Minutes of recent committee meetings
Committee Meeting
10 January 2006
Minutes
Present: Jenny Brine, Linda Cameron, Alan Cooper,
Rose Goodier, Tracey Jackson, Marjory Lobban, Mike McGrath,
Carol Marshall, Peter Robinson, Nina Whitcombe.
Peggy Eccles attended as CONARLS representative.
Fiona Leslie and Dave Barker of Talis attended for items 9
and 10.
Apologies for absence: Betty Lowery, Penny Street
1. Welcome: Marjory Lobban was welcomed to her first
committee meeting.
2. Minutes of the Previous Meeting on 5 October 2005
were agreed as a correct record.
3. Matters Arising.
a. Electronic signatures. Peter reported that the
British Library was still in discussion with the journal publishers
about electronic signatures. The Committee urged the BL to
stand up to the publishers on behalf of “library privilege”
customers.
b. Etheses. Cost and copyright issues were
still posing problems.
4. Financial Report. Nina reported that
she had received all the paperwork and records from Lorna,
and was working to complete the accounts. A full statement
would be available for FIL's May meeting. However, it was
clear that FIL had over £32,000 in reserves. The 2005
conference appeared to have made a profit; final figures would
be available in May. The 2006 Conference was likely to be
more expensive, as travel and accommodation costs seemed higher.
Carol offered to take over as Treasurer from July.
Annual accounts and details of conference finances to
May meeting.
5. Membership
a. Report: Tracey reported that there had
been a slight increase in membership, to 237. Most members
are HE libraries, with 82 public libraries, 13 company libraries,
and 30 others. The database needed to be updated and it was
agreed to telephone institutions to confirm that we had the
correct names for local contacts.
b. Promotion Plan: Mike had circulated a
FIL Promotion Plan to the Committee. It was agreed that the
real purpose was to increase FIL's influence, rather than
to increase income. A target of 300 members seemed achievable,
and the plan was to run over the next 6-9 months. It was agreed
that Mike would select possible members by using the Directory
of Library Codes, lists of software vendors, and CILIP's directory
Library and Information Services in the UK and the Republic
of Ireland. Major libraries in English-speaking countries
and Italy would also be approached. Other national libraries
might also be interested. For reasons of commercial confidentiality,
the BL could not divulge its customer listings. Jenny and
Mike would work on a recruitment letter, stressing the importance
of FIL as a forum for practitioners. Peggy offered to produce
address labels for the mailing. Jenny would offer to write
a piece about new challenges for IDS and the work of FIL for
CILIP Update. It was agreed that the promotion campaign
should begin once the new web site was ready.
a. Tracey to send batches of membership records for verification
to Jenny & Rose (NW and Yorkshire), Mike (London), Nina
(Wales) and Linda (Scotland).
b. Mike - lists of targets. Jenny - recruitment letter and
contact editor of Update.
6. FIL Website: Jenny reported that Juliet
Owen was working on creating a new website for FIL. It was
hoped that the prototype would be available on the web shortly,
so that committee members could comment on it.
7. Interlend 2006 Southampton: The Conference
Subcommittee had visited Southampton on 5 January. The cooperation
of Southampton University Library had been secured, and the
facilities had been checked. Prices to delegates would be
very similar to those for 2005. The outline programme had
been agreed and details of the conference should be sent to
FIL members in February.
Action: Conference Subcommittee
8. Interlend 2007 London: It was agreed
that visits would be made to Kings College and Queen Mary
College as soon as possible, to see if their accommodation
and location were suitable for our needs.
Action: Jenny to organise visits
9. Talis Insight 2005: Dave Barker reported
on Talis Insight 2005 and outlined the company's current initiatives
using Talis Platform and Talis Base. He then explained how
Talis's Project Whisper – now in its beta stage -should
improve library resource sharing. He stressed the company's
commitment to partnership and collaboration, even with its
competitors.
10. Union catalogues: Fiona Leslie spoke
about Talis's plans to continue the provision of a union catalogue
after the company's contract with The Combined Regions comes
to an end in May. As the name UnityWeb belongs to TCR, a new
name for the union catalogue would have to be found. Talis
was holding discussions with customers and competitors on
how to improve the service. Talis had decided not to develop
a requests management service, but to work on how the union
catalogue could be better integrated with existing library
systems. Procedures for notifying holdings would be improved,
and Talis would work with other library systems providers
to reduce charges for exporting data from library management
systems. Costs for the new service were still under discussion;
it might be possible to arrange some sort of discount for
FIL members. Talis was organising a series of Roadshows around
England, Wales and Scotland to talk about the future of resource
discovery, union catalogues and interlending.
11. FIL@BLDSC , 17 March 2006: The programme
for the day was discussed. There would be an overview of new
developments in IDS, a demonstration of the BL's Images Online
service, a panel discussion on union catalogues and a session
on regional issues and cooperative partnerships. Tours of
the BL would be an important element, as always. The event
would be priced to cover costs, with a discount for FIL members.
Jenny and Peter to finalise speakers and programme
12. FIL Newsletter: Newsletter 46 has been
with David Orman awaiting layout for some months. The committee
agreed that it would be better to pay a professional to do
the layout, and Rose would get quotes. Bristol University
was still willing to do the printing and mailing, and FIL
was most grateful for this.
Peter and Marjory agreed to take on the work of editing the
Newsletter. Ros Doig had already assembled a lot of material
for Issue 47, which would make their task easier initially.
Rose would help if required. One idea for new topics included
the interlending services the London Library offers its members.
Once Peter and Marjory had got to grips with their new roles
the committee would discuss whether it was realistic to aim
for 3 issues a year. It was noted that for many members the
Newsletter is the main tangible benefit of FIL membership.
Jenny to update Ros, and ask her to send material to Peter
and Marjory
13. Book on Interlending and Document Supply:
Jenny reported that the IDS book was due out within the next
few weeks. She would ensure that a copy was sent to Mike for
review in Interlending and Document Supply. Copies
should be available at FIL@BLDSC.
Jenny - review copy to Mike and organise copies for BL
event
14. Relations with CILIP - Organisation in Liaison
status
Alan reported that CILIP was still conducting its
review of special interest groups and the review of OILs had
been postponed. It was agreed that FIL would contact CILIP
to discuss its status.
Jenny to write to CILIP Chief Executive
15. IFLA Report: Penny had reported in full
to the October meeting and it was hoped that she or Betty
would be able to make a report to the May meeting.
16. Reports from Groups
a. Conarls. Peggy Eccles welcomed the opportunity
for closer links between FIL and Conarls. Conarls was still
re-establishing itself after the breakdown of the regional
library services, and was looking to expand its membership.
There was now a Welsh presence on Conarls, and links with
Northern Ireland were likely in the near future. However Conarls
still had no representation from North East England. Conarls
had been working on updating its website for some time, and
was also planning a review of the Fiction Reserve scheme.
Its next meeting was in Preston on February 15th; Jenny would
attend as FIL representative.
b. Copyright Alliance. Alan noted that the
government's planned review of intellectual property law would
have important implications for the Copyright Alliance, and
for FIL.
17. British Library Report: Peter began
by informing FIL that BLDSC had decided to stop lending all
pre-1850 material in its stock, on conservation grounds,
with effect from 1 February. In response to protests at the
short notice, it was agreed that the new policy would be delayed
until 1 March. However the Committee was dismayed that older
material would no longer be available from BLDSC, even when
it was in good condition and suitable for lending.
The British Library hoped that users would soon be able to
monitor their own requests online, and wanted to encourage
libraries to do more renewals, cancellations, etc. over the
web. It was suggested that an article on this might be useful
for the Newsletter.
Peter reported that turnaround times were improving,
and that 26% of retention copies were now being supplied by
SED. The committee asked for a more helpful covering
email with SEDs, in particular advice to use Adobe Acrobat
7.0. The email address field should be longer, to accommodate
lengthy institutional names.
The Committee also asked that the British library improve
its location service. Members had found that SL requests
were sometimes treated as S searches.
It was agreed that the BL should give more information to
customers about operational difficulties which affect
the services provided.
Peter to take comments back to BL.
18. Next meeting: Tuesday 9 May 2006.
19. Any Other Business
a. OCLC It was reported that OCLC would be interested
in holding an event with FIL, in Birmingham.
b. 2008 Conference There had been suggestions
that the 2008 conference should be in Scotland, or Hull.
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