Guest Article: BECTIS
Bectis – Bell College of Technology Information Service – was set up in 1976, and was the brainchild of then College Librarian, David Bissett. Long before the age of the personal computer, Mr Bissett realised that business was swamped by information of all kinds, and that small companies in particular did not have the time or the money to spend on information searching and management. He also realised that supplying the information which businesses really need could mean the difference between success and failure in the commercial world. This is even more true today when everyone struggles to cope with the vast amount of information available from the ever increasing world of online resources. The present College Librarian, Barbara Catt, was Bectis Information Officer herself in the 1980s, and continues Mr Bissett’s legacy of support for Bectis.
Bectis is run from an office in Bell College Library and is subscription-based, offering an information service to companies both local and national, local government departments, and other colleges. The service is run by an Information Officer, who is a Chartered Librarian. I have been in the post since 2001 and report directly to the College Librarian. All enquiries from members are channelled through me; members have access to all college library resources, as well as the enquiry service, by the same means. Most business is done by post, e-mail, and fax, making distance no object, and personal callers are always welcome. Members also receive 10 issues per year of Bectis Bulletin, a current awareness journal which draws their attention to relevant journal articles, books, government publications, and websites.
From card indexes and bound volumes, to drawers of CDs, to online databases – over the years the service has developed and evolved to meet the needs of clients in an increasingly computerised and shrinking world. Bell College too has evolved and is now a Higher Education Institution and a member of Universities Scotland. Bectis membership is fairly wide and varied, which explains the mixture of articles and books in Bectis Bulletin. Members include Honeywell, Brunton’s Aero Products, Calcarb, Motherwell College, Ogilvie Construction, SEPA, Consarc Engineering, DB Fluid Control, FTW Engineers, Coatbridge College, KRG Industries, NCE Switchgear, Scottish Security Association, Oticon, Clydebank College, and Real Time Engineering - there are 62 members at the time of writing. Some are part of multinational companies and some are as small as one-person businesses, with everything in between. Many are located within the west of Scotland area, but there are members in East Lothian, Fife, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Stirling, and Angus. Membership prices vary according to the size of the company, but on average the cost is £200 per annum, with a discount for direct debit payments, which are taken quarterly. There is also a small charge for information searching, which is billed separately, but most companies qualify for a certain amount of free time before any charges are made.
The aim of the service is to save businesses time and money. The Bectis advice to members and potential members is: “The cost of finding information is high, but the cost of not finding it is higher still.” The expertise of college lecturers and their contacts can be called upon, so although Bectis is a one-person operation, it is by no means narrow or confined. As Information Officer, I also work an evening shift and an occasional Saturday morning on a rota basis at the College Library issue desk, and help students looking for particular information or resources. It’s a good mix of working on my own and being part of the library team. I am also responsible for the administration of Bectis, including membership renewals and payments, raising invoices, and liaising with other departments who give invaluable support to the service, such as the Finance Department and the Marketing Department. Records of enquiries and charges are also kept.
Compiling the Bulletin takes up a good proportion of my time. The content of the Bulletin reflects the membership, which is why there can be a summary of an article about construction followed by one about aircraft plastics or security, as well as coverage of general management, IT, and health & safety subjects. I include anything I think will interest the readership. Each day I scan the journals that arrive in the library for suitable articles. I write the summaries and members can request a photocopy of articles that interest them. I also search through the new books and again write a brief summary and include full details of each, and do the same for government publications. Finding websites can sometimes be more difficult as these don’t present themselves on a shelf like books and journals. Increasingly, Bectis Bulletin is being sent out via e-mail rather than by post.
Enquiries are received by telephone, fax, and e-mail, and can be on anything at all. This summer, for example, members have been enquiring about the new age discrimination legislation which came into force in October. Other enquiries include checking standards and specifications for amendments, withdrawals and equivalents, information on the Work and Families Act, Legionnaire’s disease, steps in swimming pools, copper roofing, Orlit houses, tree roots in the built environment, chemical warehousing, paternity leave – the list is endless. Each enquiry is input into the Bectis database, which is the basis for working out the appropriate charges for invoicing. Most enquiries are answered the same day if possible and any loans are posted first class. The first search is always the library database, which obviously points to anything that is available from the library stock. Searches of other databases to which the library has access follow, and members of the academic staff can also be consulted. The advent of Pricing in Proportion has not increased the postal charges by any significant amount, though the situation is being monitored. There is a great deal of job satisfaction to be gained when a client says the information Bectis has supplied is exactly what they wanted and they don’t know how they would manage without it. We also have the added attraction of a coffee machine in the office for visitors.
The service is largely self-funded by its subscription fees and other charges, backed up by college library resources. One of the main benefits is the raising of the profile of Bell College and its services.
This year Bectis celebrated its 30th anniversary. We wanted to mark the occasion by recognising the support Bectis has had from its members over the years and showing what Bectis and Bell College have to offer the business world. The main event, a half-day seminar and lunch, took place on 18th May. All Bectis members received invitations, along with other interested parties. After coffee and biscuits, delegates were welcomed by Bell College Principal, Professor Alex MacLennan. The theme of the morning was knowledge transfer. Speakers included Jamie Henderson from Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and lecturers from Bell College. Sandy Sinclair spoke about business information, Eddie Dempsey talked about Quality Management, Kenny Cameron and Dave Kennedy spoke about different aspects of knowledge transfer with particular reference to the Scottish Polymer Unit (which is run from Bell College), and Jim Watt gave a view from the college’s school of business. Presentations of red wine and organic dark chocolate were made to representatives of the longest serving Bectis member, Organon Laboratories, and to the two most frequent users, Terex and DBT GB. (This is a standing joke, as it is well known among the membership that I love these two foodstuffs. Everyone knows they are health foods!)
As the service is mainly telephone based, it was fascinating to put faces to voices and to meet so many people. Everyone praised the quality of the buffet lunch, and wished their own catering was as good as that of Bell College! It was from this event that the decision was taken to send the Bulletin by e-mail where possible, as so many delegates asked why it wasn’t sent that way. I was frequently told that the paper copy tended to get lost in transfer around the offices, and that it would be much easier for recipients to pass it round their organisations, making it readily available to many more people.
One of the attendees at the anniversary was Stuart James, Librarian of the University of Paisley. Bell College and Paisley University are continuing plans to work towards a merger of the two institutions, which is proposed to happen in the autumn of 2007. The future, therefore, is looking very positive, as being part of a larger organisation can only benefit the service and its users.
Margaret Chapman
T. 01698 285658
F. 01698 286856
E. bectis@bell.ac.uk
W. www.bell.ac.uk/library.htm