Introduction
The North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG) held its 25th annual conference, “An Oasis in Shifting Sands: NASIG at 25,” in Palm Springs, California, June 3–6, 2010. The beautiful oasis of Rancho Las Palmas provided ample opportunities to reflect on how we can thrive even in the hostile environments of declining budgets, shrinking staff, or radically reshaped workflows. The inviting pools at the resort, the presence of fountains at many local businesses and restaurants, and even the snow-covered peaks in the distance symbolized the sense of professional rejuvenation—like water in the desert—that the conference provides. Much about serials has shifted over the last twenty-five years, and the changes continue, but participants can still come to NASIG's annual conference to share strategies for success.
NASIG members often remark how the informal atmosphere makes the NASIG conference one of their favorites. New attendees were welcomed at the First-Timers and Mentoring Reception. Buford Crites, president of Friends of the Desert Mountains, kicked off the conference by describing how the physical features of the Coachella Valley and its surrounding mountains shape the green refuge of Palm Springs. Information-sharing opportunities for the 383 conference attendees included poster sessions, informal discussion groups, user groups, and a vendor expo that permitted attendees to speak with representatives of more than twenty information and service providers. In the business meeting, NASIG's elected officers briefed the membership on the state of their organization and recognized volunteers for their service on NASIG's many committees. The Electronic Communications Committee presented the results of a recent survey on communication within NASIG during the brainstorming session. They asked for input on how communication could be improved within the organization and what methods would work best. NASIG's 25th anniversary dinner and reception provided a lovely opportunity for celebration, complete with costumes, a quiz, and dancing.
This year, a single preconference session was offered. “Resource Description and Access ‘RDA’: New Code for Cataloging” was presented by Magda El-Sherbini and provided one and a half days of information and instruction on the new cataloging rules that have been proposed as a replacement to the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd edition (AACR2).
Three vision sessions brought all attendees together to examine “big picture” issues and ideas. The first of these was “Linked Data and Libraries” by Eric Miller, founder and president of Zepheira. His talk explored how the World Wide Web is evolving, and specifically the new and different ways data are being utilized beyond what data providers had originally conceived. He stated that libraries can and should play a role in this evolution. Kent Anderson's “Publishing 2.0: How the Internet Changes Publications in Society” used movie metaphors to discuss how the information consumer is taking a more active role in the publishing process, how new voices now have a platform for information sharing, how technology is changing the expectations of information consumers, and how all of this is changing the publishing model in our society. The conference's final vision session was a panel discussion called, “Serials Management in the Next-Generation Library Environment.” Moderator Clint Chamberlain guided participants Robert McDonald (Associate Dean for Library Technologies and Digital Libraries at Indiana University), Jonathan Blackburn (Product Analyst at OCLC), and Bob McQuillan (Senior Project Manager with Innovative Interfaces, Inc.) through a series of questions covering topics such as what a next-generation library catalog is, cloud computing, challenges in serials management, interoperability of systems, library workflows, and standards.
Ten 90-minute strategy sessions offered programming on a variety of subjects. Three programs focused on publishing-related issues; one of these offered an overview of the publishing process for biomedical journals, another looked at a successful collaboration between a publisher and a digital platform provider, while the third focused on transparency and publisher pricing models. Workflow issues were also a common topic. Staffing implications of the shift from print to electronic serials were explored and research on understanding workflows, from the viewpoint of creating better software, was presented. A panel discussion on the impact of electronic resource management (ERM) systems on technical services covered issues such as library organization and staffing, training, and system evaluation. Gaps in the standards for collecting usage data were identified in another session, which specifically looked at how multimedia resources are used and where Counting Online Usage of NeTworked Electronic Resources (COUNTER) standards currently fall short. The timely topic of digital preservation was covered in a session sharing the results of an international survey that sought to learn what libraries are doing in terms of digital preservation and the opinions of librarians on related issues. Finally, a session was devoted to the Cooperative Online Serials (CONSER) Program. Presenters discussed its history, current projects, and presented a model for how the Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Records (FRBR) might be applied to serials cataloging.
Sixteen tactics sessions provided hour-long coverage of practical, day-to-day aspects of serials work. Standards work was the topic of three sessions. Two of these sessions focused on specific projects: one on the Institutional Identifiers (I2) standard that is currently being developed and another on the work of the Knowledge Bases and Related Tools (KBART) initiative. The third session gave a general overview of several initiatives, describing their goals and updating attendees on current accomplishments. The initiatives covered included the Transfer project, KBART, Journal Usage Factor, and Publisher and Institutional Repository Usage Statistics (PIRUS). Pay-per-view journal articles and purchase-on-demand e-books were the topics of two separate sessions on new trends for providing users access to materials “just in time.” Another session related to collection development focused on utilizing usage statistics in decision making. The remaining programs covered a wide variety of topics reflecting the varied interests of conference attendees. They included sessions on using already-licensed electronic resources in coursepacks as a cost-savings measure; implementing a discovery layer for access to the library catalog; enhancing metadata in library catalogs, databases, and A–Z lists by using the xISSN Web service; and the results of a study on usability of a library's website. Other programs covered core competencies for electronic resources librarians, outsourcing check-in and claiming of print serials, using an ERM system to manage cataloging activities, and information on non-subscription-agent intermediaries. Finally, there was a discussion of Web conferencing software and a program that looked at how librarians can assist small publishers with discovery and access issues.
The Proceedings provide a record of the intellectual content of a conference that is the result of countless hours of volunteer effort by NASIG members. We gratefully acknowledge all the hard work that went into making this conference a success. Special thanks go to the Program Planning Committee, the Conference Planning Committee, the Executive Board, and NASIG's elected officers. The editors appreciate the time and effort of the speakers and recorders who provided the content for this volume. These efforts ensure that the knowledge shared at this conference is available to an audience beyond those in attendance. We would like to acknowledge the support provided to us by our Executive Board liaison, Patrick Carr, and the staff at Taylor & Francis.