ALCTS Discussion and Interest Groups Announce Topics for Orlando Meetings

These announcements were received by the submission deadline of June 1. Check the schedule of meetings in the April issue for the locations of these sessions. (Please use your browser's back button to return to this issue.)

The Electronic Resources Interest Group (Saturday, June 26, 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.) will feature two presentations on Tracking Electronic Resources at the Library of Congress. This meeting will provide information about LC’s current and developing workflow for electronic resources (ER). There will be a demonstration of TrackER, the online tracking system that has been created for the Library of Congress to manage the ER workflow from initial recommendation through cataloging and notification of completion. The TrackER system also generates statistical reports. Speakers will be Allene Hayes (Digital Projects Coordinator for the Cataloging Directorate) and Stan Lerner (Senior Programmer in the Office of Strategic Initiatives) Ample time for questions following the presentations has been planned, and participation by the audience is encouraged and welcomed. For detailed information about the LC workflow for cataloging ERs please visit the LC Web site at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/stratplan/goal4wg4report.pdf.

The Heads of Technical Services of Medium Sized Academic and Research Libraries Discussion Group (Saturday, June 26, 9:30-11 a.m.) will feature the general discussion general topic, “Coping with Change”, and six individual round table topics:

• How to deal with a new dean;
  
• How to cope with decreases and increases in budget;
  
• Adjusting work flows after migration to a new system;
  
• Helping staff cope with change;
  
• Developing cooperation between acquisitions and cataloging when implementing PromptCat, etc.; and
  
• Convincing the dean that you need more staff.

The Pre-Order Pre-Catalog Searching Discussion Group (Saturday, June 26, 9:30-11 a.m.) will discuss "Division of responsibilities and improving communication between Collection Development and Acquisitions". Sharing their experience and perspectives on the topic will be Rebecca Routh, Head of Monographic Acquisitions and Rapid Cataloging Department, Northwestern University; and Lynda Fuller Clendenning, Associate Director of Technical Services and Head of Acquisitions Division, Indiana University. Discussion and questions from the audience will follow the presenters.

The Publisher-Vendor/Library Relations Interest Group will hold an open forum on eBooks: "When are E-Books THE Books?” (Monday, June 28, 9:30-11 a.m.). Mark Sandler (University of Michigan) will address:

• the scholars' viewpoint on e-publishing their works;
  
• the library viewpoint on e-publishing their unique content and/or historical texts;
  
• the creation and access models that are discipline specific (eebo and others);
  
• reasons for developing partnerships (scholarly and economic);
  
• advantages and disadvantages in partnering;
  
• transferable models for library/publisher partnerships (tcp); and
  
• the benefits for teachers and students.

Greg Giblin (John Wiley and Sons, Inc.), will describe the publisher perspective, including

• timing and integration with traditional book sources and services;
• developing sustainable, useable eBook products -- how do publishers identify library needs/wants?
  
• what are the advantages/disadvantages of eBooks over traditional publishing?
• do eBooks work better in certain disciplines than in others?
  
• how to decide which eBook channels/aggregators to use;
  
• tools and features to enhance content -- how are the tools/features developed?
  
• how are eBook pricing models developed?

Kimberly Parker (Electronic Publishing and Collections Librarian, Yale University) will describe the library perspective, including

• workable models for eBooks in libraries: where they make sense, pricing models that work, timing and integration with traditional sources, collections embraced by users (Safari, Knovel, xReferPlus, Oxford Reference Online);
  
• tools and features that library users want and need; and
  
• eBook functionality for specific library tasks --- examples of existing products, etc.

Bob Brand (Knovel Corporation) will also speak.

The CCS Catalog Management Discussion Group (Saturday, June 26, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.) will feature Zoe Stewart-Marshall, Database Enrichment Librarian at Cornell University discussing “URL Link Maintenance and Link Checking at Cornell”. For a viewpoint on catalog maintenance from the bibliographic utility perspective, Robert Bremer, Consulting Database Specialist in OCLC's WorldCat Quality Management Division, will discuss "Quality Control of WorldCat". There will be time for questions and discussion about these topics.

The CCS Cataloging Norms Discussion Group (Saturday, June 26, 2-4 p.m.) will feature three topics:

• Cataloging quality as a communicative process / Susan Matveyeva, Wichita State University, KS. A panel will present the usage of online catalog by library staff and will show the impact of staff's needs on quality of cataloging.
  
• Should AACR2 become more responsive: users' searching behavior in the OPACs in the Internet environment / Qiang Jin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This random sample paper illustrates the importance of corporate Web sites in creating authorized corporate headings so that users might be able to find materials by those corporate bodies in OPACs in the Internet environment.
  
• Authority work for a bilingual community: challenges for Hong Kong Libraries / Maria Lai-che Lau, Chinese University of Hong Kong. The Hong Kong libraries cooperatively established a Chinese name authority file in 2002. The presentation will address the use of 7xx field for parallel headings in authority records, MARC to XML conversion, and Unicode, etc.

The CCS Copy Cataloging Discussion Group (Monday, June 28, 9:30-11:00 a.m.) will feature Judith Mansfield will presenting the LC update, John Celli (LC) = talking about the LC CIP Program, and Mike Thompson elaborating on how CIP records are handled at the University of Houston. There will be ample time for questions and discussion.

The CMDS Collection Development Librarians of Academic Libraries Discussion Group (Saturday, June 26, 2004, 2-4 p.m.) invites collection development librarians to join a discussion on three current topics of interest: the nuts and bolts of collection management; restructuring organizations to encourage effective collaboration; and working with faculty to develop new mechanism for disseminating the results of scholarly research. Three speakers will be featured:

• Sherri L. Barnes (University of California, Santa Barbara) will address “Collection Development: The Manual Revisited.” Modern day collection management in an academic library is a multifaceted experience that requires a range of skills, and intellect. At the University of California, Santa Barbara Libraries a Web-based “collection manager’s manual” (http://www.library.ucsb.edu/collman/index.html) is maintained to assist librarians with the nuts and bolts, as well as the more subjective aspects, of managing library collections. Embedded in the manual are the discussion notes from a series of collection development orientations designed and implemented by the Task Force for New Collection Managers, which also facilitated the production of the manual. Collection managers refer to the manual when they have procedural or policy questions related to the countless collection development tasks, situations, and responsibilities that surface regularly, whether related to approval plans, faculty liaison practices, interacting with cataloging and acquisitions, negotiating licensing agreements, developing subject expertise; or budget management. The manual reflects the rapidly changing roles of collection development librarians working in a networked information environment.
• Susanne Clement (University of Kansas) will speak about “Organizational Change at the University of Kansas.” The University of Kansas recently completed restructuring its subject bibliographers into teams that will align them more closely with a changing university structure. They created four subject councils (science and technology, humanities, language and culture, and social science) thereby allowing bibliographers with related disciplines to work more closely together within a structured environment. This presentation will cover the conceptual ideas behind this move, the impact on collection development as well as some of the practical problems of implementation.
• Allan Scherlen (Appalachian State University) will talk about “Collection Development Librarians Confront the Open Access Movement: Liberation or Confusion?” The increasing cost of commercial scholarly journal subscriptions has led to efforts to develop an alternate model of scholarly publishing referred to as the Open Access Initiative. This movement ideally seeks to provide peer-reviewed scholarly articles free on the Internet. A major topic in academic news these days, Open Access journals and archives continue to grow in number, credibility, and impact, forcing publishers, librarians and scholars to take careful notice. Collection development librarians, in particular, have a key role in evaluating these new sources of scholarly communication, reconciling them against established traditional publications, many of which are locked into big deal packages, while providing access and, perhaps, advocacy.

The PARS Discussion Group (Sunday, June 27, 4:30-5:30 p.m.) will discuss "Preparing Materials for Off-Site Storage." At Midwinter, the PARS Preservation Issues in Small to Mid-Sized Libraries Discussion Group held a great discussion about conservation labs and off-site storage facilities. We will continue this thread by discussing the practical issues of preparing library items for transfer to an off-site facility and for long-term storage. Librarians with specific experience in these areas will share their insights and welcome questions. Anyone with an interest in this topic is encouraged to join our discussion. In addition, we will explore the possibility of changing from a Discussion Group to an Interest Group.

The SS Journal Costs in Libraries Discussion Group (Saturday, June 26, 2-4 p.m.) will have as its topic "Dealing with 'The Deal': Views and Experiences from the Field." Stephen Bosch (University of Arizona) will discuss the short-term benefits of using "big deals" as a strategy for enhancing the availability of digital content for customers. Despite being an unsustainable business model, the big deal can be used effectively to stretch resource dollars while other models for scholarly communication mature.

Kenneth Frazier (University of Wisconsin-Madison) will speak candidly about the opportunities and liabilities of operating a research library system that has consciously avoided "big deals."
Although the consequences for Wisconsin have included the good, bad, and ugly, Ken will discuss the fast-moving changes in scholarly communication that are making fundamental changes in the dissemination of research articles.

Gary Ives (Texas A&M) will present his findings on the content overlap among the Elsevier Backfile Collections, which range from 25.1% overlap for the Chemistry Collection with all other collections, to 94.4% overlap for the Veterinary Science Collection, with all other collections. Gary will also describe how to calculate unique content for collections not yet purchased, compared to overlapping content with collections already purchased and collections under consideration.

There will be short Q&A opportunities following each speaker, with an extended discussion period following all presentations.

The SS Research Libraries Discussion Group (Saturday, June 26, 9:30-11:00 a.m.) will discuss “Publishers, vendors and libraries: the chain of customer service.” The explosion of electronic publishing has made a tremendous impact in the world of serials. Academic libraries today are in a time of transition, navigating choices between print, print/online, and online-only subscriptions; these choices are further complicated by factors such as bundling and access restrictions. Vendors serve as intermediaries between publishers and libraries. What are everyone's expectations for today and tomorrow? Panelists Stephen Bosch (University of Arizona), Paul Kohberger (University of Pittsburgh), Dan Tonkery (Ebsco Information Services), and Dena Schoen (Otto Harrassowitz) will discuss the economic relationships between publishers and vendors, and their impact on libraries; vendor challenges in managing subscriptions (print, print/online, and online-only); and libraries’ need for additional services and vendors' development of these services.