MARS Executive Committee January 12, 1998 EMB-A, Jackson Minutes. Amy Tracy Wells called the meeting to order at 9:30AM. Members present: Executive Committee: Lise M. Dyckman, William McHugh, Marcella Stark, Pat Reisenman, Amy Tracy Wells, Paige Weston, Becki Whitaker. Committee and Taskf Force Chairs and Representatives: Denise Bennett, Ellen Bosman, Nancy Buchanan, Andrea Copeland, Maggie Hogue (representing Local Systems) Naomi Lederer, Jian Liu, Karen Reiman-Sendi, Nicolas Rosselli, Arlie Sims, Mary Strife, Melisssa Trevett (representing Products and Services) Visitors: Carole Richter. Michael Dowling. A. Announcements 1. Minutes from summer 1997 meetings. Minutes were reviewed. Minutes will be posted electronically. If there is no response after fifteen working days, minutes will be considered approved and be posted to the Web page. Denise Bennett suggested that all participants is any meeting be sent the draft copies of the minutes for those meetings. Agreed minutes will continued to be distributed electronically to Executive Committee members with a notes on MARS-L so that anyone may request a copy of the minutes. 2. RUSA Announcements RUSA Planning and Finance Committee Meeting. (Paige Weston) Notable Books Breakfast was canceled at last Annual Conference but RUSA now expects to reinstate the event. Recommended that $20,000 of the RUSA reserve be transferred to the RUSA Endowment. Amy Wells explained that each Section in ALA has created an endowment. Endowment funds remain with the Section but endowment interest goes to ALA. Michael Dowling reported that current RUSA endowment is approximately $60,000. RUSA Board (Amy Tracy Wells). ALA is considering becoming a virtual association. Both ALA and RUSA would conduct all business electronically via listservs such as RUSA-L. The ALA Council listserv is open to anyone, although Lise Dyckman noted this has not been widely publicized. Amy will provide the address of the Council listserv in her forthcoming column in Update. Discussion also centered on whether messages from Council could be filtered and only the relevant messages be posted on MARS-L. Jian Liu will investigate. ALA has money from the Benton Foundation to study what proportion of Public Libraries are connected to Web. Report is forthcoming this spring. ALA studies show that generally the public feels good about libraries. ALA has also demonstrated it can be effective politically with the success of overturning the Communications Decency Act (CDA) although such success also draws the ALA to the attention of those who oppose its political stances. B. Committee reports. 1. Products and Services. (Melissa Trevett). Co-sponsored Discussion Group with Hot Topics. (See Hot Topics Report). Working on a project to identify reviews of electronic information sources. Advised to consult early on with Publications Committee regarding this project. Will be co-sponsoring a Discussion Forum at Midwinter 1999. 2. Birthday Party Task Force (Mary Strife). Ten people attended meeting. Celebration should be centered around the MARS program although MARS might consider an additional anniversary program. Should try to obtain a big-name speaker. Program would be accompanied by a fair which would showcase MARS committees, their projects, publications, etc. Reception to follow program at which some sort of memento would be distributed. 3. Hot Topics (Nicolas Rosselli and Ellen Bosman). Approximately 95 people attended the presentation which featured representatives from SilverPlatter, Facts on File and FirstSearch discussing pricing electronic productions. Discussion will be transcribed and posted on MARS-L. Carol Richter has agreed to be elected vice-chair of the group. 4. Local Systems (Maggie Hogue). Both co-chairs have resigned and the committee is between projects. Amy Wells will appoint a new chair and Amy and ExCom will work with the committee to identify a project. Committee co-sponsored Discussion Forum with Managers in MARS (See next report). 5. Managers in MARS (Marcella Stark). Approximately 75 people participated in forum on networking reference services beyond a single library or institution. Notes from discussion will be posted to MARS-L and will be sent to participants. Forum was co-sponsored with the Local Systems Committee. 6. Planning (Naomi Lederer). Considered issue of making the Web version of the MARS handbook the authorized version. Becki Whitaker moved that this be so, motion was seconded, carried and passed. Substantive changes to the Handbook will be also posted MARS-L. ALA/RUSA will keep a master copy of the Handbook and distribute print copies on demand. Other suggestions concerning the Handbook should be made to the Planning committee by March 1st. 7. Publications. (Karen Reiman-Sendi) The proposal from the Users Access to Services was approved. Agreed that any Web documents that are analogous to previous print materials need to come to Publications. The Publications Committee does NOT need to see Web documents that support committee work, handouts from Discussion Forums, invited speaker handouts. Committees must agree to support any Web Publication for two years. 8. MARS-L (Jian Liu) .Membership approximately 1/3 of MARS total membership. Discussion: Should MARS Roster be posted on Web with link to addresses. Discussion centered on not posting addresses and telephone numbers which once on the Web are available to everyone. Perhaps just a name, office and email address could be listed. Similar information is in ALA handbook, a public document but not as widely available on Web. Need to continue discussion about how much membership information we want to distribute electronically. 9. RUSA Standards and Guidelines (Nancy Buchanan). Introduction to Electronic Resources Documents sent to ALA Standards Committee. Products and Services Committee needs to write a justification for not updating the Database Searching Guidelines. S & G reminds all committees that standards and guidelines must be reviewed for updating every seven years. 10. Public Libraries (Andrea Copeland). Working on revising glossary and will promote document at conference. Have designated a committee member to receive terms. Have produced a publications proposal to produce Web version of the document. 11. Education Training and Support (Arlie Sims). Have a proposal to co-sponsor a LITA Discussion Forum at Annual Conference covering principles to evaluate virtual libraries. Was requested to clarify date and time in case of conflicts before agreeing to co-sponsor. 12. Outreach Task Force (Naomi Lederer) MARS will sponsor a bash from 5-7 PM Friday June 26, 1998 in Washington D. C. Meeting adjourned at 11:00AM. Minutes transcribed by Marcella Stark MARS Secretary 2/25/98 Corrections 4/24/98