Oxford Union Society Library Committee
Minutes of Meeting HT 2014 Week 5 (Monday 17th February), 2.15pm
Present: Patrick Ball, Mark Bosley, David Browne, Kostas Chryssnathopoulos
(Librarian-Elect), Phillip Counsell, Rupert Cunningham, Timothy Foot, Diana
Hackett (Minutes Secretary), Crawford Jamieson (Junior Librarian), Isobel Johns,
Alys Key, Su Lockley (Librarian-in-Charge), Dominic Merchant, Tanya Pankratova,
Eve Phillips, Sean Power (Senior Librarian), Cason Reily, Charlie Vaughan
(Standing Committee Representative), John Whitehead, and Wybo Wiersma.
1.
Apologies
Apologies were received from Charles Helding, Oliver Johnston-Watt, Garrett Morris,
Liam Murphy, Ylwa Pettersson, James Stokes, and Connor Warden.
2.
Membership
The Junior Librarian confirmed that Standing Committee had ratified the names of the
four new members.
3.
Minutes and Matters Arising from Previous Meeting
The Librarian-in-Charge had looked into purchasing a copy of Le Bon Usage:
Grammaire Francaise, by Maurice Grevisse, and discovered that the Library has had
a copy of the latest edition of the book on order for a long time. She suggested that we
cancel this order, and instead purchase a second-hand copy of the current edition. As
the money has been previously allocated for this book, it would then not be necessary
to add it to the Collection Development list in Week 8. The Committee agreed that
this was a sensible plan, and the Librarian-in-Charge will action it accordingly.
4.
Matters Arising from Standing Committee
There were no matters arising from Standing Committee.
5.
Complaints Book
There were no complaints.
6.
Matters for Strategy Committee
There were no further matters put forward for the Strategy Committee agenda.
7.
Overdue Books
The list of borrowers with books that are three months overdue (as at 17th February
2014) was presented to the Committee. The Librarian-in-Charge asked members to
contact anyone that they knew on the list, and to ask them to return their books and
pay their fines as soon as possible.
If books are not returned and fines not paid by Thursday 20th February, then the
borrowers’ names will be read out in Chamber by the Junior Librarian. Their Union
membership will be suspended until the fines are paid, in accordance with the Union
Rules.
8.
Book Lists for HT Week 5: Engineering & Materials (£225), English
(£265)
Liam Murphy prepared the Engineering and Materials list, which contains both
general reading and more academic texts. The list was passed.
Alys Key prepared the English list, using course reading lists. The list was passed.
9.
Book Lists for HT Week 6: Economics (£240), Chemistry (£225)
Charles Helding will prepare the Economics list, and Tanya Pankratova will prepare
the Chemistry list.
10.
Book Lists for HT Week 7: Law (£248), History (£270)
David Browne will prepare the Law list, and John Whitehead will prepare the History
list.
11.
Members’ Suggestions (£85)
There were no Members’ Suggestions this week.
12.
DVD List 2014HT5
The Librarian-in-Charge explained that there was no DVD list this week. This was
due to the amount of money available this week being quite small. She suggested that
it therefore made more sense to carry this sum over to next week, as it will then create
a more usable fund for next week’s DVD list. The Committee agreed that this was a
good course of action.
13.
Deferred Withdrawals 2014HT4
The Librarian-in-Charge researched the usage of the deferred titles in other libraries.
The Librarian-in-Charge discovered that the latest edition of First industrial nation:
an economic history of Britain 1700 – 1914, by Peter Mathias, is very well used in
other libraries. She suggested that the Committee purchase a copy of this third edition,
using the available funds from Members’ Suggestions. The Committee agreed that
this would be a good idea and the Librarian-in-Charge will order the book. The
current edition held by the Library will be withdrawn.
The Committee decided to keep the following titles:
 End of isolation: British foreign policy 1900 – 1907, by George Monger
 House of Lords and contemporary politics 1911 – 1957, by P. A. Bromhead
All other deferred titles were withdrawn.
14.
Withdrawals 2014HT5
The Librarian-in-Charge will research the usage of the following titles in other
libraries:
 Capital and Growth, by John Hicks
 Economic growth in France and Britain 1851 – 1950, by Charles P.
Kindleberger
 History of British agriculture 1846 – 1914, by Christabel S. Orwin and Edith
H. Whetham
All other titles will be withdrawn.
15.
New Members
There were no new members.
16.
Any Other Business
The Librarian-in-Charge informed the Committee that the Morris Room might be
unavailable for the next couple of weeks, due to an external hire. As the Gladstone
Room table was not quite large enough to accommodate the whole Committee, it was
decided that, should the Morris Room continue to be unavailable, next week’s
meeting would be held in the Macmillan Room.
Timothy Foot raised the issue of the plastic chairs being stored in the Goodman
Library. At present, they take up a lot of space in the area where the computers
eventually installed, which will make them inconvenient to access. The LibrarianElect stated that he thought the storage of the chairs in the Goodman was a temporary
solution, to avoid staff having to carry the chairs long distances each time they are
needed. The Junior Librarian will raise the issue with CCC to ensure that, once the
computers have been installed, the chairs are returned to the upper landing when not
in use.
17.
Time and Date of Next Meeting
The next meeting of the Library Committee will take place on Monday 24th February
2014, HT Week 6, at 2.15pm in the Macmillan Room.