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The Newsletter of the Health Sciences OCLC Users' Group

Proceedings of HSOCLCUG Annual Meeting Oct. 22-24, 1999

HSOCLCUG Executive Board Meeting Minutes
Friday, October 22, 1999
Sooner Hotel, Norman, OK



Present: Joe Blackburn, Lynne Bowman (Recording Secretary), Janice Carter (President), Cindy Fedders (Editor of Start of Message), Mary Hawks (Chair, Program and Local Arrangements Committee), Mary Holt, Lisa Mavromatis

The President called the meeting to order at 8:30 p. m.

Administrative Secretary's Report / Mary Hawks and Cindy Fedders for Karleen Darr

Karleen was unable to attend the meeting, but submitted two financial reports, one for the reporting period July 1, 1998-June 30, 1999 and a supplemental report covering July 1, 1999-October 14, 1999, along with the annual report for 1998/1999. The membership has dropped 26% since last year and 42% over the past two years. Current membership consists of 57 members. Only 41 are personal members.

Program/Local Arrangements Committee / Mary Hawks

Mary reported that only fourteen members registered for this meeting. She also stated that it is somewhat embarrassing to ask individuals from NLM and OCLC to come at their own expense to a meeting with so few attendees.

Mary Holt proposed that HSOCLCUG meet every other year alternating between NLM and OCLC instead of asking them to come to a meeting in another location. Mary Hawks responded that someone would need to take care of the local arrangements.

Future of HSOCLCUG

Cindy Fedders questioned whether HSOCLCUG is still a viable OCLC users group. For the last few years, the major issue for our organization has been the loading of the MeSH authority file on OCLC. OCLC's response to our request has been that they will get to it when they can, but for now it is not a top priority. Our influence with OCLC does not exist as it did years ago. As a users group, HSOCLCUG is cut out of connecting with all of the different medical libraries that don't use OCLC.

Cindy further added that there are fewer and fewer of us who recognize the value of coming to these meetings. When individuals do come, they always enjoy the meetings and learn a lot as well. Local systems meetings and meetings on special issues, such as licensing, are drawing individuals away from this meeting. Several, who usually attend, could not be here this year because of personal obligations. Another concern, in addition to declining membership and attendance at the annual meetings, is the inability to find members who are willing to serve as officers.

Mary Holt announced that she is personally interested in participating in OCLC's CORC (Cooperative Online Resource Catalog) Project. It is an effort to catalog Web resources using either the Dublin Core or MARC format. It involves not only technical services, but also public services as well. Mary is interested in getting a group of medical libraries together to participate in the project. One major issue is that you must select what is cataloged for the project. Mary could only find one medical library (Utah) on the list of participants. The records from this project can be added to the CORC database, OCLC, the Website, and/or your own online catalog. The project could help rejuvenate some interest in HSOCLCUG and serve as an outreach tool. The project would be more effective and useful if more medical libraries were participating.

Based on the aforementioned factors, the following suggestions were proposed during the discussion on the future of HSOCLCUG.

The discussion ended with the general consensus to continue as an OCLC users group, suspend the Bylaws and the annual meeting, beef up the organization's list, and advertise the value of the group to recruit new members.

The Board appointed Mary Holt as Acting President and decided to ask Judith Dzierba to serve as Co-President. Judith could concentrate on changing the focus of the list.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 10:30 p. m.

Respectfully submitted,
Lynne B. Bowman
Recording Secretary
lbbowm01@pop.uky.edu


Start of Message

The Newsletter of the Health Sciences OCLC Users' Group

Start of Message is the newsletter of the Health Sciences OCLC Users' Group, an independent group composed of health sciences libraries and individuals who either use or are interested in the use of the services of OCLC, Inc. in health sciences libraries.

Editor:
Cindy Fedders
Washington University School of Medicine Library
(Box 8132) 660 S. Euclid, St. Louis, MO 63110
(314) 362-2784
FAX (314) 362-0190
e-mail: feddersc@medicine.wustl.edu

 

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