CPD Update
NoWAL Board meeting February 2015
There has been one visit this year on 16th September to the newly refurbished Manchester
Central library; 21 staff attended this event.
The CPD sessions that have taken place this academic year, with feedback are
INDUCTION FOR STUDENTS
Date
Host Institution
Total
Most Useful
Monday 3rd November 2014
EDGE HILL UNIVERSITY, WOODLANDS
Institutions
No of Staff Attending
Edge Hill University
Lancaster University
Liverpool John Moores University
University of Liverpool
University of Manchester
University of Central Lancashire
Manchester Metropolitan University
Liverpool Hope University
Royal Northern College of music
University of Bolton
University of Chester
University of Cumbria
University of Salford
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Not Stated
2
1
1
1
1
2
4
12
Sharing opportunity.
Sharing of induction practice – focussing on key messages, using online
resources to support input, drip-feeding / not overload in welcome
week.
Different views. How much centralisation compared to what we do.
Marketing tool / key messages.
Presentations.
Hearing about how other library services are structured and how they
deal with & deliver inductions.
Different demonstrations of how induction is approached pre-sessional
– Cumbria was interesting.
Learning what other institutions do.
Least Useful
Relevant to role
Description
Suggestions
Comments
Lots of very useful ideas to take away & try out.
Cumbria – Head Start.
Hearing about different approaches, find practical talk by UCLAN was
very useful.
Good to compare differing ways of approaching induction.
Finding out how different institutions approach induction and the
variety of ideas people have.
Learned something from everyone.
Maybe build in structured discussion time?
Talk about Head Start – not easy to relate to my institution.
I can honestly say there was nothing that I did not find useful !
Nothing (7)
Strongly agree
9
Agree
3
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Excellent
9
Good
3
Average
Poor
Maybe more time for some discussion across all attendees around the
topic and not just for presenters
Open access – research support.
Friendly, welcoming staff. Well organised event. Informative prior to
event. Positive atmosphere / sharing of good practice.
Enjoyed it 
Would have been useful to have more time for discussion.
The Eventbrite reminder could do with being set up sooner. It’s
probably something which can’t be changed but if it can it would be
helpful.
Really good event – nice room full of sunshine.
I found this an excellent event – very relevant and the whole thing was
most interesting and well organised.
WRITING FOR SOCIAL MEDIA
Date
Tuesday 11th November 2014
Host Institution
UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL
Institutions
Edge Hill University
Lancaster University
Liverpool John Moores University
University of Liverpool
University of Manchester
No of Staff Attending
4
1
4
University of Central Lancashire
Manchester Metropolitan University
Liverpool Hope University
Royal Northern College of music
University of Bolton
University of Chester
University of Cumbria
University of Salford
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
NOT DISCLOSED
Total
Most Useful
Least Useful
1
1
2
5
18
Current practice in other Universities.
Learning from others good practice & experiences & the little things I
was unaware of such as Twitter campaigns.
Other colleagues / Universities experiences of Social Media.
Discovering what policies are used by other institutions.
Exchange of ideas – interesting to find different approaches
Meeting people behind the Twitter accounts, hearing other libraries do
the same thing as us.
It was v. interesting to hear about other HEI’s social media usage esp.
with the new kinds of social media ie Pintrest, and how this can be
used.
Hearing the approaches from other institutions in comparison to ours.
Learning what others do with social media.
Opportunity to discover what other institutions are doing – in particular
enthusiasm of MMU.
Hearing of other social media platforms to investigate .
Good to know what others are doing, how they focus, team structures,
etc.
Sharing of experience.
Hearing the positive & negative aspects of other uni’s social media
experience.
It was interesting to hear people’s experience of using social media in
their institutions.
CSE application & standards – good for our future use. Really just
hearing about others & what they do.
I found it helpful to hear how other unis had been successful through
social media, hoe they had engaged with students / followers, and what
sorts of things were popular among them. Also good to know how it
was used to benefit the university.
The event was v. useful to share ideas and gather information from
other institutions whilst I was new to the role.
Enjoyed it all.
I did think it was going to be more on actual writing styles, tone, etc,
rather than a sharing of experience.
Vague about presentation to put together of experiences, not know
what to expect etc.
A bit repetitive.
May have been better to ask attendees to focus on one media site – as
it got slightly repetitive.
Final discussion may have benefitted from more structure & formal
leading / moderation.
Thought that the set up was going to be more ’in the round’ discussion
than presentation based.
I was expecting the session to be more discussion based rather than a
series of presentations.
Would have liked more discussion generally – exchange of ideas.
Relevant to role
Description
Suggestions
Comments
Nothing (8)
Strongly agree
8
Agree
9
Disagree
Strongly disagree
NOT ANSWERED
1
Excellent
4
Good
11
Average
2
Poor
NOT ANSWERED
1
I know it’s not academic but if NoWAL could arrange a visit to
Manchester Public Libraries……
Extended social media based event learning, how to improve the
experience, etc.
New social media applications eg Pinterest, Google+, etc.
Learning Spaces – exchange of experience.
Thank you. (3)
It was v. useful, I’m just sorry I didn’t have anything to contribute!
If the event could have offered tips, workshops, structured discussions
on the actual writing of content for social media, then that would have
been great.
If the course is run again, a bit more structure about what is expected
eg topics to discuss, would be really helpful when preparing.
SEEKING AND RESPONDING TO FEEDBACK, WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE
NATIONAL STUDENT SURVEY: THE ROLE OF LIBRARY AND IT.
Date
Wednesday 3rd December 2014
Host Institution
UNIVERSITY OF CHESTER
Institutions
Edge Hill University
Lancaster University
Liverpool John Moores University
University of Liverpool
University of Manchester
University of Central Lancashire
Manchester Metropolitan University
Liverpool Hope University
Royal Northern College of music
University of Bolton
University of Chester
University of Cumbria
University of Salford
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Blackburn College
Total
Most Useful
No of Staff Attending
3
1
1
1
2
1
17
Detail regarding getting feedback from students.
It was generally useful.
All of it ideas & feedback
Finding out about how feedback is gathered and changes that are made
as a result. How important the small things are that are easy to
implement are for students.
Learning Enhancement Agreement (Cumbria) What we have done to
make things even better (EHU)
Generally finding out what is happening at other institutions, how they
are getting and dealing with feedback. Coffee break to catch up with
colleagues. Handout from EHU presentation.
The role of marketing! & constant student feedback / forums !
General update of library PR mechanisms to focus on issues raised by
NSS.
Rachel’s & Nadine’s sessions.
Hearing about activities taking place in other institutions. Sharing ideas.
Confirmation that others are doing / progressing the same way as we
are. The tour of the library.
Approaches to obtain student / staff feedback – very inventive ideas.
Examples of managing and planning NSS from Cumbria and Chester –
good work going on at Cumbria around engagement.
Range of initiatives – can use some. Seeing new layout at Thornton.
Really enjoyed the chance to hear about other institutions feedback
mechanisms and how they’ve been used for service improvements.
Methods used to inform library build. Engagement with students in
particular.
To see how others use feedback & effect change to improve services.
Least Useful
Might have been useful to have more structured discussion at the end
eg break into groups to discuss what’s been seen & then feedback to all
(Though turned out well in the end ! )
Occasional repetition – inevitable given all working to solve the same
issue.
I would have appreciated more chance for discussions. Also some
sessions did not have time for questions, which I would have liked.
Lots of theory – not much in results. Too much talking through job roles
/ services.
More examples of what was done rather that theory. Numbers /
percentages sharing improvements. Too much introduction of sense
and / or job role.
Don’t know (1)
Nothing (4)
Relevant to role
Strongly agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly disagree
10
7
Description
Excellent
Good
Average
Poor
8
8
1
Suggestions
Something on career progression in Libraries.
Library planning for the future.
Doing more with NSS!
Front line service delivery
Customer Journey mapping.
Developments in e-resources
“
new site issues
“
online programs
Further sessions on working with departments – engagement. Also,
using data.
Ideas for upping user engagement with social media.
Jodrell Bank visit (U of M)
Redesigned Liverpool uni Sydney Jones / Harold Cohen
Similar event but with students who have given feedback or students
presenting on how they use library spaces, what they like / don’t like –
how they study – what they use etc.
Comments
Thank you. (2)
It would have been interesting to do a round table introduction & I like
description of what the person is hoping to learn from the session.
Nice to have a tour and background of the library – good start to the
session. Chat at the end very useful.
As a non-librarian (I have business role), I appreciated that this was
relevant to me as well !
Very warm room. Av equipment (not too bad really !) Lots of speakers,
maybe reduce by 1.
Room was very warm & stuffy. AV poor in both rooms used.
RESEARCH SUPPORT
Date
Thursday 22nd January 2015
Host Institution
UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL LANCASHIRE
Institutions
Edge Hill University
Lancaster University
Liverpool John Moores University
University of Liverpool
University of Manchester
University of Central Lancashire
Manchester Metropolitan University
Liverpool Hope University
Royal Northern College of music
University of Bolton
University of Chester
University of Cumbria
University of Salford
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Not Stated
Total
Most Useful
No of Staff Attending
1
1
1
5
2
2
4
1
4
21
All of it – good to hear what other uni’s are doing to address national
drivers.
Hearing how other institutions are tackling the same challenges.
Reassuring that we have the same challenges!
Practical examples – Research Bites; DA@Salford
Networking. Sharing experience & the opportunity to question against
own experience.
Overview of regional developments in this files was very useful.
All the sessions provided great background information.
Good overview of practices and processes at NW institutions.
Learning about what peers think and are working on. Sense of
‘community’ in the NW.
Looking at different aspects of Research Support from different
institutions and variety of approaches.
The presentation from Salford and Lancaster, with the mix of practical
stuff and theory stuff.
Presentations on OA as this is very timely for me at the moment. Also
Research Bites – good concept that is giving me a lot of food for
thought! Recurrent themes (ie collaboration) very useful to consider
too.
Useful to find out what other people are doing to support research.
Range of talks & snapshot of different universities.
Getting an overview / taster of what’s happening in other institutions.
Bibliometrics – Citation presentation.
It was all interesting. Lots of new information to follow up on & lots of
products & services to investigate.
Arrived at 11am……. Citation services, RDM, Research Bites –
promotion really interesting.
OA, impact and RDM activities.
Presentations.
Experiences of speakers.
Helen McEvoy talk and strategic approaches to Open Access and
Stephen Pearson’s talk on citation analysis. Very inspiring. And Tanya
Williamson’s session.
Least Useful
Relevant to role
Description
Too short !
Maybe some time for informal discussion & networking – but time
clearly a constraint here.
Only presentations, no workshop element.
The presentation from Manchester, as I was familiar with everything
covered already.
All useful presentations – perhaps timing – more time for discussion.
Questions.
Nothing – all of it was useful, especially as I’m not working in this
specific area and wanted to enhance my knowledge.
Nothing (11)
Strongly agree
13
Agree
8
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Excellent
Good
Average
Poor
12
9
Suggestions
More research sessions – follow this with one on impact / altmetrics
Research impact – more on metrics incl. altmetrics.
Altmetrics.
Sessions on combining OA and social media strategies.
Systematic reviews for non-health background research-support
librarians. Bibliometrics as a topic.
Innovative approaches to teaching Information Literacy?
Educational technologies for teaching information skills?
Comments
Thanks for arranging this – useful for research librarians often working
alone.
I’m new to NoWAL, so don’t know the faces / names. A delegate list
would be useful  Thanks for organising.
Good event. Thanks for organising it.
No networking opportunities. More active time-keeping.
Room cold !
Just the right length of session and individual presentations – just
enough information. The room was a little cold though.
To come in the next few months:
27th January and 7th February - RDM Rose Workshop (remaining 2 sessions)
2nd Feb – Designing Amazing PowerPoints – MMU
17th Feb (AM)– Inter Library Loans and document delivery – RNCM
17th Feb (PM) -Collection development - RNCM
27th Feb – Library Support for International Students - University of Salford
20th March – Data Skills for librarians – University of Manchester (paid course)
9th April - Internal Governance and Communication – LJMU
27th May - Enquiry handling in a digital/automated environment – Liverpool University
4th June – CSE exchange of experience – University of Bolton
23rd June –Teachmeet – Liverpool Hope
NoWAL Conference update
The NoWAL conference will take place on Wednsday 15th July 2015 and will be held at the
new Manchester Metropolitan University Birley campus.
Planning for 2015/6
The CPD group with representatives from all NoWAL institutions will meet again in
May/June and map out a skeleton schedule for 2015-16. Suggestions from Board members
for events are most welcome.
AM
February 2015