Referencing@Portsmouth: giving students what they really,

really want

Anne WordenFaculty Librarian:

Humanities and Social SciencesUniversity of Portsmouth

Background

• Library seen as trusted provider of guidance on using Harvard APA Short printed guide published for 10 yrs Common queries published as FAQ on Library

Website Students and staff ask librarians for advice

• Sliding scale of penalties introduced• Increasing number of students asking for help• Increasing questions about reference types not

covered in APA manual – needed wider consensus on format to be used

The R@P Project

• Bid to University Learning & Teaching Committee - Summer 2005

• Small group to drive things forward• Plan for authority group to rule on formats not

covered in APA manual• Crucial early decisions on where content

should reside• Bulk of time then taken with inputting

examples – and finding suitable e.g.s to use

Promotion of R@P

• Presented to Heads and Course Leaders’ Conference Sept 2006

• Flyers and post-it notes

• Demonstrated during student induction and re-induction sessions Oct-Nov 2006

• Link on the Library homepage

Lessons learned

• Bid for University money - it gets official seal of approval and raises Library profile

• A small compact team with direct experience of answering referencing queries got things moving

• Having University Authority Group a good idea but difficult to get off ground

• More publicity needed!

What students think we need to improve

• Quite low profile still, many on my course did not know about it - Education

• Students need to be made aware of it - Politics

• As a joint honours law student the information is only relevant for half of my assessments. Maybe the OSCOLA system could be added

• Some links haven’t been put in yet – Creative Technology

• Complete it! - Health

Hits on R@P Site

1099

3706

7938 6146 77615030

0

1000

20003000

40005000

60007000

8000

Sep-06

Oct-06 Nov-06

Dec-06

Jan-07Feb-07

Student views: Easy to use?

714

89

72Very EasyEasyNot easyNot v easy

N=182

Student views: Does it meet needs?

74

88

124

Everything IneedMostly what IneedNot much I need

Nothing I need

N=178

What do the students say?

• Very useful, found it invaluable when stuck on how to reference – Politics Yr 1

• It has really helped me understand what I am supposed to be doing – Criminal Justice Distance Learner

• It is a great help. I have recommended it to my fellow students when they have referencing problems – Part-time Education Student

• It’s very, very useful! – Languages Final Yr

• An easy to use helpful guide for something that is really important to academic work – Law Final Yr

What do staff say?

• The definitive guidance Criminal Justice lecturer

• Has made my responses more efficient, I can in some cases simply point the enquirer to it Academic Skills lecturer

• I advise students to have this link open in a 2nd window whilst they are working on their essays Politics lecturer

• I use it during tutorials with students, including final year students for dissertation work European Studies lecturer

• I think it is particularly useful for international students Public Administration lecturer

Benefits of R@P

• Time saved on referencing queries – subject librarians, enquiry staff, lecturers, students

• Single authoritative source available 24/7 – for students, lecturers and library staff

• Agreed new formats instantly available to all

• Good publicity for the Library