Minutes of the User Resources & Services Group 27th June 2003, 2.15pm to 4.30pm Imperial College, Central Library, Conference Room

Present:

Janet Smith, (Chair) Sally Houston, Rachel Sylvester, Eilis Rafferty Caroline Holebrook (administrator)

June Hedges, Sam Martin, Kate Warner

2. Minutes of the last Meeting

The minutes were accepted as a correct record

3. Matters arising

None that are not covered in the Minutes

4. Review of 2002/2003 Programme

Managing Enquiry Services
A very interesting event held at the Royal Veterinary College, Camden. Kate was able to arrange a good mix of speakers from different backgrounds. There were presentations from 3 distinctly different institutions including a corporate law library. The comparisons and contrasting environments made the afternoon very informative and generated good discussion.

Library Portals
Janet reported that this event had originally been aimed at Subject Librarians and IT related posts. The actual attendance was senior members of staff. The content was strategic with some demonstration of the portals. Janet commented that it was a difficult event to organise when you are not a technical person. Often the definition of jargon isn't universally accepted so to a layperson it is very difficult to be sure you are asking the right questions. Despite the difficulties of organising the event it was very successful. All the speakers were very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about their subjects.

Evaluating Library Services
Rachel was able to report the event had been successful. The speakers focused on statistical evaluation but this was informative. There were good questions and discussion and the feedback from delegates was positive.

Changing Roles in Librarianship
This event is due to be held on the 9th July. The event is fully booked and has an extensive reserve list.

The Women's Library Visit
Both groups that attended these visits were very positive. Both groups asked lots of questions and really enjoyed the collection.

5. CPD25 New Programme

The group agreed that if any Chartership candidates were interested it would be useful to partner them with a task group member to help organise an event.

Events

User Education - Training and Teaching
The group envisaged a whole day event using a professional trainer to cover issues for Librarians who are involved in user education. The day would focus on techniques for teaching. The event will be run in December 2003. Rachel Sylvester will be the convenor.

VLE's Event
This event will look at the use of VLE's in User Education. The event will be run in May 2004 and Eilis Rafferty will be the convenor.

Services to Disabled Students in collaboration with LMN
Caroline will liase with the LMN to help develop a mutually interesting programme.

Promoting & Marketing Library Services
The group felt this area was worth exploring. Sally Houston will convene this event and it will be held in January 2004

Special Collections in collaboration with M25 Group
Janet will work with Christine Wise to develop a programme for this event to be held in November 2003.

Visits

Bow Ideas Store
http://www.ideastore.co.uk/bow/

Eilis will organise this visit.

BBC Information Service
Rachel will try to organise this visit.

If any of these options are not available the City University will be our back up institution.

Other possible ideas

E-Resources Update & SFX Software

Subject & Enquiry Services
The reference interview
Reference resources
Scholarly Communications - SPARC

Systems & IT

Service Measurement
Quality assurance of online resources
Widening Participation Non-traditional users
Non-traditional backgrounds
Non-traditional routes to University
Janet will email round these ideas for further discussion and how to make an event out of them.

6. Any other business

Discussion and Panels Janet felt that waiting to take questions till the end of a session was probably not always the best idea. Building a five-minute slot at the end of each presentation was probably better to ensure that questions and discussion don't get lost. It is important to prime your Chair to be prepared for this.

7. Date of Next Meeting

The next meeting will be at University of Westminster, Chalk Suite on 5th December 2003 CH 01/07/03