Monthly Archives: August 2009

Intute funding reduction and refocused service – your views needed

Intute is expecting a reduction in funding and consequently is planning a significant change to the service. Following the JISC review of spending priorities for the academic year 2010-11, the decision was made to significantly reduce the current funding for Intute significantly, in the context of an expectation that JISC will be required to find savings across all its programmes. JISC will continue to support some aspects of Intute, especially its Internet research skills activities, but has recommended that the organisation is refocused.

Intute is acutely aware of the impact of any reduction of service on its users and especially those organisations which integrate it into their websites, library catalogues and virtual learning environments. They are currently gathering information about the impact of funding reduction and welcome your feedback on what you value most about the service and how you use it in your work.

A short survey is at http://feedback.intute.ac.uk/proposal – closing date for responses is 9 September.

UK Research Reserve seeks members for new panel

The UK Research Reserve is looking to recruit members to serve on its new Mediation Panel. The Panel will negotiate solutions when difficulties arise in identifying suitable holding libraries for the two ‘last copies’ of a particular journal which are due to be kept in higher education libraries (in addition to the copy held by the British Library). Expressions of interest are sought from library directors or senior colleagues in collection management.
www.rin.ac.uk/ukrr-call-mediation-panel

Y Porth – the gateway to Welsh-medium resources for the University sector

A national Welsh-medium e-learning platform for the Higher Education sector

jane-hutt

Y Porth (literally “the Gateway”) is an innovative e-Learning platform for the Higher Education sector in Wales. Developed by the Centre for Welsh Medium Higher Education  it was formally launched at the National Eisteddfod on 4 August 2009 and attended by Jane Hutt AM, Minister for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills.

Owain Huw (Digital Technologies and E-Learning Manager for the Centre and Y Porth Project Manager) noted: “This is a credit to the collaborative working that has taken place over the past year between the Centre for Welsh Medium Higher Education and Welsh universities. The platform, which is based on Blackboard Learn, will offer a central repository of electronic resources for staff and students, as well as a virtual learning environment for collaborative modules”.

Dr Ioan Matthews, Director of the Centre added: “This development is particularly timely as it provides a means of delivering elements of degree courses collaboratively across Wales, within the frameworks for quality and standards that students and academics expect. The first resources available on Y Porth will be mainly aimed at those studying Education, Welsh, Drama, Geography, Nursing and Sports Science, but this will be built upon rapidly during the coming months”.

Welsh-medium students and staff from any HE institution in Wales will be able to register as users of Y Porth from the beginning of the 2009/10 academic year.

Y Porth offers:

  • A publicly accessible portal showcasing Welsh-medium web-based HE resources.
  • A central repository of electronic resources for Welsh-medium students and staff from every HE institution in Wales.
  • A Virtual Learning Environment to host learning materials for collaborative modules and guide the learner in an effective way, irrespective of their home university.

Y Porth will both mirror the expected increase in the number of Welsh-medium resources and cross-institutional modules available and act as a catalyst to further development, by providing the sector with a central, publicly visible location for all current and future developments. The opportunity to bring Welsh-medium students and teaching staff together in a single virtual space, not only whilst studying/providing collaborative modules but also in other interactive shared spaces in Blackboard, has huge added value in terms of future collaboration.

http://www.yporth.org

Information Literacy: the Case for Strategic Engagement

Professor Sheila Corrall from the Centre for Information Literacy Research, University of Sheffield will be giving a presentation on “Information Literacy: the Case for Strategic Engagement” at Trinity University College on Wednesday 2 September 2009.

The event is free to attend and will take place from 11.15 to 12.45.

Synopsis: the ability to find, evaluate and use information has been acknowledged as fundamental to effective learning and research, but is now also recognised as an essential competence for employment and participation in contemporary society. Library and information professionals in secondary and higher education have worked individually and collectively to develop information literacy in the classroom, at enquiry points and via online resources. Many institutions are engaging with information literacy at a strategic level, by setting information literacy objectives in their learning, teaching and assessment strategies; issuing guidance on information literacy competencies; and sponsoring information literacy projects and programmes. The University of Sheffield initiated a programme of curriculum innovation placing information literacy at the heart of student learning to strengthen its commitment to inquiry-based learning. Experience has shown the value of a discipline-sensitive approach to information literacy, a multi-professional partnership of information literacy advocates and dedicated specialist support for information literacy.

Please email John Dalling by 26 August if you would like to attend j.dalling@trinity-cm.ac.uk

An Information Literacy Framework for Wales?

WHELF is organising a high-profile event at Gregynog on 30 November – 1 December 2009 to examine the issue of information literacy in Wales. One of the keynote speakers will be John Crawford of the Scottish Information Literacy project. The goal is to raise the profile of information literacy in Wales and work towards a framework similar to that being developed in Scotland. The event will be part funded by a £2000 information literacy grant from CyMAL. 

WHELF digitisation strategy

WHELF’s Action Plan for 2009-11 includes the aim ‘support further digitisation projects’. This aim’s first objective is to ‘agree a digitisation strategy for WHELF’. In October 2008, WHELF members considered a preparatory paper by Jeremy Atkinson and Andrew Green on the creation of a strategy. The strategy has been written on the basis of that paper and the subsequent discussion.
http://whelf.ac.uk/docs/WHELF%20digitisation%20strategy%20rev.doc

Welsh Libraries, Archives and Museums Conference 2010

A date for the diary: the 2010 Conference will be held on 13th-14th May 2010 at the Hotel Metropole, Llandrindod Wells.

Swansea University Transcription Centre

On 1 September the Recording Centre for the Blind will be changing its name to the Transcription Centre – to reflect the growing range of work they now cover.

The Swansea University Transcription Centre (SUTC) provides transcription services (braille, audio, large print, electronic text and tactile diagrams) for disabled students at Swansea University and at other universities and colleges.

Just five months after becoming certified Digital Audio Producers under the RNIB’s DAISY Certification Scheme, Lesley Morgan, Sarah Jones and Tina Webber of SUTC  have been awarded Advanced Digital Audio Producer (DAP) status by the RNIB.

Full story at: http://www.swan.ac.uk/news_centre/News/Headline,35719,en.php

Librarian honoured by National Eisteddfod

RTEmagicC_SDC12125_01_jpgThe National Librarian (and Chair of WHELF), Andrew Green, was among those honoured by the Gorsedd of Bards at the National Eisteddfod. He was honoured with the white bardic robes, the highest honour bestowed, for his contribution to the nation, its language and culture. 

According to Andrew Green,  ‘This is a great honour, and so unexpected – one of the biggest honours for anyone living in Wales. But this is mainly an acknowledgement for The National Library of Wales, how the institution has grown in the last few years, as an important resource for Wales and the world, as innovators in our field of work and as a national institution that Wales can be proud of.’

Read more on the National Library of Wales news pages

Welsh Conference presentations

Presentations from the Welsh Libraries, Archives & Museums Conference are now online at: http://www.cilip.org.uk/branches/byregion/wales/conference09