LR UPDATENews from the Directorate of Learning Resources

What a difference a year makes!

Issue 1 March 15

Helens Headlines

Welcome to the first issue of LR Update, our new interactive newsletter. Not surprisingly the

new home for the Headington Library in the wonderful John Henry Brookes Building features

strongly, but theres much more of interest from koala bears with yellow specs and Bob

Pomfrets amusing cartoons to more serious material on the increased availability of e-books

and the challenges of library phobia. Ive enjoyed reading about what my colleagues are up to,

and I hope you do too please let us have your feedback.

Helen Workman, Director of Learning Resources

If youd like to give us feedback or write an article for the next newsletter email lr-editorialteam@brookes.ac.uk

Whats inside Whos New 2

One Year on 3

Introducing Discover 4

Global Corporate Challenge 4

More e-books available 5

Do you enjoy a lie-in 5

Im Linda Coombs, the new academic liaison librarian for mechanical engineering, mathematical sciences, computing and communication technology at Wheatley. I did my MA in librarianship at Sheffield University and graduated in 2012, since then Ive been a campus librarian at a HE and FE college library and chartered in 2014.

In my spare time I go walking and climbing, and recently walked from the West to the East side of the North York Moors National Park in 13 hours.

Im Charlie Lythgoe and Ive recently started at Brookes as academic liaison librarian for Geography and Law at Headington. I graduated from the University of the West of England in 2013 with a MSc in Information and Library Management. Before coming to Brookes I worked in a number of libraries in the Oxford area including a university library, a digital medical library, and the library of a firm of engineering consultants.

When Im not working, I can be found singing in a community choir, helping run the local Amnesty International group or getting to grips with my new Raspberry Pi.

Whos New A warm welcome to new members of staff Im Matthew Ruddle, a part-time, semester-only library assistant at the Wheatley campus library. I previously worked as a library assistant in a public library in Wisconsin, USA, and have also lived and worked in Japan and Canada.

When Im not at work, Im busy at home taking care of my two young sons. My favourite holiday destination is anywhere with a beach!

Im Jacqui Findlay and I work evenings and Saturdays at Harcourt Hill Library as an Assistant Librarian. As a child I wanted a job watching tv, and so it was an ambition fulfilled when I worked for the BBCs television archive for 16 years! This summer my husband, children and I will be going on holiday to Hayle in Cornwall for the fifth year in a row - best beaches and best ice cream at Mr Bs.

Poster Campaign: 10 things I like about my library 5

Library Phobia 6

Introducing Adobe Connect 7

Making Sense of Open Access 8

March 2015 3

One Year onIts incredible to think that its already a year since we packed up some six kilometres of books and journals and moved across campus into the wonderful new library in the John Henry Brookes Building.

After seven years in the making, and four days of round-the-clock removals, we opened our doors to students and staff on 26 February 2014 and the new Library and Forum space has completely transformed the study environment for Brookes students and staff.

As soon as we opened, the students were making use of all the spaces by and large usage of the different silent, quiet and group zones went as we had planned and weve only had to make a couple of tweaks so far. Spread over six floors, the library is such an inspiring place for students to study, with lots of light, airy spaces and reading rooms with fantastic views.

We wanted a library that would give students a real choice of study environment at a time that suited them. The layout and furniture is flexible enough that we were able, for example, to increase the number of individual silent study spaces in the run up to and during exams last academic year. We also trialled our first silent computer room, following student requests. Spreading the self-service points

throughout the library has enabled us to provide 24-hour operation during semester.

Part of the library the Platform extends across the top of the central lecture theatre, providing a great area for groups to work in. There are six group work pods with pcs and large screens plus lots of casual seating with views across the Forum, as well as vending machines to provide 24/7 refreshments.

We also have three bookable student presentation rooms equipped with the same IT provision as in the teaching rooms, allowing students to rehearse their group work presentations in advance.

The general book collections sit on levels 2-4. To optimise space, electronic mobile shelving has been used for some of the general collection and also for the journals area in the basement. Throughout the library students can choose from a variety of quality learning spaces, with access to university PCs or power sockets for their mobile devices (all study

spaces have power sockets fitted and wi-fi is pervasive). From feedback during the first year we havent quite got the balance right between study spaces and computer provision so this semester another 70 university pcs were installed, including further piloting of pcs in one of the silent study rooms overlooking the Forum.

Library offices are located across the floors and support is provided via the Level 1 HelpZone which includes a coaching area with AV equipment for drop-in tuition or small group introductory sessions. We have two training rooms and we are able to provide increased information and digital literacy sessions than previously was possible with the constraints of the old library. We also house the OBIS graphics studio with computers and facilities dedicated to design, and the ASA assistive technology suite with tuition areas and one-to-one rooms.

With such a large project there are bound to be some teething problems the automatic opening windows seem to have developed a mind of their own quite oblivious of seasonal trends which is proving quite a challenge; we are working with Estates to improve these issues.

As we move into year 2 we are constantly evaluating the use of the space and post-occupancy focus groups currently being run by the Space to Think team will help us with planning further developments and improvements. Were looking forward to soon being able to complete the move by bringing our Special Collections and Archives over from their current Buckley building home. JHBb has brought a new vibrancy into the library its a great space to be.

Jan Haines

Old Library photos (slideshow) - a reminder of before

over the past year library users have downloaded 1383602 journal articlesDIDYOUKNOW

4 LR Update

Introducing Discover

In readiness for the start of the 2014/15 academic year Learning Resources introduced the new Discover service.

Discover is designed to make searching easier, bringing together in a single search resources both within and beyond our libraries. This includes books, e-books, journal articles, databases, conference

papers as well as teaching, learning and research materials from RADAR, our Research Archive and Digital Asset Repository.

Full-text content to which the Library subscribes, such as e-journal articles and e-books, are linked directly from search results in Discover and access is via the Brookes login. Users only need to do this

once when accessing full-text. This is now the same no matter where you are working, either on or off campus.

Access to Discover is simple. It is available from the main search box on the Library homepage. Discover can also be used on a mobile phone or tablet, making it available wherever and whenever it is needed.

Stuart Hunt

Global Corporate ChallengeOver 100 days last summer, four teams from Learning Resources were amongst the participants in the Global Corporate Challenge. The GCC is designed to encourage employees to be more active - and being someone who has previously explored the very depths of inactivity, I felt compelled to sign up.

For the princely sum of 10 I received a pulse accelerometer (thats a pedometer to you and me), and login details for the website where each day the 7 members of our team would log steps and distances swam or cycled. Our combined totals were then charted as we travelled across the world. Whilst it was nice to know wed traversed the Gobi desert or passed the Taj Mahal, the main interest lay in seeing whether we were ahead of the other LR teams...the team from the (then) Media

Workshop took an early lead and did seem unstoppable for most of the summer, whilst we kept alternating positions with the Fast Trackers. Positions would radically alter over the summer as members went on holiday and didnt log their points for several weeks, leading teams to believe they were surging ahead...the tension was tangible. But lo, once the challenge finished and the now-slightly-thinner-lady had sung, we - Martins Marvels - came out on top. Of the LR teams that is, we were about 4000th overall. There were teams in Australia who regularly posted 40,000 steps a day (my average was about 12,500). Personally I think they were

in the outback, riding horses with a pedometer on each hoof.

So, apart from encouraging a childish competitiveness, do I feel the GCC was a worthwhile exercise for me? Yes I do. Swimming on Thursday lunchtimes has become a regular thing. I was getting a lift home on Friday afternoons, now I walk. Even small changes, like taking items up the stairs straightaway at home rather than leaving them on the bottom step for a later trip, have made a difference. I cant claim to be ready to run the London Marathon anytime soon,

but I do feel fitter and more aware of my levels of activity - particularly important in a job that tends towards the sedentary. I enjoyed being part of the GCC team, enjoyed being one of the only participants not to drop their pedometer down the toilet, and particularly enjoyed receiving my priceless trophy at the end of it. I would encourage other staff to give it a go if you get the opportunity, it can have a beneficial effect and it was definitely a bit of a laugh!

Jo Akers

When we can we really do enjoy a late breakfast. We think that you might do too. In response to student and staff use of our library spaces at weekends during Semester all three library sites are now open and staffed from 12:00 to 18:00. (JHB library is accessible 24/7 during semester).

We hope that by opening later we are available when you want to work.

Penny Robertson

Oh no. The Library doesnt open until 12 and Im still late...

Do you enjoy a lie-in and a late breakfast at the weekend?

March 2015 5

More e-books available Learning Resources has made over 100,000 new e-books available over the past year.

Starting in early 2014 Learning Resources introduced a pilot project using patron-driven acquisitions (PDA) as a means of selecting e-books for the library. PDA, also known as demand-driven acquisition (DDA), allows users to invisibly select, through their usage, specific titles which are purchased by the library. When an e-book is used a specified number of times a purchase is triggered.

Learning Resources initially piloted this service with a small group of subject areas, targeting those that showed a lower satisfaction with LR in the National Student Survey (NSS). Following the introduction of this pilot there was a marked increase in student satisfaction with LR. This was then expanded to include additional subject areas.

Based on the success of this initial pilot, and thanks to additional funding from the university, LR have increased our investment in PDA, and introduced evidence-based acquisitions (EBA). Our EBA service has enabled the library to give access to approximately 1.25M worth of Cambridge University Press e-books for a year. Based on the usage, LR staff will then select specific titles for purchase in perpetuity.

Our expansion of PDA has enabled us to introduce more e-book titles from more publishers across all subjects taught at the university. We have also introduced, for the first time, short-term loans for e-books. This enables students to loan an e-book rather than the library purchasing it outright. If a title is loaned a specified number of times its purchase will automatically be triggered.

Both PDA and EBA are becoming widely accepted models for e-book purchasing within academic libraries and LR anticipate that these, and new and more sophisticated methods, will increase in popularity. While we make this content available LR are also able to derive data on usage that will help inform future purchasing and licensing decisions.

Stuart Hunt

What do you like about the library? Half a million books, more than 100,000 new e-books, 24-hour semester time opening, 168 brand new PCs, a new search tool and dedicated helpful staff just some of the highlights of the 10 things I like about my library campaign that we launched in February.

A year after the JHB library opened, it felt like a good time to remind our students and staff about the wonderful resources that the university library provides, not just at Headington but also at Harcourt and Wheatley.

Look out for the colourful posters designed by Jayne Stuart, as well as TV screen ads to find out what the 10 things are. Then step inside, or visit the website to find out so much more about the library.

Bob Pomfret

over the past year library users have accessed e-books 1674402 timesDIDYOUKNOW

My Library posters (slideshow)

6 LR Update

Library Phobia

Please resist the urge to tell me that they are far more afraid of me than I am of them, the problem with phobias is that they are not rational. Those of us battling our own phobias should have no difficulty in empathising with those with other phobias even when their object of fear is a source of delight or occupation for us. I want to spread awareness of the existence of library phobia amongst some of our students in order that they get the help and support that they need.

I became interested in library phobia due to encounters several years ago with two students here at Brookes. The first was a Foundation Art and Design student who rushed into my office, burst into tears and exclaimed that she couldnt do it! The it at first appeared to be an assignment but it quickly became clear that she meant the library. She was lost, confused and in a state of panic at the very idea of using the catalogue and locating the books and felt very anxious just being in the building. However, she at least did get that far. The second student needed to come in to attend a teaching session in Special Collections. She hovered outside the entrance and when the lecturer asked her what the matter was she admitted that she was too afraid to come in. Together the lecturer and I escorted her in and got her safely into Special Collections. She was in her second year and it was the first time she had entered the library. Both these students required ongoing one-to-one support and reassurance to enable them to get what they needed from the library.

Library anxiety was first formally identified by Constance Mellon in 1986. Since then much of the research has been concerned with anxiety relating to library based research and often focussed on graduate students.

when asked about using the library for research, students did not discuss problems they encountered with search. Instead, they discussed feelings of fear that kept them from beginning to search or that got in the way of their staying in the library long enough to master search processes. (Mellon 1986, p.163)

I am prepared to admit to a spider phobia and I know that Im not alone in that. Ive learned to control it but suspect that spiders will always make me feel anxious and uncomfortable.

She called these feelings library phobia but felt that the term library anxiety was more helpful in terms of positioning her research within the anxiety framework.

This work has been taken forward, in particular by Jiao and Onwuegbuzie. As well as demonstrating that library anxiety should be taken seriously (1999) they have worked at identifying susceptible groups (1997). These include students for whom English is not a first language.

My own observation is that students with severe dyslexia are also very likely to be library phobic.

I have also noticed an increase in the number of students expressing library fears since we moved into the new library.

Some of the most attractive features appear to be contributing to this, such as the height of the ceilings, use of glass and open space above the Forum. In addition the new library is on six floors and some books and all journals are in mobile shelving. Library phobic students will not be able to cope with the instructions for

use and the need to persevere. The fact that the shelves beep loudly when they are refusing to move simple draws attention to what they perceive to be their inadequacy in coping with something that everyone else has mastered perfectly.

How can we help? Embedded library information literacy training has been shown to ease library anxiety. Academic Liaison Librarians at Oxford Brookes work hard with academic colleagues to establish and deliver such sessions, ideally as a progressive programme throughout the degree course.

We also work on a one-to-one basis with students and are very happy for students to be referred by members of academic staff and student support coordinators. We can always arrange to meet the student outside the library in the first instance in order to establish trust.

Mellon stresses the importance of warm, friendly and approachable staff. The ambience of a library session may actually be more important than the content for some of our students if it enables them to return and ask for help. All our colleagues working in the HelpZone and on the Welcome Desk also play a vital role. The student who has not checked the catalogue or is asking for help to locate a book may actually be terrified and ready to run without obtaining what they need to complete an assignment. A reassuring smile and positive response makes all the difference. Just think how grateful we spider phobics are when someone removes the object of terror without making us feel small!

Chris Fowler

References

Jiao, Qun G, and Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J. (1997) Antecedents of Library Anxiety in The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy, Vol. 67, No. 4 (October) pp.372-389.

Jiao, Qun G, and Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J. (1999) Is library anxiety important? in Library Review, Vol. 48, No. 6, pp. 278-282.

Mellon, Constance A. (1986) Library Anxiety: A grounded theory and its development in College & Research Libraries, Vol. 47 (March) pp. 160-165.

over the past year we have achieved 4975 open access research resources on RADARDIDYOUKNOW

March 2015 7

IntroducingAdobe Connect Adobe Connect is a Flash based online meeting service that enables participants to collaborate using video, audio, application sharing and chat on any internet browser. Over the last few weeks Ive run an Introduction to Adobe Connect session at each of the main campuses for Academic Liaison Librarians (ALLs). The sessions were well attended (particularly the Headington one) and I think well received.

The ALLs recognised the usefulness of the software and came up with several ideas about how they might use it to widen the support they offer to staff and students. We had a few technical glitches such as upside down webcams which certainly lightened the mood and one webcam that displayed everything in red for some reason.

For those of you who didnt manage to attend any of the sessions (or who are not ALLs) I will be running further Adobe Connect sessions in the near future.

If you would like to attend please email me: aball@brookes.ac.uk

Further information about the other training sessions I offer can be found here: wiki.brookes.ac.uk/display/BVhelp/Training Abi Ball

Using Adobe ConnectTeaching Database Searching via Adobe ConnectIn Semester 1 I ran two training sessions for part-time Postgraduates and Distance Learners based on the generic basic and advanced database searching we offer to our Health and Social Work students face-to-face.

Marion Waite organised the publicity and set up a Googledoc so students could sign up. Abi Ball set up the Adobe Connect Rooms for each session. I organised the session content. I had to try to make it as interactive as possible as, unlike face-to-face training, you cannot use facial cues or body language to see how your session is being received. I made use of the tick and cross tools, to check every couple of minutes that the students were understanding (see video clip). I used polls to help them to develop their understanding. I also kept an eye on the text comments box, as some students were speaking through this tool. Finally, I had to create Camtasia vodcasts so that database demonstrations could be pre-recorded, as we had decided that trying to do an online demonstration would use up too much bandwidth and potentially crash the system!

Although there werent many students in attendance, this was ideal for my first attempt. However the students who did participate, really appreciated the session, especially as several of them were dialling in from outside the UK - the farthest being Abu Dhabi!

I learnt that more preparation is needed for these types of sessions - both in planning the session, creating polls, questions and vodcasts in advance. My advanced database searching session made more heavy use of Camtasia presentations

than the Basic session, which primarily used polls. Having at least one other Host available online, to support with IT problems, as well as checking the text and introducing the polls, allowed me to focus on the delivery. As a presenter you have to be prepared for a very different teaching experience. You have to multi-task to ensure all participation is acknowledged, and you have to be prepared, not only to teach in front of other colleagues, but also to be sat in front of a computer appearing as if you are talking to yourself!

Katherine Staples

Click on image to activate video clip to give taster of the session

Click on image to activate video clip to show use of tick and cross tools

8 LR Update

Making senseof Open Access (OA) the project so far

number of central services. In all cases though, there is a danger that the researcher and their needs are overlooked.This is why our JISC project is different as we are seeking to gain a better understanding of researcher behaviours using an ethnographical approach.

What does this mean? As support services we want to try and understand researchers, their actions and pain points in relation to communicating their research so that we can support them better.

How is the Making sense project doing this? So far PU and NTU have conducted

some semi-structured interviews, which have been recorded and transcribed. Their next job is to develop a coding that we can use to analyse these.

Here at Brookes we are conducting some ethnographical interviews with a number of researchers at different stages in their research careers and from different disciplines. The interviews last about an hour, take place in the researchers office/lab and pose a series of general questions about communicating/publishing their research.

After the general questions, a more probing question is posed -

- Is there anything around publishing that is concerning you right now?

- How are you feeling about this? - How do you think this issue can be

resolved?

These too will be recorded, transcribed and analysed according to the coding developed by the project team.

Later in the year we are also hoping to conduct a longitudinal study with early- and mid-career researchers and are developing a number of cultural probes such as recording via a diary, blog and video events throughout the publication process. More about this in the next LR Update.

Whats the point of all this?As well as hopefully understanding researchers better, we are intending to develop an ethnographical toolkit that can be used with other types of LR users such as undergraduates to help us understand their behaviours so that we can provide services that meet their needs.

Name: CIAO

Dob: 21/11/14

Definition of my name: Collaborative Institutional Assessment of Open Access

Favourite job: Socialising and mixing with others across institutions.

C

MName: MIAO

Dob: 12/02/15

Definition of my name: My Individual Assessment of Open Access

Favourite job: Breaking the ice in small groups

The Jisc Open Access Pathfinder project which began in July 2014 is now well under way. For the first few months we have been concentrating on baselining.

Working with our partners, Nottingham Trent University (NTU) and Portsmouth University (PU), we have created CIAO - Collaborative Institutional Assessment of OA which is a tool that can be used in a workshop setting to assess how ready your institution is for the open access requirements of RCUK funders and HEFCE.

Did you know that researchers receiving RCUK funding must make their research output available on open access?

Do you know which type of outputs have to be made OA and when?

Complementing this tool, we have just produced MIAO - My Individual Assessment of Open Access. This is all about an individual researcher gauging what they know about OA and whether their institution is providing help and support for OA. This could be something that is used at department level, for example as an ice-breaker. If you are interested in this tool then please contact me and I would be happy to get you started.

Have we made any sense yet?So far its been really interesting working with our partners and going along to JISC programme meetings as it emerges that we are all moving towards the same goal but in different ways - each institution has different finance systems, HR, most of them have an Institutional Repository (IR), for us thats RADAR, and some have a CRIS (Current Research Information System). Sometimes the library is responsible for everything to do with OA whereas in other institutions, responsibilities are shared between a

Meet our Feline Family

Rowena Rouse

If youd like to give us feedback or write an article for the next Newsletter email lr-editorialteam@brookes.ac.uk

Bob Pomfret

Bob Pomfret