University of Huddersfield presented with the National Acquisitions Group Award for Excellence 2012 – Sponsored by Nielsen

Nielsen and NAG are delighted to announce the winner of the National Acquisitions Group Award for Excellence 2012 has been presented to the University of Huddersfield for their MyReading project.

The NAG Award for excellence is designed to promote excellence, original thinking and innovation by a library or individual within the field of Acquisitions. Nominated projects should demonstrate innovative or good practice, and support for the use of standards and for the objectives of the National Acquisitions Group.

This was a cross university project and engagement with stakeholders across the university was a very important part of the process. An enormous amount of support and strategic input was provided by a cross university MyReading Steering Group led by the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Teaching & Learning, Professor Tim Thornton. The members of the Steering Group included Senior Academics; the Director of Computing and Library Services; The Head of IT and representatives from the Students Union as well as Dave Pattern and Eileen Hiller as project manager.

Dave Pattern, Library Systems Manager, University of Huddersfield, accepted the Award at the NAG Conference on behalf of the University of Huddersfield and commented: “ We feel extremely honoured to have been presented with the NAG Award for Excellence for the MyReading Project at the University of Huddersfield. The project has involved considerable input from colleagues all across the University – from the Pro-Vice Chancellors and Academic Heads of Department, to the Students Union.

One of the keys to the success of the project has been the ability to integrate with, and to extract data from, the various systems and suppliers that the library uses. This helps to ensure that academics are able to quickly locate and add accurate references to their reading lists, with little-to-no manual keying of data. As libraries look to extend and enrich their services, the type of high quality data that providers such as Nielsen can deliver is worth its weight in gold.”

Paul Dibble, Head of Data Sales at Nielsen, presented the award and commented “Nielsen is extremely proud to sponsor the NAG Excellence Award for the second year and congratulates the University of Huddersfield for winning this year’s award. As a key supplier to the library sector, Nielsen sees innovation and change with the back office and acquisitions departments across the country. We are delighted to have the opportunity to recognise this important work which, all too often, is not celebrated.”

Pictured left to right: Briony Heyhoe-Pullar, Acquisitions Manager, Graham Stone, Information Resources Manager, Dave Pattern, Library Systems Manager, University of Huddersfield and Paul Dibble, Head of Data Sales, Nielsen.

Reading Lists and their management is a significant issue for academic institutions, if managed successfully it gives all involved a good experience that will contribute to the overall success of the University and the satisfaction rating given by the students. Huddersfield’s MyReading project demonstrated a new solution to the issue.

Huddersfield University demonstrated the holistic nature of the project required for success and included working with academics and students, staff and suppliers with an acknowledgement of the need to focus on outcomes. The ability to add a variety of formats and integration with the Acquisitions process was clearly set out.

Success was demonstrated by an increase of 32% in Reading Lists obtained from 40% to 72% with a target of 100% by September 2012.

Finally, support from students was expressed in the usage statistics.

The support for the work including the Pro Vice Chancellor was impressive and demonstrates that a lot of hard work, including advocacy work, must have been undertaken.”
For Further information:

NAG contact:

Heather Sherman, NAG Chair and Head of Technical Development, Bertrams

t: +44 (0)1933 417 500 or email heather.sherman@dawsonbooks.co.uk

Nielsen contact:

Paul Dibble, Head of Data Sales, Nielsen

t: +44 1483 712 274 or email: Paul.Dibble@nielsen.com

Mo Siewcharran, Head of Marketing, Nielsen

t: +44 (0)1483 712 300 or email: Mo.Siewcharran@nielsen.com

About Nielsen Book:

Nielsen has four key brands: Nielsen Registration Agencies (ISBN and SAN Agencies for UK & Ireland, ISTC), Nielsen BookData, Nielsen BookNet and Nielsen BookScan. The Nielsen BookData service provides comprehensive, enriched and timely bibliographic data worldwide. There is a range of information services for booksellers, libraries and publishers in 100 countries around the world. The Nielsen BookNet service provides value-added transaction services to the industry. The Nielsen BookScan service provides the world’s only continuous retail monitoring service for English-language books in the UK, Ireland, US, Australia, South Africa, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and India. The company launched Nielsen LibScan in 2009, allowing the collection and analysis of library borrowing data. To-date, 64 UK public library authorities have joined the panel and the aim is to continue building this number. The group employs 120 staff in the UK. The company is wholly owned by Nielsen. For more information, please visit: www.nielsenbook.co.uk

About Nielsen:

Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence, mobile measurement, trade shows and related assets. The company has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA. For more information on Nielsen, visit www.nielsen.com

About NAG:

NAG is a professional organisation for people responsible for or interested in the acquisition, management and development of library resources in libraries of all types. It is run by its members for its members.

NAG produces impartial good practice guidelines and standards relating to its core purpose. It offers opportunities for education and training, knowledge sharing and networking through its annual conference and a regular series of regional seminars and workshops. Members benefit from discounts on events.

NAG is a voice for everyone associated with library and information resources – librarians, information officers, publishers and service suppliers – providing leadership and a source of shared expertise for its membership. For more information, please visit www.nag.org.uk