Following discussions at the M25 Steering Group’s first annual planning day held in May 2007 and reiterated by feedback from members at its June AGM, the Steering Group identified a gap in Director-level support and opportunities for collaborative working. To address this gap, a new task and finish group has been established and charged with investigating potential services to members.

The group’s focus will be to foster shared learning by facilitating opportunities for buddying, mentoring and social networking – both physically and virtually. Included in the group’s remit is the compilation of a directory of expertise and interests within member libraries, particularly at senior management level, and the development of a secure, password protected area of the M25 website for directors to engage in confidential debate. The group will also consider ways to exploit the full potential of web 2.0 technology to support directors.

The group met for the first time in November to agree Terms of Reference and a programme of work.  The group agreed that it was important to maintain informality and friendliness as part of the M25 ethos and group members were keen to take an intuitive and interactive approach to working across the Consortium. In keeping with the task group’s aims, members have decided to explore the use of an online social networking site to share their ideas.

The group will soon be issuing a questionnaire to all M25 Directors to help steer priorities and tasks. Maximum participation in this questionnaire will be greatly appreciated  in order to provide relevant and targeted support. Members will be given a further opportunity at the January 2008 members’ meeting to provide feedback on the services they would like the Consortium to provide.

The task group of nine was originally chaired by Anne Poulson, Librarian at SOAS. As Anne is now moving on to her new post as Executive Director of CURL, Rosemary Lynch, Director of Library and Learning Centres at the University College for the Creative Arts has taken on the role of chair. For further details about the working group click on link.