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Inspire West Midlands Monitoring and Operational Group (MOG)

The Inspire West Midlands MOG has members representing a range of libraries from across the region and also covering a wide geographical area

Name   Institution   Representing
Kate Gardner   Worcester College of Technology   FE
Amy Cawood   Aston University   pre-1992 universities
Elaine Moss   Shropshire Libraries   Public (counties)
Helen Nahal   Telford & Wrekin Libraries   Public (unitaries)
Dave Parkes (Joint Chair)   Staffordshire University   post-1992 universities
Chris Porter   Newman College   HE Colleges
David Chamberlain (Joint Chair)   Lead Librarian   Health Libraries
Elizabeth Roberts   MLA West Midlands   Regional MLA
Linda Saunders   Sandwell Libraries   Public (Metropolitan)
Caroline Rock   Coventry University Library   Coventry and Warwickshire
Hilary Ridley/Linda Wattis   Dudley Library   Public Libraries
Irene Ordidge   University of Wolverhampton   HE
Stephanie Rhoden   Dudley Libraries   Black Country Libraries in Partnership (BCLiP)


Inspire West Midlands Steering Group: Regional Update

Inspire across the West Midlands Region November 2006

Birmingham and Solihull
The Birmingham and Solihull sub-region is planning to roll out Inspire in the area initially through the public and higher education services.

They are embarking on a series of reciprocal staff visits and are putting together a short information leaflet describing the services and arrangements for accessing one another's libraries which will be used by staff in the six initial partner institutions to assist them in referring users to relevant services.

Sandwell
Sandwell Inspire is a partnership between Sandwell Library and Information Service, Sandwell College Library and Sandwell Hospital Trust Library Services.

To date Sandwell has produced an Inspire Action plan, embarked on a pilot programme of job swaps to develop staff knowledge of each others resources, held a briefing session for staff involved and partners to evaluate the success of the pilot and develop the next stage of the Action Plan and, held a Health Information Week. From September 2006 they are planning to develop training packs for staff to ensure Inspire is embedded. Staff will have easy access to the protocols and an awareness of the scheme and produce leaflets and posters for partners and potential users.

Worcester and Herefordshire
Worcester and Herefordshire plan to launch Inspire on 13th November. They have developed a working group of cross sector librarians to implement the programme. Their Inspire network consists of:
  • Herefordshire public Library Service
  • Worcestershire Public Library Service
  • Worcestershire Health Libraries
  • Herefordshire Clinical Library Service
  • Worcester College of Technology
  • Hereford College of Technology
  • The University of Worcester
  • Hereford Cathedral Library
As part of their Inspire marketing plan they are producing a leaflet which combines an information resource and a registration form.

The College Library Group (HWATL) is also developing a scheme which would involve some of the libraries being prepared to lend to students from other institutions.

Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin
An INSPIRE Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin group has now been set up and is to be taken forward in the first instance by joint working between health and public libraries on health information promotion. This replaces the original SHAIR group - Shropshire Access to Information Resources which ran for 10 years from 1996 until May 2006

Coventry and Warwick
Coventry and Warwickshire launched a sub-regional Inspire access scheme on May 1st 2006.

A pilot Inspire project between Coventry University Library and Coventry Libraries and Information Services (public libraries) had already taken place in 2004.

Representatives from Coventry and Warwickshire Libraries held several meetings to progress Inspire, led by Caroline Rock, Deputy University Librarian from Coventry University Library. Caroline is also the Midlands Operational Group representative. Coventry and Warwickshire sub region members include college, university, health, museum and public libraries.

There was already a Coventry and Warwickshire network of Learning Resource managers who met on a regular basis. These meetings have been extended to include other Inspire partners (e.g. public libraries), and have enabled communication between sectors. A regional website has been set up to coordinate and provide added information to the national website:
http://www.warkscol.ac.uk/inspire/

Coventry and Warwick Inspire members agreed a standard method of referral for the sub region. This included publication of a leaflet, access form, passport and statistics form. Procedures include checking ID and issuing a passport to enable immediate referral. Issuing members are responsible for storing user information. Only one service has requested that users make advance bookings to access their library.

Coventry and Warwickshire has also made a successful bid to West Midlands MLA to further publicise Inspire on the Find It website.

Walsall
Walsall are planning to increase both Findit collection profiling and Inspire activity between the University of Wolverhampton and Walsall Public Library Service, building on the experience gained from activity in Wolverhampton. They will be arranging staff visits between Walsall Libraries and Wolverhampton University Learning Centre as well as undertaking other 'staff awareness raising' activities around the Inspire programme. They will also be facilitating a 'Find it' training day the outcome of which will equip staff with the necessary technical skills to input and maintain data on the Findit Website.

Wolverhampton
The University of Wolverhampton has joined with Walsall Libraries, in a successful bid for local funding, to roll-out Inspire in the Walsall area. WALCAT, the local FE College and nursing libraries in the area have been invited to a start up meeting. The bid will make use of the promotional cards developed by the West Midlands Operational Group. Wider distribution of the cards will be achieved as copies go to the other three Black Country boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Wolverhampton for distribution to users requiring access to resources

Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent
Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent continue to develop networks and plan activities. They intend to develop marketing and publicity materials for Find It. Using the Inspire and BDI Design posters to incorporate local images and logos. They are also rolling out Find It training, awareness raising, and using opportunities and events for cross fertilization of projects/ideas to support Inspire users across the sub-region.

  This page was last updated on 11 November 2007  
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