Minutes of a meeting held on 2 December 2003

MC welcomed Sue Roberts to the committee and Jackie Skinner to this meeting.

These were accepted with one amendment:

03/17 (03/08) Annual Gathering of Deputy Librarians: MO and AM had enlisted FP as the third person.

The committee reinforced the importance of the principle that members should always receive their own individual copies of publications produced by the committee.

This remains with MC and MO to discuss and arrange a formal meeting with Stephen Town. (MO sees potential in the new Investors in People model.)

Now that JS had been trained in the ways of the revamped SCONUL web site MC would send her an updated version. GD suggested the forthcoming SCONUL conference could be a focal point.

MC to send JS updated News Digest.

Discussion about a register of trainers between PG and MC remained an ongoing action, though MC now felt that issues of confidentiality and perceived recommendation were less problematic. Creating the list and keeping it up to date still required thought.

MC and PG to discuss register of trainers.

AM tabled a brief report from the meeting in Galway.

This raised the problem of the title of the email list lis-sconul-deputies which did not seem to embrace all those working at senior management level who are increasingly not titled Deputy. After some discussion the committee agreed that changing the name of the email list was unlikely to make much real impact. Instead it was felt that the committee should review the working of the list annually to ensure that it was operating inclusively enough.

There is a waiting list of 12 to start a second grouping. FP has been investigating the University of Birmingham Conference Park as a venue for this meeting sometime in May/June 2004. CF has agreed to give the session on the transition from deputy to director. The meeting has been costed conservatively at ca £240 per head and should be self financing. After this meeting this second group is expected to become self sustaining as is the first grouping.

The committee agreed the above proposals and acknowledged FP's key role in kick-starting the second group meeting.

Committee to review working of lis-sconul-deputies annually. JM to agenda for Autumn 2004 meeting.

AM to email lis-sconul with a reminder about lis-sconul-deputies list and its aim of reaching senior management level staff, thus hopefully encouraging more names. AM also to email lis-sconul-deputies about the second "deps" group meeting, both to confirm attendees and to advertise.

GD reported that there is a slot in the conference programme for MC to speak about ACoS. This will be an opportunity for the Committee to receive ideas from SCONUL members and vice versa.

GD sought any input from the committee on workshops around the service culture theme (current workshops were 24x7, benchmarking, student expectations, servicing e-learning). GD also sought suggestions for a possible speaker (hopefully from outside the sector) to give an overview on the HR issues in staff management. It was suggested that HESDA's advice could be sought. AM offered a possible contact at Intel in Belfast.

GD to follow up as appropriate.

JP reported on progress. A good venue in Bath has been booked for 21 May 2004; FP is organising speakers.

The committee thanked JP and FP for their hard work on this. It was noted, in the light of several recent meetings on VLEs, that TT8's focus on the staff development angle would distinguish it. Advertising TT8 on some of the same lists that had advertised the other meetings could be beneficial (eg the JISC list).

JP/FP to consider possibilities of advertising on various email lists.

The committee considered our Action Plan for 2003 noting progress and achievements, such as managing the SCONUL award differently with more success and the new lines of thinking with respect to developing second tier staff.

MC to write.

The committee discussed MC's draft, and also Toby Bainton's email suggesting some priorities for ACoS following the SCONUL Awayday in July 2003.

Various amendments were agreed:

• Inclusion of a strategic context at the beginning
• Rewording to include leadership with respect to development of second tier staff
• That Training Together programme should be biennial
• To give monitoring job evaluation schemes a more prominent position in the plan
• To include monitoring the implications of recent equal opportunities legislation and also assessing the impact of fixed term working and flexible working practices
• To include supporting SCONUL's Executive Board in responses to national consultation on staffing issues
• To include responding to CILIP's new framework of qualifications
• To delete actions on consortial training
• To delete coverage of DLIS programmes

MC to finalise a revised Action Plan and send to both Executive Board and to committee members.

In discussion the committee was uncertain whether the imminent Freedom of Information Act would yet have staffing/staff development implications to include in the Action Plan. It was agreed to re-visit this at the next meeting.

JM to agenda FoI implications for next meeting.

The committee also discussed at some length the possible confusion over strategic activity between the Executive Board and the committee. In order to avoid this possibility it was agreed that the Executive Board's approval should be sought specifically for the strategic context of the Action Plan.

SR to raise this at Executive Board.

In this context GD reported that MC would be invited to attend the Executive Board meeting on 8 June 2004 as part of the Board's programme of inviting Advisory Committee Chairs to attend meetings.

The outcome of the 2003 award was discussed. All agreed that procedures had worked well with a successful outcome. Thirteen applications had been received of which 3 had come very close to winning. MO was thanked for her help in finalising the winner in JP's absence due to illness.

GD also extended the SCONUL secretariat's thanks to JM and the team at Reading University Library who had organised the advertising of the Award (including application form and poster design, production and mailing), the collection of applications and distribution to assessors.

It was agreed that the 2004 award should follow the same timetable as in 2003 and the fund should remain at £1,000.

After some discussion about possible topics/themes for 2004 the following were agreed:

• Virtual user support
• Enquiry/information/help service points

JM to finalise wording and to begin planning for getting information and advertising out in February 2004.

JM to agenda for next meeting.

It was further agreed to note other suggestions of themes which could be borne in mind for the future:

1. Cross-professional training
2. Web support of staff development and training

The committee noted that updates were needed for the Action Plan and the SCONUL Award. These would be organised imminently.

JS in collaboration with MC (Action Plan) and JM (SCONUL Award).

MC and JS would continue to liaise over links to consortial staff training events.

In further discussion about establishing a page of trainers and also links to other sites with lists of trainers (eg Cambridge University's list of trainers with expertise in disability) it was agreed to email various lists to seek nominations for trainers to include on the site (noting in particular the disclaimer that inclusion did not necessarily imply recommendation) and also a volunteer to take responsibility for keeping the page up to date (in liaison with JS) for a period of a year, after which it would be reviewed

JM to email lis-sconul, lis-staffdev, and lis-sconul-deputies, as above.

It was further agreed that the various library training consortia could be usefully contacted for their input to the list once the response from the various sconul lists is known.

JM to agenda for next meeting.

The committee also agreed that members should be actively deciding about whether papers produced by the committee should be available on the web site. Criteria for decision-making would be

1. Currency
2. Relevance to SCONUL membership
3. Any need for confidentiality

It was felt that the paper by MO et al on staff development for second tier staff was a prime candidate for the web site.

JM to liaise with JS to put this paper on the web site.

It was agreed that the format for the web site should be HTML rather than Word, unless there was a specific need for the latter.

The committee also suggested that a listing of the various SCONUL email lists and their constituency and functions would be a useful addition to the SCONUL web site overall.

GD to suggest to new Advisory Committee on Communication and Marketing.

Finally it was agreed that JS should have no compunction in reminding the committee about updating the web site whenever she saw the need, and also in attending committee meetings whenever she wished to bring an item to its attention.

JS to keep a watching brief.

The committee reconsidered the paper presented by MO at the previous meeting (03/18). Recommendation 5, agreed at that meeting, that MC would send a message out on lis-sconul to indicate that ACoS was following this new direction in place of the strategic management course and seeking comment, would now be enacted. The paper would be an attachment to the message.

MC to send message and attachment.

AM also tabled a paper on the ACRL/Harvard Leadership Institute. This described the author's (Ed Garten) experience on this programme very positively.

It was agreed that AM should be involved with Toby Bainton and Andrew Green in the event of any future contact discussion with the Leadership Foundation, in order to draw attention to the issues ACoS is working on.

GD to alert Toby.

It was agreed that MC would join the meetings between Toby, Andrew Green, Peter Guildford and Bob Hardwick, with Leslie Wagner of the HE Academy, These meetings were scheduled for Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 January 2004. Attendance could either be in person at York or via video conferencing.

MC to liaise with Toby.

The committee also agreed that AM and MO should work together further on the possible content of the UK leadership course with the aim of presenting a first draft to the next meeting. PG's involvement as a professional trainer would also be sought, or else his recommendation for some professional training input.

AM, MO (and PG).

This item concluded with the committee thanking MO, AM and CF again for their comprehensive work on this paper. The paper's content was clearly very robust, with this second discussion by the committee serving only to endorse opinions and decisions reached in the first consideration of the paper.

As requested by FP the committee considered the draft document — an overview of the key findings of the research phase of the HIMSS project, in particular the last section. Comments were positive with members seeing the booklet as detailed, well written and penetrating. "University managers should read this and pay attention". MC requested that members should email any further comments directly to FP in the next few days, copied to the rest of the committee.

Any ACoS member with further comment.

It was agreed that MC, as chair of ACoS, would take this 30 minute session and outline the approaches to training and development taken by SCONUL, noting in particular initiatives such as the new angles on leadership and management, and the Award scheme.

MC

The committee was keen to see a member of ACoS on the Board of the Council. MC was suggested as ACoS chair. The suggestion that (if HESDA is willing) one of HESDA's five representatives on the board could be a HE librarian was also supported. ACoS would be willing to supply one such from its members if requested.

GD to report back to Toby.

Since members present all had existing commitments on that date it was agreed to ask CF if she could fulfil this request. It was noted that in the light of the shift towards leadership at the strategic level, this middle course needs to deliver all that it should for management still.

JM to ask CF on behalf of the committee.

GD confirmed that members were appointed for a three-year term, with a possibility of renewal for a further three years. She was asked to check members' dates and thus who is due for renewal and when.

GD to check and email committee.

MC reported briefly:

1. SCONUL financial practices were being tightened up to ensure maximum benefit gained from limited resource (as usual).
2. A new Advisory Committee on Communication and Marketing was being formed.

Either Thursday 18 March or Tuesday 23 March 2004.

To be confirmed by email.

JM.