The Open University (OU) has around 1800 students on more than 130 courses in 150 prisons (March 2019). Large numbers of those students have no internet access and as such are unable to access online Library resources. These students are studying at both undergraduate and taught post graduate levels where their study requires access to library resources.
In January 2019 the OU Library, in collaboration with the OU Students Association (OUSA) and Students in Secure Environments (SiSE) Team, piloted a new service where current year 3 OU student volunteers carry out literature searches on behalf of students in prison, who have no/limited access to the internet. The students in prison send in their anonymised requests via a forum.
Delegates will learn why the Student volunteer service was established, and the benefits of establishing such service both for the volunteers and the students in prison. We aim to share the outcomes of our work with delegates.
While not many institutions have many (if any) students studying in Secure Environments the take away for delegates will be opening up ideas and awareness of the possibilities of establishing similar schemes to help their students, maybe not in prison, but in other scenarios such as learner support for students with learning difficulties or disabled students.
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