MINUTES GPLNE MEETING FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2005
TUFTS UNIVERSITY/TISCH LIBRARY
Present:
Donna Koepp, Harvard
Roxanne Palmatier, Northeastern
Leonard Adams, UMASS Amherst
Connie Reik, Tufts
Deborah Mongeau, University of Rhode Island
Julia R. Tryon, Providence College
Deborah Angelo, Providence College
Gail Fithian, Boston Public Library
Hans Raum, Middlebury College
Jim Walsh, Readex/News Bank
John Fobert, Roger Williams University
Marguerite Most, Boston College Law
Jim Mac Donald, Connecticut College
Elaine Pinkos, Elms College
Steven Batt, University of Connecticut
Bette L. Siegel, State Library of Massachusetts
Chair, John Fobert, thanked our host, Connie Reik, of Tufts University.
Our speaker was Andrea Sevetson, information professional consultant (trainer), of LexisNexisÒ Congressional. Andrea gave out 2 handouts and presented a power point presentation of the new interface of LexisNexisÒ Congressional. It is one interface, one search with the magic in the indexing.
Steve Batt, of UCONN, gave an overview of the LOCKSS pilot program. LOCKSS is lots of copies, keep stuff safe. It is a collaborative cooperation program with electronic journals. GPO is a partner.
As of December 1, 2005…$299.24 in savings
$1030 in CD which matures on 1/8/06
**IT WAS DECIDED TO PUT ALL MONIES IN THE SAVINGS ACCOUNT WHEN THE CD MATURES.
As before, there was discussion about the status of GPLNE. If we incorporate, we may have to have all the officers from the same state. Jim Walsh said he would report to John Fobert about NEMO (New England Map Organization) and their organizational structure.
It was the consensus of the group to remain an independent, informal group…..BUT….the main concern at this meeting was the money. It was decided that everyone should formalize their thoughts for the March meeting. Since the May meeting will be in VT (see details later in this report), there were thoughts about paying for transportation to the meeting or a GPO conference or students to attend our meetings or…………….the main focus of this group was that we should spend the money. We can deal with NELA or any other affiliation at a later date.
The March meeting will be at Brown or Roger Williams University. John will finalize the agenda and date ASAP.
The May 19th meeting will be in Chester, Vermont.
Jim Walsh, and his superiors, have invited us to stay as their guests at the conference facility of Readex/Newsbank. There are 5 houses; there will be no charge for the rooms. There are 20-25 rooms which have 40-45 beds. We can arrive on Thursday night, meet on Friday, stay over Friday night and leave on Saturday.
YOU SHOULD NOTIFY JOHN FOBERT IF YOU PLAN TO ATTEND.
We will tour the production facility which has 3 stops: meeting the editor of data production; seeing the scanning, target, quality control operation and seeing the server room with the optical character recognition materials.
It was suggested we plan to go to Dartmouth for Friday afternoon to see their documents department and perhaps have lunch there.
We may decide to spend some of the money on lunch or whatever.
Len Adams of UMASS Amherst reported on his attendance at an ARL seminar in Seattle about the future of the depository program. He said there were approximately 30-40 present including public library staff. The majority were library directors/administrators.
It was 2 intense days of discussions and break-out sessions. A number of participants spoke both for and against GPO. The main result was the UMASS Amherst developed its own 3 year plan/program which included: digitizing state documents, retrospective cataloging of federal documents and outreach to public libraries, especially regarding electronic government documents. Len noted that many areas of the US have no regional organizations like GPLNE. ARL is supposed to issue a report of the seminar.
Roxanne Palmatier of Northeastern led the group in a discussion (which was concluded after lunch) on the VISION plan of GPO, and the need to respond to it and keep government information available to the public.
We are very concerned Regional Depositories and the lack of their input/continuation as a “force” were not featured in the vision plan. We have a NH documents librarians group; GPLNE; Connecticut Godort; Rhode Island CRIAL; and GoDIG among others who maintain a strong regional government documents presence. Elaine Pinkos of the Elms stated at the afternoon meeting she will attempt to organize or speak with the docs librarians in her area.
The group felt strongly that a statement should be sent to all members of COUNCL expressing our concerns about the vision document. Roxanne will compose this with assistance from Bette. New Englanders would like to see if we can come up with a regional service model building upon our existing infrastructure (state plans, consortia, regionals, etc.). We are hoping to come up with an action plan! What we are saying is that we have two, related tracks we are pursuing with Council. Our concerns and our action plan.
In the afternoon, this discussion was continued…….Debbie Mongeau of URI will speak to the Rhode Island group this coming week about drafting a letter to administrators.
The group felt the Directors or those “in charge” of the Documents Departments should be “active’ in this issue. Administrators need to continue to support government information (albeit in different forms) within the institution and support regional efforts to adapt the existing structure to function in a new environment. Trends affecting documents also have an impact on other library materials (i.e. print journal archives). This last point was made by Jim MacDonald during the morning session.
Libraries historical collections have enormous value; there was discussion of cooperative collection development; light and dark archives, etc.
Gail Fithian brought the group up-to-date on the planned Boston Region Meeting on Documents as was described by Ken Peterson of the Boston Region at our October meeting. Ken Peterson, of the Boston Region, spoke about a conference being planned for February…..a summit on Government Documents and developing a position for our region to submit to GPO. There was meaningful discussion about this; whom to invite to speak; need for discussion leaders for break out sessions; topics to be discussed; etc.
Ken felt he had substantive input from the group to help direct the focus of the upcoming conference.
**It was emphasized that library directors must be involved.
It was strongly suggested that GoDIG ask GPLNE to plan that the December 2nd meeting at Tufts be scheduled for all day with the afternoon session devoted to finalizing a document to be sent to Council with our concerns, ideas, etc. The initial questions will be sent to all prior to the Dec. meeting.
The group indicated its STRONG suggestion that this meeting be a New England wide program; not just Massachusetts.. We’d like the documents librarian + an administrator from each institution to participate. Tentative meeting time is in February.
The meeting ended with those present expressing their concerns for the future of federal documents, our obligations to the public and our need to be active.
Bette L. Siegel
Secretary