This document discusses the challenges facing research libraries and RLUK in the coming years. It outlines RLUK's 2014-2017 strategy of reshaping collections, supporting open scholarship, and exploiting digital collections. It also notes the financial uncertainty from the 2015 UK election and potential impacts like rising student fees. Other challenges mentioned include the costs of administering the REF assessment, measuring research quality and impact, the importance of student experience, issues around collections and space, and demonstrating value to members. The document lists organizations that RLUK collaborates with but also mentions some absent partners.
What are the key drivers behind the dramatic growth in library-based publishing? This session explores differences and similarities through three case studies from different countries: Sweden, the UK and the USA. The presenters will describe the forces that are changing the roles of their parent libraries and show how these are also shaping the nature of their publishing programmes. They will also discuss some of the opportunities they see for the future of libraries as publishers and the challenges these new entrants are encountering.
What are the key drivers behind the dramatic growth in library-based publishing? This session explores differences and similarities through three case studies from different countries: Sweden, the UK and the USA. The presenters will describe the forces that are changing the roles of their parent libraries and show how these are also shaping the nature of their publishing programmes. They will also discuss some of the opportunities they see for the future of libraries as publishers and the challenges these new entrants are encountering.
Collection development is big business and how academic libraries decide to invest in content is radically changing. This is being driven as much by new approaches to organisational design, relationship management, and data insight in universities as by changes to business models and technology in scholarly publishing and the supply chain. Based on recent experience at Edinburgh, Manchester and Northumbria, this participatory session will explore new strategies for collection development, and specifically address challenges and opportunities faced by libraries that have moved or are transitioning from traditional subject librarian roles.
Collection development is big business and how academic libraries decide to invest in content is radically changing. This is being driven as much by new approaches to organisational design, relationship management, and data insight in universities as by changes to business models and technology in scholarly publishing and the supply chain. Based on recent experience at Edinburgh, Manchester and Northumbria, this participatory session will explore new strategies for collection development, and specifically address challenges and opportunities faced by libraries that have moved or are transitioning from traditional subject librarian roles.
Geoffrey Crossick is Director of the AHRC's Cultural Value Project and Distinguished Professor of Humanities in the School of Advanced Study at the University of London.
Geoffrey's presentation will focus on the project that he led for HEFCE (and supported by AHRC and ESRC) on the implications of open access for monographs and other long-form research publications.
The session will start with questions like: why should research funders foster open access? What are the goals of switching to an open, transparent system for scholarly publishing? The German Research Foundation’s (DFG) researcher-oriented perspective on the ‘open’ paradigm and the Dutch Research Foundation’s (NWO) open access requirements will be depicted as national examples. Finally, the session will elaborate on recent international trends and developments regarding the need to better align policies, the attempts to invest already available resources for transitioning towards open access, and the growing awareness that a dedicated infrastructure is needed in order to implement any open access policy.
Collection development is big business and how academic libraries decide to invest in content is radically changing. This is being driven as much by new approaches to organisational design, relationship management, and data insight in universities as by changes to business models and technology in scholarly publishing and the supply chain. Based on recent experience at Edinburgh, Manchester and Northumbria, this participatory session will explore new strategies for collection development, and specifically address challenges and opportunities faced by libraries that have moved or are transitioning from traditional subject librarian roles.
Professor Madeleine Atkins is Chief Executive of HEFCE. Her presentation at #RLUK14 provided an overview of current trends and developments in higher education, and discussed some of the key forthcoming challenges in the sector.
What are the key drivers behind the dramatic growth in library-based publishing? This session explores differences and similarities through three case studies from different countries: Sweden, the UK and the USA. The presenters will describe the forces that are changing the roles of their parent libraries and show how these are also shaping the nature of their publishing programmes. They will also discuss some of the opportunities they see for the future of libraries as publishers and the challenges these new entrants are encountering.
What are the key drivers behind the dramatic growth in library-based publishing? This session explores differences and similarities through three case studies from different countries: Sweden, the UK and the USA. The presenters will describe the forces that are changing the roles of their parent libraries and show how these are also shaping the nature of their publishing programmes. They will also discuss some of the opportunities they see for the future of libraries as publishers and the challenges these new entrants are encountering.
Collection development is big business and how academic libraries decide to invest in content is radically changing. This is being driven as much by new approaches to organisational design, relationship management, and data insight in universities as by changes to business models and technology in scholarly publishing and the supply chain. Based on recent experience at Edinburgh, Manchester and Northumbria, this participatory session will explore new strategies for collection development, and specifically address challenges and opportunities faced by libraries that have moved or are transitioning from traditional subject librarian roles.
Collection development is big business and how academic libraries decide to invest in content is radically changing. This is being driven as much by new approaches to organisational design, relationship management, and data insight in universities as by changes to business models and technology in scholarly publishing and the supply chain. Based on recent experience at Edinburgh, Manchester and Northumbria, this participatory session will explore new strategies for collection development, and specifically address challenges and opportunities faced by libraries that have moved or are transitioning from traditional subject librarian roles.
Geoffrey Crossick is Director of the AHRC's Cultural Value Project and Distinguished Professor of Humanities in the School of Advanced Study at the University of London.
Geoffrey's presentation will focus on the project that he led for HEFCE (and supported by AHRC and ESRC) on the implications of open access for monographs and other long-form research publications.
The session will start with questions like: why should research funders foster open access? What are the goals of switching to an open, transparent system for scholarly publishing? The German Research Foundation’s (DFG) researcher-oriented perspective on the ‘open’ paradigm and the Dutch Research Foundation’s (NWO) open access requirements will be depicted as national examples. Finally, the session will elaborate on recent international trends and developments regarding the need to better align policies, the attempts to invest already available resources for transitioning towards open access, and the growing awareness that a dedicated infrastructure is needed in order to implement any open access policy.
Collection development is big business and how academic libraries decide to invest in content is radically changing. This is being driven as much by new approaches to organisational design, relationship management, and data insight in universities as by changes to business models and technology in scholarly publishing and the supply chain. Based on recent experience at Edinburgh, Manchester and Northumbria, this participatory session will explore new strategies for collection development, and specifically address challenges and opportunities faced by libraries that have moved or are transitioning from traditional subject librarian roles.
Professor Madeleine Atkins is Chief Executive of HEFCE. Her presentation at #RLUK14 provided an overview of current trends and developments in higher education, and discussed some of the key forthcoming challenges in the sector.
Supporting authors - the library's role in research supportAlison McNab
Lightning talk from the UKSG Forum 2015 (18 November 2015) http://www.uksg.org/event/forum2015 .
As part of a panel on "Supporting authors from an HEI perspective" Alison McNab and Laurian Williamson considered the challenges and opportunities for a library service to support research impact at a research-intensive university.
Figshare is a research data management platform that offers out-of-the-box compliance with the EPSRC mandate on open access to research data. Not only does figshare satisfy open data mandates but it also provides a world class research data dissemination platform. With private sharing and collaboration functionality, figshare for institutions provides a flexible and comprehensive end-to-end data management platform. This session will focus on how the University of Sheffield and the University of Salford have implemented figshare for institutions.
Libraries are increasingly being called upon to extend
access to their online resources to users beyond their
core constituencies. Every institution has its own unique
arrangements, but they all raise similar questions for the
library: are these users included under our existing licences
or are separate ones needed? Will we have to pay more, and
if so, how much? Where can I go for advice? Learn about the
guidelines Jisc Collections has developed, and hear from
two librarians who have successfully implemented their own
solutions: Anna Franca on KCL’s work with an NHS Trust
and Ruth Dale on Nottingham’s overseas campuses.
The role of repositories in supporting RDM: lessons from the DCC engagementsRepository Fringe
Angue Whyte's slides from his short presentation on the role of repositories in supporting Research Data Management (RDM). These were presented on Friday 2nd August 2013 at Repository Fringe 2013.
Presentation by Angus Whyte of the Digital Curation Centre. It was presented at the LSHTM Research Data Services workshop on June 30th 2015, an event organised to mark the end of LSHTM's Wellcome Trust funded RDM project. Updated version added on 14th August to clarify graph labels.
Working Together evolving library value: initial findingsSAGE Publishing
‘Working together: evolving value for academic libraries’ is a six-month research project investigating the value of academic libraries for teaching and research staff. SAGE commissioned LISU to undertake the research in December 2011. Now halfway through the project, two UK case studies are complete, and those in US and Scandinavia are underway.
Some initial results have been compiled into a short presentation to coincide with the UKSG conference.
Supporting authors - the library's role in research supportAlison McNab
Lightning talk from the UKSG Forum 2015 (18 November 2015) http://www.uksg.org/event/forum2015 .
As part of a panel on "Supporting authors from an HEI perspective" Alison McNab and Laurian Williamson considered the challenges and opportunities for a library service to support research impact at a research-intensive university.
Figshare is a research data management platform that offers out-of-the-box compliance with the EPSRC mandate on open access to research data. Not only does figshare satisfy open data mandates but it also provides a world class research data dissemination platform. With private sharing and collaboration functionality, figshare for institutions provides a flexible and comprehensive end-to-end data management platform. This session will focus on how the University of Sheffield and the University of Salford have implemented figshare for institutions.
Libraries are increasingly being called upon to extend
access to their online resources to users beyond their
core constituencies. Every institution has its own unique
arrangements, but they all raise similar questions for the
library: are these users included under our existing licences
or are separate ones needed? Will we have to pay more, and
if so, how much? Where can I go for advice? Learn about the
guidelines Jisc Collections has developed, and hear from
two librarians who have successfully implemented their own
solutions: Anna Franca on KCL’s work with an NHS Trust
and Ruth Dale on Nottingham’s overseas campuses.
The role of repositories in supporting RDM: lessons from the DCC engagementsRepository Fringe
Angue Whyte's slides from his short presentation on the role of repositories in supporting Research Data Management (RDM). These were presented on Friday 2nd August 2013 at Repository Fringe 2013.
Presentation by Angus Whyte of the Digital Curation Centre. It was presented at the LSHTM Research Data Services workshop on June 30th 2015, an event organised to mark the end of LSHTM's Wellcome Trust funded RDM project. Updated version added on 14th August to clarify graph labels.
Working Together evolving library value: initial findingsSAGE Publishing
‘Working together: evolving value for academic libraries’ is a six-month research project investigating the value of academic libraries for teaching and research staff. SAGE commissioned LISU to undertake the research in December 2011. Now halfway through the project, two UK case studies are complete, and those in US and Scandinavia are underway.
Some initial results have been compiled into a short presentation to coincide with the UKSG conference.
University Futures, Library Futures: re-examining academic library relevanceConstance Malpas
This presentation describes the methodology behind, and demonstrates the application of, a new typology of US higher education institutions based on IPEDs statistical indicators. Further information about the project is available here: oc.lc/libfutures
ACRL Value Update 2014, Annual Las Vegasmbowlesterry
An update on the work of the Value of Academic Libraries committee, presented at a Sunday afternoon forum at ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas by Lynn Silipigni Connaway and Melissa Bowles-Terry.
"Impact2: through the power of collaboration. How we increased our impact by ...Hester Mountifield
Strategic planning and delivery of services at the University of Auckland's Libraries and Learning Services (L&LS) is underpinned by institutional collaboration and consultation. L&LS continues to strengthen its specialist research support services with an enhanced focus on strategic partnerships. L&LS is the institutional owner of Research Outputs (Symplectic Elements), the system used by University of Auckland (UoA) researchers to record and manage their research publications and professional activities. Research Outputs is also a key data source for services that support UoA researchers increase their visibility, track and measure their research impact, and generate data for performance reviews. A reference group of senior academic and professional staff, chaired by the University Librarian, is a forum for strategic decision making on best practice use and development of Research Outputs. The UoA external facing university directory and academic profiles use a publication feed from Research Outputs and is one example of L&LS collaborating on an enterprise wide project to increase the visibility of researchers. L&LS actively contribute to several working groups including an initiative to promote ways to enhance academic reputation and profile, and increase citations. One outcome was a marked increase in deposits to the UoA research repository. A research impact publication service was launched by L&LS in 2014. The multi-faceted BiblioInformatics Service, developed with input from strategic partners and stakeholders, offers researchers consultations with librarians on how to track and maximise the impact of their research outputs and is supported by online guides. A self-service platform, drawing on Research Outputs as a data source, provides information such as h-index and top cited publications. To support strategic decision making the service also delivers benchmarking and collaboration reports to Senior Management on research and citation performance.
Performance and innovation culture in academic libraries: the role of LibQUAL...Stephen Town
J. Stephen Town, Cranfield University.
Evaluation of Library & Information Services: Does it lead to innovation and effectiveness?
November 16-17
Vilnius, Lithuania
DCDC16 | Joining the dots: projects on conservation and research of Malian wr...ResearchLibrariesUK
Dmitry Bondarev and Maria Luisa Russo (University of Hamburg)
The University of Hamburg, with the financial support of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Gerda Henkel Foundation, runs two projects dealing with the written cultural heritage of Mali. The environment of interconnected social space created by this collaborative work helps maintain careful attitude to what constitutes cultural heritage. Through participation in different modules of the projects, the members of the complex multilingual and multicultural communities find connective space in the activities related to manuscript preservation, cataloguing, and research.
2024.06.01 Introducing a competency framework for languag learning materials ...Sandy Millin
http://sandymillin.wordpress.com/iateflwebinar2024
Published classroom materials form the basis of syllabuses, drive teacher professional development, and have a potentially huge influence on learners, teachers and education systems. All teachers also create their own materials, whether a few sentences on a blackboard, a highly-structured fully-realised online course, or anything in between. Despite this, the knowledge and skills needed to create effective language learning materials are rarely part of teacher training, and are mostly learnt by trial and error.
Knowledge and skills frameworks, generally called competency frameworks, for ELT teachers, trainers and managers have existed for a few years now. However, until I created one for my MA dissertation, there wasn’t one drawing together what we need to know and do to be able to effectively produce language learning materials.
This webinar will introduce you to my framework, highlighting the key competencies I identified from my research. It will also show how anybody involved in language teaching (any language, not just English!), teacher training, managing schools or developing language learning materials can benefit from using the framework.
How to Build a Module in Odoo 17 Using the Scaffold MethodCeline George
Odoo provides an option for creating a module by using a single line command. By using this command the user can make a whole structure of a module. It is very easy for a beginner to make a module. There is no need to make each file manually. This slide will show how to create a module using the scaffold method.
Macroeconomics- Movie Location
This will be used as part of your Personal Professional Portfolio once graded.
Objective:
Prepare a presentation or a paper using research, basic comparative analysis, data organization and application of economic information. You will make an informed assessment of an economic climate outside of the United States to accomplish an entertainment industry objective.
A review of the growth of the Israel Genealogy Research Association Database Collection for the last 12 months. Our collection is now passed the 3 million mark and still growing. See which archives have contributed the most. See the different types of records we have, and which years have had records added. You can also see what we have for the future.
Normal Labour/ Stages of Labour/ Mechanism of LabourWasim Ak
Normal labor is also termed spontaneous labor, defined as the natural physiological process through which the fetus, placenta, and membranes are expelled from the uterus through the birth canal at term (37 to 42 weeks
Introduction to AI for Nonprofits with Tapp NetworkTechSoup
Dive into the world of AI! Experts Jon Hill and Tareq Monaur will guide you through AI's role in enhancing nonprofit websites and basic marketing strategies, making it easy to understand and apply.
June 3, 2024 Anti-Semitism Letter Sent to MIT President Kornbluth and MIT Cor...Levi Shapiro
Letter from the Congress of the United States regarding Anti-Semitism sent June 3rd to MIT President Sally Kornbluth, MIT Corp Chair, Mark Gorenberg
Dear Dr. Kornbluth and Mr. Gorenberg,
The US House of Representatives is deeply concerned by ongoing and pervasive acts of antisemitic
harassment and intimidation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Failing to act decisively to ensure a safe learning environment for all students would be a grave dereliction of your responsibilities as President of MIT and Chair of the MIT Corporation.
This Congress will not stand idly by and allow an environment hostile to Jewish students to persist. The House believes that your institution is in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and the inability or
unwillingness to rectify this violation through action requires accountability.
Postsecondary education is a unique opportunity for students to learn and have their ideas and beliefs challenged. However, universities receiving hundreds of millions of federal funds annually have denied
students that opportunity and have been hijacked to become venues for the promotion of terrorism, antisemitic harassment and intimidation, unlawful encampments, and in some cases, assaults and riots.
The House of Representatives will not countenance the use of federal funds to indoctrinate students into hateful, antisemitic, anti-American supporters of terrorism. Investigations into campus antisemitism by the Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Committee on Ways and Means have been expanded into a Congress-wide probe across all relevant jurisdictions to address this national crisis. The undersigned Committees will conduct oversight into the use of federal funds at MIT and its learning environment under authorities granted to each Committee.
• The Committee on Education and the Workforce has been investigating your institution since December 7, 2023. The Committee has broad jurisdiction over postsecondary education, including its compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, campus safety concerns over disruptions to the learning environment, and the awarding of federal student aid under the Higher Education Act.
• The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating the sources of funding and other support flowing to groups espousing pro-Hamas propaganda and engaged in antisemitic harassment and intimidation of students. The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is the principal oversight committee of the US House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate “any matter” at “any time” under House Rule X.
• The Committee on Ways and Means has been investigating several universities since November 15, 2023, when the Committee held a hearing entitled From Ivory Towers to Dark Corners: Investigating the Nexus Between Antisemitism, Tax-Exempt Universities, and Terror Financing. The Committee followed the hearing with letters to those institutions on January 10, 202
it describes the bony anatomy including the femoral head , acetabulum, labrum . also discusses the capsule , ligaments . muscle that act on the hip joint and the range of motion are outlined. factors affecting hip joint stability and weight transmission through the joint are summarized.
Delivering Micro-Credentials in Technical and Vocational Education and TrainingAG2 Design
Explore how micro-credentials are transforming Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) with this comprehensive slide deck. Discover what micro-credentials are, their importance in TVET, the advantages they offer, and the insights from industry experts. Additionally, learn about the top software applications available for creating and managing micro-credentials. This presentation also includes valuable resources and a discussion on the future of these specialised certifications.
For more detailed information on delivering micro-credentials in TVET, visit this https://tvettrainer.com/delivering-micro-credentials-in-tvet/
1. Into the Yorkshire Sunset: reflections
on strategy, challenges and
partnership building
Dr Stella Butler
Chair of RLUK Board 2013-
2015
2. Powering Scholarship: RLUK Strategy 2014-17
• Re-shaping the modern research library collection
• Open scholarship
• Exposing and exploiting our collections
• Research support and researcher training
• Nurturing leadership innovation and skills
3. 2015- election year
• Financial uncertainty
• Student fees?
• Post-election comprehensive spending review
• The politics of HE
4. REF 2014 and future REFs
• Running to maintain position
• Costs associated with administering REF but the financial
implications of not getting it right
• Open Access requirements of future REF
• Measuring research quality and impact
5. Continuing importance of the student experience
• High participation rates for HE in UK
• Premium of the Russell Group ‘brand’
• NSS score is all important
6. Library challenges
• Publisher inflation- publisher as partner?
• Low use/ high volume collections and space
• Quality study space
• Open scholarship- data, outputs
• Relevance of Library in a world of open scholarship
• UDCs, discovery and surrogacy
7. RLUK challenges
• The database
• Establishing value for members
• Influencing publishers, policy makers
• Balancing concrete outputs with ‘softer’ activity
• Making 1+1=3
First of all I would like to say that its been a pleasure and a privilege to chair the RLUK board over the past two years. David suggested that before I trip off into the Yorkshire sunset I share some thoughts on what has occupied my time. I wasn’t sure that opening my diary would enthral you so rather I would like to share instead some thoughts on the context that we find ourselves in, the value in an organization like RLUK in responding to that context and the challenges that lie ahead for both individual institutions and RLUK itself.
I’m going to start with a slide about our strategic plan. Its been well received which has been very gratifying. I would like to record thanks on your behalf to David and Mike and Melanie for the energy that went into structuring the document and the final drafts etc. And of course to you all for kicking off the process with the workshop in York before our November 2013 meeting and subsequently the board for their ideas and energy at our 2013 awayday. Their critical eyes were particularly important at that stage.
We have heard quite a lot both yesterday and today about activities- which is great as no strategy is of any value unless its implemented. But now lets turn to the pressures that are likely to buffer and shape how we can continue to take the strategic themes forward.
The first and probably the most important context for us is finance. I don’t have to tell you that we are close to a general election. It has felt as though we have been in the middle of a campaign for months. The two main issues we are told are the NHS and Finance. Labour proposes a cap of £6,000 on student fees. Whether government funding would bridge any resulting funding gap is not clear. Conservative Party policies on higher education are hard to find. So whichever way you look or indeed whichever way folk vote, it is likely that money is going to be an issue for our parent institutions and therefore for us.
In December 2013, I am sure I wasn’t alone in heaving a huge sigh of relief when the REF submission was safely with HEFCE. We waited a year for the results. Leeds wasn’t alone in having improved significantly on its GPA. But so had its peers. So it seems we are all running to maintain our positions.
There has been much talk of how much was spent on administering the submissions and the assessments. I expect you have all followed the discussions in the media about the sums involved. PA Consulting estimated the cost at £47 million. Others put it over a billion. I think we all know that whatever the final figure it was a lot .
I am sure there will be varying views within this room about whether the opportunities lost and the money spent could have been better directed elsewhere. Some have argued for a wholly metrics based approach. Again there is lack of consensus around whether this would lead to an outcome accurately reflecting research strengths of individual departments.
What is certain, however, is that there will be another REF. And we know something of what it will look like- more complex because of the open access requirements for individual outputs which kick in from April 2016.
The production of graduates is key for the health of the economy. We know that because BIS tells us so. We look as though the blip experienced when the fees cap came off has now reversed and we are again around 50% participation and that’s where its likely to stay. We by no means lead the world in this area. The highest participation rates are found in South Korea, Finland, Greece, United States, Canada and Slovenia.
Here for home students there is undoubtedly a premium associated with the Russell group ‘brand’.
But within that cohort, NSS scores are undoubtedly a factor weighed if not by the students themselves then by their parents.
So what does this mean for Library directors?
For many of us, over-inflation increases in subscriptions challenges our ability to deliver balanced budgets. The introduction of APC charges has made this space more complex. Stephen Pinfield’s work has demonstrated that APCs are now 10% of what we pay to publishers for content. We should all therefore be grateful to the Ethical and Effective Publishing group for the work they do with Jisc Collections in this area.
We need to re-purpose space to provide more interesting and higher quality study space and for that to happen we need to address the issue of the high volumes of books that are hardly if ever borrowed or even read.
Supporting researchers adapt to new publishing processes that result from the transition to open access publishing, has become an important role within libraries. I think we need to start some fairly serious thinking about the library as the John Lewis to Amazon’s google. The virtual space for browsing for the research outputs you are looking for or want more information about (eg metrics). We have to add value. Otherwise we risk our university paymasters and our users shifting the way many STEM researchers view libraries. As increasingly irrelevant because I can find what I want through google scholar.
Propelling our Unique and Distinctive Collections into the limelight is the flip side to OA. Changes in culture are needed here too.
One of my first library roles was working for CURL on proposals for a distributed national collection which would be driven by the bibliographic riches of the CURL database. The database was both the reason for CURL’s existence and was the focus of the CURL Directors’ attention.
The RLUK database does not occupy the same position for RLUK. It is still important. And could be crucial for any shared print initiative. But its no longer the reason the organization exists.
So what’s the value proposition?
Influence. Shaping policy.
This is undoubtedly important. And I think RLUK is a very important club whose views are sought by our funders and regulatory bodies.
But we are an expensive club. And we need to deliver value in direct proportion to our costs.
So the relationship with publishers and Jisc is clearly key. As are the other activities around benchmarking through KPIs, the UDC hub and potentially services associated with shared print.
Making the whole greater than the sum of its parts is also an objective when it comes to choosing who we partner with.
The landscape is increasingly complex.
But perhaps increasingly important if positioning and influence form key components of RLUK’s value proposition.
So do we have it right at the moment? We have only a small executive team. Although that might grow if as we expect, membership grows nearer to 40 libraries from the current 34.
Nevertheless it is important they invest their time where there is likely to be most return.
I was struck by the organizations that don’t feature on this chart. And perhaps that is something for John and David and the board to consider as we move forward with strategy.
I’ve often found myself describing RLUK as the consortium of Russell Group libraries plus nationals plus. Given that description, one would expect a closer relationship with the Russell Group itself. But we have found it repeatedly difficult to find meeting slots for discussion with PVCRs about open access although I know Phil Sykes and Jan Wilkinson have recently had a meeting with the Chair, Birmingham VC Sir David Eastwood about publisher prices. And with our membership expanding that alignment will change, perhaps influencing the issues/areas we might expect to work collaboratively with them.
We also don’t talk to CILIP or the iSchools that train many of our staff. If we are concerned about workforce development then perhaps we should.
I also wonder whether our anglo-american axis doesn’t blinker us from innovation happening elsewhere around the world. I don’t suggest a displacement of US friends, just simply keeping an eye on developments elsewhere.
And how often do we talk back home in our libraries about the importance of customer-focus. Yet are we as a consortium nurturing a sufficiently close relationship with those organizations that represent our researcher-customers, ie the Learned Societies? Nor do we represent some of what I might call the heritage libraries- eg Dr William’s, Chetham’s Library, Leeds Library, the National Trust. Many of you will know that I chair the management committee of Chetham’s. Nor do we have strong relationships with funding bodies such as HLF, Wolfson etc who could potentially benefit our UDCs perhaps through focussed funding programmes, perhaps around collection care.
So I think I have left plenty of issues for John, the executive and the board to address. I wish them well and thank you all for having me!