27 June 2025
Naomi Davey, Communications and Engagement Manager, Manchester Metropolitan University
Hello, I’m Naomi and I’m a Communications and Engagement Manager for Manchester Metropolitan University’s Library and Cultural Services.
This year, I had the exciting opportunity to attend the 2025 UKSG Conference in warm and sunny Brighton between 31 March and 2 April. With this being my first UKSG and being fairly new to the library sector, I wasn’t sure what to expect… Will the sessions be too technical? Which learnings could I apply to my role being a non-librarian? How should I network with others not knowing anyone? What will the food be like?!
I quickly realised that I needn’t have worried! I learnt so much from the first day and there were lots of plenaries, lightning, poster and breakout sessions to get stuck into.
For example, the session ‘Beyond the Stacks: A sneak Peek into Library Staff Engagement with Job Shadowing’, was so useful and directly applied to the engagement element of my role. Introducing a job shadowing scheme is a great way to keep staff informed about work taking place across the library and I think this will be a good scheme for the Student Partners and staff we have across the five library sites at Manchester Met. Linking the scheme to personal development plans and introducing a pilot was also great advice that I will include within future engagement planning.
A fantastic thing to note about the conference was that not only did it provide lots of opportunities to learn and network throughout the day, but there were also social events in the evening too!
The supper and quiz on the first night was an absolutely BRILLIANT idea. For those who travelled alone and may not have built networks within the sector, this was a lovely and relaxed way of getting to know other delegates. I also thought framing an activity that everyone can participate in around dinner was great way of limiting any awkward introductions. I met delegates from Norway, the Netherlands, Ireland and Sweden and I remained in contact with many of them throughout the conference.
Day two also brought lots of interesting sessions and I started the day with the lightening session on ’Open Research Spaces: How a library can foster an open environment’. Here I learnt about using safe pods to handle sensitive data, Open Research Labs, integrated workshops and holding termly sessions for both UG and PG students. This has given me an insight into how an ‘open research environment’ can be highlighted and promoted to encourage wider participation and engagement with Manchester Met’s Library.
Next up was the highly important ‘Cyber Security and the Academic Library: What to be worried about and What to do’. There were so many vital pieces of information shared during this session there was steam coming from my pen as I was writing my notes!
An element that I had not considered before attending this session was the impact on staff wellbeing. I am planning on working with our Digital Services team to ensure that this is included within our plans and that staff wellbeing is accounted for addition to clear and open communication.
Following this I joined the session on ‘The Library CEO: Managing Politics, Technology and Talent as the New Paradigm’. This was a great session to better understand the context I work in as well as my role in supporting my Library Director to deliver their objectives.
As academic libraries can have both scholarly and functional services, it was useful to understand the vast amounts of information that Library Directors and their Executive teams are required to consume and make decisions on each day. My role as a communicator could help to facilitate this and make complex information easier for them to learn in order to make accurate and quicker decisions.
After this, I joined another insightful session, this time on the important subject of ‘Empowering Neurodivergent Staff, Learners and Researchers: The Library as a Partner is Success’. An aspect of this discussion that stood out to me was the recommendation to create guidance for navigating online spaces as well as physical areas for neurodivergent staff. This is something that I feel is usually missed when discussing this topic and is an important consideration when creating engagement channels such as newsletters and intranet pages. To improve my work in this area, I aim to consult with both my University’s Digital and EDI team, to ensure that staff find the Library’s online spaces as inclusive as other physical spaces.
Next on the agenda was the very current topic of ‘AI Tools in Academic Research: Empowering AI Literacy in the Research Community with an Evaluative Framework’. There were lots of insights gained from this session and I felt that the session was very balanced as both positive and negative aspects of using these tools were explored. For example, the panel recommended useful tools such as Futurepedia to gain an understanding of working with AI and gave useful tips such as using the TAP and TASTE approach to prompt engineering.
As we know AI is very new and most people (including myself) are testing this tool as we do not understand its full potential. The session was also very helpful in helping me to evaluate any risks in using this tool and questions such as ‘Is AI necessary for this task?’ and ‘Will staff lose skills by using AI’? will also be considered alongside useful benefits.
The last session of the day was ‘Growing and Diversifying Our Future Profession: How HE Libraries develop and Evaluate Their Students as Partner Roles’. This was another brilliant session that I will be incorporating into my daily role! I found hearing about project background particularly interesting as well as the fact that the scheme was based on the Healey, Flint and Harrington model of student engagement. Inviting Student Partners to sit on recruitment panels and conducting interviews for feedback are also activities that I will include within my own work, as I’d would like to expand on my work with students to make sure that they are fully represented.
Wow what a fun and jam-packed day! With my head full of conference information, I then went to get ready for the Gala part of the evening. This also did not disappoint – the UKSG band were amazing and there were plenty of drinks and canapés to keep me going. It was fantastic to let my hair down with colleagues and delegates – another excellent social event which was a perfect way wind down from the day.
My last conference session was on ‘Stopping Short of the Goal: Is Open Access Really Fulfilling Its Promise to the Public?’
The session was useful in helping me to see how libraries fit into the university context and its role in guarding against misinformation through Open Access publishing. I am now very keen to explore the inclusivity aspect of this topic to help bring research to a wider demographic through targeted promotion of my team’s Open Research.
As quickly as it started, the conference was done! A brilliant event from start to finish (and to answer my earlier question – I can confirm that the food was amazing!). I will be including all of the fantastic things I have learnt within my work, and I have already started to recommend it to colleagues as I was very impressed. Thanks so much to the UKSG team!