SHINe Membership and Nominations
SHINe Membership
There are a number of issues relating to the structure of SHINE membership – specifically the Institutional membership – that I think could require some changes to be made in the near future.
The current situation is that each site is counted as an ‘institution’, with a flat rate charged for each site. (this allows up to six individual members per site).
Recent changes to NHS organisations - NHS boards are now ‘single service’ – have changed how NHS libraries operate - i.e. the library services are not discrete operations serving a specific hospital etc but serve the whole nhs staff in their board area, reflected by many in new single management structures – push forward an issue that has been lurking in the background for a while, but has been able to be ignored because it affected only a few members.
As NHS libraries become ‘single services’ there could be pressure to treat each service as an institution, with a reluctance to pay a subscription for each site rather than a single subscription covering all sites. (This argument has been made in the past by at least one university member). This is made stronger by the requirement to pay the institutional subscription in order to access the union list. If a service centralises management of ILLs onto one site there could be pressure to pay the institutional subscription for that site only, on the grounds that only that site needs access to the union list (this argument has been made by one NHS service already).
An additional issue is that the CLA has been making noises about the legality of the on the inclusion of non-NHS libraries as Participants in the union list has made it necessary to re-think the membership structure/categories.
The principle problem is that under the NHSCLA licence NHS libraries don’t have to pay for photocopies. However, non-NHS libraries are still bound by copyright legislation, so are required to pay for copies. Inclusion of non-NHS libraries in the ‘Participant’ category means that they are therefore not required to pay for copies.
Another issue is the position of small organisations – e.g. charities – that have more than one site, & have to pay a disproportionate amount.
It could also be a major problem if we are trying to recruit from other sectors, especially local government & public libraries. They could be reluctant to pay the institutional subscription for each of their branch libraries.
Malcolm Dobson
Membership Secretary
Winner of the Hazel Williamson Bursary 2007: awarded to Kathleen Irvine from Highland Health Science Library to attend a two-day course on storytelling and narrative in healthcare, taking place in Grasmere in the Lake District.
Results of the nominations for the SHINe Committee
The following Committee members were stepping down this year: Helen Marlborough (Secretary), Malcolm Dobson (Membership Secretary), Catriona Denoon (CPD Group representative).
Nominations had been received from the following people: Joanna Ptolomey (CPD Group representative), Amanda Minns (Committee member). As these nominations were unopposed the two nominees were duly elected. One vacancy remained on the Committee, and formal or informal expressions of interest were welcomed.