Special Interest Groups & Communities of Practice

Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
NoWAL has the following Special Interest Groups who meet two or three times a year, allowing for face-to- face discussions on specific current topics / themes, or matters beyond the scope of online discussions, and networking.  All NoWAL SIGs are expected to report to the NoWAL AGM every June using the reporting template (contact Nicky Freeman if you need more information)

Academic Librarians' Group
The Group is a network for all Academic Librarians, Liaison Librarians, Subject Librarians or other appropriate members of staff, carrying out a liaison / subject librarian role based in NoWAL member libraries. It provides a forum for discussion and sharing of experience across the member institutions.  Since May 2020, the Group has been chaired by Jenny Warren (University of Chester) and Tracy Breheny (University of Salford).  

Terms of Reference

Minutes of the Meeting - 26th November 2020

Minutes of the Meeting - 26th August 2020
Minutes of the Meeting - 21st May 2020
Minutes of the Meeting - 14th November 2019

Minutes of the Meeting - 15th May 2019

The Academic Librarians Group has representation from 13 member libraries (LJMU is not currently represented).  
 

Research Group
The Group aims to communicate, share ideas, questions and best practice relating to research support in North West academic Libraries. It is open to any member of NoWAL working in, or with an interest in, research support and research activities.  The Group's current Chair is Judith Carr from the University of Liverpool, with Katherine Stephan, from the Liverpool john Moores University, as Vice Chair.  

Terms of Reference
Blog Post - Meeting 18th July 2018

The Research Group met in September 2019 (the notes are available here) and has organised successful events in 2019-20, including an online event on Plan S in May 2020, run in partnership with the NoWAL Procurement Group, which attracted 40 participants.  
The Research Group has representation from all 14 member libraries.  
 

Communities of Practice (CoP) 
In 2018, NoWAL created the following Community of Practice groups which sprung from NoWAL events.  All NoWAL CoPs are expected to report to the NoWAL AGM every June using the reporting template (contact Nicky Freeman if you need more information)

Academic Skills (ASCoP)

The NoWAL Academic Skills Community of Practice is chaired by Craig Morley from the University of Manhester and is:

  • A community of all those involved in information literacy, academic literacy and wellbeing (regardless of job title!)  
  • An opportunity to share, reflect and develop
  • A showcase for new and innovative teaching and learning development practices
  • An opportunity to meet and collaborate with colleagues across the Northwest

The group meets three to four times a year, and is open to new and established staff alike. 

The ASCoP has representation from staff at the following institutions: Bolton; Chester; Cumbria; Edge Hill; Liverpool; Liverpool Hope; LJMU; Manchester; Manchester Met; Salford; and UCLan (plus one partner college - Hugh Baird).  For further details, please contact Nicky Freeman.

Minutes

The minutes of the meetings can be found here:
 - first meeting on 23rd November 2018 at University of Chester, which was followed by:
 - 8th March 2019 at UCLan 
 - 12th July 2019 at Edge Hill University 
 - 9th December 2019 at University of Salford
 - 15th June 2020 online 
Other documents from the meeting: Digital Tools used in Teaching and Academic Skills at Salford

If you wish to join the ASCoP, please contact Nicky Freeman (nicky.freeman@sconul.ac.uk) or Craig Morley (craig.morley@manchester.ac.uk).

Buildings and Space Management
This small CoP met on 23rd October 2018 at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine - notes from the meeting are available here.

 

Content & Collections CoP
The group has met several times, the latest meeting being in May 2020. 

The group aims to meet twice a year.  The Terms of Reference can be found here.

Further information is available from the CoP Chair, Sandra Bracegirdle.  Please feel free to contact her to discuss the group further - sandra.bracegirdle@manchester.ac.uk or contact Nicky Freeman (nicky.freeman@sconul.ac.uk) to be added to the distribution list.   

The Content & Collections CoP has representation from staff at the following institutions: Chester; Edge Hill; Liverpool; Manchester; Manchester Met; Salford; and UCLan.  For further details, please contact Nicky Freeman.
 

Copyright CoP
The Copyright CoP is chaired by Neil Sprunt from the University of Manchester.  The Terms of Reference for the group can be found here.

The group meets three to four times a year, and is open to new and established staff alike. 

The notes from the meetings are available here:

 - first meeting on 12th July 2018 blog post of the first meeting (written by Neil Sprunt)  

 - second meeting on 5th November 2018 at the University of Liverpool

 - third meeting on 15th February 2019

 - fourth meeting on 28th May 2019 at Manchester Metropolitan University

 - fifth meeting on 9th December 2019 at Edge Hill University

 - sixth meeting on 10th March 2020 at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

There is also an interview with Neil - read here his thoughts on the CoP and what he has learnt so far - or find it in the NoWAL Newsletter.  

The Copyright CoP Group has representation from all 14 member libraries.  

 

Technology
The Technology CoP met for the first on 29th October 2018 at Manchester Metropolitan University, the meeting chaired by Emily Shields.  The CoP is looking for additional members - if you would like to join or are interested in what kind of topics they are looking at, see the note from Emily following the first meeting.  

The CoP met again on 14th February 2019 at the University of Manchester's Alan Gilbert Learning Commons.  The meeting firstly explored Manchester's Digilab followed by roundtable discussions on key topics.

The CoP met again on Monday 15th June, hosted online by Tim Leonard from the University of Bolton.  The group looked at how libraries have adapted services through technology during the COVID-19 pandemic; the management of user groups for access eg ‘full’ staff and students vs external students, walk in user etc; how people are managing these groups across authentication services like EZProxy and Shibboleth; and how the groups are mapped internally with University systems like swipe access.  For the full notes, please click here