Resource Discovery Meeting Minutes

1. Welcome, Apologies for Absence and Membership Update

Present: William Marsterson (Chair - WM), Stewart Brownrigg (Kent), Catriona Cannon (CC), Liz Chapman (EAC), John Gilby (Minutes - JG), Brian Murphy (BM), Maureen Wade (MW).

Apologies: Robert Hall (RH), Di Martin (DM)

WM welcomed everyone to the meeting. DM had expressed a wish to stand down from membership of the group due to an increase in workload. The group expressed appreciation of DM's contributions, both as former chair of the group, and more recently as an active member. The group agreed that WM ask DM if she would be willing to occasionally be involved with the group to provide informed comment on resource discovery issues. Action 1.1 WM to contact DM regarding occasional contributions to the RDWG, perhaps as a 'Correspondance Member'.

WM proposed that the group should try to recruit some more members and it was agreed that ideally, a mix of chiefs and senior managers would benefit the group. Action 1.2 MW to send appropriate emails to seek volunteers to join the group.

2. Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes

The minutes from 18 November 2005 were approved.

3. Action Update and Matters Arising

Actions and matters arising from the previous meeting held on 18 November 2005 are summarised below:

• Action from September 2005 meeting for JG to export 'visits' statistics data and plot trendlines of the four InforM25 service - New Action 3.1 JG to continue to look at plotting trendlines of the 4 services.
• Ongoing action to revise the group's Action Plan. MW commented that a report for the June Consortium AGM will be needed as well as a new plan for 2006/07 - New Action 3.2 JG/WM to ensure Action Plan is on agenda for the next RDWG meeting.
• Action 3.1 - JG reported that web metadata for the Consortium business pages and CPD25 website would be taken care of in the CMS and for InforM25 the metadata will be reviewed in connection with the website update. Action Complete.
• Action 4.1 - JG reported that little had been done on the usage statistics since the last meeting due to the amount of time spent on the new website - New Action 3.3 JG to generate graphs of weekly 'visits' for the four InforM25 services.
• Action 6.1 - WM reported that the action was ongoing - New Action 3.4 WM to email IMA focus group attendees for suggestions of potential libraries to add to the services and also to see if any were interested in joining the RDWG.
• Action 6.2 - See under Item 5 below.
• Action 7.1 - The revised 2006-8 Systems Team bid had successfully been presented to the Steering Group and then the full Consortium in January. Funding had been agreed until 31 July 2008. Action Complete.
• Action 9.1 - JG had scoped the subject list revision, see under Item 5 below.

4. M25 Systems Team Manager's Report

JG highlighted the key points from his recent report that had also gone to the M25 Steering Group:

• The new server is up and running and has the CMS on it. In the past week, Find-a-library had been copied to the server and was working, the ULS had been copied and had some minor faults and Search-catalogues had also been copied but had a major problem - see under Item 5 below.
• The termly review for Find-a-library had only elicited 16 responses out of the M25 membership, which was disappointing. EAC suggested mailing the 'normal' M25 lists when catalogues are added to Search-catalogues and reminding people to respond about any updates to Find-a-library. It was agreed that members would be interested in the addition of new library catalogues, particularly specialist collections like the V&A.
• Heythrop was now a member of SCONUL which was reflected on Visit-a-library.
• JG had been liaising with the Wiener Library and their system supplier AdLib regarding Z-servers. The V & A were likely to be added to Search-catalogues in the following week and ARU were soon to be tested. JG has continued to liaise with Talis regarding possible developments to their Z-server to enable periodical title searching and the provision of holdings & location data.

JG updated the group from his report at the January Consortium Meeting regarding the 'visits' data for the ULS. Usage appears to be slowly falling and this was also reflected in SALSER (the Scottish serials union catalogue similar to the ULS) and in LSE ILL requests for journal articles. JG suggested that the main reason for this was the increase in online full text. MW commented that for the LSE, student visits had increased over the last year or so but visits by academics had gone down, indicating they were using more e-journals from their desktop.

5. InforM25 Possible Developments

WM & JG introduced this item saying that there were a number of possible developments of the InforM25 services arising from the new website design work, from the new server hardware, from developments in resource discovery and from discussions with the LLDA. JG was also seeking guidance on work priorities for the next few months and WM suggested that the group discuss the various ideas and then look at priorities once JG had covered all the services.

JG demonstrated the 'flat HTML' pages he had created with the help of 529 (the website design company) that would shortly be in use for the live services when they are moved to run from the inform25.ac.uk domain. JG commented that as a minimum, the services will have some work done on the user interfaces to update the 'look & feel' to match the new websites.

JG then went through the Find-alibrary and Search-catalogues services to describe possible developments.

Find a library

JG referred to a previous meeting action to look at updating the M25 Subject List. There were two options:

1. Extend the existing list of 101 terms - list based on LoCSH and was somewhat peculiar to "reflect" original membership of Consortium. A 'wish list' has been drawn up for new terms, particularly to cater for the non-HE institutions now in the Consortium but it is not easy to decide what should/should not be added to the list. Canvasing and chasing M25 members to 'sign up' to new subjects would likely be time consuming.
2. Completely change the subject list to one that is more universal or national, maybe look at what Inspire/Find-It are doing for subjects.

JG reported about ongoing discussions between M25, the LLDA with the WiLL service and London Connects. There is interest in developing links between InforM25 and WiLL and JG would be attending a meeting of the various parties involved. JG commented that some of the ideas cover Find-a-library and the equivalent WiLL data.

The final possible area to develop Find-a-library was in changing the user interface and JG demonstrated an idea from 529. JG commented that he personally liked the ideas contained in the mock-up but added that careful consideration would be needed with respect to the other services and whether they could be similarly treated. JG also stated that he thought that the functionality of Find-a-library could be carried out within the CMS.

The following is a brief summary of the discussions:

• The group agreed that the subject list should remain as LoCSH since these terms were widely used and that the list should also continue to avoid a fine level of detail.
• Conversion of the Find-a-library data to be inline with the RSLP collection description schema was thought to be a sound idea and that the group should monitor what WiLL and Inspire were doing.
• Discussions with the LLDA should continue.
• Action 5.1 JG to scope changing Find-a-library to the RSLP schema and also revising the existing subject list. Scope also to include implications for InforM25 on linking with WiLL in various ways. JG also to report back to RDWG following the arranged meeting with LLDA and London Connects about links with WiLL.

Search catalogues

JG explained that the existing Search-catalogues software that was written around the Yaz Z-client would not work on the new M25 server as the new server would not support it. Work could be carried out on the software but it was considered better to replace the Z-client with a more up to date one. Options for this include:

• Jafer - used in the CC-interop Project successfully as Z-Z middleware (allowing Search-catalogues to be a Z-server) but the Z-client part of Jafer was an unknown quantity. It was also unclear as to the current availability of support for Jafer.
• ZOOM-Perl from Index Data - This Z-client would get good support from Index Data but currently could not do parallel searching (which Seach-catalogues requires). The cost for Index Data to develop their software to do parallel searching had been estimated.

JG spoke briefly about InforM25 searching WiLL and vice versa, OpenURL, web services and possible re-visiting linking with AIM25. JG reported that he had been speaking with the LLDA and both parties were interested in looking at using Transport for London's Journey Planner in connection with Find-a-library and the similar facility in WiLL. This idea was well received by the group.

EAC proposed that once the number of catalogues on Search-catalogues reached 50, the user interface should have a re-designed 'landscaping' function. This was agreed by the group and it was also suggested that revisions to the 'landscaping' function should be included in the group's Action Plan for 2006/7.

SB outlined some of the work that had been done at the University of Kent on web services and the idea of connecting from a local M25 OPAC to InforM25 if the user wished to extend their search. MW noted that connecting from local OPACs to InforM25 was a more user-focussed approach, in line with normal user behaviour. There was also some discussion on the future of Z39.50 as a searching protocol.

Discussion 

WM suggested that there was a need to keep M25 directors informed on resource discovery issues and that some form of briefing might be possible. (Topics could include vendor issues, future of Z39.50, Google developments, value for money for the distributed catalogue, etc..) Another idea was for some form of resource discovery workshop aimed at systems librarians to help determine future developments for InforM25 and to get a more detailed discussion on technical issues.

In terms of what resource discovery services M25 members might want, MW reported that the Steering Group had agreed to survey members before Easter on their requirements for new services/facilities the Consortium might provide. Previously members had expressed an interest in a repositories service, this could be an option, or M25 could consider buying into the UCL service.

The group agreed that deciding what to do about the Search-catalogues Z-client was urgent to get the service working on the new M25 server and that JG needed to look at Jafer, ZOOM-Perl and any other realistic alternatives. Action 5.2 JG to investigate new Z-clients, discuss with MW and update the RDWG by Easter.

It was also agreed that discussions with the LLDA should continue. Action 5.3 JG to continue discussions with the LLDA regarding the InforM25 services and to keep RDWG informed of key outcomes.

The group were aware of the various calls on JG's time and noted the possibility of obtaining funds from the Steering Group to cover temporary assistance with Systems Team tasks to release JG to spend more time on scoping some of the ideas. Another alternative was to bring in outside consultancy to look at specific issues, e.g. emerging technologies of interest.

JG also requested whether the group could clarify what might happen regarding the 'catalogue enrichment' proposed in the IMA report. There was some discussion about this and MW commented that following decisions taken by the Steering Group, it should be straightforward to encourage potential new Consortium members to join because of InforM25 and all the other added benefits such as mutual support. It was preferable that new institutions join as members rather than set up parallel arrangements for just adding catalogues. BM suggested concentrating on the smaller research libraries which tend not to be in existing 'networks', such as the Wiener and various institutes.

Summary of Developments, Tasks and Priorities

Top priority is for JG to review possible new Z-clients and discuss with MW & RDWG before Easter as it was clearly urgent to get Search-catalogues working on the new M25 server.

Other tasks are listed below:

• Scope changing Find-a-library data to the RSLP Schema including revsion of existing M25 subject list. Also include implications for InforM25 of various options for linking to/from WiLL.
• Scope cost/implications of adding Find-a-library functionality into CMS.
• Continue discussions with LLDA and London Connects.

Action 5.4 JG to circulate discussion papers on the above and any other suggestions/ideas before the next RDWG meeting.

6. Update & Review of Resource Discovery Topic Areas

WM introduced this item suggesting that the group review which areas ought to be included in the group's remit and to assign those areas to group members. After discussion, the following topic/responsibilities were agreed:

SUNCAT and the ULS - JG
RIN and potential National Catalogue - MW
WiLL and the London Portal - RH
e-print repositories - EAC
Commercial search engines and Google Scholar - SB
e-learning and managed learning objects - CC
Web services - JG + SB

7. AOB

JG informed the group that he had attended a meeting of the Committee of Departmental Librarians and that they had decided to develop a distributed catalogue approach for joining together their libraries but that funding was problematical. JG will be keeping in touch with them. MW noted that the Steering Group in its review of membership criteria had agreed not to add government libraries as members, as a group, but to consider individual libraries on the merits of their collections.

8. Future Meetings

Action 8.1 JG to arrange future meetings in May and July 2006.

Minutes by JG
23 March 2006.