SIG/STI Minutes

Annual Planning Meeting, 21 October 2003

Members attending:

Julie Arnold (jarnold@umd.edu)
Jane Duffy (duffy.88@ose.edu)
Darcy Duke (darcy@mit.edu)
Ann Eagan (ann.eagan@nau.edu)
Ruth Fenske (rfenske@jcu.edu)
Pat Flanagan (patf@wpi.edu)
Brian Gray (bcg@uakron.edu)
Steve Hardin (shardin@indstate.edu)
Deborah Helman (dhelman@mit.edu)
Gail Hodge (gailhodge@aol.com)
Jon Jablonski (jonjab@uoregon.edu)
Penny O’Connor (penny.oconnor@computer.org)
George Ryerson (georgeryerson@alum.mit.edu)
K.T. Vaughan (kt_Vaughan@unc.edu)
Linda Yamamoto (linday@stanford.edu)

Greetings and introductions opened the meeting. KT Vaughan announced STI-sponsored events for the remainder of the conference.

Of special interest is the upcoming Digital Archives for Science & Engineering Resources Summit (DASER) being held at MIT.

Julie Arnold noted that the positions of Chair-elect and Secretary/Treasurer are currently vacant. After explaining the duties of Secretary/Treasurer, Jon Jablonski was elected to that position by acclamation. It was decided to leave vacant Chair-elect for the time being.

The remainder of the meeting was devoted to suggesting panel sessions for the 2004 conference. Each session requires a volunteer to shepherd it through the planning process. That volunteer need not necessarily moderate the panel, but is responsible for arranging the speakers. Panels are usually co-sponsored by other SIGs, and speakers are usually invited in a cooperative manner. Final panel proposals are due January 17th, while camera-copy for the proceedings are usually due in June. The proposals below were taken to the all-SIG planning meeting:

Reference services and knowledgebases: when is help helpful
The use and implications of knowledgebases within the context of digital reference projects in the sciences.
Shepherds: Julie Arnold. Pat Flanagan
Potential cosponsors: CR USE KM

Trans-national bio-informatics initiatives
Technical and research issues for genomics and proteomics databases that cross national boundaries. The National (U.S.) Center for Biotechnology Information, European Bioinformatics Institute, and the National Institute of Genetics (Japan) regularly sync multi-terabyte databases which biologists around the world use daily.
Shepherds: KT Vaughan Gail Hodge
Potential cosponsors: MED III

Project level metadata in digital libraries
While much research has focused on descriptive, technical, and preservation metadata schemes for describing digital and physical objects, many institutions are now faced with multiple collections that may have slightly different metadata implementations. This session discusses the concept of a collection and how to describe and manage groups of collections.
Shepherd: Gail Hodge
Potential cosponsors: KM DL, CR

Open Access Initiatives in the sciences
As the number of open access journals, disciplinary pre-print servers, and institutional repositories increases, researchers are increasingly asked to store and describe documents multiple times. A look at current projects and models, with an emphasis on evaluating institutional versus discipline based repositories.
Shepherd: Deborah Helman
Potential cosponsors: DL

Sociology of Scholarly Communication
In a world of ever greater specialization in the sciences, Information Professionals are less likely to hold detailed subject knowledge for all of their constituents. This panel presents an argument that rigorous study of social processes in the life cycle of information in the sciences can lead to better services and systems.
Shepherd: Jon Jablonski
Potential cosponsors: HSIF?

The physical infrastructure of research
How high speed networking infrastructures are changing the way science gets done.
Shepherd: Pat Flanagan, Brian Gray, Gail Hodge

Metasearch tools: why some stick and some don't
Shepherd: Deborah Helman
Potential cosponsors: LT; standards committee

Notes from all-SIG planning meeting:
Ann Eagan and Jon Jablonski attended the all-SIG planning meeting held the day after the STI planning meeting. As expected, many proposed panel sessions had considerable overlap with other SIGs. Initially strong voices of support came for:

• Reference services and knowledgebases: when is help helpful.
  Michael Smith, chair of SIG KM, expressed interest.
• Trans-national bio-informatics initiatives
  Nancy Blase (UW) for SIG MED, expressed interest.
  

 darcy@mit.edu
13 November 2003