*Summary of replies and key findings from my report on guides produced
by Keele University Library:*
*First of all,* just to update all of those who kindly showed interest
in my project of evaluating Keele University Library's range of printed
and online guides. My task was to review all of them, decide which
printed guides should be produced (all but one had been withdrawn from
distribution), and bring the downloadable guides on the website in line
with the web pages (those created for the website in the first place).
Keele Library Website: http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/li/
*Background:*
Twenty-seven guides have been produced by the library. These are only
available at present on the library's website. Additionally, there are
twelve worksheets (also only available online) for Reference Manager
(version 10); version 11 is currently in use at the University. The
Reference Manager guides were produced by Computing Services and they
have no plans to update them. A twenty-eighth Library guide exists;
'Getting Started' is the *only guide to exist in printed form*, although
it has been made available online in January 2008.
The Keele University Library guides/leaflets can be categorized as
follows: services, collections, guides to using resources for various
subjects and using the OPAC.
?
The subject guides and 'IT Skills' guides are confined to Humanities
subjects. Many of the latter are lengthy documents. __
?
Material relating to searching skills ('IT Skills' Workbooks) is
available only as a workbook, which must be printed out and completed to
impart the information. __
?
Differences between information contained within the HTML and PDF
versions have been identified.
?
The guides to services are too wordy and long..__
*The report ....*
I completed the report in February and we have now formed a working
group that will review our publications and re-design our website. The
report was not intended (or required to be) a research paper, but I
tried to gather as much information relating to a number of other
institutions as possible. I was not required to carry out a user survey
for this task; the guides had not been reviewed for some time and needed
to be looked at by staff first. I also had a collection of printed
guides, obtained from visits to other universities (MMU), and those who
sent me printed copies as a result of the message I posted to LIS-LINK
(Bangor).Otherwise, guides were obtained from library websites, or sent
to me electronically (Loughborough).
In terms of method for researching the area (quickly) and collecting
information for the report (which was to be on the brief side, believe
it or not!):
I performed a literature search in LISA
I sent out the message to LIS-LINK and dug around in Google to locate
any reports or potentially useful websites that might exist. I was
keen to identify, albeit in a relatively short timescale, any evaluation
of online (mainly, those which are downloadable but similar material
which was presented as a web page) and printed guides already conducted
by other HE libraries. It was not always easy to fix the definition of
'guide', I found out!
I focused on universities in Keele's benchmarking group, plus a few
additional ones, chosen on the basis of a variety of factors; at
colleagues' suggestions (Leeds) or because they are similar in various
organizational aspects to Keele (Aston). Loughborough Univ. Lib.
selected itself, as it were, as I was sent a copy of their website
evaluation, but it was a good example because it has an LIS department.
Also, shortly before writing the report, I and some colleagues from
Keele visited the Crewe & Alsagar campus of MMU, and observations of
their material were incorporated.
I looked at Keele University Library's web server statistics in four
months selected from 2007, including traditonally 'busy' times of
January (exams) and September (new intakes for many courses). I also
included the following month in each case, for a 'check' - February and
October.
Web server statistics, I know, are a crude measure, but they did provide
some valuable information, none the less, to help decide which guides
should be kept, what should be culled, and what we should look at and
invest effort in improving, if necessary. It was intended these findings
should provide an indication of usage and be used to identify any
glaringly obvious trends. These are my findings (again, taken from the
report):
Apart from the percentages used for directory reports, the
request/referrer statistics were averaged over the months selected. In
general terms, the analysis showed that there is significant demand for
library 'information' (service, facilities and so on); the 'library
information' directory receives (and sometimes exceeds) amounts of
traffic for the e-resources directory. The latter consistently receives
the highest amount of traffic within the Library website (around 20%).
The directory containing PDF documents within the campus library
website account for a very high proportion of library documents
requested throughout the website.
*Key findings regarding usage of online Keele U.L. guides *
* The directory in which the PDF guides are represent a relatively
high percentage of the total website traffic, and the
'information' directory of the website has a high level of traffic
* The Reference Manager Guides were not accessed in the chosen
months and are out of date.
* If web pages containing the same type of information exist, these
have been accessed more than the equivalent stand-alone guide **
has been maintaining the Special Collection & Archives area of the
website and it is not desirable to duplicate the same information
with the current guides.
* The files for 'Guide to online library resources and literature
searching' and 'Guide to the catalogue' have significant numbers
of requests. There is demand for online information skills
tutorials; the figure for requests for the web page listing a
selection of online tutorials is much higher than any of the
requests for the 'IT Skills' series workbooks, and slightly higher
than requests for the 'Guide to online library resources and
literature searching' and 'Guide to the library catalogue'.
* Guides for specific user groups: 'Library Services for Part-time
and Distance Students' and 'Academic Staff and the Library' are
accessed less than the 'Guide for Postgraduates and Researchers.'
* In terms of patterns in usage during *individual* months:
o Demand for library material in the 'library information'
directory was at its highest levels during June, August,
September and October (2007).
October consistently witnessed the highest demand for the guides: this
has significant implications for training and may help use plan the
production of printed guides, or flyers and posters.
*What other University libraries have done in terms of evaluating their
guides *
* *
Lancaster University Library had conducted a survey to review material
identified as 'guides' (see below -- summary of my report) and
Loughborough University Library had reviewed their website and reduced
the number of printed guides (to four).
The following summary is taken from my report (I apologize, it's rather
long but for those who didn't request a copy of the report itself, it
may be of some use) ...
Lancaster, Loughborough and MMU reported that they have relatively few
guides in relation to the number of resources; Loughborough reduced the
number of printed guides to four. Additionally, a visit to Crewe and
Alsagar library (MMU) revealed that flyers and posters could be used to
enhance communication and advertise library services.
*Observations/analysis of guides in selected HE libraries*
Generally, there is evidence of a departure from providing stand-alone
downloadable guides to services, subjects and a substantial number of
individual databases. Some university libraries maintain online PDF
guides, but have supplemented them with online material apart from web
pages: this is the case at Birmingham, and to a greater extent, Leeds,
UEA and Staffordshire university libraries.
'Information Skills' (searching online catalogue, formulating a search
strategy, evaluating and managing information) are increasingly
delivered via an interactive tutorial, sometimes on the VLE (or perhaps
both); interactive tutorials are also sometimes used for individual
databases.
Information relating to the details of services is usually presented in
web pages, and not identified as a 'guide'
Single A4 'Quick Ref'/'Help Sheets' are still used, although two
libraries have no or very few stand-alone guides to download.
There is demand for, and provision of, guides to using e-resources
portals and the library's OPAC across the board.
Floor plans are still in evidence but vary considerably in style. They
are always presented in a PDF format. Key messages (e.g. the 'Quiet'
study zones can be re-enforced by posters.
There are more guides available to help researchers and postgraduate
students across the board,
Particular attention has been paid by some libraries to providing
attractive and well-formatted guides for distinct user groups. This is
particularly true of guides aimed at first-year undergraduates.
Lancaster University Library's survey of guides and publications (2007)
revealed that it could be a mistake to distribute library guides to
undergraduates during Freshers' week itself, as they are already
overloaded with other material. This is confirmed by MMU's experience
of organizing student inductions.
Attractive, stand-alone guides typically have formatted text (small
paragraphs of bullet points, including sufficient white space) and make
good use of colour. Images are frequently used. Effective web
'guides' typically use web anchors or split the guide into a number of
pages.
Effective web pages are typically concise in expression and avoid
library jargon. Sometimes, the information is framed as questions and
answers', such as 'How can I ..., where can I ...'? [a document compiled
by our shelving teams of enquiries asked of them by students].
In effective guides, the content is a summary of essential information
relevant to that subject, online resource or user group.
By the way: 'effective' = my personal evaluation!
*What we are looking at now at Keele *
* *
In terms of providing 'guides' we will be looking at:
· What printed guides should exist for different users -- to give
to new users?
· Developing printable sections for parts of online guides, such
as Official publications/newspapers. The principle is that details
relating to accessing resource such as this which exists in different
formats should be presented in a table.
· Developing our presence on the VLE
· Creating content for the website and reviewing its structure.
The report into our publications is a project running in parallel with
the review of our website.
Thank you to everyone who responded, once again. It was much appreciated
and very helpful. I am sorry if this 'summary' is rather long, but it
is not a subject with too much literature to draw on, so my reply may
(hopefully) be of help to anyone asked to conduct such an exercise in
the future.
Anyone who asked for a copy of the whole report should receive one by
the end of the day.
Kind regards
Rachel Gick
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Dr Rachel Gick
Liaison Librarian (Health)
University Library
Keele University
Keele
Staffordshire
ST5 5BG
Tel.: 01782 (58)3480
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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