Anne Horn

'How can we help?': The contribution of university libraries to student retention

The Australian Government’s Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program aims to encourage greater participation of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds in higher education. Historically, participation and retention rates of students from under-represented groups have been less than for the majority of school leavers. Universities are now intensifying their efforts to improve retention, and expect all parts of their institutions, including the university library, to contribute. Through a review of conceptual and empirical literature, this paper identifies five potential means by which a library may contribute to student retention and concludes by outlining one library’s approach to investigating its contribution.

Strategic competence : to soar above

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the case for change at Deakin University Library and the change process adopted, and to explore organisational competences and the structural and strategic outcomes achieved. The Librarys change process was driven by university strategic priorities and financial exigencies.Design/methodology/approach – Change management theory is drawn on to illustrate that the change process adopted is influenced by the state of the organisation and the state of urgency. Four steps are outlined that encapsulate the process developed by the Library. These four steps draw on a book by Kotter and Rathberger, Our Iceberg Is Melting. The concept of strategic organisational competences as proposed by Thomson and Cole is adopted.Findings – The case study demonstrates the need to take a structural and strategic view of the organisation when developing new models of service and ways of operating. An organisation needs to develop the capacity to manage both continuous and disconti...

Informing Decision-Making in Libraries: Informetric Research as Input to LIS Education and Practice.

Findings from informetric research represent an important background resource to add to the mix of information useful for resolving difficult and ongoing problems in specific library environments or information service settings. This paper provides examples of informetric research that can be useful input to decision-making in the field of library management and information service provision. This overview takes four of the challenges that Michael Buckland outlined for library research as a way of guiding the discussion of ways that informetric work can be used to inform library decision-making. (1) References are made to relevant informetric work undertaken or conducted in Australia, by Australian researchers, or with Australian data. Informetrics includes both quantitative and qualitative methods, which when used in combination can provide a rounded set of findings that has great validity for management, policy and service applications. Quantitative methodologies are generally based on bibliometric techniques, such as mining and analysis of data from various bibliographic and textual databases. Qualitative methods include survey, case study and historical approaches. Used in combination, each set of findings adds richness and other perspectives to an analysis.