Madeleine Needles
mneedles@haystack.mit.edu

Sponsor: ISI
Notes: Ruth Kneale

Brenda Corbin of the US Naval Observatory spoke on plans for the Library and Information Services in Astronomy (LISA) IV Conference which was held in Prague, Czech Republic, July 3-5. (A report on LISA IV will be in the next issue of the Bulletin.) She presented viewgraphs of the agenda, which can be found on the Web site http://lisa4.cuni.cz/. Some astronomy librarians from developing nations were given financial assistance to attend by the Friends of LISA. The US Naval Observatory will be publishing the proceedings and will send a free copy to every institution that now receives the USNO Almanac Supplement (although there should be enough extras that those who don't get the supplement can also have a copy of the proceedings).

Brenda also presented a talk about On-line Resources for the Astronomy Historian. The full presentation is available at http://www.usno.navy.mil/library/aasbgc2.html. She discussed some online resources that are particularly useful to astronomy librarians such as Astro Books Online (whose URL keeps changing) and Gallica (which is difficult to use but has many treasures); the URLs for both can be found in her online talk. A general discussion followed about the many groups who are starting to scan items such as photos, and making them available online. Various people volunteered information about their own digitization projects. Harvard has a large ongoing project and will post help queries on PAMnet for missing issues and items that could help fill in some of the holes in their collection.

Jane Holmquist of Princeton University spoke on an astronomy librarian community project, the Core List of Astronomy Books and the Core List of Astronomy and Physics Journals. She listed the top 10 highest-use journals for astronomy and physics, and also discussed the astronomy book list, which is based on evaluation of collections and use statistics. Both lists will soon be available on ADS as dynamic lists, changing as more information comes in and time goes on. A question arose on how best to help librarians in the different fields of astronomy find appropriate books on the list for their libraries. Jane responded that the lists will be sorted by author and subject, so librarians can pick and choose based on the specialties of their libraries. If someone finds a book or journal that isn't on the list but should be, send it in!

A discussion about separate reading rooms versus consolidated libraries in general, and what various institutions have done, was prompted by a question from Jane about how other librarians have handled this issue. This led to an impromptu update on the Hayden Planetarium/Rose Center astronomy library move and the creation of its reading room. Thanks to Sandra Kitt for sharing her story.

Joe Kraus, University of Denver, and Pete Banholzer, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, discussed their recent paper on Astronomical Resources on the Internet, which is available in the Spring 2002 issue of Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship. This article will also be added to the PAM Web site. Plans for updating that Web site were also discussed.

Carol Tenopir of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, presented a talk on Electronic Journal Use among Astronomers. This was a first peek at the preliminary data just analyzed, with much more to come in the future. Carol and her team welcome suggestions for where to publish their findings. We look forward to the final report on the complete analysis of this data.

Donna Thompson of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics presented an update on the ADS and talked about the new Historical Scans which are being added to the site. Donna and the ADS team are asking users to help establish the metadata for the project. Please visit the page and share your thoughts. If you're interested in helping with the project, follow the link to the Historical Literature Users Group Login and follow the instructions.

A general discussion followed concerning the needs of various libraries and new projects. The group offered special help to librarians in developing countries and discussed some of the needs of these libraries.

There has been a discussion online about subscription problems with Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia (PASA). Many people are finding that their subscription agents have dropped the title. You may need to subscribe directly if you have encountered this problem.

One final note - we congratulate fellow astronomy librarian Ruth Kneale an her talk at SLA on the stereotype of librarians — see http://atst.nso.edu/library/perception/.