Umbrella 2007 conference report
Hazel Williams Bursary Report - Conference Report Umbrella 2007, University of Hertfordshire, 28-30th June
Duncan Belk
Firstly, I would like to thank the people at SHINe for letting me use this bursary over a year after it was awarded; secondly I would like to thank Eileen and Catriona at Stirling University DSDC for supporting me from day one until cheery bubbles. I chose to attend Umbrella 2007 because, although it isn't a health related conference, CILIPs Health Libraries Group has a strong presence at it.
I have been working in my first professional post at the Open University (OU) for the last eleven months and have to admit that I am thoroughly enjoying calling myself a librarian. This is the first conference I have attended.
The theme of the conference was 'Catalysts for Change - making a difference', with the emphasis on change. At first the theme didn't seem explicit in the sessions but, with hindsight, it was quite appropriate. The conference sessions were divided into 8 strands of Workforce development, Leadership/management, Customers/clients, e-Content, Law/ethics, Communication, Research and evidence based practice (EBP), Information literacy (IL) and Technology, but there was more to the conference than just the strands.
Day One
I began day one with tours of the library facilities at both campuses of the host university. Both were pretty impressive and I liked the fact that they allowed natural light to penetrate to the ground floor. What I didn't like was that the first thing users of both these libraries see is self-issue machines and OPACs without seats. I thought it sent a message of 'welcome to the library, hurry up and find what you want, then get out'.
After the tours I attended the First Timer's Lunch where the food was good, but none of it was to my taste (mushrooms with everything, yeuch). I sat between a student from City University who was looking for her first professional post and a lady from the University of the West Indies.
At the opening plenary session Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the British Library gave a talk with the message of 'just do it'. I have to look at my notes to see what she was referring to (addressing the challenges and opportunities facing the profession) because her thunder was stolen by one of the 'roving microphone' helpers having the courage to quiz her on what she was doing to encourage the youth of today into libraries. I caught up with the brave soul afterwards and had a chat with him about the OU's plans to deliver library resources to mobile devices, so that instead of young people having to be encouraged into libraries, we can deliver libraries to them. He seemed to think it was a pretty cool idea.
Before the sessions began I had enough time to nip to the exhibitors stands to do a spot of networking and grab some stationery and sweets.
The first session I attended (part of the Research and EBP strand) was begun by Theresa Mitchell of UWE. She talked about the challenges faced by the nursing profession in publishing their good practice. Her talk made me think that we should incorporate some form of encouragement to publish into our nursing programme at the OU.
The session was concluded by Audrey Marshall from the University of Brighton, who talked about the Informing Health project. This project focussed on redressing the power balance between those who have health information and those who need it, by librarians (such as NHS library staff) going out into the community and learning about the needs of the public. This was a thought provoking session which brought home the message that those of us who work in specialised or academic libraries can look like we sit ourselves in ivory towers, despite the fact that it would horrify us to think of ourselves in this way.
After this session it was back into the exhibitors' stands to pick up some more goodies and sup some wine (well, you have to wet your whistle with something when there's no beer).
Friday evening brought the Umbrella Awards Dinner. Fortunately there were some free cold ones at the pre-dinner gathering and I stopped to have a chat with Ian Stringer about the use of MP3s and podcasts (his speciality) to deliver components of OU courses.
The excellent food was served by friendly and helpful staff, but the price of beer left me more than a little stunned (whit! £3.50 for a bottle of Newcastle Brown).
It seemed to me that almost all the awards were given for the sake of adding a theme to the dinner. The only exception was the award given to Jan Lewis by the International Library and Information Group for her voluntary work in a prison library in Barbados. Operating out of a container and borrowing a kitchen trolley to deliver books (when the kitchen needed the trolley the library doesn't operate) since a riot destroyed the original library Jan is a Thermopylaean example of determination in the face of adversity.
Day Two
After a hearty breakfast I went to the Breakfast Briefing by Natasha Innocent (MLA) and Sue Jones (Hertfordshire County Council) entitled 'Literature Matters: where next?' This session was about supporting the training of teachers by encouraging them to engage with children's books. The session, although not particularly relevant to my position, gave the message that we should engage with our users and make an effort to understand where they are coming from: that this not only results in better service for them, but also a deeper understanding of our position by others.
The first session I attended was part of the IL strand and was begun by Peter Godwin from the University of Bedfordshire, on the subject of whether or not Web 2.0 was hype. This session gave a humorous run through the genuine potentials of web 2.0 websites and technologies, and how they can enable deep and active peer-based learning. This made me feel good about what the OU has presently or has planned for the near future.
The session was concluded by Helen Conroy from Netskills who talked about the IL skills librarians need as teachers and where we can get them. She emphasized that because librarians are heavily involved in teaching, we need to identify the skills and training to enable us do our jobs (training digital citizens). The OU MA in Online and Distance Education was mentioned as a potential source of these skills but was criticised for its expense. I asked, without identifying myself as being from the OU, if it was any good. The presenter didn't know, but there was someone in the audience doing the course and she was very complimentary of it. Yay, go me: free publicity.
Between sessions I dashed back to the exhibitors' stands to have a go at Oxford University Press for the inconsistencies in the interfaces of their online services. After demonstrating what I meant to their customer development manager, he agreed with me that there was too much inconsistency. It's nice to know that even newbies like me (admittedly, backed up by the OU badge) can influence the industry giants.
The second session I attended was also part of the IL strand. It was started by Christine Urquhart from the University of Aberystwyth on what we tend to forget about information literacy. She reminded us that information is not only textual (it involves sound, images and pictures too), that digital natives now amalgamate SCONULs first 4 pillars into one, and that what we teach should be based on evidence of what people do, rather than what we think they should be doing. This made me realise that I should be reading studies of student information seeking behaviour before writing activities for them.
The session was concluded by Jean Newman and Emma Farrow on the subject of improving international health through Partnerships in Health Information (PHI). Both presenters are involved with improving the information available in Kenya, where access to clean information has the potential to save lives like access to clean water, but that it needs to be repackaged (simplified from peer-reviewed journals) and delivered in a format suitable to the infrastructure to do so.
In a special HLG talk Bob Gann from NHS Choices gave a demonstration of the new NHS Choices website. This site has all the appeal of a modern, technologically savvy website (personalisable for age and gender) and all the necessary functionality to deliver a high quality of services to NHS users.
Before the third session Alex Byrne gave a plenary about issues such as the need to maintain Freedom of Information, the need to focus on the intellectual nature of intellectual property (rather than treating it like a commodity) and our need to be strong advocates for our profession.
In the third session I attended the e-Content strand, where Caroline de Bruin of the National Library for Health and Rachel Cook of Surrey and Sussex Healthcare Trust talked about Knowledge Management in the NHS.
Caroline talked about good knowledge management by having a culture of 'do once and share'. By sharing examples of good practice over an intranet, NHS staff can learn what might work for them without going through trial and error at the patient's expense. By sharing examples of bad practice others are less likely to make the same mistakes as you, giving genuine life saving potential. I think all large organisations could benefit from a method of information sharing such as this. Rachel followed this by reporting on some examples of practice that had contributed to the culture described by Caroline.
On Saturday evening the Staff at Hatfield House put on a magnificent Elizabethan banquet for us. The food (chicken at last), service and entertainment were fantastic. It was definitely a high point of the conference for many of us. The evening was finished off with a chocolate fuelled 'Elizabethan' conga line.
Day Three
After another hearty breakfast it was off to the first session. I went to a Leadership/management talk by Francis Muzzu of Infomatch entitled 'Where is the next generation of leaders coming from? Francis stated that managers plan and budget whereas leaders provide direction, that managers provide control whereas leaders stimulate motivation, and that managers solve staff problems whereas leaders align their colleagues. His talk was also about how not to stifle employees who could become the next generation of leaders by creating jobs people could be proud of, like I am of mine.
The final session I attended was part of the IL strand again. It was given by Moira Bent and Sophie Brettel of Newcastle University on 'Working together to facilitate IL'. This was a genuinely interactive session where each attendee had a remote device to answer various questions posed by the presenters. Our data was compiled before our eyes and gave a good impression of the variety of opinions held on aspects of IL. This session put across that IL is not a static entity: that it changes depending on where you work and who you work with.
The final Plenary was given by Leslie Burger, recent president of the ALA, on how libraries can be agents in the transformation of communities. Her vision is that libraries should become places of help, hope and opportunity, and that we can achieve this by being passionate about what we do, creating vision and excitement, building a culture that encourages positive change and never giving up. She envisaged that this could create a world where nobody could ask 'Do libraries matter?'
The theme of change was expressed throughout all the sessions in ways that are hard to communicate. I wore out two pens taking notes, and took a long list of suggestions back to the OU with me. It was a very valuable few days for me and I can't thank the folk at SHINe enough for providing me with the opportunity. I realise that the benefit of the bursary has left Scotland but, with the international remit of the OU, I am hopeful that some of it will find its way back there.
Duncan Belk
Learning and Teaching Librarian (eResources, Health & Social Care and Science)
Library and Learning Resource Centre
The Open University
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA
d.belk@open.ac.uk