ALA Annual Conference 1996 MARS ExComm minutes Monday, July 8 Present: ExComm: Denise Bennett, Paige Weston, Amy Tracy Wells, Peggy Seiden, Laine Farley, Elliot Kanter Guests: Cindy Cunningham, Stephen Dew, Jennifer Heise, Laurie Preston, Lise Dyckman, Marcella Stark, Pat Hawthorne, Bernie Pasqualini, Andrea Copeland, Lori Morse, Pat Clark, Nancy Buchanan, William McHugh, Lois Pausch, Bob Heriard Preconference: Cindy Cunningham After skimming the Preconference evaluations, Cindy Cunningham reported that 31 of the 48 respondents graded the Preconference as interesting and valuable. 15 participants admitted to being RASD members; 11 said they were not. Participants indicated support for local/regional workshops, particularly in the areas of team-building and support. Publications: Stephen Dew To prepare for selecting a new MARS-L/Messages From MARS editor and a new MARS Home page coordinator, we need to review the current assignment on page 11 of the MARS Handbook and modify it into two assignments. Applicants for the positions will be interviewed at Midwinter by Nancy Buchanan, Amy Tracy Wells, and Denise Bennett. From the RASD Publications level comes a discussion question: Should the MARS Publications Committee have "prepublication" review responsibilities for home pages created by MARS committees??? The Publications Committee brought forth, and ExComm recommended, that the document "Twenty Years of Mars in Print: An Annotated Bibliography" be submitted for publication in RQ. The Bibliography will be published in the Spring 1997 issue of RQ. Products & Services: Bob Heriard The Committee is reviewing changes needed in RQ guidelines. The document focuses on bibliographic databases -- should the committee treat full text and numeric databases as well??? The committee will clarify its charge on reviewing sources, examining indexing, and examining pricing models. Member at Large: Laine Farley Should the current MARS logo be redesigned, or at least redrafted, for better copying and easier insertion into print and electronic documents? Local Systems and Services: Laurie Preston Approximately 30 people attended the LSS discussion forum on web interfaces. The LSS Committee will be reworking the LSS home page. Managers in MARS Discussion: Jennifer Heise Approximately 30 people attended the Managers in MARS discussion on electronic journals. Marcella Stark is the discussion group's vice-chair. User Access to Services: Lise Dyckman Online catalog use has been studied well. However, we have lots of anecdotal, but little statistical data on web usage by our patrons. The committee is considering undertaking a study on web usage, with thought to its applicability to vendor relations. Education, Training and Support: Marcella Stark The committee is in transition, having completed the bibliography for the MARS Preconference. A possible future project is to develop "bluesheets" for Internet search engines. LITA liaison: Pat Hawthorne for Maureen Hammer LITA will sponsor a program on The Information Highway -- the telecommunications industry after deregulation -- hooking up the "last mile" to service. RASD Organization: Bernie Pasqualini The RASD Organization Committee has approved the History Section's self-study. They are currently coping with the disbanding of SUPPS, whose committees are moving into MOPSS. The group discussed the appropriateness of MARS offering to adopt the MOPSS Catalog Use Committee. RASD Access to Information: Andrea Copeland Copyright statement on acceptance forms is a hot topic. Each division in ALA is treating/interpreting the provisions differently, and uniformity must be established before the clause is enforced. Public Libraries: Lori Morse The program for San Francisco would run best in a studio facility or some area that includes a phone line with a speaker phone. A budget of $800 has been granted for the program. MARS-L/Messages/Home Page: Amy Tracy Wells The scope of MARS-L is restricted due to current RASD guidelines, so an RASD ad hoc group will discuss communication channels: print, listserves, web pages. Rumors abound that LITA will no longer sponsor the Internet Room. The group discussed the critical nature of the Internet Room to support conference activities, and in particular how its existence permits some MARS members to attend conferences since they can continue the work of their institutions remotely. MARS will present a resolution to the RASD Board, requesting continuing support of the Internet Room in some fashion (connectivity without instructional support would be adequate) at conferences. The meeting adjourned at 11:30.