Minutes of the meeting held on 30 September 2004 at the LSE

Present: Maureen Wade (LSE) (Chair); Nicky Kershaw (APU) (Chair designate); Angus Brown (Kings College); Kate Burke (UEL); Catriona Cannon (University of the Arts); Wendy Fish (Wellcome); Peter Godwin (London South Bank); Susan Howard (Imperial); Janet Percival (UCL); Sue Price (Courtauld Institute); Pete Ryan (Canterbury Christchurch)

Apologies: Elaine Salter (Westminster)

1. Membership and Chair

Maureen Wade welcomed Nicky Kershaw and Catriona Cannon to their first meeting. Maureen will be standing down from the Committee after this meeting, and Nicky will take over as Chair.

Susan Howard agreed to act as Secretary.

2. Minutes of the meeting held on 8 June 2004

The Minutes were confirmed as a true and accurate record.

3. Matter arising

Mystery Shopping Peter Godwin reported that LSBU is considering carrying out a mystery shopping exercise, employing City University students, to find out how people find their way around the library. Peter will bring a report to a later meeting.

4. Action Plan: review of progress and update for 2004/2005

It was recognised that the July - December 2004 timescale for some actions was unrealistic, and the timescale has been extended to June 2005.

a. Survey results

It was agreed that the survey results should be placed on the web pages as soon as possible; Elaine Slater will be asked to add an introduction. Action MW/ES

The Group will consider purchasing survey software, and may re-run the survey in due course, to see what progress has been made.

b. Service Level Definitions

SLDs from 7 M25 libraries have been received. The raw data from the survey will be used to identify any other SLDs which could be collected, and a report on practice within the M25 will be prepared by Easter 2005. Action SVH/AB

c. User feedback methods

Kate Burke reported on the last student survey conducted at UEL. It was agreed that surveys are a good way to obtain feedback, but that many libraries find it difficult to obtain a good response rate, and that finding effective ways of feeding back to our users what we are doing with the data we have gathered can be a problem.

Kate will circulate, under a number of headings, a summary of how UEL went about its survey, how it obtained a good response rate, what it did with the data collected, what worked well, what did not and an indication of the amount of time taken by the project. Action KB

Other members of the Group will then feed in their own experience, adding headings if necessary. Action All

d. User Surveys Training Event

Sue Price and Peter Godwin have circulated a draft programme for comment. Some speakers have been signed up, and more are being sought. The workshop will be held in late November, and will be done through CPD25. Action SP/PG

e. Benchmarking

Wendy Fish reported that the Wellcome has identified the Natural History Museum, the National Art Library and SOAS as potential benchmarking partners, and that they hope to start discussions in November.

5. Working Group Web Pages

The M25 Administration Assistant will maintain the web pages; it was agreed that she should identify other quality groups and establish links to their pages.

Working papers and good practice guides will be added to the site as they are developed. Action MW

Note subsequent to meeting: Following clarification, the M25 Systems Team are responsible for maintaining all Working Group web pages.

6. Links with other quality groups

It was agreed that the Group should investigate the possibility of reciprocal links with SCONUL ACPI. Action NK

7. Any other business

Janet Percival invited input into a review of the role of the M25 Advocacy Group. Action All

8. Dates of future meetings

The next meeting will be held at 10.00am on Wednesday 1 December 2004 at Imperial College London. The Chair will circulate a list of future dates and venues. Action NK

SH October 2004