From the Editors    

Another Christmas, another season of being rushed off my feet!  This year has been particularly challenging with my daughter’s whirlwind schedule activities and recitals.  To top things off we’re preparing for a major upgrade of our Unicorn ILS just after we all come back from travels and celebration.  If I can get through the next two weeks sane, the gods will truly be smiling on me!   

All our TSS board members have been busy this season, as well.  There’s been a program to plan, elected offices to fill, and a push by our Membership committee to bring in new members and fresh ideas.  Details follow in this holiday edition of Technical Trends. 

Always remember that Technical Trends is a great vehicle for publishing articles about our profession, your special projects, or workshops and meetings you have attended that left a lasting impression that you would like to share with others.  This issue is mainly reports, but articles are always a welcome addition!

Even with all the rushing around, the spirit of the season shines through in ways large and small, and makes me appreciate again how special this time of year is.  Whether it’s that extra measure of cheer in the people I encounter, the sharing of old familiar songs and movies with my daughter, hearing from friends and family near and far through holiday cards, or the scent of fresh baked cookies in the oven, there’s something to remind me every day of the joy and warmth the holidays bring.  We wish all our readers joy and peace this holiday season and into the New Year!

JoLinda and Connie

JoLinda Thompson                                                          Connie K. Machado                       
Systems Librarian                                                           Head of Cataloging
Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library                                 Rowland Medical Library
George Washington University Medical Center                   University of Mississippi Medical Center
joleethompson@verizon.net or mlbjlt@gwumc.edu             cmachado@rowland.umsmed.edu                                                                                   

From the Chair

I bring you greetings from the Sunshine State, home of the mighty Gators.  I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every Section member for your dedication and hard work.  Our membership continues to increase and more and more of our new members are taking an active role in the Section.

TSS chairs and committee members have been working hard behind the scenes to move forward the Sections’ goals.  Nancy Burford, our program committee chair, has been working on our program and business meeting arrangements. She is also involved in continuing our recruitment and retention efforts by expanding recruitment efforts with library school, undergraduate, and K to 12 educators; and, encouraging development and recruitment of a diverse workforce.

The Standards Committee chaired by Nadine Ellero has increased its membership.  They are working with the MLA leadership on investigating the possibilities of making the arduous work of standards review an AHIP point accruing activity. The Nominating Committee, chaired by Virginia Lingle, is busily working on creating a slate of candidates for balloting. Xiaoli Li will continue her duties as Chair of the TSS Continuing Education Committee.  Chamya P. Kincy will be the MLA’s new liaison to ALA’s CC: DA committee.  Junie Janzen serves as the section representative to Section Council.  Robert Pisciotta continues to serve on the Ad Hoc Task Force for Research. 

Our star communicators continue to keep the membership informed and in touch through its Website, formerly managed by Walter Morton, and now by Connie Machado.  The section discussion list is managed by Mary Buttner, and the Technical Trends (online newsletter) co-edited by Connie Machado and JoLinda Thompson.  

The TSS was invited to participate as a member of the Scholarly Publishing Task Force, which includes the Government Relations Committee, Collection Development Section, Leadership and Management Section, the Association of Academic Health Sciences Librarians, and the Technical Services Section. The program is entitled: Scholarly Publishing Issues: The Challenges and Opportunities Facing Libraries in an Open Access Environment.  The Symposium will take place on Wednesday, May 23, 2007, 1:30 p.m.- 5:30p.m. At a cost of $175 members; $210 non-members and will provide 4 MLA CE Contact Hours.  Detailed information on the program can be found in the Mid-Year report.

This symposium as well as all the other hard work done by all TSS members will come to fruition at the upcoming MLA Annual meeting in Philadelphia.  I hope to see many of you there May 18-23, 2007.

Best wishes for now and may you all have a prosperous new year. 

Cecilia Botero
Health Sciences Center Library
University of Florida
P.O. Box 100206
Gainesville, FL  32610-0206
Phone (352) 846-0240
Fax   (352) 392-2565
Cecilia@library.health.ufl.edu

Hear Ye!  Hear Ye!  Nominations For Officers
The nominating committee is pleased to present the following slate for officers to be elected for the coming year: 

Chair-Elect/program chair:                                  Hanna Kwasik
                                                                        Louisiana State University
                                                                        HKwasi@lsuhsc.edu 

Nominee to MLA Nominating Committee:             Jan Cox
                                                                        Indiana University
                                                                        jcox2@iupui.edu 

Section Council Rep - elect                                 (pending) 

Please be sure to vote in the upcoming election!  Members of the Nominating Committee are:   

        Jan Cox        Mary Holcomb        Giin Lingle, chair 

Gin Lingle
val3@psu.edu

      TSS MEMBERSHIP NEEDS YOU 

It’s TSS Membership Renewal Time!         

All memberships in the Technical Services Section of MLA expired December 31, 2006.  

Renew Today! 

Please remember to renew your membership to MLA TSS and encourage your colleagues to join our section. As of October, 2006 we have one hundred sixty four members. 

To access MLA’s online application and renewal form visit: http://www.mlanet.org/joinmla/index.html 

To learn more about MLA/TSS visit: http://library.umsmed.edu/tss/ 

Thank you for joining us and renewing! 

2006/2007 TSS Membership Committee Members: 

Mary Holcomb
Junie Janzen
Lisa Palmer
Valerie Gordon (Ex-Officio)
Hanna Kwasik (Chair)

  TSS Program Update: 2007 Annual Conference

During MLA in Philadelphia, 2007, the Technical Services Section will again participate in three programs.  We are sponsoring “Revolution or Brotherly Love: OCLC, NLM, LC,” an invited panel discussion with representatives from these leading organizations.  It is currently scheduled for Monday, May 21, from 3:00-4:30.  This discussion will focus on the changes that have occurred and what the future might hold for bibliographic databases.  Decisions and developments from OCLC, NLM and LC affect more than technical services, they have potential impact on how our patrons access information.  The panelists will be announced in the Spring issue.  The NLM panelist will also be invited to address the TSS Business Meeting which will immediately follow the program.   

TSS is co-sponsoring two other programs.  First, on Sunday, May 20, from 4:30-6:00, “Information Revolution – Improving the Face of Vendor Relationships/Revolutionizing Our Bonds,” is an invited panel session with a moderator and contributed posters.  The primary sponsor is the Hospital Libraries Section, and another co-sponsor is the Collection Development Section.  The second program is a contributed papers session, “Declaring Our Independence: Ringing in New Practices, New Partners, New Spaces,” to be held on Monday, May 21 from 10:30-Noon.  This program’s primary sponsor is the Leadership and Management Section and the Hospital Libraries Section is the other co-sponsor. 

Nancy Burford
Chair Elect and Program Chair
Medical Sciences Library
Texas A&M University
nburford@medlib.tamu.edu

Opportunities for Professional Development

The purpose of this column is to list opportunities which may be of interest to our members.  While the column is not intended to be a comprehensive listing, the compiler/editor welcomes information on continuing education opportunities for possible inclusion in future editions of the column.  Although some of the courses listed below may indicate the awarding of continuing education units, only those specifically indicated as being MLA-approved have received prior approval from the Medical Library Association.

Winter ' 07 Learning Opportunities

The MLA Continuing Education Committee (CEC) still offers The Independent Reading Program which allows medical librarians and health information professionals to read selected articles in the Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA), complete an online article analysis, and receive MLA continuing education (CE) contact hours per article.  It's that simple!  Articles approved for contact hours are marked with the IRP icon on the JMLA table of contents, on the article, and on MLANET. Participants will receive 1 MLA CE contact hour for every article completed for the special member fee of $15.00.  What an easy way to build up AHIP credits! 
For more information and to start your program:   http://www.mlanet.org/education/irp/

MLA:  CORE: Gateway to Lifelong Teaching and Learning
Make MLA's Center of Research and Education your first stop for finding good educational content to support course development and lifelong learning.  
MLA Members can add new CORE-related resources in the Member Professional Toolbox!   Connect:  http://www.mlanet.org/core/index.html

We’d love to hear from you regarding past and future classes, sessions, or workshops that you’ve attended or would like to see posted here for the future.  Feel free to write a summary of interesting classes you have attended for Technical Trends.

Your CE Committee Chair,

Xiaoli Li
xlli@ucdavis.edu

Calendar of Events

 January - February - March
Planning Ahead
 

January

ALA Midwinter, Seattle, WA, January 19-22, 2007

Meeting information: http://www.ala.org/ala/eventsandconferencesb/midwinter/2007/home.htm

LITA Midwinter, Seattle, WA, January 19-22, 2007

Pre-conference workshops: "Podcast U: Libraries, Podcasting, and the New Culture of Personal Broadcasting on Campus" or "Simplifying Complex Projects Using Dotproject for Project Management"

http://www.ala.org/ala/lita/litaevents/annualconference2007washingtondc/Annual2007.htm

ALCTS Workshop Calendar, 2006-2007 Winter-Spring Schedule

Complete description and online registration: http://www.ala.org/ala/alcts/alctsconted/alctsceevents/events.htm

Of interest to TSS is "Metadata and Digital Library Development", Seattle, WA, January 17-18, 2007. 
Registration deadline for this workshop is January 3, 2007.

BCR  Workshops Calendar, December, 2006-February, 2007

Four categories of workshops are provided:  Cataloging, General Topics, Internet and Resource Sharing, and Web Design. 
Detailed information: http://www.bcr.org/training/workshops/dec06-feb07.pdf

SLA 2007 Leadership Summit, Reno, NV, January 24-27, 2007

"Experience, Knowledge and Innovation - Build it here!"  Keynote speakers:  Chip Heath and Ken Haycock

http://www.sla.org/content/resources/leadcenter/LeadershipSummit/07leadsummit/index.cfm

February

Fundamentals of Acquisitions Web Course, February 12-March 9, 2007

This four week web-based course is sponsored by ALCTS.  It provides a broad overview of the operations associated with acquiring materials in all types of library settings.  For more information check the website:  http://www.ala.org/ala/alcts/alctsconted/alctsceevents/webcourses/alctsfundamentals.htm

NEFLIN Workshop Schedule, January-May, 2007

The Northeast Florida Library Information Network (NEFLIN) provides a variety of workshops.
The schedule for January through March can be found at:  http://www.neflin.org/ce/schedules/currentSchedule.pdf

March

Basic Collection Development, Philadelphia, PA, March 22-23, 2007

Co-sponsored by ALCTS and PALINET.  More information will be posted at: http://www.palinet.org/ep_workshops_wsdesc.aspx?WSID=336

SURA/ViDe Digital Video Workshop, March 26-29, 2007, Georgia Institute of Technology 
 
"The Whole Shebang: Converged Communication Technologies in the Campus Information Ecosystem: Are We There Yet?" 9th Annual SURA/VIDe Conference.
 More information will be available shortly:  http://www.vide.net/conferences/spr2007/

ACRL 13th National Conference, March 29-April 1, 2007, Baltimore, MD

"Sailing Into the Future - Charting our Destiny,"  http://www.acrl.org/ala/acrl/acrlevents/baltimore/baltimore.htm

Planning Ahead

Medical Library Association, Philadephia, PA, May 18-23, 2007

"Information Revolution: Change is in the Air"   http://www.mlanet.org/am/am2007/index.html

SLA Annual Conference, Boston, MA, May 17-19, 2007

http://www.sportslaw.org/conferences/SLAPostcard07Boston.pdf

NASIG 22nd Annual Conference, Louisville, KY, May 31-June 3, 2007

No details as of this date.  Check this website for further information:  http://nasig.org/public/conferences.html

ALA Annual Conference, Washington, D.C., June 21-27, 2007

http://www.ala.org/ala/eventsandconferencesb/annual/2007a/home.htm

23rd Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning, Madison, WI, August 8-10, 2007

The Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning is sponsored by
©University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Organized by: The Graduate Program in Continuing and Vocational Education

For more information: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/

National Network of Libraries of Medicine

Training programs for January-April, 2007:  http://nnlm.gov/ntcc/schedule.html

College of Dupage Press: Library Learning Network

The Library Learning Network produces and delivers two series of teleconferences, "Soaring to Excellence 2007: Library 2.0 and Beyond" and "Library Challenges & Opportinities 2007".  For more information, click here:  http://www.dupagepress.com/COD/index.php?id=183

Medical Library Association 

Click here for descriptions of all MLA courses: http://www.mlanet.org/education/web/web_courses.html

Sue Trombley.
MLA/TSS CE Chair
susant@ahsl.arizona.edu

North American Serials Interest Group, May 2006 Annual Meeting
The 21^st annual NASIG conference, Mile High Views: Surveying the Serials Vista, was held May 4-7, 2006 at the Denver Marriott City Center in Denver, Colorado.  One of the highlights was a vision session presented by Robin Sloan entitled Things Fall Apart.  You can see an interesting video created by Robin and Matt Thompson, called EPIC 2015 (EPIC=Evolving Personalized Information Construct) at  http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/epic.   

T. Scott Plutchak offered What’s a Serial When You’re Running On Internet Time?  He discussed how we can manage and control the wide range of information options now available: electronic serials, electronic books that are being updated, individual preprints and postprints, and multiple versions that appear in institutional repositories.   

The third annual “focused vendor demo” session covered subscription vendor services to libraries, with emphasis on how vendors can integrate electronic into existing workflows, and how they serve the new needs of electronic subscriptions. This session was somewhat less interesting than those in previous years, as there seemed
to be more similarities in what the various vendors are doing for their customers. 

Informal discussion groups provided another way attendees could discuss issues of interest, such as digitized journal backfiles, link resolvers, Google, and a session about mapping access limits and licensing terms in an ERMS, facilitated by Mary Buttner & Judy Washburn from Stanford’s Lane Medical Library.  Other topics covered
at the meeting included serials cataloging issues, blogs, wikis and podcasts, various issues surrounding ERM systems, journal pricing, the situation of small and medium publishers, and open access and scholarly communication. 

The ten posters on display at this year’s meeting covered a wide variety of topics.  Usage statistics for collection development, economics in various situations, archival preservation of state-issued electronic serials, and integrated management were just some of the issues presented. 

Think about coming to the next meeting, at the Galt House Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky from May 31-June 3, 2007. 

Maggie Wineburgh-Freed
MLA Liaison to NASIG
mwfreed@usc.edu