MINUTES
ALCTS Publications Committee
2007 ALA Midwinter Meeting
Seattle, Washington
Sunday, January 21, 2007
4:00 PM-6:00 PM
Sheraton Seattle, Madrona Room
Members Present: Macee Damon, Ann D. Fath, Terry Paul Reese, Jr., Richard Sapon-White,
Aiping Chen-Gaffey, Connie Foster, Douglas A. Litts, Ann Marie Willer, Peggy Johnson, Janet
Belanger-Morrow, Anne Sleeman, Mary Beth Weber, Katherine L. Walter, Christine Squires
Taylor.
Members Absent: Daren Callahan, John McDonald, Elisa Coughlin
Guests: Pamela Bluh, Bruce Johnson, Angela Kinney
Report of Business:
1. Welcome: Committee members and guests introduced themselves.
2. Bruce Johnson, ALCTS President and Pamela Bluh, ALCTS President-Elect visited the
Committee. They reminded the Committee that the ALCTS Board had approved the 5-year
strategic plan in June. They asked that the Committee read over the plan and discuss what the
Committee should be doing to actualize it. John Duke has completed a survey on behalf of the
Board on evolving communications technologies. The results of the survey are on the ALCTS
website. The Committee has been asked to look at the survey results and discuss how we might
use the organization’s new communications abilities to conduct business, reach out more
effectively to the membership, and to recruit new members is the next step. They updated the
Committee on future ALCTS related to publications.
Pamela is busy making appointments to committees, etc. The 2008 ALCTS President’s programs
will include both a Midwinter Symposium and a program for Annual Conference (Cindy Hepfer
chairing). Editors of ALCTS publications should arrange times to meet prospective authors at the
ALCTS booth.
3. Paper Series Update- Anne Sleeman
Anne Sleeman has been appointed as the new Paper Series Editor. A Mini Editorial Board has
been created and is scheduled to meet on Mon., January 22, 2007. Pamela Bluh will see through
three of the publications in process, and Anne will take the other three and any new publication
proposals. She received a manuscript one week ago for a publication on electronic resource
management. It looks like 2-3 papers series publications should be issued in time for the 50th
Anniversary & Annual Conference.
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4. LRTS Update – Peggy Johnson
Peggy Johnson reported on LRTS activities. An acquisitions literature survey has been solicited.
LRTS needs more papers in general in the acquisitions area especially concerning foreign vendor
services, the new OCLC acquisitions module, and data standards for EDI. For the first time, a
guest editorial was commissioned to get a hot topic covered. The ALCTS Board accepted the
LRTS report and endorsed two points: encouraging ALA production services to establish a
means for electronic manuscript submission, and to pursue a preservation strategy for LRTS.
LRTS has explicitly guaranteed rights to authors to post their articles to institutional repositories
and the like.
Peggy Johnson will do editorial highlighting.
5. LMPI Update- Janet Belanger Morrow
Janet Belanger Morrow updated the Committee on LMPI activities. LMPI is on track for this
year’s Bowker publication. LMPI has decided that the issue of how to index electronic journals
must now be addressed. What they hope to do is to create 2 “model” libraries, one for academic,
and one for public, to deal with this issue. It will take a couple of years to put into the electronic
journal index into place. Information Today has offered a presence on their web site that would
be branded with ALCTS. This would allow individuals to download files and manipulate data.
LMPI would like to move forward with this before Annual Conference.
6. ALCTS Newsletter Online- Mary Beth Weber
Mary Beth Weber reported on ANO issues. Two issues of ANO have been published since
Annual Conference 2006. February 6 will be the deadline for the February issue to allow
reporters two weeks after Midwinter Meeting to submit their reports. For April and December,
the deadline will remain the first weekday after the first of the month. The call for reporters is
now issued to the ALCTS Leaders list first, to allow those who had already arranged for
reporters to respond before a general call goes out. ANO will expand its content to list grant
opportunities, calls for papers, and surveys. The display for the calendar of events will also
expand to include national, international, and regional events. Approximately 750 people have
signed up for automatic notification of ANO publication. A request was made by a Committee
member to make ANO available also in a PDF for ease in printing. ANO is publicizing various
50th Anniversary events.
7. FBDD Update – Kay Granskog
Narda Tafuri read a report submitted by Kay Granskog on the progress of this project. The
inputting has been nearly completed (a few new publishers need to be added for Asia-Pacific).
There remain a couple of glitches that affect display but they ought to be fixed and ready by
Annual Conference 2007. All Committee members are requested to review it for any errors or
problems that have not been identified. Christine Taylor is sure that these issues can be resolved
before ALA Annual and that the FBDD will be available for the ALCTS 50th Anniversary.
8. 50th Anniversary Pre-conference Publication Proposal :
Angela Kinney was present to represent the pre-conference organizers for the session tentatively
entitled: “What They Don’t Teach in Library School.” The pre-conference organizers were under
the impression that the papers will be made available as a Paper Series publication. Anne
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Sleeman did receive information from Pamela Bluh regarding this as a pre-conference. The preconference organizers still need to submit a formal publication proposal.
A question arose about a publication that was possibly in the publication queue entitled: “Value
of Cataloging Librarians.” The proposal had been submitted but was sent back to the authors for
revision and not approved.
9. Section Liaison UpdatesThe following Section Liaison Representatives updated the Committee on the status of their
section’s publications proposals and manuscripts: Janet Belanger Morrow for John McDonald
(AS); Douglas Litts (CMDS); Aipen Chen-Gaffey (CCS); Ann Marie Willer (PARS); and
Connie Foster (SS))
Acquisitions Section: The Committee reviewed the spreadsheet showing current publication
proposals and their status. Five new proposals are anticipated before Annual Conference. Three
new manuscripts should be ready for submission before Annual Conference. Six other
publications are in various states of revision or seeking new or additional authors.
Collection Management and Development Section: Presented the idea of a “lightly vetted paper”
a medium step between peer-review and just posting a presentation. It would get feedback after
posting then the author(s) would massage into an article for a peer-reviewed journal. Their
“Sudden Selector” series is going well. The top three areas of solicitation for authors are biology,
engineering, and economics. There are three new titles in that series with manuscripts due before
Annual Conference 2007. Three will have manuscripts due after Annual Conference, and two
new guides are on their way. Future projects include managing media collections, and a series of
electronic working papers on hot topics with some way to accommodate comments/discussion.
Cataloging and Classification Section: Aiping Chen-Gaffey reported that they have reviewed
three manuscripts since Annual Conference. One manuscript is ready for approval by the ALCTS
Board and three are ready for CCS Executive Committee approval.
PARS: One publication has been sent back to the editor for revisions and may need to consider
co-editorship. One publication is currently under review. The Preservation Education Directory
has been updated. A proposal is being developed based on the three years of programs on
“Saving Sound.”
Serials Section: Connie reported that her section has no new projects in the works. The
manuscript for Guidelines for Managing Microforms in the Digital Age is still in process. It has
a manuscript due date of June 2007.
10. Joint Meeting with ALA Publishing Committee Report: Richard Sapon-White.
Richard Sapon-White attended this meeting on behalf of the Chair, Narda Tafuri. The ALA
Publishing Committee was requesting feedback from divisions. They asked division
representatives questions: 1. Are you publishing all you want, and is anything getting in the way?
2. Is blogging having an impact on publishing? 3. Is there anything we’d like to have ALA
graphics do?
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ALA Publishing has first shot at anything a division publishes, however, even if it declines to
publish something they may still offer their assistance in marketing or design. The cost of these
services was not mentioned. Does the ALCTS Publications Committee want assistance with
marketing? N.B.: Nothing published outside of ALA has any marketing channel or outlet for
foreign sales.
The ALA Publishing Committee discussed the possibility of offering a program for potential
authors telling them what to expect going through the publishing process rather than a “how to
get published” program. Richard suggested to them that they may want to consider an FAQ. A
copy of the ALA Publishing Committee policy manual and organizational chart to the division
representatives in attendance was given to the ALCTS Publishing Committee.
Narda will obtain a copy of the form ALCTS office is using as a guide to marketing outlets for
publications and distribute it to the Committee.
11. New Business:
Douglas Litts reported on the FAQs that he and Richard Sapon-White have developed for the
ALCTS Publishing Committee’s Online Community website and which have been reviewed by
the Committee. It was suggested that an FAQ be added regarding the meeting days and times for
Annual and Midwinter. An FAQ will also be added regarding how members’ terms run. Narda
will post the FAQs on the Online Community site after Midwinter.
Narda will obtain a copy of the form the ALCTS office is using as a guide to marketing outlets
for publications and distribute it to the Committee for suggestions. The Committee asked if it
would be possible for the guide series that are being produced to be offered as part of a standing
order plan. Narda said that she would followup on this idea.
The lists of publications needing review on a regular basis have not been updated. The
Committee needs to look at the review process and determine why it is not working.
12. Future Business: None.
Committee Action Items:
 Review ALCTS form used as a guide to marketing outlets for publications.

Look at strategic plan again to identify goals and tactical objectives.

Update spreadsheets showing status of publication proposals.

Lists of publications needing review on a regular basis have not been updated. Need to
determine impact on review cycle.
The meeting adjourned at 6:00 p.m.
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