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| Online Bibliographic Services Special Interest Section |
From the Chair |
Greetings, fellow OBS-SIS members!
At the end of a very lively but peaceful OBS meeting, Ellen McGrath passed to me the "OBS hat" as a gesture to indicate that I am the new OBS Chair. This occasion brought to memory an incident that took place 12 years ago as I was preparing to attend library school at Florida State University. One of my friends gave me a hat with the emblem "Librarian" because she knew that I would be wearing a new hat once I finished my degree. I have worn several hats during my 11 years tenure as a librarian. I consider it a privilege to be OBS Chair for 2001-2002.
I really appreciate Ellen McGrath for making OBS-SIS a strong, vital and visible SIS. I have been fortunate to work beside her and I am delighted that that she will serve OBS this year as past Chair.
I would like to share some of the highlights of OBS-SIS at the 2001 AALL Annual meeting in Minneapolis.
Ellen McGrath and Susan Chinoransky represented OBS-SIS at the CONELL Marketplace on Saturday, July 14th. Ellen and Susan answered questions about membership in OBS and gave out brochures, candy, and extended invitations to the Joint Reception to be held that evening. Both of them were able to network with new public and technical services librarians. Thank you, Ellen and Susan!
The Joint SIS Reception on Saturday, July 14th, which was graciously sponsored by Innovative Interfaces, Inc., was well attended by AALL conferees. The University of St. Thomas School of Law hosted the reception in their atrium, which was quite spacious and had colorful, provocative murals on its walls and ceiling.
Ellen McGrath and Susan Chinoransky were responsible for setting up the OBS-SIS Activities Table for the opening of the Exhibit Hall on Sunday. The table displayed among the following materials: a copy of the Local Systems Directory, back issues of TSLL, OBS brochures, OBS key-tags, paperback books for the book swap, the raffle box for the book, Doublefold by Nicholson Baker, and the beautiful afghan to be won by one of the attendees of the OCLC/WLN Open Discussion. Lawrence Meyer was the lucky winner of Doublefold.
Sally Wambold and Ellen McGrath unveiled the OBS Strategic Plan for 2001-2004 with grand fanfare and celebration at the OBS-SIS General Business meeting on Monday, July 16, 2001. The OBS Strategic Planning Committee deserves our con-gratulations for a job well done. Special thanks to Brian Striman for the party bags which included some fantastic noisemakers that stole the show. For more complete details about the Strategic Plan, check the OBS website at http://www.aallnet.org/sis/obssis/. The new OBS Mission Statement and its Strategic Directions are as follows:
The Online Bibliographic Services Special Interest Section (OBS-SIS) of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) supports and serves its members and the mission of AALL.
OBS provides expertise, leadership and advocacy in the areas of online bibliographic services and automated library systems. Emphasis on all aspects of bibliographic services makes OBS' resources valuable to all librarians, regardless of position or function.
OBS serves its members by facilitating the exchange of information, providing educational programs and materials, promoting leadership, research and publishing opportunities, and ensuring a forum for professional interaction.
Strategic Direction #1: OBS Communicates!
Strategic Direction #2: OBS Educates!
Strategic Direction #3: OBS Connects!
The OCLC/WLN Committee met for its open discussion meeting on Tuesday, July 17th in Minneapolis. The guests were Kay Covert and Donn Hoffmann of OCLC, and Carla Dewey Urban and Virginia Dudley of MINITEX. The discussion covered the developments with CORC, OCLC's new global strategy, and the migration of Cataloging and Metadata Services to a new interface. Thank you to Michael Maben, Chair, for arranging an informative meeting. At the end of the meeting, a beautiful afghan handcrafted by Susan Chinoranksy, OBS Member-at-Large, was raffled and the winner was Deena Frazier (Boston College Law Library). Congratulations Deena!
The Local Systems Committee had an open discussion titled "Enhanced OPACs: Streamlining Access for Patrons" at their meeting on Tuesday, July 17th chaired by Susan Goldner. The discussion focused on access to tables of contents and indexes, aggregator's full text, e-books, e-reserves, multiple bibliographic records, maintaining URLs and proxy servers. George Praeger (New York University Law School) was elected new chair of the Local Systems Committee for 2001-2003.
OBS/TS Research Roundtable met on Sunday, July 15, 2001, with Brian Striman, Coordinator, presiding. Larry Dershem presented an interim report of his project "classification fusion" by providing handouts and giving a brief summary. Mr. Dershem was a 2000 grant recipient from the OBS/TS Joint Research Grant CommitJtee (JRGC). He also talked about the process involved in getting his grant proposal authorized and approved. Corinne Jacox spoke about recent grant recipients and how the Joint Research Grant Committee operates. Ellen McGrath discussed how to write AALL education program proposals and Kevin Butterfield described the general guidelines for application to the AALL Research Committee.
Maria Okonska, OBS Webmaster, called the OBS Web Advisory Committee meeting to order on Monday, July 16, 2001. We discussed further development of the OBS-SIS website. We want the website to continue to be informational but also a strong educational medium. By now the OBS Strategic Plan would have been mounted as well as the MARBI report. It was a very energetic and creative meeting. Georgia Briscoe and Karen Selden will continue to provide the Website of the Month on the OBS listserv starting in September 2001.
The RLIN Committee did not meet this year in Minneapolis but Brian Quigley is the new Chair of the Committee.
OBS-SIS educational programs sponsored and co-sponsored at Minneapolis were attended and well received this year. The OBS Education Committee met on Tuesday, July 17, 2001 and is working very hard in finalizing the programs for next year in Orlando. I really appreciate the input of the Education Committee members: David Byrant, Pat Callahan, Cynthia A. Cicco, Pamela Deemer, Emma Williams, Susan Goldner, Richard Jost, Mary Jane Kelsey, Mary Strouse, and Ellen McGrath, Co-Chair, and Ismael Gullon, Co-Chair.
Here are the program proposals that we are submitting for Orlando 2002.
We are also co-sponsoring with TS-SIS the following program and workshop:
During the upcoming year I am planning to focus on the implementation of the new OBS Strategic Plan and enhancing theOBS website as an educational tool.
And remember: OBS Communicates! OBS Educates! OBS Connects!
Ismael Gullon
Mercer University
gullon_i@mercer.edu
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