Information StrategyAn expensive luxury….

or a necessary evil?

Derek Law, Librarian and Director of Information Resources, University of Strathclyde

University of Strathclyde Vital Statistics

Five Faculties: Arts and Social Sciences, Business, Education, Engineering, Science

Two campuses26,000 degree-seeking studentsOver 36,000 Continuing Education/CPD students3,500 staffTurnover:£140MTotal Library and IT Services budget: £10M

The University of Strathclyde

Information Strategy Office established 1995 - driven by Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) recommendations

Underlying impetus to break down barriers to information management in a large organisation - the academic/admin/IT divide

And this was where I came in….

Strathclyde’s Strategic Priorities

The Learning Process - Create a better learning environment (1)

Students and Courses of study - Expand Professional Development Programmes(2)

Research - Support Research Excellence(3)The Estate- Develop the heart of the two

campuses(4)Staff Development and Finance - Invest in

People’s Development(5)Source: Strategic Plan 1999-2003

The Millennium Student ProjectVisionTo create a leading edge learning

environment in which students have a rich learning experience, acquire the skills to take advantage of it and have access to the tools which will manage it. Our aim is to produce graduates equipped to be at ease in an entrepreneurial information society

The Strathclyde Millennium Student Project

Aiming for a holistic rather than piecemeal approach

Developing a managed learning environment encompassing all aspects of the University’s electronic resources

Best envisaged through the ‘Strathclyde Eye’

PervasiveNetworking

Standards

Evaluation&

Studentintranet

Training&

Incentives

DigitalLibrary

Quality

Finance

EducationVision &Strategy

1500 modemsGigabit

backbone

InsightCopyright/

IPR

Glasgow Digital Library

IIP,All student

certificationPersonal

Portals

LearningDelivery

Devices

Laptops for all TeachingMaterials

CommercialIn-house

CVUWireless

classrooms

The Wider Context

The focus is the University not the LibraryThe Learning City – open educationCVU and cEVU– a virtual universityThe Millennium Student – a new learning

environment

The Background National Projects CAIRNS – cross-catalogue searching SCONE – collaborative collection

management HAIRST- Harvesting Internet Resources in

Support of Teaching BUBL – access to internet resources IPR Policy - a survey of practice Insight – Value for Money SAPIENS – Small Learned Societies

Local Glasgow Projects

GAELS – training materials and sharing collections in Glasgow

CATRIONA – identifying local resourcesCORC - metadataDIO – managing local resourcesGDL – the virtual library

Student Intranet - a gateway into the UniversityProgress well on way in design of a

personalised student portal offering direct access to :

Personalised class and exam timetables The students’ own personal details etc The student’s own Progress Report file To enable the student to update their details and

undertake administrative procedures such as registration

Student Intranet

Offering direct access to a ‘Knowledge Centre’/Digital Library of Learning materials and electronic resources

A customised student news service Facility for student’s own space on the

web, including webmail

Derek’s Daily Dictums

Make big plans and aim highA hot bed of cold feetLosers confuse destiny with bad

managementDo what’s crazy, not what’s stupidNever try to teach a pig to sing – it wastes

your time and annoys the pig