“So I'd like to ask the question:  Is there a future for online subscriptions, when Google and Wikipedia reign supreme?”

 

I fear that the situation you describe regarding budget pressures and low usage of online subscription-based information resources is one that many authorities are experiencing, and evaluating their provision in this area.

 

I have requested that our learning support librarian carries out a thorough evaluation of our resources (Britannica, CredoRef, NewsUK, KnowUK and SCRAN), and report back to SMT with usage statistics, information on alternative websites, and recommendations.  I know that the online resource subscriptions have been identified as a possible saving next year, unless we can demonstrate a genuine need for them, and clear benefits to a greater number of our service users.

 

In the meantime however, in response to your question above, and to address the issues locally, we have implemented a free course in libraries for parents, ‘Help your kids with homework’.  Rather than being a conventional homework course for parents, where subjects are taught, our course is non-subject specific and not curriculum based.  In essence, we are running a course to teach parents two things – how to use the Internet for research, and (perhaps more importantly) how to use our subscription-based online information resources.

 

The message we’re trying to get across to parents is that they (as library users) have free access to high quality and trusted information resources, which should be used when spending time with their children researching topics for homework etc.  During the course, other resources such as BBC Bytesize are demonstrated as we acknowledge our resources aren’t the be all and end all.  In addition, some time is spent looking at Google and Wikipedia, both to show how they are used, but also as a quality comparison to the information retrieved from our resources.

 

The course has received very positive feedback from our education (schools) managers, and we will shortly be working with school parent councils to promote the course further.

 

I would agree that it is often easier just to google or search Wikipedia, and hope that good results are found (as they often are), but parents seeking trusted information with their children is one group which I feel can really benefit from using our resources instead.  I am hopeful that we will educate enough parents (and perhaps subsequently their children!), to safeguard these resources in coming years, and increase our usage figures significantly.

 

In the longer term, as we await a new LMS and web-opac, I look forward to federated searching where our stock, information resources and digital archives can be used in synchrony.

 

I do see a future for these resources, but it will take some commitment and effort on our staff’s part to help realise this future locally.

 

Richard Aird

Senior Officer ICT & Learning

West Dunbartonshire Council