WHISD
WHELF has a staff development and training group (WHISD), jointly operated with the IT group HEWIT (Higher Education Wales Information Technology). Its aim is to act as an informal coordinating group to create and oversee opportunities for joint staff development activities for library, information services and computing staff in all Welsh HE institutions
Membership consists of one or two members from each Higher Education establishment in Wales. This is usually the person who has overriding responsibility for staff development and training within the Library or Information Services Department of that institute. Where there are two representatives from an institution it is expected that they will between them be able to represent both library and IT interests.
The group meets three times a year and each representative takes turns at hosting the meetings.
For additional information please contact:
Coordinator – Shelley Upton – email: smu@aber.ac.uk
Objectives of WHISD
1. Provide opportunities for joint staff development activities for colleagues in Library and Information Services. These should include
- Visits to other establishments
- Talks from external trainers and lecturers from specialist groups
- Exchange of experience
- Organising the annual Gregynog Colloquium
2. Communicate ideas and work with other relevant bodies on training activities and staff development .
3. Sharing and/or jointly producing staff development materials.
4. Maintaining awareness of new developments, sharing information, and networking.
5. Identifying gaps and strengths in existing staff development in member institutions.
6. Collaborating where appropriate over developing project bids.
Gregynog Colloquium 11 – 14 June 2013
Every year WHELF and HEWIT organise a residential colloquium at Gregynog Hall, the University of Wales conference centre, for library and IT staff to discuss recent developments and to exchange experiences. This year it is the turn of Bangor University and Glyndŵr University to take the organisational lead and there will be a wide variety of themes.
More information: http://ww2.glyndwr.ac.uk/gregynog2013/
Presentations from last year’s event can be found at: http://gregynog.smu.ac.uk/
Welsh Collaboration in Action: supporting higher education in further education colleges
Higher education libraries also have an important role to play in supporting higher education in further education, so each year WHELF organises an event for HE and FE staff – Welsh Collaboration in Action – to enable participants to share experiences, get up to date on recent developments and develop individual and shared programmes of action for the future. There are also joint email lists to help HE and FE staff share experience and develop collaborative approaches. This year’s conference is taking place on Tuesday 25th June 2013 at Cardiff Metropolitan University Llandaff Campus between 10am – 4pm.
CILIP in Wales Conference 16-17 May 2013
Rising to the Challenge: Developing Library and Information Services through Partnership and Collaboration.
In providing the Keynote Address at the 2012 Conference, the Welsh Minister for Housing, Regeneration and Heritage, Huw Lewis AM, indicated that government funding would be available for library projects that demonstrated a partnership or collaborative approach to delivering services in innovative, efficient and effective ways, to improve the lives of communities in Wales. Conference in 2013 will support this aim, disseminating good practice and models for others to consider.
This will include a presentation from WHELF.
More details about the 2013 event here:
The 2012 annual conference offered an excellent opportunity to meet colleagues active in libraries in all sectors in Wales. The theme was Leadership and there were excellent speakers from academic libraries on both days of the conference – including Janet Peters, Liz Jolly and Lori Havard. Workshops and seminars included “Creating a personal learning network” with Phil Bradley, CILIP President and “Mashed Libraries” with Owen Stephens.
Programme and presentations available
