News briefs

The distance learning institution Open University and the University of the West of England have joined the OCLC 24/7 Reference Cooperative, available through QuestionPoint.  Libraries that join the Cooperative are able to provide reference services around the clock from the library’s web page therefore students can get help when they need it, regardless of the time of day.  

Differing from previous systems, QuestionPoint works in real time, meaning that students can still acquire reference during out of office hours and holidays.  Librarians in 400 academic libraries across the UK and USA provide the information, giving students and staff full flexibility with immediate responses.
 
University of the West of England is one of the first universities in the UK to use the 24/7 reference co-operation element of QuestionPoint, with the hope of expanding the support that the university can offer.   In the institutions recent survey (LibQual survey) students revealed that they wanted to have the ability to gain information whenever and wherever they were located. 

Services Development Librarian Amanda Conway said, “We are collaborating with library staff in US academic libraries, and building on the current library e-mail enquiry system available to UWE students, staff and external users, to provide an enhanced experience.”

As part of the features provided, UWE and the Open University have full access to entire transcripts of chat sessions.  The transcripts can be reviewed for quality purposes, as well as providing a reference point for other librarians to give additional information to students that may not have been included by the online librarian during the chat session. 

The Open University reported that since QuestionPoint has been in use the feedback has been positive and comments from students have been complimentary of the librarians offering reference information.   With no physical space, the Open University relies entirely on the success of its electronic resources to ensure students are satisfied by the distance learning support, which the reference co-operation now further compliments. 

Cornwall Libraries have found an innovative way of using up-to-date Enquire technology to help their training productivity.  Mark Thackeray, Officer at the Enquiry and Information Service, Truro, announced at the recent Enquire Advisory that chat software had been used for staff training in several of Cornwall’s libraries.

A major factor behind this development is the cost of conventional training methods, and the distance between many of Cornwall’s libraries is considerable.  Based on early estimated figures, the cost of providing training to libraries throughout Cornwall using the new method would make savings of about 60 per cent over conventional face-to-face methods.   This figure also represents a 70 per cent return on investment against the current Enquire subscription, just on training savings alone.
 
The substantial saving highlights the fact that if used regularly this method of training will benefit Cornwall Libraries’ outgoings.  Mark Thackeray said: “The programme is very much still in its infancy and will need further development to make sure everything runs smoothly, but we are all excited about its future prospects”.

The training is initiated by a phone call, but is then completely dependent on chat technology, delivering a fifteen-minute introductory session on how to use a particular subscription website.  Members of staff in Cornwall have written the training scripts.  At the end of each session trainees receive a full printed version of the transcript.  Trainees can also offer feedback after the session is complete.  This factor will be vital in making improvements to the service.

Cornwall’s Enquiry and Information Service is not customer-facing, and was one of the first to utilize the local chat service Qwidget to provide another way for their users to contact them and to take full advantage of the functionality of the software.

The use of Enquire for staff training in Cornwall is yet to reach its maximum, but what has been done so far highlights the flexibility and versatility of chat software.  It is hoped that in the near future even more staff will be introduced to this method of training.

The University of Wales Trinity Saint David is the latest UK institution to go live with WorldCat Local - OCLC’s resource discovery service.
The university came into existence last year through the amalgamation of the two oldest higher education institutions in Wales; the University of Wales Lampeter (UWL) and Trinity University College (TUC).

Trinity Saint David’s decision to implement WorldCat Local was driven by the merger of the two institutions. Both UWL and TUC had their own incumbent LMS’s. A new OPAC solution was needed that would easily integrate with both systems and present the 4,500 students using the system with a single search discovery experience.
 
“WorldCat Local is very intuitive - it enables our users to effortlessly search multiple catalogues simultaneously, plus other systems and our e-resources”, explains Sally Wilkinson, Head of Learning Resources, University of Wales Trinity Saint David. “OCLC’s solution also provided us with the ability to offer our users a Welsh language interface – something very important to us. But in the end, we chose WorldCat Local because it had the best combination of functionality, price, integration and support option,” concludes Sally.
 
While it is still early days for the implementation, the expectation is that WorldCat Local will help drive up levels of student satisfaction at the university for those using the library.