Library Student Panel: helping transform the Library

[[[image-0 medium right]]] Did you know we work with a dedicated panel of lovely students who are helping us transform the Library? We currently have over 440 current OU students on the panel from a wide variety of different backgrounds, ages and study levels.

Panel members have just helped us re-design our programme of online library training, they are telling us about their experiences of referencing as part of the Referencing Review project at the OU and are making a big difference to the look and feel of the library website.

We set up our first Library Student Panel in 2013 and it has been going from strength to strength ever since. We recruit to the Panel twice a year around March and November and have just sent out email invitations to a sample of current OU students.  If you are one of the lucky ones to have received an invitation, we do hope you will take the opportunity to join. You'll get to take part in a variety of different research activities using methods such as online surveys, usability testing, telephone interviews, and forums and there are benefits too.  You'll get to build on and develop skills such as team-working, problem-solving or using new digital technologies to give feedback, which you can record as part of a portfolio of skills to use with employers.

You can find out more about the Panel and what we have done with their feedback on the ‘You said, we did’ section of the Library Student Panel page