Bridging the Skills Gap: Delivering Innovative Library Support for Researchers (SE)

A one-day workshop specifically for library staff with an interest in supporting researchers within their institutions was run in June 2010 by the Vitae South East Hub in collaboration with the University of Sussex Library. The aim of the event was threefold:

• to help library staff share good practice in their work with researchers
• to engage a group of stakeholders that the South East Hub had little contact with in the past
• to respond to a Research Information Network (RIN) report ‘Mind the Skills Gap' that, amongst other things, called for greater collaboration between libraries and Vitae Hubs.

The day was attended by 80 participants from over 40 institutions. In addition to the practice sharing sessions, speakers were heard from Vitae, the University of Sussex and RIN. When surveyed, most of those attending had not engaged with Vitae before in any way and just over half had not heard of it. It was very satisfying to be able to engage with many in the audience for the first time.

The day was a great success with overwhelmingly positive feedback:

• "Reassuring to find everybody is finding the same difficulties. Helpful to hear some interesting and varied potential solutions. An enjoyable, stimulating, well organised event."
• "Cooperation and collaboration between libraries and researchers is increasingly essential to ensure that researchers get the best use of resources and greater knowledge of transferable skills."

Other Hub collaborative activities

South East Hub