Uncharted Territory: Academic Libraries and the Growth in Student Numbers

Abstract

Considers the statistics and implications of a dramatic increase in student numbers in all UK higher education institutions. Considers also the changes in the nature of students enrolled, such as mature students and credit accumulation and transfer schemes; changes in the provision of higher education through modularization and new methods of course delivery, among others. Reviews levels of resourcing and discusses the effects on library services. Examines service provision, information skills, teaching and management issues; and highlights the resulting problems and opportunities facing higher education libraries in the UK. Examines the issues in more specific relationship to the experiences of four university libraries in the East Midlands of England.

Design of the new library and learning resources centre for the University of Paisley

“…The many changes in academic libraries have been well documented (for example Feather and Marriott, 1993). All these changes are happening at the University of Paisley and are affecting the provision of library and learning resource services.…”

Academic libraries, people and change: a case study of the 1990s

“…The Follett Report (HEFC, 1993) shows a significant decline in spending on libraries and in overall library expenditure per capita. Feather and Marriott support this, reporting that " real book expenditure in the "old" universities has fallen from £60.50 in 1980-81 to £34.59 per capita a decade later" (Feather and Marriott, 1993).…”

“…Academic librarianship is purported to have changed more over the last few decades than in its entire previous history, and it is suggested that "the 1990s will be remembered as the decade in which British university libraries had to redefine their roles, and indeed to refine their understanding of what they were trying to do" (Feather, 1994). Indeed, Feather andMarriott (1993) claim to have "detected the beginnings of fundamental change which will have a massive and long-lasting impact on higher education in the UK".…”

The role of electronic reserves in serving and shaping new teaching and learning environments in UK universities

“…Concerns were being voiced in the early 1990s about too many students chasing too few books in British universities [2], but the problem has intensified. Dearing's report into the future of HE noted that student numbers had much more than doubled over the last 20 years [3].…”

“…Consequently, there is a greater diversity of student background in UK universities, with increasing numbers of such groups as part-time and distance-learning students [10], who have different needs from students coming straight from school [2]. Government commitment to the principle of life-long learning can only increase this trend towards diversity of student background.…”