December 2002
Additional work on project (post-contract) completed by Adam Green.  Final Report submitted to RSLP.

October 2002
Departure of Project Manager Adam Green.

July 2002
Departure of project archivists Kate Mason and Helen Briscoe.  Project librarian Pam Beardsmore finished her secondment, but continued to spend time cataloguing project-related materials.

June 2002
Final meeting of the Project Board held on 20th June.  Minutes available.

March 2002
Pam Beardsmore seconded from permanent post in LIS to continue MARC cataloguing duties following Rachael Whitfield's change of role.

February 2002
Third meeting of the Project Board held on 27th February.  Minutes and Project Manager's Report available, which includes detail of progress towards cataloguing targets.

Mine of Information leaflet (pdf) produced.

January 2002
Pauline Parker recruited to provide additional para-professional support for the project.

Rachael Whitfield became temporary Librarian at the South Wales Miners' Library.

All EAD records from UWS transferred to the MOI database

Work began on reviewing lists held by local Record Office partners; also on liaison with the Public Record Office over the most appropriate way to transfer relevant PRO records to MOI.

October 2001
Second meeting of the Project Board held on 19th October.  Minutes available.

End of year report submitted to RSLP.

User consultation
Strong emphasis on consultation during Autumn 2001, especially with non-HE users - see Consultation / Dissemination events for details.

August 2001
Sub-group of Project Management Group agrees outline specification for functionality and "look and feel" of in-house database / search engine for Mine of Information.  See minutes of this meeting for details.

July 2001

Cataloguing
As the project approaches the half way stage, we are pleased to report good progress towards our cataloguing goals.

User consultation - HE users
The project manager undertook a series of consultative meetings with academic researchers as the first year drew to a close, and has prepared a summary of the views expressed in the HE consultation exercise.

Technical solution
During the first year of the project we have been looking more closely at the functionality of ENCompass, and clarifying its cost with the suppliers.  At the end of the first year we have, after considerable debate, reached the conclusion that an alternative solution would be more appropriate for us, given the timescale of the project.  Further technical details are available.


June 2001
Project represented at the RSLP Dissemination Day, 14th June (click here to see photos).  Publicity material prepared for the event.  Project website launched.

Draft "look and feel" of proposed search facility available on project website to inform thinking about final access requirements.


May 2001
Inaugural meeting of the Mine of Information Project Board, held on 17th May.  Minutes available.

Martin Price, Head of Public Services at UWS and formerly Systems Librarian, visits Cornell University, a beta test site for the ENCompass content management system.


April 2001
Project Manager undertakes visits to all partner sites; discussion of progress and finalising of agreements on indexing standards etc.


March 2001
Visit of staff from Endeavor Information Systems Inc., to demonstrate ENCompass system. Representatives from other Welsh HEIs were present on this occasion, as well as a reporter from the Bibliotech Review.


Appointment of Sue Thomas as archival assistant to the project, undertaking some of the more routine processing of retro-conversion tasks for both UWS and local record office material.


February 2001
Project Manager Adam Green recruited. Review of progress to date, restructuring of workflows particularly relating to archival cataloguing. EAD data entry tool developed.


August - October 2000
Recruitment of project team; beginning of cataloguing work at UWS.