WGPI Meeting Minutes - 21 January 2010
SOCIETY OF COLLEGE NATIONAL & UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
Working Group on Performance Improvement
Minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 21 January 2010
Present: Mary Davies (Chair), Simon Bevan, Angela Conyers, Claire Creaser, Ann Davies, Gail Downe, Louise Jones, Elizabeth Malone, Rupert Wood (Secretary)
1. Apologies for absence
Apologies had been received from Susan Copeland and Toby Bainton. Gail Downe, SCONUL Assistant Secretary, had kindly agreed to join the meeting in Toby’s place.
2. Minutes of the last meeting
The minutes of the meeting held on 24 September 2009 were agreed as a correct record.
3. Matters arising from the minutes
3.1. Simon reported that he and Louise had met with Ann Mathie, representing the SCONUL Working Group on Quality Assurance, to discuss the learning resources questions in the National Student Survey. This was to see whether a case could be made for recommending improvements. The next step was to gauge how likely it would be to effect changes. It was thought that no dialogue between SCONUL and the organisers of the NSS had taken place as yet, but Mary agreed to confirm this with Toby.
Action: MD
Simon and Louise will now review comparable questions in other surveys.
3.2. Angela reported that there had been a disappointing level of feedback so far on the recommendations for reviewing the questions on electronic sources of information in the SCONUL statistics. The recommendations were being piloted and had been circulated to the LIS-SCONUL-STATS e-mail discussion list for comment. Members of the Working Group would arrange for feedback on the proposals from their own institutions to be sent to Angela or Claire as soon as possible.
Action: All
3.3. Angela reported that Evidence Base had now put on hold development of the project on Value Management which she’d mentioned at the last meeting.
4. SCONUL Statistics
4.1. Ann reported on a meeting of the SCONUL Statistics Sub-Group which had taken place on 10 December 2009.
4.2 Nineteen HEIs were taking part in piloting the revised e-measures questions. A focus group would be held in April 2010 and a proposal would be made to the next WGPI meeting in May, with a view to incorporating the revisions in the 2009/10 statistical return. The Sub-Group would arrange publicity for the revisions, for example in the next issue of the SCONUL e-bulletin.
4.3 On changes to the questionnaire generally, an Action Plan was being developed by the Sub-Group. Structural changes to make it more logical, and content changes to reflect developments in the profession, would be taken forward. SCONUL members would be surveyed and proposals for changes would be brought to the next meeting of the WGPI in May 2010.
4.4 It was noted that Claire had made extensive revisions and improvements to the SCONUL Statistics pages accessed via the Performance Portal.
4.5 Claire reported that the response rate for the 2008/09 return was good; with a few libraries requesting an extension to the deadline. Claire will arrange for a reminder to be sent to those who hadn’t yet submitted.
Action: CC
4.6 Mary thanked Ann, Claire and the other members of the Sub-Group for their work.
5. The Performance Portal
5.1. Louise reported on two meetings of the Performance Portal Sub-Group which had taken place on 11 November 2009 and 21 January 2010.
5.2. The need to identify commissioning editors for each section of the Portal was seen as a priority, and editorial work had begun, for example Selena Killick had updated information on LibQUAL+; and Simon had updated the Customer Service Excellence topic. A call for encouraging community created content would now be made.
5.3. Gail reported that the project to develop the SCONUL website was at the tender stage. The course and outcome of that project would influence the development of the Performance Portal. Louise will contact the website project to discuss progress.
5.4. A bid for funds to develop content for the Value category of the Portal would be made to the SCONUL Executive Board.
5.5. It was noted that publicity for and promotion of the Portal was an important strand in the Sub-Group’s work.
5.6. Mary thanked the Sub-Group for the exciting developments which were underway.
6. LibQUAL+
A report on LibQUAL+ had been submitted by Selena Killick on behalf of Stephen Town. It covered the 2009 SCONUL Consortium, in which 21 university libraries had participated, and the 2010 Consortium which was now underway.
Rupert will ask Stephen Town about the publicity for the event on 24 May 2010 which was aimed at library Directors, performance measurement professionals, and survey administrators.
Action: RW
Rupert will investigate the links between LibQUAL+ and the SCONUL Working Group on Quality Assurance.
Action: RW
Rupert will report on LibQUAL+ developments to the WGPI.
7. Bids for funding
The Working Group will submit three bids to the Executive Board:
- A bid to fund LibQUAL+ in 2010. The bid will be finalised in consultation with Stephen Town.
- A bid to fund a project supporting SCONUL members in the completion of the new e-measures questions, which will be introduced in the Statistical Questionnaire for 2009/10. The project would be run by Evidence Base in partnership with LISU and the University of Westminster.
- A bid to support and develop the Performance Portal, particularly content in the Value category on costing and economic impact; and in making data from the LibQUAL+ surveys more widely available.
8. The Annual Report of the WGPI 2009
A draft report had been circulated. Mary will incorporate comments from the Group in the final version.
9. The Action Plan 2010
A draft plan had been circulated using the standard template.
It was noted that space on the Performance Portal had already been created to host material for the Working Group on Quality Assurance, although it wasn’t populated as yet.
Simon said that he would plan work on supporting and evaluating user survey developments, including the SCONUL Satisfaction Survey.
It was agreed that publication of the HELMS data on the web was desirable. Mary will ask Toby for his views about this.
Action: MD
Rupert will revise the Plan and circulate the new version.
10. Any other business
10.1. ARL (Association of Research Libraries, US) had suggested that SCONUL might wish to join in sponsoring the 2010 Library Assessment Conference in Baltimore. It was agreed that, regretfully, sponsorship would not be possible.
10.2. It was noted that a new Group, MUDL (Managing and Understanding Data in Libraries), was being established as a JIBS working group; they had written to the WGPI recently. It was thought that some of their terms of reference were unclear as yet so Mary and others will try to find out more, and Mary will respond to MUDL’s communication.
Action: MD
10.3. It was noted that the SCONUL Secretary and the Statistics Sub-Group have been investigating the possibility of SCONUL Statistics being included in heidi, the information database of HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency). After an initial encouraging response from HESA, this important proposal will be investigated further, and added to the WGPI’s Action Plan.
11. Dates of future meetings
The next meeting of the WGPI will be on 12 May 2010 at 12.30 for 13.00 at SCONUL HQ.
The Sub-Group on the Performance Portal will meet on 12 May 2010 at 11.30 at SCONUL HQ.
The Sub-Group on SCONUL Statistics will meet on 12 May 2010 at 3.00 at SCONUL HQ.
Rupert will arrange a date for a meeting of the WGPI in September 2010.