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In February 2011 the University of Huddersfield along with 7 partners; University of Bradford; De Montfort University; University of Exeter; University of Lincoln; Liverpool John Moores University; University of Salford and Teesside University successfully bid and were awarded JISC funding through the Activity Data programme to investigate the hypothesis that:\ud \ud \ud “There is a statistically significant correlation across a number of universities between library activity data and student attainment”\ud \ud \ud The Library Impact Data Project (LIDP), which was inspired by earlier work undertaken at Huddersfield (Goodall and Pattern, 2011, White and Stone, 2010), aimed to analyse users’ actions with regards to library usage and then linking those to final degree award. By identifying a positive correlation in this data those subject areas or courses which exhibit high usage of library resources can be used as models of good practice.

In 2010, the University of Huddersfield shared results from its analysis of anonymised library usage data [1]. Data was analysed for over 700 courses over four years - 2005/6 – 2008/9; this included the number of e-resources accessed, the number of book loans and the number of accesses to the University Library. This investigation suggested a strong correlation between library usage and degree results, and also significant underuse of expensive library resources at both School and course level. At the time, it was highlighted that the correlation between library usage and grade had not yet been significance-tested and that it was not known whether the Huddersfield findings were an anomaly or the norm [2]. As a result, a number of universities approached Huddersfield in order to benchmark against the data.\ud \ud In the light of the recent Comprehensive Public Spending Review and the Lord Browne’s Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance [3], it was thought that, if the Huddersfield experience was found to be of statistical significance across a broad range of universities, there was potential for the results to be used as a factor to enhance student attainment. In parallel, there is a continuing focus on the student experience and a desire that all students should achieve their full potential whilst studying at university. Results could also be used by libraries to target their resources more effectively where budgets are shrinking.\ud \ud In September 2010, the JISC released a call through the Activity Data programme [4] and in February 2011 the University of Huddersfield along with 7 partners: University of Bradford, De Montfort University, University of Exeter, University of Lincoln, Liverpool John Moores University, University of Salford and Teesside University were awarded JISC funding to prove the hypothesis that:\ud \ud ‘There is a statistically significant correlation across a number of universities between library activity data and student attainment’

Publishers, librarians, academics and students are likely to benefit from innovative work going on at the University of Huddersfield linking use of library resources with final degree result. Gazette talks to Deborah Goodall, Dave Pattern and Graham Stone at the university library about the research and why they are now keen to benchmark the data with other universities.

Librarians today can establish academic library value by linking library services and resources to the missions, goals, and needs of their institutions. Statistical correlations between student library interactions and established learning and retention measures offer one path to demonstrable library value. This panel reveals research results from three libraries that successfully followed this path, shares best practices for “doing” value research, and embraces the quest to both prove and improve the value of academic libraries.

Presentation on Huddersfield's use of activity data and an update on the Library Impact Data Project followed by a break out session discussing various scenarios