Resource Discovery Meeting Minutes

1. Welcome, Apologies for Absence and Membership Update

Present: William Marsterson (Chair - WM), Gavin Beattie GB), Catriona Cannon (CC), John Gilby (Minutes - JG), Robert Hall (RH), Brian Murphy (BM), Marion Peulevé (MP).

Apologies: Stewart Brownrigg (Kent), Rosemary Lynch (RL), Maureen Wade (MW).

2. Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes

The minutes from 24 November 2006 were approved.

3. Action Update and Matters Arising

Actions and matters arising from the previous meeting held on 24 November 2006 are summarised below:

•  Action 3.1 continues - JG to work on Usage Statistics as they are still a requirement. JG to discuss with MW and report status to RDWG.
•  Action 3.2 continues - JG to progress the InforM25 'Landscaping' document.
  
•  Action 3.3 continues - JG and MW had almost finalised the risk review.
  
•  Action 4.1 complete - JG had added a link to UKAT on InforM25
•  Action 4.2 complete - alternatives to the subject list pull-down will be included in the 'Landscaping' document.
  
•  Action 7.1 complete - JG had revised the group's Action Plan and this was incorporated in the overall Consortium Action Plan.

4. M25 Systems Team Manager's Report

JG highlighted a number of points from his previously circulated report:

• A power cut in the Holborn area on 12 February caused all Consortium websites to be unavailable for a little over a day, a few intermittent problems arising from the disruption had been fixed.
• The CMS software was upgraded in early January 2007 with no problems.
• The termly review for Find-a-library data had elicited nearly 40 responses - a better response rate than previously as named contacts were asked for data updates.
• Exported Find-a-library data was now visible on the Cornucopia service and the related Inspire/Find It! service should have the data visible in due course.

RH queried the procedure for prioritising the addition of new Consortium member's data to InforM25. JG commented that once initial contact had been made with the new Consortium members, he would contact them to obtain data for Find/Visit-a-library and discuss Z39.50 server issues for Search-catalogues. Prioritisation with Z-servers tended to occur naturally as different members were at varying stages with their systems.

Action 4.1 JG to summarise Search-catalogues membership for the next meeting.

JG reported that the Subject List Mini-project had been completed:

• There were now 133 subject terms, 86% compatible to UKAT
• Twenty M25 institutions had revised their subject listings
• Two reports were available, a record of the tasks carried out during the project, and a review of selected other service treatment of subject classifications.

Action 4.2 JG to add the "Report on online subject classification systems similar to InforM25" document to the website and include references to it in the Systems Team Newsletter and Consortium e-bulletin.

JG briefly introduced his report on the feedback received from the relaunch of the InforM25 services in November 2006. A discussion followed, the key points being:

• catalogue selection by UKLP and other access schemes was clearly of interest to users but it was agreed to leave the idea for now and consider the idea further in the 'Landscaping' document.
• other suggestions received were noted and should be compared with the relevant statistics when available.
• It was noted that there were not many responses from academics - it was thought that academics were unlikely to complete a survey so this may be why they were under represented in the Prize Draw. One possible way to reach academics would be via subject librarians in their own institutional library.
• CC suggested some form of CPD25 training event for systems librarians and technical services library staff about resource discovery tools and technologies such as Z39.50 , SOAP, SRW, etc..
  Action 4.3 JG to forward the feedback summary to CPD25 and suggest events on resource discovery tools & technologies plus some sort of promotion of InforM25 to subject librarians.
• Action 4.4 JG to also send feedback summary to the Communications and Marketing (formally Advocacy) Working Group.

5. Potential Enhancements & Developments to InforM25

a) e-journal walk-in access sub-group meeting outcome

GB tabled some notes and gave a brief account of the sub-group meeting held just prior to the RDWG meeting. RH commented that representatives from the Consortium were due to meet with the RIN in the near future. Further discussion followed on what best to do next.

The group agreed to have some informal talks with potential consultants to gauge their interest in helping the group develop the ideas further, possibly including drafting a funding bid if any suitable sources could be identified.

Action 5.1 GB, JG & RL to look at drafting a letter to potential consultants that RH could sign as Chair of the Consortium.

b) Extended ULS coverage

JG introduced this idea commenting that the British Museum had expressed an interest in getting its serial holdngs on the ULS. Also, the Wiener Library has two databases on its library system and as only a single database can be connected in Search-catalogues, one option for showing their serial holdings would be to add the data to the ULS. These ideas were discussed further.

Action 5.2 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 JG to email M25 reader services librarians to seek their suggestions of institutions they would like to see added to the ULS.

The outcome of the above two actions should then go to the Steering Group for guidance on the next steps.

c) Report on recent RIN UKNUC Seminar

JG gave a short verbal report on the recent RIN UK National Union Catalogue seminar.

d) Directory of Research Collections

RH reported that this Steering Group initiative was being taken forward and that he would recommend that the people involved talk to the Systems Team to look into whether the current services could be developed to incorporate this type of data.

e) AIM25 links

JG and RH gave an update on plans to resurrect the linking from Search-catalogues to AIM25 for subject and keyword searches.

f) Talis Directory and Google Maps

JG spoke briefly about a recent Talis 'Webinar' he had taken part in and the ideas presented about using the Talis Directory of library data with Google Maps. The group suggested that this might be one way to address the granularity of the M25 'Zones' commented on the the InforM25 feedback document.

Action 5.4 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.

6. AOB

There was none. It was noted that there were a number of actions for JG and these should be discussed further with MW and if problematical, to talk with WM.

7. Future Meetings

The next meetings were confirmed at 2pm, LSE Library on
3 May 2007
15 June 2007

Also noted that WM would not be able to attend these meetings so BM would chair the meetings. 

Minutes by JG
6 March 2007