ONLINE AUDIOVISUAL CATALOGERS
EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING
ALA Midwinter
Seattle, Washington
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Minutes
- Welcome, Introductions, Announcements
The meeting was called to order at 2:00 p.m. Board members present: Steven Miller, Vicki Toy Smith, Katherine Rankin, Bobby Bothmann, Jain Fletcher, Rebecca Lubas, Kelley McGrath. Visitors: Debbie Benrubi, Ann Caldwell, Bruce Evans, Mary Huismann.
- Secretary’s Report (K. Rankin)
Minutes from the Board meeting at ALA Annual in New Orleans in June 2006 and from the OLAC Biennial Conference in Mesa, Arizona in October 2006 were approved. The Secretary passed around the Board roster and asked people to make corrections to their information.
- Discussion: NACO AV Fnnel Future, Training Issues, etc. (A. Caldwell)
Ann Caldwell distributed documents having to do with the history of the NACO AV Funnel Project, the training of participants, and participation levels of members. She said that someone at the AUL level in a library needs to be aware of the Project and to sign a form that gives consent for library staff members to participate in the Project. Libraries can have different levels of participation. If a library does not meet Library of Congress’s level of participation for an independent participant, that library may still participate in the Funnel Project. Ann has followed up with the people who have stopped or were trained but never participated in the Project. Some had left the profession or retired, and one had a medical reason. Others never got back to her. She has backed off from training more participants because Library of Congress is just beginning to put some of the training materials online. Training is expensive both in terms of time and money. Ann is asking people in a region if they are interested so she could have a regional training session. She is planning to do that in Ohio, New England, and Washington, D.C. Ann did do training for a week in Lexington, Kentucky. She has had a few other enquiries. Possible trainees need a background in authority work. It is hard to do distance training unless the trainees have taken a class at LC or unless they are trained at a pre-conference workshop at ALA. If Ann knew people were willing to participate, she would be willing to give a day or day and a half training session. It might be possible to have a refresher class at an OLAC Conference some day. It might also be possible to have an online FAQ or a way for participants to ask questions online.
If LC put all the training materials online, it might be possible to have a wiki for a period of time such as four weeks for people to ask questions after they had read the material. Most of the headings in the project are for visual resources and popular music. There are not many headings for electronic resources or for health profession headings. There is no threshold for funnels.
- Treasurer’s Report (B. Bothmann)
In the past many people renewed their memberships for three years at a time, but now many are just renewing for one year. At this point, there are 448 members, of which 279 are personal members and 169 are institutional members. Bobby is lacking 70 expected renewals. Membership is down somewhat because some people have retired, and some have jobs that have changed too much for them to continue as members.
Our closing balance as of December 31st, 2006 was $11,612. OLAC received $2,000 in profit from the Conference in Mesa. That money could be used as seed money for the next Conference, there could be an OLAC grant, or it could be used for scholarships.
Please see the full Treasurer’s Report elsewhere in this issue.
- Newsletter Editor’s Report (J. Fletcher)
The publication of the December Newsletter had to be delayed because of the late date of the OLAC Conference, since it is the issue that is supposed to include all the Conference reports. So, the issue was sent out about a month later than usual.
There had been an announcement at the Conference about the possibility of adding a Production Editor to the editing team. Jain was able to report that, following the announcement, quite a few people expressed interest in the position. Sue Neumeister found an old description for Production Editor position and said that at least one person in the past had filled it. Jain has not had time to update for current needs yet, but she will send the descriptions out to the Board as soon as possible.
Someone suggested that the Newsletter be online only, but there are strong opinions against this idea. One of the big obstacles is that, since the Newsletter needs to be a benefit for its members, subscribers to an online-only edition would need a password. Also, institutional members might still want the Newsletter in print.
- CAPC Report (K. McGrath)
LC has not made progress with 155 form/genre headings. CAPC has come to some agreement on answers to questions asked by the Subcommittee working on maintenance for CAPC resources. Kelley is trying to track down Task Forces to see if they are done with their tasks, are still working, or are inactive. The FAQ/Best Practices Subcommittee has finished and will not submit any more reports. Paige is still working on the Non-Human Entities White Paper. The group working on the Streaming Media Best Practices hopes to have a draft for CAPC by May. New Business at CAPC involved an interesting discussion of cataloging "Playaways", but the group did not come to any conclusions on GMD or SMD. A joint Task Force with the MLA Descriptive Cataloging Subcommittee will work on a best practices document.
Please see the CAPC meeting minutes elsewhere in this issue.
- OLAC 2006 Conference Report (R. Lubas for the Conference Committee)
The Conference went really well despite some unexpected issues late in the Conference planning.
One of the keynote speakers cancelled within several weeks of the Conference date. John Howard, of ASU, stepped in to give the closing keynote address. This had the unexpected outcome of saving some of the Conference budget, since travel expenses were not needed for Dr. Howard. This factor, combined with frugality in making copies, fewer catered breaks, and a few comp’ed rooms for major speakers resulted in a fund that can be used as seed money for the 2008 Conference.
For the next Conference, the Board and the Conference Committee will need to plan better for expenses related to sign language interpreters or for any other accessibility issues that may arise. Julia Dunlap will serve as an advisor on accessibility for the Conference Planning Manual.
This year the Conference had a mix of traditional cataloging workshops and non-MARC metadata workshops. The traditional workshops still rate very highly and are in demand. There was good turnout for the metadata workshops. Future workshops should focus on practical mechanics of using non-MARC metadata, as opposed to theoretical development. A basic Dublin Core workshop that reviews each element might be a good start.
The Board needs to appoint an editor for the Conference Planning Manual. The Manual has been in the works since the 2004 Conference, and owes much to Marc Richard for its creation. Cathy Gerhart and Rob Freeborn have since made additions to it. There should also be input from the 2006 Committee. At present, no one really owns the document. The Board will put out a call on the OLAC List for someone to volunteer to be the editor, hopefully someone who has been on a local OLAC Conference arrangements committee in the last ten years, or at least has some conference planning experience for another organization. The hope is to have the manual ready to give to the 2008 Conference Committee to use, even if it is not ready to go up on the Web. The Board will have to approve the text before Web posting. Rebecca will send out the call for an editor.
- Outreach Coordinator’s Report (D. Benrubi)
The Chair of the 2006 Conference Committee had been disappointed that there was no response to his requests for sponsorship for parts of the OLAC Conference. Debbie feels that letters asking for sponsorship should have come from the Board. She will draft a form letter that should be sent on OLAC letterhead. She asked for ideas on whom to contact for sponsorship.
Debbie gave out membership brochures at the Conference. She is also giving them to people doing presentations on media cataloging. Debbie gave some brochures to librarians attending the FLIS book fair in Guadalajara. She has not yet contacted library schools. She asked if more may be printed since she is down to her last fifty and the Board agreed that another two hundred could be printed. Debbie has had the brochure translated by a paraprofessional but needs to have the translation checked. Steve will get someone at his institution to check it. Debbie also mentioned that she would like to have other OLAC material translated, especially documents that do not require regular revision, for instance, the document on how to write a summary note. OLAC does not have anyone designated to answer questions in Spanish. The Board would not have to pay again to use the logo on the brochure if the content is the same. Debbie gave some of the brochures to the people giving the map cataloging pre-conference workshop at ALA Annual. There is an electronic discussion list for educators of catalogers, so Debbie might be able to post a brochure there.
- AMIA Reports and OLAC Archives (S. Miller)
Zoe Waldron is our new AMIA liaison. There was discussion about whether or not the various reports she has sent (over and above the concise summary of AMIA activities for OLAC) should go into the OLAC Archives. The Board decided that whenever AMIA has online Conference reports about cataloging media, they should be linked from the OLAC Website rather than include them in the OLAC Archives.
- Membership Meeting Q&A Panel (S. Miller)
Board members agreed that the apparent lack of interest in the Q&A panel at ALA Annual in New Orleans was probably only caused by the heat that evening, that people are still interested in it and that there is still a place for it at the Membership Meeting.
- Electronic Voting (B. Bothmann)
Bobby can set up electronic voting or he can give it to someone else to set up. OLAC may need to purchase software at some point to enable electronic voting. For the next election, he can hand it over to another OLAC member at his institution, since he is a candidate. The fact that OLAC will have electronic voting will be announced both at the Membership Meeting and on the OLAC List.
- OLAC Website Review (D. Benrubi and S. Miller)
The OLAC Website looks the same as it did in 1997. Even though the content is kept up-to-date, it needs a fresh look. There needs to be a link to the Conference reports. Some things are buried on the Website. A Task Force needs to be created with newer members to make suggestions for updating the Website. Suggestions for membership included: the Vice President, Sue Neumeister (Web Manager), Debbie Benrubi (Outreach Coordinator), a volunteer with design skills and a volunteer with technical skills. An announcement and call for volunteers to the new Task Force will be made both at the Membership Meeting and on the OLAC List.
- Wiki for CAPC and OLAC (K. McGrath)
CAPC is considering two possible uses for wiki technology. One would be a workspace for the people on the Committee. The other is as a repository for CAPC’s "how-to" and final documents. This would potentially be easier to use and more searchable, allow documents to be posted to multiple categories, and permit distributed editing. This could include training documents and publications, as well as Jay’s Q&A columns. The people working on developing this could be the same ones who are working on the website redesign. There needs to be prioritization in the charge and Sue’s input. Steve will contact her.
- Closed Session
A closed session was held to discuss Conference planning and appointments.
- Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Katherine L. Rankin
OLAC Secretary
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Last updated: June 12, 2007
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