The PAM Nominations Committee is pleased to announce the following candidates for Chair-Elect and Secretary:
Jane Holmquist, Princeton Univ., Chair-Elect (1999-2000)
Ann Jensen, UC Berkeley, Secretary (1999-2001)
Greg Youngen, Chair, PAM Nominations Committee
Patricia Sulouff
James Leonard
1. Message from the Chair
2. Membership News
3. SLA Committee on Cataloging
4. AMS Meeting
5. Astronomy News
6. PAM Awards
7. Mathematics News
8. PAM-APF List
9. PAMnet News
10.PAM Membership Award
11. PAM Bulletin Editor Volunteer
12. Joe Ann Clifton Student Award
13. Message from the Editor
Brenda Corbin
bgc@sicon.usno.navy.mil
In late January, I attended the SLA Mid-Winter Conference which was held in San Francisco. It is a much smaller meeting than the Annual Conference, and there is time to speak with SLA staff and elected officials regarding issues and plans for the future. It is interesting how many SLA officers and folks from other divisions have very positive comments about the PAM Division, mentioning how active we are for a relatively small division. PAMnet is almost always mentioned, some saying it is the best listserv in SLA. I certainly agree with this statement.
The SLA Global 2000 meeting which will be held in Brighton, England in October 2000 was very much in focus. PAM's program proposal has been accepted on the topic "Equity of Access to Information Resources: Networking Resources." Tentative plans are for a panel of librarians from developing countries to discuss problems of access in their countries, and suggest possible solutions which could result from cooperation with libraries in developed countries. Our International Relations Committee will be very much involved in planning this program.
The PAM Board voted to establish the PAM Membership Award which offers a two-year membership in SLA to a librarian from a developing country who works in a PAM subject field. The first award was given to Christina Louis in Bangalore, India. See the article by Jeanette Regan in this issue for further details. We warmly welcome Christina as a part of SLA and PAM.
The PAM program for Minneapolis is almost complete, and will feature our usual subject roundtables, vendor update and the PAM-wide roundtable. We are sharing several programs with Sci-Tech, whom I regard as our "sister" division as many PAM members are also members of Sci-Tech. PAM is the lead division on the session with the catchy title "Gardening Tips for Painless Collection Weeding." Sara Tompson of Fermilab suggested the title and will be the lead speaker describing the lessons learned from a large weeding project at her library. Doria Grimes and Steve Quillen from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will describe the combination of several libraries into one and what they learned from a massive weeding project. Weeding is something we all dread but have to face, so it is good to share lessons learned from other scientific libraries.
Our PAM web page continues to improve. Thanks go to Pete Banholzer who recently updated the astronomy section. The math and computer sciences sections are scheduled to be updated before June. There is also a direct link to the homepage of PAM's International Relations Committee which has been very active in recent months.
As I mentioned in my first message in August, PAM is indeed a vigorous group, and I extend my thanks to all the members who work to make it so.
H. Sylvia Toombs
toombshs@slu.edu
PAM membership currently stands at 215. Please note the following changes, additions, etc. to your 1998/99 membership directory:
PAM Membership changes as of Dec. 31, 1998:
New members:
Beauregard, Chantal
National Optics Institute
Library
369 Franquet
Ste-Foy PQ GIP 4N8
Canada
Phone:1-418-657-7006
FAX:1-418-657-7009
Email:cbeau@ino.qc.ca
Collins, Sharice
IOP Publishing
Public Ledger Building; Suite 1035
Independence Square
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Phone:1-215-627-0880
FAX:1-212-627-0879
Email:collins@ioppubusa.com
Or: www.iop.org
Gowdy, Rebecca J.
Braun Intertec Corp.
P.O.Box 39108
6875 Washington Ave. S
Minneapolis, MN 55439-0108
Phone:(612)833-4724
Email:bgowdy@brauncorp.com
Mailing address:
35 Lexington Pkwy. N
St. Paul, MN 55104-6932
Rodgers, Patricia
Harrassowitz Booksellers
820 University Blvd. S Ste. 4B
Mobile, AL 36609
Phone:1-334-342-2929
Fax:1-334-342-5732
Email:prodger@ottosvc.com
Mailing address:
2025 Lighter Wood Ct.
Mobile, AL
Verbeck, Alison
Physics Library; Box 1105
Washington University
1 Brookings Dr.
St. Louis, MO 63130
Phone:(314)935-6215
FAX:(314)935-6219
Wenger, Charles B.
Reinstates:
Dubis, Joan C.
Hager, Mary Ann
Hendricks, Mary Jo D.
Keil, Christina L.
Morris, Linda L.
Needles, Madeleine M.
Robertson, Kathleen A.
Changes:
Fosmire, Michael
Physics and EAS Librarian
Physics Library
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN 47907
(765)463-1889
fosmire@physics.purdue.edu
Preferred:233 Sharon Rd.
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Gantz, Joan
Phone:(626)304-0234
FAX:(626)795-8136
Jensen, Ann M
Email:ajensen@library.berkely.edu
McGarry, Dorothy
Phone:(323)656-8726
Report from Dorothy McGarry, PAM liaison to the SLA Committee on Cataloging
Since the annual meeting, the Committee on Cataloging has responded to several documents relating to bibliographic issues sent to it from SLA's Technical Standards Committee. The two primary documents commented on dealt with whether the Dublin Core scheme should be made a standard at this time and on a proposed standard dealing with title pages for conference proceedings.
The Committee has members also monitoring bibliographic issues in other associations, in order to keep up to date with current issues.
As other groups meet during January, this Committee will hear reports and discuss more issues dealing with various metadata schemes. One of the newest groups whose work will be of interest is one on uses of metadata, formed by the Standing Committee of the Section on Cataloguing of IFLA. The intent is not to develop a scheme by IFLA, but rather to determine when librarians should use the metadata schemes in existence, and when they should use traditional cataloguing.
The Committee has arranged to have Ana Cristan of LC talk about the Program for Cooperative Cataloging at the annual conference and how special librarians can become involved in various aspects of the Program. The Program is interested in reaching out more to special librarians, so here's a chance for everyone to learn more about it.
One of the important documents the Committee is being asked to comment on is that on "Guidelines for OPAC Displays." The document has recently gone out for worldwide review from the Task Force on Guidelines for OPAC Displays (a Task Force of the IFLA Division of Bibliographic Control). If you are interested in input to this international effort on displays, please look at the document, which available on the IFLAnet web site at http://www.ifla.org/ifla/VII/s13/guide/opac.htm
The ISBD(S) Revision Group is working on revision of the ISBD(S), especially in view of discussions taking place internationally on issues such as the definition of "seriality" and the increasing number of electronic serials. It is hoped that the revision can be finished by IFLA 2000. After further internal discussion, this document will also go out for worldwide review.
The Committee on Cataloging members this year are: Paige Andrew, Margaret Lundahl, Dorothy McGarry (Chair), Adam Schiff, Jina Wakimoto, Cynthia Whitacre, and Marcia Lei Zeng. If you are interested in being on the committee in the future, please contact the President-Elect of SLA.
Submitted by Martha Tucker
mtucker@u.washington.edu
Joint Mathematics Meetings, January 13-15, 1999, San Antonio, TX.
Notes from the sessions on electronic communications in mathematics:
The session opened with a presentation of Andrew Odlyzko's most recent paper, "Competition and cooperation: Libraries and publishers in the transition to electronic scholarly journals." Andrew Odlyzko, AT&T Labs Research, January 19, 1999 Abstract:
The conversion of scholarly journals to digital format is proceeding rapidly, especially for those from large commercial and learned society publishers. This conversion offers the best hope for survival for such publishers. The infamous "journal crisis" is more of a library cost crisis than a publisher pricing problem, with internal library costs much higher than the amount spent on purchasing books and journals. Therefore publishers may be able to retain or even increase their revenues and profits, while at the same time providing a superior service. To do this, they will have to take over many of the function of libraries, and they can do that only in the digital domain. This paper examines publishers' strategies, how they are likely to evolve, and how they will affect libraries. For the complete paper, see http://www.research.att.com/~amo/doc/eworld.html.
James Crowley, SIAM Executive Director, followed with an explanation of SIAM's electronic publications program, and a discussion of their policies toward copyright, electronic preprints, and archiving. The electronic version of SIAM articles are the definitive version. If SIAM were to switch completely to electronic publishing, they would still need their same staff.
Svetlana Katok, managing editor of the AMS' Electronic Research Announcements spoke about managing the AMS' first venture into electronic-only journals. She remarked that many authors are suspicious of all new journals and that there was/is a psychological barrier to electronic only. The look of an article is very important to authors. Authors are beginning to add comments to their AMS-ERA announcements, namely noting where the final paper appears. Other sessions in the morning included a discussion of the importance to the flow of mathematics communications of free and low-cost software, i.e., TeX, and a presentation on an archive for mathematics conference abstracts: http://at.yorku.ca/amca.
Greg Kuperberg, UC Davis, began the afternoon session with a presentation on the emerging importance of eprints in mathematics and the advent of the xxx mathematics archives maintained at Los Alamos. Over 7000 articles are there now with 200 new ones received per month. This archive began by combining many, but not all, of the independent subject archives. It now includes some full text papers of 13 Field medalists. Seen as an alternative to the slow formal publishing process, the xxx archive is a controversial idea in the mathematics community. MPRESS, a European search service for distributed preprints, provides another option.
Two editors of electronic-only journals told of their experiences. Hans Koch, UTexas at Austin, editor of MPEJ claims that it costs about two to three weeks of staff time per year to run MPEJ. Papers cost about $.10 each to publish electronically. Greg Lawler, Duke, co-editor of EJP/ECP, spoke about the advantages and disadvantages of electronic-only journals. They get no monetary support and both editors spend time on the refereeing process and the technical aspects.
Carol Hutchins gave a brief overview of the efforts in the library world to manage these new technologies and preserve the digital information.
Other news items from the conference: AMS conducted a survey on use of electronic journals. Springer is extending its free electronic LINK program again this year to libraries. Zentralblatt fur Mathematik is promoting consortium access to its database for each state or region in the US.
Submitted by Carol Hutchins
carol.hutchins@nyu.edu
San Antonio Joint Meetings, Jan. 15, 1999, 1:00 P.M.
Members present: Berndt, Dennis, Hutchins, Husch, Tucker, White, Kister (ex-officio)
Members not present: Seeds, Wu
Observer: G. Woods (librarian from U. North Texas)
1. Berndt raised the issue (suggested last year) of a column in Notices to cover library issues. The following would be examples of topics:
- what are libraries doing with respect to electronic publications
- what methods do various libraries use to decide upon new journal subs
- what methods to various libraries use to prune subscription lists
- what works/does not work to increase financial resources devoted to library
- overall, what strategies are others turning to to cope with problems
- what are the effects of European and other digital library initiatives
Action: Hutchins will draft a description of the proposal to send Anthony Knapp
2. Mathlib: Husch reported that the listserv established after last January's meeting is alive and well though does not show much activity. It might be a good idea to add links from E-math and from PAMnet to the Mathlib page at Archives.
3. Berndt posed the problem of learning about newly established journals. Could a list drawn from AMS files be published in Notices? Dennis reminded us that there is already such a list (generated at MR) on Mathweb and its url is http://www.ams.org/mathweb/mi-journals.html. Berndt agreed that if such a list is already on the web, perhaps it did not then need publication in Notices.
Hutchins wondered whether the AMS webmaster could inaugurate a program of cycling through "buried" useful reference material by offering "featured links" on the Top E-math page.
Tucker asked about having a field in MR indicating "electronic journal". Currently the only way to list all of them is by searching on the word "electronic" in the title. Making such lists would enable librarians to extract and print TOC of these. Jane Kister says MR is looking into this. All agreed that because of the intangibility of solely electronic journals, extra attention needs to be given to notification/alerting services for them. The AMS will be introducing a membership service for email notification derived from CMP.
Action: Hutchins will ask Ewing to consider more links on the top level E-math page, and at the same time ask about a web page for AMS Lib Comm.
4. Journal Prices and Pages Published: Tucker inquired whether AMS is going forward with this plan to publish such information for journals in general on the E-math site. Kister responded that the data gathering was almost done, and it will be made available in a "neutral" presentation on the web.
5. Jahrbuch Project. Dennis reported that some of it is up on the web and that work is continuing, noting these
points:
- 6 volumes are already available in a test version (see http://www.emis.de/projects/JFM/)
- over one half has been keyboarded
- additional volunteer mathematicians with a knowledge of German are needed for enhancement of the data (contact
dennis@math.cornell.edu or wegner@math.tu-berlin.de)
6. We briefly discussed JSTOR, and the fact that they are still looking for some volumes of American Journal of Mathematics to scan. Check http://www.jstor.org for details.
7. Future Activities
Committee members noted once again that we all seem to be from large institutions, whereas we need to hear about the problems of mathematicians (and librarians) at small institutions. We would be delighted to have an activist member from that environment. Dennis wondered whether some kind of librarian-outreach could work around an AMS regional meeting.
The committee did not sponsor a program this meeting, nor did we operate a table in the exhibits. We regard the table as quite useful, but time consuming. If we do the table, then more than just 2 members need to be available to help out.
Dennis suggested that whenever we next do a program, fund-raising for math libraries might be an element of interest. The members present could cite only Illinois and Cornell as places that earmark development funds for the math library.
Hutchins suggested that on the heels of this meeting's session on Electronic Publishing, we should not let the opportunity of next year's meeting go by without trying to program something on Digital Library Development for Mathematics. It would be relatively easy to get well-known speakers in the Washington area. Husch suggested that this might merit an AMS Special Session, possibly with some joint sponsor interest from MAA.
Next steps: Husch will check with Daverman re deadlines for program proposals. [deadline= April 20, 1999]
Compiled by Emily Poworoznek
emily.poworoznek@unh.edu
AAS JOURNAL QUESTIONS
Sarah Stevens-Rayburn (library@stsci.edu) attended the AAS Publications Board Meeting in November 1998. She is very interested in your responses to the following two questions regarding the Astrophysical Journal and the Astronomical Journal:
First, of the approximately 1000 institutional subscribers to the Astrophysical Journal, about one-third of them have never signed up for electronic access. Since there are no additional fees and the site license is one of the most generous in the business, it's curious that more libraries aren't taking advantage. If you are one of those with a subscription, but no electronic access, please let me know why. Or if you have any theories about why, I'd be interested in that too.
The second question that arose is, given the price difference between the ApJ and the AJ, why are there so many fewer institutional subscriptions to the AJ? If you are a subscriber to one of these, but not the other, can you let me know why you chose the title you did and if you've considered the other one in recent years? Please send your responses to either or both of these questions to me at library@stsci.edu
MORE AAS NEWS
-- Abstracts: Abstracts of AAS journals will be made freely available to ADS (http://ads.harvard.edu) and other abstracting services; the Publications Board will consider whether to offer free access to PDF files of papers older than five years.
-- ApJ Editor: The Astrophysical Journal's longtime editor-in-chief, Dr. Helmut A. Abt, will be stepping down. He will be succeeded by Professor Robert C. Kennicutt, Jr., of Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona, this summer. Details of the transition will be announced this spring in ApJ and other AAS publications. In the meantime, authors may continue to contact Dr. Abt as customary.
-- Directory: A searchable version of the AAS Membership Directory is available at http://directory.aas.org. It is also available in print; for further information, please contact the AAS at (202) 328-2010, fax (202) 234-2560, or email at aas@aas.org
-- Membership: Sarah Stevens-Rayburn also reports that Associate Membership in the AAS is open to librarians. The application is available in the back of the printed membership directory, or online at http://www.aas.org/membership/membership.html
-- Statistics for AAS electronic journal usage are available from the University of Chicago Press server at: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/webstats/ApJ/ApJstats.html (or AJ or PASP) If you are interpreting the statistics, note that ApJ has had access controlled by subscription/licensing for the all of 1998, while AJ was freely available until just recently.
MT. STROMLO CHANGE
Following the action of Council on August 14, 1998, Mount Stromlo & Siding Spring Observatories have become the Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Australian National University (ANU). The new school is the ninth in the Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS); the eighth was RSISE formed in 1994.
Mount Stromlo Observatory was established in 1923, joined the ANU in 1957 as a department of RSPhysS, opened Siding Spring Observatory (SSO) in 1964, became an IAS centre in 1986, and finally a school in 1998.
Further information is available at http://msowww.anu.edu.au/outreach/rsaa_announce.shtml
NRAO BULLETIN
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory has begun an electronic news bulletin for time-sensitive information. It will supplement NRAO's printed newsletter, which will continue to be published. To subscribe to the NRAO Electronic News Bulletin, you may complete the form on the NRAO web page at http://www.cv.nrao.edu/nrao.news.html
ASTRONOMY RESOURCES
Pete Banholzer (pete.banholzer@gsfc.nasa.gov) has been updating and reorganizing the Astronomy Resources page on the PAM web site: http://www.sla.org/division/dpam/astro.html
Revisions are ongoing, and he would appreciate your comments on its arrangement and content.
The PAM Award Committee requests nominations for the two awards which will be given by the division at the 1999 annual conference in Minneapolis.
The PAM Division Award is given for a significant contribution to the literature of physics, mathematics, or astronomy or to honor work that demonstrably improves the exchange of information in the disciplines. The contribution should also significantly benefit libraries or enhance the ability of librarians to provide service. It should be special above and beyond the normal job requirements of the individual(s) or group concerned. The recipient(s) of the award need not be SLA/PAM members.
The PAM Achievement award is reserved for PAM Division members whose professional work is marked by distinction and dedication to librarianship in astronomy, mathematics and/or physics and who have made outstanding contributions to the Division.
The criteria, guidelines, and procedures for nominations as well as lists of past recipients are available at: http://www.astro.utoronto.ca/pam/awards.html
The members of the PAM Award Committee are Donna Coletti (Harvard), James Manasco (Colorado College) and Richard Funkhouser (Purdue). Please send you nominations to the committee chair, Richard Funkhouser, Math Sciences Library, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907. Nominations should be received by March 15, 1999.
Compiled by Claire Macha
cmacha@bird.library.arizona.edu
M.A.W. Becomes M.A.M.
April has been designated as Mathematics Awareness Month 1999. The Joint Policy Board for Mathematics announced that Texas Instruments Incorporated has been named as the official sponsor of this year's event. In previous years, Math Awareness Week has been observed in late April. M.A.M. provides the mathematical sciences community an opportunity to promote the importance & versatility of mathematics and its relationship to our daily lives.
The 1999 theme is "Mathematics and Biology." Math is an essential element in fields as diverse as medicine, the human genome, ecology and evolutionary biology and research analysis. The official poster, "Vital Rhythms: Mathematics in the Heart," depicts the simulated 3-dimensional waves of electrical activity in heart tissue, as measured in milliseconds. Without mathematics, there is no way to view this concept.
At the following URL you will find complete information with suggested activities and related links. http://forum.swarthmore.edu/mam/
EMS' EMIS, EULER, ETC.
Created in 1990, the European Mathematical Society furthers the development of all aspects of mathematics in European countries, establishing a sense of identity amongst European mathematicians. It promotes research in math and its applications, assists with mathematical education, and is concerned with the relationship of math with society.
Related EMS projects of interest to mathematicians and librarians include:
EMIS - European Mathematical Information Service, at http://www.emis.de/
Links from the EMIS home page include the Electronic Library of Mathematics, which includes full text of 30+ free mathematics journals, selected mathematical Conference Proceedings, and mathematical monographs.
EULER - European Libraries & Electronic Resources , at http://www.emis.de/projects/EULER
Cofunded by the European Commission in the Telematics for Libraries sector. Project members are EMS, FIZ Karlsruhe/ Zentralblatt fur Mathematik, and leading European research libraries. The aim of the project is to provide from 30+ mirror sites access to mathematical publications a one-stop-shopping site for users interested in mathematics, including:
* bibliographic databases
* library OPACs
* electronic journals from academic publishers
* online archives of preprints and grey literature
* indexes of mathematical Internet resources
Using Dublin Core Metadata descriptions, Z39.50 compliance, and offering simultaneous searching of all resources by a common search & retrieval software, the EULER engine JFM - Jahrbuch uber die Fortschritte der Mathematik, at http://www.emis.de/projects/JFM
Digitization of the JFM, building a digital library for classical mathematics on the Internet. It will consist of a complete searchable electronic catalogue for mathematics publications from 1868-1943, and eventually a full text electronic archive storing the most relevant publications from that period.
On November 13, 1998, a new regional forum for librarians and information specialists was announced on PAMnet and other listserves as well as in a number of publications: PAM-APF, the Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics (PAM) and Computer Science Asia-Pacific Forum (APF). PAM-APF aims at fostering information exchange amongst colleagues and ensuring that publishers are aware of technological weaknesses in the Developing World, especially in the Asia-Pacific Region.
If you would like to join the PAM-APF discussion list, send the following email message:
Subject: [leave blank]
Message: subscribe pam-apf your-name
You will then receive an automated response welcoming you.
Further information is available at: http://msowww.anu.edu.au/library/pam/discus.htm
or you may email Jeanette Regan, jeanette.regan@anu.edu.au
Compiled by Catherine Candee
ccandee@sulmail.stanford.edu
Not surprisingly, news and debate on the myriad issues surrounding electronic journals-access, archives, availability, licenses, linking, prices, etc.-dominated our discussion these past few months. But there were other discussions of note. A brief summary follows.
E-journals: Access Controlled by IP Address
Robert Michaelson sounded a theme which was to be echoed throughout the Fall when he noted that Physica Scripta allows electronic access for print subscribers, but only for "up to 5 network and/or host IP addresses." Foreshadowing future discussions of this issue, Bob warned that his institution would be interested only in full site access. (N.B. The terms seemed to have been slightly altered since this discussion-ed.) The full license is at: http://www.physica.org/
The sentiment for access controlled by IP address validation (including proxy server access for off campus institutional members) was made clear in the January discussion of access to Synergy, the online service of Blackwell Science. David Stern forwarded a message from Blackwell Science's David Sommer explaining that they plan to introduce IP authentication in the next few months.
David articulated the hope to "have IP address validation as the first step (with local machine-based proxy software security, by password, if required by the contract terms); the failure of IP would default to a local proxy prompt to validate outside patrons and would allow for the distribution of a password within a script after passing the proxy validation."
E-journals: Access in Perpetuity?
James Struck struck a chord when he asked the list members if we were "at all scared that the suppliers of those online journals will disappear someday?" Gary Davidoff seemed to surprise himself when he warned "if any two of the following four... (UK, Netherlands, Germany, New York) were to declare war on the US, our access to archives of electronic journals would be severely compromised. Perhaps the library community should push to have a permanent archives set up in Iowa..."
Flora Grabowska shared the sentiment and cautioned us to "insist on a clause re provision of what you subscribed to should circumstances change. However, Flora says she fears "less for the safety of the electronic archive than I do for the durability of print runs in our sometimes disaster prone collection." She wondered if "we are exchanging one set of worries for another..."
E-journals: Licensing Language and Liability Issues
In response to a complaint from Bob Michaelson, Turpion did an about-face on the language of its online access agreement. The original license permitted walk-in users access through only specific terminals but Turpion changed the agreement to permit walk-in users "access via IP ranges specified by the Subscriber" and won Bob's praise for its "willingness to promptly change its policy to accommodate the needs of the library community." The Turpion Terms and Conditions are at: http://www.turpion.org/new/main/ft.html.
Kerry Kresse criticized IoP for offering access to Physics World with a 5 terminal limit, and wondered why another license was required for subscribers to the online journals. Victoria Mitchell saw the need for a separate license in the interactive nature of PhysicsWeb, but she cautioned subscribers to question use of the term "subscriber" in this case because "your institution could be liable to a copyright violation claim coming from a third party because of something *one of your users posted to PhysicsWeb*."
E-journals: Viewers
Bob Michaelson challenged the decision by Taylor & Francis to use RealPage software as the viewer for Journal of Modern Optics when Adobe Acrobat has become the de facto standard. Chris Beckett's lengthy explanation can be found at http://www.catchword.co.uk/feedback.htm
E-journals: Prices
Wiley was taken to task after announcing that subscriptions to Wiley journals "...will include both a print copy and access to the electronic version" when it was learned that they had already built in at least a 20% increase. A message from irate David Morse, forwarded in the Biomedical Library Acquisitions Bulletin, warned that "the only possible response to this sort of price gouging is to cancel Wiley titles"
E-journals: Free access to Elsevier titles?
Elsevier appeared to be offering-separate from Science Direct -free access to "close to one hundred journals in Computer Science, Mathematics, and Physics...If your institute subscribes to any of the journals concerned." Alas, it was too good to be true. Greg Youngen found it wasn't easy to get access, all the titles don't seem to be there, and Carol Hutchins pointed out that the electronic versions are available for only 9 months. And this after jumping through hoops to register for one IP Address. Speculation was that Elsevier probably hoped if our patrons found it useful they would pressure us to add "permanent" access.
E-journals: New and Sort-of-New Titles
IOP announced that its brand new peer reviewed electronic-only journal, New Journal of Physics (NJP), was officially on line. NJP is published jointly by Institute of Physics and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft and grew out of what its publishers saw as a "clear need to develop other methods of publishing and financing peer-reviewed archival journals alongside the subscription-based model, which is coming under increasing economic pressure." Indeed NJP, which is completely free, will be financed by an article charge paid by the authors of published papers. The journal is available at http://njp.org.
Responding to an announcement from SPARC that Organic Letters, a new peer-reviewed chemistry journal slated to begin publication in July 1999, will be priced at $2,300, David Stern asked if the journal "will actually replace the higher priced journals it sees as competition, or will it simply serve as an additional publication adding even more to the cost for most libraries?" See http://arl.cni.org/sparc/acsed.html
The American Institute of Physics and the IEEE Computer Society announced that Computers in Physics and IEEE Computational Science & Engineering were being merged A bimonthly magazine, Computing in Science and Engineering (CiSE), will replace both of them starting in January 1999 and will be a joint publication of the two organizations. The announcement provoked many questions.
Donna Cromer explained that CiSE *will* be part of the IEEE All-Periodicals Package, the Computer Society's Library Subscription Package, and the Computer Society's Digital Library Package...but will *not* be part of any AIP combination package...but there is a 30% discount off the CiSE institutional rate to any library subscribing to the AIP All, AIP Archival, AIP Combination, or AIP Magazine combination. Douglas LaFrenier, Director of Marketing, AIP, answered Gary Davidoff's question about conflicting policies for online access. "Our two organizations are currently thrashing out this issue with an eye toward a common policy...I will post information about this as soon as we have something to announce." The press release is at http://www.aip.org/cip/ciprelease.html
E-journals: Principles on Digital Archiving
Marlene Cummins forwarded the announcement of the Joint Statement of Representatives of the European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations (EBLIDA), the European Copyright User Platform (ECUP), and the International Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers (STM) on principles on "Digital Archiving" for STM journals. The participants held a series of meetings to discuss possible areas of consensus with respect to electronic usage by libraries of print journals
Other Discussions of Note
Phil Barnett sparked an interesting round with the question "who determines the order of authors in a journal paper?" Martha Tucker and Silvio Levy said in math it is generally alphabetical; non-alphabetic order indicates that the first author had a MUCH greater role. According to Louise Addis, a "popular order for authors on large particle physics experimental collaborations is alphabetical by institution and then by author within each institution."
Sara Thompson reports at Fermilab they typically list the authors alphabetically, too, but she's also found that other papers vary by who was the project lead. Occasionally a grad student's name is listed first to jump start their publication credit. At IEEE it is the authors themselves who determine how their names are listed. Durruty Jesus de Alba Martinez had a good suggestion: check out How to write & publish a scientific paper.
Citing Articles Published First Online
Jens Vigen made a survey of publications which are publishing articles online before the articles are published in the traditional paper version of the same journal. His purpose was to understand the methods publishers are using for making it possible for their readers to refer to these articles. He reported his findings for Physical Review D, The European Physical Journal C and JHEP. Physical Review D and JHEP are both using an in-house article number system both for the e and paper version, while The European Physical Journal C is using the DOI in addition to that the paper version will get traditional volume and page numbers.
CIS
Martha Tucker and Carol Hutchins posted copies of their efforts at improving institutional access to CIS, Current Index to Statistics. The communications, posted October 20, 1998 include their original letter to the presidents of ASA and IMS, David Moore's (President, ASA) response to us, and a recent exchange between Alan Zaslavsky, chair of the CIS Management Committee, and Martha Tucker, and are available listserv archive.
INSPEC on the Web
Michael Knee asked for comparisons of Web-based INSPEC and shared the responses. In short, Ovid Web seemed to be out front at $90/hour $1.35/record. Jenny Smith pointed out that Dialog has dropped rounding of DialUnits since September 1st, so for quick searches you no longer have to pay the full DialUnit cost, but Mike discovered that Dialog Web is still command line Dialog and won't work for end users. Another popular choice, STN, does offer a 70% discount for INSPEC after 5 PM but it does not apply to STN Easy which is $2.00/search $3.00/record. Mary Ann Southern pointed out that the Institute of Physics version of INSPEC would become available in January 1999 on.
Axiom
Institute of Physics Publishing introduced Axiom(TM), its Web-based service which "includes three sophisticated but easy-to-use interfaces to the full INSPEC Database from the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE)." A demo of Axiom is at http://axiom.iop.org
Ian Gordon welcomed the IOP initiative, but chided IEE/IEEE which "has yet to provide an INSPEC differential price break based on differing institutional sizes as does GeoRef and other database producers/vendors."
For Astronomy Librarians
Sarah Stevens-Rayburn reported from the AAS Publications Board Meeting that librarians are eligible to join the AAS as Associate Members. She suggests several advantages to membership...access to member information...targeted mailings from publishers...and the possibility of forming a librarians' caucus within the AAS organization. The membership application is available at http://www.aas.org/membership/membership.html
The full report from the AAS Publications Board Meeting is in her Nov 18 message in the PAMNET Archive
For Math people
Carol Hutchins directed those who are new to selecting mathematics to the web pages created by Dave Rusin where he has interesting info visualization of the subfields of mathematics. See http://www.math.niu.edu/~rusin/known-math/welcome.html
Rusin explained that most of changes at the top level of the MSC are just re-organizations, but he highlighted for librarians the addition of a new section, Mathematics Education. Raw data on the use of the classifications are at: http://www.ams.org/mathweb/Classif/correlations.html. Rusin also offered an opinion on the comparative merits of preprint servers, noting what he describes as aggressive attempts by the XXX archive to become the preprint of choice. He cites Clarence Wilkerson Hopf archive (alg.topology) as an example of some of the preprint archives which have stayed independent. The full Dec 8 message can be found in the archive.
Copyright
Brenda Corbin forwarded a press release on the federal court's affirmation of author's rights in a class-action copyright suit against Dialog. The court ruled that "under Section 201(c) of the Copyright Act, permission from authors is required for reproduction of their articles from collective works such as magazines and journals."
New Technologies?
Jeanette Reagan passed on a press release with news of Norsam Technologies agreement with IBM Research to "develop techniques for reading data written using the NORSAM HD-ROM(r) high density data storage system, which may store several hundred times more data than current CD-ROMs."
Internet Sites Noted
A hot list of Internet sites organized according to the DDC is at: http://ivory.lm.com/~mundie/CyberDewey/CyberDewey.html
A set of guidelines on Web Usage Statistics has just been endorsed and released by the ICOLC (International Coalition of Library Consortia). Guidelines are at: http://www.library.yale.edu/consortia/webstats.html
ARL's newsletter #200: Special Issue on Journals is at: http://www.arl.org/newsltr/200/200toc.html
The Fall 1998 issue of Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship is available at: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/istl/
The article on SPARC's effort to make the dissemination of scientific research information more affordable is in Library Journal, October 15 1998 and the SPARC website at http://www.arl.org/sparc/
Also see SPARC article in the New York Times at: http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/120898sci-journals.html
More than twenty Web sites for Copyright Information were assembled by Liz Bryson. See her archived message of November 23, 1998 for the full list. A sampling:
American Psychological Association (1998). "How to Cite Information from the Internet and WWW" at http://www.apa.org/journals/webref.html
Citing net sources: Survey issues related to ownership and fair use of Internet information
Look at net.TUTOR on the Ohio State Libraries Homepage at http://www.lib.ohio-state.edu/
Copyright & Fair Use-Stanford University Libraries: http://fairuse.stanford.edu/
Copyright and Intellectual Property Table of Contents: http://www.arl.org/info/frn/copy/copytoc.html
Copyright Clearance Center: http://www.copyright.com/
The Copyright Management Center for Indiana University: http://www.iupui.edu/it/copyinfo/
Copyright Website: http://www.benedict.com/home.htm
Library Link discussion forum is available at: http://www.mcb.co.uk/liblink
"New Challenges for Scholarly Communication in the Digital Era: Changing Roles and Expectations in the Academic Community" is a symposium planned for March 26-27, 1999 in Washington, DC. The symposium is sponsored by the American Association of University Professors, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Association of American University Presses, the Association of Research Libraries, and the Coalition for Networked Information. http://www.arl.org/scomm/conf.html.
International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications(INASP) has a new Links section at: http://www.oneworld.org/inasp/links/index.html --a quick-access guide to Web sites and Internet resources.
From the Scout Report: Keeping Our Word: Preserving Information Across the Ages at: http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/ref/exhibit. Presented by the University of Iowa Libraries, this virtual exhibition "celebrates the myriad efforts made over time to preserve information."
PAM-Asia/Pacific Forum, a project of the International Relations Committee of SLA-PAM, aims to foster the exchange of information amongst colleagues and to inform publishers of technological weaknesses in the Developing World, especially in the Asia-Pacific Region information is available at: http://msowww.anu.edu.au/library/pam/intro.htm
The AAS Membership Directory can be searched interactively at http://directory.aas.org/
The progress of repairing Honduras' Observatorio Centroamericano de Suyapa, ravaged by Hurricane Mitch last year, can be viewed at http://www.laprensahn.com/natarc/9812/n23001.htm
Also, check out the home pages of the follow-up projects of the UN/ESA Workshops: **Colombia (1992): The Galactic Emission Mapping Projects http://aether.lbl.gov/www/projects/GEM/
**Nigeria (1993): The Working Group on Space Science in Africa http://da.saao.ac.za:80/~wgssa/
**Sri Lanka (1995): Astronomical Telescope at the A.C.Clarke Institute http://www.slt.lk/accimt/page5.html
**Honduras (1997): Central American Astronomical Observatory Suyapa http://www.unah.hondunet.net/
Dr. F. A. Ringwald, the new Coordinator of NASTeC, the North American Small Telescope Cooperative. Ringwald has renamed the organization to ISTeC, the International Small Telescope Cooperative to widen its scope, and wants to invite observatories around the world to join ISTeC: membership is free. The new ISTeC page is at: http://www.astro.fit.edu/istec/index.html
The Astronomy Resources page is now updated and revised: http://www.sla.org/division/dpam/astro.html
Regarding WWW meta-sites:
Regina Bendig has organized internet resources for astronomy according to the Library of Congress classification. http://www.mcmaster.ca/library/campus/thode/astron/astron-h.htm
SLAC's SPIRES database is at: http://www-spires.slac.stanford.edu/spires/form/instspif.html
Physics Departments Worldwide list at Univ. of Oldenberg is at: http://www.physik.uni-oldenburg.de/EPS/PhysNet/link-lists/noframe_world.html
Mark Ware of IOP Publishing suggests TIPTOP (The Internet Pilot to Physics) at http://physicsweb.org/TIPTOP and specifically its Physics Around the World section at http://physicsweb.org/TIPTOP/paw/
The ICM'98 PROCEEDINGS can be ordered from the AMS by telephone at 401-455-4000, or through the AMS Bookstore at http://www.ams.org/bookstore.
Electronic Information on ICM'98 at URL: http://elib.zib.de/ICM98
If you liked ICM'98 consider participating in ICM-2002 in Beijing, China, see http://www.cms.org.cn/icm01.htm
HISTORIA MATEMATICA is a new mailing list. To join send your subscription to majordomo@chasque.apc.org In the body of your message write: subscribe historia-matematica
Calculators Online: http://www-sci.lib.uci.edu/HSG/RefCalculators.html
Wonders of the Heavens Online: http://www.seds.org/billa/tnp/
Submitted by Jeanette Regan
Chair, International Relations Committee (SLA-PAM)
On November 16, 1998, the nominations were called for the new Special Libraries Association, Physics, Astronomy and Mathematics (SLA-PAM) Membership Award. The purpose of the award is to sponsor a two year membership to SLA-PAM for a librarian from the developing world. This person will automatically be a member of the PAM International Relations Committee.
Although the announcement was sent out only six weeks before nominations closed, we are delighted with the amount of interest which was shown. We had several applicants all of whom were eminently qualified. We only wish that we were able to provide this award to them all.
The inaugural award has now been accepted by Christina Louis, Assistant Librarian, at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics Library. Christina joined the Indian Institute of Astrophysics Library at Bangalore in the year 1979. She has been working as assistant librarian for the last ten years. With the background of a science degree and a post-graduate degree in Library Science, she is involved in building up the astronomy collection of the library, and also in automating the library.
Currently Christina is not only involved in establishing a network of astronomy libraries in India but also she is also an active participant in the PAM-APF, as a member of its working group. She has published a number of papers in Indian as well as international journals.
Christina, the SLA-PAM Board and the International Relations Committee extend their congratulations to you.
The award will be offered again next year and will provide the same benefits. It will be open to previously unsuccessful applicants as well as others.
Further information is available at: http://msowww.anu.edu.au/library/pam/award.htm
Laurel Kristick, the current Editor for the PAM Bulletin, will be stepping down in June 1999. Volunteers are now being sought to take over this important position.
The Editor for the PAM Bulletin is appointed by the chair. The term is two years. The appointment is made before the annual conference for the year following. There is usually a training session at the Annual Conference. The Bulletin is published four times a year: August 1, November 1, February 1, and May 1. The Editor should send the typeset Bulletin to the Assistant Editor about two weeks before these dates. The Bulletin Editors often attend Executive Board Meetings but may miss them if no pertinent business is on the agenda.
Editor Responsibilities:
* composition of the Bulletin from regularly submitted sections by the Workshop Moderators, Chair and other
sources
* coordinating web creation and production for each issue.
* innovations as determined by the PAM membership and approved by the Executive Board
* minor procedures such as paper selection, mailing procedures, etc. do not need to be approved by the Executive
Board
If you are interested in volunteering for this position, please contact
Molly White (mwhite@mail.utexas.edu) or Laurel Kristick (kristicl@ucs.orst.edu).
The Executive Board of the Information Technology Division has authorized the Division to offer an award as follows:
* Student membership in SLA for one (1) year.
* Expenses to attend the SLA Annual Conference to not exceed $1,500 and limited to the following:
a. Economy Class round-trip airfare to the Annual Conference.
b. Basic Student Registration for the Conference (including the ITE Lunch).
c. Lodging for the duration of the conference.
d. Transportation (taxis and buses) during the conference.
e. Meals for the award winner during the conference.
* Recognition and presentation of the winning paper at the Annual Business Meeting of the Information Technology Division.
* Winning paper to be published in B/ITE.
This award is to promote participation in the Special Libraries Association Annual Conference by a deserving library science student. The monetary portion of the award will be awarded only if the winner is present at the designated conference.
DEADLINE: The deadline for submission of papers will be March 22, 1999. Submissions may be mailed to: James E. Manasco, Colorado College-Tutt Library, 1021 N. Cascade Ave. Colorado Springs, CO 80903. They may also be submitted electronically to jmanasco@coloradocollege.edu. Winners will be announced by April 19, 1999.
Submission Requirements:
1. Applicants will be judged on the content of a paper written on a topic of the applicants choosing pertaining to the use of information technology. Preference will be given to a paper which addresses a problem in practical rather than theoretical manner. Applicants should use a style manual of their choosing.
2. Applicants MUST be enrolled in an accredited MLS or MIS program at the time of the award competition. Previous winners will not be eligible for the award.
3. Entries may be existing papers which the applicant has written or is preparing for a class, but which have not previously been published in the journal literature. One paper per applicant, please!
4. The Information Technology Division reserves the right not to award the prize in a given year if it is the opinion of the judges that no submissions are worthy of the award.
5. The Information Technology Division will retain 1st serial publication rights of the winning paper.
The PAM Bulletin is published by the Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics Division of the Special Libraries Association. The Bulletin is issued four times a year: August, November, February and May. The Bulletin is also available at http://osu.orst.edu/~kristicl/pambull.
Articles should be submitted in ASCII format (preferred) to the Bulletin Editor:
Laurel Kristick
Oregon State University
121 The Valley Library
Corvallis, OR 97333
(541) 737-7276
kristicl@ucs.orst.edu
Much of the Bulletin's content comes from regularly scheduled submissions by division staff (see SLA-PAM Bulletin Contributor Information and Deadlines). The editor may consider unsolicited submissions but is not obligated to publish them, using his/her judgment to decline items of unsuitable scope or quality. The editor may edit any submission for length and style.
Subscription Information
Subscriptions are free to PAM members and retired PAM members. Claims for missing issues will be honored within six months for an address in Continental North America or within 12 months for all other addresses. Subscription requests and claims are handled by the Assistant Editor:
Cynthia Holt
University of Manitoba
Science Library
211 Machray Hall
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N2
CANADA
holt@cc.umanitoba.ca
Special Libraries Association
Special Libraries Association (SLA) assumes no responsibility for the statements and opinions advanced by contributors to the Association's publications. Editorial views do not necessarily represent the position of Special Libraries Association. Acceptance of an advertisement does not imply endorsement of the product by Special Libraries Association
Created by Laurel Kristick, 4 February 1999
Copyright 1999 Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics Division