Summary of recommendations
- Future programmes should involve incentives for projects,
even in a development-centred programme like eLib, to consider
human and organisational (institutional, and wider cultural) issues
from the proposal stage onwards.
- Such programmes should also be preceded by scoping studies
which determine the likely requirements for T&A activities
and for central provision of relevant expertise for project staff
to draw on when necessary.
- Projects should be encouraged at every stage to learn lessons
from related projects and initiatives, and to see their work as
part of an overall 'culture' of innovation and learning.
- Consideration should be given to expanding membership of CEI
(or perhaps CALT) to a senior figure from a library school.
- Training and awareness activities should be defined based
on the needs of the stakeholder community, not by soliciting arbitrary
bids from HEIs who wish to run T&A projects. In other words,
T&A activities should be actively controlled by the Committee
by, for example, the use of restricted tenders.
- To enhance the likelihood that institutional cultures and
structures will change to facilitate useful application of the
skills and knowledge learned through T&A activities, some
T&A needs to be aimed at middle-management (in libraries and
academic departments), i.e. those who hold budgets and manage
staff.
- T&A needs to encompass not only technical skills and awareness,
but relevant professional skills which HE staff such as librarians
may not previously have required, and also knowledge of generic
issues underpinning new innovations (e.g. legal aspects).
- For a profession such as librarianship, where recognised qualifications
are the main career launchpad, the explicit involvement of the
schools or institutes providing those qualifications is vital.
They may need to be given incentives to feed important knowledge
and skills into their curriculum, in order to turn out graduates
who can handle the rapid developments in the field.
- Ongoing evaluative studies should be used to assess the degree
to which cultural change is taking place, and the ways in which
appropriate change can be encouraged.
Back to contents
Previous section: Conclusions
Next section: References
[ Top of Page ]
- [ Up ]
The Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib) was funded
by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)
Page version: 1;
Web page maintained by
UKOLN Systems Team
and hosted by
UKOLN
- feedback to
systems@ukoln.ac.uk
.
Site last revised on: Tuesday, 24-Nov-1998 14:21:10 UTC
DC Metadata