Ann Jensen
ajensen@library.berkeley.edu

The PAM Division is an intimate division - small in numbers, but high on impact! One of the intimacies--if that's not too strong a word--that has enhanced the work of the division is our system of PAM member liaisons to various physics, astronomy and mathematics publishers. PAM Division has nurtured many kinds of connections among its subject-focused membership, which includes library users, librarians, faculty, vendors, and publishers, each relationship enhancing our professionalism and knowledge.

PAM was one of the first divisions within SLA to develop formalized arrangements--what we call PAM vendor liaisons--to various publishers and professional societies. Part of the success of these liaison relationships is that in most cases, they merely formalized what had grown naturally as a healthy dialogue between a PAM member and a publisher representative.

Most of these liaisons/representatives meet once or twice a year with representatives of the vendor, usually in the form of a library advisory committee. Most liaisons report back to the PAM membership through PAMnet and the PAM Bulletin about their activities. One of their most important responsibilities, however, is to represent the PAM member concerns to the publishers, so they can be helpful in resolving issues that individual librarians have perhaps been unable to affect.

Perhaps the most successful liaison relationship has been that with the American Astronomical Society. The relationship started when NASA first began considering making the astronomy literature available electronically. The Executive Director of the AAS heard a few librarians speak at various meetings, and recognized the intelligent, articulate concern that was being voiced. He was instrumental in inviting the local astronomy librarian to attend meetings of the AAS Publications Board. The publications board decided to make the relationship formal a couple of years later.

The timing of this first relationship was ripe for success. This was the beginning of a lot of transitions into electronic format; AAS was extremely careful to bring the library community, through its liaison, into their deliberations. One notable result of this was their crafting a license agreement for the electronic journals that became a model that was subsequent used by many who followed. Librarian input on potential pricing schemes, indexing decisions, subscription management issues are resolved collegially and efficiently, many times in advance of becoming larger problems.

Vendor liaison relationships vary in impact and intensity. But they all help to make explicit the partnership that publishers have, or should have, with PAM members--active and vocal users of their products, whose advice and needs can be financially beneficial for vendors to heed. PAM liaisons are an identifiable constituent for the vendors to meet with at the SLA annual conference, where these same vendors frequently participate as panelists, salespeople, and partners in the business of Physics, Astronomy and Mathematics information. All these relationships enhance our work as professionals.

PAM currently has formally appointed liaisons with AAS, Elsevier, INSPEC, ISI, Kluwer and SIAM; and other PAM members are participating members of several publishers library advisory groups, boards and steering committees such as AMS, APS, IEEE, IOP, NAS, SIAM and Wiley. For a list of current liaisons and representatives, please look at the PAM Division web page: http://www.sla.org/division/dpam/manual/staff.liaisons.html