London, 21 June 2018: White Rose Libraries (the universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York) picked up the Outstanding Library Team trophy last night at this year’s THE Leadership and Management Awards. The 2018 THELMAs – celebrating their 10^th anniversary – recognise outstanding work across management, the professional services and administration of the UK’s world-leading higher education institutions.
 
The library services at the universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York began working together as White Rose Libraries in 2004, and in White Rose Research Online created what is still the only collaborative repository service in the sector. The emphasis in recent years has been on developing a deeper partnership that aims to drive through efficiencies and maximise value for money.
 
In 2016, the libraries launched the UK’s only online collaborative university press, White Rose University Press, and two new journals began publication in the 2016-17 academic year. By the end of 2017, the first 15 articles had been viewed more than 2,200 times and had been downloaded in excess of 650 times by a readership across the world. The press’ model for monographs, combining open access with author-retained copyright, makes its own contribution to debates around the future of academic publishing.
 
The libraries have been equally active in addressing the major challenges of managing print holdings by examining their separate collections with the help of the GreenGrass analysis tool, its first collaborative application in the UK. Jisc, UK higher education’s main technology body, took a great interest in the project and commissioned a formal report, which has issued a number of recommendations and has formed the basis for wider national discussion.
 
The judges were impressed by White Rose Libraries’ “commitment to a joint repository and White Rose University Press as an exemplar of effective teamworking across the partner institutions. The joint management of print holdings is of national importance. This work contributes towards better understanding of and new solutions for the management of the national research collections.”
 
THE editor John Gill said:
“These 10th anniversary THELMAs deserved a stellar crop of winners, and that’s exactly what we have.
Over the past decade, these wonderful awards have shown how those running our universities – together with their exceptionally talented teams – have risen to every challenge thrown their way, and once again our judging panel were left inspired by the examples of individual and collective brilliance that shone through.
Our hope is that the winners will also inspire others working in universities across the UK, and provide examples that they can emulate and adapt to improve their own institutions.”
The full list of this year’s winners is as follows (profiles can be viewed here):
Workplace of the Year – School of Engineering and Digital Arts, University of Kent
Knowledge Exchange/Transfer Initiative of the Year – Teesside University
Outstanding Student Services Team – London South Bank University
International Strategy of the Year – De Montfort University
Outstanding Marketing/Communications Team – University of Glasgow
Teaching and Learning Strategy of the Year – University of Derby
Outstanding Library Team – White Rose Libraries (the universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York)
THE DataPoints Merit Award – Anglia Ruskin University
Outstanding Estates Strategy – Norwich University of the Arts
Excellence in Registry Services – London School of Economics and Political Science
Outstanding Employer Engagement Strategy – University of Gloucestershire
Outstanding Digital Innovation of the Year – Leeds Beckett University
Outstanding Strategic Planning Team – University of Huddersfield
Outstanding Financial Performance – University of Edinburgh
Outstanding Leadership and Management Team – University of Huddersfield
For more coverage of the awards, profiles of the winners, and photos from the evening, please visit www.thelmawards.co.uk