Post on 20-Dec-2014
description
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
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
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
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
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)
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
Remit• New building, including
• Finalising design requirements
• Fundrasing
• Promotion
• Modernise services, processes and systems
• Mend the relationship with the academics
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
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
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
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
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
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
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
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
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
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
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
Investment in resource discovery tools
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
Cross searching all collections, including museum and archives (with single-sign-on)
Maximising investment
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
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
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
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
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
Investment in training
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
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
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
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
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
Kaizen Blitz in the QML – engagement
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
Kaizen Blitz in the QML – engagement
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
Taking ownership and pride
Using data to inform decision-making
Re-thinking space – more research/study space, less open access stock
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
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
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
2010 Staff Survey
88%
12%
Prefer e-Journals to printed Journals?(staff)
Yes No
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
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
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
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
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
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
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
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
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
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
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
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
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
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
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
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%
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
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
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
Staff satisfaction
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
• 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
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
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
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/
Inspire to enquire
Images: Adam Mørk and Chris Banks (the good ones are Adam’s)