Monthly Archives ⇒ April 2008

Beyond the RAE

· ostephens

Today I’m attending the event “Beyond the RAE 2008: Bibliometrics, League Tables and the REF” at Kings. The event is sponsored by Thomson Scientific (who produce the Web of Knowledge and Citation indexes).

Irritatingly the Eduroam service which should allow me to join a wireless network here isn’t playing nice, and won’t let me on (I’ve had this problem at Kings before, but neglected to follow it up – now I wish I had).

The day is being opened with an introduction from Karen Stanton (Chief Information Officer and College Librarian), outlining the importance of bibliometric data, and how much is at stake for universities in terms of future funding depending on the outcome of the REF.

First up, Graeme Rosenberg from HEFCE is providing an update on the REF – following the recent announcements indicate a step back from the use of bibliometrics, this should be interesting:

He starts off by saying it may well be too early to answer the key questions the audience will have. However, they are expecting to publish some further details in May. However, the story so far is:

  • In 2006, HEFCE were asked to develop a new framework, with a larger emphasis on bibliometrics
  • HEFEC commissioned expert advice on the use of bibliometrics
  • Consultation outcomes are now available on the HEFCE website at http://www.hefce.ac.uk/research/assessment/reform/

The main outcomes of the consultation are:

  • A more unified framework, with assessment for all subjects, including some combination of metrics-based indicators, including bibliometrics where appropriate, as well as input from expert panels
  • The timetable to design this more flexible framework is 12 months

What happens next?

  • An early start on a pilot of the bibliometric indicator
  • An early start to dialogue with the sector on developing light touch peer review and on choosing and using other metrics
  • Further work on a number of other issues raised in the consultations
  • Remain committed to full implementation of a new framework by 2014, with funding based on some aspects of the new framework to be gradually phased in from 2011-12

There are a number of issues that need to be resolved in the development of the bibliometric indicator:

  • Coverage (which disciplines? all or selected staff? Do papers follow the author?)
  • Technical and methodological issues (defining fields for normalisation, multi-authorship, self-citation, etc.)
  • The use of bibliometric indicators within the REF
  • Burden and other implications for the sector
  • HEFCE will test issues through the pilot, then consult further and take decision during 2009

The plan is to have a bibliometrics exercise to happen in 2010.

The consultation essentially found that most responses felt bibliometrics were indicative of quality, but that there should be some input (often the word used was ‘moderation’) by expert panels.

The bibliometrics pilot should occur as follows:

  • May-Jun 2008 – select HEIs/contractors
  • Aug-Oct 2008 – Data collection
  • Nov 2008 – early 2009 – Data analysis
  • Spring 2009 – Pilot results

HEFCE are currently in contact with institutions who have shown interest in being part of the pilot. They are suggesting that the pilot is based on data submitted for the 2008 RAE as well as new material not covered in that submission.

The pilot will cover a broader range of disciplines – all where there is a reasonable amount of citation data available. However, they do not expect all disciplines to use bibliometrics in the actual REF – the pilot will establish some boundaries.

LIS08

· ostephens

I’ve just spent the day at LIS08 at the Birmingham NEC. Unfortunately there didn’t seem to be any publicly available wifi network – but that does give me a chance to try the new Typepad iphone interface to write this blog entry!

The main attractions of the show (and certainly the biggest stands) were the RFID vendors – Intellident, D-tech, 2CQR, 3M, SB etc. Were so there.

The two most interesting things I saw were the ‘Smartblades’ from Intellident, which were RFID antennas that you placed between your book stock on the shelves (about 3 per meter of shelving) and they would do a stock check of your library at the touch of a button. They also added the ability to go from searching for a book to an interactive map showing where the item was in the library at that instant. Although there is still clearly some work to do on the practical implementations (how to get power and networking to the blades for example) the demo I saw was very convincing. I was also pleased to hear them talk about the exploitation of RFID in the library supply chain – a much underestimated area by RFID vendors in my opinion – however thus will need engagement from library suppliers and system vendors before it can become a reality.

I was also very taken by D-Tech’s people counter, which used thermal imaging to detect people passing a point, and some clever software which allowed you to draw lines across the sensor area to dictate when a ‘count’ occurred. This would allow not only in and out counting, but also if you put a sensor at a crossroads or junction, draw counter lines in such a way that you could count his many people went each way from the crossroads – very neat, and the price seemed reasonable too.

I also got to see a walkthrough of the new search interface from DS Ltd (Arena), chatted to Lorensbergs about room booking systems and Talking Tech about SMS overdue and hold notification. So all in all a useful day and I caught up with some current and past colleagues as well.

Do you love your library?

· ostephens

Suprising myself with the third post of the day, and again I’m going to cite an article in the Guardian.

I read the ‘Media’ section of the Guardian every week (Monday) – I’d highly recommend it, as it regularly touches on the issues of how the web and digital world impact on traditional media – and as such has a lot of relevance to libraries, and the resources they provide.

Yesterday a column by Jeff Jarvis (who blogs at http://buzzmachine.com) talked about the way that Dell, Starbucks and Salesforce are engaging with their customers via online public forums, where people can post, discuss and vote on ideas about things the companies could do to improve the service they offer.

This started me wondering – which will be the first Library software vendor to do something similar – and if they did, would the community involved be large enough to make it a worthwhile exercise? I guess I first thought of library software vendors because of the commercial nature of the organisations mentioned in the article (although the article goes on to reflect on the use of similar ideas in government, specifically mentioning http://petitions.pm.gov.uk).

The other obvious question which came to mind later was, what about libraries – which libraries are using these methods to change their services? One answer, is my own Alma Mater and ex-employer Royal Holloway. This summer the library at Royal Holloway is going to be refurbished, and the company that they have brought in to help with the design (NOMAD) have setup a Facebook group called ‘Love your library’ to get input to the design (open to the Royal Holloway network only I’m afraid) – and so far it looks like there is lots of interesting comment, and some discussion around points of disagreement.

Do you love your library?

· ostephens

Suprising myself with the third post of the day, and again I’m going to cite an article in the Guardian.

I read the ‘Media’ section of the Guardian every week (Monday) – I’d highly recommend it, as it regularly touches on the issues of how the web and digital world impact on traditional media – and as such has a lot of relevance to libraries, and the resources they provide.

Yesterday a column by Jeff Jarvis (who blogs at http://buzzmachine.com) talked about the way that Dell, Starbucks and Salesforce are engaging with their customers via online public forums, where people can post, discuss and vote on ideas about things the companies could do to improve the service they offer.

This started me wondering – which will be the first Library software vendor to do something similar – and if they did, would the community involved be large enough to make it a worthwhile exercise? I guess I first thought of library software vendors because of the commercial nature of the organisations mentioned in the article (although the article goes on to reflect on the use of similar ideas in government, specifically mentioning http://petitions.pm.gov.uk).

The other obvious question which came to mind later was, what about libraries – which libraries are using these methods to change their services? One answer, is my own Alma Mater and ex-employer Royal Holloway. This summer the library at Royal Holloway is going to be refurbished, and the company that they have brought in to help with the design (NOMAD) have setup a Facebook group called ‘Love your library’ to get input to the design (open to the Royal Holloway network only I’m afraid) – and so far it looks like there is lots of interesting comment, and some discussion around points of disagreement.

Bums on seats

· ostephens

Want to find a seat at the British Library? You’ll be lucky

On the same day that the Guardian published a supplement on Academic Libraries, this piece appeared in G2 – an interesting counter view to the ‘library as a place for conversation’ approach touted in the supplement, this reports some users bemoaning the lack of seats and the metamorphoses of the BL into “a groovy place to get a frappuccino”

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Bums on seats

· ostephens

Want to find a seat at the British Library? You’ll be lucky

On the same day that the Guardian published a supplement on Academic Libraries, this piece appeared in G2 – an interesting counter view to the ‘library as a place for conversation’ approach touted in the supplement, this reports some users bemoaning the lack of seats and the metamorphoses of the BL into “a groovy place to get a frappuccino”

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Library Unleashed

· ostephens

The Guardian has a special supplement on libraries today. It covers several areas including new ideas on the library space (Learning Grid, Information Commons, Saltire Centre etc.), information literacy (focussing on the recent UCL report for JISC and the BL), the impact of web 2.0 and digitisation projects.

Overall this is a great window for JISCs work in the area of libraries. As someone on the inside I found it a bit high level and lightweight, but I guess that is to be expected?

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Library Unleashed

· ostephens

The Guardian has a special supplement on libraries today. It covers several areas including new ideas on the library space (Learning Grid, Information Commons, Saltire Centre etc.), information literacy (focussing on the recent UCL report for JISC and the BL), the impact of web 2.0 and digitisation projects.

Overall this is a great window for JISCs work in the area of libraries. As someone on the inside I found it a bit high level and lightweight, but I guess that is to be expected?

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Hype cycles

· ostephens

Gartner is a information technology research and advisory company. They are well known for their ‘hype cycle’, which shows the progress of technologies from their initial introduction to them actually being in productive use. They publish them in many different areas of IT, and although most hype cycles are only available to subscribers, you can access the 2005 ‘Special Report’ for an idea of how they work.

They always make interesting viewing/reading, and I was intrigued to see a blog post from Christine Sexton, “Director of Corporate Information and Computing Services” at the University of Sheffield today which plots a hype cycle for University of Sheffield – this seems an interesting way of thinking about where we are, perhaps I should plot one for our library.

Hype cycles

· ostephens

Gartner is a information technology research and advisory company. They are well known for their ‘hype cycle’, which shows the progress of technologies from their initial introduction to them actually being in productive use. They publish them in many different areas of IT, and although most hype cycles are only available to subscribers, you can access the 2005 ‘Special Report’ for an idea of how they work.

They always make interesting viewing/reading, and I was intrigued to see a blog post from Christine Sexton, “Director of Corporate Information and Computing Services” at the University of Sheffield today which plots a hype cycle for University of Sheffield – this seems an interesting way of thinking about where we are, perhaps I should plot one for our library.