MARS Executive Committee

Minutes June 30, 1998

Renaissance Washington, RenWestA



Members Present: Executive Committee: Lise Dyckman, William McHugh,
Marcella Stark, Amy Tracy Wells, Beki Whitaker. Committee Chairs and
Incoming Officers: Sara Brownmiller, Ellen Busman, LeiLani Freund, Lori
Morse, Karen Reiman-Sendi, Pat Riesenman, Carole Richter, Colleen Seale,
Peggy Seiden, Arlie Sims, Mary Strife. Visitor: Michael Dowling.



A. Deadlines

1. Send roster corrections to Lise Dyckman by the end of conference.

2. Send Jian Liu conference report for Messages by the end of the week of
July 6-11.3. Send copies of committee minutes/ reports to Lise Dyckman,
MARS Chair, Linda Friend, MARS Vice-Chair, to Nancy Bodner, chair of the
Planning Committee and your Executive Committee Liaison.



B. Announcements

1. MARS: Members-at-large Liaison responsibilities. (Bill McHugh)

a. Bill McHugh: Products and Services, User Access to Services, Hot Topics
Discussion Group; Andrea Copeland: Public Libraries, Management Committee,
Managers in Mars Discussion Group; George Porter: Local Systems,
Education, Training and Support, Publications.

b. Members at Large were charged to remind future new committee chairs to
attend the MARS Executive Committee Friday meeting at Annual Conference.
Future Members -at Large will be explicitly be reminded that they
constitute the Awards Committee for the Section.



2. RUSA Executive Committee (Amy Tracy Wells) There were 50 recipients of
Spectrum initiative awards. BRASS observed its tenth anniversary.



3. RUSA/ALA guidelines for programs (Michael Dowling). Conference programs
cost ALA $150,000 annually. RUSA allows each section committee's to
sponsor two programs and budgets $1500 for each section. ALA does not
provide honoraria unless the speaker is not a librarian. RUSA provides
$50.00 in photocopying for each committee and photocopying allocation can
be used to support program.



C. Committee and Task Force Reports



1. Hot Topics (Ellen Busman).  Nineteen people attended discussion on
adaptive technologies. Discussion was one of three sessions at conference.
Linda Keiter was elected co-chair.  Next discussion topic under
consideration:  subject arrangement of Web pages. Will explore working
with CODES and sponsoring a joint discussion.



2.  Management (Colleen Seale). The checklist for planning, designing, and
implementing reference Web pages will be completed by Midwinter. Means of
distributing the checklist were discussed. Web publishing would mean
information could be distributed rapidly but there may be a wider audience
for a print publication.  Committee was advised to also speak with the
editors of RUSQ which has the right of first refusal on all committee
work.



3. Publications (Karen Reiman-Sendi). Has no new proposals for
publications under consideration. Committee chairs were reminded to review
their work and to consider developing publications out of their
committee's work. The Web Document Style Guidelines were presented for
Executive Committee's approval. The guidelines are in compliance with ALA
guidelines. The guideline were given conditional approval provided the
committee revise the guidelines, such as requesting that documents be
submitted in "native format" and making reference to ADA specifications.



4. Managers in MARS (Marcella Stark). Had 18 participants for a discussion
of values in the digital age.  Participants wrestled with issues
accountability and agreed with many of current staffing arrangements
(students workers, part-time staff) maintaining accountability is a
challenge. Discussants noted that fairness or perceived lack thereof may
be apparent now in relation to accessibility licensed resources. Current
culture may be moving by 24-7 mentality but participants questions whether
all library services need to be driven by that mentality.



5.  Scheduling (Sara Brownmiller). Committee and Discussion Group Chairs
need to send meeting requests forms to Sara. ALA Conference Services sends
forms to individual chairs but all of MARS meeting schedule is
coordinated. Sara needs all those forms to insure that all MARS meeting
requests can be made. Committee chairs need not complete the forms. They
need to poll their members for preferred meeting time and check the
Handbook for "no conflict" times before requesting meeting times.



6. Program 1998 (Peggy Seiden). Approximately 420 individuals attended the
program. Evaluations were overwhelming positive. Speakers notes, slides,
and papers will be posed on the MARS Web site. The Executive committee
expressed thanks and congratulations to Peggy for a successful program.

7. Program 1999. (Lise Dyckman for Karen Diaz). Considering the topic of
technologic censorship including disenfranchised users, the lose of
alternative literature in the move to full text databases, the dumbing
down of search engines to appeal to end users, free vs. fee, move toward
graphic intense web sites that cannot be read using adaptive technologies.

8. Products and Services (Bill McHugh). Considering sponsoring an Open
Forum at Midwinter on the topic on exactly what is "full text." Would have
a panel of librarians and information providers address the issue. Will
continue to add to the bibliography and use bibliography as a means for
members to participate electronically in the committee's work.

9.  Education Training and Support (Arlie Sims). Planning program for
Annual 1999. The proposed program would compare models of training
librarians on electronic resources and the use of these training models in
various library types. Speakers will present different models for training
and will be able to address why their model (e.g. consortial,
vendor-provided, shared expertise among staff, etc.) may be more or less
successful in different type of libraries.

D. Other Business



1. MARS Outstanding Reference Web Sites: Amy Tracy Wells and Becki
Whitaker agreed to serve as facilitators of Task Force. The Task Force
will work with committee chairs to identify committee members to serve on
the Task Force. The Task Force will work with committee chairs to
facilitate a Discussion Forum at Midwinter to announce the project to RUSA
and ALA. Discussion forum participants will be encouraged to assist with
defining the scope of the project, to nominate sites to be included in
resource, and to suggest methods for keeping the resource current. The
Task Force will publicize these activities on the MARS Website and on
other appropriate venues.

2.  Committee co-sponsorship: Agreed to cosponsor a one day preconference
on reviewing electronic resources organized by CODES.



Meeting adjourned at 12:30pm.

Minutes transcribed by Marcella Stark

MARS Secretary

7/29/98

rev. 1/3/98