Open University Strategy

The University has developed a new strategy OU Futures 2010 – 2013 which contains 11 focus areas.  Library Services’ main contributions are in Focus Areas 2 and 3 which aim to develop and deliver courses more efficiently, to increase flexibility and responsiveness and make them more compelling and pedagogically effective.  Library Services is involved in supporting this move to technology enhanced learning and is leading on ensuring OU students graduate with transferable information literacy skills.  To support this work:

• we have developed a new information literacy framework and are developing a suite of generic information literacy activities to support its embedding in all programmes

• we are producing a series of case studies which demonstrate good practice and innovative use of Library resources and other 3rd party material

• we are promoting our expertise in finding new, relevant and authoritative content including OERs (Open Education Resources)

As part of the communications strategy for the rollout of the new strategy, the Vice-Chancellor is recording a video message for all staff bi-monthly. If you would like to know more about OU Futures you can visit the website at http://www.open.ac.uk/ou-futures/index.shtm

Referencing made easy: Technology Enhanced Learning supporting STudents to achieve Academic Rigour (TELSTAR) project

The Open University and its partners have developed a new piece of free software to help students and universities manage academic referencing more easily.

Funded by JISC, and made in collaboration with RefWorks, the web-based research management, writing and collaboration tool, the OU has developed MyReferences which is part of the TELSTAR project.

MyReferences integrates tools from the widely-used RefWorks reference management software into the Moodle virtual learning environment which is used in academic institutions across the UK to support online learning. The MyReferences software is open source, making it free for any institution to download, tailor to its own needs and integrate into their own learning environments.

Although there are already a number of general referencing tools available to students, MyReferences takes the usability of these tools a step further by integrating them into online courses so the materials students commonly need to reference are already available in the format they need. Students simply select the sources they need to reference, the referencing style their institution requires and then copy and paste the result into their assignment.

For more information about using TELSTAR in your institution, for a demonstration of the TELSTAR software and to see the new Reference Management Integration Toolkit, ReMIT, go to the TELSTAR website http://www.open.ac.uk/telstar/

Access to Video Assets (AVA) Project

The AVA project aims to address the increasing demand for exploitation of The Open University’s rich media legacy assets. The project will deliver a proof of concept for a system for staff to search and find OU video assets for the primary purpose of reuse within course production. A second strand will deliver a sustainable digital preservation model.

Work carried out so far includes: the development of a time-based media metadata profile; the digitisation to preservation standards of over 1,000 video tapes held on “at-risk” formats as well as 38,000 pages of accompanying paperwork with vital metadata; the migration of a single user database of video footage descriptions to a web interface for OU staff to search and preview 9,000 course video programmes; and finally the development of repository prototypes as proof of concepts in Fedora, Greenstone & Documentum.

The project is due to deliver its findings July 2011. For more information, visit the project website: http://www.open.ac.uk/library/ava/

LUCERO (Linking University Content for Education and Research Online) Project

LUCERO which, incidentally, means ‘bright star’ in Spanish, is a new one year JISC-funded project at the Open University which aims to apply linked data technologies and principles to education and research practices.

One of the major objectives of the project is to demonstrate the benefits of linked data in a University environment, especially to researchers and students.  It is hoped that at the end of the project there will be a pool of evidence for other organisations, who want to follow this route, to draw on.

For more information go to the project blog (http://lucero-project.info )

Final presentation of OU course:  ‘Beyond Google’ (TU120)

The popular OU short course Beyond Google: Working with Information Online will be available to study for the last time in October 2010.  The course provides reflections on the current information landscape as well as introducing practical techniques to help with searching, evaluating, managing, referencing, and keeping up to date with information.  The course is friendly, accessible and fun and includes interactive activities, podcasts and blogging. For more information see the online course description: http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/course/tu120.htm

Third International M-Libraries Conference

Mobile technology is revolutionising how we access information. If you have a particular interest in mobile technologies why not join other library practitioners, researchers, technical developers and managers from around the world to exchange experience, expertise and generate ideas for future developments? The third International M-Libraries Conference will explore work carried out in libraries to deliver services and resources to users 'on the move'. The conference is hosted by the University of South Queensland in Brisbane, Australia on 11-13 May 2011 in collaboration with the Open University Library, Athabasca University (Canada), Thompson Rivers University (Canada) and Emerald Group Publishing.

If you are researching or working in areas such as emerging mobile technologies or development of content for mobiles and would like to share what you are doing why not submit a paper or poster for the conference? For more information go to: http://www.usq.edu.au/m-libraries

Nicky Whitsed
Director of Library Services