TECHNOLOGY PLAN IMPLEMENTATION UPDATE
Donnice Cochenour, Project Manager

This is the third update on the status of the website migration.

The NASIG website content is being migrated from the old site to the new site by Jia Mi and members of the Electronic Communications Committee. The biggest item left to complete is migration of the conference Proceedings. Other publications (Newsletter and NASIGuides) have been migrated, as well as most of the remaining Web pages. An exciting change on the new site will be the ability for members to update their personal information in the membership Directory through their “My Profile” Web page. We will continue to link to the existing Jobs Blog rather than setting up the ArcStone Jobs function at this time, leaving that function to implement later.

The development of private Web working space for committees has been completed and operates based on the committee assignment being checked off on a member’s record in the membership database. Updating access to this work space will be as simple as unchecking the committee box in someone’s record in the membership database and checking it in the new committee member’s record. A committee member accesses their private work space from a link off their “My Profile” page under the “My Membership” tab. Private Web space for a new committee or task force can be created simply by adding that committee to the list of committees in the membership database. While this isn’t a perfect solution (there still appears to be no way for a committee to upload a file and keep it confidential – anyone with admin permission to upload documents will be able to access any documents uploaded to the site), this has been one of the most difficult tasks for ArcStone to complete to our specifications.

ArcStone continues to work on the integration of the website with the AMO Administration modules. Yet to be completed are: linking the “Search the Directory” function with the membership database in Admin, completing the ability to search the website, linking the “Events Calendar” with the events function in Admin, linking the Discussion Forum to the website, and linking the Photo Gallery in Admin to the Conference Photos Web page.

DISCUSSION FORUMS
The Discussion Forum space has been created for the general NASIG membership and currently has three different “chatrooms”: one for the annual conference, one for general discussion topics, and one for announcements. More chatrooms for different purposes can be added upon request, but must be done by ArcStone staff. (This isn’t something we can do ourselves through the AMO Admin module). ArcStone also created a separate configuration of the discussion forum software to allow a committee to conduct private discussions to test as an alternative to using the listserv to communicate committee business. The ECC is the pilot committee for this test. There is apparently no way with this software to create a chatroom within the general discussion forum and restrict access to a limited group of people. Each committee will have to have their own discussion forum space, separate from the general membership discussion forum if we decide to use this method to replace listserv communications.

WEBSITE PERMISSIONS
The Rights/Roles/Users function of AMO Admin now allows appropriate permissions to be assigned for Web editing, as well as for access to specific functions within the AMO Admin modules. Individuals can be given permission to edit content on a single Web page, or all content within a tab such as “About NASIG”, as well as permissions for AMO Admin functions for Events (Conference), Members (database), Discussion Forum (allows deleting and editing content, but not creating a new chatroom), Messaging (broadcasting emails to the entire membership, or selected groups, committees, etc), Jobs, and Administration (assigning permissions, uploading files, survey management, etc).

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL/JOIN NASIG
The ability to pay dues to renew membership or for someone new to join NASIG through the website is under development. The online form for new members is being developed, and membership renewal is being tied into the credit card payment system and the membership database to automatically update the “renewal date” at the point of payment.

CONFERENCE EVALUATION
The Evaluation & Assessment Committee chair has been introduced to the survey software on AMO and is in the process of creating the conference evaluation instrument. There is an issue with non-members being able to complete the survey online because the standard implementation of the survey software requires users to log in through the membership database. We are still investigating alternatives to this login requirement with ArcStone.

CONFERENCE HANDOUTS
The ability to upload PowerPoint, Word, Excel, PDF, and other document types is now functional in the AMO Admin – Documents Upload section. A separate directory exists to upload conference handouts. After a file is uploaded, the AMO software assigns a URL which can be used to create public access to the file on the website. This is the alternative for the Moodle space used for conference handouts in the past.

PHASE II
The blog and wiki have been placed in a Phase II implementation and won’t be completed until after the main website goes live. There are also several items in the reports functionality that need to be completed. (We are currently unable to draw membership reports based on join date or renewal date, for example). We will not wait for this to be fixed before we go live with the website, as it is a back end function.

One of the biggest challenges for both the NASIG volunteers who have worked on the migration, as well as ArcStone staff, has been to have site development, migration and public use (registration, discussion forum, voting) all going on at the same time. The site is still on the development server with all debugging software in place which causes many error messages to appear at unpredictable times and also slows down response times. ArcStone has assured us that performance will be much faster once we are in production and out of testing/development.

The go-live date is May 23 and ArcStone is committed to meeting that deadline.

Thanks to Lisa Blackwell and the Database & Directory Committee members, as well as to Jia Mi and the Electronic Communications Committee members who have been intimately involved in the daily challenges of content migration and implementation.

CALL FOR NEWSLETTER CONFERENCE REPORTERS
Lillian DeBlois, Conference Editor

NASIG regularly publishes reports on the annual conference in the September issue of the NASIG Newsletter. The Newsletter needs volunteer reporters to cover the conference events, including the preconferences, vision sessions, strategy and tactics sessions, workshops, informal discussion groups, and user groups. I am soliciting your help in covering the sessions at the 2008 conference in Phoenix, Arizona for inclusion in the Newsletter. We would like to have all of the sessions covered. If you are planning to attend the conference and are interested in submitting a report on a session, please contact me directly (lillian_deblois@msn.com).

Please indicate the session(s) that you would like to cover since I do not have access to your registration preferences.

The following guidelines will apply:

•    The reporter’s name will appear in the byline as the author of the report.
•    The deadline for submitting a Newsletter conference report is July 1, 2008 (about 4 weeks after the conference) for inclusion in the September issue.
•     Reports are generally summaries of presentations and may vary somewhat in length, scope, and depth of coverage, at the reporters’ discretions; reports must be full prose (not outlines or written out notes) and preferably between 250-500 words.
•    The Newsletter Editorial Board reserves the right to edit reports to any degree, or to not publish any report it deems inappropriate or unsatisfactory.
•    Reporting for the Newsletter is not the same as recording for the Conference Proceedings; Newsletter reports are generally less substantial than articles in the Proceedings.
•    NASIG members, and especially the Newsletter Editorial Board, will be very appreciative and grateful for your report!

CALL FOR PROCEEDINGS RECORDERS
Allyson Zellner, Proceedings Co-Editor

NASIG is seeking conference recorders for the preconference, vision, and tactics sessions at this year’s annual conference in Phoenix. Recorders are asked to attend specific sessions, take notes and then synthesize the notes into a readable, comprehensive report of the session for the conference Proceedings. For vision sessions, recorders may be asked to listen to recordings of a presentation and work with the speaker to create a report for publication in the Proceedings.

Reporters will work under the general direction of the Proceedings editors. Editors for the 2008 Proceedings are Buddy Pennington, Allyson Zellner, and Carol Ann Borchert.

If you are a NASIG member with the ability to write clear, organized prose, and who is able to submit a report by Friday, July 18, 2008, please consider this opportunity to make a valuable contribution to the organization.

To apply, submit a letter of application by e-mail to:

Allyson A. Zellner, MLIS
E-mail : azellner@ebsco.com
Phone: (205) 981-4074

Include in your application your complete contact information (including your snail mail address, e-mail, and phone number!), sessions you plan to attend, and a writing sample. Please include the writing sample as an attachment or as a link. The writing sample can be on any topic; it does not have to be related to librarianship. The purpose of the writing sample is to illustrate your writing ability. Suggested samples include: reports on a process, event, or meeting; book reviews; excerpts from essays or academic papers. Do not include minutes of meetings.

The deadline for applications is Friday, April 18, 2008.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PRESIDENT’S CORNER
—Strategic Planning Final Report
—Strategic Action Plan
EXECUTIVE BOARD MINUTES
TREASURER’S REPORT
2008 ELECTION SLATE
NEW WEBSITE PREVIEW
TECH PLAN IMPLEMENTATION UPDATE
GUEST EDITORIAL
—JoAnne Deeken on Digital/Analog: TS Organization
23rd ANNUAL CONFERENCE ( 2008 )
—PPC Update
—CPC Update
PROFILES
—Sarah Sutton
—A&R Committee
OTHER NASIG NEWS
—Organizational Sponsorships
—Volunteer for NASIG
—Pub/PR Updating Speakers/Consultants
—Mentoring Program Reminder
—Committee Updates
——Awards & Recognition
——Bylaws
——Continuing Education
——Database & Directory
——Evaluation & Assessment
——Library School Outreach
——Nominations & Elections
——Proceedings
——Publications/Public Relations
OTHER SERIALS NEWS
—Copyright: Myth, Principles, and the Law
—Skills for 21st Century Tech Services
—SERU
THANKS TO OUR DONORS!
TITLE CHANGES

PDF edition

PRESIDENT’S CORNER
Char Simser, NASIG President

Vote, Volunteer, and Vision!

ONLINE VOTING
It’s here! Some might say “big deal” or “it’s about time,” but that does not diminish this historic moment one iota. We talked about online voting for several years. Paper balloting was time-consuming and expensive. The move to online balloting hasn’t come with blood, sweat and tears, but it has been a lot of work behind the scenes. Donnice Cochenour’s technology updates do not describe the hours that she and Lisa Blackwell, Database & Directory (D&D) Committee chair, have put into verifying that the new membership database is working the way we expect. It does not count the hours that Gail Julian and her Nominations & Elections (N&E) Committee members tested the balloting. Online voting is open! We have an excellent group of NASIGers on the ballot this year. Please cast your vote. Participate in the process that elects your leaders, the individuals who will guide NASIG in the coming years!

VOLUNTEER FOR A NASIG COMMITTEE
The call has gone out! NASIG needs you! This organization thrives on the spirit of volunteerism. I sincerely hope you will consider putting your name forward. I jumped in with both feet a few months after first joining NASIG when my (now former) boss and I applied to be Proceedings editors in 1997. That experience allowed me to meet so many NASIGers. Volunteering opens some great networking opportunities and wonderful friendships! Do it! You won’t regret the decision to get involved.

VISION: STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS UPDATE
The weather, the primaries and caucuses, and the stock market have been wild these last few months. But nothing exemplifies “wild” like NASIG’s new strategic directions. Okay. Maybe they aren’t that wild but they will chart some new directions for our organization. I kicked off the discussion about our plans in the December Newsletter. I promised we would have documents from our October strategic planning retreat available on NASIGWeb by January. Because of the transition to the new website, I am making the documents available via this column until we can move them to their permanent home. Do take a look at the summary from consultant Betty Kjellberg of Association Solutions, LLC, which includes our action plans outlined for one year, October 2007-October 2008. I will highlight the progress we have made, which is reflected on the revised action plan:

• Appointed and charged the Administrative Support Task Force, chaired by Katy Ginanni
• Appointments underway for the Financial Advisory Committee
• New membership database and online voting in place; new website set to debut soon
• Publicized our volunteer program and the petition process for elections via the Newsletter
• Institutional membership report presented to the board; MDC will prepare a formal proposal to go to the Bylaws Committee with a ballot to go to the membership later this year

IN OTHER NEWS…
Site selection for our 2009 conference has been finalized. Asheville, North Carolina, here we come! Those dates are June 4-7, 2009.  We will begin the review process for the 2010 location this spring.

In the meantime, I do hope to see you in Phoenix for NASIG’s 23rd Annual Conference. Check out the Conference Planning (CPC) and Program Planning Committees reports in this issue of the Newsletter and watch your inbox for updates from CPC in the next 3 months. This conference has the potential to be the best NASIG annual meeting yet!

NASIG Strategic Plan Summary

Revised Action Plan

THANKS TO OUR DONORS!

NASIG received donations from the following members in the period of November 2007-January 2008.  Donations are used to support NASIG scholarships and awards.  Thanks to all for their support of these important programs!

Miriam Allman
Mary Bailey
Chris Brady
Joan Cohen
Susan Davis (in honor of Rose Robischon)
Christie Degener
Tina Feick
Tonia Graves
Diane Grover
Lola Halpin
Michaelyn Haslam
Mary Page (in honor of Rose Robischon)
Char Simser
Joyce Tenney
Kathryn Wesley (in honor of Rose Robischon)
Sharon Wiles-Young
Kyle Winward
Anonymous
Anonymous
Anonymous
Anonymous

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

PUBLICATIONS/PUBLIC RELATIONS
Marit Taylor, Chair

Kathryn Johns-Masten, our committee’s web liaison, made changes to the Speakers and Consultants Directory as outlined in our October report.  This included reworking the submission form, changing the order and naming of the profile fields, in the name of ensuring more consistency.  They quickly resolved some problems reported with the revised form. Susan Banoun and Sandy Folsom sent out a message to people currently in the Directory asking them to update their entries.  Kathryn received twelve updated profiles and five members asked to be removed or are no longer NASIG members. These changes have been made and the new profiles are much more consistent and attractive as well as more up to date.  We will send out a second reminder to those who didn’t respond, and at some point will remove entries for those who don’t respond.   I am planning also to send out a general request for participants through NASIG-L and perhaps also particular ones to people who expressed interest in the Directory while answering my last year’s NASIG-L survey of opinions on the Directory.

Linda Pitts reports that we still have several NASIGuides pending; these are on MARC fields for serials, serials and institutional repositories, and FRBR for serials.  One possibility on working with subscription vendors many not be written by the original people because of the board’s concern about naming individual vendors, although that topic is still open.  We have recently received an email from someone interested in writing a new guide on electronic resources workflow; we responded and plan to discuss his proposal after ALA Midwinter.

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

PROCEEDINGS
Carol Ann Borchert and Buddy Pennington, 2007 Co-Editors

• The manuscript for the 2007 NASIG Conference Proceedings, Placing Your Bets in Kentucky:  The Serials Gamble, was sent to Haworth on October 30, 2007.  Our eleven pounds of glory included thirty-five papers.  Many, many thanks to all of our authors and recorders for their hard work and cooperation!
• The editors notified Haworth that we plan to go without an index for the 2008 Conference Proceedings.
• The monograph version of the 2006 NASIG Conference Proceedings, Mile-High Views: Surveying the Serials Vista, was published in October 2007.  The 2006 proceedings have also been posted on NASIG’s Web site.
• Our call for editors was successful, and Allyson Zellner will be joining us in January 2008.
• The longtime editor that has been proofreading the NASIG Conference Proceedings since 1992, Nancy Deisroth, will no longer be working with us.  We will miss her guidance and input!  This year, the editors are going through a transitional process as the Haworth and Taylor & Francis merge operations, so, like our publishers, we are in uncharted territory.

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

NOMINATIONS & ELECTIONS
Gail Julian, Chair

Nominations were due by October 12, 2007.   A total of 65 names were submitted.

Vice President/President-Elect:  38 nominations for 19 individuals
Member at Large: 100 nominations for 55 individuals

Some persons received multiple nominations, and some were nominated for both VP/PE and MAL.  Five persons could not be considered because they are members of the N&E Committee or were not current NASIG members. 

The Committee divided the remaining 60 names and contacted the nominees first by email and then by phone to gauge continued interest.  Of the 17 remaining nominees for VP/PE, three originally agreed to continue the review process;  however, one of the three later reconsidered, leaving two nominees for  that position.  Of the 52 remaining nominees for Member at Large, 24 agreed to continue the review.

Completed profiles were due by November 12, 2007.  After reviewing the completed profile and reference forms, the Committee met via conference call to discuss qualifications.  The Committee opted to check references on both remaining VP/PE nominees and on eight of the MAL nominees.  During the week of January 7, 2008, the Committee plans to meet via conference call to discuss reference checks and to set the slate.  Once the slate has been reviewed by the Board and the nominees notified, we will announce the slate to the general membership and put out the call for petition candidates, hopefully, by January 14, 2008.

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

LIBRARY SCHOOL OUTREACH COMMITTEE
Sarah Sutton, Chair

We have made the following progress on our goals for 2007-08:

• Kara Killough volunteered for and was appointed to the Committee
• Developed information pages within our Google Group detailing contact information, previous award winners, and NASIG alumni for “ambassador” schools:
  • LSU School of Library and Information Science
  • Dominican Graduate School of Library and Information Science
  • Indiana University School of Library and Information Science
  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Graduate School of Library and Information Science
• Shared our contact information for “ambassador” schools with A&R in order to facilitate their efforts to promote NASIG 2008 Awards
• Begun outreach to these schools by promoting NASIG 2008 Awards
• Begun the process of recruiting ambassadors to:
  • Texas Woman’s University School of Library and Information Studies
  • University of North Texas School of Library and Information Science
  • University of Texas School of Information
  • University of Arizona School of Information Resources and Library Science
  • San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science

During the spring we will:

• Complete recruiting ambassadors for the five schools noted above
• Develop supervisory relationships between Committee members and those new ambassadors
• Develop a procedure by which ambassadors could step down from their duties in order to make the transition for the library school from one ambassador to another as smooth and seamless as possible
• Continue to add to our Google Groups pages in order to share ideas, results, and materials that Committee members and/or Ambassadors have found useful in their work with library schools
• Compare the number of award applications received from library schools with ambassadors to the number received from these schools previously and to the number received from other library schools as one method of evaluating the committee’s progress