Cope & Stuart Edwards - Internal collaboration: Working together to deliver Library and Information Skills Training (LIST)

Internal collaboration:

Working together to deliver Library and Information

Skills Training Sessions (LISTS)

Elly Cope & Emma Stuart Edwards

Some background on the University

• Originated as a trade school in Bristol in the 1890s

• Moved to Bath in the 1960s

• Pay a ‘peppercorn’ rent

• University of Bath awarded its Royal Charter in 1966

• Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths (STEM)

• Balance:

• 54% male, 46% female

• Undergraduate: 10,563 ; Postgraduate: 4,574

Chancellor Lord Tugenhadt paying the literal peppercorn rent

Library structure

Library structure cont.

Development of LISTS

• Skills training in existence:

• Individual departments approaching library for further training

• SU programme SORTED – Student Officer Representative Training, Education and Development programme

• Investment in ‘Turnitin’ plagiarism software

• Development of RITTSS – Research Information Tools Training Seminar Series

• Merge with the SORTED programme

• PG Skills programme

Current programme

Library Wiki

What’s different 2012-2013

• Maternity cover

• Moves between Technical Services and Academic Services

• More sessions delivered by Information Librarians

• Pairings

• Technical Services teaching

• Technical Services / Academic Services on all sessions

• New sessions

• Resource Discovery System

• SCOPUS

• Different approaches brought together

Example: Case study of Primo

• Those delivering the presentation developed it together

• Used real questions / reading lists to inform content

• Commonly asked questions

• Anticipated problems

Why we think it was good!

• Collaboration

• Working with each other!

• Knowledge sharing

• TS/AS skills brought together

• Cross-sector expertise

• New catalogue knowledge

• Able to deal with surprises

• Disabilities

• Room booking

• Equipment &/or props

External feedback

Student attendance 2012 programme:

Critica

lly e

valua

ting

what y

ou re

ad

Finding

boo

ks &

jour

nals

Refer

encin

gW

oK

SCOPUS

Copyr

ight

Plagiar

ism

05

1015202530

Signed up

Attended

External feedback cont.

59%

29%

12%

Chart Title

strongly agree

agree

neutral

disagree

strongly disagree

Student feedback for sessions being ‘useful’:

External feedback cont.

46%

32%

17%

3% 2%

strongly agree

agree

neutral

disagree

strongly disagree

Student feedback for sessions being ‘interesting’:

External feedback cont.

Student feedback for sessions being ‘enjoyable’:

39%

36%

22%

2% 2%

strongly agree

agree

neutral

disagree

strongly disagree

External feedback cont.

Examples of student feedback when asked to complete the sentence: “when I finished this session I felt able to…”

“…understand better what copyright is and clarify which material I can use or not in my assignment”

“…understand how to be more critical of what I read”

“…research my dissertation topic more thoroughly”

Internal feedback

• Useful working with TS staff in terms of better working relationships, understanding more about what each other do.

• Team-teaching requires collaboration and can be nerve-inducing, so it's quite a bonding project.

• Great to have fresh pairs of eyes, different perspective.

• AS staff very much benefited from the TS staff's technical know-how for the students who do want that kind of info!

• Good opportunity for TS staff to teach which opens up other job/career opportunities.

• Opportunity to observe and talk through problems students encountered, as in a technical role like mine, it's quite easy to lose touch with the end-user experience.

What could improve

• Room booking!

• Increased dialogue between the Students’ Union and the Library

• Focus on target audience

• Undergraduate

• Postgraduate Taught

• Timing / assignment of sessions

• Knowing which session you’re delivering well in advance

• Overhaul of presentations

• New examples / content

• Booking form questions

• Special requirements

What’s next…

• Closer collaboration with the Students’ Union?

• More collaboration internally

• Consultation with Technical Services on areas of expertise

• E.g. asking about Primo for session planning

• E-books

• E-journals

• More LISTS sessions

• E-journals

• E-books

• Mobile technologies

Questions & Contact details

Elly Cope

@ellycope

[email protected]

Emma Stuart Edwards

@embrarian

[email protected]