SHINe AGM
The Chair Report for the SHINe AGM
This has been a year of changes, which started with our 30th Anniversary celebrations, which took place at least year’s AGM. You will no doubt know that our chairperson last year was Cath Smith, and will also be aware that Cath had to relinquish her post in autumn of last year due to her relocating to the USA. This left the remaining members of the Committee with something of a headache, as Cath was leading the work on a number of major issues, more of which later.
The main concern that I have as outgoing chair is to ensure a degree of continuity on the Committee. We are sad at losing out Treasurer, Gill Earl, who steps down from the Committee after her period of service expires. I’d like to offer my thanks on behalf of the Committee for the valuable work Gill has contributed over many years. I’d also like to extend thanks to Cath Smith in her absence.
I’m glad that many other Committee members remain to support the incoming chairperson, and also that we’ve had a reasonably healthy response to our call for fresh faces to join the Committee. I would like to thank the remaining members of the Committee for their contributions and support for the work of SHINE, and also to the new Committee members coming in for the interest they have shown in working for SHINE.
SHINE’s work over the next year will focus on three areas arising from the membership consultation exercise in 2003:-
- Sustainability of the volunteer network
- We will be working hard to make it easier for members to volunteer to help with some of the important work in Committee and in working groups.
- We will be producing guidance for members on the opportunities for volunteering open to them, and also the sort of responsibilities this voluntary work might entail.
- We will try to open up the work of SHINE and bring in more members to help with that work
- This will hopefully demystify the work of SHINE and show that everyone can contribute something – volunteering needn’t necessarily be an onerous task!
- SHINE as a legal entity
- We are keen to consolidate the organisation as an entity.
- We recently sent ballot papers around to canvas opinion from members on their preferred future for SHINE as an organisation
- Need to sharpen up the proposal and send out again, although the ballot forms will give us a better idea on member’s views.
- We expect to adopt charitable status, but there are options within this which we need to explore before coming back to members with concrete proposals
SHINE is in good shape, despite a year of changes. We face even more change, and I would urge you you all to consider whether you can serve on the Committee or participate in one of the working groups.
Andy Jackson
Acting SHINe Chair
Hazel Williamson Bursary
This year’s Hazel Williamson Bursary has been awarded to Duncan Belk, an MSc student at the Robert Gordon University, currently working with University of Stirling’s Dementia Services Development Centre. The bursary will allow Duncan to attend a CILIP course in London on thesaurus construction. This will assist with a project to develop a thesaurus for use in Centre, and also assist with Duncan’s professional development. Congratulations to Duncan!
SHINe Journal report for the AGM
At the 2005 SHINe AGM my attention to stand down as editor was announced – as you can see that hasn’t happened. I would like to hand over my editorial duties to another SHINe member, however I am happy to continue on until that happens. In recent years the editor of the journal has been supported by an editorial board, unfortunately this has now disbanded therefore I am looking for a new board. I would like 3-4 members to step forward. You will provide ideas, network with colleagues and occasionally nag! We will meet at least once a year; however the majority of communication will take place by email. In order to provide optimum coverage I would prefer representation from as many different sectors and geographic areas as possible. If you are interested please contact me my details are below.
The SHINe Journal itself has seen a few changes, a new name and new format. However, only one issue was published in 2005, so I would like to take this opportunity to re-assert my commitment to producing a quarterly journal.
It is important for the future of this journal that you continue to contribute to it. If you are doing any audits or research on practice, write it up and send it to me. If you have attended a meeting you think the SHINe membership would be interested in hearing about, write it up and send it to me. If you have any ideas for articles please let me know.
Michelle Kirkwood HINe Journal Editor
S
Glasgow Royal Infirmary Library and eLearning Centre
10 Alexandra Parade
Glasgow, G31 2ER
0141 211 4760
michelle.kirkwood@northglasgow.scot.nhs.uk
michelle.kirkwood@northglasgow.scot.nhs.uk
CPD Group report for the SHINe AGM
We started the year with a high note by organising SHINE’s 30th birthday celebrations and AGM last year at Glasgow Caledonian University. This included the copious amounts of food, the cake and the bubbly.
The group also organised the training days for the use of new Online SHINE Union List database. The first was in Edinburgh on the 8th June 2005 and then on the 15th June 1 Glasgow.
The CPD was not able to organise any other training days in 2005. This was mostly due to the fact that there were only three members in the group. We are in urgent need for more volunteers.
If you want to find out more or see what we do, the group is throwing its next session open to all and sundry. On the 12th June the CPD group will be meeting in the Seminar Room of the Walton Conference Centre, Southern General Hospital Glasgow to plan the next few study days for 2006. We hope to put on a meeting in December on “Management Issues” and will be using the 12th June to clarify what we want and then plan.
The group is also hoping to organise a tour of the Scottish Parliament during the summer and is looking into having a study day about Chartership/Mentoring
For more information about this or the work of the CPD group please contact:-
Charlotte Boulnois
Central Library
Southern General Hospital
1345 Govan Rd
Glasgow, G51 4TF
0141 201 2163
Union List Working Group report for the SHINe AGM
Members of the Union List working group:
Catriona Denoon, GG/PCT
Liz Garrity, GG/NGRI
Claire Leach, L/WGH
John Scott, GG/HB
Dr Michael Wells, Union List Administrator
Dr Michael Wells has provided the statistics on the forms and numbers issued for the year ending 31 March 2006. These statistics only cover requests made using forms or numbers, and not those made between participant libraries – no central record is kept of these. They show another drop in the number of forms and numbers in circulation, though this is only part of the picture of ILL activity. In summary:
Number of forms/numbers issued in 2005/06: 6,356
Number of forms/numbers issued in 2004/05: 10,669
Number of forms/numbers issued in 2003/04: 15,881*
* (the 2003/04 figure is for 15 months, because of the change in publication date for the union list)
Most SHINE libraries are now using request numbers instead of forms.
The union list bank account remains healthy – at the end of March there was an excess of income over expenditure of £2,177.00 (£452 in 2004/05) and a balance of £26,096.00 (£23,918.00 in 2004/05). As usual, Michael has transferred the interest from the union list account to the SHINE general account, and that amounts to £451.00 (it was £372.00 in 2004/05).
I would like to thank Michael for his continuing work on the scheme: for running it so efficiently, for dealing with our finance departments, and for helping to sort out the problems over the missing request forms.
Libraries and changes
The union list scheme currently contains 93 libraries, providing access to 4,630 journal titles and 13,118 holdings. Of the 93 libraries 56 are NHS, 23 are higher education, 5 are voluntary sector, 4 are government sector, 3 are royal colleges and 2 are further education. The 24 HE libraries contribute about 50 per cent of the total titles in the list. We have welcomed two new libraries to SHINE and to the Union List, both of which joined in 2006 –
- L/CLO as a participant library (the Library at the NHS Scotland Central Legal Office in Edinburgh)
- G/IMM as a provider library (the Library at IMMPACT, the Initiative for Maternal Mortality Programme Assessment based at Aberdeen University).
Online edition of the union list
The online edition of the Union List was launched in July 2005 following training sessions for SHINE staff held in Glasgow and Edinburgh. This has allowed SHINE libraries to make their own additions and amendments to library holdings and contact details, and to keep the list up to date. The online list can be found at the SHINE website, and at http://scone.strath.ac.uk/shinestaff/service/ServIndex.cfm. A contact email address is available for members needing advice or help from working group members – unionlist@shinelib.org.uk. A link to the public version of the website (non-password controlled) has been added to the NHS Scotland eLibrary.
The database and web interfaces were developed, and are hosted, by the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) and the Centre for Digital Library Research (CDLR) at Strathclyde University. I would like to thank Gordon Dunsire for all his support and hard work in making this resource available for SHINE members.
Catriona Denoon
SHINe Union List Working Group
SHINe Website Editorial Group Report for the SHINe AGM
The Website Group had its most active period last summer. In July last year we carried out a small usability study to test the ease of navigation on the website. This involved asking colleagues unfamiliar with the website to try and find specific information.
As a result of this, we made a number of changes to the structure and the navigation of the site. At the same time, we were able to add the links to the Union List database and the database maintenance page. A new Archive section was created so that older material can be kept without cluttering up the rest of the website. Other changes included making the Committee page and the Committee meetings page more prominent on the site. We changed what had been called “Useful links” to “Professional Guidance” and this has been incorporated into the Health Library Resource section of the website. As well as Professional Guidance, this section also includes a page on CPD resources and one on training resources. These are all sections where we would be grateful for any suggestions of sources or resources that you have found useful and that you could share with others.
Since December last year, we have been able to get some statistical information about the use of the website. We have only been running these reports for four months so the information we have so far is limited, but the number of hits to the website is currently hovering around 5000 a month.
For each of the last four months, the three top pages referred to have been the Home Page (obviously), the SHINE Journal page, and the Members database login page. It is early days with the statistics, but over time, we should be able to build up a picture of how the website is being used and what parts of the site people find most useful.
The other main piece of work we carried out this year was a questionnaire around the area of e-Learning. One of the action points in the SHINE Development Plan for 2004-06 was to consider different ways of providing training for members, and the website group was asked to undertake a study to see if the provision of alternative forms of training via the SHINE website would be something that members would welcome and find useful. A questionnaire was designed in consultation with the CPD group and was distributed last September.
- A low response rate of 19 replies (=10.8% membership) means that the results may not be representative of the membership. But those who did reply were generally positive about SHINE providing some alternative forms of training.
- There was strong support for the idea of providing self-contained downloadable materials – such as summaries of evidence for good practice, self-reflective exercises
- and guided reading. There was less enthusiasm for the idea of interactive methods like online discussions or telephone training. Favoured topics from those suggested in the questionnaire were legal and management issues and orientation information for new staff.
- A report summarising the findings is available which includes some of the comments that respondents made and this will be made available on the website. The Committee has not discussed the report and its recommendations yet but it will be taken forward in the coming year.
- All the responses to the questionnaire were entered in a prize draw to win a bottle of champagne and I am pleased to announce that the winner was Vivien Murchison.
I would like to acknowledge the work of the members of the web group over the past year. They are Julia Green, Elspeth Henry, Kathleen Irvine and Chloe Stewart. Thank you to them.
Finally, if you have any news that you would like featured on the Noticeboard – perhaps if you are sending a message to lis-shine, you could consider whether it should be featured on the website too. And if you have ideas or suggestions for what you would like to see on the website, please do let any member of the website group know.
Alison Bogle
SHINE Website Editorial Group
SHINe Membership 2005-2006
The new membership renewal system, with invoices being sent to everyone, worked well. Most people returned the renewal form direct to me & sent their invoice to their finance dept, which allowed me to update their records sooner than in previous years.
At the close of play in March 2006 we had –
117 members, which covered 251 individuals.
Malcolm Dobson
Membership Secretary
Marketing & Publicity
A marketing strategy was developed by the working group & ratified by the committee. The strategy proposed focusing on the public library and further education sectors. The working group has designed a leaflet which will be printed & used at suitable events, and also made available on the SHINE web site.
Malcolm Dobson
Publicity and Marketing Short Life Working Group