Presentation for a workshop at the 2013 SCONUL conference in Dublin. The activities are accompanied by handouts.

1. SCONUL Conference
Workshop
Students co-designing
personalised library services
20th June 2013
Keren Mills and Anne Gambles
Open University Library Services

2. Workshop outline
14:00 Introduction - Why personalisation? Overview of project
genesis, methodology and results so far
14:10 Activity – What do you value about personalisation? In
groups assess personalised services from retail sites and how they
might translate into library services.
14:30 Discussion – what did we conclude from the activity?
14:40 Activity – Students as co-designers: develop a plan for
involving your students in designing personalised services for your
library.
14:50 Discussion - Share co-design methods
15:00 End

3. Background
Milton
Keynes

4. Aims

5. Methods
1. Survey to 201 students (68% completed)
2. Focus groups (11 students)
3. Prototype 3 tools in 2013
4. Test tools with students
5. Prototype further tools in 2013-2014

6. Survey
0
5
10
15
20
25
1 2 3 1 2 7 8 2 3 8 1 2 8 1 2 3 8 1 2 3 8 1 2 3Arts
Business and LawFELS HSC
Maths, Computing & TechnologyScience
Social Sciences
201 students were invited by
email to take the survey. 68%
completed it.

7. Do you find these personal
touches useful?
5
17
77
40
0
20
40
60
80
100

8. 0% 10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%
Course/Module I'm studying now
Courses/Modules I've studied previously
Number of courses/modules studied
previously
Study skills tutorials I've completed
Search terms I've used to search the
library previously
Books, articles or other information I've
accessed through the library previously
Would you object to Library Services using
information the Open University already holds
about you?
Not applicable Strongly object
Somewhat object Don't object

9. 119
124
49
32
58
13
10
86
89
35
23
42
9
7
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
My name
Which course/module I'm studying
Whether I'm a new student or an old hand
What my registered disability is
My preferences for contacting the university (telephone, email or webchat)
I don't expect it to know anything about me
Other
When you visit an Open University website, what
do you expect it to know about you?
Number of respondents Percentage of respondants

10. ONLINE FOCUS GROUPS
2 in March, total of 11 participants
Faculty L1 L2 L3 PG Total
Arts 1 1 2
Business &
Law
1 1
FELS 1 1 2
HSC 1 1
MCT 1 1
Science 2 2
Social Sciences 1 1 2
Total 1 5 4 1 11

11. Poll: What do you find most challenging
[about using the Library]?
Challenge 14 Mar 19 Mar Total
Finding
information
4 votes 3 votes 7
Keeping track 1 vote 1 vote 2
Referencing 0 votes 2 votes 2

12. Activity 1
• What do you value about personalisation?
• In groups assess personalised services from retail sites
and how they might translate into library services.

13. Tools to be developed Survey
participants
in favour
FG Development
period
Recommendations* - new ebooks or articles that are related to
items you’ve viewed previously.
95% 1 2013-2014
Your favourites* - journals, authors and ebooks you’ve
bookmarked, which allow you to return quickly to the most recent
issue of the journal, return to the ebook or see all works by the
author.
95% 1 Q4 2012-2013
Your recent items* - a list of full text articles, ebooks and other
items you’ve viewed.
93% 1 Q4 2012-2013
Skills for you - recommendations for skill building activities and
online training sessions, based on what you’re studying, what stage
of study you’re at and which skills resources you’ve already used.
93% 2 2013-2014
Recommended for your course/module - selected resources
chosen by Librarians.
93% 2 Q4 2012-2013
My References - save references for books/articles you’ve read and
will want to reference in your assignments.
92% Already exists
My course resources - list of resources from your module/course. 92% Exists on module
website – needs
integration
Your recent search items - a list of search terms you’ve used for
searching library resources.
89% 2013-2014
Read later - bookmark search results you want to come back to
later.
85% Incorporate with
Favourites
Library users who viewed this item also viewed… 83% 2013-2014
* Library shelf - where the student can place items of any source or type that they can quickly refer

14. Is engaging students in innovation the key
to using technology to improve the
student experience?
JISC and its co-design partners RLUK,
RUGIT, SCONUL and UCISA have
designed a project to explore this question
Students submit ideas
Successful teams deliver
ideas
A showcase event is held
for universities who may
be interested in using the
ideas. Limited funding is
available to support
universities in embedding
the ideas
Lessons learned report
Milestones
Jun
Sep
Oct/Nov
Dec

15. Activity 2
• Students as co-designers
• Develop a plan for involving your students in designing
personalised services for your library.

16. Anne Gambles (Project Manager):
Anne.Gambles@open.ac.uk | @annegambles
Keren Mills: (Project officer):
Keren.Mills@open.ac.uk | @mirya
Blog: http://www.open.ac.uk/library/new-tools/new-tools-
news