OBS-SIS & TS-SIS Research Roundtable		Minutes

July 18, 1999

Twenty-four law librarians attended the OBS/TS-SIS Research Roundtable at the annual AALL conference in Washington, D.C., on July 18. Ellen McGrath from SUNY at Buffalo and LeGrande Fletcher from Brigham Young University coordinated the roundtable, which provided librarians in various technical services positions with a forum for discussing the obstacles and rewards inherent in research and publishing.

Frank Houdek, editor of Law Library Journal, attended the meeting as a guest speaker and shared some guidelines for getting published. He emphasized that LLJ is interested in variety. His personal goal as editor is that every reader of LLJ will find at least one article of interest and value in each issue. Articles need not be lengthy and laden with footnotes to be published; shorter articles, opinion pieces and annotated bibliographies are welcome. He said that he receives far fewer articles relating to technical services than he does to public services and that he would like to see the number of technical services articles increase.

Houdek also reviewed some of LLJ’s submission guidelines with the group (based on the “Author’s Guide” printed in each issue of LLJ). There is a rolling deadline, which means that manuscripts are accepted year round. Upon receipt, Houdek acknowledges that he has received the manuscript, and will notify the author of a tentative date for review. Two print copies of a manuscript should be submitted (or one copy as an email attachment), with references conforming to the Blue Book. Although manuscripts are accepted at any time, Houdek recommends submitting them early on in one’s research, or better still, sending potential article ideas to him at (houdek@siu.edu) or (618) 453-8788. He cautions that there is a time lag between submission and publication due to the collaborative editing process which then takes place between the author and the editor.

The group also discussed some obstacles to technical services oriented publishing. Some attendees cited lack of institutional support as a primary deterrent. Often times an institution’s lack of support for technical services librarians to publish stems from the fact that these positions may not be tenure-track. Houdek stated that there are incentives outside of the institution that can help motivate professionals to research and publish. Self-fulfillment, and the satisfaction that one gets from contributing to the profession, are both factors that should be considered.

The group also discussed ways to make research and publication a less daunting task. Co-authorship was raised as a possibility. Such collaboration allows authors to share the work and also enables the sharing and development of ideas. Also, symposium issues in which all of the articles relate to a specific area can make the process easier. LLJ has used this approach in the past, and plans to use it again.

Corinne Jacox from Barry University of Orlando informed the group about OBS/TS Joint Research Grants that are available to help defray the expenses of conducting research. OBS-SIS and TS-SIS each contribute $500 per year to the grant fund. The grants are intended to facilitate projects that will directly or indirectly benefit technical services librarians. They can be used to cover any out of pocket expenses such as mailings and travel. Two former recipients were in attendance and shared what they used their grants for. LeGrande Fletcher used his grant to travel to Nevada to finish an annotated bibliography of Nevada legal practice materials. His bibliography was published in the Spring 1999 issue of Law Library Journal. Chris Tarr from the University of California at Berkeley intends to use her award to travel to Seattle to tour Amazon.com’s facilities and learn more about their cataloging techniques. Jacox stated that the application process is fairly simple, and encouraged anyone who may be interested to contact her at (cjacox@mail.barry.edu) or (407) 275-2100. Further information and the forms are on the OBS-SIS Web site at: http://www.aallnet.org/sis/obssis/researchinfo.htm.

Several other opportunities for publishing and professional involvement were discussed at the meeting. The Technical Services Law Librarian always welcomes contributions and is particularly interested in finding columnists. Also, Carol Avery Nicholson from the University of North Carolina reminded everyone of the Professional Development Listserv. She is always interested in new topics for generating listserv discussions and also needs individuals to serve as moderators for these discussions hosted at: http://www.aallnet.org/prodev/listserv.asp.

Chris Tarr also provided a brief summary of a research and publishing session she attended at the annual ALA meeting in New Orleans on June 27. The title of the session was “Publish! Information, Networking and Motivation for Cataloging and Classification Research.” Please see the Research & Publications column in this issue of TSLL for Tarr’s summary of the content of that session.