ALCTS Network News v4n21 (December 29, 1992) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/ann/ann-v4n21 ISSN: 1056-6694 ALCTS NETWORK NEWS An electronic publication of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services Volume 4, Number 21 December 29, 1992 In this issue COMMENTS ON OSTF REPORT PERIODICAL SALES TAX EXEMPTION RESTORED IN CALIFORNIA CC:DA ACTIONS AVAILABLE FROM ALCTSERV SILVERPLATTER TO OFFER CHOICE AND BOOKLIST BOOK REVIEW DATABASES ANSI STANDARDS AVAILABLE VIA CD-ROM ************************************************************************** COMMENTS ON OSTF REPORT [Following the publication of the second report of the ALCTS Task Force on Organizational Structure (OSTF) in the November 2, 1992, issue of AN2 (Volume 4, no. 9), Vicky Reich (Stanford University) sent the following memorandum to Beth Shapiro, Chair of the Task Force. Vicky has graciously agreed to allow AN2 to publish her comments in order to encourage further discussion. For other responses to the report see AN2, vol. 4, no. 12 and v.4, no. 16. -- Editor] Below are some thoughts on the OSTF's second proposal, and some reactions to thoughts put forward by my colleagues: 1. The committee responded to the strong sentiments of the community and put the Section structure back into the proposal. The assumption made by some who responded to the first proposal is that their section is optimal as presently configured. Although this may be true for some Sections, we owe it to ourselves to examine how else the Sections might be configured within ALCTS. Let's see our choices before deciding that the current structure is best. 2. Joe Barker said that he believed that if the Section structure was eliminated that like groups would re-establish themselves anyway. I believe he is right. The first proposal would have forced the ALCTS to go through a "zero-based budgeting" exercise with the formation of committees and groups. This certainly would have been interesting, and may have been beneficial as well. 3. One reason ALCTS may be slow to respond to the harder issues of the profession is that we have committees and groups which are narrowly focused, and these groups are using up valuable people resources. We may have enough smart, bright people who are willing to serve on the big issue committees, but do we have enough visionary leaders who with the pressures of their jobs have time to conceptualize, define and lead these groups? Maybe an activity for ALCTS is a leadership development program. 4. The current committee review process is thorough and complex. Have some committee chairs viewed this process as a challenge to be overcome for the sake of "beating out the bureaucracy"? The committee review process must be kept simple--and not be interesting enough so that it is a thrill to outwit the system. 5. I support the proposal that discussion groups are eliminated if there is not sufficient draw from the membership as audience. If fewer than perhaps 10 or even 20 people attend two meetings in a row, the group disbands. 6. The folks at the top of "flattened" organizations do not have vastly more power, they are too busy. However, "flattened" organization also grow triangular again over time. So, even if the Task Force's first proposal (sans Sections) had been adopted it may have been short-lived. The Task Force seems to be evolving towards a proposal that allows the hierarchy to evolve in a controlled way--this probably will serve the community better than setting up a more chaotic environment for change. 7. The trick is, to change the structure enough so that it feels different. So that folks have "power" within committees to take actions and make decisions; power that we likely already have if we gave ourselves permission to take it. 8. I am very impressed by the work of this group. The quality of the communications have been excellent from the newsletter reports to the open meetings. The tone set by the group has been welcoming and never defensive no matter how strong the attack. Thank you for this opportunity to share my thoughts. --Vicky Reich, Vicky.Reich@STANFORD.BITNET ************************************************************************* PERIODICAL SALES TAX EXEMPTION RESTORED IN CALIFORNIA According to the November-December 1992 issue of _California Libraries_, California Governor Pete Wilson signed into law bill SB 267-Kopp. This bill exempts periodicals sold by subscription from the sales and use tax imposed by AB 2181 (Chapter 85 of 1991). Mike Dillon, the lobbyist for the California Library Association (CLA), and other CLA members played a major role in assisting with the passage of SB 267 by testifying at hearings before the California Senate and Assembly policy and finance committees. AN2 reported on this issue in October 1991 (see volume 2, number 13). The ALCTS Board of Directors directed the "Resolution on Taxation of Periodical Subscriptions" to the ALA Council at the 1992 Midwinter Meeting. The resolution was adopted by the Council on January 29, 1992. ************************************************************************* CC:DA ACTIONS AVAILABLE FROM ALCTSERV At its meetings during the 1992 Annual Conference in San Francisco, the CCS Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access (CC:DA) discussed the idea of establishing a listserver for CC:DA documents. As a first step, the committee agreed to make a summary list of actions available to the ALCTS office for publication either in AN2 or for inclusion in the ALCTS listserver, ALCTSERV. The summary of actions for both the 1992 Midwinter Meeting and the 1992 Annual Conference are now available from ALCTSERV, under the file names CCDA MW92 and CCDA AC92, respectively. The resolution honoring Ben Tucker included with the report of actions from the Annual Conference meetings was endorsed by the ALCTS Board of Directors and will be taken to Council during the 1993 Midwinter Meetings. ALCTSERV is a fileserver of ALCTS forms, such as the ALCTS Membership Application Form and the PVLR Complaint Form, and back issues of both AN2 and the Newsletter on Serial Pricing Issues, nos. 1-37. To find out what's available among these files, send the following command to LISTSERV@UICVM: send alcts filelist. The ALCTS FILELIST contains the list of files with the EXACT filename and filetype. To get a particular file, issue this command to the LISTSERV@UICVM: send filename filetype. For example, to retrieve the CC:DA actions lists, do one of the following: tell listserv@uicvm send CCDA MW92 or send a note to LISTSERV@UICVM with the text send CCDA MW92. ************************************************************************* SILVERPLATTER TO OFFER CHOICE AND BOOKLIST BOOK REVIEW DATABASES SilverPlatter Information will publish CD-ROM versions of two book review publications from ALA. The Choice and Booklist databases are the CD-ROM equivalents of reviews published for _Choice Current Reviews for Academic Libraries_ and _Booklist/Reference Books Bulletin_ respectively. The Choice database now contains more than 26,000 concise, evaluative reviews of scholarly books (in English) published from 1987 through 1992. Each review is approximately 175 to 200 words in length. More than 6,500 new reviews are published annually concerning more than 44 academic subject areas. Choice reviews are written by college and university faculty and librarians, and are intended to provide a review service for academic librarians, undergraduate faculty, students and researchers. However, more than 50 percent of the books listed in Choice are judged suitable for general readers and for public library acquisition. The Booklist database now contains more than 18,000 reviews published from September 1990 through 1992. The more than 7,000 titles reviewed annually include general interest fiction and non-fiction for adults, as well as children's and young adult books, and a full complement of audiovisual media (video, audio, CD-ROMs, videodiscs, and computer software). Also published with _Booklist_ is _Reference Books Bulletin_, which offers in-depth, critical reviews of print and electronic reference tools. All Booklist reviews, which range from 175 to 350 words in length, constitute a recommendation for library purchase, on the basis of either quality or demand. Booklist reviews are written by an experienced, full-time staff of library professionals and by a small core of free-lance subject specialists. SilverPlatter plans to release the Choice and Booklist databases in the Spring of 1993. Each of these databases will be updated quarterly as new reviews published in the magazines are added to the database. The CD-ROM databases will be searchable by personal name, title, key words, and publication. ************************************************************************* ANSI STANDARDS AVAILABLE VIA CD-ROM Since October 30th, all standards published by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) have been available on CD-ROM (Compact Disc-Read Only Memory). This service, provided in cooperation with Information Handling Services (IHS), allows personal computer users with CD-ROM capability to locate ANSI standards within seconds and save hours of research time. Based in Englewood, Colorado, IHS references and provides access to industrial vendor catalogs, industry standards, military specifications and a wide range of related technical and regulatory publications. IHS provides this data to users by CD-ROM, as well as online, magnetic tape, microfilm or microfiche. The standards available on CD-ROM cover the full range of standards activity and include such areas as information technology, telecommunications, image technology, occupational safety and construction. Included with the service is the IHS Worldwide Standards Index, a comprehensive and powerful CD-ROM index of standards from the U.S., the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and other leading foreign standards bodies. Additional features of the service include: immediate access to related standards information via an index/cross reference feature; the ability to target precise information within texts via key-word search; and the updating of information every 60 days, thus keeping users aware of revision activity. To gain access to this service, call ANSI's Customer Service Department at (212) 642-4900. ************************************************************************* ************************************************************************* ALCTS NETWORK NEWS (ISSN 1056-6694) is published irregularly by the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services, a division of the American Library Association. Editorial offices: ALCTS, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611; Liz Bishoff, President; Karen Muller, Executive Director. Editor: Karen Muller (u34261@uicvm); Editorial Advisory Board: Liz Bishoff, Jennifer Younger, Arnold Hirshon; Editorial Assistance: Alex Bloss, Yvonne McLean. ALCTS NETWORK NEWS is available free of charge and is available only in electronic form. Opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the division. News items should be sent to the editor at Bitnet address u34261@uicvm. To subscribe, issue the network command "tell listserv@uicvm sub alcts [your name]." Back issues of AN2 are available through the listserver. To find out what's available, send the following command to LISTSERV@UICVM: send alcts filelist The ALCTS FILELIST contains the list of files with the EXACT filename and filetype. To get a particular file, issue this command to the LISTSERV@UICVM: send filename filetype. Send questions about membership in ALCTS to the ALCTS Office, u34261@uicvm. All materials in the newsletter subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or education advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. For other reprinting or redistribution or translations, address requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions, 50 E. Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611. *************************************************************************