Economics of Information Supply – is free information good enough?

1. Economics of Information Supply – is free information good enough? Tom Roper Head of Learning Resources, South Thames College Tom Roper, Break-out session B

2. Mimi & Eunice http://mimiandeunice.com/ copyleft Nina Paley Tom Roper, Break-out session B

3. A short introduction to further education Tom Roper, Break-out session B

4. Colleges • 352 Colleges in England • 22 Colleges and 2 FE institutions in Wales • 43 Colleges in Scotland • 6 Colleges in Northern Ireland • 79.7% of 16-18 year-olds in education and training Tom Roper, Break-out session B

5. Colleges in England • 229 General Further Education Colleges (GFE) • 93 Sixth Form Colleges (SFC) • 16 land-based Colleges (AHC) • 4 art, design and performing arts Colleges (ADPAC) • 10 special designated Colleges (SD) Tom Roper, Break-out session B

6. Meat One and Plasterers Two • FE as I knew it circa 1971: CCAT • VIth form college • Adult education • Vocational education Tom Roper, Break-out session B

7. FE today • Diverse range of subjects, modes of study, funding • All the levels: from E to 7 (8=doctoral degrees) • But • Little cooperation • Little interoperability • Little comparison • Low horizons Tom Roper, Break-out session B

8. HE in FE…or not Open access Scholarly communication Institutional repositories Falling visitor numbers Shared services Tom Roper, Break-out session B

9. HE in FE • 11% of higher education is delivered in FE colleges Source: Association of Colleges Tom Roper, Break-out session B

10. HE in FE • Licensing: when can FE college users use resources licensed by HEI? Tom Roper, Break-out session B

11. South Thames College • Rapid expansion of e-content • Link librarians • STCLive/Sharepoint/Catalogue • Budget of £600,000 • Merger • Restructuring • New e-resources co-ordinator post • Apprentices • 30 staff (mostly part-time) • New flagship building Tom Roper, Break-out session B

12. What is free? • Arxiv, PubMed • Free at point of use… • Institution pays or… • Bill paid outside the institution • Licensed and unlicensed Tom Roper, Break-out session B

13. Expanding e-content • 2008 • Infotrac • Britannica • Spellzone • Authentik • 2010 • 69 e-collections of one sort or another, 17 on paid subscription • E-books for FE Tom Roper, Break-out session B

14. Types of free e-resource • JISC Collections material • Rich, varied but.. • Limited relevance to FE curriculum • Low levels of use, even of some obviously relevant tools • E-books for FE Tom Roper, Break-out session B

15. Types of free e-resource • Hairdressing training • Archival material • JORUM • Providers include: • British Library • EDINA • JSTOR • Oxford University Press • Proquest Tom Roper, Break-out session B

16. Deploying free resources • Adding value: • Describing and making discoverable • Promoting • Instructing • Future of JISC funding • Does pump-priming work? Tom Roper, Break-out session B

17. Low levels of use, in spite of our best efforts Tom Roper, Break-out session B

18. What’s coming? • Major cuts in funding • More mergers • Adult provision to be cut by £200 million • Average cut of 16%...some as much of 25% • Bonfire of quangos • The return of the pay wall Tom Roper, Break-out session B

19. Sustainability • What happens when licences come up for renewal? Tom Roper, Break-out session B

20. What next? • The positives • E-books • HE in FE: leadership • Cf M25/ Kingston University • HE can learn from FE too • Massification • Doing more with less Tom Roper, Break-out session B

21. The curious incident of the FE consortia Tom Roper, Break-out session B

22. The learner voice ‘Going to go library, innit’ Tom Roper, Break-out session B