Minutes of the first meeting of CPD25 User Resources & Services Task Group held on Thursday 27th June 2002 at 2.30p.m. in the Committee Room, University College London.

Present:

Janet Smith (Chair), June Hedges, Sally Houston, Sam Martin, Eilis Rafferty, Rachel Sylvester, Kate Warner, Tim Hoof (Administrator)

All members were present.

2. Update from CPD25 Steering Group Meeting of 7th June 2002

Janet Smith explained that a draft programme needed to be produced by 8th July giving months and titles. These would need to be confirmed for the issuing of the preliminary programme at the end of July.

It was suggested that in the 2002/3 session the task group would need to meet once in each term.

3. Programme for 2002/3

It was agreed that members would work in pairs with each member leading one meeting and supporting their pair for the other. The first named person in each of the paragraphs below would be the lead member for that event.

a) New Approaches to Information Skills Training
It was agreed that this event would be held in February 2003 and would be co-ordinated by June Hedges and Sally Houston. The seminar would be targeted at subject librarians and information systems staff. It was suggested that this whole day event be broken down into 4 sessions. The first would look at general learning and teaching skills; Chris Powis of the Institute for Learning & Teaching was suggested as a speaker. The second session would look at group specific issues; e.g. distance learners and dataset users. The third session would look at Virtual Learning Environments. The final session would look at a number of case studies; potential places to approach included Open University, Royal Holloway, University of Huddersfield, Sheffield Hallam University and University of Derby.

b) Managing e.resources
It was agreed that this event would be held in December 2002 and would be co-ordinated by Eilis Rafferty and Kate Warner. The seminar would be targeted at systems managers, electronic information services staff and subject librarians. Members considered the feedback from the e.resources briefing organised by Jean Yeoh when considering potential topics. Suggested topics for this whole day event included e.books, e.short loan, access & delivery issues, collection management and archiving. Suggested speakers included Allan Hopkinson (Middlesex University), Jon Hunt (King's College London) and someone from the University of Central England to talk on the e-valuation project on usage statistics.

c) Operating a 24/7 Service
It was agreed that this event would be held in January 2003 and would be co-ordinated by Sam Martin and Rachel Sylvester. The seminar would be open to all grades of staff. It was agreed to be important to include a London speaker at this event since there were particular problems relating to setting up such a service here. Suggested topics to be included were whether a 24-hour service meant building or information systems, and how to give systems back up on a 24-hour basis. Potential speakers included someone from Westminster University to talk on their experiences at their Harrow Campus, and someone from St George's Medical School Library or LSE on their links to Australian libraries to give IT support. It was hope that this event could then be backed up by the Operations Management Task Group's suggested visit to Forest Gate Self Service Library.

d) Changing Roles in Subject & Liaison Librarianship
It was agreed that this event would be held in July 2003 and would be co-ordinated by Sally Houston and June Hedges. The seminar would be targeted at subject and liaison librarians and information assistants.

e) Managing Enquiry Services
It was agreed that this event would be held in March 2003 and would be co-ordinated by Kate Warner and Eilis Rafferty. The seminar would be targeted at subject librarians and reader services staff. Potential issues to be covered included how "traditional" services relate to electronic ones, siting and staffing of enquiry points and charging for outside users. David Gee from the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies was suggested as a speaker on the last of these topics.

f) Developing a Library Portal
It was agreed that this event would be held in May 2003 and would be co-ordinated by Janet Smith. The seminar would be targeted at systems librarians, website designers and subject librarians. This half day course would aim to bring the information systems and subject librarian groups together to look at difference needs. The main focus would be on how to decide on content and the new guidelines for webdesign which now exist for local government websites.

g) Service Evaluation
It was agreed that this event would be held in June 2003 and would be co-ordinated by Rachel Sylvester and Sam Martin. The seminar would be targeted at reader services & issue desk staff and subject librarians. This event would look at both paper-based and electronic user surveys. Sarah Gerard from Royal Holloway was suggested a potential speaker. It was also noted that Maria Hiscoe at the London Libraries Development Agency was investigating better ways of monitoring the various inter-library loan programmes; e.g. INForM, CURL and Libraries & Learners in London.

h) Women's Library Visit.
Sally Houston agreed to co-ordinate these visits in June 2003.

i) London Business School
Visit Rachel Sylvester agreed to co-ordinate visits to the new library at London Business School in January 2003.

4. Any Other Business

Tim Hoof would circulate the draft guidelines on meeting organisation with the minutes. It was agreed that draft topics and suggested speakers for the events should be brought to the next meeting.

5. Date of Next meeting

The next meeting would be held at 2.00 p.m. on Thursday 18th July 2002 in the Council Room, University College London. Members are reminded that this is half an hour earlier than originally proposed.

June Hedges was thanked for agreeing to take the minutes at this meeting since Tim Hoof would be at an M25-SDG training event.