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, Fiona O’Brien, Ann Sainsbury, Christine Wise (Secretary)

1. Apologies for Absence

Sara Gould

2. Minutes of the meeting held 23 May 2006

These were accepted as a true record.

3. Matters arising

The following matters arising were noted:

Under item 3, MD reported that she had invited both Graham Fisher, Chief Executive, MLA London and Stephanie Kenna, Manager, Regional and Library Programmes, the British Library, to speak to future meetings of the Working Group.

Under item 5, it was agreed that FOB would circulate the LLDA Joint Venture Agreement to Working Group members.
ACTION FOB

4. Remit of the M25 Collaboration & Partnership Working Group and prioritisation of work

MD introduced this agenda item with a reminder of the 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 therefore considered the current remit and drafted the following revised version.

1. To establish working relationships with appropriate partner organisations, in particular with London Higher, in order to progress collaboration;
2. To identify strategic areas for collaboration, in particular the RIN;
3. To consider and evaluate potential new Consortium members;
4. To review the collaborative activity carried out by the Consortium;
5. To make recommendations to the Steering group on new initiatives and projects.

The revised remit would be presented to the Steering Group for endorsement.
ACTION MD

Working Group members considered current priorities.  Following discussion, it was agreed to recommend the following to the Steering Group:

1. Priority should be accorded to maintaining excellent and productive relationships with London Higher;
2. The current level of representative duties undertaken in respect of MLA London should be scaled down while continuing to maintain current cordial relationships through regular dialogue.
ACTION MD

In the light of this, Working Group members agreed the following objectives for the action plan 2006-2007:

3.1 To work with regional, national and other partners to raise the Consortium’s profile;
3.2 To provide input to national initiatives and consultative exercises, as appropriate;
3.3 To continue to evaluate applications for membership of the Consortium and proactively to identify potential new members;
3.4 To take a lead on relevant strategic issues, in particular those with a regional aspect, and to lobby on behalf of Consortium members;
3.5 To continue to develop links and partnerships with appropriate regional and national agencies in order to identify strategic areas for collaboration, to promote engagement and to undertake joint projects.

In the accompanying action points, Working Group members agreed that prominence should be given to providing support for LLDA in the migration of LLiL to Inspire and to working jointly with the M25 Advocacy Group.

5. Action Plan – reports from Working Group members

• ALCL
  AS reported on the ALCL meeting held 12 April 2006.  Considerable interest had been shown in the COOLPerStor report, in arrangements in Consortium member libraries for 24/7 opening and in CPD 25 training events.  AS reported that special collections in certain public library authorities were being reviewed and noted that there was potential for transfer of appropriate collections, subject to mutually agreeable terms, to academic libraries.
  
  
• The British Library
  MD reported that she was awaiting information from the Chair of the M25 Consortium regarding ongoing dialogue with the British Library.
  
  
• Committee of Departmental Librarians
  There were no new matters to report.
  
  
• HE / FE liaison
  FOB reported that the topic for the next collaborative HE/FE seminar would be 24/7 opening, with the impact of tuition fees in the sectors as a sub0theme.  Plans were in place to run this seminar in October 2006, with a further seminar in January 2007.
  
  
• LLDA
  FOB reported on recent initiatives.  She drew attention to the feasibly study on the concept of a single library ticket for use in the 33 London Boroughs.  She noted that the Your London portal (http://www.yourlondon.gov.uk/) would be formally launched on 26 June 2006.  She reported that investigations were underway into the feasibility of linking InforM25 (http://www.inform25.ac.uk/) and WiLL (http://www.londonlibraries.org.uk/will/).
  
  FOB tabled a draft letter to Directors of M25 Consortium member libraries, which described the migration of LiLL (http://www.londonlibraries.org/servlets/llil) to
  INSPIRE (http://www.inspire.gov.uk/index.php).  It was agreed that it would be helpful if possible to arrange for a briefing on this issue as part of the M25 Consortium meeting on Friday 9 June 2006.
  ACTION MD and FOB
  
  
• London Higher
  MD drew to Working Group members’ attention the recently-published London Higher report on healthcare.
  
  MD reported that funding for a consultancy to undertake two projects with London Higher during 2006-2007 had been agreed by the M25 Steering Group.  The development of a fact-sheet on academic libraries in London would be undertaken first followed by the Research Excellence Project themes.  Angela Conyers had been engaged to undertake this consultancy and would attend the next Working Group meeting.
  ACTION MD
  
  
• MLA London (formerly ALM London)
  Working Group members noted the detailed MLA London Update Report (May 2006) which had been provided by Graham Fisher, Chief Executive, MLA London.
  
  
• London Olympics 2012
  AE had been unable to attend the half-day workshop organised by MLA London at which the sector’s cultural offer to celebrate the 2012 Olympics had been discussed.  Further information was awaited from MLA London.
  
  
• Regional library consortia
  There were no new matters of interest to report.
  
  
• Research Information Network
  There were no new matters of interest to report.

M25 Consortium: membership update
BM reported that Heythrop College and the University College for the Creative Arts at Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham, Maidstone and Rochester were being received into membership of the M25 Consortium.

The Central School of Speech and Drama had made an application to join the Consortium.  It is in London, in membership of SCONUL and HEFCE funded, so automatically it may join the Consortium.  This application was endorsed by the Working Group and recommended to the Steering Group for approval.
ACTION MD

Newbold College had also made an application to join the Consortium.  It is in Bracknell, Berkshire i.e. in SE region and has around 300 students taking degrees validated by the Open University and in some cases by others.  However, it is not eligible for SCONUL membership as it is not funded by HEFCE.  BM reported that we could invite it to membership but its website suggests that its collections are teaching based and would not add to the 'distributed research collection'.  The Working Group agreed that Newbold was ineligible according to the membership criteria and this would be reported to the Steering Group.
ACTION MD

6. Any other business

MD would invite John Dolan, Head of Library Policy at the MLA, to speak to a future Working Group meeting.
ACTION MD

MD would contact Maire Lanigan, Chair of the M25 Advocacy Working Group, to seek a new representative for the Working Group.
ACTION MD

7. Date of next meeting

[Secretary’s note: subsequently confirmed by email as Wednesday 21 June 2006, 09h00, Senate House Library, University of London].

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