UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
LIBRARY SPACE REORGANISATION: TASK AND FINISH GROUP
A meeting of the Library Space Reorganisation: Task And Finish Group was held on 29 October
2007at 3.00pm in Room 2.5, Peter Chalk.
PRESENT:
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor M Overton (Chair)
Dr Stewart Barr
Prof Jonathan Barry
Prof Cathie Holden
Dr John Love
Prof Stephen Mitchell
Mr Martin Myhill
Prof Stephen Neale
Ms Ashley Petrons
Ms Michele Shoebridge
Prof Melanie Williams
Ms Lee Snook (Convenor)
1
Apologies & Membership
Apologies – none. The Chair welcomed Prof Cathie Holden and Prof Stephen Mitchell to the
group.
2
Minutes of the last meeting
The minutes of the meeting held on 15th October 2007 were CONFIRMED. Professor
Overton advised that the group would produce a report that would be passed to VCEG and
Senate at the end of the process.
3
Collection Development Policy
The group discussed the Collection Development Policy which had recently been updated, in
particular to take account of developments in the electronic environment and national archive
initiatives. The group AGREED the underlying principle that the Library can not keep all stock
in perpetuity, and need agreed criteria to manage stock control and produce library facilities
and resources commensurate with the University’s ambitions. The criteria must reflect the
diverse user groups and changing library environment and be produced in consultation with
Schools/Departments. The Traffic Light System had been selected as the means of agreeing
and implementing these criteria.
Prof Jonathan Barry welcomed the emphasis on the responsiveness of School information
resource budgets. Martin Myhill confirmed that 5.1.5 related to the expenditure of School
information resource budgets only and that Schools could continue to use their research
grants for School/Researcher specific materials. Prof Barry noted concern over the need for
the steady state policy, outlined in Section 5.1.6 and the pressure that might be brought on
more print intensive Schools to discard stock. Michele Shoebridge advised that a steady
state policy was necessary as Library space was finite but that this encompassed transferring
stock as well as discarding stock and that the Traffic Light principles would be used to guide
the process in order to accommodate the differing needs of individual Schools and
departments.
The group recognised the importance of using reading lists and WebCT alongside the
purchase of ready text items to deliver high demand materials, particularly journal articles and
book chapters. Prof Stephen Neale noted the heavy demand on time involved in the
scanning of material for WebCT. Michele Shoebridge advised that the Educational
Enhancement Team and the Academic Subject Consultants would be working closely with
Schools to bring material together into the WebCT environment, and were aiming to
incorporate reading lists with links to online full text material into WebCT modules. Prof
Melanie Williams emphasised the vital importance of WebCT for staff and students at
Tremough as a tool for identifying and accessing available resources.
It was AGREED that Section 5.6 of the policy, relating to gifts from academics, would be
reworded more positively.
4
Traffic Lights
The Traffic Lights set out proposed criteria for managing library stock and have been tailored
to each individual School/Department. Stock has been allocated into three categories; RED
(for retention in situ), GREEN (for disposal), AMBER (for consultation regarding retention,
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disposal or relegation to store). Factors such as usage, electronic equivalents, rarity and
guaranteed archives have been taken into account in formulating criteria and allocating stock
to the three categories.
The Traffic Lights have been circulated to all Schools/Departments and will be discussed in
detail via meetings between Academic Subject Consultants and School/Representatives. The
Traffic Lights are not fixed and the views of each School are being actively sought in order to
agree principles that meet the needs of all user groups within each School/Department.
Schools/Departments have been encouraged to ensure all stakeholders are involved in
consultation relating to these Traffic Lights so that the needs of all user groups are
represented.
Once agreed, the Traffic Lights criteria will be applied by the Academic Subject Consultants in
order to move or deselect stock. It will not be possible to produce lists of items proposed for
deselection as the Traffic Light system is a principle based system rather than a list based
system. Staff and students will be given the opportunity to peruse deselected stock and
select items for their own collections.
Dr Stewart Barr advised that it should be made clear that the proposed meetings are to be
used to consult on the principles of the Traffic Lights rather than on individual titles.
Prof Stephen Mitchell queried whether alternative solutions had been considered before
formulating the Traffic Lights criteria such as transferring entire subject collections to the Old
Library, rather than splitting collections by transferring lesser used material. Martin Myhill
confirmed this option had been considered, as had transferring all journals to the Old Library.
However, having weighed all the various pluses and minuses of the three approaches, the
usage approach had been selected. No School was yet in the position of being so non-print
dependent or independent of other subject collections to make the alternatives viable options.
Michele Shoebridge advised that splitting the collections along the proposed lines was an
approach that had been adopted by numerous libraries and was the one recommended by
the MoveCorp report.
The group considered a motion passed by the Guild Council relating to the Traffic Lights. The
motion was based on undue anxiety over ‘amber’ items, the majority of which would be
moved to the Old Library, rather than discarded, as outlined in the motion. Ashley Petrons
explained that postgraduates wished to be consulted about the treatment of stock under the
Traffic Lights. In addition to Ms Petrons’ contribution to the group, Martin Myhill and Michele
Shoebridge had already met with postgraduate student representatives to discuss their
concerns. The Library also recommends that Schools and departments involve students in
their consideration of the Traffic Light criteria in order to ensure the needs of all staff and
students within Schools/Departments are taken into account.
5
Update on current activity (MM)
The Collection Development Policy and Traffic Lights had been distributed to
Schools/Departments and Academic Subject Consultants had begun setting up meetings to
discuss and agree the Traffic Lights principles.
6
Next meeting
Consideration of Site Libraries
Michele Shoebridge and Martin Myhill were in the process of drawing together papers relating
to the consideration of the site libraries. These papers would be distributed to the group
ahead of the next meeting and also to the relevant Schools, who would be invited to comment
on the proposals.
7
Following meeting:
a) Stakeholder Groups and communications
b) Research strategy
c) Electronic Resources
To be discussed.
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8
AOB
None
9
Date of Next Meeting
21st November 2007, 1000-1200, Xfi Seminar Room 'C'.