Global Accessible Library Steering Committee
Meeting:         3rd November 2008
Time:              10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Location:        Dedicon

Address:        Molenpad 2 Amsterdam

Welcome from the chair
Meeting opened 10:20am.
The chair welcomed the Steering Committee to the second meeting.
Margaret discussed the tight timelines for this first phase – less than 12 months!  She stressed the importance of project members taking responsibility to complete their assignments on deadline, and of ensuring that staff assigned to the project teams are given the time necessary to do the work.     

Project Leader activities since previous SC meeting  
An Invitation to managers for their staff to participate in the working groups was sent late September.
An introduction pack was sent to the Discover & Access (D&A) and Shared Collection Development and Exchange (Collections) working groups, which included information about the first face-to-face meeting, email contacts for all members of the working groups, background discussion paper, terms of reference for the working groups and the Phase 1 Project Plan.

Review of project budget
Budget

The Project Leader will keep the Steering Committee appraised of the budget status, through the regular reports.  Since the project funding has been provided by Vision Australia, the PL has the authority to authorize spending for the purposes of the project according to the budget categories and within the overall budget. 

Review and General Discussion of the Project and Project Plan
A number of changes were suggested to the Project Plan (since incorporated into Version 0.04).
Comments: 

• Ensure that library holdings are protected from commercial theft.
• The Global Library needs to be a secure environment.
• A legal agreement should be considered in which participating organizations acknowledge that they have the right to make available through the Global Accessible Library the content being contributed, and that they will validate the eligibility of library users to whom access is provided. 
• Member organizations of the GAL contribute content based on what is permitted under their national copyright, and by their organization’s policies and funding.  While DAISY is the preferred audio format, other digital audio formats can be contributed.  
• Persons searching the Global Accessible Library must be members of participating GAL organisations and must be print disabled as defined by their national jurisdiction.  
• Copyright:  Both working groups need to consider copyright -- the D&A group from the perspective of international access and lending of materials -- what is permitted, how does the user know; the Collections group from the perspective of international exchange and purchase -- what is permitted, how does the library know on a title by title basis.
• Technology solutions should not be proprietary and must be available in all countries e.g. cell phone, internet.
• Expectation for/of the Project Leader with respect to the working groups is to monitor and ensure their deliverables are attained, and provide them with support, advice and feedback from the Steering Committee.  The Project Leader is the conduit to the Steering Committee, providing update reports on a monthly basis.
• Working groups need to investigate what is happening internationally, beyond libraries for the blind, with respect to Global Accessible Library-type access, content aggregation, federated search and such, to determine opportunities for partnering, collaboration, leveraging existing mainstream initiatives.  The intent is to avoid “reinventing the wheel” and, if possible, a niche solution.
• Action: The first milestone for the two working groups is the end of Feb at which time an interim report will be submitted from each group to the Steering Committee, via the Project Leader, which describes:
  • Their vision of what they aim to deliver from a functional perspective (e.g. D&A “Eligible users of the Global Accessible Library will be able to …“)
  • Their work plan for the coming months (activities to be accomplished, by whom, by when)

Business Model working group
The working group will be launched following receipt of the interim reports from the D&A and Collections working groups.

Stephen King has indicated his willingness to participate in this working group.
For the next Steering Committee meeting (January):

• Develop terms of reference for the Business model working group.
• Action: Francois volunteered to draft content for the terms of reference for consideration by the Steering Committee.  Members of the Steering Committee who have ideas regarding the terms of reference should provide this to Francois before January.
• Action: Helen will advise Stephen of plans with respect to this working group and request that if he has suggestions for the terms of reference to discuss with Francois before January.
• Action: Kuen Hey will provide the Project Leader (Julie) with the name of someone from Asia who is willing and has the experience to participate on this working group.
• Action: Margaret will solicit a participant from Europe        

Partnership Development team:
The working group will be launched following receipt of the interim reports from the D&A and Collections working groups.
Discussion was held on who should participate.  Maarten Verboom has indicated his willingness but requested more information on what is expected. 
Action: Margaret will see Maarten at the DAISY Board meeting and discuss the project with him at that time.
(Note:  Margaret spoke with Maarten and advised that the Steering Committee would like him to lead this working group and “recruit” others to work with him as he thinks appropriate.  With the input from the D&A and Collections working groups to provide insight into what we anticipate for the GAL, the Partnership Development team would identify strategic partners organizations to help us get there.  The working group would then develop a “case for support” for each partner; essentially a script for the Executive Sponsors (Hiroshi, George and Bente) to use to entice these organizations to partner with us to provide a Global Accessible Library for our community of users.) 
Action: Julie will develop terms of reference for this working group, in time for the January SC meeting.  Discuss with Maarten other potential participants to work with him, and solicit their participation.     

Next Meeting:  Items for the Agenda

• Communications plan
• Business Model team membership and terms of reference
• Partnership Development team membership and terms of reference
• Feedback from the working groups
• Budget
• Project Gantt chart/timelines

                              Next meetings:

1. January 8, 2009 Steering Committee meeting - Paris (Host AVH, contact Luc)
2. April 20-21, 2009 Steering Committee meeting – Brussels(?)

Action: Koen will discuss location with Geert

Meeting closed 4pm.