The document discusses the British Library's implementation of a roving reference service to provide assistance to library patrons. Some key points:
- Roving reference staff walk around the library to proactively help patrons rather than waiting at a service desk. This improves accessibility and response times.
- An initial pilot program was successful, so the library expanded the roving service and provided additional training to reference staff.
- Implementing the roving service required assessing patron needs, benchmarking other libraries, addressing challenges like staffing needs, and making the business case for ongoing support.
- The roving model enhances collaborative work between library departments and allows staff to engage patrons throughout the physical library spaces.
This workshop will explore the skill sets for scholarly
communication including questions about future
requirements, the language we are using in this space and,
beyond skills, what type of people are suited to different
aspects of librarianship. Scholarly communication requires
people who are able to be flexible in their approach, rather
than ‘rule followers’, which may mean a fundamental shift
in the library workforce into the future. Working collectively,
the session will consider the implications for upskilling our
‘legacy’ workforce.
This workshop will explore the skill sets for scholarly
communication including questions about future
requirements, the language we are using in this space and,
beyond skills, what type of people are suited to different
aspects of librarianship. Scholarly communication requires
people who are able to be flexible in their approach, rather
than ‘rule followers’, which may mean a fundamental shift
in the library workforce into the future. Working collectively,
the session will consider the implications for upskilling our
‘legacy’ workforce.
Providing accessible content can be a costly and timeconsuming
activity for individual libraries who have a legal and
ethical duty to support their students who have disabilities. As
access to online content has grown and funding for support
diminished, libraries are increasingly looking to the benefits
of using their collective effort to assess accessibility of thirdparty
content and then work with publishers and other suppliers
to find solutions. The session will set the scene and provide
some case studies from UK universities that show how we
are supporting students with disabilities in their use of library
content. Libraries have been working individually and collectively
to raise the topic of accessibility with publishers and vendors,
many of whom have engaged with their
customers. In some cases quite simple changes to
publisher platforms can produce effective changes. In others
a much greater investment is needed. The speakers will use
their own experience to outline this topic which we hope will be
relevant to librarians, publishers, system vendors and others.
This webinar will provide an introduction to managing, purchasing and promoting eBooks within an academic context. It will also provide an overview of the key elements of eBook accessibility with reference to the recent HE eBook accessibility audit. With opportunities for questions and to feedback.
Since October 2015 Stockholm University Library has managed
their journal subscriptions without using a subscription agent.
Instead they renew directly with each publisher. During this
breakout session they will share their experience of doing it
themselves. What are the pros and cons of not using an agent?
Are there cost savings to be had? What about the working hours
spent? And what’s the difference between the first and the second time renewing without an agent?
Providing accessible content can be a costly and timeconsuming
activity for individual libraries who have a legal and
ethical duty to support their students who have disabilities. As
access to online content has grown and funding for support
diminished, libraries are increasingly looking to the benefits
of using their collective effort to assess accessibility of thirdparty
content and then work with publishers and other suppliers
to find solutions. The session will set the scene and provide
some case studies from UK universities that show how we
are supporting students with disabilities in their use of library
content. Libraries have been working individually and collectively
to raise the topic of accessibility with publishers and vendors,
many of whom have engaged with their
customers. In some cases quite simple changes to
publisher platforms can produce effective changes. In others
a much greater investment is needed. The speakers will use
their own experience to outline this topic which we hope will be
relevant to librarians, publishers, system vendors and others.
We Can and We Should: libraries' role in open educationSarah Cohen
We can and we should: the libraries' role in open education
Libraries around the country, and the world, are increasingly devoting time and resources to open education. But why? In what way are libraries part of this movement and how does it serve our missions and services? This presentation will describe the value that libraries’ engagement in this space can offer to our institutions, our students, and our profession; and, to outline possible ways forward for libraries that are interested in committing their limited resources to this transformative effort.
Change Leadership in South East Asian Academic LibrariesIFLA
How do academic libraries approach, plan, implement, and evaluate change? What are the reasons and drivers for change? What kind of planning takes place to roll out change? What types of communication with stakeholders are undertaken regarding change? What is the role of mentoring and coaching in change process? What kind of leadership is needed for ‘change’ initiatives? What are some of the challenges academic libraries face to plan and execute change?
Many academic libraries have been reasonably successful in adapting themselves to the fast changing digital world since the beginning of the Internet, but also since the beginning of increased accountability and declining budgets in higher education institutions in a number of countries, since the early 90s. They have gone through a great deal of change in the last twenty years or so. Some are continuing to change and adapt at greater rate than others. Some libraries introduce ‘change’ to their services, operations, initiatives much more than others. Technology and space renovations have been two of the most significant catalysts to facilitate change in many cases in addition to the financial and organisational directives of the parent organisation.
Agile management and change management are closely related. Libraries can benefit from applying agile management strategies to implement change leadership.
This paper uses Singapore Management University Library as a case study in implementing agile management and also present the results of a survey amongst academic library leaders in South East Asia regarding ‘change’ in their libraries as well as causes, effects and outcomes of change initiatives, projects, activities and future plans.
Quality measurement and evaluation assumes great importance in modern libraries, as it brings immense benefits to the library as well as user community.iN uality should start from the acquisition section, which should be carried uniformly to circulation section
[Lefebvre] [Multiple stakes in the ground] IFLA LBES 2016Diane Koen
Presentation made by [Madeleine Lefebvre] at the IFLA Library Buildings and Equipment Satellite Meeting. Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, August 10-11, 2016.
NComapss Live - July 17, 2019
http://nlc.nebraska.gov/NCompassLive/
Join us to learn about the new Project Outcome for Academic Libraries surveys and resources. Project Outcome is a free toolkit that helps libraries measure four key learning outcomes – knowledge, confidence, application, and awareness – across seven library program and service areas.
Presenter: Sara S. Goek, Program Manager, Association of College & Research Libraries
Providing accessible content can be a costly and timeconsuming
activity for individual libraries who have a legal and
ethical duty to support their students who have disabilities. As
access to online content has grown and funding for support
diminished, libraries are increasingly looking to the benefits
of using their collective effort to assess accessibility of thirdparty
content and then work with publishers and other suppliers
to find solutions. The session will set the scene and provide
some case studies from UK universities that show how we
are supporting students with disabilities in their use of library
content. Libraries have been working individually and collectively
to raise the topic of accessibility with publishers and vendors,
many of whom have engaged with their
customers. In some cases quite simple changes to
publisher platforms can produce effective changes. In others
a much greater investment is needed. The speakers will use
their own experience to outline this topic which we hope will be
relevant to librarians, publishers, system vendors and others.
This webinar will provide an introduction to managing, purchasing and promoting eBooks within an academic context. It will also provide an overview of the key elements of eBook accessibility with reference to the recent HE eBook accessibility audit. With opportunities for questions and to feedback.
Since October 2015 Stockholm University Library has managed
their journal subscriptions without using a subscription agent.
Instead they renew directly with each publisher. During this
breakout session they will share their experience of doing it
themselves. What are the pros and cons of not using an agent?
Are there cost savings to be had? What about the working hours
spent? And what’s the difference between the first and the second time renewing without an agent?
Providing accessible content can be a costly and timeconsuming
activity for individual libraries who have a legal and
ethical duty to support their students who have disabilities. As
access to online content has grown and funding for support
diminished, libraries are increasingly looking to the benefits
of using their collective effort to assess accessibility of thirdparty
content and then work with publishers and other suppliers
to find solutions. The session will set the scene and provide
some case studies from UK universities that show how we
are supporting students with disabilities in their use of library
content. Libraries have been working individually and collectively
to raise the topic of accessibility with publishers and vendors,
many of whom have engaged with their
customers. In some cases quite simple changes to
publisher platforms can produce effective changes. In others
a much greater investment is needed. The speakers will use
their own experience to outline this topic which we hope will be
relevant to librarians, publishers, system vendors and others.
We Can and We Should: libraries' role in open educationSarah Cohen
We can and we should: the libraries' role in open education
Libraries around the country, and the world, are increasingly devoting time and resources to open education. But why? In what way are libraries part of this movement and how does it serve our missions and services? This presentation will describe the value that libraries’ engagement in this space can offer to our institutions, our students, and our profession; and, to outline possible ways forward for libraries that are interested in committing their limited resources to this transformative effort.
Change Leadership in South East Asian Academic LibrariesIFLA
How do academic libraries approach, plan, implement, and evaluate change? What are the reasons and drivers for change? What kind of planning takes place to roll out change? What types of communication with stakeholders are undertaken regarding change? What is the role of mentoring and coaching in change process? What kind of leadership is needed for ‘change’ initiatives? What are some of the challenges academic libraries face to plan and execute change?
Many academic libraries have been reasonably successful in adapting themselves to the fast changing digital world since the beginning of the Internet, but also since the beginning of increased accountability and declining budgets in higher education institutions in a number of countries, since the early 90s. They have gone through a great deal of change in the last twenty years or so. Some are continuing to change and adapt at greater rate than others. Some libraries introduce ‘change’ to their services, operations, initiatives much more than others. Technology and space renovations have been two of the most significant catalysts to facilitate change in many cases in addition to the financial and organisational directives of the parent organisation.
Agile management and change management are closely related. Libraries can benefit from applying agile management strategies to implement change leadership.
This paper uses Singapore Management University Library as a case study in implementing agile management and also present the results of a survey amongst academic library leaders in South East Asia regarding ‘change’ in their libraries as well as causes, effects and outcomes of change initiatives, projects, activities and future plans.
Quality measurement and evaluation assumes great importance in modern libraries, as it brings immense benefits to the library as well as user community.iN uality should start from the acquisition section, which should be carried uniformly to circulation section
[Lefebvre] [Multiple stakes in the ground] IFLA LBES 2016Diane Koen
Presentation made by [Madeleine Lefebvre] at the IFLA Library Buildings and Equipment Satellite Meeting. Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, August 10-11, 2016.
NComapss Live - July 17, 2019
http://nlc.nebraska.gov/NCompassLive/
Join us to learn about the new Project Outcome for Academic Libraries surveys and resources. Project Outcome is a free toolkit that helps libraries measure four key learning outcomes – knowledge, confidence, application, and awareness – across seven library program and service areas.
Presenter: Sara S. Goek, Program Manager, Association of College & Research Libraries
Chemistry online is represented in various ways including publications, presentations, blog posts, wiki-contributions, data depositions, curations and annotations. Encouraging participation from the community to participate in and comment on the information delivered via these various formats would likely provide for a rich dialog exchange in some cases and improved data quality in others. At the Royal Society of Chemistry we have a number of platforms that are amenable to contribution. This presentation will provide an overview of our experiences in engaging the community to interact with our various forms of content and discuss new approaches we are utilizing to encourage crowdsourced participation.
Embedding service design and product thinking at Cancer Research UK | Heads o...CharityComms
Snezh Halacheva, service designer and Anne Bienia, head of product, CRUK Technology, Cancer Research UK
Visit the CharityComms website to view slides from past events, see what events we have coming up and to check out what else we do: www.charitycomms.org.uk
Talk given at the 2015 ALA Annual Conference, San Francisco, CA.
http://alaac15.ala.org/node/28851
This presentation will provide an overview of the current practices in makerspaces in three categories: academic libraries, school libraries, and local membership-based makerspaces. Mediated vs. open service model, various programming and marketing approaches, and the space and staffing considerations will be discussed with pros and cons to provide a solid starting point for creating a makerspace. We will also share some findings from experimenting with 3D printing devices and equipment at University of Maryland, Baltimore.
Tools, People & Processes: Managing Change HolisticallyRene Erlandson
This presentation was given by Rene J. Erlandson and Rob Ross at the 2013 Charleston Conference. Managing technology change is more than migrating to new systems and changing workflows and processes. Often the human aspect of technology change is overlooked. This session highlighted key strategies for successfully managing all aspects of change.
How to Create Map Views in the Odoo 17 ERPCeline George
The map views are useful for providing a geographical representation of data. They allow users to visualize and analyze the data in a more intuitive manner.
This is a presentation by Dada Robert in a Your Skill Boost masterclass organised by the Excellence Foundation for South Sudan (EFSS) on Saturday, the 25th and Sunday, the 26th of May 2024.
He discussed the concept of quality improvement, emphasizing its applicability to various aspects of life, including personal, project, and program improvements. He defined quality as doing the right thing at the right time in the right way to achieve the best possible results and discussed the concept of the "gap" between what we know and what we do, and how this gap represents the areas we need to improve. He explained the scientific approach to quality improvement, which involves systematic performance analysis, testing and learning, and implementing change ideas. He also highlighted the importance of client focus and a team approach to quality improvement.
Ethnobotany and Ethnopharmacology:
Ethnobotany in herbal drug evaluation,
Impact of Ethnobotany in traditional medicine,
New development in herbals,
Bio-prospecting tools for drug discovery,
Role of Ethnopharmacology in drug evaluation,
Reverse Pharmacology.
How to Make a Field invisible in Odoo 17Celine George
It is possible to hide or invisible some fields in odoo. Commonly using “invisible” attribute in the field definition to invisible the fields. This slide will show how to make a field invisible in odoo 17.
How to Split Bills in the Odoo 17 POS ModuleCeline George
Bills have a main role in point of sale procedure. It will help to track sales, handling payments and giving receipts to customers. Bill splitting also has an important role in POS. For example, If some friends come together for dinner and if they want to divide the bill then it is possible by POS bill splitting. This slide will show how to split bills in odoo 17 POS.
The French Revolution, which began in 1789, was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France. It marked the decline of absolute monarchies, the rise of secular and democratic republics, and the eventual rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. This revolutionary period is crucial in understanding the transition from feudalism to modernity in Europe.
For more information, visit-www.vavaclasses.com
Palestine last event orientationfvgnh .pptxRaedMohamed3
An EFL lesson about the current events in Palestine. It is intended to be for intermediate students who wish to increase their listening skills through a short lesson in power point.
The Art Pastor's Guide to Sabbath | Steve ThomasonSteve Thomason
What is the purpose of the Sabbath Law in the Torah. It is interesting to compare how the context of the law shifts from Exodus to Deuteronomy. Who gets to rest, and why?
Operation “Blue Star” is the only event in the history of Independent India where the state went into war with its own people. Even after about 40 years it is not clear if it was culmination of states anger over people of the region, a political game of power or start of dictatorial chapter in the democratic setup.
The people of Punjab felt alienated from main stream due to denial of their just demands during a long democratic struggle since independence. As it happen all over the word, it led to militant struggle with great loss of lives of military, police and civilian personnel. Killing of Indira Gandhi and massacre of innocent Sikhs in Delhi and other India cities was also associated with this movement.
3. Why we measure visitor satisfaction?
• To maintain high standards
• Shape the future of our services
• Identify trends
• Identifies areas of dissatisfaction
• Evidence to make positive changes
4. How did we do it before?
• Closed question surveys
• Paper-based surveys
• Little-used feed back mailbox
• User groups that were poorly attended
• NSS Survey results
• Non documented feedback comments given to
staff
5. Why did we want to change?
We needed more real-time feedback to enable us to
deal with issues as and when they arose.
We needed users to tell us in their own words instead
of using closed questionnaires.
We needed more supporting evidence to drive
changes to improve our services and environment.
7. ServMetric
ServMetric as part of rol
Solutions Ltd., software
range is a market leader in
measuring customer
experience.
ServMetric and sister brand GovMetric,
launched in 2006 and is the most widely used
solution for capturing the ‘Voice of the
Customer’ within the UK recording over since
30 million customer interactions since 2011.
8. What did we do?
• ServMetric went live in the Drill Hall September
2016
• Since then we heavily marketed the use of the
system to staff and library users
• We immediately began collecting valuable data
and responding to feedback
• Staff and users were empowered to leave honest
opinions
• Feedback could be left 24/7 365 days a year
9. A ‘widget’ is embedded onto the PC
desktop allowing the student to report
issues or provide feedback
How to leave feedback
10. A kiosk has been
placed at the exit to
the library allowing
visitors to provide
feedback on their
experience
11. The Smileys’ image sits on the global template
of the website and allows the customer to
feedback at any time
12. Reporting – Key Features
Simple to access and use online reporting suite
including:
• Dashboards
• Alerts
• Tracker
13. What did we learn in 2017?
11284 2470 3397
70% 12% 18%
Since the launch we have received feedback
from over 17,000 library users
14. Actionable Insights
Over 1,200 actionable feedback from Visitors
Issues included:
• Noise or disturbance reports
• Library opening hours
• Equipment broken
• Request for additional equipment
• Building Issues – toilets, cleaning, building
temperature
• Signage
15. Lessons Learnt
• You need to get staff buy-in to promote the
use of the system as a positive thing
• Positive marketing campaigns for the use of
the system, quick, easy and your opinions
matter and will be answered
• Consistency – reply to everyone who
requests a response and action changes
where possible
• Keep staff informed on the feedback
received
16. Changes we have made
• Improvements to library environment and
facilities offered
• Improved library resources available
• Improved relationships with campus
partners i.e. Estates dept. , Stakeholders and
partners
17. Benefits of Change
• Empowering our users to make a positive
change
• The voice of the user is heard and
evidenced
• Evidence to present to partners and
stakeholders on the mood of the users
• Staff and Users feel they have more
ownership and give weight to changes that
happen
20. Come and talk to us for more
information
Martina Brooks - M.Brooks@Greenwich.ac.uk
Rachel Ashtari – R.Ashtari@Greenwich.ac.uk
21. What about us?
UX = Staff 2
Regina Everitt
Interim Director, Library and Learning Resources
SOAS University of London
www.soas.ac.uk/library
22. Library staff
22
SOAS students
SOAS academic staff
Professional
Services staffresearchers
public
corporate users
exec leaders
External
students
partners
23. 23
SOAS at a glance
• SOAS has over 100 graduate
programmes
• SOAS offers an unparalleled range of
non-European Languages
• More than 400 degrees combinations are
taught here
• 50% of our students are from outside the
UK
• SOAS has the largest concentration of
specialist staff at any university in the
world
Photo: G. Ratcliffe
24. SOAS Library
• One of five National Research
Libraries
• Over 1.3 million items, 35,000 e-
journals and 100 databases
• Stock is arranged by region, with
several non-regional collections
(e.g. Law, Art, journals and
Humanities & Social Sciences)
• Archives Collections
24
Photo: G. Ratcliffe
28. OLE Day...
• Self-service in operation….no on-counter duties
• Populated demo system….’sandpit’
• Function-focused training sessions
• Floor walking by confident team members
• Think-tank sessions on work flows
• Coordinated load testing
• Documentation drafting
28
33. Approach…
• Voluntary – staff of varying levels
• Two interviewers – varying levels
• Not about performance management
• Interviewer notes anonymised
• Notes high-level – not verbatim
• One month period
33
34. Functions observed…
• General circulation tasks at the counter (including self-service machines)
• Claims returned management
• Cataloguing (non-Roman)
• Acquisitions (including purchasing, invoicing, receiving orders; discussed
year-end processing)
• Looking up records (non-Roman)
• Lost item management
• Council meetings
• Reservations management (including cancellation, drop off, collection)
34
36. About the volunteers…
•9 out of 48 daily users … 19% of eligible
users
•Staff-selected representation
•Confident users
36
37. Overarching themes…
• System performance
• Potential of open source
• Training need
• Communications
• Streamlining
• Workflows
37
38. Recommendations for SMT…
• Communications to support collaborative working
• Technical resources
• Cross-team decisions on workflows
• Training
• Review of job descriptions
38
39. Where we are now…
• System performance and technical resources
• Open source…user control
• Confidence and training
• Collaborative working and workflow design
• Job descriptions
39
45. • Homeless
• Refugee
• Unemployed
• Religious Group
• Young single Mother
• PTSD
• ADHD
• Autism
• Mental Health issues
• HIV
• Sexually abused
• Drug/alcohol dependent
• Lifestyle choice
• Sexual orientation
• Image/appearance
46. Library and Student Support (LSS)
Academic Writing
Counselling and Mental Health
Disability
Finance
International Student Advice
IT
Library
Maths and Stats Support
Student Welfare
47. Strategy
Refresh
The People and
Culture strand
Recognising that
the diversity of our
students and staff
is an incredible
resource
Finding new ways
of putting
students at the
centre of
everything we do
Human Book
Event
Books are
people, and
reading is a
conversation
Making it happen..
50. It worked….evaluation
Information gained - useful / very useful
Overall experience – good / excellent
Interested in attending future Human Book
events – yes
89%
94%
92%
55. “I found the questions engendered a level of
reflection and emotion in me which I did not
see coming.”
“Powerful and lovely but heady in the
moment.”
“The whole thing is such a positive experience
for students.”
“Readers seemed very pleased with the
information I was able to give them, so it felt
very worthwhile.”
“It is always useful to get out there and talk
to as many students as possible, whatever
their prior level of knowledge about the
subject.”
56. “Very helpful and useful service”
“[The Human Book] was very
knowledgeable”
“It was brilliant”
“Everything was
fantastic!”
“Great service”
101. www.bl.uk
Image Credits
The British Library http://www.bl.uk
FirmBee https://pixabay.com/en/imac-apple-mockup-app-ipad-mouse-606765/
MorganK https://pixabay.com/en/checklist-check-yes-or-no-decision-2313804/
Chris Greevebiester https://www.flickr.com/photos/92139090@N04/16805019500/
Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:View_of_the_Kings_Library,_British_Library.jpg
rawpixel https://pixabay.com/en/action-analysis-business-2277292/
Kristopher Allison https://unsplash.com/photos/KU4zYj4u0mo
Clem Onojeghuo https://unsplash.com/photos/7kNcci1MrsE
Annie Spratt https://unsplash.com/photos/-KKLWDAgj2Q
Ev https://unsplash.com/photos/C7h_31Lz16Y
United States Mint https://www.usmint.gov/
C. G. P. Grey https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:British_Library_Gate_Shadow.jpg
All uncredited photos taken by Jaimee McRoberts
101
Editor's Notes
The Drill Hall Library at Medway may seem like a normal campus library from the outside, but it is in fact a unique collaboration of three of South East England universities:
The University of Kent
The University of Greenwich
Canterbury Christchurch University.
We manage three different collections, three different sets of library requirements and three different sets of student expectations
Because of this it is important that we maintain a high standard of service expected by ourselves as well as our three university partners and we use data we collect to help us improve and mould the future of our services.
Collecting regular feedback not only enables us to monitor the overall mood of the library but it enables us to continually make improvements to our library services and resources based on what our ‘customers’ actually want.
In previous years, we did what I expect most university library’s have done. We gave out slips of paper with various questions and asked for people’s thoughts and opinions.
We invited users to termly meetings to voice their opinions and we waited for the NSS Survey results to find out how we have performed.
We realised that waiting for the NSS survey results to tell us where we were falling short was very far from proactive and gave us no chance to rectify some of the minor issues that could be an easy fix, or some of the bigger issues that were really causing problems for our users.
We were slower than we should have been in making improvements and dealing with problems.
We needed to a way to collect and respond to feedback, complaints and queries in real time; a one-stop shop solution to collect data using different resources already available to us.
We wanted to be able to accurately record statistics and respond to users as and when the issues arose.
Over the course of the year this would help us address any major and minor issues which would positively impact our NSS Scores.
After researching the range of what was on offer we approached ServMetric
ServMetric is a software solution designed to measure the customer experience.
It allows us to ask survey type questions but whilst also giving our customers the option to provide a wide scope of verbatim feedback in their own words, positive and negative.
We contacted ServMetric and they gave us an excellent demonstration of their product capability, which ticked all of our boxes.
The system could notify the selected library teams instantly if a negative comment was left, giving us the ability to respond quickly and deal with any issues.
There were several methods the system used to collect feedback and it was all measured and collated in a dashboard for us so analysing data would be quick, easy and efficient.
We placed the Servmetric widget on each of our 450 desk top PC’s allowing users to provide feedback on their experiences or report issues such as noise, mess or system errors. Since we launched in 2016 the desktop widget has been used nearly 9000 times. This is a combination of a tap of a smiley to reflect their experience or to provide verbatim comments. This is our most used feedback channel.
We strategically placed a kiosk by the exit of the library to allow all library users to provide feedback on their experience, including those who did not use a pc or worked from their own laptop. We also encourage visitors to provide feedback on their experience, such as the helpfulness of staff and was the library east to navigate.
The kiosk has been used nearly 8,000 times since the launch of the system.
We added a familiar smiley feedback icon to the front of the Drill Hall library webpage, allowing all website visitors to provide feedback at any time. This channel has been used nearly 500 times, making it by far the least used feedback channel, which is interesting because before Servmetric we assumed our website would be the go-to place to provide feedback.
One of the big draws for us was that all feedback is recorded on a dashboard and each dashboard can be customized depending on your focus. You can see here that my dashboard records overall library satisfaction broken down by channel from which it was received.
You can also create custom reports to run weekly, Monthly, annually etc which presents the feedback results in a report ready for distribution.
2016/17 was our first year of running the servMetric software and in the space of 18 months we received over 17,000 pieces of feedback, both positive and negative. But overall we could see that satisfaction in the library reached 70%.
This gave us an accurate representation of the overall ‘mood’ of the library and it was something we could compare against our partners library survey as well as the NSS.
Much of this feedback was quality feedback - comments our customers had made regarding our service, not only allowing us to make changes to our service where necessary but also collecting feedback to make cases to address larger scale issues such as improving the library facilities and changing opening hours etc
We learnt that Staff buy-in is important to encourage use of the system for all issues. We introduced and let staff play with the system well before it went live.
The use of the system still needs to marketed as a positive addition to the library through regular marketing channels
Response times should be consistent to encourage further use and trust in the system. So we have trained a number of staff who respond to feedback during opening hours.
Evidence collected has allowed us to make changes to the timing heating system, purchase additional resources, change our opening times and improve roaming and security to better meet the needs of our users.
We have built stronger relationships with our campus partners such as facilities and estates based on the use of this system.
We have seen a change in the culture of the library because users feel empowered and can see changes happening as a direct result of their feedback.
This promotes the feeling that this is ‘their library’ rather than ’a library’ so users feel they have more of an ownership of the Drill Hall and respect for the resources. We have also been able to access all feedback in one place reducing staff time spent on running feedback campaigns
We have since modified the system to notify us of the exact room or zone the feedback has been sent from, so issues regarding working environments such as noise and temperature etc can be addressed as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Since the successful installation of Servmetric within the Drill Hall the evidence produced has resulted in the system now being used at two other libraries within our partnership and is currently being assessed for use by our other partnership libraries at Kent and Canterbury Christchurch.
We have recently installed a new library management system in our collaboration and we are looking into the possibility of integrating ServMetric into our catalogue.
We have found the system flexible with lots of potential and we fully intend to capitalise on this for the benefit of our users.
Thank you for your time. Please feel free to contact Martina or myself if you would like to find out more about our ServMetric journey.
Cambridge, LSE, Manchester U, Bodleian – Oxford U, SOAS
In April 2015, SOAS moved to an open resource LMS called OLE. Roll back to 2011 (before my time) when the time was reviewing LMS options after running Millennium since 1999. At the time Sierra was not yet developed. Like many Libraries, the team sought a solution that could manage print, e-journals, e-books, databases, on- and off-site access, repositories, digital archives and the emerging field of Open Access and Research Data Management. Ultimately, a decision was made by the team to look to open source solutions – and OLE was chosen.
Moving to an open source system meant a culture change for staff members. They needed to move from being a customer – reliant on vendor releases for system enhancements – to collaborator, working with partners in the US to develop the system.
There were a few challenges… This was a new way of working after more than a decade of using one system. So, staff members were navigating the ups and downs of the change curve. Staff members who were not confident using IT were frightened that they would look foolish if they did not catch on quickly. Staff who were confident in using IT didn’t think it was their job to develop a system. And of course there were some staff members who were up for the challenge of a new system.
To assist staff members with their transition to OLE….
We were the first to implement OLE in April 2015. University of Chicago and Lehigh University in America joined later. However, as the first implementing site we had a number of teething problems: slow system performance, some features not immediately implemented such as fines calculation, rogue notices being published… I will be unpopular and say that some teething pains are expected when you consider the scale of migration of nearly a million bib records and thousands of user records and transactions.
Front line staff members felt that senior managers in the Library had no idea of the issues that they faced. Beyond the embarrassment of having users stand before them while they waited for transactions to churn through due to poor system performance and complaints about incorrect notices….did ‘management’ understand or even care how staff members’ jobs changed? But how much did staff members’ jobs change? Would they not normally flag bugs or enhancements for vendor-based systems? I wanted to understand staff experience of using the new system so embarked on a UX mini-project.
There are a number of approaches to UX analysis. Customer journey mapping is a popular approached used by some Libraries in understand how customers use their spaces. Ethnographic studies are used to study users in their working environment. I chose to use ‘contextual inquiries’. The *interviewers used contextual inquiries to gather qualitative information about staff experience of using OLE. Contextual inquiry is an interview method where users are asked a set of standard questions then asked specific questions as they are observed performing their tasks/functions in their work environments
VH
I’m Vanessa and this is Monna and we’re both Librarians at Middlesex University. This is where we work.
As librarians we all think about libraries quite a bit and back in 2014 we were discussing how to encourage students to use the library……the assumption is that they will just turn up because they instinctively know that the library is important to their academic success…….obviously this is not the case.
VH
Libraries and the information landscape have changed a lot.
We are no longer the Guardians of Information……our users can go it alone and don’t need us to provide information….they can access it 24/7.
Libraries have had to adapt to these changes and all have had to reconsider their role and how best to serve their users.
VH
The following publications inspired us. They emphasised ‘community’ as the traditional defining feature of libraries and the need for them to be the “hub of a community”………what they said resonated with us.
How do we keep the library relevant to our users and central to their academic lives?
This question got us thinking about Human Libraries.
So what exactly are they?
MR
The Human Library is a place where real people are on loan to readers. A place where difficult questions are expected, appreciated and answered.
The original event in 2000 featured over 50 different titles, over a thousand readers and between them challenged stereotypes through dialogue, demonstrating the incredible impact of the Human Library.
MR
The concept has since been adopted internationally and public libraries have been at the forefront of the movement.
The books are people with a story to tell who are generally stigmatised, misunderstood, controversial or on the edges of society.
The possibilities are endless as can be seen from this list.
So why did we think the Human Library concept might work for us?
MR
Over the last few years our Library service has expanded as we have been joined by a broad range of student support services from around the university to form what is now known as Library and Student Support.
We felt that Human Books with real life experiences could act as a link between the help, support and advice available from the library and student needs and promote our service as central to student life.
VH
We put our idea to the Library executive and then to the wider University.
Nothing happened for a few months until the introduction of our University’s new strategy which included a ‘Culture and people’ strand.
Our Business School offered to pilot a Human Library event where the books were Middlesex Alumni from the business world.
This was not quite what we had envisaged, but it allowed us to try out the concept.
VH
The event was held on 23rd May 2016.
Although based on the Human Library concept we had to change the name to Human Book Event as the creators of the original concept are rightly protective of it.
Here’s a rough plan of the event layout……how could it fail!!
We used Springshare’s LibGuide and room booking software to promote the event, provide information about our books and enable online booking in advance.
VH
Here are a few stats. All the panic, sleepless nights and hard work were worth it.
Over 3 hours, 81 students had 149 conversations with 43 books including 3 ebooks which were conversations via Skype with Human Books based abroad.
33 colleagues mainly from LSS including Student Learning Assistants managed the event working as Librarians.
VH
And it was a success…..the numbers speak for themselves.
It was also interesting to know why students had chosen to borrow specific Human Books.
Many chose books related to their course, career path, or because they were interested in a particular company.
Others wanted to challenge their perceptions, start up a business or were interested in a particular aspect of a book’s career such as charity work or working in Africa.
MR
We have held 3 subsequent Human Book Events.
The first of these was much easier to manage. There was no online guide, no online booking and only a couple of weeks to arrange, so less time to panic.
This event was part of the annual Research Conference and the books reflected relevant expert advice and resources and was much more effective than our approach in previous year at the same event.
MR
The last two Human Book Events have been part of a general Student Success Festival held most recently in March.
Our books reflected the wide ranging support available from LSS to help students succeed.
This is more like our original concept of linking student needs with library services.
VH
We’ve learnt a few lessons along the way:
The concept is misunderstood and student feedback suggests that we should change the name. Therefore promotion is key.
Students and staff are not on campus every day and other factors such as holidays, exams, and reading weeks means that there is never a good time to run a Human Book Event in a University even though there is a lot of interest.
VH
Such events take a lot of planning and staff time to ensure that everyone is in the right place at the right time and the event runs smoothly.
Advanced bookings don’t work. Students book but don’t always turn up for their appointment.
The events are staff intensive……from recruiting the books, creating the publicity to actually running the event. Ideally one librarian is needed for every 2 books to make the event run smoothly.
MR
However Human Book Events do work. They provide an alternative to accessing support in more traditional ways.
Real conversations happen and some of the books actually followed up conversations by sharing further information with their readers.
These quotes reflect how our Human Books have found the experience to be worthwhile, powerful, positive, emotional and valuable.
MR
From the Readers perspective the feedback has been equally positive.
Readers said:
It was brilliant
Everything was fantastic!
Great service
Very helpful and useful service and…..
[The Human Book] was very knowledgeable
VH
We continue to have ideas around how to address some of the issues encountered so far. These include:
Adding our Human Books to the Library Catalogue to build on the experience and further promote our services to users.
Using a Speed Dating model might alleviate the need to take bookings and reduce the numbers of staff to run the event.
Attendance might be improved by embedding Human Books into the curriculum as inspired by the University of Alberta.
VH
We’ve also had ideas around how to develop the concept including:
Running a Human Book Event as part of Mental Health Awareness Week…….a great way of promoting relevant support available from our service.
Also using Human Books to inspire young people from disadvantaged backgrounds who lack information and role models as inspired by research carried out at Strathclyde University on widening access to HE.
MR
Another idea is resource specific Human Book Events. For example we are considering an NVivo event where people with a unique project can talk to an NVivo representative….getting more from it than a normal workshop.
Finally Human Books on different hobbies, so a University wide Festival of Learning might be an option. This could also be opened out to the local community offering master classes, the opportunity to learn something new and to see what goes on in their local Uni.
MR
There isn’t time to tell you everything we would like to, but we are happy to take questions this afternoon or via email.
Thank you very much for listening.
I’m Jaimee McRoberts and I’ve been working in Reference Services at the British Library for 7 years. I’m here to talk to you about how we designed Fit for purpose Roving Reference services. As a National Library we have elements of public, academic, and special libraries all combined into one and needed a service to meet our needs.
It’s estimated that we have around 100,000 current registered users at any given time. The Library itself is built on a large scale, with room for 1,200 reading room desks and around 200 additional study spaces throughout the building.
We have around 50 staff members within 9 subject specialist teams. Our duties include desk coverage, an online chat service, responding to written enquiries, and holding reader workshops. We wanted to expand our offering, and wanted to explore the possibility of Roving.
Of course, as luck would have it, we’d recently invested in a range of portable technologies, primarily iPads – around a dozen iPads and a few other devices such as Chromebooks and one or two Android-platform tablets. We were itching to find a way to use them.
We visited a number of libraries around London to find out more about Roving, including UCL, King’s College, University of East London, London School of Economics, the Wellcome Library, and an Idea Store in Tower Hamlets.
UCL’s Science Library
KCL’s New Hunt’s House Library
Tower Hamlets’ Bow Idea Store
Wellcome Library
UEL’s Stratford Library
LSE’s Library
From these benchmarking exercises we started to build up an idea of what we wanted to do, based on our reading room spaces and staffing structure. In particular, we wanted to focus on increasing the presence of our reference staff and the number of reference enquiries we were handling.
In Spring 2014, a Reader Satisfaction Survey highlighted ‘noise’ as a major issue in our reading rooms. This eliminated our initial idea of using Rovers to act as ‘queue busters’ or to respond to ad-hoc queries around the room.
With Reading Rooms no longer a viable Roving space, we had to look outside of these spaces to identify other opportunities. We came up with two ideas:
First, the entirety of the public space as a whole.
Second, our Reader Registration area.
Our approach to whole building roving involved walking around the whole of the public space, including our cafes, external study spaces and networking areas. One thing is for certain, it was excellent exercise – you might go through the whole building 3 or 4 times in a one hour Roving session.
Public Space Roving seemed to drum up only one type of enquiry – ‘where are the toilets?’. Over a one week test period we only had a few enquiries, even fewer of which were reference-based queries. Despite the health benefits, it didn’t seem like this type of Roving would be a good fit.
We then tested Roving for one week in the Reader Registration area of our building. This space is operated by another team, known as the Welcome Team, who are responsible for completing the registration process for all British Library readers. In order to make Roving in Reader Registration a success, we needed to work together.
Before launching the service, we met with the Welcome Team to explain our concept. They were enthusiastic, as staff changes meant they no longer had the resources to answer reference enquiries themselves. We then attended team meetings to generate more interest from the team, and emphasised that our success was based on their referrals.
Our first proper Roving pilot in the Reader Registration area was a real success. We achieved over 1300 enquiries in a 5 week window, which represented 14% of all reference enquiries handled across the whole of reference services in the same month.
A Business Case was put forward to the Head of Reference Services in support of launching Roving Reference Services on a regular basis. This was evaluated and given go-ahead based on positive feedback and the high statistical impact achieved from Roving.
With regular Roving services approved, we worked to establish a framework for the service. We decided to focus on Roving during the busiest time of the year at the British Library -- around the Easter holidays. We also needed to expand our team, and we were able to nearly double our numbers.
We developed training to cover not only the basics of Roving itself, but also to develop staff familiarity with tablet devices, as several Rovers had never used a 'smart' device before. We deployed special training including a worksheet for staff to do-it-yourself with step-by-step instructions to guide them through using a touch-screen tablet.
In 2015 we launched our first annual Roving session. We had a team of 35 Rovers which covered a 4-week Roving window. Our Roving team is comprised of both volunteers and dedicated Roving staff. For 2015 and 2016 we averaged around 1,000 enquiries each year.
In 2017 we moved from Roving on an annual basis to a quarterly basis (hence the quarter!). Looking back at usage statistics, we focused on the busiest times of the year during each quarter to target for Roving. Our figures continued to grow, reaching almost 3,500 enquiries in 2017.
At the end of 2017, the reader registration process was streamlined, which meant that customers were no longer using the space designated for Roving in the same way. Since then, we have had to rely solely on the referrals from the Welcome Team to encourage customers to speak with us. The dynamics of Roving have changed, but our service is still thriving.
Roving can be fit-for-purpose:
Design service to work in your environment
Ensure sufficient staff training
Encourage buy-in support from impacted teams
Maintain flexible service to combat change