Steering Group Meeting Minutes

Notes from the meeting held at the Maughan Library, King's College, London

Present: Robert Hall, Maureen Wade, Anne Poulson, John Wolstenholme, Madura Rasaratnam, Nicky Kershaw, William Marsterson, Christine Wise, Mary Davies, Jean Yeoh, Nick Bevan. Fiona O' Brien was in attendance for item 3 and Sarah Dodgson was in attendance for item 4.

1. Apologies

Apologies were noted from Graham Bulpitt and Maire Lanigan.

2. Minutes

2.i The minutes from the Steering Group meeting held on Thursday 29 September were approved.

2.ii Matters arising not otherwise on the agenda

2.iia MW attended the University of London Libraries Committee on behalf of the M25 Consortium and reported back.

2.iii Review of Actions

Action 4.ii - MW to bring a paper on membership categories to the January Business Meeting and to amend and update the Rights and Responsibilities document accordingly.

Action 5.i - MW&MR to send Annual Report to external partners and organisations. Completed

Action 8.i - All chairs of WG's to have submitted remaining content and any corrections of Action Plan by Friday 4 November. Completed

Action 9.i - All chairs of working groups to submit articles articles for e-Bulletin and any relevant notes by Friday 4 November. Completed

3. Regional Update
FOB updated the SG on the LLDa and related regional developments. The LLDA publication 'London's Libraries 24/7' will be launched on Monday 19 December and FOB noted her thanks to the Consortium members who had contributed. She also reported that the Minister, David Lammy had agreed to speak at the event.

FOB reported on the following LLDA activities and encouraged Consortium members who felt they could participate to contact her.

News of projects and initiatives from academic and research libraries is sought for an ALM funded drive to increase publicity for library activity.
Work the LLDA is carrying out with organisations including Crisis Open Christmas to increase access to books and literacy for homeless people.
London Lives - the London Libraries Biographies promotion to start in May 2006 that will include events at the National Portrait Gallery and the Kensington and Chelsea Library.
Suggestions of topics or speakers for a series of seminars on health issues to be held in the first half of 2006.
RH noted that the M25/London Health Libraries Joint working group could probably help with the seminars.

FOB also noted that an agreement between the 33 London Boroughs giving the LLDA legal status is nearing agreement. The Chair of the SG would be formally consulted as part of the process and asked to confirm the M25 Consortium nomination for the LLDA executive committee.

4. Collaborative Journals Store - Feasibility Study
SD, the project officer for the ULC / M25 Consortium Feasibility Study for a Collaborative Journals store (COOLPerStor) summarised the findings of the report.

The report found that the costs of storage generated interest in the idea of a collaborative store and identified a number of alternatives including: nested storage solutions, local collaborative ventures that allow physical document delivery between geographically proximate institutions, expansion of the University of London's storage facility at Egham, a fully electronic document delivery service and renting commercial space. Estimated costs for the different options were also given. There was no overall support for an M25-wide collaborative store, but there was some interest in smaller local collaborative initiatives. SD noted that a CURL/BL study had been carried out separately at the same time as the ULC/M25 project. She had had some contact with the CURL/BL consultants, but the two studies had remained separate. Some of the ideas in SD's study had been taken on board by the CURL/BL consultants eg the idea of a store "nested" within an existing organisation, ie a national collaborative store hosted in spare BL capacity at Boston Spa.

In discussion, WM noted that some of the new universities within the M25 were less likely to be interested in collaborative storage, being committed to an access rather than collections strategy. He and other SG members agreed that the detailed findings of the report would be extremely useful for institutional space planning, particularly the costings.

The SG recorded its thanks to SD for her work and the very useful report and agreed that the report should be circulated to the British Library, CURL, the Research Information Network and other bodies who had expressed an interest.

5. Resource Discovery
5.i The SG received a proposal to extend the funding of the M25 Systems Team for a further two years to the end of 2008/9 and agreed to ask the January Consortium meeting to approve the recommendations. The paper to the Consortium would include the findings and recommendations of the external consultants who had been engaged to consider the future development of InforM25. Their report had concluded that InforM25 was unlikely to be replaced by other products in the sort or medium-term, hence the need to extend funding for the Systems Team.
Action: WM to bring a paper to the January Consortium meeting.

6. Membership
6.i MW reported that, following the last SG meeting, contact had been made with all the institutions that expressed an interest in joining the Consortium. So far the Institute of Development Studies and the Wiener Library had expressed a firm interest.

Action: MW to follow up other institutions and bring list of membership applications to the January meeting for confirmation.

7. Web Review Process
7.i The SG reviewed the new template for the Consortium's website and the family of logos for the Consortium, Inform25 and cpd25 finalised by the Web Review Panel. The template and the logos were well received and it was noted that Consortium members would get a preview of the site at the January Consortium meeting before it was formally launched and publicised by the AWG early next year (likely to be February). It is intended that the main M25 site and the CPD25 site will be updated in time for the January Consortium meeting. The InforM25 site will take more time, with the need to link the web front-end to the specialist underlying software.

8. Action Plan
8.i The format and content of the Action Plan for 2005/6 were discussed. It was agreed that progress against the Actions would be reported at the January Consortium meeting as either 'completed' or 'ongoing' in a separate column. It was also agreed that actions relating to the governance of the Consortium would be included in the plan. Progress against the Action Plan, including noted corrections, would be presented to the membership at the January Consortium meeting.

Action: MR/MW to amend the format of the Action Plan.

9. Finance
9.i NB reported that accounts for 2004/5 would be presented at the January Consortium meeting but may not be audited by then. Proposals to standardise the calculation of subscription charges for HEFCE and non-HEFCE members would also be presented. NB further noted that subscription charges for 2006/7 were likely to remain unchanged from the current year.

10. January Business Meeting
10.i MW reported that four external speakers had been confirmed for the January Consortium meeting: Julia Chruszcz re-launching COPAC, Clare Jenkins, Chair of the CURL Board, announcing the CURL MARC21 database, Dr. Michael Jubb, Director of the Research Information Network and Michael Reynier, Deputy Chief Executive of London Higher.

It was agreed that the Web preview would take place during the afternoon meeting alongside other business agenda items to include: financial report - including new subscription calculations, new member applications, membership categories, update on the Action Plan, M25 Systems Team and the progress of the Student Centred Task and Finish Group

11. E-bulletin
11.i Members noted the deadline of the next E-bulletin on Friday 17 February.

12. Reports from Working Groups
12.i Reports from the following WG's were noted: Advocacy, Collaboration and Partnership, CPD25, Disabled and Special Needs, Disaster Management, Quality, Resource Discovery, London Health Libraries & M25 Joint Group and the Student Centred Task and Finish Group.

13. Reports from Working Groups
13.i MW reported that, following an approach from SCONUL, she had met with the Vice Chancellor of the National University of Colombia who had expressed an interest in the M25 and in particular in Inform25.

The SG noted that the LHL / M25 Joint Group was investigating the potential of collaborative purchasing to work as an opt in scheme.

14. Programme of meetings
14.i The following programme of SG meetings was confirmed and it was noted that venues were still sought for the March and May dates.

Thursday 9 March 2006
Thursday 4 May 2006
Thursday 6 July 2006 (University of London Research Library Services)
14.ii The following dates and venues were confirmed for the all day Consortium Meetings.

Friday 27 January 2006 (Women's Library, London Metropolitan University)
Friday 9 June (Brighton University)

Maureen Wade
Secretary
Thursday 5 January 2006