The September ATG is in the mail and we had to cut the following Rumors -- So, here they are on the ATG News Channel instead!

Plus the DEADLINE for the Early Bird Registration to the Charleston Conference is September 26!!! Hurry and register!

In case you haven't seen, some big news at NISO. They have received two new proposed work items. The first is to develop best practices for Physical Delivery of Library Items and the second on formally standardizing the NLM DTD markup for journals. More information on both is at www.niso.org.

I know. I know. Sometimes Standards are boring but not when so many important people are involved! And what helps cooperation and connectivity better? Listen up! Our input is needed. That’s you and you and you over there! Todd Carpenter’s column is about the mandatory e-only deposit proposal by the U.S. Copyright office. The deadline for submitting comments to the Copyright Office has passed but the larger issues surrounding implem=ntation will take some time to work out. See this issue, p.00.

More about NISO and SERU! The Collection Management and Development Section (CMDS) of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) has announced Judy Luther , president of Informed Strategies and Selden Lamoureux , electronic resources librarian at North Carolina State University libraries, as winners of the Coutts Award for Innovation in Electronic Resources Management. The award recognizes significant and innovative contributions to electronic collections management and development practice. The recipients each receive a $1,000 award generously donated by Coutts Information Services and a citation. Judy Luther and Selden Lamoureux were instrumental in developing SERU: A Shared Electronic Resource Understanding, currently a recommended practice of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO). They brought together librarians, publishers and subscription agents to address the labor-intensive process of negotiating licenses for electronic resources, a process that has increasingly overwhelmed both libraries and publishers. SERU offers a congenial and painless method for achieving a mutual understanding between publishers and libraries. With the potential for drastically reducing the amount of time and money it takes to bring resources to users, SERU is a significant step forward in the electronic resource acquisition process. Libraries and publishers can sign on to the SERU registry, which now includes more than 70 libraries and more than 25 publishers.

Another NISO initiative. NISO and OCLC announce the publication of a white paper on Streamlining Book Metadata Workflow, written by consultant Judy Luther (President, Informed Strategies), that analyzes the current state of metadata creation, exchange, and use throughout the book supply chain. With the number of book formats multiplying and the amount of digital content growing rapidly, the metadata required to support the discovery, sale, and use of content by a global audience is increasing exponentially. Through interviews with over 30 industry representatives, Luther has created a book metadata exchange map illustrating the workflow and metadata exchange and has identified opportunities for eliminating redundancies and making the entire process more economical. The white paper was commissioned by NISO and OCLC as a follow-up to the Symposium for Publishers and Librarians held by OCLC on March 18-19, 2009 to discuss book metadata. Both organizations share the vision of an environment where data can be exchanged seamlessly between different systems and both are focused on reducing the costs of this exchange for all participants in the supply chain of data and content. NISO and OCLC plan to hold ongoing events to continue the dialog among publishers, librarians, and metadata suppliers. Streamlining Book Metadata Workflow is available on the NISO Website.
www.niso.org/publications/white_papers/
www.oclc.org/publisher-symposium/

Was talking to Helen Carley (Facet Publishing) yesterday and she reminded me that I hadn't put any posts on my blog in over a week. In my last post, I had been talking about the bad weather last Wednesday but had not updated everyone on the beautiful weather that we had last Thursday-Sunday. And it continues today. The temperature is in the mid 70s and is beautiful. Eat your hearts out, you poor cold Northerners out there! It has been a hard week since I last spoke to you. I returned to work on Monday, November 10, to run the library Tenure, Promotion, and Third-Year Review panel which was evaluating two candidates. Later that same day we learned that two of our positions in the library have been frozen for an unspecified length of time. And the next issue was budget cuts and figuring out how to deal with cuts this year and projected cuts for next year. I guess I needed something to do after the Conference, yes? Would love to hear from all of you about your reaction to the Conference this year! Please email me or fill out the conference evaluation form on the website. www.katina.info/conference

Spent two hours in line today to vote, but I did it! What a zoo but it's great to see so many people voting! I hope everyone is ready for the big event -- The Charleston Conference -- number 28! -- which begins tomorrow. We are frantically running around trying to fix last minute changes, issues, etc. The weather is too cold for my money but at least it's not raining! Forsooth -- it is supposed to warm up on Thursday and Friday and we will see sun! Fingers crossed! There were 1158 people registered at last count even though we have had some people have to cancel out at the last minute because of budget issues, health issues, family, etc. See you soon! And please come and say hello when you see me! A big helping of Charleston Southern hospitality to all of you!

Can't believe that the Conference festivities start in six days! Every year about this time I swear that I will never do this again but I always do it again anyway, as you all know. And this year has been less work than I usually have because of my great team of Leah Hinds, David Lyle, Regina Semko and Sharna Williams. And those are just a few of the main people that help the Charleston Conference continue. There are many, many, many more helpers who y'all will meet!

This year the weather has been cooler than usual and actually got into the 30s one night, unheard of. But -- it is supposed to get back in the 70s by Thursday and though they are predicting some rain some of the time (Monday and Tuesday and maybe Wednesday) our teams are working hard to prevent it!

Can't wait to see all of you! Have a great trip! Love to you all, Katina

See Sue Polanka's blog for September 12, 2008 -- http://www.libraries.wright.edu/noshelfrequired/?p=97
Anyone interested in eBooks should take a look at the Charleston Conference program, November 5 - 8th. And if you have an opinion on patron driven purchasing, stop by the Lively Lunch session Friday at Charleston. Alice Crosetto (Univ. of Toledo) and Sue will debate traditional collection development with patron-driven purchasing. They may even have Michelle Harper from NetLibrary to describe this biz model better. Friday, November 7 - 12:50 - 2:00 “Tossing Traditional Collection Development Practices for Patron Initiated Purchasing: A Debate.” Embassy Suites Historic District, Downtown Charleston.