Institution:
Danish
National Library Authority in
cooperation with the
Ministry
of Culture, Ministry
of Education, Ministry
of Science, Technology and Innovation
Copenhagen
Address:
The Danish National Library Authority
DEFF secretariat Nyhavn 31 E
1051 Copenhagen K
Tel.: +45 33733373
Fax: +45 33733372
Contact person:
Bo Öhrström
Tel: 9635 7304 |
DEFF overviews and reports
-
Denmark’s Electronic Research Library
1998-2003
-
Strategy for Denmark’s Electronic Research Library:
strategy and objectives 2004-2005
-
DEFF annual
report 2004
DEFF’s activities in 2004
Within the six action lines, many
activities have been carried out by the programme committees.
It must be stressed that the focus on the user’ interaction with the digital
library has also been dominating the work in the
User facilities group.
The programme committee has concentrated especially on usability, virtual
reference services, information competency and user questionnaires.
User facilities
"A cooperation between
development of the end user’s information competency will be established and
services developed which ensure that the end user can get guidance as well as
instruction in information search via the Internet."
The programme committee for User facilities presented its first action plan to
the DEF steering committee in 2004. In continuation of the DEF vision it states
that the committee will “further the end users’ access to the research
libraries’ information resources and remove the barriers that restrict this
access”. The aim is to “inspire and initiate projects which will provide
research library staff with tools, knowledge and qualifications to develop the
libraries’ utility effect in relation to the patrons.”
Development of user
information competences
The committee has also in
this field given input to collaboration on starting new projects, and committee
member Niels Jørgen Blåbjerg has introduced
a project on remake of the
interactive information competence software
SWIM to the programme area for
e-learning.
Initiatives on library instruction
in information competences has also been discussed, with a view to an
upgrading of instructors and the committee has subsequently approached the
Royal School of Library and Information
Science about this.
Two action lines
1.
concentrated on reporting on integration of DEF’s digital services and
resources directly in e-learning portals.
2.
directed at the development of models for involving research library
resources – particularly library competences – directly in teaching programmes,
often (in library circles) referred to as models for development of
students’ competences.
Projects
A number of projects were
granted financial support from DEF in November 2004 and will be running all
through 2005. Among them, there are the following ones:
1.
A further development of
SWIM
(Streaming Webbased Information Modules) which
is run by Aalborg University Library. The new version of SWIM (named SWIM,
vers. 2) will be in English and composed by a number of learning
objects.
2.
Under IT-vest an integrated IT-teaching
portal was launched, called
DIGITEV. The project will utilise existing DEF resources by
bringing them closer to the users.
-
DEFF annual
report 2006
DEFF
2006
The programme areas
"Information literacy was a significant
action area and a number of projects dealt with various different
aspects of the concept. The work involved is coordinated via the Library
as an active learning partner project and resulted in a number of
communication activities in the form of reports and a feature day in the Autumn.
In addition to the more general issues related to information literacy and
the library’s role in the learning process, a number of projects
concentrated on the practical integration of information resources into the
e-learning process (DELA, Edumedia and Digitev) and provided technical
support in connection with the acquisition of information literacy (the
Learning objects web and E-support tools for information literacy
projects)."
DEFF
2003-2006
Introduction
Within the results and dissemination, it
is stressed that "there is a need to improve action on “library
advocacy”; not in order to promote institutions and funding, but in order to
ensure reasonable promotion of education and research. The issues are open
access, digital Danish teaching aids, research dissemination, information
literacy and lifelong learning, but it is also a question of more specific
activities such as integrated search, alumni services, research statistics,
support of e-science and digitalisation".
E-learning
"The digital library
shall be a central player in the modern world of education and information
dissemination in which the quantities of non-structured information from the
net exist as a growing source of knowledge. Based on this, it shall be easy
for both teaching staff and students to construct meaningful and personal
complexes of information which can be shared in an uncomplicated fashion and
made available to others.
[...] The programme area was established in the summer of 2003 and
set the stage for libraries, together with the learning environments, to
create models for the development of e-learning.
[...] The group consisted of staff from the research libraries and a
number of representatives from the universities’ e-learning environments.
This combination was to ensure both dialogue between the two parties,
library and education..."
Action areas
Between 2004 and 2006, the e-learning programme
group had worked on different action areas, including many specific
initiatives and projects:
- Content production
- Information competence
- Copyrights
- Access – a common access key
- Personal portals
- Cross disciplinary e-learning courses.
"All action areas comprise fields of development which point at
access to, and management of, information in virtual learning environments...
'Streaming video' has been studied as a medium and has been the subject of a
project, as has the ability of 'information competence' to manage and
work with information in modern e-based learning environments in which the
student, to a large extent, works independently. All projects have aimed
for results which could add value to the knowledge production of the
educational institutions."
Perspectives for the future
"E-learning as a concept has always been a subject of
debate in the programme group. The concept contains both a technological
and an educational dimension and the issue was the weighting of each
dimension. Is e-learning purely technology? Or... should it always be seen
in a cultural, social and academic/educational context? There were two
aspects that were of interest to the programme group:
- E-learning as a technical discipline in which search facilities and
the development of technologies support the communication between, and
integration of, various platforms. The focus is on the technology here and
the library’s role is one of system developer.
- E-learning as an educational discipline in which the development
of new ways in which to assimilate information competence are seen in
relation to e-learning’s educational dimension."
In the opinion of the e-learning programme group, both aspects of e-learning
are important and a cross-disciplinary approach is necessary. "Information
competence should be included as a significant focus area in a new strategy
for DEFF... the focus should be broadened in relation to traditional
e-learning and... libraries... could focus more on the way in which users
work with the material at hand".
Action areas - Usabilities studies
These studies "showed that users had great difficulty locating
full-text articles via the libraries’ search facilities. Users basically
expect to be able to conduct a search at article level and usually give up
if they have to use the traditionally recommended search method. This
requires the user to familiarise himself with... an incalculable number of
bibliographic databases with varying search interfaces.
This explains why users are increasingly avoiding the libraries’ local
search facilities when they search for information. If they use the library
search facilities, the results are often poorer as these facilities require
insight and frequent use".
Perspectives for the future
"Information
competence and increased user knowledge, with regard to the localisation,
evaluation and application of information, are fields which the user
facilities group expect to become focus areas in the years to come, perhaps
in close collaboration with the teaching staff at educational institutions.
One action area could be the reassessment of methods for instructing
users, perhaps taking into account the fact that users are
increasingly conducting their information searches outside, and
independently of, the libraries. The collaboration with teaching staff
should help students to understand that they must professionalise the
information search process in order to be prepared for their studies."
Projects
Among the projects funded by DEFF between 2003 and 2006 there are
the following:
E-learning
- Libraries
as an active learning partner
- E-support tool for information literacy
- Learning objects web
- Problem-based
teaching of advanced information and literature search
Keywords:
research libraries – user facilities – user access –
user information competences – information competence – library competences –
students’ competences – information searches - information literacy – e-learning
- instructors' upgrading - active learning - library's role - information
searching - independent information searching -
information search process - cross-disciplinary approach - lifelong learning -
independent learning - e-learning process - e-based learning environments - information
resources - information dissemination - methods for instructing users -
usabilities studies |
