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 B
BC. 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 a
ction 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
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