Collection development is big business and how academic libraries decide to invest in content is radically changing. This is being driven as much by new approaches to organisational design, relationship management, and data insight in universities as by changes to business models and technology in scholarly publishing and the supply chain. Based on recent experience at Edinburgh, Manchester and Northumbria, this participatory session will explore new strategies for collection development, and specifically address challenges and opportunities faced by libraries that have moved or are transitioning from traditional subject librarian roles.
UKSG Conference 2016 Breakout Session - Collection development in a world without subject librarians, Nick Woolley
1. Collection development in a world without
subject librarians
Panel:
– Rachel Kirkwood (Collection Development Manager, University of Manchester)
– Laura Shanahan (Head of Collections Development and Access, University of Edinburgh)
– Nick Woolley (Head of Library Services, Northumbria University)
Introduction
Panel presentations
Participatory discussion and Q&A
2. Collection development in a world without
subject librarians
Collection development is big business and how academic libraries decide to
invest in content is radically changing.
This is being driven as much by new approaches to organisational design,
relationship management, and data insight in universities as by changes to
business models and technology in scholarly publishing and the supply chain.
Based on recent experience at Edinburgh, Manchester and Northumbria, this
participatory session will explore new strategies for collection development, and
specifically address challenges and opportunities faced by libraries that have
moved or are transitioning from traditional subject librarian roles.
3. Collection development in a world
without subject librarians
UKSG, Bournemouth 11th – 13th April 2016
Nick Woolley
Head of Library Services, Northumbria University
4. Outline
Introduction to Northumbria
Organisation and relationship management
Strategy and policy
Decision making for investment
Value and impact
Opportunities and challenges
5. Northumbria University
Since 1894 (Rutherford College of Technology)
Over 30,000 students from over 130 countries
Four faculties across two campuses
Tripled research power in REF2014
In Britain’s best university city – Newcastle upon Tyne
University Library
– Part of a super-converged directorate of student-facing services
– 24/7 and Customer Service Excellence (CSE)
– Joint highest scoring academic library in the UK (THE Student Experience Survey 2016)
– Two library divisions; Learning & Research Services; Collection & Digital Services
– ‘Next generation functional model’ – no subject librarians!
– Single frontline for all directorate – ‘Ask4Help’
6. Collections
550,000 print books
700,000 ebooks
38,000 e journals
Growing collection of primary digital sources
Online reading lists
Unifying on demand content services – DDA, ILL
Member of UKRR
7. Organisational design and relationship
management
2013 refocus moved to a ‘next generation functional’ design
Transitioned from Subject Librarians with broad portfolios to functional leads
Developed a ‘unified relationship model’
Collection Development Librarian – new specialist with focus on:
– Informing policy, e.g. for business rules (reading lists, DDA, approval)
– Collaborative business cases in partnership with Faculty
– Publicising collections
– Join-up but no real focus on budget management, or other collection management
Subject knowledge resides in Faculty?
8. Strategy and policy
Collection strategy and policy part of wider University Library approach to wholly align
with institutional Mission, Vision and Corporate Strategy
The Library Collection exists to support learning, teaching and research
No formal conspectus approach
The Library ‘business model’ - all scholarly content delivered by the Library should be
available free at the point of need and with no limits on reading
Digital First for innovation and scaling delivery
11. Levels of collection development
Collection development is increasingly pluralistic and dynamic
Library ‘mediation’ is still critical
Standardisation, automation, and management by exception
Focus efforts on adding value by higher level activity
– Reading lists and business rules
– Demand driven – ebooks, ILL
– Approval plans
– Comprehensive and robust business cases for all subscriptions and high value content
developed collaboratively in partnership with Faculty
13. Decision making for investment
Strategic investment integrated with University teaching and research
– e.g. programme approval and review
– e.g. student experience action plans
Collaborative in partnership with Faculty
– Business cases and also link with personal copies of textbooks
Customer focus – genuine insight into student learning and experience
– End to end starts with customer not ‘supply chain’ or procurement activity
Actionable intelligence from data
Link to wider support for scholarly communication, including OA and publication fund
15. Decision making for investment
Opportunities and challenges?
– Cooperative and coordinated collection development above campus
– Ecommerce business models – size of container, streaming etc..
– Impact of move to OA, offsetting and end of big deals (?)
– Pressure on budgets and space
– Need to demonstrate value and impact
– Evolution of scholarly communication
– Growing importance of interdisciplinary research
16. Value and impact
Importance of demonstrating value and impact of library, incl. VFM and ROI
Collection development as an activity delivers value beyond the content
Monitoring outcomes of action plans
– e.g. measurable changes to satisfaction for specific programmes
Proxy metrics for learning and research
Opportunities and challenges?
– Correlation between library use, and both student attainment and research excellence
– The research and learning environments
– Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), GPA and Learning Gain
– Learning analytics