Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the Meeting held on Monday 19th May 2003 at Royal Holloway, Gower Street

Present:Mary Davies (Chair), Angela Conyers (Secretary), Christine Muller, Brian Murphy, David Ward and Christine Wise.

1. Apologies for Absence and Welcome to Christine Wise

Apologies were received from David Pearson and Adam Edwards. Christine Wise was welcomed as a new member of the group in place of Emma Robinson.

2. Minutes of the last meeting

The spelling of "Snook" was corrected. The minutes of the meeting held on 26th March 2003 were then agreed as a correct record.

3. Matters arising

There were no matters arising not included on the agenda.

4. LMAL Business Plan

Jemima Johnstone of LMAL was welcomed to the meeting. She explained that LMAL was a partnership with the LLDA, the London Museums Agency and the London Archives Regional Council. They had put together a joint Business Plan, which was funded by Resource. The LMAL Executive Group was responsible for overseeing the plan, for encouraging collaboration across the 3 domains and setting up a Regional Agency by April 2004. Discussions were still going on as to how the Regional Agency would relate to the LLDA. A Federal Structure was one possibility. A paper giving the view of Resource was awaited.

The LMAL Business Plan was still in draft form in the consultation process. The LLDA was working with the M25 Consortium and had much closer links with the HE sector than in other regions. Jemima had presented the M25 key themes crossed referenced with the LMAL draft operational plan 2003-04. The following points arose in discussion:

• Learning/ Life long Learning
  LMAL were keen to build up links with the M25 Consortium through the Learning and Access team. It will be helpful for the team to meet with representatives from the M25 Consortium. Research (supporting academic research). There was need for an LMAL research strategy. Their current research project was on 'basic skills and the need to read' and the role of libraries in learning. They were also looking at 'moving image collections' and looking for further recommendations.
• Mutual support
  LMAL were building up a disability access auditors database and running training courses e.g. on paper conservation. The training programme was being run by Caroline Reed. It was agreed that links could be made here with CPD25. There was a plan to recruit a Funding Officer when the group was formalised to research funding and publicise funding opportunities.
• Business Support
  The main area here had been conservation facilities for example consortium purchasing. There was interest in this and links could be made to disaster planning. There were also links with Business Archives where there was currently no public access. This was seen as a growing area.
• Knowledge Transfer
  LMAL were not yet involved with businesses. CM explained the SBU Model where researchers worked with SMEs. This was an area for development within LMAL.
• Knowledge Management
  A National Audit was being coordinated by Resource. The HE sector was felt to be in advance here. There should be links with Inform25, AIM25 and with the M25 systems team. The concept of a single distributed resource was fundamental. Cataloguing backlogs were being mapped and a Full Disclosure project officer was being appointed.
• Widening Participation
  HE sector was not currently involved in the projects here.
• Social Inclusion The Cultural Diversity Network (CDN) acted as a forum for the exchange of information and ideas and HE was involved. There was interest in including HE events and listings on the LMAL website.
• Economic Regeneration
  More work was needed on this.
• Advocacy
  This was fundamental to LMAL's work. They held a bank of case studies and would be interested in adding ones from HE.

In discussion, BM suggested that LMAL could usefully link with the M25 Creative Industries Working Group and with the M25 Disability Group. Jemima agreed to produce a list of who was leading on particular projects within LMAL and we would similarly provide a list of groups within the M25. MD thanked Jemima for her very useful presentation and suggested we invite her back on a regular basis so we keep up with developments. Action: MD

5. Review of questionnaire response and plans for collation & analysis.

Members reported back on the response to the M25 questionnaire. It was recognised that it had proved difficult to get a full response to the questionnaire, but it was felt that there had been sufficient replies to demonstrate the diversity within the sector and the amount of partnership and collaboration work already going on. A few more replies had come in, but it was agreed that the deadline had now been reached. MD agreed to circulate a draft plan and get an estimate for doing the work of analysis.

Action: MD

6. Progress on Action Plan: update from members

• British Library
  DW had tried to arrange a meeting with Geoff Smith, Head of Collaboration and Partnership at the BL. This had proved difficult to arrange. An annual open meeting between the BL and M25 members was under discussion and CPD25 links were also possible. DW agreed to contact Geoff Smith to see if he was interested in becoming a member of this group now that the BL was a member of the M25 Consortium. Action: DW
• FE
  CM reported continued difficulty in making contact. She suggested a case study approach, looking at examples of collaboration between Universities FE and public libraries. Karen Senior from the Bolton Institute had done some work in this area.
• LHEC
  MD had now spoken to the Director and a draft business plan was expected in early June. This would be circulated to VCs and a public version would be available in July.
• ALCL
  MD and BM had met with Margaret Snook. A number of common areas had been identified. It was possible that LLDA would facilitate and sponsor joint events. The new Director of LLDA, Graham Fisher was starting in June.
• Government Libraries
  AE and MD planned to meet again with Peter Griffiths prior to attending the CDL committee meeting.
• RSLG response
  Thanks were given to ER and DP for their work on the M25 response to the RSLG report. The University of London Librarians Group was looking at RSLG themes and Suzanne Enright had been invited to attend for the M25.
• Other Consortia
  AC regretted that she had still not been able to make contact.
• NHS
  BM handed round note of meeting with Richard Osborne held on 29th April. There was a possibility of an event on 10th July including an NHSU speaker. John Wolstenholme of TVU was organising a meeting to look at HE/NHS links. CM agreed to check what this involved. Action: CM

7. Steering Group Matters

BL membership and RSLG response had been covered elsewhere in the discussions.

8. Update on SEUL

MD had been invited to speak at the next SEUL meeting. AC planned to contact Nicky Whitsed, the Chair of SEUL concerning future collaboration with the M25 consortium.

Action: AC

9. Update on WILIP ( Wider Information and Library Issues Projects)

Sue Howley of Resource was now in charge of this. The consultation on phase 1 was finished and a report due out in June. It was possible that the departure of the Chief Executive of Resource would have an impact on this timing.

10. Invitations to next meeting

Possible speakers for future meetings were Chris Batt, Acting Director of Resource, Richard Osborne of the NHS, David Bradbury of ALCL, Graham Fisher (new LLDA Director), and Karen Bedwell (Advocacy Group representation).

11. A.O.B.

There was no other business.

12. Date of Next Meeting

Monday 14 July at 10.30am. Venue subsequently confirmed as Boardroom, Royal Holloway, 2 Gower Street.