Resource Discovery Meeting Minutes

1. Welcome, Apologies for Absence and Membership Update

Present: Brian Murphy (Chair - BM), Catriona Cannon (CC), John Gilby (Minutes - JG), Robert Hall (RH), Rosemary Lynch (RL), Marion Peulevé (MP).

Apologies: Gavin Beattie (GB), William Marsterson (WM), Maureen Wade (MW).

It was noted that the meeting originally scheduled for May 2007 had been cancelled. BM announced that he would be standing down from the group in July 2007 and it was agreed that the group membership be reviewed at the next meeting.

2. Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes

The minutes from 23 February 2007 were approved.

3. Action Update and Matters Arising

Actions and matters arising from the previous meeting held on 23 February 2007 are summarised below:

• Action 3.1 Complete- JG reported on Usage Statistics under Item 4 and will report regularly in future.
• Action 3.2 Continues as New Action 3.1 - JG to progress the InforM25 'Landscaping' document.
• Action 3.3 Complete - JG and MW had finalised the risk review and this was approved by the group.
• Action 4.1 Complete - JG had summarised InforM25 membership (See Item 4 below).
• Action 4.2 Complete - JG had added the "Report on online subject classification systems similar to InforM25" document to the website and included references to it in the Systems Team Newsletter and Consortium e-bulletin.
• Action 4.3 Complete - JG had forwarded the feedback summary to CPD25.
• Action 4.4 Complete - JG had sent the feedback summary to the Communications and Marketing (formally Advocacy) Working Group.
• Action 5.2 Superceded by events and put on hold - JG to discuss with MW about adding the British Museum and Wiener Library to the ULS and if appropriate, estimate the work required so to do.
• Action 5.3 Superceded by events and put on hold - JG to email M25 reader services librarians to seek their suggestions of institutions they would like to see added to the ULS.
• Action 5.4 Continues as New Action 3.2 - JG to look into the Talis Directory further and also about the feasibility of using the existing Find-a-library data/system with Google Maps.
• JG reported that a bid had been submitted to HEFCE by the Consortium about e-journal walk-in access. RL was thanked for her initial work that was used extensively in the bid. The outcome of the bid was not yet known but positive comments had been received. Action 3.3 JG/MW to report bid outcome to group when appropriate.

4. M25 Systems Team Manager's Report

JG gave a verbal update to his circulated report (No.14):

• Disaster WG web pages - there was a delay with finalising the custom download component but this was being chased.
• The University of Bedfordshire, Central School of Speech & Drama and Ravensbourne College of Design & Communications had been added to Find/Visit a library. There had also been preliminary discussions about adding their library catalogues to Search-catalogues.
• A Z-server connection problem with the Wiener's catalogue had been resolved.
• A new InforM25 'Getting started' leaflet was in print and would be distributed to all M25 members.
• The Spring 2007 Systems Team Newsletter had recently been sent out.

The group looked at the membership of the InforM25 services and it was noted that Courtauld would have their own library system over the summer (they currently share with KCL), Imperial were leaving the University of London on 1 August so this would need updating on the ULS and elsewhere, and UCCA would have a single library system in September so could then be added to Search-catalogues.

JG demonstrated a test version of the ULS that utilised the new Z39.50 clients running on the new M25 server hardware. Significant work had been carried out during the last month to get the Z-client working with the original ULS software. As part of this task, the software/Z-client now produces logs for the searching process which can be utilised to generate statistics for how the ULS is used (e.g. which search type, how many results, etc.). Additionally, the software is written such that it can be used for Search-catalogues also, making future maintainance easier.

Following responses both from the group and from the M25 Steering Group, JG had begun to update the web statistics requirement specification document. Action 4.1 JG to send revised requirement specification to group for approval.

5. Feedback from M25 AGM Break-out Sessions and to Brainstorm for Drafting the Group Action Plan for 2007-08

To brainstorm ideas for the group's action plan for the coming year, a number of reports were given:

• BM spoke about the recent Consortium AGM where there were several themed break-out groups "Planning for the future of the M25 Consortium".
• JG summarised a number of recent email exchanges that he had with JISC, the RIN, CAIRNS and Jean Sykes about possible ways ahead for a national union catalogue.
• CC and JG summarised their latest thoughts on promotion of InforM25 by seminars put on by CPD25.

The following sections note the key points arising from the discussions.

Action Plan

The group refined and clarified the ongoing tasks in the currect Action Plan and agreed to divide the plan into three sections, ongoing tasks, tasks planned for the duration of the plan, and other activities that do not necessarily have a finite end date. Two new tasks agreed for inclusion in the plan were tasks relating to the Walk-in Access sub-group and also the current AIM25 Linking bid. Action 5.1 JG to draft new Action Plan and send to the group for approval.

Recent Emails about a Potential UK National Union Catalogue

The group agreed that InforM25 could make a valuable contribution to a national union catalogue and felt that more should be done to promote InforM25 to bodies such as the RIN and JISC. Action 5.2 JG to draft a note for the next Steering Group meeting about promoting InforM25 to RIN and JISC for approval by RDWG.

The discussion briefly touched on the technology used within Search-catalogues and the ULS (Z39.50) and whether newer protocols might be utilised. JG suggested that an independent review of all the InforM25 services might be beneficial and this was agreed for inclusion in the new Action Plan for Steering Group comment.

InforM25 Promotion with CPD25

The group were supportive of the event sub-group's ideas for a late Autumn event aimed at subject librarians and enquiry/information desk staff followed by a more technical session the following Spring for systems & technical services librarians. Action 5.3 JG & CC to continue with developing ideas for the event and pass details to RDWG and appropriate staff in CPD25.

Finally, the group discussed the ideas apertaining to the services and Consortium websites from the AGM break-out sessions. The group agreed that there were good ideas and that with the agreement of the Steering Group, someone could be tasked with developing the ideas further.

6. Annual Review of M25 Systems Team Service Delivery Plan

JG had previously circulated the service delivery plan with a number of minor changes that better covered the tasks carried out. Subject to the addition of a task relating to producing regular statistics for the websites and services, the revisions were approved.

7. AOB

None.

8. Future Meetings

Action 8.1 JG to contact WM about organising future meetings.

The group recorded its thanks to BM for chairing the meeting and for his contributions to the group over a number of years.

Minutes by JG
22 June 2007