WHISD: Welsh Higher Education Information Services Staff Development Group

WHISD was formed in 1998 under the auspices of WHELF and HEWIT (Higher Education Wales Information Technology forum). Its aim is to act as an informal coordinating group to create and oversee opportunities for joint staff development activities for library, information services and computing staff in all Welsh HE institutions

Membership consists of one or two members from each Higher Education establishment in Wales. This is usually the person who has overriding responsibility for staff development and training within the Library or Information Services Department of that institute. Where there are two representatives from an institution it is expected that they will between them be able to represent both library and IT interests.

The group meets three times a year and each representative takes turns at hosting the meetings.

For additional information please contact:
Coordinator: Shelley Upton, email smu@aber.ac.uk

Objectives of the group

1. Provide opportunities for joint staff development activities for colleagues in Library and Information Services. These should include
- Visits to other establishments
- Talks from external trainers and lecturers from specialist groups
- Exchange of experience
- Organising the annual Gregynog Colloquium

2. Communicate ideas and work with other relevant bodies on training activities and staff development .

3. Sharing and/or jointly producing staff development materials.

4. Maintaining awareness of new developments, sharing information, and networking.

5. Identifying gaps and strengths in existing staff development in member institutions.

6. Collaborating where appropriate over developing project bids.

WHISD Representatives

To find a list of contacts, please click here

Gregynog Colloquium 2011

Every year WHELF and HEWIT organise a residential colloquium at Gregynog Hall, the University of Wales conference centre, for library and IT staff to discuss recent developments and to exchange experiences. This year's event was organised by the University of Glamorgan and took place from 13 - 17 June 2011. The general themes were:
Managing in hard times
Shared services/joint use libraries
New Professionals
Marketing our services
Green Libraries
Information literacy including chat reference, e-learning module, mobile applications, library use and student achievement.

Presentations are on the Colloquium website at: http://gregynog.glam.ac.uk/