Legal Research

Survey of library services in UK professional bodies

By scott

I was just reading the results of an interesting survey of library services in UK professional bodies by Cathy Linacre, Head of Library and Information Services at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

According to Cathy, most of the research that has been done to date on the effects of the move to online delivery of content and information within the library sector has tended to focus on how this has affected public, academic and corporate libraries. I’d agree.

She decide to visited 15 library services at professional bodies such as: British Medical Association , Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and the Law Society and interviewed their head of service or service manager, and find out what the services are like now ? and how they are resourced ? and where they either expect to be, or see their services in 5 years time.

The survey looked at:

1) The Place of library service within the institutional structure.
2) Library as physical space.
3) Resourcing ? people, budgets.
4) Software.
5) Catalogues.
6) Services ? loans, photocopies, Inquiries, current awareness.
7) Stock ? hardcopy and electronic.
8 ) Marketing.
9) Vision.
10) Internal and External Pressures .
11) The future.

This is a nice piece of research, that contains some interesting figures and insight that I would say would be of interest to most in the library/information field ? as many of the constraints and challenges are the same. It is also useful as a benchmark piece, especially on things such as physical visits, budgets ? averaging around £5 per head of membership in the survey sample -, use of web2.0 tools, use of electronic resources (and problems with licencing/copyright) I particularly liked the ‘what is a typical library like’ bit at the start, which is a good way ? for those not in this sector ? to get a grasp of what one of these library’s would ‘look like’.

Interestingly, one professional body - not included in the survey - didn’t feel the report/survey was positive enough, which, for me, says more about the body in question than the quality of the research to be found in the report, which is presented without spin.

If you would like to read the report, Cathy would be more than glad to hear from you and can be reached at: clinacre(at)rics.org

Full post as published by Information Overload on August 10, 2009 (boomark / email).