University academics’ perceptions of reading list labels

Purpose: The purpose of the article is to reflect on the results of a continuing professional development sessions delivered to academics on the importance of a properly annotated reading list to the student experience. Approach: As part of the session the academics were asked to take part in a ‘pop quiz’ providing their interpretation of commonly used reading list labels. Findings: There was quite a broad interpretation of the labels, with several eliciting strongly positive or negative reactions. The similarity of meanings between some reading list labels made them redundant for helping students to prioritise their reading. Value: This case study could be used to provide sessions on reading lists at other institutions and the results from the quiz can be used to simplify reading list labels

HELP! An AL's survival guide to developing online tutorials without time or skill

As an Academic Librarian in a growing university, I am supporting more and more students who are studying at a distance, whether they are on distance learning programmes or because they are on placement. However, in a bustling and busy university Academic Librarians do not always have the time to devote themselves to developing impressive technological online information skills tutorials. As part of my Post Graduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher education, I chose to challenge myself to develop online support for my students. My action research project looked at developing tutorials in a timely manner that responded to student needs. These tutorials were reviewed by students and staff and the feedback was used to create and build more tutorials. I had to provide online tutorials that were comparable to the face-to-face sessions I offered on campus. I tried videos, guides and lecture capture, to name but a few, in an attempt to meet students at their point of need. This session will present the results of my action research project and generate discussion on how to make the best of it when you may not have the time or skills. Therefore this presentation will offer ideas on how to future-proof yourself as an IL practitioner and how to keep up with online developments. The session will generate discussion around the development of online information skills tutorials, looking at solutions for those with little time and technical skill. Ideas will be exchanged and examples demonstrated to help Librarians to develop the online IL tutorials and support to help students both at home and abroad

two Kinds Of Geography : Complicity And Resistance In Canadian Pioneer Literature

The purpose of this thesis is to consider the Canadian wilderness as an actual and a mythological site for discursive change. Part One analyses five pioneer journal/handbooks, and Part Two examines four contemporary texts which focus on the pioneer experience.;Chapters One to Three explore the extent to which the disruption of their political and social assumptions caused the female pioneers to explore alternative constructions of gender. These chapters illustrate that the women do indeed see the potential in the wilderness for redefining themselves, for shifting away from the restrictive nineteenth-century construction of women. This shift comes in part from their active relationship with the landscape, and in part through their representation of the indigenous women, a representation which is at once feminist and imperialist. They image the indigenous women as being far more masculine than themselves; the language with which they describe these women reveals both their admiration for them and a characteristic nineteenth-century dismissal of them as an inferior race.;Chapters Four and Five argue that, given their culturally central position, the male writers do not show the same desire for a change of identity as the women do. Their primary concern is civilizing the wilderness, and they represent themselves as being central to that civilizing process.;Part Two examines four contemporary texts which focus on the nineteenth-century pioneer experience. All four of these texts foreground the constructedness of our received historical narratives and offer alternative narratives. The women writers see an important link between the lives of pioneer women and the continuing marginalization of contemporary women. They are attracted to the potential for transformation offered by the wilderness, but emphasize that that potential has been unrealized. All of the authors propose a more fragmented, less linear conception of history and identity than does traditional Western culture.;The thesis concludes that the women writers in both centuries are attracted to the liberating potential of the wilderness. It also concludes that the tension between feminist and imperialist impulses exists, to some extent, in the contemporary texts as well as in the early ones

Reading List (R)evolution - exploring the value of reading lists as a pedagogical tool to support students' development of information skills

Reading lists are a ubiquitous part of U.K. Higher Education and tutors are expected to provide them as guidance on every course. Currently reading lists are used primarily for collection development purposes. We feel it is time to explore their additional role as a tool to support students’ information skills development. Opportunities are arising for librarians and academics to work together to develop reading lists as a pedagogical tool. Studies have highlighted the value of annotated reading lists for signposting students to different sources of information in terms of format, level and style of writing. This can help to support or ‘scaffold’ students’ development of key information skills, notably the ability to access, retrieve and use information appropriately and effectively. This session will present findings from practitioner research exploring students’ perceptions of reading lists as part of their learning experience. Examples of reading lists will be used as discussion points to encourage participants’ reflection on the student experience. The session will facilitate the sharing and generation of ideas on how we can promote more active engagement with reading lists by all stakeholders (academics, students, librarians). It will also reflect on how the research has been used to implement the reading list software, Talis Aspire, a more dynamic tool for managing these lists. The research is designed to encourage the (r)evolution of reading lists so that they are used as a valuable pedagogical tool to support students’ information skills development and enhance their learning at university

Survival: how to do your existing job and more ... with fewer people

We are all facing demands to do more with less. Following a restructure in December 2012, academic librarians at the University of Northampton were down four team members, the role of the team remained the same, but student numbers and distance learners were growing. This is the story of how we created the Skills Hub, a repository of skills based OERs, without money and with fewer staff. In September 2013, Library and Learning Services (LLS) launched the Skills Hub (http://skillshub.northampton.ac.uk), a repository of open educational resources (OERs) for use by schools, students, researchers and the community. Since its launch the content has had more than 14,000 views per month and has had visitors from 88 countries. Around 70 of the OERs have been created in-house by LLS staff and many take the form of bite-sized videos. To date, the total funding that the Skills Hub has received has been £422. In addition, there are no dedicated staff working on the Skills Hub. Development work has been undertaken by integrating the production of open educational resources into existing staff workloads. Since January 2013, the Academic Librarians and the Academic Practice Tutors have been actively and enthusiastically engaged in both the technical and content aspects of OER creation. Training has been by means of peer-to-peer support and by setting aside time for rapid development days. Openness is one of the strategic priorities at Northampton and the Skills Hub is built around this principle. All of its content is created or sourced under a Creative Commons licence and users are encouraged to take and use elements as they choose. It is delivered via a flexible, engaging and exciting interface that uses visual cues and graphical and media consistency to help orientate the user. Content is applicable not only to students at Northampton but also to schools and the public as part of our commitment to community engagement. There are no passwords, content is regularly reviewed and updated and feedback from users is an integral part of each resource. This paper will present the development of the Skills Hub with an honest account of the process we went through, the challenges we faced and the content created. We will share how we reviewed the content and focussed the development through the use of learning analytics and student evaluators. We will also discuss how we got buy-in from across the university, both from within and without of the department, particularly looking at the project development and at critical political and strategic points in the project timeline. Finally, we will discuss how we carefully positioned the project within the arena of learning and teaching and alongside the University’s open access agenda, as a means of protecting the project and enabling its survival. The Skills Hub offers hope to colleagues who might fear that the development of open educational resources is beyond them as well as materials that they can customize and integrate into their own teaching and learning activities

Project Report: The development and use of online information literacy activities to engage first year health students during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The article discusses the development of online tutorials to support the Academic Librarians’ information literacy instruction during the first lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic. The content and development of the activities are presented in relation to information literacy (IL) standards. At the University of Northampton, the first-year students each receive two IL sessions from an Academic Librarian that support their information skills development. The first session focuses on identifying an information need and how to search for relevant information. The second session supports students to understand the referencing process and how to use information ethically. The IL sessions are based on the principles of Active Blended Learning and focus on providing interactive and engaging workshops for students. The activities were designed to support the students on health programmes who began their studies in April 2020 and the students who were receiving their final IL session. The reflections on the IL sessions highlight lessons learnt during the online delivery

Reading list (R)evolution – exploring the value of reading lists as a pedagogical tool to support students' development of information skills

Reading list (R)evolution – exploring the value of reading lists as a pedagogical tool to support students’ development of information skills. Reading lists are a ubiquitous part of U.K. Higher Education (H.E.); every course has one, tutors are required to provide them, students expect to have them. There are clear expectations that reading lists exist in H.E., but beyond that, it is not exactly clear what their value is and how are they really being used. Existing literature is primarily concerned with the content and structure of reading lists, rather than their role in supporting students’ learning (Thomson et al., 2003; Stokes and Martin, 2008). Some studies have highlighted the value of annotated reading lists for signposting students to different sources of information in terms of format, level and style of writing (Smith, 2008; Chelin et al., 2005; Maher and Mitchell, 2010). This can help to support or ‘scaffold’ students’ development of key information skills (Lumsden et al., 2010), notably the ability to access, retrieve and use information appropriately and effectively. The use of reading lists as a tool for supporting information skills development requires an active approach to the design and management of reading lists (Miller, 1999; Stokes and Martin, 2008). It is time to put reading lists under the spotlight (Martin and Stokes, 2006) and to recognise that reading lists are a core part of students’ learning experience. We need to explore how students use and view reading lists, and design them accordingly, so that we can create relevant and valuable reading lists. This seminar presents interim practitioner research designed to explore the potential of enhanced reading lists to support students’ information skills development. In summer 2011 the presenters were awarded the Library and Information Research Group (LIRG) Research Award to fund their action research into reading lists. The first stage of the project involved a reading list analysis, based on a checklist of criteria informed by key themes emerging from the literature. The themes were then used to plan semi-structured interviews with academic staff and focus groups with students to explore their expectations and experiences of reading lists. This research has been supported by the work of a university funded student research assistant, who gained research experience and a bursary. The student researcher added another perspective to the project and was involved in conducting the focus groups to encourage students to share openly amongst their peers. This research seminar will report our findings so far and consider the impact of reading lists on the student experience. The seminar will engage participants in discussions around the value and relevance of reading lists for supporting students’ learning and skills development, including views of the use and expectation of reading lists. Examples of reading lists will be used as discussion points and to encourage participants to reflect on the students’ experience of reading lists. The seminar will facilitate the sharing and generation of ideas on how we can promote more active engagement with reading lists by all stakeholders (academics, students, librarians). Our research is designed to encourage the (r)evolution of reading lists so that they are used as a valuable pedagogical tool to support students’ information skills development and enhance their learning at universit