Thursday, 13 July 2023

CILIP Conference 2023 - Day Two

The second day of the conference kicked off with words of welcome from the CILIP CEO, Nick Poole. He called for suggestions on the grand challenges in the field of library services that are going to spur us to new levels of creativity and innovation as a profession. He emphasized three challenges that he anticipates:

  • supporting leadership - a fundamental belief in the power of change is integral. How are we fostering the development of our new leaders?
  • increasing diversity - real progress in diversifying the library service workforce still eludes us
  • tackling information inequality in the UK - How poverty and limited access to digital technology affects the ability to obtain information

Next was the keynote speech made by Masud Khokhar, University of Leeds on re-designing leadership for a digital world. It was based on his personal views and observations. It was a thoroughly packed session and I fear I may not do it justice but here goes. During his presentation, he gave a brief summary of his institution and professional experience, with a special focus on higher education. He emphasized the significance of addressing and offsetting any biases in one's leadership narrative. He talked about cognitive theory but what stood out to me was his reference to cognitive limitations and the human brain's capacity to process information properly and absorb it being 120 bits per minute, making multitasking a challenging task. He talked about instincts that highlight our inherent biases as well as how biased algorithms can affect outcomes.

Masud stressed the necessity for making a conscious effort and being intentional about stepping out of our professional silos to form genuine connections. Breaking barriers and fostering collaboration will require deliberate action towards building fruitful relationships. He linked his talk to resilience,  the biopsychosocial model (and how we were affected by the pandemic), fatigue, and frustration then brought it all to bear on leadership. He highlighted three leadership challenges:

  • human transition at scale - creating empathetic structures and plans and prioritizing culture over KPIs. 
  • a mindset shift - moving from learned helplessness to optimism, moving (and helping others move) from the basement of despair to a balcony of hope
  • own the transition - taking ownership of the knowledge gap, digital gap, and innovation gap is critical for libraries
He concluded by urging library and information professionals to expand their reading beyond just library-related topics, in order to bring in diverse knowledge and apply it within our services.

The next session I attended was on developing yourself as a leader: overcoming imposter syndrome and building a personal brand. It was chaired by Jessica Pawley, Somerset NHS Foundation Trust and she shared her own personal experience of searching for the negative even in positive comments as well as comparing herself to others (Something I can relate to but just so you know Jessica is awesome). She also pointed out how equating leadership with management can lead to restrictions in professional growth and development. Jo Walley, Jo Walley Coaching was next to talk to us about imposter syndrome. She stressed the importance of being comfortable in your own skin and gave an example of an experience she had speaking to someone she admired and how it surprised her to find they had moments of self-doubt. "There will always be something that the say you are too old /young /underqualified /X for" she said. Trying to conform also brings its own challenges e.g. wearing uncomfortable clothes to " fit in". Be your amazing self. Next was Stephen Phillips, SmartIM Ltd on building a personal brand. What will make you stand out whilst being true to yourself? How would you like others to perceive you? Build on your strengths, values, beliefs, and goals. Reflect on what motivates you, talents you possess that bring you a sense of pride, and tasks you relish. Ensure that your brand statement is aligned with your team, service, and organization as a whole.

  • raise your visibility - talk to stakeholders about what they want and how you can help them get it
  • get involved in communities
  • be consistent, authentic, and genuine

Next was a fireside chat with journalist and author, Sathnam Sanghera chaired by the precious CILIP president, Kate Robinson on the value of libraries and librarians. It focused on his publications, particularly Stolen History, as well as how his experiences in libraries as a child shaped him. Libraries offer access to lifelong learning and equip you with the necessary skills to navigate the world. They take you on a voyage of discovery that cannot be replicated by the internet. Moreover, libraries serve as a defence against misleading information, making it vital to have a reachable one. Sathnam raised the question on how to evaluate information sourced from the internet versus that sourced from a library. 

I went to the session on generative AI and the future of academic libraries by Nick Woolley, Sheffield Hallam University. I admit I felt overwhelmed with information but I still managed to take away some points. The employment of AI in the student learning experience and research was addressed, as well its potential limitations. Nick highlighted the possibility of AI perpetuating harm through misinformation and emphasized the crucial role of academic libraries in guiding the competent and effective use of AI. He pointed out the importance of libraries working in partnership to develop value proposition on quality and trust. Librarian roles in implementing AI will comprise of stewardship, leading literacy, and driving readiness for an uncertain future.

My next session was on evidence and impact chaired by Kate Robinson, previous CILIP president. Philip Marshall, The London Library, shared work on the impact of the service on the UK publishing industry. The outcomes derived were used in press releases and served as supporting case for fundraising. It also helped communicate the value of the service to stakeholders and gave confidence for future planning. Krystal Vittles, Suffolk Libraries, talked about their work on measuring social value, i.e. wellbeing changes we experience, which revealed a £6.07 return in social value for every £1 invested.

Nick Poole's closing remarks was on changemakers of the future. He requested that attendees reflect on the knowledge they acquired from the conference and consider what they could implement in their services. After a recap of the conference topics, he raised a call to action in four areas:

  • e-book pledge
  • green libraries manifesto
  • join CILIP
  • take something you already have ... think big, start small
Attendees then had the opportunity to share personal and professional insights from the two days. Some were sent in to Nick to read whilst others expressed their thoughts in person. One thing that really resonated with me was the fact that as librarians we hide our labour, so we are not valued for it and don't get the support or funding we need. I tried to keep the blog brief but do follow the twitter hashtag #CILIPConf23 for more from other professionals who were in attendance.

My considerations for the near future
It is essential that I take out time for investing in the broader professional community. Time is a precious resource but dedicating an hour a week or even a month would be better than nothing at all. I intend to:
  • Focus on resting and recharging
  • Explore AI further and get my team onboard
  • Make the most of opportunities to share positive and negative experiences, and what I learnt from them
  • Practice research more actively and not just offer support or teach

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Wednesday, 12 July 2023

CILIP Conference 2023 - Day One

It was a packed first day at the Hilton Metropole Birmingham. I wanted to capitalize on the chance to establish connections in non-health sectors and orient myself on new developments. The day commenced with CILIP CEO, Nick Poole, who introduced the Mayor of Solihull, Cllr. Diana Holl-Allen. The Mayor gave a speech where she extended a warm welcome to the Borough. The CILIP President, John Trevor-Allen, was next to address the delegates. He talked about the impact different library sectors make and how the conference gives delegates the opportunity to gather ideas to cascade to colleagues so that the whole profession can move forward together.

The opening keynote was by Rebecka Isaksson on driving business value through AI-powered knowledge management. She shared that she got into knowledge management through her passion for communities of practice. The significance of perceiving artificial intelligence as a prospect to enhance the scope of tasks we can accomplish, rather than a threat to our employment, was emphasized. Despite its challenges, we can use artificial intelligence to drive knowledge management. She shared three guiding principles: 

  • human intelligence and artificial intelligence should complement each other to get the best results. AI can help eliminate the drudgery of work but it must be handled responsibly. In the wrong hands, AI can do harm.
  • start with your organization's culture - consider what you are doing and how you are doing it. What culture do you want to foster?
  • engagement is key for driving great experiences to ensure everyone feels included, seen, and heard. 

The next session I attended was a panel discussion on data & AI chaired by Liz White, British Library. I confess that I had the notion that it would primarily involve a Q&A session, and was therefore a bit surprised by the presentations. Dr Andrew Cox, University of Sheffield, started us off with AI as a strategic priority, it's different applications , and ethical challenges. He considered it exciting but problematic requiring a balanced response. Next was a pre-recorded presentation by Aaron Tay, Singapore Management University on AI applications for searching. Although he pointed out the deficiencies, he also noted that they could result in better relevancy, direct answer generation, and information extraction from papers. This was followed by Sam Thomas, University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust on AI in health libraries. He pointed out that clinicians are utilizing AI, so health librarians should also have a working knowledge of the technology. He gave three practical tips on how to approach it:

  • engage your library team - try to change negative perceptions where possible. Exchange ideas, share papers, embed it in conversations, identify training and development needs, consider the ethical implications, set outcomes and work towards them.
  • focus on your users - work it into conversations with library stakeholders.
  • use AI yourself - use it openly and share your experience with others. Test it out and see how it goes.
The second keynote was a pre-recorded one by Dr Navina Evans, NHS England on shaping the workforce of the future. She gave insights into developing workforce strategies for developmental needs as well as the need to build a pipeline to recruit the next generation of talent for the future. She emphasized the importance of driving excellence through diversity, equity, and inclusion and widening access routes to welcome people into the workforce. She also pointed out that library services have a pivotal role to play in developing a workforce that is ready for digital age.

The next session I attended was on wellbeing for personal resilience and impactful leadership by Ninez Piezas-Jerbi. We started off with a 5 minute mindfulness exercise where delegates were required to be still and present to give us the opportunity to read messages our bodies give which we may take for granted or be completely unaware of (I discovered I had pain in my right shoulder). She emphasized the importance of aligning your personal values with those of your organization to avoid stress, as constantly transitioning between work and home mode can be challenging. She talked about the need for psychological safety in the workplace so that it is pleasant, encouraging team engagement through events and breathing consciously. She provided four questions we can ask ourselves to promote resilience:

  • What triggers me? - events from the past or present, fear of reflection
  • What sustains me? - family, friends, nature
  • What drives or inspires me? - professional excellence
  • What do my body and soul tell me? - listening deeply to your mind, body, and soul
I attended the evidence-informed practice session chaired by Alison Brettle, University of Salford which focused on developing a research culture for library services and the importance of evidence for quality and service improvement in libraries. She was joined by Clare Edwards, NHS England who focused on how this related to Outcome 5 of the Quality Improvement Outcomes Framework. Judy Wright, University of Leeds and Gillian Siddal, University of Northampton then talked about the research project the Library and Information Research Group are conductingon workplace research by librarians. The survey for this project has just been launched and is open to professionals at any stage in their career. It closes on the 8th of September.
The CILIP 125 list, which features new librarians, information and knowledge management professionals who are making a significant impact in the industry was launched to celebrate the 125th anniversary of CILIP's Royal Charter, A hearty congratulations to all those who made it onto the list. Feeling a little wiped out but looking forward to Day 2 of the conference. 

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Friday, 31 January 2020

PPRG Marketing Excellence Conference

The Publicity and Public Relations Group Conference held on the 31st of January at Aston University Library, Birmingham. My attendance was mainly due to the fact that I had been given the task of developing the marketing plan for my service and the workshop on putting together a marketing plan on the programme seemed serendipitous. I also wanted to further my activity in the wider community.  The event was attended by about 50 professionals across a variety of sectors which made for great networking opportunities.

The chair, Davina Omar, welcomed attendees and went through housekeeping. The programme was arranged in an unorthodox format with the keynote at the end to allow for the winners of the 2019 Marketing Excellence Awards give their presentations first and allay anxieties. Something I'm sure they appreciated. It kicked off with the Shetland Libraries eServices Outreach Project by Louise Arcus and Kate Riise. The aim was to increase eService uptake by hard to reach clientele who were digitally, socially or geographically excluded, something I could relate to my work in a Community Trust. They marketed their RBDigital collection of audio books, eBooks, and eMagazines by raising awareness during physical visits. They also made use of the local media, newspapers, radio broadcast, and social media. The success of the campaign also led to promotion by word of mouth and created opportunities to highlight other Library services.
The next presentation was by Tracey Williams from Solihull Libraries on an exhibition on the self-build revolution in the 1950s where families gave their time and skills to build homes for the Self-build Housing Association and rent the homes back. It was important to bring it to the attention of decision makers to find parallels with current housing issues. The exhibition promotes a sense of place and empowers feeling of belonging. It promotes a sense of time to anchor past events to the present and shape the future. A combination of methods were used to create exhibition panels with more images than text. The exhibition was marketed with promotional flyers and tweets.
The final award went to Staffordshire Libraries for their Burton Bedtime Stories. The presentation was by Liz Gardner (Staffordshire Libraries), Kate Thomson-Rayne (East Staffordshire Children's Centre), and Dan Wareing (Volunteer). The team filmed recruited volunteers reading featured bedtime stories and posted the videos on Facebook. Theresulting interest demonstrated the value of the Library service and showcased the service offer. It also supported speech language and communication within the home environment. The featured titles were announced beforehand using a variety of media and there was a corresponding rise in the number of issues of the featured title around the time the video is published. Volunteers went on to champion the service and this led to a more volunteer offers.

After lunch, there was a choice between two workshops. One on creating a marketing plan and the other was a forum on exchanging library marketing experiences. I attended the first session which began with the idea of using the PPRG Marketing Excellence Award criteria as a baseline for a marketing plan. A clear statement of objectives is required with a short description of what you aim to achieve and your target audience. The range of marketing channels to use should be identified - social media, posters, email, leaflets etc. What is most suitable for your campaign. Consider how you'll time the execution of tasks and establish roles and areas of responsibility with expected deadlines. Hints and tips for marketing were supplied.
Next was the AGM which revealed that the group has been rebranded from its 36 year name and will now be known as the Marketing and Communications Group. A research grant for marketing has also been introduced. It was followed by the Keynote speech by Rachel Van Riel, Director of Opening the book. She discussed what we need to focus on and steer away from when considering marketing a service positively. An attitude of blaming the user when they do not understand what is meant needs to be discouraged. It is your responsibility to be articulate what you mean clearly. We were given several examples of marketing fails and successes.

My day didn't get all my questions answered but it definitely gave me a starting point. It also helped me reflect on where my marketing focus should lie. What I think is most important might not necessarily be the case. I am considering an audit of most asked questions to identify areas in the service that might need clarification in a future plan. In the meantime I have been able to state an objective which I will present to my team and hopefully move forward with it. All in all it was a productive day.
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Monday, 27 January 2020

Strategy on a page Workshop

I attended the one day strategy on a page course led by Amanda Stearn. It was held at St. Chad's Court, Birmingham with 16 attendees. I wanted find a way to align the Library service strategy to that of my organisation and present it in a simple format that is succinct. Amanda steered the conversation away from the NHS to give some context to how we look to strategies as a whole. Bringing the session back to healthcare with a host of examples and exercises, she put us through our paces eliciting ideas on what we considered contributing factors from macro drivers such as the HEE, service users, host organisations to SWOT (local and external factors) such as budgets, staffing pressures, technology, and the political climate.

Aligning the vision and mission to that of the organisations ensures that the strategies and operations executed advance those of the organisation. We looked at how different segments of a strategy fit together and what they address.
Why - Vision - Why the service exists
Who - Mission - Who the service is in support of the vision
What - Priorities - What the service intends to accomplish in to meet the mission.
How - Strategies - Outline of how the priorities will be realised
How, where, when - Operational plan - More detailed practical actions that will be executed to realise the strategies.

We practiced on a whole strategy and converting it into a one page document with the use of a very helpful template. We also had the chance to identify enablers which are the things that will impact and make what we want happen such as funding and technology.

Different terminologies are often used to describe the same thing such as mission / purpose or goals / priorities. It is important to avoid the use of passive words like "support" and embrace the use of power words like enrich and strengthen to sell the service as an integral instrument for meeting the overarching goals of the organisation. We were supplied with tips on how to engage team members in the process by supplying the priorities and having them individually give their opinions on post-its on what the operational plans could entail. This gives every team member the chance to voice their thoughts and then collectively work backwards to the core strategies.

The focus of the workshop was generating a strategy on one page but it gave insight into how a template can be used to derive the summary for the service from my organisation strategy and then develop the full strategy for the service thereafter. It was useful to work with others and see how our different organisations and ways of thinking influenced our approaches to writing and structuring catchy sentences to reflect what we want. I had a wealth of ideas which I intend to implement in the hopes of enhancing the content of the service strategy.
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Monday, 28 October 2019

Health Literacy Training

I attended this one day train the trainer event on Health Literacy held on the 17th of October 2019 at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. My knowledge of health literacy beforehand was vague at best and I attended the event in the hopes of improving my understanding of health literacy levels and how it affects patient care as well as gathering ideas on how to support health literacy within my organization. The event was facilitated by three Librarians, Anita Phul (Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust), Lesley Allen (Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust), and Semanti Chakraborty (University Hospital Birmingham).

It started off with looking at what health literacy is and how issues and challenges surrounding it can be addressed. It was identified as being personal from a patient's point of view with aim of equipping the patient with information on their condition at a level they can understand to make decisions about their care. It was also looked at from a societal point of view which looked at the the accessibility of health information for those in need of it.

We looked at the different types of health literacy, functional - basic skills for everyday lie, Interactive - power to interpret and balance information as well as the confidence to undertake further investigation to inform decision making, Critical - ability to critically appraise and challenge information and make links with economic, social, and cultural factors. We also looked at health literacy levels across regions in England as well as the national and regional literacy of health materials which showed the information generally provided is often at a higher level than the average literacy level of the population. We looked how health literacy levels can be compromised depending on circumstances. I especially liked the activity which helped demonstrate how a professional with a high literacy level can suddenly have a low health literacy level where they or a loved one have been diagnosed with a life changing or life threatening condition.

We had an activity which helped drive home how dealing with health information you don't understand can feel. Comments made by attendees included frustrating, feeling stupid, and this helped stress the importance of providing health information at an understandable level. We looked at the population more likely to have low health literacy and this included people with learning difficulties or learning disabilities, people with low IT skills, older people. there was an activity where attendees were encouraged to discuss examples of when health literacy has had a personal or professional impact on them. The detriments and impact of low health literacy to patients and the NHS were also addressed such as unhealthy habits, high mortality, wrong usage of medication, missed appointments etc.

The areas where librarians and library services can influence health literacy were also covered.This included improving health literacy levels, ensuring information and services are accessible to all, and raising health literacy awareness. This can be done by using techniques such as Teach Back and Chunk and check to empower individuals and ensuring written information provided is at an appropriate level for the audience (i.e. simple, free of jargon, free of acronyms, conversational, use of everyday words, free of needless information etc.). We were also supplied with a list of tools that support creating health information and attendees talked about local initiatives they were aware of. The event ended with some recommendations that should be promoted such as not making assumptions about literacy or ability to speak or hear, and using different media to share health information, use of simple explanations.

The event had a good mix or presentations and activities but I found it a lot to take in and didn't have as much opportunity to share ideas with other attendees as I would have liked. It showed me that there is a varied mix of health literacy support already in place across a range of NHS Libraries and I took away some ideas on how to help my organisation create a patient information register and ensure that the information supplied are at an appropriate level. I also got the idea to support the discharge facilitators with how the information supplied to patients is provided in a way that will enable compliance. I believe the event was suitable for anyone looking to start off a Health Literacy service or looking for more ideas on how to improve an existing service.
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Monday, 1 July 2019

UHMLG Summer Conference: Failing to Succeed – How to Learn From Failure

I haven't been to a conference in a while so this last minute arrangement was an exciting opportunity to network. It was a relief to find that the first day of the conference started at noon which meant I didn't have to get out of bed at Crazy O'Clock to get there. It was held at Teeside University in Middlesborough (Yes, Middlesborough. Someone asked me where this was and I was proud to use the wealth of my geography knowledge to respond "North"). The idea of discussing with other professionals how they deal with failure intrigued me.

This all inclusive event (conference, accommodation, and meals) started off with attendees having a really lovely lunch at the Holiday Inn Express. After this, it was a short walk to the University where we saw some exhibitors including Wiley & Mark Allen. Iain Baird, UHMLG Co-Chair, went through housekeeping and introductions before handing us over to Rosie Jones, Director of Student and Library Services, Teesside University. She stressed the importance of being okay with failing and learning from it, experimenting and pushing boundaries. She regaled us with her biggest experience with failure which involved alternate reality gaming about 150 engaged students out of a probable 4000.The response was to communicate how the project failed and why, making recommendations on what works and what doesn’t. The sharing experience enabled her to make contacts which she still has today.
  • Do not fear failure.
  • Take risks.
  • Embrace failure. 
She encouraged attendees to visit the University Library spaces and described it as playful.

Andy Priestner led a workshop on failure and the importance of being realistic that it is going to happen and accepting that. He focused on the fact that responding and reacting to failure positively can lead to productivity. It can be hard to foresee success at the end of failure and how we learn from it. He talked about how knowing you learn from failure doesn’t change how it makes you feel and also stressed that failure is in the eye of the beholder as what constitutes failure varies from one person to the other. Elizabeth Day’s Podcast on “How to fail” was highly recommended. Andy used his own experiences as examples and encouraged attendees to do the same in pairs.

Andy went on to discuss how failure can transform into something positive once you have had the opportunity to process it as well as how unprocessed failure can be damaging especially when it may be beyond our control.
  • Failure will happen
  • It is just part of the journey
  • Putting pressure on ourselves is damaging

He talked about how fear of failure can lead to risk aversion in libraries and librarians thereby resulting in caretaker management. Just doing the same and going through the motions.
  • Not taking risks can be dangerous
  • Not Innovating
  • Not responding to user needs
Andy then presented on Libraries and the Ux where the Target is for a prototype and not a permanent solution. In this, failure is part of the process and you only invest after testing it out and adapting it. You failure fast but fail cheap as not a lot is put into the prototype. The idea generation process involves embracing failure and you may come across some common discouraging remarks when it is not embraced such as "that’s silly", "that’s too expensive", "that’ll never work", "we tried that in 20....". It is important to be creative and imaginative and individual ideation is often more productive than groups. 

Some tips on reacting to work-based failure 
  • Consider how people’s failure affect their feelings in your teams
  • Verbalise that failure is ok
  • Eradicate culture of blame
  • Emphasise teamwork
  • Encourage innovation and risk
  • Stop overreacting to failures
  • Try to be more realistic about what is at stake and behave accordingly
  • Recognise that we are all different with different abilities and strengths
  • Be honest about your own failures. Share them and you will be respected for it
The day was wrapped up with dinner at the Bistrot Pierre. On day two, Tom Roper from Brighton and Sussex NHS Library and Knowledge Service, and Eli Harris from Bodleian Health Care Libraries led a presentation on Imposter Syndrome. It started off with what attendees consider "imposter syndrome" to be and went on to offer recommendations on what can be done about it. 
  • Talk about your feelings
  • Sharing feeling with others
  • Role play
  • Make statements of affirmation
  • Keep a log of big and small successes
  • Get support from a mentor
  • Talk in pairs about your impostor syndrome experiences
  • Clear induction plans
  • Clarity of roles and expectation from staff
  • Share your own impostor experiences
  • Provide opportunities for informal support like buddying system
Alan Fricker from King's College London gave a Lightening Talk on a some of his own experiences and what he learnt. It centered on making adequate preparation before undergoing projects. Dr Anne Llewellyn, Deputy Director in Student and Library Services at Teeside University, talked about how challenges facing the Library sector affect what we do and the impact of such uncertainty on staff well being. She noted that change impacts on our ability to feel safe and comfortable but should prompt us to take advantage of opportunities to innovate and put libraries at the heart of the academic environment to provide a sense of value

Caroline Plaice from the University of West of England gave a Lightening Talk on successes and failures experienced when offering coaching support. Samantha Gavaghan from Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust also gave a Lightening Talk on the challenges faced in providing outreach for mental health over a wide geographical area. The final presentation was on "Anxiety" by Olivia Remes from the University of Cambridge. She stressed the importance of recognising anxiety as a risk factor and the impact on the individual and society at large. She also offered some examples of coping strategies and recommends picking out one or two strategies to do consistently for 3 weeks 
  • Feeling like you are in control of your life by doing what gives you more control
  • Forgive yourself. Don’t be self critical. Be kind to yourself. You wouldn’t want a friend who criticises you all the time.
  • Finding meaning and purpose in life – do something with someone else in mind
  • Mindfulness meditation – Head space app 
  • Don’t focus on the worst 
  • Wait to worry – dedicate a slot time to worry each day 
  • Gratitude – focus on what went well and why they happened 
She also referred attendees to a ted talk which goes into more detail on the topic.
I completed my day with a tour of the recently refurshed Teesside University Library which proved o be a season themed, diverse space with 24/7 access and offers quieter spaces as you move up the building.

                  
I went to this conference prepared to reflect on my failures and adjust how I respond to them. The conference stretched my mind to consider how I react to the failure of others both personally and professionally.
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Wednesday, 4 July 2018

GDPR and #HIW2018

I was certain that after May the 25th there would be a barrage of lawsuits arising from who did what without consent. I'm relieved that the upheaval has subsided but the question remains IS IT REALLY OVER? The answer would be no. It was never meant to be a quick fix but a change in culture and therefore a regular practice. This much was reiterated at the GDPR training session I attended at Stewart House, London on the 2nd of July. Naomi Korn was a breath of fresh air and it was a relief to have no PowerPoint slides in sight.

The session consisted of case studies, question and answer sessions and covered the interplay between data protection and the GDPR changes. This extended to the need for the speed of the regulatory framework to catch up with the speed of technological change in order to discourage the commercialization of personal data. We also discussed how to collect and process personal data and what action plans we should have in place for our services. The highlights of the session for me were the six principles of data protection and the six grounds for lawful processing.

DATA PROTECTION PRINCIPLES
GROUNDS FOR LAWFUL PROCESSING
 Lawful, fair and transparent
Contractual
Specific, explicit and legitimate
Legal basis
Adequate, relevant and not excessive
Vital interests
Accurate and kept up to date
Public interest
Kept for no longer than necessary
Legitimate interest
Processed securely
Consent

It is important to distinguish the need for consent from the other lawful grounds as it is the only one that requires the data subject to actively opt-in. An interesting note was that although individual personal emails constitute personal data, corporate emails do not so it's worth making that distinction.  If you use a system which creates a handicap to compliance, change it. It needs to work for you and not the other way around. There were handouts provided and references to other helpful sources. There's a lot of technical jargon muddying waters in some sources which in no way allays my concern of how to equip frontline staff, particularly Library Assistants, with the skills to ensure they comply with the regulations in their day to day practice. I have found some comfort in the content and straightforward language at https://naomikorn.com/blog/ which I have now shared with my team in the hopes of filling in the blanks and making the transition a gradual process.

I am in no way a GDPR expert but I did have some notions confirmed and some misconceptions  corrected. I left more confident than I arrived with an action plan sure to make me the least favourite person on my team for a few weeks. I'll need to soften 'em up with lots of chocolate and biscuits. My take home has been the need for experienced information professionals to apply a degree of reasonableness (Naomi's description) i.e. ask ourselves what we consider to be a reasonable expectation from the person who has entrusted us with their personal data. Some things will clearly be right and others will clearly be wrong whilst there will be grey areas. I say stay as far away as you can from what doesn't fall into the clearly right category and you should be fine.

It's also Health Information Week #HIW2018 and I have been tasked with organizing and promoting events. It happens to coincide with NHS70 and I used the opportunity to team up with the Trust Charity who are celebrating with Big7Tea parties. They have cake and we have sources of good quality health information. It's a match made in heaven. I also put together a looped PowerPoint for our local library to promote health and digital literacy, healthy lifestyles, mindfulness, and relaxation on their big screen. Thanks to the templates on the Knowledge for Healthcare blog, I also tailored some posters and promotional materials.

In other news, the team that brought you the Development Needs Analysis is getting back together. Yes, you heard right. Team DNA is back. Commitment, gluttons for punishment or just missing each other (I think quite a bit of the latter LOL). We'll be working together over the next couple of months to get the next survey for the development needs of the NHS Library workforce ready for next autumn. It's gonna be great.


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Wednesday, 27 June 2018

Presenting at a conference

It's been a while since my last post. A hectic couple of months but I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I won't bore you with the ins and out outs of what I've been up to but I will try to do better. I've been talking about presenting at a conference for years and tried my hand at it again. I feel it wasn't brilliant but practice makes perfect and you'll never know unless you try. I presented our in-house request management system alongside my colleague at the 2018 Interlend Conference in Birmingham. The original attraction was that the conference was local but it wasn't until our proposal was accepted that I realized I hadn't really expected it to be. The prospect was quite scary. On the 25th June when I attended, there were over 80 delegates and unsurprisingly only one other NHS delegate aside from my colleague and myself. Unfortunately, due to service needs I was only able to stay for the keynote speech and my presentation.

The Keynote speaker was CILIP President, Ayub Khan, and he talked about "Rethinking the Library" address how user needs have changes and the responsiveness of libraries. I especially liked that he discussed the need to demonstrate value based on user benefits and feedback rather than just statistics. What I took away from the conference was priceless especially as I was there for only a short time. By sharing the system with colleagues from other sectors, I was able to see it from their perspective and access other development needs and ways in which the system might be evaluated. I'm grateful for the opportunity to test the waters at Interlend and I can confirm that there is probably nothing more daunting than speaking to a room full of information professionals. I am not quite ready to try conference presenting again but I'm certainly not one to encourage others to do anything I am unwilling to. Now that I have faced the fear and crossed the bridge, I'll see where the road takes me.

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Thursday, 14 December 2017

Network Day for Band 5 & 6 NHS Librarians

I attended this network day held on the 30th of November, 2017 at St. Chads Court in Birmingham which was originally aimed at Librarians in the Midlands but it was refreshing to see Librarians from as far away as Essex in attendance. I found myself  agreeing to facilitate a Knowledge Cafe which turned out to be a valuable experience because to be frank I had no experience as a participant or a facilitator. Within 24 hours, I read and watched everything I could on Knowledge Cafes and felt confident that I could do justice. Catherine McLaren started off the day with some housekeeping and a run through what the content of the day would be. She also introduced Clare Edwards and myself as co-facilitators for the day. Participants were asked to write their expectations from the session on post-its and put it on a board. These were put together as themes and ranged from gaining insights from others to learning about social media.
The first session was the Knowledge Cafe led by me
What went right
I started off by asking if anyone had ever participated or led a Knowledge Cafe to which I got a few hands up. I then had those with the experience to share what the concept was about and it was pretty much spot on. "A knowledge cafe is an opportunity  to bring a group of people together to have an open, creative conversation on a topic of mutual interest. It is meant to be informal, unstructured, fun, social and time-bound. It gives participants the opportunity to share ideas, observe & reflect, tease out information, and gain a deeper understanding".

 With the concept thus explained, I supplied the topic for the Knowledge Cafe "What makes a good library website or intranet page?"

The participants were then asked to split into four groups and with 16 participants, there was an even split of four people per group.

I then requested for 2 volunteers from each group and informed the participants that there will be 3 rounds of 15 minutes each. At the end of each round, my volunteers would move to the next table and begin the conversation again. At the end of the 3rd round all participants would reassemble as one large group for an exchange of ideas. This worked really well and there was a real buzz in the room.

 What went wrong
At the end of the first round, it became obvious the volunteers hadn't realized they needed to move in their pairs. I had to clarify this and in hindsight should have mentioned it earlier.

 Despite trying to stay in the background (I remained seated as much as I could), the buzz in the room seemed to die once participants reassembled into one big group. I had to intervene and elicit contributions but when the contributions came they seemed to be directed at me rather than the group which was not the intention. In hindsight, when the group reassembled I would have reminded them that the segment was the same discussion as before but as one big group and withdrawn myself to the back of the room.

After a quick break, there was a conversation on actions participants planned to take based on what they had learnt during the Knowledge Cafe, who they might need to discuss it with, areas to be changed or developed for quick wins, and how they planned to review what they had done. Participants shared the intention to follow up on ideas such as having Library staff names and pictures on the site and minimizing discrepancies in information on the intranet and internet pages.

The next session was facilitated by Catherine McLaren and it covered how we might measure the impact of social media. She shared some basic information of the average Twitter account in the West Midlands to give a feel for what the statistics were. A very interesting conversation then ensued on what actually constitutes impact of Twitter, tweets, following, followers, likes etc. I shared that I often link tweets to the Trust Twitter handle in the hope of reaching more staff and considered it a win if it was re-tweeted on the Trust account. Although there was no consensus on what would be the answer, the session definitely got everyone thinking. It got me thinking about how many followers of the Library account were actually Library users and therefore if tweets were reaching as many people as we thought.

At this point, we broke for lunch and an opportunity to network.
We returned for a session on Mentoring & Coaching led by Catherine McLaren where the attributes of each one were highlighted and usefulness discussed. There was also a sharing stories session where Liz Askew shared about co-presenting with a student nurse at the library induction for new student nurses. The student nurse shared her positive experience on the benefits of using library services and encouraged the new student cohort to make use of it too. I shared about my experience of professional development as a personal investment. I talked about how I commit personal time to make the most of opportunities, share goals with my line manager so that expectations can be managed, identify support from outside my organization, keep informed by subscribing to blogs and mailing lists, engage in the wider profession especially via Twitter chats, join free groups such as EAHIL & Health Libraries Group and reflect on my experiences which comes in really handy when it is time to revalidate.

After a short break, Clare Edwards facilitated a discussion on what the future holds for Library and Knowledge Services in the NHS. The contributions on this topic resulted in themes such as streamlining services and the effects it would have on demonstrating impact, mergers and more. Participants were asked to feedback on what went well and what could be improved at future events. I thought the day was well put together which gave participants the opportunity to brainstorm away from the hustle and bustle of daily service demands. I learnt a lot and established new relationships.
I have also received feedback that my revalidation for 2017 has been approved so I am really looking forward to a relaxed Christmas. Feliz Navidad and see you in the new year.
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Wednesday, 12 July 2017

Midlands & East Health Libraries Summer Conference 2017

This is the first conference in a collaboration between Health Libraries in the East of England and the Midlands. The conference was held at Abax Stadium in Peterborough and my motive for attending was to try and shake off my impostor syndrome. I have been in my current post for almost a year and I still feel like the new professional on the block. I hoped attending this conference would enable me get a greater understanding of services within my region, put faces to names as well as foster new and stronger relationships for future collaborative opportunities. Coincidentally, the theme for the conference was Collaboration & Partnership and there were over a hundred attendees looking to do just that.

It started off with a welcome from Ruth Carlyle, HEE Midlands and East of England Head of Library and Knowledge Services, who went through housekeeping and also requested for Regional LKS Leads who were present to introduce themselves. David Farrelly, Regional Director for the Midlands and East Health Education England, gave the keynote speech. He talked about how far services in the region have come and the need to champion what we do and what we have accomplished. He also talked about the benefits of having the Knowledge for Healthcare framework and stressed that embedded services are the life blood of everything that we do. There are various challenges across the NHS and it is important for Library Services to focus on how to provide support to meet these challenges. He discussed how connections are being made with professional bodies and supportive services as part of the A million decisions campaign and links between Library Services and Technology Enhanced Learning. I found it to be a good introduction to what can be expected from the conference.
The next speaker was Doug Knock, Library & Knowledge Services Manager at King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. He talked about the Impact Toolkit from the Value and Impact task and finish group. He emphasised that it is essential to show our worth and the value of our services and the need to do this on a regular basis. He went through the content of the Impact Toolkit and the tools available on the KFH Blog. The impact toolkit was created as a metric for success that was generic enough for use by all Library services. He stressed the need to use the questionnaires as they are so that the results can be pulled together nationally. He also talked about the need to know the difference between impact and feedback as well as the importance of not just collecting evidence but making use of them. The impact toolkit is used in my service and is without a doubt one of the most important tasks within the service. I believe it is also necessary to recognise obstacles to its use such as getting service users to participate in case studies and time to collect the evidence. I don't believe this should be a deterrent but it does make it a little bit more difficult.

After a short break where attendees interacted and examined the poster submissions, Mo Hussain, Knowledge and Evidence Specialist, East of England, Public Health England,  gave a session on how they support collaboration between the public health community and NHS libraries. He talked about the difference in the support their Library Services and Evidence Services offer. He also discussed the support they give to local authority public health teams such as access to PHE e-journals, EBSCO Discovery, Annual learning and networking events, practice examples, and searching guides on the Library platform, offering training and organised a mailing list. I intend to join the mailing list as a way of keeping up-to-date with current developments relating to our Public Health counterparts.
Up next, Peter Ransome presented on a collaboration between the Hospital Library services and Dementia teams at James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. He talked about the embedded services they offer to the dementia team such as current awareness, research support, promoting Library services within the team and during Dementia Awareness Week. Ali Thayne shared some practical examples on how this service impacted on patient care in practice. The results received from literature searches led to the use of memory dogs for patient care and had a positive impact on staff morale. They also led to introduction of dignity gowns which reduce indecent incidents with patients.

We broke up for lunch and some networking.
We return from lunch to a session with Ruth Carlyle on working with voluntary sectors and providing public patient information. With growing pressures on NHS services, patients and the public need to be able to access quality information to improve their understanding and support decision making for their care and that of loved ones. She stressed the need for services to work in partnership with other organisations across different sectors. She discussed the Information Standard Kite Mark which identifies organisations certified for generating high quality information and Accessible Information Standard which all NHS and Social Care providers are now required to follow by law.

There were several short breakout sessions. The first I attended was the Best Practice session facilitated by Pip Divall, Clinical Librarian Services Manager, University Hospitals of Leicester.This was very interesting because it was quite interactive rather than just listening to a presentation. Participants discussed whether services were following best practice or even able to identify what is considered to be best practice. This led to a very riveting discussion on whether we as information professionals practice what we preach  which is evidence based practice. There were a lot of reasons mentioned as barriers such as time constraints. Some suggestions made by participants for overcoming obstacles to sharing best practice include blogging about experiences in real-time, setting aside downtime for discussions with colleagues, job shadowing, and tweeting about experiences. Pip has put together a summary from the two sessions she facilitated.

The next breakout session I was at was on Skills modules and led by Preeti Puligari, Deputy Faculty Knowledge Manager/Outreach Librarian, Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust. She talked about a proposed suite of e-learning modules for delivering training for NHS staff called STEP. It is due for launch in the very near future and aims to provide a platform with seven e-learning modules on tpics such as searching principles and HDAS which can be adapted by any Library service for their own use. The modules are aligned to the health sector and incorporate interactive elements e.g. 3-D. It is created in a generic format to suit the needs of staff in all sectors including Public Health and will be centrally located with no requirement for a username or password. There is an absence of screen shots to ensure that it is future-proofed so that if interfaces change, it remains relevant. I look forward to introducing it to our users as a way of refreshing their memory on searching skills. I also wonder if an element of it might be useful for users who are new to searching.

The breakout session on Revalidation for nurses was led by Jane Cooper, Librarian, Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and Catherine McLaren, Library & Knowledge Services Manager, George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust. Catherine talked about how they support nurses through writing reflective accounts of their practice or literature they have found for their revalidation. It involves small groups being engaged (no more than 4) in a confidential environment to enable positive results from the sessions. They talk to those undertaking revalidation and get them to hear from those who have completed it. The service also gathered information sources for revalidation on the Library website which has proved to be quite popular. The sessions provided by Jane involves showing ways of repackaging of existing knowledge over a two and a half hour period. Participants are required to book ahead and asked to bring a topic from their current practice as a basis of the searching they will do. They are shown how to navigate healthcare databases such as Trip, Cochrane and they conduct a search on the topic they have supplied. It is important to try and get participants to feed up to date evidence back into their day to day practice to garner continued support of the service from the Trust. At the end of each session, the participants fill in the reflective template for their revalidation.

Other sessions I was unable to attend were on CASH, Pop-Up Libraries, and the Technology Jam. The twitter comments proved a good way to catch up on these #mehln2017. The conference ended with presentation of prizes for competitions by Ruth Carlyle and Imrana Ghumra, Professional Advisor, Library & Knowledge Services Health Education England, East of England. On that note, I bid farewell to Peterborough.
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Wednesday, 7 June 2017

Moving forward - a catchup post

I fear my blog has been sorely neglected in the past few months. I'm not sure if it was the exhiliaration of completing the Knowledge for Healthcare Leadership Development Programme or the prospect of dealing with the coming financial year but either way I'm back to share what I've been up to since February.

I attended a Synthesising and summarising workshop led by Tim Buckley Owen. The event covered a variety of methods for streamlining and categorising search results for users without losing valuable and relevant papers. The idea is to minimise the work the user has to do from the results received. What stood out to me was the need to scan through my results at least once to get a flavor of what my search retrieves which then puts me in a better position to select, reject and prioritise especially since my background isn't clinical. Although the concept of summarising seemed straight forward, the reality was much more daunting for me. Abstracts can be helpful but in the grand scheme of day to day tasks I find it difficult to incoporate this into my work. There was also a Finding and summarising evidence for service transformation worshop led by Anne Gray. The purpose of the course was to help librarians understand how to find and present evidence for different clientele such as commissioners and managers. I learnt about sources these clientele are normally familiar with and how it informs the decisions they make.

The Searching and beyond workshop led by Morwenna Rogers, Rebecca Abbot, Alison Bethel was a revelation for me. I have not had any direct experience in systematic reviews myself but I have often wondered how I would cope if such a request was made. This workshop put all my fears to rest. It had just the right mix of preparatory work, activities and teaching. I learnt about the various steps involved in completing a systematic revew and what each one entails. From scoping searches to protocols and data extraction, no stone was left unturned. It helped me to make sense of the process and establish questions I should be asking if supporting a systematic review. What I took away as the highlight was the need to determine who is on the systematic review team and identify my role within that team. It has led me to add support for systematic reviews as a service we offer which is currently being promoted.

I was involved in a discussion about the possibility of pursuing a Masters in Library Science without having to pay tuition. My investigation yielded results which really suprised me because apparently you can. It involves the expense of travel but I believe that is a small sacrifice. The University of Boras offers a Masters programme in Library and Information Science, Digital Library and Information Services which is free to EU citizens. It requires the completion of 120 credits over a 2 year period and never fear, the instrucion is in English.

As part of the Midlands E-Procurement Group, I am learning about the resource deals available and it is also giving me the opportunity to put faces to names within my new NHS Library Service region. I am happy to say my project work for the leadership programme proved useful for me when I needed to develop the Library survey. I am looking forward to Health Information Week #HIW2017 and the Midlands and East Health Libraries Summer Conference. I'll be keeping you informed in my next post.


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Monday, 20 February 2017

Knowledge for Healthcare Leadership Programme - One year on

The pilot of the Knowledge for Healthcare Leadership Development Programme is now over and it has been a very interesting journey. It was delivered based on the model of the CILIP Leadership Programme but tailored specifically for healthcare librarians, information and knowledge specialists. It had a cohort of 24 participants split into four project groups. Participants were encouraged to complete the Leadership aspect of the CILIP PKSB to identify skills that might need cultivating or improvement both before and after the programme. We were also required to attend a number of compulsory elements which were held at various locations in England.

Discussions, Webinars, and Workshops
We used the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) portion of the CILIP website to complete activities on leading others and one's self. Some of the topics raised in discussions include leadership, management, the impact toolkit, and networking skills. There were also webinars on leadership theories and approaches, people management, strategic thinking and planning, stakeholder analysis and engagement, project management, and elevator pitches. I found all these very fast paced especially as you try to incorporate it into your daily tasks. It helped that there were no deadlines for specific tasks and I did find it useful to come up with my elevator pitch for varying stakeholders. There were also a series of workshops all participants were required to attend which covered topics such as the introduction to leadership, different leadership styles and the situations in which they are used, communication, and change management.

Action Learning Sets (ALS)
The action learning sets were split into individual project teams. I learnt a lot about coaching and mentoring which serves me when I conduct one-to-one's with colleagues. I also learnt a lot about myself, my hopes, dreams, aspirations and most especially what I did not want for my professional career. It allowed me to share my anxieties in a safe environment and reflect on actions that I might be able to pursue to assuage them. I was also able to offer my support to colleagues and improve my listening skills. I honestly consider it to be the aspect of the course that I looked forward to the most and my team have decided to keep having them even though the programme is over.

 Project
The project I was assigned to involved the preparation, distribution, collation, and analysis of a survey of the development needs of health library staff. The other projects were:
  • Collaborative working across HEE Midlands and the East
  • Identifying the skills base for innovators: a knowledge management initiative for LKS staff to enableknowledge sharing to drive innovation at the Trust level
  • LQAF Peer Review in HEE East Midlands to contribute to the development of a national approach
My team started our project by ascertaining what the expectations were and investigating existing literature and the results from previous surveys. The responsibility for managing the project was split equally between members of the team and rotated as agreed. We were spread across England but with the help of teleconferences, webex and email, we were able to maintain a smooth flow of communication.

We piloted the survey with colleagues before rolling it out in December. It was closed in January and we were able to collect 758 responses. The analysis of the results is currently being carried out. We hope the report will help inform the direction of professional development for health library staff across England. It was a good opportunity to work efficiently with others towards a common goal by sharing ideas and responsibilities.
My wonderful project team

 Conclusion
The programme has brought to the forefront of my mind that leading is not just about managing people but also being productive, improving one's self, reflecting on what you learn, and most of all contributing to the wider profession. It has afforded me the opportunity to foster lasting relationships with colleagues from various geographical locations. I have learnt so much and gained more confidence in my own leadership abilities. I have finally turned to the PKSB to identify gaps in my skill set, consider future career prospects and I also consider it a useful tool when completing my Revalidation.

With the support, understanding and encouragement of my project team and our facilitator, Jo Alcock, I was able to pursue a different role and move cities with a one and seven year old during the course of the programme. I hope this post goes some way in demystifying perceptions of what is expected of participants. Whatever your situation, I strongly recommend it as a positive career move. Whether you are wondering if you are suitably qualified or you have pressing family commitments, my advice is to apply.
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Thursday, 27 October 2016

New job, new city!

Birmingham! Birmingham!! Birmingham!!! I am now a month into a new position as Deputy Library Services Manager, Smallwood Library. I am thoroughly enjoying working for Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust. I'm not sure if eleven years in London has just left a negative impression on me but I find everyone here extremely nice, in and out of the workplace. My kids absolutely love it and I have fantastic neighbours. My colleagues are very helpful and accommodating of my eccentricities. It all more than makes up for uprooting my family from London.

This role involves some line management responsibility which I haven't had in the past and I am learning a lot. I have been able to apply my previous experience to my current role and my line manager has gives me the support I need to run with my ideas. I find the network of Health Libraries in the West Midlands to be a very strong one. The only set back is that I know very few people, a problem I am doing my utmost to rectify. There are still many things I really need to get on top of. The Value and Impact Toolkit, Talent Management Toolkit,  PKSB for Health, the Learning Zone ... the list seems endless.

I attended a Costing course led by Dave Little, Library Services Manager, Shrewsbury & Telford Health Libraries. It opened my eyes to how the cost implications for tasks can fluctuate depending on which member of staff is carrying out the task. It is important to consider how much each hour of a staff member's time costs and whether they are the best person to perform the task for optimal service productivity.

Following on from my group project on Library staff training needs analysis for the K4H Leadership Programme which will be completed in February 2017, I decided to keep the momentum going by joining the CPD Task and Finish Group. I have always been invested in professional development and I find it interesting to see what the current preferences are compared to what is currently available. The action learning sets which are a part of the K4H Leadership Programme have been a life saver. It isn't often that you get to voice your concerns (personal or professional) with a group knowing there will be no judgement. My project team have been so helpful and supportive and I am so glad to have met such a great bunch of people.

I admit to having been skeptical of the new HDAS platform. I have avoided it until I had no choice and I am glad to report that it is starting to grow on me. One of my favourite features which frustrated me no end in the old one is the ability to make changes to search line and the changes are applied to the entire search wherever affected. I felt like I had won the lottery when I came across this. I hope to unveil more attractive features with use in the coming weeks. It is all very exciting.

Image (c) Creative Commons - N Chadwick
My revalidation is due next month and the only thing keeping me calm is the knowledge that I have spent the past year populating my CPD portfolio on the CILIP VLE as I go along. I still have to write my reflective statement though. I better get cracking.
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Friday, 16 September 2016

DAY 2: Health Libraries Group (HLG) Conference 2016

Day 2 of the conference promised to be as interesting as Day 1 as it started off with a Keynote speech by CILIP President Nick Poole on championing the role of information professionals in the future of healthcare. He stressed that we are sailing into an era in which evidence is all and we need to keep adapting and cannot afford to be complacent. He highlighted that the representation of information professionals can no longer be defined by job title, something that resonated with me from past experience completing surveys. He rounded up with the view that the future of the healthcare sector depends on harnessing the skills and ethics of Library and information professionals to deliver services that are smart, sustainable and future-proof. It is important to share the good work we do to demonstrate the value of trained professionals in the healthcare sector.
This was followed by an inspirational keynote speech by Lynn Daniel on how Expert Patient Programme Courses (EPP) helps people with long term conditions self-manage. The programme tutors and volunteers consist of ex-participants with long term condition themselves who can relate to the issues participants are facing. Some of the techniques they teach include distraction from pain, positive thinking/affirmation, action planning, problem solving, healthy eating, relaxation, mind body connection and physical activity. Some of the attributes she reported participants developing include a can do attitude, confidence, coping strategies, self-belief, positive thinking, empathy with others and an understanding that others have the same issues as they do.

David Stewart presented the first parallel session I attended on Knowledge for Healthcare: workforce planning, development and beginning the transformation. He showcased some of the achievements such as key CPD resources like the PKSB for health, Learning Zone, Leadership Programme, Talent Management Toolkit and a national CPD programme in the works. He talked about the existing criteria for the redesign of library and knowledge services and ideas such as a national library management system. I found Philip Barlow's presentation on producing introductory videos for library services interesting. It was useful to get to grasp with the real challenges they present such as finding time to record, a quiet place to do the recording and arranging with those appearing on screen. Philip stressed the need for the videos to be concise, to the point and welcoming. The video he produced covered the nature of the library service and was split into four sections on how to join, that you can borrow, electronic resources and training. It lasted 6 minutes (90 seconds per section) and took 14 weeks to complete. They introduced the video using multiple languages to make it friendly. These videos get NHS users to consider using the Library before they actually need it. It isn't always easy to get a slot for the Library at inductions or part with library staff to attend these inductions so these videos are a very useful alternative. He finished with a reference to a good presentation on online training using screencasting by Jane Cooper.

After a short break, I attended a parallel session on reviewing the NHS Library Quality Assurance Framework (LQAF) by Dominic Gilroy, Clare Edwards, and Linda Ferguson. Linda started off with the history of quality assurance in NHS Libraries and highlighted what past assurance systems have achieved which include new positions, investments, refurbishments, raised profiles, evidence, innovation and service improvement. Clare then talked about issues necessitating a review now such as the constantly changing NHS environment, meeting the KFH aims, and the HEE Quality Strategy and Framework. Dominic talked about the initial work that has been done on the revised LQAF. The emphasis is on a product that is aligned to the HEE Quality Startegy, HEE Quality Framework, and Knowledge for Healthcare. A non-restrictive product which is outcomes focused. Completion time and effort required needs to be minimised and it should be applicable across the NHS in England. They have agreed on the aims of the Task and Finish Group, engaged in a literature review, gathered feedback from library services and are awaiting outputs of the evaluation framework sessions. There was a hands-on exercise requiring attendees to consider a quality assurance exercise they have taken part in and complete the sentence, LQAF would be even better if ..... Recurring themes included the need to be less time intensive, more focussed, less frequent, common understanding, more friendly, also a visual board for the financial year where feedback and evidence collected can be added for collation when LQAF is due.

We broke up for lunch which gave me the opportunity to catch up with members of my project team on the Knowledge for Healthcare Leadership Programme. This was followed by the Bishop and LeFanu Memorial Lecture where Triathlon coach Gareth Allen presented on how exercise can have a positive effect on mental health. It linked well with the earlier speech by Lynn Daniel. He talked about the benefits of physical exercise on mental wellbeing and gave case studies with practical examples on how exercise has helped some patients with mental health issues alleviate their condition. Some implemented solutions for mental wellbeing include Fieldhead Fit, Parkrun, Running / Sports Club and Low intensity exercise for those with less mobility.

There was a Question Time panel where thought provoking questions were both asked and answered from the floor and the panel. It was all quite intense. They covered what the single most important priority for Knowledge for Healthcare is (Patient and Public agenda), linking Knowledge for Healthcare to the Higher Education sector, issues with HDAS, succession planning, role reclassification from Admin/Clerical to Scientific/Technical, affordability of accredited courses, loss of the wealth of knowledge and existing skills from NHS Direct and pro-rata CILIP membership fees for part-time staff.
The last session I attended was on practical tools to collect evidence of impact using the online toolkit by Susan Smith & Doug Knock. There was a great exercise which encouraged us to arrange our evidence in order from feedback to impact as a way of identifying what is most relevant for submission to demonstrate the value of the service being offered. It is also important to consider whom the measures are being done for. The conference closed with Sarah Hennessy thanking speakers, sponsors, attendees and giving out the prizes for competitions including exhibition posters.

A lot of the conversations I had steered me towards how much the conference content centred on NHS work and how attendees from other health sectors would probably feel left out. This is something that would need to be rectified if we are to foster partnerships for Knowledge for Healthcare. I had a great time at my first HLG Conference and learnt a lot that can be implemented in my own service. Looking back, I feel like I could have done more but I was quite wiped out by the end. There was a lot of content and not quite enough time to process them. It left me wondering if an annual one day conference supplemented by frequent workshops might be an option. It would probably make it more affordable for those willing to self-fund and might make it easier to convince organisations to sponsor. It could result in boosted attendance and perhaps more paraprofessional attendees. Food for thought.
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