Here is the latest update regarding the consultation process on the proposed move of the History Faculty Library:
Extraordinary CoLP meeting – Extraordinary History Committee of Library Provision (CoLP) took place on Monday 30 January. The minutes of the meeting are still being written up and will need to circulate to the committee for confirmation before they can be released. For more information on the meeting, please contact your student rep.
Historians’ Assembly – Dr Conrad Leyser, Acting Chair of the History CoLP, and Isabel Holowaty, History Librarian, will attend the Historians’ Assembly on Thursday, 2 February at 1:30pm.
Faculty Board – Dr Conrad Leyser, Acting Chair of the History CoLP, and Isabel Holowaty, History Librarian, will attend the History Faculty Board meeting on Thursday, 2 February at 2pm.
Student survey – Isabel Holowaty will meet student reps on Tuesday, 7 February to discuss a survey to both undergraduate and postgraduate students. It is hoped to circulate the survey later in week 4.
CoLP meeting – The regular History CoLP meeting will take place on Tuesday, 14 February at 2:15pm.
We will be using the blog to post updates on the consultation and will also be posting the information on the noticeboard at the entrance to the HFL.
Related links:
- HFL move
- HFL Weblearn CoLP papers page (university members only)
As is clear from elsewhere on this site, the consultation is ongoing, and no decision will be taken until March 5th. The ‘detailed plan document’ referred to the BESC meeting of Feb 12th as a deadline, but it did not say that no amendment could subsequently be made. On Jan 23rd, the Curators of the Bodleian clarified that the consultation would run all term, as originally envisaged. If you want to contribute to the discussion, please contact your CoLP representative. If you want to save the HFL, please consider the possibility that moving to the Old Bodleian is actually the best way to do just this!
It would be much more helpful in the meantime to publish a brief summary of the extraordinary CoLP meeting in a short blog post. This would mean that the information would reach far more students in the very short space of time available.
Also, it seems unacceptable to schedule a survey of students “later in Week 4” when the detailed plan document clearly states that a final decision on the fundamental question of whether or not to move must be reached by the 12th of February and handed to the Buildings and Estates Sub-Committee, after which it cannot be amended or held to any subsequently decided conditions.
A period of no more than a few days does not seem adequate for a properly conducted survey in which time is given for amendments, reconsideration, and the widest participation possible.