Last week, on the 15th June, the first ever meeting of the Copyright Information and Technologies in Education (CITE) Forum took place at the University of Nottingham. If you weren’t able to make it on the day, no fear! This is a (hopefully) brief run through of the day’s events.
Registration kicked off at 10:30, giving everyone the chance to catch up with one another, as well as to meet new colleagues. After a few cups of tea and coffee, and more than a few biscuits, the group moved into the hall where Sharon Cocker, from the University of Sheffield and also the CITE Committee Chair, welcomed everyone and introduced the day’s first speaker - Annette Moore from the University of Sussex
Annette discussed how Higher Education (HE) information professionals can benefit from ‘visualising data’. She described the four key stages of reporting; understanding data, refining and merging data, analysing data, and finally, visualising data. It was the second stage that Annette emphasised as of having particular importance, “when you refine your data, you can really get to know it”. Annette highlighted how her institution has benefitted from visualising data, – using platforms through Google, and the Qlik Sense Cloud – as clearer insights into data usage has enabled greater content provision capability, and improved levels of tutor satisfaction.
Up next, were Donna and David, two key members of the CLA DCS team, updating the room on the system’s latest news. Donna was able to share some interesting DCS facts, such as:
- The Higher Education Institution (HEI) with the highest student usage has had 246,496 student downloads
- The most accessed link has been clicked on 2,136 times
- And 5% of content is used by more than 1 HEI
David was also able to share some encouraging stats about the DCS Zendesk help facility – the average response time to queries is 6.18 hours, but over half of all queries are initially responded to in just 1 hour. The pair were also able to share some ex-CITE-ing (sorry, couldn’t resist) news about what’s planned for Phase 4 development including: an academic request form, an eReader and more!
James Bennett, CLA’s Head of Rights and Licensing, was also on hand to fill everyone in on our latest licensing news. We now have 18 US university presses included in our repertoire, and we intend to apply to extend our licences under Extended Collective Licensing legislation, which should help reduce/remove the US scanning ‘gap’ and other issues.
After a delicious lunch, the next speakers, Megan Benson and Esther McLaughlin – winners of last year’s George Pitcher Memorial award – from the University of Central Lancashire, really got the room intrigued with the introduction of their robot ‘Trev’! Using Trev, the University of Central Lancashire have been able to roll out a trial service that is proactive in providing accessible content to visually impaired students, rather than reactive. It was really exciting to see how this new piece of technology is changing processes in their institution and the developing ways the sector can better deliver accessible content.
The group broke up into smaller sections for a breakout session discussing best copyright practice. Some of the great ideas that emerged included:
- A copyright video for use in universities, on ‘How to stay within the law’
- Group/Individual bespoke training on copyright
- Academic liaison with PhD students to ensure they aren’t infringing on copyright material
The group also discussed their wish-list, which included more collaboration between universities and improved training for library staff. The breakout session provided a fantastic opportunity for the group to share their opinions and experiences, and several people walked away with new ideas on how they can change practice in their own institution.
The last speaker of the day was Kate Vasili, from Middlesex University, who talked about content provision to overseas campuses and partnerships. Kate spoke of the increasing number of partnership agreements being made, and the new challenge they bring to HE libraries who must tackle how to deliver the same resources to overseas students. Kate went on to highlight the Overseas Campus-Based Students Pilot, which provides licence coverage to overseas students, and also other resources that can be used to provide content overseas; especially exploring the need to renegotiate primary licences with publishers and discover what blanket licensing schemes and copyright law are in place in the overseas territory.
With that, the day came to an end! It was a fantastic first meeting of the CITE Forum, full of new insights, intriguing discussion and fascinating debate.
Finally, we’d like to thank all of our speakers for their fantastic presentations, and the University of Nottingham, especially Pauline Wheeler and Vicky Price, for hosting the event and making sure the day ran as smoothly as possible.
We’d love to hear what you thought about the first CITE Forum meeting. Email alexandra.reed@cla.co.uk if you would be interested in writing a blog about your experience of the day.
Another CITE Forum meeting will take place later this year, to hear more about this event and all our CITE news, email hesubscribe@cla.co.uk to join our HE newsletter mailing list.
