FROM THE PRESIDENT
Kay G. Johnson
On September 27-29, 2002, 185 attendees from the U.S., Canada and abroad met in Saint Paul, Minnesota for the 10th OLAC Conference. I would like to thank the Conference Program Committee and the Local Arrangements Committee, under the leadership of the conference chairs, Bobby Bothmann and Betsy Friesen, for putting together an outstanding program and providing comfortable and convenient local arrangements. The workshop leaders presented information on a variety of traditional and cutting-edge formats. The opening and closing keynote speeches tied the conference together well with Jean Weihs’ interesting views of the history of AV cataloging and Suzanne Pilsk’s current look at OLAC. The other plenary speaker, Charles F. Thomas, described the metadata sharing efforts at the University of Minnesota, giving OLAC attendees a fresh outlook on digital project cooperation. OLAC was honored to be one of the first to offer the SCCTP Electronic Serials Cataloging Workshop, presented by Cecelia Genereux. The intensive, all-day pre-conference immersed participants in the rules and vagaries of cataloging e-serials. The other pre-conference was NACO-AV Funnel training offered by Ann Caldwell. Ann’s longtime efforts were recognized at the opening session of the conference by a well-deserved award given to her by Allene Hayes, a representative of the PCC. OLAC is fortunate to have so many outstanding librarians willing to take the time and effort to share their expertise with others.
In addition to the regular program, Nancy Olson presented a thought-provoking discussion on "non-human actors". Ian Fairclough led a group in discussing outreach/advocacy initiatives. He has been proactive in developing cooperative efforts with the OCLC networks.
I met many of the conference attendees on the Mississippi River paddleboat cruise. We enjoyed three hours of conversation, good appetizers and moving scenery on a boat named for the first schoolteacher in Saint Paul, Harriet Bishop.
In other news, OLAC has a new logo! It can be viewed at the head of the OLAC Website: <http://www.olacinc.org/>. Thanks to the efforts of everyone who participated in submitting designs and reviewing them. The logo was created at Lowell Ashley’s request by Nicole Van Doren, a Web designer at the Smithsonian.
I wish all of you a happy New Year, and hope to see you at the upcoming ALA Midwinter meeting in Philadelphia.
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Last updated: January 15, 2003
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