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It would have been easy to just quickly create them and put them up: job done. However, I decided that I would like the student to be involved in their creation. Rather than just use our Learning Services Dewey spreadsheet (what we use when we classify and catalogue), I wanted to ask the student for the terminologies that they use in lectures, in the hope that other students may be able to relate to and understand the book collection in a relevant way. Obviously, being a Marine Science student, other areas of the collection, such as marine engineering and watersports, were less familiar to him, but it was still interesting to wander the shelves with him and gather which key words and terms would mean something to him, rather than simply use the terms we use in our Learning Services Dewey. Once I had a list of the topics our stock covers, I did refer to our Learning Services Dewey in order to add slightly more detail and ensure that nothing important was missed out (especially for those areas of the collection that the student was less familiar with).
With regards to the appearance of the signage, the student thought that it would be nice to have the logo somewhere on them. As we have free-standing shelving, with books on both sides, the signage text was justified by either left-aligning or right-aligning the text to correspond with which side of the shelves it refers to. Once I had created them, the student laminated and put them up. Seeing as a few weeks have passed since this was completed, I asked the student if he was still happy with them, to which he replied yes, although he now knows where things are so he doesn’t look at them anymore! Despite this, if we ever have any visitors to the Learning Centre who are new to the campus, or students who may need a book outside of their usual subject area, they will have some guidance to refer to. It will also be useful for the start of the academic year when we have new students joining who may need to get used to finding resources and the Dewey system.
Although this seems perhaps a trivial thing to blog about, I think it’s important as sometimes I think we just assume that everyone is happy, when perhaps we should consult our users more and find out what they really think and how we can improve their learning and study experience. It also highlighted how the students do use the Learning Centre and look at the books, but it also allowed this student to take ownership of a project for the Learning Centre; it was therefore both beneficial for the Learning Centre and the student.
This reminded me of something that I had come across a couple of months ago while browsing online, which is the Library Student Advisory Group that that the University of Lincoln have established. This is where students can apply to join the group and once recruited, they advise on the provision of library services and facilities, including things such as induction activities and materials and reading lists (University of Lincoln, no date). I think in the future this may be something we could benefit from at the College; it is this feedback from our students that will help us to improve our services and facilities and prevent us from becoming complacent. I think it would also be a great CV enhancer for our students and help to develop their employability skills. Perhaps therefore a similar student advisory service, specifically for the Learning Centre, could be set up. Watch this space!
Reference:
University of Lincoln (no date) The Library: Student Advisory Group. Available at: http://library.lincoln.ac.uk/home/feedback/student-advisory-group/ (Accessed: 30 November 2015).
And below are the finished signs: