Economics of Information Supply – is free information good enough? Tom Roper Head of Learning Resources, South Thames College Tom Roper, Break-out session B

Mimi & Eunice copyleft Nina Paley Tom Roper, Break-out session B

A short introduction to further education Tom Roper, Break-out session B

Colleges  352 Colleges in England  22 Colleges and 2 FE institutions in Wales  43 Colleges in Scotland  6 Colleges in Northern Ireland  79.7% of year-olds in education and training Tom Roper, Break-out session B

Colleges in England  229 General Further Education Colleges (GFE)  93 Sixth Form Colleges (SFC)  16 land-based Colleges (AHC)  4 art, design and performing arts Colleges (ADPAC)  10 special designated Colleges (SD) Tom Roper, Break-out session B

Meat One and Plasterers Two  FE as I knew it circa 1971: CCAT –VIth form college –Adult education –Vocational education Tom Roper, Break-out session B

FE today  Diverse range of subjects, modes of study, funding  All the levels: from E to 7 (8=doctoral degrees)  But –Little cooperation –Little interoperability –Little comparison –Low horizons Tom Roper, Break-out session B

HE in FE…or not  Open access  Scholarly communication  Institutional repositories  Falling visitor numbers  Shared services Tom Roper, Break-out session B

HE in FE  11% of higher education is delivered in FE colleges Tom Roper, Break-out session B Source: Association of Colleges

HE in FE  Licensing: when can FE college users use resources licensed by HEI? Tom Roper, Break-out session B

South Thames College  Rapid expansion of e- content  Link librarians  STCLive/Sharepoint/Ca talogue  Budget of £600,000  Merger  Restructuring –New e-resources co- ordinator post –Apprentices –30 staff (mostly part- time)  New flagship building Tom Roper, Break-out session B

What is free?  Arxiv, PubMed  Free at point of use… –Institution pays or… –Bill paid outside the institution  Licensed and unlicensed Tom Roper, Break-out session B

Expanding e-content  2008 –Infotrac –Britannica –Spellzone –Authentik  2010 –69 e-collections of one sort or another, 17 on paid subscription –E-books for FE Tom Roper, Break-out session B

Types of free e-resource  JISC Collections material –Rich, varied but..  Limited relevance to FE curriculum  Low levels of use, even of some obviously relevant tools  E-books for FE Tom Roper, Break-out session B

Types of free e-resource  Hairdressing training  Archival material  JORUM  Providers include: –British Library –EDINA –JSTOR –Oxford University Press –Proquest Tom Roper, Break-out session B

Deploying free resources  Adding value: –Describing and making discoverable –Promoting –Instructing  Future of JISC funding  Does pump-priming work? Tom Roper, Break-out session B

Low levels of use, in spite of our best efforts Tom Roper, Break-out session B

What’s coming?  Major cuts in funding –More mergers –Adult provision to be cut by £200 million –Average cut of 16%...some as much of 25%  Bonfire of quangos  The return of the pay wall Tom Roper, Break-out session B

Sustainability  What happens when licences come up for renewal? Tom Roper, Break-out session B

What next?  The positives –E-books –HE in FE: leadership  Cf M25/ Kingston University –HE can learn from FE too  Massification  Doing more with less Tom Roper, Break-out session B

The curious incident of the FE consortia Tom Roper, Break-out session B

The learner voice ‘Going to go library, innit’ Tom Roper, Break-out session B