Visiting a virtual Gregynog (part 2)

Gregynog Hall (2019)

We returned to the online conference after partaking in our own lunches at home (view Part 1 here).

The first session introduced by Lori Harvard (Swansea University) showcased how three institutions will be providing online library inductions for the academic year 20/21. Susan Glenn (Swansea University), Aimee Jones (Cardiff Metropolitan University) and Rebecca Mogg (Cardiff University) presented short lightning talks and their plans. There were slight differences between them but all three were embracing the technology and building on previously delivered online sessions.

Next up was Anita Saycell (Aberystwyth University) talking about MLA, Harvard, APA and More: Aberystwyth’s approach to reference support for all.  Originally the Business School at Aberystwyth had paid for the plagiarism course Epigeum which had proved very successful in reducing plagiarism levels.  However, as it uses the Harvard style of referencing it was not applicable to roll out across other schools in Aberystwyth which uses seven different referencing styles across the University.  The library service was tasked with creating an in-house system complete with an assessed quiz at the end.  This seemed like a large undertaking!  They have managed to create something using LibGuides.  They needed the quiz to encompass all the styles, and they have embedded it in Blackboard.  Because it was produce in-house it will be easy to adapt and modify when needed.  So far it has been rolled out to staff who have provided feedback and they are looking to launch at the end of June/beginning of July.

Following on was Naomi Prady (Swansea University) talking about Diversifying Reading List: feedback from academics and students. Naomi talked about an event organised for staff and students to discuss diversifying reading lists.  Originally hoped to be a physical event it ended up being online because of the current crisis.  Part of the bigger picture of universities across the UK looking to decolonise their collections and reading lists, a lot of this work has been driven by students.  A BAME student talked to a librarian at Swansea asking them to decolonise the library.  Not having a huge budget the library worked with the Students Union to get student suggestions and added a selection of books.  They are now working on the reading lists after acknowledging that the burden shouldn’t fall on students to drive diversification but should come from academics and librarians via the reading lists. The event they held over Zoom attracted over 50 participants which was probably more than would have attended if it had been a physical session.  Academics and students gave lightning talks and their were discussions and feedback.

Some problems to overcome – it is hard to diversify content for STEM subjects – but if it is difficult to diversify the curricula, one can find other authors to supplement.  Leading to discussion and dialogue about the discourse too. All products of a system we are trying to change.  Students can be asked to critically dissect texts.  Discussions about avoiding tokenism, appropriate language, making assumptions – these topics can also be emotionally and personally draining for participants.

There are also unfortunately people who are opposed to this work, and you might find them voicing racist comments. Naomi said when this happened she was quite shocked, but it was also a wake up call to herself to realise this is the normality some people have to face all the time.

It can take time and be difficult to identify diverse resources, and it is important that students should be involved.  Diverse reading lists should be core and not an add on to help to develop well rounded graduates.

Adam Barry (European Sales Executive) spoke about Lean Library: delivery instead of recovery.  Lean Library is a browser plug in that makes it easier for your library users to log in to electronic resources when they are researching outside of the library environment (which we know is how a lot of people operate).  It can be frustrating as a library user trying to work out whether they have access to something, where and how they log in, knowing whether it is Shibboleth or Athens, or if they need their own account etc.  Lean Library gives prominent branding of their library and acts as an intermediate between domain and authentification log in.  This all sounded really helpful and useful, and then I discovered that Cardiff University was already using it, but the fact had somehow passed me by!

Next up to my delight was another paper on decolonisation this time José López Blanco (University of South Wales) talking about The Decolonised Searcher: an activity with history students. Having contributed to decolonised reading lists at his previous institution (Bournemouth University), José is now working on decolonised pedagogies as well as reading lists at USW and talked about the work he has done with students. In his former role the project at Bournemouth “Why is my curriculum white?” he felt that students weren’t involved much with the library creating guides. So at USW he wanted to involve them more and created a session which was supposed to have been delivered live but ended up online because of the current situation. It involved activities whereby participants explored USW resources by looking up terms such as ‘race’  and ‘nation’ – but this is reliant on just what the library has, so then the students were encouraged to look elsewhere such as the British Library – but also national libraries for other countries, such as the National Library of South Africa. Students were encouraged to look at primary resources and to look up references to ‘slaves’ or ’empire’.  One good resource mentioned was the Frederick Douglass newspaper collection held at the Library of Congress. Douglas was “the African American abolitionist who escaped slavery and became one of the most famous orators, authors, and journalists of the 19th century.” This digitised content provides a wealth of opportunity for research. José is hoping to do some ‘face to face’ test sessions to help improve the online session for when he next delivers it.

The next session by Julie Elsden and James Carr (both from Cambridge University Press) looked at a digital accessibility case study between the publisher and a student. They are now incorporating accessibility into everyday practice and have a checklist when planning new work. One thing they highlighted was the importance of having a good heading structure on websites and online resources.  They are also working on a different version of CAPTCHA which is an obstacle in the user journey. They tried removing it altogether but the increase in spam traffic was too great, so now they are working on a version where only potential spam bots get challenged and not everyday users.

The final session of the day was from Joy Cadwallader (Aberystwyth University) and Allison Zink (subscriptions executive, Gale) talking about Design in Reading & Welsh Content in Gale Reference Complete.  Gale have been working with Aberystwyth University to not only increase Welsh content (including archive collections) in Gale Reference Complete but also to improve accessibility and the user experience.  There are a range of visualization tools such as with the Topic Finder and Term Frequency.  When you look up an author or a topic, such as Dylan Thomas (the example we were shown) there are a range of tabs covering full text, literary criticism, biographies, primary sources, reviews etc.

Overall I enjoyed attending the conference, even though one’s attention does slip a little for such an extended Zoom session (well, mine does!). My favourite sessions were Amy Staniforth’s right at the start, and the decolonising reading lists talks by both Naomi Prady and José López Blanco. I spotted a twitter thread the other day where a library announced it was going to be decolonising its stock, and it was shocking to see all the negative comments where people were accusing them of throwing away texts and ‘burning books’!  Such ignorance and misunderstanding.  However, the highlighting of reading list decolonisations has lead me to look at my own book shelves and reading habits, which is never a bad thing!

This Gregynog event did have an evening session including a quiz.  I didn’t attend but heard that it went well.  Fingers crossed next year we will be back in person, enjoying cakes, checking out the antique toilet, early morning walks, and wondering whether we’ve got the haunted bedroom!

 

 

Visiting a virtual Gregynog (part 1)

Every year WHELF (Wales Higher Education Libraries Forum) and HEWIT (Higher Education Wales Information Technology) organise a conference at Gregynog Hall near Newtown, Powys. The programme for the first half of the week is for libraries, and the second half for IT.  This year (obviously) the physical conference had to be cancelled due to the Coronavirus crisis; instead the organisers managed to arrange for two one day online sessions to be held (one for library staff (10th June 2020), one for IT).

I love attending events at Gregynog it is such a wonderful and unique place.  I have gone as an undergraduate, a postgraduate, as a speaker at a Classics conference, and as a librarian.  Even though this is an annual library conference I don’t go every year, as a cataloguer there is rarely a pertinent session I can legitimately claim I need to attend. Not that that matters to me hugely as I enjoy hearing about the wider higher education library sector in general as it keeps me up to date with what is going on, but sometimes there are questions of priority over CPD funding.

This year I probably wouldn’t have gone. Last year I cheekily managed to attend part of it due to being at another conference in Llandrindod Wells which is about 30 miles away. My first conference ended at lunchtime and I hopped on a bus and a taxi to turn up at Gregynog Hall ready to take part in the Murder Mystery that evening.  Sadly this years online event did not include mysterious murderous mayhem.  I also had to provide my own snacks, but at least there wasn’t a queue for the toilet 😉

The first talk was by Amy Staniforth (Aberyswyth University) on Futureproofing Me: how to help HE by helping yourself first, which I thought was an excellent way to start the conference as we were directed to think about ourselves, our professional identity, professional voice, professional standards as well as our professional expertise. We were then led to expand this view to encompass the organization we work for. Do our colleagues understand what we do, and what kind of professional do they think we are?  How visible are we, and is our expertise called upon?  These reflections were then extended out even further to our sector.  Who speaks on behalf of your specialism at sector level, where is your voice heard in Wales, the UK, further afield? Who is developing the standards you work with, how are you involved in your community? We were given plenty to think about, but also reminded to remember those small moments of joy or achievement that can occur within your working day – helping someone, solving a query, cataloguing an item from scratch, etc.

Steve Williams (Swansea University) spoke about Being Agile in a Novel World.

“Libraries are not closed, but they are different” – Something that all library staff know, but that the rest of the world doesn’t always realise!

He also provided us with a timely reminder of why we (library staff) are here:

He also gave some advice on working in these unusual times, and suggested that with so much happening day by day, that even if one has planned for the week it can all fall apart, so we need to step back and reflect, and remember that we are all going through challenges.

Recommendations included Tim Harford’s book Messy, and the Ted Talk, Panic Monster.

Jenny McNally talked us through the WHELF Shared LMS Update: Benefits and Future Plans, and pointed us towards the ‘Shared benefits’ report and infographic on the WHELF site.  Our contract for Alma will be up for review in December 2021, with an option for a 5 year extension.  Looking to the future, we have Primo VE which will provide near real time catalogue updates; Reciprocal borrowing with the NHS libraries and the National Museum Wales as a partner; Reciprocal membership scheme, being piloted with Cardiff institutes.  In the longer term WHELF are looking to UX studies, and Collection Management.

Following on from this Anna Vernon and Helen Dobson talked about Jisc Collections and the Transition to Open Access, looking at Jisc’s use of transitional agreements in their move to open access.

The last talk before lunch was from Chris Sherwood (Swansea University) and his Accessibility journey. Chris works with UX but has come to take on a Accessibility Specialist role, and he talked us through his journey. He pointed out that there are 13.9 million people with disabilities in the UK, that these are not always visible, and they can be permanent or temporary.  From a UX standpoint there is a need to understand these users and not just use the cop out of “disproportionate burden”.  He reminded us that it isn’t just about legal compliance but about enabling people, and by embracing this point of view you are making improvements for everybody.

At Swansea there were no dedicated staff for online accessibility, and with a backlog of projects, also an accessibility skills deficit.  With compliance deadlines looming he looked for solutions.  With a good team around him, and good training available he addressed the skills gap.  He took the opportunity to understand users and build empathy, and recommends ‘owning’ the problem, building it into the process, rather than outsourcing at a later point. There are no easy wins or workarounds, but good supportive tools are available.

(Conference write up will continue in part 2)

Conferences a-go-go (Thing 15) – or how to evoke the sympathy vote…

I’ve been attending conferences and seminars ever since I was a postgraduate student doing research in Ancient History/Classics, even at that early stage I started co-organising seminar series and a conference that resulted in a book.  Taking a leap from being a student wrapped up in a subject I was fascinated in, to becoming a full time working person attending a ‘work’ based event, was actually a bit of a jump.  For a start I felt that I was coming into the subject/conference not fully aware of all the ins and outs, and who was who, and what did I actually think about these topics.  Well, obviously I was there to learn, and to decide what I thought about these issues (which were probably newer to me than the social life of women in 5th century Athens – not my research subject but I probably had a better handle on it than I did anything to do with librarianship at the start).  But gradually knowledge increases.

I have yet to attend Umbrella, though this year I did follow it on Twitter (thanks to cpd23); last year I attended the Cataloguing and Indexing Group conference, which I found really interesting, and great to be at an event with lots of other cataloguers (Yayyy!).  Within Wales we have our annual WHELF/HEWIT colloquium at Gregynog (in Powys) (for library staff working in higher education institutions).  This is a good place to start ‘conferencing’ as you are more likely to know someone (or at least have a bunch of colleagues with you), and for several years now there has been a ‘young/new professionals’ stream, so an ideal place to start presenting too.

Attending a conference can be nerve-wracking, it helps if you have a colleague attending with you – though this is often not possible.

I try to remind myself that other people are shy and nervous too (although they often don’t seem it), so if I have to walk into a room/conference on my own, I will try to see if there is someone else on their own, and will go and join them and strike up a conversation – start with the basics – where are you from/where do you work etc (although I believe I did once bore someone stupid as I forced conversation on them for what seemed an eternity as I could see no way out, until the dinner bell rang – so perhaps you might want to avoid me!)

As you might have guessed I don’t find these kind of social events easy.

Giving a presentation at an event, apart from being great for your professional development etc, is also a good conversation starter, as people will usually come up to you and talk about your presentation, and you often make good contacts this way.  Maybe they are working on something similar, or have a similar problem at work, and your ideas might have given them a fresh viewpoint on the subject.  Or maybe you just entertained them.  Whatever, it is a good feeling to know that you have reached other people.

Or maybe you just evoked their sympathy… the last presentation I gave (at Gregynog last year), was on the first afternoon of the conference, and there was a technical hitch; somehow a virus had got on to the computer/laptops that were being used for the presentations – this had caused quite a few problems prior to my talk, but when it got to me, that was it, my powerpoint would not run.  Despite everyone’s best efforts I was left with 3o mins to talk in, and no pretty pictures to distract people with!  I was gutted, not the least because I had spent hours getting my presentation together.  I gave the talk, almost through gritted teeth (trying not to cry); and was thankful in many ways that I had done an ‘old-fashioned’ kind of talk – it was all written down as I have yet to master the technique of free talking round the presentation.  So, old-fashioned scripted talk got me through; but wasn’t half as interesting without all the images.

So, sympathy works – but I wouldn’t recommend it!  I also played a part in the Murder Mystery event later in the conference – now that got people talking!  So, dressing up and talking in a silly voice works….ok, now I’m getting a bit carried away.  I think what I am trying to suggest is – get involved, give a paper/presentation, help out with the entertainment, help out on the registration desk, and if you are shy this will help give you those inroads into conversations that can be almost as vital as the presentations you attend.  [Think that is called NETWORKING].

For my next trick…

I’ve been thinking for awhile that I’d really like to organise an event for cataloguers in Wales – we don’t get out much, but I am sure we have a lot to share/offer.  So, cpd23 resolution for September – I will make that event happen!

(Any cataloguers in Wales out there interested? (or from just over the borders, I don’t mind) even just a sharing of practices, special projects, or worries about RDA???) 

 

A brief think about Things 13 and 14

It’s amazing what a few days away from the real world can do to make you lose track!  After some bacchic worshipping at Greenman I return to find I am losing my grip on the 23 things and have some catching up to do.  But with a 17 page dense list of duplicate MFHDs to manually merge (don’t ask!), I haven’t quite got the time to really play around with Google docs, wikis, Dropbox, Zotero, Mendeley and CiteULike.  However, if I can at least write a few random thoughts on these subjects for now, I can pretend I am still keeping on top of things!

Thing 13 – Online collaborating and filesharing.  I have limited experience of this, but did use a wiki (PBWorks) last year when I was a member of a team organising the library side of the WHELF/HEWIT annual colloquium at Gregynog.  The higher education institutions in Wales take turns in organising it, and last year it was Cardiff University and UWIC who did the honours.  A wiki was set up to help us organise the programme and the entertainment (we had our own murder mystery!) and the sponsorship, and it did prove valuable in being able to sort things out between meetings.  I have to admit to not feeling too comfortable using it though, despite it being relatively easy to use, I kept feeling I was missing something and wasn’t using it properly.  We have a couple of in-house collaborating systems, and as I don’t use them that much, again, I feel like I am floundering around.  I guess most of these systems work best when you have a good reason to use them, and plenty of use out of them.

Thing 14 – Referencing systems.  Well, this made me laugh, I wrote a 100,000 word PhD and did all my references by hand!  I still have all my little card boxes; cards in alphabetical order by author.  And of course, well into the project I even started noting on the back where I had put the article/photocopy/ILL when I had the copy (ie which folder/boxfile etc), and if it was a library book, what the classmark was – which was all extremely useful, and something I really should have done from the start.  I still use some of these articles for other research, and am always really annoyed with myself when I haven’t written the location on the back!

So, would I have benefitted from one of these systems???  Well, I haven’t the time to check them out at the moment, but will do so at a later point and report back.  From my earlier comment, I think I would like to see the facility to note down where I was keeping my article/photocopy (as I did on the back of cards); although of course these days there would be a higher chance of the articles being online, so a link to full text would be handy too.  I guess the proof of the pudding would be in the eating, so next time I am writing an article, or doing some research, I should perhaps attempt to use one of these systems, and see how they compare.  But I do like my little cards…