Xgrain User Requirements work: summary of the discussion

Moira Massey had contacted the L&T Associates prior to the meeting to ask them to undertake some enquiries around their institutions before coming to the meeting. These enquiries were given as follows:

1. Please could you ask around your institution to try to get some idea of whether or not A&I services are used by academic staff in L&T.
2. If you find some who are using them, could you get an idea of what they do, what learning objectives they address and how they use them? Can they give us any ideas for our materials and what they would use if we supplied them?
3. If other staff not currently using them would be interested in using A&I databases in L&T, could you please ask them what learning objectives they would like our materials to address?
4. Could you also ask them what kinds of online materials they would like to see?
5. Finally, could you find out whether any of them is interested in authoring materials under commission from the Xgrain project?

Feedback from the L&T Associates at the meeting was as follows:

• The questions were not worded correctly for ease of transfer by email to other staff in the institution, which was the preferred method of contacting other staff. Some academic staff did not understand what A&I databases were.
• Teaching staff on the whole were not using A&I databases in teaching, although some recommended them to students.
• A&I databases were mainly used in research.
• Academic staff get involved in subject-specific data e.g. geo-data, statistics. Bibliographic services are seen as too simple for them to need to tell their students how to use them.
• On the whole, library staff are those in charge of teaching search skills and use of A&I databases.
• Some library staff offer workshops to academics, but they are poorly attended.
• However, in Medicine in one research-led institution represented, information skills training is part of the curriculum and there are formal aims and objectives, aiming at teaching "research skills".
• The wish-list from most end users would be for full text and images, seamless, cross-database searching, identical interfaces, search strategies and passwords in common.
• It was reported from the MALIBU project that Arts and Humanities staff did not understand the concept of cross-searching until the project team had something to show them, at which point this started a lot of useful discussion.
• In Architecture in one institution, which is a research unit and largely science-based, it was reported that there is an appreciation of the need for information skills training and that anything developed in Xgrain will be of interest to this community.
• In the same institution, there is evidence of academic staff using databases for research work in Humanities. They turn to the library staff for information skills training for their students.
• It was suggested that Xgrain should give thought to trying to cross-search with databases outside the JISC scope, as well as within. For example, in Architecture, the main A&I databases used by students are:
• • RIBA
  • Technical Indexes/BSI/Health & Safety - standalone, online, full-text databases
• The LTSN Information and Computer Science representative had sent out the questionnaire to staff on their mailing lists. Even staff in this area had trouble with it, but only one respondent said that they don't use A&I databases at all.
• Not many staff know what happens after they tell students to go to the library and use online databases.
• Computing science staff (rather than information science staff, interestingly) view A&I databases as key information retrieval tools.
• It was important that students saw A&I databases only as one part of the information landscape - a great deal of other information is available for them as well.

There was a short discussion about the Key Skills Initiative and the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL). It is variable as to how much this is under way in institutions. Some institutions are offering ECDL to staff, but there is a reluctance to offer it to students, in large part because it is expensive. However, one view expressed was that ECDL, if it were implemented, would largely cut out dependence on libraries for IT skills.

The participants also discussed in which undergraduate year(s) information skills training should be offered. It has been found that many are introduced to this in first year but don't actually use the skills until third year. By this time many have forgotten and need refresher courses. However, if an introduction is not offered before third year, students are upset if they have not been told earlier than this that such databases exist.

MM had checked some JISC-sponsored reports for user requirements relating to A&I databases. Some notes from this research now follow.

1. JISC User Behaviour Monitoring and Evaluation Framework First Annual Report, August 2000

Some interesting findings from this report included:

• Electronic Information Services (EIS) have relevance for learning and research in all disciplines, but the significance and role of individual EIS will vary between disciplines e.g. electronic journals are much used by Pure and Applied Sciences and Pure and Applied Social Sciences, while Arts and Humanities use search engines. Pure and Applied Sciences and Medicine make much use of web databases.
• In English, 2nd year undergraduates using MLA felt that familiarity with the service in first year increased their confidence in using it in subsequent years. (This supports a point made in discussion at the workshop.)

2. The JUBILEE Second Annual Report in July 2001

Some interesting findings from this report included:

• Print versions of A&I databases probably attract as little use as EIS but are more difficult to monitor in terms of usage.
• A comment was made by a member of staff that the goal of providing "seamless" access to resources for students could disadvantage them in the long run, especially in the light of increased movement by students between FE and HE institutions and between HE institutions. "If a user tries to access information from another University which does not have the same environment, s/he may be unable to do so ... they don't understand the processes behind it. We are going to give them barriers inadvertently."

3. JISC User Behaviour Monitoring and Evaluation Framework Second Annual Report, August 2001

This Report notes that findings replicate those in the First Cycle of the Framework. Some interesting findings include:

• Undergraduates use EIS mostly for academic purposes relating to assessment, and also for leisure and lifestyle reasons.
• Search engine use predominates and can be an important arena for practising search skills.
• Patterns of EIS use vary between disciplines.
• Academic staff influence student (UG and PG) use of EIS more than LIS staff. Own experience weighs most heavily, suggesting that patterns of EIS use become habitual.
• Different patterns of information skills provision and support predominate in different institutions.
• Awareness of specialised databases and journals is very limited. There is confusion and uncertainty about these services. It must be remembered that for many undergraduate courses, journal literature in their subject discipline may be too specialised and pitched at too high a level for undergraduate purposes. This has implications for their need to use not just the e-journals, but also the abstracting and indexing services that cover the journal literature.
• Awareness of research activities and research publications and sources is more evident amongst some, but not all, final year students.
• The low incidence of use of EIS for bibliography or reference checking was evident for postgraduate students as well. Compared with the undergraduate cohort, there is an increase in the use of JISC-negotiated sources by postgraduate students. Cycle Two indicated that use of JISC-negotiated sources and e-journals may be higher for this cohort than in Cycle One.
• The Pure and Applied Sciences disciplinary cluster made by far the most use of JISC-negotiated services.
• 79.9% of students receive some form of information skills training. However, it is hard to distinguish between information skills, information literacy, and IT literacy, as such definitions mean different things to different people.
• In some cases, interviews suggested that tutor support from academic staff equated to the provision of pointers to self-help sources on the web rather than training per se.
• Old Russell Group institutions are significantly less likely to provide formal IT/information skills training. The less research-oriented and new Universities, along with Colleges of Higher Education, are significantly more likely to provide this support.
• The Russell Group institutions are more likely to be associated with training from a course tutor.