Funding for libraries projects

You can't have missed the recent publicity from JISC Advance about the £1.5 million of funding for FE and skills projects to improve the learner experience (so I won't repeat it). The funding is for projects ranging from £5k-£100k and bids are welcomed from groups of colleges or other learning providers. 

The introduction to the funding call, summarises the purpose of the programme as calling for: 


"imaginative and innovative proposals that will help to transform the experiences of learners within individual learning providers,but provide examples or resources that can improve the sector as a whole."


If you have any bright ideas for a project (small or large) which would benefit library and LRC users, do think about applying; bids from groups of colleges are particularly welcome, so the workload would be minimised. I am happy to chat with you about any ideas you have and can also give you some tips on putting a bid together. 


JISC Elevator
The JISC Elevator is another source of funding (for projects up to £10k) and this has recently launched. You submit a bid idea to the site and comments are invited from other users (who also may wish to partner up with you on the project). 


The site can be accessed here 

Fair VAT on e-publications for the education community

Please sign Eduserv's online petition, which they've recently launched to persuade the government to adopt a fairer policy on VAT for e-books and e-resources. Printed versions are currently zero-rated, yet e-versions attract a VAT rate of 20% - a very unfair situation.

This extra VAT burden means that libraries have less to spend on electronic publications making it very difficult for them to move towards e-provision. Electronic publications are also greener and save valuable storage space and offer increased availability for the majority of users. 


Sign the e-petition to urge our Government to do one of two things; 

• Introduce zero-rated VAT on electronic academic publications.
• Or, if it is not feasible to add electronic publications to the list of zero-rated goods then to follow other European countries and apply VAT at the reduced rate now and consider reducing this to 0% as soon as possible.

100,000 signatures are needed for the topic to be debated in the House of Commons. Anyone can sign:


• You will need to provide your name, address and email 
• You can choose to receive email updates from the government about the e-petition 


Sign here: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/28226
and please circulate to your friends and colleagues. 

RSC Webinar series for library and LRC staff

I've joined up with RSCs Northern and North-West, as well as our colleagues in the East Midlands, to plan a series of four webinars over the next few months, which I hope you'll be interested in attending, or perhaps presenting to. 

By timojazz on Flickr

The dates and topics are:

• 5th March  Promoting your service effectively 
• 29th March  Successful curriculum integration and support
• 9th May  Getting the most out of induction
• 30th May  Benchmarking for libraries and LRCs

Bookings will open for the 5th March event in the next 10 days. Please contact me, if you have any questions about the content of the sessions, or have something in particular you'd like to share with others, on any of the topics. 

The sessions are a great opportunity to meet colleagues from several regions online and I'm sure we're going to learn a lot from each other! 

Events, events, events!

It’s been another bumper year for the RSC with a wide range of events, both face-to-face and online, appealing to many different roles. If you’d like to re-visit the resources from a recent event you attended, or one you couldn’t get to, most have an Event Wiki, where you can access the event resources.

Recently, I've been involved with our December Digital Literacy event and the Introduction to e-learning, where I delivered a hands-on session on social bookmarking with Diigo, I would recommend the resources from both those events. 

Coming up

Measuring Impact

Next year we're running a pair of workshops focusing on measuring the impact of library & LRC services, with a respected trainer and consultant from Lancaster University. There are still a few places left on these events which take place on 16th Jan and 27th Feb, 2012

Webinars (speakers required)

The next two webinars for library/LRC staff are in February and March and the topics are below. If you feel you'd like to share any insights of your own during the sessions, do get in touch with me.

• Promoting your service effectively online (22nd Feb)
• Successful curriculum integration and support (29th March)

Digital Literacy

Following our successful face-to-face event last week, we are planning an online session in April, where Sarah Knight from JISC will hopefully be joining us, as she was ill and unable to attend the face-to-face session

UK RSC events

If you want a summary of events across the 12 UK RSCs you can visit this link on the JISC RSCs' website. Some events allow bookings from any region, particularly online ones, but you will need to check the terms and conditions for each event.

Have a good Christmas and a happy New Year!

  by  kfjmiller 

Extra help from the RSC

The RSC recently launched a new initiative for 2011-12 known as "RSC Assist". We are inviting learning providers to propose short projects (lasting no longer than 3 months to a final outcome), which will benefit from the support of an RSC advisor, who can spend up to a day at your organisation. 

As well as assisting you with the project, we would also write a short case study on the activity, or a lessons-learned report, which would benefit other providers with similar aims. We have already had several applications from IT staff and other groups, but I would encourage library staff to also apply and think about any development areas which I could support them on through RSC Assist. There is an application link below for you to use - please also feel free to discuss any ideas with me, before completing the online form.


Application link

Library systems – going open source?

I attended a seminar last week by PTFS Europe – a company who install and support open source library management software. The most well-known open source systems are Koha (for small to medium libraries) and Evergreen (mainly for library consortia). I was surprised to find the vast majority of the (large) audience from universities and public libraries and a little research suggests few FE colleges have considered the open source LMS option, despite pioneering the use of open source with software such as Moodle. 


PTFS understandably wanted to get a positive message out about open source systems, but notwithstanding this, I was impressed by the software I saw and its functionality, as well as the pace of development (6 monthly releases of Koha) and growing community of users. The paid support of PTFS or similar companies (and there are several in the UK) would give you confidence in the stability of the system, with the peace of mind of having technical support, if needed. Could open source library systems be an option for FE and why is interest so limited? 

"Koha" is Maori for gift. New Zealand image
by theboywiththethorninhisside on Flickr

Functionality
Koha is entirely Web-based and offers a very wide range of features, including many extras which have been developed by Koha users, or developers at organisations like PTFS. Koha has many worldwide users and its presence in the UK is growing. Staffordshire University recently adopted the system and other high profile libraries have it - for example the Kings Fund and Halton Council library service. If you take a look at an example of the Koha OPAC, you can’t fail to be impressed. 


Licensing
“Open source” means that a piece of software’s source code is freely available and any development is made available to all users and developers. There is no charge for the software itself, but unless you are willing to support and develop it in-house, you will need to pay a third party company to install it, migrate data from your old system and provide technical support. Open source library systems certainly shouldn’t be seen as a cheap or free option then. 


Costs?
I asked the PTFS people why they hadn’t made inroads into FE and they feel the main reason is cost. Compared to a typical FE college using a system like Heritage, they feel they can’t compete on the annual maintenance charge. They may be right -  if anyone has had a quote from PTFS or another company, do get in touch with me. 


Sharing your LMS
If your college has recently merged, or is in merger talks, Koha and Evergreen operate in multi-site mode very well. Colleges are also increasingly talking about sharing systems (such as HR, VLE) with other colleges to save money. An open source solution like Koha or Evergreen could fit the bill here, as maintenance costs could be shared, but the individual partners would still have their own LMS and catalogue. 


Attending this seminar opened my eyes to the open source option for library systems and the fact that big libraries like Staffordshire University are adopting them says something about their quality and possible future impact. Whether FE adopts open source library technology, still seems to depend unsurprisingly on money, as well as the fact that many libraries are simply happy with their proprietary systems (nothing wrong with that!). Heritage IV from IS Oxford is very dominant in FE and to be fair to them, does a pretty good job for most FE libraries. 


Useful links
Koha community website
Evergreen LMS 
PTFS Europe
Software Co-op (UK Koha support company)
VU find (open source library resource portal)

Is it time your library was on Facebook?

A lot of library and LRC staff in our region seem to think so and many already have a presence on Facebook or are thinking about it. I've also helped one college (Warwickshire College) with a planning session, which involved thinking about some of the advantages and also risks involved. In this post, I've included some of the resources I used and some hints and tips I've acquired.

Flag flying in Cambridge Massachusetts,
the birth place of Facebook. By Essygie on Flickr

Why bother?
The chances are, over half your users will be "on Facebook". So having a presence for your library or LRC is a good way to get among them and deliver some positive messages about what you do and what your service has to offer. 


A Facebook site is also a good alternative launch page for your e-resources and other Web-based services such as your library OPAC. Facebook also works well as a means to display content from other services you may use, such as YouTube, Flickr, Twitter or Delicious. 


Viral marketing
Facebook is designed to increase the popularity of pages virally - so if one person likes your pages, people who like them will be aware of what they like and so-on. Provided you get your message correct and the tone right, you can very soon pick up a lot of followers - much more quickly than a static website. 


Conversation
The holy grail is to generate some two-way traffic on your pages and encourage users to comment on your services and how they can be improved. This isn't easy and relies on your postings being interesting and adopting the right tone (see tips below).


Facebook Applications
As well as updating users on what's going on in your library, there are a range of additional library-related Facebook Applications which you might want to add, to enhance your Facebook site. Here are a few examples:

• Books iRead
• CiteME
• WorldCAT

What are the risks?
The main risk factor is reputational and anyone contributing to your Facebook page should bear in mind that they are representing your organisation on the Web, with a potentially large readership. It's worthwhile establishing some ground rules and boundaries, to ensure that communication is informal and chatty, without becoming over-personalised. 


A stagnant Facebook page is worse than none at all and doesn't give a good impression, so you do need to plan a programme of regular contributions and make sure that at least one (preferably more) members of staff are responsible for maintaining a steady flow of information.


Hints and tips

• Adopt an informal, chatty tone with good use of humour. Anecdotes and musings are much more interesting than announcements!
• Update the site daily and give several people responsibility for upkeep
• Seek approval from your organisation, as well as the support of the marketing department
• Set clear aims and objectives about what you want to achieve from the site, but be realistic!
• What are the do's and don'ts when adding content? How do you deal with inappropriate comments from users (usually rare)?
• How can you measure the impact of your site? For example including it in a student survey.
• Involve students in the development of the site. What would they enjoy reading about? What is dull?
• Facebook is usually a supplement to formal communication channels, such as websites, VLE etc. Don't forget these need to be maintained too!

Links

Facebook for libraries – article in American Libraries magazine

Includes detailed how-to instructions and tips for gaining followers.

The author's library Facebook page

Mandy Boyle:  Facebook for libraries – best practice guide (Powerpoint presentation)

Introduces what Facebook is and what it can do for your library and your users.

10 great library Facebook pages