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Chair�s Report 2000/2001 | |||
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1. Committee and Officers The Committee for 2000/2001 consisted of: Linda Banwell, University
of Northumbria During the course of the year, Ros Cotton, Judy Palmer, and Bruce Madge resigned from the Committee.� All should be thanked for their contribution to the work of the Committee but, particularly, Ros Cotton who was Editor of Library and Information Research News (LIRN) for seven years.� Juliet Eve of Manchester Metropolitan University joined us following last year�s elections. Two new co-options joined us during the year: Andrew Booth of Sheffield University and Eric Davies of Loughborough University.� The Committee took the view last year that we should ease the workload on the Chair by establishing the new officer role of Vice-Chair.� It was also felt that this would help with future succession planning.� I am delighted that Biddy Fisher has taken on this role.� She has been combining this with her role of Treasurer during 2000/2001 but Juliet Eve has very kindly agreed to take on the role of Treasurer from this March.� The Committee met three times during 2000/2001: in March 2000 prior to last year�s AGM and also in June 2000 and January 2001.� The main concerns of the Committee have been the Group�s future strategy, LIRN, the redesign of the LIRG web site, and the Shepherd Report.� This is in addition to the regular business of planning events and overseeing the portfolio of LIRG Awards and Prizes.� 2. Library and Information Research News There have been three excellent issues of Library and Information Research News (LIRN) over the year.� LIRN has again included a mixture of articles, news, and reviews.� Articles that appeared during the year included: What users actually do:
a study of service seeking behaviour in an academic library (Kathryn Ray et al) LIRN has also benefited from having a good range of book reviews that have been commissioned and edited by Steve Morgan, the Reviews Editor.� I would like to thank all those who have contributed to LIRN over the year. The Committee has been reviewing how LIRN can respond to an environment where it is increasingly more difficult to obtain high quality research reports for publication.� This is partly a result of pressures on people�s time and, partly, through authors in the academic sector wishing to place their submissions in publications that can contribute to ratings in the Research Assessment Exercise.�� LIRN faces particular difficulties in view of its relatively low circulation.�� However, LIRN can build upon the reports of research written up by winners of LIRG awards and prizes. The Committee believes that it would be worthwhile targeting those new to research to give them an opportunity of writing for publication for the first time.�� It also feels that there is scope for commissioning guest articles for a fee.� LIRN might also focus more upon current awareness. Ideas that have been put forward include smaller pieces to allow people to publicise their research and reviews of relevant web sites and research resources.� The Group is indebted to
John Sumsion who has edited LIRN for four years.� John has now
indicated his desire to stand down as Editor and we are now actively seeking
a successor who can build upon John�s sterling work.�� This will be an exciting
opportunity to build a niche for LIRN.�� The Committee also feel
that this is an appropriate time to explore making LIRN available
electronically as well as in print form and this will be on the agenda over the
coming year.� 3. Student Prizes and Research Awards The Committee finalised criteria for all its Awards and Prizes during the year and details of these were published in the Summer 2000 issue of LIRN. The winner of the Elsevier/LIRG Research Award this year is John Cullen, Institute Librarian, Institute of Technology, Tallaght who will be using the funding to undertake a study of the �The Irish Market for Library and Information Work�.� This is the first time that the Award has gone to someone from the Republic of Ireland.� Last year�s winner, Elizabeth Gadd, has written up her research on copyright clearance in the UK in libraries.� This appears in the Winter 2000 issue of LIRN.� We are indebted to Elsevier Science for their sponsorship of the Elsevier/LIRG Research Award and I would like to thank them for continued support.�� We continue to receive excellent applications for the Award and those who received the Award have used it to undertake high quality research work of value to the profession.� The LIRG student postgraduate prize was awarded this year to Cheryl Twomey of the University of North London for her dissertation: �An Analysis of the Design and Quality of Patient Information Leaflets Supplied with Medicines Sold by Pharmacists in the United Kingdom�.� Nominations for the undergraduate and postgraduate prizes for 2000 are still being judged.� The Group received three applications for the Daphne Clark Prize this year.� The prize recognises practitioners who have undertaken an outstanding piece of research during the previous twelve months.� The winners were Sally Rumsey and Jon Maslin of the University of Surrey for their research, �Exam Papers On-line�. I would like to congratulate all of this year�s winners on behalf of the Group.� I would also like to thank Noeleen Cookman who has co-ordinated our portfolio of awards and prizes in her role as LIRG Awards and Prizes Officer. 4. LIRG Web Pages and Mailbase List Noeleen Cookman and Alan Cooper have continued their work on behalf of the Group to renew the LIRG web site.� They have been working on a redesign and a review of the content.� We were fortunate in being awarded a grant of �500 from the Library Association to assist with funding the work.�� The new LIRG web site will be going �live� very soon, hosted on the Library Association�s web pages.� LIRG will now have a web site in which we can all take pride and which will publicise the work of the Group not only in the UK but worldwide.� Thanks to Noeleen and Alan for their hard work on this project.�� LIS-LIRG, the JISCMAIL list for the Library and Information Research Group, continues to have a steady flow of messages from LIS researchers and practitioners interested in research.�� 5. Events Planning is at an advanced stage for two seminars to be held later this year on the Effective Academic Library.� The first of the seminars, to be held at Staffordshire University, will look at benchmarking.� The second of the seminars, to be held at Leeds Metropolitan University, will look at the impact of libraries on learning, teaching, and research.� The Group has been actively considering how to proceed in future with the research methods course established two years ago.� The Committee is keen to revise and re-run them for the benefit of the profession.� However, given the high costs of running the courses and the relatively small number of participants, the Committee has been cautious about committing funding until income streams from other events can be established.� The need for prudence is particularly great as a series of workshops of this kind can create significant cash flow problems for a small professional association such as LIRG.�� 6. Administration Jo Horsfall, LIRG Administrative Officer, has continued to maintain the LIRG membership and LIRN subscriber databases throughout the year including sending out subscription renewals.� However, as Jo has been on maternity leave for most of the year, much of the day-to-day administration has fallen on Committee members and upon my Secretary, Gill Walker.� I would like to take the opportunity of thanking Jo, Gill, and members of the Committee for their work in maintaining the day-to-day operation of the Group during the year.� Jo will be going on maternity leave again later this year so we will need to maintain temporary arrangements for some time yet.� Philip Payne March 2001
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