Strategic management and development of UK university library websites

This research assessed website management and development practices across the United Kingdom university library sector. As a starting point, the design and features of this group of websites was recorded against criteria drawn from the extant literature. This activity established core content and features of UK library websites as: a search box or link for searching the library catalogue, electronic resources or website; a navigation column on the left and breadcrumb trail to aid information location and website orientation; homepage design was repeated on library website sub-pages; university brand elements appeared in the banner; and a contact us link was provided for communication with library personnel. Library websites conformed to 14 of the 20 homepage usability guidelines examined indicating that web managers were taking steps to ensure that users were well served by their websites. Areas for improvement included better navigation support (sitemap/index), greater adoption of new technologies and more interactive features. Website management and development practices were established through national survey and in-depth case studies. These illustrated the adoption of a team approach to website management and development; formal website policy and strategy were not routinely created; library web personnel and their ability to build effective links with colleagues at the institution made a valuable contribution to the success of a library website; corporate services and institutional practices played an important part in library website development; library staff were actively engaged in consultations with their website audience; and a user focused approach to website development prevailed. User studies and metric data were considered in the website evaluation and development process. However, there were some issues with both data streams and interpreting metric data to inform website development. Evaluation and development activities were not always possible due to staff/time shortages, technical constraints, corporate website templates, and, to a lesser extent, lack of finance

Digital lifecycles and file types: final report

The Rights and Rewards in Blended Institutional Repositories Project is funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) under the Digital Repositories Programme. This represents a cooperative venture between the Department of Information Science (DIS), the Engineering Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (engCETL) and the University Library. The two year project aims to establish a single Blended repository to meet the teaching and research needs of this institution. It will address the motivational issues facing depositors of teaching materials with a focus on the associated Rights and Rewards. This digital lifecycles study will identify the most appropriate materials for submission to the project’s demonstrator repository. This takes into account factors like: granularity, persistence and multimedia types that can be supported for both teaching and research materials. It also documents the existing lifecycles of these items and the tools and specifications needed within a repository frameworks to support these lifecycles. For example, it will identify appropriate granularity of teaching resources and appropriate methods for content packaging. The results of the study will help to identify which types of files are currently in use, which formats should be supported by the repository system ultimately selected for the demonstrator repository. This information is likely to be of benefit to other projects and institutions in the process of setting up an Institutional Repository (IR)

Proposed rights solution: final report

This study aims to investigate and deliver a suitable rights solution for a teaching materials repository. It aims to provide depositors and users with appropriate licences to cater for their respective needs. We examined licences currently being used by repositories containing research and teaching material and compared these to responses to our survey, which explored rights issues associated with the sharing of teaching materials in a repository

Copyright ownership of teaching materials

In 1998, JISC commissioned a Senior Management Briefing Paper on Copyright (JISC, 1998, p.4), which recommended that “all members of HEIs [Higher Education Institutions], whether staff or students should be educated about the basics of copyright and what is acceptable practice”. A later study, also in relation to copyright in HEIs, stated that “there would seem to be a considerable gap between the legal position and what academic staff believe are their rights” (Weedon, 2000, p.16). Although this is not a recent study, the difference between the actual situation and the perceived situation amongst academics in terms of the ownership of their teaching materials is still unclear. Project RoMEO (2003), which focused on author attitudes associated with research outputs, surveyed participants and investigated who owned the copyright of journal papers that these authors had produced. Under one third (32%) of participants did not know this, which is concerning. It is no surprise then that Cornish (2004, p.12) believes the “ownership of copyright is complex”

Metadata is a Love Note to the Future: UK Higher Education Research Data Management Survey

This is a survey of UK Higher Education institutions' plans for Research Data Management (RDM) and existing policies and services as of October 2013.  The survey was carried out by Loughborough University as part of its Research Data Management project.  For further information please contact Martin Hamilton or Sue Manuel

Rights and Rewards Project: Academic Survey - final report

As part of the JISC funded Rights and Rewards in Blended Institutional Repositories project, a motivational survey was undertaken. A questionnaire addressed to all academic staff in UK Further Education (FE) institutions and to specialists in the field of Teaching and Learning (T&L) was available online. The aim of the questionnaire was to gather views on the use of an institutional repository (IR) for the deposit of teaching and learning materials. Two of the main areas of interest were: • What ‘Rights’ would individuals expect to exert over the teaching materials they deposit into a repository? • What ‘Rewards’ would motivate them to deposit their teaching materials? This report outlines the activities undertaken in the preparation of the questionnaire, including brief notes on the pilot studies. It also details efforts to advertise the survey and provides a analysis of the responses