2023 Summer Conference: New Horizons: Preparing for the Future

Join us for the UHMLG Summer Conference in Birmingham. The theme for this year’s conference is New Horizons: Preparing for the Future.

Thu, 13 Jul 2023 11:00 – Fri, 14 Jul 2023 14:00

Venue: Birmingham – Crowne Plaza Birmingham NEC, an IHG Hotel, National Exhibition Centre, Pendigo Way, Marston Green, Birmingham B40 1PS

A SWOT analysis of the library space in the year of generative AI – Andrew Cox Senior Lecturer, University of Sheffield)

• The talk analyses the evolving character of AI and considers how libraries can apply it and support its use. The talk offers a SWOT analysis for libraries at the current moment in relation to AI. It also seeks to evaluate some of the ways that librarians can respond strategically and practically.
• Andrew Cox is a senior lecturer in the Information School, University of Sheffield. His research explores the response of the information profession to contemporary challenges such as datafication and AI; and the perceived social crisis in mental health and wellbeing. His report on AI and the information profession can be accessed at https://www.cilip.org.uk/general/custom.asp?page=researchreport. He has also published research on how students use informal learning spaces and on related issues in library and campus design. His report for Sconul on the growth of use of library spaces is available at https://www.sconul.ac.uk/news/research-report-on-drivers-for-the-usage-of-sconul-member-libraries He is also part of the Academic Libraries North project that has created an advocacy resource for mental health and wellbeing. He is convenor of the IFLA special interest group on AI. 

Do Medical Graduates have the required Information Literacy Skills to meet GMC Graduate Requirements? – Bethia Evans (Cardiff University)

• There is an increasing body of evidence showing medical students have inadequate strategies for sourcing information, poor engagement with information literacy (IL) training and confidence in their IL skills which does not correlate with performance. The Library Service Team at Cardiff University wanted to know whether their final year medical students feel they have had the opportunity to practice IL skills and feel prepared to use IL in clinical practice.  
  Final year medical students at Cardiff University were sent a survey to assess IL confidence and knowledge, and were invited to share their experiences in a focus group or interview.  
  This presentation will discuss the findings from the research, explore the need for IL within medical training, and will outline recommendations for curriculum development to address this issue.  
• Bethia Evans is a medical student studying at Cardiff University School of Medicine. After her fourth year in medicine, she chose to explore her interests in Medical Education by completing an intercalation degree at Cardiff University. Within this degree, she joined the Library Service Team to work on a research project focusing on information literacy skills amongst final year medical students. Bethia aspires to maintain her involvement with medical education as she pursues her career in medicine. 

Designing and co-leading a credit-bearing postgraduate course on Critical Literature Review with clinical education faculty – Ruth Jenkins (University of Edinburgh)

• This is a reflection on one librarian’s experience co-leading a credit-bearing postgraduate course ‘Critical Literature Review’ with faculty at the University of Edinburgh. The long-term relationships created with students are some of the biggest rewards for librarians participating in classrooms, and more time spend with students can illuminate the roadblocks they encounter in research and studies. Not being a traditional ‘library’ course, Critical Literature Review demonstrates that librarians are teachers not limited to ‘library’ content, and that it is not only librarians who can and should teach information literacy. Information literacy and criticality permeates the design of the course, and a critical stance is encouraged in students towards not only the literature for review, but to the overall process and systems used. For example, interrogating power structures in using databases, who is deciding what counts as valid knowledge, and approaches to minimising bias.
  
  This presentation will detail the process of designing this Masters course, for a global cohort of fully-online students working professionally in health professions. The presentation will reflect on new roles and new skillsets: designing course content for e-learners, delivery, assessment, and of course lessons learned.
• Ruth Jenkins is an Academic Support Librarian for medicine and biomedical sciences at the University of Edinburgh, and is co-lead for the Critical Literature Review course in MSc Clinical Education. She is a Chartered librarian with CILIP and professional registration mentor, as well as a UHMLG committee member. 

Slow and fast change: planning the future of University of Leeds Libraries’ student spaces – Michael Fake (University of Leeds Libraries)

• How can we be agile, adaptable, and user-led, whilst operating in University environments that can often be bureaucratic, committee-led, and ponderous? How can we balance long-term thinking with rapid change and the need for responsive development? This presentation will look at how the student expectations of our campus libraries are changing at Leeds, and how we are responding with both “fast” and “slow” approaches to improving our spaces. It will look at changes we’ve put in place recently, as well as considering how our 2030 vision Knowledge for All is informing plans for the future.
• Michael Fake is Associate Director: Student Learning & Experience at University of Leeds Libraries, where he has worked since 2016. He has responsibility for the Library estate and space planning, and leads the library’s Sustainable Environments programme.

Decolonising global health, one systematic search at a time – Jane Falconer (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine)

• Decolonising global health requires researchers to critically examine how structural and systemic racial, ethnic, and power imbalances are manifest within the discipline. As a result, staff at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine have embarked on a critical examination of their ways of working. The Library’s recommendations for systematic review searching were included in this work. We were concerned that research from the Global South was not being retrieved. A search of the literature identified three potential ways to address this issue. This study aims to measure whether incorporating these recommendations have made any difference to the items selected for inclusion to LSHTM-authored systematic reviews 
• Jane Falconer is User Support Services Librarian at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. She leads the Library team who provide all front-facing services to users including user services, reading lists, information literacy teaching and systematic review searching support. She also represents the Library on the institution’s Decolonising the Curriculum Working Group and is co-chair of the EAHIL Evidence-Based Information Special Interest Group.