WHELF update: May 2012

WHELF: Wales Higher Education Libraries Forum May 2012: an update

WHELF actively promotes the work of higher education libraries in Wales and provides a focus for the development of new ideas and services.

At our recent meeting in May, these were some of the topics under discussion:

Libraries Inspire Innovation and Development Grants 2012-13
We were successful with both our grant applications for CyMAL funding:
• Walk-in access to electronic resources in Welsh academic libraries
The project is being led by the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, working with Cardiff University and Cardiff Metropolitan University.
• Collections Wales – mapping the printed and digital heritage of Wales to improve access
The project is led by the National Library of Wales and builds on the work of the previous Mapping Wales project in 2001.

The Welsh Experience of World War One
The WHELF digitisation project has begun. Rob Phillips is the project manager, and Lorna Hughes is project director. The project received good publicity on ‘Wales Today’ and elsewhere on 24 April.
Find out more at: http://cymruww1.llgc.org.uk/

Welsh Information Literacy Project
Since the start of the project two years ago, there have been many successful outcomes – take a look at the website for a wide range of supporting materials including the Information Literacy Framework for Wales, advocacy resources for schools and the benefits of information literacy in the workplace: http://librarywales.org/en/informationliteracy/

For its third year the project moves to Coleg Llandrillo and will focus on implementation – embedding information literacy in schools, enabling public library staff to facilitate information literacy development, and further promoting the information literacy units of learning.
Find out more at: http://whelf.ac.uk/2012/04/11/welsh-information-literacy-project-moves-to-coleg-llandrillo/

Find it, make it, use it, share it
Education Minister Leighton Andrews has now received the final report from the Digital Classroom Teaching Task and Finish Group which sets out how Welsh schools can deliver digital classrooms in a digital age. Andrew Green, Chair of WHELF, was a member of the group.
Find out more at: http://whelf.ac.uk/2012/04/02/find-it-make-it-use-it-share-it/

Library Systems Shared Services
WHELF has been successful in its bid to JISC for a pathfinder project to investigate a broad range of potential new models and approaches to library systems and services.

The project, led by Cardiff University, will build on the work of the earlier ‘WHELF: Sharing a Library Management System’ feasibility report. It will explore potential benefits and pain points inherent in a move from distributed to centralised hosting and infrastructure models for a suite of library systems software, while building a possible overall business case for such a move by the HEIs within the WHELF consortium. Open source, proprietary and hybrid solutions will be explored, with potential delivery models based on the Welsh IT infrastructure, but applicable to other consortia.

There are close links with the project being funded in Scotland: The Benefits of Sharing (How would a Shared Library Management System improve services in Scotland?)
Find out more at: http://whelf.ac.uk/2012/05/31/shared-lms-new-whelf-project-to-be-funded-by-jisc/

WHELF and JISC
A group of senior staff from a range of JISC programmes ran a seminar and discussion session with WHELF at the National Library of Wales in May. Strategic themes included the following topics:
• Data Driven Infrastructure – the re use of information across services and systems to support a more flexible and agile service infrastructure – examples included Knowledge Base +, exploiting library data, discovery services, open access, OER, digitisation and sustainability.
• Shared infrastructure – the areas of shared infrastructure focus on research data, information and library infrastructure, research management and repositories.

Gregynog Colloquium 2012
Every year WHELF and HEWIT organise a residential colloquium at Gregynog for library and IT staff to discuss recent developments and to exchange experiences. Monday 11th June will see the start of this year’s event.
Find out more at: http://gregynog.smu.ac.uk/

WHELF News
This was Janet Peters’ last meeting as Chair of the WHELF Business Group and Andrew formally thanked her on behalf of WHELF. Her knowledge, experience, energy and commitment have been a great asset to the Business Group and have enabled WHELF to make considerable progress over the last three years. Congratulations also to Janet who has been elected as Chair of the RLUK Board. Find out more at: http://whelf.ac.uk/2012/04/11/new-chair-for-research-libraries-uk-from-wales/

A warm welcome to Sue Hodges (Bangor University) who has taken on the role of Chair of the WHELF Business Group and to Emma Adamson (Cardiff Metropolitan University) who has also joined the group.

We said farewell to Sally Wilkinson who has been a hardworking member of the WHELF Business Group for a number of years and will be very much missed by us all. Sally is moving to Cranfield University.
Find out more at: http://whelf.ac.uk/2012/04/11/goodbye-and-good-luck/

Congratulations to Julie Hart who has been appointed to the position of Assistant Director for Library Services at Aberystwyth University.

For more information please contact:
Sue Mace
Development Officer
WHELF: Wales Higher Education Libraries Forum
http://whelf.ac.uk/