RLUK MEMBERS MEETINGNOVEMBER 2017 #RLUKSOAS

The RLUK Members’ Meeting at SOAS University of London coincides with the end of a momentous Centenary year for the School. SOAS has a unique worldview - as the leading institution in the study of Asia, Africa and the Middle East – the world looks very different in terms of its geopolitics, arts and culture when seen from the perspective of those regions.

100 years after the School was founded, we are proud to be a globally connected institution that asks challenging questions about the big issues facing not just Asia, Africa and the Middle East, but about our world. SOAS has more than 5,000 students from 133 countries on campus, and just over 50% per cent of them are from outside the UK. In addition, about 3,600 students around the world are taking one of our distance learning programmes.

More than 350 undergraduate degree combinations and over 115 postgraduate programmes are available in social sciences, arts, humanities and languages, all with a distinctive regional focus and global relevance. SOAS also offers an unparalleled range of non-European languages and the School was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2009 for the excellence, breadth and depth of its language teaching.

• The celebration of our centenary throughout 2016 and 2017 has demonstrated the continuing importance and relevance of SOAS to our changing world:

• Our centenary has brought world-leading leading thinkers and activists to SOAS in the remarkable Centenary Lecture Series, including Wole Soyinka, Forest Whitaker, Hina Jilani and Claudia Roden.

• The School has strengthened and developed partnerships with world-leading academic bodies in London and overseas - including the British Library, Presidency University in India and Zhejiang University in China.

• Talks, exhibitions and conferences were held in our regions and in our alumni centenary cities. This took place in more than 120 countries, including in Abu Dhabi, Accra, Addis Ababa, Delhi, Doha, Fort Hare, Hong Kong, Lagos, New York as well as in the UK.

• Major centenary exhibitions took place showcasing the SOAS treasures as well as the School’s historyin the Brunei Gallery. The School also held events with the Bloomsbury Festival, Bertha Dochouse, and the British Museum.

• The opening of the Paul Webley Wing launched our celebrations. The building, in the historic Senate House, marked a new era for SOAS as a single-campus site in the heart of London

At the heart of the School is SOAS Library, one of the world’s most important academic libraries for the study of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The Library attracts scholars from all over the world to consult its holdings and further their research. The Library houses over 1.3 million volumes at the SOAS campus at Russell Square in central London, together with a major collection of archives, manuscripts, rare books and special collections, an expanding Digital Library and a growing network of electronic resources.

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Programme - Thursday 9 November

13:00 - 14:00 Registration and Lunch - Paul Webley Wing, SG37The Members’ Meeting will be held in the Paul Webley Wing, accessible via the Senate House North Block entrance on Torrington Square.

14.00 – 15.30 Special Collections Panel - SWLT Wolfson Lecture Theatre (1st floor)

The RLUK Special Collections Programme (SCP) has evolved through an iterative process over a 12-month period, involving collaborative work to explore challenge areas identified by the members. Outputs from this phase included devising and delivering a series of themed regional workshops, developing frameworks and prototype toolkits for collecting case-based evidence of impact and scoping hidden collections, underpinned by setting up key contact, networks and relationships, where needed. This session constitutes a great opportunity to review the activities conducted over the past year and gain feedback from members on the future plans for the programme.

Jessica Gardner is a member of the RLUK Board and Board Champion for Special Collections. She is currently University Librarian at Cambridge University Library. Previously Jessica worked at the University of Bristol, and before that at the University of Exeter, first as Head of Special Collections and later as Head of Library & Culture Services with responsibility for the University’s library, special collections, museum and art collections. She started her library career at the University of Leeds, specialising in literary manuscripts and archives.

Sue Crossley was formerly RLUK’s Special Collections Programme Manager, having been seconded from Wellcome, where she managed the Research Resources funding portfolio, awarding grants to research libraries across the UK for cataloguing, preservation, archival research and digitisation projects with a budget of almost £2million annually. Early training in book and paper conservation led to roles at Senate House Library, the British Library, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Wellcome Library before joining Wellcome’s Culture and Society division in 2003.

Christina Kamposiori is currently the Programme Officer at RLUK. Her PhD research focused on the information practices of art historians in the digital age and was conducted at the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities. She holds a BA in Archaeology/Art History and an MA in Cultural Heritage Management. She has previously worked as a Research and Teaching Assistant at UCL and been a committee member of the AHRC-funded project ‘New Media, Audiences and Affective Experiences’. Before that she worked as a Junior Researcher at the DCU-IMIS, Athena Research Centre in Athens, Greece in the context of the project ‘Preparing DARIAH’.

Joe Marshall trained as a rare books cataloguer at the National Library of Scotland. In 2008 he joined the University of Edinburgh as their first Rare Books Librarian. In 2014 he was appointed Head of Special Collections and the Centre for Research Collections with a responsibility for all the archives, manuscripts and early printed books at the University. The CRC delivers a converged service providing access to all the heritage collections of the University, underpinned by conservation and a new digitisation programme.

Rachel Beckett is Associate Director of The John Rylands Library and the John Rylands Research Institute, where she is responsible for the leadership and development of the University of Manchester Library’s Special Collections with a particular focus on increased engagement with the academic community (with an emphasis on research) and on engaging wider audiences with the John Rylands Library as a cultural institution. She is also a member of the University of Manchester Library’s Leadership Team. Externally, Rachel is Co-convenor of RLUK’s Special Collections Leadership Network, a member of RLUK’s Special Collections Advisory Group and of the Wellcome Trust’s Research Resources Committee.

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Programme - Thursday 9 November

18.00 – 19.00 Brunei Gallery exhibitionsDelegates are welcome to explore the exhibitions at the Brunei Gallery, which hosts a programme of changing contemporary and historical exhibitions from Asia, Africa and the Middle East, ahead of the evening dinner.

The current exhibitions are:

• Fairgrounds of the Faithful: Moulids - the Sufi Festivals of Egypt• Behind the Indian Boom: Inequality and Resistance at the Heart of Economic Growth• “Les Sapeuses”: the Lady Dandies of the DRC• Music, Faith and Diplomacy along the Silk Road

Information about each of these exhibitions is available from the SOAS website at https://www.soas.ac.uk/gallery/

19.00 – 22.00 Dinner - Brunei Gallery

The SOAS Members Meeting Dinner willl be held in the Brunei Suite in the Brunei Gallery, located off Thornhaugh Street.

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Programme - Friday 10 November

09.00 – 10.00 Registration and refreshments - Paul Webley Wing SG37 10.00 – 12.15 Morning session - SWLT Wolfson Lecture Theatre (1st floor)

Welcome and opening presentation by Professor Richard Black, SOAS, University of London

Richard Black is Pro-Director (Research and Enterprise) at SOAS University of London. Prior to moving to SOAS in 2013, he was founding Head of the School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex. Richard is widely published on issues concerning migration, refugees, development and environmental change. He was editor of the Journal of Refugee Studies from 1994-2009 and was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2012. His books include A continent moving west? (Amsterdam, 2010), Targeting Development (Routledge, 2004) and Refugees, Environment and Development (Longman, 1998) and he has recent articles in Nature, Nature Climate Change, and

Global Environmental Change. Richard has field experience across various countries of sub-Saharan Africa and southern/south-eastern Europe.

RLUK STRATEGYNicola Wright, LSE, and RLUK Chair

Nicola will update members on the development of a refreshed strategy for RLUK. This will be an open discussion with members - building on the consultations over the spring and summer - so that we can agree a ‘final’ draft.

Nicola Wright joined LSE in 2008 from Imperial College London where she led the development of the UK Research Reserve project. In March 2015 Nicola was appointed Director of Library Services. Nicola’s career has focused on leading change in libraries in order to meet the demands of a digital environment. Nicola has extensive experience in library management gained during a varied career in the higher education and heritage sectors, with roles at the British Library, SOAS and Imperial College London. Nicola has contributed to a number of national and international initiatives in support of evolving the role of research libraries. She is currently Chair of the Board of Research Libraries

UK and was previously a member of the UK Committee for the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme.

FROM PLAN B TO PLAN A: JISC’S DEVELOPING APPROACH TO THE DISCOVERY OF JOURNAL MATERIALSLiam Earney, Jisc Collections

Even if the recent negotiation with Elsevier was successful in improving the terms of the agreement (price increases halved, support for green, more transparency etc.), in many ways it demonstrated to the sector the limits of the negotiated approach and the sector’s weakness in negotiations when faced with monopolistic publishers.

Coming out of the negotiations the development of Plan B alternatives was identified as a priority. RLUK is focussing in on some of the short term options available to institutions, whilst Jisc is undertaking a project to identify options and test demand for the development of infrastructure that could provide the opportunity for the sector to more thoroughly review its participation in Big Deals generally and the alternative means of providing access to essential content.

Liam Earney has worked for Jisc since 2003 and been Director of Jisc Collections since 2015. During his time at Jisc he has worked with colleges, universities, museums, public libraries and the NHS on a wide variety of negotiations for journals, book, databases, media and open access content. He led the development of Knowledge Base+ for Jisc and works closely with colleagues in Jisc’s Digital Resources directorate on strategy and development of all Jisc’s services in this area. Before joining Jisc he spent a number of years working as a bibliographer in the London School of Economics library.

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Programme - Friday 10 November A UK-SCL UPDATE: ON CHICKENS, EGGS, AND VALUEChris Banks, Imperial College London

Planning for the introduction of a “Harvard” model Open Access Policy in the UK has been underway since 2014. The idea was spurred by the REF OA policy which sets both minimum eligibility criteria and challenges institutions to go beyond that minimum. That challenge, combined with the “policy stack” complexity arising from many and varied funder and publisher policies resulted in the conclusion that institutions should seek to retain rights for their academics, and that they had the opportunity to exert control over release of content and at the same time minimise administrative burden for academics and research support staff. Publisher responses have been polarised: some are very supportive, others suggest the initiative is a threat. Institutions need to understand implementation routes which, in light of the perceived threats, are not necessarily straightforward. This session will explore those challenges of turning policy into practice.

Chris Banks joined Imperial College in September 2013 as Director of Library Services (a role now expanded to include College-wide change and strategic investment initiatives). She had previously worked at the University of Aberdeen as University Librarian and Director of Library, Special Collections and Museums, and at the British Library where she spent over 20 years in a variety of curatorial, management and strategic roles.

Chris has an interest in open science and open scholarly communications. Along with her former colleague Dr Torsten Reimer, she is leading an initiative to bring the Harvard

Open Access Policy to the UK.

12.15 – 13.15 Lunch - Paul Webley Wing SG37

13.15 – 15.00 Afternoon session - SWLT Wolfson Lecture Theatre (1st floor)

ARCHIVES UNLOCKED: RELEASING THE POTENTIAL Jeff James and Isobel Hunter, The National Archives

This is an incredibly exciting time for the archives sector. Jeff James and Isobel Hunter will provide an overview of the current state of the sector, the many challenges and opportunities it faces, and how these are being met through the new strategic vision for the archives sector, Archives Unlocked.

As Chief Executive, Jeff James has overall responsibility for The National Archives’ future direction as well as current performance, and is accountable to ministers for both.

Jeff started his career as an electronic engineer in the Royal Navy. He has held operational management roles at the University of Leeds, Swift Research and the British Library. He spent six years as Director of Operations and Services at The National Archives before joining the Chartered Institute of Housing as Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Operations. Jeff returned to The National Archives to take up the role of Chief Executive

and Keeper in July 2014. Jeff is Keeper of Public Records and Historical Manuscripts Commissioner. As of 1 July 2017, Jeff also holds the offices of Queen’s Printer of Acts of Parliament, Queen’s Printer for Scotland and Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office (HMSO).

Isobel Hunter qualified as an archivist in 1991. For 15 years, she worked as an archivist at the Wellcome Library, Marks & Spencer company archives and the National Gallery. Isobel then joined the Museums Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and in 2007 she was appointed as MLA’s Programme Manager for 2012, designing and delivering museum, library and archive projects for the Cultural Olympiad. In January 2012, Isobel became the Head of Engagement at the National Archives, leading a team to support the development of local authority archives services across England. In 2015 Isobel became Head of Archives Sector Development at The National Archives, leading a

department supporting the whole of the archives sector and led the process to develop Archives Unlocked - a new strategic vision and action plan for archives, with a focus on building digital capacity and a more resilient sector.

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Programme - Friday 10 November

COLLABORATIVE MANAGEMENT OF MONOGRAPHS: THE JOURNEY BEGINS!Hazel Woodward, Information Power

Low use monographs occupy substantial space at a time when libraries face pressure to provide more study space. By collaborating on journal de-duplication, the sector has achieved great savings and changed the culture. Is it time to take on the monograph challenge? In December 2016, Information Power Ltd (IPL) was commissioned by RLUK, UKRR and SCONUL to explore potential solutions. This workshop will outline the findings from a series of interviews and an online survey. It will then discuss the recommended national solution which would provide a central Shared Repository to preserve monographs for the UK HE community.

Hazel Woodward has spent almost her entire career in academic libraries. Up until March 2012 she spent 13 years as Director of Libraries at Cranfield University and prior to that she was Head of Electronic Resources at Loughborough University. Her research interests, and the topic of her PhD thesis, are electronic publishing and scholarly communication. She has published numerous journal articles in the professional literature and is the editor of two books ’The International Serials Industry’ and ‘Digital Information: Order or anarchy’. Hazel is now Director of Information Power, a consultancy working with librarians and publishers in the electronic publishing arena. In 2010 Hazel was awarded an MBE for services to higher education.

OPENING COLLECTIONS, FOSTERING COLLABORATION: THE FUTURE OF THE RLUK SPECIAL COLLECTIONS PROGRAMME (SCP)Christina Kamposiori, RLUK

The RLUK Special Collections Programme (SCP) offers a flexible programme of sustainable networks, tools and opportunities with audiences and collections at its heart. After a successful first year full of activity and incredible support by members, the SCP has entered its second phase and, through this presentation, we would like to share our plans for its future. More specifically, emphasis will be placed on describing the way we will work towards ‘opening up’ special collections, strengthening existing networks and developing further cross-disciplinary collaborations which will demonstrate the potential of the collections held by our institutions and attract reward and recognition.

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Notes

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