(Attending: Gordon Anderson, Bryan Baldus, Laura Dale Bischof, Nancy Boerner, Roger Brisson, James Burgett, John Cullars, Dick Hacken, Hank Harken, Martha Hsu, Tom Izbicki, Sean Knowlton, Dennis Lambert, Jeffry Larson, Thea Lindquist, Rebecca Malek-Wiley, Jim Niessen (recorder), Joy Pile, Kati Radics, Beth Remak-Honnef (chair), Kathy Rutter, Sue Roberts, Pam Snelson (ACRL Board liaison), Ann Snoeyenbos, Sarah G.Wenzel)
1. Reports from WESS discussion groups:
Cataloging Discussion Group:
Rebecca Malek-Wiley reported that the discussion group featured an account by
Charles Croissant of cataloguing-related meetings at the IFLA Conference in
Berlin [in August 2003] and an IFLA preconference in Frankfurt. He described
several ongoing international projects, including work on a "Statement
of International Cataloguing Principles." The group also discussed the
ongoing concern about the recruitment of catalogers to the profession and the
establishment of cataloging internships, for instance at Brigham Young University.
Classical, Medieval and Renaissance Discussion Group:
Jerry Heverly reported that 21 attended the meeting on Saturday. Maria Tantaba
of UC Irvine spoke about the TLG (Thesaurus Linguae Graecae). Karen Green was
elected as incoming chair. As new topics, the group suggested the role of subject
specialists and conflicting demands upon their time.
College and Medium-sized Libraries Discussion Group:
Hank Harken reported ten attended the session, whose topic was “finding foreign
publications when you don’t have approval plans or slips.” Sources include faculty
traveling abroad for research, academic conferences, and atall.com. In answer
to a question about jobbers for Scandinavian materials, nobody could name one.
The discussion group did a group process to create a New Selectors FAQ. It will
be posted to the email list, and eventually to WESSWeb.
Germanists Discussion Group:
James Burgett reported that close to 40 attended the meeting, including Elmar
Mittler and Hildegard Schäffler from Germany. Reports on the German Resources
Project meetings in Munich in August and at Midwinter highlighted the growing
emphasis on reciprocal benefits for North American and German partners. Mittler
noted that the new e-journal package DigiZeitschriften will have a
price cap of 4000 Euros for the largest German libraries. There will be a free
trial of this product for North American GRP members in 2004. Charles Croissant
reported at the discussion group on the cataloging meeting in Berlin, ad Gordon
Anderson on the Frankfurt Book Fair. Brian Vetruba gave a presentation on the
recruitment of people with language skills into the profession with a PowerPoint
that will eventually be on the Web. In the course of discussion it was emphasized
that language skills often lead librarians after they’ve been hired to activities
that weren’t in their original job descriptions.
Romance Languages Discussion Group:
Emily Stambaugh reported there were over 30 in attendance. The main topic was
collection development for Romance languages, with examination of how to set
up approval plans, electronic slip management, and IP access to European newspapers.
Group members expressed enthusiastic interest in updating the French section
of WESSWeb. Bryan Skib and Jeffry Larson distributed handouts that will be disseminated
electronically.
Scandinavian Discussion Group:
Gordon Anderson reported a good turnout (20) for the meeting. Special guest
Dr. Ulf Brynjestad, the Swedish consul in San Diego, welcomed the group to Southern
California and briefly related the history of Swedes and Swedish-Americans in
the area. He also reported that the Welcome to the Vasa Order of America (a
Swedish-American fraternal organization) will be sponsoring a doctoral dissertation
fellowship in Scandinavian studies. (Gordon will report the news via Nord-Lib
and WESS-L after the announcement is official.) Gordon spoke about Scandinavian
collections at Minnesota and Minnesota’s memorandum of understanding with Wisconsin.
The discussion group will continue to have its main meeting at Midwinter.
Social Sciences and History Discussion Group:
Thea Lindquist reported that chair David Lincove organized a panel discussion
about Title VI-funded National Resource Centers for European Studies. The panelists
described their centers and grant writing experiences. David prepared a list
of centers that he will post to WESSWeb [the list is now online at http://www.dartmouth.edu/~wessweb/NRCWESS.html].
The Special Topics Discussion Group did not meet.
2. Reports of WESS Committees:
2004 Conference Planning Planning:
Laura Dale Bischof reported that the program will be entitled “Scholarly Communication
in Europe.” It will take place at 8 A.M. on the Monday of the Annual Meeting
in Orlando, because it will be co-sponsored by the ACRL Scholarly Communication
Committee, whose own program will follow in a hopefully nearby room.
Publications Committee:
Rebecca Malek-Wiley reported an attendance of 16 including guests. The main
topic was the WESS Newsletter. The committee agreed that due to the current
shortfall in funding the spring issue, like the fall one, will be just 8 pages
long will a fuller version on the Web. Henceforth the online version will be
the issue of record. March 8 is the deadline for submissions to Sarah Wenzel
for the newsletter. The committee has agreed to make some types of information
in members' entries in the WESS Membership Directory optional. Bruce Swann has
made progress in making revisions to the Directory format. It is possible to
toggle to the fuller version, and a Web entry form will be available. A brief
discussion of WESSWeb followed and then of the WESS brochures and bookmarks.
Research and Planning Committee:
Ann Snoyenbos reported that 18 attended. The Web page of the Recruitment Subcommittee
(presented at the Germanists Discussion Group) will go online in March. There
is hope to make this subcommittee more permanent. Jerry Heverly reported as
liaison to the American Philological Association, and more liaison reports were
encouraged. It was suggested that we talk more with vendors about subject/language
combinations not being collected in North America. There are efforts to update
the union list of newspapers in the New York area, and to establish an ad hoc
mentoring arrangement for WESSies in grantwriting and research. During the last
hour of the meeting there was a discussion of how WESS is fulfilling ACRL’s
strategic plan.
Membership Committee:
Thea Lindquist reported the committee met on Saturday. A social is planned for
Orlando at 7:30 PM on Saturday, June 26, but no cruise because vendors are already
giving generously for the Paris conference. Thea continues to send paper letters
to new members, and will start sending emails including signup information for
the Membership Directory. There is also a project to add new members to WESS-L,
and discussion of offering conference and career mentoring. The ACRL Membership
Committee will have one of three programs on recruiting in Orlando, entitled
“Beating the Bushes: Recruiting a New Generation of Academic Librarians” and
featuring Hannelore Rader, Alice Prochaska, and Ray English.
Coutts-Nijhoff International West European Study Grant
Jury:
Gordon Anderson reported there were four applications, all very good, for the
CNI Award. The committee made its selection, which will be announced in March.
The Committee encourages more applications next year. After reviewing the applications,
the committee discussed several other matters: providing a brief critique to
those who had applied; giving general advice to prospective applicants; making
some changes in the announcement wording for next year; and recommending that
the current committee make-up be continued: the WESS past chair, the R&P
chair; a former Award recipient; and a Coutts-Nijhoff company representative.
This structure does not need to be codified in the WESS Bylaws but could be
provided for in the WESS Manual. This is a very important WESS award that needs
to be widely publicized.
3. Update on the Paris Conference
Jeffry Larson reported that the ACRL Budget and Finance Committee voted the previous day to continue financing of the conference despite the current risk of losses. While the result was positive, the vote was split. Bad news concerning the committee work was the passing away of Lara Moore and the illness of Helene Baumann. Tom Kilton and Ceres Birkhead be interim co-chairs of the Publicity Committee. Local Arrangements Committee chair Carolyn Szylowicz is having visa problems, so Kathy Rutter will stand in as interim chair. Sarah Wenzel is Program Committee chair. The conference will begin on Monday with an address by Jean-Claude Guedon, and conclude on Friday with a closing address by Roger Chartier. Many presentations are lined up, and site visits being arranged. Aux Amateurs is giving a dinner on Thursday, and Touzot will give a reception on Wednesday.
4. Other Business
Gordon Anderson added a report regarding the Frankfurt Book Fair. We will submit a proposal to ACRL to renew funding for participation in Frankfurt 2004. A major problem is that henceforth the cost of the booth will be several times more expensive. The theme “country” for Frankfurt 2005 will be the Arab countries. Gordon sent a report to Holger Ehling, the deputy director of the book fair, after leading the delegation in 2003, about how the book fair can attract more librarians. Roger emphasized that we need to get the word out that Frankfurt is the biggest English-language fair, covering all countries.
On another topic, Kati raised the idea of saving travel money for members by reducing the number of days on which WESS meetings will be held at Annual to Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.
Gordon reported on his meeting with the SEES (Slavic and East European Section) Executive Committee the day before. Out of concern that few of its members readily participate on committees and in meetings, the SEES Executive Committee wanted to discuss the possibility of joining with WESS. Gordon (also a SEES member) attended the meeting to speak for and about WESS. After healthy, intense discussion, SEES members voted to continue as a separate section, with some structural changes. Some SEES members, especially those in the West Slavic area, expressed an interest in working closer with WESS, particularly in light of the upcoming European Union enlargement and of the significantly different situation in the area of the former Soviet Bloc. Tom Izbicki suggested the possibility of a joint WESS-SEES program in one of the coming years.