Applications are now open for the 2016 Award.  Please see our Guide for Applicants. The deadline for receipt of applications is 22nd April 2016.  Please see the HLG International Award page for more details.

Please see the Events page for more informaton on the following events:

Local History Day - Stockton-on-Tees Library - Wed. 11th May 

Dementia Awareness and Reminiscence Training - Lancashire Archives, Preston -  Tues. 12th April

Past into future: making local history accessible for current and future generations - Morden Library - Thurs. 21st April 

Wed. 11th May, 10.30 - 4.30

Local History Day will be held at Stockton-on-Tees Library.  

Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council,
Municipal Buildings,
Church Road,
Stockton-on-Tees,
TS18 1LD

12th April at Lancashire Archives, Preston (09.30-13.00 hrs)

Cost: Free

Delivered by Libby Lawrence, freelance trainer and followed by the NWARA Annual General Meeting at 14.00 hrs. The aims and objectives of the training are outlined below. Any interested members should contact Michael Stephens, NWARA Training Officer michael.stephens@cumbria.gov.uk to book a place.

(maximum 25 delegates).

Thurs. 21st April   

Local Studies Group South Forum 2016   Cost: Free

ARLG-South West are offering a sponsored place for a Masters student to attend the 5th DARTS (Discover Academic Research, Training & Support) Conference  taking place June 2nd and 3rd at Dartington Hall in Devon. Applicants must work in a Higher Education or Research Library based in the South-West and be a current Masters student. A fully paid residential conference place, including overnight accommodation on the Thursday, all meals and the conference dinner are included. In exchange we ask that the successful applicant write a blog post for ARLG – South West, which may also be used for publication and promotion.

To apply, please email Claire Stevens at: cstevens@marjon.ac.uk with approximately 300 words on:

-              Why you would like to attend.

-              How you feel attending the conference would improve your personal and professional development.

-              How it will impact on your working practice.

Applications must be received by midday on Friday April 15th and applicants will be notified of the committee's decision by Friday April 22nd via email.

More details, including eligibility requirements, are available at the ARLG-SW DARTS5 website at: https://arlgdarts.wordpress.com/

Open Access (OA) to research literature, as both a concept and a movement, has been with us for many years – so how can it be described as new?

In 2002 the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) set out the principles of Open Access to research literature.  The statement, re-endorsed in 2012, is long and radical.  A more concise definition is provided by Peter Suber: Open Access literature is “digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions”.

Open Access, in both its Green and Gold forms, is generally accepted by the scholarly community.  Major influencers and funders (such as HEFCE and the EU) are now committed to increasing the range of Open Access. 

The EU for instance is funding an important research project, Open Access Policy Alignment Strategies for European Union Research (PASTEUR4OA).  The project has identified the critical elements of policies that increase OA availability.  It is to be expected that funders’ policies throughout Europe will become increasingly aligned and harmonised to reflect the findings of PASTEUR4OA, thus increasing the range of OA.

Following Open Access to the research literature, Open Access to the data created or assembled in the research process has moved centre stage for funders such as the EU and international bodies such as the OECD.  The OECD stresses the economic importance of Open Data in:

• reducing duplication and the costs of creating, transferring and re-using data; enabling more research on the same data; … increasing transparency and quality in the research validation process, by
• allowing greater replication and validation of scientific results.

Now the concept of openness is being extended even further with the new emphasis on Open Science.  Open Science is not simply about the communication of outputs, but is about transforming the entire research process, exploiting technological developments, new communication tools and the cultural change that is visible in collaborative projects.

Open Science means that every step of the research process is as open as possible, including:

• open notebooks (documenting and sharing the experimental process);
• open data (ensuring that research data is optimised for discoverability, sharing and re-use);
• open research software;
• open access (ensuring maximum impact by freely publishing outputs).

Further evidence of this widening from Open Access and Open Data to Open Science is provided by the development by SPARC Europe of a tool for visualising, discussing and monitoring how open an institution’s research is. Another EU project, FOSTER (Facilitate Open Science Training for European Research), is creating and assembling a wide range of training resources covering all aspects of Open Science.

Open Access can be seen as a variant of what Christensen terms a disruptive technology (Christensen, C.M. 1997. The Innovator’s Dilemma. Boston: Harvard Business School Press). He sees sustaining technologies as generally improving the performance of established products, pursued by companies that focus on their existing customer base. Disruptive technologies are generally very different: they underperform existing products, but have different features that are attractive to fringe customers, and are cheaper, simpler, smaller, easier to use.  They start out as occupying a niche, but suddenly take over the market.  An example is Kodak, a major international company, which concentrated on its analogue technology and lost all its world market to digital imaging.

One can make the argument that OA began as a niche product and was for the user cheap, simple, small scale (articles not journals) and easy to access.  Subsequently, the underlying concept of openness has developed to be applied to all elements of the scientific research process, and may well have a (beneficial) disruptive effect on that process.  The circumscribed, sterile format of the article, for instance, is a product of the traditional print medium.  Freed from that strait jacket its content can become dynamic, developed and refined by the scholarly community at large.

Our professional challenge is to support researchers, institutions and funders through the radical changes that this disruptive technology is engendering in the research process itself.

Download UKeiG’s White Paper Open Science, Open Data, Open Access, by David Ball

The latest issue of Library & Information History (Vol. 32, Issue 1-2, 2016) celebrates Peter Hoare's 80th birthday.  Read it online here until 30 June 2016. 

CILIP has launched its most exciting and ambitious programme yet for its Conference taking place in Brighton – 12-13 July and we hope that you will be able to join UKeiG there and come to meet us in the Special Interest Group area where we will be based.

The CILIP Conference brings 100s of library and information professionals together for two days of discussion and debate as well as networking and fun. Leading keynotes – Scott Bonner, Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt and Becci Louise – look at the important role libraries play in times of crisis, the social and economic value of data and information and the power of the written word to promote health and wellbeing. The breakout sessions reflect the diversity of the sector with presentations from organisations as diverse as the Royal Shakespeare Company, Morgan Stanley, the Tinder Foundation and Staffordshire County Council.

In each of the three themes – Managing Information, Everyday Innovation and Using Technology – there will be a session of interest to members of our group. The Reading Agency has developed a reading outcomes framework and an evaluation toolkit and the presentation by Laura Venning is about the project outputs and how they can benefit you. Lauren Dodd, a PHD student discusses her qualitative big data study examining the information behaviour of aspiring undergraduates demonstrating that just because adolescents have the digital world at their fingertips, this doesn’t mean that they can use it effectively.

Librarians from Leeds Beckett University discuss their ideas to develop the digital and information literacy skills of all University staff who support teaching and learning, including increased provision of events and the creation of a collaborative LibGuide with other Professional Services staff in order to emphasise and support opportunities for applying digital literacy skills in the workplace.

For a full list of sessions, including abstracts and biographies, visit http://bit.ly/Conf16SIG. Select Sessions.

These sessions and keynotes will be complemented by a series of workshops and presentations, run by CILIP, under the heading “Your Career” to help with your professional development and approach to advocacy within the workplace and profession. Alongside the main conference, the Fringe events in partnership with Carnegie UK Trust will provide a more relaxed approach. There will be a range of workshops, Q&A with Scott Bonner and a live illustration presentation by children’s laureate Chris Riddell.

The Early Bird discounts end on 29 April.

A public libraries dataset published today by the BBC has revealed the extent of losses to public library services and paid staff since 2010.

According to the data compiled from FOI requests returned by 207 authorities responsible for running libraries across the UK, almost 8,000 jobs in UK public libraries have disappeared in six years and 343 libraries have closed, with over 15,000 volunteers recruited to the library service.

Comment from CILIP Chief Executive Nick Poole:

"Through CILIP’s My Library By Right campaign, we have been campaigning to highlight the neglect of our statutory rights to quality libraries and the national crisis as a result of the loss and hollowing out of public library services.  It’s very important that the BBC has responded with a comprehensive investigation to evidence the scale and nature of changes to the public library service over the past 5 years, which independently verifies data and figures about services nationally that had previously been contested.

The statistics published by the BBC today, showing the closure of 342 UK public libraries and the loss of a quarter of paid library staff jobs since 2010, demonstrate again the damage caused by hastily implemented austerity and devolution policies without a robust strategic plan for libraries.

Volunteers have always been a vibrant part of our library service, but they cannot replace the expertise, ethics and professional skills of qualified staff, who are fundamental to providing the quality library services that we are all entitled to by law.

We have worked closely with the Leadership for Libraries Taskforce to develop a strategic plan for public libraries in England and we welcome the recent publication of Libraries Deliver. As the BBC statistics show, it could not have been published at a more crucial time. It is an opportunity to create a healthy, vibrant network with strong national leadership and tailored local delivery and it clearly recognises the value of skilled library and information staff. I encourage the library and information sector to provide their views and opinions through the consultation.”

Nick has given interviews to 17 BBC radio stations this morning talking about the importance of library services to local communities.

• BBC Northampton - two interviews, inlcuding Northampton's lunchtime programme (Segment starts at 06:10)
• BBC Three Counties: Listen back  (Segment starts at 01:47:40)
• Lancashire
• Wiltshire
• Leeds
• Leicester
• Kent
• Shropshire
• Sheffield
• Devon
• Lincolnshire
• Manchester
• Stoke
• Kent
• Berkshire
• York
• Solent

The following is a copy of the NISO press release of 22nd March, which we believe will be of interest to our members:

Baltimore, MD - March 22, 2016 - The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) seeks comments on the draft Altmetrics Definitions and Use Cases document, NISO RP-25-201X-1. The draft is an output of the NISO Altmetrics Initiative, a two-phase project aiming to address limitations and gaps that may hinder the adoption of altmetrics, an expansion of tools available for measuring scholarly impact of research in the knowledge environment. Draft output from one NISO altmetrics working group studying data quality was released for comment earlier this month, and further draft outputs from a third working group addressing specific output types, including data metrics and use of persistent identifiers, will be released soon.

"The Definitions and Use Cases document is short, but encapsulates the many discussions the working group held to review and hash out definitions from many diverse sources of information in the altmetrics field," remarks Robin Chin Roemer, Instructional Design & Outreach Services Librarian at the University of Washington Libraries, and co-chair of Working Group A (Definitions & Use Cases), the group that developed this document. "We also include a statement about the role that alternative assessment metrics plays in research evaluation, to help place the document in context and advise on altmetrics' possible applications."

"Use cases for altmetrics are driven by different stakeholders in the research ecosystem," adds Michael Habib, a consultant working in scholarly communication, publishing, and library markets and co-chair of Working Group A (Definitions & Use Cases). "The NISO document means to highlight the different ways in which the stakeholders collect, develop, and consume altmetrics, and to explain and contextualize commonalities between stakeholders' needs, goals, and usages."

"Members of the working group and NISO are interested in receiving wide feedback on this draft document, to be incorporated into the final version to be published by NISO later this spring," comments Nettie Lagace, NISO Associate Director for Programs. "Working Group A's output lies the groundwork for the other two working groups in that the definition of terms used allows different stakeholders in this space to understand when they are talking about the same thing. In addition, the development of use cases and their relationship to stakeholder groups clarifies requirements and priorities for further development."

The draft Recommended Practice is open for public comments through April 20, 2016. To download the draft or submit online comments, visit the NISO Altmetrics Initiative web page at http://www.niso.org/topics/tl/altmetrics_initiative/

About NISO
NISO, based in Baltimore, Maryland, fosters the development and maintenance of standards that facilitate the creation, persistent management, and effective interchange of information so that it can be trusted for use in research and learning. To fulfill this mission, NISO engages libraries, publishers, information aggregators, and other organizations that support learning, research, and scholarship through the creation, organization, management, and curation of knowledge. NISO works with intersecting communities of interest and across the entire lifecycle of information standards. NISO is a not-for-profit association accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). For more information, visit the NISO website.

The March 2016 issue of Network News, the newsletter of the West Midlands Member Network, is out now and you can read it from our Newsletter Section

This edition features reports from the our recent Member's Day held at The Hive, Worcester as well as details of a Conference Bursary that our members can use to apply to for any Conference they wish to attend!

http://info.cilip.org.uk/wENvN...

Background to the Collection/Library – The British Library serves business and industry, researchers, academics and students, in the UK and world-wide

Each year:

• Six million searches are generated by the British Library online catalogue
• Nearly 400,000 visit our Reading Rooms
• Over 100 million items have been supplied to users all over the world

The visit will include: a guided tour of the building visiting at least one Library Reading Room, a basement tour and viewing of special collection items.

For further details see their website at: http://www.bl.uk/aboutus/index.html

The visit is free, with a maximum of 16 places.

Please contact Vicky Robertson v.robertson@ucl.ac.uk to book a place – the deadline for booking will be Wednesday 15th June.

Public libraries deliver real value and impact for millions of people every year. They help people find information, develop their skills, get online, participate in their communities and access vital services such as health and education.

As part of the Leadership for Libraries Taskforce, CILIP has played an active role in lobbying for a national strategy in order to secure the future of our public libraries in England. We welcome the publication of Libraries Deliver: Ambition for Public Libraries in England 2016-2021 as a step towards this strategy. We have been actively involved in drafting the document and are encouraging our membership to engage with the consultation to try and secure the best outcome from Libraries Deliver.

Executive summary of Libraries Deliver

A roadmap for library development

Ambition and Opportunity, the national strategy for public libraries in Scotland speaks of a ‘compass and a roadmap’. In England, the Sieghart report provided us with the impetus to develop a thriving public library offer but not the roadmap to get us there.

The Taskforce has provided a platform to develop this roadmap, bringing together a range of views about what public libraries should deliver in the future and how they should be supported and developed. We have heard from a range of stakeholders and users about their hopes and expectations of the library network and our leadership of it.

CILIP’s vision is of a thriving, properly-resourced public library networked developed in partnership between skilled professionals, Local Government and communities. We want to see a structured approach to their development and promotion which ensures that everyone can benefit from a quality library service. We will fight hard to secure this outcome, building on the legal basis of the My Library By Right campaign, because it is what we believe is in the best interests of the public.

Celebrating progress, promoting better choices

It is clear that it is time to move on from discussing what libraries do and to get busy with the active stewardship of and investment in the network to secure these benefits for current and future generations.

In developing the way ahead, we have to acknowledge that while a significant proportion of Local Authorities have failed to understand the value and impact of a properly-resourced library there are many others that have actively protected and invested in their library services through a period of very significant cuts.

CILIP believes that it is important to celebrate and acknowledge this commitment while using the law to hold to account those Authorities that are making short-term and ill-informed choices about their libraries. That is why we are moving into the second phase of the successful My Library By Right campaign with a programme of direct engagement with Local Authorities.

It is also why we welcome the Libraries deliver proposals for a clear set of expectations for Local Authorities to use and an accompanying accreditation scheme to celebrate when they are met.

Martyn Evans Chief Executive of Carnegie UK Trust and Chair of the working group that developed the Scottish public libraries strategy said, “Libraries Deliver is a critical step in securing a confident  future for libraries at the heart public policy making in England. It seeks to draw library advocates and campaigners closer to library funders and those with wider interests. It is both challenging and ambitious. It moves the debate decisively on from a circular repetition of what libraries are good at to a much more persuasive, and potentially far more powerful, argument about what libraries are good for. It deserves the widest support.”

Putting the plan into action

CILIP has worked with partners in the Leadership for Libraries Taskforce to deliver a document which is ambitious but realistic in the context of differing views about the role of public libraries. We would like to encourage all of our members to engage with it and to join us in seeking the following improvements:

• The strengthening of the document to move from an ‘ambition’ to a robust Strategic Plan for Public Libraries in England
• A clear Implementation Plan with a timeline and a transparent monitoring and reporting regime to measure progress
• Sufficient budget and realistic long-term funding proposals for library infrastructure, stock and staff as well as projects and initiatives
• The active and visible engagement of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in overseeing the strategy and challenging Local Authority decision-making where this further undermines the provision of a ‘comprehensive and efficient’ service
• Proposals to work with public library staff and leaders to raise public and media awareness of the tremendous positive impact of their existing work

Libraries Deliver is an important step toward the realisation of an exciting and positive vision of the way ahead for public libraries in England. It does not yet deliver the detailed implementation and funding plans which it will ultimately need to, but it does represent significant progress in building consensus between the profession, library leadership and Local Government and securing active engagement from Government.

I encourage CILIP members to engage with the document, share your ideas and help us in securing an effective strategy for the future.

This one day workshop will provide participants with a background to mentoring, a basic framework for conducting mentoring both long and short term.  The focus of the event is to enable participants to develop effectively as mentors in the context of the CILIP professional development scheme.

The CILIP London Member Network (LMN), with support from the Library Trust, is offering 5 bursaries of up to £200 each for attendance at the CILIP Conference 2016 in Brighton, 12-13 July 2016.

Closing date for applications: Saturday 30 April 2016

A bursary is intended to cover accommodation in and travel to Brighton. The cost of registration for the conference as a full-time delegate will be paid direct by the LMN on behalf of the bursary winners. Full details of the Conference can be found on the CILIP website.

Applicants must be current members of the LMN. They will be responsible for booking their own accommodation and travel but will be reimbursed up to a total of £200, subject to receipts.

Applicants should provide a brief statement (200 words maximum) outlining how attendance at the CILIP Conference 2016 will contribute to their professional development, and how they intend to share their conference experience with the rest of the LMN (for example, through social media).They should also include their name and contact details including an email address and current employment details.

Selection will be by one or more of the LMN Committee Members and their decision is final; no feedback will be provided.

To complement the use of social media, the successful applicants may be asked to make short written reports (about 300 words maximum) to the LMN Committee within one month in a form suitable for circulation - at the Committee’s discretion - to London Members via the Email Monthly Newsletter.

Please apply to the Secretary, Jeremy Crumplin (jdcrumplin@gmail.com) with copy to the Chair, Peter Beauchamp (peterbeauchamp46@gmail.com).

The CILIP London Member Network (LMN), with support from the Library Trust, is offering 5 bursaries of up to £200 each for attendance at the CILIP Conference 2016 in Brighton, 12-13 July 2016.

Closing date for applications: 22nd April 2016

A bursary is intended to cover accommodation in and travel to Brighton. The cost of registration for the conference as a full-time delegate will be paid direct by the LMN on behalf of the bursary winners. Full details of the Conference can be found on the CILIP website.

Applicants must be current members of the LMN. They will be responsible for booking their own accommodation and travel but will be reimbursed up to a total of £200, subject to receipts.

Applicants should provide a brief statement (200 words maximum) outlining how attendance at the CILIP Conference 2016 will contribute to their professional development, and how they intend to share their conference experience with the rest of the LMN (for example, through social media).They should also include their name and contact details including an email address and current employment details.

Selection will be by one or more of the LMN Committee Members and their decision is final; no feedback will be provided.

To complement the use of social media, the successful applicants may be asked to make short written reports (about 300 words maximum) to the LMN Committee within one month in a form suitable for circulation - at the Committee’s discretion - to London Members via the Email Monthly Newsletter.

Please apply to the Secretary, Jeremy Crumplin (jdcrumplin@gmail.com) with copy to the Chair, Peter Beauchamp (peterbeauchamp46@gmail.com).

Part of being an information professional involves watching the current technological trends and implementing them in organisational settings as appropriate. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell whether we are simply ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ by starting to use technologies that will simply go away within a short amount of time, or if they will endure and grow over time. One thing is certain, however. If a new technology is out there, your users are trying it out, and they will expect to see their library doing the same. Adopting these technologies in our professional settings helps us do what we do best as a profession: connect people with the information they need. 

From e-book licence agreements to malfunctioning printers to e-mail overload, there is not one part of an information professional’s life that technology has not impacted. It can be difficult to keep up with all the changes as information professionals continuously adapt to the newest technologies that enter our organisations. How can we decide what we need to know, and what can be ignored for a bit longer?

Unfortunately, there is no one set of correct answers to these questions. Back in 2008, I published a chapter called “The Library School’s Role in Preparing New Librarians for Working with Technology” in a book called Core Technology Competencies for Librarians and Library Staff: A LITA Guide. In my chapter, I presented the results of a survey I sent to placement site supervisors to ask them what they thought were the most important technical skills that new librarians needed.

Generally speaking, the participants said they need to be able to do basic tasks such as perform computer troubleshooting, use common software such as word processing and spreadsheet programs, and search online abstracting/indexing services and catalogues. The responses varied based on the type of library and position, however. So, the good news is that not all information professionals need to be programmers, but some do. 

That survey is almost a decade old now, and technology has only moved forward in terms of its impact on our jobs and our lives. In preparation for my forthcoming edited series from Facet Publishing, Computing for Information Professionals, I have spent some time considering what technologies impact all information-related professions. Below is a list of the five most prominent technologies that seem to be facing the profession today. 

Sorting Out Social Media

Most organisations have social media presences now. Simply having an account on Facebook or Twitter, or having an organisational blog, is not enough to be effective. The account has to be kept current with frequent posts of interest. Followers must be responded to quickly and appropriately if they have questions or comments. The organisation must have a plan in place for dealing with inappropriate posts from users or other difficult situations.

According to Jodie Bell’s post from 2014 on the CILIP Blog, “5 ways libraries are using social media”, while 61% of libraries she surveyed had been using social media for at least three years, 72% of libraries surveyed had no social media policy or plan in place. Without strategic decisions and guidelines for best practices, organisations will likely not get the most out of their social media presences, and may find themselves unprepared for difficult situations.

For further information about social media:

• How libraries are using social media (American Libraries, 2013):
• Social media for creative libraries (Facet Publishing, 2015):
• Social media for libraries (Pinterest):

Creating the Cloud

What does the term “cloud computing” mean, and how does it affect information professionals? If you don’t know the term, you probably use the cloud every day and didn’t know it. Essentially, the cloud consists of servers that store your information on them instead of storing your information on your computer’s hard drive. For example, if you have ever used Google Docs to store or share word processing files, you have used cloud computing because your documents are stored on Google’s servers rather than on your computer. Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, and all those other sites are also in the cloud, because they store all your data on their servers. With cloud computing, work is typically performed in a Web browser such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Chrome, because users’ computers are constantly communicating with the servers in order to store and retrieve their data. 

Within organisations, difficult choices need to be made about how and where data is going to be stored. It is can be expensive and time-consuming for individual places organisations to manage its their own servers. Instead, some are opting for cloud-based solutions for file storage, email service, and more. Additionally, many newer integrated library systems have the option to be cloud-based, which means a library does not have to run its own servers or maintain ILS clients on individual computers. For example, the open source ILS Koha could be hosted by the Koha support company LibLime. The library’s data is stored on cloud-based servers, and all staff-side work including cataloguing, circulation, and acquisitions, is performed in a Web browser. With these and other options, it is truly revolutionising the options that organisations have for managing their information, and the roles that allof staff must take. 

For further information about cloud computing

• What is cloud computing and how will it affect libraries?
• Cloud computing for libraries (The Tech Set #11)
• LibLime

Making Makerspaces

Makerspaces are not quite as mainstream as the other technologies in this post, and it might be too soon to know whether they are just a trend or if they will be around for a while, but they are definitely something to watch. According to Sharona Ginsberg, Learning Technologies Librarian at SUNY Oswego in New York, a makerspace “can be any area where people gather to make and create. These spaces often include 3D printers, but do not necessarily have to. In makerspaces, people share supplies, skills, and ideas, and often work together on projects.”

Sharona goes on to explain, “Many libraries have found that maker culture and makerspaces fit naturally with their existing missions, and have begun to incorporate makerspaces into the services they offer their communities.” While the makerspace itself as a physical space is not a technology, the resources that must be provided in a makerspace are. 3D printers, 3D scanners, and associated software and hardware are typically provided in the space, mostly free of charge to the user. Since many people do not have this type of equipment at home, and because the collaborative physical space is essential to the users’ experiences, makerspaces definitely have the power to bring people into the library. Both academic and public libraries are experimenting with them. Even if your organisation cannot financially support a makerspace, think about what kinds of technologies you could provide that would increase your users’ interest and engagement. 

For further information about makerspaces

• Libraries & maker culture: a resource guid
• Makerspaces in libraries (Library Technology Essentials)
• 3D printers & makerspaces, Public Libraries News
• How libraries are becoming modern makerspaces, The Atlantic

Modelling Mobile Apps

As the saying has gone for a few years now, “There’s an app for that.” With the exponential growth in smartphone and tablet use over the last few years, apps are on track to replace traditional web sites as the way users get information from the companies and organisations they access online. If you work in a library, is your catalogue easily accessible on a smartphone? If you are a patron of the City of Westminster library, “you can get mobile access to the library catalogue allowing you to easily search for, renew and reserve items online. You can also scan a book's barcode anywhere and immediately find out whether the book you want is in stock at your library.” https://www.westminster.gov.uk...

Creating an app for library services does not imply a major change in a library’s mandate. It simply means that the library is providing its information in a way that many people use more often than any other online technology these days: their phones. It is worth looking into whether your ILS vendor’s OPAC is mobile-friendly, or if it has an app that your library can easily configure and implement. If not, consider advocating for one; if librarians do not ask for it, the vendors might not see a reason to make it. Also consider what an app developed just for your library could do. For example, you could provide floor plans with call number ranges, links to recordings of recent events, or anything else that you have traditionally provided on your website. 

For further information about mobile apps

• Mobile technologies for libraries – a list of mobile applications and resources for development, College & Research Libraries News
• Boopsie for Libraries (developer of apps for libraries)
• Cambridgeshire County Council, Library app
• Selecting and evaluating the best mobile apps for library services

Dealing with Data

Full disclosure: data is one of my favourite subjects! I have been working with databases since the mid-1990s, and I continue to be fascinated with data of all types all the time. It is one of the reasons I became an information professional. 

As my forthcoming book, Mastering Data and Databases for Information Professionals, will explore, there are so many types of data, and we need to work with all of them. Relational databases, such as those in Microsoft Access, also store much of our cloud-based data, and they have local practical uses in our institutions as well. Big Data and Linked Data are terms that many of us have heard, but may not understand fully.

Here are four distinct types of data that all information professionals should be able to work with: 

1. Structured data is highly organised data that is stored in formats such as spreadsheets (for example Microsoft Excel) and relational databases (for example Microsoft Access and databases that run library management systems). 
2. Semi-structured data has less structure than structured data. Examples of semi-structured data include data stored in markup languages such as eXtensible Markup Language (XML). Library metadata standards, such as Dublin Core records, are stored as semi-structured data. 
3. Unstructured data cannot be stored in tables or fields as structured data or semi-structured data can. Big Data, which involves large amounts of datasets with no particular format, falls under this category. 
4. Linked data is a newer type of data that is still undergoing development by the library and scientific communities. Linked data is stored in “triples” that are similar to English sentences, allowing both humans and computers to derive semantic meaning from the data. For example: http://www.cilip.org.uk/cilip/...> has homepage > http://www.cilip.org/uk

For further information about data

• Relational database concepts
• Keeping up with… Big Data
• Forget Big Data: using small data to improve the library user experience
• Linked data for libraries
• Linked data for libraries, archives, and museums: how to clean, link and publish your metadata

What do you think? Do you agree with my list, or are there other technologies that are more important for today’s information professionals to understand? Let us know in the comments section!

The Ossoliński National Institute cordially invites you to a conference of the Group of Polish Research Libraries Collecting Early Imprints held under the title “Early printed  books and their owners – the current state of research, catalogues, perspectives”, which is organised in cooperation with the CERL Consortium of European Research Libraries.

Two subject blocks are planned during the conference: provenance research of early imprints and cataloguing incunabula. We hope that the event will attract representatives of research libraries belonging to the CERL, non-member libraries as well as academics. We are looking forward to exchanging the participants’ experience, presenting the results of research, discussions and constructive conclusions.

Among the speakers will be a representative of the French working group on Provenance who will share the experiences connected with the creation of a common provenance base of French libraries. We hope that representatives of Polish research libraries and other research centres will also share their expertise with the audience.

The second subject area concerns incunabula. The 15cBOOKTRADE researchers, who focus on book trade in the 15th century, will present the procedure for entering information about incunabula into the MEI (Material Evidence in Incunabula) database, maintained by the CERL. We would very much like to hear the presentations of the researchers of 15th-century books, whom we encourage to submit the subjects of their papers. We hope that these lectures will contribute to broadening our knowledge about historical book collections in Poland and will prove useful in deciphering and cataloguing ownership signs and clues left by the former owners of the books.

The conference and the discussion panel held as part of it will become an opportunity for the libraries belonging to the Polish CERL Group to establish and initiate the work of the Provenance Working Group and to begin the insertion of source data into the MEI database.

The conference will be held at the Ossoliński National Institute in Wrocław on 29-30 September, 2016. We will provide consecutive interpretation of English lectures.

ARLG Conferences are known for their professionally stimulating, friendly and collaborative atmosphere.  The 2016 ARLG Conference, entitled ‘Are you being served? Serving our learners in a changing climate’, is to be held at Aston University from 27-29 June 2016 #ARLG16.  ARLG East Midlands is pleased to announce that it is offering a bursary to allow one lucky person to attend. 

The bursary offer includes a full residential place and travel expenses of up to £60. To be eligible you must:

• Be a member of CILIP
• Be currently working or living if unemployed/studying in the East Midlands (Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire or Rutland)
• Be otherwise unable to attend the conference (for example - due to financial constraints).

To apply please email Fiona MacLellan (Fiona.maclellan@northampton.ac.uk) with approximately 500 words describing how your attendance at the conference will impact on your professional development and how you plan to share your conference experience with others, including the ARLG East Midlands community.  Please include your CILIP membership number, your job title and the name of your institution in your application (if applicable?).  The successful applicant will provide a short written report for publication to a wider audience (i.e. via the CILIP website) and will also be invited to attend the next ARLG East Midlands committee meeting after the conference to share their experiences of the conference in person.

 Applications must be received by midday on Friday 8th April 2016.  Applicants will be notified of the committee's decision by Friday 29th April 2016.

To find out more about the ARLG Conference 2016 visit:   http://www.cilip.org.uk/academic-research-libraries-group/events/arlg-conference-2016

Library and information staff are always looking for new ideas, inspiration and techniques to engage with their research community and to facilitate the research process. Here are a few short, practical examples from all kinds of libraries around the world - small ideas, specific examples and tips which have worked for other people.

Tip 1: Host research events in the Library

The library is a neutral space in the organisation and can be an ideal venue for events held by and for researchers. These events don’t necessarily have to be specifically linked to library resources and services, it’s more about the research community developing a sense of ownership of library spaces and seeing them as part of the research environment.

Tip 2: Liaise with other sections of the organisation who also work with researchers

Identify other teams who may be engaging with researchers, albeit for different reasons. You might simply start to discuss ways in which you can collaborate on areas of common interest or start to share workflows and reduce duplication. Keeping the dialogue going is vital, so consider inviting members of different teams to be regular attendees at appropriate library team meetings; a standing item of a report from the University Research Office, for example, ensures an ongoing conversation. In return, offer to attend or send a regular library report to any relevant team meetings held elsewhere.

Tip 3 Celebrate research output

Look for innovative ways to celebrate the completion and deposition of PhD theses. Ask supervisors to recommend a a “thesis of the month”, tweet about new theses deposited, simply list new theses on the Library’s website or new books feed. 

Tip 4: Become an author yourself

It’s much easier to engage with researchers over their experiences if you’re able to empathise with them and to demonstrate that you have struggled with similar issues. This doesn’t mean that we all need to complete a piece of doctoral research or write an article for Nature, but in small ways it is still possible to replicate some of a researcher’s experiences. Writing for publication doesn’t have to imply writing a journal article; you can start in a small way by writing book reviews, or starting a blog. These are all useful activities for research students to undertake too and shared experiences will give you a common platform on which to develop a stronger relationship.

Tip 5: Video personal stories

Personal stories can bring learning to life and hearing another researcher talk about the value of an approach or the usefulness of a resource can be much more powerful than a librarian demonstrating it. Keep videos very short, delivering concise snippets of information and don’t worry too much about creating formal, scripted recordings. 

Tip 6: Use appropriate terminology

Too often, librarians become caught up in the language of the profession and offer services to researchers using inappropriate wording. Stop thinking about what you are offering and what you are going to do and start thinking about what the research community are going to gain and how they might use it. For example, you can change a workshop originally titled “Journal impact factors and citation counting” to “How to identify the key journals in your disciple”, or “How to discover who is reading your work”.

About "Practical Tips for Facilitating Research"

Practical Tips for Facilitating Research, by Moira J. Bent, offers innovative tips and reliable best practice to enable new and experienced library and information professionals to evaluate their current provision and develop their service to meet the evolving needs of the research community.

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