The document discusses Northumbria University's digital-first strategy implemented at their library, highlighting the integration of various digital resources and services. It emphasizes the growth of online content, including ebooks and academic support tools, while addressing the challenges of collection development and student engagement. The presentation also reflects on broader UK digital trends, including government initiatives and copyright reforms impacting higher education and library services.

1. Digital First in the UK:
Maximizing the promise of DDA by multi-channel
content delivery at Northumbria University
34th Annual Charleston Conference
Saturday 8th November 2014
Nick Woolley
Head of Library Services

2. Sponsored by

3. Outline
 Introduction to Northumbria
 Digital in the UK
– Nationally
– In HE
– In libraries
 Digital First at Northumbria
 Collection development and channels to content
– DDA ebooks
 Discussion

4. Northumbria University
 1894 (Rutherford College of Technology)
 32,000 students from over 130 countries
 3,000 staff
 Four faculties across two campuses
 560 employer-sponsored courses
 60 programmes accredited by professional bodies
 In Britain’s best university city – Newcastle upon Tyne

5. University Library
 Part of Academic Services directorate at Northumbria
 Three sites across two campuses
 24/7 and Customer Service Excellence (CSE)
 3rd highest scoring in the UK - THES Student Experience survey
 Five library departments
– Business Support
– Customer Support
– Learning Support
– Content Services
– Research Support
 Superconverged frontline – ‘Ask4Help’

6. Northumbria’s digital library
 Digital First ‘strategy’
 2,000 study spaces, 900 workstations and 250 self-service laptops
 Diverse library learning spaces
 Online skills and literacy – ‘Skills Plus’
 RFID self-service
 Online library collection:
– Approx. 400,00 ebooks (550,000 print)
– 38,000 ejournals (1,000 print)
 Summon discovery (since 2009)
 Online reading lists
 Institutional repository (Eprints) and publishing via OJS
 Member of UKRR
 Current JISC project involvement includes OA and ORCID
 University Library online – integrated digital platform

7. library.northumbria.ac.uk

8. Digital in the UK – national context
 UK Government strategy
– 2013 - digital by default – aggressive channel shift to digital only across 650
transactional services
– 82% of population online but slow adoption of online government services
– Revolution not evolution
– Digital inclusion and skills
– Big data - National Information Infrastructure (NII) – data.gov.uk
 Changes to UK copyright law
– 2011 Hargreaves ‘Digital opportunity: a review of intellectual property and growth’
– Reforms to copyright law in force from 1st June 2014
– Text and data mining, library preservation, illustration for education, walk-in etc..
– Orphan works licensing

9. Digital in the UK – national context
 British Library
– Electronic deposit (140,000+)
– Archiving .uk online (4.8 million websites)
– Open linked metadata (the BNB – 2.8 million records)
– EThOS (350,000 records)
– BLDSC – digital delivery
 ‘Access to Research’
– Response to the Finch report on OA
– Two year pilot 2014-2016 to provide public access to research
– Publishers Association and Society of Chief Librarians
– 10 million articles available online via walk-in at public libraries
– ProQuest providing Summon as the discovery solution

10. Digital in the UK – academic context
 HE focus on
– MOOCs
– Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL)
– OA and research data
– RCUK big data and energy efficiency computing
– UCL and Elsevier ‘big data institute’
– ‘Digital’ appearing in NSS Q16 from 2017
 JISC et al.
– KB+
– Learning analytics, e.g. ‘LAMP’ with Mimas and Huddersfield
– With the AHRC – OAPEN-UK
– National Monograph Strategy Roadmap 2014
 United Kingdom Research Reserve (UKRR)
– Collaborative distributed national research collection
– Key in transition to e

11. What is digital?
 Binary not analogue sensu stricto
 Shorthand for ‘online’, the ‘web’
 Too narrow a focus in libraries?
– Ebooks
– Digitisation
 Really an umbrella term to encompass all modern
technology and principles
– Cloud, Mobile, Internet of Things, Wearable technology and
quantified self, 3D printing, Big data and analytics
 Not exclusive of the analogue world
– e.g. ‘Embracing Analog: Why Physical is Hot’

12. Digital First at Northumbria

13. Print and e book usage at Northumbria*
* Measures are proxies for both print and e and probably not directly comparable.

14. Print and e book title access

15. Building new channels to ebook content
 Pluralistic collection development
– False dichotomies make for fun debates but the reality needs to be customer-focused
 Northumbria’s multi-channel approach
– Large-scale collection building in partnership with Faculty
– Taught programme driven via online reading lists
– DDA via discovery and ILL
 Enables more targeted and outcome-focused investment
 Need to embed the technology across workflows, points of
need, moments of truth etc..
 Part of our Digital First strategic framework

16. Reading lists and the Library Collection
 UK-centric problem?
– Related to textbook challenge
 Directed resources can run into hundreds of items per module
– Wider self-directed reading still expected
– Items can be ‘advised for student purchase’, ‘essential’, ‘recommended’, ‘further’ etc…
 Crucial to student experience and attainment?
 Not uncommon to achieve only 50% coverage
– Not acceptable given UK student fee regime

17. readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk

18. Northumbria’s reading list service
 Delivered by a multi-skilled library team
– Desk side / email / phone support for Faculty colleagues
– Acquisition of print and e books
– Digitisation and copyright clearance of chapters and other extracts
 Talis Aspire software
 Piloted new service January – May 2014
– Keyed into strategic activity on Distance Learning, TEL, and development of a
London campus
– Targeted background work based on student satisfaction
– Positive student feedback on pilot lists
 Launched University-wide September 2014

19. Activity and usage
 This Semester so far:
– Worked with over 300 Faculty colleagues
– Published over 300 lists live to students
– Driven significant print and e book acquisition
– Provided 1,200 digitsations
– Provided access to thousands of specific ebook titles
 Usage
– 14,894 visits and 81,865 page views of online lists in October*
– 1,800 students registered a personal profile
– Over 8,000 views of digitised extracts
– Longest list so far is 576 items
* 400,000 Summon searches in same period.

20. Plastic ebook – NFC and QR
 Digital connectivity and integration
– At the point of need and moment of truth
– First plastic ebook was used 53 times in first month*
* Multiplier effect – 53 less unhappy students?

21. EBL DDA in response to feedback
 Feedback and performance focused
– Key satisfaction surveys, including UK National Student Survey (NSS)
– Targeted investment that delivers value while controlling spend
 In 2013 added 12,500 EBL DDA titles to catalogue and
Summon
 Subject areas mapped to 38 taught programmes
 2014 satisfaction risen over 8 X above average for these
programmes

22. DDA via ILL
 Simple concept
– Improve ILL experience for end-user
– Deliver ‘article experience’ for books
– Customer can choose
– Maximise ROI on PDA while controlling spend
– Offset via savings against cost of print delivery
– Achieve more meaningful relationship between use and cost
 Offered as part of ILL since Dec 2013
 Data indicates successful so far
– More economic than fulfilment by print
– Delivers on more recent PY

24. Thanks for listening…