Resource Discovery Meeting Minutes

1. Welcome, Apologies for Absence and Membership Update

Present: William Marsterson (Chair - WM), Sarah Crofts (SC), John Gilby (JG), Robert Hall (RH), Georgina Parsons (GPa), Glyn Price (GPr), Gurdish Sandhu (GS), Maureen Wade (MWa).

Apologies: Gavin Beattie (GB), Marcus Wolley (MWo).

WM welcomed GPr to the group. GPr will be taking over from MWa as line manager for the M25 Support Team and also is the Technical Services Manager at the LSE Library.

2. Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes

The minutes from 6 May 2009 were approved.

3. Action Update and Matters Arising

Progress on actions from the previous meeting held on 6 May 2009 and earlier meetings are summarised below.

Previous meeting:

There were no actions from the previous meeting.

Actions from earlier meetings:

• JG to do further work on usage statistics - Group agreed that 'visits' were the most useful data to demonstrate that the services were being used. JG to add suitable graph or image to an InforM25 web page and pass to the group for comments, Action continues.
• JG to obtain more images for the development version of Find-a-library and advertise the service once live - Action ongoing.

4. M25 Support Team Manager's Report

JG had previously circulated a report in line with "M25 Support Team InforM25 Tasks" document. Issues highlighted from the report included:

• There is a backlog of Z-server testing/problem sorting and it was hoped these would be cleared over the summer.
• InforM25 runs on old server hardware which has an increasing likelihood of failure. Use of a virtual server provided by LSE ITS is being investigated and if successful, consideration will be given to use of virtual servers for all M25 websites in future rather than replace hardware every 3-4 years.

Project Updates

JG updated the group on the current status of grant funding for the WAM25 pilot project. It was not known when confirmation of all the required funds would be received.

JG also noted the progress with the Directors' Room, a password-protected area of the M25 website for M25 representatives, which provides an online environment for discussing ideas and exchanging information and advice. The new service was planned to be launched at the Consortium's networking event in September 2009.

5. External Review of InforM25

Five potential consultants had been sent the InforM25 Review Brief, three responses had been received with bids ranging from circa £18,000 to £34,000 (the budget allocated was considerably less than these figures). The review panel felt it inappropriate to seek additional budget and ways in which to reduce the preferred bidder's costs were investigted unsuccessfully. The panel sought advice from the M25 Steering Group and it was agreed that the review was still necessary and that the matter would be taken up by the new chair of the group (see below). The budget would be carried over into 2009-2010.

6. Change of Name and Future Plans for the Group

WM recounted discussions held earlier in the year at the M25 Steering Group Planning Day regarding RDWG. It was proposed to change the name of the group to the Digital Developments Working Group. In addition, WM would be retiring from Middlesex and standing down as Chair, thus the group would require a new person to take over its leadership.

John Tuck from Royal Holloway had been approached and agreed to take over as the new Chair and had recently met with WM. JT has worked in key research libraries including the BL and is familiar with resource discovery and digital services.

7. AOB

The group recorded a vote of thanks to WM for chairing the group for a number of years, and for his close involvement with InforM25 from its beginnings as an eLib project.

Minutes by JG