The library on the phone assessing the impact of m phone access at UNISA library

The library on the phone:
assessing the impact of mphone access at UNISA library

Buhle Mbambo-Thata, DPHIL
Executive Director
UNISA Library Services
Pretoria
South Africa
12/05/16


Presentation outline
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Context of UNISA
W hy A irpac?
Implementation process
Findings
Emerging issues
Conclusion

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Context of UNISA
• Single National ODL Institution

• Social Mandate
• ODL mandate
• 280 000 students
• Student profile (… ..)

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Student profile
• A ge Data 2008

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< 25 Headcounts 79 429 - 30.24%
25-30 Headcounts 67 10
- 25.74%
> 30 Headcounts 115 641 - 44.02%
Total Headcounts 262 680


Why Airpac
• Product from LIS provider III
• Back up guaranteed
• Sure that product will continue developing

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Implementation process: Project
leader

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Implementation process
• Culture of consultation
• Established as a project

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Project leader
Project goals and benefits
Project phases
Constraints
Outcomes

• Marketing
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Implementation

process(continued)
• Marketing
– Marketing plan
• Page markers
• posters
– College presentations

• Launch
• Future marketing… … .

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Implementation Process…
Marketing

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Implementation process:
Marketing

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Research
• W hat did we want to find out?

– What was the impact of implementation on services?
– Was m-services having an impact on our service structures and

formats?
– Should we be changing any thing yet- resource allocation,
operational models, etc?
– Was it improving our efficiency?

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Research…
• How did we want to find out?

– Conducted web-based survey limited to staff
– Analysis focused on qualitative open ended
responses as numbers were not critical to the
outcome

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Research….
• W hy did we want to find out?

– Remain relevant to mandate
– Management information for planning
– Contribute to knowledge on m-learning devices
as an emerging area of scholarship

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Findings

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Did AirPAC have an impact on
your services?
• have had to develop training materials (A video will also
be made available to all students to promote A irPA C)
• have had to provide intensive marketing to inform students
about product
• although origin of request was not indicated, the number of
requests increased significantly since training was provided
to researchers
• now able to send notifications like, recall a book etc
• delighted to know that we are “accessible to 24/7”… …
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What do you anticipate will be the
impact of AirPAC on your services?
• clients to use A irPA C as an alternative to post and
fax book requests(efficiency)
• currently most requests are posted/faxed by clients
which is not only time consuming for the client
but also costly(efficiency)
• Clients to request or renew books and to view
their loan records without calling (efficiency)

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Anticipated impact on service….
(continued)
• clients will become self sufficient thus freeing time for
librarians to investigate/explore other emerging
technologies (job content and enrichment)
• Clients will download e-journal articles(, e-books etc on
their mobile phones (resource allocation)

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Anticipated impact on service…..
(continued)
• have to offer training in the use of A irPA C and be able to
answer questions regarding A irPA C. (more work-resource
allocation)
• help reduce simple queries from clients once used
(efficiency)

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AirPAC as a tool for information
access in all ODL environment
• access made easy• reducing transactional distance between learner and
UNISA
• usability –tool can perform many functions

• affordability- can all students afford tools that are internet
enabled or is it excluding others?

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Emerging issues
• ease of access to the library catalogue and databases
• need for more marketing and training
• develop other services for m-devices
• develop tools for assessing impact
• improve efficiency at request services

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Conclusion
• critical base line data
• need for service monitoring to respond to
service redesign and resources allocation as it
becomes necessary
• monitor trends to see if initial service impact
and anticipated services converge
• remains another tool for reaching mobile
students.
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• Thank you for your attention!
• Questions welcome

• Contact: Buhle Mbambo-Thata
»

12/05/16