Library News by Sharon Tuersley

librarynews Spring 2009

go.warwick.ac.uk/library

Welcome to Library News Welcome to this first issue of Library News. The newsletter will be produced each term to update you on various Library services and developments. A key focus for the Library is to extend the support we provide in relation to institutional strategic priorities. As evidenced in this edition, the Library as a physical space has been transformed over the last few years. The opening of the Learning Grid in 2004, the remodelling of Floors 1 and 2 in 2007/08 to facilitate collaborative and IT-supported learning, and the opening of both the Teaching Grid and the Research Exchange in 2008 have all enabled new services and collaborations with academics and departments to be developed.

Supporting the University’s Research Strategy As the University focuses more on developing its research strategy to become “Top 50 by 2015”, the Library is proud to be involved in a number of initiatives to support the University’s research ambitions. One such development is the Wolfson Research Exchange which was officially opened by Sir Brian Follett in February 2009. This is an innovative and technology-rich facility where researchers and research students can carry out their studies and come into contact with colleagues from across campus to discuss and explore their research together. Part-funded by the Wolfson Foundation under its CURL/RLUK Libraries Programme,

the Research Exchange provides a number of environments to meet different needs: an open-plan collaborative study space; quieter and more formal study accommodation; social and break-out spaces; and three bookable seminar rooms for researchfocused workshops, conferences and other events. The seminar rooms are highly configurable,

Read more on page 2:

connecting you with information, support and your community

At the same time we are continually looking at ways to improve existing services. Examples in this edition include the use of online videos and tutorials to help new students familiarise themselves with the Library and the development of an electronic user feedback service. The case study on work to support the Medical School shows how the Library’s Academic Support team can assist students to develop the information fluency skills which are increasingly critical in an era of abundant, but often poor quality, information. Case studies in future issues of Library News will focus on examples of how individual academics are working in partnership with Library staff in support of their research and teaching activities. We hope you will find Library News helpful. Feedback and ideas for inclusion in future issues would be most welcome.

Anne Bell University Librarian

The Library Remodelling project

One year on...

As the Registrar, Jon Baldwin, outlined in his presentation at the Warwick Network Day in December ‘the Library has been transformed in all sorts of ways’.

ne year on and the results of the Remodelling project are easily discernible by the increase in people using the Library building and its resources. For example, entrants to the Library have increased by an average of 47% since the start of this academic year, measured against the same period of time in 2006. And the feedback from our users has also been really positive:

"Thanks to all the great work to improve our Library!!! As a third year student, I have really seen the changes over the past year." "Really like the re-model, it looks brilliant!" "The improvements to the 1st and 2nd floor of the Library are by far the most useful. The general work areas, with laptop points, no restrictions on food, wireless internet, spacious tables, proper office chairs, and access to thousands of books and journals have made doing my degree this last year infinitely easier, and infinitely more comfortable and productive. Thanks." "The refurbishment of floors 1 and 2 is excellent. Better environment to work in than any other Uni Library I have used and on a par with the British Library."

Remodelling has brought many benefits. There is now a new 100 seat lecture theatre and two new computer suites located on the Ground Floor, each with 85 computers available for teaching purposes and individual 24 hour open access use. The use of compact mobile shelving has helped create space for five years’ worth of new books and print journals and 200 new study spaces, approximately half of which have computers or other IT equipment, so users

Research Strategy Continued from Page 1 with retracting walls to allow for larger groups and even conferences of up to 90 participants. Wireless-enabled throughout, a bank of 20 PCs supplements the existing Postgraduate PC Cluster - funded under an earlier Wolfson Libraries programme located just outside the facility.

can now choose from a range of resources and high quality accommodation. The most noticeable and extensive changes can be seen on Floor 1. The welcoming entrance area now includes a stunning reading lounge and café. The new study layout on the floor supports independent and group working, with access to multimedia resources in an informal environment. This is complemented by retention of the quiet study space on the upper floors. Whether users prefer to work independently or with others, to access print or digital resources, to study in a silent or less formal environment, their preferences can now be supported under one roof. The final stage was the completion of Floor 2. This houses a training room, further collaborative and individual work spaces, additional open access PCs and the Teaching Grid.

Like the Teaching Grid, the Research Exchange aims to facilitate the sharing of best practice and one of its primary purposes is to stimulate inter-disciplinary collaboration by enabling greater awareness amongst researchers of research activity taking place across the University. Focus groups of researchers held to help plan the facility raised the importance of being able to share their ideas and problems and to extend their sources of inspiration by learning about research being undertaken in other disciplines. To support this there is a ‘creative wall’ coupled with a facility allowing projection onto it from points throughout the Research Exchange (including the seminar rooms), allowing anyone in the space to work collaboratively with a group and also involve others. The Library is working in partnership with the Graduate School, Faculties, the Centre for Student Development and Enterprise, the Learning and Development Centre, Careers and others to offer drop-in and other sessions in the space relating to research skills development. ■ If you would like to find out more information about the Research Exchange or about how you could use the space visit: go.warwick.ac.uk/researchexchange or email: researchexchange@warwick.ac.uk.

The Teaching Grid and its impact so far

The Teaching Grid is a new Library initiative which aims to support the University’s strategy to sustain an exceptional teaching and learning experience at Warwick on a practical level. It was established to provide accessible, collaborative support for all staff involved in teaching or training practice at the University. It brings together agencies such as LDC, ELab, Teaching Quality and the Library’s Subject Teams to support staff in all disciplines.

The Learning Grid has provided an opportunity to experiment with a different kind of learning provision to meet the changing needs of learners in higher education today. The Learning Grid supports:

The Collaboration area

» a diverse learning community (international students, students with specific needs as well as the cross section of disciplines and level of study);

This allows staff to: » drop in for an impromptu induction to the space/resources available, including the Staff Development Collection;

» the ability to blend together a range of learning activities; » the ability for students to experiment and be creative using a range of different learning methods.

» book space to practice using equipment with the support of a Teaching Grid Advisor before holding a session in the ETS; » use the space because it offers a quiet working area and also get involved in conversations about the services on offer whilst there; » hold booked and impromptu meetings, and make use of the smart boards to record notes as the session progresses. Other activities include more planned sessions in the form of a varied programme of developmental workshops, courses and events run by stakeholders, including dropins or themed clinics. We have also held events to showcase innovative practice (eg. through the Teaching Excellence Awards) run by LDC and sessions on course design, curriculum developments and funding opportunities from Teaching Quality.

Experimental Teaching Space The ETS allows colleagues to try out new teaching ideas in a supported and safe environment: » Theatre Studies are using the space to allow students to feel immersed in the texts they are working with through editing them collaboratively and looking at visual aspects of stage design and lighting; » LDC are hosting a variety of sessions including courses that focus on presentation skills and courses on e-learning;

» differing learning preferences/styles;

» Warwick Business School is using the space and multimedia to help coach students in critical thinking/reflection; » a variety of departments (including Translation Studies) have used the space to help students develop information retrieval and management skills, with support from their Subject Librarian and the use of Library resources; » the Chemistry Department has used the Grid to produce short teaching videos about effective laboratory work and to support students in their use of Library resources when planning experiments;

The Learning Grid

» Subject Librarians have explored how the technology can be used to support student use of rare books; » QEWG, the Space, Pedagogy and Performance Forum, and the Teaching and Learning Forums currently meet within the ETS, sometimes to make use of the facilities for presentations or to take new approaches to meetings (for example, by usingLearning drama toGrid encourage debate). The was an opportunity

■ more information, including kind a video toFor experiment with a different of oflearning the facility and whatthat it can offer visit provision sought to meet http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/ the changing needs of learners in library/teachinggrid/experimental/ higher education today. These include:

The BioMed Grid, opened in February 2006, is based on the Gibbet Hill Campus of the University of Warwick. It is a similar but smaller facility than the central Learning Grid and is specifically tailored to the needs of Biological Sciences and Medical Students.

Atish, Learning Grid Adviser

Supporting you and your students The Library recently articulated what it is all about in a new mission statement: ‘connecting you with information, support and your community to enhance Warwick’s learning, research and teaching’.

welcome to the Subject Teams... A large part of the 'support' element comes from the Library’s Subject Teams.

So that is what we do, but how can we help you with your specific needs?

We have three Subject Teams covering the Arts, Sciences and Social Sciences. Each team includes Subject Librarians, Assistant Subject Librarians and Information Assistants who support all the subject areas covered at Warwick.

Each discipline has its own librarian responsible for supporting a particular subject area...

Antony Brewerton, Head of Academic Support

Subject staff: • liaise with academic staff on course planning and delivery; • work with colleagues to ensure courses are appropriately resourced, buying in books and electronic resources; • help to identify module seminar readings for digitisation by the Library’s scanning team and provide deep links from reading lists to online resources using permanent URLs; • produce listings of quality web resources of value to teaching and research;

Arts Team (left to right) Jessica Duffield, William Pine-Coffin, Peter Larkin, Richard Perkins, Richard Parker

• provide teaching sessions to help students locate and effectively manage information, including referencing and avoiding plagiarism; • produce e-learning packages for students who prefer to develop their information fluency in this way; • offer tailored current-awareness services aimed at academics and students; • provide support for specialist subject enquiries; • and offer 1-to-1 support for dissertation students, researchers and anyone requiring more help with finding and using information.

Science Team (left to right) Helen Ireland, Samantha Johnson, Katharine Widdows

If you would like more information about how we can support your curriculum delivery contact….. Arts

Social Sciences

Sciences

e library-artsteam@warwick.ac.uk W go.warwick.ac.uk/lib-arts

e socialsciencesenquiries@warwick.ac.uk W go.warwick.ac.uk/lib-sciences

e science_enquiries@warwick.ac.uk W go.warwick.ac.uk/lib-socialsciences

Case study what can we do for you? Here Sam Johnson, our Biomedical Librarian, explains how we have worked in partnership with academic colleagues to embed information fluency in the curriculum...

Social Sciences Top: (left to right) Yasmin Adeeb, Rebecca Woolley, Lynn Wright, Bottom: (left to right) Christine Bradford, Ross Connell, Helen Riley

Subject Assistants (left to right) Anne Watt, Andree Whittaker, Kieron Punch, Helen Gough

The Medical School offers a programme of study skills group tutorials available to all students on taught postgraduate courses. These are offered as either a series of two hour evening tutorials or as one day workshops. Students may attend as many or as few tutorials as they wish. This is an optional termly programme which covers the following topics: • Preparing to write an Assignment (which includes a section on literature searching) • The Art of Referencing • Writing an Assignment • Dissertation or Professional Project – which one? As Biomedical Sciences Librarian, I have been involved in delivering the 'Art of Referencing' session that covers the issues of plagiarism, effective referencing and an overview of Endnote Web, as well as the effective literature searching section of the 'Preparing to write an Assignment' session. The sessions have proved to be an excellent opportunity to support the research needs of the students in demonstrating the importance of literature searching and referencing as key transferable skills. The sessions are also an effective way of promoting the range of information resources and expertise that the Library offers in supporting research, teaching and learning. As the sessions are offered as part of the formal teaching timetable the Library is seen as being an integral part of the School and the curriculum. The sessions also generate requests for one-to-one support for students who have either been unable to attend the sessions or who have attended but need more help with their particular search. In

addition, the tutorial groups that are run for the Dissertation/Professional Project students frequently request sessions on literature searching and referencing. I am a member of the Dissertation/ Professional Project forum, which is another way of providing advice and support and promoting Library services. I am also involved in the Induction Days offered to all new postgraduate students. This is an opportunity to introduce them to the range of Library services and resources available right at the beginning of their course and to reassure them that we are here to help. The benefit of all these activities is that students and staff know who to contact when they have a question about literature searching, referencing or anything else Library-related – and they do!

Staff feedback: “Sam has been involved in the study skills programme for taught postgraduate students in the Medical School for the past two years. Her support and advice has been invaluable to students especially in the areas of literature searching and referencing techniques. Her advice and support has enhanced students’ knowledge and understanding in these areas and improved their academic skills.” Jan Cooper & Claire Beck, Group Tutorial Convenors.

Student feedback: “The in-depth explanation of the different types of plagiarism has helped as I am still working on my assignment, and this will help for other papers needed to be written in the future.” “Very helpful for research-based work and how to do it correctly.” “Very useful. Learnt a great deal. Thank you.”

Space to grow our collections... In May 2007 the Library opened a new external store to enable our collection to continue to grow and to help mitigate some of the extreme problems we had with space in the Library. The external store works in conjunction with our existing store and enables us to keep available large and important research collections. The external store houses important research material not currently in high demand. It is located in Leamington Spa and has a gross storage space of 1278m2 (13,760ft2). The store currently has storage capacity of 12km of mobile electronic shelving and we have the option for shelving up more of the floor area to add another 11.3km of storage space. The store's service is staffed by the Library's Collections Management Team, with two part-time staff responding to requests for items in the Main Library store and one team member for the external store, supported by the rest of the team as well as two shelvers. For the year between June 2007 and June 2008 we

received 2,516 requests for items in the external store and 4,207 for the Main Library store. For the external store use is mainly of the book collection: 89% books, 11% journals. For the on-site library store requests are split between 39% books, 44% journals and 17% videos. There are three pickups per week for material at the external store (although more pickups are possible depending on demand). Material that is sent to the store or the external store can return to the Main Library shelves at any time. We are keen to make high demand stock as accessible as possible.

The Modern Records Centre: a unique resource If you visit the Library’s website you’ll see a link on the front page to the Modern Records Centre. The archive holdings at the MRC are of international significance and we are keen to promote their use. The Centre was founded in October 1973 with the principal objectives of locating and preserving primary sources for modern British social, political and economic history, with special concentration on the national history of industrial relations, industrial politics and labour history. The records of trade unions and employers’ organisations form the backbone of our archive holdings. These include the vast archives of: • The Trades Union Congress; • The Transport and General Workers’ Union; • The Confederation of British Industry and its predecessors. We also hold records of: • pressure groups and other organisations concerned with social and penal reform, human rights, disarmament, education and health;

• Trotskyist organisations and other radical British political movements; • British motor companies and other businesses; • individuals including Richard Crossman, the Labour cabinet minister and Coventry Member of Parliament, and Sir Victor Gollancz, the left-wing publisher and campaigner; • organisations and individuals concerned with cycling (the National Cycle Archive). The MRC also includes the archives of the University of Warwick itself, which contains the historical records of the University's central administration together with related material from its conception in the 1950s until the present day. We also hold the University’s copies of all research theses successfully submitted for higher degrees at Warwick, and the University Library’s special collections, consisting of rare or distinctive printed

works dating back to the seventeenth century. As well as being an internationally significant research collection it is also a valuable teaching tool for the University. Recently we have started working with academic colleagues to digitise key materials to support short modules, examples include: History - Making of the Modern World; Sociology - Social Welfare in Britain; Politics - Governing Britain since 1918.

Getting started with mini online videos and tutorials This year the Library has used video to enhance its programme of induction for new students. We commissioned Robert O’Toole and his Arts e-squad to develop a video to advise new students on how best to use the Library. The e-squad students produced a lively video in YouTube-style based around some brief interviews with current students. We put the video up on the Fresher’s Facebook page before the start of term and also on the Library webpages.

The videos can be viewed at: http://www2. warwick.ac.uk/services/library/main/help/ training/advice/

We also used a MacBook and Screenflow software to produce a set of mini, informal demonstrations of how to do some basic library operations to help students with those difficult first few weeks. In these videos a member of Library staff talks through what to do while showing the process on the web page.

If any academic colleagues want to make similar videos they can contact either Robert O'Toole, Chris Coe or Steve Brydges in Elab.

The Library… • Issues/renews over 1 million books in an academic year • Makes 10,000 Document Supply requests a year • Adds over 26,500 items to the collection each year; that equates to 700 metres of printed material and 400 metres of archives • Has over 30,000 electronic journals

The videos include: • How do I find a book? • How do I find a journal? • How do I start using MyLibrary? The videos have received an encouraging number of hits and we hope to expand the number of mini demonstration s to include search tips on different electronic databases for the future. Easy access to this type of demonstration/tutorial helps students to become familiar with the basics of using the Library before they come in enabling them to use our services with more confidence. The videos and the audio tour (downloadable to MP3 players) were promoted strongly to international students.

Facts & Figures

libraryservices@warwick.ac.uk go.warwick.ac.uk/library 024 765 22026

• Has over 5,000 printed periodical titles • Has over 6,000 entrants during a typical term weekday

Library News is edited and produced by Antony Brewerton, Sharon Tuersley, and the Marketing Advisory Group. The views expressed in Library News are not necessarily those of the editorial team or The University of Warwick.

For the online version of this magazine, please visit: go.warwick.ac.uk/library

Design: WarwickDesign www.designatwarwick.com

E You say...

We say...

We have made it easier for you to have your say, make comments and suggestions or simply ask a question about the Library’s services and resources.

Examples include:

The heavily used You Say, We Say board has, by popular demand, become electronic. By completing the form online through the Library website you can let us know your thoughts, wherever you may be. In addition to increasing the accessibility of the You Say We Say service, it also enables you to search other users’ comments through the database, instead of being limited to what is being displayed on the board at any one time. Moreover, it enables us to analyse your comments and suggestions more effectively, look for common trends and plan future improvements to our services and facilities.

■ To make a suggestion, leave a comment or search the You Say We Say database visit the Library website: go.warwick.ac.uk/library

Last term we answered over 100 You Say We Say comments that covered a broad range of topics.

In our next issue... • Modern

Records Centre’s work to support course modules

• Digitisation • Warwick • Library • Law

Facts

Research Archive Project

Catalogue Developments

Librarian supports students in Ethiopia

• Widening

Participation Activities

connecting you with information, support and your community