Leeds University, Brotheron Library

“Learning and innovation in the 21 st century; libraries – the core of information competence” was the theme of a study trip to England between 26 th June and 1 st July 2005 for 12 librarians from the state of Hesse and the cities of Mainz and Cottbus. The city of Sheffield was chosen as the base to enable the group to visit other libraries and learning centres in the cities of Leeds, Nottingham, Manchester and York , which could be readily accessed by train. The aim of the trip was to gain first-hand experience of potential models that might be adopted for German university libraries – such as the purpose-built Adsetts Learning Centre of Sheffield Hallam University or the adapted Hallward Library for Information Sciences at the University of Nottingham – and to discuss theoretical and practical questions with those involved with the changes. A better understanding of future functions and tasks should provide material for fruitful discussion of the future role of libraries within Frankfurt and other universities and, at the same time, make such discussion more practical and soundly based.

Background

The 4 th Frankfurt Scientific Symposium in Germany took place in September 2004. Graham Bulpitt, Director of Library Services, Kingston University , London , was invited as speaker and, after the Symposium, he also gave a presentation to colleagues at the former Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek (StUB) Frankfurt am Main entitled “What does the future hold for librarians?” After providing an overview of changes in the social framework, changes in approaches towards learning and teaching in further education, as well as the increased user expectations as a result of the implementation of high student fees, he described the Learning Centre as the English libraries' response to these demands.

Graham Bulpitt's presentation was particularly pertinent at the time because the StUB was going through the final phase of transition from the city of Frankfurt am Main to the state of Hesse through integration into the Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe University, which had prompted discussion about further developments and the tasks and functions of the university library in context of the university's goals and strategies.

The presentation generated spontaneous interest to visit these learning centres to experience at first hand what has had to change in the field of library services, for example, in what libraries now need to offer or the way in which IT has been integrated into the services.

Within 6 months the study trip to England had been organised by two colleagues at the university library in Frankfurt-Main. It was promoted by the Geschäftsstelle des Landes Hessen für Aus- und Fortbildung and was generously supported by Bibliothek & Information International , by The British Council and by ekz .

The Themes

The libraries visited were chosen either for their reputations as learning centres and/or for their provision of special information services and e-learning. Planning focused on the following:

• How have library services at the university libraries in England changed?
• What are the libraries' roles in the context of learning, teaching and social interaction?
• Which roles will librarians adopt in the future within the context of academic teaching and learning?
• What sort of co-operation is evolving between libraries and IT services?

These themes are particularly relevant in the context of the English higher education system, which is briefly reviewed in the following section.

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Literature- and Internet resources / compiled by Doris Marek

• Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals - www.cilip.org. uk
• Umbrella Conference 2005 (“Englischer Bibliothekartag”) von CILIP in Manchester, 30. Juni – 2.Juli 2005 www.umbrella2005.org.uk
• Sheffield Hallam University / Adsetts Learning Centre - students.shu.ac.uk/lc/adsetts
• Leeds University Library - www.leeds.ac.uk/library
• P roviding O nline R esources t o O nline L earning E nvironments - www.leeds.ac.uk/portole
• S ecuring a H ybrid E nvironment for R esearch P reservation and A ccess - www.sherpa.ac.uk
• Leeds Metropolitan Library - www.leedsmet.ac.uk/lis
• Big Blue Project - www.leeds.ac.uk/bigblue
• Nottingham Trent University / Libraries and Learning Resources - www2.ntu.ac.uk/llr
• University of Nottingham / Information Services - www.nottingham.ac.uk/is
• York St. John / Fountains Learning Centre - www.yorksj.ac.uk/library/learningcent
• The John Rylands University Library, University of Manchester - www.library.manchester.ac.uk
• Follett-Report - www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/papers/follett/report
• Sirje Virkus, Silvi Metsar : General introduction to the role of the library for university education. In: Liber Quarterly 14 (2004) S. 290-305
• William A. Cowen : The Adsetts Centre, Sheffield Hallam University : a case study of a multi-functional learning centre. In: Liber Quarterly 9 (1999) S. 39-57
• Graham Bulpitt : The Learning Centre approach to elearning. www.tu-dresden.de/t2002/bulpitt_dini2002.pdf
• Oyston, Edward (Ed.): Centred of Learning: academic case studies on learning centres development. Aldershot : Ashgate <publ. 2003. ISBN 0754608050
• Frankfurt Scientific Symposium 2004
  What is literacy? What is information? What is knowledge? Ways of teaching and learning to use information effectively, October 4 & 5 · Universität Johann Christian Senckenberg - www.library.northwestern.edu/public/frankfurt
• Drei Aufsätze in ABI-Technik 25 (2005) 1:
  Alan Bundy : Zeitgeist : Informationskompetenz und Veränderungen des Lernens.
  Andreas Degkwitz : www.tu-cottbus.de /ikmz – was heißt ikmz?
  Edward K. Owusu-Ansah : Umgang mit Information und Wissen : Bibliothek, Hochschule und studentisches Lernen.
• Ulrike Steierwald : Fünf Thesen zur aktuellen Entwicklung der Bibliothekwissenschaft in Deutschland. In: Information - Wissenschaft & Praxis 56 (2005) 3, S. 149-152
• Claudia Lux, Wilfried Sühl-Strohmenger : Teaching Library in Deutschland : Vermittlung von Informations- und Medienkompetenz als Kernaufgabe für öffentliche und wissenschaftliche Biblitheken. Wiesbaden: Dinges + Frick 2004. 248 S., Literaturverzeichnis S. 186-203 ISBN 3-934997-11-2
• Informationskompetenz - de.wikipedia.org/wi ki/Informationskompetenz
• Nutzung elektronischer wissenschaftlicher Informationen in der Hochschulausbildung - www.stefi.de