The Northern Collaboration: 2014 Conference Engagement & Audiences
Date: Friday, 5th September 2014
Hosted by: Teesside University
Venue: Darlington Campus.
Report By: Angela Robson, Teesside University
As this was my first ever experience of attending a professional conference, I did not
know what to expect from the day. It was made easier for me as I currently work at
Teesside University so I was at ease with my surroundings and knew the organisers
extremely well. Before the event delegates were asked to sign up for parallel
sessions and to give a first and second choice.
On arrival delegates were welcomed to Teesside by Liz Jolly the Director of Library
and Information Services and the Northern Collaboration Secretary; with an
introduction from Sue White the Northern Collaboration Chair and Director of
Computing and Library Services at University of Huddersfield.
The Conference was opened with a keynote address by Derfel Owen, Head of
Academic Policy & Standards, University of Exeter & co-editor of: The Student
Handbook: Practice in Higher Education.
Derfel opened his address with a true or false session asking the audience for their
participation. This highlighted some interesting facts, for instance only 40% of final
year students work part-time to fund their studies, and 89% of students rate their
experience as excellent. This session gave and insight into people’s perception.
Derfel went on to compare buying an electrical product, for example a microwave, in
relation to buying a university course and the similarities used with regards to
researching these products and with the buying process. This highlighted the
relationship between a student and a University and the importance of engaging,
respecting, understanding, trusting and empowering to both for the partnership to
work successfully.
He went on to explain how students study in today’s society and the type of
commitments and pressures they encounter on a daily basis. He described the types
of communication a student will use and the technologies they make use of to
successfully complete their course, such as using over 2,300 websites, viewing
1,281 Facebook profiles, writing 42 pages for class and reading or sending over 500
emails - and using just 8 books. This made you realise that students are “digital
natives” and that they are becoming skilled, and knowledgeable in skills for a job that
doesn’t yet exist today!
Through the day I went to three parallel sessions Popular Culture: using special
collections and archives to build cultural partnerships and promote civic
engagement; Mobile First: The Library in your pocket, and Driving cultural
engagement through effective partnerships: the Durham experience. All the
sessions were extremely interesting and showed what can be achieved with
developing partnership in the community and with other organisations.
I found the ‘Mobile First: The Library in your pocket’ the most valuable session as I
have an interest in technology and how this can be of use in the workplace. Stephen
Morrin from the University of Salford gave an excellent presentation on why the
University felt the need to change their website, how they did it and what they were
doing next. Stephen explained that their current website was similar to watching
television through a letter box. The library wanted to engage with students and felt
the best way to achieve this was through the mobile phone as where ever you went it
was clear that students used them constantly. He gave some interesting statistics 91% of people have a mobile and 50% use their mobile for primary use on the
internet. Stephen then went onto explain the type of system they used which was the
Bootstrap framework and how simple it was to apply. From this he explained by
using Google Analytics they were able to establish which pages were being used the
most. It was found from 340 pages on the website they were able to reduce the
content to 75, these pages were not disposed of but put into retirement and archived
in case they could be of use in the future. The university carried out usability tests
with students and the outcome was clear that students liked what they found. Into
the future the University are looking at how they could use e-resources on the mobile
but this would require involving publishers and needed further investigation.
Navigation was found to mean more to the university than to students and metadata
was seen as important with regards to type of search terms students are using.
Overall the university received good feedback and found engaging with students
through social media worthwhile. I found this presentation excellent and would be
useful in the future for potential new job roles and changes and challenges that could
arise with Teesside University’s own library website.
The event finished with a presentation from Ann Rossiter who explained the
Sprezzatura: Dialogical model and how people work differently in the workplace and
how good at collaborating we are as librarians. Ann revealed different types of
collaborating and the difference between being dialogical and dialetical and
depending on the situation either could be the correct model to use. It certainly gave
you food for thought!!
I found the whole day extremely interesting and it certainly gave me a new insight
into how working with different partners on projects means great things can be
achieved for the user and for the wider community. Through sharing, listening and
communicating new services can be introduced - they don’t have to be “shelved” due
to lack of resources if we continue to collaborate with each other.
On a personal note I found the Conference an excellent place to network and meet
people like myself studying or who are qualified, and where I can gain knowledge
and ideas on what others are achieving in their libraries. I would like to thank the
Northern Collaboration for given me the opportunity to attend such an excellent
Conference!