Transcript Slide 1

A day in the life of an
Oxford subject librarian
Isabel D. Holowaty
History Librarian, Oxford University Library Services
22 June 2009
In next 50mins…
• My job
• What is OULS and how does it differ from CUL
• Do subject librarians add value to collections and
services?
• What is our relation to the academic community and
colleagues?
• Challenges
• The Future
• Questions
Oxford University Library Services
(OULS)
2000: Integration of 30+ libraries (BOD, Dependents,
Faculty & departmental libraries)
“The mission of OULS is to provide the most effective university
library service possible, in response to current and future users'
needs; and to maintain and develop access to Oxford's collections
as a national and international research resource.”
“OULS aims to match the ambition of the University and
contribute to its pre-eminence.”
“OULS will draw strength from its roots and vigorously uphold
traditional scholarship, while pioneering and developing modern
practices of information management and delivery.”
Source: OULS Strategic Plan 2009/10 to 2014/15, v 2.4 June 2009
Before 2000
Educationxxx
Politics
xxx
Dept Faculty
Faculty
Bodleian
Library
xxx
Faculty
SAC
In common: readers,
collections, catalogue,
e-resources
etc
TAY
LibraryLibraryLibrary
Library
RSL
Library
Xxx
Chemistry
Physics
Maths
xxx
Library
Reader
Services
College
Library
College
College
Library
Library
College
Library
College
Library
Special
Collections
Technical
Services
IT
Different: admissions, services,
equipment, charges, suppliers,
policies & strategies, IT, levels of
provision & support, etc.
Library
Etc.
Library
Library
Theology
History
Faculty
English
Philosophy
Faculty
Faculty
xxx
Faculty
Library
Library
Library
Library
Library
Library
Readers’ experience
“I think all the libraries in Oxford
should be advertised
more widely
“Efforts
should admissions
be concentrated
on
• Varying
policies,
opening
hours, loan
- I have heard that there are over
consolidating
library
facilities
across
the
entitlements, fines, photocopy
charges,
etc. = and most
100
libraries
in
Oxford,
whole university - I frequently find there
inconsistent & confusing
are several copies of a book I need listed students probably use less than
of the study or
space
available to
on• OLIS,
but cannot
get hold of
any of
Multiple
induction
sessions
=5%
duplication
gaps
them. It would be nice to know
them because they are in libraries I
• Multiple
cards
= confusing
more about different libraries
cannot
use. OULScopying
librares should
become
which I could work in, as it would
more
integrated
andafter
provideFaculty
better
• Who
looks
/ subject
interest
in facilities
the
be
nice
to
maximise
the
access
to students
across the whole
BOD
+ dependents?
available to me and use different
university, not just those studying a
libraries for a change. “
course at each specific faculty.”
Reader Comment OULS Survey 2007
Reader Comment OULS Survey 2009
A Faculty Librarian’s experience
• Closest to students and Faculty but difficult to
stay informed of BOD collections, services, etc.
• No influence in BOD services & collections to help
coordinate local de-duplication, change of openshelf collections, etc.
• Jack of all trades: Personnel, H&S, Budgeting &
Financial administration, IT, Conservation &
Preservation.
Bodleian library staff’s experience
• Difficult to help readers make most of Oxford
collections.
• Largely uncoordinated open-shelf collections.
• Less aware of reading lists; Faculty / students’
needs.
• Difficult to liaise and consult with readers.
Since 2000
• Technical Services
–
–
–
–
Centralised training & cataloguing standards
Reviewing workflows in all libraries
Recommended selection of providers
Agreed shelf-ready standards & local-variant of LCC
• Centralised IT, H&S, Personnel, Conservation, etc.
• Reader Services
– Standardising opening hours, admissions, loan policies, fines,
charges, equipment, library rules, etc.
– Centralised production of guides
– Co-ordinated inductions & information skills training
Process of integration is still ongoing!
Bodley’s Librarian,
Dir. of Library Services
OULS in 2009
Associate Dir.
Special Coll & IT
Ass. Dir.
Res. & Learning Services
Rare Books
Ass. Dir.
Coll. & Resource Descr.
Dir. of
Administration
Admissions
Collection Management
Financial Management
& Accounting
BOD Reader Services
Acquisitions
HR & Staff Development
Cataloguing
OULS Estates project
Serials
Health & Safety
Copyright Receipt Office
Facilities
E-resources
Etc.
MSS
Reading Rooms
Stack Requests
Etc.
Main Enquiry Desk
IT
Digital
Library
ILL / DDS
Photocopying & Printing
SERS (LMS)
User Education
Humanities Libraries
English Faculty Library
Wellcome Unit
for the History of Medicine
History Faculty Library
Philosophy Fac. Library
Modern Languages
Faculty Library
Taylor Instit. Library
OULS in 2009
Sackler Library
Etc.
Social Sciences Libraries
Science & Medicine Libraries
History Faculty Library basics
• 85,000+ books
• Busy lending library (120K+ loans p.a.)
• Library provision for History Faculty UG
and PG degree courses
• Reading List provision
• Teaching collections
BOD basics
• Legal Deposit Library
• Central BOD: 3 separate buildings &
multiple reading rooms
• 86%+ in closed stack, much off-site
• 8 million+ books
• Reference-only
• Several dependent libraries
Effect
•
•
•
•
Better bargaining power with providers
Policies more consistent
Processes more efficient
Sharing of best practice & resources
What do I do?
• Site library management of History Faculty Library & Wellcome Unit
for History of Medicine Library
• Personnel, admin, finances - with support from central OULS services
• Strategy, services, operations, etc. – as part of HUMS Management, etc
• Collection Management for British & Western European Collections
(HFL & BOD), US History Collections (VHL) and History of Science &
Medicine (RSL, Wellcome Unit for History of Medicine Library
•
•
•
•
• Manage Library Materials budget
• Select / claim books, journals
• Trial & publicise new e-resources
Liaison with History Faculty staff and students
Enquiries
User education
Contribute in OULS-wide work & represent OULS Humanities
Large single subject & site librarian
1 Faculty (102 postholders, 1,700 students)
OULS Committees
• Secretary, Research & Learning Services Strategy
Group (RLSSG)
• HUMS Management Group
• BOD Reader Services Management Team
• Committees on Library Provision in History, History
of Art, African & Commonwealth History
• Hums rep on
– Oxford University Research Archive (ORA)
– Guides Working Party
History Faculty committees
• Faculty meetings
• Undergraduate Studies Committee
• History of Science, Technology & Medicine
Committee
• Disability Working Party
Also work closely with Faculty’s Graduate
Office, Administrator and IT Officer.
It is 7:55am…
Book selection: Alerts, catalogues, book
reviews, etc.
History Collection Policy in a nutshell
HFL: Buy if on reading lists + important new titles
BOD: Claim if publishes less than 1 year ago. Buy rest.
What period & geographical coverage, what topic?
How scholarly and substantial? In what language?
Who is the publisher? Is the price right? Does OULS already
have a copy? Do we really need it?
Review Standing Orders & journal subscriptions
Buy recommendations
Transfer titles between libraries holding Legal Deposit
History Collections: http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/libraries/subjects/history
E-mail
• Finalised orders & claim UK and US titles
• Go through 39 new e-mails of which…
– AHDS History alert on a new digital collection
– 2 new enquiries from an academic and German student
– from RSL about an expensive recommendation for History of
Science
– request from an academic to meet and plan embedded
information skills training in new graduate course in MT 2009
– Webmaster reporting that the RSS news feed is set up
– Latest list of journal in Upper Camera for review
• Check RSS feeds on iGoogle
• Check latest expenditure reports
Humanities Management
• Reports from committees (Deputies
Group, Security, Strategy, ORA, IT
Library operations
• Update, discuss, question, decide
• Humanities Lending Library policies, processes, workflows, etc.
• Retro-classification to LCC • Share best practice
• New e-resources
• Exchange ideas/problems
• Admin and Finances
• Gather and pass on information,
questions, etc.
Recent agenda items:
Standardisation of lost book policies and procedures
Agreement reached about joint purchase of Cambridge Histories Online
Twinning of Hums libraries
Information Skills
• WISER (Workshop in Information Skills & Electronic
Resources)
• Plus tailored sessions:
– UGs: Freshers’ induction, Thesis Fair, Thesis Info Skills
– PGs: Inductions, tours, Information Fair, Info Skills
– Academics: Inductions, tours, Canapés with Clio
• Forthcoming: talk to University Research Facilitators
forum on what support OULS can give to researchers
Thesis Fair May 2009, Examination Schools
http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/history/services/training
History Info Skills Stats 2008-9:
96 sessions attended by 1284, of which 519 came to Information Skills and
19 “booked” the History Subject Librarian.
Liaison with the Faculty
Committee on Library Provision in History
Membership:
Faculty Postholder (chair), head of OULS Humanities Libraries,
History Librarian, Deputy Librarian of HFL, students and
academics reps, Faculty Administrator, and college libraries
Purpose: Forum for discussing library provision in
History
Recent agenda:
Finances, Collection Policies, E-resources updates & desiderata,
Digitisation Project of Document Packs, HFL services, OULS
Survey, OULS Estates
Action Points: e.g. create HFL Short Loan Collection
Also decide which agenda items to go Humanities CoLP and Faculty meeting
Liaison with colleagues
Meeting in History Faculty with RSL colleague
re History of Science Collection Policy
Promoting collections
• New resource: Documents on British Policy Overseas
–
–
–
–
–
–
Write blurb for Metalib and add subject keywords
E-mail colleagues & Faculty
Post as news item on web
Add to research guides (print & online)
Add to HFL “plasma screen”
Organise training session
• New books displays in URR, UCam and VHL
• Posters, bookmarks (for distribution in HFL, BOD,
VHL, etc.)
More e-mail
• Head of Humanities Libraries circulates draft Library
Services improvement paper.
• Enquiry from academic about an ejournal subscription.
• Receive agenda of next User Education WP meeting.
• Send draft RLSSG minutes to RLSSG chair.
• Asked to participate in and circulate survey of OULS
copying and printing services to Faculty & students.
• Receive draft reading list of new Special Subject.
• Send list of exhibits for Global Lincoln exhibition (VHL) to
BOD Exhibitions.
• Schedule meeting with HFL Deputy to discuss
restructuring possibilities over Long Vacation.
By the end of the day…
• Ordered / claimed new books & fine-tuned open-shelf
collections
• Started drafting a new Collection Policy document
• Monitored & adjusted Library Materials expenditures
• Stayed informed in subject area
• Answered enquiries from readers and colleagues
• Delivered a training course & planed new user
education programme for graduates
• Liaised with Faculty formally & informally
• Promoted collections and kept historians informed
• Managed site library
Bodley’s Librarian,
Dir. of Library Services
Associate Dir.
Special Coll & IT
Ass. Dir.
Res. & Learning Services
Ass. Dir.
Coll. & Resource Descr.
Dir. of
Administration
Admissions
Collection Management
Financial Management
& Accounting
BOD Reader Services
Acquisitions
HR & Staff Development
Cataloguing
OULS Estates project
Serials
Health & Safety
Copyright Receipt Office
Facilities
E-resources
Etc.
Rare Books
MSS
Reading Rooms
Stack Requests
Etc.
Main Enquiry Desk
IT
Digital
Library
ILL / DDS
Photocopying & Printing
SERS (LMS)
User Education
Humanities Libraries
English Faculty Library
Wellcome Unit
for the History of Medicine
History Faculty Library
Philosophy Fac. Library
Modern Languages
Faculty Library
Taylor Instit. Library
OULS in 2009
History Librarian
Sackler Library
Etc.
Social Sciences Libraries
Science & Medicine Libraries
Do we add value to collections &
services?
• Support scholarship by using our subject expertise to
maintain collections which meet the demands of
academics, students and the academic community at large
and within the budgetary constraints given.
• Recognisable and approachable human interface between
Faculty and Library.
• Promote Library services & collections.
• Train and guide users in the use of electronic resources.
• Manage & train library staff and future generation of
library managers.
• Represent Oxford to outside world by e.g. answering
complex research enquiries.
Challenges
• Communication & logistics
• Knowing your colleagues and reaching
consensus within OULS
• Standardisation while preserving local
practice in each subject / site where
required
• Knowing what readers want
• Estates strategy
Indispensible tools
• Colleagues
• IT
–
–
–
–
–
share and publish diaries online
networked PCs throughout OULS
Web Outlook
Shibboleth
RSS feeds
–
–
–
–
Voicemail as e-mail
Cordless phone
Good staff intranet
Searchable staff directory
• Communications
The Future
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Depository
New Bodleian Library refurbishment
New Humanities Lending Library
Scan-to-Desktop-on-demand
Online ILL
New LMS
and more