Quality Working Group Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the meeting held on 24 June 2008 at the University of Westminster

Present: Julie Howell (LMU, Chair), Gill Briggs (TVU), David Clover (ICS), Susan Howard (Imperial), Margaret March (Anglia Ruskin), Philip Payne (Birkbeck), Elaine Salter (Westminster)

Apologies for Absence: Rodney Amis (KCL)

1. Quality Maturity Model
 
Frankie Wilson from Brunel University attended the meeting to speak about the Quality Maturity Model she is developing as part of her PhD. The aim of the research is to develop a numeric measure of organisational quality culture. She argued that a quality culture is necessary for organisational success in a rapidly changing environment, where Quality Assurance measures are unsuitable.

In undertaking her research, Frankie has visited 11 libraries, holding semi-structured interviews with a range of staff, from the Director down. She has also looked at web pages and strategic documents, and is now engaged in data analysis. The emerging Quality Maturity Model has eight facets and five levels, ranging from ad hoc quality management processes to continuous quality improvement. The ultimate aim is to develop a self-assessment tool for libraries.

2. Membership

Janet Percival has now retired from her post at UCL. The Group recorded its thanks for her contribution to its work.

Action: JH will contact Adam Edwards about filling the vacancy. 

3. Minutes of the meeting held on 22 April 2008

The Minutes were agreed as an accurate record        
     4. Matters arising

Minute 2: Chartermark. CPD25 are willing to work with the Group to deliver a workshop on the new Customer Service Excellence standard in spring 2009.  
         Action: PP will act as our liaison. 

5. Progress report on the Big Project

i. Costing models. As yet, the Group has not done any work in this area. It was agreed that:
       Action: PP would look at different costing models, and SH would look at the work being done in this area by the UKRR project.

ii. Recent building projects. 
         Action: JH and GB agreed to gather information on the drivers for small to medium projects.

MM circulated the Learning and Skills Council’s Design quality criteria, which could be used as the basis for a checklist for librarians visiting recent refurbishments.

iii. Performance indicators and benchmarking. PP had identified some useful measures in the SCONUL statistics and he circulated some time series ratios he had compiled. However, the SCONUL measures are of limited use, because they do not take into account factors such as availability of other libraries and subject differences. Additional information about the different types of study space and how often they are used, and user assessment of the spaces provided would also be useful.

ES had identified the LibQUAL questions dealing with the library as place.  Given that LibQUAL measures user perception, these questions add another dimension to the data derived from SCONUL, and it could be useful to look at the impact space changes have on user perception.

iv. Impact assessment.  David is still working on this.
         Action: DC
 
It was agreed that all findings should be circulated before the next meeting. The overall aim is to produce a toolkit, looking at qualitative and quantitative aspects relating to space utilisation.

         Action: all

6. Progress report on smaller projects

 i. Directory of expertise. The M25 Consortium is considering the compilation of a directory of expertise, so there is no need for the group to do this.
 ii. Application of the Quality Maturity Model. Today’s meeting has been the first step.
 iii. Audit of formal quality processes.
        Action: JH to find out what the SCONUL QA Group is doing.

7. Any other business

 i. Customer Service Culture
Elaine reported that, as a result of its National Student Survey and LibQUAL results, the University of Westminster library has been looking at its front line services and trying to improve its customer service culture. As a staff development exercise, some staff mystery shopped other London institutions, and found it a valuable experience.
 
      
 8.  Date and Venue of Next Meeting

The date and venue of the next meeting are to be confirmed; it is likely to be in October/November at Imperial College London.