Forwarded Message:
From: R. Lee Hadden, USGS Library
---------------------------------------------------
This will be my last update as a member of the OCLC User's
Council. Because so many federal liraries have been downsized,
eliminated or contracted out, the FEDLINK representation on the OCLC
User's Council has been dropped from three representatives to two. In
the future, if you have any ideas, comments or suggestions, please
send them to the FEDLINK representatives Marcia Talley or Bernard
Strong.
I have enjoyed my term as a representative for FEDLINK, and hope
that all the comments, suggestions and ideas presented to me were
adequately answered.
R. Lee Hadden
US Geological Survey Library
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------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 15:11:49 -0400
Reply-to: "Smith,Jessica" <[log in to unmask]>
From: "Smith,Jessica" <[log in to unmask]>
Organization: OCLC Inc, Dublin, Ohio USA (614)764-6000
Subject: UC May '97 Meeting Summary
To: Multiple recipients of list UC-L <[log in to unmask]>
May 30, 1997
OCLC USERS COUNCIL MEMORANDUM
TO: OCLC Users Council Delegates
FROM: Richard Van Orden, Users Council Program Manager
SUBJECT: Summary of the May 18-20, 1997 Users Council Meeting
Under the direction of Users Council President Victoria Hanawalt (OCLC
Pacific) activities at the recent meeting include:
1. Delegates elected new members of the 1997/98 Users Council Executive
Committee. This year*s vice president/president-elect Merryll Penson
(SOLINET) became the new president at the conclusion of the meeting. Brad
Baker (ILLINET) is the new vice president/president-elect.
Delegates-at-large are Dan Iddings (PALINET), Edward Meachen (WILS), and
Betsy Wilson (OCLC Pacific).
2. John Shaloiko (SUNY/OCLC), chair of the Election Certification
Committee, reported that delegate elections were held in fourteen networks
this year. All of these elections were done in compliance with Users
Council Bylaws and the results certified by the committee.
3. Merryll Penson, on behalf of the Finance Committee which she
chaired, proposed a 1997/98 Users Council budget of $156,248. This figure
to support the expenses associated with next year*s Users Council and
committee meetings was unanimously approved by delegates during the business
session on Tuesday morning.
4. Pamela Brown (ILLINET), chair of the Bylaws Committee, presented eleven
changes in the Users Council Bylaws proposed by the Bylaws and Executive
Committees. Several of these changes are designed to strengthen the process
whereby the Nominating Committee prepares a slate of candidates for various
Users Council leadership positions. Several recommendations originally were
suggested by the Ad Hoc Committee to Review Nominations and Elections
Procedures chaired by Brad Baker. All of the proposed changes were
unanimously adopted by the delegates.
5. In her Executive Committee report, Victoria Hanawalt noted that the
previously-announced Users Council meeting date of October 11-13 was changed
to October 4-6, 1998 because the later date conflicted with the Columbus Day
holiday. She thanked Brad Baker, Barbara Gubbin, Edward Meachen, and
Merryll Penson, the other members of this year*s Executive Committee, for
their hard work at ten meetings in planning Users Council activities.
Departing delegates were recognized for their years of service to the OCLC
Users Council. (These fifteen delegates will be sent a commemorative
keepsake during the summer.)
6. Delegates listened to Dr. K. Wayne Smith, OCLC President and Chief
Executive Officer, report on the status of OCLC*s activities in its three
priority areas of reference services and electronic publishing, enhancements
to cataloging and resource sharing services, and international expansion. He
talked to delegates about the value of OCLC membership and the 1997/98
budget and prices.
7. Sarah Long, System Director of the North Suburban Library System in
Illinois, and Owen Youngman, Director of Interactive Media for the Chicago
Tribune, discussed their innovative partnership and demonstrated the
Web-based information system they have developed. The system*s NorthStarNet
can be accessed at http://www.nsn.org and the Tribune*s digitized newspaper
is available at http://digitalcity.com.
8. Dr. Jerry Campbell, Chief Information Officer and Dean of the
University Libraries at the University of Southern California, gave a
presentation titled "Libraries and Publishing: Watershed Changes and New
Wrinkles in an Historic Partnership." He suggested that the future of
libraries and publishing may be determined by a precipitating event such as
the uncoupling of the credentialing process in higher education from
publishing. Watershed changes such as a shift in the value spectrum among
library materials, a redefinition of publishing and publication, a rise in
life-long learning, a shift within universities to a more commercial model,
the expansion of distance learning and virtual universities, and getting
beyond human-created metadata will create new needs and opportunities for
libraries.
9. Wayne Kelley, Superintendent of Documents for the U.S. Government
Printing Office, described some of the difficulties and threats associated
with the increasing use of digitized documents for the distribution of
government information. The Superintendent of Documents Home Page is
accessible at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs. Related information from
the Coalition for Networked Information Project on Federal Information in
the Networked Environment can be found at
http://www.cni.org/projects/fedinfo/www/fedinfo.service.html.
10. Tom Leonhardt (AMIGOS) summarized the type-of-library discussions of
the key questions for the meeting by saying that OCLC*s assistance in the
digitization of local materials, special collections, and archives is
needed. Partnerships with information producers and plug-and-play products
will assist libraries in accomplishing their institutional missions. Among
the recommendations for OCLC actions by the research, medium academic, small
academic, public, and special library groups were:
- Increase partnerships with digitizing companies, professional
associations and societies.
- Develop real-time, customized electronic management reports.
- Consider dual-tiered pricing to assist small libraries in providing
electronic services.
- Use push technology to provide specialized information services.
- Provide a report on merged records.
- Include imbedded URLs in bibliographic records including government
publications.
- Strengthen partnerships with local system vendors.
- Provide seamless access to local holdings for serials.
- Develop an interactive, online collection analysis system.
- Give a high priority to the educational/training programs of the OCLC
Institute.
- Develop pricing that works better for small libraries.
- Add fulltext databases in consumer health, small business, and careers.
- Provide better access for non-English speakers.
- Assist in providing remote access to remote databases.
- Influence vendors to move in pro-library directions.
- Choose partners carefully.
- Simplify.
- Move aggressively to aggregate electronic resources.
- Provide institute programs for institutional leaders.
- Load a core list of electronic journals for undergraduates.
- Add a patents and trademarks database.
- Include more non-traditional materials such as maps and archival
resources.
- Include price options which both bundle and unbundle article-level access
- Enrich records with tables of contents.
- Pay more attention to electronic access to monographs.
- Use content analysis to facilitate access.
- Facilitate disintermediated or direct interlibrary loan to patrons.
11. John Barnes, Director of Electronic Publishing, addressed the topic of
"OCLC*s Role and Its Partnerships with Information Producers." Liz Bishoff,
Vice President for Member Services, gave an update on OCLC activities.
Stuart Weibel, Senior Research Scientist in the OCLC Office of Research,
presented a "hot topic" report on metadata and OCLC. The interest groups,
Communications and Access, Reference Services/Electronic Publishing,
Resource Sharing, and Technical Services, held two sessions at which they
discussed topics of interest in their areas of focus.
Bernard Strong Marcia Talley
National Defense University US Naval Academy
(202) 287-9463 (410) 293-6905
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