Meeting Minutes

Minutes from the meeting held at Victory House, 170 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 7HA.

Present: Melanie Brocklehurst (MB) LSBU (SEL), Ruth Fosker (RF) SELSHA, Paul Hockney (PH) QM (NEL), Angela Horrocks (AH) Kingston University (SWL), Gary Horrocks (GH) KCL (SEL), Richard Osborn (RO) Chair NWLSHA, Janet Smith (JS) Imperial College and CPD25 (NWL), Cheryl Twomey (CT) LHL eKAT, Anne Weist (AW) NELSHA, Jane Williamson (JW) NCLSHA, John Wolstenholme (JIW) TVU (NWL)

Apologies: Betsy Anagnostelis (BA) UCL (NCL), Paul Ayris (PA) UCL (NCL), Ray Phillips (RP) SWLSHA

1. Information updates

JIW gave a brief update on the M25 Consortium.  The steering group would be meeting shortly.  JS updated the group on the activities of CPD25.  These had included a successful visit to the Ideas Store in Whitechapel.  A joint event with London Health Libraries on virtual learning environments is being considered.  The group was pleased to hear about this, as it fitted well with the proposed 06/07 action plan. 

CT also agreed to investigate the idea of an event on National Core Content resources for HEI staff, to help them prepare students for when they go out on placement.  ACTION: CT

JW gave the background to the work on the London Health Libraries (LHL) Staff Development Framework, with its 4 strands:

• knowledge and skills development
• career development
• personal effectiveness
• putting learning into practice

A steering group had been set up, with broad membership.  Sub-groups were charged with developing programmes.  LKDN are keen for it to become a national framework.  The documentation about the framework would be circulated to the group.  ACTION: RO

AW spoke about the Learner Support programme.  A four-day programme had been commissioned from London Metropolitan University.  The pilot course was full, with 6 NHS staff and 6 from Higher Education.

RO reported on developments in the NHS in London.  John Bacon had been appointed Transition Lead to manage the process of creating one single SHA for the capital.  There was much uncertainty about the future; however, the 06/07 business plan for the LHL Strategy and Development Group (LHLSDG) would be submitted for approval by the SHA Workforce Leads in early February.

As part of the LHL Social Care project, RO had convened a most successful meeting with HEI social care subject specialist librarians.  Areas for joint collaboration had been identified, including the possibility of the joint procurement of an electronic resource such as “Social Policy and Practice”.

The LHLSDG had met with Ben Toth of the National Library for Health on two occasions to discuss joint working, especially around document delivery.  A consultation on the National Service Framework for NHS-funded library and information services was underway.

2. London Health Libraries / M25 procurement sub-group

RO had circulated a message at the beginning of the month, asking HEIs to nominate representatives for a new procurement JISCMAIL list.  A questionnaire had also been sent to gauge interest in the area of joint procurement.  AH reported that 10 replies had been received to date.  Most institutions which had responded had funding committed until 2007.  The procurement sub-group would take this matter forward.

CT reported that the National Core Content Service Delivery Board had decided to cancel Internurse with effect from April 2006, due to high cost and the unreliability of the service provided by Swets.  CT also reported on progress with the London top-up.

GH mentioned a project in HE looking at best evidence for the qualitative analysis of e-journal statistics.  There was scope for working with the NHS on this.  ACTION: CT to contact GH

The JISC/LKDN procurement project will help with mapping procurement activity across the NHS, HE and other sectors.  This work was due to go out to tender shortly.

GH and CT also raised the issue of most HEIs migrating to e-only access to their journal collections.  This would have significant implications for NHS users of HEI library services.

3. Pan-London student charter

JIW presented a draft document for discussion.  JIW would make the amendments agreed and re-circulate to the group.  The final version will then be circulated to the M25-LHL-ALL mailing list.  ACTION: JIW and RO

An article by Richard Marriott from Trent SHA on services to students on placement had been published in the latest issue of Health Libraries and Information Journal.  This would be circulated to all members of the group.  ACTION: RO

4. 2006/7 Action Plan

JIW and RO had produced a draft for discussion and this would be amended and re-circulated following comments raised at the meeting.  ACTION: JIW and RO

5. Minutes of previous meeting (17th October 2005) & matters arising

The minutes of the last meeting were approved.

AH and MB confirmed that the University Health Science Librarians group is still not active.  GH is organising the programme for the UMSLG Open Forum on 30th March; the meeting would focus on HE/NHS collaboration.  Speakers included RF, Colin Davies and Richard Marriott.

6. Date of next meeting

The next meeting would be held on Monday 8 May at 12.30 pm.  JIW would chair.  GH agreed to investigate a venue at the Guys campus of KCL.  ACTION:  GH