GODORT International Documents Task Force Minutes

1998 ALA Midwinter Conference Hotel Monteleone, Bienville Room Saturday, January 10, 1998, 2:00pm - 4:00 p.m.

Attending: Mike McCaffrey-Noviss (Coordinator), Duncan Aldrich, Mary Gay Anderson (Secretary), Dan Blazek, Debora Cheney, James Church, Sam Dunlap, Chuck Eckman, Beth Estes, Mary Fetzer, Patricia Finney, Peter Hajnal, Dena Hutto, Chad Kahl, Michael Levine-Clark, Rosemary Allen Little, Barb Mann, Andrea Morrison, Sandy Peterson, Fenn Quigley, Patrick Ragains, Marian Shaaban, Helen Sheehy, Peter Van Leeuwen, Julie Wallace, Mary Ann Ward Michael McCaffrey-Noviss called the meeting to order at 2:00pm.

1. Welcome and Announcements

As is customary, the meeting began with introductions and agenda changes. The Coordinator also asked for volunteers to run for IDTF Secretary for 1998/99. To accommodate the State and Local Documents Task Force, Mike asked Patricia Finney of the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) to give her report on foreign official gazettes (FOGs). CRL is continuing to process the New York Public Library's deposit of FOGs, adding records to their online catalog and proceeding alphabetically by country. The project has currently finished the "I's" This deposit includes both paper copy and micro formats. The University of Michigan Law school will also deposit their collection of FOGs with CRL Their micro formats are well documented, but the 'hard copy' materials have never been cataloged. This collection is being approached geographically Latin America and Western Europe are completed and work has begun on India. Peter Hajnal was invited to announce the second edition of his book, International Information, which is available from Libraries Unlimited. The task force members were saddened to hear that Mr Hajnal would be taking an early retirement from the library. However, he will continue teaching and research activities at the University of Toronto.

2. Approval of Minutes

The 1997 Annual IDTF Business Meeting Minutes, as published on the IDTF website, were approved with no discussion.

3. Reports from IDTF Liaisons

1. Cataloging Committee
   Andrea Morrison reminded the group of the Sunday panel discussion, "Cataloging Pre-1976 U.S Government Publications: Stakeholders and Strategies."
   
   
2. Education Committee
   Debora Cheney reported that when the committee meets on Sunday, the discussion will center on its webpage.
   
   
3. Legislation Committee
   Helen Sheehy alerted IDTF to the imminent disappearance of the Area Handbooks, which generated considerable consternation Members were encouraged to write letters to congressional chairs of Appropriations, Armed Services, and the Joint Committee on Printing Secondly, Helen reported that there is a bill before Congress to make the Congressional Research Service reports available publicly 60-90 days after their release to Congress.
   
   
4. GITCO
   Dan Blazek reported that the committee would meet on Sunday to coordinate work on their CD-ROM documentation project, development of a webpage template for small and medium-sized libraries, and the GITCO annual program.
   
   
5. Publications Committee
   Beth Estes announced the search for a volunteer webmanager for the GODORT web pages This has been a troubled year for Documents to the People (DTTP) With a subscription price increase and a corrected distribution list, DTTP should be back on schedule with the March 1998 issue.
   
   
6. Rare and Endangered Documents Committee
   Ann Miller reported that the Sunday meeting would focus on planning the 1998 preconference.
   
   
7. ACRL - WESS (Western European Studies Section)
   Sam Dunlap announced the formation of a new group, the Social Sciences and History Discussion group, which will meet on Sunday at 8 a.m in NOCC Room 82 Watch for their new website at http://gort.ucsd.edu/sdunlap/ssh.html.
   
   
8. ALA International Relations Committee
   Rosemary Allen Little reported that the IRC is examining the legal aspects of credentialing foreign librarians wishing to work in the US. To expand its mentoring program for international visitors to ALA conferences, the IRC is also looking for volunteers The end of the International Fellows Program also spells the end of the ALA International Relations Office. Although the program had secured half of the necessary funding from the USIA, no cosponsors could be found IFLA 2001 Conference will be in Boston. While this is good news, the US government has already signaled its unwillingness to fund the $2 million event Rosemary also announced the ALA/IRRT preconference on Friday, June 26 entitled "Continuing Education- an Institute Designed Especially for International Librarians".
   
   

4. Report from the Population Research Center at the University of Texas, Austin

Chuck Eckman related that budget cuts at the University of Texas have severely impacted the Population Research Center (PRC) and its ability to continue collecting foreign census materials The PRC has been the lead institution in collecting and cataloging this material and their website is a valuable collection management tool Chuck urged the library community to consider some cooperative collection arrangements.

5.1998 Preconference

Michael McCaffrey-Noviss announced that the preconference would be on Thursday, June 25th at the Delegation of the European Communities. Most of the panelists have been contacted and confirmed This group represents editors, publishers, reference librarians and a variety of international publishers A keynote speaker was discussed and will be invited shortly. Discussion centered on advertising, structure of the panels and fees Since the preconference targets an audience of specialists, publicity will be handled via specialized listservs, email, the web, DTTP, and the usual ALA sources Listserv postings will be made to WESS by Sam Dunlap, to IFLA by Helen Sheehy, to LPSS by Rosemary Allen Little The group also decided to ask WESS and LPSS to cosponsor the event Registration fees were set at $50 Since the European Union is graciously hosting the event, IDTF only needs to generate enough revenue to cover travel costs for speakers and the luncheon Registration will be handled via the web and fax by Mike and Sandy Peterson The group finally agreed on the title "International Organization Information in the 21st Century" While IDTF would like to publish the papers on the web, ALA publishing and DTTP must be consulted.

6. Agency Liaison Program

Mercy Sanchez was unable to attend but all liaison reports are posted to the web

7. IFLA Representative Support and Funding

Helen Sheehy gave a short report of her IFLA/ Government Information and Official Publications Section (GIOPS) activities and distributed a more detailed written report She reminded IDTF members to respond to the survey for the IFLA Directory of International Specialists and spoke of plans for future IFLA programs Most of the discussion focused on the increasing costs for the GODORT representative to IFLA and dwindling institutional support IFLA expenses are substantial, considering dues, registration and worldwide travel costs Although Helen is an active presenter and panelist in the GIOPS programs, she may not be able to continue IDTF suggested that Helen include a statement of expenses in each of her reports and strongly urged GODORT Steering Committee to consider funding the GODORT/ IFLA Liaison at the $1000 level.

8. News from the Field

1. Readex announced a Windows based version of its UN Index on CD-ROM to be released in February.
   
   
2. Appearance of subnational foreign government websites led to some discussion about inclusion on the IDTF web pages, if someone was interested in collecting them.
   
   
3. Is there any interest in having UN Depository publication information posted to INTL-DOC? Mike will check with the UN, since the group thought this would be helpful.
   
   
4. There will be a World Bank Reception on June 29th at the World Bank Joint Library.
   
   
5. The Official Journal of the European Union will disappear in paper format. Optional formats include:
   
   
   1. Free internet access to the latest 20 days
      
      
   2. Subscription to a quarterly CD-ROM version
      
      
   3. Subscription to CELEX online service EU depository libraries will continue to have a password for mediated searching.
      
      
   4. Subscription to Academic Universe (the web incarnation of Lexis/Nexis) which will include the EC and foreign language materials by Spring of 1998.
      
      
   5. Continued microfiche distribution is undecided at this time
      
      

9.Other Business

Mike mentioned that a dues increase for GODORT is imminent, regardless of the merger decision Sandy Peterson alerted everyone to the FINAL public hearing on the ASCLA/GODORT/ILERT merger proposition on Monday, 9:30am -11am in the NOCC Room 54 The meeting was adjourned at 4:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted by:

Mary Gay Anderson Government Documents Librarian University of Florida