| Steering Group 3 March 2004 |
Steering Group Meeting Minutes
Notes from the meeting held at Kings College LondonPresent: Robert Hall (Chair), Nick Bevan, Mary Davies, Suzanne Enright (Secretary), Maire Lanigan, Maureen Wade, Christine Wise, John Wolstenholme, Jean Yeoh. Caroline Lloyd was in attendance for item 5.2 It was noted that a meeting of Chairs of Working Groups had been held prior to this meeting and that the Secretary will circulate the notes in due course. Apologies: Graham Bulpitt, Margaret Coutts, Doug Dodds, Di Martin, Brian Murphy. 1. Minutes1.1. The Minutes of Steering Group held meeting held 3 December 2003 were approved. 1.1.2. The Minutes of the Consortium meeting held on 29 January 2004 were received. 1.2. Matters arising 1.2.1. Find it in London: Robert Hall reported that Graham Fisher is looking at how this might fit into an ALM London cross-domain ICT strategy. It has been suggested that a pilot based around East London could be a useful way forward. The LLDA ICT strategy Group will be discussing formally and it is likely that a joint HLF/MLA bid will then be prepared. It was agreed to support this proposal. 1.2.2. CPD25 Business Plan: It was noted that this was approved by the Members on 29 January and allows for the continuation of the mixed funding model, but closely tied to the Consortium funding model, and for continuation of admin support. It was noted that the original report recommended an optional period of one year, after the initial two-year period which ends in July 2004, for both the Chairperson and administrator post-holders. It was agreed that these should both be extended for a period of two years formally, in line with the new business plan (ending in July 2006). Jean Yeoh reported she is in discussions with SCONUL about the proposed award scheme. Action: JY 1.2.3. InforM25 and new members: A suggested prioritisation from RDWG was discussed and agreed. In addition, it was agreed that Kew should be treated as a special case and its catalogue added. Post meeting note: Status of InforM25 with respect to M25 Consortium Membership. a) Pre-2004 Members
With the exception of the IWM and RVC, the addition of the above Z-servers should be relatively straightforward based on previous experience. Work carried out in connection with adding or amending any of the pre-2004 M25 members on any of the three service elements is to be included in the currently agreed M25 Systems Team budget for 2003/04.
b) New Members 2004 (as ratified at Members’ meeting 29 January 2004) All new full members of the Consortium require adding to Find-a-library, Visit-a-library (Pilot) and Search-catalogues. At the Resource Discovery WG Meeting held on 27 February 2004 it was agreed, and subsequently approved at the Steering Group meeting on 3 March 2004, that for purposes of these services Kew would be treated as a full member given the richness of it’s collections; and that adding the new members would be carried out in the following order:
Some allowance for the addition of new members to InforM25 was included in the M25 Systems Team budget for 2003/04 and it is estimated that the four members (1-3= above) would be added within this existing budget. Additional costs are anticipated by the M25 Systems Team for adding the other libraries (5-7 above); as a result the Steering Group’s will provide additional funds for adding these new members in the current year (£1935 (or 3 x £645)). In addition, all the above members are invited to attend a seminar on the InforM25 service on 18 March 2004 and, as are all believed to have fairly standard library systems, adding their Z-servers to Search-catalogues should not present many difficulties.
1.2.4. RSLG: It was noted that bids for the Vice-Chancellor Fund from the University of London Libraries Committee are almost complete. These will be circulated to Members in the near future. Action: SE 1.2.5. LLDA: It was noted that Graham Fisher takes up his new appointment as CEO of ALM London on 1 April. The SG recorded their thanks to Graham for his energy and commitment over the past 9 months and wished him well in his new post. It was noted that Fiona O’Brien will represent LLDA on the SG for the time being. 2. Mutual Support AgreementChristine Wise updated the SG on feedback following discussion at the Members’ meeting on 29 January. Key areas highlighted include: links to access arrangements; implications for ICT access/support; legal issues, liability and insurance issues (stock as well as people); time limits; differences HEFCE/non-HEFCE members; operational issues. The proposal to use subject areas used in InforM25 was well received. Christine will revise the paper and circulate to SG and Members for further comment prior to the May SG meeting. It is still proposed to bring a paper to the June Consortium meeting. 3. Financial and constitutional issuesFinances 2003/4:The Treasurer spoke to his report and it was noted that the Consortium banking arrangements have now been changed and monies transferred. The Treasurer will review usage of the current and savings accounts for best effect. The review of the accounts for the past two years is almost complete and they are almost ready for audit and for submission to the Charity Commissioners. There are a few outstanding queries in respect of 2003/4 and subscription invoices have been dispatched. The activity budget was discussed and revised in view of issues raised at the earlier meeting of Chairs of Working Groups. It was noted that Chairs need to define budget needs for 2004/5 over the coming weeks. Action: All In addition, it was agreed in principle to offer additional money to the M25 Systems Team for the high level of extra work involved in adding on so many new Members this year. The amount will be based on time allocated as advised by Jean Sykes. The issue of possible future contribution to the RSLG-focused joint ULC/M25 bids will be discussed with Jean Sykes. It was agreed that a formal reserves policy should be put in place based on clearly defined needs. There was some discussion of current risks and, based on this, it was agreed that the level of reserves should be broadly in line with the current year's subscriptions. A draft policy will be brought to the May SG meeting. Action: NB The need for an admin post was discussed at some length and will be investigated further. JY would forward the job description for the CPD25 Administrator to SE and RH for information. Action: SE, JY At the Treasurer's suggestion the Steering Group agreed to fund some professional advice on the Consortium's potential VAT liability including the implications of rolling subscriptions together and the Treasurer agreed to take this forward. Action: NB 3.2. It was noted that the Chair has made some progress in changing the constitutional status of the Consortium and is preparing a revised formal application to the Charity Commission. He will also proceed with investigating company status now. Action: RH 3.3. A report from the Secretary on Membership was noted. Formal ratification of a number of applications was effected at the Members meeting in January 2004. It was noted that a proposed new document outlining rights and responsibilities of Members was also supported in January. The Secretary will draft this. Action: SE 3.4. A report form the Secretary on SG membership was noted. The ‘soon to be vacant’ position of Secretary was discussed and it was noted that a new ‘ordinary’ member will be required if, and when, Nick Bevan is formally elected as Treasurer. 3.5. A new ‘buddy list’ was discussed. Members of SG were reminded that this was designed to ensure personal contact between SG and Members and, as such, was important in advocacy. All SG members will be asked to contact their buddy group of members prior to the June 2004 meeting. Action: All 4. Development Plan4.1. The Secretary reported that the current plan will soon need review for 2004/5 and asked for input to this by Easter. Action: All 4.1.1. It was noted that Maureen Wade had circulated a report on the first meeting of the Quality Group. 4.2. Caroline Lloyd presented a report on options for access and borrowing activity in relation to outstanding issues in relation to SCONUL Research Extra and specifically facilitating access to (and from) those who are not in SRX. It was agreed to introduce (reintroduce) the reciprocal M25 access and borrowing scheme for all staff and researchers in the Consortium such that those Members dis-enfranchised by SRX could re-gain some mutual benefit and support. It was emphasised that this works both ways – Members within SRX can also gain benefit for staff and researchers that would otherwise not have access to non-SRX libraries. However, those 5 Members who are in SCONUL, but have opted not to join SRX should be excluded, as the Consortium supports SRX (this is based on a principle of mutual support and on the need for reciprocity). CL was tasked with working out the detail as soon as possible. A new card will be designed. 4.3. Joint LHL/M25 Group: 4.3.1. It was noted that the small Task Force convened by John Wolstenholme (TVU) to consider the potential development for the Consortium to develop access arrangements in support of nurses on placement has been stood down as UK Libraries Plus has changed its procedures to incorporate this group into the normal access arrangements. 4.3.2. It was noted that terms of reference and the minutes from the first meeting of the new Joint LHL/M25 Working Group, set up to facilitate pan-London working between M25 Consortium libraries and Workforce Development Confederation have already been circulated to Members. 5. Items for report only5.1. Advocacy Working Group: Report from Suzanne Enright noted. It was also noted that RDWG are to seek costs from ULCC on making the website more compliant. 5.2. Collaboration and Partnership: Report from Mary Davis noted. 5.3. CPD25: Report from Jean Yeoh noted. 5.4. Creative Arts Working Group: No report received 5.5. Disabled and Special Needs Support Working Group: Report from Margaret Coutts noted. 5.6. Disaster Management Working Group: Report from Christine Wise noted. 5.7. LHL/M25: 5.8. Quality: Report from Maureen Wade noted. 5.9. Resource Discovery Working Group: Items from Di Martin noted and dealt with above. It was noted that a bid to JISC building on the work done to date for an XML-based access definition scheme for national use had now been dropped. 5.10. Student Centred Services Working Group: Report from Graham Bulpitt noted. 6. Any other businessNone. 7. Programme of meetings for 2003/04 was confirmed:7.1. Chairs of Working Groups: will normally be held before each SG meeting starting at 12.30with a working lunch – next one Thursday 6 May at SOAS. 7.2. Steering Group: all at 2.30pm
7.3. Full Consortium membership meetings: all at 10am, all day meeting with a mixture of keynote speakers and interactive sessions.
7.4. Consortium meeting June 2004: The theme has yet to be finalised but could be around disaster planning, as the new Disaster Control Plan website will be ready for launching. This could tie into possible items on preservation and special collections. As usual, the programme will include a regional update from LLDA and/or ALM London. SG will also need to identify key issues for the AGM itself, possibly including
The suggestion to provide an exhibition of assistive technology has been referred to Margaret Coutts.
Suzanne Enright |
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