Staff Development Group Announces New Outline Events Programme for 20/21

As the new academic year begins, so too are details emerging for this year’s staff development events programme from the Collaboration.

Following their recent (2nd October) committee and planning meeting, the Mercian Staff Development Group (MSDG) are delighted to announce the first themes for their forthcoming online events to be held during this academic year. Unlike previous years, and given the current challenges within HE and society, the subgroup has agreed to move to a more reactive programme for 20/21. The hope is this flexibility will allow for additional events to be proposed, planned and arranged to more closely meet emerging needs and training demands within academic libraries. 

Outline Programme 20/21

Hence, the following is only an outline list of initially planned events for this academic session. The MSDG fully expect to add additional event themes over the coming months, drawing on professional insights along with input from delegate feedback, local discussions and director suggestions.

• Nov 2020: Implementing Booking Systems
• Jan/Feb 2021: Online Induction During Covid
• Mar/Apr 2021: Online Staff Recruitment
• Date TBC: Customer service Excellence
• Date TBC: Trans Awareness

All dates are approximate, and as soon as more information is available, event pages will be added to the Collaboration’s website and online calendar.

All the Same, but VERY Different

Excitingly, plans are afoot to pivot the highly regarded and well attended All the Same, But Different library tours to a new format. With financial and health restrictions meaning travel to other libraries is currently impractical, the MSDG hopes to host a series of events using a mixture of live online discussions and pre-recorded video content.

While library staff will be unable to visit in person, they will still get to enjoy the signature honest and open personal guides to the experience of working within some of the other member libraries. As an additional bonus, pre-recorded material will be made freely available following the events, which will serve to create a virtual collection of regional academic library working experiences.

To suggest future events, themes or topics you’d like to see the MSDG tackle: speak to your institutional committee representative, or contact the subgroup’s chair Sarah Pittaway (s.pittaway@worcester.ac.uk) for further discussions.

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