Reflections

Reflections

Chris BanksUniversity Librarian and Director, Library, Special Collections and Museums

www.abdn.ac.uk/library/

Reflections• 5 years since moving to

Aberdeen

• Not from an HE background


Themes for today• HE from an external

perspective

• Taking the holistic approach to re-energising the service and the space

• Observations on some of the emerging destabilisers (and opportunities) relevant to HE libraries


Institutional overview• Ancient University (founded

1495)

• UK’s fifth oldest university

• Medium sized – 16,000 students

• Broad-based research-driven institution

• Anthropology to Zoology

• Competitively-won research income trebled over last decade

• Recent investment in

• Excellence

• Infrastructure (including new library)


Remit• New building, including

• Finalising design requirements

• Fundrasing

• Promotion

• Modernise services, processes and systems

• Mend the relationship with the academics


Early observations• Libraries sometimes seen as

a cost rather than as an asset

• Procurement

• Risk appetite

• Appetite for change

• Academic Freedom (and trust)

• Disciplinary differences

• Disciplinary loyalty

• Local HR policies

• Relevance of physical library space


Investment in physical library space

• The best achievable study and research facilities for staff and students

• Re-thinking study/stock space in the light of e-

• Proper discharge of our custodial responsibilities for our rare book and archival collections

• Opening up the collections to a wider public

• Transformation of the western side of the University


Investment in collections• Substantial evidence-

driven investment in online resources

• E-book collections

• Journal backfile collections

• Over 80% Collection Development budget spent on electronic resources


Targeted acquisition of backfiles

Elsevier - backfiles

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

Jan-

07

Mar

-07

May

-07

Jul-0

7

Sep-0

7

Nov-0

7

Jan-

08

Mar

-08

May

-08

Jul-0

8

Sep-0

8

Nov-0

8

Jan-

09

Mar

-09

Summer 2008 backfile purchases


Investment in automated processes

• Open access stock RFIDd

• Modern fast self issue machines installed

• Automatic book returns and sorting system installed (including a 24 hour book return facility)

• Shelf-ready books

• Patron-driven acquisition


Investment in resource discovery tools


Cross searching all collections, including museum and archives (with single-sign-on)

Maximising investment


Maximise the use of resources• Maximise the investment in

the purchased / licensed resources

• Eliminate complexity

• Eliminate barriers to access

• Walk-in access to e-resources

• MFDs / Wireless printing / free scanning

• Get the data to where it is needed


Link between metadata and use

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

New e-Book acquisition

e-books become available

E-book catalogue records added to our catalogue


Investment in training


Link between training and use?

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

Aberdeen Cambridge Strathclyde UCL

Reader instruction - user hours

Aberdeen

Bangor

Cambridge

Edinburgh

Strathclyde

Swansea

UCL

SCONUL mean

Process reviews as an integral part of the building design refinement


Review most activities• LEAN/KaiZen review of processes to ensure they are

efficient and that staff activity adds value

• Re-think workflows and locations to ensure efficiency

• For print: resulted in a different approach to acquisition, a faster turnaround time, and happier customers and staff

• Create spaces for opportunity

• Informed design and staff location decisions

• Freed up staff to work on uniquely held stuff (from archives to AURA)

• Reduced down storage requirements and minimised move costs


Kaizen Blitz in the QML – engagement


Kaizen Blitz in the QML – engagement


Taking ownership and pride

Using data to inform decision-making

Re-thinking space – more research/study space, less open access stock


Borrowing figures for all sites 10 years to 2007

• All sites: 56% of borrowable stock has never been borrowed

• QML: 47%

• King’s Stack: 87%

• Holland Street: 85%

• CASS (Edinburgh Store) 99.88%

• Overall there has been a decline in the use of print journals in favour of electronic

• Overall there has been an increase in satisfaction in electronic journals


2010 Staff Survey

88%

12%

Prefer e-Journals to printed Journals?(staff)

Yes No


Increasing satisfaction with e-

83%

17%

Prefer e-Journals to print? (students)

Yes No

59%

41%

Preferred e-Journals to print? (students)

Yes No

2010 2008


UKRR as part of our storage strategy

• In 2008 it emerged that the cost of renting one of our offsite stores was to double

• Costs for offsite storage in the longer term were likely to be in the region of £500k per year

• Setting that figure in context: £500k =

• 1.4 x 2008/9 total operating budget for the Library

• 1.5 x current annual fund for purchasing books

• 10 Senior Lecturers / Readers

• 12 Lecturers

The shift towards electronic


Use of electronic journals continues to rise

2005 to 2006 2006 to 2007 2007 to 2008 2008 to 2009 2009 to 2010 2010 to 2011 2011 to 20120

200000

400000

600000

800000

1000000

1200000

1400000

1600000

1800000

Full text article requests from e-journals by University of Aberdeen members


Use of e-books continues to rise

2009 to 2010 2010 to 2011 2011 to 20120

200000

400000

600000

800000

1000000

1200000

1400000

1600000

1800000

2000000

Section requests from e-books by University of Aberdeen members


One full text download every 18.7 secs

2005 to 2006 2006 to 2007 2007 to 2008 2008 to 2009 2009 to 2010 2010 to 2011 2011 to 20120.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

30.0

35.0

40.0

An e-journal article requested every x seconds

Feedback


Key statistics 2011-2012

• Over 700,000 visits (compared with 456,929 in 2010-2011) to library collections on LG floor and floors 1 to 7, a 52% increase

• A 202% increase on previous year in the number of visits by non-members of the University


Undergraduate Usage: a 50% Increase

Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

80000

90000

100000

Undergraduate Usage

ULQML


Special Collections

• Overall number of reader visits up by 63%

• Undergraduate reader visits up by 176%

• Postgraduate reader visits up by 139%

• External visits by researchers up by 187%


Academic feedback

A library should be the heart of any academic institution and we now

have a heart that is beating healthily

Citation quality

Grades


Staff satisfaction



• If Apple designed libraries they’d be like this, white and shiny and intuitive

Shifting landscapes

Physical Digitised / Born Digital

Conservation

CM (e.g. UKRR)

Digital Preservation

Re-thinking space


Future focus• Local staff resource concentrated

on service and UDCs

• Shared / collaborative services, including LMS in the cloud

• Minimising duplication across the institution and between institutions

• New and more complex publishing / licensing / sales models

• Finch / Open Access publishing / research data / repositories

• Open metadata

• Data re-use / text mining

• E-Legal Deposit

http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090909/full/461160a.html

http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090909/full/461160a.html


Inspire to enquire

Images: Adam Mørk and Chris Banks (the good ones are Adam’s)

Education

Reflections