Access to Research in Public

Libraries

Empowering Europe – EBLIDA

10.05.16

Ciara Eastell @CiaraEastell

President, Society of Chief Librarians (SCL), UK

SCL & the Universal Offers

• SCL manages the public library service in England, Wales and

Northern Ireland.

Supports

access to

information in

life-critical

areas:

careers, job

seeking,

health.

Staff trained

to help

customers

access every

digital need

for modern

life.

Community

spaces

where health

and well-

being

partners

engage with

people.

Encourages

and enables

reading for

pleasure;

Celebration

of libraries’

core

function.

All age

groups can

build

confidence

and

creativity,

coding and

digital skills.

What is Access to Research?

• Access to Research gives free, walk-in access to over 10million academic articles in participating public libraries across the UK.

• Launched in 2014 for a 2 year pilot • Part of Finch Report on Open Access • 90% of public libraries in England offer A2R

• Partnership between SCL and Publishers Licensing Society (PLS)

• Part of SCL’s Learning Offer

Understanding the value of A2R

and engaging with users of the

service Im

age:

Mu

seu

ms

Lib

rari

es a

nd

Arc

hiv

es

Independent evaluation of the pilot

Analysis of web use data from Google and Summon

Interviews with 11 stakeholders

Survey of users (n.455), non users (n.99), library staff (n.612)

Ten in-depth user interviews

Support from 8 library services – enabled mediated research

User journey

User journey - analytics

(reference period January 2014 – July 2015)

A2R landing page (with search feature) 87,313 sessions

A2R Summon service 34,276 sessions (or ‘visits’)

…from which 170,771 searches were performed

Summon sessions traced to libraries ~94,000 (55%) from 327 IPs

Summon sessions from outside libraries ~76,800 (45%) from 10,308 IPs

Which libraries?

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

5000

A2R sessions recorded per public libary service (150 participating services)

What are they using A2R for?

5%

26%

53%

55%

0% 20% 40% 60%

Other

Professional/business/occupational interest

Personal interest

Academic interest/research

What are they using A2R for?

Creating a social enterprise

Continuing academic level research in work

Nomad students

Local talks

Social action and volunteering

Writing music, backyard inventions

What subjects are people interested in?

19%

21%

28%

31%

34%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

Philosophy & Religion

Law, Politics & Government

Social Sciences

Health & Biological Sciences (including medicine)

History & Archaeology

Who are A2R’s users?

All ages, all ethnic groups, all educational levels, but:

-mainly were regular library users

-mainly degree educated

-32% from most affluent neighbourhoods

Also tend to be older than typical library users, less likely to be working, M/F

equal (unlike typical users)

Experience of using A2R

1%

8%

14%

14%

68%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Yes, other (please specify)

Yes, help searching or finding articles

Yes, information about it (e.g. a leaflet about Access to Research)

Yes, help accessing Access to Research home page

No – I have not received any guidance or support

1 -

Strongly

disagree

2 -

Disagree

3 -

Neither

4 - Agree 5 -

Strongly

agree

Not sure

/ Don't

know

Access to Research was easy

to use 5% 10% 11% 45% 30% 0%

I was able to find the

information that I was

looking for through Access to

Research

5% 7% 11% 60% 17% 0%

The information that I found

through Access to Research

has been useful/helpful

5% 1% 2% 56% 34% 2%

Experience of using A2R

Those not using A2R?

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Other

Aware of it but not interested

Aware of it and interested, but haven’t had the time to use it

Not aware of it previously – but I would be keen to find out more / use it

Aware of it and interested, but haven’t had a reason to use it

Not aware of it

Library staff – how many have had training?

1%

3%

3%

5%

18%

35%

37%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

Yes, webinar

Not yet, but have arranged/booked to go on training

Yes, other

Yes, national training

Yes, local training

No, but have researched or taught it to myself

Nothing at all

Conclusions Use overall may be lower than hoped but some library services are getting impressive usage results

Learn what high usage libraries have done and set goals

Stakeholders are expecting meaningful action on use Focused awareness campaign

Staff awareness is low, and staff could be more proactive Reinvigorate library staff training – ensure staff know basic mechanics

IP picture and records could be clearer and would be more useful if sharper

Clarify issues on IPs, drop-off, the 2 A2R websites

User experience seems to be variable, clunky Seek help from library staff to monitor, promote and support user experience

Social case will be stronger with broader user base Reach out to broader range of users

Out-of-library use should be embraced and leveraged – and scale of it is significant

Look at linking out-of-library use to drive in-library use

There is huge goodwill, and knowledge to tap into which could drive next stage as more co-productive model

Engage super users in A2E future development (forums, social web)

Recommendations

• Promote more effectively

• Train staff / raise awareness

• Review management information

• Review user journey

• End result: publishers agreed to continue indefinitely!

Reflections

• Need for library staff – at all levels – to understand the agenda and its importance

• Staff need skills to promote and signpost the resources

• Alignment with lifelong learning agenda

• Values of Open Access & Public Libraries are aligned

• Trust between libraries and publishers is key

• User experience is key

Reflections

• Huge potential around Citizen Science and Public Libraries – eg BBC ‘Weather Watchers’

• Mission-based • Connects with Science Technology and Maths

(STeM) agenda, MOOCs, Hack spaces, etc • ‘Creative Citizenry’ • Significant potential user base for A2R:

– Those learning in new ways – Validating views of experts

• A springboard for a new role for public libraries?

For further info

• Access to Research

http://www.accesstoresearch.org.uk/

• Independent evaluation of A2R

http://goscl.com/wp-content/uploads/Access-to-Research-final-report-Oct-2015.pdf

Questions?

Imag

e: W

ord

sho

re o

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lickr

CC