There was a lengthy discussion about our relationship with NELINET.  There was some concern about our nonprofit status should we sever our ties completely from NELINET.  Also, it seems that NELINET has the award plaque GPLNE
received from CIS a number of years ago.  It was decided that GPLNE should retain its association with NELINET in order to protect its nonprofit status since we do have a small bank account.  Betty Febo will look into the GPLNE archives to locate a
history of GPLNE's relationship with NELINET that Robert Cunningham, NELINET's liaison to GPLNE, had produced for a presentation he gave at a GPLNE meeting.  Since this issue seems to come up every few years, Len Adams suggested a taskgroup work on a formal report of the history of the association between GPLNE and NELINET.  A more informal approach agreed on and Betty said she would look into nonprofit status and NELINET.  Linda Johnson and Len will help her if needed.

    Bette Siegel said the final version of the Massachusetts state plan is not finalized but is on the GoDIG web site (http://www.wellesley.edu/Library/GoDIG/revisedstateplan.html).
When finalized it should also be placed on the GPLNE and BLC web sites. Eventually all New England state plans should be placed on the GPLNE web site.  Linda  said that New Hampshire Librarians have met to plan for
development of a state plan, but haven't yet moved beyond that point.  Debbie Mongeau stated that Rhode Island state plan has been revised.  Jim MacDonald said that Connecticut did have a state plan and there have been discussions about revising it.  It is not in any type of machine readable format.

    Jim Walsh spoke about the Serial Set inventory project.  It is an inventory of only the paper Serial set volumes.  Volunteering
libraries will put their inventories on the web site so that researchers can find collections that have the volumes they need.  The web site is based at the University of Kansas.  It should be noted that most libraries don't lend their serial set volumes, especially the older, valuable ones.  There is a form on the web site that can be used.  For very large collections, it is
possible to enter the missing volumes instead of all the volumes that are available.  It was suggested that if an historic serial set collection is not secure it might not be a good idea to list the collection until the older valuable volumes can be secured.

    Bette mentioned the Shinn list which is a list of rare government documents.  This would be helpful in determining if you have any rare documents in your collection.  It was further noted that the Maps of the Coast and Geodetic Survey were also rare and should be placed in a secure area.

    There were no reports from ALA midwinter.  Mention was made of the discussions and concern over the destruction of the Dept. of the Interior CD on water sources.  Some sites on the Dept. of Interior web site are coming back up.

    Pam Hays gave a presentation on the type of government material that has appeared on the web in regards to the events of September 11, 2001.  She explained in detail the intricacies of sites with web archives.  Using handouts as a guide, Pam  compared and contrasted different sites.  Her thorough analysis provided a base for understanding just how much material is out there in varying degrees of success and complexity.

    A discussion followed concerning how depositories are reacting in their technical services areas to the increase in government electronic resources.  It became clear that there is no one way to easily deal with all the issues of processing
electronic resources.
    Libraries use different online databases, and have different cataloging policies.  Some depositories are allowed to use one catalog record for both the physical and electronic resource, while others must create different records for each format.
Some depositories create checkin records for electronic resources while others do not.  Some actively seek out government web sites to include in their catalogs, others do not.  As with other aspects the administration of government document collections each depository will do what best meets its needs.  However, it is worthwhile to hear what others are doing
and good ideas are always worth passing around.

    Pam gave the Treasurer's report:
    Savings account had $822.68.
       $350.00 was withdrawn to cover the deposit for the May 10, 2002 meeting room and catering.
       There is now $472.68 in our saving account.
    The savings account we have in a CD has a balance (as of Jan. 8, 2002) of $1,076.85.

    Len  gave a report on the May 10, 2002 meeting.  The meeting will be an all day affair beginning a 9:30am with a
continental breakfast.  From 10:15am to 12:00pm Cesar Monzon from the Boston Office of the Bureau of the Census will speak on Census products, census geography, and demonstrate American Factfinder.
    There will be a working lunch of grinders, pickles, chips, and beverages: 12:00-1:00.
    From 1:00-2:15 Judy LaFleur from the Washington Office of the Census Bureau will give a presentation of the new Allocate software to be used with the new census DVDs.
    From 2:15 to 3:15 Pat McGlamary from the University of Connecticut will talk about census maps.
    After closing remarks there will be a short GPLNE business meeting where ideas and meeting places for the 2002/2003 year will be requested.

    The total cost of the meeting, which includes the room rental and the catering of the breakfast and lunch (for an estimated 40 attendees) is $700.  Lexis/Nexis Academic and Research Solutions has generously donated $300 toward the cost of the meeting.

   Also, attending members will be asked to donate $5 toward the cost of the meals.  This money will be collected at the meeting.  An agenda will be sent on the GPLNE list serve at the beginning of next week.  It is important that GPLNE members contact Len Adams of intentions to attend so that meeting and meal planners will know about how many people to plan for.

    Some ideas for meetings next year included a full presentation of American Factfinder.  This would be a full day presentation and would be appropriate for the fall meeting as the social and economic data are scheduled to be released this summer.
    Also, a demonstration of Geolytics  CD census products, which have gotten some good reviews.

    Linda Johnson announced the new slate of GPLNE officers for the 2002/2003 year:

    Elizabeth Febo, Chair
    Wellesley College

    Mark Scott, Vice-Chair
    Massachusetts State Library

    Leonard Adams, Secretary
    University of Massachusetts, Amherst

    Pamela Hays, Treasurer
    Harvard University
 
 

    Attending Members:
    Len Adams, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
    Lise Albury, Norwich University
    Bobbie Brooke, University of Massachusetts Medical School
    Betty Febo, Wellesley College
    Jacqueline Fitzpatrick, Wellesley College
    John Fobert,  Roger Williams University
    Greg Frazier, Providence Public Library
    Pamela Hays, Harvard University
    Tim Hays, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
    Linda Johnson, University of New Hampshire
    Jim MacDonald, Connecticut College
    Deborah Mongeau, University of Rhode Island
    Beverly Presley, Clark University
    Mark Scott, State Library of Massachusetts
    Bette Siegel, State Library of Massachusetts
    Jane Swiszcz, Stonehill College
    Ralph Szymczak, Brandeis University
    Jim Walsh, Lexis/Nexis
    Barbara Winrich, University of Massachusetts Medical School
 

Leonard Adams
Government Documents
W.E.B. Du Bois Library
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003