Inspire in the East Midlands Inspiring learners through libraries Name of Your Library

What is Inspire?  Inspire is a national programme to open up access for learners and potential learners to the wealth of resources held in libraries  Inspire is building on the many successful local partnerships to create a single national pathway to learning resources

Why Inspire? - Empowering the Learning Community LIC 2000  Public and educational libraries in any community or region should draw up “access maps” to enable users and learners to reach resources or assistance in other libraries on a managed basis  Public and educational libraries in communities or defined geographic areas should establish co-operative arrangements to improve services to their users

Why Inspire? – Aimhigher Partnerships for Progression  Joint initiative of HEFCE and LSC  Direct link to government’s target of 50% widening HE participation by 2010  Encourage more and better-prepared students to stay in education post 16  Raise attainment and participation among young people under-represented in HE  Build on and encompass regional partnerships

Why Inspire? Department for Culture Media and Sport Framework for the Future: Strategic vision for 2013  Any member of a public library can also access materials held in HE and FE libraries  Anyone seeking opportunities for learning and training can be guided to a course through a public library

Why join Inspire? Participating in Inspire will enable libraries to:  Refer library users to other libraries locally, regionally and nationally to access the resources they need  Support Lifelong Learning  Support social inclusion and widening participation in learning at all levels  Benefit from co-operation between sectors  Benefit from enhanced staff development

Inspire in the East Midlands  So far:  9 Public Library Authorities  7 University Libraries  9 College Libraries  2 Special Libraries  1 Health Library  Total of 4,000 plus libraries in England for details see

Support available  Information about resources in other libraries and how users can access this information through  Procedures manual with standard forms that can be used or adapted to suit local needs  Publicity materials

Information Pack  Background to Inspire  How to make and receive a referral  Potential staff development opportunities  Inspire briefing/training record  Evaluating the impact of Inspire

Inspire: referral procedure  Determine if enquiry suitable for Inspire referral and identify  where the information is available  what the access conditions are  Provide the user with the appropriate introduction and directions  Record referral

 Where to look for information about collections and libraries:

Inspire: reception procedure The library receiving the user will:  Determine the nature of the enquiry  Where necessary, offer  information on library use  guidance on how to find the required information including assisting use of  If local systems permit, record the visit so that statistics can be gathered. Where this is difficult, try to gather and record direct verbal feedback on the experience from users

Inspire: some questions & answers  Will we be overwhelmed with new users?  Experience so far has shown that increase in numbers is usually modest  Will users be very demanding?  They may need no more help than other new users but staff should be conscious of social inclusion issues and use normal customer care skills  What if they arrive when we are very busy?  The Library can state preferred times for visitors

Benefits - for core users as well as for visiting users  Participation opens up access to libraries previously unavailable to them  Inspire is creating of a nationally recognised standard of access but delivered locally where it is needed  Knowledge and skills of library staff will be enhanced to  Direct people to the resources they need  Provide whatever form of referral is needed

Inspire contacts Local Inspire Activist – per library or authority Regional contacts :  Lynn Hodgkins, Regional Librarian, Libraries and Information East Midlands. Tel:  Carol Campbell-Hayes, Derbyshire County Council. Tel:

East Midlands Steering Group  A regional steering group is chaired by David Lathrope of Nottinghamshire County Council.  Steering Group members include : Kathryn Arnold, Carol Campbell-Hayes, Paul Chapman, Lynn Hodgkins, Nicky Morgan and Graham Walton