Information Skills Training at LSBU Pat England, Information Adviser, Health & Social Care

Outline London South Bank University Faculty of Health & Social Care LSBU libraries What we do: theory What we do (in practice) E-learning

London South Bank University 21,000 students 59% female, 41% male 85 countries 60% black and minority ethnic background 66% 25 years+ 4.7% 1 of 9 forms of disability only 1 in 5 have traditional qualifications on entry 1700 staff

Faculty of Health & Social Care: target student numbers from SHA Commissions, 2006 – 7 Pre-Registration Nursing (Southwark) = 437 Students Adult Nursing Children’s Nursing Mental Health Studies Learning Disabilities/Social Work Pre-Registration Nursing (Essex) = 449 students Midwives (East London) = 47 students Community Specialist Practitioners = 47 Students Social Work = 160 students Allied Health = 261 students

Faculty of Health & Social Care (HEFCE targets 2006 – 7) Nursing & Social Work = 390 students Allied Health = 73 students Foundation Degrees = 95 Nursing (15 at Essex); 35 Allied Health

Totals (across all sites) : Nursing & Social Work students: 1610 Allied Health students: 334 Midwifery students: 47 Foundation Degree students:

Contracts North Central London SHA (Nursing at UCLH & GOSH) South East London SHA (Nursing) North West London WDC (Learning Disabilities/Social Work) North East London WDC (Nursing & Midwifery) South West London WDC (Allied Health) South East London WDC (Community Nursing & Allied Health)

LSBU Library Service (current)

Staff working with FHSC Senior Information Adviser (Southwark) Information Adviser (Southwark) Information Adviser (East London) Site Manager (Essex)

So, what does an Information Adviser do…? “Responsible for liaison between LIS … and specific academic departments and for the development and delivery of subject information services to support their teaching, learning and research”

Information Skills Teaching “To develop and implement the planning, delivery and evaluation of information literacy teaching programmes and additional skills for staff and students both on and off campus”

The “Seven Pillars” 1. Understanding the need to use information. 2. Packaging of information and choosing suitable sources for research. 3. Search tools and the need for a search strategy. 4. Locating and accessing information. 5. Comparing and evaluating information. 6. Organising, applying and communicating information sources to others. 7. Keeping up to date and contributing to new information.

Some typical teaching sessions Common Foundation Programme (1st year pre-reg nursing students) LSBU libraries – opening hours, fines etc Introduction to library web-site Introduction to basic key word searching using library catalogue and databases like InterNurse All students have a 90-minute hands-on session: we run these over 2 days with 2 or 3 running simultaneously – usually 2 librarians to a group of 20 students

Some typical teaching sessions New to branch (2 nd -year pre-reg nursing students) Introduction to Ovid databases Principles of doing a literature search Revision of material covered in the initial sessions

Some typical teaching sessions Research Unit (3 rd year pre-reg nursing students – some B.Sc, some Diploma) Advanced features of the Ovid databases Finding material for evidence-based practice Cochrane Web resources

Other sessions Beyond the Quick and Dirty Search – finding material for evidence-based practice (for post-reg groups) One-to-one Desktop sessions for academic and research staff Drop-in sessions Introductory sessions for Foundation Degree students

In practice… I see some groups more often, some less… I spend a lot of time explaining how their passwords work… Groups vary enormously and this dictates the content of the session

E-learning Diagnostics ml# ml# Info Quest html html Blackboard (prototype site) Blackboard (updated site)

Future developments LIS now part of CLSD… Changes at senior level in the Library… Fewer numbers from SHAs because of NHS financial problems…