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Instruction librarian award in the USA
Talking to a Spanish academic librarian about the Bologna Declaration
Signed by 29 nations in 1999, the Bologna Declaration is a pledge to reform their own higher education systems and create a European space for higher education by 2010. It marks a turning point in the European educational arena, and its objectives continue to rank high on the agenda for European institutions. The University of Navarra in Spain has already started the process of supporting the declaration by implementing some key changes in the way the university’s library supports students. The library’s Assistant Director Rocío Serrano kindly has taken the time to discuss specific aspects of the declaration, including its impacts on academic libraries and the University of Navarra Library in particular.
Rocío Serrano
What are the basic objectives of the Bologna Declaration?
The Bologna Declaration establishes a basic framework for the consolidation of higher education in Europe. The declaration aims to promote more comparable, compatible and coherent systems of higher education and increase international competitiveness within the European Union. The objectives of the declaration include unifying degrees, introducing two levels of studies, promoting mobility for students and teachers, developing comparable curriculum and methodologies, and establishing a system of credits while respecting each individual country’s autonomy and diversity.
In Spain, one of the most important consequences is students take the lead in the learning process.
What does the declaration mean for academic libraries?
In Spain, one of the most important consequences is students take the lead in the learning process. The lecturers’ role is to be the “guide on the side,” guiding students through subject content and helping them form work groups to study subjects in depth. For libraries, this change in methodology means libraries need to follow the “learning center” model. Libraries need to collaborate with other university services such as IT departments to promote training services. Libraries should be prepared to help students by providing more spaces for work groups and more computers to find print and online information. Many libraries in the UK have adopted this model, and this change is already visible in the rest of Europe. The Spanish University Libraries Network (REBIUN) has been promoting libraries as learning centers since 2003.
How is the University of Navarra approaching the declaration’s mandates?
Since 1999, there has been a University of Navarra service called Educational Innovation. It helps lecturers adapt their programs to the new European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), a standard recognized for promoting student mobility, and helps promote the use of IT among lecturers. Since the Educational Innovation service is constantly in contact with lecturers, we use their services to promote resources like our institutional repository or information literacy classes. In fact, last year in a collaboration with lecturers and Educational Innovation, we organized an event titled “Lecturers’ Conference: How the Library Could Help Us with Our Classes” that featured a library presentation on our training materials and a roundtable involving lecturers relating their experiences with our library-student services. It was a great way to assess our value in information literacy.
Since 2003, we have also started library “training groups” equipping technical librarians to take on roles as subject librarians for specific departments. They give library training sessions to master’s and PhD students and lecturers, and lead sessions specifically for first-year students. Our next project is to expand this program to the rest of the undergraduates.
What has been the role of the library with respect to the declaration?
The role of the library is to support learning by creating learning centers that facilitate group work, providing access to electronic and print resources, and extending library opening hours. Although the library does not have a fixed role according to the teaching changes set forth by the Bologna Declaration, it has a decisive role in the development of the new model. For example, if lecturers are to change their teaching methods and include group work, they will need a place for students to meet.
If the library doesn’t provide this kind of space, then it is improbable that lecturers will adopt this methodology in their teaching.
Currently, we are increasing collaboration among librarians and lecturers.
To start the process of complying with the declaration, what significant changes have occurred or will occur regarding how the University of Navarra Library supports students?
The library’s role has been changing these past years and will change even more with the completion of the new system. Currently, we are increasing collaboration among librarians and lecturers. For example, we worked with a lecturer and gave students in their second year of economics several classes on identifying bibliographic references. We also find it very important that subjects in the curriculum, especially in master’s courses, are covered in our collection. Since students have to prepare dissertations at the end of master’s courses, they are interested in finding and selecting information from library catalogs, databases and electronic journals.
As for establishing learning centers, we couldn’t build a new one but had the opportunity to plan one using space from our sciences library, which needed refurbishing. As of November 2007, we have only opened part of it. Once the refurbishing is entirely completed, the library will have 11 workgroup spaces and 52 computers and feature connections for laptops and wireless connectivity. Moreover, there will be 30 places specifically for master’s and PhD students and lecturers to work. Since the completed section opened, the number of students visiting the library has risen considerably.
How else could the library be involved in the Bologna Declaration or process?
One of our objectives is to introduce information literacy in the curriculum. Librarians could contribute to classes by giving technical training on how to find information, while lecturers help with interpreting the results.
We tell students that learning how to find and select information during their university years will be useful to them their whole life.
What are the results so far regarding the declaration’s effects on the University of Navarra Library’s value to its students?
We are very interested in transmitting the idea to students that the library is a place to comfortably learn and work, and where people could help them with their studies. Last year, our slogan for library sessions aimed at first-year students was “Learning to Learn.” We tell students that learning how to find and select information during their university years will be useful to them their whole life. The skills they acquire can lead them to knowledge.
What metrics or reports are required by the declaration?
Though there are no specific metrics or evaluation required, the declaration invites the higher education community to assess its own value and individually and collectively contribute to the Bologna process. This can be done through creating new postgraduate courses at universities where previously there were none, or by expanding the institutions’ networks through joint ventures overseas. 
Interview by Quyn Do, Library Connect Marketing Intern, Elsevier, San Diego, CA, USA
