CILIP ARLG Conference: Great Expectations

I was lucky enough to present at this year’s CILIP ARLG conference, “Great Expectations” which was held at Newcastle University on the 25th-27th of June. This was technically the 1st Academic and Research Libraries Group Conference of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. This was after the merger of CoFHE and UC&R groups within CILIP. I picked my delegate pack up on the 25th of June, but unfortunately due to work commitments could only attend the day I was presenting on ; which was the 26th of June.

Plenary 2- Liz Jolly, Director, Library and Information Services

Liz talked her previous experiences, her role at Teesside University and the current state of play within HE in the UK. As with other speakers, the clear message was that it’s hard to plan for “the student experience” and the expectations associated with it. Lots of discussion and tweets as to whether the student is a customer, learner, partner or something else. Since they are paying £9,000 in fees is it their right to a good degree? Where does the responsibility lie? With student who is responsible for their own learning? Liz offered suggestions and working practices that might be the solution in the current climate. This might involve working across boundaries, understanding learning and integration with student lives. The analogy of the Martini slogan of “any place, anytime, anywhere” was particularly memorable.

Quote from presentation by Liz Jolly

Workshop 3 – First workshops of the day involved the use of Libguides by myself and colleague, Moira Bent.

The materials used in the workshop are available at: http://libguides.ncl.ac.uk/arlg2012 The workshop was heavily attended (apologies to those at the back who had to use their own laptops or work with a “friend”) I ran a similar workshop at LILAC this year, so it was interesting to note no-one at this workshop was currently using the Libguides system from Springshare. However two institutions have contacted me afterwards to say where they work are now using the system.

Workshop 4 – Steve Lee “how to make yourself almost irreplaceable! Taking the library to the people: community librarianship in academic insititutions.

We started the session with an activity in small groups, where we were asked to write down on flipchart paper what we dislike about supermarkets. This was a really good ice breaker activity and also linked nicely to what customer facing business should deliver to its users. It also highlighted the range of expectations.

The main message was to get out of the library and meet your users (or potential users) in theirs areas. Having a good dialogue with academics and lecturers to identify their needs. Once you know what they want, you can see where the library can offer advice and help. This could be RSS alerts for journal contents or new books added to the library. Trialling new services and not getting too hung up if they don’t work or have to be ammended.

Picture of a personalised laptop; perfect to advertise who you are whilst roving

Plenary 3 – Paul Abernethy, President, Liverpool Student Union

Paul started out nervously but he didn’t need to be nervous at all. Alot of what he said was common sense and lots of nods where happening all around the lecture theatre. We started off by drawing what our dream library would look like. Fortunately we had a guy in our group who could drawn cats, palm trees and swimming pools so we were ok in communicating our vision. This started an overview by Paul of academic libraries around the country and what’s good about them. Reoccurring themes were silent study areas, provision of food/drink areas, private study, extensive reading list provision. They want the library to be a home away from home. His conclusion which I’ve written in big letters in my notepad are: get the fundamentals right, understand your students and partnership is the key. Wise words in indeed.

Workshop 5 – Liz Kerr “Book packs: an option for the future?

The last workshop of the day so not many notes to rely on. Lots of discussion about the workload and benefits of the library being involved in the delivery of book packs with local bookshops. Seemed like a lot of hard work me!

Overall

A really action packed day, catching up with other librarians, meeting those from the twitter world and talking to reps over coffee. Thanks to ARLG for letting me talk and gate crash the rest of the day.

NB Slides from the conference are now online at:

http://www.slideshare.net/ciliparlg

Grand total from CILIP CDG Sponsored Walk

Sponsored Walk for CILIP CDG North Eastern – Grand total

Thankyou to everyone who sponsored us for our recent sponsored walk along Hadrian’s Wall. We raised over £1300 which has been split between CDG International projects and the Lit & Phil development appeal.

Full set of Hadrian Wall Walk photos available via Tracey Ainsley on Flickr

Tracey and I present Paul Gailiunas, Chairman of the Lit and Phil library with a cheque for £690 towards their appeal.

Library Visit to Durham

Each year the Staff Development Group within the University Library Services at Newcastle University organise an educational summer visit. This normally involves a trip in a coach with fellow colleagues who escape for the next and learn about a library or service. This year we went to Durham. This consisted of visiting:

Durham University Library : The Main Library and Palace Green

Durham Cathedral Library

We were welcomed by Durham University Librarian, Jon Purcell. He had his little grey cells tested remembering everyone’s name since has was previously the Deputy Librarian at Newcastle. Jon along with other colleagues covered his remit, highlights of the collection, changes to the library buildings across Durham and a little bit of future gazing. We saw how the development is changing the main library building. This was especially relevant as our building project continues. Both libraries are designed by Faulkner-Brown (along with St Andrews, where Jon has also previously worked) Strange but true! On the tour we noticed the similiarities with the positioning of the toilets in the centre of building with the study spaces around it.

Top facts about Durham University Library

• It’s the 3^rd oldest in England after Oxford and Cambridge (although there is an argument with a University in London as to who is 3^rd)
• It has 16 colleges
• It’s annual turnover in 2010/211 was £255 million

The redevelopment of the main library will see study space increase by 42%. We heard about the issues involved in the redesign and the overall budget available. Not that this made us jealous or anything! The reasons for the development became apparent and included similiar ones to Newcastle. A lack of study space, space constraints, collection developments, growth in student numbers, student demand for better space and provision of technology enriched study areas.

The use of light and airiness is obvious even from my picture. I think it will be a stunning place to study. Although hopefully even with all the glass it won’t end up like a greenhouse in the summer months. We were taken around the new wing and the original library together with a spy behind the book return area and shared staff space. At the moment all staff including subject librarians are within a large open plan office. There were comments throughout the Newcastle staff about how this worked and the level of disruption.

We all headed off into Durham for lunch before meeting at Palace Green Library.

This was established in 1833 and contains archives, rare printed books and various other Special Collections.  According to the website there are:

• Over 70,000 books printed before 1850 including 300 incunables
• Over 100 Medieval manuscripts
• 3,400 metres of archives and artefacts
• Over 30,000 maps and prints and 100,000 photographs

The tour included the stunning Bishop Cosin’s Library (built in 1669) , the display and exhibition area, the shop (with lots of nice stuff), The Bamburgh Library and the original library. Again building work was going on to redevelop the site.  Dr Sheila Hingley, Head of Heritage Collections gave us an overview of the work and the changes. We then heard from Dr Sarah Price about the schools and outreach work within her team. Echoing alot of the work at Newcastle, they looked at the National Curriculum and the collections at Durham and provided materials and teaching sessions to an array of local schools. Plans are in progress for the arrival of the Lindsfarne Gospels next year. All very exciting!

Durham Cathedral Library

Jon Purcell then took us over to visit Durham Cathedral Library and Monks Dormitory. This provided insight into the unique collection and the beautiful closed access areas. Their website has further information about the collections.

Many thanks to Jon and his staff at Durham for taking time out of their busy schedules to show us around.