KATE GARDNER

Biography:  Kate Gardner is currently a CILIP national Councillor and Chair of the CILIP Lifelong Learning panel.  She has always been actively involved professionally and has been Chair of CoFHE national and West Midlands committees and also a member of West Midlands CILIP committee and other regional library groups.  Kate has written a number of articles and has presented papers on topics such as quality in FE libraries, cross-sectoral co-operation and FE libraries in general.  She was also part of the team that produced the recent HE in FE guidelines and previous editions of the CoFHE Guidelines.  During her professional career Kate has worked in a number of different types of libraries including an agricultural college, an HE College, public libraries and latterly as Learning Resources Managers in two large FE Colleges. 

Title: A Distributed Library??: challenges in managing a shared library

Summary: This session will consider the transformation of the Learning Resources service at Worcester College of Technology from a traditional single site library and open access computer room to seven remotely located curriculum-based study centres.  This presentation is not intended to be a "how we did it good" session but a more evaluative review of the concept, design and creation of the centres.  There will be opportunities for participants to discuss the issues involved and to question the speaker about experience gained from the first year of study centre operation.