Information Committee of the Department of Biology

Minutes of the meeting held 31st January 2005 Present: Sandra Baldauf, James Chong, Owen Atkin, Julie Lord, Richard Firn (Chair), Ian Jennings. Lorna Evans.
Cake: Lemon.

ICDB 05/01 Apologies for absence.
Paul Waites

ICDB 05/2 Minutes of the previous meeting.
They were accepted.

ICDB 05/3 Minutes of the IMSG
The Chair reported that the procedures and policies agreed so far with regards to the FOIA have been implemented. At the next meetings there would be further discussion of IMSG matters and minutes.

ICDB 05/4 Web - the past
The Chair thanked Owen for guiding through the first stage of the development of the departmental web site and for his work on the Committee. Owen would be replaced on the Committee by James who now had the responsibility for the next stage of biology web development.
Owen summarised his experience of the web development - it was more work than expected, the site was remarkably complex and it was not possible to please every type of user. What might be appealing to a potential student, a potential graduate student or other external visitor to the site might be tedious to members of the Biology Dept wanting to gain specific detailed information. There were going to be compromises.

ICDB 05/5 Web - the present
Lorna noted that most of the administrative pages had been updated by those responsible for their management. Owen explained that there had been a delay in updating the research pages consequent on Research Committee deciding a structure for the research foci.
The policy of delivering documentation to undergraduates via the web (see ICDB 04/15) was discussed and the existing policy was confirmed. In particular it was noted that the implementation of the departmental policy to serve MRes students had been met with no criticism hence a much better case was needed to repeat the 2004 decision to give hard copies to undergraduates.

ICDB 05/6 Web - the future
James outlined his plans for the updating process, which would be done in collaboration with Lorna. It was agreed that:
the process should start with the Research pages so that the revision could tie in with the planned Annual Report that he and LE are producing for the Department (see below)

• the development of material for research purposes would have a priority over undergraduate administration pages in the short term
• the development of the undergraduate pages aimed at students already at York might usefully await decisions on VLE implementation and the structuring of the new course
• that Lorna would liaise with James to compile a list of those responsible to administering all the departmental web pages
• James would update us at the next meeting

ICDB 05/7 Annual Report
Lorna reported that she and James had been tasked by the HoD to produce a new attractive annual report, concentrating on the research profile of the department. James would seek sponsorship. The committee agreed that the preparation of the report should be planned such that a pdf version would immediately be available for mounting on the departmental web site.

ICDB 05/8 Next meeting
21st February 2005 at 15.30.