Last week I was at the first joint London event run by ARLG, CILIP’s newly-formed Academic & Research Libraries Group. The group has been created by a merger between CoFHE and UC&R (respectively Colleges of Further & Higher Education, and University, College and Research).
The evening was kicked off by Anne Rowlands, co-Chair of the national ARLG committee and Annie Mauger, Chief Executive of CILIP, who introduced the background to the merger. Anne outlined the increasing overlap between the two groups, particularly now that Colleges are being given the opportunity to offer foundation degrees. She also sketched out the ongoing merger process and the next steps in consolidating the committee and regional groups.
Annie covered the wider CILIP context. Observing that the ARLG is now the largest group in CILIP and represents the largest membership cohort, she praised both CoFHE and UC&R for recognising their productive synergies, and being the pilot for future mergers and consolidation.
The remainder of the evening consisted of two lightning talks highlighting examples of success stories from both the FE and HE sector. The intention of combining cross-sectoral talks is to introduce the audience to diverse issues with common areas of interest.
Genevieve Clarke from the Reading Agency and Stephen Wickens from Westminster Kingsway College jointly showcased the success of The Reading Agency’s Six Book Challenge with a group of the College’s ESOL students. Ella Mitchell from the University of East London (UEL) closed the evening with her presentation on the award-winning UEL Info Skills website which supports undergraduates through identifying, finding, evaluating and referencing information.
As a pilot or launch event, attendance could have been a little higher. However I sense the newly-merged ARLG is still finding its feet. If only from the evidence of the evening’s speakers, and similar UC&R events over the last couple of years, the HE/FE sectors are leading the way in innovation and creativity in the information profession, and their activities should be followed closely by their colleagues in other sectors. I look forward to seeing the ARLG programme of events over the rest of the year.
- Donald