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International study tour as career development
Getting together in York: CDG North Eastern and Yorkshire & Humberside Summer visit
Welcome to the Winter issue of Impact, Journal of the Career Development Group.
This mini edition of Impact features articles on the benefits of visiting different kinds of libraries, both here in the UK and further afield. All four writers felt that they benefited from stepping out of their library and finding out how things are done in other sectors. Hope this will inspire you to explore different sectors, both at home and abroad.
I am currently working on updating the print versions of the 2012 issues, as well as some exciting plans for Impact in 2013. Watch this space!
As always, please do get in touch if you have any ideas/thoughts for articles for future issues. Comment on articles, send me an email, tweet or letter – all communications welcome.
Sharon Lawler
Honorary Editor
email: impact@careerdevelopmentgroup.org.uk
Tweet: @slawler
Print version
During May 2012, I spent a week in Warsaw, Poland, on a Transversal study visit. The visit was funded by the EU and focused on ‘new media in education and the professional development of librarians’. Each year, hundreds of places are offered on study visits through the Ecorys / Transversal programme. To qualify, participants must live within an EU country and work in adult education. On this particular visit, there were 13 participants from Iceland; Spain; Italy; France; Lithuania; Slovakia; Slovenia; Aruba; Bulgaria; Romania; and the UK. The types of libraries represented included college, university, medical, school, public and national.
Study tour blog for participants and hosts
I originally applied during August 2011 and in October I was thrilled to discover my application had been successful, but as the time grew nearer I became increasingly nervous; being very under-travelled, I was worried about travelling alone with a language barrier. A Polish member of the college’s Estates department gave me a lesson in basic pronunciation which helped put me at ease a little and helped boost my confidence about being a solo traveller. The study visit hosts also established a blog few weeks before the visit as a communication tool. Participants used it to introduce themselves, while the hosts used it to distribute itineraries and local information.
During the visit, each participant gave a 30 minute presentation outlining the educational system in their home countries, as well as the organisation of their libraries service. It was interesting and reassuring to realise that, despite living in different countries and working in different types of libraries, librarians throughout Europe face the same issues. We were able to exchange elements of good practice and useful connections were made.
Study Tour participants
We visited Warsaw University library, the National Library of Poland, a pedagogical library and a media/education library. Presentations we attended included innovative use of Moodle by the university library to offer a national, self-directed, online course in librarianship, the EU’s eTwinning project and a session from Poland’s professional association for librarians. The most valuable part of the week, for me, was the tour of the National Library. This included admission to the high security, restricted access area of the library’s digitisation programme, and in one of the reading rooms I even found copies of CILIP Update! On a more practical level, workshops were held which involved the creation of screencasts, interactive quizzes on Moodle and the use of digital storytelling software. I hope to apply these newly acquired skills to the library in which I work in order to create resources to embed into our blog.
In addition, we managed a little time for sight-seeing. We enjoyed a guided tour of Warsaw’s beautiful Old Town district and another of Łazienki Park, where we saw the royal palace and the Chopin monument. In order to get a flavour of the vicinity, we used the local public transport network to navigate the city and ate in a number of different eateries.
Overall, the study visit was very intense with the daily itinerary lasting from 9am – 10pm, but it was an amazing experience. I studied hard, learnt lots and laughed loads. During our farewell meal, I recall looking along the table at all these people who had come together from various nations and different backgrounds, all laughing and talking together with a common goal; it was a privilege to explore another country whilst spending time with people from different cultures, and it was an experience I shall long remember.
For more information on this particular study visit go to http://new-media-of-librarians.blogspot.co.uk/ For more information on Ecorys / Transversal opportunities go to http://www.transversal.org.uk/
Cara Clarke Systems Librarian North Warwickshire & Hinckley College Email: cara.clarke@nwhc.ac.uk
In early 2012 Tracey Ainsley from CDG North Eastern contacted Yorkshire & Humberside with the idea of a joint summer visit. The result was a visit to three different libraries in York on 9th July: York Minster Archives and Special Collections; York Explore; and Search Engine, the library of the National Railway Museum. 17 members from the North East and all over the Yorkshire & Humberside region attended the visit, and reflections from 3 of those members are below:
CDG North Eastern visit participants in York
The first library we visited was the York Minster Library & Archives. The library is in an old chapel dating from the 13th Century that used to be part of the Archbishop’s palace. There has been a library there for over 200 years. As I work in a new university with only a small number of special collections items, a rare books collection of this kind is very unfamiliar to me and it’s always interesting to visit to find out more. We were shown the Old Library collection which has many rare items, often with unique bindings. The library comprises mainly private collections donated to the minster over the years and covers a range of subjects, including theology, geography and science. We were shown some interesting, and very rare, items from the collection, including a copy of the ‘Wicked Bible’ which has a rather unfortunate printing error in the Ten Commandments – stating “Thou shalt commit adultery”! This is a very valuable item as it is only one of 10-15 that remain. All other copies were burned when the printing error was discovered.
Interestingly the books are not organised by any classification system as they are simply placed on the shelves where they fit. They are catalogued however and the catalogue record shows the location details as bay number, shelf number, position on shelf. I just hope nothing is ever misshelved! The library is run as a partnership between the Minster Dean & Chapter (who own the collections and the buildings) and the University of York (who provide the catalogue and IT infrastructure). Partnership working was a key theme in all the libraries we visited in York (and for libraries generally at the moment). As the library receives a lot of donations they are currently devising a collection development policy – currently it is non-existent – to determine criteria for what they can accept in future. As ever, space is a major issue so any policy will need to be rigorous. Overall, it was a thoroughly interesting way to start the day.
The day coincided with a visit from Prince Andrew, and the police and sniffer dogs added an interesting element. Fiona Williams Head of Libraries and Heritage took time out of an otherwise hectic day to discuss the innovative ways York libraries have found to offset budget cuts in austere times.
Adult learning is a big part of the libraries bid to secure their place as part of city life. There are many funding opportunities for adult learning courses and York explore are taking full advantage. They have four dedicated teaching rooms for taught courses and workshops, as well as radio and film making equipment for youth groups.
York Explore is also looking to attract non-traditional users and is in the process of opening a reading café in nearby Rowntree Park. There will be 2000 self –issue books as well as reasonably priced tea and coffee which will create an informal, welcoming environment. The space will be used for events and catered by the on-site café, which creates another revenue stream for the libraries. In addition, a community stadium is to open just outside the city with sports facilities and shopping. This will also have a library service, bringing reading and learning to a new area of the community.
Following a £1,500,000 refurbishment, the grade two listed library building was opened up to create a more flexible space. Moveable shelving means the main area of the library can be used for daytime and evening events. The new oak shelving was chosen to match the original shelving and paint colours were approved by English Heritage. Integrated children’s area and café create an area suitable for the whole family, and generate further funds.
An interesting and different approach to a library service I found was at the National Railway Museum. The library used to be more behind the scenes hidden away at the back of the museum. In 2007 the library was moved to the balcony, which originally was extra public space, to make it more accessible to visitors. They have tried to give the library space a more relaxed and welcoming feel by using glass panelling throughout, an open floor area at the front leading to computers and tables near the help desk and then reading rooms at the back and I think this has worked. In order to attract family groups they have brought children story books and put open shelves at the front of the library to encourage reading in an informal way. They also have a DVD playing something an old traditional library would never have had. I was surprised at the content of the DVD but later we were told the library is trying to take a more social history direction rather than just engineering which explained why the video being played was on life in the dales not railways. Feedback forms were provided which I think is encouraging and we do the same in our library. At Search Engine people come for a range of reasons including looking for particular books, exploring a topic or just browsing. They want to help visitors to help themselves by directing them to resources or to the website on the computers provided in the library.
We were given a tour of the archive stores which are kept within a secure perimeter and were once workshop areas. Books from the archives are accessed on demand and a more rigid, formal retrieval system has been put in place. I did not realise that they hold private collections not only on railway travel but other modes of travel as well. It was also good to see in times of ever tightening budgets they are using their initiative and offering a framing picture service, reproducing prints from their archives. Once again the subject of volunteers came up and this library does use them. They usually have a volunteer next to the library entrance to provide orientation to members of the public as the help desk is at the far end of the library. They also use volunteers for conducting research on the enquiries that can not be responded to within 30 minutes. There is a charge for volunteers to do this which is something they have to be careful about.
This new library has certainly had an impact and they are now finding they are at the heart of the museum, that they are now better known by staff as well as the public and they are contributing more to the museum overall. This is encouraging to see and emphasises the fact that the more you can make yourself clearly visible to others the more you can increase awareness of the service and thus usage.
Two of our libraries, York Minster Archives and Special Collections and Search Engine, National Railway museum rely heavily on donations from the general public. A collection from participants raised £57. We donated £32 to Search Engine and £25 we used to sponsor a book, The Heraldry of York Minster by Arthur P. Purey-Cust in York Minster. The bookplate commemorates our visit.
York Minster: http://www.yorkminster.org/treasures-and-collections.html
York Explore: http://www.york.gov.uk/leisure/Libraries/Library_facilities/exploreyork/
Search Engine: http://www.nrm.org.uk/ResearchAndArchive/about.aspx
We would like to thank our guides for the day: Antonio Jimenez (York Minster); Fiona Williams (York Explore) and Tim Proctor and Karen Baker(Search Engine)
Elaine Andrew Northumbria University Email: elaine.andrew@northumbria.ac.uk
Jayne Chamley Northumbria University Email: jayne.chamley@northumbria.ac.uk
Eleanor Routledge Marie Curie Library Email: eleanor.routledge@mariecurie.org.uk
Resurrecting a library service – the South Plaza story Producing the Evidence for Effective Evidence Based Librarianship Developing your own skills network Cross-sectoral staff development with Cardiff Libraries in Co-operation (CLIC) Shelving Together: Collaborative working throughout different library environments Librarians Awake: A call to arms, legs and other parts Collaboration to show impact of information skills training Creating Collaborative CPD Opportunities: A CILIP sub-branch perspective
Welcome to the Autumn issue of Impact, Journal of the Career Development Group. My apologies for the later than usual delivery, but be assured, it was worth the wait.
This edition of Impact features a range of articles based on papers from this years conference, which featured new and experienced library professionals: Together we are stronger
If, like me, you were unable to attend this year’s conference, this issue aims to be the next best thing. Perhaps you will be inspired to contribute a paper next year?
The theme Together we are stronger attracted a wide range of papers offering practical advice and inspiration across the sectors.
The articles in this issue are:
Finally, apologies are due to Shani Davis, who contributed the report on the CDG study tour in the last issue. Shani works at the Science Museum, not the National History Museum as attributed in the issue.
As always, please do get in touch if you have any ideas/thoughts for articles. Comment on articles, send me an email, tweet or letter – all communications welcome.
In the centre of Bristol, on the 6th floor of an office block, there is a small NHS library which goes by at least three names:
This library serves three primary care organisations:
The library sits in an open-plan office and currently holds 3,955 physical items. While I deliver services to three organisations from this library, the service is managed by a fourth organisation, North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT); this has created practical problems, such as building access, phone, IT access, and printing. Although I am the only member of staff based at South Plaza, there are 11 of us in the NBT library team.
South Plaza has around 2,000 potential library users across the three organisations; with a few exceptions, these users are not based in the large hospitals but instead work in GP surgeries and community clinics. For example, my users include community nurses, physiotherapists, and occupational therapists. South Plaza also has a large non-clinical user base, including managers and those involved in commissioning, human resources and learning and development.
The library used to be a joint service with Health Promotion (HP) called KRIS (Knowledge Resource and Information Service). KRIS has now split into two distinct services – the Primary Care Library and HP – but there is plenty of interaction between the two. Broadly speaking, library materials educate the staff, and HP resources educate patients and the public. So while the Primary Care Library will deliver information skills training, support evidence-based medicine and provide the materials to deliver services and treatments, HP lends books and models, and distributes leaflets and posters for displays.
South Plaza was unstaffed from August 2010 to September 2011, although limited services were provided by NBT during this period. This included requests, such as literature searches and inter-library loans, received by email or by phone and a librarian visited South Plaza once a week for two hours to deliver books and answer enquiries.
The new Primary Care Librarian post was effective from September 2011 and tasked with:
I undertook the MSc Information & Library Management at the University of the West of England, Bristol, and took up my first professional post as librarian at the Mental Health Library, Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust, in November 2010. Prior to this, I worked as a library assistant at the Royal United Hospital, Bath, which meant that I was familiar with the local and regional systems in place, such as a shared Library Management System (LMS), groups and training.
A new professional, I am full of ideas and have many strings to my bow. Enthusiastic, I am keen to implement web 2.0 technologies and I love the technical side of libraries. In addition, I have experience in:
I was fairly well equipped to take on the challenge of South Plaza, but it was only with the help of experienced professionals that success was ensured.
It was important to let users know what was available for them:
I attended several meetings with my managers who know the history and politics of South Plaza; their knowledge and experience added weight to strategic meetings when developing the service and talking to the organisations involved, and provided the managerial aspect that I lack. My managers also know how to handle expectations; they stand up for me and provide support during meetings. I had limited knowledge of the politics and previous practice and so their advice on developing the service at a strategic level was invaluable.
I came up with suggestions of new services to offer and new ways to deliver existing services. After lengthy discussion at meetings, I put in the work to make things happen, knowing that experienced professionals were behind me.
I got involved:
South Plaza is an inconvenient location for a library; relatively few library users are based in the same building and parking facilities are limited. I considered outreach activities to have two aspects: to make myself known and to facilitate access to library services by remote users.
To achieve this, I:
I received plenty of guidance from the NBT stock management librarian and proceeded to:
As the library had been unattended for so long, and sits in the middle of an open-plan office, several items listed on the catalogue were missing: either legitimately borrowed (with intent to return) or dishonestly swept away. As a full stock-check has not yet been carried out, the reality of missing items often only comes to light when readers or other libraries request them, and I have to break the bad news. There are also several inconsistencies on the catalogue, such as difference classmarks for multiple copies of one title. This makes it difficult to track down items; is it missing or just shelved somewhere unexpected?
For inspiration, I browsed the internet for examples of other library websites, their design and content. I also followed JISCmail mailing lists, particularly lis-medical@jiscmail.ac.uk and lis-web2@jiscmail.ac.uk, to follow trends and identify problems and benefits that other libraries had experienced.
My NBT library colleagues offered content suggestions and acted as my guinea pigs to test the new WordPress website before its official launch and provided valuable feedback. Once the website was up and running, I shouted about it; another broadcast email was sent, I directed library users to the website when answering enquiries and mentioned it in all conversations.
Service use has increased since September 2011; although there are some expected drops at Christmas, Easter and the start of summer, and a few peaks courtesy of some very keen users, overall usage is steadily increasing. I have changed my habits to enable easier monitoring and to record everything that I do.
I have regular meetings with organisational heads. A wider range of services is now offered, including current awareness, a dedicated librarian to respond to enquiries and requests, and a fuller, more robust training programme.
When South Plaza was unstaffed, only limited training was available to library users. At NBT, three courses were available:
NBT now offers an additional two courses that I developed:
All five courses are available to South Plaza library users, as well as NBT staff.
A regional current awareness project is still ongoing and has resulted in a Netvibes page (among other things) which is not yet available to the public. I am working on how to deliver current awareness to library users, and although the service is in its infancy, I have created bulletins in a couple of subject areas.
Progress with outreach activities has been slower than I had hoped, but I have visited users in the community and have additional visits arranged for the coming months. Reassuringly, contact from remote users has increased and has been made easier for them, which leads to a lot of repeat business.
Progress has been made:
The library was rebranded the Primary Care Library in April 2012, with a live website, as well as new promotional leaflets, compliments slips and posters.
The website can be used for:
The wider NBT library team offered administrative support, especially processing ILL requests, and knew the history of South Plaza and its users. Each member has been incredibly supportive, offering advice and reassurance and having a positive attitude to my suggestions; my questions are always answered patiently, regardless of how silly or how many times the same question has been asked before.
I have several ideas of what I’d like to do with South Plaza in the future, but some of the more realistic and pressing actions are to:
Primary Care Library website: http://primarycarelibrary.wordpress.com/
The Prezi to accompany this paper can be found at: http://prezi.com/ohjrieorjrxq/resurrecting-a-library-service-the-south-plaza-story/
Steph Bradley Primary Care Librarian North Bristol NHS Trust stephanie.bradley@nhs.net
‘Evidence-based librarianship (EBL) provides a process for integrating the best available scientifically-generated evidence into making important decisions’ (Eldredge, 2006). EBL ‘constitutes an applied rather than theoretical science. EBL merges scientific research with the pressing need to solve practical problems’ (Eldredge, 2000).
The key factor in this definition is to find a solution to practical real-world problems. In her 1999 article, Dwyer highlighted the practitioner’s ‘focus on answering practical questions’. Librarians working on the frontline identify the questions that need answering within library and information services (LIS). In this respect, they are the ‘drivers’ of the research.
(derived from Booth and Brice, 2004, p.110)
Figure 1 is drawn from Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) and reflects research methodologies that are suitable for answering questions that relate to the diagnosis, treatment and management of patient care.
Eldredge (2000) reviewed the use of research methodologies in the field of librarianship and found the preferred methodologies were descriptive-survey and case-studies. However, the library literature also contained examples of randomised controlled trials, controlled-comparison studies and cohort studies.
Figure I includes a narrow selection of research methodologies. The best evidence in librarianship need not be a meta-analysis, systematic review or randomised controlled trial as these research methodologies are all costly and time-intensive. Crumley and Koufogiannakis (2002) and Eldredge (2004) reviewed research methodologies used in librarianship. These include:
The findings from these research methodologies can provide suitable evidence to answer LIS questions.
In ‘real world’ research, the library setting or context (hospital, public, specialist or university) should be considered as the research findings may not be transferable between different sectors. Research findings may also not be transferable between libraries with different budgets (£10,000 compared to £100,000), staffing levels (many staff with specific responsibilities such as cataloguing, inter-library loans, etc compared to a one-person operation) and user groups (university students, hospital staff, professional organisations).
The cycle then continues on with the question and evidence. The appraisal is an important aspect – does the published research reflect a similar environment? (referring back to ‘need’). Another important aspect of the appraisal is to critically evaluate the article identified by asking questions about the research methodology, scrutinising the data collection and analysis methods and then evaluating how the findings are presented. There are many frameworks and guides to critical appraisal such as:
However the key concepts to consider are:
Finally, if the research findings are implemented, this needs to be reviewed:
Eldredge (2002) identified three types of question: prediction; intervention; and exploration:
Determining the type of question is useful for determining the most suitable research methodology to utilise to gather the data that will then form the evidence. Prediction questions can be researched using a cohort study which is an observational study following a group (the cohort) divided into those who have been exposed (attended a library skills course) and those non-exposed individuals (not attended a library skills course) comparing their outcomes over time. Intervention questions are comparative studies, comparing option A to option B. Exploration questions are most suited to qualitative research designs such as ethnographic studies and naturalistic observations.
Crumley and Koufogiannakis (2002) suggested that matching librarian questions with certain domains may help librarians determine which resources to search for an answer. When formulating a question, it is useful to match the question to one of the six domains of library practice and their evidence base.
These six domains are:
In 2004, Koufogiannakis, Slater and Crumley published a follow-up article, finding that these domains could be slightly modified after reviewing information studies journals. Two new possible domains were identified, namely Library History and Professional Issues. The researchers discarded Library History because it was more conceptual and does not fit into the practical EBL framework. Professional Issues was considered relevant and added as a domain.
Eldredge (2001) reported on a survey to identify the most important research questions facing the health library profession. These were grouped into five categories: clinical librarians; library skills education; resources; role / impact of the medical librarian; and searching. This list and a later paper identifying popular questions (Eldredge, Harris and Ascher, 2009) provide an insight into the variety of questions from real-world librarians. However, in practice the important question to answer is the most significant to each particular library. In that respect it is irrelevant how that question ranks against others.
A traditional role for librarians is to assist users in identifying the question they are actually trying to answer. In Evidence Based Medicine, a framework, PICO (Patient / Problem, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome) was developed by Richardson, Wilson, Nishikawa and Hayward (1995) to assist users in identifying the key components (of the question) to be used in a search of the literature. SPICE has been developed specifically to answer questions in librarianship (Booth, 2004):
Once the specific elements of the question have been identified, the search strategy is created and the LIS literature searched. In an ideal world this retrieves relevant research evidence that can be critically appraised to determine if:
• That research environment reflects the current context • The research methodologies are sound • The findings can be applied to the situation in question
An initial failure to locate relevant research evidence in the LIS area does not necessarily indicate that there is no evidence available. Depending on the subject area of the question there may be relevant research outside LIS. Examples of questions that may be answered by resources in other areas are:
The following resources could then be searched to identify relevant evidence:
If all the literature searches fail to identify relevant published research, then instead of finding the evidence; it will be necessary to undertake the research to generate the evidence.
Time can be a major constraint. UK vacancy job descriptions are usually extensive (Davies, 2008) and may include the caveat ‘any other reasonable duties that may be allocated from time to time commensurate with the grading of the post’. Crumley and Koufogiannakis (2002) questioned whether librarians are ‘so overburdened with daily tasks that they do not find the time’ to undertake research? If research is not included in your current job description, there will not be work time committed to it; so undertaking this new role will present time-management issues.
The other major constraint is the financial cost. Linked to time is the salary cost; pay spent on research rather than other specified duties. Alternatively employing another to undertake the research is an obvious expense. Conversely there is a cost associated with not researching an issue. Paying subscriptions annually for journals that are not actually read is an ongoing cost that a project on journal usage could highlight.
A lack of personal skills or self-confidence undertaking research prevents questions that are raised being converted into research proposals. Also, a lack of senior or management support can be an issue. Crumley and Koufogiannakis (2002) questioned whether research was discouraged in the workplace? Both a lack of support and active discouragement can hinder research.
When these issues lead to research not being pursued, this exacerbates the problem with the lack of evidence with which to practice evidence-based librarianship.
One option is to email a discussion list to request any unpublished research or feedback from other librarians. This may be particularly relevant if the discussion list relates directly; for example a research question from a hospital library could be posted to LIS-MEDICAL (JISC open discussion list for members of the UK medical & health care library community) or MEDLIB-L (USA-based) or CANMEDLIB (Canadian-based).
Personally undertaking the research is an option. However this can be daunting depending on your previous knowledge and skill in managing a research project. There are resources that are freely available online:
Another option is to employ someone else to do the research. However an issue with this is the potential expense as outsourcing work does have cost implications. It can also be problematic explaining the project adequately so that the research is conducted appropriately and is relevant to the situation.
Using student placement/work experience and dissertation projects requires links with a local LIS school (if available) or contact with an online/distant learning student. This would also develop skills in the future generation of librarians by utilising LIS students to assist with these projects through data collection and analysis. Students from other disciplines may also be useful, especially for the practical research, such as data collection and analysis.
There are a variety of funding sources for research. Different sources are aimed at institutions or individual researchers as well as nationally (either institutions or individuals based in specific countries). A good collection of these sources is on the LIS Research Coalition, while CILIP LIRG (Library and Information Research Group) provides different research funding opportunities.
Collaboration with friends, colleagues and academics can help. Stronger collaboration with academics (with PhDs or research Masters) who could utilise their research skills to assist in the production of this robust evidence. The research would be practitioner-led so directly relevant to the workplace, but supported by those knowledgeable in research methodology. A key issue is trying to find a collaborator. Sending an e-mail to a relevant discussion list would at least reach a relevant audience. Contacts from conferences are another possibility. Contacting the corresponding author of a published journal article that addresses similar issues may be fruitful.
Mentoring enables an inexperienced librarian to develop skills in research. The time requirement for the mentor is not usually as intensive compared to collaboration. Networking at conferences and meetings also expands your number of contacts.
In an ideal world, an evidence-based librarian would locate relevant research evidence from the published literature. However, in reality that is not always the case. Undertaking research at the outset can seem a daunting prospect, but there are potential support networks to provide guidance and assistance.
CASP UK (Critical Skills Appraisal Programme): www.casp-uk.net
Research guide from the University of Glasgow: www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_64038_en.pdf
Guide from the INCLEN Trust http://bit.ly/PjUdyL
JISCmail (hosts email discussion lists, including LIS-MEDICAL): www.jiscmail.ac.uk
ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) National Centre for Research Methods: www.ncrm.ac.uk/
LIS (Library and Information Science) Research Coalition: lisresearch.org/
Funding information from LIS (Library and Information Science) Research Coalition: lisresearch.org/links/research-funding/
CILIP Library and Information Research Group: www.cilip.org.uk/get-involved/special-interest-groups/research/
Online journal Library and Information Research: www.lirgjournal.org.uk/lir/ojs/index.php/lir
Booth, A. (2004). Formulating answerable questions. In: Booth, A. and Brice, A. eds. Evidence based practice for information professionals: A handbook. London: Facet Publishing. pp.61-70.
Booth, A. and Brice, A. (2004). Appraising the evidence. In: Booth, A. and Brice, A., eds. Evidence-based practice for information professionals: A handbook. London: Facet. pp.104-18.
Crumley, E. and Koufogiannakis, D. (2002) Developing evidence-based librarianship: Practical steps for implementation. Health Information and Libraries Journal, 19(2), 61-70.
Davies, K. (2008) Job hunting in the UK using the Internet: Finding your next information professional role in the health care sector and the skills employers require. Health Information and Libraries Journal, 25(2), 106-115.
Dwyer, MA. (1999) Delphi survey of research priorities and identified areas for collaborative research in health sector library and information services UK. Health Libraries Review, 16(3), 174-91.
Eldredge, JD. (2000) Evidence-based librarianship: an overview. Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, 88(4), 289-302.
Eldredge, JD. (2001) The most relevant and answerable research questions facing the practice of health sciences librarianship. Hypothesis, 15(1), 3-5.
Eldredge, JD. (2002) Evidence-based librarianship levels of evidence. Hypothesis, 16(3), 10-13.
Eldredge, JD. (2004) Inventory of research methods for librarianship and informatics. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 92(1), 83-90.
Eldredge, J. (2006) Evidence-based librarianship: the EBL process. Library Hi Tech, 24(3), 341-354.
Koufogiannakis, D., Slater, L. and Crumley, E. (2004) A content analysis of librarianship research. Journal of Information Science, 30(3), 227-239.
Richardson, WS., Wilson, MC., Nishikawa, J. and Hayward, RSA. (1995) The well-built clinical question: A key to evidence-based decisions. ACP Journal Club, 123, A12-13.
Karen Davies Assistant Professor University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee daviesk@uwm.edu
The Learning and Development Group (L&D) is made up of a group of library staff from across the NHS in the West Midlands, representing different patch areas and subgroups. We have two face-to-face meetings each year and two teleconferences. We organise training and development activities for all levels of library staff.
It is hoped that the L&D group can help with some of the barriers professionals face with career progression, including the lack of cheap training opportunities in order to gain relevant qualifications, as well as experience (for example in budget management or managing staff) for higher paid jobs being difficult to obtain.
Often librarians make up a small section of a larger institution, sometimes it can be one person working on their own or just a handful; because of this, the specialised training we need is often not provided and outside courses can be expensive.
By joining together we can offer support and guidance to others working within the same profession. We learn from one another and gain skills we need to progress in our careers.
These events are a great opportunity for learners to gain valuable skills and knowledge; and even share ideas for other libraries to develop or put into practice. Having returned from the event, I adopted the customer engagement methods demonstrated and it has proven extremely successful, for example when I delivered induction sessions before I was often asked how to register with the library/ Athens etc but did not have the documentation with me, I now go fully prepared using the prepared portfolio idea that was discussed at the knowledge sharing event. I found the marketing policies very useful, it demonstrated the benefits it brought to trust and how it shaped the way services are marketing in a strategic context. …we have identified two areas where the customer engagement tools kit can be used in order to promote the library service
These events are a great opportunity for learners to gain valuable skills and knowledge; and even share ideas for other libraries to develop or put into practice.
Having returned from the event, I adopted the customer engagement methods demonstrated and it has proven extremely successful, for example when I delivered induction sessions before I was often asked how to register with the library/ Athens etc but did not have the documentation with me, I now go fully prepared using the prepared portfolio idea that was discussed at the knowledge sharing event.
I found the marketing policies very useful, it demonstrated the benefits it brought to trust and how it shaped the way services are marketing in a strategic context.
…we have identified two areas where the customer engagement tools kit can be used in order to promote the library service
The knowledge sharing events are based upon the results of the learning and development survey that we carry out. We pick the topics that are most popular from the survey and the events are open to all grades of library staff. The workshops are led by other library staff with expertise in that area. The format for the day varies and often combines a mix of presentations and practical work. The most recent knowledge sharing event was on marketing and the format was based around a series of mini workshops that ran concurrently and people moved to each one in turn. There was also the opportunity to view and sign up to receive copies of other libraries marketing materials, as well as a marketing wall where attendees could write ideas for marketing as they thought of them throughout the day.
…for me, the most significant aspect of the visit was gaining insight into how a library services, which is very different to a health library service, is managed at an operational level. The effect of the visit on my future career is clear. I have no plans or desire to manage a service. I am satisfied to operate at my current level. The visit gave good insight into managing a service, however it has not convinced me that it is a future career path.
…for me, the most significant aspect of the visit was gaining insight into how a library services, which is very different to a health library service, is managed at an operational level.
The effect of the visit on my future career is clear. I have no plans or desire to manage a service. I am satisfied to operate at my current level. The visit gave good insight into managing a service, however it has not convinced me that it is a future career path.
The library shadowing scheme is an excellent opportunity to share good practice and gain experience of the different job roles and services offered by the libraries in the region. The scheme involves a member of library staff spending one-day shadowing staff from another Library.
Why participate in the scheme?
From a personal point of view I have found it incredibly useful to have someone outside of where I work to help me focus on my career and where to go next. It’s useful to have another professional to discuss issues with and to help formulate a plan of what to do next in order to progress in my career. I now feel more in control of my own career path and that I have some direction.
The Mentoring Network is open to all library staff within the West Midlands region. The mentoring network is a self-sustaining network supported by Learning & Development Group.
Mentoring can support individuals through a career transition such as wanting or moving into a new role, studying a qualification or taking on new responsibilities. This particular mentoring scheme is not for those who are working towards CILIP chartership, for which there is a separate scheme. The benefits for the mentor include demonstrating transferable skills, professional development opportunities, and sharing experience and learn from your mentee. For the mentee, the benefits include the opportunity to discuss professional issues and getting support and advice on working more effectively, and trying ideas out in a non-threatening environment.
The paraprofessionals organising group began life as a subgroup of the L&D group and was created specifically to look at the learning needs of paraprofessional staff. It has evolved over time and is now an independent group with a membership of 5 individuals from across the region, in a similar pattern to the L&D group.
The group organise all of their own events from planning, organising venues, speakers, catering, managing the day and evaluating the event. It has proved to be a great opportunity for skills development and confidence building in the paraprofessional staff.
In the past workshops have run for health library staff thinking about undertaking the ACLIP qualification. For a number of reasons, these fizzled out, although they evaluated really well. In the mean time one of the workshop leaders has continued to work as a mentor to one of the original group.
Recently, following a CILIP Chartership/ ACLIP event, it became clear that there were a number of people in the West Midlands beginning to look at completing their ACLIP again. Having talked to the individuals concerned we now have an active ACLIP support group, that has met just once to date, but has other meetings planned. The idea is that group members can learn from one another and get support in addition to that which is provided by their mentor.
The involvement of a local successful candidate also helps to reassure and inspire them, as well as offering her learning opportunities of her own.
To plan a successful event, there are ways in which you can make life easier for yourself:
From the practical tips, it might appear to be enough of a downside without looking for more. However there are other aspects to be aware of when organising an event:
Organising L&D events is well worth doing. If we did not think it was, then we would not be doing it or encouraging others to help. There is an amazing sense of achievement on seeing the day complete successfully. It certainly gives a ‘feel-good factor’ to the team who have organised it and it acts as good team building for the group as a whole. The feedback gives the group, as well as the individuals concerned, a feeling of encouragement. And of course it is great for your own personal development, whatever stage you are at in your career.
Trish Lacey Emma Gibbs Learning and Development Group West Midlands Regional Health Libraries Network
This article outlines how Cardiff Libraries in Co-operation (CLIC) provides shared development opportunities for library staff in Cardiff. We will discuss the ways we work as a group, examine our best practice, and highlight the benefits of cross-sectoral interaction.
CLIC, a collaborative network of libraries in Cardiff,was established in 2005, one of its aims is to provide shared staff development opportunities for library staff, but there is a broader underlying remit of collaboration and partnership between the constituent members.
The libraries that combine to form the CLIC partnership come from all sectors, including education (school, further and higher), public, government, museum, corporate and health libraries. There are nine active members at the moment, which include: Cardiff University; Cardiff Metropolitan University; Cardiff Public Libraries; Cardiff and Vale College; National Museum Wales; Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama; University of Glamorgan; National Assembly of Wales; and the Welsh Government. Other smaller libraries get involved when they can.
The partnership and overarching plans are managed by a steering group, which initially consisted of the chief librarians of these institutions, although that is not necessarily the case now. There are representatives from the active organisations on both this group, and the staff development group, although membership can fluctuate depending on what time individuals can devote to the group. For instance, there used to be a school librarian involved, but as a lone worker, she has been unable to attend for the last couple of years. As the steering group consists mainly of senior-level staff, they are best suited to make decisions that might have far-reaching effects on their own library policies.
In addition, there is a separate staff development group who organise the staff development activities. Like the steering group, it is also made up of members from the main partnership libraries. Prior to 2010, the Museums Archives and Libraries Wales (CyMAL) Regional Development Officer for South-East Wales also used to sit on the group, and act as the chair; at this point there was a change in funding opportunities and structure at CyMAL (which is the policy division of the Welsh Government that covers museums, archives and libraries)and we lost access to both the development officer and the funding. Since then we have reassigned roles, and one of the members is now chair. At this time, we also requested that the chair sit on the steering group to provide a conduit for communication between the two groups, which was considered to have been lacking at times in the past.
The steering group meets up every couple of months to organise our events, and keeps in touch via email in between. We are a friendly group with everyone willing to help out in a variety of ways: creating posters; sending out mailings; designing and compiling feedback forms; contacting speakers; making badges; chairing events; or buying biscuits. We are all volunteers and do this on top of our normal jobs; but what has emerged is a great network of people with contacts in all the main library services in Cardiff. This is something that has proved to be beneficial even outside of our CLIC work.
As mentioned above, CLIC began life in 2005; the original intentions were to provide joint staff development opportunities to library staff working in Cardiff. The first event took place in December 2005 and was held at the Welsh Assembly with fifty participants. Despite the initial success of this event, it soon became clear that without secure resources the momentum for the scheme would quickly founder, and thus in 2006 a bid for money to develop CLIC as a project was submitted to CyMAL.
The @yourlibrary programme at the time was available to provide pump-prime funding for collaborative schemes such as CLIC, and money was granted for a project to develop a plan for the steering group to establish the best way to develop and contribute to the community in Cardiff.
The project objectives were defined as follows.
(Jones-Evans, A. (2006, p5).)
To meet these objectives the steering group formulated an outline which consisted of:
In January 2006, a project report, or strategy and action plan, was produced by the appointed CLIC project officer, Dr Angela Jones-Evans. It is interesting to note that at this point CLIC stood for Cardiff Libraries in Collaboration rather than Co-operation. By 2007, a further project report submitted to the CyMAL @yourlibrary grant scheme was using the word co-operation, and this is what we are using today – though there has been a bit of confusion over the years.
Initial conclusions were that CLIC shouldn’t be too ambitious at first, but should concentrate on and develop a few key objectives:
Medium term aims included developing the website, and the establishment of a reciprocal access and borrowing scheme. One area for concern was sustainability, with suggestions of subscriptions, or a pooling of resources with other schemes.
In 2006 a further bid to CyMAL resulted in a project officer being paid to support the further development of CLIC. They were responsible for setting up the website alongside a group of members from CLIC. The website was launched in 2007 with its main audience being envisioned as the general public, who would be able to search all the participating libraries in one place. Detailed information about each library was included giving clear guidelines to access.
A behind-the-scenes staff area was also available using a generic username and password, and held details of the steering group meetings, and the staff development activities. Once funding for the project officer ran out however, little was done to maintain or update the website; an issue which is now being addressed and is discussed below.
The aims of the steering group to set up reciprocal access and borrowing rights across all libraries in Cardiff has also faced setbacks and reluctance in some partners to fully participate – this is another issue which has recently been raised, and is being tackled more successfully in the light of similar successful projects across Wales.
What we think CLIC has succeeded in doing the best, however, is its regular programme of staff development events. To date there have been about 19 staff development events held by, or associated with, CLIC for library staff in Cardiff. These have been themed events with a variety of speakers, taking place over a morning or an afternoon. Up until 2010, funding was available from CyMAL via the Regional Development Officer. This meant that we were able to pay for external speakers if necessary, such as for the floor-walking workshop run by Jigsaw@Work; or provide refreshments and lunch at our events. Many of our speakers have also been local staff talking about specific aspects of their library service. For instance in our Knowing your customer session, we heard from staff from Cancer Research Wales, Cardiff Prison and the Welsh National Opera Library. Each dealt with very different user groups, providing us with a variety of insights into dealing with customers. These people gave their time freely and we learnt about three very different library services all operating within Cardiff.
Other specialist libraries we have had sessions with include: the BBC Wales Research and Archive Service, the Drama Association of Wales, as well as legal libraries in government and the commercial sector. What these sessions tend to demonstrate is the wide variety of library work that is available, and they can prove very inspiring to staff in the early stages of their career.
As well as learning about different aspects of librarianship and practical skills that can be applied, we have also looked at personal professional development pathways and showcased examples of different levels of learning that an individual might want to take: ranging from NVQs; foundation degrees; distance-learning Masters; and chartership. We ran our first event on this theme in April 2009 and it was so popular that we ran a similar event the following year, with different speakers. Attendees found a real benefit in hearing from individuals who had undertaken these programmes, as well as hearing from those involved in organising or supporting the courses.
At the social media event last November, there were also a couple of presentations that focussed on how an individual might use these tools for their own professional development, alongside those that looked at how the tools might be used to promote and enhance services in a library.
We try to hold our events in a variety of locations, which also gives us the chance to have a library tour at the end of the session. It seems that most library staff tend to be curious about what other libraries look like! This year we also had a day of library tours, timed to coincide approximately with the Love your Library day, giving staff the opportunity to have a look at up to 20 library spaces, and an exhibition at the Welsh Government building. After all our events, we circulate feedback forms and try to organise future sessions based around what people are asking for.
We believe that there are several reasons why it matters that CLIC are able to organise these events for library staff in Cardiff. Firstly our events are free! In a time of economic challenges, many organisations may have limited staff development budgets, if they have any at all. We are able to offer opportunities at a local level for library staff to acquire new knowledge and skills, and to help them progress on their continuing professional development path. In addition to the training provided our events are also ideal networking occasions. Attendees are able to meet colleagues from across the different library sectors, forge new connections, and perhaps get some insight into what it is like working in a different environment to their own. We also believe that CLIC events encourage greater co-operation and collaboration between libraries in Cardiff, which ultimately leads to improved access, services and facilities for library users.
One of the early aims of CLIC was to be inclusive. It’s not just about what the large higher education (HE) institutes want, and it’s not just for their staff either. It’s for all library staff in Cardiff, whether they are lone workers in a health library or a school, part of a team in a government library, or a library assistant in a college library. We do have a great mixture of sectors at our events, although as you can see from our pie chart, a large proportion of our attendees do come from the HE sector:
(Bader, 2012)
However, it should be noted that we do have three universities, as well as other HE institutions, with a presence in Cardiff. Cardiff University alone has about 250 members of library staff, so it is no wonder there is a large chunk out of the pie chart. We are currently working on ways of encouraging those from smaller libraries to come and join us, and in the last year have instituted a proportional placing system, guaranteeing places even for the smallest of libraries, instead of relying on our previous ‘first come, first served’ policy.
As mentioned above, up until 2010 we had access to CyMAL funding and the local CyMAL Regional Development Officer chaired the CLIC staff development group. However, due to restructuring, we were left without CyMAL funding for CLIC activities. Whereas the Regional Development Officer used to help set training objectivities and access CyMAL funding to support events, CLIC has had to instead rely on the co-operation and goodwill of members to secure speakers, venues and equipment free of charge. This has limited the scale of the events CLIC can provide, particularly as the venues, provided free of charge by CLIC members, have a limited capacity. Demand always exceeds availability, often resulting in long reserve lists, but without funding CLIC can’t afford to pay for larger venues, at a time when the popularity of its events is increasing.
A secondary impact of the loss of funding was that work on the CLIC website ground to a halt. When it was first launched in 2007, CLIC members offered feedback on the staff section of the site, suggesting using it as a place to access resources and information, and communicate with each other. However, with the loss of the Project Officer, plans for how to move these elements forward had to be put on hold.
In 2011, both the steering group and staff development group decided to revive the website and recreated a website administration team to explore possible directions. In March 2012, they submitted a report with their recommendations, some of which included:
Bader, H. (2012)
Because unanimous feedback from CLIC members indicated that the site should be an interactive resource, the web team is looking to address this aspect in the future. In the meantime, they have taken advantage of social media tools to raise the ability of CLIC to interact with its members such as setting up Facebook and Twitter accounts.
At a staff development group meeting in early 2012 a discussion arose about the tendency to see many of the same faces at CLIC events. This led to questions on how to encourage non-attendees to start coming, and whether there were any particular barriers that might be preventing their attendance. Particularly of concern was whether there was a perception that events were only of use to professionals rather than paraprofessionals, and whether CLIC needed to adjust the types of events they held to appeal to a wider sector of library staff.
Although CLIC has always asked for feedback from attendees after their events, these of course only represented the views of those who already felt events were worth attending. What CLIC really needed was to hear from those who they were not reaching. The decision was made to launch a survey of CLIC members to try to discover any gaps in provision that needed to be addressed.
An online survey was considered to be the most efficient way to collect data, particularly as a link could be placed on the CLIC website, as well as emailed out to all members via the CLIC representatives in each institution and advertised on Twitter and Facebook. In order to try and encourage as many people as possible to take part it was kept very short, with just 10 questions, most multiple choice, but one or two requiring very brief answers.
Questions were broken down as follows:
The survey ran for about a month, and has only just closed, so there has not been enough time to fully analyse the data, but once they have, the staff development group will use it in planning the training events for the next few years. However, in the interim it is possible to draw some preliminary conclusions.
To briefly summarise:
Given the reasons for non-attendance, it was somewhat surprising that many respondents stated that they would be unwilling to attend training events outside of work hours. 48.5% of members said they did not want to attend after-work or weekend events, compared to a combined total of 51.5% who would be willing to attend either or both.
Although CLIC has been providing training for members since its creation in 2006, this past year it has also got involved in a number of different types of staff development events:
A lot of the activities organised by libraries to celebrate National Libraries Day were aimed at their users. CLIC wanted to do something just for the benefit of library staff, so came up with the idea to run a series of tours. The tours took place the day before, so that staff would be free to attend, and featured a number of libraries that usually have restricted access.
This is an initiative that has been running internally at Cardiff University since 2008. Members of staff can job swap with colleagues from different departments, usually for half a day, to get a taste for what they did. This year Cardiff University opened up their scheme to include CLIC member libraries for the first time. The day was so successful it is thought CLIC will take part when it runs again next year.
Last year a number of CLIC members took part in the 23 Things for Continuing Professional Development online course, so when it ran again this year the decision was made to offer support to staff choosing to take part. An ‘Introduction to CPD23’ evening was arranged just prior to its launch for anyone wanting to find out about the course and what is involved. Unlike previous CLIC events that happen during working hours, this was the first time an event had been put on in the evening, and in an informal setting. It had a much more social feel to it, than regular CLIC events, and its success indicates that CLIC could look more to putting on these types of activities in the future.
CLIC has grown a great deal since the early days and we have seen our membership expand. Institutions that were not involved in the beginning have since joined and become integral members. Several of the universities and colleges have merged with others from outside Cardiff. And extra campuses have been opened in the city by colleges not originally based in Cardiff, widening our membership even more. This growth will bring new challenges as CLIC continues to try to provide training and events on limited resources.
To conclude, CLIC has gone through many changes in the 6 years since it was established, and the steering group feels it is time to do a review of where we are headed next. It is time to re-examine the original CyMAL report from 2006 and create a new plan for the next 5 years. The steering group is currently in the process of putting together a funding bid to CyMAL for this to be carried out.
CyMAL: http://wales.gov.uk/topics/cultureandsport/museumsarchiveslibraries/cymal/?lang=en
Jigsaw@Work: http://www.jigsawatwork.com/
CLIC on Facebook : http://on.fb.me/PopIre
CLIC on Twitter: http://twitter.com/CLICLibraries
Bader, Helen (2012) Proposed plan for developing the CLIC website. Cardiff: (unpublished report)
Earney, Sally (2011) ‘Do something different days’ at Cardiff University library service. Sconul Focus 51: 70-72.
Jones-Evans, Angela (2006) CLIC-Cardiff Libraries in Collaboration: the development of a strategy and an action plan for its future development. Cardiff: (CyMAL funded project report).
Jones-Evans, Angela (2007) CLIC-Cardiff: Libraries in Cooperation: project report covering the period May 2006-February 2007. Cardiff: (CyMAL funded report for @YourLibrary grant scheme).
Dr Karen F. Pierce Cataloguing Librarian Cardiff University Information Services PierceKF@Cardiff.ac.uk
Kristine Chapman Library Assistant National Museum Wales Kristine.Chapman@museumwales.ac.uk
