Blog post by Laura McVean, SHINE Committee member

Like much of the year, this year’s SHINE CPD Day and AGM on Thursday 26^th November was slightly different.  Instead of meeting in person, the day was held on MS Teams with SHINE members dialling in from across Scotland. 

The morning comprised of two sessions on the digitisation of physical collections.  Ines from the National Library of Scotland gave a fascinating overview of the work being carried out at NLS.  She gave an insight into the requirements and technical considerations for planning a digitisation project and some useful tips on planning for interruptions and IT issues.  I found Ines’ diagram of the workflow process particularly interesting as it gave a clear overview of the complexities of digitisation.  

In our second session, Emma from the British Library gave a really useful synopsis of the key things to consider before embarking on a digitisation project.  She spoke of the importance of being clear about the why, what, how and when of the project such as the need to fix goals and outputs before commencing and to consider how the collection will be used and what support will be needed for this.   Emma outlined some of the challenges of digitising collections such as the cost, IP rights, working with fragile materials and future proofing the digital outputs.  The case studies really brought digitisation to life and it was interesting to see the variety of partners and collections. 

The afternoon session was a chance to catch up with SHINE members and learn about their experiences being part of the COVID-19 response. Shona from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde gave an overview of her experience delivering training to staff on how to use MS Teams.  She shared lots of her learning and gave some really useful tips for virtual training. 

Amanda outlined the development of the COVID-19 Guidelines app in NHS Lanarkshire.  She spoke of some of the challenges involved such as the pace of change of COVID-19 evidence and the amount of work, governance and management required in producing an app.  It was interesting to learn how the app will be developed to become an app for all guidelines in NHSL and how Amanda and her team are working with clinical departments and IT to achieve this. 

Fiona gave a fascinating account of her experience being redeployed into the Communications Team in NHS Highland.  It was amazing to see all that she and her team achieved such as producing regular updates for staff, processing donations, engaging with the public through social media and helping to improve the hospital’s garden.   

The final speaker was Rob from Highland Health Sciences Library who set up a Coronavirus literature pipeline in response to a request from Public Health colleagues.    He described setting up the resource, overcoming access and IT issues and responding to what users’ wanted.  It was interesting to see how the pipeline evolved and how Rob improved the resource, such as editing searches as more information on COVID-19 was produced.

What really came across in all the sessions was how dynamic and adaptable the speakers and their teams had been in unprecedented circumstances.  They worked collaboratively to respond to an ever-changing situation using their professional skills to source, evaluate and present evidence and adopting new roles in communications and training.   It was inspiring to see how the speakers and their colleagues had gone the extra mile to help people to the very best of their ability.        

After an informal chat, it was time for the AGM.  Tomas gave a report as Chair, summarising the key things that the SHINE Committee have been working on this year and his priorities for 2021.  Seona gave an update on finances for 2019-20 and Carolyn outlined the membership.  To conclude the day, Tomas gave a final message from the SHINE Committee: “stay safe and stay well”.