Alumni Library Forum 2014 Event Summary

1. Alumni Library Forum2014Event Summary 19th May 2014 Manchester Business School Hosted by Jane Marshall

2. Morning programme: 12:10-12:15 Welcome and housekeeping announcements – Jane Marshall. Challenges and opportunities 12:15-12:25 Opening speakers: Lisa Samberg, Head of Alumni Relations, MBS & Claire Kilner, Head of Alumni Relations, Donor Communications & Engagement, The University of Manchester 12:25-12:30 Content Online Announcement on IEEE - Steven Tweedie 12:35-12:55 Engaging with our Alumni - Jane Marshall and Markus Karlsson-Jones 12:55-13:15 Keynote - Catherine Cable 13:15-14:00 Lunch and vendor stands

3. Twitter:NB: We will be awarding a £25 gift voucher to the best tweet about ALF 2014! #alf2014 @alum_lib_forum

4. Opening address – Lisa Samberg and Claire Kilner Lisa Samberg, Manchester Business School, and Claire Kilner, Division of Development and Alumni Relations, University of Manchester • MBS is a good example of how alumni relations can work. • In the past there was minimal promotion of a limited number of databases for alumni. • The Alumni office worked with the library to build out existing resources. • Key question: how to encourage registration and use of alumni resources prior to graduation? • One idea: promote an e-resource that is available exclusively and solely to alumni via the community site • The monthly alumni e-newsletter can provide information and updates on available resources. In the past this has included information on a new app and new books available. • Social media is also used extensively to stay connected with alumni, especially LinkedIn via a dedicated alumni-only group

5. Opening address – Lisa Samberg and Claire Kilner • In the past, ‘library resources’ meant books. Now customers, including alumni, understand ‘library resources’ to mean more diverse materials • Claire communicated with over 270,000 alumni. University of Manchester has the biggest alumni database in the UK, apart from the non-campus Open University • Key question around communication: how can we add value to the student/alumni experience? • Harness potential of communication to offer invitations to events, tours of cultural assets/exhibitions, and promote the online alumni library service pages. These pages are the third most popular in terms of hits by alumni after home pages • Alumni want continued access to the resources they used as students • UoM has seen more requests for financial databases • UoM is constantly assessing what we’re offering and what alumni want

6. Opening address – Lisa Samberg and Claire Kilner Question from the floor: what’s the difference between the alumni offering from the central University and from the library/MBS? • MBS offers a more tailored service for business-oriented alumni • MBS organises business-related events for alumni • University has offered general alumni access to JSTOR for some time, with MBS offering additional resources for MBS alumni. This included alumni access to Proquest, Sage and Keynote • These additional databases have now been made available for all UoM alumni based on feedback regarding alumni needs and wishes • MBS will always be able to cater exclusively for business alumni, whereas the University has a wider range of graduates to serve • The University is, to a certain extent, playing catch-up in terms of meeting alumni needs, as fears around cost led to regularly saying “no” to requests without fully realising the benefits of offering additional resources • Suppliers are increasingly offering university-wide services, not just school-specific, which presents opportunities for alumni service development • We need to engage with alumni early whilst they are still students • High tuition fees mean students are seeking more for their money • Offering services to alumni allows the university to ask for something back, for example, mentoring or donations • Increasingly, alumni services have explicit, agreed targets to meet, which can help focus and drive service innovation

7. Questions to Jane and Markus regarding the University of Manchester alumni library service Question 1: would you consider a subscription for alumni membership, for example, £50 per year? • UoM is keen to keep alumni services free at the point of access for now • Paid membership was experimented with in the past but proved the administration required costly and time-consuming Question 2: what is the best way to make first contact with alumni, especially with rules around data protection? • UoM puts a lot of resources into obtaining customer data • We can obtain alumni contact details via student records • Graduates must also provide contact details when registering for the alumni service

8. Challenges and Opportunities • Time to consider….. • One challenge you face in kick-starting your Library’s engagement with alumni • One opportunity if you engage with them

9. Challenges 1 Feedback • Cost • Budget • Money • Time and funding to provide resources • Wider university connections • Justifying funding: alumni v. current customers • Persuade the uni/alumni office to find alumni access to resources! • Networking with other departments to provide a cohesive service to Alumni • Definition • Defining alumni, ie: how to give them a distinct identity like postgraduate students for example • Making contact • Getting in touch with them (alumni) in the first place

10. Challenges 1 Feedback • Identifying and meeting needs • Not being able to give them all they want • Meeting their needs fully • Catering to all of the interests/demands of alumni across all subjects • Including more science, technology, engineering, medical resources in our service • Lack of relevant content for some potential members • Remote access • Existing service architecture geared towards current students • Remote access • Authentication (to log in to online resources) • Remote access • Authentication • Authentication: access to e-resources for alumni • Providing off-site access to online resources • Access authentication to set up via publisher for alumni • Authentication • Alumni resources hosted on a different platform to other library resources • Authentication

11. Challenges 1 Feedback • Priorities • Making a priority list of resources • Licensing • Licence agreements – online resources • Licensing • Restricted access to university network – licensing

12. Opportunities 1 Feedback • Building relationships with other university departments • Liaison with Alumni Office • University alumni services have been centralised • Networking with other departments to provide a cohesive service to alumni • Alumni services v. keen to work with library • Meeting university strategic vision • Help us work more closely with uni departments eg: careers • Adding value • Offering more long-term value to your students and patrons • A continuing service for our former students • Potential impact in non-profit/non-HE contexts of our alumni

13. Opportunities 1 Feedback • Improve satisfaction • Huge positive feeling when alumni demands are met • Customer relationships finding out about their needs • To keep an open relationship after graduation • Increase student/alumni satisfaction • Increased engagement • Encourage alumni to keep in contact with the university – support lifelong learning • Engagement with development projects • Connecting with alumni offers the potential to generate additional income, through donation or paid library membership • Using their knowledge/skills • Form good (ie: income-generating) relationships with alumni • Engagement • Alumni as ambassadors for institution • Reputation of the institution

14. Opportunities 1 Feedback • Build relationships with vendors • More engagement directly with vendors – • yay!  • Liaise with publishers to increase range of • resources – put on their radar as a • need/requirement • Speaking to vendors today • Promotion of open access resources + engagement with publishers already including alumni in agreements

15. Afternoon programme: 14:00-14:20 Edge Hill University Alumni Library Service – Rachel Bury and Colette Capewell 14:20-14:40 JISC Collections - Ben Taplin 14:40-14:50 Ebsco – Richard Crossland 14:50-15:10 Proquest - Ian Burns 15:10-15:30 Eduserv: Licensing and Access - Martyn Jansen 15:30-15:35 Chest Agreements - Jenny Carroll 15:35-15:50 Break for refreshments and repeat Challenges and Opportunities 15:50-16:10 Emerald - Lisa Rothera 16:10-16:35  Challenges and Opportunities feedback  16:35-17:00 Discussion and round up

16. Challenges 2 Feedback • Definition • Publisher concerns – alumni definitions • Authentication • Authentication – no one way to do it! • Identifying and meeting needs • Identifying content required • To try despite all odds to continue providing what alumni want • Licensing • Contracts • Licensing & sub-licensing charging. Charging fees to pay for resources might be deemed sub-licensing, therefore cost more! • The confusing nature of different licenses/types of access & authentication – help! • Complying with licensing terms

17. Opportunities 2 Feedback • Group approach • Group negotiation? Power in numbers! • To have a centralised list of all amalgamated licenses which allow alumni access + details of publishers/contracts/terms and conditions/libraries using these, etc, • Could approach alumni with an open access platform of resources • Build on existing resources • Using resources already available to alumni (eg: Sage) as starting point for online offer • Relationships • On-going engagement with alumni as part of institution • Closer relations with alumni + alumni relations • department • Improved relationship with publishers

18. Your alumni library service Floor discussion One thing you will take away from today and apply?

19. Floor Discussion • A delegate posed the question, why can’t universities charge for alumni membership? • The group discussed this at length, responding with the following points: • The administrative costs can be daunting meaning it’s not cost-effective to charge • Alumni give back to the university in other ways and it’s important to recognise this • Current tuition fees are so high it can seem impertinent to ask for more money once the course is completed • Offering different levels of alumni membership, for example, basic free membership or paid membership with additional benefits, has not worked for universities such as University of Manchester in the past • One delegate commented that following the ALF 2014 they felt inspired to build relationships with their university alumni teams. The group suggested perhaps librarians could bring a colleague based in alumni services with them to future ALF events!

20. Floor Discussion The group discussed Martyn Jansen’s point that CPD is not educational. The group feels that many universities have an explicit remit to encourage and support CPD, suggesting it is appropriate for libraries to offer CPD resources One delegate referred to research suggesting many university libraries still charge alumni for the borrowing of books. University of Manchester representatives responded to advise this policy was dropped some time ago at Manchester The group discussed how the alumni population is, by definition, always increasing. How can universities and libraries support an ever-growing customer base?

21. Floor Discussion Suzanne made the point that as students become more technology-savvy, they require less e-resource assistance whilst at university and also when they leave and become alumni, so libraries will likely observe a decrease in the technical support they are required to provide to alumni accessing library resources The point was made that even with 50,000 alumni, only a small proportion will actually use the library’s alumni resources, so libraries are unlikely to be overwhelmed Dominic Broadhurst (Manchester) suggested that libraries may encounter more enquiries if they begin charging for alumni services, as alumni may feel more inclined or permitted to seek out support if they are paying for the service

22. Floor Discussion The group considered if many alumni would prefer access to e-resources over the ability to borrow books? Many alumni are based away from the are in which they studied with increasing numbers of international students based overseas, meaning physically visiting the library is extremely unlikely The group decided that a key question is, what do alumni value? What do they want? Libraries can only expect to forge and maintain links with alumni by providing what they want One delegate asked for the group’s thoughts on licensing: will publishers develop a standardised approach to alumni access and licensing? If so, when? 5 years? 10 years?

23. Floor Discussion Suzanne advised that the ALF webpage will include information on what alumni packages are available to universities to provide a central platform for this information Rachel Daniels shared her view that it is essential for organisations to negotiate together to seek useful, relevant, cost-effective alumni packages Libraries can ask vendors who provide such resources to share marketable quotes highlighting the benefits, to encourage other vendors to increase their alumni offering If libraries join together to make such requests, they are likely to have more impact/clout than when asking individually Richard Crossland from EBSCO advised that aggregators like EBSCO would find this approach very useful when liaising with publishers The group decided that the answer to the original question is yes, publishers are coming around, but it is not possible to put a timeframe on things just yet

24. Floor Discussion • Another discussion was around the types of resources that libraries offer to alumni. What is better for universities – keeping up with the Joneses and all offering similar resources, or a distinctive resource offering for each university? • Different offerings are available • It’s possible to tailor a university’s offering a specific audience • The quality and relevance of a few data sets are arguable better than simply offering a large quantity • Suzanne and Rachel ended the discussion by reminding delegates to sign up to the ALF list-servLIS-ALUMNI@JISCMAIL.COM. The ALF is keen for suppliers to be part of the forum’s discussions and debates, so vendors are also encouraged to sign up.

25. A big ‘thank you’ to all our speakers,sponsors and vendors today! And to our libraries for their time and support Particularly Manchester Business School for the venue

26. Summing up: • Stay in touch! • Join LIS-ALUMNI@JISCMAIL.COM • Follow us on Twitter @alum_lib_forum • We are all on LinkedIn • How was it for you? • Brief online survey will be sent out to you all for feedback. • Next event May 2015. Any offers to host? • Summary of the day / slides will be posted on the new ALF website: http://barrington.cranfield.ac.uk/alf