General Membership Meeting Minutes - 2008 Midwinter
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WESSWeb > WESS Discussion Groups > General Membership Discussion Group > 2008 Midwinter Minutes
Meeting in Philadelphia, PA, Jan. 14, 2008
Attending
Frances Ott Allen (Univ. of Cincinnati), Gordon Anderson (Univ. of Minnesota), Laura Dale Bishof (Univ. of Minnesota), Paula Mae Carns (University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign), Michelle Emanuel (Univ. of Mississippi), Rowena Griem (Yale), Dick Hacken (Brigham Young), Sarah How (Cornell), Tom Izbicki (Rutgers), Charlene Kellsey (Univ. of Colorado), Dennis Lambert (Villanova), Jeffry Larson (Yale), David Lincove (Ohio State Univ.), Eudora Loh (UCLA), Heidi Madden (Duke), John Marner (Texas A&M), Mary Marshall (Walter de Gruyter Inc.), Jim Niessen (Rutgers), Anne Oechtering (Yale), Deb Raftus (Univ. of Washington), Louis Reith (Georgetown), Sue Roberts (Yale), Ed Shephard (SUNY Binghampton), Timothy Shipe (Univ. of Iowa), Bryan Skib (Univ. of Michigan), Sheila Smyth (Univ. of California, Irvine), Rom Steensma (Coutts-Nijhoff International), Jen Stevens (George Mason), Anna Sveinbjornsson (Univ. of Washington), Caroline Szylowicz (Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), Paul Vermouth (Harvard College Library), Brian Vetruba (Washington Univ.), Sarah Wenzel (Univ. of Chicago)
Minutes
John Marner, Member-at-Large, convened the meeting at 8:05 a.m.
1. Introductions
The attendees introduced themselves and signed an attendance sheet. WESS officers were pointed out.
2. Report from the Chair (Sarah Wenzel)
Sarah announced a joint project of WESS/LES (the Literatures in English Section of ACRL) to liaison with the Modern Language Association (MLA).
ACRL is looking for volunteers to serve on the Council of Liaisons, to promote librarianship as a career choice at meetings of learned societies.
Contact Laura Dale to express an interest in volunteering for WESS committees.
Anyone requiring A/V equipment at Annual should let Sarah know by Feb. 15.
3. Discussion Group Reports
a. Cataloging
Heather Lea Moulaison, a doctoral student at Rutgers, gave a discussion on technical services in France. The presentation is available on WESS Web at: http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~moulaiso/France.ppt
b. Classical, Medieval and Renaissance & Romance Languages (Paula Mae Carns)
Representatives from Casalini Libri gave a presentation on the vendor’s database. Paula recommends that people look at it, since the website is free and useful for tracking orders. Jerry Heverly spoke about a campaign by the American Philological Association to keep the American Office of L'annee philologique open; he pointed out that the office and its indexing activities are important to English-language research in the classics.
During the second hour, the discussion group went to a wiki demonstration given by Dick Hacken, designed to encourage WESSies to participate in WESS Web’s development. The presentation will be made available through the help page of the wiki.
c. College & Medium-sized Libraries (Michelle Emanuel)
This group did not meet at Midwinter but plans to meet virtually. Michelle will meet with Louis John Reith of the Special Topics DG to talk about developing a program for Annual, possibly on how to work with materials in languages that you do not know.
d. Germanists (Timothy Shipe)
The group visited the German Society of Pennsylvania, which has a unique collection that is not well known. After its President, Hardy von Auenmueller, welcomed the group, Prof. Frank Trommler of the Univ. of Pennsylvania, spoke about the library as a scholarly resource. Jim Niessen then spoke about his experience using the library for genealogical research.
e. Scandinavian (Anna Sveinbjornsson) The group discussed Scandinavian-themed book fairs, conferences, internships, digitalization, and collection development projects. Anna spoke about her upcoming book-buying trip to Iceland and the Faroe Islands. The group also initiated plans for a discussion topic for the 2009 Midwinter meeting in Denver.
f. Social Sciences and History (Gordon Anderson)
The group discussed how to effectively capture the program The European Union Today: Constructing European Identity given at Annual in Washington, DC. Sarah How will be working on the project; suggestions should be made to her.
During the second hour, the group joined Dick’s wiki presentation.
4. Committee Reports
a. Coutts-Nijhoff Study Grant Jury (Bryan Skib)
The award recipient for this year was selected but can not be announced yet. Bryan thanked Coutts-Nijhoff International for their continued support and the Committee members for making the selection.
b. Fundraising Committee (Tom Izbicki)
The Committee has pledges for the Annual program and is now working on the social event. They are also looking into funding for the international conference and long-term support opportunities.
c. International Conference Planning Committee (Sarah Wenzel)
Sarah introduced Adan Griego, who has agreed to serve as its Chair of the International Conference Planning Committee. She discussed the results of the recent survey which were distributed on WESS-L and will eventually be made available on WESS Web. Although respondents preferred that the conference be held in Germany, El Instituto Español de Comercio (ICEX) has pledged to offer invaluable financial and logistical support for the WESS International Conference if it is held in Spain in the next two years. ICEX’s support is dependent on the results of the Spanish election in March.
The conference topic will be kept broad, rather than focusing on the host country, to keep the potential audience as large as possible. The event could be held in conjunction with another organization, depending on the subject matter. Eventually an additional survey will be sent out to help with planning.
d. Membership Committee (Rowena Griem)
The total WESS membership has remained stable, with a jump in renewals (50%) and student members (41%). The Happy Hour held on Friday night was a success, so we agreed to hold another one at the next Midwinter. The Membership Committee’s decided to organize a reception at a Disney hotel for Annual in Anaheim. Free tickets will be reserved for new members and sponsors. The Buddy Program has met with mixed results, with some Buddies receiving more responses than other. The project seems to be appreciated enough to continue, and successful emails will be shared with the rest of the group.
e. Nominating Committee (Gordon Anderson)
Gordon reported on behalf of Committee Chair Rebecca Malek-Wiley and presented the slate of candidates for WESS office for the 2008-2009 term.
f. Conference Planning Committee, 2008 (David Lincove)
The Committee plans a program on Cooperative Strategies for European Libraries: Access & Preservation. There is a tentative plan to do a podcast and web site to capture the event.
g. Conference Planning Committee, 2009 (Gordon Anderson)
The Committee discussed possible topics for the program, including information literacy in German libraries, open access journals in the age of Google, copyright issues in the modern age, and redefining area studies to include popular culture. The Committee is considering organizing the program with another organization.
h. Publications Committee & WESS Web Editors (Rowena Griem & Dick Hacken)
The WESS Newsletter will now be available electronically only, with fliers sent out to announce when a new issue becomes available. Someone wondered whether the switch to electronic format will effect membership statistics. WESSies are encouraged to contribute to WESS Web through the wiki. A good place to begin is by entering their information in the new wiki version of the WESS Membership Directory. Reinhart Sonnenburg was thanked and given a round of applause for acting as the webmaster for years, and Dick was thanked for switching WESS web to a wiki format.
i. Recruitment to the Profession (Brian Vetruba)
The Committee and guests met virtually from Jan. 3-8. They discussed the Job Shadowing Program which will be launched in Spring. In addition, Committee members have met with seven people who are interested in pursuing librarianship as a career. Committee members are working on a paper using the results of a survey on foreign language use in academic librarianship. ACRL approved an Action Plan which will promote academic librarianship for scholars with Western European language skills. Recipients must have a paper accepted at the conferences of different learned societies. A $500 award is available to two WESS members annually. Recipients will be expected to make some sort of follow-up report to WESS.
j. Research and Planning Committee (Timothy Shipe)
Louis Reith presented a paper on ‘My Dear Dark Dove’: Leoš Janáček’s Correspondence with Kamila Stösslová as Inspiration for Later Musical Masterpieces. The Committee plans to add the paper, as well as past ones, to WESS Web. The Research and Planning Committee agreed to be primarily responsible for updating the book fair section of WESS Web. Timothy proposed that the Research and Planning Committee ask WESS members attending a book fair to act as an unofficial coordinator to the book fair for WESS/ACRL. In this capacity, they must be willing to carry WESS brochures and organize the WESS presence.
During the second hour, the group joined Dick’s wiki presentation.
5. Presentations by ACRL Presidential Candidates
A candidate for ACRL President gave a brief presentation and answered questions.
6. Announcements
Contributions for the upcoming WESS Newsletter should be submitted by March for the flyer and April for the full electronic version.
Gordon announced that he is looking for original reviewers for the upcoming issue of Reference Reviews Europe. He offered an issue to interested parties. For more information, see http://rre.casalini.it, or contact Gordon at ganderso@umn.edu.
Tom announced that he is looking for people to write short reviews of key European titles for Choice.
Articles for GNARP’s Global Resources Newsletter, which will focus on German issues, must be received by March.
Sarah asked that anyone interested in ARTFL's Sustaining Member project, which grew out of a CIFNAL initiative, contact her directly.
Jeffry reminded everyone that IFLA will take place in Quebec this year and that it is preceded by several pre-conferences. He mentioned that attending these meetings would be a good opportunity to meet Francophone colleagues.
John Marner, Member-at-Large, announced that the meeting was over at 10:00 a.m.
Respectfully submitted by Rowena Griem,
Secretary of WESS
WESSWeb > WESS Discussion Groups > General Membership Discussion Group > 2008 Midwinter Minutes
