SCONUL annual residential conference, Queen's Hotel, Leeds, 16 to 18 June 2010
31 March, 2010
Organisational leadership in a time of change
Academic librarians are facing unprecedented challenges. The parlous state of the national economy is posing challenges for higher education which are already having significant implications for academic libraries. Paralleling this are the extraordinary changes taking place in the digital environment which require us to embrace innovative technologies and keep up to date with new ways of delivering our services at the same time that budgets are declining and the expectations of our students are rising. Here is a time for leadership where issues of efficiency gains, shared services, the rationalisation of services, effective staff management and creativity in the configuration of services have a new urgency.
The conference will feature keynote speakers discussing these themes, namely Dr Jonathon Riley, Director General and Master of the Armouries at the Royal Armouries and former Deputy Commander of NATO ISAF in Afghanistan, David Sweeney, Director for Research, Innovation and Skills at HEFCE, Dr Charles Lowry, Executive Director of the Association of Research Libraries. We have a speaker from the business world on the theme of Transformational leadership of change in a major UK and international firm. Libraries of the Future project will feature prominently. There is plenty of scope for creative thinking within the cabaret plenary arrangement, in the bars and public spaces and on Twitter. And there will be a number of practical sessions highlighting some of our recent initiatives that will contribute to our thinking about how we may provide effective services in a time of financial restraint and identifying areas which could make a real difference to the ways in which we can deliver good quality services in the future. These will include Philip Payne on the future of INSPIRE, Dave Patten on Web 2.0, Andy Appleyard debating leaner management processes in The British Library, and Nicola Wright and Michelle Blake on leading a team of subject librarians. In addition there will sessions from the JISC on scholarly communication, and from the Leadership Foundation, plus discussions on the role of JANET, NORMAN and on the LMS project led by David Kay and Ken Chad.
A poster promenade featuring the future of INTUTE, evaluating library spaces at Sheffield Hallam and Huddersfield , Building the Research Information Infrastructure Project (BRII), QR tags and mobile communications, correlating library use with academic success, UKRR deveplements, JazzHub, and the varied work of SCONUL.
The social programme will include visits to the Bronte Parsonage and Haworth, the Royal Armouries, Leeds Library and Harvey Nicks, and the Red House at Gomersal and the Huddersfield University Library and Computing Centre. Individuals may visit the City Art Gallery, Temple Newsam and will be warmly welcomed to any of the West Yorkshire university libraries.
There will be a reception on Wednesday evening hosted by Biddy Fisher, the President of the Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals, to mark the retirement of Toby Bainton, Secretary of SCONUL. On Thursday evening there will be a reception in the Parkinson Court with an opportunity to visit the University Art Gallery and the Brotherton Library followed by the Conference Dinner at the University of Leeds.
A full programme and registration form can be found at http://www.sconul.ac.uk/events/agm2010