The importance of regional roundups

Yesterday I attended Mini-Umbrella, an annual conference where local libraries showcase best practice and innovative projects, which was a thought-provoking experience as well as a useful way to discover what is happening in the wider library community. This year the theme was Bleak House or Great Expectations, with the keynote speaker being Isabel Hood (leader of CILIP Council 2011).

The Winds of Change, Isabel Hood
Ali Pickard of Northumbria University, who co-host the event with NE CILIP opened the event with Isabel Hood giving the first presentation. She gave a passionate presentation on the change and refocussing of CILIP. Isabel described the issues faced by CILIP in a challenging economic climate and how CILIP were responding to this and increasing member demands to keep CILIP relevant to members, support the sector, be sustainable and be outward looking whilst continuing to be a support mechanism in changing times.

NHS Clinical Librarian Project, Rachel Steele
This presentation was a new project where librarians are involved in the patient consultation process as they go around with a doctor and note where the doctor requires further information, the librarian then does a literature search to better inform the decision making by providing information on best available research and the evidence-base. So far the results were positive however, it is a pilot and at this stage the implications on resources by rolling out this practice have not been considered.

Tyne2Seine: Reading and Creativity Without Borders, Mark Freeman and Kathryn Armstrong
This was an interesting talk as it involves a partnership with Epinay, France. A project was implemented to link schools and libraries across borders, this has involved UK authors going to Epinay and French authors visiting the UK. A drawback was that the children weren't allowed to travel but libraries were transformed and a treasure hunt took place, there are now bilingual books so that the children can enjoy them in both languages. The positivity has not been just for the children, the speakers noted a marked uptake on French conversation classes. Strong links have been forged. At this point the project is at a stage where UK children are writing one half of a story and French children will then write the other half of the story, the only issue is the lack of technology in the French school which they will find a way to overcome.

Rising Expectations: Using Customer Feedback to Deliver Strategic Objectives, Christine Willoghby and Dilys Young
This talk was on how Northumbria University used feedback mechanisms to develop services, and how important it is to deliver a responsive service to users which is varied as different subject areas have different expectations, for example a book-based course vs a lab-based course. It is necessary to not promise unrealistic expectations, while it is important to say what can be done it is also necessary to say what cannot be done. Recently a digitisation project was implemented after using scores to target resources, providing e-copies to improve access thereby improving satisfaction. It is vital to continuously look for ways to improve as if you reach a high level of satisfaction and then do nothing the library will quickly become irrelevant, it is by doing this that you remain a useful resource for users.

Services for Visually Impaired Users, Sharon Reeve
Newcastle Libraries has recently developed its services for visually impaired users by providing new equipment and training staff, one activity involved one member of staff ebing blindfolded while being led by a non-blinded member of staff so blindness could be experienced. Thunder, free software is being used alongside Supernova, a paid for software. A questionnaire, Your Reading Choices, has been developed to provide visually impaired users with a personal profile.

The New Curiosity Shop: What's on Offer Today?, Middlesbrough College
The best was definitely saved for last! Middlesbrough College library is using technology to attract and engage users, a treasure hunt is conducted using QR codes (students can loan a phone if they don't have smartphone) where the first clue directs them to find the 8th Harry Potter book, a mock book has been created! They stated the importance of not spending extra money by making best use of things you do pay for as well as exploiting freebies, for example, you pay the same amount for Blackboard whether you do a lot with it or nothing with it, to best exploit it they have added a weekly top ten e-books section to promote ebooks as well as having links to the catalogue and podcasts. Freebies are used to promote services by using Prezi and Twitter. The most valuable point was that library space is a most important resource, people may want remote access but they also want to have a physical space to use as well. A useful feedback mechanism was the use of quickcards to gather information, the example used was when asking what a library app should have, a card was handed out with a number of options with tick boxes, this proved more popular than the online questionnaire.

I think that what Mini-Umbrella is best for is promoting local developments, CILIP is notoriously Londoncentric and this event gives the North East a venue to tell people what has been happening locally while providing a valuable networking opportunity. Mini-Umbrella highlights the region, and afterall, if we don't tell people what we're doing, who will?

Attend everything!

Thing 15 is about attending and presenting at events, and all the benefits associated with this.

Attending events
I am a great fan of attending events, I love being current and getting to meet potential contacts. I love the group discussions and all the chances to interact with new people, once the shyness is over that is! One of my favourite events is the Mini Umbrella put on by North East CILIP, this offers the opportunity to go around the stands before and after the presentations plus all the presentations done mainly by local people. At one of these events I make a fantastic contact who helped me through all the technical jargon of my MSc dissertation on library websites, he actually introduced me to the semantic web and what it could do for libraries. I would strongly recommend to attend every one you get chance to go to. That being said, cost is obviously a factor, not just the cost of the event but the cost of getting there and possibly accommodation, I have been fortunate that my employer has paid for all my work related training and Mini Umbrella is free to attend, but I have also had to pay to attend events which don't fall into my job description and are more for information about developments in the field.

Speaking at events
At this point in time I can see the advantages of speaking at events but think this is a bit out of reach for me, I did my dissertation on public library websites yet I work in an academic library so I have stopped researching that area, other than that I don't actually research anything here and I'm not in a position where I would be asked to do so. So for the time being speaking at events seems something to look forward to in the future and hopefully nerves won't get the best of me.