Group Minutes

SOCIETY OF COLLEGE NATIONAL & UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Working Group on Performance Improvement

Minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 19 January 2006

Present:Maxine Melling (Chair), Toby Bainton, Angela Conyers, Claire Creaser, Stephen Town, Chris West, Rupert Wood

Apologies: Susan Copeland, Pete Dalton, Philip Payne, Jean Yeoh

1. Minutes

The Minutes of the meeting held on 28 September 2005 were accepted as a correct record.

2. Matters arising from the Minutes

a. The Priority Research e-inform web survey service was scheduled to go live in April 2006. Chris was scheduled to discuss progress with Sue Whittaker from Priority Research on February 7. It was agreed that as many fields as feasible in the library and converged service templates should be capable of benchmarking.

Action: CW

b. After liasing with the Task and Finish Group on E-Learning, Philip would consider any possible revisions to the staff categories in the SSR.

Action: PP

c. It was agreed that any major revision of the WGPI web pages would be delayed until the proposed re-design of the SCONUL website and after the completion of the major WGPI projects agreed for 2006.

d. Stephen would liaise with the Working Group on Information Literacy on the library responses in the National Student Survey.

Action: ST

3. WGPI Remit and Action Plans for 2005 and 2006

The draft WGPI remit was approved. It was noted that Tony Lewis (co-opted from UCISA) would be a corresponding member. All of the objectives listed for 2005 had either been completed or were ongoing projects. It was agreed that the WGPI Action Plan for 2006 would focus on:

a. Developing a value for money methodology to demonstrate the value of HE libraries to their customers

b. Collecting, developing and disseminating SCONUL statistics, including the further refinement of e-measure support

c. Developing, supporting and evaluating appropriate library survey instruments, including:

• Supporting SCONUL participants in the 2006 LibQUAL+ survey
• Using the Priority Research e-inform service to provide benchmarking facility

d. Producing a toolkit of measures from the Publisher Deals project

e. Disseminating key performance indicators on SCONUL libraries and information services, including HELMS and the ALS

f. Evaluating and publicising the results of the two impact measurement projects

It was important to relate the 2006 Action Plan to the Executive Board’s template for estimating Group costs. It was also agreed that the cost estimates would concentrate on project costs, rather than an exercise to estimate the overall costs of the Working Group. Maxine would finalise the template prior to the next EB meeting on 21 February.

Action: MM

4. Value And Impact Measurement Programme

Stephen was thanked for preparing a thoughtful and thorough project proposal for the Vale and Impact Measurement Programme (VAMP), using PRINCE2 methodology. He was also congratulated on his imaginative approach to acronyms. The project would aim to deliver a customisable toolkit for senior library and information service managers, which would enable them to demonstrate value for money. The project was necessarily wide-ranging and would use some current tools (for example, SCONUL Statistics on the Web, customer satisfaction surveys), but it would also develop new tools (for example, process costings, KPIs). In view of this, the VAMP project could use a Project Manager to commission the varied elements of the toolkit from different sources. This would be overseen by a WGPI sub-group made up of Maxine, Rupert and Stephen. The outline project programme running from February 2006 to April 2007 was agreed, with engagement with SCONUL members scheduled for the Newcastle Conference in June 2006. The outline costs of £20K plus VAT were also confirmed. The project plan would be updated to include a risk analysis element and would then be presented by Maxine to EB on 21 February.

Action: MM; ST

5. SCONUL Statistics on the Web

The historical data analysis feature of SCONUL Statistics on the Web had been implemented to coincide with SCONUL Autumn Conference in November 2005. Initial reaction from members had been very favourable. Any suggested amendments to fields and displays should be reported to Toby.

6. SCONUL Statistical Return 2004-05

Forty-three returns had been completed by 13 January 2006, a similar rate of completion to 2005. Claire would liaise with Toby on reminders for completion. Claire would also check that all of the e-measures were fully COUNTER compliant.

Action: CC

7. Publisher Deals Project

Fifteen libraries were now participating in the project, thanks to Maxine’s persuasive mail message. Two introductory workshops were being held in January and February, which would also decide which six publisher deals would be analysed.

Action: AC

8. LibQUAL+

The 2006 LibQUAL+ SCONUL consortium had twenty participating libraries, along with twenty-six non-HE UK libraries. For the first time, libraries could choose to participate in either a January to June or a July to December survey cycle. Following negotiations, Cranfield now had a contractual relationship with ARL to provide administrative and professional support for SCONUL consortium and other European participants. This would also provide extended analysis of results on a fee basis. It was agreed that this made SCONUL members’ involvement in LibQUAL+ much more sustainable. The SCONUL office would continue to invoice consortium participants.

9. Impact Measurement Projects

Philip had mailed a final report on the two SCONUL/LIRG impact measurement initiatives. These had clearly been valued by participants, although there had been concerns over time commitments and the research methodologies used. There were also useful linkages to the VAMP project (see 4. above). It was agreed that the final report and its conclusions needed wider dissemination.

Action: PP

10. Any Other Business

a. Newcastle Conference: WGPI would manage two repeat workshops on 21 and 22 June, to obtain feedback from SCONUL members on the VAMP project programme.

b. Customer Value Discovery: Following a recent UC&R talk by Sue McKnight, Chris would investigate the Customer Value Discovery methodology.

Action: CW

11. Date of Next Meeting

Subsequently confirmed as 12noon for 12.30, Thursday 11 May 2006, at SCONUL HQ.