I am interested in your questions regarding the following vendors. We will give each vendor one or two preselected questions about their presentations (so they have a chance to and will respond to our concerns/interests). The vendors will speak for about five minutes, respond to the preselected questions for five minutes, and then there will be a free-for-all for whatever time is left over (~15 minutes). Questions can be e-mailed to fosmire@oswego.edu.
We have the following organizations lined up for the Update:
AMS
INSPEC/IEE
ISI
Blackwell's
SSP
NFAIS
IEE will be talking about their new pricing structure among other topics.
SSP and NFAIS are probably new acronyms for most of you. The Society for Scholarly Publishing (http://www.edoc.com/ssp/) and the National Federation of Abstracting & Information Services (http://www.pa.utulsa.edu/nfais.html) are professional societies of publishers and vendors. They will give us a short introduction into what their organizations do and how they impact us as information professionals.
ISI will speak about new developments in their Web of Science and generally introduce themselves to PAM librarians.
AMS will talk about new pricing arrangements for Mathematical Reviews and new developments in MathSciNet.
Blackwell's will give us the latest developments in aggregation of electronic databases and talk about CD- ROM databases available through the Internet.
I am a first year librarian at SUNY Oswego. I joined SLA while in library school (at the University of Washington) and attended the Annual Conference last year (which coincidentally was in Seattle). My interests in PA and M are long-standing, as I originally attended the UW to get a Ph.D. in theoretical physics. As all the technical UW librarians I knew belonged to SLA, I figured this was the place to be, and I have found that the organization and the PAM division in particular have been very approachable, informative, and of course fun.
How did I get involved in the Vendor Update? I attended one of the PAM open houses, and after one too many Thomas Kemper Root Beers, I was introduced to Our Kahuna (by James Manasco, see below) and told her that I was willing to help the division out any way I could. Even though I didn't have a job at the time, Liz believed in me and entrusted me with coordinating the Update (while making darned sure that James was around as a backup in case I was living on the street by this June). I'm happy to say I'm not on the street, and in fact have enough funding to go to the conference that I won't have to live off candies from the Exhibit Hall for the week.
Again, let me know what burning questions you have about our current crop of vendors.
I presently serve as the Natural Sciences Librarian (or, more fully, Natural Sciences Liaison Librarian) at The Colorado College in Colorado Springs, CO. I have been in this position since December of 1996. Previously, for five years, I was the technician at the Chemistry/Physics Library at the University of Kentucky. Colorado College is a small, private liberal arts college with about 2,000 students and Tutt Library, where I work and play, is the campus library. We hold about 400,000 volumes. I am THE science librarian, taking care of the departments of Biology, Chemistry, Geology, Mathematics, Physics, Psychology and Sports Science.
It has been a bit of a transition for me, coming from a place where people appreciate a sport, like basketball, to a place where they seem infatuated with something called hockey. I have done my utmost to convert the campus to the one, true church that is Kentucky basketball, but my success has been limited.
Being still pretty new to the librarian business, I've found SLA, and especially PAM, to be a great resource for contact people and mentors. I truly value the advice and assistance I have received from members and I rely heavily on their counsel. It has made me understand the profession better and grow as a librarian. And, of course, I knew PAM was meant for me when, upon my first attendance at a PAM open house in Montreal, a drink was placed in my hand by our Big Kahuna. If Merlin had placed Excalibur in my hand, it couldn't have been a surer sign!
That's really about all I have to say. Michael and, perhaps me, will be back with you later with more information about the update. See you in Indy! And, don't forget about the Slippery Noodle (who would have thought that event would have grown out of a suggestion for a toga party, eh?)
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