Library’s Knowledge Resources for students and teaching staff in digital universities from EADTU

Abstract

Arising from work on a Vision and Strategy Appraisal of the UKOU Library Services, and with facilitation from EADTU, a comparative study was done of four distance teaching university library services functions in terms of support to students and teaching staff: FernUniversität; Open Universiteit Nederland (library services supplied by Maastricht University); Universitat Oberta de Catalunya; and Athabasca University. All participants agreed to share conclusions with each other, with the UK Open University, and with other members of EADTU. The workshop presented at OOFHEC 2016 will begin with brief presentations on the comparative study process and overall conclusions. Other members of the Working Group who took part will give brief highlights of their institutional summary reports. The majority of time at the workshop will be used for small-group working. Precise topics will depend on delegate types and numbers but the following are likely to be of interest: 1. Extending the comparative study to other institutions active in distance and blended learning 2. Integrating such studies with existing national/international review schemes for libraries, and how to update such schemes to cater for “digital libraries” 3. How to ensure that that the library contributes to good results in benchmarking/review schemes at institution level, in particular E-xcellence and OpenUpEd.