curlnews 08 - December 2002
Quite a few changes have occurred since the last curlnews…
As a result of Chris Bailey and Anne Mealia leaving for greener pastures, there has been a complete change of staff in the CURL Office. The new Executive Secretary, Dr Marie-Pierre Détraz, took up her post in February 02, Joy West, Administrative Assistant, in April 02 and Dr Mike Mertens, Database Office and Deputy Secretary at the end of May 02. For the first time in the history of CURL, all three members of the Secretariat are based in the same office. The CURL Office is now hosted by the University of Birmingham.
Board Membership
At its meeting on 2 October 02, the Chair of the Board paid tribute to Ian Mowat (1946-2002). The Board observed a minute of silence in memory of Ian.
At its meeting on 15 November 02, the Board thanked Michael Hannon, who is retiring at the end of 2002, for the work he has done for CURL over the years, in particular in his capacity as Treasurer. It was agreed that Clare Jenkins would be Acting Treasurer until the next AGM in April 03.
There will be five vacancies to fill at the next AGM.
CURL Membership
The Board has agreed the applications for full membership submitted by the British Library, the National Library of Scotland, the National Library of Wales and the University of Bristol. The three national libraries formally became full members in October 01 and Bristol in March 02. This brings the number of full members to 25.
Research Support Libraries Group (RSLG)
The Board sent a paper, to the RSLG for its residential meeting on 11-12 June 02.
Review of the Strategic Plan
In addition to its regular meetings, the Board met on two occasions, on 30 October and 15 November 02, to start the process of reviewing the CURL Strategic Directions, 2000-2004. Following a discussion at the Members’ meeting on 10 October 02, it was agreed that rather than review the existing document, the Board would draft a completely new plan reflecting both external factors and the recent changes in the CURL membership. The drafting of the new strategic plan will involve the full membership.
CURL Database
At its meeting on 23 November 01, the Board agreed to fund an additional post at MIMAS, for one year in the first instance, for a CURL MARC21 project aimed at converting the CURL database to MARC21 by July 03.
At its meeting on 15 November 02, the Board agreed in principle a proposal for a joint CURL-BL marketing strategy, submitted by the British Library and recommended by the CURL RD&D Steering Group. It is hoped that the proposal will be fully implemented by Easter 03.
Resource Management
At its meeting on 2 October 02, the Board agreed to support two proposals submitted by the Task Force on Resource Management:
(a) Proposal for a CURL project aimed at developing collaborative collection management procedures (see CURL-CoFoR), to be substantially funded by CURL;
(b) Proposal for a Monograph Inter-lending Consultancy Study, to be funded by CURL and the British Library Co-operation and Partnership Programme.
At its meeting on 2 October 02, the Board agreed to renew CURL’s subscription to the Digital Preservation Coalition for the year 2002-2003.
Scholarly Communications
At its meeting on 2 October 02, the Board agreed to make a financial contribution to the SHERPA project.
Responses
Responses to calls for evidence, prepared in co-operation with the Task force on Scholarly Communications, were sent to:
The HEFCE regarding the Research Assessment Exercise, November 02
CURL Database
The BLPC records are now available to the Members for record retrieval. Those of the National Library of Scotland and the National Library of Wales are available from the libraries themselves via the Z39.50 route and will be loaded into the CURL database in 2003 when the CURL database has been converted to MARC21.
The records produced by Reading in the framework of the CURL-led RSLP 19th Century Pamphlets Project have been loaded in the CURL database, as agreed by CURL during the life of the project.
A work schedule for the loading of datasets from new Members and Members who have changed library systems has been negotiated between MIMAS and the Members with the help of the CURL Office.
MARC21 Project
The project officer, Nicholas Syrotiuk, took up his post on 1 August 02. The post is based at MIMAS.
Three cataloguers’ meetings were organised by Mike Mertens in cooperation with Nicholas and MIMAS with a view to giving the Members the opportunity to contribute to the designing of the new database. Further consultation will take place electronically.
See Cataloguers Meeting Summary for more information.
COPAC
An improved version of COPAC has been available since October 02. The records of the National Library of Scotland and the National Library of Wales will continue to be searchable through a separate cross-searching service until their data are loaded in the new CURL MARC21 database in 2003.
14 out of 25 full CURL Members now have their circulation data hot-linked to COPAC record displays.
By the end of September 02, the Hub contained ca. 10,000 records. The distributed version of the Hub is in the process of being tested by three CURL Members. A proposal for further funding beyond July 03 has been submitted to JISC.
Britain in Print
The HLF has given the project the go-ahead to recruit a project officer for Phase One of the project (i.e. the development of the educational web tool). Interviews took place on 12 December 02.
CURL-RLG deal
The CURL-RLG deal for 2002-2003 includes a new component, a Digital Reference Package containing Archives Resources and Cultural Materials. This part of the deal is subsidised by CURL for one year only.
Resource Management
The Task Force:
has produced the final report of the CURL/RSLP Collection Mapping project
has set up (and will be monitoring) CURL-CoFoR
is commissioning a Monograph Inter-lending Consultancy Study
Scholarly Communications
The Task Force:
has bid successfully for SHERPA
organised an advocacy campaign
(see evaluation report) and contributed to the setting up of ISCA
has started working on a deal with Elsevier Science for 2003-2004
Staffing Resources
The Task Force organised two one-day events:
New Routes to Scholarly Communication, 11 March 02
The Bidding Culture, 13 June 02
Teaching and Learning
The Task Force has:
commissioned a study into research-led teaching methodologies in CURL institutions.
set up a small project to test the OCLC QuestionPoint reference management software within the Consortium; and arranged for a CURL wish-list to be sent to netLibrary.
The following projects have been completed:
19th Century Pamphlets
The project was completed in July 02, as planned. It has been a great success: the partnership exceeded its retrospective conversion target by 1,390 records. The web guide will be mounted on the CURL web site in the New Year.
See Final Report
CEDARS
The project held its last, very successful, workshop on 25-26 February 02 and has produced five guidance documents, which are available on the project web site, on: IPR, Preservation Metadata, Collection Management, Digi Preservation Strategies and Digital Archiving Prototypes.
CURL-RSLP Collection Mapping Project (using the iCAS software)
The final report was submitted to RSLP and the CURL Board by the end of September 02, as requested. The results of the experiment have been mixed.
See Final Report
CURL-SHARES
The project was very successful and CURL-SHARES has been running as a service since January 02.
UK Libraries +
8 CURL Members have joined the scheme: Birmingham, Durham, Glasgow, Leeds, LSE, Manchester, Nottingham and Southampton.
A fair number of CURL Members have already expressed an interest in joining the Research Extra scheme.
SPARC Europe
7 CURL Members have joined SPARC Europe: Aberdeen, Bristol, Cambridge, Glasgow, Oxford, Sheffield and Warwick.
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