Wednesday 14 July, 13:00 – 17:00

Followed by Library Social Group event

The Conference Committee have been working hard, planning this year’s conference, with the theme ‘A Library for the Future’.

• Meet the new provost Michael Spence;
• Listen to lightning talks from colleagues;
• Help shape the future of Library Services in breakout sessions based on the Library strategy, and more!

There will also be a chocolate based session, so make sure you have your favourite bar in stock. (You can use other snacks).

Teams are also encouraged to get together in the morning and hold their own local activities.

We will share the full programme soon. If you have any questions, please get in touch with Aanchal Bhatt or Jennifer Brown (committee co-chairs).

By Jennifer Brown

On the 6^th July 2017 we held our 11^th Year Library Staff conference based upon the theme of “Excellence in Customer Service”.

Once more our staff awards categories was based upon our Values. Thank you to all those who submitted nominations and well done to all those who

• were nominated,
• were runner ups
• and those who were chosen as the winners

It was a difficult decision for the judges to pick the winners from a selection of really strong nominations.

Category for Collaboration

The nominees for this category were:

• Bernadette Flynn
• Sally Perry
• Subject Liaison Librarians
• Special Collections, Archives and Records

Winner – Subject Liaison Librarians [Adam Miller, Emily Selvidge, Giulia Garoli, Jacqui Smith, Kieron Jones, Liz Lawes, Robbie Lumsden, Sarah Burn, Suzanne Traue, Vanessa Freedman and Francine Wood]

Runner up – Sally Perry

 

Category for Empowerment

The nominees for this category were:

• Alan Bracey
• Angela Young

Winner – Angela Young

Runner up – Alan Bracey

 

Excellent Service

The nominees for this category were:

• Study Service Assistants (SSA’s)
• Simon Coates – Enquiry Services Manager
• Open Access Services
• Lass Library: Robbie Lumsden, Gillian Mackenzie, Sharon James, Simon Beesley, Nadia Marks, Max Pinarello & Makeba Adero
• IOE Information Literacy including Nazlin Bhimani, Rozz Evans, Francesca Ezzelino, Dan O’Connor, Sally Perry & Barbara Sakarya
• Liaison & Skills Support Team led by Cecile Dubuis
• Library Finance team
• Nadia Marks
• Open Access Team
• Dianne Stacey

Winner – LASS Library [Robbie Lumsden, Gillian Mackenzie, Sharon James, Simon Beesley, Nadia Marks, Max Pinarello, Makeba Adero].

Runner up – IOE Information Literacy [Nazlin Bhimani, Rozz Evans, Francesca Ezzelino, Dan O’Connor, Sally Perry & Barbara Sakarya]

 

Innovation

Nominees for this category:

• Research Data Support (Myriam Fellous-Sigrist & Daniel VanStrien)

• Daniel Kordik

Winner – Research Data Support Service [Myriam Fellous-Sigrist & Daniel Van Strien]

Runner up– Daniel Kordik

 

Mutual Respect

Nominees for this category:

• Bill Martin

• Queen Square Library

• Andy Pow

 

Winner – Queen Square Library – [Kate Brunskill, Rosanna Rizzo and Sandra Bamborough]

Runner up – Andy Pow

 

Above and Beyond

Nominees for this category:

• Daniel O’Connor
• Ken On
• Cumar Amerasingam
• Matthew Reynolds
• Freddie Linares

 

Winner – Daniel O’Connor

 

Further details regarding the nominations for the staff award 2017 runner-ups and winners are available on Moodle. Congratulations to all involved!

UCL Library Services Staff Conference 2016

The 2016 UCL Library Services Staff Conference was held today, 21 June, on the theme of Communication. Our Guest Speaker was Dr Roger Mosey, Master of Selwyn College Cambridge. Before becoming Master, Roger previously spent most of his career at the BBC. His final role was as Editorial Director, and previous jobs included being Editor of Today on BBC Radio 4; Controller of BBC Radio 5 Live; Head of BBC Television News; Director of Sport and the BBC Director of London 2012.

Roger gave a fascinating insight into the role of the media in the 21st century, based on his experiences at the BBC. He then applied his insights to the role that the media has with audiences that universities and their libraries need to address in the twenty-first century: senior decision makers inside and outside the university, students, alumni…

The Library has just appointed its first professional communications officer and she will be joining us in the Library later in the Summer. We look forward greatly to increasing our communications activity once the post is filled. It is an important step in the Library presenting modern, cutting-edge services of relevance to UCL and which help deliver the Library Strategy, since communication is part of one of the Key Performance Areas (KPA).

As leader of one of the Conference’s parallel sessions, I also used the 2016 Library Staff Conference to deliver the Library’s Action Plan for the Staff Survey 2015 (available for download), which identifies areas in the Library responses to the 2015 Staff Survey to celebrate, and also challenges to address. Overall the response rate was 48% (150 responses out of a possible 311). The highest scoring question was Q2: I know how my work contributes to the Library, which scored an 88% satisfaction rating. This is a great endorsement of the Library Strategy and the way colleagues understand how they contribute to its success. There were also areas in the Survey which present challenges for the Library. In the section Leadership and Change, only 22% of Library respondents agreed that ‘Senior management provides effective leadership (HoDs and above)’.

In discussion amongst the two groups to whom I presented the Action Plan, there were a number of different suggestions made on how the Library could improve its scores in the next Survey. One common theme was the need to undertake more communication, with a particular emphasis on communication between teams in the Library as well as between managers and colleagues. The example of using post-it notes on a central board, in the recent Customer Excellence pilot, was highlighted as a model of good practice.

It is important that action is taken on all the Action lines in the Library’s Action Plan for the Staff Survey 2015. To achieve this, implementation and monitoring of that implementation have been handed over to the Staff Development and Training Group. and the Library’s Leadership Team, under the relevant KPA: Staff, Equality and Diversity. Regular reports will be made to UCL senior management every 6 months on progress in implementing the Action Plan, which was recently approved by UCL Library Committee.

The 2016 Library Staff Conference has been a great success. Colleagues have been engaged, focussed on the important theme of Communication, participated in team building sessions and had fun. The Awards at the end of the day underlined what a fantastic job every member of UCL Library Services staff can perform. The Reception at the end of the Conference therefore celebrated success on a number of fronts and underlined our commitment to ever-increasing excellence.

Paul Ayris

Director of UCL Library Services