Librarians are often engaged in the activities around sourcing materials for inclusion in teaching and learning materials, as well as in supporting the activities around archiving and storing of data. As such, SCORE identified them as a target group to engage in OER.

1. Around a third of librarians are confident in using and promoting Creative Commons licences, but the majority are not. This indicates a need for additional support in this area.

2. Librarians are occasionally asked to locate OER but this is by no means a frequent occurrence, indicating that OER are not being used widely by those who create teaching and learning materials at present.

3. The most frequently used repository is Flickr, closely followed by Jorum and then OpenLearn. ‘Openly accessible’ images are the most sought after resource. The popularity of Jorum and OpenLearn would seem to indicate a need for repositories in which there is significant confidence in the quality of the materials. It was also an indication of a preference for, or trust in, ‘local’ material over ‘international’ material when it comes to use for actual learning materials. This was borne out by the fact that the MIT OpenCourseWare repository tied in forth position with Xpert in terms of use, in spite of their being fewer people aware of Xpert.

4. The majority of HEI libraries do not include open textbooks amongst their resources. This indicates that either traditional textbooks continue to be considered of higher intellectual value, or that there is not a sufficient volume of high quality open textbooks available to make sourcing them viable.

5. Most institutions had an open research repository. This is most likely due to this being one way in which institutions can evidence ‘impact’ for the Research Excellence Framework, and for their similar role in the previous Research Assessment Exercise. This demonstrates how the linking of reward to open publishing (in the case of the RAE, financial reward for institutions who demonstrated sufficient impact through research publications) can encourage openness.

6. Library staff considered that the primary reasons for people not engaging in OER were a lack of understanding of Creative Commons licensing specifically and copyright licensing more generally, together with a lack of digital literacy skills amongst those designing and developing teaching and learning resources. This is indicative of a need for more information and training to be made available in these areas.

7. Librarians predominantly find out about new tools and technologies through events, their professional association and mailing lists. This makes these the most beneficial routes to target in order to effectively disseminate information to this group of staff.

8. A clear majority of library staff indicated a need for more targeted information on OER and licensing. This requirement comprised of two parts – a need for more information and a need for different delivery methods of the information made available.

These conclusions indicate that the next steps should include a focus on improving knowledge around licensing for teaching and learning resource materials, as well as on improving digital literacy skills within institutions.  This is something that can be tackled within institutions but is also something that can be included in the professional development activities run by professional associations.

Full Library Survey Report