Federal Librarians Round Table Board Meeting

ALA Midwinter Conference, San Antonio

Monday January 17, 2000, 2:00-4:00 (CST)

Marriott RiverCenter Hotel, San Antonio, Texas

Present:

Andrea Gruhl, Fran Perros, B.J. Fox, Lynn McDonald, Jane Sessa, Nancy Davenport, Maria Pisa, Stephanie Jones, Joan Taylor, Janet Ormes, Robert Doyle, Helen Spaulding

Call to Order - Stephanie Jones called the meeting to order at 2:05. The agenda, as modified in the previous meeting, was approved.
BARC Liaison - Helen Spaulding. Stephanie introduced Helen Spaulding of ALA's Budget Analysis and Review Committee. Helen mentioned that ALA's Financial Planning Seminar and are very helpful in managing Round Table finances. Also, a group is working on a Round Table Handbook. Stephanie mentioned that some Round Tables have endowments and we are interested in what is involved in this. Janet Ormes asked if the FLRT reserves will transfer to the new organization if we merge with AFLRT. Helen responded that ALA is encouraging Round Tables to merge and she would advocate that the funds go with the organization.
Planning/Budget Assembly - Lynn McDonald: Lynn attended the Financial Planning Seminar for FLRT, at which ideas were presented for balancing expenses and income. The Library History Round Table is working on developing an Endowment Fund, which we might want to explore. New Members Round Table revised their budget process. It's now more like the way FLRT does it, which was reassuring. She recommended that when a new FLRT Treasurer is elected, that person should attend an ALA Financial Planning Seminar.
ALA has distributed the ALA 2005 Plan. Lynn is willing to continue as liaison to Planning/Budget Assembly, but it is appropriate for the President and/or President Elect also. Lynn mentioned the benefits of AMS, which is ALA's new accounting system, especially the ease of obtaining reports.
Legislative & Assembly - Jane Sessa. GODORT proposed a resolution that if NTIS is disbanded, the function be transferred to a centralized Government agency whose responsibility is the printing and dissemination of Government information. (Currently this is GPO.) GODORT is especially concerned that NTIS materials continue to go into the Depository Library Program. There is rumored to be $4M in Commerce budget to disband NTIS, although there is some doubt this will go forward.
Maria Pisa asked whether the resolution also addresses the licensing of databases which are now the responsibility of NTIS. Jane responded that databases are not specifically mentioned. Nancy Davenport reported that NCLIS is having a hearing on this subject this week.

The proposed LC Revolving Fund resolution is also on the agenda.
New Members Round Table (NMRT) - Joan Taylor. Joan reported that NMRT has a list of actions being taken to recruit ALA membership among students. They are also proposing a Student Chapter of the Year Award. In addition NMRT is looking into how to recruit from programs that are not ALA accredited, but from which members might come. They also plan to provide some funds for Student Chapters. Joan pointed out to NMRT that FLRT has a conference attendance scholarship.
Joan also reported on feedback from the members regarding sending a FLRT membership list to vendors. There was not a significant response. She moved that this effort be terminated. The motion was seconded by Andrea Gruhl and unanimously approved.
AFLRT Liaison - B.J. Fox. As AFLRT Liaison, B.J. reported that she is also active in the Military Librarians Division of SLA. A Military Librarians Workshop was held in December in Williamsburg, VA. The proceedings will be posted at http://www.sla.org/division/dmil. The biggest draw at the Workshop was a session featuring OPM on classification standards. Also popular were sessions on new technologies, GPO, and NTIS.
MLD presented awards to Carol Jacobson, DTIC and Bonnie Davis, Navy Experimental Diving Unit, Panama City, FL. Membership in MLD has grown this year due to the outstanding work of its Membership Chair, Jane Butler. Jane also prepared a very attractive and useful brochure to attract new members.

B.J. also reported that MLD is planning three sessions for the SLA Annual Conference in Philadelphia, PA June 10-14, 2000. One on Copyright and the Federal Government, one on The Library Beyond: New Technologies, and one on NTIS, which is being cosponsored by several SLA divisions. AFLRT asked that military librarians who attend SLA be invited to an activity during the Conference.

Next year's MLW will be in Monterey, CA, October 31-Nov 3, 2000.

B.J. reported that, for the ALA Annual Conference in June, the AFLRT Program Committee is planning a reception only. Awards will be given there. Linda Resler, Head, Technical Services, Marine Corps University Library, is the new Vice-President-elect of AFLRT.

There was no AFLRT fall meeting and the summer meeting was devoted to discussion of the merger.
PER - Fran Perros. Fran did an article on PER for the newsletter. 1st USA VISA cards will be sent out with "Federal Librarian's Round Table" on the face of the card.
There will be a policy meeting tomorrow for the ADA Assembly.
Website - Janet Ormes. Janet reported that the Website has been updated to reflect current status. Please submit any changes to her.
Federal Librarian - Maria Pisa. Maria handed out an advertising volume report. She is considering reducing multi-issue discounts in order to offset our costs. This policy could possibly be implemented next fall.
Maria attended a 2-hour New Member orientation on Saturday. She put out brochures and pointed out that a person does not need to be a Federal employee to join FLRT. The brochures were all taken. She is willing to mentor a new member at ALA on behalf of FLRT.
Program - Nancy Davenport. Nancy wasn't getting speakers with a spiffy new message for the proposed Distance Learning topic. However, she did get agreement from two speakers to look at building a national repository for electronic articles. They are from Agriculture and Medicine; she is looking for one other. Suggestions: Astrophysics Data System (NASA/Smithsonian), DTIC. Stephanie pointed out that we could not change the order of Membership Meeting followed by the program for this year's Conference, as some members had requested.
FLICC Liaison - Carol Bursik. Carol was not able to attend the meeting and submitted a written report, the highlights of which follow.
OPM has deleted all references to the Library Equivalency Test (Test 536) from the Librarian Qualification Standard. The Personnel Working Group now plans to work toward requiring the MLS for employment in the 1410 series, using the 1412 Technical Information Specialist series for individuals using experience to qualify for a federal job. They are also looking into the use of the Department of Labor Standards definition of a librarian for purposes of contracting for library services.

Susan Tarr, Executive Director of FLICC, has requested a meeting between GPO and FLICC's Preservation and Binding Working Group to discuss binding contract, which GPO renewed with Mid-Atlantic Bindery through July 2002.

FLICC has prepared tools to help federal libraries publicize their services and collections during the celebration of the Library of Congress bicentennial in 2000. A poster and bookmarks will be mailed to all federal libraries. Other tools include: a one-page fact sheet, press release, chronology of agency libraries, and ideas for sponsoring an open house.

FLICC has elected new members for the 2000-2002 term of office.
Other Business
Arlene Luster pointed out that FLRT members need to get involved in Library Advocacy.

Nancy raised a concern about the process for the planned merger. If we are asked to disband, we might then be in limbo until there can be a merger vote. The ballot statement gives the name of the new organization, which might be a concern. Andrea will run the ballot language by the COO.
Adjournment. The meeting was adjourned at 4:00 by President Stephanie Jones.

Respectfully submitted, Janet Ormes, Secretary

Note: Minutes amended and approved at FLRT Board Meeting July 8, 2000.