What a great time we had in Philadelphia! The Technical Services SIS sponsored several programs that were well received, on subjects as diverse as the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (NACO, BIBCO, etc.), the Z39.50 gateway in library systems, use of technology for dealing with vendors and publishers, understanding the new Library of Congress subclass KB for religious law, and use of the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) for creating electronic legal resources.

I would particularly like to thank the TS-SIS outgoing chair, Janet McKinney, for her work getting these program proposals submitted and handling all the duties of chairing with great efficiency and aplomb during a year in which she also changed her job and her employer! Most people don’t realize how much work is involved behind the scenes as a section officer—scheduling of section and committee meetings, appointing committee members, writing columns for TSLL and for AALL’s Spectrum, planning the Joint Reception, responding to SIS Council issues, providing feedback and input to other AALL entities (such as the Professional Development Committee), motivating committee chairs and program coordinators to meet their deadlines, suggesting additions and changes to the TS-SIS Web site, monitoring the SIS’s financial statements from AALL headquarters, and on and on. And remember, we do this as unpaid volunteers who try to keep up with our salaried position duties at the same time; ultimately, the section officers often give up more than a few Saturdays on our behalf. So, please join me in saying "thanks" to Janet and to other officers whose terms ended in July 2000: Linda Tesar (outgoing Secretary-Treasurer), JoAnn Hounshell (Member-at-Large), Joe Thomas (Immediate Past Chair), Pat Turpening (Preservation Committee chair), and Carmen Brigandi (Acquisitions Committee chair).

Now, I would like to share some news with our members who were unable to attend the Annual Meeting this year. First of all, we were quite pleased to present the Renee Chapman Award for Excellence in Technical Services Librarianship to: Anna Belle Leiserson! As you know, Anna Belle is co-editor (with Linda Tesar) of this very newsletter. In addition, she is well known and respected among acquisitions librarians everywhere (not just in law libraries) for having created and maintained the superb AcqWeb site on the Internet. She has also served the TS-SIS well as a coordinator and speaker at annual meeting programs. A handsome plaque was given to Anna Belle at our Business Meeting, along with a moving speech delivered by the AALL president (and Anna Belle’s "mentor-in-chief"), Margie Axtmann.

Speaking of mentors, also announced at the Annual Meeting is the new TS-SIS Mentoring Program, which will connect "newbie" catalogers (acquisitions librarians, serials librarians, etc.) with more seasoned or experienced cohorts. The idea is that the latter can serve as informal one-on-one advisors to the beginning librarian—by use of phone calls, e-mail, etc. The Mentor/Mentee Facilitator (i.e., matchmaker, record-keeper, etc.) for this program is: Mary Burgos (Columbia University). To obtain a copy if the application form to either become a mentor or be assigned a mentor, go to: http://library.law.columbia.edu/tssis.html.

Another new initiative for the section this year will be the development of a web-based Clearinghouse of Model TS Documents. It is hoped that such a "clearinghouse" of sample written policies, procedures and forms will be useful in Technical Services areas of both large and small law libraries. This might consist of the actual documents or hyperlinks to the documents. It will not be an exhaustive list, but rather, a selective list of representative documents that can be used as resources, for which individual law libraries would modify the texts to suit their own circumstances. Vendor- or system-specific procedures shall be avoided (or wordings revised to eliminate naming these). If you have a written policy or form you would like to contribute please contact either: Joyce Manna Janto (project director), or Chris Tarr (project assistant), or .... hey! we also need a volunteer from a private or state/court/county law library—could this be you?

Work will continue in 2000/01 on Strategic Planning for the section. The TS-SIS Strategic Planning Committee, chaired by Caitlin Robinson (University of Iowa), has submitted a first draft strategic plan, and the TS Executive Board was quite pleased with its content, although some re-wording and re-grouping of elements are desired. It was also decided that an actual survey should be done of the TS-SIS members, to help us prioritize the section’s goals and objectives. This special survey will be sent to members later this year instead of the customary "annual membership survey." (Exception: We intend to include a separate sheet to allow members to volunteer to run for office or for committee work, and to suggest program ideas for upcoming AALL conferences.)

I would also like to note ordinarily the "charges" to TS committees are given by the TS Executive Board. However, this year the TS Preservation Committee will be accepting an assignment from AALL Headquarters to implement one of the objectives of the AALL Strategic Plan, which is, to develop a preservation plan for the nation’s law libraries. This project may also require that a survey be done. We may even appoint members to the Preservation Committee who are not TS-SIS members, at least for the duration of this project, which is expected to take two years. If you or someone you know would like to assist, please contact me or Will Meredith (chair of the Committee).

Other volunteers are still needed for 2000/01 for the TS-SIS Awards Committee, the Nominations Committee, and the Bylaws Committee. If you are interested in serving on any of these, please contact me at: tel. 850-644-2881 or e-mail: . (I should mention two things about the Bylaws. The amendment to delete the "Exchange of Duplicates Committee" from our bylaws did not pass at the Annual Meeting. Members were concerned that we develop language for the bylaws specifically stating that this project will continue under either the Acquisitions Committee or the Serials Committee, but there was some disagreement about which committee was more appropriate for the task! The other major charge which the Bylaws Committee will receive is the revision of the TS-SIS Handbook; recently Joe Thomas (our outgoing Immediate Past Chair) found that there were some inconsistencies between the bylaws and the handbook, or the handbook and "actual practice.")

Phew! Well, that certainly seems like enough "news" to cover for now, except for one more thing ... I want to thank the TS Education Committee members (and especially its chair, Pat Sayre-McCoy), who are working furiously this weekend to put the finishing touches on one Workshop proposal and 10 Program proposals to be sponsored by our section for the Minneapolis 2001 meeting. By the time the next issue of TSLL comes out, we hope to be able to announce that several of the proposals have been approved (keep your fingers crossed!), and will be able to tell you what they are!