| Collaboration & Partnership 9 November 2004 |
Meeting Minutes
Minutes of the Meeting held on Tuesday 9 November 2004 at Senate House LibraryPresent: Mary Davies (Chair), Penny Dade, Brian Murphy, Fiona O'Brien, Ann Sainsbury, David Ward, Christine Wise (Secretary). By invitation: Jemima Johnstone, LLDA 1. Apologies for AbsenceApologies for absence were received from Adam Edwards, Christine Muller and Jan Wilkinson. 2. Minutes of the meeting held 15 September 2004These were accepted as a true record. 3. Matters arisingUnder item 4, Representation, MD reported that all necessary steps had been undertaken and therefore welcomed AS to her role as M25 Consortium representative to the ALCL meetings and as a member of the M25 Collaboration & Partnership Working Group meetings. 4. Update on LLDA - Jemima Johnstone[Secretary's note: JJ tabled a written report, Key Developments, which is reproduced in full below as a record of the main points raised]. Access, learning & new audiencesJoint HE and public library event A follow-on to the successful "Learning partnerships" event was being planned for January 2005. The event would be "Making it easy: facilitating seamless access to resources". The focus would be on smart cards and their potential, Inspire and examples of existing practice from each sector. Inspire - national roll-out A national and regional structure was being proposed to deliver the national roll-out of Inspire. A National Partnerships Manager for Inspire, Sally Curry, would be taking up post at the beginning of December 2004 and a national steering group was being established to oversee the roll-out and ensure establishment of a national "kite-marked" service. Inspire Operational Groups would be set up in each region to ensure successful regional delivery of the service. The LLDA had asked to sit on the national Steering Group, to provide input from the lessons learned in London, and to ensure that the national scheme would be compatible with processes and systems developed in London. The LLDA would be convening a meeting, with representation from the M25 Consortium and public libraries, to discuss lessons learned from LLiL, issues for integrating LLiL with Inspire, purpose and structure of a London operational group, etc.. Learning communities The Government's Learning Communities initiative (http://www.lifelonglearning.co.uk/empower/index.htm) was intended to raise community aspiration and motivation to learn by encouraging partnership working between learning providers to deliver and promote inter-generational learning opportunities, learning clubs, etc.. At the LLDA Breakfast Seminar held 9 September 2004, the DfES Minister Ivan Lewis recognised "the great contribution [of libraries] to the promotion of learning" and their "vital role in providing earning opportunities in the communities they serve". Following the event, the LLDA was offered two places on the London Learning Communities Steering Group (whose other members include representatives of the Learning & Skills Council, JobcentrePlus, the London Development Agency and NIACE). Reader development "Read Routes" had now been rebranded as "London Libraries Recommend". This branding had the flexibility to be used for all future promotions (eg, "London Libraries Recommend...Crime fiction"). Reading promotion updates for 2004-2005:
Children and young people The LLDA was in discussion with the GLA's Children and Young People's Team about inclusion of library information and links within the proposed London Children's Portal. In the meantime, the LLDA was promoting the http://www.londonlibraries.org/servlets/home website as a route to find out information about family and young people-related library services across London (a link had been established with the local netmums sites (/http://www.netmums.com/) and the londonlibraries site would be highlighted in the November 2004 issue of Junior, a parenting magazine. World Literature for a World City - an Olympics-linked children's reading promotion would run from mid-February 2005, to coincide with the visit of the Olympic bids assessment group. The LLDA was also in discussion with the British Library over possible library-based activity to link in with the Library's Hans Christian Andersen exhibition to be held in summer 2005. Marketing and market research A market research group had been established to draw together data and evidence on public library users and non-users, library staff and use and impact of library services. This would support advocacy and funding bids by individual boroughs, library consortia and the LLDA. FOB would continue to liaise with the M25 Consortium's Advocacy Working Group to ensure that data collection would be compatible, where possible. Basic skills The LLDA was working with ALM London to build on the recommendations of "Londoners Need to Read". A tender had been advertised to develop a draft Skills for Life service compact or standard offer applicable to all 33 public library authorities in London, for completion by March 2005. Information, citizenship and ICTBusiness information and services The LLDA would shortly be starting a piece of work, funded by ALM London, to research current provision of business information services in libraries and draw up a business information services strategy for London's libraries. The LLDA would be establishing a Steering Group with representation from the libraries sector and external stakeholders. The LLDA were keen to have a representative from the HE sector on this Steering Group (which would meet two or three times over the next 6 months). ICT Steering Group This was a critical time for London's libraries vis-à-vis ICT developments - particularly the London Portal development and scoping of pan-London smart card options. London Connects had expressed interest in hosting or linking to WiLL and other services based around http://www.londonlibraries.org/servlets/home - based services. The LLDA was keen to pursue this option and was actively participating in discussions concerning potential content for the Portal. As reported previously to the M25 Consortium, the LLDA would also be re-convening the ICT Steering Group to consider and review ICT priorities for libraries in London. The Steering Group would act as a sounding board, and would help to ensure that London's libraries could take advantage of both the portal and smart card initiatives, but LLDA were also keen to work with the group to establish what London's libraries would hope to gain from ICT more broadly (management/user data, widening access, efficiency savings, etc) so that the LLDA could be proactive in pursuing development opportunities and funding. The group would comprise:
The LLDA would be delighted for the Steering Group's original members to stand again, but following discussion with the ALCL Executive, the LLDA agreed to put out a wider call for interest to the ALCL. Dermot Kennedy would be co-ordinating and servicing the group on behalf of the LLDA and ALM London. LLDAJoint venture A review of comments received suggested no substantive barriers to agreement of the Joint Venture Agreement. A slightly amended version of the Agreement should be circulated in November/December 2004. The LLDA was aiming to establish the Joint Venture Agreement by 31 March 2005. The first AGM should be held in April 2005 and nominations for the new Executive Committee sought in the New Year. The M25 Consortium would be offered a place on the Executive Committee. Other newsDesignation MLA would be launching an expanded Designation scheme, encompassing libraries and archives for the first time, on 30 November 2004. The deadline for returning statements of interest would be mid-January 2005; the application deadline would be 11 April 2005, and decisions would be announced in September 2005. Culture, Media and Spot Committee Inquiry into Public Libraries Submissions had been invited to this inquiry at very short notice - the deadline was Friday 12 November 2004. Among other issues the inquiry was seeking input into the issue of "The role of institutional and specialist libraries and their links with local libraries". The LLDA response would highlight the establishment of the LLiL service and the positive establishment of links between public libraries and other library sectors in London. At the conclusion of her presentation, MD thanked JJ for her most comprehensive report, and commended this to members of the Working Group. She would consider with colleagues the various offers of representation which had been extended to the M25 Consortium and respond to JJ as soon as possible. Action MD 5. Action Plan - reports from membersALM LondonBM reported that the Board of ALM London would be holding a series of field visits on a domain visit day, Friday 26 November 2004. The British Library DW was maintaining a watching brief on collaboration with the British Library. Committee of Departmental Librarians MD reported that she had not yet received a response from Peter Griffiths concerning the proposal that CDL discuss with the M25 Systems team the possibility of creating a CDL union catalogue system. LLDA [Secretary's note: see Agenda item 4 above]. London Health Libraries & M25 Consortium Joint Working Group FOB reported that a consortium of health libraries had recently joined the LLDA. London Higher CW that she and MD had attended a meeting with Michael Reynier of London Higher on 9 November 2004. This had proved a highly successful exchange of information on topics of mutual interest. These had included potential sharing of regional data and further collaborative discussions. It was agreed that an information resources publication (covering libraries and computing) would be included in London Higher's Business Plan for 2005-2006. MD and CW would arrange to meet again with Michael Reynier early in 2005. Action CW Regional library consortia CW relayed information from AE that he had attended a conference on 21 September 2004 in Cardiff, entitled Regional collaboration and academic libraries: a state of the art conference. This conference had proved perhaps less interesting that he had hoped, but there were some interesting papers. Besides the report on the M25 Consortium by Di Martin, there had been a paper on NOWAL activities (http://www.nowal.ac.uk/). This had included the Certificate in Library and Information Practice which NOWAL had set up. AE suggested that this was an area that CPD25 could possibly adopt by linking events in to something which gets a qualification. NOWAL ran this course in conjunction with the Library School at Manchester Metropolitan University. A paper on the SCURL Collaborative Store for Scotland had also proved interesting. The National Library of Scotland was now sharing a store with other HE libraries, an arrangement which was working well. Research Libraries Network The recent advertisement for the post of Director of the Research Libraries Network was noted. 6. Any other businessMembership of the M25 Consortium BM reported on a recent visit he made to the Institution of Electrical Engineers Library (IEE), in response to an approach regarding membership of the M25 Consortium from the Librarian. Having considered the application, members recommended that the Engineering Institutions Libraries Committee, of which the IEE is a member, should be considered as a group member of the M25 Consortium. MD would bring this to the attention of the M25 Consortium Steering Group. Action MD 7. Date of next meetingThe date of the next meeting was confirmed as Thursday 16 December 2004 at 14h00, at Senate House Library, University of London. Christine Wise |
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