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The Development of UK Academic Library Services in the context of Lifelong Learning Final Report Peter Brophy Jenny Craven Shelagh Fisher |
Publication Details
© JISC 1998
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to acknowledge with gratitude the assistance of many
expert colleagues in the preparation of this work. We are particularly
grateful to John Allred for his comments and advice on early drafts, and
to the participants in the Expert Workshop held in July 1997 in London.
Grateful thanks are also due to Judith Hilton for her interest and input,
and to colleagues in CERLIM for their suggestions, assistance and support.
Peter Brophy
Jenny Craven
Shelagh Fisher
Manchester
April 1998
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES
Peter Brophy is Professor of Information Management and Director
of the Centre for Research in Library & Information Management
(CERLIM) at the Manchester Metropolitan University. Previously he was Head
of CERLIM at the University of Central Lancashire where he was also Head
of the converged Library & Learning Resource Services. He is
President-elect of the Institute of Information Scientists and has
published widely in the field of library and information management.
Shelagh Fisher is Reader in the Department of Information &
Communications of the Manchester Metropolitan University, having
previously been Principal Lecturer and Research Manager in CERLIM at the
University of Central Lancashire. She has undertaken research and
published on a wide range of issues concerning the impact of information
technologies on the individual, on libraries and on society.
Jenny Craven is a Research Fellow in CERLIM at the Manchester
Metropolitan University. As well as her work on lifelong learning she is
involved in studies of the social impacts of the Internet, and is
currently working on a project funded by the British Library Research &
Innovation Centre.
CONTENTS
Lifelong learning is high on the agenda of government, employers,
employees, students and institutions. This Report, published shortly after
the Government's Green paper The Learning Age, considers the broad
policy framework of higher education and how academic libraries - which
increasingly include networked IT services within their remit - need to
respond. It is the outcome of a Supporting Study funded by the Electronic
Libraries programme (eLib) and was conducted by a team of experts from the
Centre for Research in Library & Information Management (CERLIM), led
by Professor Peter Brophy.
The background of learning itself, including the influence of groups such
as the Royal Society of Arts with its Campaign for Learning, is
discussed in the first two Chapters of the Report, which also present a
working definition of lifelong learning:
Lifelong learning is a deliberate progression throughout the life
of an individual, where the initial acquisition of knowledge and skills is
reviewed and upgraded continuously, to meet challenges set by an ever
changing society.
Attempts to define a simple - or even a single - model of lifelong
learning are unlikely to succeed for, as the RSA has demonstrated,
learning is a messy process. People do not follow a set pattern
once they have left the classroom, but are subject to a wide range of
influences on their learning activities and styles. Indeed much current
policy, such as the development of Individual Learning Accounts, will put
the learner in the driving seat and confound any who wish to impose tight
structures on learning. So, for librarians as for others involved in
education, the issue will be to ensure that services and advice are
available where and when they are wanted and needed. The mature students
who will make up the bulk of the new lifelong learners will settle for
nothing less.
In Chapter 3 of this Report, the authors turn their attention to
information and communications technologies and summarise the impact that
the new networked environments will have for lifelong learners and for
those delivering services to them. Here, having reviewed the impacts of
multimedia, computer-mediated communications, networked learner support
and other issues, the Report concludes that "the key to successful
use of technology in lifelong learning lies in designing packages and
support from the perspective of learning, not from the viewpoint of
technology". Technological solutions should thus be built on a clear
understanding of the learning process.
Chapters 4 and 5 of the Report summarise the policy framework which is
now emerging for the development of lifelong learning as a national
priority. Issues are drawn out of the international arena, as for example
in the work of the European Commission in promoting the European Year of
Lifelong Learning in 1996, as well as from the pre-1997 domestic agenda.
However, since the election of the new Labour government in May 1997 the
number of relevant consultation and policy papers published has
mushroomed. They include the Dearing Review of higher education, the
Kennedy Report on widening participation in further education, the work of
the National Advisory Group for Continuing Education and Lifelong
Learning, the DfEE's `Learning Grid' proposals and the Library &
Information Commission's consultation paper, New Library: The People's
Network. Above all, the long-awaited Green Paper The Learning Age
is important for setting out the government's view on and response to the
recommendations of earlier papers. Each of these documents is considered
in turn in Chapter 5. Together they make clear that lifelong learning will
be the major policy initiative for the coming years. Librarians
will need to take note and respond appropriately.
Chapter 6 of our Report concentrates on the services which are being
offered to lifelong learners by libraries at the present time. Clearly,
some lifelong learning takes place through traditional courses (and
through research) and the long-established range of library services which
are already in place will continue to be needed to serve this clientele.
As the Report observes, some institutions may legitimately decide that the
provision of such opportunities, usually on-campus, is their contribution
to lifelong learning. However, most lifelong learners in higher education
will be mature students who need to dip into and out of education at
different times of their lives and careers. Many will want higher
education delivered to them, where they are, at their convenience. The
library services which will be needed to support them are not yet in
place.
Yet there are examples of good practice in the development of library
services for non-traditional students. Many of the `new' universities in
particular have developed outreach services which deliver books and
journals to their users, and use information and communications
technologies in innovative ways to try to overcome the disadvantages of
studying at a distance. Few academic libraries have yet made major inroads
into work-based learning, but examples can be found. Looking further
afield, there is much to be learned from Australia, Canada and the United
States where libraries have been forced by the circumstance of
geographical dispersion to devise new ways of serving their clientele.
The Report's conclusions fall under thirteen headings:
Ø Higher education libraries will need to commit themselves to
develop, publicise and deliver a basic set of library services
designed for lifelong learners. As Dearing found, it is the basic,
`bread and butter' services such as access to books and study space that
learners themselves regard as the highest priority. Redesigning service
delivery to account for the basic needs of lifelong learners is thus a
very high priority.
Ø On the other hand, libraries need to refocus their services on
content rather than form, and ask themselves how the required
content can be delivered to the lifelong learner - rather than becoming
blocked by the difficulties particular forms present. Here they can
provide leadership in how information sources can be presented within the
structures of learning which teaching staff devise.
Ø The hybrid library concept has much to offer the
lifelong learner through its emphasis on a managed mix of traditional and
electronic services. Current eLib hybrid library and clump projects should
be encouraged to take on board the needs of lifelong learners if they have
not already done so.
Ø Convergence should be seen as a positive step for the
lifelong learner, since it provides a single point of contact for academic
support services and ensures that a single policy is pursued in their
interests.
Ø The future of library support for higher education lifelong
learners will best be secured through multi-agency provision, by
which is meant a planned and managed co-operative alliance of providers
(university, further education, public etc. libraries and others).
However, because courses will be marketed nationally and internationally,
it will not be adequate to rely only on regional co-operation.
Ø A key issue will be the extent of integration of library
services into learning. As new learning environments are designed and
established the role of the library will change - what is being introduced
is an entirely new kind of environment where the student can easily and
within the same interface access information ("library") and
expertise ("tutor") while discussing ideas with fellow students
("seminar") and using a self-diagnostic tool.
Ø Libraries will continue to play their sometimes unrecognised
role as social centres. They are places where people can meet,
study in groups as well as individually, and find supportive experts. For
the off-campus lifelong learner, this role might be found in the public or
college library, but will only be satisfactory where it is planned,
resourced and managed with lifelong learners in mind.
Ø Information quality will be a matter of increasing
importance since electronic services are often not subject to the level of
quality control exercised over printed and other traditional publications.
Libraries have an important role to play in quality assurance, and again
lifelong learners will need this support - especially where their study is
unmediated and off-campus.
Ø Electronic resources offer new and exciting
opportunities for supporting lifelong learners with the information they
need. However we lack, as a library community, good models of the
electronic library in its world-wide networked setting. We also, as a
profession, lack the depth of knowledge that is needed to design and
create the electronic services of the future.
Ø Information skills pose a particular problem for the
lifelong learner, who is typically short of time and may be remote from
the physical library with its expert advisers. Where, as Dearing
recommended, skills work is embedded in the curriculum librarians will
have to redouble their efforts to ensure that information skills are
adequately covered and assessed.
Ø For the non-traditional, lifelong learner the provision of good
helpdesk services may make the difference between success and
failure. However, these services need to be designed as part of the
overall learning environment, so that academic staff are involved in and
take account of their design and function, and the help desk is not the
last, desperate port of call.
Ø If lifelong learning is to be a reality, universities will need
to think in terms of developing lifelong relationships with their
clientele. Libraries, through their `external' and other membership
arrangements, could be in the vanguard of this movement.
Ø Finally, the rate of change is so rapid and the agenda to be
addressed so vast that academic libraries will need dynamic management
if they are to serve the needs of lifelong learners.
The Report concludes with twenty-three specific recommendations, directed
to JISC and the HEFCs, to institutions and their librarians and to the
library community as a whole.
Lifelong learning and the learning society are not new issues. Some of
the earliest ideas about lifelong learning can be traced back to the 17th
century when Comenius wrote that "...no age is too late to begin
learning.."[1] Other references have
been traced back to the 1940s[2] and more
recently in literature dating to the 1960s and 1970s.[3]
However, what was at one time a minority interest has exploded into
world-wide significance in the late 1990s: lifelong learning has become an
important focus for society. Factors such as the information society, the
rapid expansion of new technologies, the rate of economic, industrial,
commercial and cultural change and, in the West, increased competition
from emerging economies in South and Central America and Asia, where
labour is cheap, plentiful and increasingly skilled, have all contributed
to a new political imperative: `Education, Education, Education' is the
oft-repeated slogan of the new government in the U.K.
The effect that rapid technological and organisational change have had on
lifestyles and attitudes to work is such that the traditional division of
three stages of life: "education and learning - leading to work -
lastly, to retirement"[4] is
diminishing, and together with this has been the demise of the "job
for life" culture. So `lifelong learning' is becoming much more than
a passing political fad and instead describes a very real change in the
lives of individuals and in the activities of societies.
The seriousness with which governments are taking this issue is
illustrated by the Global Conferences on Lifelong Learning, the first of
which was held in Rome in 1994[5], and by
the European Commission's designation of 1996 as the European Year of
Lifelong Learning, generating a multitude of publications, policies,
projects and initiatives. New organisations such as the European Lifelong
Learning Initiative (ELLI) have been set up to provide input and to be
involved in European and international projects on lifelong learning.
The World Initiative on Lifelong Learning was formed to develop the
sharing of good practice relating to lifelong learning and to set and
monitor standards for global lifelong learning. Many of the Initiative's
activities, which include global conferences, books and journals, research
projects and lifelong learning projects with Higher Education
institutions, were based on recommendations which emerged from the First
Global Conference on Lifelong Learning. Initiatives include Community
Action for Lifelong Learning (CALL), which outlines recommendations for
sectors of the community and the Action Agenda for Lifelong Learning for
the 21st Century (1995)[6] which includes
the following recommendations:
* Creation of Learning Organisations.
* Development of skills profiles.
* Initiation of individual lifetime learning plans.
* Provision of learning opportunities in lifelong learning.
* Creation of a learning passport.
* Improvements in accessibility to learning.
* Increased use of educational technology.
* Accreditation of courses wherever they take place.
* Initiation of portability in qualifications.
* Prioritisation of essential new research.
As a result, there is a growing awareness of the need for individuals to
take responsibility for their learning, not just at school, college or
university level, but throughout their lives, and to constantly review and
update their knowledge and skills. The current unstable job market means
people are often forced to re-consider their careers and learn new skills
in order to keep up with employers' ever changing needs. The Cities of
Learning movement sees towns, villages and regions developing as "learning
areas".[7]
Cities of Learning include Edinburgh, Glasgow, Southampton and Liverpool
as well as a number of other cities across Europe. In Liverpool, the City
Council, together with education, training and business communities, is
working towards what has been described by the Director of the Liverpool
City of Learning Initiative as "a
dynamic, strategic framework within which the critical social and economic
roles that learning can play are fulfilled".[8]
In 1996, Liverpool hosted "Inspiration 96" which looked at the
role of lifelong learning and the information society. Following this,
projects such as UNITED (Using New Information Technology in Training and
Education) have been set up to encourage the development of learning
networks and to open up access.
The change of government in May 1997 provided a significant impetus to
the development of a coherent policy for lifelong learning in the UK. Less
than a year later it is impossible to gauge the extent to which the deluge
of policy and consultation documents presage a real change in UK practice.
The Learning Age, as the February 1998 Green paper was called,
opens with an interesting quotation from the Prime Minister - "education
is the best economic policy we have" - but then broadens out into a
much more visionary approach to learning for all. This document, and
others related to it, are considered at length in Chapter 5.
Lifelong learning has been placed firmly on the agenda for higher
education in the UK by the publication of the Dearing Committee's Report[9],
which appeared under the title "Higher Education in the Learning
Society". Its first Chapter is entitled "A vision for 20 years:
the learning society" and begins:
"The purpose of education is life-enhancing: it contributes to the
whole quality of life. This recognition of the purpose of higher education
in the development of our people, our society, and our economy is central
to our vision. In the next century, the economically successful nations
will be those which become learning societies: where all are committed,
through effective education and training, to lifelong learning."
(para. 1.1, p. 7)
A culture of lifelong learning will have implications for the delivery of
all education and training, which must extend "beyond the traditional
institutions to include the home, the community, companies and other
organisations"[10] .
The Learning Age will have major implications for all institutions
involved in education, which will not find it easy to cope with the
massive changes which are implied. Thus, although education needs to
operate within some kind oforganised structure, it has been noted
that "learning is messy"[11].
People in general do not follow a set pattern once they have left the
classroom or the lecture theatre: "sometimes learning is simple,
linear, conscious and brief, sometimes it is deeply unconscious and
extraordinarily complex"[12].
It must be expected that this "messiness" will become more and
more pronounced as lifelong learning becomes embedded in society.
Educators may try to impose order, as may governments and institutions,
but individuals will follow their own motivations as they respond to the
pressures, challenges and opportunities of learning. Ideas such as the "learning
bank"[13] which provide credits to
be used throughout life will further empower individuals to define their
own learning patterns. Rather than impose one "model" on
society, it is more fruitful to accept that lifelong learning needs to be
messy and almost chaotic, subject to rapid change and largely
self-determined. Charles Handy describes the learning process as being
more than simply "memorising facts, learning drills or soaking up
traditional wisdom".[14] This
comment was made in the context of the learning organisation, in which
Handy recognises that these factors do contribute to learning, but that
they are just one small part of the much larger process involved in
lifelong learning.
Universities and other academic institutions have a crucial part to play
in the development of a culture of lifelong learning and the delivery of
appropriate learning opportunities. Firstly it is important to recognise
that traditional university undergraduate and postgraduate courses,
especially when offered in modular formats available through part-time
study and perhaps within a well-developed credit accumulation and transfer
scheme, will continue to provide many of the opportunities that people
seek.. However, if lifelong learning does become embedded as the norm for
the whole population there will also be challenges to develop new kinds of
provision. We can expect increased demand for distance learning, with
delivery off-campus to the workplace, home or local learning centre. We
can also expect an increase in collaborative provision, involving
businesses, community groups, professional associations and universities.
The support of courses delivered in this way will have to be addressed.
Libraries should also expect to play a central role in the delivery of
higher education. As librarians well know, the increase in independent
learning which has accompanied increasing student numbers has meant that
libraries, learning resource centres and similar facilities are often the
place where the bulk of a student's learning takes place. Can university
libraries work in tandem with public libraries, college libraries and
others to provide the network of resource centres which will enable
lifelong learning to be a satisfying and fulfilling experience? Can they
be the contact points where students gain access to a wide range of high
quality networked resources? Can they provide the contact with expert
advice, not only on information sources, which learners so often need? Can
they provide the study areas where groups of like-minded individuals can
come together to learn? These are some of the questions and challenges
which face librarians today.
The Study which has led to the current report is one of a series
commissioned by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the UK
Higher Education Funding Councils within the context of the Electronic
Libraries Programme (eLib). It began with an intention to define, compare
and contrast a series of "models" of lifelong learning,
thereafter considering the library's role in relation to each. That
exercise has led to the conclusion that the key model is the one that has
been identified in the RSA's Campaign for Learning[15],
one which firmly recognises that the "right" model can be
defined only in relation to the individual and to the learning need, thus
enabling the individual to:
* Create a safe environment - and so enhance motivation.
* Remove self-limiting beliefs - ranging from "Show me and then
leave me to it" to "I can't do that" - learning can be
painful as well as rewarding.
* Identify individual learning styles - encourage learners to consider
their learning strengths and weaknesses.
* Identify positive outcomes - manageable/achievable/relevant goals or "chunks".
* Identify the steps needed to achieve these outcomes - create a learning
plan.
* Take those steps - include application/practice. Much of what we learn
is adapting to new challenges - learning environments need to be
constantly re-evaluated.
* Review progress regularly - provide feedback & support from mentors
& teachers - and allow flexibility for changes.
* Achieve results - build confidence/self esteem - learn from mistakes in
a blame free culture (the `safe environment' again).
* Start again
It is undeniable that the wealth of educational research which has been
carried out in the past few decades has greatly increased our
understanding of learning - of how and why learning occurs and of how
learners can be motivated, assisted and enabled. To say that lifelong
learning is "messy" is not to deny these insights but rather to
point to the dangers of assuming that a single all-embracing model can be
devised - and that libraries will be able to devise equally neat models on
which to base their services. In fact flexibility and constant change are
almost certainly the keys, and the design of services will be unlocked by
those who place the learner at the centre and seek to understand how, why,
where, when and what learning takes place. In the following sections we
refer to key elements of this research and demonstrate this importance for
the future organisation of learning and hence of learning support agencies
such as libraries.
However, `lifelong learning' is a term that can be and is interpreted in
many different ways In the United States it is usually taken to mean
pre-school or adult education, i.e. that learning which occurs outside the
formal, traditional school - college - university system. Europe often
links the term with day release from work. Other terms associated with
lifelong learning are "the elimination of inequality in education",
and the "democratisation of education",[16]
providing a more political and polemical view.
It follows that lifelong learning does not necessarily come within the
framework of formal education. It takes into account all aspects of
learning and provides a framework within which an individual can reflect
on the past, undertake informal or formal learning in the present,
and prepare for the future in terms of lifetime learning experiences.
This view can be taken a step further, by looking on lifelong learning as
an "achievement of higher levels of self-actualisation" or as "liberation,
self-realisation and self-fulfilment"[17].Lifelong
learning can also be viewed more in terms of a means to an end, or as "a
system of fundamental principles which serve as a basis for raising and
tackling ... problems" [18].
Learners are made aware that they are learning by aiming towards specific
goals.
Achievement of these goals becomes the motivation for what can be called "deliberate
learning"[19]. The distinction
between one-off or day-to-day learning and lifelong learning is that with
the latter, learners should retain what is learnt, and move on through
life acquiring new skills to back up existing ones, rather than simply
learning for a one-off activity, such as an examination or qualification.
The major characteristics of lifelong learning have been defined by
Cropley [20]:
* Lasting the whole life of an individual
* Lead to the acquisition, renewal and upgrading of knowledge, skills and
attitudes to meet the needs of a constantly changing society
* Be dependent on the motivation of the individual to learn
* Acknowledge the contribution of educational resources available,
including formal and non-formal education.
Reference has been made to the fact that both deliberate and one-off
learning should occur throughout one's lifetime and that there is a place
for both these types of learning within the context of lifelong learning.
The need to integrate several types of learning will have implications for
higher education institutions, who will have to accept that they make up
just one small, but important, part of the system. Higher education
institutions will also need to promote the skills needed for lifelong
learning and give learners the opportunity to acquire them. This defines
an important role for teachers in higher education, who are seen as having
a "trickle down" effect on whole generations of potential
lifelong learners[21].
Tough[22] made some predictions for the
learner of the future. He talked specifically about adult learners,
although the elements listed below could be applied to many types of
learner:
* will have a high regard to deliberate learning, i.e. learning for a
specific reason, skill etc.
* will be a normal aspect of life
* will be skilled in deciding what to learn
* will be skilled in planning and arranging own learning
* will be able to obtain appropriate help where necessary
Tough goes on to state that the responsibility for helping learners to
learn will largely lie with "educational institutions, libraries,
employers, professional associations". Responsibilities may include:
* Improve existing methods of help available
* Develop new methods of help
* Larger amounts of appropriate knowledge made available.
Taking into account the above definitions and references, a working
definition of lifelong learning in the context of Higher Education could
be:
Lifelong learning is a deliberate progression throughout the life
of an individual, where the initial acquisition of knowledge and skills is
reviewed and upgraded continuously, to meet challenges set by an ever
changing society.
Academic libraries must be ready to play their part in the support system
of this growing and diverse population of learners and would-be learners,
and to motivate them to achieving specific goals set throughout a lifetime
of learning. The increasingly technological environment in which we live
will change the nature of learning and the role of those who support it
fundamentally.
Finally, a word of warning! The term "lifelong learning" has
been hijacked by every commentator in almost every possible context and is
not infrequently used as a substitute for thought about societal change.
As we will demonstrate some looseness of definition is valuable, yet at
the same time a clear definition is essential if progress is to be made.
In the next section of this Report we will demonstrate how we arrived at
our definition and the context, mainly within the UK, within which the
lifelong learning agenda is being developed. In Section C we will examine
the impact of lifelong learning on libraries, in part by examining some
recent initiatives taken by university libraries. Section D contains our
conclusions and recommendations.
Section B: Lifelong Learning
Dictionary definitions are of necessity brief, but give us a starting
point. For Chambers', to learn is "to gain knowledge, skill or
ability"[23] while for the OED it
is "a process which leads to the modification of behaviour or the
acquisition of new abilities or responses, and which is additional to
natural development by growth or maturation".[24]
Webster's' definition is "to gain knowledge or understanding of, or
skill in, by study, instruction, or experience..."[25].
"Knowledge", "Understanding", "Skills" and "Abilities"
are the outcomes: learning itself is the process.
At the broadest level, learning is of necessity a lifelong experience:
every individual action, reaction and encounter involves learning, even if
only at the subconscious level. Life is a learning experience. But if life
is not to be a process of involuntarily drifting from one experience to
another, without direction, and if societies are to function and develop,
then learning needs to be planned, directed, evaluated and reviewed. As we
shall demonstrate, individuals, organisations and societies all have a
stake in ensuring that learning can take place and that, through learning,
the well-being of those same individuals, organisations and societies can
be secured. Put at its highest, learning is the process through which
humankind will achieve its full potential.
At the most basic level, planned and directed learning opportunities are
needed to enable individuals to access future learning opportunities: to
get a foot on the bottom rung of the ladder of personal development. In
the past, literacy campaigns were directed at this goal: the aim was to
teach each individual the basic skills (traditionally, "the three Rs":
reading, writing and arithmetic) so that they could progress. The war
which had to be waged for the principle of universal literacy was hard
fought, and there are battles still to be won for there are many parts of
the world where basic literacy is still a major problem. Even in the UK
levels of illiteracy are alarmingly high and stubbornly resistant to
action. But even as action to resolve these problems continues, the agenda
has moved on. An influential OECD Study published in 1995[26]
focused on the concept of "functional literacy" and used a
threefold definition:
1. Prose literacy - the knowledge and skills needed to understand
and use information from texts including editorials, news stories, poems
and fiction;
2. Document literacy - the knowledge and skills required to
locate and use information contained in various formats, including job
applications, payroll forms, transportation schedules, maps, tables and
graphics; and
3. Quantitative literacy - the knowledge and skills required to
apply arithmetic operations, either alone or sequentially, to numbers
embedded in printed materials, such as balancing a chequebook, figuring
out a tip, completing an order form or determining the amount of interest
on a loan from an advertisement.
These definitions do not aim to establish a universal standard of
literacy, but to provide working criteria on which to judge individuals'
ability to function in a modern society (in the OECD's words, "literacy
is essential to full civic participation") and without which
employment would be almost impossible to find. Although the connection was
not made explicitly by the OECD Report, they may also be taken as a
baseline without which any post-school individual would find it difficult
to access further learning opportunities and thus to engage in the
learning society.
But we also need to ask what it is that is distinctive about higher
education. The Dearing Review[27] (which
we consider in greater detail in Chapter 5) asked this question and came
to the following conclusion:
"It can be defined as the development of understanding and the
ability to apply knowledge in a range of situations. The requires
information and the opportunity to engage in `learning conversations' with
staff and other students in order to understand and be able to use new
concepts in a particular field. A successful student will be able to
engage in an effective discussion or debate with others in that field,
relying on a common understanding of terms, assumptions, questions, modes
of argument, and the body of evidence. Learning also involves acquiring
skills, such as analysis and communication, but these in isolation do not
constitute learning."
The information explosion, technological change, organisational change
and societal change are all factors which will have profound implications
for everyone involved in learning. It is not just the individual who needs
to be concerned about this. Stakeholders in learning include:
* The individual as learner
* The employer who needs skilled staff
* The academic institution whose mission is to enable and deliver
effective learning
* Society which needs well-educated citizens
* Government which can deliver its programmes and secure future
prosperity through the development of a highly skilled and flexible
workforce.
This multi-dimensional approach has also been adopted quite widely by
organisations which are seeking to take a broader view of their
responsibilities and interests than that implied by simple "customer"
or "shareholder" perspectives. Cameron has suggested that one of
the most critical activities of organisations is the establishment and
maintenance of a "coalition" of external and internal
individuals and groups - also called constituencies - which are supportive
of the success of the organisation[28].
As Brophy and Coulling remarked, "quality to the student may be
focused on the process of education - the lectures and lecturers, the
support services, and so on - while employers might focus much more on the
outputs of institutions and the skills which they bring with them into the
world of work"[29].
For all of these stakeholders, higher education will need to be
influential in developing higher levels of literacy such as might be
expected of individuals who are equipped both for advanced learning and
for positions of responsibility in organisations and society. The
Association of Graduate Recruiters issued a report, also in 1995, which
examined the skills which a new graduate should possess. Its focus was
placed on "Self Reliance Skills". These are:
* Self-Awareness - including the ability to identify where personal
development is needed;
* Self-Promotion - including the ability to promote one's own strengths
in a convincing way;
* Exploring and Creating Opportunities - with good research skills to
identify sources of information;
* Action Planning - including making a plan, implementing it and
evaluating progress;
* Networking - developing a support network of contacts;
* Matching and Decision Making - including prioritisation, matching
opportunities to skills and making informed decisions;
* Negotiation - including the ability "to negotiate the
psychological contract from a position of powerlessness";
* Political Awareness - understanding the tensions and power struggles
within organisations;
* Coping with Uncertainty - adaptability to changing circumstances;
* Development Focus - including a commitment to one's own lifelong
learning, a reflective style and an ability to learn from others'
mistakes;
* Transfer Skills - the ability to apply skills in new contexts;
* Self-confidence - an underlying confidence in one's own abilities and a
"personal sense of self-worth, not dependent on performance".
These skills (and it should be noted that none of them are discipline
specific), together with an appropriate level of knowledge, may be taken
as a reasonable objective for all individuals in an advanced society.
Lifelong learning may thus be seen as a progression, first to an
acceptable standard of literacy, and then on through life to a high level
of knowledge, skill and ability such as that outlined above. The process
of achieving this level, which then must be evaluated, reinforced and
further developed, is what learning is about.
Knapper and Cropley[30] suggest that
lifelong learning would be facilitated by changes in the orientation and
organisation of the existing content of courses and identify a number of
areas thought to define the minimum content necessary in a system devoted
to lifelong learning. These include knowledge of communication, science
and technology, the fine arts, ethics and citizenship, time and space and
how to care for one's own body. These themes, it was suggested, should run
through all courses and programmes to the maximum extent possible.
Extending this approach to university education and lifelong learning
raises issues surrounding specialisation and fragmentation of content, as
opposed to integrating insights from a variety of disciplines. The Dearing
Report (which we consider in greater detail in Chapter 5) enters this
debate with its consideration of key skills. Interestingly it quotes with
approval research which shows that embedding such skills in the
curriculum, rather than treating them as a separate `add-on', is the most
effective method since students respond best to skills acquisition which
has been contextualised. This view can then be broadened out, so that, as
succinctly expressed by Harvey and Knight[31],
"higher education is about transforming the person, not simply about
transforming their skills or domain understanding". Tuijnman[32],
reflecting on the "education vs. training" debate, observes that
the UK is moving closer to the model used in Japan and Germany where there
is more reliance on employer sponsored industrial training, and comments
that "it seems doubtful whether the ideals of lifelong education can
be given real meaning in the context of a training market model". It
follows that there are inconsistencies between the understandings of
higher education which we have outlined and the skills-motivated,
employer-led view which motivates much current policy. Although these
tensions have not yet been made explicit, the reconciliation of these
differences will be an important determinant of the success of policies
like the University for Industry (see Chapter 5).
It is useful, in considering lifelong learning in the context of higher
education, to reflect on the experience of adult education over the last
few decades. An adult learner is defined, according to the U.S. National
Advisory Council for Adult Education, as: "An adult who is enrolled
in any course of study, whether special or regular, to develop new skills
or qualifications, or improve existing skills and qualifications"[33]
This is both a broad and a narrow definition: it is broad in that it
encompasses every student in higher education, but it is narrow in that it
focuses on formal courses of study. In fact, of course, settings for adult
learning need not necessarily be within a formal structure. They may
include "families, community action groups, voluntary societies,
support networks, work groups and interpersonal relationships".[34]
Attempts to identify the principles of adult learning led Burndage and
Mackeracher to outline thirty-six learning principles which included
theories such as "adults are able to learn through out their
lifetimes" and "past experience can be a help or hindrance to
learning." [35]
Dakenwood and Merriam[36] list a more
manageable eight principles of adult learning:
* Adults' readiness to learn depends on the amount of previous learning.
* Motivation produces more widespread and permanent learning.
* Positive reinforcement is effective.
* Learning materials should be presented in an organised fashion.
* Learning is enhanced by repetition.
* Meaningful tasks are more easily learned.
* Active participation in learning improves retention.
* Environmental factors affect learning.
Adult learners and adult learning efforts are varied since prior learning
and prior experience mean that it is uncertain how one adult will respond
to learning, or to new ideas and skills. Adults also have a tendency
toward self-directed learning and adults' self-concepts as learners will
have an effect on the success of their learning experiences.
A recent UK survey[37] showed that 23%
of adults are currently learning and a further 17% have been learning in
the last three years. 48% learn for reasons connected with work and 36%
for personal development reasons. Universities (21%) and colleges (15%)
are the most cited locations for learning, followed by the workplace
(15%), informally at home (10%) and adult education centres (9%). Two
thirds of those studying, and three quarters of people of working age, are
aiming for qualifications. 93% of people believe "learning is
something people do throughout their lives". Participation in
learning is still skewed by social status and educational experience.
Fifty percent of adult learners are middle class, 33% are skilled working
class, 25% unskilled working class and 23% are unemployed.
Tett[38], in her analysis of statistics
relating to participation in higher education produced by the Scottish
Office, maintains that the adult participants tend to be under 35, from
skilled, managerial or professional backgrounds and have positive memories
of, or tangible achievements from, school. Non-participation rates are
highest from older age groups, ethnic minorities, those from semi- and
unskilled occupations, those living in rural areas and women with
dependent children.
Groups in formal post-compulsory education comprise 16-18 year olds in
further education, 18-22 year olds in further and higher education and "mature"
students aged 23+ in further and higher education and elsewhere. "Mature"
students are a very disparate group comprising, for example, women who
interrupted their education to rear children, people wishing to pursue a
change of career (either voluntarily or through redundancy), retired (or
Third Age) individuals, professionals wishing to advance their careers,
the long-term unemployed and those affected by significant life-changes
(e.g. bereavement, financial loss).
The high incidence of self-directed (non-formal) learning amongst adults
was highlighted as early as the `60s and `70s by Johnstone and Rivera[39],
and Tough[40]. Tough found that 98% of
his interview sample had undertaken "learning projects" in the
previous year. (He defined a learning project as "a series of related
episodes, adding up to at least seven hours"). An OECD report[41]
in 1979 concluded that self-directed learning accounted for approximately
two thirds of the total learning efforts of adults. The fact that adults
were choosing to conceive, design, execute and evaluate self-directed
learning activities and that many adults view this as the natural way to
learn had, said Brookfield[42], "enormous
practical implications" for the design of formal curricula and
teaching methods. Indeed, in the 1990s, the demand for open learning has
mushroomed. Field[43] points to the use
of open learning materials by individuals and self-help groups and for
many of these, open learning is an opportunity for self-directed furtive
learning. Field argues that the learning process may be more
attractive to learners if some protection is offered from the outside
world, a view which resonates with the RSA's starting point for learning,
"Create a safe environment", outlined in Chapter 1 above.
While there are a variety of settings in which adults can learn, Tough[44]
found that, paradoxically, most adults felt that education and learning
was not truly valid unless certified by a professional educator and, with
few exceptions, this leads to the identification of `valid' learning
within institutions. However, it has also been noted by many commentators
that formal educational institutions do not have assessment systems which
are geared to learning as a continuum nor to the celebration and
certification of most adults' learning outcomes. Instead they are, as
Longworth has written, "based on division, and the celebration of
success for the few at the expense of failure for the many, within a
restricted set of predetermined aptitudes".[45]
It is here that the divide between higher education and the needs of adult
learners in a learning society may be most keenly felt.
The image of the "traditional" route for higher education
students has been full-time attendance, between the ages of 18-21,
physically based within a higher education institution, usually away from
the parental home, for a duration of three or four years, with minimal but
adequate financial support. This model is being increasingly challenged "by
the accelerating changes in the once almost exclusive constituency of
qualified school leavers"[46].
Changes have not only been in social and educational backgrounds, but also
in modes of attendance. They are full-time, part-time, sandwich course or
distance learning students, benefiting from access courses, accreditation
of prior learning, credit accumulation and transfer, accredited in-house
courses whilst in employment, or partnership programmes between employers
and higher education.
A key question, and one on which a vast body of educational research has
focused, is "how do people learn?". The literature on learning
processes and learning styles is immense and there have been significant
shifts in educational practice in recent decades. In higher education
there has been a marked increase in independent learning, brought about in
part by increases in student numbers and staff-student ratios.
Library staff tend to be very aware of this change because of the
increased time they now have to spend assisting students with their
coursework and because of the lack of basic independent learning skills
which they frequently encounter. At the same time, library staff are
ill-equipped to deal effectively with many of these students - they are
unlikely to have been involved in course planning, are not conversant with
the learning style being promoted by the course team, and are probably not
familiar with the detail of the assessment regime. They may be uncertain
as to just where their role lies in facilitating and encouraging learning
experiences. As information experts librarians will tend to concentrate on
how information is identified, retrieved and used in the learning process,
rather than on issues like social interaction as a learning experience. We
return to this issue in our Conclusions in Chapter 7.
If institutions implement the Dearing Review's recommendation that each
should develop a `learning strategy' there may be an opportunity for these
issues to be debated and for librarians to map out a clearer role within
the learning process as a whole. This could only be to the benefit of
lifelong learners.
A wide variety of models of education are now in use with an equally wide terminology. In this section we summarise the main ways in which learning is organised, recognising that there are many overlaps and many variations in the way courses are organised.
Unlike `open learning' (see 2.5.3), distance education can be very
selective in its student intake, in particular at university and
professional levels. Keegan[47]
identifies the following elements:
* Separation of teacher and learner, which distinguishes it from
face-to-face lecturing
* Influence of an educational organisation, which distinguishes it from
private study
* Provision of two-way communication so that the student may benefit from
or even initiate dialogue
* Possibility of occasional meetings for both didactic and socialisation
purposes
* Participation in an industrialised form of education which, if
accepted, contains the genus of radical separation of distance education
from other forms
To these may be added the adoption of information and communications
technologies. It is already noticeable that a wide range of distance
learning courses are available on the Internet, and the
internationalisation of higher education is gaining momentum from this
source.
Franchised courses are traditional higher education courses but
delivered away from the parent university, usually at a college of further
education[48]. The parent institution
retains responsibility for validating and reviewing the courses, and
students are registered by the franchiser. The franchisee (i.e. the local
college) has responsibility for running and managing the courses,
including responsibility for providing adequate library resources to
students and staff. The course may involve elements of distance learning,
including specially prepared materials, but frequently the learning
methods are identical to those employed in traditional mainstream higher
education (i.e. lectures, tutorials, essays, projects etc.). Not
infrequently, only the first year of a three or four year degree course is
franchised and students join the main in-house cohort for the remainder of
their course.
Research on franchised and other partnership courses between higher and
further education shows that they are aimed at students who tend to be
local, mature, need to study part-time, have been under-achievers, have
caring responsibilities and financial difficulties[49]
Between 1991-2 and 1992-3 the number of franchised students increased from
10,000 to 35,000.
A 1991 EC paper[50] on open and
distance learning in Europe defined open learning as "any form of
learning which includes elements of flexibility which make it more
accessible to students than courses traditionally provided in centres of
education and training. This flexibility arises variously from the content
of the course and the way in which it is structured, the place of
provision, the mode, medium or timing of its delivery, the pace at which
the student proceeds, or the forms of special support available and the
types of assessment offered (including credit for experiential learning).
Very often the "openness" is achieved, in part at least, by the
use of new information and communication media".
Thus the open learner is usually studying in order to achieve a
recognised qualification and often uses materials which have been
specially prepared for this purpose and which do not depend on tutor
support. The "course" does not require attendance at formal
classes or at an institution, does not assume previous qualifications nor
does it impose any time-scale for its completion.
The recent EC White Paper on teaching and learning[51]
identified two main areas where higher education has a role to play in
work-based learning:
* Reintroducing the merits of a broad base of knowledge.
* Building up employability.
The Paper acknowledges the fact the higher education cannot stand alone
in the learning society, but must work with others to achieve the above
aims.
Work based learning can be incorporated into:
* Sandwich courses
* Employment-based learning programmes
* Joint education and industry initiatives
* Continuing professional development programmes
The University for Industry will almost certainly lead to a considerable
expansion in work-based learning: we consider this initiative in Chapter
5.
Sandwich course were developed in the 1960s, and include a lengthy
period of work placement mid-way through a (usually full-time) university
course. Sandwich courses have strong links with higher education and
employment, as the placement is an essential part of the overall
qualification.
Many vocational degree courses also include a short period of work
placement, often at the end of the first or second year depending on the
length of the course. This is seen as an important element of the course
as it prepares students for entry into the workforce, while still in a
learning environment.
This type of learning does not necessarily have any obvious links to
traditional higher education institutions. Organisations can offer
learning in the form of in-house training, external privately run courses
and conferences run by relevant professional bodies. However, the
introduction of Credit Accumulation & Transfer (CAT) Schemes and
modularised courses which were developed in the 1980s have seen a
continued involvement of higher education Institutions and the work-force
through partnerships with local organisations such as the Training
Enterprise Councils (TECs).
The development of NVQs has been influential in securing the recognition
of occupational learning and it is hoped that this will continue to
achieve "improvements in workplace competence of personnel at all
levels..." [52]. Evidence of
competence is another outcome of work-based learning, which can go towards
the achievement of NVQ standards, themselves competence based. There are
however, a number of issues surrounding the assessment of such
competencies, and also the recognition of awards such as the NVQ compared
to other recognised qualifications. Co-operation between relevant parties
i.e. education providers, professional bodies and employers, may be the
only way to overcome deficiencies in the quality of NVQs and their
assessment. The whole issue of competence-based assessment remains a topic
of lively debate.
One example of work-based learning is the Employee Development Schemes
started in the Ford Company in 1989 as EDAP (the Employee Development and
Assistance Programme). These schemes have had a remarkable growth. They
offer employees opportunities to undertake learning activities of their
own choice voluntarily, normally in their own time, but with financial
help from the employer. Training and Enterprise Councils and Industrial
Training Organisations may also give financial help in the early stages.
The Department for Education and Employment advocates these, principally
for smaller employers: "Experience suggests that these schemes bring
business benefits and are very successful in promoting a culture of
learning in employment ..."[53 ]
A number of programmes have been developed which have allowed
universities to link education to the workplace, and thus give students
the chance to acquire skills which could be useful in their working lives.
Examples are:
* PICKUP (Professional Industrial and Commercial Updating)
* EHE (Enterprise in Higher Education)
* Discipline Networks, the successors to EHE
* IGDS (Integrated Graduate Development Scheme)
* CAEL (Council for the Advancement of Experimental Learning) Programs-
US model, works on the theory of "learning by doing".
* CLEO (Compact for Lifelong Educational Opportunities) - US model
provides career information. and inventories, lifelong learning
experiences, degree information. etc.
Professions provide their members with many updating programmes in continuing education. There has not only been considerable debate about the extent to which professions should make it mandatory for members to attend such courses, but also about who should be providing such courses. Universities and colleges of further education also offer continuing education for the professions, as do many professional bodies and others.
Extra-Mural (literally "Beyond the Walls") Courses are a
particular form of adult education traditionally provided by universities
in the UK. Their origins are in the use of peripatetic tutors sent to
industrial areas from Oxford and Cambridge in the 19th century. This
practice was followed by some, but not all, of the redbrick universities
(e.g. Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Southampton etc.). Unlike adult
education generally the epitome of university extra-mural work was the "tutorial
class", a three year sustained programme at degree level, often in
collaboration with the Workers' Educational Association which was founded
in 1903. Many tutors and students from these classes, including R. H.
Tawney and E. P. Thompson, achieved international academic reputations.
The high level of commitment required by students, the cost, and the
increasing importance attached to vocational and industrial work and not
least the emergence of the Open University as a major force in distance
education, brought about a change in these programmes in the 1970s.
Extra-mural courses were traditionally viewed as a form of adult
education. As a result, extra-mural departments were often viewed as "valuing
mainly liberal over occupationally oriented work"[54]
which led them to be isolated from the rest of the institution. The
current interest in lifelong learning and of "preparing citizens for
the learning society" has raised the profile of extra-mural activity
which may provide a way forward. Although terminology is changing, what
are in effect extra-mural courses are run at many colleges and
universities throughout the UK.[55]
Courses range from short one day programmes to longer in-depth courses
Independent learning can be understood to have several meanings. At one
extreme it has been taken to mean correspondence courses. At the other, as
Gagne points out, everyone is an independent learner to some extent, for
everyone learns as part of everyday life. In formal classrooms each
learner sorts and understands the teachings in his or her own way.
Therefore, "all learners perceive and codify stimuli in an
individual, idiosyncratic fashion and to that extent all learning
activities are characterised by a degree of independence".[56]
It has also been argued that independent learning is an impossibility, as
the term can be used of too many concepts to have meaning, for example
factors that influence the "independent" learner could be "a
teacher in a classroom, an author of a book or a producer of a film,
record or tape...", [57] all of
which could render the learner as not being not truly independent.
Brookfield identifies independent learning, and more specifically adult
independent learning, as "learning which occurs independently of the
formal education system and which is characterised by learner
responsibility for the direction and execution of learning"[58].
Here the definition has focused beyond everyday experience to a
learner-centred and essentially informal activity, and this is probably
the most useful approach.
Adult learners are a disparate group in terms of background, age,
educational attainment and motives for learning. Each individual's prior
learning and prior experience influences his or her responses to learning
new ideas and skills, as do factors such as personality type and current
job. The motivation to learn can be prompted by work-related reasons or by
the desire for personal development, or both. The need or desire to engage
in learning can occur at any point during an adult's lifetime.
There have been significant changes in the development, structure and
delivery of university courses thus allowing adults to undertake a more
flexible approach to their studies (by distance learning, part-time and
franchised courses) than that required by full-time attendance on
traditional courses. Adults are keen to take up the opportunities offered.
Between 1991 and 1992, there was a three fold increase in the number of
students undertaking locally franchised courses, for example.
Work-based learning is incorporated into sandwich courses,
employment-based learning programmes, continuing professional development
programmes, and other education and industry initiatives involving the
higher education sector. It is set to see rapid expansion through the
University for Industry and other developments.
The "messiness" of lifelong learning described in Chapter 1
stems from the complexities of the learning process itself, combined with
the infinite number of variables and motivations which characterise the
adult learner. Learning is a process from which the acquisition of and
development of skills, abilities, knowledge and understanding are the
outcomes. Learning needs to be a structured process involving planning,
direction, evaluation and review. Learning is a lifetime experience.
Yet we cannot assume that the future will be no more than an
extrapolation of the past. Of all the influences on society and on the
individual the emergence of the networked information society may prove to
be the most profound in the coming decades. Before we describe and analyse
current governmental and societal views on lifelong learning, we therefore
turn in the next chapter to a short discussion of the likely impacts of
information and communications technologies on learning.
No consideration of lifelong learning would be complete without
reference to the enormous impact which Information and Communications
Technologies (ICTs) are making and have the potential to make. In a very
short period of time it has become possible to deliver interactive
learning materials and a real-time supporting infrastructure to most
locations on the planet using the Internet. The World Wide Web has become
an everyday tool for many millions of people in only a few short years.
Suddenly the technical infrastructure which will enable those seeking to
deliver and support lifelong learning to reach those seeking to access and
use its opportunities is in place. Some see this as the key ingredient
which will enable lifelong learning to become a reality:
".. the information technology revolution is creating a new form of
electronic, interactive education that should blossom into a lifelong
learning system that allows almost anyone to learn almost anything from
anywhere at any time"[59]
It is almost impossible to predict the full impact of the information and
communications revolution on education. In this short Chapter we attempt
merely to highlight some of the most significant developments.
Figures for use of the Internet vary wildly, but it is fairly safe to assume that before the end of the millennium in excess of 100 million people will have access to the Internet. Although their access may not be without problems - it may be from an out of date PC or may rely on a slow telecoms line - they will nevertheless be able to access much educational material that was previously not only inaccessible but completely unknown. More than that, the existence of a market of this size will encourage more and more producers of materials, packages and support services to develop suitable software. What may now appear to be rather crude and low level learning packages will become more and more sophisticated and will be much better adapted to the networked environment in the future. Access to the Internet will provide access to such materials and will be a key driving force behind lifelong learning. As technology advances, greater bandwidth will enable products of increasing sophistication to be delivered.
There will be continued development of multimedia products which contain a well-designed mix of video, audio, text and graphics which will incorporate both learning materials and supporting information sources. Such materials may be delivered online, probably using the World Wide Web and with links provided to relevant sites and systems across the world, or may be packaged as CD-ROMs (or equivalent) thus enabling very large amounts of data to be transported very cheaply and used with acceptable response times and without incurring large telecommunications costs. A feature of multimedia packages is that they can be used non-sequentially, so that the learning experience can be tailored to the needs of each individual - providing that the learner has sufficient support and guidance not to become lost in a never-ending maze. For this reason it is to be expected that the role of the "learning designer" will be crucial: multimedia will cease to be a product put together by technical experts but will be the delivery vehicle for well-designed learning experiences which are based on sound pedagogic approaches.
Networks will also be used increasingly to enable people to communicate over distances (or merely around the same office) using video conferencing and sophisticated software products. These will include conferencing software such as FirstClass® which is a computer conferencing package which has evolved from email and bulletin board systems to provide a system which enables large numbers of individuals to participate in discussions or to observe or follow discussion "threads". It operates through a very simple graphical interface or can be configured to launch from a web browser: many thousands of Open University students already use FirstClass. More sophisticated products like Lotus Notes® also have wide user bases. Such packages enable students to share data and to communicate in designated groups, and allow tutors to guide the discussions and deliberations of large groups of students.
The Teaching & Learning Technology Programme (TLTP) was launched in
1992 by the then Universities Funding Council with the dual aims to "make
teaching and learning more productive and efficient by harnessing modern
technology and to help institutions to respond effectively to the current
substantial growth in student numbers and to promote and maintain the
quality of provision". To date there have been three phases to the
Programme with total investment not far short of £100 million. To
give just two examples, the TILT: Teaching with Independent Learning
Technologies Project has produced a large number of packages for
different subjects, including "GraphIT!: an introduction to graphs &
plots for basic statistics", a package on "Sharpening of Dental
Instruments" and a "BIOSIS Biological Abstracts on CD-ROM
Tutorial". Personalised Advice on Study Skills at Edinburgh
University, uses computer- and text-based study skills packages to help
students to study better and supports staff through analysis of group and
individual study problems. It also offers tailored guidance to students.
The TLTP Programme came in for considerable criticism in an evaluation
undertaken by Coopers & Lybrand, the Institute of Education and the
Tavistock Institute in 1996. Among their findings were:
"We received several reports of where senior management was judged,
as one project director put it, to have "no vision at all" and
where TLTP material was apparently ghettoised within a single part of a
single department."
"Very few of the projects appear to have any systems in place which
would allow the measurement or quantification of any gain. It is therefore
difficult to see how .... any benefits ... within the participating
institutions ... can be assessed."
"By far the greater part of the material of TLTP aims to computerise
the technologies of books and lectures .... we found many of the packages
lacking in innovation as they did not compare well with the best of the
genre."
"We found that project teams who were willing to indicate explicitly
that their work was based on a particular model of learning were an
exception."
and so on.
Of course much of value has come from TLTP. However, the criticisms that
have been made reinforce the view that for technology to be effective in
promoting and enabling lifelong learning the pedagogic issues must be at
the forefront. In this Report, we have for this reason concentrated first
on learning, and taken a much briefer approach to the technologies.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that the support of learning with quality information (i.e. information which is timely, accurate, reliable, accessible and so on) is an essential for learning. Reference to the previous Chapter will confirm that some of the most important approaches to learning are dependent on the ability to gather, analyse and synthesise information. In a rapidly changing world in which information can be out-of-date almost as rapidly as it is produced it is important for the learner to be guided to appropriate sources - and to learn the skill of finding such sources for him/herself. We consider some of the most important developments among university libraries in Chapter 6 below, including the eLib Programme itself. However, it is worth noting here that many commentators see the future of the library profession in assuring information quality rather than in direct end-user support or in the acquisition of information sources. Interesting eLib projects in the Access to Networked Resources category may point the way forward, while the new "hybrid library" demonstrator projects which will provide unified resource discovery and resource delivery services emphasise the point.
As network-based learning has developed a number of practitioners (both
teachers and librarians) have become involved in the complex issue of
supporting learners in the networked environment - both on- and
off-campus. The eLib NetLinkS Project, based at the University of
Sheffield, has provided a focus for development of this concept in the UK
and has hosted a number of conferences.[60]
A variety of tools will be developed to enable tutors to manage the
learning process. It is essential that new technologies are not allowed to
swamp individuals with administrative tasks, but are designed to enable
the tutor to make maximum use of technology to assist in the effectiveness
of the learning of his/her students. A number of JISC Technology
Application Programme (JTAP) projects are active in this area. For
example, the Networked Delivery of Undergraduate Tests Project at
the University of Bristol is providing a automated, secure testing system
over JANET. Students will receive immediate feedback while the server will
also collect the results from the tests so that lecturers can follow the
progress of their students. Another JTAP Project, at the University of
Wales, Bangor, called Toolkit for the Management of Learning is
designing a system which will allow:
* on-line interaction between student and tutor to allow the negotiation
and creation of study programmes
* the management, categorisation, browsing and searching of computer
based learning resources
* the creation of individualised learning programmes from these resources
* the creation of student profiles consisting of grades, comments and
suggestions based on students' use of resources and other learning
activities
* the sorting, searching and querying of these profiles to allow the
creation of further study programmes
* access to new technological tools as an integral part of the process of
learning.
This list illustrates how the management of the learning process can
itself become part of the learning process as it encourages an iterative
approach which facilitates further learning. Many more examples could be
cited.
What is apparent from these developments is that ICTs are starting to
force a redefinition of support structures and learning environments which
goes well beyond the typical 'convergence' of traditional services. In a
paper at the conference referred to above, Banks [61]suggested
that a networked learning support strategy requires the definition of
three new roles: the subject tutor - the specialist in a curriculum area;
the progression tutor - the tutor with an overall view of the student's
learning needs and progress, who provides counselling around this, etc.;
and the information specialist - providing support around
information/resource needs.
These developments illustrate that traditional structures which at first
glance appear not to have been unduly influenced by ICTs may in fact be
facing profound change. The social impacts of ICTs within higher education
institutions will, almost certainly, be profound.
ICTs will, without a doubt, revolutionise learning. To some extent librarians find themselves in the vanguard of these developments since they have felt the impact of ICTs on the services they provide relatively early. However, the lessons which have already been learned from the use of ICTs in learning need to be heeded by librarians as they consider how best to structure their services for the lifelong learner. It is always worth recalling that learning is essentially a social process. Some approaches to technology and learning have seen the future as no more than the delivery of packaged learning to the individual in the home or office. That is an inadequate and deeply inhuman vision. Yet social interaction does not have to mean face-to-face contact between tutor and student all, or even any of, the time. Students can benefit greatly from interacting with fellow students tens, hundreds or thousands of miles away. The key to successful use of technology in lifelong learning lies in designing packages and support from the perspective of learning, not from the viewpoint of technology.
The view is growing that a culture of lifelong learning is needed by
society as we approach and enter the 21st century. Lifelong
learning is the enabler which will help create an inclusive society in
which every citizen is valued, in which every citizen can participate
fully and in which every citizen can achieve his or her full potential. It
will enable the development of communities which support and enrich the
lives of each member. It will provide the skills and knowledge base which
will secure the economic prosperity of individual societies in an ever
more competitive world.
Internationally, there is a growing emphasis on education as being much
more than a one-off activity, engaged in - or perhaps endured - in early
life. As Jean-Claude Paye, Secretary-General of the OECD, put it in 1995:
"Continuing to expand education and training systems that rely upon
learning opportunities limited to early life ... will not suffice as a
strategy for meeting today'' challenges .... Much has been said over the
years about lifelong learning but, in truth, it is still a reality for
only a tiny segment of the populations of OECD countries. The huge task
now facing OECD Governments is to make it a reality for a progressively
expanding part of the population, so that it eventually becomes a reality
for all."[62]
As we have seen, the concept of lifelong learning can be traced back
decades and even centuries. However, the first Global Conference on
Lifelong Learning was held in Rome as recently as 1994[63].
The conference was initiated and managed by the European Lifelong Learning
Initiative (ELLI) which was set up to provide input and to be involved in
European and international projects on lifelong learning.
The principles of the conference were based on the ELLI definition of
lifelong learning:
"a continuously supportive process which stimulates and empowers
individuals to acquire all the knowledge, values, skills and understanding
they will require throughout their lifetimes and to apply them with
confidence, creativity and enjoyment in all roles, circumstances, and
environments."
The World Initiative on Lifelong Learning was formed to develop the
sharing of good practice relating to lifelong learning and to set and
monitor standards for global lifelong learning. Many of the Initiative's
activities, which include global conferences, books and journals, research
projects and lifelong learning projects with Higher Education
institutions, were based on recommendations which emerged from the First
Global Conference on Lifelong Learning.
The findings, conclusions and recommendations from the conference have
been presented as the Lifelong Agenda for the 21st Century and include:
* The Action Agenda for the 21st Century [64]
* The Community Action for Lifelong Learning (CALL) [65]
The Action Agenda focused on the individual's need for a personal
learning plan, written down and supported by a mentor or guide. CALL goes
on to outline recommendations for sectors of the community.
The European Commission designated 1996 as the European Year of Lifelong
Learning, from which publications, policies, projects and initiatives have
sprung forth. The 1996 European Year of Lifelong Learning recognised the
changing way in which education is viewed and delivered, the vast amount
of knowledge that is available through modern technology, and that unequal
access can lead to forms of social exclusion. The EU sees the concept of
lifelong learning as "promoting education and training throughout the
life cycle"[66] which in turn
shapes the way people view and manage their lives.
Edith Cresson, the European Commissioner for Education, Training and
Youth, emphasised the need for citizens to be "encouraged and
empowered to take on more responsibility for planning and carrying through
their own personal and professional development on a lifelong basis"
[67]. Mme Cresson identified four key
issues for lifelong learning:
* Changing the way we think about learning, teaching and training:
People need to view learning as an ongoing process, not one that is
learned for a specific goal, i.e. an examination or qualification, and
then forgotten or avoided. It is also desirable to acquire more of a broad
base of knowledge, which can be built upon where and when appropriate.
This view is also expressed in the book "Transforming Higher
Education"[68] which sees "transformative
learning" as a way of building new information onto old, and
promoting new ways of looking at things: this way of learning is more of
an attitude for life, and for continued learning. Higher Education alone
cannot achieve this attitude. The learner needs to move on from gaining a
higher education qualification towards mastering skills in the workforce.
Motivation for learning must be generated from an early age in order to
sustain this culture throughout life. Motivation also means developing the
capacity to learn, which goes hand in hand with lifelong learning.
* Strengthening the foundation for lifelong learning in initial
education and training:
A degree of flexibility is essential. This not only means a more flexible
approach to courses, with regard to access and structure, but also with
regard to transferability of qualifications, for example between Member
States of the EU. One suggestion for this, made in the EC White Paper Towards
the Learning Society, is a European Personal Skills Card. The paper
also sees that a labour market that does not recognise skills and
qualifications unless they conform to a standard profile is one that will
"cause substantial wastage by locking out talent"[69].
* Promoting flexible learning pathways for individuals between
education, training and work:
Whilst education and training will not necessarily guarantee employment,
a lack of it can be seen as "a major factor in unemployment and
exclusion" [70]. The need for
flexible learning pathways is essential in order to address the problem.
Some countries have recognised this and offer "second chance"
opportunities, with initiatives such as tuition out of normal timetable
hours, open learning, and networks for the education of adults who have
dropped out of school or university.
* Focusing on the learning needs of organisations:
Organisations need to move towards becoming "learning organisations"
in order to survive. Organisational change has been brought about by the
rapid movements of modern technology. In order to keep up with changes
both within a specific market and as a whole, an "organisational
learning approach" is needed. This looks on individual learning and
organisational learning as two factors which contribute to each other's
effectiveness and ultimate survival.
Although, as we have seen, the concept of lifelong learning can be
traced back a long way in the UK as elsewhere, the recent emphasis on the
subject was encapsulated in a the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) initiative
launched in April 1996. The Campaign for Learning was created with
the aim of establishing a "learning society" by the year 2000.
This learning society would see every individual in the UK participating
in some form of learning throughout their lives and would motivate people
to take charge of their own learning.
The motivation issue was addressed through a MORI survey [71]
which divided the nation into four broad groups:
* Improvers.
* Strivers.
* Drifters.
* Strugglers.
Improvers are defined as "people who know the value of learning and
are taking effective action to better themselves". Definitions of the
strivers, drifters and strugglers range from "people who know the
value of learning, but are not doing enough or applying themselves enough",
to people who "neither value learning or intend to practice it".
The Campaign for Learning aims to move as many people as possible towards
the "improvers" stage. Other categories could include people who
know the value of learning but who find barriers (generally beyond their
control), which constantly impede their learning. Such barriers might
include age, language, lack of childcare, inflexible courses, lack of
access to courses etc. The model of `messy learning' which the Campaign
for Learning developed has already been described in Chapter 1.
Also in 1996, a Labour Party document on Lifelong Learning[72]
included a statement by David Blunkett the (then) Shadow Education and
Employment Secretary, that society has a choice with regard to its future.
It can "be a low-tech, low-added value, low-wage economy, or we can
move into the 21st century determined to be at the cutting edge of change".
This, he stated, could be achieved "by equipping people with the
appropriate skills, provided in the most appropriate format, to meet the
needs of the individual and thus create a "prosperous, cohesive and
contented society". The document then went on to outline the Labour
party's framework for lifelong learning by addressing four key principles:
* Quality of teaching and research
* Access for all, in particular those who have not traditionally
participated in further and higher education.
* Equity in provision of funding so that no one is denied access due to
financial circumstances.
* Accountability and responsiveness to students and to the wider needs of
the community[73].
As part of this commitment organisations would be encouraged to take a
lead in the continuous development of their workforces and individuals
would be enabled and encouraged to take responsibility for their own
learning. Such policies were not limited to the Labour Party in
opposition, however. The then-Conservative Government published a
consultative paper on lifetime learning[74]
in 1996 which focused on continuing education and training, and the
updating of skills beyond the initial education phase, i.e. schools,
colleges, universities. The paper looked towards the role of employers and
how Government can contribute to developing the culture of lifetime
learning and stressed the importance of "a highly motivated, flexible
and well qualified workforce to the United Kingdom's international
competitiveness". Three principles were addressed to all employers,
education and training providers, as well as to individuals:
* All employers should invest in employee development to achieve business
success.
* All individuals should have access to education and training
opportunities.
* All education and training should develop self-reliance, flexibility
and breadth, in particular through fostering competence in core skills.
The principles took as a starting-point the need for individuals to make
themselves "marketable in the competition for jobs and effective in
the life of their communities, through knowledge and skills".
Transferable vocational skills were seen as important since they not only
have relevance to specific jobs, but can be used in employment elsewhere.
However, the paper also stressed that the motivation to learn throughout
one's life must be backed up by relevant legislation and technological
provision. The effects of policies and developments need to be monitored,
and education and training providers need to continually improve their
outputs in order to meet the needs of a learning market which is driven by
customers and their choices.
Writing almost a year after the new government took office, it is timely
to examine in some detail the policy framework that is starting to emerge
in this area. In the next Chapter, we therefore look at the major reports
of the last nine months: Dearing, Kennedy, and Fryer, and then examine the
government's response in the form of the February 1998 Green Paper, The
Learning Age.
Considerable attention is being given to lifelong learning on a
world-wide scale. A number of initiatives and programmes are identifying
key areas to be addressed. For example, the creation of learning
organisations was a key item on the Action Agenda in the World Initiative
on Lifelong Learning , whilst a key issue in the European Year of Lifelong
Learning agenda was to strengthen the foundation for lifelong learning. In
the UK, the Campaign for Learning, launched by the RSA has the ultimate
objective of creating a learning society by the year 2000. The UK
government is reinforcing its commitment to lifelong learning by preparing
a White Paper for publication in November 1997, with the aim of providing
an overall vision and stimulating discussion.
It is recognised therefore that a culture of lifelong learning is a
fundamental requirement in society. As noted in Chapter 1, the term "lifelong
learning" has been used by various commentators to describe an array
of educational activities and objectives. This Report began with a plea
for a clearer definition of the term if progress is to be made in pursuing
many of the international and national initiatives and their admirable
objectives outlined in this Chapter. Our working definition of lifelong
learning is therefore repeated here and provides a backdrop to the policy
documents summarised in the next Chapter:
Lifelong learning is a deliberate progression throughout the life
of an individual, where the initial acquisition of knowledge and skills is
reviewed and upgraded continuously, to meet challenges set by an ever
changing society.
Although both the Dearing Review of Higher Education[75]
and the Kennedy Review of Further Education[76]
were set up before the Labour government took office in May 1997, they
both reported after that event. The Fryer Report[77]
was the first output from the new government's National Advisory Group for
Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning, set up in June 1997. The final
major document we consider in this Chapter, the government's Green paper
entitled The Learning Age[78],
appeared in late February 1998.
In addition to these papers, each with its own emphasis on lifelong
learning, there have been a series of other significant documents
appearing in recent months. We refer particularly to the Department for
Education & Employment's paper on the establishment of The
Learning Grid[79] and to the Library
and Information Commission's New Library: The People's Network[80],
since these have particular relevance to the role of libraries in the
establishment of lifelong learning in society.
The Dearing Report appeared under the title of Higher Education in
the Learning Society in July 1997. It proved to be a vast document,
the 467 page main report being supported by a further ten bound volumes.
As its title implied, a Committee established to "make
recommendations on how the purposes, shape, structure, size and funding of
higher education ... should develop to meet the needs of the United
kingdom over the next twenty years" placed its findings firmly in the
context of a vision of learning as fundamental to society itself. This
vision was clearly articulated at the outset:
"UK higher education must:
* Encourage and enable all students - whether they demonstrate the
highest intellectual potential or whether they have struggled to reach the
threshold of higher education - to achieve beyond their expectations
* Safeguard the rigour of its awards, ensuring that the UK qualifications
meet the needs of UK students and have standing throughout the world
* Be at the leading edge of world practice in effective teaching and
learning
* Undertake research that matches the best in the world, and make its
benefits available to the nation
* Ensure that its support for regional and local communities is at least
comparable to that provided by higher education in competitor nations
* Sustain a culture which demands disciplined thinking, encourages
curiosity, challenges existing ideas and generates new ones
* Be part of the conscience of a democratic society, founded on respect
for the rights of the individual and the responsibilities of the
individual to society as a whole
* Be explicit and clear in how it goes about its business, be accountable
to students and to society and seek continuously to improve its own
performance."
A report of the size and complexity of Dearing does not lend itself to
simple summary. However, the following ideas and recommendations are
particularly important for the achievement of the lifelong learning agenda
ion the UK and for the role of libraries in delivering that agenda.
Dearing recommended that the `cap' on student numbers currently in place
should be lifted with the objective of raising the participation rate from
approximately 32% to around 45% of young people. There should be
particular emphasis on increasing numbers of `sub-degree' (a somewhat
unfortunate term) students, especially those studying in further education
colleges via franchise and similar arrangements, but no increase in degree
level work in those colleges. There was emphasis on widening participation
to under-represented groups, and particularly to those who had missed out
on higher education the first time round. Expansion of part-time student
numbers was seen as likely, especially taking into account a view
expressed by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals that, "such
groups could grow at a much faster rate as a consequence of the need for
lifelong learning and continued personal and professional development".
An implication of these recommendations is that there will be an
expansion of off-campus (or at least off university campus)
delivery of higher education, with obvious implications for support
services. As more mature students are attracted into higher education
there will be a need to rethink induction programmes and make them more
relevant to the pre-existing skills and experience of new entrants. Larger
numbers of part-time students could have many implications for access to
library services, including hours of opening with fully staffed services
and delivery of services (although librarians were reported as doubted the
feasibility of this[81]).
The Report placed great emphasis on promoting the development of
learning and on the need for institutions to have in place a `learning
strategy'. It was noted that as yet teaching methods have not changed
significantly, despite changes in the learning environment including
reductions in class contact and a much greater emphasis on independent
study. Dearing quoted with approval Boyer[82]:
"Great teachers create a common ground of intellectual commitment.
They stimulate active, not passive, learning and encourage students to be
critical, creative thinkers, with the capacity to go on learning after
their college days are over."
Overall, Dearing saw a situation in which "innovative teaching
strategies which promote students' learning .... will have to become
widespread."
As we have seen, Dearing saw UK higher education as being required to "be
at the leading edge of world practice in effective learning and teaching".
On a national level this was to be achieved through the establishment of
an `Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education', which would:
* Accredit teacher education programmes (as we move towards a situation
where all teachers in higher education in the UK have an appropriate
teaching qualification)
* Undertake and sponsor research and development in learning and teaching
* Stimulate innovation in learning and teaching.
At institutional level the Report stated that "with immediate
effect, all institutions of higher education (should) give high priority
to developing and implementing learning and teaching strategies which
focus on the promotion of students' learning". The Committee stated
(what some might regard as an obvious point), that "planning for
learning means that designing the forms of instruction which support
learning becomes as important as preparing the content of programmes".
The Committee did not prescribe the ways in which institutions should
address these issues, but offered some guidance on what a strategy should
contain: "an effective strategy will involve guiding and enabling
students to be effective learners, to understand their own learning
styles, and to manage their own learning". The Report continued, "We
see this as not only directly relevant to enhancing the quality of
(students') learning while in higher education, but also to equipping them
to be effective lifelong learners. Staff will increasingly be involved in
the management of students' learning, using a range of appropriate
strategies."
This section of the Report thus links very closely to Chapter 2. For
librarians in higher education it foreshadows ever greater changes in
learning methods and the organisation of learning, and few could doubt
that this will lead to yet more emphasis on independent learning.
Librarians surveyed by Dearing were unconvinced that the resources, or
even the willingness, to create new, independent, student-oriented
learning environments exists. Dearing's Report 4 states:
"It could be argued that an independent-learning environment ...
requires two things:
* An injection of time and resources to ensure that students are able to
take responsibility for their own learning; and
* A student body which is willing to take responsibility for their (sic)
own learning."
In the view of support staff "most academic staff no longer had
either the time or the knowledge to provide students with the information
and skills needed to direct their own studies" while "many
students were ill-prepared for an independent-learning environment".
Furthermore, "library staff believed that academics were unaware of
students' problems because they had become so removed from the teaching
process".
Dearing called them `Communications and Information Technologies' (C&IT),
unlike the rest of the world, but their centrality was obvious from the
start. It was helpful that the Report's view on the contribution of ICTs
to teaching and learning began with a grounding in reality and in good
educational practice: "personal contact between teacher and student,
and between student and student, gives a vitality, originality and
excitement that cannot be provided by machine-based learning, however
excellent. When free to make a choice, even though it costs more,
individuals are likely to choose to receive information and experience in
the company of others, even as part of a group. Our own view, stated in
the conclusions to Chapter 3, that `learning is a social process' is very
much in line with this thinking.
However, with that word of warning, it was clear that Dearing was
enthused by the possibilities of ICTs. One recommendation was that all
institutions should be required to have in place overarching
communications and information strategies by 1999/2000. By 2000/01 all
students should have access to a networked desktop computer (something
most have already achieved surely) and by 2005/06 access to their own
laptop (ignoring the fact that technology will probably have made laptops
obsolete by then!). Appropriate training for all staff would be required
if the full potential of technology was to be realised, and staff roles
would need constant reappraisal.
The Report noted the perhaps disappointing results from the Teaching and
Learning Technology Programme (TLTP - see 3.5) but encouraged further work
in this area, with a new emphasis on partnerships, both
inter-institutional and international and on materials that can be used by
large numbers of students. A pertinent comment for librarians to note was,
"Increased use of new technology will have major implications for the
way in which staff and students work. Students will need to develop
advanced skills in searching for and selecting valid, relevant and
up-to-date information from computer-based storage. They will look to
institutions" - presumably to library staff - "to guide them
through the information maze".
Dearing spent some considerable time looking at the question of the
`key' or `generic' skills which students graduating from universities
should possess. The Report suggested that these were quite limited in
number, viz.
* communication skills
* numeracy
* the use of information technology
* learning how to learn
It was interesting to note that, after reviewing the evidence, the Report
came down in favour of embedding key skills in the curriculum,
rather than teaching them in parallel courses. This recommendation has
considerable implications for librarians, since it suggests that
information skills should be taught as an integral part of students'
curricula and not as a `bolt on' or additional course. It is of course
much harder for librarians to control the information skills curriculum in
this model, although it has the merit of making the skills much more
relevant to the students' other work. However, the assumption that
appropriate generic IT skills, for example, can always be grafted onto the
curriculum seems somewhat implausible, and in any case is it realistic to
assume that every course team will be able to command the necessary
expertise? It is surprising that there has not been more debate about this
issue to date.
A theme running through the Dearing Report is that of co-operation
between institutions. Co-operation may be between universities on a
regional basis, may - as we have seen - involve institutions
internationally in the development of new course materials, may be between
industry and academia (especially in relation to the University for
Industry - see section 5.5), may be between higher and further education
institutions, and may involve those outside education/industry as
institutions seek to develop their wider role in the community. Regional
collaboration is strongly endorsed.
For librarians it was perhaps disappointing that Dearing did not give
greater emphasis to the remarkable success of JISC's information content
activities, both in making content widely available and in the eLib
programme. Dearing repeats the dogma of `exit strategies', despite the
very discouraging past history of this approach, and fails to make any
real case for continued central funding for services and service
development. Again, however, this is surely an area where at the very
least some hard analysis is needed since institutional vested interests
could all too easily subvert strategies of national benefit.
On a broader front, Dearing has been criticised for providing very little
vision of higher education beyond traditional institutional boundaries.
There are no visions of a new form of higher education which engages
people beyond institutional frameworks, nor even suggestions of how higher
education could be embedded in an experience of lifelong learning which is
centred on the learner - for example, where an individual wishes to dip in
and out of professional and cultural learning that defies neat
pigeon-holing as `further' or `higher' education. It is here that Dearing
offers least to the lifelong learning agenda.
The `Widening Participation Committee', chaired by Helena Kennedy QC,
was set up by the Further Education Funding Council in December 1994. It
has produced a number of publications, but its key report, entitled
Learning Works, appeared in June 1997. Its significance was enhanced
by its appearance alongside the Dearing Report and its recommendations on
expansion of further education which appeared to be very much in line with
the new government's thinking. It also opened up a debate about the
relationship between further and higher education and the relative funding
of each.
The Kennedy Report provides a number of useful and challenging
commentaries on lifelong learning. Thus, for example, under a heading of
`Breaking Down the Barriers to Learning':
"Traditional approaches to attracting learners are not reaching a
wide enough spectrum of the population. Promotional activities are
successful in recruiting people who are receptive to the idea of learning;
people for whom learning holds out a promise of benefit. The challenge is
to reach the non-learners - people who do not respond to prospectuses,
leaflets and advertisements, no matter how well they are produced. These
are people who feel that learning is not for them."
The emphasis is thus on widening and not simply on increasing
participation.
An interesting recommendation that there should be a new `Charter for
Learning', which would set out the rights of all individual learners aged
over 16, has not found favour with the government and thus will not be an
issue for the higher education sector at this stage.
Early drafts of the Report contained strong calls for a redistribution of
funding from higher to further education. This was toned down in the
published Report, but it is now clear that further education is very much
a government priority in the development of lifelong learning.
One feature of the Kennedy Report which is worthy of note is its plea for
a shift away from a `market forces' approach to further education, with
colleges competing fiercely for students and resources, with a new
national system of "permanent local strategic partnerships".
Further education librarians may thus find new opportunities for
collaboration in providing support services.
One of the new Government's earliest actions was to set up the National
Advisory Group for Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning. Chaired by
Professor R.H. Fryer, the Group issued its first Report in November 1997,
Learning for the Twenty-First Century. The main thrust of this
report lies in the need to develop a culture of lifelong learning
for all:
"Above all, a vision of a learning culture will envisage learning as
a normal, accessible, productive and enjoyable (if demanding) feature of
everyday life for all people, throughout their lives. It will provide
stimulus and opportunities for people to be able to make use of
information, skills and knowledge to improve their own lives and those of
their loved ones, fellow citizens and people in other countries. Lifelong
learning can change people's lives, even transform them ............".
The challenges that must be faced if this lifelong learning culture is to
be achieved are multifarious:
* The disappearance of `jobs for life', illustrated by massive industrial
change (e.g. in the steel and coal industries) but in fact much more
widespread especially as constant technological development and rapid
organisational change take hold
* The need for new skills and competencies, but in a fast-changing
environment where it is very difficult to predict exactly which skills
will be needed
* Social change, for example the roles played within families changing
through far more one-parent families and the demise of the idea of a
family `breadwinner'
* Social exclusion, which has worsened as social and economic
inequalities have increased in recent years, and has been partly
responsible for
* Lack of basic skills, which results in a vicious circle of deprivation
through exclusion from employment and thus from work-based training
* and so on
The Fryer Report sees the development of the Information Society as a
two-edged sword. It offers great opportunities: "learning at home and
outside conventional educational establishments will become more
widespread" but "increasingly, those who do not understand how
to use these technologies will be excluded from active participation in
civil and democratic society". Nevertheless, Fryer is positive about
the opportunities that now offer themselves:
"The most important challenge is to recognise that high quality
learning is not the exclusive preserve of the educational institution or
the training centre. Much learning has always happened outside these
locations, and change, including curricular and technological change, is
making it easier for such change to happen. We increasingly need
flexibility in the times, locations and forms of learning so that they
better suit the needs of individuals and groups. We need to see that all
can benefit from the emerging opportunities, both formal and informal, at
all stages of their lives."
The Fryer report goes on to articulate a vision of lifelong learning for
all. Eight core principles on which this can be built are spelled out:
* A coherent vision which is articulated as the Government's strategy
* An equitable approach, which makes "learning ... a normal,
accessible, productive and enjoyable (if demanding) feature of everyday
life".
* Putting learners and learning at the centre of policy and good practice
* An emphasis on variety and diversity, in terms of the `what', `where',
`when' etc. of learning
* All branches of government, and not just the `Department for Education
and Employment', should be engaged in the development of a learning
culture for the nation
* High quality and flexible provision
* Effective partnerships including what are termed `local, strategic
partnerships'
* Shared responsibility between government, other public authorities and
bodies, employers, providers and individuals
The Report then goes on to consider the implementation of `Lifelong
Learning for All' in considerable detail. Among the significant and
interesting suggestions are those on the development of learning in the
community and at home. Fryer suggests that the government should continue
to encourage the development of Learning Cities (see page 7), Towns and
Communities and should support the establishment of local Learning
Centres: "At its best, a local learning centre can offer access to
information technology, including personal computers with CD-ROMs, access
to the Internet and broadcasting, software, print materials, and access to
a learning adviser. It offers, too, a context for learning at a distance
convivially. Such centres .... Should enrich the learning capacity of
village halls in rural communities, develop the role of libraries and
museums, and build on college learning resource centres."
These references to libraries and learning resource centres are further
expanded:
"In promoting lifelong learning, and widening access, full use
should be made of the major community resource which is invested in
libraries, museums and study centres. They already have an excellent track
record in providing learners of all ages and from a variety of backgrounds
with a rich and diverse range of materials, opportunities, information,
facilities and staff support. They need to be seen more widely as part of
a mosaic of both local and national provision, offering additional arena
through which the culture of lifelong learning for all can be fostered and
sustained. They too need to be connected to the proposed National Grid for
Learning" (see section 5.6) "and their staff should be supported
in developing further the skills and aptitudes which will be necessary to
carry through the new strategy."
Fryer also refers to the role of higher education institutions in
lifelong learning:
"As lifelong learning for all develops, more people are likely to
look either to their local institution of higher education for part-time
programmes of learning or further afield for high quality distance or open
learning programmes."
The Report continues,
"In future, universities and colleges are likely to see the enormous
growth of part-time study, distance learning and technology based
programmes. The universities themselves can be centres for the development
of excellence in all of these, working in close partnership with other
providers and users of learning ............. The secret of success will
be for different sorts of strategic partnership to make the most of the
rich diversity and full range of universities."
It is interesting to note that libraries are identified as one of the
`Learning providers' alongside schools, further education and higher
education.
"We envisage that libraries will make a significant contribution to
the construction and maintenance of a learning culture for all. Whether
public or attached to educational institutions or private businesses,
libraries represent a major source of information, understanding,
knowledge, creativity, culture, heritage and leisure. They represent a
vital collective resource for a range of individuals, communities and
companies. In the information society their value will increase, not
diminish."
Fryer commends the Library & Information Commission Report New
Library: the People's Network (see section 5.6), endorses its
recommendations and concludes:
"Libraries (must make) arrangements .... To provide clear
information and ensure inclusive access, including opportunities for
people to make use of the new technologies of communication and
information in learning."
The idea for a University for Industry was endorsed as a central
education initiative in the Labour Party's 1997 election manifesto, since
when more detail has begun to emerge. The UfI has a number of functions:
* It will be charged with stimulating a mass market for lifelong learning
* It will provide information, guidance and advice to would-be lifelong
learners. (The Learning Direct freephone line is already available
on 0800-100-900)
* It will act as a broker to link together individuals and companies with
education providers (rather than concentrating on developing its own
courses)
* Where it identifies gaps in provision, however, it will commission
materials and programmes
* It will provide a `kite marking' service to guarantee the quality and
standards of provision
* It will provide market intelligence on skills and knowledge needs as an
input to planning future requirements
Further information on the government's planning for the UfI is emerging,
especially with the publication of the February 1998 Green Paper (see
Section 5.7). This document suggests that the UfI will assure the quality
of local learning centres, which will include libraries.
Among the flood of documents which has emerged from the new government and its advisory bodies, two are particularly pertinent to the role that libraries will play in the support of lifelong learning, and we consider them here.
Issued by the Department for Education and Employment as a consultation
paper, the proposal is for a National Grid for Learning which is defined
as:
* "A way of finding and using on-line learning and teaching
materials", and
* "A mosaic of inter-connecting networks and education services
based on the Internet which will support teaching, learning, training and
administration in schools, colleges, universities, libraries, the
workplace and homes".
The importance of the Paper is that it starts to elucidate the design of
lifelong learning support systems in a networked, information age. It
recognises that electronic networks bring the possibility of creating a
national `grid' which would link together learners, educators and
resources and which would have the potential to enrich the experience of
lifelong learning immeasurably. The Grid is seen as a framework in which
providers - including commercial companies which wish to offer services -
can be brought together. While the design will be `owned' by government,
it will be made a reality by the providers. Furthermore, once beyond the
prototype stage the Grid "should involve a shift from an essentially
public service ...to a real public/private partnership enabling access
nation-wide to a much wider range of services".
The initial stage of the Grid will concentrate on teacher and
librarian development. It is recognised that there are problems in the
schools sector in particular, not only with ageing equipment and the lack
of suitable software, but in "the confidence of teaching staff in the
use of ICT to teach". The further education sector's Quality in
Information and Learning Technologies (QUILT) Programme is seen as an
encouraging model, while higher education's use of SuperJANET to deliver
collaborative teaching across dispersed sites is also noted. Reference is
made to JANET's use "to provide access to remote information sources
for both learning and research purposes".
The proposals set out a series of ambitious targets for the five-year
period to 2002. For example, all serving (school) teachers should be
confident to use, and to teach the use of, ICT within the curriculum; the
UK should be "a centre of excellence in the development of networked
software content for education and lifelong learning"; general
administration should "largely cease to be paper-based"; and so
on. There will be a Virtual Teacher Centre to encourage teachers
to develop their own content for the Grid.
A section on the contributions of libraries concentrates firstly on
public libraries' "key role in stimulating a personal thirst for
knowledge and self-improvement". It continues, "the most
significant changes to the public libraries sector in the future will
arise from the development of ICT. They will be transformed by the quality
and quantity of new and existing information and knowledge that can be
made readily and speedily available to the public". The role of the
national libraries is then outlined, with the focus on the digitisation of
the British Library's "magnificent collection of historic books and
documents".
This major Report from the Library & Information Commission argues "for the transformation of libraries and what they do". Its recommendations fall under five headings, as discussed below.
It is argued that government must take the lead in "delivering an integrated national information policy with a strong emphasis on the central role of libraries". The immediate focus should be on the implementation of a public library networking plan, the result of which will be to "ensure that individuals in any area can enter into and interact with resources and learning programmes available outside their immediate area". All public library networks should be interconnected with a minimum bandwidth of 2 Mbps, and all branches should be connected by ISDN or equivalent. This would provide the basic infrastructure on which services could be delivered anywhere in the UK. Links with the University for Industry and the Learning Grid would be fostered.
Among the mechanisms which will be required to implement the national information policy are a Public Library Networking Agency to "lead and co-ordinate development and implementation of networking across the UK public library sector" including fostering a development programme for content, services, network infrastructure and staff training.
After publication of the Report it was announced that the government
would create a £50million fund for the development of public library
content, another key recommendation. The areas flagged for priority
content development are:
* Enhancement of educational and especially lifelong learning
opportunities
* Support of training, employment and business to foster economic
prosperity
* Social cohesion through political and cultural information
The Report emphasises that public libraries should use the network to deliver content of all types, including commercially-produced content, government information, Internet resources and resources developed by public libraries themselves.
The aim should be to raise the level of training in respect of networked
information and its delivery among the 27,000 people employed in the UK
public library sector. In particular the aim should be that each one of
these people:
* Is trained in the concepts of the UK Public Library Network, as set out
in the Report
* Understands the magnitude of the change programme which is required
* Acquires new ICT skills that meet set competence levels, and is able to
apply those skills to all relevant aspects of their work
* Is formally assessed on these skills as part of her/his learning
programme, and possesses an up-to-date record of learning achievement
The Report is unusual in that it gives very clear estimates of the costs involved in implementing its proposals. It also devotes a chapter to performance evaluation, and emphasises the importance of developing techniques to enable networked electronic services to be monitored and assessed, and their quality assured.
The government's initial responses to Dearing, Kennedy and Fryer, and its policy framework, are set out in the February 1998 Green Paper The Learning Age. Although the emergence of this document as a Green, rather than the promised White, Paper was disappointing it would appear that this is a mechanism used to recognise the realities of resourcing and in particular that it would have been unwise of any government to make promises in a White Paper which appeared in the midst of a `Comprehensive Spending Review'. However, it does mean that there will be a round of consultation and further delay before many of the necessary actions to create the UK as a Learning Society can be put in place.
The Green paper begins with some very challenging yet positive messages
about the `new age' which we are entering:
"We are in a new age - the age of information and of global
competition. Familiar certainties and old ways of doing things are
disappearing. The types of jobs we do have changed as have the industries
in which we work and the skills they need. At the same time, new
opportunities are opening up as we see the potential of new technologies
to change our lives for the better. We have no choice but to prepare for
this new age in which the key to success will be the continuous education
and development of the human mind and imagination."
It is noteworthy that, although the Green Paper begins with the
previously quoted statement from the Prime Minister about education being
"the best economic policy we have", the vision goes well beyond
economic concerns:
"The development of a culture of learning will help build a united
society, assist in the creation of personal independence, and encourage
our creativity and innovation .......... Learning offers excitement and
the opportunity for discovery. It stimulates enquiring minds and nourishes
our souls. It takes us in directions we never expected, sometimes changing
our lives ......... Learning ..... helps older people to stay healthy and
active, strengthens families and the wider community, and encourages
independence."
It is pleasing to note that, in the words of the Green Paper, "a
great strength is our universities which educate to degree and
postgraduate level and set world-class standards".
Six principles are enunciated as the building blocks for achieving the
vision:
* Investing in learning to benefit everyone - using extra funding from
government but matched by contributions from employers and from
individuals
* Lifting barriers to learning - providing information and advice,
guidance and support to individuals, including support such as childcare
to free people to pursue educational opportunities
* Putting people first - investing in flexible learning and making
learning more convenient wherever it takes place
* Sharing responsibility with employers, employees and the community -
promoting partnerships and encouraging the take-up of initiatives such as
Investors in People (IIP)
* Achieving world class standards and value for money - requiring better
management of education, the setting of appropriate standards for
teaching, and quality assurance
* Working together as the key to success - with local strategies
involving all stakeholders to improve access to learning, planning and
advice and including working with European partners
While as a nation we have our strengths, it is also clear that we have
our weaknesses. These lie particularly in basic and intermediate skills,
where we lag well behind our competitors. A further challenge is that
attitudes towards learning need to be changed so that people want to learn
and to continue to do so throughout their lives.
At the same time there is recognition that at the individual level people
face many obstacles in pursuing learning, including "time, cost,
fear, inadequate information, complexity and inconvenience". Among
ways to improve this situation there are a set of suggestions which,
although not directed at libraries and librarians, have much to say to
them. We could help to remove obstacles by:
* "encouraging people to have higher expectations of
themselves and of others
* providing learning at a time and place to suit the individual
or firm
* ensuring that all learning has high standards of teaching and
training
* making learning welcoming
* giving people the support they need in order to learn
* providing qualifications for adults that are easily understood
* recognising that, over time, institutions and ways of doing things
will need to change in response to the needs of learners".
As noted above, many specific proposals, especially where they involve
resourcing, are dependent on the current Comprehensive Spending Review.
However, the Green Paper does point the way with a number of firm
commitments. These include:
* Expanding higher and further education with an extra 500,000 people on
courses by 2002. Most of this expansion is, as Dearing suggested, to be at
`sub-degree' level.
* Creating the University for Industry (see 6.5 ).
* Providing much greater opportunities for people to learn at work, at
learning centres, in the community and at home.
* Improving information and advice, the first step being the
establishment of the Learning Direct freephone service
* Setting up Individual Learning Accounts which will enable
individuals to `shop around' for their learning, but will also require
investment by individuals. They will include facilities for individuals to
save and borrow to finance their education.
* Overhauling, but retaining, the student loans scheme
* Encouraging learning in the workplace, seen as a `natural issue for
partnership between employers, employees and the trade unions'
* Setting up a National Skills Task Force to assess skills needs
and co-ordinate action. The key tasks are defined as encouraging the
development of:
§ Basic skills, to tackle poor literacy and numeracy
§ Employability skills for young people
§ Specific employment skills for young people, particularly through
the Modern Apprenticeship scheme
§ Technician skills, which will be a priority for the University for
Industry
§ Applicable graduate and postgraduate skills, for example through
Graduate Apprenticeships which will emphasise advanced management and
other professional skills and qualifications
§ Managerial skills, again including a priority for the University
for Industry
§ Partnerships between the new employer-led National Training
Organisations, Training & Enterprise Councils, further
education colleges and universities in order to deliver this agenda.
* In a separate section, the key skills required to enable young people
and adults to "develop and maintain their employability" are
listed. They are:
* Working with other people
* Effective communication, including written skills
* The ability to work with numbers
* The use of information technology
* Developing learning skills
* Problem-solving
* Widening access, building on the recommendations of the Kennedy Report
(see Section 5.3) and some of Dearing's recommendations on increasing
participation of under-represented groups in higher education
* Improving provision for people with disabilities
There are, of course, many more detailed proposals and commitments which
we have not enumerated here.
Libraries share a section of the Green Paper with the `creative
industries', itself an interesting comment, although it should not be
assumed that the role of libraries is limited to the issues which are
listed. The section is positive in tone: "the public library service
holds an enormous range of educational material and has the potential to
deliver information and learning to people of all ages and backgrounds,
right across the country".
There had already been an announcement that £50million of Lottery
funding was to be set aside for the provision of `digital content in
libraries' (see Section 5.6.2). There is also a promise that further
proposals for the development of public library networking will be
announced shortly, as part of the National Grid for Learning.
Nothing is said of academic libraries, either in further or higher
education.
There can be little doubt that The Learning Age is an attempt to capture a new vision of learning and to make it a reality for the people of the UK. The emphases on ensuring that all young people have basic skills and are fit for employment, the widening of access to further and higher education, the new approach to and emphasis on work-based learning, and the overall emphasis on partnerships as the way forward together set a challenging agenda.
Libraries do not get a great deal of space in most of the reports which have been considered in this Chapter. Where they are mentioned the emphases are on them as storehouses of historical material, ripe for digitisation, or on the potential of the public library to be transformed into a networked community resource, not least to support lifelong learning. Public and national libraries are thus faced with many challenges if they are to respond to these opportunities. While it is not made explicit, libraries in higher education will also face a series of challenges if they are to play their part in the `learning revolution'. If higher education is to become more distributed, as people learn at home, at work or in local learning centres, university libraries will no longer be able to deliver their services in a secure, familiar, physical building but will need to be wherever learning is taking place. We return to this, and other challenges in Chapter 7 below. First we outline, in the following chapter, the current situation in the provision of library services to lifelong learners in the UK by higher education institutions.
Section C: Libraries and Lifelong Learning
This Chapter examines the role of libraries in supporting lifelong
learning, with particular focus on libraries in higher education
institutions. Although it is recognised that all forms of study,
traditional and non-traditional, are examples of lifelong learning
activity, the emphasis in this chapter is on library services to
non-traditional students. These are considered to be students who are
undertaking part-time courses, distance learning courses, or be attending
higher education courses which have been franchised to local colleges by a
remote university. The first part of this chapter considers the
significance and the value of library services in non-traditional forms of
study, and then examines the problems which students experience in
accessing and using library services and the difficulties associated with
delivering and managing special services to the non-traditional student.
The second part of the chapter describes some examples of current library
provision for non-traditional students in the UK and selected countries
overseas.
It should be emphasised that public libraries have since their inception
had a role as `the people's university' in providing for lifelong
learners. This role continues today for students as well as learners in
all walks of life. The chapter therefore concludes with a consideration of
the role of the public library in supporting lifelong learning.
The role of the library in the lifelong learning process is a topic
which has engendered significant debate from a range of philosophical and
educational perspectives as well as from strategic and operational
perspectives among the library community. Brophy[83]
asserted in a recent conference address that libraries are part of a
social process "which transforms stored data into knowledge for the
benefit of its users, and knowledge into stored data for the benefit of
posterity, and that the benefit of having libraries can be seen in the
impact they have on individuals and societies. ...... Every user,
regardless of his or her physical location, should be able to use all
library services". In a recent paper, Maurice Line[84]
suggested that the shift of emphasis from teaching to learning, and in
particular to `lifelong learning', is having a fundamental impact on all
types of library. He presented concepts of academic and public libraries
of the future, where culture, learning and research will be fostered, and
where most of the competencies of librarians and information professionals
will become more necessary, rather than less, because information handling
skills will be of prime importance.
Wooliscroft[85] predicts that the
growth of demand for further & continuing education programmes and the
increasing awareness of the benefits of lifelong learning will influence
the demand for formal distance programmes. Many institutions, from
secondary level up, will be required to become proficient in distance
learning modes of delivery within the next few years. This should result
in the flourishing of demand for library services from distance learners.
Educationalists will seize upon communication possibilities afforded by
electronic networks, satellite and cable broadcasting and as Wooliscroft
notes, "librarians should and must be the mirror image of the work of
educators in this domain".
Library services to support adult and lifelong learning in the UK have
developed in response to changes in the higher education system (distance
learning, part-time study, franchising of courses), with developments in
adult and continuing education and open learning, and in response to
demands from independent learners. These developments are evident in both
the public and academic library sectors. Developments in the public
library sector are examined in the final part of this chapter.
In further and higher education, evidence from surveys of non-traditional
students indicates the importance of library and information services to
such students in supporting formal courses of study, whatever their mode
of delivery. Goodall and Brophy[86]
investigated the needs of students studying on franchised courses at a
distance from the host university and found that if the students'
information needs could not be satisfied by the franchised college library
or the host university library, students relied on a wide range of coping
strategies to fulfil their requirements. These included sharing materials,
purchasing texts, photocopying, borrowing tutors' materials and using
other libraries. Similarly, in a study of distance learning postgraduate
students' use of libraries, Stephens reports on the students' use of a
wide range of libraries particularly when the library at the course
providing institution was inaccessible due to distance[87].
Results of a 1979 survey[88] showed that
despite the approach of the Open University of supplying monographs which
contain "all the materials which the students require for the
successful completion of their courses", 70% of Open University
students used a library (other than the OU library) for some of the
reading material for their OU studies.
In countries with a long history of delivering distance learning courses
to remote students, library provision to support distant learners is the
norm, rather than the exception as in the UK. In Australia, the USA and
Canada some institutions have developed sophisticated levels of service
unparalleled elsewhere, largely necessitated by the large geographical
spread of the population. These have been partly facilitated by the
development of new technologies, including electronic information
networks. The role of the library service is underpinned by philosophies
which value research and information skills as fundamental to the
educational process. In Australia, for example, Deakin University Library
claims a strong user focus and the overarching purpose of the library is
summed up in its mission statement as simply "we help people learn".[89]
Most Australian universities are funded by the Australian federal
government. As a condition of this funding, universities have to comply
with government policies, in particular that universities must not charge
students for access to resources that are fundamental to their learning
(e.g. access to laboratories, test equipment and chemicals and libraries)
and that all institutions must aim to provide in their libraries at least
90% of texts and other recommended reading material for a student's
course. It is the responsibility of the enrolling university to provide
the library and information service. McKnight[90]
states that in Australia "it is not appropriate to expect off-campus
students to use the resources of other libraries for their course reading
material , or to expect other libraries to support university students".
Although there are good examples of attempts in the UK to provide library
services to non-traditional students, which are of equal standard to those
offered their traditional counterparts, such examples are few. Recent
studies exemplify the marginalisation of library services in the
development and delivery of distance learning and other `non-traditional'
courses by some institutions. For example, in 1991, Peacock investigated
institutional policy on part-time study in the UK with reference to
library services and found, by examining public documents, that the
library implications of part-time study received minimal attention at
university level.[91]. In 1994, Goodall[92]
reported on a survey of 40 higher education institution libraries in the
UK in which all respondents indicated that the provision of franchised
courses had not significantly altered the way the university library was
organised or the range and style of services offered. Heery[93],
in his analysis of library services to non-traditional students, concluded
that deployment and roles of academic staff and the organisation of higher
education institutions is based on an established model of the traditional
student e.g. careers services, libraries, refectories, academic life in
general. As Goodall and Brophy[94]
noted, despite the continued and growing presence of non-traditional
students, the approach has been to make them fit in or run alongside the
traditional higher education systems. Few formal mechanisms exist to
enable librarians to contribute significantly to the needs of students.
Several writers have commented on the exclusion of librarians in the
development of distance learning, part-time and franchised courses[95]
[96].
There are conflicting views on the role of the library in distance
learning amongst the course providers themselves, as found by Unwin et al.[97].
One view is that academic study should encourage students to explore
information sources for themselves, as well as examining material on
reading lists. Another view is that it is the function of the distance
learning materials to provide all the required information for study, and
the student should not need a library. (One could argue, of course, that
the distance learning course providers should be involving the library in
the preparation of course materials.) It may be argued that it is
spoonfeeding students to provide articles and excerpts and that it is
desirable that students gain information seeking and research skills.
Cavanagh and Tucker[98] assert, however,
that many distance students will simply go without or will undertake a
minimum of reading if access to required items is in any way difficult.
Providing the full-text of readings is being realistic and may encourage
some students to read more widely.
Stephens encapsulates the non-traditional student's experience of
libraries in the UK with her vision of `another Alice' based on the
fictitious young undergraduate Alice in the Follett Report whose learning
and information requirements were facilitated and served by purely
electronic means. Stephens' Alice is "perhaps the mother of the
first, following a part-time, postgraduate course, at a distance from the
providing university" making frustrated attempts at acquiring
essential information for her study from libraries at the course providing
institution, her old university, her local university and from the public
library until finally.....
"She [Alice] wondered ....if the day would arrive when an adult
learner's version of a mass trespass would be needed to secure the rights
of citizens to access a national resource of materials for lifelong
learning in libraries".[99]
The following section examines some of the barriers to library provision
for lifelong learning.
The problems encountered by non-traditional students have been
identified by Heery[100] as mainly being
a shortage of time (largely arising from other responsibilities and
commitments such as work and family), inadequate study skills and problems
with essay writing. Unwin et al.[101]
note that distance learning students and part-time students are likely to
be mature students, more demanding and more highly motivated than their
traditional counterparts, but they have less recent experience in library
use and information skills and use of IT. Non-traditional students
generally find libraries daunting places. Perhaps even more significant,
however, are the difficulties which such students encounter when
attempting to access libraries and utilise library services.
Stephens'[102] report of a study on
library experiences of postgraduate students engaged on distance learning
courses recounts `dramatic evidence' for the battle with time,
institutions and resources and illustrates the sometimes "clandestine
nature of distance learning students' library use". The Study
confirmed the value which such students place on making personal visits to
libraries in order to browse books on shelves. Problems of access are
noted as ineligibility for membership, restricted external borrower
status, limited loan periods, difficulties associated with short loan
collections, unfamiliarity with local systems, and absence of relevant
stock. Stephens concludes that the burden of appropriate library provision
for distance learning students is not currently being fully met by course
providing institutions. Some typical examples of advice on library use
given to distance learning students at UK universities is shown in Fig
6.1.
* "... services depend on your ability to visit the
library in person" (library)
* "....access to the book list is not essential"
(course information)
* "....own knowledge of a working environment can be useful as
well as access to local libraries and companies" (course
information)
* "....students are advised to join public and hospital
libraries as they will need access to a variety of reading matter"
(course information)
* "....unable to offer a postal service for books or compensate
totally for you not being able to access the services and collections in
person" (library)
* "....if students have a School of Radiography close by they
may be able to obtain access to its library and resources"
(course information)
Goodall and Brophy's [103] account of
the experience of students on courses franchised by a remote university to
the local college is equally negative. Students' complaints referred to
insufficient copies of books, lack of space in the library, loan periods
being too short (esp. short loan), too many books for reference only,
difficulties in contacting relevant staff, and inadequate library
induction.
A study[104] conducted in 1991 on the
library problems of part-time students found a clear demand for longer
opening hours, different loan periods, faster procedures for renewing
books and more library training. There was an identified need for improved
funding for part time student library services, more co-ordination in
establishing services for these students, better liaison between
librarians and tutors, wider distribution of reading lists and more
instruction. The study concluded that there was a need for the development
of specific funding formulae for services to part time students, full
borrowing privileges, telephone request services, separate collections of
books and arrangements for reciprocal borrowing at other libraries.
The problems outlined above largely derive from the diverse nature of
non-traditional students and the difficulties posed for them by their
efforts to come to terms with a tertiary education system which is
primarily designed to accommodate traditional full-time students. It
should be noted at this point that many courses which would be classed as
`traditional' require students to spend time off-campus in professional or
work experience placements. Vocational study can present many of the
difficulties outlined above. There are, however, other strategic and
operational problems which concern library managers who are attempting to
facilitate access to information services for both non-traditional and
traditional students.
Hall[105] highlights potential
difficulties in library collaboration commenting that there is strong
resistance between `unequal partners' such as old and new universities,
and between further and higher education institutions. Wynne[106]
has described the potential pitfalls in establishing co-operative library
agreements between a university and partner FE colleges to support
students who are attending university franchised courses at the partner
colleges. He advocates careful planning to overcome difficulties caused by
incompatible or inadequate technologies at partner institutions, diverse
administrative cultures and differential status of institutional library
managers. Hall suggests that barriers to the successful development of
library services to distance learners include conventional approaches by
library staff, some of whom are unable to perceive their clientele as
anyone other than 18 year old full-time students who are campus-based.
Problems are also caused by conservative attitudes in academic
institutions where the perception of a good library is a well-stocked
library building and where there is a prevailing protective attitude
towards resources being provided for students of the parent institution.
Interestingly, Unwin et al [107]
highlight developments in the electronic library as creating barriers for
distance learning students.
Due to the restrictions on access required in licensing agreements, users
classed as `external' readers or borrowers in university libraries are not
permitted to use many of the electronic information sources. They comment
that "the polarity between access and holdings needs some
re-examination. Whilst developments in electronic communications seems to
have captured the `access' label, reality seems to be somewhat different.
The value of the slogan `access not holdings' in relation to library
services may need to be reconsidered. The electronic library could bring
as many restrictions in terms of access to information as it brings
benefits. Distance learning students are in danger of losing the access
which they currently have to browse current periodicals". Caution was
also expressed by researchers on the use of IT for the delivery of library
services to distant users in the EC-funded BIBDEL project, in which it was
concluded that "older methods of delivering services will have to be
employed alongside the new to find the blend of service which meets needs
most effectively".[108]
Although the barriers to the development of services for non-traditional
students are many, there are a number of examples of good attempts at
developing such services in the UK and elsewhere. The following section
describes some key initiatives.
This section outlines three key areas identified as facilitating access to libraries and library support for non-traditional and traditional students, and for individuals engaged on work-based and independent learning activities: Services, Access policies and Library co-operation. Examples of library services which have been developed specifically for distance learning students illustrate elements of best practice. The arrangements for access to university libraries other than the host institution are illustrated with typical examples of current practice. Formal co-operative agreements are being established between library consortia, although borrowing arrangements are still highly restricted.
Sheffield Hallam University offers students a Distance Learning
Support Service[109] with a range of
services to off-campus students.. The service offers distance learning
support to students studying on courses that have been deemed as
appropriate to distance learning. As well as sending out books and
articles in the post to students, the service also offers book loans for
up to three weeks, an inter library loan service and photocopying and
supply of journal articles. Expansion of the service may see a move
towards a `network' of support with access to Internet based databases and
OPACs, and the possibility of offering services such as video
conferencing. The Sheffield Hallam web site offers an impressive set of
links to UK universities' access policies as well as a `Distance Learning
Links for Librarians' page which lists:
* Libraries offering specific support services for distance learners
* Organisations and associations
* Research projects
* E-mail discussion lists and newsgroups
* Conferences
* On-line books, articles and papers
* Journals
* Information technology and distance learning
* Directories of distance learning resources on the Internet
* A bibliography of sources on library/information resources for distance
learners
The John Rylands Library at the University of Manchester
established its Distance Learning Service in October 1997. Operated by the
Document Supply Unit, the Distance Learning Service lends monographs
available from library stock and provides photocopies of journal articles
and monograph chapters from its own or other libraries holdings. Requests
are made and satisfied by post and the service is available to all
students registered on the University's distance learning courses in the
UK and overseas.
The Northern College of Education in Aberdeen offers a full range
of library services to its distance learners. Two contact persons have
been designated to provide support for distant students and telephone or
e-mail enquiries are invited. A postal loan service is available with
outward postage costs covered by the library, but return costs must be
paid by the user.
Electronic library facilities will play an important role in the
University of the Highlands and Islands[110]
Project, which aims to develop a new university which will offer students
in the remoter areas of Scotland the opportunity to undertake a growing
number of higher education courses on a full or part-time basis which can
be attended at a specific college or at a remote location. Those students
based at remote locations will be able to obtain tutor support through the
UHI Network via high bandwidth computer links thus widening the scope for
continuous learning in the region. As well as providing electronic library
and information management systems, the project aims to provide each
campus with networked learning resource centres to support research,
learning and information provision, with video conferencing facilities.
Interestingly these centres will not only provide IT services but will
also be a focal point for teacher-student interaction.
Students who are studying on franchised courses run by the University
of Central Lancashire[111] are
able to use the services of the Virtual Academic Library of the North West
(VALNOW) service which was launched in 1997. Based on the European
Commission funded BIBDEL Project, VALNOW is an attempt to replicate for
students at a distance the library and information services enjoyed by
their on-site counterparts. Students at participating institutions have
access to electronic journals, can browse the University's library
catalogue and have loan items delivered by post to their local library.
Requests can be made for photocopied periodical articles, and to access a
range of online databases as well as the Internet. They are also able to
draw on the subject expertise of specialist staff in response to reference
enquiries, with electronic video-conference links bringing experts and
students into a `virtual' consultation.
The VALNOW service is an example of the development of a new initiative
based on a careful R & D approach which explored a series of service
options. The original EC-funded BIBDEL project took as its basic premise,
four principles:
* the distance users should be provided with a service which is as close
as possible to the service experienced by the on-campus user;
* the IT services should conform to open system standards where possible.
However, as academic libraries operate within a broader academic
information technology environment, compatibility between new and existing
systems is of paramount importance;
* issues of cost-effectiveness are paramount, since small institutions
and individuals will not accept systems which are expensive to set up or
run;
* distant users may have little or no technological expertise, so the
systems must be simple to install, maintain and use.
To avoid confusion regarding access, services and any special features
for distance students, the University of Dundee has produced a
guide specifically for students considering study by distance learning.
The guide includes activities such as registering with the library and
aims to ensure students are ready for their study and therefore do not
waste time, or flounder, later in their course, when the pressure is on.
At Thames Valley University the Learning Resource Centre is a
flexible, one stop-shop learning facility, open 24 hours a day, seven days
a week. It is designed to remove the constraints and pressures of time,
place and access. Students can study with, but not necessarily at, the
University at any time of the day.
Special services for students studying at a distance may include
collections, such as a short loan collection at the University of
Wales, Aberystwyth, containing items which are purchased by the
library specifically for distance learners. The library will also send
items requested by mail to distance learning students. This facility is
useful for distance learning students who may find it difficult to visit
the library in person.
Students studying with the Open University library may soon be
able to access materials via an electronic library. Since 1995 a number of
projects have been undertaken to meet the aim of an electronic library and
will work in collaboration with other universities and research institutes
nationally and internationally. Already most OU students are using the
FirstClass computer conferencing system. However, loan services from the
OU library are restricted to OU staff and research students. New
electronic services are under development, including the ROUTES (Resources
for Open University Teachers and Students) system which is building up a
database of learning support materials available online. ROUTES is being
developed as part of a major, three year Network Access Project
and uses software developed in eLib.
Although many university libraries permit members of the public to use
their facilities for reference use they do not advertise the fact. Some do
invite non-university members to use the library facilities, but are
cautious in their invitation. Independent or external users are normally
granted access to the library provided they can (a) demonstrate a need to
use an academic library and (b) pay a fee or subscription. The University
of Sussex for example allows various levels of service to non-members
of the University who can demonstrate a need to use a major academic
library but have no access to one. The University charges a fee for the
provision of services on a cost recovery basis. Glasgow University
Library offers external membership to users and charges for service
depend on the category of membership. Graduates of Glasgow for example pay
an annual fee of £15 whereas corporate membership starts at a minimum
of £100. The University of Bath allows members of the public
to use the library for occasional reference purposes and there does not
appear to be a charge for this. The Library's main stated aim, however, is
to provide a service to the teaching and research undertaken at the
university.
Restrictions on access generally seem to depend on the subscriptions that
have been paid and to which category the user belongs. So, for example,
ex-staff may have different access rights from members of the general
public or separate fees may be charged for consultation and for borrowing.
In some cases university libraries may restrict the number of external
users allowing, for example, up to 30 members of the general public to
borrow books from the University Library at any one time. (University
of Exeter).
Restrictions in services offered to external users are the case at most
universities. The University of Surrey, for example, gives
external members borrowing rights, but not to the short loan collection,
and additional fees are charged for services such as inter-library loans
and online searching. Edinburgh University claims that it "has
pleasure in extending the use of its collections, facilities, and services
to external users" and that "much of this material is kept on
open shelves for ease of access by all its users". However, in a
further paragraph it goes on to say that "the extent to which it can
offer facilities to external users free of charge is limited"[112].
Statements like this can be confusing and often external users may then be
divided into special categories, each with separate rights.
Restrictions on the use of and access to electronic information are also
common mainly due to the fact that licence agreements cover only members
of the University. Some libraries will allow external users access to
databases, but access may be restricted and a charge may be attached. The
University of Brighton for example states that "access by
external members is restricted to those databases not limited by type of
user and to times when demand is low"[113].
They also offer online searching at a charge upwards of £25.
Students studying with the Open University are not be able to
borrow from the library, but it can be accessed for reference purposes via
telephone requests, and via the Internet. Generally, OU students are
expected to make arrangements to use academic or public libraries in their
own vicinity.
The Robert Gordon University promotes its library service to
potential external members who are studying for a professional
qualification or having problems in keeping up to date within a
profession, and offers access to anyone undertaking continuing
professional development (CPD) activity. Many of the universities which
offer services to external members include corporate membership as one of
the membership categories. This type of membership may give employees the
opportunity to use the facilities of a university library for the purpose
of CPD as well as to meet the information needs of their current job or
specific task.
The National Centre for Work Based Learning at Middlesex University
offer work-based learning students access to the library as a student of
the university. Services offered by the library include study sessions on
information retrieval, specific work-based learning resources and access
to other learning resource services such as computing and language centres
located in the learning resource centre.
The SCONUL (Standing Conference of National and University Libraries)
Vacation Access Scheme allows students from higher education institutions
throughout the UK and Ireland to use other libraries which belong to
SCONUL during vacation times.
Universities may have agreements with other libraries which allow staff
and students to have reciprocal access rights. Several consortia have been
formalised on a geographical basis. Examples include:
Avon University Libraries in Co-operation (AULIC) involves the
universities of Bath, Bristol and the West of England libraries in
extending borrowing rights to all academic and academic related staff and
postgraduate research students of the three institutions. However,
inter-library loans and on-line search facilities are only available to
members of the host institution.
The Consortium of Academic Libraries in Manchester (CALIM)
comprises a network of academic libraries, all located within two square
miles of each other. Libraries include Manchester Metropolitan University,
Manchester University, UMIST, Salford University, Manchester Business
School. They serve a population of over 70,000 students and offer services
such as inter-library loans, full-text transmission between libraries,
union list of all journals held in CALIM libraries, plus joint
subscriptions to several online services.
London Plus and M25 Access: the M25 Consortium is made up of
higher education libraries in the London area located within the M25
orbital motorway. It was set up to promote co-operation between
institutions and to enhance library services and staff development within
this region, to "introduce some order into the complex London scene"[114]
and to provide services such as an e-mail discussion group for librarians
working in these libraries (LIS-M25). A similar co-operative venture has
been developed between some University libraries in London and the South
East. The London Plus scheme enables part-time students to borrow material
from other participating libraries and to give full-time students
reference facilities to all the libraries. Full-time students may also
join other libraries on a reference basis.
Yorkshire Universities' Library Co-operative Scheme: Staff and
post-graduate research students may become registered borrowers of the
university libraries of Bradford, Sheffield and Hull. Borrowing rights to
Leeds University library are available upon payment of a fee.
Two consortia which have established agreements with the public library
service are:
The Libraries Access Sunderland Scheme which allows anyone living
in Sunderland access to the 29 libraries of the City Library and Arts
Centre, the City of Sunderland College and the University of Sunderland.
Access is for study purposes. A Project is currently underway, funded by
BLRIC, to identify key staffing features for successful cross-sectoral
library co-operation.
Sheffield Access to Libraries for Learning (ALL) is based on a
vision of opening up Sheffield's library and information resources to the
whole city. Members of the public are encouraged to explore potential
sources of information in the academic libraries. The four partners in the
scheme are Sheffield College, University of Sheffield, Sheffield City
Library Service and Sheffield Hallam University.
A number of initiatives have been established outside the UK which aim
to address the problem of access across a wide geographical area.
Reciprocal arrangements and networks appear to be the most popular method
of addressing the problem.
In the United States, library services designed specifically for distance
learners have a considerable history. In recent years librarians in this
field have been assisted by the development of a series of guidelines and
standards, with adoption by regional accrediting agencies providing the
`teeth' to ensure adequate, if not generous, resourcing. The situation has
been described by Simmons[115] in an
interesting paper which demonstrates examples of what can be achieved. A
dominant theme is that of resource-sharing between libraries. Feldman[116]
describes Indiana's library network developments and Potter[117]
describes state-wide resource sharing strategies in Colorado.
Collaboration between librarians, academic staff, administrators and
students is emphasised in ensuring the quality of the educational
experience [118].
A key component of the University of Louisville's (Kentucky, USA)
library support service for distance education is the integration of
library services into the structure of the course via the professor's WWW
home page, and in any printed course materials. Three services are
offered: information literacy, reference services and document delivery
services. Based on the premise that `information literacy' (IL) is a
necessary component of any educational experience, the delivery of IL
instruction is via a printed handout (integrated with course materials)
mainly comprising instructions on library services needed for a particular
course and how to access these through the course tutor's (professor's)
home page. The Reference Service provides librarian-assisted access to
databases and the Document Delivery Service provides items electronically
or by post. The principles of library support for the distance education
programme include centralisation of access, immediacy of access, rapid
turnaround for remote delivery, empowerment of students to access
information and to perform their own research[119].
The Ohio Library and Information Network (Ohio Link) links 41
academic institutions within Ohio State, plus two major private research
schools and the State Library. Through its five co-operative storage sites
to hold the less used materials, OhioLINK now has a `virtual library' of
about 20 million books which can be made available within 48 hours, plus a
range of commercial databases available on a shared basis throughout the
state.
In 1996 a project entitled `Collaborative WWW Support of Distance
Learning: Library Delivery of Electronic Course-Related Materials and
Resources' was undertaken jointly by the University at Buffalo,
the State University of New York at Binghamton and the State
University of New York at Plattsburgh. The three libraries
collaboratively developed experimental services making use of hypertext
linking and organisational capabilities of the WWW to provide integrated
access to a variety of course related materials. These included materials
developed by the lecturers themselves (lecture notes, assignments) and
electronic library resources e.g. electronic readings and full-text
electronic journals.
The University of Illinois offers extra-mural courses to a
growing number of students who are taught at locations throughout the
state of Illinois. Library support for these courses has been developed to
enable students and the teaching staff involved to have access to the most
convenient library to their location. This has resulted in an `Extra-Mural
State-Wide Borrower's Card'[120],
which can be used in the same way as for on-campus students and staff, and
can be used at any of the state-wide university libraries.
In Canada, Guidelines for the Support of Distance Learning in Canada
were endorsed by the Canadian Library Association in 1993. Slade[121]
describes Canada's method of providing library services to distance
learners as `outreach services' with distinctive names to emphasise their
focus. Examples include Telebook at Simon Fraser University, Dial-a-book
at the University of British Columbia, Infoline at the University
of Victoria and U.READ at the University of Regina.
The North Alberta Library and Information Network (NORALINK) was
established in 1992 by Athabasca University (AU), which is Canada's Open
University and has around 18,000 students enrolled from across Canada. The
Athabasca University library sends materials to students via the post, but
has recognised that their library collection is limited compared to other
university libraries. NORALINK was set up in response to AU students
wanting to have access and borrowers rights to other university libraries.
Participants in the NORALINK initiative include college, public and
university libraries, enabling students who live where there is a NORALINK
library to use its services in the same way as a student enrolled at that
particular university.
Distance education in Australia also has a long history. The Australian
Library and Information Association has a Distance Education Special
Interest Group which publishes its own newsletter (DESIGnation). The Task
Force on Library and Information Service to remote users issued a report
in 1990 which included a number of recommendations for improving access to
information for remote users and the Australian Council of Libraries and
Information Services adopted a statement of principles on distant
provision in 1991. A national library card was discussed but it was never
adopted. A number of reciprocal borrowing schemes exist. These include the
CLANN network[122] in New South Wales,
incorporating university, college and public libraries. The network
facilitates reciprocal borrowing for both undergraduates and post
graduates. The CAVAL scheme in Victoria comprises academic and special
libraries.
The Open Learning Agency of Australia (OLAA) was established in
1992 to broker distance education courses from various universities and FE
colleges throughput Australia. Students may register for units from a
variety of institutions at any one time. There are no entry requirements.
The Open Learning Library and Information Service produces a guide for
OLAA students and provides vouchers which the students can use to pay for
library services at academic and public libraries. The Open Learning
Electronic Support Service (OLESS) currently being developed by the OLAA
is described by Van Dyke[123]. A key
objective of OLESS is to integrate existing networks to create an
`Australia-wide off-campus student-focused information web'.
McKnight[124] suggests that one
reason why Deakin University in Victoria, Australia attracts
off-campus students is the excellent and easy to use off-campus library
service. This service aims to ensure that remote students have similar
opportunities to make reference enquiries, borrow books, obtain journal
articles and undertake independent research as do on-campus students.
Collection development is formula driven based on number of off-campus
students, location of course delivery and other available titles in the
subject area. Liaison librarians work with academics in charge of each
module to ascertain likely demand for titles.
Information services are provided via e-mail, telephone, fax and post.
Librarians search catalogues and databases on behalf of students and then
post on a limited number of books or photocopies. Document delivery is by
a courier service or airmail. A pre-paid return `satchel' is included in
the delivery satchel to ensure quick return of items at no cost to
students. Costs are defrayed by a basic levy of A$25 per off-campus
student per semester. Performance standards are applied to the off-campus
library service. For loans, 95% of items held by Deakin, and available for
loan, are dispatched within 24 hours of receipt of request. A request
received by 11.30am will be dispatched by 3.00pm on the same day. The
courier contract requires next day delivery of items to most Australian
addresses. The actual success rate of the loans service is 92.5%. 85% of
subject requests and 80% of photocopies are dispatched within 5 working
days.
Distance learning, and similar approaches, are in principle very inclusive,
offering opportunities to people in developing countries as much as in the
developed world. In this Section we have been able to give only a brief
overview and a few examples of how libraries are supporting these
activities and we have concentrated entirely on developed countries. It is
important to remember, however, that the potential of distance learning in
the developing world may be damaged because "third world library
services lack the depth, breadth and sophistication that exist in library
systems in the developed world"[125].
If distance learners in developed nations are under-provided with library
services the situation in the rest of the world is much worse. There is a
considerable body of literature on library services in most countries of
the world, ably collected and analysed by Slade and Kascus[126]
and readers are referred to that publication for access to the wider
literature on this question.
The role of the public library in lifelong learning in the UK is rooted
in the founding principles of public libraries in terms of the Victorian
concept that they made available the sources of educational development
for those without the financial resources to attend more formal
institutions. They were the `poor man's university'[127]
Boyle[128] argued in 1980 that public
libraries should present themselves as providers and partners in adult
education rather than as servicing agents and should aggressively market
materials associated with continuing education and use their closeness to
the community to attract and serve the working class. Boyle concluded that
"the UK library system is a sleeping community education giant. The
giant must awake". The EC-funded ODIN[129]
Study in 1996 concluded that public libraries must recapture their
educational vision and make the decision to become key players in open and
distance learning because they have much to offer. A key finding of this
Study was that support by public libraries for `traditional' distance
education is widespread yet unrecognised. The authors recommended that
co-operative actions involving public libraries, universities and colleges
could prove very fruitful and that public libraries could be used to
deliver open and distance learning to employees of small and medium sized
enterprises (SMEs), women returning to work, ethnic minority groups, those
who have missed out on conventional education and indeed, everyone
`learning through life'. From diary studies of distance learning students'
use of libraries, Stephens[130] notes
that the public library is regarded by distance learning students engaged
on formal university courses as a good place to study and a valuable
source of material. Public libraries were reported as third in order of
frequency of use by distance learning students after local university and
workplace or professional libraries. Stephens concludes that the role of
the public library service in adult learning needs better recognition and
support as a `people's university' which suffers from a lack of funding.
UK public libraries have been proactive in recent years in developing
their role as providers of basic skills materials for open learning. A
White Paper, released in 1992, proposed that all public library services
in the UK should establish collections of open learning materials over a 3
year period. Allred[131] reports that
since 1992 the proportion of UK public library authorities providing
significant collections of open learning materials has grown from under
25% to over 85% largely as a result of the Clywd Libraries PLAIL (Public
Libraries and Adult Independent Learners) project and the subsequent Open
for Learning project funded by the Employment Department. Users of these
open learning centres represent a higher proportion of people aged between
25 and 59 than in the general population (84% of library users; 46% in the
general population) constituting an economically important age group. They
also represent proportionally more of the unwaged (41% of library users;
39% in the general population) which is also an important group in the
context of lifelong learning. Although the better educated are
over-represented, those with a basic education still form a significant
number of the learners (13%). In Allred's survey, over two thirds of the
learners were reported to be new to open learning and 40% said they were
unlikely to have used any other method of learning if they had not used
the library first. About 50% of public library authorities are in formal
liaison with TECs, FE colleges, commercial open learning centres and
educational guidance networks. One third of public library authorities
have staff trained in some elements of educational guidance and over 60%
of public library authorities host Training Access points (TAPs) or
similar local databases of training opportunities. One example is the Open
Learning Club at Croydon Libraries which provides open learning packs for
use at home and provides equipment in the library for video, audio and
PC-based materials. Topics in the open learning collection include:
writing letters and reports, spelling and punctuation, writing CVs,
interview techniques, setting up a business, keyboard skills,
word-processing. Much of this kind of material is produced by the Royal
Society of Arts (RSA). The annual subscription fee is £20. Further
developments of this type will no doubt be encouraged by a positive
government response to the LIC New Library Report, discussed in
Chapter 5.
There have been some recent developments in collaboration between the
public and academic library sectors (e.g. Sheffield, Sunderland,
Northamptonshire) but there is little recent evidence on how such
collaboration can improve library services to students engaged on higher
level courses of study. In 1978 Wilson[132]
reported on an investigation carried out to discover the effect upon the
use of public libraries of high level Open University courses which
required the preparation of course assignments or detailed investigation
of source material. He concluded that much could be done within existing
resources to improve information about access to and availability of
library and specialised sources of information for hard-pressed part-time
students. Barnett[133] examined the
role of the public library in assisting university students in 1986. His
survey of 31 public libraries revealed that students were not regarded by
public librarians as a category of user deserving special attention. There
was little evidence of contact between universities and public libraries
with regard to course design, library provision, background resources and
reading lists. An Australian study[134]
in 1988 found that public librarians believed that the public library
service to distance learning students should be supplementary to what the
home institution provides and not replace it.
We recognise that traditional students are a significant group of
`lifelong learners' and that increasing numbers of mature students have
taken and are likely to take traditional courses, especially with the
widespread adoption of modular schemes. The library support of such
students is of course a major service in support of lifelong learning.
Some university librarians may hold the view that in providing excellent
library services to support traditional students they are doing all they
can to support lifelong learning.. Examples of good practice in the
provision of library services to non-traditional students are, however,
difficult to find, although some universities, (most notably the new
universities, e.g. Sheffield Hallam, Thames Valley, Central Lancashire)
are to be commended for their efforts to meet the particular needs of
distance and part-time students. The extensive use of technology is
facilitating such services, but, as noted, can also create barriers to
accessing information which is restricted by licensing agreements.
All universities and university libraries hold that their
responsibilities are in supporting, first and foremost, the institution's
own registered students and staff body Thus, lifelong learners engaged in
work-based learning or continuing professional development have access to
widely varying levels of library services, dependent on whether they are
registered as a student. External library membership schemes do provide
such users with access to university library resources, but these usually
carry some restrictions relating to, for example, borrowing rights or
access to electronic resources.
On the whole, quite a depressing picture emerges in the UK regarding
library provision for non-traditional students. Furthermore, evidence
suggests that some distance learning courses being offered to students are
by-passing the institutional library by providing direct to the student
all necessary supporting information in a pre-packaged form. Statements
are even made in background information to such courses to the effect that
students undertaking a course do not need to use libraries or to undertake
further reading. The efficacy of such an approach to the teaching and
learning process in developing the student as an individual and
encouraging a `deep' approach to learning is highly questionable. Such
issues have been explored in more detail by researchers such as Unwin et
al[135].
Outside the UK, there is evidence of more coherent approaches to the
provision of library services to lifelong learners. Some of this may be
described as virtue born out of necessity, given that examples of good
practice are drawn from areas which have a wide geographical spread
(Australia, New Zealand, US) and a very dispersed user group. There are,
however, lessons to be learned from non-UK developments. Particularly
worth noting is the widespread developments of inter-library (public and
academic) and inter-agency co-operation for services to students. The
potential for future developments of library and information services in
UK academic libraries is discussed in Chapter 6.
Section D: Conclusions and Recommendations
There can be no doubt that government and society are serious in their
desire and intention to see the development of lifelong learning.
Universities may embrace this concept enthusiastically or unwillingly, but
they will not be able to ignore it. However, the changes which are
required are so fundamental that at this early stage it is difficult to be
certain of the shape of the higher education sector in the UK, still less
of individual institutions. In this section we suggest some likely
scenarios based on discussions with key individuals and a close
examination of recent policy documents, including the Dearing and Kennedy
Reports and the Green paper, The Learning Age.
Libraries are, of course, parts of their institutions, not autonomous
entities and it follows that their future is bound up with that of their
parent bodies. There is, however, a further gloss to this apparently
obvious statement, which is that each institution's library services will
increasingly be seen simply as one part of the regional, national and
international resource. Librarians have become familiar with the idea that
many of their users will in future access these broader services directly,
without using their local service as an intermediary or provider. Since
many lifelong learners will spend less time on campus than the traditional
full-time student or researcher, it is to be expected that they will make
even more use of such unmediated services. The future of any one academic
library service, therefore, cannot be regarded as merely dependent on the
parent institution.
Having said this, the clientele which the library serves is likely to
remain principally that of the parent institution. A question immediately
occurs, therefore, as to the likely nature of these clienteles. The
Dearing Report made no specific recommendations on this, although some
initial interpretations have seen encouragement for the development of a
`tiered' system, based on the Committee's "support (for) the existing
diversity between institutions" and recommendation that "funding
arrangements should reflect and support such diversity". It may be
that some universities will see their future almost entirely as
postgraduate and research institutions, while others will concentrate, as
at present, on undergraduate provision. Although Dearing supported
expansion of taught postgraduate courses in the context of lifelong
learning, the main thrust of expansion is to be at sub-degree level (HND
and HNC or equivalent) with more sub-degree provision in further education
colleges. One possible interpretation of this is that there will be a
continuum of institutions from those which are concerned almost entirely
with postgraduate work and research to those with very strong ties into
the further education sector and an emphasis on access and wide
participation. It could be argued, of course, that this is a recipe for
little change! However it is more likely that we will see a series of
innovations which will move institutions towards an ongoing relationship
with their students, so that learning becomes a matter of students
accessing courses at frequent intervals throughout their lives. Such a
change could, of course, alter the nature of the institutions.
An intriguing issue is the extent to which institutions will operate
within a global market. There are those who predict that in the not too
distant future most courses will be delivered using Information and
Communications Technologies, that international networks will make the
location of the student vis-à-vis the institution
irrelevant, and that the real issue will become one of marketing such
products on an international scale. It is not impossible to envisage an
institution on this model with students spread all over the world,
receiving multimedia packages either online or as CD-ROMs, communicating
with each other and with their tutors using computer and video
conferencing and never coming into physical contact with each other. It is
likely that this scenario will be seen, at least in part. However, the
contrary argument is that learning is essentially a social process, that
there are many attractions to coming together as a group of learners
either on-campus or in smaller learning centres, and that the bulk of
higher education will continue to be delivered using the familiar tools of
lectures, seminars and tutorials. It is worth remembering that many people
do not have their own, suitable study environments and that unless they
can access somewhere suitable they will find study extremely difficult and
frustrating. Perhaps the most likely outcome will be a mix of the two
visions: students will make extensive use of ICT but will also meet in
groups with their tutors to discuss, argue and present their learning.
In the remainder of this Chapter, we make some suggestions as to the
kinds of academic library service which will be needed to support such
learning.
It is clear from our investigations and discussions that the library
services available to non-traditional university students are rarely
planned with the attention given to the traditional, on-campus clientele.
If we leave aside the element of lifelong learning which is the
traditionally-delivered course or project, then access to library
resources is a very hit and miss affair. A few academic libraries have
made great efforts and can demonstrate good practice - as, for example at
Sheffield Hallam - but most treat non-traditional learners either as part
of a general category of "external readers" or simply ignore
them. This is very dangerous practice. If it is in fact possible to
deliver distance learning effectively and efficiently without recourse to
a library, why will we need libraries at all? Of course libraries will
retain residual functions, such as places for on-campus study and archival
collections, but they will be on the periphery of learning. It follows in
our view that there is a need for a concerted attempt to develop a basic
set of services for the lifelong learner and that this should be the
driver for general service delivery. A lifelong learning led approach
might include some or all of the following:
* a clear statement to all students, no matter how short their course nor
the means used to deliver it, of the services which they have the right to
expect.
* opening hours, professional staffing etc. available at times to suit
lifelong learners (e.g. weekends, vacations)
* the right to have access to the physical library on a long-term basis
without payment of an additional fee i.e. membership to be part of a
students long-term relationship with the institution.
* formal arrangements between libraries for the support of each other's
students (perhaps building further on the M25 or CALIM type of
arrangement)
* a limited set of services, but including some document delivery, which
is available to students of the university based at a distance from the
institution - or perhaps to all students
* access for all students (or at least for all based off-campus) to
library advisory services.
* arrangements for accessing electronic services, mainly through the
library's web site where links to key resources will be provided,
including access for all students and staff to all dataservices.
In designing services for lifelong learners librarians need to consider
the context: the learning objectives, the method of delivery, learning
styles and so on. The vision of the Dearing Report is of "an
institution committing itself through a compact which recognises its
obligation to provide a high quality service" and the library's
contribution will be to provide its service within a "quality"
framework: that is, providing a service which is "fit for the purpose".
At the same time it is necessary for academic libraries to shift their
focus from form to content and to ask themselves how the required content
cn be delivered to the lifelong learner - rather than becoming blocked by
the difficulties particular forms present. At present, libraries tend to
be organised by form, and frequently budgetary allocations reinforce this
approach: it is still not uncommon for library allocations to be split
into `book' and `journal' funds, with online services treated as an uneasy
compromise. Inter-library loans may be seen as an additional service which
is severely restricted, not least on cost grounds.
Once users gain widespread access to information delivery services, these
divisions will be seen to be increasingly irrelevant. Most users will wish
to have access to content regardless of form, although they will also wish
to be able to state a preference - which increasingly may be for
electronic formats which can be manipulated within other documents. The
library role will therefore be to facilitate content access as the primary
concern, demonstrating how information sources can be presented within the
structures of learning which teaching staff devise and help to repackage
content in new ways. Managing this scenario will be a complex task (see
section 7.14 below).
The rapid development of electronic information sources has changed the nature of academic library provision in a very few years. JISC datasets and eLib services have shown that electronic sources can replace many of the traditional materials which libraries have used, especially in the area of datasets, some journals (an area where the trend to electronic formats will almost certainly accelerate) and new media such as Web pages. However, there is almost universal acceptance that traditional formats (print, audio, video, etc.) will continue to play an important role in the total service which users require. From this has emerged the concept of the `hybrid library', which may be seen as a new service model which provides integrated access to the full range of services. The final phase of eLib has provided funding for demonstrator projects in this area. For lifelong learners, as for others, this concept will have great importance in providing access to the widest range of resources in a manner tailored to the users' own requirements.
The trend towards convergence is now well-established, despite occasional shifts in the opposite direction, and was highlighted by the Follett Report. The Dearing Review goes wider than this and recommends "that all higher education institutions should develop managers who combine a deep understanding of Communications and Information Technology with senior management experience" (Main report, p. 207). A recent study[136] of the views of senior academic librarians reported that convergence is seen as an inevitable trend. In the public library sector, the Public Libraries Review[137] highlighted the Government's desire to see public libraries playing an important role in the `IT for All' programme and saw them as key players in delivering "the benefits of new technology to the wider population". A variety of reports on individual experiences of convergence have appeared[138] and SCONUL has published some working papers on the issue. A number of conferences have been held on the theme[139]. In the United States there has been at times heated debate, with eminent figures like Michael Gorman warning librarians of a `dark age of electronic tyranny'[140]. Despite such warnings, it now seems inevitable that academic libraries and computing services will need to provide a single interface to their users, so that guidance, help and advice can be provided regardless of the format of the information which is sought. This can only be helpful to the non-traditional lifelong learner.
It has already been noted that many lifelong learners are likely to access the campus less often than the traditional student or researcher. From that viewpoint, the library service they require will best be provided by alliances which enable them to use their own local libraries as their point of access. As discussed above, the CALIM and M25 groups have both taken access to collections as a primary reason for co-operation. Especially in non-metropolitan areas, such reasoning will also lead to alliances between the academic and public library sectors. Looking in another direction, research institutes may wish to establish similar co-operative arrangements both nationally and internationally. Indeed, as the dispersed, international research team becomes more common there is an interesting issue as to how library support is to be organised. Which institution takes responsibility when individuals from a number are collaborating? Will this issue lend support to calls for libraries and other services to be organised on a regional basis, or will national and international patterns of access to courses preclude even regional solutions?
Librarians have long struggled to try to make the service provided as
relevant as possible to the users' requirements. For undergraduate courses
this has often been epitomised by the annual struggle to acquire reading
lists in time for books to be ordered and put on the shelves. In the
future, as learning becomes more and more reliant on problem solving
rather than on knowledge acquisition per se, and as
knowledge becomes out of date more and more rapidly, this approach raises
a number of issues:
* it is not possible to predict information requirements in advance, so
that the former Just-in-Case approach to content acquisition has
to be replaced by Just-in-Time;
* courses' use of information will be much more dynamic, with teachers
changing the emphases rapidly in response to developments
* a considerable proportion of the information will not be published in
the traditional way, and may be ephemeral (web pages etc.)
For these reasons, but perhaps more importantly because the best library
services become an integral part of the learning process, librarians need
to become more involved with course planning. They are able to bring new
sources of information, and perhaps new learning tools, to the attention
of teachers and to suggest ways in which the use of library services can
contribute to the achievement of learning outcomes. The "compact"
between higher education and society which Dearing proposed needs to be
mirrored in its smaller way between libraries and teachers. Of course
there have been many attempts to achieve this in the past, but that is no
reason not to try again to integrate the library service into the learning
experience. We noted in Chapter 4 that there have been a number of
practical developments in the area of "networked learner support"
which are capable of being exploited more widely. Moving down this track
it becomes apparent quite quickly that what is being introduced is an
entirely new kind of learning environment where the student can easily and
within the same interface access information ("library") and
expertise ("tutor") while discussing ideas with fellow students
("seminar") and using a self-diagnostic tool. If such
environments are to become widespread, staff in institutions will have to
think about their roles in new ways. Librarians will have to gain better
understanding of the learning process as a whole and will need to persuade
others of the positive contribution they can make.
In all the discussions of the future electronic library it is easy to
lose sight of one of the key roles of the library - namely, its value as
place. Libraries on campuses are often used by groups as places to
meet, and with the increase in group work they often provide group study
areas. Even for students and researchers working alone, the Library can
provide social contact. If there is a continuing reduction in class
contact hours, the availability of this `social-learning centre' may be
crucial to the student experience.
Where courses are delivered at a distance, there is considerable merit in
providing some kind of learning centre to encourage this social
interaction as part of the learning experience. Further education and
public libraries would offer obvious centres for this kind of planned
activity. In the report on open and distance learning in public libraries
referred to in Chapter 6, the following illustration was used to
demonstrate the possibilities of such centres[141]:
Click here for Picture
In this scenario, the physical library becomes a focus not only for
traditional and electronic information but for access to suitable courses,
advice, tutorial support, a support group of learners and a coffee bar.
The concept of placing tutorial support in or beside the library is not
new and was discussed widely in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly in
further education. If the library becomes a `learning centre' it would
seem to be a logical development: the lecturer becomes a facilitator of
learning and is on hand where learning is taking place.
The widespread availability of access to Internet resources, including
the World Wide Web, has raised considerable concern about the quality of
information which is being accessed. While printed publications go through
a well-known and tried and tested quality assurance procedure, involving
referees, editorial boards and publishers' expert opinions, there is a
lack such procedure for electronic resources. In a situation where anyone
can publish anything on the Web, it is difficult for users to judge the
validity of the information they retrieve.
The eLib Access to Networked Resources (ANR) projects are a partial
answer to this problem, although at present their long-term future is not
assured. Undoubtedly there is a role for systems which provide some kind
of authoritative grading for networked resources, but at present it is
unclear as to what that mechanism will be. Again, for lifelong learners,
the need is likely to be acute as they may well be remote from sources of
advice. Librarians will need to consider this issue in the design of their
services.
As we have described in Chapter 3, information and communications
technologies have much to offer the lifelong learner and may provide the
boost which will make lifelong learning a reality. Libraries need to
redouble their efforts to assist in the development of networked
information resources and in their exploitation. However, the networked
information arena poses questions about how users will be able to identify
and retrieve particular information from the vast resources potentially
available - the need is to provide the equivalent of a library catalogue
which can be used as an access point to world-wide sources. We have
written elsewhere of the problems this creates[142]:
"If we assume that the principal role of the academic library is to
enable its users to identify, locate, gain access to and use the
information they require, then the `library', whether traditional,
electronic or hybrid, may be identified and characterised by a series of
five functions:
- it provides tools[143] which enable
users to view the `electronic information landscape', through the sources
of metadata which have been provided either directly by the library or to
which it provides access. This is a `resource location' or `resource
discovery' process. It may be seen as a two stage process of resource
identification and location identification i.e. the user may
identify a resource and then identify a location which holds it. The
second locating process may be left to the library to perform (as when a
user completes an interlibrary loan form but does not specify a holding
location);
- it provides tools which enable users to gain access to the information
which they have identified as being of interest to them. This is a
`resource provision' or `resource delivery' process. In some cases
resource delivery may be a three-stage process, whereby the user, having
discovered an item, first requests it, the library then acquires it, and
the library then delivers it to the user - this is the classic traditional
library process expressed, for example, in a reservations or inter-library
loan service. In an electronic context these processes are usually
concatenated;
- it provides tools which enable users to exploit the information content
to which they have been given access. This is a `resource utilisation'
process. In an electronic context the tools will include word processing,
spreadsheet and database software together with filters and specialist
display software such as Adobe Acrobat;
- it provides, possibly through third parties, the physical
infrastructure and support services which users need to exploit
information resources. This is the `infrastructure provision' process.
One of the functions of the electronic library will be to provide network
infrastructure, PCs, printing facilities and so on. It will also provide
support in the form of Helpdesk and advisory services;
- it provides management structures and procedures which ensure that the
resources available to it are used to provide the maximum possible value
for money to its users. As part of the management function, decisions will
be taken on which resource discovery tools to provide, on how specific
resources should be delivered (for example, should they be held locally or
accessed from remote servers) and on which tools should be provided to
enable users to exploit the information. In addition, management will
provide procedures to handle the economic and legal aspects of information
provision. Together, these may be described as `resource management'.
These functions are shown diagrammatically in the Table below:
|
Resource Discovery |
Resource Delivery |
Resource Utilisation |
Infrastructure Provision |
Resource Management |
|
Resource identification |
Request |
Exploitation tools |
Space |
Prioritisation |
Although these functions can be found in the traditional library, in the
electronic environment they introduce new levels of complexity, not least
because so many of the information resources are not `owned' by the
library in any real sense: issues such as cataloguing of networked
resources are therefore far more complex than their traditional library
equivalents."[144]
There must be some concern that many library practitioners do not seem to
be as well versed in these concepts as might be expected. Developments
such as Z39.50, Dublin core, Warwick framework, authentication and virtual
clumps are too often regarded as esoteric concepts or simply met with a
blank look. The work of units such as UKOLN needs to be disseminated to a
wider library community, which, to be blunt, needs to be educated rapidly
in the latest developments in networked information services.
The development of information handling skills is now recognised as
central to learning. Included within these skills are the ability to
identify information requirements, to develop and conduct a search, to
retrieve information, to understand it and manipulate it, and to present
information in a variety of contexts.
Universities have taken different approaches to the development of these
skills. In some, a compulsory module is taken by all first year students
to equip them with the study skills, including information skills, that
they will need: an example would be the scheme developed by the University
of Humberside and Lincolnshire[145].
In others the approach taken is to embed the development of generic skills
in the curriculum, so that the relevance of each skill is demonstrated
within the learning context of the discipline. There are advantages and
disadvantages to both approaches. What is clear, however, is that ways
need to be found to ensure that all lifelong learners have the opportunity
to acquire these skills, and develop their existing skills, so as to equip
them to learn in the future.
At the same time, we still know very little about "how" users
actually use information sources, especially in networked electronic
environments. This is a very complex question but one which should
underpin the design of the information skills curriculum and indeed
service design more generally. More research on this question is needed.
The provision of adequate helpdesk and other advisory services will be
crucial to the success of academic libraries in the future. Users will
expect to be able to access such services in person, by telephone, by
email and through web pages and will expect rapid and authoritative
responses.
The comments on the integration of library services into learning made in
section 7.7 above apply equally to this section. There needs to be a shift
away from thinking about lecturing staff giving expert help on their
subject and library staff giving expert help on information sources to a
new model of support within the learning environment as a whole. Thus the
electronic helpdesk service will be designed in as part of the learning
environment, not added on as a kind of optional (or perhaps
taken-for-granted) extra, and certainly not as the last, desperate port of
call for the student who can find nowhere else to turn.
The essence of lifelong learning is that each individual will be
undertaking learning of some kind throughout life. This provides an
opportunity for universities to transform the relationships they develop
with their students. Instead of the classic route of a three or four year
undergraduate degree course, followed at best by a remote relationship
through an alumni society, institutions will have the opportunity to
persuade students to return again and again. It is a truism of marketing
that it is far easier to sell another product to an existing customer than
to recruit a new customer, and universities will need to grasp the
opportunities this presents by developing lifelong relationships.
The academic library could have an important role to play in these
relationships, perhaps by transforming current `external reader'
membership arrangements into a new type of university membership which
includes access to courses as well as to university facilities. Bearing in
mind the large numbers of adult learners and scholars who are currently
outside institutions, it may be that universities could use access to
library services as a means of brining such people into their communities
in a much more active fashion than occurs at present.
Overlaying all of the changes in academic libraries that a commitment to
the support of lifelong learning will bring there will be a need for a
high level of management skills. The administrative systems used by
libraries need to be reconsidered as to their suitability for a service
which is based as much on access to electronic information as on access to
physical objects, and in particular where users are much more mobile and
present their demands at a variety of service points across a network.
Services must be expected to evolve rapidly, new technologies will need to
be exploited, resources will be tighter than ever.
The Dearing recommendation on institutions might equally be
applied to libraries: "we recommend that all academic libraries
should develop managers who combine a deep understanding of Communications
and Information Technology with senior management experience" but
needs also to encompass clear vision and a high level of leadership
skills. The development of suitable performance measures for services
provided off-campus, and more generally to non-traditional learners, will
need to be a priority if effective management is to be possible. This is
particularly important to enable judgements to be made on the value for
money of services.
In this Chapter we have tried to bring together some of the key issues for academic libraries which arise from the development of lifelong learning. In so doing we have been aware of the need to tread a fine line between the need for bread and butter, traditional services to be made available (remembering that when the Dearing Review asked students what their priority was, the answer was "more relevant, or a wider range of books in the library") and the exciting prospects for transforming the role of libraries and librarians in the networked environment. In the next Chapter our specific recommendations cover both aspects - and the territory in between!
In this final Chapter we make a number of recommendations for actions
which we believe would assist academic libraries in the UK to develop
their services to meet the needs of lifelong learners. In making these
recommendations we are aware, firstly that all of institutions' teaching,
learning and research activities are already a contribution to lifelong
learning, and secondly that many institutions have already taken steps to
address the needs of non-traditional students. We are aware also that
libraries' development will be dependent on that of their parent
institutions: an institution which decides that it can best contribute to
the development of the learning society by providing world-class research
facilities will expect its library services to be geared to the needs of
its researchers not to become a centre for off-campus HND students!
Having said that, it is clear that lifelong learning implies major
changes to the pattern of higher education to which we have become
accustomed. Students will enter higher education for short periods, but do
so repeatedly. Students will receive higher education at the place and
time of their own choice, rather than on campus within a traditional
academic year. Students will build up qualifications from small units, and
may do so using modules from a variety of institutions. It could be that
virtually everyone comes to regard themselves as a "university
student" on frequent occasions - and even perhaps permanently if
institutions choose to forge enduring relationships. It is to the library
needs of such students that these recommendations are primarily addressed.
One further note is pertinent: we have described the service providers in
these Recommendations as "librarians" because there is no agreed
shorthand term which would convey the equivalent posts in converged
library+IT services and because our remit was to explore the implications
of lifelong learning for the academic library. This should not be taken as
implying that we regard the recommendations as applying only to
unconverged services - quite the contrary.
Recommendation 1: There should be continued encouragement at the
highest level for co-operative approaches to comprehensive library
provision suitable for supporting lifelong learners. In particular, given
the likelihood of courses of any one institution being followed by
students across the UK and any one student following modules from more
than one institution, there is a need to go beyond regional arrangements
and consider the issue again from a national perspective.
Recommendation 2: There is a need for more experimental work on
the development of new, networked learning environments which would
include the `library' elements of support. The expertise developed in eLib
might usefully be exploited to help institutions and higher education
nationally develop the understanding, infrastructure and mechanisms needed
to support lifelong learning.
Recommendation 3: Many eLib projects have considerable potential
for benefiting lifelong learners. It would be useful if Project Teams
could be asked to address this issue in the next, or final, reports.
Recommendation 4: Just as Dearing has recommended that senior
institutional managers should possess a "deep understanding of
Communications and Information Technologies", so too all academic
library managers need an in-depth understanding of both the theory and
practice of learning and the leading edge of network applications,
especially those related to information systems. There is a pressing need
to address these issues at the national level.
Recommendation 5: In guiding the development of national services,
JISC needs to be aware that the user community is likely to change rapidly
if lifelong learning takes off. For example, a high proportion of the UK
population could be members of the community and could legitimately
require access to national services (including international academic
networks). This has considerable implications for authentication and for
demand on and delivery of JISC and commercial services and may require a
change of view on licensing. It is an issue that can only be tackled
effectively at national level.
Recommendation 6: Exemplars of good practice in supporting
lifelong learning should be encouraged. For example, eLib projects
concerned with "hybrid libraries" and "clumps" which
have recently commenced should be asked to consider this wider community
in designing their services. Effective dissemination strategies are needed
to achieve widespread knowledge of good practice.
Recommendation 7: Further work should be undertaken, using the
model developed in the work published as The Effective Academic
Library and more recently in the eLib supporting study on management
information for the electronic library, to develop performance indicators
suitable for managing library services designed for lifelong learners.
Recommendation 8: The contribution which libraries make to
lifelong learning has been insufficiently studied. Work should be
undertaken to assess the value of libraries to lifelong learners and the
impact which their services have on lifelong learning in general. This
would be an important input for policy makers nationally and
institutionally.
Recommendation 9: Institutions and their libraries should review
their existing services, including their participation in co-operative
arrangements, to determine whether they meet the needs of non-traditional
lifelong learners.
Recommendation 10: Institutions should ensure that when they offer
courses designed to appeal to lifelong learners, and especially where
those courses will not be delivered primarily on-campus, there is a clear
statement of the learning resource, including library, support which will
be available and a commitment to its delivery. Work is needed to develop
understanding of the costs and benefits of library support in these
contexts.
Recommendation 11: Institutions should consider whether, in
developing the longer term relationships with students which Dearing
recommends, they should offer access to library services as part of the
total service they provide. In so doing, institutions will no doubt wish
to consider the resource implications of such a policy.
Recommendation 12: Librarians should be involved as key players in
the development of new, ICT-based learning environments within their
institutions in the context of institutional learning strategies.
Recommendation 13: Library service provision should be designed
and costed as part of the development of programmes rather than delivered
in a purely responsive manner.
Recommendation 14: The teaching of information skills should be
reviewed to ensure that lifelong learners, and especially those whose
exposure to the institution will be in short bursts, will be adequately
equipped to undertake their courses and exploit information resources.
Recommendation 15: Librarians should consider the mix of
services which they currently provide to non-traditional students and
whether a different mix (e.g. document delivery off-campus, 24 hour &
365 day opening, telephone/email helpdesk services) is required to support
their institution's lifelong learners.
Recommendation 16: Methods of sharing best practice in the
provision of services to lifelong learners should be developed.
Recommendation 17: Librarians should consider whether a
well-designed professional development programme designed to inform
professional library staff about learning theory and research on effective
learning could be launched.
Recommendation 18: Consideration should be given to the skills
which librarians will need if they are to be effective in supporting
lifelong learning.
Recommendation 19: Academic librarians should give further
consideration to the possibilities of developing service provision jointly
with non-academic library/IT services, such as public libraries, and other
academic services such as further education college libraries, especially
where students are based at a distance from the campus or would find
access to such services beneficial for other reasons. In considering this
Recommendation, librarians may wish to explore how such alliances could
enhance the social dimension of the learning experience.
Recommendation 20: Librarians should consider whether the design
of their administrative systems is appropriate to a dispersed user
community accessing predominantly electronic services. For example, it may
be more appropriate to track users across a co-operative network rather
than focusing on tracking stock.
Recommendation 21: Librarians should consider and debate with
suppliers new licensing arrangements for access to electronic resources
which, while protecting suppliers' legitimate interests, do not
disadvantage off-campus learners.
Recommendation 22: More research is needed on the ways in which
users actually use information and library services, especially in a
networked environment.
Recommendation 23: The library community should consider whether
the professional development needs of library staff, including senior
library managers, are being addressed adequately within present
structures. For example, there could be a case for senior management CPD
courses designed specifically to assist managers to acquire the skills
needed to provide effective and dynamic leadership in a period of great
change. The profession should form a view on how lifelong learning can be
made a reality for all library staff.
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[143] By `tools' we include (human)
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