Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol

The Coleg’s new website is up-and-running: http://www.colegcymraeg.ac.uk/en/
The Coleg will help to plan, support and develop Welsh medium education and scholarship at universities in Wales, and will begin its first full academic year in September 2011.

Digital Inclusion Wales – Stakeholders’ Forum Launched

In the Digital Inclusion Framework, published in 2010, the Welsh Government undertook to establish a digital inclusion stakeholder group, comprising those committed to helping adults in Wales use the internet. At the Digital Inclusion conference, in December 2010, following discussions, participants agreed that this should be taken forward as a virtual group.

A Stakeholder’s Forum is therefore being established on the Digital Inclusion Wales website. It is intended to be a place to share experiences, seek advice from others, and learn what is happening elsewhere, whether in Wales or beyond. Over the last couple of years, this has been a fast-moving area. This space will be used to make available the latest policy and evidence, such as data on digital exclusion in Wales. Issues related to key groups, such as older people or those living in social housing, or themes such as e-accessibility and e-crime, can also be considered.

It is intended to make this forum as open and participatory as possible, and, once it is operating, suggestions as to how it can be improved, in whatever form, will be gratefully received.

Please find below a link to the Forum: http://www.digitalinclusionwales.org.uk/

WHELF update: August 2011

WHELF: Wales Higher Education Libraries Forum
August 2011: an update

WHELF actively promotes the work of higher education libraries in Wales and provides a focus for the development of new ideas and services.

At our recent meeting in July, these were some of the topics under discussion:

The Future Shape of Higher Education in Wales: consultation
HEFCW sets out very clear recommendations for the reconfiguration of the higher education sector in Wales.  WHELF plans to respond over the course of the summer, highlighting innovative work in libraries which clearly demonstrates the “collaborative culture – such as that embraced by institutions in Wales” identified by JISC .
Find out more at: http://wales.gov.uk/consultations/education/heinwales/?lang=en

Sharing to be selfish: can we improve delivery and increase efficiency through shared services?
Keynote presentation at the 2011 SCONUL Conference in Cardiff by WHELF member Rebecca Davies, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Student and Staff Services, Aberystwyth University. Shared services are an important area of work for WHELF.
Find out more at: http://www.sconul.ac.uk/events/agm2011/presentations/

Joint procurement – SHEDL/WHEEL
Also at the SCONUL Conference, a workshop co-presented by Jeremy Atkinson, Director of Learning & Corporate Support Services, University of Glamorgan. Jeremy is leading on collaborative e-book and e-journal procurement for WHELF.
Find out more at: http://www.sconul.ac.uk/events/agm2011/presentations/

Welsh Information Literacy Framework launched
The Framework illustrates how learners’ information literacy develops throughout education, offering suggested learning outcomes for information literacy from entry level through to doctorates. The structure of the levels has been inspired by the recently revised SCONUL Seven Pillars core model and is aligned with both the Welsh Skills Framework for 3-19 year olds in Wales and the Credit and Qualifications Framework for Wales (CQFW).  The Framework can be viewed on the project website at http://library.wales.org/informationliteracy/ or at http://library.wales.org/cy/llythrennedd-gwybodaeth/ for those preferring to read it in Welsh.

WHELF/HEWIT Colloquium 2011
A wide variety of themes this year, ranging from technology enhanced learning, web and mobile applications, information literacy and marketing  to partnership and collaborative working.
The presentations from the event are available on the website: http://gregynog.glam.ac.uk/page/programme

Library Impact Data Project
At various conferences in Wales, we heard about the early findings of this project with interest. We now have the answer to the question: Is there is a statistically significant correlation across a number of universities between library activity data and student attainment? The answer is a YES!
Find out more at: http://library.hud.ac.uk/blogs/projects/lidp/2011/07/21/the-final-blog-post/

Welsh Collaboration in Action 2011: A Joint Event for Librarians Supporting HE in FE
Libraries have an important role to play in supporting higher education in further education, so each year WHELF organises an event for staff to enable participants to share experiences, get up to date on recent developments and develop individual and shared programmes of action for the future. This year’s event was held at the ATRiuM Campus of the University of Glamorgan on Tuesday 28th June 2011.

WHELF News
Congratulations to David Learmont whose role at Bangor University will be changing to Director Business Improvement, with the future appointment of a University Librarian.

We welcome Madeleine Rogerson, Head of Learning Support, who will be representing University of Wales, Newport at future meetings.

And finally … welcome recognition of the role librarians play in supporting learning and teaching:
At Aberystwyth one of the Academic Services team, Karl Drinkwater, has been awarded a university Learning and Teaching Fellowship for his innovative work. LCSS at Glamorgan has given its Excellence in Learning, Teaching & Assessment Award in the Excellence and Innovation in Student Learning Support category to Steve Lee, Information Librarian for Sport, Science and Chiropractic.

For more information please contact:
Sue Mace
Development Officer
WHELF: Wales Higher Education Libraries Forum
http://whelf.ac.uk/
http://whelf.wordpress.com/

100 libraries now participating in the Journal Usage Statistics Portal (JUSP)

The JUSP consortium is pleased to announce that 100 libraries are now participating in the Journal Usage Statistics Portal (JUSP): http://jusp.mimas.ac.uk/

At a time of economic constraint, it is essential that libraries can evaluate usage, and make a compelling case about the value of journal subscriptions.  COUNTER compliant data is vital in providing UK Universities with empirical evidence to inform the management and procurement of e-journals. However, obtaining and analyzing usage data can be extremely labour intensive with each library having to visit each publisher’s website and download their own statistics.

The JUSP Portal provides a single point of access for usage statistics, meaning that users can easily and quickly compare usage across various publishers, subscription or academic years and journal titles. The Portal uses the SUSHI (Standardised Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative) protocol to collect COUNTER compliant statistics .

The HEIDS Shared IT Services Study

Above Campus IT Services for Scottish Universities and Colleges – A Shared Road Map for Local Benefit and Collective Opportunity.
http://www.heids.ac.uk/reports/
July 2011

This study has established the feasibility of a collaborative approach by Scottish higher and further education institutions to a phased adoption of Above Campus IT Services. A range of possibilities associated with such services and their potential benefits has been identified and a framework is proposed for the SFC or institutions to take action and allocate appropriate investments and resources. Seven priority opportunities, some for early wins others with a focus on longer term gains, have been identified, situated in a coherent Road Map and proposals are made for progressing these.

50,000 full-text theses now available on EThOS

EThOS announce that just over 50,000 full-text theses are now available on EThOS, the E-Theses Online Service. The 50,000th thesis to be added was ”The process of writing using a computer: a study of first school children”, written by Charalabos-Babis Bakopoulos from University of East Anglia. The thesis, written in 1991, was added to EThOS after being digitised at the BL in response to a request submitted through EThOS.

The milestone comes at a significant time for EThOS who are now able to share further news of some changes that aim to move EThOS onto a more sustainable footing. As many participants will already know, after extensive consultation and some challenging times during 2010, a new EThOS Governing Board has been established which will now guide the development of the EThOS service and oversee the introduction of a new shared service business model between the HE community and the British Library.

The Board has now appointed an EThOS Service Manager – Sara Gould – to work with HE and the BL to develop the detail of any changes and roll out the new model. This 1-year role is generously funded by JISC.

The Board has also now approved a number of high-level changes, the most important of which is the introduction of a membership fee for all HEIs. This shared contribution will allow EThOS to implement all of the upgrades and improvements to the existing service and bring in the additional elements that have been discussed over the last year or so.  

The detailed membership fees and other arrangements are being shared in an EThOS Update e-newsletter sent to all EThOS contacts today. If you are the EThOS manager for your institution but have not received the Update, please contact sara.gould@bl.uk.

Please be assured that the current EThOS service continues completely as normal, and we will communicate any changes as they occur. If you have EThOS digitisation funds held with the BL, you do not need to do anything: the service continues as usual and no changes are planned for HEIs that continue to use the BL’s digitisation service. If you have questions about EThOS, please continue to send them to ethos-help@bl.uk.

Libraries Inspire – summary of responses

Summary of responses to the Libraries Inspire consultation is now available on the Welsh Government website: http://wales.gov.uk/consultations/cultureandsport/librariesinspire/?lang=en