From the President

Olivia M. A. Madison, ALCTS President

Olivia Madison COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE, AND COMMUNICATE!
Improving how ALCTS communicates with its membership remains a high priority this year with many important enhancements! Communication takes place in a variety of methods, including:

ALCTS Online Newsletter (ANO) is now issued six times a year (formerly quarterly) by our able and steadfast editor, Miriam Palm! ANO provides announcements, columns, short articles, committee meeting & program reports, conference meeting schedules, etc. Shortly you will be able to request to receive automatic notices of new issues at the ALCTS Web site.
Our new ALCTS Web site is up and running - please come and visit. Its new organization provides clear access to an extensive network of documents and information, including the ALCTS Manual, notices of continuing education opportunities (virtual as well as geographically placed), publications, forms, membership rosters, and pivotal divisional, sectional, committee governance documents (e.g., current/past agendas, meeting reports/minutes, and links to the ALA Web site and other Web sites of interest to ALCTS members). Many thanks to Kirsten Ahlen (ALCTS Office) for her creative and diligent Web work!
Divisional, sectional, committee discussion lists—all committees may have one to assist in conducting their business, particularly in between conferences. Andrea Tobias (ALCTS Office) will establish whatever lists you need.
Many new membership brochures targeting key constituencies, all of which tell the story of ALCTS and its importance to the library profession. Our ALCTS Membership Committee, under the strong leadership of Manuel Urrizola, has been extremely busy this year!
ALCTS Booth at ALA conferences - one will be present at ALA Toronto! Please drop by and say hello to your ALCTS colleagues.

Moreover, we communicate with each other through our extensive and successful programming and publication activities:

Education and staff development programming (including conference programs, preconferences, institutes, workshops, forums, etc.).
Our publishing efforts - whether through web publishing or through Library Resources and Technical Services (LRTS), the ALCTS Paper Series, or publishing our scholarship through Scarecrow Press.

Two search processes have or will beginning shortly for editors of LRTS, LRTS book reviews, and the ALCTS Paper Series. A search process for a new permanent editor of Library Resources and Technical Services (LRTS) will be initiated this summer to replace John Budd, who has submitted his resignation. In the interim, the ALCTS Executive Committee has appointed Peggy Johnson, Associate University Librarian at the University of Minnesota and former ALCTS President, as editor through volume 48 of 2004. Peggy looks forward to working with the LRTS Editorial Board to provide the ALCTS membership with the robust and respected journal that is our association's common goal. Additionally, she will be working closely with the ALCTS Publications Committee. Peggy is happy to speak with prospective LRTS authors as well as those with manuscripts currently in the review process. Her email address is m-john@tc.umn.edu and her phone number is (612) 624-2312.

Please let me know of any ideas that you might have to improve our communication efforts!

INTEREST GROUP OPTION NOW OFFICIAL!
I believe that ALCTS will benefit greatly from the recent membership approved by-laws change that allows for the creation of divisional and sectional interest groups. At the annual conference the Board of Directors will determine the on-going status of the current division-wide committees. Specifically, the Board will decide which divisional committees will remain as board committees, and the process by which the remaining divisional committees might chose to reconstitute themselves as Interest Groups or Discussion Groups or to discontinue completely as divisional governance units. In Toronto, the ACLTS Organization and Bylaws Committee will draft ALCTS procedures that will be used by ALCTS members to create interest groups.

ALCTS MEMBERSHIP MEETING AND PRESIDENT'S PROGRAM
A special part of the annual ALCTS Membership Meeting in Toronto is the awards ceremony. These 2003 awards provide a special opportunity to recognize significant achievements and accomplishments of our members. Our awards and honored recipients for this year are:

Best of LRTS Award
Recipient: Richard Fyffe, University of Kansas
Sponsor: ALCTS
Award: $250
Blackwell's Scholarship Award
Recipient: Richard Fyffe, University of Kansas
Sponsor: Blackwell's
Award: $2,000 Scholarship recipient: Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science (Michele Cloonan, Dean)
Bowker/Ulrich's Serials Librarianship Award
Recipient: Frieda Rosenberg, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Sponsor: R.R. Bowker, Inc.
Award: $1,500
First Step Award/Wiley Professional Development Grant
Recipient: Dianne Ford, Elon University
Sponsor: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Award: $1,500
Leadership in Library Acquisitions Award
Recipient: Julia Gammon, University of Akron
Sponsor: Harrassowitz
Award: $1,500
Margaret Mann Citation
Recipient: Thomas J. Delsey (Tom Delsey is unable to attend the award ceremony. Accepting on his behalf will be Ingrid Parent, National Library of Canada)
Sponsor: OCLC, Inc.
Award: $2,000 Scholarship recipient: University of Western Ontario Faculty of Information and Media Studies (Catherine Ross, Dean)
Esther J. Piercy Award
Recipient: Karen E.K. Brown, State University of New York at Albany
Sponsor: YBP, Inc.
Award: $1,500
Paul Banks and Carolyn Harris Preservation Award
Recipient: John F. Dean, Cornell University
Sponsor: Preservation Technologies, L.P.
Award: $1,500

Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award
Recipient: Wendy Pradt Lougee, University of Minnesota
Sponsors: Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS), Library Administration and Management Association (LAMA), Library and Information Technology Association (LITA)
Award: $2,000
In addition to these awards, as I mentioned in an earlier column, I will be awarding three ALCTS Presidential Citations - to John Attig, Laura Sill & Bill Sill, and Ann Swartzel.

Following the awards ceremony will be the ALCTS President's Program, "Minding the Gap: Generational Issues in Recruitment and the Work Place." Lynne Lancaster (Co-founder of Bridgeworks) is the featured speaker. Please don't miss it and receive a complimentary copy of Ms. Lancaster's newest book - her publisher, HarperCollins is generously providing them.

I sincerely hope that circumstances will provide you the opportunity to attend the ALA conference in Toronto. I look forward to seeing you at the ALCTS Membership and President's Program Meetings.