Member Sharing Session delivered by Judith Stamenkovic and Lisa Jeffery at the 2008 BBSLG Conference, hosted by Leeds University and Leeds Metropolitan University, 9-11 July

1. Referencing Rescue:
developing an interactive referencing
service at the University of
Portsmouth
Judith Stamenkovic & Lisa Jeffery
Faculty Library Team
Portsmouth Business School

2. Background
• Library seen as trusted provider of guidance
on using Harvard APA
 Short printed guide published for 10 yrs
 Common queries published as FAQ on Library
Website
 Students and staff ask librarians for advice
• Sliding scale of penalties introduced in one
faculty
• Increasing number of students asking for help
• Increasing questions about reference types not
covered in APA manual – needed wider
consensus on format to be used

3. The R@P Project
• Bid to University Learning & Teaching
Committee - Summer 2005
• Small group to drive things forward
• Plan for authority group to rule on formats not
covered in APA manual
• Crucial early decisions on where content
should reside
• Bulk of time then taken with finding suitable
examples to use and inputting them

15. Promotion of R@P
• Presented first to Heads and Course Leaders’
Conference Sept 2006
• Flyers and post-it notes
• Demonstrated during student induction and
re-induction sessions
• Link on the Library homepage

16. Lessons learned
• Bid for University money - it gets official seal
of approval and raises Library profile
• A small compact team with direct experience
of answering referencing queries got things
moving
• Having University Authority Group a good idea
but difficult to get off ground
• More publicity needed!

17. Hits on R@P Site
40000
35000
35562
30000 20900
25809
25000
20000 10829
15000
10000 3195
5000
0
Sep-07 Oct-07 Nov-07 Dec-07 Jan-08
06/07 1099 3706 7938 6146 7761

18. Student views: Easy to use?
7
14
Very Easy
72 Easy
Not easy
89 Not v easy
N=182

19. Student views: Does it meet needs?
4
12 Everything I
need
Mostly what I
88 need
Not much I need
74
Nothing I need
N=178

20. What do the students say?
• Very useful, found it invaluable when stuck on how to
reference
• An easy to use helpful guide for something that is really
important to academic work
What do staff say?
• Has made my responses more efficient, I can in some cases
simply point the enquirer to it
 Academic Skills lecturer
• I think it is particularly useful for international students
 Public Administration lecturer

21. Benefits of R@P
• Time saved on referencing queries – faculty
librarians, enquiry staff, lecturers, students
• Single authoritative source available 24/7 –
for students, lecturers and library staff
• Agreed new formats instantly available to all
• Good publicity for the Library