#ISEWLib2014 at the University of Helsinki Library

University of Helsinki welcomes administrative staff from Erasmus partner universities to network, benchmark and share their expertise with colleagues around Europe. International Staff Exchange Weeks [ISEW] provide a unique opportunity to update your professional skills and revise your routines.

Photo credit Veera Ristikartano

I applied to the ISEW Library programme and was among 15 people chosen to visit the University of Helsinki from 2-6 June 2014.  I had been looking forward to it for months, and it truly was an amazing week.

#ISEWLib2014 participants (and 3 of our Finnish hosts); photo credit Veera Ristikartano

The 2014 participants were: Lorena (Spain), Renata (Poland), Ursula (Eire), Katarina (Sweden), Maria (Greece), Mantas (Lithuania), Monica (Norway),  Sandrine (France), Katrin (Germany), Massimo (Italy), Jordi (Spain), Tine (Belgium), Sigridur (Iceland), me (England), Fiona (Scotland).

Here is a roundup of my highlights from this week:

• Libraries at the University of Helsinki
• Minerva Plaza learning environment
• Collection management and e-resources
• Information literacy
• Public libraries in Helsinki
• Social media
• Staff spaces
• Finnish Parliament Library
• Digital Library Services in Finland
• Research data management

And some fun things:

I looooved that my name has been spelled “Wilkinsson” on the #ISEWLib2014 programme – feeling more Nordic by the minute.

Kalevala for children; in Savon; in Swedish; in Finnish

After the sauna on Wednesday evening…

At the library staff party, where we were all give leis to wear, and there were games and exuberant dancing

Antti, Veera, me – photo credit Veera

Finnish has a reputation for being difficult to learn but perhaps it’s not so hard after all…

A huge THANK YOU to the library staff from the University of Helsinki who put together an excellent programme and made us feel so welcome it was hard indeed to go home at the end of the week.

#ISEWLib2014 Libraries at the University of Helsinki

Main post: #ISEWLib2014 at the University of Helsinki Library

Colour-coded learning spaces

At start of last academic year, all new students at the medical campus were given a tablet computer each. But we still can’t assume that all students at have their own IT equipment.

Staff badges – staff choose for themselves which language flags to display

Post-graduates and “lost-graduates” – people who have finished their course but not sure what to do next! These are found in or near libraries all over the world, and now I know a name for them 🙂

Donate a textbook – but with money, not out-of-date editions!

Idea from Columbia Uni, NY: employ ‘newly-minted’ PhD graduates on library teams to provide recent user experience (UX) input

Little kitchen for students. Can heat own food (or baby food) in microwave

Mobile storage units which students can rent for a few euros. Side is open – secure once locked away

Service design project @HULib objectives and scope. Goal was not just to have a beautiful and functional new building, but also to offer world-class services.

It was important for @HULib to be seen as one university library service, and harmonise service and branding across campuses.

Four different user types emerged from customer profiling: lingerer, visitor, investigator, patron.  These users types describe behaviour rather than individuals.

Achieved change in service culture: strategy and service promise; user-centred & participatory design processes/methods/tools.  Across the group, we recognised that it is difficult to strike a balance between catering for younger students, and keeping older patrons and academics happy.

Having lots of different types of seats caters for different user needs, and makes them easier to replace.

“If there are no books at all, students don’t think about it as a library space”

Love these little glasses of flowers to bring some of the Finnish summer indoors! Photo credit Veera Ristikartano

From Antti Virrankoski‘s presentation on the learning centre project at Kumpula Campus. Library space usage, according to exit poll (2011):

Library space usage, according to exit poll

Requirements for the new learning spaces: individual , group and teachings spaces; comfort, accessibility:

‘Count the traffic’ customer behaviour profiling method by Tord Høivik.  After the redevelopment at Kumpula, there will be more seats, more computers, more flexible working spaces; and better accessibility, comfort, and infrastructure.

See also: Learning spaces at the University of Warwick Library

#ISEWLib2014 Minerva Plaza learning environment

Main post: #ISEWLib2014 at the University of Helsinki Library

Mikko Halonen introduced us to the Minerva Plaza building, which is like a tech petting zoo!

The big presentation room is called the Owl’s Nest, and it’s surrounded by smaller rooms with their own technology equipment.

Time-lapse video showing how flexible the Owl’s Nest learning space can be!

Some academics don’t like the glass walls of the Owl’s Nest – everyone can see what you’re doing; and some are tech refusers.

No point having devices if you have no idea how to use them to teach – showing academics how is key part of Minerva Plaza.

Kirsti Lonka has written about Minerva Plaza and its use – see this presentation from slide 19  and my own notes from her talk on engaging learning environments at the IFLA satellite conference on information literacy.

We tried out Flinga (live shared desktop) by NordTouch:

Flinga

Flinga has been valuable in encouraging discussion and engagement in conferences, as well as with students.  It lets people type rather than talk.  Non-native speakers of English in our group said they felt more comfortable with this.  Conclusion: Flinga is a great tool to use in presentations or during courses. It combines discussing, learning and interaction!

#ISEWLib2014 Digital Library Services in Finland

Main post: #ISEWLib2014 at the University of Helsinki Library

Leena Saarinen‘s presentation on Digital Library Services – Finnish structures and interfaces

National Library of Finland.  Finna is the single search interface for the collections of many Finnish libraries, museums & archives.  Go and search Finna (e.g. Moomin, pulla, Sibelius, Tove Jansson, anything!) and look how many results there are 🙂

National Historical Newspaper and Journal Library

Finto – Finnish thesaurus and ontology service

Mentioned in session: reCAPTCHA system, which protects websites from bots and helps digitize the text of books – here’s an example:

And a warning!

 

#ISEWLib2014 Collection management and e-resources

Main post: #ISEWLib2014 at the University of Helsinki Library

Top tip: use reference lists from dissertations to help inform decisions on which are the most important journals.

Are students satisfied with ebook-only?  Some replies I received on Twitter:

• daveyp @laurajwilkinson I’d say the stats we’ve got show the answer is increasingly “yes”, despite DRM & iffy vendor platforms
• MT @daveyp We’ve not crunched stats properly, but seems age is a factor with younger students more likely to have higher usage
• MT @daveyp average number of ebook platform logins per student per year is growing an at exponential rate for us at the moment
• .@daveyp That’s what we do [buy e where available, and fewer print copies]. Students say they prefer print, but data suggests they use e if no print alternative
• MT @ostephens when asked, students still want print but are pragmatic & pref[erence] depends on task, location etc
• MT @daveyp given increase in [ebook] usage, I think libs should be pushing pub[lisher]s harder for a better user experience

Idea of restricting ebook access to subject groups of students to reduce costs, but higher risk of breach of licence (if the “wrong” students gain access), and reduced opportunity for interdisciplinary work if readers can’t access texts outside their field.

Helsinki Uni Library’s online acquisition proposal form for students & academics to make recommendations.  They also use patron-driven acquisition (PDA) and evidence-based selection (EBS).

We discussed the legal/logistical issues around selling deselected books to students.  I liked the idea of using the money raised to buy plants for the library!

“Library is the smartphone, smartphone is the library”

Terkko Navigator – an excellent site.  It’s a single search interface with all the usual info sources, plus library and academic staff profiles, and RSS feeds.  Please will a funding body give @Terkko money to make the system open source so we can all use it?  The journal and database functionality is powered by SFX and MetaLib, the rest is built in-house.  Various journal metrics are displayed alongside journal titles.

Eevaliisa Colb’s presentation on Digital Libraries Now.

The library has a duty to serve the university community and the public community.  Machines are users too! [think libre open access and machine indexing]

Aalto chair – a tool for strategic IT planning:

Seat = our service offer; legs = customer-centredness, cooperation, ‘more with less’

‘More with less’: In IT, anything is possible; but we must prioritise – we can’t do everything for everyone.

KITT – Finnish research library statistics database

Layers of authentication for Helsinki Uni e-resources: Shibboleth-type single sign-on is widely used (Haka is the Finnish uni federation), and IP address access too.  As in the UK, there is a mismatch between the potential granularity of SSO and the reality of ‘authorised user’ clauses in most e-resources licences.

“IT should be the servant of library services, not the master”

Importance of informal contact and regular communication between library & IT in working well together.  It was reassuring to learn that many of our e-resources issues are common to all our countries.  For example, licence compliance; especially when tech or Uni business model exceeds imagination of the licence.

#ISEWLib2014 Finnish Parliament Library

Main post: #ISEWLib2014 at the University of Helsinki Library

Newspapers at the Library of Parliament

Parliamentary Library reading room. Original desks + sockets underneath + WIFi

The Library of Parliament welcomes a wide range of visitors, and provides walk-in user access to a range of e-resources.  Note the absence of some of the big-name legal databases – this is because they don’t have much/any Finnish content, so they are not relevant.

Special book trolley for heavy Law volumes

#ISEWLib2014 Public libraries in Helsinki

Main post: #ISEWLib2014 at the University of Helsinki Library

Wishing tree for children to record what the Moomins mean to them

This public library has its own indoor garden (there are kids here, out of shot!)

Making a feature of lost property

You can borrow poles for Nordic walking! Image credit Veera Ristikartano

Lotta Muurinen gave us a tour of Urban Workshop, part of Helsinki Metropolitan Area Libraries.  Maker Spaces are becoming an important part of Finnish public libraries.  Funding for Urban Workshop comes from city innovation fund, on a 2-year cycle.  Their equipment includes 3D printers, 3D scanner, vinyl cutter, graphics station, sewing machines, video editing, digitising stations, multimedia computers.  The venue is also available to use as a meeting place – free (naturally, this is Finland after all).

Staff at Urban Workshop help customers to do things themselves, learning as they go.  They don’t expect to keep on top of all new technology.  For the autumn, biohacking workshops are planned.

@veeris: Lotta Muurinen presents @HelMet_kirjasto & its #urbanworkshop for #ISEWLib2014 I am one happy and proud taxpayer now!

Here’s the 3D printer in action:

Presentation by Kari Lämsä of Helsinki City Library: From book storage to public space: why change the way we work?  Check out the full presentation – great images, and such energy.  Look out for:

Lunch break disco in the library

Kari says this one is easy to write down, but hard to achieve.  Staff were given training in how to look available:

During rush hours, librarians walk around doing ‘nothing’ other than being available

Librarian as personal trainer (instead of “ask a librarian”) – this is very popular

Public libraries in Finland offer free courses for people learning to use their new smartphone or tablet.  What a great way to win new customers and get people talking about how useful and relevant public libraries are today.

#ISEWLib2014 Staff spaces

Main post: #ISEWLib2014 at the University of Helsinki Library

Marja’s presentation about changing staff working spaces at Viikki Campus.  When redesigning staff working spaces, information on workplace function and design was sought from an employee survey, usage info, and workshops.  Questions included topics such as primary working space, meeting rooms, acoustics, ventilation, and ease of keeping spaces clean.

One of the workshops where employees shared ideas about their needs & wishes for their future workplace

3 different working profiles were identified:

Type 1 were called ‘anchors’; maybe 2 could be ‘coracles’, and Type 3 ‘clippers’?

I like how @HULib have spent time, effort, money on design of staff areas as well as the main library environment.  Details like these cheerful owls on an office wall…

Owls on the wall of a meeting room in the staff offices

… and these fun ways to unwind away from your desk must make it a pleasant place to work!

Katarina (Ms Sweden) demonstrating good way to get moving after sitting at your desk!

Kipukoukku ‘pain hook’ for releasing tension on your back.

#ISEWLib2014 Information literacy

Main post: #ISEWLib2014 at the University of Helsinki Library

We all recognise the problem of trying to deliver training at just the right moment when students ready to take it in and use it!

At the University of Helsinki they have their own ICT Driving Licence course:

Suggestion from Monica (Ms Norway) about camouflaging information literacy training by getting PhD students to deliver it.  The message can be better received if delivered by someone the students consider their peer, or at least close to them in terms of age and experience.

Katarina (Ms Sweden) told us about the Socrative student response system, which is like Flinga and free.

My presentation about Skills for Learning at Sunderland University Library. Photo credit Maija Paavolainen.

I (Ms England) told the group about Skills for Learning at @UniOfSunLib.

When resources are tight, or structures changing, think about what you can *stop* doing.

@veeris: Customer only cares about what’s in it for him, not about #library. Challenge to switch the message to answer that question.

Study circle cards (Kristina) – these lovely cards can be borrowed from enquiry desk:

Study circle cards

Kristina’s presentation about study circle.  The cards give an introduction and activities on a range of information literacy and study skills themes.  Students can work through them by themselves or in a group.  More info in Finnish.  More info in English.

Maija’s presentation about getting feedback on info lit sessions.

Problems with feedback are (a) students’ motivation to give it, and (b) [librarian] teachers’ willingness to receive it.

Solutions for (a): short MCQ form at end of session, give examples of what you’d like to hear in free-response section.

Solutions for (b): reduce sensitivity to criticism by doing it every session; not personal; constructive; good feedback is motivating.

Examples of feedback Qs (I liked emphasis on ‘apply in practice’ rather than enjoyment):

What was the most important thing you learned? (Also helps reinforce the learning points):

#ISEWLib2014 Research data management

Main post: #ISEWLib2014 at the University of Helsinki Library

Visibility services at Helsinki University Library make research outputs known to the world.  Terkko Kudos increases impact & visibility of published articles from Helsinki Academic Medical Center:

Terkko Kudos

The Scholar Chart lists Finnish medical scholars across a number of institutions.

Terkko Scholar Chart

See also the equation for calculating Terkko Factor!

How to calculate Terkko Factor

Impactstory is an open-source, web-based tool that helps researchers explore and share the diverse impacts of all their research products—from traditional ones like journal articles, to emerging products like blog posts, datasets, and software.

See Terkko Library on ImpactStory.

List of metrics sources used by @PlumAnalytics

Here’s the full list of metrics used by Plum Analytics

We all share experience of difficulty in getting humanities & social sciences academics engaged with metrics, compared with those in science, technology, engineering & medicine.

From Mari Elisa Kuusniemi’s presentation on getting started with research data management training systems, here are some examples of assignments for library staff on RDM training programme: