CONFERENCE HISTORY:
This conference is the third in a series: Library and Information Services in Astronomy I (LISA I) was held at the U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington, USA, in 1988 and was supported by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) as IAU Colloquium 110. LISA II, an IAU Technical Workshop, was held at the European Southern Observatory, Garching, Germany, in 1995. An application for IAU support of LISA III as an IAU Colloquium is pending.
AIM OF THE CONFERENCE:
Library and information services in astronomy have seen sweeping and monumental changes in the last decade, both in methods of information delivery and the kinds of information being delivered. At the same time, demands for traditional services and the importance of retrieval and archiving of older materials have not abated. Indeed, needs have become more acute as historic materials have become more fragile and preservation techniques have not kept pace with the variety of materials to be preserved. What has not changed is the basic function of the librarian: providing information to users in whatever format by whatever methods necessary.
Library and Information Services in Astronomy III will provide an opportunity to examine the current state of the art of information maintenance, delivery, and preservation, as well as to learn from invited experts the directions in which our profession is moving.
PROGRAM:
Keynote speaker:
- "Managing change gracefully": Challenges and opportunities of integrating tomorrow's technology with yesterday's resources Ann Okerson, Yale University, USA
Invited Presentations:
- Astronomers and Librarians:
* The symbiotic relationship: assessing user needs, Marlene Cummins, Univ. Toronto, Astron. Library, Canada
* User requirements: an astronomer's wishlist, Heinz Andernach, Univ. Guanajuato, Mexico
* Helping the astronomer stay up-to-date, Brenda Corbin, U.S. Naval Obs., Washington, DC, USA
- Internal Sources/Resources
* "If it's not on the Web, it doesn't exist at all".
Electronic information resources -- myth and reality, Sarah Stevens-Rayburn, STScI, and Ellen Bouton, NRAO, USA
* Historical material: the use of archives and rare books for modern scientific purposes
Peter Hingley, RAS, UK (Chair), (presentations / panel discussion)
- External Sources/Resources
* Information extraction: New developments in astronomical information retrieval for electronic publications, Soizick Lesteven, Obs. Astron. Strasbourg, France
* Identifying and accessing electronic documents, Jim Fullton, Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval, USA ***
* The Urania Coalition, a discipline-wide interconnected resource, Peter Boyce, AAS, USA
* Metadata: standards for retrieving WWW documents, Diann Rusch-Feja, Max Planck Inst. for Human Development and Education, Germany ***
* Toolsets for handling online literature, Fionn Murtagh, Univ. Ulster, Northern Ireland
* Archiving electronic documents, Evan Owens, Univ. Chicago Press, USA
* Licensing and copyright issues in the electronic environment, Sarah Sully, JSTOR, USA ***
* Incorporating electronic preprints into an effective publishing system, Bob Hanisch, STScI, USA
* Electronic publishing in its context, Andre Heck, Obs. Astron. Strasbourg, France
- Resource sharing
* CADIST astronomie: acquisition and distribution of scientific and technical information in astronomy in France, M. Vallet and A. Accary, Obs. Paris-Meudon, France
* The SUBITO project: document delivery service for astronomy, astrophysics and space research, Irina Sens, Univ. Goettingen, Germany
* A clearinghouse for astronomy librarians: the PAM Web site, Kathleen Robertson, Inst. for Astron., Univ. Hawaii, USA
[*** = unconfirmed speakers]
Open Forum / Discussion: Optimizing communication amongst astronomy librarians in the digital age
Contributed talks and posters
SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:
- Peter Boyce, Co-Chair, American Astronomical Society, USA
- Uta Grothkopf, Co-Chair, European Southern Observatory, Germany
- Heinz Andernach, Dept. Astr. Univ. Guanajuato, Mexico
- Jose Carlos del Toro Iniesta, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Spain
- Peter Hingley, Royal Astronomical Society, UK
- Ethleen Lastovica, South African Astronomical Observatory, South Africa
- Fionn Murtagh, Univ. Ulster, Magee College, North Ireland
- Alicia Rodas, Complejo Astronomico El Leoncito, Argentina
- Monique Gomez, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Spain
- Sarah Stevens-Rayburn, Space Telescope Science Institute, USA
- Marek Wolf, Astronomical Institute, Charles Univ. Prague, Czech Republic
LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:
- Jose Carlos del Toro Iniesta, Co-Chair, IAC
- Monique Gomez, Co-Chair, IAC
- Monica Murphy, IAC
- Judith de Arao, IAC
- Antonio Bacallado, IAC
- Lourdes Abellan, IAC
EXPECTED PARTICIPANTS:
LISA III will bring together librarians from astronomical institutes and observatories worldwide as well as astronomers, publishers, and computer specialists active in the field of astronomy.
CALL FOR PAPERS:
The LISA III Scientific Organizing Committee cordially invites you to submit contributed talks or poster presentations.
Papers are solicited in particular, but not exclusively, on the following topics:
- Access to external resources: hardware and software requirements, costs, responsiveness
- WWW resources in astronomy
- User acceptance of electronic information resources and usability studies
- Influence of electronic publications on librarians' tasks
- Optimizing communication amongst astronomy librarians in the digital age
- International collaboration and resource sharing projects in astronomy
- Handling and care of print and multimedia library resources (CD-ROMs, microforms, observatory publications etc.)
- Setting up WWW user guides for astronomy libraries
- Accuracy of bibliographic databases / bibliometric studies
If you are interested in giving an oral or poster presentation, please submit title, author(s) name(s) and affiliation(s), full mailing address(es), fax number(s) and e-mail address(es), as well as a half page abstract to the LISA III email account at lisa3@iac.es
or send the information to
Monique Gomez
Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias
Library
Via Lactea S/N
E-38200 La Laguna (Tenerife)
Spain
Fax: +34 22 605 21
Submission deadline will be November 30, 1997
Please note that the SOC does not guarantee that all proposed papers will be accepted and that it reserves the right to request that a volunteered oral presentation be presented as a poster paper or vice versa. Notification regarding accepted papers will be made no later than January 31, 1998.
PROCEEDINGS:
Invited and contributed talks as well as posters will be published on paper in the ASP Conference Proceedings series as well as in electronic format on the World Wide Web.
REGISTRATION FEE:
A registration fee of approx. $125 US will be charged to help defray meeting costs and proceedings publication.
FINANCIAL SUPPORT:
Limited financial support will be available in order to help colleagues from less economically-advantaged areas. Further announcements on this matter will be made by the Friends of LISA III committee later this year.
POST-CONFERENCE TOURS:
The conference will be held 21-23 April 1998, with a visit to Teide Observatory and IAC Headquarters on April 24th. An optional post-conference visit to Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma Island will be organized on April 25th.
IMPORTANT DATES:
September 30, 1997: 2nd conference annoucement to be available on the WWW
November 30, 1997: Deadline for submission of contributed papers and posters
May 20, 1998: Deadline for receipt of electronic manuscripts for publication in the proceedings
PRE-REGISTRATION:
Potential participants are invited to pre-register by sending an email to the organisers at this address: lisa3@iac.es
This will ensure that you will receive updated announcements about the conference as they become available.
CONFERENCE WWW SITE:
Additional information can be found on the LISA III WWW site.
Uta Grothkopf, ESO Library
Monique Gomez, IAC Library
Sarah Stevens-Rayburn, STScI Library
on behalf of the LISA III Scientific Organizing Committee
Return to Contents page
Created by: Laurel Kristick, August 1, 1997
Modified by: Laurel Kristick, August 6, 1997