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Executive Committee Minutes
January 10, 2004
Present: Terri Miller (Michigan State), Gordon Anderson
(Minnesota), Tatiana G. Barr (Florida), Jackie Byrd (Indiana), Beth
Feinberg (UCLA), Inna Gudanets (Stanford), Jared Ingersoll (Columbia),
Charles Kratz (Scranton--ACRL Vice President/President-Elect Candidate),
Pat Kreitz (Stanford--ACRL Liaison), Soobum Kim (Stanford), Sandra Levy
(Chicago), Tatiana Lorkovic (Yale), Miranda Remnek (Illinois), Dan Pennell
(Pittsburgh), Janice Pilch (Illinois), Brad Schaffner (Kansas), Marek
Sroka (Illinois), Cathy Zeljak (George Washington)
Committee Reports:
Announcements on Appointments and Reappointments for 2004:
- Janice Pilch distributed a list of committee rosters for SEES
committees. She reported that committee chairs need to consult with
those going off of committees in 2004 to get the members reappointed
to the committee and need to seek new appointments. Paper forms,
which she also distributed, should be mailed to Janice's home address
(on the committee roster sheet) by March 1st, 2004. Electronic forms
may be requested from Janet via email and are due on the same date.
The top section of the formshould be left blank. Janice reported that
the ACRL has committee rosters posted on its website under "Directory
of Leadership", a site that requires users to login.
- The ACRL website has a roster for SEES's Membership Committee.
It's a bad link that includes names not related to SEES.
Announcement on Slavic Librarians' Workshop: Miranda Remnek
reported on the upcoming Slavic Librarians Workshop at the
University of Illinois. It will be a 4-day workshop held July 6-9,
2004 and will be divided into 3 sections. Those attending can
choose which sections to attend, or they may attend all 3. The
sections are:
- June 6: Traditional Slavic Librarians' Workshop
- June 7: An introductory text encoding workshop
- June 8-9: An advanced hands-on text encoding workshop--there may
be a small charge for this part
Miranda is looking at having a traditional workshop and a workshop on a
specialized topic in alternating years.
ACRL Liaison Report:
- ACRL liaison Pat Kreitz introduced Charles Kratz, an ACRL
Vice-President/President-Elect candidate, who had been meeting with
sections throughout the conference. Charles asked SEES members for
issues important to them. The issues included:
- The cost of attending 2 national conferences per year
- The importance of virtual membership to help with the cost of
conferences
- Attracting new members for SEES
- Question of whether the cost of ALA membership and conference
attendance is a value, especially with the option of AAASS, which has
a single conference and less costly membership dues
- Pat Kreitz reported on some ACRL issues and developments,
including:
- The ACRL Board meeting on Sunday begins with an open microphone,
and it's a good way to voice concerns about ALA costs
- Virtual Meeting Task Force is looking at how ACRL can support
virtual meetings because ACRL has heard from many Sections about the
cost of attending two meetings a year, particularly in years when
there is an ACRL National conference or when a subject-specialized
Section also has a scholarly meeting to attend. Many Sections are
interested in making conference attendance at Midwinter not mandatory.
ACRL recognizes this is a financial burden for members.
- SEES has good representation in ACRL Leadership and Section
Councils meetings
- The ACRL Strategic Plan was distributed and SEES members were
asked to read it over and provide input. The plan will be finalized
by the time of the Orlando conference. ACRL members will then be
asked to help with action items. Terri reported that she was
impressed with the plan, in particular with the goals of agility and
flexibility, the incentives for leadership, and the fostering of
collaboration, even with outside groups.
Discussion on the Future of SEES: Reorganization Strategies:
Terri Miller led a discussion on the future of SEES. It became clear
that this issue required action when it was difficult to find a SEES
member who was willing to run for the Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect position
in the upcoming elections. Terri distributed documents outlining 2
proposals that she drafted:
- Combine SEES with WESS into a Larger ESS (European Studies
Section) Group: This proposal addressed the size of SEES and the
problems of maintaining such a small section. It would allow Slavic
issues to be discussed as part of the larger section, but would eliminate
the need to support a section primarily made up of inactive members. The
proposal included the following:
- SEES and WESS would both be dissolved and officers for the ESS
would be elected from the combined memberships of SEES and WESS
- Committees vital to SEES would be formed under ESS
- The SEES and WESS newsletters would be combined into one, as would
the websites. Although this was in Terri's original proposal, discussions
at the conference led to the understanding that ACRL would support the
continuation of the SEES Newsletter, even if SEES merged with another
section.
- There would be 2 members-at large
- Reorganization of SEES: This proposal addresses the small
number of active members and the difficulty in finding a member to run for
section offices. It focuses on downsizing and reduction of administrative
paperwork. The proposal included the following:
- Elimination of the Member-at-large position, which currently
serves no function
- Removal of the unstated requirement that the Chair organize an
annual program. Instead, the Chair could appoint a Program Planning
Committee if interest warrants having a program. Program planning would
be a regular agenda item at all ALA conferences to allow members to
suggest program topics, voice a willingness to organize a program, and/or
enable SEES to collaborate with other groups. This would ensure that
programs are held as needed and as interest warrants.
- Creation of a discussion group within SEES, the "Slavic
Collections Discussion Group." The convener of the group, appointed by
the discussion group members, would organize informal meetings on topics
of interest. This would require SEES to add a section on discussion
groups in its bylaws.
- Retention of the Automated Bibliographic Control (ABC) Committee,
but changing its name to something that clearly defines it as a
Slavic/East European/Central Asian cataloging committee.
- Retention of the Newsletter Committee as is.
Gordon Anderson spoke from a WESS perspective, reporting that WESS would
expect any request to merge to come from SEES. Gordon asked whether SEES
members interested in the Baltic area would be interested in joining a
discussion group on Baltic Studies in WESS. Discussions throughout the
day at committee meetings made it clear that SEES members did not want to
merge with another section at this time, so a general discussion followed,
raising the following issues and alternatives:
- Could SEES affiliate itself with AAASS and meet at that conference
instead of at ALA?
- Could SEES meet only once a year at only the ALA Annual Conference
or at only the ALA Mid-Winter Conference?
- The problem with merging with WESS or a Baltic Studies Section is
that much of SEES's work covers areas in Asia
- SEES members may be more willing to run for chair if the
requirement of organizing a program is removed
- SEES can streamline, but we still need people willing to be
officers and active members
After the discussion, a motion was made and seconded. The motion included
the following points:
- The Continuing Education Committee would be eliminated
- The Electronic Resources and Preservation Committees would be
merged into a single standing committee
- The remaining standing committees will be retained
- An annual program becomes optional and is removed as a
responsibility of the chair
- The Member-at-Large position will be eliminated
- At this time, SEES will not organize a discussion group, but this
can be reconsidered should the need arise
- The total meeting time for all SEES committees will not exceed a
total of 4 hours for any single conference. The preferred meeting time is
Saturday afternoon, although this cannot be guaranteed.
- The above changes will be made, and they will be assessed and
evaluated after a period of 2 years
A vote of the Executive Committee approved the motion unanimously.
Submitted by Jackie Byrd
Last updated 5/17/04
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