Cross Projects Forum

I represented UKCoRR in Birmingham on Tuesday at an informal meeting of several UK projects and organisations which support repositories. Representatives were there from JISC, RSP, ERIS, UKOLN, and the Welsh Repository Network and included our own Dominic Tate with his RSP hat on. One of the main reasons for the meeting was to minimise duplication of work across the projects and facilitate sharing and dissemination of outputs.

Using the results of the UKCoRR members survey earlier this year and issues raised on the list I was able to highlight some key areas for training or support, in particular copyright which is an ongoing concern to members. I reminded them that although membership of the UKCoRR list is limited to UKCoRR members, if projects wish to post relevant announcements/surveys to the list they can do so through the committee or members.

The UKCoRR blog was mentioned as being really useful to those outside UKCoRR so they can follow developments and issues of concern to members. A suggestion was made to include in blog postings anonymised quotes from list emails which explain issues of concern to the members.

Much of the discussions focused on support materials and resources that will be developed by the various projects. Within the UKCoRR committee we have discussed before having a webpage devoted to useful links and it was suggested at the meeting that we could use Delicious to develop and manage the links listed. I also spoke to the ERIS and the Welsh Repository Network about their various repository groups and the overlap with UKCoRR. Within the committee we'll be discussing the various ideas raised and continuing discussions with these various projects and groups so if members or indeed nonmembers have any comments please do email me.