NASIG Newsletter

[Ed. note: Highlights from the fall committee report to the Executive Board.]

PUBLICATIONS/PUBLIC RELATIONS
Marit Taylor and Glen Wiley, Co-Chairs

Glen Wiley and Kathryn Johns-Masten, our committee’s web librarian, are currently making changes to the Speakers and Consultants Directory. These changes include the following:

• Adding the opportunity to link to external documents within the submission form, in order to cut down on the length of profiles & keep more up-to-date information.
• Create a more consistent feel with headings, fonts, etc. in each profile.
• Change the order and naming of the profile fields.
• Change the submission form to align with the changed profile fields.
• Adding relevant subjects to the subject index. Some examples are Electronic Resource Management Systems, FRBR, and Usage Statistics.
• Removing out-of-date or not used subjects from the subject index. Some examples are SISAC, Internet, NOTIS and Documentation.
• Changing the wording of subjects within the subject index. Some examples are Automated Systems to Integrated Library Systems and EDI to EDI-EDITEUR.
• Combining subjects within the subject index. Some examples are Subscription Agent Evaluation and Vendor Selection Evaluation

Once these web changes are completed, the committee will to divide up the current names in the Directory. The committee will use a message drafted last year by Jeff Slagell to send to people presently in the Directory. The message will ask them to update their Directory entry. After we update the existing profiles, the committee will solicit for new speakers. We will then publicize the updated Speakers and Consultants Directory on the NASIG Newsletter, on the NASIG listserv, and through other avenues to promote active NASIG representation at other association meetings and conferences.

The committee is trying to follow up on promised NASIGuides by new authors on new topics. These new guides are on the topics of working with subscription vendors, cancellation workflow, serials in institutional repositories, MARC for serials, and FRBR. These guides were promised by for this past year’s conference and early fall. Once we receive these guides, each NASIGuide will be edited by one committee member for content, and another for style. Right now, we anticipate these new NASIGuides to be released in early 2008. We have also attempted to attract more NASIGuides authors and topics in the NASIG Newsletter without much success.