scholarly journals Distributed National Collections: Concept and Reality in Two Countries

2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Genoni
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Resource Sharing ◽  
British Library ◽  
Higher Education Funding ◽  
National Library ◽  
Research Libraries ◽  
Similar Scheme ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Specialized Subject

The ‘distributed national collection’ is a scheme whereby the British Library envisages completing agreements with other libraries to facilitate the development of specialized subject-based research collections in order to make the most of total national resources. The implementation in Australia of a similar scheme, the Distributed National Collection (DNC), was proposed during the late 1980s and 1990s, with the National Library (NLA) as a main advocate, and a great deal of enthusiasm was generated. The use of Conspectus was envisaged, and a DNC Office was set up at the NLA. It failed for various reasons: Conspectus proved unusable, the NLA had to cut back its own acquisitions, and financial restraints forced other libraries to look after their own interests. In the UK, the initiative for collaborative collection development has been driven by the British Library and the Higher Education Funding Councils. The UK has some features which give it a better chance of success - for instance, the responsible office should be independent of all the main players, whereas in Australia this responsibility could be carried only by the National Library; the UK has a more established network of research libraries, including a number outside the higher education/national library nexus; and the existence of BLDSC is highly beneficial. However, key challenges lie ahead, notably the complexities of managing the scheme, the time needed to put it into operation, the commitment demanded from participants (notably some sacrifice of local interests required for ‘deep resource sharing’), and obtaining the initial acceptance needed from users.

Conspectus in the United Kingdom

1989 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Matheson
Keyword(s):  
Endangered Species ◽  
British Library ◽  
National Library ◽  
Search System ◽  
Research Libraries ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Us ◽  
Subject Areas ◽  
The Uk

Conspectus started in the US where it is used as a means of distributing responsibilities by consensus within a group of research libraries. The main issues are the identification of Primary Collecting Responsibilities (PCRs) for subject areas and the identification of ‘endangered species.’ In the UK the British Library's programme and the Conspectus in Scotland programme have been completed and the National Library of Wales hopes to complete its own programme in 1989. Elsewhere in the UK the reaction to Conspectus has been generally cool. The British Library has created an online Conspectus search system which allows UK Conspectus information to be interrogated via a wide range of access points. Conspectus information may also have potential for identifying priorities for collaborative programmes for preservation and retrospective conversion. The Scottish group is now hoping to examine this area in some detail.

Cooperation and Partnership in the National Library Context: With Special Reference to the British Library

2001 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stella Pilling
Keyword(s):  
Financial Support ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Public Library ◽  
British Library ◽  
National Library ◽  
The World ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Uk ◽  
National Libraries ◽  
National Systems

In 1999 the British Library (BL) set up a Co-operation and Partnership Programme, with the remit to align the library's approach more closely with the strategies being developed by related organizations, both nationally and internationally. Early on, after examining and analysing examples of cooperative activities in the field of libraries and information services it was concluded that the importance of interlending as the main driving force of cooperation was declining with the growth of national systems and networking, while interoperability between different automated systems, to maximize the range of cooperative services, emerged as the next logical step for libraries in all sectors. One of the first objectives of the programme was to set up a website, named Concord, designed to help libraries, museums and archives to develop new cooperative projects. Later in 1999 a Call for Proposals was issued for projects seeking financial support from the newly created Co-operation and Partnership Fund, for which a sum of £500,000 had been earmarked. Within the UK, many cooperative initiatives involve the BL, along with the other legal deposit libraries, in the academic and public library sectors, and internationally within and between other national libraries, notably on digitization projects. There are now several bodies that bring together national libraries in different regions of the world, and indeed worldwide.

scholarly journals The Necessity of Clinical Legal Education in University Law Schools: A UK Perspective

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 29 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Marson ◽  
Adam Wilson ◽  
Mark Van Hoorebeek
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Higher Education Funding ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
Legal Studies ◽  
Academic Benefits ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The University

This paper proposes that the expansion and subsequent unbridling of the provision of a law clinic in the sector will provide the students with the skills necessary of graduates in the increasingly corporate, commercially motivated, UK university sector. Secondly, it provides a basis for the rationale of a movement in funding bands, a study which is being undertaken by the Higher Education Funding Council for England over the proceeding three years, in consequence to the increasing costs involved to the institutions. This increase in funding, coupled with a determination from the institution and case study evidence as presented in this paper, will hopefully propel clinical legal education to the forefront of undergraduate legal studies in the UK. Clinical legal education is a method of improving the student experience and offers various advantages if integrated fully into the university administrative set up. Such views have been given rigorous academic coverage, however this paper further analyses the academic benefits passed on to the student populace, in relation to the potential advantages to UK universities.

Use of a National Library: A Survey of Readers in the Humanities and Social Sciences Reading Rooms of the British Library

1992 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Cranfield ◽  
Joe Hellowell
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Seasonal Variations ◽  
Questionnaire Survey ◽  
Survey Methods ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
British Library ◽  
National Library ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Uk ◽  
National Libraries

A questionnaire survey was carried out in the humanities reading rooms of the British Library one day each month from September 1990 to August 1991 with the aim of providing information of help in planning services, particularly at the new building in St Pancras. Readers were asked about their occupations, nationalities, the location of the academic institutions to which they were affiliated, the reasons for and frequency of their visits etc. 65% of readers were academic staff or students, and 33% lived outside the UK; 31% said they had visited the library over 50 times in the past year. The results were compared, where appropriate, with earlier surveys in 1968 and 1977. These comparisons highlighted significant seasonal variations in patterns of usage. It was not possible to compare the results with those from surveys by other national libraries, because of widely differing survey methods and content of reports.

scholarly journals A STILE Project case study: the evaluation of a computer-based visual key for fossil identification

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Underwood ◽  
Arne Dahlberg ◽  
Simon FitzPatrick ◽  
Malcolm Greenwood
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Learning Technology ◽  
Higher Education Funding ◽  
Resource Base ◽  
Student Access ◽  
Computer Based ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Uk

The STILE Project (Students' and Teachers' Integrated Learning Environment) is one of 76 projects set up under the UK Government's Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP) initiative sponsored by the British Higher Education Funding Councils (HEFCs). The STILE Project uses hypermedia to provide greater opportunities for independent and flexible modes of learning both in a campus situation and for distance learning. The approach is resource-based. STILE provides a mechanism for both tutors and learners to discover and access relevant resources when they need them, together with facilities that enable users readily to use and re-use existing materials, to integrate them together, and to add further materials of their own in a way that seems natural to them (see Ruggles et al, 1995). The result is not a closed and finished product,but a set of tools and services and a continually developing resource base. The effect is to ease the load on academic staff in maintaining and supporting student access to resources, and to enrich the set of resources available to both staff and students.DOI:10.1080/0968776960040205

Who sets the agenda on student engagement?

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily McIntosh ◽  
Duncan Cross
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Student Experience ◽  
Education Funding ◽  
Higher Education Funding ◽  
Opinion Piece ◽  
Setting Approach ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Uk Higher Education

 The rise in UK university fees has prompted significant investment in the student experience, with increased emphasis on an agenda that promotes student engagement and partnership. Government papers, both white and green, have set out a policymaking agenda and have led to a reorganisation of the UK higher education funding structures, with the dissolution of long-standing funding bodies into the Office for Students. This enshrines chapter B6 of the QAA UK quality code for higher education with regard to student engagement and would appear to be a positive move forward. However, the Office for Students has limited student representation and this raises the question: ‘Who sets this agenda and who are the stakeholders?’ This opinion piece seeks both to highlight the necessity for a joint agenda-setting approach and to engage the community in developing a joint agenda on student engagement and partnership.

scholarly journals Crowdfunding in higher education: evidence from UK Universities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugo Horta ◽  
Michele Meoli ◽  
Silvio Vismara
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Higher Education Funding ◽  
Economic Sectors ◽  
Student Body ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Academic Settings ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Student Ratios

AbstractIn contemporary higher education systems, funding is increasingly associated with performativity, assessment, and competition, and universities are seeking different forms of financing their activities. One of these new forms is crowdfunding, a tool enabled by the digitalization of finance. Based on data from the UK higher education system and two crowdfunding platforms, our study adds to previous crowdfunding research in academic settings that have, thus far, focused on research projects, and assesses who is participating, their level of engagement and the resources they have gathered from crowdfunding. Our findings show that crowdfunding is used more by universities that have fewer resources. These universities are more teaching-oriented, less prestigious, and have a student body largely derived from lower socio-economic sectors of society. The popularity of crowdfunding in this type of university suggests that crowdfunding may enhance the democratization of higher education funding. However, as optimal crowdfunding participation and engagement requires high academic-to-student ratios and total-staff-to-academic-staff ratios, universities facing a greater financial precarity may be disadvantaged in their access to and engagement with crowdfunding. Differentials between part-time and full-time student ratios may exacerbate this disadvantage. Our study suggests that crowdfunding is a viable means of obtaining additional financing for learning activities complementing the fundings from other sources, but raises concerns about the use of crowdfunding as a burden to academics and students to find resources to meet learning experiences that ought to be provided by universities in the first place.

Ideals and ideas

2002 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 195-195
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Architectural Education ◽  
Research Assessment ◽  
Education Funding ◽  
Higher Education Funding ◽  
Research Assessment Exercise ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Uk Higher Education

Most architectural education takes place within a university context. There are very considerable advantages to such an arrangement but, for a discipline as broadly based and practically orientated as architecture, there can also be occasional problems if aspects are inappropriately managed. Anyone who doubts this should read Philip Steadman and Bill Hillier's review of the Built Environment category of the UK Higher Education Funding Council's (HEFCE) 2001 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) (pp. 203–207).

SCURL's Collaboration in Scotland on Content: The Collaborative Academic Store for Scotland

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 33-39
Author(s):  
Jill Evans
Keyword(s):  
Resource Sharing ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Shared Services ◽  
Test Bed ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
National Library ◽  
Research Libraries ◽  
Widening Access ◽  
Open The Doors ◽  
The Doors

The Collaborative Academic Store for Scotland (CASS) was a pilot project from 2004 to 2009 and was supported by the Scottish Confederation of University and Research Libraries (SCURL). This paper investigates the environment, the demand for the model of resource sharing, and the conclusions which emerged after a funded bid for a six-month study. The drivers were space constraints attributed to continuing growth of collections of print content, library refurbishments, and a new library build. The partners wished to investigate if they could operate in this environment with the practical challenges involved, so it was considered a test bed for future collaboration on storage and looking ahead to collaborative retention and disposal policies. Further contributing factors were the Scottish Government's agenda of shared services and widening access to collections to support a knowledgeable, smarter Scotland. The National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh provided accommodation in which to store the print content. The challenges and the opportunities which emerged from CASS are examined and although the project was finalized in 2009 there is evidence arising of the desire to re-open the doors to collaborative accommodation.

Assessing the Awareness of Risk Concepts by New Engineering Students

2007 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 184-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Schleyer ◽  
Rui Fang Duan ◽  
Julian Williamson ◽  
Nicola Stacey
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Professional Lives ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Key Stakeholders ◽  
Risk Education ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Academic Year

There is an indication that across higher-education engineering courses in the UK, the extent and content of risk education varies, and is not always commensurate with the level of risk that undergraduates could be responsible for in their subsequent professional lives. Consequently, a project was set up to incorporate risk education into the curriculum of an undergraduate engineering course in a UK university for the 2005/06 academic year. A set of learning outcomes was developed from a template of topic areas in consultation with key stakeholders. These learning outcomes formed the basis of a questionnaire that was designed to assess students' awareness of risk issues. This paper describes the development of the questionnaire, the interpretation of the results, and how the questionnaire will be used to help achieve the desired learning outcomes.

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