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0098-7913/02$–see front matter © 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

Reports of Conferences, Institutes, and Seminars

Susan Davis, Column Editor

with contributions from Lisa Sanders and Audrey Fenner

Reports from the 16th North American Serials Interest Group Conference held June2001, and the 11th North Carolina Serials Conference held April 2002. Serials Re-

view 2002; 28:240–247. © 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All Rights Reserved.

We have reports from two highly serials-intensive con-ferences held this past year—the North American SerialsInterest Group and the North Carolina Serials Confer-ence. The conference themes reflect the long-term aspectsof working with serials. I know I would rather embarkon my serials odyssey with a convivial group of compan-ions, particularly the one I have been married to fornearly sixteen years, rather than go it alone!

I recommend attendance at and participation in theseannual conferences to the

Serials Review

readership forseveral reasons. First is the excellent program content.Second is the opportunity to network with fellow serial-ists. The mix of librarians, subscription agents, and pub-lishers in attendance affords a wonderful occasion forfrank and informative dialog among various players inthe serials information chain. Third, they provide a re-laxed and informal atmosphere where folks have a greattime meeting, greeting, and learning.

A San Antonio Odyssey: The 2001 North

American Serials Interest Group Conference

Lisa Sanders

Like all good trips, mine began with a glitch. I arrived atTrinity University, and the young man doing roomcheck-in informed me that I was not registered for aroom until the next day. Familiar with check-in prob-lems, I followed the sound of congenial laughter to thenext room where several librarian types sat in the dark

eating their box dinners. Joyce Tenney, one of the 2002conference planning chairs, took charge (practicingproblem solving for next year), and soon I was assigneda room, given her box dinner, and made to feel very wel-come. Shortly thereafter I was being entertained by wildstories of past NASIG gatherings by Bob Persing, EvelynCouncil, and Lauren Corbett. What a group!

Day One

Breakfast the next morning focused exclusively on thequestion: How cold was your room last night? Air con-ditioner problems led to outrageous tales of sleepingbundled in a wild assortment of clothing. As people be-gan running off to preconferences, I headed to the busstop and a morning in downtown San Antonio. Alreadybeginning to recognize faces, I teamed up with some fel-low NASIGers and visited the Alamo. Then AnastasiaLeshinsky and I took a wonderful boat tour of the River-walk area. Little did we know that the last time theNASIG conference was in San Antonio, one of the boatssank and the hapless NASIG members had to swim! (Ed-itor Note: A tall tale indeed. There was indeed a largecloudburst during the evening on the Riverwalk in 1991,but no NASIGers had to swim to shore.)

My first official meeting of the conference was theFirst-Timers Reception where I was to meet my mentor.After wandering the halls searching for the elusive andmuch-rumored women’s restroom, I entered the recep-tion area and received my dragonfly-adorned first-timerribbon. My mentor, Ann Ercelawn, proved to be one ofthe best parts of the whole conference experience. Shewas so friendly and helpful, encouraging me to take partin as much as possible and introducing me to everyoneshe knew (which was just about everyone). I count my-self very fortunate to have landed Ann as my mentor(Figure 1).

That evening the conference officially opened with avariety of speakers. Charles White (vice president, Infor-mation Resources, Trinity University) discussed our host

Davis

is Head, Periodicals at the State University of New York,Buffalo, NY 14260-2200; e-mail: unlsdb@acsu.buffalo.edu.

Sanders

is Head, Center for Studies in Demography and EcologyLibrary, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-3340;e-mail: lsanders@u.washington.edu.

Fenner

is Head, Acquisition Department, Walter Clinton JacksonLibrary, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greens-boro, NC 26402; e-mail: fafenner@uncg.edu.

Serials Spoken Here

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Davis / Serials Review 28/3 (2002) 240–247

city as a “minority majority”; Danny Jones (member,Conference Planning Committee) gave a moving memo-rial to Kathryn Soupiset, a former Trinity librarian andcochair of the 1991 NASIG Conference Local Arrange-ments Committee; and Moya Ball (interim associate vicepresident, Academic Affairs, Trinity University) deliv-ered a presentation about the history of Trinity Univer-sity, entitled “A Tale of Three Cities.” My favorite, how-ever, was Chris Nolan’s (interim director, Coates Library,Trinity University) humorous comparison of serials toteenagers: they come in later than expected, in theory wemanage them, but in reality it is the other way around,and if they seem expensive now, just wait! Then it wastime to hit the Esplanade for food, more food, and a livemariachi band. It was a beautiful evening for greeting oldfriends (like my former Indiana University coworkers, in-cluding one in a toga) and making new ones (Figure 2).

Day Two

Now to get down to work. The day began with the busi-ness meeting and greetings from representatives of theUKSG (United Kingdom Serials Group), ASSIG (Austra-lian Serials Special Interest Group), and GeSIG (GermanSerials Interest Group). Who says only Americans likeacronyms?! Then it was on to the plenary presentation,“Scholarly Communication from the Author/ProducerPerspective.” Steven Bachrach (Trinity University) pre-sented a lively challenge, which Adrian Alexander (Big12 Plus Libraries Consortium) countered. The audienceproved they were not taking a postbreakfast nap by thelively discussion that ensued. We took a break and dis-persed to various locales for issues and workshops. Therest of my day was spent at workshops—“CatalogingWeb Serials on the OCLC-CORC,” conducted byTschera Harkness Connell (Ohio State University) and“Using the ONIX International Standard to Manage Se-rials,” by Brian Green (EDitEUR) and Katharina Klem-perer (Harrassowitz), the poster sessions, and the Cata-

loging Network Node. Throughout the conference I wasimpressed with the quality of the presentations and thelively discussions that followed each.

Yee-hah! Get along little doggies to the Institute ofTexan Culture (ITC)! Beverley Geer is awaitin’ to intro-duce you to the variety inherent in Texan history. Fromhot chili peppers to dang good potato salad, displays ofpatented types of barbed wire and ethnic musical instru-ments heard on the range, the ITC has it all. But wait! DidI mention the real-live cowgirl band? “Not that boot scootstuff you see on TNN,” says Beverley, “but a real cowgirlwho knows how to yodel.” Y’all ready to two-step?

Day Three

Everyone rolls into the chuck wagon a little later thanusual the next morning but perks up in time for the day’splenary session on the Tempe Principles by StanleyChodorow (Questia Media Inc.) and respondent JohnCox (John Cox and Associates). My first chosen concur-rent session was “Sensemaking and the Digital Librar-ian” by Dr. Mary Lynn Rice-Lively (University of Texas).I found this session to be one of the best I attended, inpart because it focused on the changing nature of librar-ianship in a very positive way, highlighting new roles forinformation professionals and innovations in work pro-cesses. I found the presentation to be especially reflectiveof the can-do attitude that I encountered throughout theNASIG conference. Some librarians and institutionsseem stuck in a rut when it comes to technology andchange and hope that if they ignore change it will ceaseto happen. Serials folk are perhaps better prepared to ac-cept change, as it is an integral part of their job. Serialscatalogers update, revise, and create new records con-stantly; there is no such thing as a static serial record (un-less perhaps it is dead). Serials acquisitions experts knowthat licensing and aggregate journal databases are con-stantly changing. Change is. I was delighted to see somany NASIG members not only accepting this fact, but

Fig. 1. Lisa Sanders with Ann Ercelawn, Mentor Extraordi-naire (right).

Fig. 2. Back row: James Castrataro, Michael Arthur. Frontrow: Pam Owens, Joanne Deeken, and Lisa Sanders.

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embracing it. This presentation and others challenged meto keep pace with new innovations and to dedicate my-self to continued learning about technologies that influ-ence our chosen profession.

Instead of taking a break during the afternoon, mymentor, Ann Ercelawn, encouraged me to attend a com-mittee meeting in order to learn more about NASIG as anorganization. I chose to visit the Electronic Communica-tions Committee primarily because Ann had been so in-volved with the committee over the years. It proved to bea very interesting meeting, and I was chosen to keep thenotes, which was fun for a newbie! I especially enjoyedthe brainstorming for possible programs at next year’sconference.

A previous NASIG student award winner recommendedthe workshop, “Jump Start Your Career in Library andInformation Science” with Steve Oberg (Endeavor Infor-mation Systems) and Priscilla Shontz (Driscoll Children’sHospital Medical Library). I then capped off the after-noon with a case study on the management of electronicjournals called, “E-Journals: Automating Ourselves Outof a Job,” with Rob Casson and Rob Withers (both fromMiami University, Oxford, OH).

Our last evening in San Antonio was spent where elsebut on the Riverwalk. I teamed up with an old friend anda new one to wander the river walk and sample the greatcuisine.

Day Four

The end is near, can you believe it? On the one hand, I feelas though the conference has just flown by; on the otherhand, I am as stuffed full of new ideas as a sidewalk caféon the Riverwalk.

My last two sessions at the conference were very in-teresting. “Three Dimensional Serials or How I Learnedto Love Content Management on the Web” presented byDebora Seys (Hewlett Packard) was an intriguing look athow Web pages are similar to and different from othertypes of documents. Particularly insightful, I thought,was her description of what a catalog is in terms of com-munity and meaning, and how we maintain this meaningwhen we no longer have physical items to catalog. Shemaintains that serials have adapted particularly quicklyto Web technologies because they are more like conver-sations, and we as catalogers must capture the meaningof the conversation, not the individual bits. Finally, theconference ended with “Generation Y: A Perspective onAmerica’s Next Generation and Their Impact on HigherEducation” by Stephen R. Merritt, dean of EnrollmentManagement, Villanova University (Pennsylvania).

So what did I take away from four intense days ofNASIG (besides my former boss who needed a ride to theairport)? NASIG is full of members who stretch theboundaries of their profession with dedication and hu-mor, and the conference was packed with sessions thatchallenged us to consider new technologies and newideas. I would recommend NASIG not just to those in-formation professionals who are interested in serials, butto all who want to probe the boundaries of our profes-sion. I am extremely grateful to NASIG for allowing me

the opportunity to attend the 2001 conference as a stu-dent grant winner and hope to continue my associationwith the organization regardless of my job path.

I hope to see you at the College of William and Mary inJune 2002 for NASIG’s Seventeenth Annual Conference!

11th Annual

North Carolina Serials Conference

Audrey Fenner

The 11th Annual North Carolina Serials Conference washeld in Chapel Hill, NC on April 11–12, 2002. Its chiefeducational sponsor was the School of Library and In-formation Sciences, North Carolina Central University.Attendees represented academic, public, and special li-braries from many North Carolina libraries, as well aslibraries in nearby states. Representatives of several serialssubscription agents and publishers gave presentationsand attended sessions, taking part in open and frank dis-cussions with library attendees.

Keynote Address: “Premarital Counseling: What to Expect from Changes in Access and Formats”

The conference had the intriguing, if not coy, theme:“Marriage, Serials Style: Maintaining the Harmony Be-tween Libraries and Information Providers.” A subordi-nate theme was an undercurrent in several sessions:maintaining harmony in the serials realm between printand electronic formats. The scheduled keynote speaker,Judy Luther of Informed Strategies LLC, was unable toappear. Instead, Evelyn Council, chair of the conferenceplanning committee, offered a “virtual Judy” who tookvisible shape and form in librarian Nancy Gibbs of DukeUniversity. Gibbs read Luther’s prepared talk, showedher PowerPoint slides, and interjected observations ofher own.

The talk began with an overview of the shift from thetangible, consumable product orientation of the Indus-trial Age to the intangible, continuous-use, geared-to-service character of the Information Age. In libraries andpublishing this shift is apparent in the transition fromprint to electronic formats. Information products thatare available in print only are limited in use, location, andaccess. Electronic products can be made continuouslyand are repeatedly consumable by many users at manylocations. Electronic resources can be linked and theirfunctions integrated into workflows for both librarianand user. Heightened user expectations are becoming in-creasingly evident: users want 24/7 access to materials,available anytime, accessible from anywhere, and pro-vided on a self-service basis with no training necessary.Users expect and demand current information that is cus-tomizable to their own requirements and linked withother resources on the Web.

The idea that “the user is in the driver’s seat” has ledlibrarians and publishers to sharpen their focus on thecustomer. Libraries are demonstrating this concern in