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Integrating digital libraries and VLEs in higher & further education

Use of resources by staff

It is not yet clear how digital resources will fit in with either library or academic practices. The evaluation of the DNER and 5/99 projects has found evidence that there is an informal division of labour between academics and librarians in the handling of subscription and non-subscription services. This is an area that may need to be explored when linking libraries and VLEs as the division of labour between these groups may be unclear. It will also be important to consider changes in practice that may be assumed or implied in any project linking digital libararies and VLEs.

During the LinkER projects that were interested in integrating the management of reading lists found that reliable data was not immediately available describing current use of reading lists. Specifically if reading lists are to be maintained it will be important to understand how these lists are changed, how often they are changed and the degree of change that might be expected. What might appear to be a simple process of digitising reading lists will have knock on effects in terms librarians and academic practices and may well affect workloads in ways that are not immediately apparent.

We recommend that projects working in this area make good links to relevant groups of staff early in the process. These links should be with the staff directly concerned and their managers but may also need to include other bodies and groups, for example representative bodies especially unions if workloads and working practices will be affected. Such contacts have a bonus inthat they can open up informal routes through which projects can obtain early intelligence about issues that arise in the course of the work.

We also recommend projects setting aside some resource at the start of a project to find out what current practices are in areas likely to be affected. A good understanding of how things are currently done can identify sensitivities amongst existing staff and can often identify unforeseen aspects of the working environment that could impact on the project.


Additional Resources

Association For Learning Technology (ALT)
The Association for Learning Technology is a professional and scholarly association which seeks to bring together all those with an interest in the use of learning technology. The publications section of the ALT site contains some useful references.

ALT aims to:

Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN)
The LTSN is a major network of 24 subject centres based in higher education institutions throughout the UK and a single Generic Centre. It aims to promote high quality learning and teaching through the development and transfer of good practices in all subject disciplines, and to provide a 'one-stop shop' of learning and teaching resources and information for the HE community.

Requirements for a Virtual Learning Environment
This document represents work in progress within the JISC MLE Steering Group aimed at outlining the principal requirements for Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) to be used in the FE sector within the UK (2000)


Acknowledgement

These webpages have been assembled by the CERLIM and CSALT team working on the JISC-funded project LinKER. Contents of the web-pages may be used freely for non-profit purposes, provided that this acknowledgement is included. Click here for further information about LinkER