03/07/2017 - 07/07/2017_ JULY_WEEK_1

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I visited and had a tour of the University of Greenwich Library Block complex with other fellows of the programme.  Presentation was done by the Director of Information and Library Services, Mr Paul Bullet.  We were updated on the current Library services of the University which include: Technology, processes, research trends and students focused delivery services.

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On Tuesday, 04th May, we had a meeting with the Associate Director of Infrastructure and Applications Services of UEL, Mr. Jim Watts. He briefed fellows and I on the current infrastructure deployed by the University with emphasized on bandwidth penetration, user data security, disaster recovery processes and single sign on applications.

 

I attended a two hour presentation session delivered by the Executive Director of Jisc technologies, Mr. Tim Kidd on 5th May at UEL. Jisc is the UK higher, further education and skills sectors’ not-for-profit organisation for digital services and solutions. His presentation was centred on JISC’s: Vision, mission, what it does, strategy, membership, network, security, training, financial-X-Ray (IT Audit) and service delivery challenges.

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The week ended with another interactive session delivered by Gurdish on the theme: “Human Resource Life Cycle Management”. She shared her knowledge with other fellows and I on the increasing work productivity in the world. She identified the following approaches to increasing work productivity:

• Using technology to improve operation

• Reviewing existing processes

• Continuous improvement of culture

• Outsourcing non-cost business activities

 

She presented the following as the HR Cycle:

• Talent Acquisition/Recruitment

• Employment Assessment/Selection

• Induction and Integration

• Training and Development

• Performance Management 

• Vacancy Planning

Take home message: “If working hard can make one rich, then donkeys would be covered with gold”

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10/07/2017 - 14/07/2017_JULY_WEEK_2

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On the 12th August, 2017, I visited the British Library (www.bl.uk) with other fellows of the programme. We were accompanied by the programme leader Gurdish Sandhu. We had an interaction with some key staff of the Library and subsequently had a tour of the library to observe its operations.

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We were briefed on the European collections of the Library which contains research material in all European languages and constitutes one of the leading research collections in the world for the study of European history, cultures and socio-economic conditions, print monographs, periodicals, newspapers, statistics and official publications complimented by archival material, early printed books, maps, philatelic collections, photographs, music scores and sound recordings. 

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• European Collections: Manuscripts and early printed books, edited collections of documents and modern academic monographs, conference proceedings, festschrifts and serials

• Language and Literatures: All the major and national languages of Europe complemented by extensive minority language collections.

• Art Collection: Academic monographs, conference proceedings, serials, exhibition catalogues and art sales catalogues

• EthOS Collections: E-theses online services allowing users to search and read PhD theses the required subject area.

• E-Resources Collections: Accessible in reading rooms including bibliographic and statistical databases, news and media aggregators.

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In addition, all fellows were updated on the relevant information regarding:

• How to become a member of the Library

• Types of membership (Single, Joint and Associate Membership)

• Benefits of Membership

• How to use the Library

• Registering for a Reader Pass

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17/07/2017 - 21/07/2017_JULY_WEEK_3

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We had one day session on 18th August, 2017 with the Programme leader Gurdish Sandhu on the theme:” Developing Highly Productive Team”. This session was very interactive and educative with demonstrated examples.  I had the opportunity to learn and understand the following:

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• Difference between a Team and Group

• Group Thinking vs Team Thinking

• Types of Teams

• Tuckman’s 5 stages team development model

• Real Stories of team(s) development

• Teams and how they function

• Characteristics of effective & ineffective teams

• Stages of team development

• Techniques & skills necessary for the development of an effective team

 

In addition, Gurdish gave a clear difference between a group and Team as follows:

 

A group is a collection of individuals who coordinate their individual efforts, focus on accomplishing individual goals.

 

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A team is a small number of people, with complementary skills, who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they are mutually accountable."

(Katzenbach and Smith, 1993)

 

On 21st August, 2017, we had another interesting session by the programme leader Gurdish Sandhu on theme: “Digital Capability Discovery”.

 

She indicated that, Digital capabilities are the capabilities which fit someone for living, learning and working in a digital society.

 

She identified the following as the six digital capabilities elements:

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SCONUL identified the following seven pillars of information literacy:

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Digital Literacy on the other hand was defined as those capabilities which fit an individual for living, learning and working in a digital society.

 

In addition, she presented the following as the difference between digital capabilities and literacy:

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• Digital literacy tend to focus on students only

• Digital capability is applied to staff but equally applied to students

• Digital capabilities framework offer a more holistic approach i.e. can be embedded in JDs, induction/probation, appraisals, professional development etc.

 

On the same day, we had a presentation from Adjoa Boateng, a librarian at the British Library. She showcased to fellows a prototype mobile application she developed to help professionals share their experiences and knowledge with the Community. The name of the Apps is called  TARDIS and it is hosted temporarily on www.marvelapp.com. It was developed using the following open source: BASECAMP  (Learning Management System) and SLACK.

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24/07/2017 - 28/07/2017_JULY_WEEK_4

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We had another visit to British Library on 26th August, 2017 observe the library research data management processes. We again accompanied by the programme leader, Gurdish Sandhu and hosted by Mr. Steven Andrew in charge of research infrastructure.

Our interaction was centered on the following:

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• UK Research Data Policy

• FAIR Data Policies (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable)

• UK Citation Principles

• British Library Research Data strategy with emphasis soon (Vision, Four Themes, Data Creation, Data Archiving, Data discovery access & reuse and widening access)

The interaction was very informative and helpful to fellows. 

 

We attended a Sharepoint Training workshop on 27th August, 2017 at the UEL Stratford Campus. It was a basic tutorial on Microsoft SharePoint which is known to be web collaborative working tool as part of the Office 365. The session was delivered by Nadeem Akbar, an IT capability trainer at UEL.

Fellows were introduced to the following features of SharePoint:

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• Working Together on Landing Page

• Adding Team Announcement to team site

• Adding useful links to team site

• Adding people to a team contacts

• Opening a team calendar and adding event

• Navigation to team documents Library

• Using the Version History

• Sharing files

• Exploring team notebook

 

Fellows were provided with hands on practical session to learn the basic features of SharePoint application with numerous demonstrations by the trainer.

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