Information Scotland

The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland

April 2004 Volume 2004

HE libraries

A de-mystifying tour

A new audio tour at Glasgow University Library has been a hit with students, writes Moira Sinclair.

Glasgow University Library now offers an audio tour developed with leading audio tour company, Acoustiguide. Traditionally working with museums and art galleries, Acoustiguide has diversified into providing audio tours in new areas such as hospitals, motor manufacturers and now academic libraries. Glasgow is following the lead of the LSE Library in offering such a tour designed for students, academics and visitors.

Glasgow University recruits around 6,000 new undergraduates and postgraduates each year and, for many years, the Library has found it impossible to offer tours at the beginning of the first semester. Apart from full-time students, we have a wide range of other users such as summer school students; part-time students; researchers, new academic staff and visiting academics and librarians. We decided that audio tours would significantly improve our service by offering more flexibility and efficiency to library users and visitors. Everyone could benefit from an introductory audio tour at a time to suit them - while existing users might decide to refresh their knowledge of the Library too.

For new students, the Library can be a little overwhelming as it is built on 12 levels with over 2 million books and periodicals. So, an audio tour seemed the ideal solution to the demand for tours. The Library can now provide free-of-charge tours any day of the week, without requiring significant involvement of Library staff.

After seeing the LSE Library’s audio tour in action, having presentations from audio tour providers and submitting a successful proposal to the Library’s senior management team, Acoustiguide was appointed. The audio tour was up and running less than five months later, in time for the new academic year in September 2003.

The production process started with the Acoustiguide scriptwriter recording two members of Library staff conducting a guided tour. This formed the basis of the ‘core’ tour. Additional layers were added, focusing on more specialised areas of interest, which users could chose to listen to during the tour. Library staff and Acoustiguide worked closely together on scripting the tour to ensure it met all the Library’s needs. Many draft scripts were emailed backwards and forwards between the Library and the Acoustiguide offices. Just when we thought each section was perfect, an error would be spotted and discussion about certain aspects of the script would begin again. Eventually we were ready to have the tour recorded – Acoustiguide sent us a CD with a variety of actor narrators with Scottish voices – sadly Sean Connery was not one of them! We decided to chose both a male and female voice. Once the script was recorded, produced and edited, it was digitised and loaded onto the handsets on-site. Acoustiguide carry out all set-up, installation, staff training and maintenance of the audio equipment.

The tour is essentially a general introduction to the Library’s layout and facilities. Because we actively promote use of the Library by schools, a separate, much shorter audio tour was added especially for Advanced Higher pupils who use the Library for reference purposes.

In addition to this core tour, users can select to hear various additional sections or ‘layers’, allowing the tour to be personalised depending on their interests or the time available. By listening to the core tour and the layers, the total tour amounts to almost 60 minutes. The optional layers cover topics such as Special Collections, Short Loan and our map collection.

We decided to ask Acoustiguide to digitally cap the maximum sound levels, as recommended by the LSE Library. This ensures that other Library users cannot be disturbed by someone using an audio tour nearby. The handsets, or Wands, were linked to the existing 3M security system by inserting the same magnetic strips used in our books into the individual wands.

The Acoustiguide 2000 Series Wand (a type of MP3 player) is the most up-to-date of digital audio guides. It’s easy to use, with raised dots on the keypad to indicate the number 5, as well as coloured, differently shaped control buttons. The Wands are also compatible with hearing-aid T switches. When not in use, the Wands sit neatly in a rack holding 25 Wands each. This small rack also incorporates the charging mechanism and sits in a space at the Lending Services Desk.

Last September, Library staff promoted the tour at all Faculty inductions sessions. This is really our only chance to talk to students about the Library at the beginning of the new academic year and we were pleased to be able to offer something different at a time when students are being bombarded with information. This year we plan to increase our promotion by advertising in the Freshers’ Orientation Programme booklet and website, bookmarks, and new posters. All school groups use the tours for their introductory sessions and we promote the tour during all University applicants’ visits and Open Day.

Generally, response to the tour has been excellent – we encourage users to fill in a comments card at the end of their tour. This summer we will respond to some comments and amend a few details as well as updating information. Inevitably, information changes, but to get maximum long-term benefit from the tour, the Library set out to include information (in English only) which mostly doesn’t date easily.

This is a new venture for the Library and one which we hope will become an invaluable tool for all our users.

Moira Sinclair is Head of Enquiry Service/Marketing Officer, Glasgow University Library.

Information Scotland Vol. 2 (2) April 2004

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Last updated: 10 May 2004