Chrissie's Muses

In 2007/8 the RSCs were given funding for an Information Officers post whose role, for half of their time, is to seek and assist with authoring FE case studies for inclusion on the QIA Excellence Gateway.  This work has resulted in a wealth of information being made available.  Some of the library related case studies are below.

Loughborough College and West Nottinghamshire College: The search for single sign-on to electronic resources
Published: 2 April 2009

Following the withdrawal of JISC funding for ATHENS, the access and identity management system in July 2008, many FE colleges have been investigating alternative ways of accessing online resources. In this case study Loughborough College and West Nottinghamshire College have both successfully implemented Federated Access Management using Shibboleth technology to enable students to access various electronic resources by merely signing into their respective College networks.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=194242

Tresham Institute: Integrating two library collections
Published: 27 October 2008

Tresham Institute is a further and higher education college with campuses in Corby, Kettering and Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, and The Rutland College in Oakham, with nearly 3,000 full-time and 13,000 part-time students. The College is in the process of a major redevelopment project, the first stage of which is a brand new £20 million campus in Kettering that opened to students in September 2007 and combines the provision that was previously offered at two sites in the town.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/Programmes/page.aspx?o=166924

Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College: Library system opens up new horizons
Published: 13 May 2009

Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College uses its new library system in an innovative way, which has benefited the College tremendously. From managing the library’s catalogue to assigning student locker keys, the new system has had a huge impact on the management of resources and improvement of student access to information.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=201973

Weymouth’s Learning Gateway improves behaviour
Published: 23 July 2008

Weymouth College set-up a “Learning Gateway” as part of a move towards creating a “learning” rather than a teaching environment. It involved setting up 180 workstations through which learners could access Moodle, both in timetabled sessions and on an open-access basis. The project has been so successful that, three years on, the College is looking at ways of developing it and putting it at the heart of a new build scheme.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/article.aspx?o=162093

Stafford College: LRC uses self-assessment toolkit
Published: 16 March 2009

Stafford College undertook a free self-assessment of its learning resource centre using a toolkit developed by the Council for Learning Resources in Colleges (Colric) and the FE and HE group of Cilip (CoFHE). The tool provided a way of evaluating quality of service and served as a useful benchmarking exercise.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/Programmes/page.aspx?o=192897

Harrogate College: RFID in the library
Published: 13 March 2009

RFID (radio frequency identification) systems are typically used in higher education libraries. This case study is an example of how RFID can work in a further education environment. RFID has many organisational advantages over using only a library management system, which can free staff time for a more personal library service.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=192902

Priestley College: How do you successfully develop your new learning space? Ask your students, of course!
Published: 13 March 2009

When Priestley College began to plan the redevelopment of its learning resource centre, it continued the culture of student involvement that exists within the College by asking students to help plan and create the new development. This case study describes how the JISC infoKit on ‘Planning and Designing Technology-Rich Learning Spaces’ was used as the starting point for ideas and planning, and how the finished development was the recognisable result of students’ ideas and plans.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=192957

Blackpool and The Fylde College: Rethinking spaces, rethinking staffing – new staff structure and roles for a technology-rich learning resource centre
Published: 13 November 2008

This case study focuses on how the staffing structure and roles have been redefined to meet the needs and challenges of ‘The Loop’, a new technology-rich library and learning resource centre at Blackpool and The Fylde College.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/Programmes/page.aspx?o=168007

Northampton College: Embedding information skills into the curriculum
Published: 26 January 2009

Northampton College has offered structured Information Skills programme in selected courses of study that have seen the skill levels rise of those learners. For example, one review concluded that grades had risen by 5% on a module that relied solely on assessment by essay.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=170609

Peterborough Regional College: Making information retrieval sessions “wicked”
Published: 29 June 2009

‘Library+’ staff at Peterborough Regional College have developed an innovative approach to help students get to grips with using the Dewey Decimal system. Inspired by staff development training using interactive whiteboards, they have designed an activity-based interactive pairs game which is fun, engaging and effective in helping students search for course-relevant resources in the library.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=228547

Lambeth College: Subject Finder – supporting student research online
Published: 11 March 2009

Subject Finder was an original idea of Teum Teklehaimanot, a member of Lambeth’s Learning Resources team, when he was himself a student and considering options for a web design course project. The subsequent development of Subject Finder as an education-based web directory and search engine has also been driven by his personal interest and commitment to providing a student-friendly Internet search tool. It is now becoming an embedded tool within the College’s virtual learning environment to support Lambeth’s students across a variety of disciplines.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=191739

Henley College Coventry: IT Project Area focuses on learners’ needs
Published: 6 July 2009

The IT Project Area (ITPA) is part of a converged learning resources centre (LRC) service offering study support and audio and visual services. The ITPA reflects the learners’ needs and is very curriculum-focused with services, including one-to-one IT support sessions and a comprehensive LRC induction programme.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=229339