| Steering Group Thursday 28 September 2006 |
Steering Group Meeting MinutesNote: The following minutes are approved. Notes for the meeting held at Wellcome Trust Headquarters
Present: Nick Bevan, Mary Davies, J. Adam Edwards, Robert Hall, Caroline Lloyd, William Marsterson, Frances Norton, Anne Poulson, Maureen Wade, John Wolstenholme, Jean M Yeoh and Genein Cox 1. Apologies for absence and welcome to new members 1.i The following apologies were noted: Nicky Kershaw, Maire Lanigan, Christine Wise 1.ii Genein Cox was welcomed as the new Administrative Assistant to the Consortium.
FO reported that LLDA may organise a seminar or roundtable later in the year to discuss the development of public library policy. She also reported that LLDA’s director and CW from M25 attended an update / roundtable discussion hosted by MLA London regarding London 2012. The prospectus for London’s archives, libraries and museums has now been drafted. LLDA has participated in a survey regarding the future of Revealweb, the national database of accessible formats. The consultants have been in touch with John Gilby to explore the needs of visually impaired students and researchers. National MLA funded a feasibility study, project managed by LLDA to examine arguments and scope a possible single membership card for London’s libraries. Good progress is being made and a report is expected to be drafted for steering group consideration in mid-October, with final publication in November. Plans continue to migrate Libraries and learners in London to Inspire. A national database of library collections to support Inspire is being built in the Findit website. LLDA has been working along with the M25 Collaboration and Partnership Working Group and with John Gilby to determine the best way to contribute London data to Findit.
3.i The minutes from the Steering Group meeting held on Thursday 6th July were approved. 3.ii Matters Arising: Institutional Repositories: WM reported that the RDWG looked at the terms of the recent JISC call for proposals on institutional repositories and did not see any room for making a bid led by the Consortium. 4. Membership Applications
The following institutions have shown interest in joining M25. It was agreed that the University of Bedfordshire met the requirements for membership to the Consortium and should be admitted. Members will be asked to confirm this at the January Consortium meeting. 5. Review of Working Groups and M25 future developments 5.i Review of current working groups and discussion of future developments Working Groups RH introduced his paper and thanked members for attending meetings and contributing to production of the document. RH noted that working groups had grown up over the years and had done good work, but it was time for a review of groups, including their constitution and membership arrangements. Jean Yeoh commented that it was a valuable and well worth exercise.
Constitutional Arrangements RH explained the need to have a transparent set of procedures for membership of Working Groups, to maintain a culture of openness and provide opportunities for a wide range of staff across the Consortium to take part. JY noted that it would be better if people could remain on the Task Groups of CPD25 for more than the recommended three consecutive years because this is an area that requires specialist expertise. JW reiterated this point for his Health working group. It was agreed that there could be flexibility and that CPD25 was a special case, as it provided one of the Consortium’s main services.
AP asked if there could be some guidelines as to the number of people serving on a working group. RH recommended 8-9 persons for the effective working of a group, but this should be at the discretion of the Chair. It was also agreed that the final decision on appointment of members of groups should be made by the Chair, in consultation with another member of the Steering Group. New Activities
Database of Expertise: This idea had been suggested a number of times, so it was felt it should be explored further. AE suggested that it was important to distinguish between what is considered expertise and alternatively, experience. It was agreed that what was required was probably a database of experience”– allowing people to find out which libraries had particular experience of relevance to them. NB suggested that it could be a service available to members only – increasing subscribers’ value for subscription. JY cautioned that there needed to be a mechanism in place for updating the database.
Consortial Purchasing: It was suggested that a small sub-group be set up to investigate what regional purchasing consortia already provide that is of interest to libraries and make this information available to members. The group could also identify gaps and report back to the SG. The SG might then want to lobby the consortia, such as SUPC, LUPC, to undertake further work of interest to M25 members.
Research: This proposal involved work to identify and publicise research collections in Consortium member libraries, particularly those not thought of primarily as research libraries. AP suggested that an early discussion with CURL on this would be useful. She suggested that in her capacity as member of the CURL Board she might be able to make some recommendations. NB suggested that we need to think initially about the market for such a service. CL suggested it could be an extension of InforM25 services and include information about institutional repositories of research papers.
5.ii Process for selection of Chair of CPD25
RH proposed that the SG have an annual Planning Day, to be held in the spring, to allow for input to action plan and budget proposals for the following year. This was agreed.
6. Progress Reports on Action Plan 2006/07 7. Annual Report Update
FN reported that the M25 Annual Report for 2005/06 was ready for images and printing. She thanked all who contributed to the document. She stated that colour proofs should be ready in 10 days to 2 weeks for RH’s final approval .
MW reintroduced the theme of the January 23rd AGM to be held at The British Library, to be “Print to Digital”. Some topics which were suggested included:
The program is to be confirmed at the December Steering Group meeting. MW reported that she already contacted some individuals but was open for suggestions of other speakers for the morning session of the event.
CL reported the need to print new M25 cards as the original stock of cards is almost depleted and they carry the old M25 logo. RH suggested that in the future we include information in the new members packs about the purpose of the M25 cards.
NB reported that invoices had been sent out for 2006/07 subscriptions and payments have begun to come in. 11. M25 Charitable Status
RH reported that Companies House need the Articles of Association and the Memorandum of Association before we could proceed further. There is a delay in producing these, since there have been small changes which need to be agreed by a majority of Members. As a majority count was not present at this meeting it was suggested by RH that the changes be put to Members at the January meeting. This was agreed. 12. Reports from Working Groups 12.i Reports were noted from the following working groups:
12.i WM reported on plans for further statistical analysis of the InforM25 services. Currently the most popular service is the Union List of Serials. This prompted some discussion of the impact of the general move to e-journals on the Consortium’s collaborative resource sharing. Where journals are only available electronically, licensing and operational issues such as lack of network access could prevent resource sharing. MW noted that the move towards electronic without print is undermining the resource sharing strategy of the Consortium. NB suggested that it may be an issue for JISC. RDWG were asked to scope the problem and draft a position paper to be brought back to the Steering Group for consideration.
14.i The Programme of meetings to note are as follows:
• Steering Group Meeting Tuesday 5 December 2006 - Senate House
Maureen Wade |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
