Refworks accounts used since April 2012 Other, 28 Postgraduat e student, 604 Researcher, 90
All three members of the FET Librarians team were core to the working group that introduced the UWE Harvard referencing standard and associated guidance.
Undergradu ate Student, 858
Alumni, 2 Academic staff, 128
Continuing Professional Development External activities
Emma and Ludo are members of the ARCLIB (architecture librarians) group. Alastair was until very recently Chair of the SW Branch of the University College and Research Group (part of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) which organised the third DARTS (Discovering Academic Research Training and Support) Conference at Dartington Hall in Summer 2012. Emma and Alastair are in close touch with other Engineering Librarians through the SW Engineering Librarians Group. Ludo has completed Year 2 of his MA Management with excellent grades. Emma is part of the REACH Talent Management programme being piloted, working with CSCT’s Andy King on an Innovation project. Emma is a member of the IHS Construction Information Service User Group, ensuring influence and insider knowledge of this critical resource.
Professional Output
A UWE Teaching Fellows project, Library Impact and Value for Education and Skills (LIVES), is evaluating the impact of the FET Workbook amongst other library teaching activities being employed in FBL and HLS. Emma is a member of the project group. Emma spoke at an M25 Consortium group of London librarians on UWE’s Reading Strategies approach. Alastair spoke at the AULIC (Avon University Libraries in Cooperation) Summer conference in June on Librarians on Tour. Ludo & Emma will speak at the 2013 ARCLIB conference on the FET Workbook, 3D Printer and Reading Strategies.
Research The Library’s Research Repository team have worked on a project with FET research centres and groups to increase engagement with the Repository. FET now have 4488 items in the Research Repository, with 22% of those available in full text (14% of all items are full text and publically accessible). New PHd and research staff and students have been supported with the FET librarians joining their induction meetings where possible, followed by a formal induction session with the RKE Librarians. The JISC funded Managing Research Data project is now coming to a close, with the team having developed a wealth of support resources and guidance for UWE: http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/library/usingthelibrary/researchers/manageresearchdata.aspx
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Library Innovations More broadly, the library has implemented various new services, spaces and systems over the past year.
Students can now follow the Library on Facebook and Twitter – at least one attendee to Librarians on Tour came as a result of a Facebook posting and we get regular questions, comments and retweets from staff and students. Emma Delaney is the voice of social media for the library.
The Library hosts specialist software, some of particular interest to FET such as Adobe CS6 Design Standard.
A new Research Support Room is available for researchers and academic colleagues. There are 5 workstations, a printer, lockers, and white boards for brainstorming exercises. There is swipe card access (UWE ID card). 5D20 is located on the top floor of the Library.
Development of New Books webpage: At least half the books we buy are now electronic, and these are available through Library Search. See the list of books acquired in the last three months. Alastair Sleat was instrumental in the development of this page.
UWE’s Library became the first in the UK to host a 3D printing service that allows you to build three dimensional plastic objects from a digital model. The 3D printer has been kindly donated by 3D Systems and is available on Level 2 of Frenchay Library. It is available to all and you can see it in action from the webcam.
The Library has trialed using QR codes to increase awareness of library services and the resources we offer. The black and white QR codes can be read by smartphones installed with a barcode-reading application. When the user scans the barcode, their phone automatically takes them to a library search for e-books on the same topic, making the user aware that electronic alternatives are available. QR codes have also appeared next to printers so library users can view a short video demonstrating how to print. Emma Delaney led this project.
2013-14 – Plans for the next year The action plan for the FET Library team includes a range of priority areas: 1.
2.
3. 4. 5.
Focus on supporting Academic staff Increasing academic staff awareness of the ways that we can support them, and the services and systems the library provides that support their students, via staff development events such as SALT, new starter welcome emails & meetings, Librarians On Tour, and possibly a newsletter. Focus on teaching and learning Update and improve the FET Library Online Workbook, while also expanding its use to other appropriate modules. Deliver appropriate information skills teaching for the postgraduate and undergraduate dissertation students Deliver appropriate training and support for part-time, distance learners, CPD and international students. Focus on Collection Management Review and remove unused stock to make space for St Matthias and ensure our shelves contain the right items. Focus on our web pages Develop our ‘Your subject’ web pages, including looking at developing a page to support the use of digital maps. Focus on Student Feedback Gather student feedback at every opportunity to inform our teaching, systems, support and the information resources we make available.
Contacts
July 2013
Telephone:
0117 32 82409
FET Library email:
library.fet@uwe.ac.uk
Ask a Librarian:
http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/library/help/contactthelibrary.aspx
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