Presented at LILAC 2024.

1. Paul Newnham
Faculty Librarian (Teaching and Learning)
Lancaster University Library
Email: p.newnham@lancaster.ac.uk.
Telephone: 01524 592 516
Twitter: @newnham_p

2. Widening participation, information literacy and the
transition to University: reflections and initial findings from
Lancaster University’s Library Schools Engagement Project
26 March 2024
Paul Newnham, Faculty Librarian (Teaching and Learning)
Clare Shaikh, Library Schools Engagement Officer
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3. Overview of session
• Sponsorship and support for the research project
• Aims, focus of research, research questions
• Research in context
• Methodology
• Initial findings, discussion, conclusions and
recommendations
• Questions and discussion
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4. Sponsorship and Support
• Lancaster University Widening Participation Advisory Group
• Library, Library Director, Library Leadership Group
• Line Manager – Lesley English
• Sixth Form Colleges in the North West of England
• Teachers and Librarians
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5. Aims and objectives
Aim
Research and develop an extended programme of support to offer to schools and
colleges
Objective themes
• Information Literacy
• Progression and transition to and through University
• Widening Participation
• Employability
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6. Research in Context
References
• Denke, J., Jarson, J., and Sinno, S. (2020) ‘Making the Invisible Visible: Enhancing Information Literacy and
Metacognition with a Constructivist Activity’, International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning,
14(2), pp. 1–10. doi:10.20429/ijsotl.2020.140207.
• Reading, J. (2016) ‘Providing Enhanced Information Skills Support to Students from Disadvantaged Backgrounds:
Western Sydney University Library Outreach Program’, The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 42(6), pp. 694–704.
doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2016.08.002.
• Wagg, S. and McKinney, P. (2020) ‘Information literacy outreach between universities and schools’, Journal of
Information Literacy, 14(2), pp. 44-70. doi:10.11645/14.2.2692
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7. Research Methodology 1
Who? What? How?
• Who were the participants?
• What interventions were planned?
• How would the impact of interventions on participants be
measured?
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8. Research Methodology 2
Interventions and activities
• Library Research Days
• Outreach visits
• Lesson Plans
• Online Tutorials
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9. Research Methodology 3
Evaluation
• Pre and post-project surveys
• Fieldwork and observations
• Focus Groups
• Interviews
• Summative evaluation
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10. Findings and discussion 1
• Information Literacy
• The learning process
• Independent learning and academic
transition
• Widening Participation
• Developing effective partnerships with sixth
form college staff and students
10

11. Findings and discussion 2
Identify and Plan, Academic Landscape
‘It was very rare that I came across one [an article] that I had to pay for, and if so, there
was another one very similar to it that was Open Access’. (Participant, Focus Group 3).
‘I think they enjoy researching, because right from the start, we call it the literature. And
we say, “this is an academic programme, we’re dealing with the literature, what does that
mean?”...And also, when they start to, and I do it right in week one, we look at Google
Scholar, and they don’t know what that is’. (Participant, Interview 1).
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12. Findings and discussion 3
Identify and Plan, Refining a topic and developing a research question
‘I would say, the biggest challenge, is them refining their question. Because the
conversations that I’ve had this year, people keep, well one person in particular, has kept
coming back and she wants various bits of help with resources. But it’s because the
question is not refined enough. It just wouldn’t work, it was way too general. And I think
she’d got quite a long way, without having it refined’. (Participant, Interview 2).
‘they’ve usually dropped out because they can’t nail a topic down or nail a question
down’. (Participant, Interview 1).
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13. Findings and discussion 4
Search and Collect, OneSearch – the Library catalogue
‘I just found that, OneSearch, it gave me more…professional articles and stuff, ‘cos
otherwise I was just reading…newspaper articles and stuff, but I found that the
information I found on OneSearch, it just felt more reliable to me. And also…more
detailed. ‘Cos of course it was a larger piece of work, rather than just…a two page
article’. (Participant, Focus Group 3).
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14. Findings and discussion 5
Search and Collect, OneSearch – the Library catalogue
‘Following that session, the students found it really useful. ‘Cos then they were
researching a lot more effectively. And it also prompted them to start researching
earlier, which I think is a really good thing... So this was really useful, for teaching
them some of the skills to get started’. (Participant, Interview 3).
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15. Findings and discussion 6
Search and Collect, Search strategies and techniques
‘I think it was quite good, because…you made us think of synonyms, to do with
what our title was. So, thinking of different words, it like, branched out the
topic…quite a lot and helped us…explore different areas associated with it, and like,
bits of research that you probably wouldn’t have seen before’. (Participant, Focus
Group 3).
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16. Findings and discussion 7
Search and Collect, Search strategies and techniques
‘What I really liked about this was, was the, generating the keywords and phrases,
‘cos that’s work I’ve done before, but not in, quite so...Structured way, really. I
quite like that. And also the parameters, like what am I not going to look for...And
having this grid, I just, well, I’ll steal it, so [laughter]. But, I feel that the, the way in
which this is done, in this very structured way, is excellent, because I think
everybody just sets off with I’ll just type a thing into Google, and it’s so haphazard’.
(Participant, Interview 2).
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17. Findings and discussion 8
Search and Collect, Search strategies and techniques
‘It was helpful. You helped me find one specific source. And, I haven’t actually
needed to use your, like, searching techniques, ‘cos I’ve just been able to go
through the sources and visit each of their bibliographies and go through those
sources. So it’s just kind of, sent me down my own little rabbit hole’. (Participant,
Focus Group 3).
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18. Findings and discussion 9
Manage and Organise
‘So I had like a reference table, and it was set out with…the title of the
source, the author, the date, and then…quotes I found, and then like,
evaluating it’. (Participant, Focus Group 1).
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19. Findings and discussion 10
Evaluate and Analyse
‘I remember the activity we did, where you gave us the source, and you got us to
pick out things...And I know that personally, when I approached sources after that,
it kind of just, I subconsciously looked at the key [information], like date, author,
where it was published, things like that’. (Participant, Focus Group 1).
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20. Findings and discussion 11
Evaluate and Analyse
‘Since our visit to Lancaster University, where we talked about Wikipedia, ‘cos I
didn’t actually go to, use it beforehand, ‘cos I didn’t think it would be reliable but
since then, I have gone on there and I’ve gathered information from there as
well...I used Wikipedia to find definitions of words I didn’t understand. And since
the definitions fit the context, I figured it was pretty safe to take them’. (Participant,
Focus Group 3).
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21. Findings and discussion 12
Present and Communicate, Writing the EPQ
‘Trying to get them to realise they can’t be descriptive, they’ve got to be
analytical...particularly your weaker end students, they think that it, oh it flows, it
sounds lovely, and it makes complete sense, but actually it’s just a description of
something rather than an analysis or a critique. That’s probably one of the big
challenges, getting them from that level up to the next step’. (Participant, Interview
3).
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22. Findings and discussion 13
Present and Communicate, Writing the EPQ
‘We...use that [reference] table, to start thinking about a structure of the
assignment. So we’ll then say, “well look at your sources table, look at your
reference table, look at what your sources are about, start to group them. And say
right, they’re all about, defining the topic. They’re all about, this, they’re all about,
you know. Either colour code them or put them into blocks or sections. So that you
can then, start to think about what your essay might look like’. (Participant,
Interview 1).
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23. Findings and discussion 14
Present and Communicate, Writing the EPQ
‘I would say for me, I think that I prepared a lot to write it and I put a lot of
referencing arguments in the structure together, and then when I got to actually
writing it, I discovered new things that I wanted to include, and then, the things I
planned, kind of, just disappeared and I had to replace them before. So a lot of
writing as it goes...for me’. (Participant, Focus Group 1).
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24. Findings and discussion 15
Present and Communicate, Writing the EPQ
‘I try and...focus my style of writing a bit more for discussion, because the
questions that we’re given for essays are quite open ended... So I think it’s just, sort
of, learning to be patient with it, because I’ll have done, like, three drafts before I’m
happy with it. And, yeah, and I’ll be halfway through writing something and realise,
oh that doesn’t actually, like, match what I’ve found and having to go back’.
(Participant, Focus Group 2).
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25. Findings and discussion 16
Integrity and Ethics, Referencing and plagiarism
‘I think referencing is one thing that I find hard. I know we had, like, lessons on it,
but, it was still a thing that I was like, how do I actually, like, do this and do it right
for every single one?’. (Participant, Focus Group 3).
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26. Findings and discussion 17
Sixth Form College students, the EPQ and the learning
process
It is a level three qualification requiring students to: choose a project area; draft a
project title and its aims; plan, research and undertake the project; deliver a
presentation to a non-specialist audience; provide evidence of all stages of project
development and production for assessment. (AQA, 2019).
More critical, reflective and independent learners; develop and apply decision-
making and problem-solving skills; increase their planning, research, analysis,
synthesis, evaluation and presentation skills; learn to apply technologies
confidently; demonstrate creativity, initiative and enterprise. (AQA, 2021).
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27. Findings and discussion 18
University students and the learning process
‘They do, kind of, spoon feed you in college, because you need to know the
content. It’s more of a memory test in college, rather than here, it’s sort of, what
can you find out about this, as well’. (Participant, Focus Group 2).
‘I’ve not enjoyed it, at all, as much as first year. First year was great, ‘cos I was just
chilling on campus, but this year has been, especially the first half of the year, it
was horrendous’. (Participant, Focus Group 2).
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28. Findings and discussion 19
Widening Participation
‘We believe everyone, regardless of background, should have the
opportunity to access and succeed in higher education. Our widening
participation activities aim to open doors and support under-
represented groups to progress onto university’.
Lancaster University, Outreach and Widening Participation, (2024)
Schools and Colleges https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/schools-and-
colleges/ [Accessed 20 February 2024]
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29. Findings and discussion 20
Widening Participation, Pathways after Key Stage Five: progression routes
‘My grandparents have always been very supportive and very open about the fact
that they support me to go and help me financially. So I’ve never had to worry
about it, or that it would be a burden on my family’. (Participant, Focus Group 3).
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30. Findings and discussion 21
Widening Participation, Sense of belonging and perceptions of university
‘It was actually a bit of a surprise when she said she was in her twenties. And the
whole time before, because she was in her first year and the other students are in
the second year, I just thought she was younger…So it was a bit of a shock. Yeah, it
just reminded me what it’s like at uni’. (Participant, Focus Group 3).
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31. Findings and discussion 22
Widening Participation, University environment
‘When you think of…uni libraries you
think it’s kind of dark and…everyone’s
going to be…studying. But it was
quite…it was…a nice atmosphere in
there and the different levels of, like,
noise, that did surprise me. If you
think the whole place is just going to
be silent’. (Participant, Focus Group
3).
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32. Findings and discussion 23
Widening Participation, Growing confidence
‘I think it’s changed my perspective on a lot of things. I might have told a little bit
of a lie, maybe, in the interview. I was like, “oh yeah, I’m really confident”. No, I
wasn’t. I’m literally like, the most timid person. But, this has brought a lot of
confidence to me. I was able to do a couple of presentations in front of, like, the
whole swimming society, so, that was like 100 people plus, so you know, it’s, on
face value it’s developed me as a person professionally, but also just general life,
I’m not scared to say things that I think anymore’. (Participant, Focus Group 2).
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33. Building effective partnerships
• Unique culture and needs of each
institution
• Deep and positive relationships
• Brokered a relationship with
teachers of BTEC qualifications
(vocational qualifications)
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34. Conclusions and Recommendations
‘I have thoroughly enjoyed being part of the Library School Engagement project
team. I feel it has provided me the opportunity to continue to utilise and develop
my skill set and has helped me realise my passion for Widening Participation... It
provided me optimal opportunity for self-reflection, both of all that I have achieved
in the past, and what I am hoping to achieve going forward. I believe my
experience with the Library Schools Engagement team was instrumental in me
being able to secure my graduate job contract’. (Participant, Survey 4).
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35. Recommendations
• Establish a full-time, permanent Widening Participation post within the library that has responsibility for
coordinating school and/or colleges engagement and delivering related Widening Participation activities
• Establish a clear set of aims and objectives for the Library Schools Engagement team focused on
Information Literacy, Widening Participation and the transition to HE
• Establish a long-term funding model to employ Library Schools Engagement Ambassadors, from
Widening Participation backgrounds, to provide peer support for school and/or college students
• Develop a stronger partnership with Widening Participation and Outreach Team so that the Library
Schools Team are better informed regarding the support and access schemes available to students
• Develop a full programme of blended support including lesson plans, online tutorials, videos, Library
Research Days and outreach visits
• Expand the library programme of support to include students studying qualifications such as BTECs and
T-Levels
• Ensure that a programme of support incorporates a focus on independent learning, transition to HE and
understanding the iterative nature of research and the learning process
• Develop a comprehensive training programme for Library Schools Engagement Ambassadors
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36. Read the full report
Newnham, P. & Shaikh, C. (2023) Library Schools Engagement
Project: Report. (Lancaster: Lancaster University).
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37. Paul Newnham
Faculty Librarian (Teaching and
Learning)
Lancaster University Library
Email: p.newnham@lancaster.ac.uk
Telephone: 01524 592 516
Twitter: @newnham_p
Clare Shaikh
Library Schools Engagement
Officer
Lancaster University Library
Email: c.shaikh@lancaster.ac.uk
Telephone: 01524 592 516