RUSA HISTORY SECTION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MINUTES ALA ANNUAL CONFERENCE, 2003

21 June 2003

Saturday, June 21, 2003, 8-9 a.m. Convention Center, Room 712

Present: Nancy Godleski, Chair, Jim Niessen, David Lincove, Ruth Carr, Ray Wright, Jeannette Pierce, Joe Straw, Agnes Widder, Bill Bruckner, Curt Witcher

We began the meeting by identifying executive and committee members not at this conference: Susan Malbin, Tom Kemp, Ann Reinert, Cindy Krolikowski, Mary Mannix, Theresa Mudrock.

The Section dinner will be Sunday evening at 6 p.m. at Café Diplomatico, 594 College St. Nancy circulated the sign up sheet.

Nancy circulated the new section brochure.

Agnes distributed the minutes and some corrections were made on them. We continued corrections at the Tuesday meeting.

Reporting began with the following:

Bill Bruckner reported that Local History and the Genealogy Discussion Group would meet together to hear a Canadian History Centre speaker ? Perron and a web designer, Claire Foreman, from the Virtual Museum of Canada.

Bruckner continued. The Genealogy Committee will meet on Sunday with two speakers on genealogy in Canada.

Bruckner continued. The Genealogy Committee meeting on Saturday will work on the HS section program for 2004, which they are responsible for organizing. It will be on Hispanic genealogy and will be co-sponsored with REFORMA. ProQuest will finance the break.

Bruckner continued. Genealogy Standards and Guidelines committee will meet Saturday. They are working on guidelines for library science program courses on genealogy.

Bruckner continued. The Genealogy Pre-Conference Committee, which is currently a sub-committee of the Genealogy Committee will meet Saturday at 4 p.m. While it is a standing sub-committee there is no written description of its activities. They will work on this at their meeting and report back to Exec. Comm. on Tuesday. They have some questions about their committee appointments. An Exec. Comm. member proposed that this became a regular HS committee on equal footing with the other committees which would resolve difficulties.

Bruckner continued. E members of committees do not have to attend midwinter or annual conferences. Does our committee volunteer form have anything about e membership? No. This needs to be fixed. E members have not worked out too well for other HS committees. An Exec. Comm. member proposed that ALA ought to collect information on the types and amounts of computer connectivity and technology members have at home, as some librarians, who might like to be e members of committees, might not be able to use work time or equipment for this purpose.

Jim Niessen reported that the ABC-Clio award proposal has run into some snags and the issues are still being worked out. Nancy will report more about this at the meeting on Tuesday.

We corrected the dates on the agenda for this meeting.

Nancy asked those present to spread the word about the dinner time and place so as to be sure of a good turnout.

The Section’s program will be Sunday from 10:30-12 on adoption searching information for genealogical purposes. It will be in the Novotel Toronto Centre Hotel, Champaign Ballroom.

Jim Niessen asked if anyone could substitute for him at the RUSA Organization Committee on Monday morning from 8-9?

Respectfully submitted,

Agnes Widder, secretary