WHELF Representatives meeting update
The WHELF Representatives met on 18th-19th May, 2017 at Gregynog Hall. This was the first meeting with our new WHELF Chair, Emma Adamson (Director of Learning Services, USW). We welcomed Mairwen Owen (Head of Academic Services) from Bangor University Library to her first WHELF Reps meeting.
Also present were: Kristine Chapman (Amgueddfa Cymru); Ann Davies (OU); Alison Harding (UWTSD); Julie Hart (Aberystwyth), Mark Hughes (Cardiff Metropolitan), Paul Jeorrett (Wrexham Glyndwr), Janet Peters (Cardiff); Owain Roberts (NLW); Rachael Whitfield (WDO); Tegid Rhys Williams (NRW); Steve Williams (Swansea)
WHEEL
The WHEEL sub-group has done some excellent work in liaising with publishers / suppliers to investigate deals for WHELF in these areas. We discussed the possibility of a WHEEL bundle of resources. The WHEEL Chair, Mark Hughes, will look at the top 5 offers that WHEEL currently have on the table which more than half the WHELF institutions have expressed an interest in, aggregate the costs and then pro rata those for each WHELF institution to ascertain if this is an affordable solution for WHELF.
WHELF Office
A task and finish group is to be set up to scope the future of a WHELF Office. This will consider what WHELF needs for the future in terms of supporting the development of WHELF, including management of the shared LMS, WHEEL negotiation and administration requirements such as central invoicing and general administration of the WHELF organization.
Report from NLW digital preservation day and repositories discussion
Steve Williams reported back from the ARCW/WHELF Digital Preservation day organized by NLW on 28th March 2017. WHELF has agreed that its focus will be on digital collections and special collections perhaps mirroring some of the Archivematica/Arkivium work done by ARCW. It has been agreed that a feasibility study would be the best approach for WHELF and we are currently exploring funding opportunities for this.
National Library @Cardiff collaboration agreement – Owain Roberts and Janet Peters reported on that this collaborative project is now in operation providing secure electronic access to the resources of the NLW. A designated room in the Social Sciences Library at Cardiff University has been established. Resources can only be accessed on screen, no downloading or printing. The resource is available to the general public.
WHELF Shared LMS: Gareth Owen’s paper suggested a number of recommendations which the WHELF Shared LMS Steering Group were asked to approve:
- Reciprocal borrowing- it was agreed to proceed with a sampling exercise for WHELF in the delivery of interlibrary loans.
- National Bibliographic Knowledge Base – it was agreed to participate in this project by OCLC which will build on the functionality of COPAC but widen its scope. For WHELF this would potentially fulfil the objective of a union/shared catalogue.
- Cambridge Econometrics report on benefits. The 2nd draft of the report has been received and the final version will be launched at the Gregynog Colloquium.
Cardiff University Library visit to North Carolina
Janet Peters gave a presentation on her visit to the libraries at the University of Birmingham and Duke and North Carolina State Universities to investigate automated storage systems.
WHELF tour
The WHELF Chair, Emma Adamson and the WHELF Development Officer are touring the WHELF institiutions as part of an exercise to get a broad overview from each institution on its focus and service priorities and as it currently stands post LMS implementation and seek input on planning for the future for WHELF.
Judith Agus
At the end of Thursday’s meeting WHELF Reps took a walk in the surrounding grounds of Gregynog in memory of Judith Agus (former librarian RWCMD) and made a donation to Cancer Research.
