Dear Fellow OBSers,

I had a cousin, rest her soul, who was famous for saying, "Thank God we never have to face a room full of all the potatoes we have to peel in a lifetime.¹ We'd never be able to cope. Just be thankful we only have to peel five pounds at a time."² As I prepare to pass the OBS ball cap to Kevin Butterfield, I reflect that we've had a lot of potatoes to deal with this year. The economic downturn meant budget crunches or at least belt tightening for almost all of our libraries. For months we listened to rumors of war. Finally, this April we watched war in real time on television. Throughout the year we've persevered one day at a time with the help of family, friends and professional colleagues. I hope next year will be a better one for all of us and that we continue to connect with and support each other professionally through OBS.

OBS Election Results

I am delighted to report the results of the 2003 OBS Election:

Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect
Georgia Briscoe (University of Colorado Law Library)

Secretary/Treasurer
Michael Maben (Indiana University School of Law Library)

Member-at-Large
Andrea Rabbia (Syracuse University College of Law Library)

Congratulations to these new OBS officers! OBS is in good hands. And a hearty thank you to Naomi Goodman, Barbara Szalkowski, and Julianna Davis who graciously agreed to serve as candidates.

Meeting Schedules

One of my objectives as OBS Chair this year was to improve our annual meeting schedule by eliminating meetings at 7 a.m. and minimizing the conflicts with TS meetings. TS Chair, Chris Tarr, and I worked for many hours last fall to put the Seattle schedule together. I think you'll find that we've made progress. The roster for the Boston meeting should be even better as we will have the option of scheduling against some programming slots. Here are the OBS meetings scheduled for the upcoming Seattle conference.

Saturday, July 12
3:00-4:00 p.m.
   OBS Web Advisory Committee
4:00-5:30 p.m.
   OBS 2002/2003 Executive Board Meeting
6:00-7:30 p.m.
   TS/OBS/RIPS/CS Joint Reception

Sunday, July 13
11:45 a.m. - l:15 p.m.
   OBS/TS Research Roundtable
   RLIN Committee Open Discussion
   OCLC Committee Open Discussion
5:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m.
   Local Systems Committee Open Discussion

Monday, July 14
5:15 p.m.-6:15 p.m.
   OBS Business Meeting

Tuesday, July 15
11:45 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
   OBS Education Committee Meeting

Wednesday, July 16
7:30 a.m.-8:45 a.m.
   OBS 2003/2004 Executive Board Meeting

Open Discussion Agendas

Pat Callahan, substituting for RLIN Committee Chair Brian Quigley, will preside over the RLIN Committee Open Discussion. Karen Smith-Yoshimura from the Research Libraries Group will discuss the upcoming changes in RLG's technical services infrastructure.  As well as describing the changes, data mapping issues and their implications for your workflow, Karen is eager to hear your opinions and suggestions while the software and documentation are still in development.   PASS command will no longer be used, so for some of you there will be new strategies for getting RLIN records into your systems and maintaining your records in RLIN. Please note that the changes in RLIN ILL will not be covered in this discussion.

Michael Maben will chair the OCLC Open Discussion. Rick Newell of OCLC's Western Service Center will discuss "What's New At OCLC" and will be available to answer questions and respond to any discussion about OCLC services.  Among the topics of discussion will be Connexion and the client interface to OCLC Connexion coming in June 2003.

George Prager hadn't set the discussion topic as I prepared this letter, but he promises "a lively discussion of issues of current interest."

OBS Sponsored Programs

To help you plan for the Annual Meeting, let me remind you of the following OBS sponsored programs:

Sunday, July 13
4:15-5:15
C-2. Envisioning Tomorrow's Catalog: A View From Outside the Library— Coordinator and Moderator, Kevin Butterfield. Speaker, Cindy Cunningham, amazon.com

Tuesday, July 15
10:15-11:45
G-5. Open Linking and E-Journal Management: Strategies for Maximizing Your Investment in Electronic Resources Today—Coordinator and Moderator, Mary Jane Kelsey. Speakers, Nettie Legace, Ex Libris (USA) Inc., Kim Parker, Yale University; Chris Pierard, Serials Solutions

Wednesday. July 16
1:45-2:15
K-4. Connected to the Future: OCLC's Connexion—Coordinator and Moderator, Michael Maben. Speaker, Rick Newell, OCLC Western Service Center

2:30-3:00
L-3. Two Stepping With Technology – Coordinator and Moderator, Janet Hedin. Speaker, John Nann, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School

L-4. MARBI Report. What's the Latest on MARC Standards?  Coordinator and Speaker, Susan Goldner.

Thanks Are In Order

I was very fortunate to work with such a marvelous team during my term. Big thanks to all the members of the Executive Board: Kevin Butterfield, Vice-Chair, Ismael Gullon, Past Chair, Richard Jost, Secretary-Treasurer, Members-at-Large, Judy Vaughn-Sterling and Ruth Funabiki. I am grateful, also, for the work of the Committee Chairs, Kevin Butterfield, Education; George Prager, Local Systems, Ellen Mc Grath, Nominating, Eloise Vondruska, OBS/TS Joint Research Grant, Michael Maben, OCLC, Brian Quigley, RLIN, Anne Myers, Web Advisory.

It is also my pleasure to have worked with Chris Tarr, TS-SIS Chair and I continue to be in awe of all the work Joe Thomas puts in to producing TSLL. The OBS leadership who served before me also deserve special recognition. They are a talented, well organized and amazing group who know how to get results. And last but not least, thank you to my boss, Blair Kauffman who encourages his staff to be professionally active.

See you in Seattle!

Mary Jane Kelsey

Footnotes

¹ In our Irish family that's a lot of tons. I figured it out.