IAMSLIC 25th Anniversary Conference [Conference Report]

  	
  	
  	
  


	Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship  	Fall 1999  


	DOI:10.5062/F44T6GB5


  

    Conference Reports
    IAMSLIC 25th Anniversary Conference, 1999
      James W. Markham
  Davidson Library
  University of California
  Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9010
markham@library.ucsb.edu    
    The International Association of Aquatic and Marine Science Libraries and  Information Centers (IAMSLIC) held its 25th Anniversary Celebration and Annual  Conference October 16-22, 1999, in Woods Hole, MA, the place where it was founded,  at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic  Institution (WHOI). IAMSLIC has grown from a group of 27 librarians from the  eastern U.S., Canada, and Bermuda, who met at Woods Hole in 1975, to an  international organization of 300 members with regional subgroups in Europe, West  Coast of North America, Southeastern North America, West Africa, and the Pacific  Islands. Besides meeting on both coasts of North America, IAMSLIC has also met in  Bermuda, Hawaii, Bremerhaven, Germany, Southampton, England, and Reykjavik,  Iceland. This latest conference, back where it all began, was attended by 139  people from 19 countries, including Mozambique, Palau, Greece, France, Iceland,  Japan, South Africa and Mexico. Librarians from 19 U.S. States and 3 Canadian  Provinces were in attendance.     The conference included 3 pre-conference workshops, on HTML, Web Design, and Ariel,  eight invited keynote speakers, 19 contributed papers, and 11 poster presentations.  The posters were all summarized in short oral presentations as well. Keynote  speakers covered both library issues and marine biology topics: millennial  libraries, legalities of electronic information, information technology, electronic  journal collections, metadata, coastal ecosystems, history of cod fishing, and the  use of marine organisms in biomedical research. Among other topics covered, a study  of the timeliness of electronic journals vs. print showed electronic is faster.  Information on establishing bibliographical instruction programs and rethinking  outreach was presented, and various other education initiatives were described.   Trends in aquatic science research as indicated by entries in the Aquatic Sciences  and Fisheries Abstracts showed that the percentage of papers devoted to taxonomy  has declined greatly in the last 25 years, but papers on genetics, environmental  quality, and ecosystem ecology have increased. One presentation outlined GIS  applications to maritime boundary questions. An update was presented on the  controversial Acoustic Thermometry of Ocean Climate (ATOC) project with its  possible effects on marine mammals. 

    As is usually the case in this international organization, many members represent  one-person libraries in isolated locations.  As a result several presentations and  much discussion centered on interlibrary loan and other aspects of resource  sharing. The annual conferences, as well as a lot of traffic on IAMSLIC's listserv,  are building and strengthening an increasingly useful international network of  librarians who help each other with resources and advice, often more efficiently,  and certainly more personally, than through other library channels. 

    The busy week also offered plenty of opportunities for enjoying seafood of various  kinds, always an important part of IAMSLIC Conferences, including the conference  banquet, a clambake, which is apparently understood by the locals to include  lobster and corn, but not necessarily clams. We also enjoyed trips to the Cape Cod  National Seashore, Provincetown, and Harvard University where we had tours of the  Museum of Comparative Zoology and its library, as well as the Botany Library and  associated herbaria, the Natural History Museum, and the famous Ware Collection of  Glass Flowers.

    The Proceedings of the 25th Annual IAMSLIC Conference are being edited by J.W.  Markham and A.L. Duda and will be published within a few months.  All attendees  will receive copies and extra copies will be available for purchase.  The 26th  Annual Conference will be held in Victoria, British Columbia in October 2000. 

    

  

  
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