Collaboration and Partnership Working Group - Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the Meeting held at Senate House Library, University of London

Present: Mary Davies (Chair), Adam Edwards, Brian Murphy, Ann Sainsbury, Christine Wise (Secretary)

By Invitation: Richard Osborn, Knowledge Resources Manager, North West London Strategic Health Authority

1. Apologies for Absence

Sara Gould, Fiona O’Brien

2. Minutes of the meeting held 15 February 2006

These were accepted as a true record.

3. Matters arising

The following matters arising were noted:

Under item 3, MD had circulated a copy of the draft Public Library Strategy to Working Group members.

Under item 3, MD reported that she had invited Graham Fisher, Chief Executive, ALM London, to speak to the Working Group at a future meeting regarding the MLA Strategic Framework.

4. Presentation: Richard Osborn, North West London Strategic Health Authority

MD welcomed Richard Osborn, Knowledge Resources Manager, North West London Strategic Health Authority, to the meeting.

Richard Osborn briefed Working Group members on key initiatives in the health libraries sector.  He presented three papers to the meeting: the M25 Consortium – London Health Libraries Joint Working Group Action Plan 2006-2007, which had been agreed on 23 January 2006; the M25 Consortium – London Health Libraries joint Library Charter for NHS placement students; and the February 2006 Progress Report on the London Health Libraries Social Care Project.

The three papers reflected the strategic partnership between the M25 Consortium and the London Health Libraries on matters of mutual interest and indicated the significant structural changes in NHS Trust arrangements which were scheduled for later in 2006.  One particular initiative of mutual interest was the potential link-up between the London Health Libraries Social Care project and Inspire (http://www.sconul.ac.uk/use_lib/inspire.html).

MD thanked Richard Osborn for his presentation.

5. Action Plan – reports from Working Group members

MD introduced this agenda item with a report-back from the M25 Steering Group meeting held 9 March 2006.  At this meeting, the Working Group had been asked to review its general remit and to consider areas of prioritisation for future work.  Working Group members agreed that this would be a major item on the agenda for the next meeting.
ACTION MD/CW for agenda
ALCL

AS reported that the next ALCL meeting would be held on 12 April 2006.

• ALM London
  There were no new matters to report.
  
  
• The British Library
  MD reported that she was liaising with SG regarding the event at the British Library in Spring 2006 for M25 Consortium members.
  ACTION MD
  
  
• Committee of Departmental Librarians
  MD had referred the Committee’s enquiry regarding subject indexing in electronic library catalogues to John Gilby, M25 Systems Team.
  
  
• HE / FE liaison
  There were no new matters to report.
  
  
• LLDA
  MD would circulate the LLDA Joint Venture Agreement to Working Group members.
  ACTION MD
  
  
• London Higher
  MD reported that with the assistance of colleagues at King’s College London she had submitted a case study exemplar for inclusion in the London Higher report on healthcare, to be published in May 2006.
  
  MD reported that the M25 Steering Group had endorsed the Working Group’s recommendation to fund a consultancy to assist with developing the fact-sheet on academic libraries in London.  As a result, MD and CW would meet with Angela Conyers on 28 March 2006 to discuss the specifics.
  
  MD would in addition prepare a funding application to the M25 Steering Group for further consultancy funds to work with London Higher during 2006-2007 on the Research Excellence Project themes.
  ACTION MD
  
  
• London Olympics 2012
  An invitation had been received to attend a half-day workshop organised by ALM London at which the sector’s cultural offer to celebrate the 2012 Olympics would be discussed.  AE would attend to represent the M25 Consortium.
  ACTION AE
  
  
• Regional library consortia
  AE reported that the CALIM Consortium, now part of the NorthWest Academic Libraries consortium (NoWal - http://www.nowal.ac.uk/) was considering collaborative purchasing of access to e-journals.
  
  
• Research Information Network
  There were no new matters of interest to report.

6. Any other business

MD had extended an invitation to Dilys Hall to join the Working Group.

MD would invite Stephanie Kenna from the British Library to speak to a future Working Group meeting.
ACTION MD

MD would draw up project bid estimates 2006-2007 for presentation to the M25 Steering Group and would circulate these for comments in due course to Working Group members.
ACTION MD

AE reported that discussions were progressing on the merger of the UK Libraries Plus and the SCONUL RX programmes.  He would keep Working Group members informed on developments.
ACTION AE

7. Date of next meeting

[Secretary’s note: subsequently confirmed by email as Thursday 25 May, 10h00, Senate House Library, University of London].

Christine Wise
Secretary to M25 Collaboration & Partnership Working Group
May  2006