In this session, Dominic Broadhurst from the University of Salford discusses the value of partnerships and collaboration between libraries and publishers.
This session was recorded at the Reimagining Primary Sources with AM event held at Liverpool’s Maritime Museum in October 2023.
[Applause] hi everyone um my name is Dominic broadhurst I’m from the University of sford um I’m my job role there is head of content and Discovery um if you’re anything like my daughter you’re probably thinking what does that mean Dad what do you actually do all day well
In in essence my teams buy acquire make available content for the university liveing for our staff in terms of teaching and learning research we’re also increasingly looking at creating content as well and this is where our archives are important so and the other side of that is I I probably look after
A budget probably I do look after a budget which runs in excess of millions of pounds so that’s another reason why I get invited to attend and join these Library advisory boards um it’s not the only reason I hope but I think it’s a significant reason um and
Obviously am is the best Library Advisory board that sit on on but I do also turn library advisory boards down and there’s a number of reasons for that and I sort of highlight what I think are the benefits of Library advisory boards and what that brings from a librarian’s
Point of view you know from a Publisher’s point of view it’s probably quite obvious they want to talk to Librarians there’s potential customers to research products Etc but I think there are a number of benefits for librarians about me members of these advisory boards and this is the point of my talk today
So just a little bit of background information for those you who don’t know the library Advisory Board is made up of sort of librarians from a range of jobs in terms of content Discovery academic engagement Le aison it’s taken from a range of Institutions right across the
Spectrum and it also involves you know a number of Am staff not just in the sales but also in the product development and a range of functions really and the point of it is really to have a two-way dialogue um over the year for a number
Of formats either face Toof face um and also online and these could be the onetoone consultations or more importantly where we all get together and have a conversation whereby really we find out a little bit more about what our priorities are what our work are really and I think they are really
Useful in terms of me is that libraries you know can’t exist without Publishers we need high quality content to provide to our students and our academics and in the same time Publishers can’t do without libraries as well really so our sort of even though we sort of Veer away
At different times our needs are sort of you know identical and synonymous in providing high quality content for our students and researchers so I’m just going to talk about what I think is important for myself as a representative of the library Advisory Board I don’t want to
Talk about other members but I think there’s some sort of General themes around there and I think one of the big points for me is that we can advocate for libraries in terms of our sort of role and what we do and we sort of get
Out the work that we crit basically you know do for our students and our staff and our researchers Etc and I think that’s advocacy is a big point of you know what we can do we are you know of our suppliers because we and our publishing Partners we want to Advocate
What we need to them and that really leads into product development you know you often sometimes he criticism saying oh Publishers you know suppliers don’t listen to what we want they just provide stuff well I think they’re actually really keen on listening and what we really want to do
Is influence our product development basically their product development because at at the time of they’re actually developing their product so we can impact and influence them you know for the benefit of our sort of students and our researchers and that links very much because the product development links
Very much about what we are about you know and our institutional priorities as universities University libraries are strategic aims really which are very much tied into sort of teaching learning and research really we can get over to them the messages about what is happening in our Institution
Which are then feel feed back into their product development which is sort of a two-way cycle then enables them to provide products that meet our sort of institutional needs and I’ve mentioned teaching and learning research but there’s also broader sort of needs you know there’s a lot of things around
Employability for example which I know is key in many of our institutions there things around Dei and increased equity and sort of decolonizing our collections as well really so the point for me is to get this across to our partners in publishing to sort of influence their product development
You know and this is really important to me because I think you know a lot of time Librarians don’t really understand the environment that Publishers work in and I think you know through this dialogue both at a group level and on a onetoone level we really sort of I you
Know really helps me understand you know what the priorities and also the needs and what the restraints that Publishers work within as well really I think this increased understanding is vital basically you know to sort of further in the work we do and this is something
That you know I find you know invaluable really you know always you know the amount of conversations and contacts I’ve had from these advisory boards both with publishing colleagues Etc but also other Librarians as well really you know sharing expertise and hearing more importantly you know you every day is a
Learning day I know that’s a cliche do but I speak to other Librarians find out what’s going on in their institutions what they’re doing especially around our work around digital archives so so and it’s really Ena me to build my professional networks you know across you know sometimes you see the same
People on The Advisory boards but a lot of the time it’s different you know different people and it’s really helped me sort of broaden my professional networking and then this is critical for us I mean you know you know when when I sort of I’m asked to sort of attend on
Um Library advisory boards you know one of the big things which makes me decide is how can this work sort dovetail with our work at so you know in terms of what our institutional priorities are also importantly what we’re doing on the ground as well
Really so one of the key areas which you know especially being on the am um Advisory Board is help is that you heard earlier today from our colleagues at Liverpool University about their new digital platform and a couple of years ago we released our Sul for digital archives which is basically our digital
Archive platform which has really brought to life our physical sort of um PL uh physical archives uh it’s all freely available open access on our website and you know we’ve got a regular program each year we have a digitization program and we’ve got some great content coming up around sford literary authors
In November December this year Walter Greenwood who wrote Love on the doll we’ve digitized a lot of that material as well and it’s all available but what works in terms of for me is that you know speaking with people who are experts in sort of digitization experts about putting resources and sources out
There you know has really helped our sort of think thinking and our knowledge and how we develop our own digital archives and for me when we do our teaching our learning our research we sort of provide our archives both the ones that we purchased from companies
Such as Adam Matthew and am sorry I will get that right um you know I’ve noticed quite a few people today already say Adam Matthew it’s am everyone okay so um okay see you later um uh where was I no so but also and our own archives as
Well we offer them as a seamless primary sources because we’re really keen on getting our students to look at our primary resources both in terms of their learning their research but also their employability so you know so digital archives and the archives that we acquire and we run them in tandem is
Really important and you know it’s a real sort of reason for i’ be able to bring that knowledge and that sort of those you know those contacts back into the workplace um and I’m just going to you know the other reason for sort of um membership is around potential
Collaborations you know am always looking at you know and other Publishers always who in the archive space are always looking at new archives to um sort of publish and sort of host really and we even though this is a long way off at the moment we are have been in
Discussion with them about one of our sort of key archives which is the British election campaign material which has a lot of material from British elections party posters Etc you know and we would love to digitize that at sford but you know honestly we haven’t got the
Sort of capacity we haven’t got the expertise we probably haven’t got the technical infrastructure we certainly haven’t got the time and the resource to digitize all that so this is a project which you know we’re working on at the moment we don’t know how it’s going to
You know obviously you know anyone who works with sort of archives ises around copyright digital ownership you know you know the list basically but one of those things is without this me being a member of this Advisory Board and building this relationships with you know colleagues
Such as CLA we would never even taken this off the first thing you know me having that knowledge of what Adam am the um you know and having those relationships and building those relationships at am and Ena to have those conversations around potential collaborations as well really so I think
That is something that you know for us working in sort of the digital archive space and the digital primary sources space you know the the benefits for collaborations only arise from really building those relationships which come from being a member of the you know am Library Advisory
Board and that’s it so we’ll take questions at the end thank you everyone [Applause]