- - - apologies for cross-posting - - -
Thank you very much to those who replied to my posting of 8 May 2007,
which focused specifically on the question of "Managing student
expectations about stock levels". Eight replies have been received from
staff at seven institutions: one HEI of the Russell Group; three HEI of
the 1994 Group; two of other HEI, and one from a sixth form college.
This is my summary of the relevant responses:
Librarians can manage student expectations directly and indirectly. The
direct approach is to tell students what they can expect. The indirect
approach is to work with academic departments so that they are able
realistically to tell students what they should expect.
Such a direct approach can be used in Library inductions, or
orientations. A librarian informs students of the fact that the library
is not intended to supply each student with a copy of every suggested
reading for them to keep for the whole length of the course and that
students are therefore well advised to manage their reading.
This is accompanied with explanations about alternatives, such as the
use of the catalogue to find other books about the same topic, the
reciprocal agreements with other libraries, information about discounts
negotiated with book dealers, and student 2nd hand buy-back and resale
schemes. At one institution a web link for students and staff provides
real-time information of stock levels in the local book shop.
The direct approach can also involve publicising the library's
collection development policy to students as well as to library
representatives. However, one library has a notional ratio but refrains
from publicising it too widely since its sustainability could not be
guaranteed for larger cohorts.
Indirect approaches can take the form of innovations promoted across
departments by the library, or it can involve promoting the good
practice of one department to other departments. The following are some
such approaches:
A library actually brokered heavy discount deals with book sellers for
departments ready to purchase the books outright and sell them on to
students. This library also endeavoured to negotiate direct purchase of
e-books by students.
Some departments ask students to purchase set texts as a way of ensuring
they all can read them. Although this may not be equally suitable for
all departments, it may be possible to advise students of an average sum
that a student should expect to spend per annum on books.
Cheers.
Alec
___________________________________
Alejandro Chiner, Service Innovation Officer,
University of Warwick Library Research & Innovation Unit,
Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom
Tel: +(44/0) 24 765 23251, Fax: +(44/0) 24 765 24211
[log in to unmask] http://www.warwick.ac.uk/go/riu
___________________________________
-----Original Message-----
From: A general Library and Information Science list for news and
discussion. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Alejandro
CHINER ARIAS
Sent: 08 May 2007 12:01
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [LIS-LINK] Managing student expectations about stock levels.
--- apologies for cross-posting ---
"Why don't you have (more copies of) this book?!" is a typical student
complaint.
This can be tackled in various ways. One way is to approach it as
marketing issue, i.e. student expectations needing to be managed.
Such an approach is not quite the same as the various approaches to
multiple copy provision, which were the object of a previous survey [1]
on this list.
At the University of Warwick Library we would like to know of your
successes, failures and lessons learned in managing student expectations
about library stock levels in your HE institution.
We are interested in the obvious as well as in novel approaches. This
is the kind of idea I anticipate:
- publicising to students your stock ratios and stock management
policies
- mentioning them to prospective students, e.g. on the prospectus
- warning students on your website
- making publicly available an explanation of the budget calculations
- redefining your library service - books are nothing to do with us...
- not having this problem since your institution has a different
academic culture
I will summarise for the list. Many thanks for your comments.
Alec
________________________________________________
Alejandro Chiner
Service Innovation Officer
University of Warwick Library Research & Innovation Unit Gibbet Hill
Road, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom
Tel: +(44/0) 24 765 23251 , Fax: +(44/0) 24 765 24211
[log in to unmask] http://www.warwick.ac.uk/go/riu
________________________________________________
[1] A different survey, "Approaches to multiple copies," was posted by
Gareth Johnson on 7 Jan 2005 to LIS-LINK, LIS-UCR, and
[log in to unmask] A summary of the results, "Follow up: Approaches
to multiple copies," was posted on 25 January 2005.
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