Meeting Minutes

Notes from the meeting held 3 June 2004 at the University of Westminster

Present: Margaret Coutts (University of Kent) (Chair), Virginia Malone (University of Greenwich), Eileen Nazha (Queen Mary), Carole Pickaver (University of Kent), Colin Smith (University of Surrey), Nikki Trigg (University of Westminster)

1. Apologies

Joanne Knight (British Library), Judith Preece (University of East London)

Virginia Malone was welcomed to her first meeting as a member of the group.

2. Minutes of last meeting and matters arising

The minutes were accepted as an accurate record.

Matters arising:

Focus Groups: decided to ask Jo for an update by email on British Library focus groups.
Action EN

E-mail list: Colin reported that he had circulated a questionnaire on transcription services and services for visitors using access schemes. He had had 8 responses, and tabled the results. The email list is wider than the old M25 contacts list; it is seen as useful, but there is not much traffic on it yet. Decided that in the Autumn we should promote the list with library directors, and with CLAUD, in time for their conference.
Action CS

Alternative formats - Eileen reported on the advice she had been given on the alternative formats which should be provided for in sending out any information. Decided that a note of best practice should be sent to the email list, also put on the web page.
Action EN, CS, JP

Action Plan: Margaret would update following the meeting. Transcription Centre - Margaret reported that the Steering Group would be guided by the conclusions of this group.

Virginia Malone, of the M25 Advocacy Working Group should be put on the mailing list for future meetings.

Assistive technology: decided Virginia and Carole would try to find contacts to mount an exhibition for the December Directors' meeting.
Action VM, CP

Accessibility and Inclusion in E-Learning Conference - Eileen had contacted an organiser of this conference, held in February, but was told that no papers or list of attendees had been produced.

3. Publicising the Working Group (standing item)

Virginia talked about the M25 Survey that had recently been carried out to assess levels of awareness of the Consortium. She stressed that there is standard stationery, colours etc. which should be used for all M25 Consortium publicity which we should bear in mind when carrying out publicity for the Group. She stressed that there is a lot of interest in SENDA, and libraries should expect to find the information they need on our website, and that perhaps there should be links from other websites to ours. We should ask contacts to pass on information to other staff in their libraries.

4. Training events

There had been a proposal from CPD25 that we collaborate with them on training events - we could still suggest our own topics, but they would organise them. This was seen as a welcome development.

Visual impairment - a half-day session, between Paul Jarman (QMUL) and Penny Sturgess and Mary Cox (RNIB) was planned to take place at Kings College Library, on 16th June. Was going to be publicised through CPD25's e-mail list.

This would be combined with an exchange of experience session in the morning, chaired by Margaret, to include 'breakout sessions' on selected topics, led by members of the Group, with a report back at the end. Margaret reported that the Steering Group had been very keen on this, and that we should make sure that it was an annual event.
Action EN, MC

Mental health - planning for an event in the Autumn was ongoing.
Action JP

Mobility issues - there had been no further progress on this. It should be coupled with fire evacuation. We thought there might be some useful information from the exchange of experience seminar.
Action MC

Assistive technology - there had been a CPD25 training event on 16th April, attended by Nikki. She reported that it had been disappointing in that there was an unhappy mix between general disabilities and technology, and that there had not been enough time to cover all the technologies available.

SENDA 2 years on - an event on this was seen as a very useful topic, and Margaret reported that the Steering Group was also keen on it.

Web Accessibility - very important as a future topic.

Open Rose Group in Yorkshire (similar to CLAUD) - SCONUL award to make a video in which disabled students would be interviewed about what their needs were. We should pursue the possibility of a presentation by them, possibly as part of another training session.
Action MC

Funding for disability - organisations, funds etc., could be a useful topic.

Decided that the priorities for the next year should be 1) Mental health 2) SENDA 2 Years On 3) Mobility and Fire Evacuation. We should pass this list on to CPD25 for their consideration.

We should also look out for national days of interest for disability training - action on everyone.

5. Assistive technology

Colin would prepare a paper on practices, what is offered, whether networked etc., throughout the different libraries.
Action CS

6. Website management (standing item)

Discussed whether we should take on the maintenance of the website ourselves or leave it to John Gilby. The frequency of membership change was seen as a problem, also the responsibility on institutions to maintain information. Carole would investigate.
Action CP

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

Margaret reported that a Graduate Library Assistant at the University of Kent was working on new publications related to SENDA as a project. Also assessing websites and producing links from ours - discussed what to include, e.g. only 'reputable' sites, excluding purely commercial sites. Information should also be updated on a continuing basis. We should all be given email links direct to the trainee so that suggestions for links to be included could be passed on directly.

8. Accessibility of Subscription Resources

Eileen tabled an email sent to the SCONUL list from Leeds University Library, detailing work they had been doing on assessing subscription resources for accessibility and suggesting concerted pressure from libraries on publishers to take responsibility for this. Margaret said that she would reply saying that we would support any national move to take this up.
Action MC

9. AOB

Judith had passed on the details of Liz Kerr, of the London Institute, who was keen to join the group. Agreed to invite her to join.
Action EN

Margaret's reports to the Steering Group had not been circulated - they were, however, on the website.

Transcription Centre - although this had not been given a very high priority in the survey carried out by Colin, it was seen as an important issue by the Steering Group. An actual centre was seen as probably too ambitious, but we should aim for a shared service across London. Decided that we should ask someone from the RNIB to come to discuss this at an Autumn meeting.
Action EN

Services for visitors using access schemes - Colin's survey showed varied practice across libraries. Decided we should give some guidance to members on this.

10. Date of Next Meeting

Provisional dates for the next three meetings were agreed:
14 October p.m.
9 December p.m.
24 February 2005 p.m.

EN
22 June 2004