On the last day of the Staff Mobility Week, Ole Gunnar Evensen, the Deputy Library Director and star of the library’s videos about its services and advice on plagiarism, gave a presentation to the library group about the University of Bergen Library’s institutional repository, BORA (Bergen Open Research Archive - https://bora.uib.no/). BORA was set up in 2004 and is built using D space software. The bibliographic records for items within the repository are created using the Dublin Core metadata standard and the collection includes PhD and Masters theses, articles and books written by researchers at the university.

We also learnt about Cristin (formerly Frida), the university’s ‘closed’ database (not visible to the public) of all research published by each researcher or academic within the university. The links to full text works listed in Frida are harvested by BORA, which then allows the public access to the full text research. The metadata within BORA is sent to NORA (Norwegian Open Research Archive - http://www.ub.uio.no/nora/search.html?siteLanguage=eng), a national repository of open access research produced by Norwegian universities, which offers users another entry point for accessing published research at the University of Bergen.

After the presentation, we were given a tour of the Law Library (see pictures of the interior above) by Britt-Inger Bjørsvik, Principal Librarian/Manager of the Law Library. The library is based in the Law Faculty building (like the Law Library at Newcastle University) and has six staff members. The library is very much a part of things within the faculty, being included on departmental mailing lists and at faculty social events. It also has its own column in the student law journal and faculty’s staff newsletter. The library stock includes every law publication published in Norwegian, and is still very much a library of books. It is about to have its own self check-in/return system using RFID, the same system in place at the Arts and Humanities Library but without the conveyor belt.

Once our visit to the Law Library was over, it was time for me to leave so I could catch my plane back to Newcastle, but the rest of the group went to join the other groups attending the Staff Mobility Week for a farewell lunch and presentation of certificates.

I was sorry to say goodbye as I had had such a fantastic time, having learnt so much about the University of Bergen and also the libraries of the other participants. It was great to be able to share best practice and discuss the challenges each of our libraries face, and also to have the opportunity to build international friendships so we can continue to share our experiences with colleagues throughout Europe after the week is over.

Thank you to all the organisers of the Staff Mobility Week for putting together such an interesting programme and for looking after us all so well.

Another fascinating day here in Bergen! We returned to the Arts and Humanities library this morning for a day of presentations and discussions on information literacy (IL). Rune Kyrkjebø, Head of Special Collections and the User Education Group, started the proceedings by telling the group about IL at the University of Bergen Library. The IL programme is built on looking at how librarians can support a student’s learning process and how to intervene in this process. Rune outlined the challenges a student meets when they are faced with carrying out research, for example, evaluating information analytically and critically and using this information creatively by turning it into their own knowledge. As well as the search process itself, there is also the psychological dimension of the student, who will often approach searching for information with feelings of uncertainty or frustration, which can then hinder the search process. This is where the library needs to step in and help the student overcome this uncertainty.

IL at the University of Bergen is built on the Didactic Relation Model (Torras & Sætre, 2004), which can be used when planning a teaching session. The model says the IL teacher needs to look at the content of the workshop, how its effectiveness is assessed, the didactic conditions (the room to be used for teaching, etc.), the activities to take place and what the goals of the course are. It is a holistic approach, but the most important aspect is the setting of learning goals, or outcomes, for each workshop.

Aiming to embed IL into the curriculum for each degree programme, the library set up a Library Teaching Committee which provides an online catalogue of available courses which academics are encouraged to browse so they can then identify suitable classes for their students. The committee also oversee the dialogue and collaboration with the academic departments and the continuing professional development of their staff who teach IL.

After we had heard about IL at Bergen, each participant gave a presentation on IL in their own libraries, and it was fascinating to hear about the different methods used but equally interesting to hear about the similarities between the challenges faced by each library.

In the afternoon we learnt about three University of Bergen library projects based on IL: Search and Write, an online tool for students (and library staff) on how to conduct a search strategy and how to write assignments http://www.sokogskriv.no; MedLibTrain, a collaborative project between Norwegian and Polish librarians to provide a handbook on how librarians can become better teachers http://tinyurl.com/medlibtrain; and The PhD Project – Information Management for Knowledge Creation, a joint project between five libraries in Norway which carried out research into IL for PhD candidates and their more complex information needs.

I stayed on after the timetabled sessions to talk to Regina Küfner Lein and Brita Bjorøy Hekland, who both work in the Medical Library, about the university’s electronic resources. We had a really interesting discussion, and it was great being able to discuss MetaLib and SFX with Regina and Brita, as Bergen use these services as well. Bergen have very recently acquired Primo Central, which is made available as a search function on the library’s homepage http://www.uib.no/ub/en. Primo Central does not search the OPAC and repository as Primo does, but it does search the Primo database of e-resources and connects to full text journals by using the SFX data. It also provides one access point for the e-resources (those in the Primo database) meaning only one login is necessary, rather than having to log into different databases in different ways.

We are going up Mount Floyen, which overlooks Bergen, on the funicular railway tonight for dinner at the top of the mountain. The rain from this morning has passed and the skies are clear so we should have some great views of the city from the top. It’s my last night in Bergen tonight, and I can’t believe it has come around so fast. It really has been a fascinating week and I have learnt so much! It has also been wonderful to make friends with librarians from Bergen and other European cities – I think we will definitely be keeping in touch.

Day 3 of the Staff Mobility Week has focused on the marine research carried out by the University of Bergen and the Institute for Marine Research. We left Bergen at 8.30 this morning by bus and travelled to the Espeland Marine Biological Station, the university’s marine research station, which is situated in the beautiful surroundings of the Raunefjord, 20 km south of Bergen and near to the airport. The coast of Norway, which is made unique by its combination of fjords, islands, and scurries, makes it the ideal place for investigating marine life.

The station has a small team of staff but welcomes large groups of visitors throughout the year to carry out research, which is the main focus of activity at the facility. Around 5,000 scientists visit the station each year from all over the world, mainly from countries in Northern Europe.
The mesocosm facility at the station is where most of the research activity takes place, mesocosms being large ‘enclosed water masses’ where the environment within can be manipulated during experiments, to see the effects of increased CO2 levels in seawater, for example. The Mesocosm Laboratory has been appointed as the National Mesocosm Centre by the Research Council of Norway. Espeland has been given Large Scale Facility status by the EU, which is why large groups of scientists are able to visit. The station is also part of an EU exchange programme which funds students’ visits to the facility.

After we had been shown the research station, we were taken by boat to the islands of Austovoll. The boat trip was great and gave us the chance to see the fjord up-close. At Austovoll, we were shown around the Institute for Marine Research (fourth photo above), which is a government funded facility. The institute at Austevoll has 45 staff members and, like Espeland, also welcomes visiting students and scientists and has a close working relationship with the University of Bergen.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in Bekkjarvik in Austevoll (last photo above), which was very picturesque and had a small harbour and some shops.

The days are flying by and I cannot believe it will be Thursday tomorrow already! Tomorrow’s activities are focused on information literacy and user education, and include an open seminar where we each have to give a presentation on the information literacy programmes at our own institutions. Thank you Julia, Jackie and Moira for all your help and suggestions about IL teaching at our library.

(I apologise for the lack of website links in today's post - I received error messages each time I tried to add them so I will try again tomorrow).

Today has been the first day of library group activities at the University of Bergen (UiB) and it has been great to learn about the University Library and get a taste of the student experience here. We started the day by meeting at the Arts and Humanities Library (http://www.uib.no/ub/svh/en) where the Library Director Randi Elisabeth Taxt gave a very informative talk on the library, giving an overview of the staff structure, library projects, and the challenges faced by the library, some of which arise when striving to meet the library’s goals. We were told by Randi that the overall goal was to be a ‘state of the art research library’ and to do this, they aim to have excellent collections, serve the research communities by providing relevant library services, to be an attractive place for students, and to contribute to information and education. One of the challenges faced, which refers to the objective to have excellent collections, is that of the rising cost of electronic subscriptions, especially as there is a greater trend for purchasing e-resources than printed items in libraries today. This led to a discussion on e-books and how these are used by UiB students, a talk which I am hoping to continue when we meet again on Thursday. Randi also spoke about the library’s repository and the challenges involved in ensuring as much research is made public as possible. We will be finding out about the repository in more detail on Friday morning.

After the talk, we were given a tour of the library by Ane Landøy, the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Librarian. It was really interesting to see how the library was arranged; it was very open and light and seemed to be popular with the students (the first and second photos above show the library's exterior and interior). I was very excited to see the automatic check-in system that I heard about from my colleague who attended the Staff Mobility Week last year! Very impressive!

After lunch, we visited the Department of Special Collections (http://www.uib.no/ub/spesial/en), where Rune Kyrkjebø, a Senior Academic Librarian, gave a very interesting presentation on the collections (see third photo above for the department's interior). The collections are divided into three areas: manuscripts and rare books; picture collections (including photographs) and a closed access books depot. Most of the items are about local or national Norwegian history, or classical Norse philology. The oldest item in the collection is a parchment dating back to 1293. The books are all on the library OPAC, but the manuscripts and archives have a separate catalogue, a searchable PDF list available here (in Norwegian) http://www.uib.no/ub/spesial/ressurser/manuskript-og-arkivkataloger. There have been several digitisation projects to make the image collections available online, as well as the digitisation of the library’s large photograph collection, which has its own website http://www.ub.uib.no/avdeling/billed/. The photographs, which date from the 1830s, were published to the internet using the library’s ‘home-made’ database.

It has been an information-packed day and I look forward to talking about what I have learnt in more detail with colleagues when I return home. The rain has stopped and it is looking brighter outside, which is perfect timing for our guided tour of the city this evening, and I’m really looking forward to discovering more about Bergen and its history.

Greetings from Bergen! After arriving last night to a Bergen with clear blue skies, it seems the weather has reverted to the norm for the city, as it has been raining all day! The rain hasn’t stopped me really enjoying the first day of the Mobility Week, which was all about introductions, from both the organisers and the participants.

We were welcomed at the Studentsenteret (Student Centre - the third picture down on the left), which has a large auditorium, bookshop and cafeteria (see bottom two pictures for photos of the interior and the participants enjoying lunch). I made my way there with another participant from Newcastle University, who is staying at the same hotel as me and who is part of the research group of the Mobility Week. Bergen is quite a compact city so we were able to walk the journey. Once we had registered and received our free gift (an umbrella, which I think we may need!) we were shown through to the auditorium where the Vice-Rector of the University of Bergen gave a short talk on the history of the city and then spoke in more detail about the university. Founded officially in 1946 (although the Bergen Museum which is connected to the university opened in 1825) it now has around 3,300 employees and 13,500 students. The institution is very research oriented, and has 19 research schools. One of the main areas of research is marine research, with this amounting to one third of activity at the university, leading it to become known as the Marine University. We will find out more about the marine research on Wednesday when we visit the facilities at Austevoll, a municipality consisting of several islands, located south-west of Bergen.

As well as its focus on research, we were also introduced to the University of Bergen's internationalisation, the university having 701 Erasmus agreements with 315 institutions, and staff from 75 different countries. With this strong international outlook, it’s clear to see why they have organized such an event as the Staff Mobility Week, where attendees come from a variety of countries, including Poland, Greece, Spain and Estonia. I have already enjoyed comparing library practices with librarians from Poland and Greece, the latter of which told me that they only have 25 staff in the main university library and so was interested to hear about our own staff structure. I’m looking forward to continuing to share ideas and experiences with other colleagues tomorrow when we will visit the Arts Library and Department of Special Collections.

Welcome to my blog about the Staff Mobility Week 2011 at the University of Bergen, Norway. I am really excited to be taking part and have created this blog so I can share my experiences with people while I'm away. Please feel free to contribute to the blog by commenting on my posts.

The Staff Mobility Week is held each year. Staff working within libraries, human resources, and research and student administration at European universities are invited to attend. A programme of activities is arranged for the week; those for the library section include discussions on information literacy and institutional repositories, and visits to departments within the University of Bergen Library. At the heart of the programme is the opportunity to make new friends, share best practices, and develop networks between universities.

Please visit the University of Bergen website for more information, which has a detailed programme of the week's events: http://www.uib.no/international/mobility/administrative-staff/staff-mobility-week/staff-mobility-week-2011