A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Mashspa 2010: "Sixty Minutes To Save Libraries": Gathering Evidence to Demonstrate Library Services' Impact and Value Brian Kelly & Nicola McNee UKOLN / Kingswood School UKOLN is supported by: This work is licensed under a Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence (note this only applies to text and not images) Twitter: Blog: Acceptable Use Policy Recording this talk, taking photos, discussing content using Twitter, blogs, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised. Acceptable Use Policy Recording this talk, taking photos, discussing content using Twitter, blogs, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised. Twitter: #mashspa

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Context Our environment : “Education, education, education” Increased funding Significant IT developments Now: Huge cuts  Need to demonstrate impact, value and ROI  But: Web infrastructure in place More open data and open APIs available Lightweight developments could make demonstration of impact easier 2

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 3 Context: Coalition Government; cuts to public sector; value of public sector being questioned; …

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What Is To Be Done? Need for: Mass demonstrations; citizens unrest; … Or: Identification of ways in which impact and value can be measured Implementation of tools & approaches for:  Gathering and collating relevant data  Analysis of data  Interpretation of finding  Use of findings (e.g. by politicians) 5

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk How Is It To Be Done? Quickly! “Flash, I love you! But we only have fourteen hours to save the Earth!” “Libraries, I love you! But we have only sixty minutes to identify ways in which our services can be saved and make recommendations to others!” OK, two hours if you want to start thinking about implementation (and maybe additional time in the pub!) 6 Note Ming the Merciless is: Impervious to emotive pleas (whistle alert!) Vulnerable to facts and hard evidence

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Low-Hanging Fruit What are the low-hanging fruit: Easily gathered evidence Evidence which can be easily analysed Evidence which can be used (e.g. press releases for local newspapers) … 7 Part 1 (of 4)

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Gathering The Fruit How should this evidence be gathered: Tools which can be used? Options and services which need to be configured? Policies which need to be developed and implemented? Barriers which need to be addressed? … In addition also consider the: Hard to gather, but very tasty fruit How should such fruit be gathered? 8 Part 2 (of 4)

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Eating The Fruit How should this evidence be processed: Who should do the work? How can the work be funded? How can the outputs be used? … 9 Part 3 (of 4)

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Avoiding Indigestion How should the evidence be used and validated: Avoiding over-egging the (fruit) pudding Addressing ethical concerns Concerns over league tables … And what if the evidence could be used against us? 10 Part 4 (of 4) With apologies for the mixed metaphors!

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Group Exercise (1) Identify ways in which (a) specific library services; (b) individual libraries or (c) library sector can be saved by providing evidence to defeat Ming’s coalition forces Address: a)The low-hanging fruit: scope your work b)Gathering the fruit: evidence & data you’ll need c)Eating the fruit: how you (or techies) will analyse the data and use it d)Avoiding indigestion: how you’ll address barriers Note provide suggestions in three areas: 1.Simple achievable approach you can use 2.Big wins which will require collective effort 3.Existing solutions which you can share 11 E

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Group Exercise (2) Who is: Hardcore techie Script junkie (e.g. can play with Yahoo Pipes; design Excel spreadsheets; …) Non-techie Who is: From academic library? From public/ school library? From commercial sector? Other? 12 E Groups: Ad hoc  Sectoral Mixture of expertise  Other suggestions

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Example 1: Blog Blog Metrics: Register your blog with Technorati & Wikio Monitor trends to identify successful engagement strategies Share experiences with peers Note: Two UK HE blogs in Top 50 technology blogs – indicates HE punches above its weight 13

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Example 2: Facebook Use of Facebook by UK HEIs: Grown significantly over last 2 years Some numerical data on growth available How to use: Significant numbers of students use institutional Fb presence Reduced expenditure on public sector provision of infrastructure Responding to THE article on survey of 6 th formers 14

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Example 3: Wikipedia Update to Wikipedia entry on HTTP 303 code made by Andy Powell: 20 minutes of effort Expected 35,000+ views in year How to use: UK HE experts are supporting the ‘Big society’ by ensuring their expertise is available in well-used Web sites UK HE is avoiding setting up less-well- used alternatives 15

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Example 4: Slideshare Hosting slides on Slideshare: Small effort to upload Allows content to be embedded elsewhere Metrics available (cf Steve Wheeler, Carol Goble, …) How to use: UK academics are making slides which support teaching, training & dissemination freely available The xxx dept had yy,yyy downloads If yy,yyy had to travel to xxx this would have cost £xxx and xxx tonnes of CO 2 16

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Example 5: Twitter Exploiting Twitter: The #cilip1 campaign (“Worried about the future for librarians? Join the #CILIP1 Twitter campaign – it’s taking off :-) ”) Analysis and use of #cilip (see Summarizr ) Professional developments through participation in amplified events How to use: “Librarians enhance their professional development through attendance at ‘amplified events’ – staff development will reduced travel costs & time away e.g. see stats for #ili2010 conference” 17

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Conclusions To conclude: There will be a continuing need to gather evidence Open data can be valuable Collaboration can be valuable 18

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Questions Any questions? 19 Name: Brian Kelly Address: UKOLN, University of Bath, BATH, UK Web site: Blog: Twitter: briankelly and ukwebfocus (automated feed) Name: Brian Kelly Address: UKOLN, University of Bath, BATH, UK Web site: Blog: Twitter: briankelly and ukwebfocus (automated feed)