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| Association for Library Collections & Technical Services Annual Report 2006–2007 | |
| Bruce Chr. Johnson | |
| Bruce Chr. Johnson is Assistant Chief, Cataloging Distribution Service, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; bjoh@loc.gov | |
The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) celebrated its first fifty years during 2006–2007. This celebration took the form of looking back, assessing where we are today as an association and as a profession, and considering where we would like to see our profession in the years to come. This year was punctuated by great tumult in the collections and technical services fields, and ALCTS focused much of its energies on directive change and professional advocacy. In doing so, the most tangible achievements came in the areas of education, dialog and collaboration, publication, standards creation, and organizational renewal.
ALCTS celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of both the association as well as its flagship scholarly publication, Library Resources & Technical Services (LRTS). The anniversary theme has been “Commemorating the Past, Celebrating the Present, Creating the Future.” An exciting array of events was planned by the ALCTS Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration Committee, ably led by 2002–2003 ALCTS president Olivia M. A. Madison. The following is a synopsis of a few of the anniversary events.
This symposium, held January 19, 2007, in Seattle, Washington, in conjunction with the American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Meeting, examined significant changes in scholarly communication, library services, collections, and staffing created by the digital environment. The symposium speakers discussed scholarship in the digital age, new communication models, the future of cooperative technical services and enabling technologies, and the training and education of staff working with digital collections. Statements, intentionally controversial and intended to evoke discussion from the panelists and stimulate audience participation, are the subject of Digiblog, ALCTS’ first Web log.
The speakers and topics at the symposium were:
This day-and-a-half-long conference engaged attendees in a thought-provoking, open, and participatory exchange on the transformation of our work and the profession. Presenters and attendees collaborated to explore the challenges we face and to develop a vision of the future roles of collections and technical services librarians. Participants were enriched and energized by this experience. After the three plenary session speakers, attendees had an opportunity to discuss how the issues and insights the speakers offered will affect the future of technical services. These sessions, led by an outstanding group of facilitators, provided a forum to explore the challenges we face and to develop a vision of the future roles of collections and technical services librarians.
The plenary session speakers and topics were:
Peter Morville is author of Ambient Findability and president and founder of Semantic Studios, a leading information architecture, user experience, and findability consultancy. He is widely recognized as a father of the information architecture field, and he serves as a passionate advocate for the critical role that findability plays in defining the user experience.
Many of the issues that ALCTS explored this year did not lend themselves to longer-range program planning. The association now is using the forum construct to allow for open discussion of hot issues with very short planning timelines. The following is a listing of forums from the 2007 Midwinter Meeting in Seattle. Details for forums at the 2007 Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., were not finalized at the time that this report was being written.
ALCTS CE falls broadly into two categories: workshops intended to introduce practitioners to basic and intermediate skills, and workshops and events focused on emerging trends in the profession. Nineteen workshops, institutes, preconferences, and Web-based courses were successfully offered a number of times during 2006–2007. Participant feedback was consistently very positive. The CE events were:
Additional workshops are being developed by various ALCTS groups, some in collaboration with outside groups, such as the Program for Cooperative Cataloging and the Cataloger's Learning Workshop. Although several of this year's workshops were delivered in a distance learning mode, there is considerable interest and volunteer investment in broadening additional opportunities to make them available to many more for whom face-to-face workshops are less than optimal. These efforts are being pursued concurrently with an exploration of a more curricular approach to continuing education.
The ALCTS publishing program is flourishing. A new volume on business resources appeared in the Sudden Selector Series, and several new titles in the ALCTS Papers series were issued. In addition to the new print publications, a number of new online resources became available.
New titles and series included:
Forthcoming titles and series include:
Web publications included:
In addition, ALCTS Newsletter Online (ANO) Editor Mary Beth Weber has done an outstanding job this year in enhancing both the content and format of our online newsletter. Initiatives included:
During the 2004–2005 year, ALCTS raised its personal and institutional membership dues by $10 per year. This increase was intended to fully fund the association's ongoing operation. We have had two years to assess this change's impact, and membership levels have held steady while ALCTS has essentially achieved a balanced budget for the first time in several years.
The Organization and Bylaws Committee this past year proposed the removal of section names and objectives from the ALCTS Bylaws, a change that was subsequently ratified by an ALCTS membership vote. This is a significant move, because it now gives section leaders the ability to more easily and efficiently revise and update their names and mission statements to reflect current goals, emphases, and values. In a time when rapidly changing technologies play such a pivotal role in shaping the environment in which we work, our organization and all its parts must be empowered to move forward at a similar pace in defining ourselves and our purpose.
The Library of Congress's (LC) spring 2006 series authorities announcement triggered discussion about what role LC should play in the cataloging world as well as what role ALCTS and ALA should play in shaping the future of cataloging. It was clear in analyzing 2006’s events that ALCTS was unprepared for the dynamics of cataloging change.
In response to this reality, the ALCTS board commissioned the Cataloging and Classification Section (CCS) Executive Committee to analyze change in the profession, particularly with an eye toward what the association should be doing about it. The resulting studies, “ALCTS and the Future of Bibliographic Control: Challenges, Actions, and Values” and “Overview of the Next Steps Documents Developed by the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) Sections (Acquisitions, Cataloging and Classification, Collection Management and Development, Preservation and Reformatting, and Serials) and the ALCTS Council of Regional Groups,” came to be known generically as the “Next Steps” documents.1 They served as catalysts for an association-wide discussion of professional advocacy and what steps ALCTS must take to exert a more proactive leadership role in driving professional change. Although many more questions than answers were raised in the course of this discussion, many of the conclusions are being incorporated into the ALCTS strategic plan as tactical initiatives.
Closely related to this analysis of ALCTS leadership roles, the association actively engaged in the work of LC's Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control.2 Two of the working group's three ALA members are ALCTS members (ALCTS councilor Diane Dates Casey and 1997–98 ALCTS president Janet Swan Hill), and the association is providing written testimony for each of the working groups’ public hearings.
The revision of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd edition (AACR2) has now ceased, and development of an entirely new descriptive analysis and access code, Resource Description and Access (RDA), has taken its place. This change has come in part in response to a heightened awareness that traditional cataloging codes must be relevant in the rapidly evolving metadata world. In addition to on-going standards development work, ALCTS held two forums to allow membership to keep pace with changes and provide feedback and input. The Cataloging and Classification Section also has taken steps to establish an RDA Implementation Task Force.
The Task Force on Non-English Access finished its work and reported its conclusions to the membership. Public comment was received and incorporated into the task force's final report, with eleven recommendations for further action.3 The task force and its chair, Beth Picknally Camden, are to be commended for their diligent work and their extraordinary, clearly presented call for practical solutions that can be implemented.
Digital preservation and curation issues now are being actively explored in ALCTS. The new electronic discussion list, DIGIPRES, was launched in February and, as of this writing (May 2007), has nearly one thousand participants around the globe. The list's announcement read in part:
PARS’ new discussion list, DIGIPRES, is dedicated to digital preservation and invites you to join. For purposes of clarity, a working definition of digital preservation is included in this invitation: “Digital preservation combines policies, strategies and actions that ensure access to information in digital formats over time.” Subscribe to the new list at http://lists.ala.org/wws/info/digipres by clicking on the Subscribe button in the left-hand column.
The Serials Section (SS) voted to change its name to the Serials and E-Resources Section at the 2007 ALA Annual Conference. The Union List of Serials Committee changed its name to “Committee on Holdings Information.” It also developed a new charge:
To address and study matters relating to holding information, with special attention to standards, use, and functionality in the exchange and use of holdings information in and among systems. The committee is further charged with recommending and participating in the development of standards and best practices and with communication and promoting the application and use of these. The Committee's interests include the application of holdings information wherever it appears, including local, group, and union catalogs, and union lists.
The following awards were presented at the 2007 ALA Annual Conference:
As ALCTS enters its second fifty years, its members find the profession in a period of rapid and dynamic change. ALCTS is committed to exerting leadership through education, dialog and collaboration, publication, standards creation, professional advocacy, and organizational renewal. Our greatest strength lies with our members’ creativity and dedication. The future has never been brighter … or more uncertain. That said, together we will prevail and flourish.
| 1. | ALCTS Cataloging and Classification Section Executive Committee, “ALCTS and the Future of Bibliographic Control: Challenges, Actions, and Values” (Oct. 3, 2006), www.ala.org/ala/alctscontent/alctspubsbucket/bibcontrol/NextSteps2006.pdf (accessed May 25, 2007); “Overview of the Next Steps Documents Developed by the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) Sections (Acquisitions, Cataloging and Classification, Collection Management and Development, Preservation and Reformatting, and Serials) and the ALCTS Council of Regional Groups” (Apr. 12, 2007), www.ala.org/ala/alctscontent/alctspubsbucket/bibcontrol/NextSteps2007.pdf (access May 25, 2007) |
| 2. | Library of Congress Task Force on the Future of Bibliographic Control, www.loc.gov/bibliographic-future (accessed May 25, 2007) |
| 3. | Task Force on Non-English Access: Report (Sept. 18, 2006, revised March 16, 2007), www.ala.org/ala/alcts/newslinks/currentissues/nonenglishaccess/Non-EnglishReport07.pdf (accessed May 25, 2007) |
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