ABSTRACT
The first BookshelF User Group meeting was held in September 1987 at Loughborough University of Technology, when the user base numbered just over 20 sites. The impetus for its set up lay initially with SCSS BookshelF staff, but it was stressed at that meeting that the Group should be run by the users, with invitations to meetings extended to the vendors when appropriate. The constitution of the Group states that ‘the group shall be independent of the vendor’ and that ‘representatives of the vendor may attend meetings by invitation’. In practice, the relationship between the Group and the vendors has flourished to the extent that they are now invited to every meeting, and a senior member of their staff sits on the Group’s Development Sub-Committee. Their contribution to the Group has been both extensive and welcome, without compromising the independence of the group.
