Dear All,
Thanks for all your feedback to date - please keep it rolling in.
I have also had quite a few requests for a summary but also for a more
detailed outline of what we have done so far. This has made me think I
should put a proposal for a paper to the LTSN ICS conference in August. In
the meant time here is a brief summary of what we have been doing.
At Loughborough we find it difficult to persaude all our lecturers that it
would be beneficial for their students to be taught information skills. We
have also discovered that some of our students struggle to find appropriate
information, while others just use the Internet To try and give equal
access to training we thought it would be a good idea to look at
alternative delivery methods, especially CAL. We also decided that we did
not want to re-invent the wheel because of resourcing issues, so were
hoping that there might be an existing package out there that we could
utilise with kind permission of the owners and payment of fee if not too
large. Oh and preferably customisable.
What did we want? Well I think that is the problem - personally I seem to
want the world. Briefly a very interactive package that is not too text
heavy, is hopefully from the students point of view and somehow I would
like to link subject oriented material into it as well (this is really
strecthing it!). Colleagues of mine also want to know how well used
existing systems are to ensure that it is worth us going ahead - quote "why
go to all this trouble, if we find other packages are not being heavily
used by students".
We have reviewed all the packages being utilised by HE libraries and that
are freely accessible on the web. We have been using a form developed by
the LTSN ICS centre (Thanks Alan) and it has been very helpful. Basically
the criteria falls into the categories below:
1. Audience - UG / PG / Both?
2. Content - Library induction, tour, developing a search strategy e.g.
keywords, truncation etc, choosing where to search, how to search, finding
full text info., evaluating results, citation & bibliographies. Are there
links to other resources?
3. Easy to use. Does it have a contents page? Is it easy to move from
section to section? Does it have a natural flow? Can you jump around if
you wish to? Is it written in easy to understand language?
4. Is it interactive - i.e. things to do such as answering questions and
filling in gaps, rather than just moving from one page to the next? Would
it motivate students to complete it? Does it use images and it is it
pleasing to the eye?
5. Are the students in control of progress and navigation?
6. Does it have any form of assessment? If yes it is self assessment?
multiple choice questions? What? Does the resource provide students with
feedback on progress? DOes it record the outcome on their record?
7. Any general comments you wish to make
All the packages we have looked at have things to commend them, either in
terms of content, ease of navigation or assessment. In some cases they
have several things to commend them. However, I am not convinced any are
truly interactive. The other problem I have, is that all the Librarians
here prefer different packages for different reasons, so I am not sure I am
ever going to get consensus on the way forward. So am I going to be able
to approach an institution if I cannot get agreement? ALso I am waiting
for the OU package to come online as this may have an impact on our
decision making.
I think I should stop here as I have written any essay, thanks for bearing
with me. I am also thinking I have given too much away to write a paper
for the conference. Oh well.
The last thing I will say, is that below is a list of the packages we have
found. Please let me know if I have missed your institution off. I hope
you all find the list useful.
Aston is http://www.aston.ac.uk/lis/infoskills/
Birkbeck's virtual tour is at http://www.bbk.ac.uk/lib/vtour/vtour1.html
Bolton Institute http://www.bolton.ac.uk/lskills/TLTP3/entersite.html ***
Canterbury Christ Church http://www.cant.ac.uk/cware/LIST/list.htm
Central England, Unversity of http://www.uce.ac.uk/library/public/vtour.htm
Coventry University http://www.library.coventry.ac.uk/Subject/lisa2/index.htm
Cranfield University http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/cils/library/use/
East Anglia, University of http://www.lib.uea.ac.uk/guide
East London, University of http://www.uel.ac.uk/library/webctfiles/starter.htm
Edinburgh University http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/lib/howto/
http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/lib/howto/tilt/index.html *
Glasgow Caledonian University http://www.lib.gcal.ac.uk/infoskills.htm
Leicester distance learners
http://www.le.ac.uk/li/distance/training/search/
Leicester Medical students http://www.le.ac.uk/li/clinical/irsm/index.html
Newcastle http://www.newcastle.ac.uk/library/training/traihome.html
UCN http://193.61.82.57/liberation/web/
Salford http://www.ais.salford.ac.uk/training/aiswelcome.htm
South Banks is at http://www.lisa.sbu.ac.uk/quest/index.html
Southampton University
http://www.library.soton.ac.uk/infoskills/index.shtml *
Southampton Institute http://www.solent.ac.uk/library/ontrack/default.htm
University of Ulster http://www.ulst.ac.uk/library/training/ *
http://www.ulst.ac.uk/library/training/induct/Welcome/2lib.htm
* Point to the Glasgow TLTP package
*** Point to Sheffield Hallam TLTP3 package
IST packages that require passwords
University of Central Lancashire
Glasgow University *
Newcastle University *
York St John
Rippon & York
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Ruth Stubbings Telephone: 01509 222345
Academic Services Manager
Pilkington library
Loughborough University
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