Information Strategy An expensive luxury…. or a necessary evil? Derek Law, Librarian and Director of Information Resources, University of Strathclyde

University of Strathclyde Vital Statistics Five Faculties: Arts and Social Sciences, Business, Education, Engineering, Science Two campuses 26,000 degree-seeking students Over 36,000 Continuing Education/CPD students 3,500 staff Turnover:£140M Total Library and IT Services budget: £10M

The University of Strathclyde Information Strategy Office established driven by Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) recommendations Underlying impetus to break down barriers to information management in a large organisation - the academic/admin/IT divide And this was where I came in….

Strathclyde’s Strategic Priorities The Learning Process - Create a better learning environment (1) Students and Courses of study - Expand Professional Development Programmes(2) Research - Support Research Excellence(3) The Estate- Develop the heart of the two campuses(4) Staff Development and Finance - Invest in People’s Development(5) Source: Strategic Plan

The Millennium Student Project Vision To create a leading edge learning environment in which students have a rich learning experience, acquire the skills to take advantage of it and have access to the tools which will manage it. Our aim is to produce graduates equipped to be at ease in an entrepreneurial information society

The Strathclyde Millennium Student Project Aiming for a holistic rather than piecemeal approach Developing a managed learning environment encompassing all aspects of the University’s electronic resources Best envisaged through the ‘Strathclyde Eye’

Pervasive Networking Standards Evaluation & Student intranet Training & Incentives Digital Library Quality Finance Education Vision & Strategy 1500 modems Gigabit backbone Insight Copyright/IPR Glasgow Digital Library IIP,All student certificatio n Personal Portals Learning Delivery Devices Laptops for all Teaching Materials Commercial In-house CVU Wireless classrooms

The Wider Context The focus is the University not the Library The Learning City – open education CVU and cEVU– a virtual university The Millennium Student – a new learning environment

The Background National Projects CAIRNS – cross-catalogue searching SCONE – collaborative collection management HAIRST- Harvesting Internet Resources in Support of Teaching BUBL – access to internet resources IPR Policy - a survey of practice Insight – Value for Money SAPIENS – Small Learned Societies

Local Glasgow Projects GAELS – training materials and sharing collections in Glasgow CATRIONA – identifying local resources CORC - metadata DIO – managing local resources GDL – the virtual library

Student Intranet - a gateway into the University Progress well on way in design of a personalised student portal offering direct access to :  Personalised class and exam timetables  The students’ own personal details etc  The student’s own Progress Report file  To enable the student to update their details and undertake administrative procedures such as registration

Student Intranet Offering direct access to a ‘Knowledge Centre’/Digital Library of Learning materials and electronic resources A customised student news service Facility for student’s own space on the web, including webmail

Derek’s Daily Dictums Make big plans and aim high A hot bed of cold feet Losers confuse destiny with bad management Do what’s crazy, not what’s stupid Never try to teach a pig to sing – it wastes your time and annoys the pig