Notes from TS-SIS

Well, I'm writing this a little more than a month after the annual meeting in Orlando, but already it seems that it was a year ago. I will try, though, to recap some of the highlights for you. It was hot, and there seemed to be no shopping, so luckily there were programs and meetings. Unfortunately, some of the meetings overlapped, but more about that later. At the TS business meeting, we approved some minor changes to the bylaws. Thanks to past-chair JoAnn Hounshell for proposing, explaining, and shepherding them through. The Rene Chapman award went to the richly deserving Janis Johnston, eloquently introduced by Joe Thomas. I first met Janis when she graciously and capably hosted the amazing Basic Cataloging Institute at Notre Dame.

In the spirit of "creating connections," TS agreed to exchange liaisons with the Academic Law Libraries SIS. Our liaison will be, ex officio, the chair of our Education Committee, since it seemed that most of our cooperation will lie in program proposals. In other liaison activity, our Preservation Committee has a liaison from the Legal History and Rare Books SIS. Although next year we will be "maximizing today, envisioning tomorrow," we may wish to envision a more connected tomorrow. In all seriousness, it does seem that it may not be a bad idea to cultivate closer ties with other SISs, or at least be aware of their concerns. If these relationships prove fruitful, we may wish to consider pursuing more liaisons with other SISs.

A web committee met as well, and proposed to add some subject content to our website, something several of you mentioned as desirable in your survey responses. Content editors for Preservation (Pat Turpening) and Cataloging and Classification (David Bratman) were appointed. If anyone is interested in editing an Acquisitions or a Serials page on the TS site, please contact either Martin Wisneski or myself.

Probably the most important news from Orlando, however, had to do with programming. First of all, AALL President Carol Avery Nicholson proposed something new for next year. She is introducing a thirty minute program slot. These slots appear promising for quick product reviews or for reports from AALL liaisons to other associations, like the BASIC and ALA reps, and we've submitted a number of proposals for these slots. Please plan to stay on Wednesday in Seattle, which is when these slots will appear! Secondly, and more fundamentally, an AALL committee (the Annual Meeting Educational Programming Special Committee) was convened to look at the annual meeting. Our own Melody Lembke was a member. The AMEPSC issued a report (available on our website at: http://www.aallnet.org/sis/tssis/other/ampc/summary.htm) recommending a number of things, the most important to us being recommendation 1, which states that SISs and committees be allowed to schedule small meetings, roundtables, discussion groups, and educational opportunities against educational programs. At the very least, this would alleviate the problem we experienced in Orlando of having three TS meetings scheduled against each other. Even better, it would allow for TS to schedule more "hot topic" programming like the highly successful Cataloging and Classification Roundtable which was dedicated, this year, to a program on integrating resources. SIS Council solicited comments from each SIS on the report (and thanks to all of you who sent your opinions to me.) These comments will be synthesized and sent on to the Committee and to the AALL Executive Board.

So much for the past. For the future, the Education Committee, chaired by Kathy Winzer, has done a great job of soliciting, polishing and in many cases, writing 9 proposals for full length programs, 6 proposals for the new 30 minutes slots, and 1 proposal for a workshop on serial holdings. In the spirit of cooperation, we are cosponsoring programs with, or having programs cosponsored by, OBS, LHRB ALL and FCIL. We anticipate that the Professional Development Committee is working on the proposal as well for an Advanced Cataloging Workshop. With any luck at all Seattle should be a great year for TS.

Clearly, the major work for the immediate future for our SIS is to take our excellent rough draft for the strategic plan and turn it into a finished plan for our future. Thanks, again, for your comments on the annual survey. We have a very good beginning, and it should be helpful and rewarding to turn it into a document we can use. I'm sure I will be asking for more advice, soon.

In closing, I would like to thank all the people who have worked so hard over the past year for TS. Really, there are too many for me to mention them all. But in particular, I would like to thank JoAnn Hounshell, past chair, for doing such a great job last year that it is easy to slip into her place (although not easy to fill her shoes!). I'd like to thank Alva Stone, who as past chair last year undertook the monumental task of rewriting the TS handbook (http://www.aallnet.org/sis/tssis/handbook/). Having the handbook up to date and accurate has already made my job a thousand times easier. Last, but not least, I'd like to thank the outgoing board members, including the outgoing Secretary/Treasurer Pam Deemer, Member-At-Large Angelina Joseph, Acquisition Committee Chair Karen Douglas and Preservation Chair Will Meredith, for all their hard work. And I'll thank the current Board in advance for all their hard work to come!