ALIA 2001 TAFE libraries conference

The Power of a Productive Partnership: Providing Library Services to TAFE

Students and Staff in a Predominantly Higher Education Environment.

Lynne Vautier

Biographical details

Lynne Vautier is the Senior Librarian (Engineering and Science and Kalgoorlie) in the Library and Information Service of Curtin University of Technology. She has 10 years experience in academic libraries in a variety of roles. Her research interests include library services to distance education and other 'non face to face delivery' students and information resources to support research about South Asia.

Abstract

Drawing on the conference themes of power and people, this paper will describe how the Library and Information Service (LIS) at Curtin provides a library and information service to over 3800 TAFE students located on or studying from our Kalgoorlie Campus.

The productive partnership in the title refers to the relationship between the Curtin Kalgoorlie Campus administration and teaching staff and the LIS. The partnership is a very recent one and is still evolving but now has an agreed set of 'Guiding Operating Principles' which help to give the partnership definition and set of shared expectations.

Until recently, LIS has been used to working almost entirely in the higher education environment where some critical environmental factors are quite different from those operating in the TAFE library sector. In addition to the TAFE and higher education students from Curtin College of Higher Education and the West Australian School of Mines, the Kalgoorlie Campus Library has responsibility for providing library services to senior high school students, community and corporate clients.

The arrangement has some distinct advantages for the TAFE students. These students have access to a library service funded to provide a library service to approximately 30,000 students with all the economies of scale and diversity of resources that brings. For example, our TAFE students have access to over 120 online commercial databases costing over A$1.2 million per year and covering over 7500 full text online journals.

However, it is critical not to lose sight of the fact that LIS has some important lessons to learn from operating in the TAFE environment. We have a powerful opportunity to use what we learn by working in productive partnership with and for our TAFE clients to improve the service to all our clients.

Introduction

Drawing on the conference themes of power and people, and I hope passion, this paper will describe how the Library and Information Service (LIS) at Curtin University of Technology provides a library and information service to over 3800 TAFE students located on or studying from our Kalgoorlie Campus.

Until recently, the LIS at Curtin has been used to working almost entirely in the Higher Education environment where some critical environmental factors are quite different from those operating in the TAFE library sector.

Before 1994, the Library in Kalgoorlie served the Western Australian School of Mines (WASM) which will be 100 years old next year. Over time, they built up what is widely acknowledged as one of the best collections of mining books in Australia. At this time, there were initial discussions about the establishment of a University College in Kalgoorlie, which would bring together WASM, and the existing TAFE College. In addition, there would be the introduction of a Curtin College of Higher Education to allow the introduction of a wide range of degree level courses to the Kalgoorlie community. The University Librarian at Curtin and the then WASM Librarian developed a position paper that outlined a model for the future working relationship between the two separate library operations. The Bolvig/Williamson model (1994) described the library provision for the Kalgoorlie Campus in terms of an 'LIS Affiliate Library'. This became the transitional model, until from September 2000 when what came to be called the Kalgoorlie Campus Library (KCL) became a full branch of the Curtin Library and Information Service.

The productive partnership in the title refers to the relationship between the Curtin Kalgoorlie Campus administration and teaching staff and the Library and Information Service. The partnership is a very recent one and is still evolving but the relationship now has an agreed set of 'Guiding Operating Principles' which help to give the partnership definition, a budget framework and a set of shared expectations. This is further discussed below.

The complex nature of providing a quality library service to such a wide range of students and academic staff led to a survey of the literature on joint use libraries for guidance. A perusal of the literature provided some useful descriptions of joint use libraries in an Australian and international context. A common model of joint use library is one where TAFE collaborates with the local community. Bundy points to a steady increase in the number of joint use public libraries in Australia and New Zealand and he says that increasingly universities are seeking partnerships with TAFE providers (1998). Benton, in a useful review of the literature, found 'little published information on the benefits and opportunities offered by multi-sectoral or joint use higher education libraries' (1998).

Background

It is probably useful at this stage to give some background to our operation. Kalgoorlie-Boulder is 600km east of Perth and has a population of about 30,000. Kalgoorlie-Boulder refers to itself as the Australia's gold capital and known as the 'Golden Mile'. The City has grown strongly over the last 10 years. Mining is the driving force in the region. There are about 50 (mostly gold) operating mines in the region. In addition to the Curtin Library, there is also a well-resourced public library.

The LIS operates from a number of service sites. The T.L. Robertson Library on the Bentley campus is the main service point and is where the centralised services are provided. In 2000, the whole Curtin LIS had 567,613 non-serial volumes in collection and 13,350 serials titles. The total library budget is $10,616,700 including a budget of $4,636,720 for acquisitions. There are 120 staff members, of whom 6.5 are in the Kalgoorlie Campus Library. In the KCL, we have responsibility providing library services to a wide range of students and academic staff (see table below)

TAFE teaches in the following areas; Visual & Performing Arts, Automotive, Health, Metal and Mining, Accounting and Business, Office & Clerical, Computing, and 18 other smaller areas.

The partnership agreement and management model

When an agreement was first mooted, it was intended to have a Service Level Agreement that would define the expectations on both sides. The University administration felt that this was inappropriate between two parts of the same organisation and so what we affectionately call the 'GOP' or statement of 'Guiding Operating Principles' was born. I think the actual title of the agreement: Guidelines and Operating Principles between the Library and Information Service (LIS) and the Vocational Training and Education Centre and Curtin College of Higher Education for the Kalgoorlie Campus Library and the acquisitions for Esperence Community College makes our use of the acronym understandable! The agreement was only completed and signed early this year.

I believe this document has been critical in giving the partnership definition. The major objective of the Guidelines is to specify minimum levels of service for VTEC clients of the KCL, costs for these services and criteria for service delivery. It spells out the resources, premises, support, monitoring of service, budget, client groups, delivery points, services and dispute resolution for the parties involved.

While negotiations about the GOP were progressing, a plan was evolved to collocate a Senior High School on the Kalgoorlie campus and this provided further impetus for a radical re-think of Library operations in Kalgoorlie. We were encouraged to think and plan creatively, taking into account the educational environment and context in which the unit would operate.

The literature on joint use libraries provided some clues. However, the usual definitions seem inadequate in this context. Browne's definition (as quoted in Benton, 1998 p45)

a joint use library is one in which two or more distinct groups of users are given equal priority in the same premises, the governance of which is co-operatively arranged between two or more separate institutions

was useful but did not describe the complexity of the relationship in our situation. It is our intention that the groups of clients would be given 'equal priority in the same premises' but TAFE Kalgoorlie and LIS are not from different institutions. In our case, the relationship between Curtin and the Eastern Goldfields High School (EGSHS) is closer to Browne's definition. Bundy's definition:

outcomes of formal agreements between 2 or more separate authorities which provide 2 or more groups of users with equitable access to facilities and services (1998 p6)

was also helpful but the concept of equity is problematic as electronic databases and other resources which form such a large part of our resources are not made available to the High School students This points to the complexity in many of the relationships that our profession calls joint use libraries.

The advantages of having the partnership defined by the agreement are already becoming apparent and relationship is still evolving. I do not believe it will become static in an ever-changing environment. Having to review the budget part of the GOP each year should force a cyclical examination of other aspects of the agreement to ensure it stays relevant.

Management

Benton argues that the perception of the university as the dominant partner in a relationship can be a threat and consequently TAFE culture could be weakened and single line management from University makes this more likely (1998). However, the literature is replete with examples where a single management and staffing structure is recommended. (for example Bundy 1997). It was clear early on that although the administration and line management of the KCL would come from the main campus in Perth and is wholly higher education, the actual location of library is in Kalgoorlie where TAFE is the dominant culture.

It was desirable that the manager of the KCL has professional qualifications, a range of skills in an appropriate field and experience relevant to as many of the client groups as possible. This person would have line responsibility for all staff working in the KLC and operate in the broader context of LIS staff and organizational structures. Curtin already had a model where Branch Libraries were each managed by a Senior Librarian who lives outside the Library in the teaching Divisions. This has gone a long way in addressing the problem articulated by Lloyd and Bannister (amongst others) that Librarians can be excluded from the education process (1999). The fact that this is not true in our case is exemplified by the fact that for most of 2001, the Senior Librarian for Kalgoorlie has been the Chair of the Kalgoorlie Teaching and Learning Committee, the primary decision making body concerned with issues of teaching and learning for Kalgoorlie.

The Kalgoorlie Campus Library now has a manager (myself) who flies to Kalgoorlie one week in four and for the balance manages, the KCL at a distance from Perth. This arrangement allows for the fact that the person occupying this position also has a range of other responsibilities. It is not ideal but does offer some practical advantages in that I can 'fight KCL's battles with mother ship' from an inside perspective.

Staffing the KCL

Given that the single line management was in place, the next question is the staffing model. It is understood that it is desirable that all staff involved must be committed to the diverse multi-level multi-use environment. All staff should be inculcated with the agreed service philosophies for the joint use facility. Without this, the relationship may well be a rocky one, particularly in the early stages. The GOP was designed to assist in this process. The staffing mix has to include personnel who are competent to meet the needs of the diverse client groups being served and flexible in their approach.

As Hamblin argues, it was important that all staff were employed under a single award (1998) and when the existing library staff were brought into the Curtin system this became the case. That is, until the advent of the Teacher Librarians. These staff members are employed by the Education Department of Western Australia under quite different conditions.

The services

Benton argues that university and TAFE libraries find much in common in the information needs of their higher education and TAFE clients but also confront significant problems. Problems include 'wide spectrum of subject level, certificate through to pure research, and the disparate administration styles of the institutions they serve' (1998 p43). A further factor that informs the services and resources we can provide to our students and staff is the general perception, at least on the part of administrators, that the costs of establishing and maintaining a joint-use facility are lower than separate units. Experience shows that most cost savings occur in initial capital outlay, whilst ongoing staff costs and collection development cost savings are minimal. Conventional wisdom holds that the underlying objective for synergistic joint use activities is, or should be, the quality of services and facilities rather than saving money.

The literature also provides plenty of evidence that we are rapidly moving towards a situation where more learning will take place in a virtual environment. This has become more of a reality over recent years due to advances in information technology and communications that support the learning process. The Kalgoorlie campus has been a keen adopter of the possibilities offered by new models of learning. One manifestation of this is EMU (Education Mobile Unit). This is a computer-equipped truck that takes TAFE teachers and computers to remote communities in Western Australia.

Information Literacy

Competence in collecting, analysing and organising information is central to knowledge acquisition skills whether at University or TAFE level. In recent years, Curtin has adopted a definition of information literacy that, at least in theory, applies to our TAFE students. (See http://www.vc.curtin.edu.au/oua/ss/policy/misc/uabmi017.html for full details of the policy.) The policy aims to ensure all students develop information literacy skills to equip them for careers in their chosen fields and for lifelong learning. In summary, the University expects that Curtin students will have:

• a knowledge of major current resources in at least one field of study
• the ability to frame researchable questions in at least one field of study
• the ability to locate, evaluate, manage and use information in a range of contexts
• the ability to retrieve information using a variety of media
• the ability to decode information in a variety of forms: written, statistical, graphs, etc.
• the ability to critically evaluate information." (Curtin Information Literacy Policy statement, XXXX).

Of particular interest in supporting these laudable aims with our TAFE students is Infotrekk, a web based information literacy product developed by LIS staff. (See http://lisweb.curtin.edu.au/guides/infotrekk/index.html). In ten modules, Infotrekk covers basic information literacy skills such as using the World Wide Web, evaluating resources, finding keywords and understanding reading lists. It is being developed to include more advanced information literacy competencies.

In spite of these policies and tools, we still have a considerable way to go in getting general acceptance of the need for information literacy and appropriate ways of embedding it into the course content at TAFE level.

The Collection

The partnership described in the GOP has some distinct advantages for the TAFE students. These students have access to a library service funded to provide a library service to approximately 30,000 students with all the economies of scale and diversity of resources that brings.

For example, our TAFE students have access to over 120 online commercial databases costing over A$1.2 million per year and over 7500 full text journals online. The Kalgoorlie Campus Library is their first resort but the students also have access to the whole LIS loanable collection. They can place a request on any Internet terminal on campus or elsewhere and request collection in the Kalgoorlie Campus Library. These requests are usually filled within 48 hours.

LIS has developed considerable infrastructure and expertise through innovative projects and forged local, national and international alliances to ensure access to digital collections, enabling client entré into a vast virtual library. It is playing a lead role in the national Digital Thesis project. Increasingly, the Library's resources and support can be accessed by the students and staff wherever they are located using the Library's web site (http://lisweb.curtin.edu.au/). Digitised exam papers and electronic reserve are further demonstrations of this.

Notwithstanding the establishment of considerable amounts of scholarly information in networked form, we realise that many resources will remain paper-based and mechanisms to deliver information from these resources will be maintained. Information technology will not replace human interaction, face-to-face support or the provision of a place to study.

There is a single catalogue and circulation system for all client groups including EGSHS students. When we accepted the High School resources into our collection (some 4000 titles), we were unable to load records from their system and so began the large task of finding records from our cataloguing sources. With the exception of the High School students, common circulation polices are in place. TAFE students get the same loan limits and periods as undergraduate students. High School students presented some particular difficulties. They are almost all under 18 years of age and we have very little recourse over missing or damaged items. For example, we cannot withhold marks or send them to the debt collector as we do with TAFE or higher education clients in the rare cases where this becomes necessary. In conjunction with the High School management, we are trying some solutions and learning as we go.

In the University environment at Curtin, collection building is seen as the joint responsibility of academic and Library staff. This model was not apparent when we started providing service to TAFE academic staff. We are working to encourage participation and making sure the collection does not suffer in the meantime.

Other Services

Other important services provided to our TAFE students include web-based Instructional Resources the Kalgoorlie Campus Library has put into place covering relevant resources for specific units (http://www.kalg.curtin.edu.au/library/instruct.htm). We also provide advice on plagiarism and training in bibliographic database management systems such as Endnote.

LIS Bentley-based operations provide substantial infrastructure support for KLC such as web site management, document delivery, acquisitions, cataloguing and management support.

LESSONS FOR WHOLE LIBRARY SERVICE

It is critical not to lose sight of the fact that the Curtin Library and Information Service has some important lessons to learn from our operation in the TAFE environment. We have a powerful opportunity to use what we learn by working in productive partnership with and for our TAFE clients to improve the service to all our clients. The lessons could be summed up as need to be more responsive and flexible.

The need to come to the agreements in the GOP meant we had to examine some existing LIS policies and procedures to meet the needs of TAFE students and staff. This should lead us to question the rationale behind some of these policies and make positive changes to the whole system.

One of the first and most obvious lessons is the need to respond quickly to changes in the curriculum content. In the higher education sector, course changes usually have a lead in time of at least several months. This gives the Library time to acquire resources to support a particular course as necessary. As I am sure you know, we often have TAFE academic staff coming to us announcing they are running a new course that starts next week and can we 'have the needed resources in the collection before then'. After some trial and error, we now have a range of responses. We have a process of making temporary transfers from our much larger main collection if this will fill the gap without compromising the resources for the rest of our clients. This is one advantage of being part of a large Library system. In addition, we have freed up the acquisition process to allow credit card purchases from the local books shops and speedy cataloguing by having local access to Kinetica for cataloguing records. We also supplement these approaches with specific subject guides that include web sites and database resources that are not dependant on print resources. All of these approaches are now available to the other branch libraries.

In the past, we have been guilty to some extent of assuming the Library and its services and resources is accepted as a necessity in the higher education environment. However, there is less acceptance of the need for the Library and its services by some teachers in the TAFE sector. Indeed, when I have spoken to them about the need for information literacy skills they have argued that it is irrelevant for their students. The consequence of this has been a new approach to marketing our services and the need for information literacy skills.

We have a much higher preponderance of non-traditional mode students in Kalgoorlie and this is forcing us to be more creative about providing information literacy support to these students. We have a well-established Off Campus Library Service for students living beyond 40 km from Campus. However, our existing policy definition of eligibility for this service requires students be enrolled as 'external' students. This is not a meaningful standard in the TAFE context, as they do not use this definition. This is a policy change battle I am still fighting.

Unfortunately, change is sometimes slow to happen. With our strong reliance on cyclical strategic planning, it is sometimes difficult to achieve change mid cycle. However, the lesson from TAFE on the need to respond quickly is a vital one and must not be lost.

Outstanding and unresolved issues

As I said in the introduction, the partnership is still evolving and there are still issues that need resolution.

There is still some tension between client groups. Largely this centred on the High School students who took some time getting used to the culture of a higher education/TAFE library. This situation has improved with active assistance from the teacher Librarians but we still have some issues to resolve.

We have some problems calling on staff in emergencies or getting back up when we have staff go on leave. This is due to the small pool of people we have to call on in our remote location and the comparatively high incomes people can earn with the mining companies.

One on-going problem that the University is attempting to deal with is the bandwidth needed to ensure real time identification and delivery of electronic resources. Present capacity means slower access time to these resources than in Perth. There has recently been significant improvement but we still have some way to go.

Our marketing to TAFE academic staff and students is still not as good as it should be and as a consequence we are not making as much headway with embedding information literacy as we would like.

Future

Curtin Library and Information Service is moving to a new Library system in the near future. The system, ExLibris, will provide many advantages to our clients including those in Kalgoorlie. It will offer a simplified user interface that takes in databases, catalogues (ours and others), and could have a special TAFE interface. Its introduction will present some particular training challenges for us. A centrally designed training program may not suit our broad range of clients, we will need to be actively involved to ensure our staff, and clients get the training they need.

The Kalgoorlie Campus Director is keen to see the Flexible Learning Centre on campus combined with the Kalgoorlie Campus Library. The plan is to provide a resource that is available on a 24-hour basis where students can undertake self-directed learning using technology, equipment and resources appropriate to their needs. Such an area would operate as part of the whole during Library opening hours and capable of being isolated for student access at all times.

Conclusion

As indicated at the start of this paper, the relationship between Curtin Kalgoorlie Campus administration and teaching staff and the Library and Information Service is still evolving and we are some way off being able to articulate a clear theoretical framework for our service provision. When I was first asked to take over the management of the Kalgoorlie Campus Library, I was confident that my ten years of experience in a range of positions in University Libraries including management of a branch library would make this easy. How little I knew. The challenge of managing a library that sees the blending of three education environments in a site truly remote from the mother ship plus the dominance of the TAFE culture ensured I quickly understood how little I knew. I am still learning. I think of it as a work in progress.

Reference list

Benton, L. 1998. University - TAFE libraries: a way of the future? A review of the relevant literature. Australian Library Journal, 47 (1) 43-60.

Booker, D. 1997. Creative Partnerships: Focus on Learning and Beyond Proceedings of the 6th ALIA TAFE Section National Conference Sydney 1997, p3.

Bundy-A 1997. Widening client horizons: joint use public libraries, progress and potential. 'Creating tomorrow today: can you imagine ...' ALIA Public Libraries Section and Reference and Information Service Section Conference 9-12 November 1997 Brisbane. Proceedings, Australian Library and Information Association, pp 3-6.

Bundy, A. 1998. Widening client horizons: joint use public libraries in the 1990s. Australasian Public Libraries and Information Services, v11 n1 pp4-17.

Byrne, A. 1990. A University library for TAFE: Developing a university library in the Northern Territory of Australia. Australian Library and Information Association 1st Biennial conference, Perth 30th September 5th October 1990. Proceedings. Vol 11 pp577-590.

Curtin University of Technology. 1998. Information literacy policy statement. http://www.vc.curtin.edu.au/oua/ss/policy/misc/uabmi017.html Date accessed 31 August 2001.

Curtin University of Technology, Office of University Planning. 2001. Statistical Data. http://www.curtin.edu.au/curtin/dept/planstats/stats.htm. Date accessed 31 August 2001.

Curtin University of Technology. 2001. Guidelines and Operating Principles between the Library and Information Service (LIS) and the Vocational Training and Education Centre and Curtin College of Higher Education for the Kalgoorlie Campus Library and the acquisitions for Esperence Community College. Unpublished internal document. Curtin University of Technology, Perth.

Frylinck, J., Bolvig, C. 2000. Kalgoorlie Learning Centre Issues, Principles and some Solutions. Internal unpublished report. Curtin University Library and Information Service. Perth.

Hamblin, D. 1998. Method and madness: the development of a tripartite library in Western Australia. Australasian Public Libraries and Information Services, v.11, n.4 p.181-183.

Lloyd, A. Bannister, M. 1999 Things are not always as they seem: perceptions of the role of Librarians in TAFE. Australian academic and research libraries. Vol 30, n.4, pp 251-262.

Williamson, V. 1997. Matters for discussion/resolution relating to the operation of the LIS Affiliated Library model for library services for the Curtin University of Technology, Kalgoorlie Campus. Unpublished internal document. Curtin University of Technology Library and Information Service. Perth.