Christina Louis, Assistant Librarian, Indian Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Bangalore, India.

SLA Conference was a big MELA, no doubt! In fact Barbara Chu advised me not to get lost. It was an unique experience for me to attend the SLA Conference and also enjoy the breakfasts and lunches hosted by PAM and Sci-Tech Divisions of SLA as part of the First Timer introduction and pampering programme.

Three months back in the month of June the SLA conference at Minneapolis took place, and the number of e-mail messages which I have been receiving has increased two-fold, since I came back from the conference. The positive communication from my library colleagues and also the publishers and vendors made me reflect that there has to be some reason for this change, and I will now recollect how the whole thing started.

When PAM-APF was launched it was a great experience for me to get involved in the formation of this regional forum. I could feel the necessity of such a forum, which can accommodate both the conventional and the electronic environment among libraries, especially for those in developing countries. Thanks to PAM Division of SLA, who chose me as the first recipient of SLA-PAM International Membership Award for two years 1999/2000, which gave me the membership in SLA for two years. I am also given the privilege to be a member of International Relations Committee of SLA-PAM. Initially I was a member of the working group of PAM-APF, when I took the responsibility to distribute the mail-out to my library colleagues working in the PAM and Computer Science Libraries in India. Though the response to my communication was not great at that stage, I could feel the difference when the listserv was later launched for discussion. To cite an example, I had a meaningful communication with a library colleague in Australia when I needed photocopies of an article which was not available anywhere in India. The promptness with which she filled my query was amazing , even though I am not a member of ALIA. When I became the member of IRC, I had a unique experience of not only communicating with a smaller group of committee members, but also had the feeling of extended involvement and responsibility to voice my opinion in making decisions at times in committee matters.

In February 1999 the Sci-Tech Division of SLA gave me the International Sci-Tech Librarian Award for the year 1999, which entitled me to travel to the U.S. to attend the SLA Annual conference in June.

I had the pleasure of meeting so many of my library colleagues from different parts of the country, and I also had an opportunity to present the PAM-APF report during the PAM Round table discussion. This was a fruitful exercise for me and I could wrap up my report with a glimpse of the cooperative work done in Indian Astronomy Libraries. I could feel the positive response from the library colleagues, from their valuable suggestions and discussions. A few of them expressed their willingness to join our Regional Forum to exchange their views and expertise. Publishers/Vendors like European Mathematical Information Service, INSPEC and American Mathematical Society expressed their willingness to refocus their marketing strategy so that our regional libraries, either individually or as a member of a consortium can benefit monetarily and also fully enjoy their services.

There is a big task ahead of us to strengthen our Forum with more members, and soon we will be able to communicate better and faster within the forum and also with the publishers/vendors community.

I would like to thank each and every member of library community with whom I had communication in the last year and also the PAM division members and IRC colleagues who gave me full support and encouragement whenever I required. I also wish to thank the Sci-Tech division of SLA who gave me this great opportunity to attend the SLA conference in US.