Exploring partnerships between public libraries and universities in regional low-socioeconomic communities : the student experience
- Authors: Power, Emma , Partridge, Helen , Owen, Sue , Pizzani, Blanca
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Higher Education Research and Development Vol. 41, no. 7 (2022), p. 2324-2337
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- Description: Students from low-socioeconomic (low-SES) backgrounds living in rural, regional and remote (RRR) communities in Australia experience intersecting equity challenges and disadvantages impacting upon their study success. Using in-depth semi-structured interviews, this study explored the experience of 42 students living in low-SES RRR communities in Australia. More specifically, the study considers, from the student experience, how public libraries and universities can work in partnership to support study success. Thematic analysis revealed two key themes: ‘student as person’, encompassing RRR low-SES students’ context, lived experience and study needs; and ‘access’, describing key enablers and barriers to students’ access to key study needs and support from the public library in their local areas, and their university. This study shows that collaboration between universities and public libraries through understanding of the needs, context and experience of RRR low-SES students can initiate and inform targeted action to help support these students, increase inclusion and belonging, and facilitate student success. © 2021 HERDSA.
A framework for Australian Universities and public libraries supporting regional, rural and remote students
- Authors: Partridge, Helen , Power, Emma , Ostini, Jenny , Owen, Sue , Pizzani, Blanca
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association Vol. 70, no. 4 (2021), p. 391-404
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- Description: University students living in regional, rural and remote (RRR) communities of Australia face unique challenges including geographical isolation, lack of access to face-to-face support, and technological barriers. This paper outlines a project funded by the Australian Government’s Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program that was undertaken by five universities with significant enrolments of students from low socio-economic backgrounds living in RRR communities. The project established a Framework for Australian Universities and Public Libraries Supporting Regional, Rural and Remote Students that provides a set of strategic recommendations that will guide the development of accessible, relevant and sustainable study and learning support to meet the needs of low socio-economic students living in RRR communities. This national project provided a unique opportunity for Australia’s universities and public libraries to work together in order to ‘future proof’ the education of students from low socio-economic backgrounds living in regional and remote communities. © 2021 Helen Partridge, Emma Power, Jenny Ostini, Sue Owen and Blanca Pizzani.
Narratives of access: A critical exploration of how institutional interactions with students affect regional student participation in higher education.
- Authors: Ostini, Jenny , Partridge, Helen , Kelly, Kate , Owen, Sue , Jeffries, Sandra
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Student Success Vol. 11, no. 1 (2020), p.
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- Description: This article examines the narratives that drive university staff understanding of the concerns and experiences of regional and remote students at five universities in Australia. Interviews were conducted with thirty university staff members over a period of three months in 2018. Reflexive thematic analysis of the stories told by staff of supporting regional students found that staff used the lens of access to create meaningful stories for themselves and others in how they supported students. Access is defined as a multi-faceted term encompassing access to people, Internet, study materials and equipment and study environments. Access is facilitated by a sense of belonging or identity as a student and limited by the lack of this. Our analysis of “belongingness” draws on Bourdieu’s concepts of habitas to start to unpick the interactions between higher education institutions and the student that develop student identities as scholars and centres the narrative on the student as a person, wrestling to gain many forms of access within complex social situations.
‘Working together’ : Public libraries supporting rural, regional, and remote low-socioeconomic student success in partnership with universities
- Authors: Power, Emma , Partridge, Helen , Owen, Sue , Kelly, Kathryn , Jeffries, Sandra
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association Vol. 68, no. 2 (2019), p. 105-125
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- Description: University students living in rural, regional, and remote (RRR) areas of Australia face unique challenges including geographical isolation, lack of access to face-to-face support, and technological barriers. Additionally, RRR students from low-socioeconomic (low-SES) backgrounds experience multiple forms of disadvantage compared to their on-campus peers, and require additional study, learning, and social support. Partnerships between universities and local public libraries can enhance RRR low-SES student success through increased access to face-to-face support, reliable technologies, and study facilities. This exploratory research, led by five regional universities, presents the first national-level empirical data exploring how Australian public libraries and universities can work together to facilitate success for RRR low-SES students. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with public librarians from RRR low-SES communities across Australia. Thematic analysis findings explore themes of librarians’ perceptions of students as persons; the role of regional librarians in supporting RRR low-SES students; RRR low-SES students’ access to learning support; and the critical elements of sustainable partnerships between RRR public libraries and universities. Key recommendations are provided to guide future partnerships between public libraries and universities, including building the foundations of partnerships; professional development to support partnerships; and recommendations for good partnership practices. © 2019 Emma Power, Helen Partridge, Sue Owen, Kathryn Kelly and Sandra Jeffries.
Principles and guidelines for Australian higher education Libraries : Capturing value
- Authors: Owen, Sue , Peasley, Jennifer , Paton, Barbara
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings , Conference paper
- Relation: Second Annual TEQSA Conference; Melbourne, Australia; 29th November-1st December 2017 p. 146-158
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- Description: Reflecting on their time at university through an affinity survey, many alumni from Monash University reported affinity with their university library. Their Library! What makes that connection so strong? Aligning with institutional priorities and higher education standards, academic librarians have long partnered with faculties and divisions, conferred with research centres and liaised with student groups to augment university outcomes. However, tools for crystallising Library value are less advanced. In this paper, a new framework, Principles and Guidelines for Australian higher education libraries (2016), is introduced. Its purpose is to describe and assess the contribution of libraries to academic and research endeavour. It articulates Library value through major strategic priorities, each with high-level value statements or Principles and a suite of associated Guidelines. The framework marks a new generation of Library value and impact tools. Coupling the framework with associated performance indicators, library directors and stakeholders can be better informed of library value.
Digital literacy
- Authors: Owen, Sue , Hagel, Pauline , Lingham, Bernie , Tyson, Daisy
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article , Report
- Relation: discourse: Deakin University Library research and practice, Vol. , no. 3 (2016), p. 1-8
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- Description: While digital literacy may be understood and defined differently within disciplines, the concept is primarily about literacies rather than digital technologies or digital competence. Digital literacy involves finding, using and disseminating information in a digital world. Digital Literacy underpins teaching and research, regardless of discipline, and is an essential graduate skill for effective participation in employment and all aspects of life. Building on all Deakin Graduate Attributes, digital literacy already has a good foundation in many unit curricula, with many academic staff modelling aspects of this literacy both in their teaching and their research practice.
Collaboration success in the dataverse : Libraries as digital humanities research partners
- Authors: Owen, Sue , Verhoeven, Deb , Horn, Anne , Robertson, Sabina
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings , Conference paper
- Relation: 35th International Association of Scientific and Technological University Libraries Conference (IATUL 2014); Espoo, Finland; 2nd-5th June 2014 p. 1-9
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- Description: At Deakin, the Humanities Networked Infrastructure project (HuNI), has paved new ground for facilitating the effective use and re-use of humanities research data. HuNI is one of the first largescale eResearch infrastructure projects for the humanities in Australia and the first national, crossdisciplinary Virtual Laboratory (VL) worldwide. HuNI provides new information infrastructure services for both humanities researchers and members of the public. Its development has been funded by the National eResearch Collaboration Tools and Resources project (NeCTAR) and undertaken by a consortium of thirteen institutions led by Deakin University. A Deakin University Library team with skills in data description, curation, retrieval and preservation is exploring with digital humanities researchers and developers effective means to support and maintain the HuNI project. HuNI ingests and aggregates data from a total of 31 different Australian cultural datasets which cover a wide range of disciplines in the humanities and creative arts. The HuNI VL also provides a number of online research capabilities for humanities researchers to discover and work with the large-scale aggregation of data. The HuNI VL enables researchers to create, save and publish selections of data; to analyse and manipulate the data; share findings and to export the data for reuse in external environments. In a major innovation, HuNI also enables researchers to assert relationships between entities in the form of ‘socially linked’ data. This capability contributes to the building of a ‘vernacular’ network of associations between HuNI records that embody diverse perspectives on knowledge and ramify avenues for research discovery beyond keyword and phrase searches. This paper reports on key milestones in this project, the future role of Libraries as digital humanities research partners and the challenges and sustainability issues that face national digital humanities research projects that are developed in strategic library settings.
Library learning spaces in the digital age
- Authors: Horn, Anne , Lingham, Bernadette , Owen, Sue
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings , Conference paper
- Relation: 35th International Association of Scientific and Technological University Libraries Conference (IATUL 2014); Espoo, Finland; 2nd-5th June 2014 p. 1-9
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- Description: Students describe the Library as being central to their learning, offering focus and inspiration, enabling access to information and technologies, and collaboration with peers. Deakin University Library’s building redevelopment program has been integral to the Library’s re-imagined value proposition for students learning in the digital age. The introduction of new generation library and learning spaces strengthens the University’s offer to students for a brilliant education where you are and where you want to go through premium cloud and located learning experiences that are personal, engaging and relevant. The Library’s building projects are distinctive in terms of location and the built environment, as well as the characteristics of the university campus communities. Each progressive project has brought new aspirations and challenges. Through joint research with Deakin University’s School of Architecture and Built Environment, the Library has developed a quality framework for planning and assessing library and learning spaces. This paper will discuss the research findings to date on the quality framework and the need to continually review and assess indicators of quality in a highly dynamic digital environment. The Library’s experiences in introducing high-end multimedia provide some insights into planning for and delivering enduring value. The next steps in exploring the question of how library spaces assist students in achieving their learning goals are introduced.