Libraries for Nursing - Innovation and Change Study Day held 27th Feb 2001 Board Room - Charing Cross Hospital Personal review by Rod Ward

This study day was organised by "Libraries for Nursing" which has links with the Health Libraries Group. It was attended by approximately 30 nursing librarians from both NHS & Higher Education institutions.

The chair was Rebecca Davies but the initial session was chaired by Olwen Revill

The first speaker was Dr. Judith Broady-Preston, (Lecturer, Dept. of Information & Library Studies, University of Wales, Abereystwyth). She discussed Financial planning in the 21st Century. Judith gave an overview of recent trends and developments which included business planning, devolved budgeting, cost centres and virement between budget headings. Recent trends towards zero-based and priority-based incremental budgeting were explored with some attempts to relate these to H.E. & NHS libraries. The importance of costing was set out with the potential benefits from accurate cost data being explored and related to fees for services.

The second speaker Frances Norton (Faculty Team Leader for Health, Leeds University) spoke about "The Change Programme in the University Library and staff management issues arising in periods of rapid and sustained change". Frances described changes at Leeds Health Library which have been implemented over the past few years to work more closely with faculty staff and meet changing needs of users. This was placed in the context of the digital & knowledge economies and changes in healthcare. Several drivers were identified including the Value for Money culture, and globalization. The different needs brought about by lifelong and problem based learning & QAA & RAE were described. Frances argued that change management=people management and quoted from Greg Dyke "Manage the change or manage the decline. The role of the change agent and the introduction of performance management principles into an academic library environment were discussed and the need for increased support with increased change highlighted.

This was followed by a Financial planning/People management Forum led by Rebecca Davies, during which many issues from the morning sessions were explored and related to the practice situations of delegates. Although few had devolved budgets or had tackled zero-based budgeting many had experienced or were working in organisations undergoing periods of rapid change.

After lunch I gave a presentation on NMAP - The UK's Gateway to High Quality Internet Resources for Nurses, Midwives & Allied health Professions. This can be seen at: http://www.rodspace.co.uk/l4nnmap/frame.htm but only works in Internet Explorer NOT Netscape I'm afraid due to the vagaries of Microsoft ! NMAP can be accessed at: http://nmap.ac.uk

Return to Professional development activities.

For further information: Rod@RodSpace.co.uk

Page Created 27.2.01

Last Updated: 3.9.03