Meeting Minutes

Notes from the meeting held at University of London Library

Present: Christine Wise (ULL - Convener), James Anthony (UCL), Chris Brewer (IoE), Jo Kilgannon (Courtauld Institute), Glyn Price (LSE), Katie Sambrook (KCL - minutes)

Apologies: Anne Barrett (Imperial), Lyn Bowen (Westminster), Colin Rennie (SOAS)

1. Welcome and introductions

CW welcomed all to the meeting.

2. Minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 21 May 2003

The minutes were approved, with one correction:

Item 4, second action point, second sentence, was amended to read “… JK to approach colleagues at the Courtauld Institute about the existence of a special disaster control plan for the Courtauld Gallery collections???.

3. Matters arising from the minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 21 May 2003

Item 2: CW reported that she had spoken to John Gilby at LSE, who was happy in principle for the disaster control plan site to migrate to the LSE web server. He and GP had discussed some desirable alterations to the design of the site.

4. Review of feedback from the M25 DMG Exchange of Experience session on Thursday 26 June 2003 and future actions for 2003/4.

CW thanked all for their help in making the Exchange of Experience session such a successful event. A lot of positive feedback had been received from those who attended.

CB circulated a summary of the survey returns she had received from M25 Disaster Planning Representatives prior to the Exchange of Experience session. The survey had generated a 50% response rate; out of the ten institutions which had responded, eight had a disaster control plan in place. Requested training needs fell into three main areas: writing and updating a disaster control plan, professional practice in salvaging fire and water damaged material and testing a disaster control plan.

CW summarised the written feedback received from the discussion groups at the Exchange of Experience session. Again, training in writing a disaster control plan and associated institutional issues, in professional practice with regard to salvaging damaged material and in local training and testing disaster control plans had been prominent concerns.

CB reported on two successful local training events she had organised for IoE staff, one involving speakers from IoE’s insurers and an IT specialist from City University and the other a practical test of IoE’s disaster control plan. Both had been highly beneficial in raising staff awareness and in identifying gaps in IoE’s plan, which would now be revised in the light of these findings.

It was agreed that the DMG should organise three training events for the year 2003-2004, to be held as part of the CPD25 programme:

1. A full-day event on writing a disaster control plan, provisionally scheduled for autumn 2003. This could cover issues of institutional liaison, health and safety, risk assessment and the insurer’s perspective. It was suggested that a speaker from the British Library could be approached.
   Action: JA to lead on organising this event.
2. A full-day session on professional and practical issues associated with salvaging damaged materials, provisionally scheduled for January - March 2004. This could include a speaker or speakers who had personal experience of a library disaster (e.g. present or former members of staff from the University of Sussex Library or from City University).
   Action: CB to lead on organising this event.
3. A half-day session on testing a disaster control plan and on running a local disaster control training event, provisionally scheduled for April - May 2004.
   Action: CW to lead on organising this event. CW to liaise with Maureen Wade of CPD25 regarding including these three events in the CPD25 programme.

It was noted that the M25DMG-INFORMATION e-mail list had received some traffic since the Exchange of Experience session. It was agreed that it was important to maintain and stimulate discussion on the e-mail list.

Action: All to maintain and stimulate discussion via the M25DMG-INFORMATION e-mail list.

5. M25 Development Plan 2002/3-2005/6

CW reported that the revised M25 Development Plan had been received and approved by the M25 Steering Group at its meeting of 17 June 2003 and would shortly appear on its website. A link to the disaster planning section could then be made from the M25 DMG website. At the M25 Consortium Day on 4 June 2003 the DMG had been specifically requested to address the issue of business continuity.

Action: CW to make this the main agenda item for the next meeting of the DMG.

6. Mutual Support Agreements

GP reported that he would be attending the next meeting of the Creative Arts Group in September to give a presentation on the Education Mutual Support Agreement. It was hoped that the Creative Arts Group would develop a Mutual Support Agreement. JA reported that he had raised the question of a Mutual Support Agreement for medicine with colleagues at UCL. It was agreed to keep the question of a Mutual Support Agreement for medicine under review until such time as a Mutual Support Agreement in another field had been tested. It was noted that the Education Mutual Support Agreement was in force only until July 2004.

Action: CW to ensure that the renewal of the Education Mutual Support Agreement was discussed at the November 2003 meeting of the DMG.

The Group thanked GP for his work in this area.

7. Review of the M25 Disaster Management Group website

GP reported that he had revised and expanded the links page of the website. Further suggestions as to links would be welcomed.

Action: All to e-mail suggestions for links to GP.

GP also pointed out that the links section of the Disaster Control Plan needed revision and it was agreed that the entire Disaster Control Plan template should be reviewed, following the migration of the website to the LSE server.

8. Any other business

CW raised the question of increasing the size of the DMG. It was agreed that this would be beneficial and that new members would be sought.

Action:All to give this issue further consideration.

9. Date of next meeting

The next meeting will take place at 10.30 on Thursday 18 September 2003 at the Maughan Library and Information Services Centre, KCL.