Information Technology Division

Special Libraries Association

IT Board Meeting

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Hyatt-Regency Hotel, Baltimore, MD

Attendance

Holly Chong-Williams (Chair)

Stacey Greenwell (Chair-Elect)

Georgia Higley (Past Chair)

Mary-Frances Panettiere (Treasurer)

Michael Kim (Secretary)

James Manasco (2006 Baltimore Program Planner)

Stephanie Wical (2007 Denver Program Planner)

Molly Dinneen (Membership Chair)

Rafal Kasprowki (Information Systems Section Chair)

Catherine Lavallee-Welch (Blogging Section Chair)

Juliane Schneider (Digital Contents Section Chair)

Jill Sherman (Technical Services Section Chair)

Libby Trudell (Communication Section Chair)

Ty Webb (Learning Communities Chair)

Call to Order

Meeting was called to order at 3:13 pm.

Introductions: The board members were introduced. Agenda and meeting minutes from 2006 Houston Leadership Summit were approved.

Officer reports

Chair: Holly

Guidelines of different position duties in the Board were set since Houston. She said that, given the size of the division, we have a lot to offer to the members. She also mentioned a leadership training website. She announced that later she will be discussing succession guidelines and board responsibilities. Next year’s slate was announced. James agreed to be the next IT Chair-elect. Mary-Frances will continue as Treasurer. Holly will be Seattle 2008 Conference program planner. Holly said that, for 2008, the conference will be held in late July, joining with AALL. The slate of officers will be voted on during the business meeting.

Holly: Concerning section/committee activities, she stated that more of “ownership” of the section/committees is desirable. For instance, current chairs could assist in recruiting their own replacements. Also, chairpersons may serve two years in succession as Section/committee chairs. This year, due to the change in terms from academic to calendar years, there will be an additional 6 months for current chairs. However, it would still be better to find replacements during the summer conference in Baltimore.

Past chair: Georgia

She said that we have candidates on the slate for Chair, Chair-elect and Treasurer. Mary-Frances will continue as Treasurer.

Chair-elect: Stacey

She thanked James for planning the Baltimore conference programs. She also thanked Stephanie for all the ideas she has contributed for the Denver Conference. She presented a new IT Division information pamphlet. As a board member of the Technology Advisory Review Board, she examined how SLA utilizes technology and the group will present their report in the Joint Business meeting. She reported that three more members were recruited from the Kentucky chapter. She said that she can come up with a lot of ideas for the January meeting.

Holly: She stated importance of recruiting members to the Division. She suggested that possibility of tapping more Division members to IT Board. She commented that the bigger the team was, the easier the work would be.

Stacey: She said that members can contribute in many ways other than serving on the Board. It could be by editing b/ITe or blogging, etc. She mentioned SLA partnership with World Computer Exchange. She said that IT may be interested in getting involved with that.

Treasurer: Mary-Frances

She reported that finances are good. She said that dues have gone down a lot over the past several years. Expenses from Toronto Conference will be comparable to previous conferences. The Baltimore Conference fees have not been paid. Expenses from the Toronto Conference have been offset by income from the Conference. IT Executive Board decided not to pursue the “pooled fund” option, available from HQ. She reported that IT Exec. Bd. decided to keep the money in a savings account. Georgia and Michael suggested INGDIRECT as Savings account provider. Mary-Frances will explore the possibility. Treasurer’s report was approved.

Secretary: Michael

No report

Baltimore conference planner: James

Open house hostess will be Stephanie. As of May 30, 2006, a total of 26 people are signed up for the Taxanomies CE course,. There was a problem with Personal Planner (on SLA registration web site). Because of that, people could easily confuse the IT course with the other CE courses. He mentioned that Personal Planner and Registration functions combined would be great. In terms of ticket counts, CE was much lower than expected. Total number was down. Unfortunately we had to cancel the Blogging CE course as the Internet connection cost $1,200, computers were $700 each. The expenses were “ridiculous.” It may be possible to have webinars (instead of CE courses) in the future.

Holly: She suggested using an off-site facility rather than using IT sponsor’s training facility to reduce expenses for the CE course.

Libby: She said that there are different ways to deliver our great program content, for instance by wireless connections in a suite. She mentioned that it would be difficult to deliver technology without computers and would cause a logistics problem. She stated that people were asking IT to have a suite, but the cost of a suite was difficult to justify. She said that in Denver some streets are wi-fi covered.

James: He mentioned that IT needs volunteers to write for b/ITe about program summaries/reviews. Jill Sherman volunteered for a Tech standard session. Georgia also volunteered. James volunteered for Tech Support Round Table. James will also cover Web Development Round Table on Wednesday.

Stacey will cover Social Software program. Holly and James mentioned that, if it’s possible, counting attendance would be very helpful. He proposed that a call be made for program write-ups to be posted on the blog.

James reported that the Government Information Division’s semantic web turned out to be a paid event, including lunch. The latest count was 11 persons signed up. Our obligation was $600 and we already paid. There were concerns about co-sponsors changing arrangements without consulting us. After all, we didn’t expect it to become a ticketed event. Holly suggested creating a template, or almost contract, regarding this kind of co-sponsorship arrangement. One of the speakers was Margie Hlava. Division ribbons had been distributed. Holly mentioned the (remarkable) nautical- themed buttons she and her daughter had made. They will stand out when worn by IT Board members during Open House in Baltimore.

Denver program planner: Stephanie

The program ideas report was presented. Stephanie reported that Margie Hlava agreed to give an advanced Taxonomies class. There will be several CE courses. One half-day course will be led by Diane Kovacs. She has identified 5 Denver-based SF fiction writers. There will be programs co-sponsored with Environment & Resource Management Division and Biomedical & Life Sciences. Roy Tennant will be one of presenters. She will keep contacting possible presenters.

She reported that CEO of Vivisimo (Raul Valdes-Perez) will speak in Denver about one of three possible topics and that his topics would be suitable for a hot technology program. Holly said it might be possible to make it a panel discussion. There was some reservation about having only one vendor as a speaker. Alternative formats were discussed, such as having multiple speakers.

Stephanie mentioned the Peggy Garvin’s Government Information Division Leadership program, which will cover publishing information on XML. She mentioned another program with the topic of “born” digital documents related to XML publishing information. There will be a program regarding adopting DSpace. InterContinental Hotel group’s Ilene Strongin-Garry will present. She will need more than 20 minutes of the time. Stephanie reported more program ideas: Barbie Keiser’s visualization tools; Reputation Monitors by Doug Hill from Kronos which will be a cool technology category. Holly suggested combining the two visualization tools of Vivisimo and Kronos into one program. Stephanie continued to present the program ideas: Blogging by Catherine Lavallee-Welch… Also, Holly mentioned the impact of iPod as a possible topic. Another idea would be discussing fellow division member’s day-to-day work. Holly mentioned a speaker’s name, Joanny Olivier in the Denver area. She has her own company. Any idea would be welcome.

There was a discussion about the IT section’s activities, which was a follow-up from Houston Board Meeting. Stacey suggested Blogger’s happy hour as a tool of attracting new members. Electronic Resource Management has become a very hot topic. In fact, it is a chore to manage electronic resources. Regarding Open Access Architecture, it would be desirable to see what publishers have to say about self-archiving, etc. Mary Ellen Bates was already contacted, but she had been booked up. Holly suggested cutting the total number of IT programs from 18 to 10. Depending on what the other divisions’ planners do, we could prioritize and electronically vote about that.

There was an idea of having vendors, such as Vivisimo, demonstrate their products in a 10 minute session during the IT Business Meeting in exchange for sponsoring the Meeting. Georgia asked whether the Business Meeting needed food. The tickets cost $15. IT’s expense would be in the $17-18 range per ticket. If we could find a sponsor, it would be better to let them sponsor the meeting. There was discussion about the logistics of IT Business Meeting, such as RSVP and counting. It was mentioned that the sponsors must be among the exhibitors.

Stephanie reported that Peggy Garvin had two ideas and Barbie Keiser had one. However, she said that we might need to shop different ideas during planner’s meetings. Holly thanked Stephanie for her report. She suggested that it would be possible to have conference calls.

Holly: Seattle 2007 conference will be in July. It will be a Joint-Conference with AALL, so the program slots will be fewer. Also, it might be able to possible to receive greater financial support from vendors. She suggested considering the possibility of collations with AALL.

Committee reports

Membership and Awards Committee: Molly

Joe Ann Clifton Student Award: notifications were sent to the Library schools. She had total 8 nominations. David W. Martin of Syracuse University was the winner.

Outstanding tech award: We had 4 nominations and the Kentucky Chapter was the winner.

Outstanding member: Three certificates were signed by Chair Holly

Membership: Molly reported that she had total of 1,683 members in Excel format.

Stacey and Holly suggested that we might need new pictures for the photo collage.

Blogging Section: Catherine

IT blog is up. She said it it is a great place to try out blogging. There will be a blogger’s gathering on Monday in the skywalk next to the Convention Center. Everyone is welcome. By using a small java script, IT website and its blog site were linked.

Digital Content Section: Juliane

Trying to put more digital content information on the IT Blog.

Learning Communities: Ty

Encouraging postings about professional development opportunities. Anyone interested can just send a brief e-mail to Ty.

Communications Section: Libby

Based on the Communication Division’s charter description, she has worked on creating a new description of the Communication Section of the IT Division. She stated that blogging would be a very crucial part of the section. She raised the question of what the procedure to change the description of new section is. She will talk with Linda Broussard regarding this.

Information System Section: Rafael

He raised a question regarding what the require duties of a section chair are.

Holly answered that the description of the responsibilities for each section will be prepared along with succession guidelines. There are multiple levels of committees and ranges of divisions and chapters in SLA. Sections/committees were set up because larger divisions were covering a lot of topics. It would help us to manage all of the interest groups in the Division. Libby mentioned that, based on her survey, communication using relevant technology was desirable for section chairs. She stated that blogging would be useful for that matter. Ty suggested that it would be possible to use SLA’s web site Who’s Who to find interested volunteers. It would be also possible to send message to all members about relevant topics. Stacey stated that it would be possible to request a roster. It would be also possible to obtain a list of e-mails to reach people in a section. Jill mentioned blogging would be a good opportunity for outreach.

Holly suggested that we would need to brainstorm about the best new technologies for communicating with members. It would be a possibility to have each section chair present the sections or present how the IT division works. It would be good PR. It would possible to distribute a description of each section or to hand out brochures. During Reno 2007 Leadership summit, we could discuss these possibilities. Jill volunteered to help out Stacey with designing charts, etc.

Holly stated that we would need demographics of IT members. Libby mentioned that a demographic survey was conducted and discussed at the SLA Board of Director’s meeting. It would be important to find it out and how it’s related to us.

Holly mentioned that IT needs an archivist. Any suggestions would be welcome. There was discussion about the current status of the IT archives. Holly will check with Hope about the current status and inform Board members. Stacey mentioned digitization of the archive would be great.

Stephanie presented the vendor’s sponsorship level report. She said that she would give them ribbons and letters. She mentioned that she would do more marketing, for instance, inviting more vendors to the Open Houses. The vendors can contribute at varying levels. Libby stated that it would be important to make personal contact with the vendors, starting small and letting them know you personally.

Holly acknowledged Stephanie’s work and Kan’s great job. Stacey mentioned the new web site designed by Kan. Holly suggested posting some photos and responsibility of section/committee chairs. She stated that, in order to be reimbursed for travel, section/committee chairs will be expected to provide support at the conference, such as b/ITe, blogging, helping out open house, and program planning. It will be necessary to send the estimate for your travel reimbursement request in advance to IT Chair, Chair-Elect, and Treasurer. We will use CoP as a repository. This will be a big discussion topic during Reno 2007 Winter Summit.

Stacey stated that it would be easier to use CoP rather than maintaining a binder.

Ty suggested using Wiki. Libby said that Wiki or Sharepoint were much easier than CoP. CoP is an official tool of SLA but we could begin to use Wiki. Stacey said that there would be tradeoffs between CoP and Wiki. Libby said that we could use both in terms of utilizing technologies. Holly suggested getting ready for more discussion about the matter

Holly mentioned the new Officer Responsibility form from HQ. Libby pointed out that there was no official change from 2003 edition. Holly stated that after being revised, it affected intellectual property issues. The document stated a confidential agreement but didn’t say what the range/coverage would be.

Libby mentioned that growing membership would be a big discussion topic with new SLA president, Rebecca Vargha.

Holly stated that she was open to any suggestions about the upcoming Business Meeting at this conference. There were suggestions of some procedural changes for the Business Meeting: committee/section chair reports removed, Blogging would be highlighted, Pirate dance party would be emphasize, moving responsibility of officers to recruiting new board members.

Adjournment

Motion to adjourn. Motion approved at 5:35pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Michael Kim, Secretary