simply does it

Simply does itKatherine Rose, Information Systems Librarian, Regent’s University London

UK Summon and Information Skills Day, November 10th 2015

Regent’s University London is…

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• An independent university• A charity• A not-for-profit higher education formed of

seven schools• A multisite Library service

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“Developing tomorrow’s global leaders”

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• Higher education on the site since 1908 through Bedford College

• Regent’s College grew out of different educational institutions 1984 – 2009

• Became a University and acquired AIU London in April 2013

Interesting times…

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RULDiscovery is…

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• EBSCO Discovery Service• Purchased: summer of 2012• Implementation: August – October 2013• Heavily locally branded• Integrated into Blackboard, Library Catalogue,

external and internal websites

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Highlights• RULDiscovery Day – November 6th 2014• Record session and search stats October 2015• Compulsory research skills module for all

undergraduate business students with an assessment based around RULDiscovery

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Oct-13

Nov-13

Dec-13

Jan-14

Feb-14

Mar-14

Apr-14

May-14

Jun-14Jul-1

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Aug-14

Sep-14

Oct-14

Nov-14

Dec-14

Jan-15

Feb-15

Mar-15

Apr-15

May-15

Jun-15Jul-1

5

Aug-15

Sep-15

Oct-15

0

200000

400000

600000

800000

1000000

1200000

1400000

1600000

1800000

RULDiscovery searches

searches

“Now we have a discovery tool, do we need to teach Information Literacy?”

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YES, now so more than ever

Image credit: Ian Joughin, University of Washingtonhttp://www.washington.edu/news/2012/11/29/international-study-provides-more-solid-measure-of-shrinking-in-polar-ice-sheets/

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The growing divide…

Students’ information seeking behaviour and expectations are changing constantly

BUT

The basic skills and concepts they need for their studies are not

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- natural language- no definition between sources

- Encourages definitions, not discovery

- Keywords- importance of source types

- What makes a journal ‘academic’

Library teaching at Regent’s University London

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Teaching pre-Discovery • Powerpoints• Screenshots • Inductions as primary contact• Information force-feeding• No central point of information

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September/October 2011

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January 2013

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Teaching post-Discovery• Flexible• Targeted • Interactive• Easy and recognisable central point of

information

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Games

Basic understanding of different sources- card exercise -

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Games

Thinking around your topic

Generating keywords around a picture- part of postgraduate inductions-

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Stealth information literacy

Embedding basic information literacy ideas into RULDiscovery:- Finding and recognising different sources- The concept of peer-review- Keywords and subjects

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Thinking about sources

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Thinking about keywords

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2012 - 2013

2013 - 2014

2014 - 2015

September - October 2015

0.010.0

20.030.0

40.050.0

60.070.0

80.090.0

Inductions and info lit sessions

hours of info lit sessionshours of inductions

Conclusions

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Discovery services are both part of the problem and part of the solution

• They make it easier to teach information literacy

• But they do nothing to diminish the need for information literacy

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- students’ information seeking behaviour

- expectations- Generation

Google

- Keywords - Databases- Journals- Peer-review- Discovery services

Information literacy teaching = the bridge

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Thanks for listening

Any questions?

Katherine RoseKatherine.rose@regents.ac.uk