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.

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.

Identifying expectations at LKS band 5 and 6 network meeting in Birmingham. Learning from peers and sharing ideas #HEELKS pic.twitter.com/mtfwWCPAPC

— Clare Edwards (@ClareEdwards311) November 30, 2017

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.

Meed a nice hot cup of coffee #HEELKS pic.twitter.com/ljVqIBaITW

— Medical Librarian (@medlibrarian2) November 30, 2017

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.

pic.twitter.com/KH1kS1qSBp

— Sherin Francis (@sherinlibrarian) 30 November 2017

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.

Clinical Librarianship

Image (c) Creative Commons - Susan Smith

Embedding the librarian role in the clinical setting is now an area of impact assessment for NHS libraries. As my role evolves to extend our outreach services to clinical teams, I find myself slightly overwhelmed. I shadowed the Clinical Librarian at a clinical meeting before gathering the courage to attend one in the Endocrinology department. I found it very interesting as the case study resulted in discussions on a paper to be written and I was asked to assist in the literature searches. I was also on hand to answer questions on assessing Athens as well as any clinical information resources we might currently have access to. I have worked in health libraries for a little while but this experience made me realise that as librarians, it is easy to cut ourselves off from the reality of the services we render. It has brought home the realities of individual patients. No longer do I deal with a scenario but I am performing a task to help a specific person who I know by name even if I never meet them.

I shadowed a cardiology ward round today which I found very tasking. Needless to say that after 4 hours straight on my feet I had a new appreciation for what ward rounds involve. I found I had to remind myself why I was there as each patient's situation left me somewhat sad. The ward round did result in two literature search requests as well as a request for help registering for Athens. I feel I am now able to attend a ward round on my own and plan to do so at the earliest opportunity. I am following the University Hospitals of Leicester Clinical Librarian Service Blog to keep abreast of new developments and I have been invited to attend grand round on my hospital site.

My other duties have not suffered though. I have been updating presentation and training materials. I trained a few nurses over the past week and represented the KLS at an induction for student nurses. I have also been able to make some headway with the pop-up library. I will be piloting the service once a week between 12pm and 2pm every Wednesday in April. I have been able to book a location and will pick up a display banner next week. I am now looking at how to obtain feedback to improve impact.

University Health & Medical Librarians Group Spring Forum 06/03/15 #UHMLGSF15

 Survival of the fittest: changing environments, evolving roles, and new skills for librarians in healthcare

The UHMLG 2015 Spring Forum was held at the Royal Society of Medicine and I was fortunate enough to attend as it was paid for by my department. There were about 100 delegates and sponsors including Dynamed, Oxford University Press, Mark Allen, BMJ, Wiley and more. I had the opportunity to re-establish connections with library colleagues and service providers I have not been in contact with since I went on maternity leave. It was a one day event which centered on how roles, services and staff skills need to change to meet changing needs and expectations in healthcare. It started off with a welcome address from Donald Mackay, Head of Health Care Libraries, Bodleian Libraries.

The first speaker introduced was Jason Briddon, Director of Library Services, University of West of England. His talk covered how librarians with the Higher Education sector are developing skills to meet changes in how services are rendered and what needs to be done to meet user expectations. He raised the lego four horsemen of the library apocalypse:

• unsustainable costs as the need for the library existence is constantly challenged by finance
• variable alternatives as sources of information
• decreasing demand for physical stock as engagement with digital content increases and there is increased use of the library space and chat support
• views of the library as not meeting user demands

He also referred to the NMC Horizon Report emphasizing the challenges of embedding the librarian within the curriculum working with academic staff. We need to rethink library roles and skills and see people trained in different fields as assets to the Library and use it to our advantage. He went on to discuss the OCLC Report: At a tipping point which explores students perspectives and future expectations of the library. We need to embrace the need for radical changes in anticipation of changes to the library in future and embed ourselves in the e-learning environment to ensure online learners see us as facilitators and engage more with us. There will be a need for evolving partnerships and collaborations, flexibility, agility, innovation and an increasing number of library staff from different professional backgrounds.

The next speaker was David Stewart, Director or Health Libraries North West. His talk focused a published document strategy for NHS Knowledge and Library Service for 2015-20, Knowledge for healthcare. This document was requested when Health Education England LKSL asked for £2m for recurrent national core content to cover a three year period. It's importance cannot be overemphasized as previous similar documents were never published and it also provides resources to support its implementation. There are four strategic themes focusing on transforming service.

• Proactive customer-focused services
• Quick and easy access to evidence
• Effective leadership, planning and development of the healthcare library and knowledge services workforce
• Optimising funding for best value

It invites information professionals to help take its themes forward and achieve its aims. We need to be asking ourselves three questions.

• What is working well with the current LKS provision?
• What part of the vision resonates with us?
• What can we do together?

This is a working document and we need to consider what our key priorities should be for implementing the recommendations in the long term.

Ruth Murphy, Library Learning and Teaching Manager and Sonya Lipczynska, Library Liaison Manager, both from Kings College London were next and their talk covered how librarians perceive their roles as teachers. They referred to a 1979 Pauline Wilson article and her thoughts on the fact that librarianship and academia should be kept separate. Wilson stated "it is a fiction that librarians are teachers. The fiction is used by librarians to provide a more comforting self-image, to bolster a status claim, and to relate the profession to the world outside it". Needless to say, the statement caused an uproar but then it raised the question, Is there a difference between teachers and trainers? To answer this, the pair looked to the KCL mission statement and determined that the library is central to the student learning journey. Sonya highlighted that she progressed through peer support, experience, trial and lots of error. She obtained a Certificate in Academic Practice which helped her reflect on what she was doing and how she could make small but positive changes. Ruth employed practice from experience and peer support. She also obtained certificates in learning and development activities and more. How practice was impacted was discussed as they moved from surface to deep learning. It had longer term benefits to the students as they were engaged by giving scenarios and asking them to teach each other what they learn. Their online environment is Keats but they also use Libguides to bring content together for groups and use Pollseverywhere to confirm understanding of what is learnt. They expanded their portfolio to include academic writing and maths & statistics support but find that there is a need to standardise language used, clarify academic departmental expectations (just ask them what they want), set clear learning objectives and knowledge outcomes, and distinguish between awareness, instructional training and knowledge development sessions.

We were joined next by Janette Colcough, Research Support Manager, University of York and Pat Spoor, Scholarly Communications and Research Skills (SCoRes) Team Leader, University of Leeds. They discussed how their university libraries have been restructured to take on new roles and responsibilities highlighting that neither of their roles have the term library or librarian in it. The new teams were created from the old and reorganised by function which created a need for change management and staff reallocation. It also meant that not everyone had the job they wanted but at least everyone had a job. Teams focused on collection development, research support and teaching and learning. The restructuring provided a more dedicated support to service provision and increased support to meet research needs. The session highlights the need to change how we perceive our roles in libraries. There should be librarians for new roles and not new roles for librarians.


Next up was Erica Rae, Public Health & Commissioning Librarian, Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust. She discusses the WSKL merged library service and how rather complicated NHS changes turned her into a hotdesking outreach librarian with just a laptop and a mobile phone. The print collection was moved back to parent libraries and all journals provided were now in electronic format. All correspondence is also via email. Her role made her less visible and started on a six month trial basis. This meant if she could not get funded, she'd end up jobless. Three years on found her fully embedded with a full contract taken on by the City Council. The physical challenges she faced include loss of contact with colleagues, loss of a physical library collection, travel issues and associated admin expenses, technological challenges such as network issues. Practical challenges included the need for new skills, requirement for new sources and resources and funding issues.

The next speaker was Rosalind Francis, Health and Social Care Librarian, University of Greenwich and she talked about participating in the going for GOLD programme (Greenwich Opportunities in Learning Development).  She wanted to obtain acknowledgement for her efforts so pursued becoming an Associated Fellow of the Higher Education Academy using the UK Professional Standards Framework. The AF is the most common level for librarians as it applies to those who support student learning. She found the criteria similar to Chartership but more straightforward and confided that she gained a greater sense of achievement through this process than through Chartership. It enabled her tailor sessions in response to enquiries thereby gaining an idea of information needs of different users, gain professional recognition for learned skills, reflect on teaching and boost departmental and institutional reputation. The process does not require much evidence as the referees supplied by the candidate are there to observe and support the claims of what has been achieved.

At this juncture, we broke for a well deserved and enjoyable lunch. It gave me the opportunity to network and visit exhibition stands. The next speaker was Fiona Ware, Academic Liaison Librarian, University of Hull,  who discussed her role supporting systematic reviews. She highlights the issue of being asked for help with systematic reviews which turn out not to be systematic reviews and the need to re-educate academics on what constitutes a systematic review. She helped PhDs with a systematic review which got her an authorship mention but took an entire year to complete and requires an update within one year. All this does not come without its challenges and they include time, the need to refresh skills, the amount of repeated work required and the weight of responsibility. There is an organisational review taking place which does not include an Academic Liaison Librarian role so she is providing a service that may cease to exist leaving her without a job.

Laura Wilkes, Library and Knowledge Services Manager, West Suffolk Hospital, then joined us for a very interesting talk about her role as an Innovation Scout. It is a voluntary role which helps identify new innovations within the NHS to the Health Enterprise East for development. She raises awareness of innovation in her organisation, promotes the adoption and diffusion of new ideas and targets the corporates to raise the profile of the library and ultimately obtain funding. This has enabled her achieve a revised Intellectual Property policy to include the innovation scout, get an Intellectual Property lead, set up meetings quarterly with the DCEO, promote the role with an innovation webpage on the library website, register a trademark for a tray developed called Rosevital which delivers wipes and earplugs and helped reduce noise complaints at night from 85% to 15%. She was Runner up in the Sally Hernando Awards and an Innovation award has now been added to the annual Shining Lights Awards sponsored by the HEE. One of the great challenges for her is time as she does this on top of her day job. The ideas provided need to be seen from the perspective of the Executives and hard questions need to be asked such as what impact will it have and how much will developing the idea cost? The good thing is that all ideas are filtered by the library first, literature searches are then carried out to support the ides and test its viability.

Next was the Panel discussion with roving mics chaired by Betsy Anagnostelis. Sue Lacey Bryant, Senior Development Advisor, Health Education England, came on to talk about career portfolio and how she has navigated a range of roles within the NHS over the years. She advised new professionals to invest in management skills and play to their strengths. Do what you're good at, steer your own development, learn from experience and from others, learn to adapt and test your personal resilience. I was struck by her candor and it made me realise that most times we do not think we have the knowledge and experience for a role but with the network of support in the profession and by learning on the job, we can achieve a lot more than we give ourselves credit for.

Donald Mackay thanked sponsors and speakers and I got a tour of the Royal Society of Medicine Library. This was my first time at a UHMLG Forum and it was a day well spent with a lot of information obtained and good relationships fostered. That's the currency you need in this profession so I'm feeling very wealthy.