The OBS Local Systems Committee met on Wednesday, July 19, 2000, at 11:45 a.m. Patricia Callahan (Univ. of Pennsylvania) presided over the meeting in the absence of the chair, who was unable to attend AALL. The focus of the meeting was an open discussion called "Alpha & Beta Testing". Regina Wallen (Stanford Univ.) and Adrian White (formerly at Howard Univ.) were the scheduled speakers.

Reggie described how Stanford University handled alpha testing of SIRSI’s serials and acquisitions modules. She and other Stanford librarians worked with the vendor to create a new serials system. Although the process was frustrating at times, it was also exciting and well worth the effort.

The Howard presentation was done by Mary Strouse and Mary Wilson, who filled in for Adrian at the last minute. [Many, many thanks to "the Marys" for agreeing to participate on extremely short notice and for doing a great job!] They described beta testing of Innovative’s Millennium Circulation and Millennium Serials modules and also had information on testing advanced keyword searching. There was group discussion which focused on libraries playing a more active role in testing and enhancements by system vendors. It was suggested that this topic could be developed into a regular program for a future AALL meeting.

Carol Nicholson gave a report on the Local Systems Directory. She said that there are hopes of making it available on the Web. Everyone agreed they would like to see this happen. There seems to be a question about what Hein plans to do with the AALL Publication Series in general in terms of putting titles on the Web or continuing print. She asked for feedback on questions that should be added/deleted from the survey.

This new meeting format worked well. Approximately two dozen people attended, a significant increase over the past couple of years. A similar directed open discussion program will be planned for next year. Please communicate with the Chair if you have any suggestions for topics and/or would like to do an informal presentation.

Thanks to Pat, Reggie, Mary Strouse, and Mary Wilson for making the open discussion a success.