Alumni Library Forum

Event Summary11th December 2013

Hosted by Suzanne Griffiths and Rachel DanielsCass Business School and Cranfield University

Introduction from Rachel and Suzanne• Rachel Daniels (Cranfield University) and Suzanne Griffiths (Cass Business School)

opened the event by explaining how it had developed from an alumni library workshop at an ARLG conference and the setting up of the LIS-ALUMNI mailing list. It was noted there was not a lot of activity and they wondered what they could do to help people move from thinking to planning to providing a library service for alumni

• When starting out with alumni library programs there are usually two main worries:- Finding funding- Finding databases that actually can be licensed for alumni

It was hoped that the event would allow everyone to see that an alumni library service doesn’t have to cost a lot of money and that there were vendors present to prove some resources are available if you do have funding.

• Suzanne reminded the attendees that a Twitter feed and hash-tag has been set up. (The feed will be used after the event as well)

Twitter details:@alum_lib_forum#alf2013

Welcome from Jacqui Gaul – Head of Library Services, City University of London Jacqui officially opened the event by noting that this is a timely topic with the growing interest in Alumni in Higher Education.

• She has visited EU and found a similar situation to the UK in that there is not much currently provided for Alumni

• Cass and City University are keen to establish lifelong relationships with Alumni

• Expectations of current students - now want more for their money including Alumni offerings

• One big issue is who in the Institution should fund access and use of resources?

Programme of speakers• EBSCO products demonstration from Costas Tsiamas • Suzanne Griffiths and Nikki Kolyvani - Cass Business School, City University London• Rachel Daniels – Cranfield Defence and Security, Cranfield University• UDINI / Proquest products demonstration from Ian Burns• Anna Franca – King’s College• Jane Marshall – Manchester Business School• Eduserv products demonstration from Adam Snook

Your alumni library service

Floor discussion• What do you currently offer?• What would you like to offer?

• What are your biggest challenges?• What support can we give each other?

Issues raised in the discussion:Biggest challenges:• Authentication regarding permission sets and staying compliant - useful for library technical

people to talk together • Funding – who ultimately pays? Doesn’t necessarily have to come from Library• Suppliers permitting alumni access at all – we need to ask more, to make suppliers realise there

is a requirement out there. Rachel asked if the suppliers present at the event could each produce a few lines to say why they support alumni access – this could be used to persuade others that it does not lead to loss of revenue / control over content.

What has been learned from today:• The importance of meeting and working with your Alumni Relations Team• What can be provided at little or no cost – e.g. free web resources• How OpenAthens can help solve authentication concerns (including using a different entity for

controlling Alumni access)• Other useful relationships – Careers Service, Corporate Development• Managing expectations of alumni – particularly if trialling a resource

Other topics raised:• Value of providing access to a physical library service / book borrowing• Effect of charging for the service – take-up of service, administration effort required• Create and share a wish-list of online resources – how can we act as a group to help influence

suppliers?

A big ‘thank you’ to our sponsors

Proquest for lunchEbsco and Eduserv

for the tea and coffee breaksEmerald for delegate bags

And to our libraries for their time and supportCass Business School for the venue and water

Cranfield University for speaker vouchers

Summing up:Thanks were also given to everyone attending, and to those individuals who had helped before and during the event: Tamise, Sandip, Sara and Emma.

Stay in touch!• Join LIS-ALUMNI@JISCMAIL.AC.UK• Follow us on Twitter @alum_lib_forum• Suzanne and Rachel are both on LinkedIn

How was it for you?• Brief online survey will be sent out to you all for feedback – please

complete it. Another event? Annual event? Attendees generally agreed another event would be welcomed!

• A Best Practice Award would be considered

Post-event: some survey comments

Thanks to everyone who completed the survey

“A very informative and enjoyable day. I

liked the fact that the speakers included

vendors and someone from an Alumni

Relations Team to balance the views of

Librarians”

“It was a really useful day. I’ve

got a list of actions some of which won’t take

much time but will make a difference

to our Alumni”

“I liked the informality of the event…if it gets

bigger, it would be nice to keep this

informal feeling, so that people feel

more at ease networking.”

“An excellent event. I came away with lots to follow up on and newly inspired to improve our provision to alumni. It

was well worth a trip to London and I would very much welcome this being at least an

annual event.”