Enid Pryce-Jones, Janice Bell: User education at UCE

Library Services, University of Central England

The University of Central England in Birmingham (UCE) is a large, post 1992 university with eight libraries, 23,000 students and over 760 members of academic staff. Library user education has been carried out over the years in a variety of different ways because of the variety of the subjects taught, at so many campuses, in different faculties with their different approaches to the importance of information literacy. In 2004, as a result of a number of changes (a new Pro Vice Chancellor with a student services background became responsible for Library Services; a new additional Deputy Director of Library Services was appointed; approaches to information skills in various faculties have become increasingly divergent; the start of the development of Moodle as the institution's learning environment) we decided that we needed to check where we were with the integration of information skills training, faculty by faculty.

Background
We carried out our last review of library user education between 1998 and 2000. As a result of the analyses of the information skills work that the faculty librarians carried out, the group decided to concentrate initially on improving library introductions, and to try to improve integration of information skills into the curriculum. The group also decided to introduce library skills sessions on general topics for students. It was not possible to link the sessions to times when students would have been given assignments as that information was not forthcoming. These sessions were met with indifference and very poor attendance, and led to some demoralisation amongst the staff who ran them. After two years it was decided to stop running them, and to concentrate on keeping the academic staff informed, in the hope that better informed tutors would be able to pass on accurate and appropriate information to the students. This saw the start of Electronic Resources Awareness Days for academic staff. Everyone really enjoys these days, and all academic staff who attend, learn something from their visit. However, our training facilities are limited, we depend on staff being willing to come and learn, and there is never a "best" time of year for these to take place.

Current situation
In 2004, staff were asked to provide information on the numbers of sessions delivered, their length, the number of students attending, and the level of the session (first year, post graduate, etc). This survey gave a mixed result, as staff had to go back through diaries and did not have all the information requested. However, it could be seen that faculty and subject librarians are kept very busy dealing with introductions to the library, but timetabled input after that initial contact is in many cases non-existent. A session of 15 - 30 minutes to tell new students what the library can offer, is all the official library input that many students will experience - until the time in their second year when they start thinking about their dissertation, or possibly even the third year when they need to start working on it. There has been a very varied take-up of further help for students, with some faculties leaving it up to individual students to arrange sessions with their faculty librarian, while others have integrated information skills very comprehensively. It is too early yet to provide evidence that those subjects that have included information skills sessions within their curriculum have seen an improvement in students' information handling and retrieval skills. Library staff supporting one particular faculty have, however, noticed a decrease in the use of the enquiry desk and a change to the nature of the enquiries.
 
What the results also show is that the faculty and subject librarians have to spend a lot of their time doing one-to-one or small group sessions, when the students ask for help. This, in itself, is no bad thing. As Pat Noon (1994) says:
 
What could be more important than working with and for individual users.
 
If a student does not ask, then he or she will not get the benefit of the range of resources that library staff spend so much time, effort and money in acquiring and learning to use. This also means that students who do not ask for help will not receive any. Different groups of students will receive inconsistent levels of help, as it is not possible to structure informal, infrequent sessions in the same way as a specially tailored session, integrated into the curriculum.
 
We are aware that this is an inequitable situation which can disadvantage those who are in most need of support. We also know, from a survey of academic staff carried out in the late spring 2004 by "evidence base", Library Services' research arm, that many academic staff have definite opinions about why students may be ineffective library users, or not users at all. There is also a will to do something about user education coming from the staff who would deliver it.

The future Our plan to improve the situation is as follows:

• We will run "brown paper bag" lunches to encourage members of academic staff to share their views in more detail, and to ask them how we can provide mutual support.
• Once we have their views, we will decide on appropriate initiatives to try to encourage our students to become independent learners.
• We are investigating refresher training for library staff so that their enthusiasm and existing skills are backed up by theory, practice and practical ways of leading successful sessions.
• We have a member of staff who has been seconded for 20% of his time to be the "Library Services Moodler". He is ensuring that what we believe to be the basics of how to get to grips with information is available on Moodle, where students will be able to access information skills training at their own pace and when they need it. This could still result in inconsistent coverage because of the independent nature of the approach. Some students who need to improve their information skills may not be aware of their need. In order for the use of Moodle to be successful, it will be necessary for links to be made to the Library Moodle from subject modules. These can be at appropriate places in the module and in a menu which the student chooses. We believe this can be implemented. Our Moodler is working with Faculty Moodlers to ensure the integration of the library modules into the academic programmes so that by concentrating on what our users need at key points in their academic life cycle rather than on what we wish to provide for then in whatever slots we have available, we should be able to establish the role of user education not only as an integral part of the services that we offer but also as an integral part of the student learning experience Noon P. (1994).

Conclusion
If our students are to benefit from the wealth of resources available in our libraries and if they are to succeed in an external environment which calls for ever greater information literacy, we must address this issue and provide a service which will off students the opportunities to develop those skills.
 
Collaboration with our academic staff in a variety of ways will be the key to achieving our aims. Our Faculty Librarians currently liaise with the academic staff in a variety of wasys and we shall be looking to share experiences and to build on the work which they already do. Hannelore Rader (2001) suggests that Academic Librarians need to be aggressive, able to take risks and work with their academic environment to be successful in this competitive information age.
 
This is what we shall be asking our staff to do as we endeavour to provide our students with the service they need.

References

1. Noon P. (1994) Finding a strategic role for information skills in Information Skills in Academic Libraries. SEDA paper 82 [on-line]. [dostęp 7 września 2004]. Dostępny w World Wide Web: http://www.city.londonmet.ac.uk/deliberations/seda-pubs/Noon.html
2. Rader H. (2001) Cooperative ventures between the university and the Library. IFLA 2001, Boston [on-line]. [dostęp 7 września 2004]. Dostępny w World Wide Web: http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla67/papers/081-164e.pdf