Highlights of CURL activity

OCTOBER

The CURL Board met on 07 October 2005
CURL has agreed to part-fund a 2-year joint JISC-CURL LOCKSS pilot programme . A call for participation was sent out, with the start date for the programme envisaged for early 2006. CURL will part-fund membership of the LOCKSS Alliance on behalf of the community. A Town meeting in December took this forward.

With the successful completion of the CoFoR project, the Board reaffirmed the centrality of Collaborative Collection Management to CURL activity. The Board, in partnership with the RIN, funded a major external evaluation of CoFoR, in order to progress CCM work.

The Members’ meeting was held on 13 October 2005
The topic of this years meeting was strategic themes, these being CURL’s for the period 2006-2008, the new JISC framework, as well as that of the RIN. A summary of the work of the CHEMS consulting group on optimizing storage in the UK was also presented, with feedback informing the programme of the event held in December.

SHERPA Management group met on 18 October
SHERPA will support the CURL-SCONUL Scholarly Communications Group Advocacy Campaign, but will focus on SCONUL libraries as CURL institutions are generally already running institutional repositories.

International Partnerships of Research Excellence (IPRE) – 19 October
CURL participated with the British Library and RIN in drawing up a proposal to Sir Gareth Roberts’ IPRE initiative, suggesting ways in which closer collaboration can be fostered between UK and US researchers, particularly in the arts and humanities and social sciences. The proposal contained 2 elements: funded fellowships based at the British Library to give US researchers access to resources and the opportunity to develop links with their UK counterparts, and a themed digitisation programme, to be developed in conjunction with the Library of Congress.

Joint Scholarly Communications Group 25 October
The second National Advocacy Campaign was announced and will run from October 2005 until July 2006. The Group also submitted a statement on behalf of CURL, SCONUL and CILIP in response to the RCUK consultation exercise regarding access to published research output. The UUK statement on open access was prepared in consultation with members of the Scholarly Communications Group. A submission on scholarly communications issues is being prepared for consideration by the Russell Group later this year.

NOVEMBER

The CURL Board met on 18 November 2005
CURL’s Strategic Plan 2006-2008 was approved, after consultation with CURL members through the Members’ Meeting. As a result, the Resource Management Task Force was reconvened, and November saw the first stage in the creation of the CURL as Community Task Force, to be chaired by Robin Green , and of the Research Support Task Force, to be chaired by Michele Shoebridge, of Information Services, University of Birmingham.

OCLC QuestionPoint meeting 04 November
CURL Members attended a meeting on QuestionPoint and the virtual reference space, held at Birmingham and organized by OCLC-PICA. Current CURL users of QuestionPoint shared insights and best practice with colleagues either using QP or planning to move into virtual reference. One outcome of the day is CURL-VREF, a new CURL email discussion list that will support CURL members’ interest in this type of service. To subscribe, go to: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/curl-vref.html

Resource Discovery Strategy Group, 21 November
This group, which is the forum for CURL resource discovery initiatives, is chaired by David Pearson , Director of ULRLS. The first meeting reviewed issues relating to the present drivers in the resource discovery landscape with colleagues from the Research Library Network and the JISC. The Group, whose members include representatives of the British Library, the JISC, MIMAS and the RIN, discussed and confirmed the absolute importance of metadata and of catalogues for the discovery and access to both digital and non-digital content, the expectation that COPAC will be a large element in any future UK Union catalogue initiative, and that the addition of existing databases and material to COPAC, either through such initiatives as CC-Interop, or through targeted retroconversion, should be pursued.

Resource Management Task Force, 24 November
The newly re-convened* Task Force will inform and have an oversight role in relation to some of CURL’s biggest projects and initiatives - past, present and prospective. The Task Force will take up some of the outcomes of the Monograph Interlending Project, in particular an investigation into the feasibility of a Service level Agreement for ILL delivery across the CURL community. It will also continue to be the focus for the evaluation and projection of CCM work in CURL, and is ready to play a role in the development of criteria for the addition of material to the research collections of the proposed national storage service (more on this under December below).

* The list of members can be found at http://www.curl.ac.uk/about/GroupsRM.htm

DECEMBER

December was no wind-down month, with several major events and outcomes of work done throughout the preceding year being staged.

LOCKSS Town Meeting 02 December
A very positive Town Meeting on the LOCKSS Call, chaired by RG, was held on 2 December. There were 63 registrations. A number of these were representatives of institutions or services not eligible to participate in the current programme, such as Research Council libraries, and from commercial providers. The JISC have indicated that there may be a second call in the 2006-2007 financial year.

One significant issue arose: LOCKSS deals directly with publishers, not with aggregators, so libraries whose subscriptions are wholly managed by aggregators may not be authorised to access content on publishers’ sites. LOCKSS has undertaken to pursue this. 27 proposals have been received, including 14 from CURL members. There are 25 places on the 2005 programme. Assessment is expected to be completed by the end of January.

Major Digitization report released
This month also saw the joint release of a major UK report, “Digitisation in the UK – the case for a UK Framework”, sponsored by CURL and the JISC. The report, based on the recommendations of a separate CURL-JISC study on provision of digitised (excluding born-digital) collections for UK Higher Education researchers, recommends the establishment of a UK framework for digitisation; greater co-ordination of existing services, and more investigation into users' needs. Both the report and initial study are available online

On the completion of this key project it was agreed to stand down CURL’s Digital Content Creation and Curation Task Force, with thanks to its Chair, Richard Ovenden, and the members of the group. The Resource Management Task Force will review CURL’s future role in the area of digitisation, taking into account the recommendations arising from the project and the remits of other relevant organisations.

Workshop on e-Research for University Library staff, 12 December 2005
This event, organised by UKOLN and involving the Digital Curation Centre, the JISC and the CURL/SCONUL e-Research Task Force, focused on the data and information management challenges, and the role of libraries in meeting them, of e-science material in support of research. Presentations by UKOLN, NERC, and the National e-Science Centre gave an insight into these practical issues, explored the definitions surrounding e-research, and drew an overview of the e-research landscape. The day also aided in further defining the role the new CURL/SCONUL e-Research Task Force can play in helping information services staff to support researchers.

An overview of the work of the Task Force will appear in the next issue of SCONUL Focus

The Workshop presentations are online

Evolution or Revolution: Optimizing Storage event 13 December
This free British Library/CURL event, open to all library and information sectors and UK researchers, was organised to debate the findings of a British Library and CURL-commissioned report by the CHEMS consultancy group, “Optimising storage and access in UK research libraries”. There was strong support from the majority of the 80 participants for the report’s clear recommendation for a national storage service hosted by the British Library. This is seen as the most efficient and economical (and collaborative) approach to a solution of the space shortages endemic in UK Higher Education research libraries, and a means of ensuring preservation in perpetuity of the nation’s print research resources. A Steering Group has now been set up to explore the feasibility of what could be a fundamental alteration to the storage and provision of UK research materials.

Presentations from the event are accessible here.

Terrorism Bill - Meeting of 19 December
There has been significant concern amongst all library and information sectors over the implications of the Terrorism Bill. CURL joined The British Library, the National Libraries of Scotland and Wales, BIALL, CILIP, CURL, LISC (Northern Ireland), the MLAC, RIN, SCONUL, SCURL, SLIC, SCL and UUK, in forming a consortium to respond with a single voice on behalf of our communities. While we fully support the general purpose underlying the Bill, its potential consequences as originally drafted could have been to criminalise the legitimate activities of libraries and universities. The consortium has worked together to engage MPs and Peers, with considerable success: the government has introduced amendments to the initial text, and there is hope that our central concern will be addressed. We will continue to work together to ensure this happens.

MIDESS Evaluation of Digital Repository Software – 19 December The MIDESS partners met at Leeds on 19 December for demonstrations and questions on the efficacy and appositeness of a number of both open source and commercial software packages for the management of digital repositories.. The results of the day have been collated and provide a detailed set of guidelines on issues such as the maintenance, complexity, ease of use, and staff resource required to support the named packages: DigiTool; Symposia; Encompass (commercial) and Fedora; Greenstone, and DSpace (OSS). The report can be accessed via the CURL members' only pages. (email mike.mertens@curl.ac.uk for login reminder)

CoFoR evaluation report joint-funded with the RIN
CURL’s CoFoR (Collaboration for Research) project showed that a collaborative approach to collection management (CCM) can be of real benefit in areas with specific characteristics, e.g., those with a defined set of libraries and print collections dispersed geographically, and where monograph and grey literature material, including foreign language material published outside the UK, has high importance. The project also showed that real success in this work, particularly in ensuring that ongoing agreements remain robust, is likely to be where relevant subject association and institutional partners have close and ongoing involvement in the processes.

CURL and the Research Information Network are commissioning a major external evaluation of CoFoR and other schemes to investigate these and other findings in order to inform future CCM work by CURL members and others.

CURL as Community News

CURL library collections receive national recognition
The MLA designation scheme in October 2005 awarded recognition to the following CURL institution collections:

• University of Birmingham
  
  • The Mingana Collection of Middle Eastern Manuscripts, which is part of Special Collections, Information Services
• Cambridge University
  
  • Churchill Archives Centre
  • Old Library Collection, St John's College
• Durham University
  
  • The Bishop Cosin's Library;
  • The Sudan Archive, Durham University Library
• Leeds University
  
  • The English Literature Collection;
  • The Romany Collection;
  • The Cookery Collection;
  • The Leeds Russian Archive;
  • The Liddle Collection, Special Collections, Leeds University Brotherton Library,
• London School of Economics and Political Science:
  
  • All the collections at the British Library of Political and Economic Science
• University of Manchester
  
  • The Special Collections
  • The Manchester Medical Society Library, John Rylands University Library
• The Wellcome Trust
  • All collections within the Wellcome Library relating to the study of the history of medicine and associated subjects

NEWS FROM CURL MEMBERS

Birmingham University Information Services

Library strategy
Information Services are currently developing a new library vision and are working with an International logistics company, Movecorp, to create a facility plan for the Main Library. The strategy is to develop the Main Library as an inspirational space for learning and research.

Movecorp began work in August and have been visiting sites and gathering detailed information about all of our buildings, the way space is used and the constraints that the different buildings have. Information has been collected in a number of ways from talking to staff and conducting questionnaires to counting shelves and watching how people move through an area. A series of themed focus groups at which IS staff and library users had the opportunity to express their ideas about how the library should be developed. The themes included student facilities, service delivery, way finding, staff accommodation and the Library of the 21 st Century. Participants explored diverse ideas which could be used to create inspirational spaces for learning and research and enhance service delivery.

University to team up with international publishing group
University of Birmingham publications have moved on to a new home. Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd, have purchased the back list and the work in progress of the University of Birmingham Press .

Continuum specialises in academic publishing, with their main area of focus including Theology, Biblical Studies, Linguistics and Literature. Birmingham titles will benefit from Continuum’s place in the market, providing a wider forum and improved exposure for our academic authors. The University will retain the UBP imprint and the right to publish new titles which in future will be of specialist interest to the University or region. There is an option to co-publish new titles with Continuum.

The Press’s breadth and range of subject matter has been diverse. For example, John Constables Skies (by John Thornes, School of Geography and Environmental Science), is a study of the weather effects portrayed in Constables paintings, while the series The New Germany in Context series explores issues as diverse as German cinema since reunification, and the myth & reality of Buchenwald children.

Mingana Collection Gets Special Recognition
The Mingana Collection of Middle Eastern manuscripts, one of the University’s special collections, has been recognised as having outstanding national and international importance by the MLA Designation Scheme.

The Designation Scheme, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) has announced the collection as one of 38 listed across England celebrating and safeguarding the nation’s heritage held in libraries and archives.

The Mingana Collection, which was recently entrusted to the University by the Edward Cadbury Charitable Trust, consists of around 3,000 Arabic (Islamic and Christian), Syriac, Turkish, Persian, Hebrew, Ethiopic, Armenian, Georgian, Samaritan and other manuscripts dating from the 9 th to the 19 th centuries. The collection was brought together through the generosity of Edward Cadbury and collected by Alphonse Mingana during three travels to the Middle East in the 1920s.

The Mingana Collection has recently been showcased at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery at the exhibition ‘llluminating Faith’. The exhibition highlighted the Middle Eastern collections, costume and manuscripts that are held here in Birmingham , both at the University and the Museum. It raised the awareness of the faiths, peoples, and the cultural diversity of the Middle East and that of the West Midlands .

Projects
Information Services is involved with a number of external funded projects:

JISC ESpaces project

This JISC funded study came at an appropriate time to inform the University’s learning spaces strategy, a major programme of learning accommodation projects.

This extensive study brought together information from nearly 100 post‑compulsory educational institutions, mainly universities and colleges across the UK. With fifteen site visits, around 90 survey returns and further desk research the team were able to see examples of a wide range of innovative uses of learning technology, and in particular the ways in which learning spaces were being designed to accommodate those technologies.

The final report is now available from the University's Learning Development Unit (LDU) website [http://www.ldu.bham.ac.uk/espaces/] , which includes reports on site visits, chapters on "Current Practice, Trends and Visions for the Future" and "Strategic Management" as well as a manager's checklist for learning accommodation projects.

Measuring Impact
IS joined the 2nd cohort of libraries participating in the national LIRG / SCONUL initiative using qualitative methods to assess libraries’ impact. Birmingham chose to look at the impact IS is making on academic’s views of scholarly communications and their use of open access eprint repositories.

The project was conducted in two phases. The first phase of the project focussed on using questionnaires to gather information about users’ use and awareness of eprint repositories. Phase two involved 30 telephone interviews with PhD students and academics.

The results themselves are interesting, but not entirely unpredictable, it was the methodology itself which was of particular interest. On the whole we found that academics and PhD students seemed to enjoy discussing these issues, and valued the fact that we took the time to talk to them.

Cardiff University: Wellcome Trust Award
Collection Project Charts Genetic Discoveries.

Professor Peter Harper, from the School of Medicine, whose research work into Huntington's disease is world renowned, and Peter Keelan, Head of Special Collections and Archives at the University have been awarded a three year grant of £86,000 by the Wellcome Trust's History of Medicine Panel.

This project builds on work done over the past three years by Professor Harper, who has built up an international network of experts involved in the field. Early work by Professor Harper identified and led to the rescue of the archive of geneticist, Jim Renwick, the pioneer of early human gene mapping in the 1950s - an archive that was in danger of being thrown away after his recent death. Professor Harper said: "My colleagues and I are delighted that we now have funding and the general backing of Wellcome Trust for this exciting initiative. The impact of genetics on medicine has been so rapid that most of the founding workers are still living, so we have the unique chance of capturing its history from the very beginning. This is an urgent task, though, since many of those involved are now very elderly and records are in danger of being lost. The support of both Wellcome and the Wales Gene Park places Cardiff as the leader for this both for the UK and internationally." The project will construct a web-based archive of historical records and will also develop the Human Genetics Historical Library, already part of the University's Special Collections Initiative.

Peter Keelan said: "Many more genetics archives and books will be discovered during the course of the project and preserved with assistance from the University Library for research on 20th Century human genetics, one of the scientific revolutions of recent times."

University of Edinburgh: Electronic thesis mandate

Introduction
Until fairly recently the UK has lagged behind the rest of the world in investigating and developing electronic thesis systems for use in academic libraries. However, through a number of key initiatives funded by JISC (the FAIR and Digital Repository Programmes) the technical infrastructure is currently being developed and appropriate supporting services implemented. Projects like EThOS, which is partly funded by CURL, have been carrying the momentum forwards towards a national solution for electronic theses.

Initial steps
Building upon the experience of previous electronic thesis projects (Theses Alive!) and being a developmental partner of the EThOS project, the University of Edinburgh is committed to embrace electronic theses as part of the normal working practice of the university. Since late 2003 Edinburgh University Library (EUL) has been archiving doctoral theses online in the Edinburgh Research Archive (ERA). So far over 250 PhD theses have been collected from a mixture of current and graduated doctoral students and retrospectively scanned material. This content has been added to the growing collection of research output disseminated from ERA. In fact, the most popular downloads from the repository, which contains other content such as journal articles and book chapters, are almost entirely PhD theses. The download statistics (presented in Table One) demonstrate that institutional repositories are highly effective for the dissemination of research output and this must surely change the way researchers will approach and use the thesis literature in the future, perhaps in ways which we cannot envisage.

Regulations change
During this time of voluntary submission of theses we came to realise that it was very hard work to collect a comprehensive collection, which is why EUL has been working towards changing the degree regulations towards mandatory submission. In consultation with the Academic Affairs and Planning Secretariat we began the slow process of changing the degree regulations to mandate electronic submission for all doctoral candidates. The whole process from initial approach to the Senatus Postgraduate Studies Committee, through numerous committee meetings, to final acceptance took a little over two years. The main reason for this lengthy timescale was the infrequency and rigid structuring of senate meetings. With the new regulations in place all postgraduate students starting in October 2005 will be required to submit their thesis electronically to the library before graduation. Previously two hard bound copies were required to be provided by the student, but under the new regulations this will drop to one. It was decided that this decision cannot be applied retrospectively to current students, so in practice this means that the main bulk of electronic submission won’t start until 2008.

Prototype e-thesis submission service
The main problem with accepting electronic thesis submission is to ensure that the electronic files received are actually the same as the physical paper copy. To circumvent this problem EUL has devised a system whereby the print copy is automatically derived from the submitted files. The delay caused by students filtering through the system means that EUL has some breathing space to develop a full electronic thesis submission service. The prototype e-submission service is currently being tested by postgraduate students who are now overseas after finishing their studies. Normally they would be required to submit two hard bound copies to the Library at their own expense. The new service allows them to submit the files via the internet and pay for printing and binding costs with the university’s online payment system. Because of the time and cost saving benefits the service is proving to be extremely popular not only with postgraduate students, but also with the Special Collections department who look after theses management at EUL. Because the submission requirement has dropped to one hard bound thesis the library is saving over 15 metres of shelving a year. However, despite the many benefits that electronic theses bring it will be a long time before the University of Edinburgh moves completely to an e-only policy for PhD theses.

Theo Andrew , January 2006

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=programme_fair

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=programme_digital_repositories

http://www.ethos.ac.uk/

http://www.thesesalive.ac.uk/

http://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/

Table One: Top ten downloads from the Edinburgh Research Archive (Jan 2006).

London School of Economics

MIDESS Project

The MIDESS Project is undertaking a study of the issues involved in developing an institutional repository for the storage and management of digital images, sounds and video. The project is funded by JISC and is being led by the University of Leeds Library. LSE is a partner in this project, along with CURL Task Force in Digital Content Creation and Curation, University of Birmingham and University College London.

At LSE the project is being coordinated by Dr Jane Secker of the Centre for Learning Technology. A local project team has been established including representatives from the Library, Archives, Centre for Learning Technology and academic staff. The team are currently working on the user needs analysis and undertaking an evaluation of several different types of digital repositories, including commercial solution and open source options  For more information go to: www.leeds.ac.uk/library/midess/ or contact Jane at j.secker@lse.ac.uk.

London School of Economics Library’s Access Management projects

The LSE Library is actively contributing to UK and international developments in Access Management, most notably the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) Core Middleware Programme.

The Portal-Enabled Resources via Shibbolized End-User Security (PERSEUS) project is addressing the key challenge of Shibboleth-based access management to information resources via an institutional portal, using the uPortal Open Source portal toolkit.  Funded by JISC, the project will deliver a generalised campus architecture for adoption by FE and HE institutions, supported by documentation at conceptual and technical levels, and reusable software components available as Open Source. The PERSEUS Project started in July 2004 and is scheduled to complete in June 2006.  PERSEUS extends work started in the LSE-led ANGEL and SECURe projects (including the earliest evaluation and pilot implementation of Shibboleth for JISC), which concluded in March 2005.  For more information visit www.angel.ac.uk/PERSEUS

In a unique collaboration between libraries and IT services, the JISC-funded ShibboLEAP Project involves seven University of London partners: LSE, Birkbeck College, Imperial College, King’s College London, Royal Holloway College, School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) and University College London (UCL).  LSE is providing project management and technical support to enable these institutions (with a combined user population of about 130,000) to implement full-scale Shibboleth Identity-Provider services, adding significantly to the critical mass of ‘Shibboleth-enabled’ end-users in the UK. The project is also implementing Shibboleth access to the Eprints software used as an institutional repository by all partners.  Experience and problems met and solved in the course of this ‘industrial-scale’ implementation are being documented for the benefit of later adopters of the technology. For more information visit www.angel.ac.uk/ShibboLEAP

VERSIONS Project                  

The Library submitted a successful bid to the JISC for funding for the VERSIONS Project (www.lse.ac.uk/versions), under the Digital Repositories Programme.  The Project runs from July 2005 until December 2006 and is being led by LSE with the Nereus (www.nereus4economics.info) Consortium of European research libraries specialising in economics as associate partners. 

The project addresses the issues and uncertainties relating to versions of academic papers in digital repositories, looking at user requirements.  The focus is on economics eprints and the project takes a comparative view of the position in different EU countries.  The expected outcome is an understanding of researchers’ and other stakeholders’ needs, which will feed into a toolkit of guidance for researchers and others; the project will also aim to make recommendations for standards on version identification.

For more information contact Frances Shipsey, Project Manager at f.m.shipsey@lse.ac.uk.  Or visit www.lse.ac.uk/versions

Scoping Study on Repository Version Identification

Rightscom Ltd has been successful in winning the tender for a scoping study on identification of versions in academic repositories, commissioned by the JISC Scholarly Communications Group.  Details are currently being finalised.  The Library at LSE, represented by Frances Shipsey, VERSIONS Project Manager and Sally Rumsey, E-Services Librarian, is involved as a partner in this study. 

National Library of Scotland

New interactive science feature goes live
For the first time on the National Library of Scotland's website, the general public are being offered the chance to determine what will go into a forthcoming online feature. The Scottish Science Hall of Fame will highlight 10 scientists from the past whose achievements have shaped our lives today - and users of the NLS website will decide who the 10 will be.

Anyone can vote, and to get the ball rolling NLS has selected 24 scientists or engineers who they think merit consideration. Voters are free also to nominate any scientist who's not on the list - but not one who's still living. Among those on the list are; John Logie Baird, Alexander Graham Bell, Alexander Fleming and James Clerk Maxwell.

Although not aimed exclusively at schools, the Scottish Science Hall of Fame will interest pupils studying science subjects in S1 and S2.

To vote or to find out more, visit < http://www.nls.uk/scientists/ >

Exhibitions at NLS
The current exhibition at the National Library of Scotland is Sale of the Centuries. It is a celebration of shopping in Scotland, offering a glimpse of our changing relationship with shopping over more than three centuries, from the early markets and fairs through to the age of the grand department store and beyond. Among other things, it features the 1948 payslip of a young Co-op employee by the name of Sean Connery (yes, that one). A series of events and workshops will be held during the course of the exhibition, which runs Until 12 February 2006 . For more information on these events, visit < http://www.nls.uk/news/events.html >

March 10th sees the start of the NLS Spring exhibition, The New Scots. This is a photographic exhibition by Edinburgh-based photographer Herman Rodrigues which focuses on the diverse range of South Asian communities in Scotland. His fifteen year study explores the often surprisingly deep-rooted connection that Scotland has with South Asia and seeks to dispel racial stereotypes by showing Asians in all walks of life and professions.

CURL Partners

Digital Preservation Coalition
The Digital Preservation Training Programme (DPTP), part of the JISC funded ‘4/04’ call on digital preservation and asset management in institutions, was piloted at the University of Warwick in October 2005. Feedback from the 24 delegates has been overwhelmingly positive and included comments such as “...the most beneficial and well presented, thought out course that I've ever attended in 10 years as a professional. “

Based on the Cornell University Digital Preservation Management Workshop, this modular course was developed by ULCC in collaboration with Cornell University and the DPC. The week long residential course provides an intensive programme based around the OAIS model and the trusted digital repositories framework. The participants will gain sufficient skills and tools to enable them to transfer their learning to their specific organisational setting.

The first programme for 2006 will be held at York Conference Park, and will be held week beginning 27 th February.

The cost of the programme will cover:

• Pre workshop materials and briefing.
• Accommodation and meals from Monday 27th February - Friday 3rd March.
• The involvement of five to six experienced course presenters.
• A variety of learning experiences, including presentations, class exercises; small group exercises; and case studies.
• Extensive practical course materials to take back to the workplace.

Details of costs will appear shortly, but early registration will be below £1,000 to encourage early booking.

You can register your interest at: http://www.ulcc.ac.uk/dptp/

curl news17 will be produced on Monday 15 May, if you have any submissions you’d like to make on projects, services or initiatives at your institution, please do not hesitate to send them to Mike Mertens (mike.mertens@curl.ac.uk ) by Friday,12 May.