This response is made jointly by The Library Association, the Colleges of Further and Higher Education (CoFHE) special interest group of the Association, and the Council for Learning Resources in Colleges (CoLRiC). These organisations are between them substantially representative of library and learning resources staff and managers in the FE sector.

We agree/ strongly agree with all the propositions in the Consultation Feedback Form

3.1 We welcome the consultation report as a very positive statement of the potential of ILT for creating accessible and flexible learning opportunities, an enriched learning environment, and greater learner independence. It contains a well-presented and reasonably comprehensive overview of current developments and initiatives. It sets out a reasonably balanced and realistic strategy for achieving the changes - material, pedagogical, organisational and cultural - needed to realise the potential of ILT for FE learners. We welcome the holistic approach of the report, with its emphasis on cross-sectoral and cross-organisational collaboration to achieve maximum benefit for the learner, and maximum efficiency in service provision and development.

3.2 We feel that the consultation report understates the potential of library and information staff to contribute to the realisation of its strategy. We also feel that it understates the need for cross-professional team-working in implementing the strategy.

4.1 The purpose of this response is to bring to the attention of the FE ILT Committee the contribution that library and information staff and managers working in the sector can make, and want to make, to the realisation of the strategy set out in the consultation report. Library and information staff contribute to learning and teaching in a number of capacities:

• as mediators between learners and learning resources, as facilitators of out-of-classroom learning

• as teachers of information literacy and knowledge navigation skills

• as designers and managers of out-of-classroom learning environments

• as managers of information and learning resources

• as designers of systems of access to such resources

• as advisers on the appropriate use of information and learning resources

4.2 This contribution is not a static one. Thus for example in their capacity as teachers of information literacy, librarians in a number of colleges have developed accredited modules in information skills. They may also contribute to the management and delivery of other areas of key skills. Again, as designers of systems of access to information resources, librarians have created Internet subject gateways, and have devised alternative approaches such as cataloguing web-sites as learning resources and attaching hyperlinks to them from the catalogue records.

4.3 Strategies for the full integration of ILT into FE learning and teaching should draw on the expertise of librarians in developing and managing out-of-classroom learning resources and environments; and supporting and tutoring learners in these environments.

4.4 We question whether the report demonstrates sufficient awareness of this contribution, and its potential for the realisation of the strategy that it outlines. Thus for example, the sole specific mention of FE library and information staff in the report occurs in paragraph 126, where there is a reference to "information and library assistants". Paragraphs 124 to 132 on Staff & Professional Development in toto are heavily teacher-centred. A learning centred approach would inevitably shift the focus to the totality of colleges’ staff and managerial resources.

5.1 The report rightly points to the need to develop a large body of high quality, FE-appropriate learning materials for ILT delivery. But there is also a need to ensure a full awareness of the body of such materials already in existence. Likewise in future there is a need to ensure that there is within colleges the means to collect, organise and disseminate information about new and existing ILT-based learning materials. This is an area of activity in which librarians have considerable skill and experience, in relation to ILT-based materials as well as traditional ones.

5.2 It is also worth noting that FE library staff have a depth of experience of supporting students in the use of ILT learning resources. This means they have a valuable contribution to make to the design and customisation of internally created ILT materials, and to assessing the quality of such materials whether internally or externally created.

6.1 Information skills and knowledge navigation skills are essential for independent, and therefore for lifelong, learning. These skills include the capacity to devise a information search strategy; to identify key words and concepts; an awareness of the range, and relative merits, de-merits and authoritativeness of information sources; the capacity to sift and evaluate the information retrieved; and the capacity to organise information and integrate it into assignments. The importance of information skills for the learner becomes even more important with the development of the ILT learning environment, as acknowledged in paragraphs 113 and 114 of the consultation report.

6.2 FE library and information staff have always taken the teaching of information skills as a core element of their role. This contribution ranges from informal one-to-one support of learners through to the design, delivery and assessment of accredited information skills modules by librarians who are qualified teachers. The importance of provision for information skills as a key or generic skill area, and the content of this skill area, should be made more explicit in the FE ILT strategy. This skill area should not be confused or conflated with IT skills.

7.1 The consultation document is concerned with strategy rather than issues of operational management. Nevertheless it would be salutary if, in the light of past experience, reference was made to the importance of sound operational management of ILT services and resources. Thus for example the de facto standard adopted in the consultation document of 1 Internet enabled PC for every 5 students takes no account of the managed accessibility of these facilities. A measure such as machine/ hours of access per student, with a distinction made between timetabled classroom and open access availability, would be more meaningful as a strategic indicator.

7.2 This accessibility needs to be backed up by institutional plans and targets for its integration into curriculum use and development. The use of Internet access for non-curriculum purposes is as wasteful as having capacity which is under-used due to lack of access.

8.1 There are a number of good practice exemplars in the sector where library and information staff have taken a lead role in developing and implementing college strategies for ILT in the curriculum. These include Blackburn College, Bournemouth & Poole College, Cambridge Regional College, East Birmingham College, North Birmingham College and Telford College.

9.1 In the light of the above comments, we question whether the report gives sufficient emphasis to the importance of cross-professional teamwork in the design, delivery and assessment of learning programmes and opportunities. Research into the effectiveness of QUILT projects has identified such cross-professional teamwork as a critical success factor. While the consultation report lays due and proper weight on the importance of external collaboration and partnership (as in paragraph 143), the only reference it makes to internal partnership occurs in paragraph 133 (with a tangential reference in para 97). This reference is made solely in relation to the development of learning materials, rather than to the whole process of integrating ILT into the development and delivery of learning programmes. Again, in paragraph 20 the only staff to staff networking referred to is that amongst tutors.

9.2 The consultation report makes clear its recognition of the need for culture change as part of its ILT strategy, but it does not sufficiently recognise cross-professional working as essential to that process. Culture change cannot be achieved by addressing different categories of staff in isolation. Culture change must be inclusive and integrative if it is to be real.

9.3 Further, the consultation report gives insufficient attention to the need to involve learners in culture change. A significant body of learners come to FE with an expectation that they will be taught in traditional classroom manner, and regard alternative forms of learning activity as suspect. They may also have very fixed attitudes about the role and standing of college staff who are not mainstream teachers. If the ILT strategy is to achieve its full potential, steps need to be taken to involve learners in the processes of culture change.

10.1 The report discusses the TLTP, and developing links with JISC. Surprisingly, it contains no reference at all to the JISC-funded Electronic Libraries (eLib) Programme. The £15m programme began in 1995, and has funded almost 60 development projects. These have been in such areas as electronic publishing, electronic access to course materials, on-demand publishing, electronic document delivery, access to networked resources (Internet gateways), staff training and culture change for the electronic learning environment, network skills training for students, and large scale resource discovery ("clumps"). All of these areas are relevant to the realisation of the FE ILT strategy.

10.2 It may be that the authors of the consultation report are aware of the eLib programme and have chosen not to mention it. It should however be noted that FE librarians could play an important role in translating eLib projects into FE settings.

10.3 The consultation report refers (paragraph 43) to a large increase in HE provision delivered by FE colleges. There is a need to ensure that FE libraries/ learning resources centres are equipped to give their HE students a level of service equivalent to that to which they would have access in an HEI - including access to networked learning services. Strong working links between librarians in FE and HE are crucial to achieving this.

11.1 We greatly welcome the recognition that the consultation report gives to the potential of the PLN for accessibility, learner-centred delivery and resource sharing. Many FE librarians enjoy good working relationships (for example, in relation to inter-library lending) and regular professional contact with their peers in the public library sector. They could therefore play an important role in initiating and developing working partnerships with colleagues in the networked public library system. This role is something of which the FE ILT strategy should take account.

The key points of our response are:

12.1 Library and information staff have a vital contribution to make to the realisation of the strategy set out in Networking Lifelong Learning. The nature and extent of this contribution is not adequately reflected in the consultation report. There is a danger that the strategic advantage that this contribution represents will be dissipated in the absence of positive statements about it in the final formulation of the FE ILT development strategy.

12.2 The FE ILT strategy will only be realised if cross-professional teamwork becomes the norm in learning and teaching in FE colleges. We feel that the consultation report lays insufficient stress on such teamwork as a critical success factor. The "joined up ILT agenda" referred to in paragraph 115 of the consultation report should an internal as well as external one.

CoLRiC is the Council for Learning Resources in Colleges. It is an independent organisation dedicated to enhancing and maintaining the quality of learning resources services in colleges throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland. Founded in 1993, CoLRiC's membership now stands at over 250 college learning resources services.

The Library Association, which received its Royal Charter in 1898, is the main professional body for library and information personnel in the UK. It represents over 25,000 members working in a range of settings, including FE, HE and schools; public libraries; industry, commerce and government; the health, legal and voluntary sectors. It has an active membership in the FE sector, this membership constituting the bulk of the 2,500 strong Colleges of Further & Higher Education (CoFHE) Group of the Association.