OBS SIS 2001/2002 Board Minutes - July 2001

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Online Bibliographic Services Special Interest Section

2001/2002 Board meeting

Wednesday, July 18, 2001

Present: Susan Chinoransky, Ismael Gullon, Richard Jost, Mary Jane Kelsey, Ellen McGrath, Judy Vaughan-Sterling

1. Ismael welcomed the new OBS Board members � Mary Jane Kelsey, Richard Jost, and Judy Vaughan-Sterling.

2. Ismael expressed his personal thanks and the thanks of the entire OBS membership to Ellen for her service to OBS over the past years as Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect and as Chair.

3. Alphabet Soup Reception:

  • Attendance was estimated between 250-300 people
  • The cost of the reception should come in at the budgeted level of $4000.00 (donated by Innovative Interfaces).
  • There was no charge for using St. Thomas this year as the venue for the reception (although in past years there has often been a charge for the room which must come out of the allocated budget).
  • There should not be any cost to OBS for reception-related expenses; any miscellaneous expenses over the budget allocation will be paid by TS-SIS.

4. OBS Activities Table:

  • Ellen and Susan set up the table on Saturday this year and had everything in place for the beginning of the Annual Meeting. All remaining supplies and OBS table-related materials will be shipped to Ismael at his library to use for next year�s table in Orlando.
  • For anyone who dropped off a business card at the table, Susan will mail them an OBS brochure to encourage membership.
  • Lawrence Meyer won the copy of �Doublefold� by Nicholson Baker that was the prize for the OBS-SIS raffle. The winner will be announced on law-lib and on the OBS listserv.
  • A suggestion was made that a copy of the �Online Directory� be used as the raffle prize for next year�s OBS Activity Table. This title was very popular with all who had visited the activities area this year.

5. OBS Education Meeting

  • There are 2-3 proposals that have been proposed for next year�s meeting, from Brian Striman, Mary Strouse and Judy Vaughan-Sterling.
  • The deadline for the submission of programs to AALL Is August 17; the Education Committee hopes to have the final program submissions reviewed by August 14-15 at the latest.
  • A suggestion was made to include a portion in the annual survey on the Annual Meeting programs to find out which programs were most successful and what other topics OBS members would like to see in the programs offered.

6. Annual Survey:

There was a general discussion of the annual survey process and how it could be improved for the future. Some specifics of the discussion included:

  • At the present time, only 16% of the surveys are completed and returned.
  • The survey is traditionally sent out in November with a requested return date of January.
  • Mailing labels for the survey are prepared by AALL headquarters, but the labels often have to be checked to make sure that they are accurate.
  • Can we move to offering the survey in electronic form? The Board decided that it might be too early to offer only an electronic option, but that this year we will load the survey on the OBS web site and post messages in Law-lib, TS-SIS and OBS-SIS listservs. Members can either use the web version to respond or print it out and mail it in. In the future, as members become more comfortable with electronic forms, it may be possible to switch to an electronic version only.
  • The Board thanked Susan for continuing contribution of afghans as the prize for encouraging members to return their surveys.

7. OBS web site

  • Ellen discussed the ideas that she had developed over the past year for improving the OBS web site; some of them have been implemented but not all.
  • A suggestion was made that it would be important to involve committee chairs and committee members in supplying information to make the site more useful for their interests and not totally overwhelm the OBS webmaster.
  • To give the OBS web site more visibility, it was suggested that we be listed with the other SIS web sites on the AALL web page.
    • �Action item: Ellen volunteered to check into this with AALL Headquarters.
  • Ismael wants to make the web site more educational for OBS members, including continuing to sponsor the Web-Site-of-the-Month if Georgia Briscoe and Karen Selden from the University of Colorado are willing to continue this service. Ismael also would like to see the PowerPoint slides from this year�s OBS-sponsored programs put up on the web site.
    • Action item: Ismael volunteered to check with Georgia and Karen to see if they were still willing to volunteer for this activity.
    • Action item: Richard will contact the program coordinators to see if the program participants would be willing to load their PowerPoint presentations On the OBS web site.
  • There was a suggestion that OBS try to collect statistics on the number of visits to the OBS web site.
  • There was a suggestion that OBS investigate whether there are electronic archives for the listservs.
    • Action item: Jack Bissett has volunteered to look into this topic.

8. PDC online discussions

  • Some OBS members are interested in coordinating/moderating one of the PDC discussions offered through the PDC listserv. Since Richard Jost is a member of PDC for 2001-2003, he can serve as the liaison for this idea.
    • Action item: Richard will find out how PDC selects members to moderate the discussions and how topics are selected.
  • Mary Jane would like to see a discussion on the topic of collection development for electronic resources and whether the maintenance of these resources is a technical services or public services duty.
  • The Board felt that it might be advantageous to use the PDC discussion as the basis for a program topic and to make sure that a summary of the discussion was included in TSLL and on the OBS web site for wide distribution to the membership.

9. SIS news column in Spectrum

  • Ismael would like to continue to include OBS activities in Spectrum on a regular basis. He suggested that the Board try to include other committee chairs as writers for the column to discuss their current projects. Examples offered included Brian Quigley on RLIN activities, Michael Maben on OCLC activities, George Prager on Local Systems activities, and Brian Striman on Research activities.
  • For the upcoming issue, Ismael would like to have the new OBS Mission Statement that was published in the Flash by Ellen in Minneapolis included.�
  • Deadlines for the Spectrum column are:
    • September������� July 26, 2001
    • October���������� August 15, 2001
    • November������� September 6, 2001
    • December������� October 4, 2001

10. Nominations Committee

  • Brian Striman will chair; Sue Roach will be a second member.
  • OBS still needs to appoint one more member to this committee.
    • Action item: Ismael will appoint a third member to this committee.

11. Members-at-Large Duties

  • Judy will work with Angelina Joseph from TS-SIS on the Alphabet Soup reception for Orlando. The member from TS-SIS is always the chair of the committee.
  • The OBS Activities Table is a members-at-large duty, as well as finding little gifts that can be distributed with the OBS logo.
    • Action item: Richard will send Judy and Susan a budget estimate for this purchase once the expenses from the Minneapolis meeting have cleared and the OBS budget for next year is stabilized.
  • The members-at-large are also responsible for sending OBS membership information to any new AALL members announced in Spectrum and for welcoming new members.

12. Finances

  • Michael Maben needed a screen for his presentation at the OCLC meeting in Dublin. If it is charged to OBS, Richard will contact Michael Maben, as OCLC told him they would reimburse OBS for the expense.

13. Standing Committees

A general discussion was held on how to get people more involved in the OBS standing committees. Some specific comments included:

  • It might encourage people to participate if they were solicited individually for an assignment or could participate with a task force, listserv or panel on an ad-hoc basis.
  • It was noted that this year, the Local Systems Group was well attended (32 people) and the OCLC Committee program was also well attended.
  • There was some thought that Susan Goldner may need some feedback from the members in her new role as the MARBI representative.
    • Action item: Ismael will check with Susan to see if she would like some assistance from OBS members.

14. Strategic Plan

Ismael led a general discussion was held on the recently adopted strategic plan. Some of the recommendations in the plan are already being implemented, while others need more action. Since the strategic plan is a three-year plan, Ismael reminded the Board that not all aspects of the plan have to be carried out this year. Although a significant number of objectives in the strategic plan have been accomplished or are ongoing OBS activities, there are still many items that can be improved. Ismael reiterated that it is important that the Board and the SIS keep the objectives of the strategic plan in mind when planning activities and not lose sight of objectives. Extra copies of the plan will also be given to Judy and Susan for inclusion with the OBS brochure that is sent to new and potential members.


Richard Jost
OBS-SIS Secretary/Treasurer