Serials Committee Meeting

* The Exchange of Duplicates Chair, Bonnie Geldmacher, reported that her survey of members resulted because of three problem areas: 1.) the authority list; 2.) shipping and handling; and 3.) registration cost. Many survey participants wanted a more comprehensive authority list and Bonnie was surveying members to find how to augment the list. Regarding shipping and handling, a need for a more clearly stated policy on the registration form may help. As to the registration cost, the $30 fee is set by the TS-SIS Executive Board and the Board is responsible for any changes. Bonnie welcomes any new ideas and suggestions. Some Serial Committee members questioned the need for Exchange of Duplicates when the N&O list is more current and has no registration fee.

* Jim Mumm responded to the request for a Serials columnist in TSLL by volunteering to write one column at some time during the year. No one else responded to the reported request by Brian Striman for a TSLL columnist. Please contact Brian if you are interested.

* New Serials Committee Chair, Carol Avery Nicholson was introduced. Carol asked how to determine who the members of the committee are. Out going Serials Committee Chair, Frank Richardson will note on the emailed minutes of the meeting a question whether recipients want to be included in future mailings. The responses will go the Carol and will help establish committee membership.

* Committee liaisons may need to be reestablished with NISO and NASIG. Please contact Carol if you are interested. Frank can assist with NASIG.

* Carol initiated a discussion regarding ABA and statistics. It is still unclear how to count and report serials and the definitions need to be clarified. Carol and Lorna Tang are involved with ALL-SIS which is addressing this issue. Alan Keely, Paula Tejeda, and Jim Mumm volunteered to assist. Paula Tejeda suggested we contact Joe Hinger and Norma Feld because they did a program on this previously. It was suggested that a Serials Committee could be started to help with this issue. Judith Wright reported from the Directors Meeting that there is a question about how committed the directors are to this issue. They want a solution that requires little work and has easily met measurements. This viewpoint is shaped by a current environment of shrinking library budgets and the growing marginality of law libraries. The US News rankings did not emphasize library holdings. The Library Committee’s desire to have this problem dealt with by the by the Questionnaire Committee was rejected by the Deans because the tension around this issue was not worth it during this time of the ongoing shifting of revenue from the library. Additional discussion about ILS tools for counting noted that some have statistics modules. ProjectCounter.org is another counting device that can be utilized. Questions arose about how to determine which ILS are in use at law libraries, and which ILS are shared with University Libraries (answer is 80%). It was suggested that AALL have a Statistics Committee similar in importance as the Vendor Relations Committee. A committee like this existed in the 1970’s. Any measurements committee should have a fully, representative composition.

* The 2005 AALL Annual Meeting had two programs that originated in the Serials Committee. Easy Does It: EDI Made Simple was a forum discussion on Sunday and was sponsored by the TS-SIS committee. The other program was panel discussion coordinated by Keiko Okuhara on Tuesday, Electronic Serials Management. It was also supported by TS-SIS. Thanks to Yael Mandelstam for providing the signage for the TS-SIS programs.

* The Education Committee this year is supporting six programs that will be submitted to AMPC. Two additional workshops will also be submitted. One program will be sponsored by TS-SIS. The six programs are: 1) Conversations across the Cubicle/ a conversation with Jim Mumm, Patty Satzer about TS-SIS changes since 1978; 2.) Models for storage-offsite repositories; 3.) TS Workflow/reorganization and improvements; 4.) K Tables/foreign law; 5.) Pioneering new cataloging duties in the digital age; and 6.) RDA/AACR3 update. The two workshops will be: Electronic Serials Cataloging and Basic Serials Cataloging. The TS-SIS sponsored program will be the 2005 Preservations Survey results Implementation Plan. Discussion centered on another possible program or workshop on Basic Acquisitions. Other ideas were about a new cataloger’s roundtable that would provide a comfortable environment to ask questions. Also suggested was a new TS roundtable for similar reasons. The submission deadline for 2006 ideas is August 8 to AMPC.

Federated Searching and OpenURL

H-4 Federated Searching and OpenURL
Tuesday, July 19

Eloise Vondruska (Coordinator & Moderator – Northwestern University School of Law)
H. Frank Cervone (Speaker – Northwestern University Library)

Not surprisingly, studies consistently show that patrons want to use one search interface and connect directly to full text material. Driven in part by the success (i.e., ease of use) of commercial sources and the increasingly multidisciplinary nature of research, there is a strong movement to redesign library OPACS and web pages to accommodate this. Federated searching allows patrons to search multiple databases (e.g., a library’s OPAC and selected research databases) from one query.

This program discussed how federated searching works, some current applications in libraries, and how to implement a federated search service in one’s library. Additionally, the OpenURL standard and other linking initiatives that enable federated searching were discussed.

In discussing how patrons search databases, speaker Frank Cerone noted variations in searching methods between faculty and students. Despite differences, though, both groups used simple keyword searches for most of their research. With 85% of people using metasearch engines, the importance of well-designed federated search tools is apparent.

Problematic areas for federated searching, such as indexing inconsistencies across databases, and various implementation issues (licensing, customization) were addressed at length.

If you can, get a copy of Frank’s hand-outs; slides illustrating the process from sending a query (multiple database search, collection & collation of info, listing of results) to models of how OpenURLs work are worth the proverbial thousand words.

--Deborah Dennison

Outsourcing: Odious or Out-of-the-box?

A-2 Outsourcing: Odious or Out-of-the-box?
Sunday, July 17

The target audience for this program was law firms, but clearly, outsourcing is here to stay and in fact will only increase in every business environment. For that reason, any type of library (or business) could benefit from information given in this presentation. Program coordinator Lee Nemchek (Morrison & Foerster LLP) succinctly informed the audience on the myriad of terminology used in professional journals about outsourcing, described various models, and, as evidenced by the subject's growth in the literature, was convincing in that outsourcing is something libraries need to prepare for.

Two following speakers elaborated on outsourcing's global aspect from interesting, rather polar positions. H. Larry Eiring (Thomson - Elite) spoke about his experiences as a firm librarian who successfully coordinated outsourcing services. He detailed critical steps in the outsourcing process that would effect a successful outcome - strongly emphasizing the forged partnership between the two entities (library and outsourcer), replete with each party's responsibilities.

Ganesh Natarajan (Mindcrest Inc.) discussed outsourcing from the provider's position.
Although outsourcing is not new, Natarajan equates its rapid growth to the growth of information technology beginning about twelve years ago. Other driving factors include the high costs of legal services in the U.S., the availability of U.S. legal resources on the web, and (Natarajan’s company is based in India) that India is a low cost source of legal talent.

Interestingly conceived, this program served to demystify somewhat the outsourcing concept. Eiring’s sage advice in particular was empowering; i.e., if this should happen to your firm (library), what is the best way to handle it?

Contributed by Deborah Dennison

Cataloging & Classification Roundtable

TS-SIS Cataloging & Classification Roundtable

Cataloging & Classification Committee Chair Amy Lovell opened the roundtable by having attendees introduce themselves, and by laying down a few ground rules, asking participants to raise their hands before speaking, and asking us to make sure everyone was given an opportunity to speak.

Inherently legal subject headings

Yael Mandelstam (Fordham) led a discussion of the inherently legal subject headings project. The project’s purpose is to make the inherently legal status of certain subject headings clearer to catalogers (both law and non-law) and to catalog users, by adding see references. Some of these have already been added, e.g.

CONTRACTS–LAW AND LEGISLATION
See
CONTRACTS

In March 2005, Yael recruited about 20 volunteers. She divided up the LCSH red books into 50 ranges of about 150 p. each and assigned them to the volunteers; to date 43 of the ranges have already been assigned & many have been completed. Volunteers add all the potential “inherently legal” subject headings they find to a specially created website: http://www.lawlib.duq.edu/ILSH/

Yael would like to see a task force appointed that would decide which of the subject headings harvested by these volunteers should be submitted to LC. The lists are intentionally very inclusive and need to be pared down, and decisions need to be made about borderline cases.

Yael cautioned that in some cases LC may decide to establish the subdivison LAW AND LEGISLATION rather than see references, but most attendees agreed that we should proceed nonetheless.

Yael will ensure that the final list includes headings in any updates issued by LC since the start of the project..

There may be situations in which TS-SIS would like to ask LC to reconsider its decision that a heading is inherently legal, e.g. SALES currently has a see reference from SALES–LAW AND LEGISLATION, but there are many books that deal with non-legal aspects of sales.

Crime-related headings are problematic because, although the very definition of crime entails “against the law,” laws do vary by jurisdiction, and a crime in one jurisdiction may not be a crime in all. Furthermore, many books deal with sociological, psychological, etc. aspects of crime; perhaps the HV vs. K distinction may be useful here.

Once this project is completed, maybe the C&C Committee could appoint a task force to tackle pattern headings. Such a task force might begin by asking LC whether it would be feasible for them to begin creating authority records for individual instances of pattern headings under which LAW AND LEGISLATION has been used.

Thomson

The corporate name for the former West Publishing Company is currently established as “West Group” rather than Thomson West or Thomson/West, regardless of how it appears on the title page or verso. Similarly, “RIA Group”is the authorized heading when Thomson RIA is generally the form used on the title page or verso. Does this make sense to staff or catalog users? Should we work to get it changed?

Death dates

Although most of us welcome LC’s proposal to add death dates to name authority records for famous people who have died, there is a serious question of maintenance for the many systems that don’t have global change functionality. Someone suggested that LC publish lists of the “newly dead” in the Cataloging Service Bulletin.

Laws, etc.

Discussion continued over from the Cataloging & Classification Committee Meeting on the possibility of eliminating the uniform title “Laws, etc.” LC would like to discontinue “artificially constructed” headings such as “Laws, etc. (Compiled statutes)” and “Laws, etc. (Session laws).” A new subject heading could be established to compensate for potential loss in access, e.g. COMPILED LAWS could be established to parallel the already-established heading SESSION LAWS. Attendees wanted more time to study this issue before participating in a straw poll on whether or not they favor such a change.

The ABCs of TOCs: Enhancing Your OPAC with Tables of Contents

There were three presenters for this program: Karen Selden (Coordinator and Speaker) of the University of Colorado, Mary Strouse (Speaker) for Catholic University of America and John Bissett (Moderator and Speaker) from Washington & Lee. They were brought in to discuss how they are using TOCs in their institutions.

Mary Strouse spoke about Catholic University of America Law Library’s choice of using vendor-provided TOC data loaded into the 97x fields of the MARC record format. Their particular institution uses an Innovative ILS and Blackwell Book Services (www.blackwell.com) TOC information. Syndetic Solutions, Inc. (www.syndetics.com) and Marcive, Inc. (www.marcive.com) also provide TOC data in the 97x format. Karen Selden talked about the University of Colorado Law Library’s use of manually created enhanced 505s in their MARC records. John Bissett discussed how the process of scanning TOCs works at the Washington & Lee Law Library.

All three panelists discussed the reasoning behind their decisions to implement these procedures. Also discussed were the actual procedures that are followed, the ramifications or what needs to be considered before you begin, the benefits and limitations of the various methods. John Bissett even discussed his aspirations for the future of TOC enhanced records.

The handouts for the session were included in the annual meeting program materials. The slides used during the presentation can be found at http://staff.cua.edu/strouse/.

Quilt and Scarf Winners Announced!

TS-SIS is pleased to announce winners of the raffle held at the TS activities table in the exhibit hall during the annual meeting. There were 212 entries for the quilts made by Sue Burkhart. Winners of the quilts are Marcus Hochstetler from Mahoning Law Library Association (soon moving to Kings County Law Library) and Kathy Coon from Jenkins Law Library.





There were 23 entries from newer law librarians (those with 5 years of experience or less) for the scarf made by Katrina Piechnik (Katrina is shown below with the scarf). Winner of the scarf is Shyama Agrawal of Duke University School of Law Library (Shyama was not available for a photograph).



TS-SIS thanks both Sue and Katrina for their generous donations.

TS-SIS Demo: Strategize and FRBRize your OPAC

Yael Mandelstam introduced Claudia Conrad of Innovative Interfaces Inc. Claudia noted that the slides for the program will be posted on the III site and available to all III members. Non-III members should contact an III member and get them to download the slides for them, if interested. (Claudia stated that this would be fine.)
Innovative’s approach to FRBR is to leave the MARC record alone, but to use it to generate “keys” which are then combined to create the FRBR record. Claudia gave a version of this program in San Francisco this spring at the IUG meeting, but here she applied III’s FRBRization to a legal example, in this case Blackstone’s Commentaries. This was an interesting example because there are some copies of Blackstone’s Commentaries which are just that, and there are other’s which also include bits of early state law. The one we saw also included laws of Virgina. Most likely, we would want these two differing things to exist as two different Manifestations. The fact that III’s FRBRization mechanism didn’t work especially well in this case is less a statement about the mechanism (which actually works well on materials with well defined uniform titles, like music, or the works of Shakespeare) than about our need for better collocation. Nonetheless, with some thought and preparation it can work, and it was interesting to see how FRBR will look in our catalogs.
This program was put together by Yael Mandelstam and Keiko Okuhara.

A-5 Visionary Collection Development : Strategies for building legal collections on emerging social issues (July 17, 2005)

This educational program was sponsored by the SR-SIS. The moderator was Courtney Selby and the coordinator was Larry Reeves. There were three panelists: Roy Mersky (Tarlton Law Library), Amy Atchison (UCLA Law Library) and Brian Keough (University at Albany-SUNY).

Roy Mersky spoke about the special collections held at the Tarlton Law Library. These special collections include but are not limited to: the papers of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark, the digital collection of the Texas Constitutions and Constitutional Conventions, the works of John Selden and the Selden Society, the Supreme Court photographs collection, and the law dictionary collection. But he mainly wanted to discuss a single collection in particular, the Law in Popular Culture Collection. This collection consists of some 4,000-plus print materials, artwork, over 700 AV materials as well as online resources such as a bibliography, collection of quotations and a resource list. You can find out more information about Texas’ numerous special collections at http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/collections/.

Amy Atchison is a reference librarian with the UCLC Law Library. She is the librarian charged with the care and keeping of the Williams Project Reading Room and Collection on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy. An initial donation of 2.5 million dollars was made to create the Williams Project think tank devoted to LGBT issues. The think tank began as an idea in 2001, and the special collection arose from this in 2002-03. After much negotiation and hard work the collection became reality in February 2003 with an initial donation of 1 million dollars (from Mr. Williams and an anonymous donor). More information about the collection and the Project can be found at http://www.law.ucla.edu/williamsproj/home.html.

Brian Keough is the archivist for the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections & Archives at University at Albany-SUNY which collaborated with the Capital Punishment Research Initiative (CPRI) to create the National Death Penalty Archives. As a part of their mission they have created the National Death Penalty Archives to gather and preserve the historical documents of individuals and organizations having to do with capital punishment. Some of the collections included in the archive are: the papers of Hugo Adam Bedau, the papers from the Capital Jury Project and the papers of Ernest Van den Haag. Please visit their website for further information. http://library.albany.edu/speccoll/ndpa.htm

Cataloging and Classification Committee meeting

It was early, very early.

• The MARBI (Karen Selden) and SAC (Marie Whited) reps noted that their reports were available on the TS website. The CC:DA rep (Kathy Winzer) noted that hers was as well, but she had some futher information to discuss. Kathy announced that the JSC has abandoned AACR3 in favor working instead on RDA, a set of principle based rules useable world wide, but based on Anglo-American traditions which will be useable beyond the library and will be compatible with things like Dublin Core, ONIX and FRBR. Other issues that Kathy has been involved in include advising LC on the law section of Ch. 21 (Uniform titles).
  
• Since Ellen McGrath is not in San Antonio for the conference, Kathy Winzer gave Ellen’s report from the Task Force on Replacement Volumes. The Task Force submitted a report to the PCC. The Task Force submitted a report to LC. LC had some reservations about the TF's recommendations. The TF and LC are committed to resolving the issues together.
  
• Jolande Goldberg gave us the LC Update. Apparently, CPSO is under pressure to focus on cataloging simplification. There’s more use of Class web as a research tool. Subject headings, for things in Arabic and Hebrew, will be established in the vernacular. There are attempts to simplify more tables, and to include in class schedules more historical information, possibly even maps. KB is now published. KBP (Islamic law) has been widely accepted in the Islamic world, which will help to expand it. Jolande is currently working on American and Canadian Indian law, which will most likely go into KI . American Indian tribes, which are sovereign nations, have been moved from 110s to 150s.
  
• Open conversation. Marie Whited is now back at the Law Library of Congress, and says that through her we now have the chance to think about adding subject headings we’ve been wanting for a long time, like compiled statutes. A long discussion ensued about how best to make legal materials accessible – through uniform titles like Laws, etc., or through better subject access. All agreed that we should all thoroughly understand the rules for applying Laws, etc to see if we’d like to keep it, abandon it in favor of better subject access, or some combination. Our CC:DA rep is going to continue needing input on Uniform Titles so it would be helpful to her if we would begin to think about how we use them and if it works for us.
  

Who's counting? Who Cares? Revisiting the ABA Statistics Issue

Our program began with Paula Tejeda (Charleston School of Law, So Carolina) going over the history of the TS-SIS Serials Committee's long standing interest in question no. 6 of the annual ABA questionnaire - "Number of active serial subscriptions". The Committee was asked to work on a revision of the definition for serial titles and serial subscriptions. They did come up with a revised definition but soon came to realize that a simple definition was not the only thing needed. What was needed were better instructions and guidelines for understanding what was to be counted and where it would fit in the questionnaire.

Other members for the panel were Joe Hinger (St. John's), Jim Mumm (Marquette) and Pauline Aranas (U of So Calif). All were given 5 minutes to discuss their problems and concerns with the ABA questionnaire and their particular difficulties in counting. All agreed that the burning issue these days is what to do with electronic resources and where do they fit in the ABA questionnaire and the main discussion revolved around this issue. Once we got to the question and answer part of the meeting we were informed by Judith Wright, a member of the ABA Advisory Committee on the questionnaire, that electronic resources are not to be counted anywhere - they are not to be counted in the title count and they are not to be counted in the active subscription count. This was news to over 1/2 of the attendees - myself included. When old question 3 was taken out of the ABA questionnaire several years ago (How many electronic titles do you own?) the counting and reporting of electronic titles was to have stopped. Many of our attendees said this was definately not clearly stated anywhere in the ABA instructions. The discussion then turned to whether we want to count them and have them put back in the ABA questionnaire especially in our title counts. The only statistic that the ABA asks about electronic resources currently is how much money we spend on them. Many people mentioned the great expense of time and money spent on getting bibliographic records for their electronic collections and that their directors and deans were going to be very unhappy to hear that they can't be counted as either titles or subscriptions.

The purpose of today's discussion was to come to some consensus of the problems we face in counting and the need for specific guidelines to help us count more uniformly. We agreed upon asking for a revised definition of non-book format which should include electronic resources. We also agreed upon asking for a definition of electronic resources -- would that cover titles that are on our web pages and/or titles with bib records in our catalog and/or titles that we pay for and/or avail thru law and non-law consortiums, etc, etc. We also asked for clear guidelines on how to count active subscriptions for titles that we hold in multiple formats. For example, if Harvard Law Review is held in paper, held in fiche and held in 3 different electronic collections - do we count 3 subscriptions (for paper, fiche, e-version [assuming e-version gets put back in the count]) or 5 subscriptions (counting all e-versions) or 1 subscription only.

The discussion was lively and the problems are real. We all agreed that doing away with "counting" is out of our hands and we just have to figure out how and what to count but we need help. The Serials Committee hopes to draft a recommendation that will be sent to the ABA Committees that can make the changes to the questionnaire that we need.

Tech Services Business Meeting

Chair Cindy May introduced our VIP Dawn Smith, a recent graduate from library school. She also introduced Vice Chair/Chair Elect Karen Douglas, and Secretary/Treasurer Chris Long. As Chris will be preparing minutes, I’ll just cover the highlights here.

• Jolande Goldberg reported that the Alphabet Soup reception was a great success, with 100 more people attending than expected. The food was gone in half an hour, which is actually a good thing. Five Innovative people attended, including Sandy Westfall. Innovative gave us $5,000 and we spent it on food and flowers.
  
• Brian Striman is raffling off two quilts and a handknit scarf at the activities table.
  
• Lorna Tang is now Chair of the Acquisitions Committee, as Diane Altimari had to resign due to health reasons.
  
• Amy Lovell announced that the AALL rep reports would be given at the Cat and Class meeting, that the Inherently Legal Subject Headings report would be given at the Cat and Class Roundtable, and that a New Catalogers Roundtable would be held. Karen Nuckolls will be the new Cat and Class Chair (serving a two year term).
  
• Pat Turpening reported that the Preservation Program had been well attended, and that the Preservation Roundtable would host a special guest, the head of preservation at UT Austin. She also noted that Preservation had expanded its membership after a lengthy membership drive.
  
• Frank Richardson announced that the serials program on EDI had been quite a success; that the exchange of duplicated program had increased membership and revenue this year; and that Carole Avery Nicholson would be chair of the Serials Committee next year.
  
• Ad Hoc Committee on Annual Meeting Programming, chaired by Jolande Goldberg and Reggie Wallen had great success in wringing huge concessions from AALL headquarters, with AALL recognizing that as the membership grows there is more of a need for people to meet in smaller groups, and thus need for times for those groups to meet. Next year the no conflict times will be limited to the Association Business Meeting. For a fuller report, read Tory Trotta’s message, and the recommendations published on the TS website.
  
• Karen Douglas reported that participation in the survey was high, and the results will be tabulated and reported soon.
  
• The Centennial Committee (Janice Shull, chair, Keiko Ohara, Patty Satzer and Mahnez Moshfegh) need ideas and also, stuff with the TS-SIS logo. Also creative ideas for the variety show.
  
• Exchange of Duplicates, led by Bonnie Geldmacher, now has 43 members, up 2 from last year.
  
• Michael Mabon reported that of the 13 programs proposed by the Education Committee, 4 were accepted, and of the 2 workshops proposed, 1 was accepted. 4 programs were put on by TS independently of the Association. Karen Douglas is next year’s chair.
  
• Eloise Vondruska is retiring after three years chairing the Joint Research Grant, and Caitlin Robinson is taking over. There were no grants given out this year.
  
• Thanks to the Nominating Committee (Chris Tarr, chair, Elizabeth Geesey Holmes and Carmen Brigandi) we had Nominations, and then an Election (thanks to Chris Long). Rhonda Lawrence is the new incoming Vice Chair/Chair Elect, and Janice Anderson is the new Member-at-Large. This year for the first time we posted the candidate statements on the TS website, and that worked well.
  
• Betty Roeske noted that the TS discussion list seems to be working well.
  
• Martin Wisneski, the webmaster, reported that we may in the future have the capacity to collect more useful statistics.
  
• Proposals 1-3, 5-6 to revise the bylaws were passed, with some amendments. Proposal 4 was tabled. However, since Proposal 5 enables the section to revise bylaws electronically, it should prove much easier to revise Proposal 4 and pass it before the next annual meeting.
  
• Ann Sitkin, “the standard to which we all aspire” was awarded the Rene Chapman Award.
  
• Karen Douglas, incoming chair, noted that Cindy May will be a hard act to follow, and that she looks forward to an interesting year.
  

Preservation Committee Meeting, Monday, July 18, 2005

The Preservation Committee of TS-SIS met in the Rivercenter at 7 am today. The meeting was chaired by Pat Turpening of University of Cincinnati. A wide range of agenda topics indicated how active the committee is. On Sunday, the Preservation Committee had presented Program B3 : Preservation by the Book, in which the panel members discussed the challenges and value of completing a very lengthy preservation survey developed by the Northeast Document Conservation Center. The audience showed much interest and asked many thoughtful questions. Other work done by the committee includes a Preservation Roundtable (look for the Blog!), given today by a well-known preservationist; membership in the Special Committee on Permanent Public Access to Legal Information (Pat Turpening); liaisons with other groups in AALL and with other library organizations; outreach to chapters; and development of TechLinks on the TS website.

New members are most welcome. The Preservation Committee seeks your ideas and participation.

A program for the St. Louis meeting is under development.

Roy Tennant : Top Technologies and Trends

Georgia Briscoe introduced Roy Tennant, who talked about ten new technologies and trends he thought particularly interesting for librarians.

1. Other organizations taking our users, i.e.: Google Scholar. What something like Google Scholar means is that increasingly, users are coming to our sites from places we’re not expecting, meaning they may be confronted with “you’re not an authorized user” messages which we may wish to rethink.
2. Web 2.0. This term refers to web sites that actually assemble stuff for the viewer on the fly. Tennant cited as an example Chicagocrime.org, which takes crime data and combines it with the Google maps capability to give the user maps of crimes for addresses that the user enters.
3. Collaborative filtering. Sites like unalog.com or del.icio.us, where are websites on which people can post links of interest to them. These sites, essentially updates via RSS feed of people’s bookmarks are good for communities of users with similar interests. Libraries must want to consider having this type of thing on their websites.
4. Institutional repositories. These serve to capture the intellectual output of institutions, and are often great places to find gray literature as well as for scholarship before it is published. Tennant cited two sites: University of California’s repository at repositories.cdlib.org and MIT’s Dspace at dspace.mit.org. They can get phenomenal usage (often referred by Google). They’re also important in the Open Access movement, in that materials posted here are then available to the public at no cost.
5. OAI-PMH (Open archives initiative protocol for metadata harvesting). Harvests metadata from institutional repositories, making them searchable. Examples include OAIster at the University of Michigan, and the Public Knowledge Project’s Open Archives Harvester.
6. MODS, or metadata object description schema, which is like MARC, but in XML. Being developed at LC by a group of interested people. See www.loc.gov/standards/mods
7. METS, or metadata encoding and transmission standard, which Tennant described as an XML wrapper for various metadata packages. METS can impose a structure. See www.loc.gov/standards/mets
8. RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication, an easy way of automatically compiling updating from a selection of websites automatically. Tennant cited the Yorba Linda Public Library’s RSS feed from the Librarians’ Index to the Internet. Other libraries could easily set up RSS feeds from selections of sites of interest to them.
9. Going beyond the card catalog. Tennant advocates enriched catalogs which metadata from wherever they find it and combine it in the way must useful to users. Tennant discussed using scanned TOCs (but NOT in the form commonly used in 505 fields), ONIX records from publishers, authority records, readers reviews to put together enriched catalogs. FRBR can help here, as seen in RLG’s redlightgreen, or other OCLC products still in development.
10. Metasearching. The ability to search two or more sites simultaneously. This is still “early days,” and by no means perfected, but shows promise. Tennant cited the University of Rochester Library’s article finding feature as a example of where this works well. Tennant closed by listing guidelines for making good technology decisions, and a list of helpful truisms. See TSLL for a fuller report!

Sitkin Receives Chapman Memorial Award

Ann G. Sitkin, Cataloging Services Librarian at Harvard Law School Library, is the 2005 Recipient of the Renee D. Chapman Memorial Award. The award was presented by Janice Shull at the TS-SIS Business Meeting on Sunday, July 18. Ann has been the voice of the law cataloging community for many national and international policy-making bodies. She has also taken an active role in AALL and the Technical Services SIS. Learn more about Ann's contributions to the field.

Easy Does It: EDI Made Simple

EDI Panel discussion attended by 25 interested AALL conventioneers heard how and why to implement EDI. Today, Melody Lembke led a stellar panel discusion, consisting of Pam Bluh, Alan Keely, and Dan Rosati. Pam led off with an 10 year overview of EDI and her experience with it using Ex Libris. Pam provided a lengthy handout that accompanied her presentation. Alan followed with a how to approach using Voyager and highlighted key points about his claiming with W.S. Hein. He was able to use some of Pam's screen shots to illustrate his talk. Dan Rosati rounded up the discussion with the vendor perspective and stressed the help that other users can offer each other. Dan also had a handout and can provide additional copies for anyone needed one.

A lively audience participation period elicited many enthusiastic comments about the process, how detailed the preparatory work is and how worthwhile it ends up being. Improved efficiency, large invoices made more manageable, paper reduction, elimination of repetitive tasks, reduced errors, improved internal workflows, and enhanced service are results. Drawbacks involved the lengthy and arduous work that is necessary.

Several vendors, domestic and foreign, are using EDI. The two major U.S. legal publishers are still not able to provide this service.

AALL Workshop - Electronic Resources from Acquisitions to Access

A Technical Services workshop titled "Electronic Resources from Acquisitions to Access" was presented on Saturday July 16th. at the 2005 AALL Annual Conference in San Antonio, Texas. Seven presenters from a variety of institutions presented material on various aspects of electronic resources. Topis included: 1. Selection/Acquisition, 2. Licensing, 3. Negotiations, 4. Electronic Resource Management, 5. Delivery/Authentication, and 6. Evaluation and Usuage Statistics. Participants were able to ask questions or conderns they had about electronic resources and presenters were very responsive in their answers.

Visit TS Activities Table--Win Prizes!!!

Sue Burkhart from the U.S. Court of Appeals 11th Circuit Library in Atlanta has donated two handmade quilts. One side of each quilt is "fun, and piece-blocked" and the other is more "serious and classy-looking" (see below). Each quilt is 85 inches by 43 inches.

In addition, Katrina Piechnik from Jenkins Law Library is currently making a scarf.

All of these items are scheduled to be raffled at the Technical Services Activities Table. Stop by to visit with colleagues and register for the drawing.

Raffle Rules:

1. Winners need not be present to win.
2. Winners must be an AALL member AND registered AALL attendee to qualify.
3. Only one entry per person.
4. Sorry, exhibitors and vendors are not eligible.
5. Raffle will "close" Tuesday at 1 pm. Entries will be drawn shortly thereafter. Names selected will be verified (see 2, above).
6. Winners will be announced 1:30 p.m. (or slightly earlier pending verification).
7. Winners not present at the drawing will be contacted a.s.a.p. to pick up their quilt (calling their hotel room, cell phone, or via bulletin board).

If winner/s are not able to take the quilts back with them, they will be mailed to them sometime in August by Brian Striman (who hopes he doesn't have to do this).

Photos from the 'Alphabet Soup' Reception

A big thank you to Innovative Interfaces, Inc. for sponsoring the TS/OBS/RIPS/CS-SIS Reception at the Marriott Rivercenter on Saturday, July 16!!!

Alphabet Soup Reception

Don't forget!

TS/OBS/RIPS/CS-SIS

Alphabet Soup Reception


Saturday, July 16

6:00-7:30 PM

Marriott Rivercenter


Generously sponsored by Innovative Interfaces, Inc.

Heads of Technical Services Roundtable

Everyone:

Please come to the Heads of Technical Services Roundtable on Sunday, July 17 from 11:45 AM-1:15 PM in the Convention Center, Rm 213 (A)
You don't have to be a head of tech services to attend. All are welcome. Bring your lunch.

Our format will be a little different this year. We will break up into small groups to discuss 3 topics:

Should we continue to check in serials?

How to use staff time more efficiently when less new material is being ordered.

Convincing the dean/director you need more staff.

I am asking each group to select a note taker and give a brief summary of your discussion to the whole group.

This will be a flexible discussion depending on how many people arrive. We may have time for everyone to discuss each topic as a group, or we may have to break into smaller groups for simultaneous discussions of the topics. As tech services librarians, I know you can be flexible and adapt to change :-)

See you on Sunday!

Karen B. Douglas

Easy Does It -- EDI made simple

San Antonio attendees,

Please note a special TS-SIS Forum:

Easy Does It: EDI Made Simple
Sunday, July 17 @ 11:45 a.m. - 1:15 p.m.
Marriott Riverwalk, Salon (A)

Technical Service Librarians have implemented
Electronic Data Interchange with some vendors. We are
waiting to see how EDI will be incorporated by other
major legal vendors.

This is a special TS-SIS program, and it is NOT listed

with the Educational Programs. You can find it in the
Meetings and Events link under "TS-SIS Forum"

You are all invited.


Presenters/Panelists:
-Pamela Bluh, Assoc. Director for Technical Services &
Administration, University of Maryland at Baltimore
Thurgood Marshall Law Library;
-Alan Keely, Ass't Director for Collection Services &
Systems, Wake Forest University Professional Center
Library;
-Dan Rosatti, Senior Vice President, Research and
Development, Wm. S. Hein & Co.

Moderator: Melody Lembke, Ass't Director for Technical
Services, Los Angeles County Law Library.

Coordinator: Frank Richardson

Kind regards,
Frank Richardson
TS-SIS Serials Committee Chair, 2003-2005

TS-SIS Panel on Electronic Resources Management

Aloha TS-SIS members,

The TS-SIS Panel Electronic Resources Management will be held on Monday, July 18th, from 9:45 am to 11:30 am in the Marriott Riverwalk-Salon (EF). Three panelists will discuss their Electronic Resource Management systems. Representatives are:

Theodore A. Fons, Senior Product Manager, Innovative
Jean Bryan, Digital Product Specialist, Endeavor
Tate Nunley, Account Executive, Ex Libris

The names of each Electronic Resource Management system are:

Innovative --- ERM module
Endeavor --- Meridian
Ex Libris --- Verde

Each system works slightly differently, but the major functions of each system are to manage subscriptions, acquisition information and the licensing of e-resources’ lifecycle.

Anybody who is interested in the Electronic Resource Management system is cordially invited to this session.

Coordinator & Moderator
Keiko Okuhara

Chapter 21 special legal rules document posted on CC:DA website

All,

Below is a link to the "other active documents" on the CC:DA web page. If you click on the AALL document, you will be able to read our report on the special legal rules in Chapter 21. The Joint Steering Committee would like to simplify and eliminate special rules for access whenever possible. While the committee thought that we need to retain special rules for access points in legal materials, we suggested simplification in some areas and offered to work further on developing these rules. The document is posted on the CC:DA website for comments.

http://www.libraries.psu.edu/tas/jca/ccda/otherdocs.html

Kathy


***************************
Kathy Winzer
Catalog Librarian
Robert Crown Law Library
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-8612

e-mail: kwinzer[at]stanford.edu
phone: 650-723-0343 fax: 650-723-8657

FRBR!!!!

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to bring to your attention a special TS-SIS program:

Strategize and FRBRize Your OPAC

Many of us are following with great interest the development of RDA (Resource Description and Access - the new AACR). We are waiting to see how FRBR principles will be incorporated into the new code and how our OPACs will evolve. Once RDA is here, however, what are we to do with our existing databases? Will we be able to Post-FRBRize records that were cataloged according to the "old" rules? Claudia Conrad from Innovative Interfaces offers some thought-provoking solutions in her presentation of the new III FRBR model.

You are all invited.

Date: Monday, July 18, 2005
Time: 9:00-9:30 AM
Place: Marriott Riverwalk Salon (EF)

Presenter: Claudia Conrad: Product Manager, Innovative Interfaces Inc.
Coordinator and moderator: Yael Mandelstam, Leo T. Kissam Memorial Library, Fordham University School of Law.
The program was created in cooperation with Keiko Okuhara, William S. Richardson School of Law Library, University of Hawaii at Manoa.



Keep in mind that this is a special TS-SIS program, so it is NOT listed with the Educational Programs. You can find it under "TS-SIS Demo" in the Meetings and Events calendar.


Yael

****************************
Yael Mandelstam
Head of Cataloging
Fordham University School of Law
Leo T. Kissam Memorial Library
140 West 62nd Street
New York, NY 10023-7485

Phone: 212.636.7971
Fax: 212.930.8818
E-mail: ymandelstam[at]law.fordham.edu

Anticipating Preservation Work in San Antonio

The AALL Annual Meeting is almost here and the Preservation Committee under Pat Turpening's leadership has been active all year. Seven librarians have worked on a survey developed by the Northeast Document Conservation Center. These librarians work in Virginia, California, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Utah, to show how the project spans the country. One librarian was given a grant to work on the survey. All librarians had challenges to overcome in order to fill out this thorough survey. They will present their findings in Program B3 on Sunday afternoon, July 17, 2005. All AALL members are invited.

TS-SIS Acquisitions Roundtable

The TS-SIS Acquisitions Roundtable will meet from 5:15 PM - 6:15 PM Tuesday July 19 in the Convention Center Room 213(B) during the AALL conference in San Antonio, Texas. If there is anything you would like to discuss at the meeting, please let me know and I will put it on the agenda.

I hope you will attend the meeting. There is always a worthwhile discussion of acquisitions issues.

Thanks,

Earlene

Earlene Kuester
Acting Director
Stetson U. Law Library
1401 61st St. S.
Gulfport, FL 33707
727-562-7826
kuester[at]law.stetson.edu

CC:DA report available

All,

The 2005 CC:DA Representative's Report is now available on the TS-SIS website

I'll be giving a brief report at the TS-SIS Business Meeting on Sunday July 17 (5:30-6:30pm), and we'll be talking about some of the issues at the Cataloging and Classification Committee Meeting on Monday July 18 (7-8:45am). If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.

See you soon in San Antonio!

Kathy

------------------------------------
Kathleen M. Winzer
Catalog Librarian
Robert Crown Law Library
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-8612

Acquisitions Committee

The TS-SIS Acquisitions Committee will meet from 7:00am to 8:45am on Monday, July 18, during the AALL Conference in San Antonio, TX. If there is anything that you would like to discuss at the meeting, please let me know and I'll add it to the agenda.

Please come to the meeting. Coffee and pastries will be served.

Thanks

Lorna

Lorna Tang, Chair
TS-SIS Acquisitions Committee



-----------------------------------
Lorna Y. Tang
Associate Law Librarian for Technical Services
University of Chicago D'Angelo Law Library
1121 East 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637
Telephone: (773) 702-9619
FAX: (773) 702-2889
E-mail: l-tang[at]uchicago.edu

SAC Report

Marie Whitead, AALL representative to the ALCTS Subject Analysis Committee, writes:

SAC report is on our TS homepage.
You may want to print out copies for San Antonio. I will bring some paper copies with me.
Marie

TS/OBS Research Roundtable

Chris Long reports:

Please join us at the OBS-SIS/TS-SIS Research Roundtable on Tuesday, July 19, 11:45 am - 1:00 pm in HBGCC-Room 213 (B).

Among the highlights will be a discussion of a recent successfully-funded, tech services-related AALL/Aspen research grant by Monica Martens and a proposal to develop a research coach program.

As a door prize, we will be giving away a free copy of Walt Crawford's "First Have Something To Say: Writing for the Library Profession."

The Research Roundtable is a good place to find out what your colleagues are working on, share your own projects, find out how to get some research funding, and maybe even spark an idea or two.

You'll even have a ready-made opportunity to start your writing career--we need a note-taker to report on the meeting and we'll publish it in TSLL.

Bring your lunch, and I hope to see you there!

**********************************************************
Chris Long
Catalog Librarian
Ruth Lilly Law Library
Indiana University School of Law--Indianapolis
530 W. New York St.
Indianapolis, IN 46202
Phone: 317-274-1930 Fax: 317-274-8825
Email: clong[at]iupui.edu
***********************************************************

Harry Potter!!!

This post on the AALLamo blog gives details on a Harry Potter event on Friday night at a San Antonio bookstore called Twigs, 210-826-6411. Copies are also available at Brentano's, located in the Rivercenter Mall, next to the Marriott, and across the street from the other Marriott. Thanks to Joyce Janto in LawLib for details. Call Brentano's at 210-223-3938 to reserve a copy.

Cat and Class Meetings

Message from Amy Lovell, Chair, Cataloging and Classification committee:

Hello Everyone!

I would like to bring to your attention three Cataloging and Classification meetings/roundtables to be held at the AALL Conference in San Antonio.

The C&C meeting and the two roundtables are open to all.

I. TS-SIS Cataloging and Classification Committee Meeting
Monday, July 18, 2005 (7 a.m.-8:45 a.m.) Marriott Rivercenter Salon B
Agenda topics include reports from the CC:DA, SAC, and MARBI representatives, a report from the Task Group on Replacement Volumes, and an update from LC. (A few breakfast snacks and beverages will be available.)

II. TS-SIS New Law Catalogers Roundtable
Monday, July 18, 2005 (5:15 p.m.-6:15 p.m.) HBGCC - Room 213(A)
The New Law Catalogers Roundtable is intended to be an open forum for new/newer law catalogers to discuss the issues and concerns they face as new law catalogers. Whether you just want to verify that you are approaching an issue the right way or you need to clarify something really is the wrong way, please join your peers at this roundtable for a discussion of all things cataloging. "Seasoned" catalogers are also encouraged to attend!

III. TS-SIS Cataloging & Classification Issues Roundtable
Tuesday, July 19, 2005 (5:15 p.m. - 6:15 p.m.) Marriott Riverwalk Salon D.
There are two issues currently on the agenda for the C&C Roundtable. First there will be a report from the Inherently Legal Subject Headings Project and any necessary follow-up discussion. Then discussion will move to issues raised during the CC:DA representative's report. In the interest of enhancing the discussion, it is recommended that you review AACR2 Chapter 25:Uniform Titles and the corresponding rule interpretations. While you are reviewing the chapter, think about what purpose is served by : Laws, etc. (Compiled statutes...), Laws, etc. (Session laws...), and Treaties, etc. As time allows, please feel free to raise additional topics for discussion.

If you have additional agenda items for the C&C committee meeting, please email me at (lovell[at]duq.edu). Or if you have a question or issue you would like to raise at either of the roundtables but are too shy or embarrassed to bring it up, you can email me at (lovell[at]duq.edu) with the details and I will bring up the issue for you.

Till San Antonio...

Amy Lovell
TS-SIS Cataloging and Classification Committee Chair

Preservation Roundtable will host special guest

Message from Patricia Turpening, Chair, Preservation Committee


Dear colleagues,

The TS Preservation Committee is hosting a special guest this year at the Preservation Roundtable.

Monday, 18 July, 10:15am - 11:30am

Ellen Cunningham-Kruppa is the director of the Kilgarlin Center for Preservation of the Cultural Record at the School of Information at the University of Texas. The Center was established last fall with a $1M endowment from William Kilgarlin, a former Texas Supreme Court Justice. According to the press release announcing the Center, "Through research and education, the Center's mission is to advance knowledge and practice in the record of the human enterprise, creativity, and discovery. Building on the School of Information's top ranking programs in preservation management and conservation studies, the new Center will also address pressing concerns in digital preservation, and promote research, education, and public outreach in the broad area of cultural records management."

Ellen also teaches courses in preservation management, preservation reformatting, conservation, and digitization.

Ellen will talk to us about some exciting initiatives being undertaken at the Kilgarlin Center.

Please join us for what promises to be an interesting discussion with time for Q&A.

Pat
Chair, TS-SIS Preservation Committee

Patricia Turpening
Head, Preservation and Archives
Senior Librarian
University of Cincinnati Law Library
PO Box 210142
Cincinnati, OH 45221-0142
Phone: 513-556-0157
Fax: 513-556-6265

2005 MARBI Representative's report available

Message from Karen Selden, AALL Representative to MARBI:


The 2005 MARBI Representative's Report is now available on the TS-SIS website, at:

http://www.aallnet.org/sis/tssis/representatives/2005/marbi2005.htm


I will be giving brief reports on the 2005 MARBI activities at the TS-SIS Business Meeting on Sunday July 17 (5:30-6:30pm), and at the Cataloging and Classification Committee Meeting on Monday July 18 (7-8:45am). If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.

See you soon in San Antonio!

Karen

Karen Selden, Catalog Librarian
University of Colorado Law Library
402 UCB
2405 Kittredge Loop Drive
Boulder, CO 80309-0402

(303) 492-7535 (voice) (303) 492-2707 (fax)

We still need bloggers!

A number of people have volunteered to write quick updates of both programs and meeting, but we could use several more. In particular, I need people for Acquisitions Committee meetings and Preservation Committee meetings, but there are others as well (see the list of programs and meetings below). Contact me (tarrc[AT]law[dot]berkeley[dot]edu -- or leave a comment) if you're interested. Come on -- it will be fun!!!