MARS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
New Orleans Convention Center-98
Minutes (Business Meeting)
January 10, 1998

Members Present Executive Committee: Lise Dyckman, William McHugh,
Marcella Stark Amy Tracy Wells, Paige Weston, Becki Whitaker,  Committee
and Task Force Chairs: Denise Bennett, Ellen Bosman, Sara Brownmiller,
Nancy Buchanan, Andrea Copeland, Lee Dalzell, Susan Hocker, Naomi
Lederer,  Lori Morse,  Karen Reiman-Sendi, Nicolas Rosselli,  Lyman Ross,
Peggy Seiden, Arlie Sims, Mary Strife.

Amy Tracy Wells called the meeting to order at 3:08 PM.


A  Orientation

1. Introductions were made. Committee rosters were distributed and are to
be returned by the end of the conference. Committee chairs were reminded
to take attendance at meetings and to gather correct addresses. Members
were also reminded to distribute committee interest forms at their
meetings. Any materials for Planning should be submitted to Julia Rholes
by February 13.  Materials for _Update_ due at midnight January 19.

B. Non-MARS meetings of interest.

1 _Reference in a Digital Age_ sponsored by Library of Congress on Sunday
afternoon at 4:30-6:30PM.

C. Committee Reports

1. Education Training and Support (Arlie Sims). 61 participants at
discussion forum on evaluating Web sites. Discussion was led by  Esther
Grassian of UCLA. Committee will be meeting to determine what to do next.
Plans are underway to link committee's web page with the MARS page. When
the page is linked, notices will sent be sent to listservs.

2. Local Systems (Lyman Ross). Sponsoring joint program with Managers in
MARS on Sunday afternoon. Topic "Networking Reference Services" is
analogous to program that follows "Reference in a Digital Age."

3. Management (Lee Dalzell). Working on a publication to assist small and
medium-sized libraries in designing creating, and managing web pages.

4. Nominating Committee (Denise Bennett) ALA election cycle has moved
ahead to February. Election results will be known in April rather than
right before conference affording incoming officers an opportunity to
begin work early.

Nominees are for Vice Chair/Chair-Elect: Linda Friend-Pennsylvania State
University, Marcella Stark-Southern Methodist University; Secretary: Lori
Morse-Free Library of Philadelphia, Jennifer Heise- Lehigh University,
Members at Large (2 offices):  Andrea Copeland-New York Public Library,
William Baer -Brigham Young University; and Becki Whitaker-INSCOLA, and
George Porter-California Institute of Technology.
Candidate statements will be posted on the MARS Web Page if all
candidates agree to have their information posted.

5. Planning (Julia Rholes, Naomi Lederer, Doris Ann Sweet) Will be
discussing discussion forums and updating the MARS handbook. November '95
is the latest edition of the handbook. Will be considering Web version of
handbook.

6. Program '98 (Peggy Seiden) "What are They Doing?" Have identified user
studies from EBSCO services, HotBot, Diane Nahl., and studies on the use
of full text resources done by JSTOR.  Committee is attempting to locate
a study on children's use of information. User Access to Services
committee is developing the Conference Bibliography.

7. Public Libraries (Andrea Copeland) Will be updating Glossary at the
meeting.

8. Scheduling Coordinator (Sarah Brownmiller) Requested everyone respond
promptly to her requests. Also please send her scheduling forms you
received from ALA in order to expedite process. The Scheduling
Coordinator never receives enough forms to cover all the MARS meetings.

Meeting adjourned at 4:05PM.

Minutes transcribed by
Marcella Stark
MARS Secretary
2/25/98
Corrections 4/26/98