WGPI Meeting Minutes - 12 May 2010
SOCIETY OF COLLEGE NATIONAL & UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
Working Group on Performance Improvement
Minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 12 May 2010
Present: Mary Davies (Chair), Pat Barclay (by invitation), Simon Bevan, Susan Copeland, Claire Creaser, Ann Davies, Louise Jones, Rupert Wood (Secretary)
1. Apologies for absence
Apologies had been received from Toby Bainton, Angela Conyers and Elizabeth Malone.
Mary welcomed Susan back to the Group after an absence.
2. Minutes of the last meeting
The minutes of the meeting held on 21 January 2010 were agreed as a correct record.
3. Matters arising from the minutes
3.1. Representatives from WGPI and the Working Group on Quality Assurance had been discussing the wording of the National Student Survey questions on learning resources to see if a case could be made for recommending improvements. The WGQA will be discussing this soon, after which it would be decided whether the Executive Board should be asked to approach the organisers of the NSS with suggestions for change.
Action: SB/LJ
Simon and Louise will now review comparable questions in other surveys.
3.2. Claire asked that if any member of the Group had substantive feedback on the proposals for the revised e-measure questions in the SCONUL Statistics, they should contact her as soon as possible.
3.3. Ann reported that the Statistics Sub-Group no longer thought it necessary to survey SCONUL members on proposals for changes in the questionnaire which didn’t relate to e-measures, as only relatively minor changes were being proposed at the moment.
3.4. Rupert reported that the LibQUAL+ event for Library Directors, performance measurement professionals and survey administrators would be taking place on 24 May 2010 at Glasgow University.
3.5. It was thought that the Working Group on Quality Assurance could be approached to see if there was a possibility of a member also being a member of the WGPI, or whether some more informal arrangements for dialogue on matters of joint interest, for example the LibQUAL + surveys, would be possible in the future.
3.6. Mary will ask Toby about his views on the proposal to publish the HELMS data on the web.
Action: MD
3.7. Informal discussions had taken place with MUDL (Managing and Understanding Data in Libraries) and these would continue.
4. Membership of the WGPI
As Mary and Rupert were resigning from the Group, a new Chair and a new Secretary would be appointed. Any expressions of interest from current members should be sent to Mary or Toby. The process for recruiting two new members would be set in train. Mary thanked Rupert for his contribution to the WGPI over the last five years.
5. Outcome of bids to the Executive Board (EB) for project funding
None of the Group’s three bids had been successful, although the EB had expressed support for the project to develop the Performance Portal, and the project to support SCONUL members in completing the new e-measures questions proposed for the SCONUL Statistics return. The EB had invited further discussion about the bids. It was agreed that while it wouldn’t be possible to merge these two bids into one, some prioritisation might be possible.
After consultation, Louise will propose revised funding requirements for developing the Performance Portal.
Action: LJ
Mary will write to the EB expressing the Group’s disquiet about the current process used for bidding for project funding and make some suggestions for improvement.
Action: MD
Mary will also write to the EB asking about its views on LibQUAL+ since the bid for funding LibQUAL+ in 2010 hadn’t been supported.
Action: MD
6. SCONUL Statistics
6.1. Claire reported that the draft Statistics for 2008/09 would be available soon for WGPI members to check. There had been 141 responses which was a response rate of 85%.
6.2. Ann reported that the Statistics Sub-Group would meet on 12 May 2010 when it would consider again possible changes to those questions in the return which didn’t relate to e-measures, as well as the new e-measure revisions. [Members of the WGPI subsequently approved the changes to the questionnaire agreed and proposed by the Sub-Group on Statistics.]
6.3. Angela, Claire and Pat had circulated a report on the e-measures pilot project. Pat reported on the Focus Group held on 21 April 2010 to review the proposed new e-measure questions. Unease had been expressed by those who were regularly involved in collecting and reporting the statistics on the use of electronic sources that the data tended to be partial and unreliable but was nevertheless being used quite frequently by Library Directors and others for comparisons and promotions.
The WGPI thought that there was a clear need to try and improve this data and that in the meantime it needed to be accepted that there was some fuzziness and imprecision involved. A quick survey of Library Directors would be undertaken to try to establish their needs for the statistics on the use of electronic sources of information for benchmarking and advocacy.
Action: AD
7. The Performance Portal
7.1. Louise reported that the tendering process for developing the SCONUL website, in which she was participating, was continuing. IPR issues had arisen. The WGPI agreed that a migration of the Statistics reporting tool to a new site would need to allow future developments to be incorporated when they were needed. Cranfield University would be hosting the Portal until December 2010.
7.2. Further content had been added to the Portal. Louise will be the point of contact for those (either WGPI members or others) wishing to upload new content.
7.3. There would be an opportunity at the SCONUL Conference 2010 to promote the Portal and elicit further feedback from delegates on their views for its development, especially the Value category. Claire has written a paper on the Portal’s usage. There are currently around 1,200 unique visitors to the site each month. An article would be submitted to SCONUL Focus summarising the usage information, and the feedback received at the Conference.
8. LibQUAL+
A report had been sent to the Group by Selena Killick.
9. Surveys in HE libraries
Simon reported that he had discussed the SCONUL Satisfaction Survey templates with Chris West (Swansea University). There was a template for converged services as well as a Library template. They needed to be reviewed and updated if necessary, and then put up on the website. Simon will repeat the survey of members from 2004 on what methodologies are being used. It was agreed that the results of this consultation as well as the templates will be discussed at the next meeting of the WGPI.
Action: SB
10. The Action Plan
The Plan was reviewed.
It was noted that HESA had responded favourably to the proposal that SCONUL statistics should be incorporated in heidi and that there might be a charge. Claire will recommend a starting year for this data [2004/05 was subsequently recommended]; and Mary will convey to Toby the Group’s strongly held view that this development would be highly significant and worthwhile.
Action: MD
11. Any other business
Louise reported that it might be possible to put up some interesting data from the National Student Survey on the Performance Portal.
Action: LJ
11. Dates of future meetings
The next meeting will be held on 23 September 2010 at 12.00 noon for 12.30 pm (at SCONUL HQ).
Mary said that she was sad and sorry to be leaving the WGPI, and the Group thanked her for her contributions as an effective Chair.