FDTL5

Limes Project. Library and Information Mnagement Employability Skills.

Funded by HEFCE FDTL5

Project Head: Derek Stephens

Duration: January 2004 - June 2006

Project Homepage

Description
The Library and Information Management Employability Skills (LIMES) project was funded by HEFCE for £150,000 over two years and six months. The project has created teaching materials for the Library and Information Management (LIM) subject discipline that address gaps in curricula in the UK. LIMES has successfully created a series of case study-based and online material to enhance the employability skills of LIM graduates, addressing concerns from employers, as identified in a project survey of relevant employment agencies and a national questionnaire to all LIM academics across the UK.

Impacts include: time saved in materials creation across the discipline; sharing of materials; enhanced student experience of employer related case studies; additional funded projects building on the ethos of co-operation not competition in improving teaching nationally.

Sustainability is provided via new LIM Communities of Practice (CoPs) that have emerged from the work of LIMES. The CoPs include employers, practitioners and LIM academics.

Community of Practice for Research Methods
Community of Practice for Cataloguing and Indexing
Community of Practice for Information Literacy

The Higher Education Academy for Information and Computer Sciences (HEA-ICS) will sustain access to the materials now the project is completed. Contact Joanne Marsh, Co-ordinator HEA Subject Centre for Information and Computer Sciences J.L.Marsh@lboro.ac.uk.

Loughborough University was the lead LIM department and project partners were Liverpool John Moores University and University of West of England, Bristol. Project Director was Dr Derek Stephens and the full time Project Manager was Yvonne Hamblin who is now working for Loughborough University Careers Centre on a new three year initiative to enhance employability across all disciplines by working with employers and academic staff to develop work experience opportunities and to raise student awareness of their employability skills.

Publications
Hamblin, Y.C. and Stephens, D.P., (2007) Creating real life case studies that embed employability skills in the library and information science curricula, Innovations in Teaching and Learning in Information and Computer Science, 6(1), 1-11.

Chelin, J. (2007) Librarianship education, employability and equality, ALISS Quarterly, 2(2), 9-16.

Higher Education Academy Conference, 2007, Southampton. Poster presented by Joanne Marsh. Downloadable Poster (PDF 30KB)

Stephens, D. (2005) PowerPoint presentation Embedding Employability Skills in the Library and Information Management Curriculum in the UK, at World Library and Information Congress: 71st IFLA General Conference and Council, Oslo, Norway, August 14th - 18th 2005.

Hamblin, Y.C. (2005) Library and information and management and employability skills (LIMES) SCONUL Focus 35, 11-14. This is available from: http://www.sconul.ac.uk/publications/newsletter/35/4.pdf

Stephens, D. and Hamblin, Y.C. (2006) Employability skills: Are UK LIM departments meeting employment needs?, New Library World, 107(5/6), 218-227.

Hamblin, Y.C (2006) Employability for Cataloguing and Indexing, Catalogue and Index, 154, 2-3.

Stephens, D.P. and Hamblin, Y.C., The LIMES Project – demonstrating how employability skills can be incorporated into LIM curricula, Online Information 2006, Olympia, London, 28-30 November 2006.

Contact:
Dr Derek Stephens
Department of Information Science
Loughborough University
Loughborough
Leicestershire
LE11 3TU
Email: d.p.stephens@lboro.ac.uk