Learning Centre staff at the University of Wolverhampton generally have good awareness of disability issues and try to ensure services and facilities are accessible to a wide range of users. However, little work had been done directly with users to explore their views of our services and the problems they might face when using them. The research targeted dyslexic learners as the University has a relatively large population of students with this disability. In addition many of our services rely on an ability to cope with printed and electronic information and these might pose particular problems for users with dyslexia. The services might include apparently simple elements such as guides to particular Learning Centres through to more complex examples including the subject web pages and information skills workshops.

Technological advances by the database creators of the late 60’s and early 70’s enabled the ‘information explosion’ to be managed and accessed. Information professionals developed specialist skills to explore these bibliographic resources on-line. A decade later, as attitudes changed and resources became more accessible, a parallel agenda of user education programmes was being developed by librarians. The information skills agenda took shape across schools, colleges and Higher Education institutions and a skills hand-over began. The curriculum focussed on access to print resources initially to support the shift to resource-based and flexible learning initiatives. The rapid developments in desktop information technology in the late 80’s and 90’s brought the two developments closer together. It enabled information professionals, already supporting the development of user information skills, to include access to bibliographic databases and electronic resources on CD-ROM and on-line.

Within the context of Lifelong Learning it has been increasingly recognised that the new constituencies of learners now entering Higher Education (HE) will place different demands than hitherto upon the institutions and the programmes delivered. In the Division of Environmental and Analytical Sciences at the University of Wolverhampton (UW), it has also been noted that the typical participant profile for some award programmes is increasingly reflecting this national trend. This has been growing particularly within the masters programmes where the significant numbers of post- experience candidates render the cohorts much more disparate than previously in their needs and demands from the course provision. The growing importance of demand-led provision has been further driven by an increase in the upskilling needs of the regional economies which, in turn, are generating an influx of new constituencies of learners into HE. For the West Midlands region, and for UW, this is a particularly important issue given their joint commitment to economic and social regeneration, and the latter’s role as a major employer in the region. Locally, this is a particularly pertinent issue for the field of Environmental Sciences where there have been clear statements of need regarding the development and management of the environmental economy. (Advantage West Midlands 2000). The project was intended, initially, to gather data, which would inform future provision for the following masters award programmes: Land Reclamation; Environmental Science; Environmental Management; Environmental Technology.

Students at the University of Wolverhampton Business School (UWBS are given reading lists as part of their guides for each module. Learning Centre staff at Compton and Telford campuses use the reading lists as the basis for a large proportion of stock purchase decisions. However, there is little or no evidence to suggest how students utilise reading lists when selecting books. The purpose of the the project was to examine how students use reading lists to inform their information resource selections.