SCONUL calls for national digital library to improve student experience
23 September, 2011
The Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) has called on the Government to provide development funding for a national digital library to improve access to content for students and academics. The call was included in SCONUL's response to the HE White Paper: Students at the Heart of the System.
Ann Rossiter, Executive Director of SCONUL, commented:
"Too often, the issues of teaching and learning in higher education are discussed separately from those of research, when in practice these functions cannot exist independently. Excellence in learning and teaching is informed by high quality research.
"SCONUL has a radical vision for the future provision of content for university and college libraries and is calling for the creation of a national digital library.
"The digital library would involve a core set of content that could be accessed by academic libraries around the UK and Ireland through a single catalogue. This service would be much more cost-efficient for the libraries, but more importantly would enable much easier access to content for academics and students."
SCONUL's response to the White Paper included a number of additional recommendations:
- KPIs for library provision
SCONUL proposed to work with the National Union of Students (NUS) to develop Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for quality higher education library provision. It stressed the importance of properly equipped and professionally run libraries for the student experience, citing research by HEFCE in 2010 that found students rate satisfaction with library services eighth in importance when choosing a university, higher than number of contact hours.
- Changes to VAT
SCONUL identified the current VAT rules as a barrier to growth for library facilities, and welcomed HM Revenue & Customs' consultation on 'VAT: Cost Sharing Exemptions'. The organisation noted that an exemption for shared services would allow libraries to work together to progress initiatives such as a shared Library Management System in a way that is not possible under the current rules.
- Improved scholarly communications market
SCONUL noted that the increasing cost of information resources is limiting the efficiency of higher education libraries and called for improvements to the scholarly communications market. At present, the market delivers value for academic publishers but not for UK higher education. SCONUL highlighted the need for a fairer balance of value between the higher education community and publishers, including increased access to e-resources for students and researchers.
To read SCONUL's response to the HE White Paper click here