LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY

DIVISION OF INFORMATION SERVICES AND SYSTEMS

UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

Overview of the year

The University Library began the year with high expectations and on the threshold of a number of significant developments. Of obvious and immediate benefit to Library users was the doubling of PC workstation provision, and the availability of the full range of networked and office software on all machines. This first step towards the creation in the Pilkington Library of a comprehensive resource centre supporting research and learning was celebrated with a lunch for Library staff, Library Liaison Officers and University senior management in October. Constant use of the workstations by students throughout the year subsequently bore witness to the popularity of the Library as an IT resource.

Merger between the University and Loughborough College of Art & Design, and the establishment of the Learning Resource Centre at Peterborough, marked for the Library a transition from single-site to multi-site operation – with all the difficulties (and advantages) that implies. Peterborough also gave the Library its first real experience of cross-sectoral collaboration, as service delivery there is contracted out to Peterborough City Libraries against a service level agreement, with the University Librarian responsible for quality assurance.

After the hiatus in recruitment imposed by the review of support services the previous year, 1998/99 witnessed a number of appointments to existing vacancies - and to some newly created posts. Particularly significant, and very welcome, was the creation of an additional Sub-Librarian position. The Library ended the year with few outstanding vacancies, and with its staff complement augmented by a number of able people as committed to the development and delivery of high quality services as the colleagues they joined. I am, as always, very grateful to them all.

The general optimism, however, was severely tested by protracted discussions over the 1999/2000 budget settlement. As the year ended, there was serious concern that the Library’s role in supporting research would be heavily compromised by the likely outcome of the budgetary allocation process.

The Library welcomed the appointment in March of Professor Margaret Evans as Director of Information Strategy and Services, and looks forward to participating with its fellow DISS services in the Division’s continuing progress. For the first half of the year the Division was led successively by Dr David Fletcher, Registrar, and Professor Ron McCaffer, Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor. The Librarian is grateful to both for their support during this period.

The Library continued to make good progress towards the achievement of its strategic and operational planning goals. Three working groups, with members drawn from across the Library, were established and reported during the year. The working group on circulation services recommended a number of procedural changes to enhance the service to Library users. Many were implemented immediately; others were to take effect at the start of the 1999/2000 session. The Library management system project group consulted widely with Library staff in preparing an operational requirement for a replacement system. It was disappointing that a bid for funding had not, at the time of writing, succeeded.

The group investigating access to full-text material in electronic format produced a useful survey of current availability, and made a series of recommendations to guide Library policy, several of which were in hand by the end of the year. The members of all three groups, and the convenors – Paul Reynolds, Dawn Cole and Mary Hodgkinson – achieved a great deal within a short space of time. The composition and roles of the Senior Management Team and Management Group were also reviewed during the year.

As ever, much of the year was characterised by discussions and negotiations over Library funding. The research community was particularly concerned that the likely 1999/2000 budget settlement implied radical cuts in subscriptions to current serials. The Librarian was a member of the Information Services Service Improvement Group, which approved and endorsed the Library’s Service level agreement with its users for 1999/2000. Throughout the year significant progress was made in benchmarking Library funding and services against other academic libraries. The Library also contributed to the Information strategy section of the University Strategic plan.

All three Faculty Teams were affected by staff changes, but all benefited from the recruitment to vacancies of able staff concerned to develop closer links with Faculties in order better to support research, teaching and learning. Several people were temporarily upgraded to provide cover for absent or former colleagues. In the Social Sciences and Humanities (SS&H) Team Mike Chaney served as acting team manager; Christine Hallam undertook the role of Academic Librarian in the Science Team; and in the Engineering Team Damian Miller was temporarily a Senior Library Assistant. The contribution of all was appreciated.

The number of students and staff attending information skills training sessions showed an increase of 26 per cent over 1997/98, while the Library staff time involved was reduced by 14 per cent - implying that the groups taught were larger than before, and that Library time was more efficiently utilised. There were 21 Lunchtime in the Library sessions, and 18 academic departments took up the opportunity to receive a joint induction session from the Library, Computing Services and Flexible Learning. In January Alison McNab relinquished Library-wide responsibility for managing information skills training to Ruth Stubbings: the quality of the programme reflected credit on both.

In June Professor Evans and the Library Senior Management Team hosted an informal seminar to explore how the Library could best support the research activity of members of the University. The event, attended by the Assistant Deans (Research) and other research leaders, generated useful discussion and is intended to be repeated annually. Library staff also met with the Research Support Manager on several occasions to explore how the Library might support and complement the work of the Research Team. As in previous years, the Library provided mandatory training sessions for SS&H research postgraduates, and optional sessions for the other two Faculties.

Towards the end of the year a user survey investigated the extent to which researchers in the University use software to manage references retrieved from electronic databases. It was clear from the preliminary results that there was significant interest in the use of such software, and that DISS should provide advice in this area

Faculty Team staff were involved in two External Subject Reviews during the year, which again resulted in maximum scores for learning resources, and the Science Team supported the Library Association/Institute of Information Scientists accreditation visit to the Department of Information Science. The wording of questions about Library services in the student feedback questionnaires administered by the Quality Assessment Unit was revised. The Library was a partner in a project initiated by Teaching and Learning Committee to attach electronic versions of reading lists to module specifications. Gary Brewerton and Jeff Brown undertook much of the work involved in the feasibility stage of the project.

A survey of 400 part-time or distance-learning students was carried out in the Spring, attracting a 30 per cent response rate. Those responding were generally satisfied with borrowing arrangements and enquiry services, although there was a lack of awareness of the Library’s electronic enquiry system ULISEES. In reply to a question asking what additional opening hours would be beneficial, the most common response, unsurprisingly, was that longer opening hours in vacation periods would be appreciated.

The Learning Resources Centre (LRC) at Peterborough opened on schedule at the start of Semester 1, following a considerable investment of time by the University Librarian and colleagues from the Library and Computing Services. The LRC provides library and IT services for Loughborough University students, and is also open to students taking higher education courses at further education colleges in the Peterborough area. Services are delivered by Peterborough City Library staff on behalf of the University, with the University Librarian responsible for quality assurance. Peterborough-based students also have access to the University Libraries at Loughborough.

Expenditure on books was two per cent less than in the previous year, and 2,654 fewer books were received: the number of books received in 1997/98 had been particularly high because of the transfer of some material from the Library of Loughborough College of Art & Design (LCAD). The number of orders placed rose by two per cent, and expenditure on printed serials rose by six per cent. The 1998 serials review resulted in the cancellation of 159 subscriptions, and the placing of 58 subscriptions to new or additional titles.

In August, following formal merger with LCAD, the bookstock of the Fairbairn and Pilkington Libraries was rationalised in an operation organised by Jeff Brown and Marion Shields, so that the Fairbairn Library contained all (and only) the University Library’s books on art and design. Of the books relocated to the Pilkington Library, some were reclassified by David Lewis assisted by Support Services colleagues and 800 duplicate titles were discarded. Martina Brown subsequently led a full stock check at the Fairbairn Library.

Emma Murray co-ordinated a review of abstracting and indexing journals, and 184 non-current titles were discarded. The computer science stock was reviewed in a consultation process formalised through the Library User Committee, and 1,890 books were removed from the shelves - the contribution made by Stephanie McKeating to the exercise was particularly valuable. Photocopied journal articles in the Short Loan Collection were reorganised by Faculty Team Library Assistants to comply with copyright legislation and guidelines, and redundant items were removed from the collection with the assistance of Circulation staff - a project managed by Louise Fletcher.

The provision of access to electronic information was hugely facilitated by the recabling of the Pilkington Library in the summer of 1998; the installation of an additional 50 networked PC workstations; and the purchase of a new CD-ROM server. Consequently the year witnessed a 37 per cent increase in the use of networked services, and a 61 per cent increase in CD-ROM searches. There was also considerable growth in the number of databases and full-text services made available to members of the Library, which by the end of the year included access to well over 600 electronic journals. A major trend was the migration of services: from print to electronic format, from CD-ROM to the Web, and from one data provider to another. Greater attention was paid to monitoring the usage of databases; the cost-per-use of individual databases; and the collection management of electronic services. Alison McNab, who was given Library-wide responsibility for this area in October, is to be congratulated on the progress made, building on the important contribution to electronic information service development made by her predecessor in the role, Hazel Woodward.

One of the benefits to the Library service of merger with LCAD was the transfer to the Library’s Support Services Team of Steve Corn as Audiovisual Librarian. Mr Corn and colleagues implemented several of the recommendations of the 1997/98 review of audiovisual resources, locating videos with the main book stock; disposing of redundant equipment; and updating signage and instructional materials. A digital microform reader/printer was purchased, and audiovisual enquiries were successfully relocated to the Enquiry Desk in the Support Services office.

Amongst the records deposited in the University Archives were furniture design drawings by Peter Waals. Waals was an important Cotswold tradition craftsman and an adviser on furniture design to Loughborough College. Some pieces made from the drawings are today in Hazlerigg Hall.

Use of the Pilkington Library, measured by the number of people entering the building, was 12 per cent higher than in 1997/98. The rise demonstrates the growing attraction of the Library for students as a study space equipped with excellent IT facilities located adjacent to printed resources, and with knowledgeable staff always available to assist with information retrieval and handling. The number of recorded enquiries handled by Library staff rose by seven per cent in the Pilkington Library, and by 15 per cent if enquiries at the Fairbairn Library are included. Not surprisingly, IT support enquiries leapt by 75 per cent in the wake of the greatly expanded facilities. In June Mike Chaney became responsible for the management of the Enquiry Services, a responsibility exercised for many years by Bob Rhodes.

After five years’ decline, the amount of self-service photocopying in the Library increased by three per cent. There was, however, a continuing reduction in demand for the staffed service – down by 17 per cent over the previous year. Requests from users for interlibrary loans also increased, with a six per cent rise after a fall of 11.5 per cent in 1997/98.

The number of books issued at the two sites of the University Library rose by 5.6 per cent over 1997/98, as opposed to a rise of 3.6 per cent the previous year. This included a rise in the number of loans at the Fairbairn Library of 28 per cent, albeit from a low base: Fairbairn Library issues accounted for under six per cent of total University Library issues. The average length of time for a book reserved by a user to become available remained eight days, and there was a two per cent reduction in the number of items reshelved.

The Circulation team underwent a considerable change in personnel during the year under review: 50 per cent of the daytime staff in post at the end of the year had joined the Library during the previous twelve months. The new recruits included the Circulation Manager, Louise Fletcher, who worked hard to rebuild the team. Carol Seagrove, seconded from the Engineering Team for several months, provided valuable support. The Team participated in and benefited from the comprehensive review of circulation services early in the year.

The Library again exhibited at the Freshers’ Fair, and at the Open Day – with displays in both Libraries and in the James France building. A stand was also set up in the Pilkington Library foyer during the Innovations Fair. Exhibition materials were reviewed and improved. The enthusiasm and commitment of a number of staff contributed to the success of all these ventures. Responsibility for marketing the Library services transferred from Mike Chaney to Paul Reynolds during the year. Mr Reynolds worked with DISS colleagues to revise the format of the DISS newsletter The ISSue, which moved from print to Web-only publication in 1999.

The Publications Group, reconstituted under Ruth Stubbings after being led for several years by Mike Chaney, revised the Self-guided tour and Library leaflets and instigated the rationalisation of the Information sheets available from the Library’s enquiry points. A small group convened by Dawn Cole reviewed the structure of the Library’s Web pages, and planned their revision for the start of the 1999/2000 session.

The installation of an additional 50 PC workstations and associated furniture, on all three floors of the Pilkington Library and in time for the start of Semester 1, was a major achievement, for which Dawn Cole was largely responsible. Marion Shields supervised the installation of the furniture, and a number of Library staff assisted the Systems Team to install and commission the PCs. The 100 workstations in the Library were heavily used throughout the session, with a consequently substantial increase in demand for IT support. The Systems Team, augmented by the recruitment of a Library Assistant in the Spring, fielded enquiries referred from enquiry points; trained Library staff; and prepared documentation and on-screen assistance for users.

Systems staff also installed a new public file server and CD-ROM server, and a new windows-based networked CD-ROM service was made available from all NT labs on campus by the start of Semester 1. The programme to upgrade all Library staff PCs to Windows 95/Office 97 continued, and additional workstations were installed at the Fairbairn Library.

User workstations were upgraded to Year 2000-compliance during the 1999 summer vacation, and work to make all Library staff PCs compliant was scheduled for completion by the end of August 1999. The Talis Library system was upgraded to be compliant at Easter 1999, with a further upgrade later in the year. Despite careful planning by Library staff, the Easter upgrade carried out by the system supplier unfortunately resulted in service disruption for several days after the vacation period until software problems were solved. The Talis interlibrary loan module was implemented in January, Jeff Brown working with Inter-Library Loans staff to ensure a smooth transition from the previous system.

During the 1998 summer vacation a newspaper area was created on Level 3, with current and archive (microform and CD-ROM) copies relocated adjacent to each other. The area quickly proved popular with staff and readers. Marion Shields was responsible for the completion of the programme to resurface all tables in public areas, removing graffiti and the effects of nearly two decades’ use. A number of chairs were replaced and the outer foyer recarpeted. The contract for the supply and maintenance of self-service photocopiers was renegotiated, and the eight new machines were relocated away from the Pilkington Library foyer. The relocation allowed Marion Shields and Anne Fletcher to organise the creation of an exhibition area, which housed a number of displays during the year – notably The end of the beginning, 40 prints produced by final year students and staff of the Printmaking Department at LCAD, and guest artists.

The Training Group, led by Paul Reynolds from September, organised 34 events for Library staff during the year. The programme, informed by the Internal Quality Award assessor’s feedback report and the outcomes of the Library’s annual staff development review, was dominated by IT training for staff and to support users, but also included customer care and correct manual handling techniques. Discussions took place with the Disability and Additional Needs Tutor to raise awareness among Library staff of students’ additional needs and their implications for the Library service.

Paul Reynolds organised the Library’s successful reassessment for the Internal Quality Award in June, and also revised the staff induction programme and materials. As a member of the EMALINK (East Midlands Academic Libraries) Committee Mr Reynolds ensured that the Library continued to maintain a high profile in local and regional staff development and training. Library staff attended and hosted several EMALINK events.

Individual achievements included the award of NVQs at Level 2 to Mandy Bullock (ILS) and Kelly Friend (Administration, and Using IT).

There were fewer resignations than in 1997/98, with nine people leaving the staff. Among the long-serving staff to resign were Karen Ingall, Sarah Mellors and Hazel Woodward, on her appointment as University Librarian at Cranfield University in October 1998. In her 23 years at Loughborough Dr Woodward, who had been reappointed to a Sub-Librarian’s post with effect from August 1998, had served the Library, the University and the information profession with distinction. Her energy, enthusiasm and contribution to the management of the Library and to its excellent external reputation were considerable and impressive.

Among the 15 people who joined the daytime staff were Paul Reynolds, in the new post of Service Development Manager; Ruth Stubbings, in the Sub-Librarian post of Academic Services Manager (SS&H); Louise Fletcher, Circulation Manager; and Elizabeth Gadd as Academic Librarian (Engineering). On merger with LCAD, it was very pleasing to welcome six staff from that institution: Maggie Leo, formerly LCAD Librarian, joined the SS&H Team as an Academic Librarian; Steve Corn moved to the Support Services Team; and Barbara Whetnall to the Circulation Team in the Pilkington Library. Helen Burt and Jenni Stewart remained as Circulation staff at the Fairbairn Library, joined by Jenny Scott from the LCAD Finance Department and Martina Brown from the Pilkington Library. There were also 19 appointments to the evening and weekend staff, principally because opening hours at the Fairbairn Library were extended in line with those at the Pilkington Library. Three short-tem contracts were issued to cover maternity leave. That most other appointments were on the basis of rolling contracts was a source of continuing concern, although by the end of the year there were indications that might change.

Mary Morley

University Librarian

September 1999