Annual report 2000

The year 2000 saw some significant changes in personnel. John Priestley the founder Chair ACoS under the new SCONUL took up a new appointment in Plymouth University and resigned as Chair .He was replaced by Pat Noon. Following a review of membership both Andrew Wale and Margaret Coutts left the Committee at the end of the year having completed their terms and Phil Sykes resigned having been asked to serve as Executive Board member for another Advisory Committee. The Committee has lost a wealth of great wealth experience and hard work that will be very difficult to replace. The Committee is enormously grateful for the scale of their collective contribution, and wishes them all well for the future.

The departure of John Priestley prompted the inevitable navel gazing session on the purpose and relevance of ACoS. The relevance of the Committee's brief was reaffirmed and several new areas for development especially on the staffing as distinct from staff development activities were identified for future discussions.

A continuing theme through the year has been concerns about the provision of development activities for "Deputy Librarians". Although there continues to be a very successful group established more than 10 years ago the folding of an alternative event with a wider constituency may have left many in this senior position without a peer support group. Planned discussion on this with the established group had to be abandoned but may still prove useful.

Support for the successful suite of management programmes continued and the Making Management Work course was completely revamped by UCoSDA with significant input from Andrew Wale, and members continue to offer input to the Introduction to Management Course whenever possible. Unfortunately despite several discussions a theme and date for Training Together 7 has not been agreed.

The publicity and eligibility for the SCONUL A ward were revised to improve interest and applications. This appears to have been successful with five applications. The winner was Claire Barnes from Abertay.

Although a bid to the HEFCE Good Management Awards was made on behalf of the Committee it proved unsuccessful. The Committee is however represented on the Advisory Board of a successful project submitted by Birmingham University.

Links with UCISA continue to be good with regular reports from their SDG and reciprocal visits on an occasional basis. The Committee also received a very interesting talk on the ECDL from Maureen Saunderson of SDG.

Pat Noon
Chair