RSC West Midlands Learning Resources Blog

Libraries at the heart of inclusion?

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Gallon) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 11:00:00 +0000

Last week, I attended a conference organised by Jisc TechDis and the publishing sector, which focused on the challenge of providing books in accessible formats for learners with print impairments.

Image courtesy of Foshie on Flickr

There was some good news:

Progress is being made. E-books are increasingly available and in 2011 the e-book market increased by 360%
The Daisy Consortium has become a major global influence on the development of accessible materials and is bringing together key players, so that change can happen
Libraries are increasingly sourcing alternative formats for popular books (mainly for the visually impaired). Jisc TechDis are helping facilitate this by providing resources like the Publisher Lookup website, which helps you contact publishers and ease the administrative burden.
Many publishers are making a real effort to improve the accessibility of their material, building in digital accessibility from the outset and ensuring it meets the latest standards, including EPUB 3.0
Text-to-speech tools are increasingly free and their quality greatly improved. This has been helped by the availability of Jisc supported software and tools like Jisc TechDis Voices and EduApps.

and many challenges:

E-books are not necessarily always accessible and if thought isn’t given to the design of the platform, they can be impossible to read using accessibility software.
Although alternative formats can be sought from publishers, this process is often extremely time intensive (especially where publishers aren’t supportive). The time involved means it’s unlikely that thousands of dyslexic learners who could also benefit will be provided for.
Many learning providers are unaware of the free tools and support available, or the possibilities of sourcing accessible versions.
Libraries often don’t ask the right questions about the accessibility of e-book platforms and can unwittingly subscribe to e-books which cannot be accessed by learners with print impairments.

I took away some useful actions for libraries from the event, here are some of the key ones:

Be aware of the accessibility features of the e-book (and e-journal) platforms you subscribe to. If you are planning to switch to a new platform, make sure you ask the right questions and test the system with learners.
Start working with your learning support colleagues to source accessible versions of key textbooks for individuals. The Jisc TechDis guidance and Publisher Lookup website will help.
Make the most of text-to-speech software. Ensure you have installed the high quality TechDis Voices on all college PCs and promote free text-to-speech tools like Balabolka, ChromeSpeak and WordTalk.
Once you understand the accessibility features of your e-books, PDFs etc., advertise these to learners and staff and support users in their use.
Promote the wide range of free accessibility tools available – there is guidance on what’s available here

The full collection of presentations and resources from the conference can be found here

Merry Christmas…and have a great RSC New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Gallon) — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 11:23:00 +0000

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.

Once the Christmas and New Year festivities are over with, I hope to see you at one or more of our events or Webinars in the New Year. Here are some confirmed dates for your diary:

January

11^th January Quick Win Webinar: getting the most out of Moodle

24^th January How to achieve a good Ofsted inspection. Wolverhampton Science Park

25^th Library and support staff webinar: mobile technologies.

29^th Augmented Reality workshop . Wolverhampton Science Park

March

20th Library and support staff webinar: open source software for libraries

April

18^th April Digital Literacy in Practice – Developing Digital Literacy at your organisation. The Studio, Birmingham

May

15^th Library and support staff webinar: assistive technologies

Jisc RSC West Midlands e-conference

This year’s two day online conference takes place on 22^nd and 23^rd May 2013 and the theme is “Learning from each other”, with a focus on case studies of good practice on the ground, which improve outcomes for learners.

Visits and projects

I have had a busy year so far working on various projects with colleges and other learning providers from our region. Do get in touch if you’d like to meet up and work together on any of the following areas, or contact me to discuss your requirements:

Learning Spaces Review. A review of your library or LRC as a learning space, with recommendations for improvement
RSC Assist. Mini projects over 3-4 months, supported by Jisc RSC staff.
Library/LRC self-assessment or strategic planning
Help with promoting your services and developing an online presence for your service
Training and “away days”. I am available to facilitate a small number of these each year.

Have a great Christmas!

By kfmiller on Flickr

Shades of grey

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Gallon) — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 09:32:00 +0000

Shades of grey, or other dull corporate colours, won't help make your library or LRC feel a comfortable or inspiring place to be. Increasingly, libraries are being more daring with their use of colour, whether to zone different areas, or simply to freshen and improve the overall look of a space.

A recent user of the RSC's Learning Space Review service was Telford College of Technology, who have just completed a refresh and refurbishment of their LRC, which extends over two floors. The review included recommendations in the areas below and alongside these, the college has also made very effective use of colour, to make the space more cheerful and welcoming; early feedback from learners is very encouraging - they love the new colours!

Improve welcome signage
Install automatic doors to improve accessibility
Open up the area by removing under-utilised shelving
Replacing worn tables and chairs
Improving light levels

Library biometrics

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Gallon) — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 08:44:00 +0000

Biometric identification, using fingerprints, is one way of improving the efficiency of your library, while maintaining the security of learner accounts and may also have the benefit of increasing engagement with the service.

Rather than carrying a library card with a bar code, the characteristics of each library user's fingerprint are stored (the whole, recognisable fingerprint isn't retained) at library registration and customers identify themselves using an inexpensive (around £75) finger print reader, each time they borrow a book, or enter the library, depending on local policy.

Finger print scanner at King Edward VI College

The system removes the problem of lost or stolen cards and thus ensures borrower accounts are kept secure. There are also shorter queues at the issue desk, while users find their card and the finger print scanner offers a quick and easy solution, which is also a novelty for some users.

Many library systems have biometric compatibility and in our region, King Edward VI College, Stourbridge are using fingerprint identification with their Heritage library software.

Also, here is a case study from Wyke College on the Excellence Gateway and further information about the Heritage library software and Biometrics.

More free resources from JISC Collections

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Gallon) — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 08:32:00 +0000

JISC Collections have recently announced two new, free collections of resources aimed at Further Education, which are definitely worth signing up for.

Primal Pictures: Anatomy & Physiology Online

This digital learning tool comprises 19, fully interactive, body-system modules with 3D models, narrated animations and illustrations, pronunciation guides, dissection slides and other multimedia. The material is ideal for students of subjects like sports medicine, podiatry, nursing and other medical-related subjects.

Find out more through the JISC Collections catalogue

Hairdressing Training Videos

This collection continues to expand, having recently been made available for mobile devices and a further collection of videos have recently been made available. The materials include work sheets and assessments and have been created by hairdressing tutors, so meet the needs of teachers and students and so far have had over 670,000 views .

Here is the main Hairdressing Training website

and their YouTube site

To keep up to date with the latest offers and free resources from JISC Collections, subscribe to their news pages

Image Credit: Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons by-nc-nd 2.0 UK: England & Wales, see http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/page/Prices.html

M-libraries

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Gallon) — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 09:41:00 +0000

Mobile technology use by, and in libraries is on the increase, as it is in most parts of life, and a recent report from the JISC-funded M-library Support Project confirms this and is an excellent read, full of good practice examples and predictions for future use of mobile technologies by libraries.

Image from stock.xchng

The project website has a good collection of case studies, including innovative use of QR codes, development of mobile library apps and using SMS to communicate with students, among other topics. What caught my eye, was the end of project survey and report, which gives you a good feel for the state of play with mobile technologies in libraries and will be useful in assessing how far ahead (or behind) provision at your own library is.

Mobile technology is a theme the RSC will return to through our events and Webinar programme, so if you’ve got some ideas or good practice you’d like to share, do get in touch. If you’d like to discuss how your library can become an “M-library”, please contact me and we can arrange a meeting.

How accessible is your library?

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Gallon) — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 08:01:00 +0000

Libraries, along with all other services in college should be working towards equality of access to IT as well as other services and resources. Fortunately there are a range of free tools and advice from JISC and the JISC RSCs to help you meet the needs of all your users, whether they have a disability, or not. Following the launch of the JISC TechDIS Toolbox and TechDIS Voices, this is a good time to remind you of what’s available. A good starting point is the TechDIS launch page for library and resource centres, which summarises the resources available and what steps you can take.

The TechDis Toolbox is a collection of resources which give useful hints and tips on technologies that can help individuals work smarter. It is aimed directly at the end user - learners.

TechDis Voices

JISC TechDis commissioned CereProc to create two new high-quality, youthful and modern voices (TechDis Jack and TechDis Jess) that can be used with text-to-speech tools. Text-to-speech (TTS) technology allows text in electronic formats to be read out loud by synthetic voices or saved as MP3 files for later listening.

Textbooks in alternative formats

Many users could benefit from text books in alternative electronic formats such as PDF, which includes in-built narration, scrolling and zoom features. Most publishers have established procedures for libraries to request these formats, sometimes for free, or for a small charge. JISC TechDIS have developed a set of tools to help you with these requests and understand the processes involved.

RSC support

The accessibility kitbag is still available for you to borrow for a few weeks to explore the range of technologies available and I am happy to do a short familiarisation session on the equipment for you.

My colleague Alison Wootton takes the lead on accessibility and inclusion matters in our team and is happy to answer your queries on accessibility and inclusion matters.

10 learning space reviews...

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Gallon) — Wed, 30 May 2012 12:21:00 +0000

I’ve recently done my 10th Learning Space Review and thought I’d share with you some of the most common findings and recommendations. You might want to try putting some of these ideas into practice at your own organisation, or feel free to invite me along to do a review for you. The majority of reviews so far have focused on libraries or learning centres, but I've also reviewed other spaces, including offering an overview of teaching space.

Welcome This is the impression presented to a new user on arrival. Is there a clear menu of services? Is it obvious where users should go for help? Are there any physical barriers (such as security gates) for users to negotiate? What image of the service is presented by the reception area? New users should be able to use the service without necessarily asking for help, by drawing on signage and layout cues.

What is the area for? What are your priorities? What do learners want/need? When re-furbishing or evaluating a learning space, it’s worth going back to these fundamental questions and establishing some key functions to focus upon. Some colleges have involved learners with planning new classrooms and other learning spaces. This is a good approach, surprisingly, often forgotten.

Pods are popular for semi-private work in small groups

Put yourself in the shoes of users It’s worth considering some of your different user groups and the points at which they make contact with your service (finding a book, accessing the LRC website, visiting the enquiry desk etc.) Does the space and support meet their needs? Have they sufficient opportunities to ask for help and support? Are there barriers to their use of the service, such as unnecessarily complicated rules or procedures?

Signage Many libraries are awash with signs and notices from various sources and of varying importance; the format and legibility of these often also varies enormously. My usual advice is to disallow signs or notices without the approval of the LRC or library manager and adopt a common format, which emphasies clarity and accessibility. Notices should be used sparingly and out-of-date ones removed quickly.

Shelf guiding There are alternatives to Dewey. Many libraries are using simplified or modified versions of the classification to make books more accessible. Other improvements could be to colour code stock according to level or with "tutor recommends" stickers. There are also a variety of ways of highlighting books which have e-book versions, including "wobblers". If space is available, you might wish to consider creating resource zones for the principal subject areas of your curriculum. This works especially well for less academic subjects like hairdressing and beauty or catering and hospitality.

Choice Learning takes place in many different ways (in groups, alone, at a computer, using a mobile device etc.). It's important to offer a variety of learning environments - the most common are silent/individual study (increasingly demanded), group study (possibly also in a bookable room or pod), social (a more comfortable informal area). Fixed PCs are a relatively inflexible use of space and colleges are increasingly offering a choice of laptops or netbooks loaned by the library as well as use of learners' own devices via a secure wi-fi network.

Staffing In the past, library staff were often based behind a counter or in a work room, which presents a barrier to service users. Now,many libraries are considering supplementing their counter with roving staff who have a higher profile in the area and interact with learners on the spot. If the rovers carry a tablet like an i-Pad, this gives them access to college systems and e-resources for demonstration, or to answer enquiries.

De-clutter This may seem obvious, but it’s surprising how many learning spaces are cluttered with redundant furniture and equipment, or empty display units. These give a poor impression and can be a safety hazard, especially for wheelchair users. Removing them will make the space feel more spacious and easier to access.

I hope these points have been useful. If you'd like to consider a Learning Space Review at your organisation, do get in touch. I'm also happy to support you in planning a new or re-furbished learning space and have a collection of useful resources which might help.

Lessons about plagiarism

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Gallon) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:16:00 +0000

I was in the audience for the RSC West Midlands', A 2012 approach to student plagiarism event last week. This was an excellent day (even if I say so myself!) and we had some very good speakers, not least Jude Carroll, who is an acknowledged international expert on the topic.

Image from stock.xchng

For me, the day caused me to re-visit my perceptions of what student plagiarism is and how it should be tackled and I thought I'd share a few key lessons I learned from the day, which I would encourage others to think about when planning their plagiarism policy.

We're talking about deterrence not prevention (which is largely impossible). Organisational policies should recognise the plagiarism spectrum: misunderstanding, misuse and misconduct (the majority of incidents being the first two)
Tackling plagiarism is a shared responsibility (not just the student or teacher, or the librarian. A multi-level approach is needed in your organisation, with a clear lead from senior managers
There has been too much focus on the correct formatting of citations, rather than "why use them?" and approaches which emphasise quality writing and applying sources correctly if they're needed.
Plagiarism is a learning, not a policing issue. In Jude Carroll's words: "copying bypasses learning", "credit [of someone else's work], reflects learning" and "cheating de-values awards."
How do we teach students better practice? There's little evidence that the plagiarism lecture and isolated bibliography and referencing sessions work and these skills need to be embedded in teaching and learning.
Cook or microwave? This was a great analogy used to get the point across to students. What tastes better? A ready-made microwave meal, or a dish where you've sourced the ingredients yourself, you know exactly what's in it and you've lovingly prepared it...
On Turnitin: This software is no magic bullet and cannot detect plagiarism (apart from matching texts), humans needs to make this analysis and make the judgement about whether something is plagiarised or not.

Funding for libraries projects

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Gallon) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 10:53:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Gallon) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:22:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Gallon) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:51:00 +0000

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!

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Gallon) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:08:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Gallon) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 12:50:00 +0000

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?

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Gallon) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 11:55:00 +0000

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?

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Gallon) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:05:00 +0000

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:

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

Kindles

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Gallon) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 13:08:00 +0000

By Simply Bike on Flickr

The Amazon Kindle seems to be establishing itself as the leading e-reader and a few colleges are starting to buy these. There are of course many other options (not least tablet devices), including the excellent Bebook and Sony Reader. The RSC has examples of the Kindle and Sony e-reader, if you'd like to borrow one for a short period to try out.

I thought it would be useful to summarise what you can and can’t do with a Kindle from a library point of view, as well as some of the benefits of the Kindle more generally .

I’ve had a Kindle for a few months now and have enjoyed using it, especially as I haven’t had to spend a penny on content, as most of my reading is from out-of-copyright works, which can be freely downloaded from sites such as Project Guthenberg.

This kind of material can also be freely lent to students on the Kindle. However, it isn’t currently possible to lend Kindles containing copyright material within the terms of the Kindle license, although this may be changing soon (see JISC Legal advice below).

Usability
The Kindle is a compact, but robust device with a very clear e-ink screen, which can be read even in bright sunlight. Battery life is excellent and will last for up to a month with wi-fi turned off. Although some of the buttons on the Kindle are rather fiddly, the overall accessibility of the device is good and it includes a good text to speech facility (but not available on all books) and the maximum font size is quite large. Readers can also get an instant definition of an unfamiliar word, which is useful. The Kindle also includes a basic Web browser, which although you wouldn’t want to use this as your sole access to the Web, it is still useful to have.

Lending
The UK Kindle license is designed for personal use and copyright Kindle content must be viewed on the Kindle linked with the original Amazon account used to purchase the e-book, which makes lending impractical. In the US, Amazon have introduced e-book loan within their license terms (anyone can borrow, but you have to be US-based to lend), which is a better model for libraries. There is also a text book rental service available to students – but again not yet in the UK.
A quick trawl of Twitter and various news sites reveals a lot of rumour and speculation that Amazon is on the verge of revising UK licenses to make them more like the US, but there’s been no concrete announcements as yet.

Overdrive are working with public libraries (and at least one college that I know of) in offering their managed lending software, which can be used with a variety of devices (but not yet the Kindle).

JISC Legal advice on Kindle lending: here and here

Other uses of Kindle
The Kindle can do a lot more than display books – have a glance at some of these other usage options:

Send to Kindle:
Install the Send to Kindle Google Chrome plugin and you get a button on your Web browser, which when clicked, sends the content of a website to your Kindle for reading later. A great way of reading lengthy web pages off-line, on the easier-on-the-eye Kindle screen.

Kindle Publishing:
If you are a budding author, Amazon have now introduced direct publishing to the Kindle store:

Not got a Kindle, but have a PC or an I-pad/I-phone?
You can read Kindle e-books using an Apple App or Amazon’s free Kindle for PC software.

Must get free software: Calibre
Calibre is a great piece of free software for your PC and will manage your e-books across multiple devices (and formats) and allow you to turn your Kindle into a feed reader, so you can catch up on the latest content from your favourite newspapers, magazines or blogs.

"Hack" your Kindle – 100 tips and resources
Well worth exploring!

More information

The lis-ebooks JISCmail is a good place to start and is mainly populated by librarians.
JISC e-books for FE project page
E-books in the library Powerpoint. Although American, this sums up many of the issues for libraries well.

Sprucing up your LRC

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Gallon) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 08:31:00 +0000

With, or without money to spend, the Summer is always a good opportunity to de-clutter and re-organise your library or LRC and if you are lucky, a chance to replace some of that worn and out- of-date furniture, as well as adding new technology.

In early June this year, I visited Kidderminster College to complete a Learning Space Review. This is a short visit and report, which aimed to help Jackie O’Brien and her boss, Jill Edwards (now retired) to re-organise and improve the look and feel of the LRC at the 8-year old college.

I visited the college again last month and was thrilled to see the review report had stirred Jackie’s imagination and perhaps also helped her case in gaining funding for some new furniture and equipment to complete the new look. Here are some photos of what was achieved on a relatively tight budget.

The report recommended improvements to the clarity of signage, as well as removing many low priority signs and notices, which were badly formatted. Two LCD information screens were added (one behind the counter), which can be used for announcements and quick demonstrations of e-resources.

Some un-used furniture and shelving have been removed to achieve a less cluttered look, with more space for users to circulate. The new colour co-ordinated furniture is much more attractive than the old.

The PCs were previously in long rows, which cut the area in two and are now arranged in a more social arrangement, allowing learners the choice of working in groups, or alone.

Display spinners have been used to better display fiction and other materials.

Jackie delivers many library and information skills work shops with learners and the teaching area is now screened from the rest of the library to give more privacy and to avoid distraction

If you'd like a Learning Space Review for your library or LRC, do get in touch with me. If you'd like to get in touch with Jackie about the changes she made, she can be contacted on jo'brien@kidderminster.ac.uk

E-books: how do you get to the top of the league?

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Gallon) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 11:05:00 +0000

I’ve had a few enquiries from librarians who want to see their college’s position in the JISC e-books for FE usage rankings improve and would like some tips and advice on how to improve e-book and e-resource use. Although you shouldn’t get too hung up about your place in the league table, statistics are a useful tool in planning your strategy for promoting e-resources and giving you an indication of its success, or not.

E-resource usage statistics
Individual e-resources are starting to make available more and more detailed statistics - take the time to interpret these. If individual titles or databases aren’t being used, despite promotion, maybe it’s time to cancel them and consider alternatives? For Shibboleth users, the new Raptor tool is available to help you make sense of usage – it does need technical input to install it though.

Authentication and launch page
There is plenty of evidence that complicated sign-in procedures, or links buried deep in websites will turn off users to your e-resources. Make signing in as easy as possible and improve the prominence of your e-resource links. It's also worth branding your e-resource collection (why not “e-library” or “library 24/7"?) to raise the profile of the resources you have to offer.

Library OPAC and VLE links
When I’ve contacted contact colleges with high levels of e-book access, it was clear that the high usage rates were often due to just a few copies (or in some cases even pages) being used heavily by many students and had been highlighted by tutors, often with a link from a VLE course page. This underlines the point that it’s vital that tutors are part of your promotional strategy, as many students will only look at material recommended in the classroom as essential reading.

E-resources and e-books are often difficult to search and may be beyond the skills of some learners. To help overcome this, a good step is to ensurethe most appropriate e-books (at least) are catalogued on your library system and visible and clickable through your OPAC. A further step is to tag them with course codes or course titles, so relevant e-content can be found even more easily.

Case studies
A case study from Neath Port Talbot College (thanks to JISC RSC Wales) highlights the importance of library staff awareness of e-resources.
Here the LRC staff focus on up-skilling themselves to gain a detailed knowledge of the resources they have to offer and how they can be used to support teaching and learning. This assists in their face-to-face training and enquiry work, as well as in production of relevant support materials.

In another case study, Hull College focused on providing a critical mass of resources, with potential impact on all subject areas, as well as improving ease of access and a broad promotional strategy, targeted many groups of potential users.

Staff awareness
To promote a “product” you need to understand and believe in it (so the sales people tell us). This is true for e-resources too. One way of improving take up, is to ensure your own staff are familiar with your e-resources and how they could be used by different groups (staff, HE students, vocational students etc.), as well as understanding the variety of different ways they can be accessed and limits on printing etc.

Marketing and promotion tips and tricks
Once you have a reasonably broad collection of e-resources and you've solved any access issues, it's worth having some kind of launch event or promotional push, as well as the day-to-day promotional materials like flyers and shelf "wobblers".

Below are a couple of lists of tips and tricks you may like to try. Finally, one college in our region is experimenting with QR codes, which are printed on the shelves and books themselves, to indicate an e-book is available. By scanning with a mobile device, the QR code links directly to the online version of the book.

8 Step Plan (thanks to Chris Skerrow of Hull College)
Tips List (thanks to Scott Hibberson, RSC Yorkshire & Humber)

JISC MediaHub - now rully released

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Gallon) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 08:46:00 +0000

JISC MediaHub is the new multimedia platform from JISC, which brings together a range of collections previously available separately (such as Education Image Gallery and Newsfilm Online). MediaHub offers a choice of content, including freely available material, subscription only and links to content from sites outside MediaHub itself.

Francesco Troina (http://www.phototroina.com)/GovEd Communications (http://www.goved.co.uk)

MediaHub hosts a lot of content, including audio, video and images, but fortunately there are several ways of searching for the content you need, including by subject, by geographical location, using a timeline and by individual collection. You can also sort items by their popularity and using MyMediaHub, view past searches and items you've tagged.

For full access, your organisation requires a subscription to the JISC eCollections service - more details are available here

The Virtual Training Suite – getting a new lease of life

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Gallon) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 12:33:00 +0000

The Virtual Training Suite (VTS) is a set of 60 short, subject-based tutorials which help students develop their Internet search and evaluation skills and understand the key resources for their subject. Although JISC are no-longer funding the collection from 1st August 2011, agreement has been reached with the company TutorPro, who will retain the content and enhance and develop it for use through mobile devices, such as tablets and smart phones. The newly formatted tutorials can be viewed (including on mobile devices) here.

The tutorials in their current form are also
available for download from the Jorum repository and can be re-purposed and re-used within the terms of a Creative Commons license. The popular Internet Detective tutorial, which teaches generic Internet search and evaluation skills continues to be funded and is available here

It sounds good to me...British Library Archival Sound Recordings

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Gallon) — Mon, 09 May 2011 12:09:00 +0000

This is the first of a series of posts highlighting some of my favourite (and I believe most useful for teaching and learning) free resources funded by JISC.

Today, I’m highlighting the British Library Archival Sound Recordings collection, which, though not having the catchiest of titles, is a really inspiring collection of resources, with the potential for use across many subjects.

Picture from stockXchange

What’s in it?
Almost 50,000 recordings including spoken word, environmental, music (classical, jazz, world music), arts, literature and performance. The spoken word content includes fascinating interviews with scientists and historical figures – which could form an interesting component to a history or science lesson. The works of artists and sculptors can be brought to life, when you hear from the artists directly and English Language students may enjoy comparing examples of different dialects from across the UK.

Recorded sounds like these can often bring to life an otherwise dry lesson. The “soundscapes” can take you to a far off location, such as a rainforest at sunrise or a far off sea-shore. What is the dawn chorus? No need to explain – find a recording of this in the collection and simply download and play. Here's a couple of examples:

Dawn Chorus
A Holocaust survivor describes arriving at Auschwitz

The JISC Collections record for the archive explains more about the resource and here's an interesting YouTube video about how the collection was put together.

How can they be used?
Over 23,000 of the recordings can be used by everyone, the rest of the collection is accessible through a free license by FE and HE organisations, covering use for teaching, learning and research. The recordings can be streamed from the site, or downloaded and if you wish, divided into smaller segments.

How do I subscribe?
The British Library license can be obtained by emailing: asr@bl.uk

Finding more resources

The JISC Collections Catalogue is the first port of call for JISC-funded resources
The JISC Digitisation Programme has funded many resources, including the British Library Sound Archive.

Discover-e. What's in it for you?

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Gallon) — Wed, 04 May 2011 13:39:00 +0000

Discover-e is our free, two day, online conference and is nearly upon us - taking place on 17th and 18th May. If you haven't booked yet, please do so here.

This year's agenda offers an even wider range of sessions, using Moodle and the Web conferencing tool, Elluminate. As well as the formal sessions, there are also several chances to win a prize, by joining in some of the competitions - the more you take part, the better your chance of winning!

You are welcome to take part in as many of the activities as you wish, but I'd like to highlight a few sessions, which may be of particular interest to library and LRC staff:

17th May, 3:30-4:30 JISC Digital Media: Introduction to screencasting
Screencasting is a great way to explain how to use resources such as library catalogues and e-resource databases effectively - JISC Digital Media will be explaining how it's done.

18th May 11:15-12:15
Moving centre-stage: placing your library or LRC at the heart of teaching and learning
In this session, 3 speakers from East and West Midlands Colleges explore how they're achieving this aim; delegates will also be exploring their own tips and ideas.

12:15-1:15 Making the most of the JISC Collections, update and Q&A
Anna Vernon of JISC Collections will be updating us on the latest resources from JISC and sharing promotional tips for the JISC e-books; there will also be ample time to submit your own queries to Anna

Intellectual property dilemmas

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Gallon) — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 12:42:00 +0000

I recently attended a very good free briefing entitled “Managing and protecting intellectual property and digital dilemmas”, which was run by Eversheds solicitors. I can recommend this session to everyone – it was an eye opener and a useful way of guarding against complacency when it comes to intellectual property; the next sessions are in Leeds and Newcastle.

Below are some of the key messages I took from the session and some resources you might find useful.

By Citizensheep on Flickr

It’s now much easier to break the law and you’re more likely to be caught

Web technologies make it much easier to share your own, and re-use other people’s materials, but also make it easier to infringe copyright. E-learning materials can have many elements, all of which may have a different copyright status (e.g. sound track, images, recordings of students, script etc.) and it can be very difficult to determine who has the rights to what.

Record keeping
As you use different materials and combine them together to create new resources, keep a record of the copyright owners concerned and any permissions (or attempts to gain permission) you get, or licenses which apply. Once a piece of work is completed, it can be very difficult to unpick this information.

Performers’ rights
As library staff, we’re accustomed to copyright issues relating to text-based materials, but it’s easy to overlook other rights, such as those of performers – these become an issue when using video or still images of students or staff.

Permitted acts
If you work in an educational institution, there are some permitted acts, or exceptions in law, but these are tightly defined. Eversheds made the point, that unfortunately the law often hasn’t kept pace with technology, so some of these permissions are quite out of date and therefore of little use:

Fair dealing: use for research and private study, criticism or review, reporting current events
Visually impaired persons
Educational purposes
Libraries and archives [section 18.5 of linked document]

Know your licenses
Learning providers have access to a variety of licensing schemes which they can buy into, but these give only limited additional rights and usually for non-commercial purposes only. These licenses are changing all the time and some are being extended, so it’s worth keeping up to date by subscribing to any newsletters or email alerts from licensing organisations:

By woody1778a on Flickr

Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA)
Educational Recording Agency (ERA)
Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA)
Creative Commons

Use available expertise
This is such as complex subject, it’s essential to use the expertise available (especially if you have responsibility for copyright at your organisation!) and insist on appropriate training for yourself. Your Principal or other Chief Executive usually has final responsibility for legal issues and if unsure, these questions should be referred to him/her to seek legal advice.

Policies
Intellectual property rights touch on many areas of your organisation and shouldn’t just be left to the library to monitor and manage. A key point made was that there are a range of interest groups involved, such as IT services, personnel (copyright in work while employed is owned by the employer, unless contracts state otherwise), curriculum leaders and learning technologists/E-learning staff, as well as student services, who have a role in protecting students’ rights.

Resources

Web2rights is a really useful set of resources funded by JISC, including diagnostic tools, flow charts, explaining what steps you need to take when creating resources and a useful animation, explaining many of the issues. The project has also produced a short, interactive course using Xerte.
JISC Legal are the lead JISC Service on legal matters and a good starting point – their helpdesk will respond to specific queries.
General Copyright Guidance Graham Davies has been updating this site for many years (last updated 19th April, 2011!). It introduces the topic well and has many useful links and practical tips (e.g. So What about YouTube?).
The UK Intellectual Property Office website has some useful resources and links to courses. Their Copyright Essential reading is just that and in plain English.

Making your library or LRC more accessible

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Gallon) — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 09:08:00 +0000

The RSC’s Accessibility for library and LRC staff event last week in Birmingham gave delegates a timely update into a range of small, as well as more significant ways libraries can develop their services to ensure all users have equal access, regardless of disability.

Bullring by Mallsecrets on Flickr

If you weren’t lucky enough to attend, I thought it would be useful to summarise some of the topics covered and give you links to some resources to get you started.

Providing inclusive library services
The first of the morning sessions, by Alistair McNaught of JISCTechDIS emphasised the importance of understanding the needs of disabled users when planning services. To help us understand disabled users’ needs, he recommended two Web sites, which help put yourself in the shoes of learners with autism, dyslexia, hearing or visual impairments:

Simdis simulates some of the issues facing learners with disabilities when they access resources (a free downloadable browser plugin may be needed)
Watchwords is a deaf awareness tutorial developed by Sussex Downs College and JISC TechDIS

Reaching disabled users is about marketing services effectively to them and Alistair made the point that user guides, signage and other materials need to be in a format which can be comfortably understood and he demonstrated some useful tweaks, as well as mentioning some case studies:

Printed library guides can be made more accessible by using the in-built Styles in common word processing packages
Offer a Podcast or video, rather than just printed information
One college uses a cartoon strip format to explain what services are available in the library

During this session and the sharing good practice exercise in the afternoon, we came up with many ways we can adapt and improve services to make them more accessible – here are a few of them:

Offer extended loan periods, or allow borrowing by proxy (some students may not have the confidence to come to the busy library desk.)
Provide simple assistive technologies, such as adjustable desks and keyboard and mouse alternatives
Meet with your learner support colleagues so you can begin to understand your users better and tailor services, such as induction to the needs of different groups
Improve wheelchair access by changing the configuration of desks and other furniture.

Providing resources in alternative formats

Alistair’s session on obtaining books in alternative formats was an eye-opener to many and the key message was that publishers will usually supply books in alternative (usually PDF) format, if asked (a fee is sometimes payable). Many libraries are also now providing e-books and it is worth highlighting the inherent accessibility benefits of these over printed books. Reading on screen gives you access to text to speech options, magnification and adjusting screen colours, for example.

There are many ways of making text more accessible online and we explored a few options:

The Adobe (PDF) Reader has some really good features, such as zoom and text flow and automatically scrolling text

Free text-to-speech tools, such as Balabolka

Magnification tools and on screen rulers, such as VU Bar to help with reading

To assist with search, Alistair recommended the Vionto visual search engine

JISC TechDIS have recently published a guide to obtaining textbooks in alternative formats

AccessApps and MyStudyBar

Alison Wootton's session in the afternoon gave delegates a chance to try out MyStudyBar and the AccessApps suite of free software. MyStudyBar would be a great standard tool to install on all PCs in any library or LRC and AccessApps software can be made available to users on memory sticks to borrow. Why not create two or three tailored collections of software on sticks to suit the needs of particular student groups?

Here is a collection of screencasts, explaining how you can download and make use of AccessApps