Inspire Steering Group
An East Midlands regional Steering Group has been formed to support the national Inspire initiative. The Steering Group held its first meeting in April 2005 and agreed its Terms of Reference which can be found below.
The Steering Group's remit is to improve access to library resources between the British Library, Public, Higher Education, Further Education and the wider libraries sector by:
- Developing an enabling East Midlands based framework for reciprocal agreements within and across local authority boundaries
- Promoting the opportunities and mutual benefits of the scheme to users, their sevice providers and their funders.
- Encouraging and seeking mechanisms to facilitate awareness raising regarding special collections of benefit/interest to their users among library staff at local and regional levels.
The Steering Group's role is to consider and advise and undertake as appropriate:
- Strategic direction
- Encouraging participation by the region's libraries
- Promoting the regional rollout through effective marketing and publicity
- Allocation and monitoring of resources to support the delivery of Inspire
- Monitoring and co-ordinating outcomes
- Evaluating and supporting training needs
- Addressing issues of sustainability
- Communicating and liaising with Inspire regional advocates
- Overseeing regional and national dissemination of information about Inspire
- Encouraging links with wider stakeholders.
The Steering Group is made up of the following stakeholders:
Public Libraries - Peter Gaw, Nottinghamshire Libraries
Higher Education - Kathryn Arnold, De Montfort University
Further Education - Vacancy
Health - Richard Marriott, NHS East Midlands
Libraries and Information East Midlands - Lynn Hodgkins
Cross-sectoral training - Carol Brooks
Dr Graham Walton of Loughborough University also supports the group in an advisory capacity.
