Opportunities of a Confederal University for South West Wales

Friday 3rd December 2010

9.30am – 4.45pm, Halliwell Centre, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Carmarthen

The emergence of the new University of Wales Trinity Saint David and its developing links with Swansea Metropolitan University, Pembrokeshire College, Coleg Sir Gâr, and other colleges and schools throughout south west Wales, provide many opportunities for knowledge-led economic development.

The creation of Wales’s first ‘dual sector’ university within a confederal framework will allow seamless student movement within tertiary education and foster integrated research programmes across the region. It will bring together more than 170,000 students making it the fourth largest higher education institution in Wales.

It will also deliver integrated learning pathways that will transcend educational boundaries and promote economic development. Underpinning the initiative a number of key research academies are planned, focusing on professional development for those working in the public service, heritage and tourism, rural health and social care, the creative industries, rural sustainability and landscape management, and education.

This conference explores the role of the new University, the potential for collaboration of the range of institutions operating within its confederal structure, the developing research agenda, and the future economic impact on south west Wales.

For a full conference programme please visit the IWA website http://www.iwa.org.uk/en/events/view/109

RLUK Calls for Journal Pricing Restraint

At its recent conference, RLUK announced it would not support future journal big deals unless they showed real price reductions.  With a cut to the teaching grant and research budgets flat at best, RLUK members believe that unless this happens they will be forced to cancel significant numbers of subscriptions which will fatally compromise the UK’s capacity for research.

The full press release is available here: http://www.rluk.ac.uk/content/rluk-calls-journal-pricing-restraint

WHELF Annual Report 2009-2010

The WHELF (Wales Higher Education Libraries Forum) Annual Report for 2009 – 2010 is now available.

Academic libraries in different institutions in Wales have for long worked together to give improved support to teaching, learning and research, as well as contribute to the well being of the wider community. Innovation goes hand in hand with co-operation, and WHELF continues to develop new ways of providing services – like joint schemes to give access to e-journals and e-books – and new initiatives like the Welsh Information Literacy Project. The annual report illustrates many examples of this collaboration and innovation.

The following links on the WHELF website will allow you to download the report in either Welsh or English:

• WHELF Annual Report 2009-2010 in English
• WHELF Annual Report 2010-2011 in Welsh

CILIP Training: calling all academic librarians!

Make time this November and December to develop your career and enhance your LIS skills with courses such as:

Creating a customer-focused environment: academic sector
16 November 2010, London
With increased pressure to fulfil customer related targets and KPIs, library and information staff need to keep one step ahead and anticipate rather than respond to customer needs. This one-day course will provide the tools and techniques to better understand your customers and deliver an outstanding service.
FULL DETAILS: http://www.cilip.org.uk/jobs-careers/training/pages/creating-customer-focused-environment-academic-sector.aspx

Esurvey methods
23 November 2010, London
A well developed survey is one of the most effective tools to assess what your users need and want and how you can deliver it to them. Discover the tried and tested techniques used when developing an electronic survey. Learn about the questions to ask – and the questions to avoid!
FULL DETAILS: http://www.cilip.org.uk/jobs-careers/training/pages/esurvey-methods.aspx

Supporting international students in HE
30 November 2010, London
Many international students have studied in educational systems that have different approaches to learning and teaching than those commonly used in UK universities.  This one-day workshop will focus on practical approaches to supporting international students in higher education.
FULL DETAILS: http://www.cilip.org.uk/jobs-careers/training/pages/supporting-international-students-he.aspx

Supporting the research student
06 December 2010, London
Since the publication of the Roberts Report, interest in supporting research students has grown in recent years. Learn to identify and adopt the different approaches to help and support the wide ranging needs of research and PhD students.
FULL DETAILS: http://www.cilip.org.uk/jobs-careers/training/pages/supporting-research-student.aspx 

Teaching information literacy in HE: what where and how?
09 December 2010, London
Information Literacy work is growing exponentially across higher education. Librarians are working to engage as many students as possible, producing materials/tutorials for the digital environment as well as devising face-to-face activities. This course will address the issues and practicalities associated with designing effective IL activities/sessions.
FULL DETAILS: http://www.cilip.org.uk/jobs-careers/training/pages/teaching-information-literacy-he.aspx

Don’t forget all CILIP Members receive a 40% discount on all our training courses.
Browse all our courses online: http://www.cilip.org.uk/training

Evaluating the impact of SHEDL

This joint RIN and SCURL study looks at the initial impact of the SHEDL initiative, which aims to provide a common set of journals to all Scottish HEIs.

It looks at changes in patterns of usage in different institutions and in costs per download, as well as investigating the factors which may be affecting patterns of usage.

The report is available to download from the project page: http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/using-and-accessing-information-resources/evaluating-impact-shedl

Inspiring Research, Inspiring Scholarship

JISC has recently released a new report, Inspiring Research, Inspiring Scholarship, looking at the value and impact of digitised resources.

Written by Simon Tanner of King’s College London, it considers four broad areas in which the creation of digitised resources have has a significant impact.

http://bit.ly/9NjGw6 (pdf file)

The four themes are

*Inspiring Research* Digitised resources not only improves access but enable new types of research to be asked, such as the Data Mining with Criminal Intent project that is based on the Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913 – http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/

*Bestowing Economic Benefits* The digitisation of journals, such as the Wellcome Trust Medical Journal Backfiles project, provides free and immediate access for scientists. One digitised journal, the Biochemical Journal, receives over 300,000 uses a month – http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/digitisation/medicaljournals.aspx

*Connecting People and Communities* Resources such as Great War Archive, gathering digitised memorabilia from World War One, not only provide new material for scholars, but enable new communities and expertise to be developed outside the campus walls – http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa/

*Digital Britain* Digitising some of Britain’s special collections not only provides new data for educators and learners around the world, but also for a greater appreciation of the nation’s ‘prize jewels’; examples include the Freeze Frame collection of polar photographs, or the Old Weather resource for measuring and transcribing weather reports in Naval logbooks – http://www.freezeframe.ac.uk, http://www.oldweather.org/

Mentor training course – Cardiff

Forthcoming Mentor training course in Cardiff:

17th January 2011, Arts and Social Studies Library, Colum Drive

To book contact: Carol Brooks: carol.brooks@derbyshire.gov.uk

All courses run 9.30 – 16.30

The afternoon session is about the CILIP scheme and experienced or previously trained mentors are welcome to attend the afternoon session for the half day rate.

A one day workshop run by PTEG on behalf of CILIP.

PTEG Members £15 (inc VAT)
Non-PTEG Members £30 (inc VAT)
(Membership of PTEG as an additional CILIP Group costs £10)
Half day for CILIP update only £8.00

The purpose of this course is to provide participants with a background to mentoring, a basic framework for conducting mentoring both long and short term. The focus of the event is to enable participants to develop effectively as mentors in the context of the CILIP professional development scheme.

Mentor Training is a requisite for becoming a CILIP Mentor and this course is suitable for all CILIP members who have recently registered as CILIP mentors or are thinking of registering. Do come along and find out more about the mentoring scheme.

By the end of the day participants will:

Understand the function of mentoring in the CILIP CPD process

Have had the opportunity to explore and experience mentoring

Be able to make an assessment of their capability as mentors and identify their development needs in this area

Members who have previously attended a course on mentoring skills may attend the afternoon only (14.00-16.30) to join in the elements relating to the CILIP scheme.