Notes from the meeting held at University of Kent

Present: Anne Poulson (SOAS) (Chair), Liz Kerr (University of the Arts), Jo Knight (British Library), Carole Pickaver (University of Kent), Colin Smith (University of Surrey), Nikki Trigg (University of Westminster), Mark Walton (British Library).

Apologies: Eileen Nazha (Queen Mary), Judith Preece (University of East London).

There was no agenda set for meeting, but Anne outlined areas for discussion for the meeting.

1. New Members

Anne welcomed Mary Robinson (Kings College) as a new member of the group. The group will be joined by Tim Cullen (Greenwich) and possibly David Archer (LSHTM).

2. Report from M25 Steering group

Anne reported on her presentation of a short M25 WGD annual report.

3. M25 Strategic plan

General discussion on principles - Anne explained that some institutions permit M25 users from other institutions to have the same enhanced rights as their home students. Carole explained that at Canterbury there are different levels of PC use for internal and external users. There was concern within this group that this arrangement would penalise home students / increase workload for library staff / would externals be taken on trust / is there any statistical evidence to outline take up ? After some discussion decided to create a 'guiding principle' for member libraries - "if we are offering enhanced services to home users - then we have to offer these same extended services to M25 users". The guideline may assist with strategic and funding opportunities.

Action points set against plan:

1.4 To identify opportunities for further collaborative services of benefit to learners and researchers in Member institutions.

Group action: Reciprocal Access and Enhanced Services for Special Needs Users.

2.2 To provide, via CPD25, high quality training and development for staff in Member institutions.

Group action: i) remind Carol in Feb of suggestions for training that CPD25 could run, ii) Mailing list for M25 libraries for disability contacts - AP action with John Gilby, iii) Run exchange of experience session annually.

2.3 To assist Consortium Members in providing support to library users with disabilities.

Group action: i) To produce advice on how to draft a disability policy with suggested template, ii) To keep libraries informed of best practise and legal changes. Refer to JISC Legal.

3. To represent the Consortium’s best interests and to influence policy-making through collaboration with appropriate regional and national organisations; this will include taking the lead on relevant strategic issues.

Group action: On disability and special needs group would advise on external papers, AP to check if this is required.

4. Exchange of experience session

Feedback from JP's notes was discussed, in particular - curriculum and alternative formats - institutions should be encouraged to contribute to RevealWeb - a unified support would be more fully supportive but there may be copyright concerns - members of this group (or is it M25?) need to lobby institutions to move to RevealWeb - also consider authoring by institutions could be added - some universities are building repositories - group needs to encourage access and information to these facilities.

AP working on paper for CURL to present to SCONUL.

Information skills was discussed both for staff and students. Disability Awareness Training needs to be embedded into all staff inductions. Perhaps have this on all job descriptions ?

Anne will put list of Assistive Technology information onto guidelines. Carole suggested lobbying library schools to include disability awareness. Cheap ideas including - sharing ideas/area on website for recommended suppliers/diary page to see what is coming up/mailinglist - for things that don't work.

Mark suggested setting the date for the next exchange of experience session. Likelihood, to be in June - but avoiding CPD25 courses and SCONUL conference etc.

Next meeting: September 05 - consider the sharing of responsibilities. Date confirmed - Camberwell College of Arts, Friday 21st October.

EN
August 2005