Meeting Minutes

Notes from the meeting held at Queen Mary, University of London

Present: Margaret Coutts (University of Kent at Canterbury) (Chair), Joanne Knight (British Library), Eileen Nazha (Queen Mary), Carole Pickaver (University of Kent at Canterbury) Nikki Trigg (University of Westminster), Mara Uzzell (Surrey University)

Apologies: Olwen Revill (SGHMS), Colin Smith (Surrey University)

Noted that Carole Pickaver had moved from Brunel to the University of Kent at Canterbury.

1. Minutes of last meeting and matters arising

The minutes were accepted as an accurate record.

Matters arising:

Transcription Centre for visually-impaired users - noted that the M25 Directors Group had thought this a very worthwhile aim that we should continue to investigate as a possible long-term project. Re. the possibility of establishing it at the British Library - it was noted that Nina Evans, previous Readers' Adviser at the BL had drawn up a user specification, and a business would have to be drawn up. There had been a plan to carry out a joint venture with the Wellcome Institute. Space at the BL, however, was a problem. Jo Knight would look into the current BL position. We thought that we should contact the RNIB, which are also in that area, to check their facilities and see if there were a possibility of a joint venture with them. We should also keep track of the work of the Reviel Project and Share the Vision. Carole Pickaver undertook to look into those, and to investigate other transcription centres.

[Action CP, JK]

Membership:

It was recognised that we needed two levels of memebership on the Group, those involved in library practice, and those in strategic planning. A need for library directors to become involved in the Group had been put to the M25 Consortium, resulting in offers from the directors of the Imperial War Museum and the Royal College of Art. We welcomed these, but felt that some input was also necessary from university library directors, so we would continue to pursue this.

[Action MC]

E-mail list:

Had this become dormant? Mara reported that Lis-dis-SE was set up if people wanted to use it. Decided that it should be propagated to M25 library directors - it should be kept as an M25 list at the moment. Mara Uzzell had been managing it, and could continue, and she would send a message to the M25 Directors' list to promote it. At the moment it was a closed list (i.e. Mara decides who should join), and it was decided to keep it that way, for review later. Mara was thanked for her work on this.

[Action MU]

Contacts list:

The list of disabilities contacts in member libraries was maintained by Nikki Trigg. There was a need for it to be updated, and for it to be publicly available on the web. Nikki would contact library directors for details.

[Action NT]

2. M25 Meeting, 24 January

Margaret reported on the half-yearly meeting of all the M25 library directors, held on 24 January. There had been a presentation by Wendy Le Mesurier of Skill on the implications of SENDA for libraries which had been very strong in raising awareness among many who had previously not been aware of the issues. There was a need to think more about it, and follow up the event (a mailing-list useful for this?). Margaret had given a presentaton on the work of this group, which would go on the web page.

3. Training Sessions

Dyslexia - Jo had approached CLAUD, but Chris Chubb no longer acts as a trainer for them. The web revealed little input for libraries. The British Dyslexia Association had someone, who wasn't available until June. This year's budget would cover that. Topics we thought should be covered included - what is dyslexia? what university support is available? what libraries can do (signs, guides, etc.), enquiry work. Target of 50 people - what would costs be?, suitable location?

[Action JK]

Support for blind readers - no action at present.

Deaf awareness - training event aimed for April, for 30 people, similar to the one carried out at CILIP by Richard Gray, with the addition of information on induction loops (what they are, how they work, management of them), fire evacuation procedures. Eileen was organising this, and would contact Caroline Holebrook, of the M25 CPD, for information on venues etc.

[Action EN]

Collaboration with M25 CPD - an account of their work was on the M25 website. They carry out a lot of staff development, including a disability session in December, with another planned in six months. A general introduction to the legislation had been covered by them so there was no need for us to do that. We should treat it as standard to co-ordinate with them whenever we want to hold any training event, to ensure that we are not duplicating. Carole Pickaver is a member of this group, and she reported that, while they have a standard programme, they are also trying to get ideas on what is needed in libraries.

4. SCONUL brefing paper on organising training sessions

Olwen had sent this by email to all members of the group, since she wasn't able to come to the meeting.

5. Library Survey

Margaret was doing a final check on the formulation of questions, ensuring efficient processing of data.

6. Website management (standing item)

Carole had sent copies of all minutes up to date to John Gilbey, the M25 website manager, but they hadn't yet appeared. We needed to look at the web pages and evaluate their content and presentation. Things to be included - minutes of meetings, reports to the Steering Group, list of contacts, events, publications. We needed to look at the legal position on putting up information, also whether the website was compliant with accessibility guidelines. We should ask the RNIB for advice on this, and possibly carry out a Bobby check. Eileen should give Carole all details of the Working Group, and Nikki information collected so far on library contacts.

[Action CP, NT, EN]

7. New publications re. SENDA and libraries (standing item)

Agreed that we should produce as full a list as possible of publications, links to websites etc. on the M25 website. However, we should be selective with website links, since maintaining them is time-consuming and expensive. We need to identify someone who can do this.

Publications:

SCONUL Taskforce on Access for Users with Disabilities document had now been produced and should be disseminated.

Disability Rights Commission - Libraries, the Disability Discrimination Act Part 4 - a very good guide.

Resource - the paper on Access to Museums, Archives and Libraries for Disabled Users was now on the web.

8. AOB

Events planned for next year should be covered by the budget.

Suggested that we should produce a flyer, advertise our website in a mailing?

We should make sure that our documentation can be produced in alternative formats, also that in our training sessions we should make sure that special requirements are sought and met.

The British Library Focus Group meeting was to be held on 10 March, to be attended by Jo Knight, and by Paul Jarman, blind research student at QM.

Suggested that Paul Jarman be invited to a meeting of this Group during 2003/4 session to report on facilities for blind users.

9. Date of next meeting

Eileen would contact group members to arrange the next meeting.

EN - 17.1.03