ALCTS Serials Section Executive Committee
Minutes from the 1999 Midwinter Conference in Philadelphia, PA

FIRST MEETING
Sunday, January 31, 1999
11:30 AM-1:30 PM
Pennsylvania Convention Center Room 103 A-B

MEMBERS PRESENT
Karen Darling, Chair
Cindy Hepfer, Past Chair
Beverley Geer, Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect
Mechael Gago, Member-at-Large
Sandy Heft, Member-at-Large
Joyce McDonough, Member-at-Large
Mitch Turitz, Secretary

GUESTS/LIAISONS PRESENT
Marla Schwartz (Acquisitions)
Suzanne Koceyan (ALA Staff)
Dale Swenson (ALCTS Newsletter Editor)
Sheila Intner (ALCTS President)
Lisa Macklin (Bowker/Ulrich's Award Chair)
Carolynne Myall (CC:DA)
Lola Halpin (CSSS)
Maggie Horn (First Step Award)
October Ivins (Organization and Bylaws)
Michael Elmore (PVLR)
Michelle Sitko (ULS)

Karen Darling brought meeting to order at 11:30 AM

1. The Executive Committee members introduced themselves.
2. Minutes from the 1998 Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. were accepted.
3. Announcements. Minna Saxe passed along a request from ALCTS, for institutes at the Preconference for Institute (FY) 2000. Sheila Intner suggested the numerous changes to AACR might make a good preconference.
4. ALCTS Board update (Darling)
   
   1. ALCTS membership is still dropping. Request from Karen Muller to recruit new members.
      
   2. Muller is coping with numerous staff changes. LAMA deputy has also resigned, so reorganization of entire staff is being considered.
      
   3. Alex Bloss gave a report from council. A resolution from Sandy Berman (Hennipen County) on subject headings has been circulated; Darling recommended that such resolutions be sent to SAC for comment. Proposal was on certain subject headings that Berman feels LC should establish, but is not willing to do the work himself. (Berman has not gone through the appropriate channels i.e. SAC).
5. Organization and Bylaws (Ivins)
   
   1. Board Report. Referral before meeting that PVLR is doing a program at Midwinter. Ivins reported back to the board that this is not the only group doing that; it is too late to change before the conference; PVLR has been doing it since 1993. It will be addressed in 5 year review of the committee. The problem was that there is no institutional memory on the committee. In addition board charged Organization & Bylaws with defining what is a program and what is not (by March 1). Darling added that information about rules governing programs (e.g. not being permitted during Mid Winter) will be forwarded to committee chairs with their appointment letters and discussion group leaders as we find out about them. Not all new Chairs can attend the orientation session where this is explained.
   2. Four major projects underway. Will try to have them wrapped up by annual conference. Two task force reports in tandem: Task Force on sectional representation (draft to be sent out for comment) it also needs to be considered with the Task Force to examine liaison relationships. The timetable is being worked on. The other big thing is the 5-year review. The list of order of review of the committees is still being worked on. History document and list of questions are available. The committees will be looked at for possible overlapping as well.
6. Acquisitions Committee (Marla Schwartz).
   
   1. Schwartz presented the proposal for publication (see minutes from last June for background). Word is that serials/acquisitions glossary from 1993, which still is overstocked, is still for sale, and Karen Muller reported to the committee that ALA will not want to print a new edition with the old one still on hand. It is not wrong, just lacking a few new terms associated with acquiring and accessing electronic journals. Would like it to be a web publication and have a link to ordering information of the print publication. The updates would appear on the web as a supplement to the print version. At the point where print copies are sold out, would have the full version on the web. Suzanne Koceyan suggested adding a sticker to the print which says that there are updates on the web.

      M/S/P to accept Schwartz's proposal for publication sponsored by ALCTS. Proposal will be sent to the Publications Committee.

   2. Clarification of charge - will be tabled for later discussion.
7. Union list (Michelle Sitko)
   Had productive planning meeting on Friday night planning for ALA annual in New Orleans, will be Sunday June 27, 9:30-11:30 AM. Chair of RUSA said ILL will cosponsor program. The speakers have been decided on. It will focus on e-journals and resource sharing, etc.
8. CC:DA (Committee on Cataloging: Description & Access - Carolynne Myall)
   Report covers the first meeting of CC:DA. Second meeting of CC:DA will be reported in Myall's written report.
   
   1. Three venues of new changes:
      following International Conference on Principles and Future of AACR, there are several groups working on substantial code revision:
      
      1. CONSER (with CC:DA) has a number of Task Forces working on substantial revisions to the cataloging code;
      2. Seriality CC:DA Task Force on Rule 0.24, determining when to make a new record and multiple formats;
      3. Task Forces on harmonization efforts between ISBD and AACR and ISSN;
   2. and (the on-going) CC:DA rule change proposals. A few details of immediate interest: small changes for the good that will not inhibit larger changes in terms of harmonizing descriptions of electronic resources and definitions that are undergoing further revisions in TF on Harmonization of ISBD-ER, and AACR. New definition of "computer disk" and "computer optical disc" has now gone through the process and will be updated in AACR. "Computer file" in GMD will be changed to "electronic resource" (still be discussed in committee).
   3. Several changes which CSSC participated in:
      1. New definition to Monographic series
      2. Proposal regarding access points in non-roman script brought forward from a non-member and was referred to CCS
   4. LC report - has implemented core-level cataloging, including serials
   5. Possible joint program with MARBI will concern metadata
   6. CC:DA Task Forces are seeking participation from outside.
   7. There were changes to terms of nobility
9. PVLR (Michael Elmore)
   PVLR is an open forum as opposed to "discussion groups." Forum will be tomorrow morning on use of standard numbers in communication between libraries, publishers and vendors. At annual meeting will be discussing using information from vendors' web sites. Particularly linking to problems in providing access to electronic resources.
10. Education Committee(Ann Vidor via Karen Darling)
    The Education committee thinks distance learning affecting public service will make a good topic and would like to get feedback from the Executive Board on the idea. Suggest that they contact some universities that are doing distance education and do some more investigation. What are the serials aspects? Licensing and/or technological aspects? Perhaps a publisher could tie in? Research libraries and providing access to electronic journals and problems in distance learning (e.g. IP addressing; dial-in access) . JSTOR (Carol Macadam) is dealing with these remote access issues. Heft will pass the Executive Board's thoughts to Vidor.
11. Standards (Lola Halpin)
    Committee met Friday night.
    
    1. Discussion on Standards bibliography. Committee would take on as ongoing task of the committee. Hope to get it onto the web.
    2. Revising presentation of electronic serials standards draft sent to NISO. NISO responded to narrow the focus.
    3. Discussion of forum/discussion/program? Z39.71 - merging mono and serials holdings into one standard. Possibly including Z39.50 andbroadcast searching. Will hope to have proposal before annual.
    4. Proposal: Serials Standards Bibliography (handed out) will add sections on Acquisitions, Metadata and preservation.

    M/S/P - approval of draft; will be sent to publications to be put onto the ALCTS web.

12. Newsletter update (Dale Swenson)
    ALCTS Newsletter is now online. The transition to an electronic newsletter went well. Abstracts of committee meetings will continue to appear in the newsletter. Will start creating links from the abstracts to home pages where committees are listed. Deadlines will be put on AN2 and also the home page for the newsletter. The ALCTS leaders list will also get a notice about deadlines.
13. Closed session
14. Adjournment. Meeting was adjourned at 1:30 PM.

SECOND MEETING
Tuesday, February 2, 1999
9:30 AM-12:30 PM
Marriott room 502

MEMBERS PRESENT: Karen Darling, Chair
Cindy Hepfer, Past Chair
Beverley Geer, Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect
Mechael Gago, Member-at-Large
Sandy Heft, Member-at-Large
Joyce McDonough, Member-at-Large
Mitch Turitz, Secretary

GUESTS/LIAISONS PRESENT:
Stewart Bodner (Publications)
Beatrice Caraway (ALCTS Prog comm)
Eleanor Cook (NASIG)
Emma Cuesta (Policy & Research)
Susan Davis (Guest)
Gene Dickerson (Guest Bowker/Ulrich's Award)
Betty Landesman (Research & Statistics)
Minna Saxe (Budget & Finance)
Marla Schwartz (Acquisitions)
Sally Tseng (CSSC)

Karen Darling brought meeting to order at 9:33 AM

1. The Executive Committee members introduced themselves.
2. Announcements. Jean Farrington (Liaison to International Relations) - there is still money available for non-IFLA conference international travel, e.g. UK Serials group. amount is $334 available. Apply through the ALCTS web site and forward to the Serials Section Executive Board.
3. ALCTS Board meeting update
   
   1. Budget & Finance: Amsterdam to Frankfurt 9 day ALCTS sponsored cruise on the Rhine in October in time for Frankfurt book fair. Cruise ship has capacity for 126 passengers will cost approximately $3500 plus airfare. ALCTS would stand to make money on this to offset raising of dues.
      
   2. Subject headings proposal (Sanford Berman's) was referred back to CCS and will refer back to SAC and will have a report of progress at summer conference.
4. Publications. (Stewart Bodner)
   
   1. Approved addendum to glossary. Committee had it on the wrong form but approved it anyway.
   2. Also approved Emma Cuesta's research topics in serials. Both approved as web publications.
   3. Problem with standards in serials, could not find the proposal. Received two different proposals but did not know whom they were from, so didn't know which was which. Need a revised proposal for what was approved by SS Executive committee on Sunday. Need to fill out a transmittal form and present it with manuscript to the Chair of the Publications Committee. So need a revised proposal for the standards in serials.
   4. Electronic Serials Institute III in Portland in April. Publishing papers for the institute is being discussed but not sure who proposed it. Brad Eden is the editor of the papers series. The first right of refusal was an issue discussed. There was also some talk of making a video of the institute available.
5. ALCTS Research & Statistics Committee (Betty Landesman)
   
   1. Meeting was on Planning of 2000 preconference in Chicago. Preconference: "Systematic Study: small scale research methods for on-the-job problem solving." Intended to be a "start-to-finish" how to take a problem and turn it into good research. There is some question on if this will be ready in time.
      
   2. Sheila Intner has requested "sound bytes" consisting on statistical information on libraries in each of the five sections (e.g. catalogers have cataloged X number of books last year). Landesman will do the ones on serials.
6. ALCTS CCS Policy & Research committee will be doing a program called "Publish!: information networking and motivation for cataloging and classification research" 9:30-12:30 on Sunday June 27, 1999 in New Orleans. How to come up with research topics in cataloging, how to make them publishable, etc.
7. Committee to Study Serials Cataloging (CSSC: Sally Tseng)
   
   1. Friday the committee prepared for the Monday meeting and began to prepare for New Orleans. Cataloging Electronic Journals is the topic and each committee member has been assigned an expert for each aspect. Single record vs. multiple record aspects and microforms and other aspects as well. There will also be a follow up report from Jean Hirons on her proposal to JSC and CC:DA.
   2. Monday committee meeting was well attended by 120 people. Reports were presented by CC:DA, MARBI, LC, CONSER, and NSDP, Topics included Jean Hirons' revision proposals to AACR2. Jean was able to give the most up-to-date info from recent CONSER meeting at ALA. AACR publication modules for serial and "serial-like" resources. The term "continuing resources" was introduced because people did not like the term "ongoing publication." Jean also touched base on her proposal for latest entry cataloging and provided some descriptions for a new rule for: loose-leafs; unnumbered series; resources without designated parts and; major and minor changes, what situations to create new (successive) records, etc. Darling suggested there is potential there for a preconference in the future on all the changes. Maybe start planning for for a preconference now due to the long lead time necessary?
   3. The new 1998 revision to AACR2 is out. Also the electronic CD-ROM version of AACR2 is out and available now. There is also a beta web version of AACR2 being tested now (you have to subscribe to it and it is ID/password protected.)
8. Electronic Serials Institute III (Sandy Heft)
   The papers will be published. Evan Reader (California State University Chancellor's Office) the keynote speaker will help with the publicity. Made headway in planning. April 15 &16 in Portland Hilton. 110 is themaximum attendance, break-even point is 85. Pamela Bluh has been very helpful as consultant.
9. ALCTS Budget and Finance (Minna Saxe)
   
   1. Membership in ALCTS dropped 2% in 1998 and revenue dropped 3%, a trend in the last 10 years. Dues are 1/3 of ALCTS revenues. another 1/3 comes from institutes and preconferences.
   2. The newsletter was costing money but resulted in little revenue. Canceling the paper version but making it available online will save money.
   3. The Regional institutes and preconference in 1998 were "extremely successful." Net revenue was $34,000.
   4. F.Y. 1996/97 was a deficit year for ALCTS but 1998 was not. The total net was almost $68,000. Preconference that SS worked on made $2,000 net; ESI made $9,000 net, and ESI I made over $14,000 net.
   5. Budget & Finance deals with 3 fiscal years concurrently past year, this year and next year. Preconferences and institutes have been so successful that they are pushing preconferences for year 2000. In 1999 there will be 2 preconferences, a cataloging preconference and a business of acquisitions preconference in New Orleans. There will also be 4 institutes: ESI III; Library binding in Los Angeles; Collection Management and Development in Pomona; and, Cataloging Now institute. There was a need for preconferences and institutes for year 2000. Since then a fundamentals of acquisitions institute has been proposed and two preconferences. One preconference is from ALCTS Research and Statistics; and the second from PARS on Brittle Books: "Medium Rare: preserving the golden age of publications." Jim Mouw is going to do fundamentals of acquisitions. CSSC is thinking of doing a preconference also.
10. NASIG (Eleanor Cook)
    NASIG's 14th conference is going to be June 10-13, 1999 at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. 2 preconferences will be held: one on scenario planning; and one on metadata. NASIG has confirmed its site for the 15th conference: June 22-25, 2000 at U.C. San Diego, in San Diego, California. "The dorms are to die for." In addition to its annual conference, NASIG has been participating in various regional continuing education opportunities. These include sponsorship with SOLINET, NETSL (New England Technical Services Librarians), the N.C. Serials Conference, the Florida Library Association, and the Louisiana Library Association. In March, President Steve Oberg and Member-at-Large Maggie Rioux will present a paper, "Intellectual access issues for the digital library," at the 9th Transborder Library Forum in Mexicali, Mexico.
11. Policy & Research Committee (Emma Cuesta)
    The committee met Friday night.
    
    1. Heard the LC report, which will be attached to the written report.
    2. Discussed New Orleans program "Serials Pig in the Aggregators Poke" dealing with libraries dealing with packaged serials products.
    3. Research topics. Very glad that it was accepted despite entire file being wiped out on Steve Ober's hard disk failure. Two years' work need to be recreated.
    4. Request for interns to help with the committee work. Additionally, can have subcommittees, but do not have to have committee members on the subcommittees. It doesn't have to consist of members as long as one person in charge is a member of the committee. The subcommittee approach is to increase the number of people to see after a year if you need more people on the committee.
    5. Michael Elmore will be the next Chair of Policy & Research.
    6. Need to finalize the new charge to the committee. Need to guide people into research but do not want to create a new bureaucracy. Have some concerns about the coordinating of the review and approval process for publications. Would like to come up with draft policies by annual to present to SS Executive Committee. Want to continue maintaining the research topics document on an ongoing basis. The committee believes it can be maintained by one committee member with one intern once it is on the ALCTS web page. We don't want to be publications police. Create a "how to do it" checklist, including examples. There was a discussion of: the cycle of paperwork; should the name o the committee be changed since it will work with publications?; should the Chairperson serve as a non-voting ex-officio member to the SS Executive Committee? The charge was reworded and then M/S/P accepted by the SS Executive Board. Darling will forward the revised charge to Karen Muller.

       Revised text for the charge to the Policy, Research and Publications Committee:

       "To recommend long-range policies and plans for the section;

       To monitor current research in progress in its area of responsibilities;

       To identify or encourage others to propose topics and issues in serials for discussion, research, action and/or publication;

       To coordinate the development, review and approval process for publications, including, but not limited to, serving as a consultant to other SS committees preparing documents; expedite the progress of documents approved by the SS Executive Committee through the publication;

       To coordinate the work of the Policy, Research and Publications Committee with planning for ALCTS as a whole through participation (by the committee chairperson) in the work of the ALCTS Planning Committee."

       Approved by ALCTS Serials Section Executive Committee 2/2/99

    7. Serials Section reporting guidelines (Darling).
       Are we satisfied with written reports, etc.? The guidelines were picked up by the ALCTS office and forwarded to all the ALCTS committee chairs, etc. as something to look at before reporting to the ALCTS Board.

       Written reports mean people cannot listen to reports from the committees. On the flip side it isn't fair to ask someone to stay an extra day at ALA to make a brief report. Can we have Sunday morning as the reporting meeting? How do the PARS committee do it so successfully? We only have Friday evening meetings at Midwinter, not at annual.

       Action: Darling will look at the programs and will encourage people to come on Sunday instead of submitting written reports, or report on Tuesday.

       Guidelines. Are we happy with the way they are? Yes. They should probably go out to all committee chairs as soon as they are appointed.

    8. Conference Revision Task Force Report (Darling)
       Proposal "Option for the Future" that each division will be assigned a block of rooms in a hotel to schedule themselves. Also proposing programming tracks - to try to remedy when their is one time which conflicts with numerous programs that people want to attend and other times when there are no programs. (Joyce) Discussion of adding a level of bureaucracy to the existing process and having no advantage to those who want to attend meetings across sections. This can be somewhat narrow in terms of where the focuses are. We don't want people functioning as program police. This was a bit too controlling. Doesn't allow for cross-fertilization. The idea is to make things easier (e.g. "All the ALCTS meetings are at the Marriott"). Darling felt we went from "total chaos to total control." The tracks don't allow for people with inter-disciplinary jobs. Feeling is that the track will lock people, especially new people into just one area. Also the feeling that the track will not be good for PLA people. The SS Executive Board is in agreement that cross-fertilization and diversity seems best. General feeling is we

       like the hotel and block of rooms idea but not the rest of it.

    9. ALCTS Program Committee (Bea Caraway)
       Serials Institute and Union List committee proposals have been approved. Heard report from Policy & Research committee proposal on Resource Sharing in the Digital Age the issue of Union Listing of Electronic Serials co-sponsored by RUSA MOUSE ILL all confirmed speakers. Gave all of serials section proposals full approval for this summer.
    10. Brainstorming of institute preconferences (Darling).
        This has already been done throughout this meeting. Hepfer suggested possible fourth ESI. Darling suggested it may be hard to find a planning committee group to do a fourth program. The biggest problem is in the fund raising that falls on the planning committee. Discussion of the role of the fund raising committee. One of the problems with planning institutes is the fund raising hurdle.

        Institutes and preconferences are out on the horizon, but we don't have any specific dates and programs yet. ISBD-S revision, AACR2 and other standards revision are possible topics, but they are not timely yet.

        Everything is waiting and in the works. We don't want to do an institute on things which are still in draft.

        Some of the cataloging topics might be possible by teleconferencing.

    11. Adjournment at 12:17.

    respectfully submitted by Mitch Turitz