People's network > Content

Promoting use of online resources

Digitisation

Online Resources

All public libraries benefited from access to a range of on-line information resources funded by the Big Lottery Fund. This initiative took place for a 2-year period from January 2003 and provided access to a range of services. These included general information from KnowUK, business information from Kompass, newspaper provision from NewsBank and cultural information from the Statistical Accounts of Scotland.

This innovative project ensured that all citizens had access to information no matter whether they lived in a small rural authority or a large metropolitan area. During the 2-year period use of resources developed and these services became recognised as integral to the requirements of a modern public library service.

In autumn 2004 the Heads of Public Library Services took the decision to continue to work collaboratively with the support of SLIC to provide access to quality information resources. This demonstrated the success of the People’s Network which has embedded the responsibility that public libraries have to provide access to quality information resources for both members of the public and library staff. It also indicated a significant commitment from Council budgets. The Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) developed and managed a tender process for on-line information services for all public libraries for a 2-year period from April 2005. SLIC worked closely with the Authorities Buying Consortium (abc) who provided support and advise during the tender process.

An Invitation to Tender (ITT) was issued and a notice appeared in the Official Journal of the European Union. The ITT invited tenders for three areas of information provision: general information, business information and newspapers. Access to cultural resources was secured through Scottish Government funding of access to Scran for a year long period from 1 September 2004.

A number of tender applications were received and all public library services participated in the evaluation process. There were a number of elements to the evaluation process and library managers were asked to consider the quality of resources in several areas:

• Quality
• Access arrangements
• Comprehensiveness
• Promotion
• Relevance
• Monitoring
• Suitability
• Invoicing
• Training
• Value for money

A scoring system was used for this part of the evaluation. Managers were then asked to indicate if they would recommend subscribing to the resource and to indicate their preference comparing the services in each information area.

By working collaboratively library services have benefited from considerable discounts in costs. All library services are participating in at least one element of the 2-year subscription to on-line resources.

In general information provision 29 library services have subscribed to KnowUK and 9 library services have subscribed to XRefer services. 14 library services have subscribed to business information services from Kompass and 31 have subscribed to newspaper provision through NewsUK.

See the archive for more information on People's Network.

Promoting Use of On-line Resources

Aberdeenshire Library and Information Service is consistently reported to have some of the highest statistics for use of KnowUK, Kompass, Newsbank and the Statistical Accounts of Scotland. Aberdeenshire has delivered training in Reader Development and the use of the NOF funded online resources, with a total of 148 staff attending a half-day training sessions. More information on their training session (PDF format) is available.

The Online Resources training sessions involved hands-on training in the use of Kompass (PDF format), KnowUK (PDF format), Encyclopaedia Britannica (PDF format) and Newsbank (PDF format). Aberdeenshire fund access to Encyclopaedia Britannica from Council budgets. The trainers developed materials for the sessions with the dual purpose of training staff and offer self-instruction documentation, for use by members of the public. The staff were therefore developing skills in using the databases and also testing the suitability of the user guides for use by their clients. The feedback confirmed that a large proportion of staff had not been using the databases prior to the training day. Aberdeenshire Library and Information Service have agreed to share this work with the wider library community.

Digitisation

Over £6 million has been awarded to digitisation projects in Scotland. The 2 main projects are:

Enrich Scotland: The National Library is working with over 90 partners who are contributing a diverse range of cultural, scientific and historical resources. EnrichScotland provides a gateway to the projects.

Am Baile: led by Highland Council, this web site promotes Gaelic culture and heritage resources for Learning in Scotland (access is available through Enrich Scotland).

Back to top