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LIRG Committee meeting, Thursday 15th March 2001

 


Minutes of LIRG Committee meeting, Thursday 15th March 2001
Held at Resource, 19-29 Woburn Place, London WC1
 


Present:
Philip Payne, Liz Hart, Isobel Thompson, Eric Davies, Alan Cooper, Noeleen Cookman, Carolynn Rankin, Biddy Fisher, Juliet Eve

Apologies:
Pat Gannon-Leary, John Sumsion, Maurice Wakeham

In attendance:
Elizabeth Gadd

1) Committee membership, officers and responsibilities for 2001/2002

Judy Palmer has resigned and Linda Banwell decided not to stand for re-election.

All 6 nominees were elected to Committee.

Eric Davies was welcomed as a full member of the Committee

John Sumsion has indicated his desire to relinquish the duties of LIRN editor. Elizabeth Gadd was welcomed to the meeting. She was attending to investigate the working of the Committee and to see whether she wished to become LIRN Editor.

Matters of co-operation: Re:Source no longer wishes to have a representative on the Committee. Agreed Isobel Thompson to become a personal co-option to the Committee. Agreed that a comment on this move should be made as part of the Research Strategy response.

ACTION: PP

Co-options: Steve Morgan; Alan Cooper; Andrew Booth who has in fact not yet attended a Committee meeting but it was felt this connection should be retained. It was commented that MW also participates in the links with Health sector.

Other co-options were discussed including a representative from BAILER. PP to write to Linda Ashcroft inviting participation on the LIRG

ACTION: PP

The Public Library Research Group was also discussed as a potential link to the Committee. A more appropriate link was felt to be the Society of Chief Librarians and this approach was agreed

ACTION: PP

Officers of the Committee:

JE - Treasurer
PG-L - Secretary
BF - Vice-Chair
PP - Chair

PP indicated at the meeting that he would be standing down as Chair after next year’s AGM in March 2002.

2) Minutes of the last meeting

Agreed

Matters arising:

BF queried an item in section 3 which was explained by PP

BF also queried item 6. Transportation costs. Agreed LIRG that would continue to fund the transportation to the prize giving ceremony for winners. PP would contact Elsevier at an appropriate time to consider upgrading their prize

3) LIRG and new professional body

This paper on the future strategy was not discussed as it was an agenda item for the AGM. The Committee did discuss the implications of becoming an LA SIG if the AGM supported the proposals in the paper. Items raised in discussion were:-

Future of LIRN to be web based?
Relationship of LIRN to LAR
Gradual move away from print based formats
Options to offer to an external publisher but retain 50% of income and logo
Potential options also require a business plan particularly considering the implications of SIG status
Consultation with membership would also be required
Consider the future of the Prizes which were important to LIRG and might not be sustainable with SIG capitation. Undergraduate prize might be one that could be considered for closure in favour of a larger award for the postgraduate prize. This was also supported by a lack of submissions for Undergraduate Prizes currently on offer. This would be an item for the next LIRG Agenda

ACTION: PP

Committee to meet as a group to discuss the whole issue with individuals looking at specific areas in advance. Three areas identified to be considered:
Business plan; LIRN; Prizes
Agreed that timescales should be clearly identified in relation to these issues and an additional Committee meeting should be set up to address these issues in isolation. A meeting in May was likely to be required as consultation would be necessary before commencing any discussion with Library Association

Consultation - PP
Business Plan - BF, JE, AC
LIRN - JS, JED, PP, Elizabeth Gadd (might require expertise from outside the group (particularly for technical issues)
May need to be segmented as follows:-
- Content / Focus
- Distribution / delivery
- Format
- Prizes - MC/All Committee
Additional Committee meeting: Possible date is 23 or 24th May. Location will be LISU Offices in Loughborough.

4) Awards and prizes

LIRG Elsevier winner: John Cullen: (Institute of Technology, Tallaght) “Irish Market for Library and Information work”

Daphne Clarke winner: Sally Rumsey and John Maslin University of Surrey. “Exam papers on-line”

LIRG PG winner: Cheryl Twomey. University of North London “ An analysis of the design and quality of Patient Information Leaflets supplied with Medicines sold by pharmacists in the United Kingdom”

Judges for the Postgraduate Prize: Biddy Fisher and Isobel Thompson. Noeleen Cookman to adjudicate

ACTION: BF, IT, NC

5) Events

LH tabled a short paper on the proposed seminars on 12th June and September 2001 on Effective Academic Library. Agreed that this should be advertised on website with a provisional price (including discount for both seminars and members). Also to be advertised on LIS-link BUBL, LAR etc. (all with pointers to web). LH to discuss with JED inclusion of LISU staff as Seminar presenters to increase “research” orientation of event

ACTION: LH, PP, JED
Speaker for AGM 2002: Grace Kempster, The British Council

ACTION: PP

LIRG Research Methods courses: PP suggested holding this to the next full Committee meeting

6) LIRN

PP reported that JS had enough content for the next issue (No. 79). Suggested that the next issue should also have the item on the “Future of LIRG” to encourage consultation and communication. Notes for Lynne Brindley’s lecture will be taken by NC/CR, particularly questions and discussions

ACTION: NC, CR

7) Web Pages

AC and NC reported that the web site (www.la.hq.org/groups/LIRG/index) is now launched. Some information is required to “finish off” the first stage. Comments and views were requested from the Committee as soon as possible (latest end of March)

ACTION: ALL COMMITTEE

AC/NC to identify gaps in information with input from Committee. PP commented that the new pages looked very impressive and thanks were passed on to AC and NC for all their hard work.

Eventually individuals would need to be located to take individual responsibility for certain information on the web pages.

8) Publicity

CR reported that due to personal circumstances she has been unable to work on the publicity initiative. However she was now in a position to take up this work and would actively start at the Umbrella Conference in the summer. LIRN was very important priority in terms of publicity

Suggestions were made as to how further publicity might be achieved such as contacts listing or “taster” articles on website. CR to investigate possibilities

ACTION: CR

9) Re:Source research strategy

It was noted by the Committee that there was no opportunity to feedback to Re:Source on this document. Agreed that LIRG should make a response to this document in any event. This could be a potential seminar topic for LIRG fairly soon. Suggested this issue should be discussed at the meeting in May

ACTION: JED, PP

10) Treasurer’s report

BF tabled audited accounts to 31st December 2000, which will be presented to the AGM that afternoon. The current finances are very healthy mainly due to the reduction in Committee expenses and the very successful subscriptions to LIRN (with thanks to Jo for her work on organising institutional subscriptions). The Daphne Clark bursary is now closed and the amount is now transferred to a current account as no income was being received. JE to take over from BF from this meeting as Treasurer, and thanks were expressed to BF for all her work

ACTION: JE

11) Arrangements for AGM

This will begin with the AGM where the future of LIRG will be discussed. Events will proceed with the presentation of prizes followed by the Annual Lecture which will be chaired by BF. The room will require setting up immediately after the meeting and JED volunteered to take the photographs

ACTION: BF, JED

Dominic Vaughan from Elsevier will be presenting the Elsevier Prize

12) Proposed dates for Committee meetings 2001

5th July 2001 (Venue: MMU to coincide with Umbrella)

6th November 2001

14th March 2002 (AGM and Committee meeting)

This final date may be moved in light of inter-semester break schedule for 2001/2002

13) Any other business

AC requested the group note the IFLA meeting in August 2001 and that LIRG might wish to consider participating in this event.

A nomination for an Honorary Fellowship of the Library Association was discussed. Agreed

ACTION: BF, JED
Updated: 08 January 2009