Minutes of the CPD25 User Resources & Services Task Group held on Friday 7th March 2003 at 2pm at Imperial College

Present:

Janet Smith (Chair), Sally Houston, Eilis Rafferty, Kate Warner, Caroline Holebrook (Administrator & Minutes)

Apologies were received from June Hedges & Rachel Sylvester Sam Martin is on Maternity Leave.

2. Minutes of the last meeting - 6th November 2002

The minutes were approved as a correct record

3. Matters Arising

All matters were covered in the agenda.

4. Reports

Progress was reported as follows:

a) Managing e-resources (Eilis Rafferty)
Managing e-resources was held on the 17th December 2002 and was very well received by the delegates. There was a good spread of speakers. The themes were spread over the importance of marketing a service and the technical realities of making services available. The feedback was positive and as the event had been sold out in a smaller venue and moved to a larger one it was clear that the topic was a useful one.

b) Operating a 24/7 Service (Sam Martin)
Caroline reported on this event as Sam is on Maternity Leave. This was a very useful event as all the speakers had different experiences and solutions to offer. There was a good cross over of themes so it was useful to compare different approaches to tackling each of the challenges.

c) New Approaches to Information Skills Training (June Hedges)
Caroline reviewed this event, as June was unable to attend. The event was very popular. Bookings reached almost eighty delegates. The speakers were all very informative. Chris Powis' presentation raised the issue of "teaching" in Librarianship. Sally Patalong mirrored some of the issues raised about teaching in her presentation about her experiences that led her to undertake a teaching qualification. In the feedback, teaching was a recurring theme suggested as something for CPD25 to tackle. There were a couple of organisational issues on the day that marred the event slightly. It was very cold in the lecture theatre and the catering whilst on time, was very unimaginative. Many of the delegates commented on these points.

d) Managing Enquiry Services (Kate Warner)
Kate reported that she has four speakers booked for the event. Subsequent to the meeting Sacha Shaw has agreed to Chair the event. Kate will be finalising the programme shortly and then Caroline will advertise the event.

e) Developing a Library Portal (Janet Smith)
Janet had an outline programme including speakers from JISC. Senate House, Manuscript Room is the preferred venue. The event will be a half-day in mid May. Janet will be finalising the programme and confirming dates shortly.

f) Evaluating Library Services (Rachel Sylvester)
Caroline was able to confirm that the Manuscript Room at ULL was booked for this event on the 10th June 2003. Geoff Cleve will be discussing performance indicators, Sarah Gerrard will the Lib-Qal Project and Barbara Cumbers will discuss User Feedback KA24.

g) Changing Roles in Subject Librarianship (Sally Houston)
Sally has confirmed three speakers for this event and hopes to use the Manuscript Room in Senate House.

h) London Business School Visits (Rachel Sylvester)
These visits took place on the 29th & 30th January. The London Business School were very generous hosts. The delegates were all very impressed with the facilities.

i) Women's Library (Sally Houston)
Sally has confirmed two dates, 2nd & 9th June 2003.

5. The CPD25 Review: 8th April 2003

Caroline explained the purpose of the afternoon would be to review and evaluate the events that had been held so far and think about what events the groups would like to run next year. The LMN would also be attending to give a short presentation about what they do and the linkship that is being developed between them and CPD25.

6. Review of Task Group

Janet asked the group how they had found the workload involved in organising their events. What the group felt had gone well and what had not been as good.

It was noted that it was sometimes difficult to arrange speakers as they were often already committed to other events, often CPD25 events. It was suggested that perhaps it would be useful to look more often outside the M25 Consortium for speakers, even if there were some additional costs involved. This would also bring fresh perspectives to the seminars.

It was also noted that trying to organise events in the period running up to Christmas was very difficult as it is such a busy period for Reader Services staff, of which the majority of the group are. This raised the issue of the composition of the task groups and whether or not it would be practical to mix up Reader Services staff with non-Reader Services staff. However, it was acknowledged that the group would attract Reader Services staff by virtue of its remit.

The group also agreed that although they had met a large section of Library interests they did feel they had some way to go to offer courses that would appeal to Systems Librarians.

7. Any other business

There was none.

8. Date of next meeting

July - Date to be confirmed after 8th April 2003 Review Day

CH 10th March 2003