Meeting Minutes

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

Present: Mary Davies (Chair), Penny Dade, Sara Gould, Brian Murphy, Fiona O'Brien, Ann Sainsbury, Christine Wise (Secretary)

By Invitation: Graham Fisher, Chief Executive, ALM London

1. Apologies for Absence

Adam Edwards

2. Minutes of the meeting held 1 November 2005

These were accepted as a true record.

3. Matters arising

The following matters arising were noted:

• FOB reported that the LLDA Operational Plan 2005-06 had been made available on the LLDA website at http://www.llda.org.uk/cms/contentpage/strategy .
• FOB would bring the final version of the Libraries and Learners in London (LLiL) migration paper to the next meeting of the Working Group ACTION FOB

4. Presentation: Graham Fisher, Chief Executive, ALM London

MD welcomed Graham Fisher, Chief Executive, ALM London, to the meeting.  GF reported on key strategic issues.

Following the DCMS peer review, the MLA was working with the 9 regional agencies to establish the MLA Partnership.  The draft Partnership Agreement would be presented to the ALM London Board on 24 November 2005.

GF reported on the MLA Strategic Framework, with priorities and targets to determine the MLA Corporate Plan covering all 10 organisations.  The core areas in the Strategic Framework included increasing participation; diversity, development of new audiences; placing archives, libraries and museums at the heart of regional and national life; and creating a world-class sustainable sector.  The current funding framework would be reviewed in April 2006, in the light of these changes.  Feedback on the Strategic Framework would be received by MLA during December 2005, with a view to a full launch of the MLA Partnership during 2006.

GF reported that it was expected that MLA would move out of London by 2008; an interim move to new premises in Bloomsbury would take place shortly.  It was anticipated that ALM London would change its name to MLA London.

GF reported that the MLA archival and museum strategies were cross-domain and that the library strategy was single domain, concentrating on public libraries. Additional funding of £4 million in support of the DCMS Framework for the Future had been announced, which had delayed publication of the full public library strategy.

Full details of other strategic initiatives such as the Creativity and Collections Strategy; the Regional Archives Strategy; the draft Registered Museums Strategy; and the draft Public Library Strategy were available from the ALM London website at http://www.lmal.org.uk/].

ALM London would re-launch the Revisiting Collections Study, to promote the methodology for re-interpreting collections to bring out new aspects of collections.

The membership of the Major's Heritage Task Force would shortly be announced.  The first meeting was expected in January 2006, and ALM London would provide the secretariat.  ALM London was also working with the Major's Commission on African and Caribbean Heritage.

ALM London was about to appoint a Thames Gateway Cultural Strategy Co-Ordinator, a post jointly funded with the Arts Council to support cultural heritage in the Thames Gateway area.

The Skills for Life Compact had been signed by all 33 London Boroughs, the Learning and Skills Council and the London Development Agency.

The ALM London Economic Impact Study would be launched on 24 November 2005.

ALM London had recently commissioned a study on workplace succession planning.  The M25 Consortium would receive an invitation to a round table discussion on this topic in December 2005.

MD thanked Graham Fisher for his presentation. MD would circulate a copy of the draft Public Library Strategy to Working Group members for their comments and would raise this issue at the next M25 Steering Group meeting. ACTION MD

MD would invite Graham Fisher to speak to the Working Group again circa March 2006 regarding the MLA Strategic Framework. ACTION MD

5. Action Plan - reports from members

ALCL

AS reported on matters arising from the recent ALCL meeting.  She had highlighted inter alia the M25 Consortium's work on staff development, InforM25 and new publicity leaflets.

From the meeting, AS reported that the Open University was exploring with ALCL the potential for future partnerships with public libraries, and developments with the Enquire Service of the People's Network (http://coeast.247ref.org/wcscgi/CDM.exe?SS_COMMAND=CUST_SUP&Category=COE).  ALCL members had also expressed interest in the forthcoming CoolPerStore report.

ALM London

Key strategic issues are noted under item 4 above.

The British Library

SG reported that she and Annick Ireland were supporting the Head of Higher Education at the British Library in current initiatives.  SG was currently carrying out an audit of HE links with the British Library.

She gave advance notice of the forthcoming British Library/CURL seminar on 13 December 2005, Optimising storage access in UK research libraries, following the publication of the recent report.  [Secretary's note: full details of the conference and the report are available from http://www.bl.uk/news/2005/pressrelease20051108.html ].

Committee of Departmental Librarians

MD continued to liaise with Peter Griffiths regarding key strategic issues.

HE / FE liaison

FOB reported that the proposed second joint HE/FE seminar, "London Knowledge City", had been deferred until 24 January 2006.  The event would be held at the British Library Conference Centre.  [Secretary's note: full details are available from http://www.llda.org.uk/cms/contentpage/conferences ].

InforM25

BM reported that consultation was underway within the M25 Consortium with a view to enriching the current InforM25 database with more research-based collections.  Further suggestions for additions to the database were welcomed.

LLDA

FOB reported on a number of key current initiatives.

FOB would report on the LLiL migration at the next Working Group meeting. ACTION FOB

FOB reported that the launch of the Manifesto for London Libraries 2012 was expected to be held in December 2005 and that she would circulate further details in due course. ACTION FOB

FOB noted forthcoming reading promotions, eg, the newly-launched Black Poets Ink; Get London Reading (March 2006); London Lives (June 2006).

London Higher

MD reported that the M25 Advocacy Working Group was preparing the final version of the flyer on the M25 Consortium, targeted for use by London Higher.  This would shortly be circulated to Working Group members.  AS reported that ALCL members would be interested in receiving copies of these flyers when available. ACTION MD

London Olympics 2012

MD reported that she was currently working with ALM London and LLDA regarding cultural contributions to the London Olympics 2012.  BM would represent the M25 Consortium at a forthcoming meeting of representatives of London boroughs.

Regional library consortia

AE continued to advise Working Group members of new initiatives.

Research Information Network

BM reported that there had been several recent updates on the newly re-named Research Information Network.  [Secretary's note: further information was circulated to Working Group members after the meeting].  The new web address, http://www.rin.ac.uk/ , was noted.

6. Any other business

BM reported that the M25 Steering Group had recently considered the current categories of membership for the M25 Consortium.  Further details would be circulated shortly within the M25 Consortium and expressions of interest in membership were currently being followed up.

MD reported that the M25 Steering Group had approved a new strategic planning framework for the M25 Consortium, and that the Working Group's Operational Plan 2005-2006 would be re-formatted in line with the framework. ACTION MD

MD reported that details of the forthcoming M25 Consortium networking event, to be held on 17 November 2005 at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS, would shortly be made available.  M25 Consortium representatives and members of Working Groups would receive an invitation to attend.

MD reported that the next M25 Consortium e-bulletin would shortly be circulated.

MD reported that she would approach the Chair of the M25 Advocacy Working Group regarding a regular representative for the Working Group. ACTION MD

7. Date of next meetings

Tuesday 6 December 2005, afternoon, Senate House Library, University of London.

Christine Wise Secretary to M25 Collaboration & Partnership Working Group

December 2005