Tweet Up in Glasgow city centre #GLTU

CILIPS was delighted to help promote the first Glasgow Tweet Up for librarians in Glasgow last week.
The event was the initiative of regular tweeter Anabel Marsh (@anabelmarsh) who works at the Jordanhill Campus of Strathclyde University. Almost 30 library tweeps turned up at a city centre pub to meet and discuss ideas for National Libraries Day 2012.  Strong support came from members of CILIPS Council who turned out on a grim rainy evening to join the discussion and to meet Lauren Smith (@walkyouhome) the incoming CILIP Vice President now based in Glasgow. As well as familiar faces there were lots of new faces to meet too and a good mix of folks from across the sectors. It was enjoyable to spend time putting Twitternames to faces!

Suggestions for activities during NLD ranged from a newspaper campaign to a Glasgow library crawl but the library sculptures suggestion won out with everyone using sweeties to vote for their favourite suggestion. Of course at least one of the ideas is already highly successful in its aim to raise the profile of libraries. That’s the (appropriately enough) Twitter initiative based around the CILIPS #lovescottishlibraries campaign which is being organised by Roana Mourad (@DIYLibrarian) and Michael Charlton (@sololibrarian), both CILIPS Council members.

The event was judged a great success by all who attended including Lauren who tweeted that it was a ‘lovely tweetup with lovely Scottish library folk’ (Thanks Lauren). Joanna Ptolomey(@chibbie) has written up her perspective on the event for Info Today

@Lynn Corrigan has also added her views on the Tweet Up with added photos!
Anabel has already swung into action planning a Glasgow library crawl by subway (tentatively titled ‘In the Loop’) and scheduled to take place on National Libraries Day itself (February 4th.) I’ve signed up – have you?

Glasgow Library Tweeps :Tweet Up #GLTU

CILIPS is delighted to help promote an initiative from library tweeter @anabelmarsh. Anabel has been sharpening her tweeting skills since attending a CILIPS organised CPD event led by @Gillianhanlon some time ago.

Anabel has proposed a Tweet Up to take place in Glasgow on Friday 20th January at the Drum and Monkey on St Vincent Street from 5.30pm onwards.  The event is intended to welcome CILIP incoming Vice President @walkyouhome (Lauren Smith) to the city of Glasgow and to meet Scottish library tweeps.

There will also be time to share ideas and suggestions for promoting National Libraries Day on 4th February so if this sounds like an event you’d like to join click here to find out more and sign up.

Geographies of World’s Knowledge

Great read in today’s Guardian on Geographies of World’s Knowledge 2011 from the Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University. In the report there is good use of images to show the global reach and equity of information. http://bit.ly/ytJ3D1 and

http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/publications/convoco_geographies_en.pdf

 Interesting aspects include the gender balance of adult literacy in some selected countries, with the obvious knock-on effects on power, control, employment, democratic and digital participation; internet penetration and printed newspaper range/availability. Proficiency in the English language is a key currency for access to academic knowledge with 86% of academic journals published in English. Publishers dominant in the marketplace are Elsevier, Springer, Wiley and Taylor & Francis. Again English speaking and Europe/North America dominate the digitised and geo-tagged Flickr photos – what is the long-term impact on global memory where there are few clusters of images over time?

 Wikipedia – over 100 million hours of input but 84% is Europe/North America-dominant and the gaps in world knowledge widen as you roll back the centuries. User-generated content on Google is also dominated by North America and Canada and Europe, but Asia and Latin America are beginning to come through.

 The report only scratches the surface about barriers to participation but there’s plenty to reflect on.

Rhona Arthur

Assistant Director

Post 16 Education Consultation Meeting

SLIC hosted a discussion meeting on 7^th December to look closely at the Scottish Government’s proposals for Post 16 Education in Scotland and to help formulate the response. Entitled Putting Learners at the Centre– Delivering our Ambitions for Post-16 Education, the proposals could have far-reaching implications for libraries in different sectors. The summary of proposals was the basis of our debate, which was led by David Scott of Dundee College.

 The concerns raised included:

 Learners

• This changes the demographic in colleges and younger learners need support.
• Aspirations of the young people themselves will not be met by what is contained in the paper.
• Colleges might not be able to offer courses as cheaply as private providers in education market but they offer other things like libraries, careers advice, additional support needs, etc, which the younger learners are even more likely to need that current learners.  Lots of voluntary organisations have pulled out of access level training because of costs and it is unclear if there is a market which is robust, quality and able to pick up slack.
• Concern was expressed about the higher drop-out rate amongst young learners and the plans to penalise institutions if their retention rates slip.
• Younger more vulnerable users will mean that libraries have a larger demand as the learners can’t buy resources for themselves and can’t necessarily study at home. It will cost the college more, for example, as they will need more liaison officers to keep students engaged and enrolled.

 Partnership working with other providers for adults

• Structural changes and reduced capacity will have an impact on vulnerable areas and groups where previously they have been well-served by local authority community learning and development provision and this helps keep people in learning.
• Need to look at the profile of 16-19 year olds on a regular basis to ensure that the real problems are being addressed and the type of library service who support these individuals may be very different from the types of services we currently plan to provide or do provide.
• The vulnerable group of youths are the ones to have concerns about – they won’t go to college who don’t have skills or confidence and they will suffer disproportionately. They need a special type of support and they can’t be shoe horned into the wrong institutions or they will fail to survive and retention rate drops will be punished. The library staff are the ones who sit down with them to do a literature search or who work with them at a pace which suits their learning style better.
• They lack confidence and skills and won’t go to local colleges even if it’s down the road because they don’t think they’re good enough. Strategies will need to focus on who the learners are.

 Regionalisation

• Most people will travel for specialisms but this has an impact on people in terms of time and money. In many parts of Scotland learners are often local and take a pick from the curriculum because they are looking for a local solution.
• Economic deprivation is a real issue because the transport costs aren’t refunded at a time which makes it possible for families to support the learners in the meantime.
• Budget cuts are driving a regionalisation agenda and makes the delivery of curriculum and qualifications much more focused.
• Progression routes of access to education at any age affected by this.
• Non-certificated courses will be one area greatly affected, if this is introduced, and this is the starting point for many, before they develop the skills and confidence to progress into formal education.
• The issues about IPR, copyright and licensing are considerable when sharing resources/VLEs across regions.
• Teaching joint course might be an attractive option but it doesn’t necessarily mean a cost reduction and there are huge issues about support and quality.
• The licensing models haven’t changed so it might be useful for Scottish Government to help pressure change by the publishers. SHEDL is a model but it is under pressure and expansion will be limited as the straightforward publishers’ content is already included and the licensing for other services/publishers will be much harder to negotiate.

 Learning

• Concern as expressed about a narrowing of the curriculum and education is defined as narrow vocationalism.
• Need for consistency of decision making about funding for the same courses across Scotland and there were example around the table of variation.
• Capacity in colleges, the community, local authorities, private and third sector is all reduced, so clear routes and funding for those outside the main college focus need to have other alternatives.
• This requires funding support for courses other than core skills or qualifications over SCQF level 6.

Rhona Arthur, Assistant Director

‘Library staff are the signposts to learning’

So said Principal of City of Glasgow College  Paul Little as he welcomed delegates to his college. The SLIC annual FE Libraries Conference took place there on Thursday 24th November, shortly before the new supercampus building development was announced.

Once again the programme was planned in partnership with Scotland’s Colleges CoP and the JISC RSC Scotland.
‘Learner Landscapes: the future of FE Libraries’ opened with a topical debate around Scottish Government proposals for post 16 education reform which Tom MacMaster summarised neatly for everyone. It was clear from the feedback that the proposals were generating worry among the FE community but nevertheless offered some opportunities for library services too.

Tom MacMaster

Moving on, the annual FE Libraries survey was launched by Director of SLIC, Elaine Fulton, who discussed  findings which revealed increasing use of online resources and technology such as QR codes as well as more Saturday opening in response to learner demands. Everyone received a copy of the survey in Conference pack which is also available to download.
Karen Stevenson, Library Management System Coordinator at Glasgow University, reprised and updated her presentation  given to a CILIPS audience in Glasgow earlier this year and discussed developing a mobile strategy for the library, something which more of our members are starting to think seriously about.
From Boston College we welcomed JISC award winner Daisy Fulton accompanied by Bran Lanbourne who introduced delegates  to their use of QR codes in library induction in a very enjoyable presentation. Our exhibitors, 2CQR, CLA, Demco Gresswell, OCLC and PTFS looked on as Daisy discussed her prize winning project.

Daisy Fulton, Boston College

Following a networking lunch, beautifully catered for by Rhona of the catering company franchised to the college, and a look round the exhibition it was straight into a QR exercise in the College’s Learning Curve, before Mark Clark and Joan Walker of the JISC RSC Scotland took some time out with delegates to discuss recent advances in eBooks technology.
After more refreshments we heard from OCLC on their Webscale discovery project and CLA on the new licensing arrangements planned for the sector. Gordon Hunt, our super able chair for the day had one last duty after that which was to pick our prize draw winners with the assistance of Jill Evans. Congratulations to Stephanie Rae of Jewel and Esk College who won first prize of a Kindle!
Did the delegates enjoy it? Let them speak for themselves:
“Sessions were highly relevant and engaging; active session on QR codes overcame possible post lunch slump; good buzz in the room all day!”
“This was one of the most engaging events I’ve been to, the programme was fantastic, the venue is easy to get to, the food was good, and Gordon Hunt was a great chair”.
“It was an excellent event with a well balanced programme”

Grampian Information Conference

I travelled to Aberdeen’s Hutton Institute recently to attend the Grampian Information Annual Conference: Information: skills for learning, work and life.
The event was well attended with around 50 delegates turning up for the afternoon event.
The Team had put together a superb programme looking at information literacy initiatives in schools, universities and the workplace. So much was packed into a few hours it was hard to believe this was only a half day event. It even included parallel tours in between the presentations and I was able to enjoy a visit to The Reading Bus where I learnt more about this important initiative and also picked up a copy of their ‘Recipes for Loons and Quines’ (carrot and lentil recipe tried and tested by me last weekend – scrumptious!)
Delegates learned a little bit about SLIC’s initiative to bring the Scottish Information Literacy Framework information into its website and how we are working with John Crawford and Christine Irving to get this up and running as soon as possible and to extend its function to a Scottish community of practice using the model developed by the Scottish Government.  Christine Irving has blogged a  more detailed account of the event
Well done to all the GI team!

SmartSM Scottish User Group launched

The first meeting of the SmartSM Scottish User Group was held in Perth on 14th November. Representatives from 15 of the 16 Scottish SmartSM customers were joined by Bridgeall’s Jennifer Jackson, Consultant George Kerr and Rhona Arthur, SLIC’s manager of the Scottish Public Library Quality Improvement Fund.

The smartLINK consortium (Argyll and Bute, Falkirk Community Trust , Glasgow Life , Inverclyde, Moray, Perth and Kinross and West Lothian) successfully applied for Scottish Government Public Library Quality Improvement Funding and the consortium is about to add more members (Angus, Fife and West Dunbartonshire). Following discussion it was felt that there was enough support for a SmartSM Scottish User Group from existing customers (East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire Leisure and Culture Trust, High Life Highland, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture and Stirling).

The aim of the SSUG is to provide a platform for dialogue between users and with Bridgeall, to contribute to the development of new products and services and to share good practice. Pat McCann of Aryll and Bute agreed to chair the group and this will be rotated annually. Rhona Arthur agreed to provide a note of meetings, maintain contact with members and organise meetings in May and November or at the request of the group.

Following a session of getting to know where each service was on the implementation journey, the participants shared experiences in library management system ‘family’ groups. This provided lively discussion and feedback indicates it was highly valued. Jennifer Jackson gave an update on new products and services at meetings and this was followed by some furtehr discussion and 1:1s.

All services agreed to provide short updates on progress before future meetings, raise items for discussion at meetings for the agenda, provide presentations on a voluntary basis and share good practice.

Rhona Arthur, Assistant Director

Govcamp Scotland – securing the digital future

Following the recent publication of the Digital Strategy, a Govcamp Scotland event was held in Edinburgh as part of a global series of initiatives supported by Microsoft which bring Governments, businesses and academic institutions together to better understand how to respond to the digital age. The Digital Strategy aims to put Scotland at the forefront of the digital economy and seeks to increase digital participation – something which SLIC is closely involved in via our Public Library Quality Improvement Fund and partnership work with JISC, the BBC and others.
The purpose of last week’s event was to explore the vision of Scotland’s digital future and seek to maximise opportunities for collaboration in order to realise Scotland’s full potential in this area.
Around 300 delegates including representative from education, business, SLIC, SCURL, local authorities and others heard John Swinney discuss Scotland’s Digital Future and had an opportunity to participate in panel discussions and other sessions which looked at health, education, jobs and skills, the low carbon economy and public service delivery.

I attended the education session which was enriched by the views of a set of school pupils discussing their use of GLOW and other digital tools.  We heard too about Edinburgh Libraries project work with Microsoft.
The day ended with the signing of the Digital Participation Charter which MSP Fiona Hyslop introduced to delegates. The Charter commits signatories to share information and align resources and efforts to deliver shared digital participation outcomes over the lifetime of this Parliament. Founding signatories included Hewlett-Packard, J.P. Morgan, Storm ID, MJI Business Solutions, Mydex CIC, Liberata, Cisco, University of Edinburgh, Carnegie UK Trust, Scotland IS, Sopra Group and Swirrl IT Ltd.

In summary a day of good intentions and interesting debates with lots of opportunities for SLIC, CILIPS and the library community to get involved.

Two go to New Zealand

Last month Alana Ward, Library and Museums Manager at Inverclyde Council, was selected from a worldwide list of applicants for the International Network of Emerging Library Innovators (INELI) which is part if the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Libraries programme.

I was fortunate to enough to be invited to support her and other delegates as they embark on a two year programme of learning and international projects. The first convening took place between 26th October and 30th October in Wellington on New Zealand’s North Island and segued into the LIANZA Conference from 30th October to 2nd November.

The 18 INELI delegates come from across the globe with 16 different countries represented and they are supported by a team of sponsors (although these are locally based enablers or mentors) and some very distinguished mentors, again from difference countries (Chile to Australia). The event was led by Amy Gipson of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and facilitators June Garcia and Sandra Nelson. The INELI delegates are now ready to start following their online learning programme and also to work in small groups on one of 5 projects with their mentors. All of the content was of a high quality and well received by the group. The idea for the programme emerged from the Bertelsmann Foundation members who benefited from the international partnership working.

Attendance at the LIANZA provided a great opportunity to meet lots of librarians and be part of a library conference which is a slightly larger scale than the CILIPS one, with around 550 delegates. LIANZA have recently introduced a registration scheme akin to chartership and it was interesting to discuss the similarities and differences. There was a good range of papers to choose from and 5 of the INELI delegates presented short papers on their innovations as part of the larger event.

This was a wonderful opportunity to find out about librarianship in other places and to start to share our learning, as well as learning from others. Here’s a taste from Lancashire County Council’s INELI delegate Stewart Parsons and Get it Live in Libraries.
Rhona Arthur
Assistant Director

CILIPS Autumn Gathering a huge success for second year running

CILIPS returned to Dunfermline’s Carnegie Conference Centre for our second annual Autumn Gathering held there on October 12^th.

We welcomed over 100 delegates from across Scotland (and beyond) who enjoyed a packed programme designed and delivered by CILIPS in partnership with our Branches, Groups and Regional Groups.

Delegates received presentations from Alex Linkston, Jean Inness, Beverley Casebow and Alice Heywood, Stuart Dempster, Charlie Fletcher, Pauline Randall,  Gavin Oattes and the Career Development Group Scotland.  All the presentations from the day are available here.  

We had great support from our exhibitors – 3M, 2CQR, Alexander Street Press, Bolinda Digital and Bright Books.  Gale, OCLC, Oxford University Press and PTFS Europe . Members of CILIPS Central Branch  provided assistance and support throughout the day.

Our prize draw of a Kindle e-book reader was won by Philip Wark from Midlothian Libraries. We also gave away two bottles of champagne and a copy of new Facet publication: Getting started with cloud computing.

Lots of photos were taken on the day and you can view these here.

Feedback from delegates was overwhelmingly positive and as ever, the Planning Team will use all comments and suggestions to inform next year’s event.  See you there!