Mine of Information Project Board

 

Minutes of the inaugural meeting held on Thursday 17th May

 at the University of Wales Swansea

 

 

Present:  Prof. Ralph Griffiths (Chair), Ms S Beckley, Ms E Bennett, Ms S Edwards, Dr C Evans, Mr A Green, Dr D Johnston, Dr W Jones, Ms S Marsh, Mr W Stockting, Mr C West, Ms S Williams

 

Note:  Papers discussed at this meeting are available on the Mine of Information website at http://www.mineofinfo.ac.uk.

 

1.  Terms of Reference

As this was the first meeting of the Board, the draft terms of reference were discussed and agreed.  Partner representatives would be able to provide professional advice to the project as well as representing the views of partner institutions, while academic representatives would help to ensure that the project meets the needs of HE researchers.  The mailing list rslp-mine@jiscmail.ac.uk would be used to inform and consult with partners who were not Board members.

 

 

2.  Progress to date

Adam Green reported on current progress.  The following key points were made:

 

2.1  There is a range of stakeholders in Mine of Information; these include RSLP, partners, Library and Information Services at the University of Wales Swansea, and end users.  The stakeholders have different but related agendas, and the project will seek to meet the requirements of all stakeholders so far as this is possible within the remit of RSLP and the resources available.  Full cataloguing of unlisted collections held by partners (particularly local record offices) would not be feasible, but these and other collections would be "mapped" where possible - ie the Mine of Information website would draw attention to the existence of such collections.  "Mapped" collections would not necessarily be expected to meet the access conditions described in RSLP circular 1999/3.

 

2.2  The UWS project team consisted of Adam Green (Project Manager), Kate Mason and Helen Briscoe (Archivists) and Rachael Whitfield (Librarian).  Records of cataloguing completed to date suggested that despite a slow start due to delays in appointing a project manager, the project was on target to create the agreed quantity of metadata by May 2002, leaving time for follow-up work in the final months.  Cataloguing in partner institutions was going according to plan, with Warwick having completed work on the agreed collections, Nottingham making steady progress, and work with other partners yet to begin.

 

2.3  Financially, the project was currently under-spending on original projections, largely due to the delay in appointing a Project Manager and the fact that Adam Green is working part-time.  It was expected that funding would be reprofiled for the second year, so as to enable use of the surplus funds to increase staffing levels and improve progress towards the middle and end of the project.  Some para-professional staff time had already been bought in (Sue Thomas, Archives Assistant) to complete some of the more routine aspects of archive cataloguing, and this pilot was working very well.

 

2.4  Adam Green noted that the project team was concentrating primarily on conversion at present.  Discussions about suitable delivery methods were ongoing, with the ENCompass system from Endeavor currently under evaluation by the Project Management Group, and a prototype in-house search system ("Endemic") now being developed.  User consultation activities would be undertaken following the RSLP dissemination day on 14th June, and an analysis of this feedback presented to the next Board meeting.

 

 

3.  Project Plan

All projects had been asked to submit Project Plans to RSLP.  The Plan for Mine of Information outlined expected progress with target dates.  We would be asked to provide a progress report at the end of the first year of the project, and our progress would be evaluated by RSLP against the targets outlined in the Plan.  It was therefore important that all partners were happy with the Plan, which had already been circulated on the project mailing list.  No difficulties were raised.

 

 

4.  Letter of Understanding

4.1  Sara Marsh explained that all RSLP projects were asked to formulate such a document as the basis of the agreement between partners.  The document proposed for RSLP was based on those used by other RSLP projects.  The document was approved, subject to amendments as follows:

 

4.1.1  Obligations of UWS towards partner institutions - amend point 5 to read "Create and maintain the project's website, to be maintained on the same basis as the LIS website and any other sites owned by UWS", rather than "maintain in perpetuity".

 

4.1.2  Re-use of bibliographic records - amend "bibliographic records" here and elsewhere to read "metadata", so as to relate to records of both printed books and archival material.

 

4.1.3  Add an appropriate note to confirm that the website would show that copyright in metadata belongs to partner institutions.

 

4.2  Agreed to circulate revised Letter of Understanding to all partners for approval.  UWS would then sign and post hard copies to partners for them to sign and return.

Action:  Sara Marsh

 

4.3  Agreed to look into the feasibility of partners being able to edit individual records manually, and also possibilities for bulk update of new/amended records to the Mine database.

Action:  Adam Green

 

4.4  Noted that the website would provide links to partner institutions so that occasional messages about service availability etc would be accessible to Mine users.

 

 

5.  RSLP Dissemination Day, 14th June

Elisabeth Bennett explained the purpose of this event, which was to provide a "showcase" for all RSLP projects.  Presentations would not be given, but each project would have a display stand and the opportunity to give online demonstrations of websites, search interfaces etc.  Publicity for the event had already been circulated to partners and submitted to RSLP.  Invitations had been sent by RSLP to heads of HE library services and others involved with, or with an interest in, the initiative.

 

 

6.  Comparative Coalfields Conference

Chris West noted that Adam Green would be giving a talk on Mine of Information as part of this conference, to be held at the University of Glamorgan on 12-14 April 2002.  The conference was run by the Society of Labour History.

 

 

7.  Other related projects in Wales

Chris West highlighted some other related projects currently under way in Wales as follows:

 

7.1  Mapping Wales - an all-Wales project, based at Aberystwyth and funded by RSLP, to map all research resources located in Wales, whatever their subject matter.

 

7.2  Wales 1801-1919 - also funded by RSLP, this Bangor-led project aimed to create bibliographic records for material published in or about Wales during the 19th century.  Records would be hosted on a central database at the National Library of Wales.

 

7.3  Gathering the Jewels - a £1.3million bid to the New Opportunities Fund Digitisation programme, from a consortium representing all archive repositories, libraries and museums in Wales.  The outcome of the bid would be known in June, and if successful would enable the digitisation of a range of "treasures" held in Wales. 

 

7.4  Coalfield Web Materials (CWM) - a further bid to NOF, from UWS and Gwynedd County Council, to digitise material from UWS's South Wales Coalfield Collection, and material in Gwynedd relating to the slate quarrying industry.  If successful, this project would complement Mine of Information.

 

7.5  Wales on the Web - funding had been obtained from the British Library Co-operation fund to create a web portal of electronic resources relating to Wales.  The project would be based in the National Library but would call on subject experts across Wales, and all resources would be of academic relevance.

 

The need to avoid duplication of effort among all these projects was noted.

 

 

8.  Any other business

8.1  ENCompass - evaluation of this software was still ongoing, with a recent visit by UWS staff to Cornell University where the product was being beta-tested.  Further in-house discussion of the outcome of this visit would be taking place shortly, and it was hoped to bring a final recommendation on its purchase to the next Board meeting.  The cost of ENCompass would be in the region of £120,000, and although it could be of major significance in providing a single interface to a whole range of electronic resources (not just EAD and MARC but including electronic journals, digitised documents and images, etc), its functionality at this time appeared still under development.

 

8.2  Levels of description - Adam Green would circulate by email a consultation paper on the levels of archival description proposed for different elements of Mine of Information.

Action:  Adam Green

 

 

9.  Date of next meeting

Friday 19th October proposed, subject to confirmation nearer the time.

Action:  Sara Marsh

 

 

SM  19/5/01