Alyson's Welsh libraries blog

Libraries Inspire delivery plan 2012-13

alysontyler — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:17:58 +0000

Image CC from OpenClipArt

Libraries Inspire is the new strategy for libraries in Wales and will run from 2012-16. The strategy document sets out the broad areas of activities, but each year a more detailed delivery plan will be published which outlines specific actions and stakeholders.

The first delivery plan (for 2012-13) has now been published and is available (in Welsh and English) on the CyMAL website (in the Libraries section). It’s been agreed by the Libraries Inspire Advisory Group. Let me know if you have any thoughts on it, and what you would like to see take place in subsequent years.

Bursaries to improve your library skills

alysontyler — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:45:17 +0000

Image CC by gustavorezende on OpenClipArt

As in previous years, CyMAL is providing a variety of grants to librarians in Wales to help improve the skills, qualifications and confidence of the library workforce in Wales.

Workforce development is an important aspect of the Libraries Inspire strategy (2012-16). Investing in the workforce will help improve the quality of services for customers.

For full details, please read the document here (scroll down for the Library Workforce Develoment Grants document). The path is CyMAL website / Grants / Innovation and Development Grants 2012-13/ Library Workforce Development Grants.

If you have any queries please contact me or our training and development adviser Denise Lavis (denise.lavis – at – wales.gsi.gov.uk) or 0300 062 2111.

Technologies to watch out for

alysontyler — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:46:19 +0000

Computing, not our heads, in the clouds. Image CC from Open Clip Art Library.

I find it very hard to picture the future where issues of technology are concerned, but thankfully the good folk at JISC have produced a brief summary of some of the technologies to look out for in the next 1 to 5 years, and how they can help with or relate to learning and education. I can’t say that I’m fully familiar with some of these (telepresence robots anyone?), but luckily that one is forecast for a few years away yet so I’ve got time to learn about it.

There are also some challenging statistics on their website including “by 2015, 80% of everyone accessing the Internet worldwide will be doing so from a mobile device.”

What online subscriptions is CyMAL funding?

alysontyler — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:04:05 +0000

Image CC from Open Clip Art Library by Antoine

I know it can sometimes be confusing knowing what CyMAL is funding, what the current situation is with different subscriptions etc, so here’s an update on the online subscriptions that are funded through the Welsh Government’s libraries’ programme.

Newspapers – The service is provided by Newsbank. The subscription is renewed until 31 March 2013. Access is for public library members, college and university library members, Welsh Government staff, the National Library of Wales library members, and health libraries. Access is direct from the member’s library’s website , or through the all-Wales library portal. Access can be onsite (in a library) or remote.

Family history – a subscription for online access to family history resources has been paid for by CyMAL in recent years. The current subscription with Find My Past finishes on 31 March 2012, and a new subscription with Ancestry.com Library Edition will be in place from 1 April 2012 for one year. This is for onsite access only, for public libraries, archives and record offices and accredited museums in Wales. Access is arranged through the team at the NLW (librariesforlife – at – llgc.org.uk).

Specialist reference work – funding has been provided for the Grove Art and Grove Music online reference works for public library members. The subscription is paid for until 31 March 2013.

European Sources Online – CyMAL have also provided funding for an online subscription to ESO, an online database with information all about Europe. Access is for any individual in Wales, or libraries, schools etc, can sign up. For more information go to the library portal.

And finally, e-books! CyMAL are also funding the piloting of free e-books for public libraries in Wales. At present 14 local authorities are offering the service in Phase 1 of the pilot. You can read more about it and check who the 14 are by going to the e-books page on the library portal, or the e-books website itself.

If you have any questions about any of the subscriptions get in touch with me or the library team in the National Library of Wales. They are the good people who handle all the subscriptions! (librariesforlife – at – llgc.org.uk)

National Libraries Day – 4th February

alysontyler — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:47:42 +0000

For the second year running a day has been chosen to celebrate and promote libraries across the UK – National Libraries Day. This year it’s on Saturday 4^th February and libraries are being encouraged to hold events or do something special on that day (or that week if not open during a Saturday as is the case for school and college libraries) and the public are being encouraged to join or use their library on that day.

It’s being co-ordinated by CILIP in London and a variety of other partners. There’s plenty of information on their website and you can also follow them on Twitter @NatLibrariesDay.

They have created logos under a creative commons licence which means they can be reproduced and used by individuals and organisations for the production of posters, fliers and other promotional materials in accordance with their guidelines. Downloads can be found here.

There are also Welsh language versions of the logos, thanks to Jane Purdie (the Welsh libraries marketing project officer based at Wrexham) for organising this. Download the Welsh here.

The logos are also available from the staff toolkit on the Welsh libraries portal (with the Welsh ones being on the Welsh side).

On the main NLD website you can also upload details of events you are planning to hold. If you are planning to do something for this day please also let Jane know so that she can publicise via librarywales.org (email jane-at-wrexham.gov.uk)

Marketing awards for Welsh librarians!

alysontyler — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:33:16 +0000

Image CC by Nicubunu in Open Clip Art Library

Attention college, university and public librarians in Wales who have done any marketing in the last year. For the third (I think) year running, the annual Marketing Innovation Awards are open to entries. The marketing must have taken place between 1st April – 31st December 2011, and you can enter as many projects as you like.

The deadline has been extended to 31st January 2012, and all entries must be made online, via the staff toolkit. T+Cs and further info all on the toolkit.

These awards aim to celebrate the valuable work that library staff do to bring library services to new audiences and to develop new activities for existing users. You can view previous winners in the toolkit.

If you can’t remember the generic log-in and password to the staff toolkit get in touch with me or Jane Purdie ( jane.purdie -at- wrexham.gov.uk). The awards are managed by Wrexham CBC as part of the marketing strand work of the library strategy.

If you ‘aint in it, you can’t win it!

E-books in America and Iceland

alysontyler — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:54:21 +0000

Forgive me for another post on e-books so soon after the last one. (I did say there’s lots being written about this didn’t I?)

America – this article focuses on one public library service in America where the demand for e-books is very high, higher than the level of e-books they are able to easily stock. Although the article notes that e-book loans are still only 2% of their book issues, e-book checkouts grew by 116% last year.

Iceland – this article was actually written in November 2011, but I forgot to include it in my last post on e-books. The author notes nine problems regarding e-books, or rather the lack of, in Iceland. It’s interesting to read of their situation in comparison to America, the UK and Wales.

Not really everything you need to know about e-books

alysontyler — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:20:18 +0000

Dawn of the e-books era? Image CC from OpenClipArtLibrary

News items, statistics and blog posts about e-books crop up on an almost daily basis and sometimes it seems difficult to keep up with all the changes (or is that just me?!). Sometimes reported developments apply only to America (e.g. availability of certain hardware) whilst others start in America and then come here. Here are some links to a selection of the articles that I have come across recently on the topic of e-books (meaning e-book reader devices and e-books content). NB you may want to go and get a cuppa, this is going to be another long post!

Statistics

According to a recent YouGov poll, 1 in 40 adults in the UK received an e-reader for Christmas 2011, over 90% of which were Kindles. The article notes that the UK’s biggest publishing group Hachette sold over 100,000 e-books on Christmas day alone, and both HarperCollins and Random House also had e-book downloads of over 100,000 on that day, each.

This recent article in USA Today shows a range of e-book sales data, including a chart of when titles in the USA Today’s Best-selling list have sold more e-copies than paper copies.

Lending e-books

Here is a simple summary mainly from a UK perspective of the potential for loaning e-books (content) in public libraries. This is from a computing website not from a library perspective.

The above article mentions the lending of e-books (content) in America with Amazon’s Kindle. The Amazon Prime package includes unlimited instant streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows and a Kindle e-book to borrow for free each month from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. The lending library currently has some 66,000 titles, and it costs $79 (c.£51) a year to join, and is only available in America, in partnership with Overdrive. *UPDATE – at bottom of post

As the public cannot get free Kindle e-books via library services anyway this could be attractive for Kindle owners who are prepared to pay $6.50 a month (equiv. of£4.30) although they only get one free e-book loan a month for that (along with the films etc). See also two articles about this on Digital Shift and Digital Reader.

Publishers and libraries

In November 2011 two decisions sent shockwaves through the library world. One was Penguin’s decision to not make digital editions of new titles available for library lending. The reason given was ‘security issues’. Initially announced in America, the decision was then announced for UK Penguin a few days later.

Harper Collins’ decision to restrict library e-book lending to 26 issues per title also caused consternation in the book world, including this article in the Guardian, and in Library Journal, and see also the HarperCollins’ response in an open letter to libraries. The decision means that for libraries with HarperCollins’ e-books, after a title has been borrowed 26 times it self-destructs (well, sort of), and disappears from the library catalogue and the library has to buy it again if they want to still offer it to customers. The 26 figure was based on the average number of loans a paperback usually lasts. I’m a bit confused as to why wear and tear on paperbacks should be converted into wear and tear on a digital file though.

Also in America (not sure if library authorities in the UK who use Overdrive have noticed the same problem), some public librarians in America noticed that different libraries who had subscribed to the Overdrive service received different collections of stock to offer their customers, and only found out by mistake.

This article in the New York Times entitled ‘Publishers vs. Libraries: An E-Book Tug of War’ outlines the views of publishers and why they fear the involvement of libraries in e-books, and also provides a general overview of the current e-book situation in America.

Wales!

Closer to home in Wales, various Welsh language blogs have raised the issue of the availability of Welsh language e-books, see recent posts by by Carl Morris, Hacio’r iaith and Hen Rech Flin here and here.

Some of the posts mention the Welsh Books Council’s recent report into the issue of Welsh language e-books, and you can read this report in English or Welsh. The report indicates that the epub format is the preferred option, and that there is considerable interest among Welsh language speakers to be able to access Welsh language e-books.

Several publishers in Wales do sell e-books directly, including Y Lolfa , Honno for all their new titles from now on through Amazon Kindle, and Parthian that I’m aware of, (although Honno and Parthian mainly publish in English), and the Welsh Books Council also intends to offer e-books to the public through Gwales.

E-readers

If you are interested in e-book readers or other mobile reading devices you might like to view this short piece on BBC Click programme.

And finally… !

This Guardian article discusses the pricing of e-books, and this blog post forecasts future battles to come in the e-book world in this post on ‘The years the e-book wars broke out’.

I think that’s enough for now!

*Kindle Prime update – according to TechCrunch, Amazons launch of Kindle Direct Publishing has let to over 75,000 titles now being available in the lending library scheme. And in December 2011 customers borrowed nearly 300,000 KDP titles. KDP allows independent authors and publishers to make their titles exclusive to Amazon, and if they’re borrowed they get a share of the KDP fund.

Crash bang wallop, what a video! Or, promoting libraries to the late teens

alysontyler — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:33:23 +0000

Image CC from Clker, by OCAL

Librarians who are keen to attract the ‘difficult’ teen group or reluctant students can now take advantage of two videos which have been produced specifically for further education college audiences and university students (mainly first years). However, public libraries may also see a use for the videos in attracting the youth group to show them the benefits of using libraries.

They can be viewed on the WelshLibraries YouTube channel. The light-hearted videos were commissioned by the marketing strand of the libraries programme in Wales and have been produced by Tantrwm who also created the animated Bibli family films, which are also available on the YouTube channel.

The different ones available are:

Mad Dads and Psycho Ex’s English
Tadau a hen gariadon boncyrs Welsh
This is a 7 minute mini film divided into chapters. Each chapter can also be viewed separately on YouTube. It’s mainly aimed at the further education college audience, but could appeal to university students.
Why use your library? English
Pam Defnyddio Eich Llyfrgell? Welsh
This is a 3 minute video aimed mainly at first year university students.

Librarians in Wales who wish to use these films on screen displays in student cafes, at events, on computer desktops etc, can get the files from Jane at Wrexham jane.purdie-@-wrexham.gov.uk (delete the -hyphens-). Please tell us what you think of them, and please use them to promote libraries!

(PS The title of my post is a reference to Alan Partridge’s videos but the library films are considerably better than his.)

England – Committee inquiry into library closures

alysontyler — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:48:20 +0000

Question mark CC from Clker by Mohamed Ibrahim

As many of you will know, libraries are a devolved issue, meaning they are the responsibility of the separate parliaments/assemblies. This post covers a library issue in England, but there is no reason why people in Wales cannot also reply to the consultation.

The Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee have launched an inquiry into public library closures in England and are inviting written submissions and views on:

What constitutes a comprehensive and efficient library service for the 21st century
The extent to which planned library closures are compatible with the requirements of the Public Libraries & Museums Act (1964) and the Charteris Report
The impact library closures have on local communities
The effectiveness of the Secretary of State’s powers of intervention under the Public Libraries & Museums Act 1964

More information can be found on the CILIP page, or on the UK Parliament page. Submissions to the inquiry should be received by, Thursday 12th January 2012, so get thinking over the festive break.