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Collaboration & Partnership 15 September 2004

Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the Meeting held on Wednesday 15 September 2004 at Senate House Library

Present: Mary Davies (Chair), Penny Dade, Adam Edwards, Brian Murphy, Fiona O'Brien, Rachel Redrup, David Ward, Christine Wise (Secretary)

By invitation: Graham Fisher, ALM London

1. Apologies for Absence

Apologies for absence were received from Christine Muller and Jan Wilkinson.

2. Minutes of the meeting held 19 July 2004

These were accepted as a true record, subject to the following amendment: Page 3, under heading LLDA, the third paragraph was amended to read:

"FOB reported that a recent bid to the Laser Foundation for funding to re-version the WiLL website for Personal Digital Assistants had been unsuccessful, and that a further speculative bid to the Foundation was being prepared".

3. Matters arising

Under item 4, Building Learning Partnerships event, MD and PD reported that, following the successful seminar which had been held at the British Library on 9 July 2004, a date was being sought for a further, follow-up event.

4. Representation - ALCL, M25 Advocacy Working Group

MD reported that expressions of interest had been invited to represent the M25 Consortium at meetings of the Association of London Chief Librarians (ALCL) meetings. As a result of this invitation, a number of expressions of interest had been received. These were considered by the Working Group, and it was decided to recommend to the M25 Steering Group that Ann Sainsbury, of the University of Westminster, should undertake this role and become a member of the M25 Collaboration & Partnership Working Group. Action MD

MD reported that she had been in touch with Maire Lanigan, Chair of the M25 Advocacy Working Group, regarding their representation on the M25 Collaboration & Partnership Working following the departure of Rachel Redrup on maternity leave. In order to continue to promote good communication and interchange of ideas, a representative would shortly be appointed from the M25 Advocacy Working Group to attend meetings of the M25 Collaboration & Partnership Working Group.

5. Action Plan - reports from members

ALM London

[Secretary's note: a full report on current ALM London strategic and operational matters is provided under item 6 below].

The British Library

DW and Robert Hall, Chair of the M25 Consortium, had recently met with Jan Wilkinson, Head of Higher Education at the British Library. This meeting had provided a welcome opportunity to brief her on the M25 Development Plan 2002-2003 - 2005-2006, and to discuss issues of mutual interest. Working Group members looked forward to collaboration in due course in line with her brief for the HE sector (http://www.bl.uk/about/cooperation/workhe.html).

Committee of Departmental Librarians

MD reported that a meeting had recently been held with Peter Griffiths and the M25 Systems Team to discuss the possibility of creating a CLD catalogue search system.

Details of CDL contacts in specific areas, such as disaster management, were awaited.

LLDA

FOB reported that Jemima Johnstone, recently appointed as Acting Director of the LLDA, hoped to attend a future Working Group meeting.

She reported that Dermot Kennedy, currently working part-time as Library Development Officer at ALM London, would shortly take up a part-time role at LLDA, with specific responsibility for the Library Strategy for London. Work on the London Libraries' Manifesto would be deferred pending the outcomes of work on the Library Strategy for London.

FOB reported that there had been favourable media coverage of the summer reading promotional campaign, London Librarians Recommend, and that the next campaign would be Reel Fiction, to tie in with the London Film Festival in November 2004.

The final report of the Inspire England project had been published on the Inspire website (http://www.inspire.gov.uk/ins_england_papers.htm). A Project Officer would be appointed on a two year contract from October 2004 to develop this work, including steps towards the integration of the regionally-focussed LiLL into this national programme. Two bids were in preparation further to extend the work of Inspire.

FOB reported that on 9 September 2004, the LLDA had hosted a breakfast seminar on learning communities at which Ivan Lewis MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Skills and Vocational Education) had been present.

FOB reported on a project entitled London Connects, led by the Society of IT Managers in London in Local Government. This project is designed to create a London-wide portal for local authority services, based on smart-card technology, with a launch date of March 2005. The pilot site, featuring integrated access to services in South West London, is currently under development.

Finally, the LLDA is working closely with the Greater London Assembly to promote London as a study destination for student groups from overseas.

London Health Libraries & M25 Consortium Joint Working Group

FOB reported that a consortium of health libraries had recently joined the LLDA.

London Higher

MD reported that she and CW would be meeting with Michael Reynier of London Higher (http://www.studylondon.ac.uk/about/) on 9 November 2004.

Regional library consortia

AE reported that he would be attending a conference on 21 September 2004 in Cardiff, entitled Regional collaboration and academic libraries: a state of the art conference, and would report back to the Working Group. Action AE

He drew Working Group members' attention to the recent report of the Higher Education Libraries in partnership (HELP) project, which had been published by the Wales Higher Education Libraries Forum (WHELF) in June 2004.

Research Libraries Network

The recent advertisement for the post of Director of the Research Libraries Network was noted.

6. Update on ALM London - Graham Fisher

MD welcomed Graham Fisher, Chief Executive of ALM London, to the Working Group meeting, and invited him to give a presentation on current and future strategy and operations. His report highlighted the following areas:

  1. The Museums Archives and Libraries Council (MLA) is currently under review by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport; this review would include ALM London.
  2. An advertisement had appeared in The Guardian on 15 September 2004 for the post of Chair of the ALM London Board.
  3. Three new domain Development Officers had recently been appointed, with specific responsibilities relating to regional strategy and developments in libraries, archives and museums.
  4. In spite of some staff vacancies, the ALM London Business Plan continued to be on track. Attention was currently being directed towards an ICT strategy and steps were being taken towards establishing a mechanism for consortial memberships of ALM London.
  5. ALM London has produced two new publicity documents, entitled The Knowledge, and Unlocking knowledge and information, which form key planks in the communications strategy. The Knowledge will be published three times each calendar year and will include a strategic update on different priority areas for ALM London. The first issue highlighted issues relating to cultural diversity.
  6. ALM London uses other promotional vehicles such as the Archives Awareness Campaign (http://www.archiveawareness.com/), to be launched in October 2004. Collaboration with such initiatives as the Mayor's Commission on African and Asian Heritage are vital in raising the regional profile of libraries, archives and museums. All are crucial to ALM London's commitment to learning initiatives, its greatest area of involvement, evidenced by the report Londoners need to read, launched in July 2004 at the British Library. A Strategic Policy Advisory Group has been set up to steer work towards developing a skills for life pledge. This involves
  7. Regeneration and economic development projects are high priority areas for ALM London. To this end, ALM London liaises closely with the Greater London Assembly on projects connected with the Thames Gateway and the bid to host the Olympics in London in 2012. One particular focus is participation in the development of a strategy centring on regeneration and culture in the Thames Gateway area. Another priority area is liaison with Visit London, to contribute to a new student guide to London. ALM London has set up a Workforce Diversity Sub-Group, which is seeking to develop further workforce diversity modules. A tender exercise will be conducted to appoint consultants to carry out and report on an economic impact evaluation of archives, libraries and museums in London and to produce an economic development strategy for ALM London.
  8. ALM London is prioritising work on standards for collection care, for example, through a new draft of the London's Museums, Archives and Libraries' Statement for Stewardship.
  9. ALM London is working with a group of key organisations involved in film and film history to investigate how film archive provision could be better structured, supported and funded in the region.

MD thanked Graham Fisher on behalf of Working Group members for his presentation.

7. Any Other Business

MD reported that an approach concerning membership of the M25 Consortium had been received from the Institution of Electrical Engineers. It was agreed that this approach would be considered by the Working Group and that BM would arrange a visit. Action BM

The Working Group would consider other potential memberships at the next meeting, with particular reference to LiLL. Action CW for Agenda

BM reported that the document M25 Consortium of Academic Libraries Membership Rights and Responsibilities would shortly be circulated to all M25 Consortium Directors and would be available from the M25 Consortium's web pages (http://www.m25lib.ac.uk/m25sec/about/rightsandresp.htm).

CW reported that, with the assistance of John Gilby of the M25 Systems Team, the Working Group's web pages on the M25 Consortium website had recently been substantially revised and updated.

8. Dates of meetings for year 2004-2005

The next meeting dates were confirmed as Tuesday 9 November 2004 at 14h30 and on the afternoon of Thursday 16 December 2004. Both meetings would be held at Senate House Library, University of London.

Christine Wise
Secretary to M25 Collaboration & Partnership Working Group
November 2004

 

 

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