ALLCU Roles past and future Discussion summary Roger Mills
Valuing ALLCU Plus: Meeting people at conference Discussions / advice with like-minded colleagues in person and online Visiting other libraries / college / gardens Minus: Lack of continuity between conferences Meetings too infrequent Distance makes face-to-face meetings difficult Not enough time at conferencews Website needs developing Big universities don’t come eg Reading, Newcastle
Other groups Current membership: PTEG Info Literacy HWATL CILIP ANGLES COFHE UCR West Midlands Univ Libs Staff Dev Group TALIS KILN Kent Info Librarians Network Univ Greenwich Partner College Librarians Group COLRIC COSCOL Circle of Susses College Librarians Group EBHL Inspire ALA AHIS TAFLIN Tayside and Fife Library Information Network Scottish Further Education Community I Practice Librarians Network Mensa Past Membership: MidAIG (folded) COFHE Info for Energy UKSG BCS HWATL ARLIS CILIP Kent Ag and Hort Libbns Group (folded) Aslib Biosciences Group (folded) Future: None Like somewhere to share good practice in relevant areas
Difficulties Distance London-based meetings Staff cover Money Time Too many s Accessibility by public transport
Support I need Chartership Staff development IT 21 st C technology – Web 2.0 Learning the new language Sharing journal access Maintaining identity within merged org Institutional repositories Other new developments More contact with other librarians Informed overview of most important issues I could give Mentoring, chartering Introducing people Sharing experience Listening New builds
Subject provision Improving – online access facilitates Subject specialisation within land-based libraries? Evolution with college More info available but experience librarian knows where to find and what to exclude Subject provision good at HE level but poor at Nat Cert/Diploma level Challenge to know what your subject is Many new non-traditional areas being taught Need to keep up subject knowledge to support and based industries
When I leave No succession planning – loss of 20+yrs experience What about old print holdings? Basics OK but subject knowledge gone – institution may not know or care Good if line managing successor Subject knowledge takes time to build up Lose IT skills Fairly easy When good procedures in place much easier for successor
Contacts outside subject/sector No formal subject contacts Contacts outside FE/HE: Regional Important esp contact with partner institutions and awarding/validating institutions CILIP regional branches Public libs School librarians – assessing info literacy levels of prospective students Place within ALLCU for regional groups to meet/visit libraries National Training with CILIP International Partner colleges (ERASMUS) Libns in countries where we have joint delivery of courses Beneficial with shared issues eg info literacy
Institutional change Huge growth Rebuilds Viability of unmerged institutions questionable Library responds to continual institutional change More change expected Typically merger – restructure – new build Libs become more responsive Mergers change / improve IT Some institutions very stable Merging into larger org beneficial but problems of distance from parent org Increasing numbers of younger lower-level student while still increasing HE provision Merger sometimes = takeover Challenge to retain identity Ofsted/IQER force change Landbased merged into general FE Building into general curriculum Redundancies Management by non- librarian IGER/Aberystwyth merger – libraries merge too Uncertainty Groups with more landbased colleges = more clout
Managing change Take training when offered Can manage or be managed but not sure I want to Depends whether change forced on you or you have been participant on the journey No training – expected to get on with it. Fewer staff = more responsibilities Become the norm Staff resistance hardest Way of life supported through staff development No such thing as stability Little acknowledgement that support is needed Having the time to manage change is main problem