Reflections on SCONUL Access: Enhancing Library Collaboration

1. Reflections on SCONUL Access Philip Payne Director of Library & Media Services Birkbeck, University of London

2. SCONUL RESEARCH EXTRA _ _ _ _ COALITION OF MODERN UNIVERSITIES LONDON PLUS INPOL LIBRARIANS

3. Work of the SCONUL Task & Finish Group on Access Issues • Established November 2010 • Membership • Philip Payne (Birkbeck, University of London) • Helen Workman (Oxford Brookes) • Liz Jolly (Teesside) • Mary Nixon (until January 2012) • Matthew Brooke (RHUL) (from October 2011)

4. Areas covered by the T&F Group SCONUL Access • Impact of the changing HE landscape on SCONUL Access • Review levels of take-up of SCONUL Access (patterns, “hot spots”) • Views of SCONUL members on the scheme

5. Areas covered by the T&F Group Access to electronic resources • Extent to which walk-in access is provided • Barriers to providing walk-in access • How those who provide walk-in access have gone about it • Recommendations on how wider provision of walk-in access can facilitated

6. Areas covered by the T&F Group Cross sectoral collaboration How SCONUL can support, sustain, and develop cross sectoral collaboration on library access

7. How the T&F Group went about the work • Focus groups with SCONUL Directors • Breakout groups at SCONUL Access Contacts meeting • Survey of SCONUL Directors • Survey of SCONUL Access Contacts • Focus groups with users (and others) in Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool and London • Survey of SCONUL Access users

8. Conclusions SCONUL Access Contacts • 78 responses • Generally working well, warm praise for management of scheme • Greatest area of discontent was the slowness of the development of the web site • Improved defaulters’ procedures • Other: walk-in access, improved marketing, better statistics

9. ConclusionsSCONUL Directors • 70 responses • High levels of satisfaction with scheme • Value of scheme being diminished through lack of access to e-resources • Enlightened self-interest is a major driver to opening up access • Strategic issues

10. Some strategic issues identified by Directors • Resource pressures • Tension between collaboration and co-operation • Scope for more cross-sectoral collaboration • Working with new providers and new partnerships • Greater focus on shared services • Role of the Library in the student journey • Widening participation • Access to e-resources

11. ConclusionsSCONUL Access Users • 3800 responses to survey • 11 focus groups • Birkbeck, University of London • University of Cardiff • Cardiff Metropolitan University • University of Glamorgan • Glasgow Caledonian University • Glasgow School of Art • Kings College London • University of Liverpool • Liverpool Hope University • Liverpool John Moores University • University of Westminster • Work conducted by Sero Consulting

12. What users said about the scheme “Overall the SCONUL Access [scheme] has provided me a gateway to further my studies. It’s a brilliant scheme.” “Keep providing this service! In this time of dwindling resources, access will become more necessary” “…it has been vital in helping me complete my PhD”

13. Subject differences • Greater engagement in using other libraries by arts and humanities students • 57% taught postgraduates in arts and humanities reported that inability to access other libraries would impede their studies (compared with 36% amongst STM students)

14. Value to distance learners • Distance learners and part-time students expressed strong recognition of the scheme • Distance learners more likely to use other libraries (including public libraries)

15. UK differences • Respondents in Scotland were: • more likely to hold a SCONUL Access card • more likely to have visited other libraries (including public libraries) • More likely to consider lack of access an impediment to research or their studies • No other UK differences

16. What SCONUL Access users would like • Would have liked to know about the scheme earlier • More upfront information on what they can expect at a destination library • Better onsite information, informed staff, and a welcoming approach • Access to electronic resources (and IT) • A single SCONUL Access card

17. Where now? • WATER project (Walk-in Access To E-Resources) [with M25 Consortium] • Case studies/guidelines/summary of findings on walk-in access from Directors’ survey • Community events • Collaboration with other walk-in access developments (SCURL, WHELF) • Encouraging SCONUL libraries to implement walk-in access

18. Other recommendations • Registration/workflows via the SCONUL web site. Standard upfront information on the SCONUL web site. • Single “SCONUL card” • Cross library flows • Library staff training • Possible changes to eligibility • Accessibility • Guidance/advocacy statement

19. Some concluding thoughts • SCONUL Access has been a huge success • Take-up has grown consistently • Appreciated by users and by libraries • Importance of scheme to research and students’ learning • Delivers mutual benefit through a shared service • Based on principles but also pragmatism • Need to continue to evolve and to link with other shared services initiatives • Challenges in the new HE environment • Role of SCONUL Access in an increasingly electronic environment