Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal August 2006 Volume 4(4)

Aiming Higher

Results through mutual support

‘Lead, Change, Develop: future-proofing your skills’, the recent UC&R/CofHE conference at the University of East Anglia, provided an opportunity to engage with SCURL colleagues in the workshop and lecture environment. Practical workshops such as ‘How to Plan (and Recover from) a Rainy Day: disaster planning planned’ and ‘How to Follow in Your Bosses Footsteps: succession planning revisited’ were delivered by Jon Purcell of St. Andrews University Library. The former session provided thoughtful and illuminating but extremely practical guidance on procedures to follow in the light of a disaster, such as: identify the key holder to unlock the Library building; use wind-up torches as they provide four hours of light; list key phone numbers on cards as power to access the intranet or pcs may have been extinguished; and arrange reciprocal borrowing arrangements for your users to other nearby libraries in the event of a disaster.

The session on succession planning focused on the needs of your library in the next year, the second year, and the third year. We were invited to consider inventing the future and also to investigate the outcome of the HIMSS Project – Hybrid Information Management: Skills for Senior Staff2 at Birmingham University which considered the information management skills required for senior staff aspiring to positions in Higher Education.

Jon Purcell is leading a training seminar on Succession Planning for SCURL members in the National Library of Scotland on 8 November (details on the SCURL website).
Jan Wilkinson, Head of Higher Education at the British Library, was invited to give a presentation to the SCURL Away Day, held in Edinburgh Zoo, in June. Jan spoke on ‘British Library Support for the HE Researcher’. The British Library is also supporting a leadership initiative. A headline in the May issue of Information World Review announced ‘Higher Education foresees a lack of visionary leaders’. The skills gap has been recognised by SCONUL (Society of College, National and University Libraries) and UCISA (Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association). These two organisations, with the British Library, have announced a Future Leaders Programme offered by the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education. Jan Wilkinson said: “The British Library has a leadership position within the profession,” and this has ensured its involvement with the
programme.

Cementing future-proofing skills is the focus of a project by Scotland’s colleges designed to improve the flow of work-ready entrants to the creative industries sector. The partnership, between Adam Smith College, Aberdeen College, Reid Kerr College and led by Dundee College, has received three-year funding for a Project Manager from the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), which is a SCURL member. The
project will engage with Scottish Screen, the Sector Skills Council, the SQA, and the Scottish Media Industries Skills Panel. The project aims to ensure that the quality of students entering the labour market is of a high calibre.

Another example of encouraging staff and students to work with industry is Napier University, a SCURL member institution. The University’s Centre of Timber Engineering and Building Performance Centre is working in partnership with a Scottish building company to produce a metal restraint device to support joints in timber construction. Again, the Library will have supported and made available the resources to assist the Centre in its industrial research.

Similarly, the Interface service based at Edinburgh University has benefited from funding from the SFC. Interface matches firms with research, equipment or talent available in 20 Scottish HE and research institutions thus fostering collaboration. The service particularly wishes to build on the reputation of Scottish science, a discipline which is the subject of much discussion among the SCURL members with regard to Research Pooling, the Collaborative Academic Store for Scotland, the IRIScotland project, Open Access initiative, and Collaborative Collection Management.

Jill Evans is Scottish Confederation of University and Research Libraries (SCURL) Service Development Manager.

Information Scotland Vol. 4(4) August 2006

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