Archive for October, 2013

NOAA webinar

This might be interesting to those unfamiliar with the breadth of NOAA products and projects. You can register at this site and it’s free. http://login.icohere.com/registration/register.cfm?reg=784&evt=ctNOAA
-Janet Webster

WEBINAR: DISCOVER YOUR WORLD WITH NOAA

A live training Webinar, “Discover Your World with NOAA: Learn How NOAA Monitors the Pulse of the Earth, and How to Access and Use NOAA’s Free Online Resources,” will be offered Wednesday, November 13, 2013.

· Start Time: 2 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time
· Duration: 60 minutes
· Summary: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a global leader in studying and communicating how Earth’s atmosphere and water systems influence people’s lives and how they influence those systems. NOAA monitors the Earth’s dynamic environment through observing systems which provide real-time data to study the processes and interactions of Planet Earth and works to ensure that this critical information is delivered to the public. Attendees will learn how NOAA monitors the pulse of the Earth, and how they can access NOAA’s free online resources that offer primary real-time and archived data along with valuable information, and a wide range of multimedia content.

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Viewing the Digital Library Federation Forum

Livestream the Digital Library Federation Forum

Can’t attend the 2013 DLF Forum in Austin? Watch it live! Portions of the Forum will be livestreamed on Nov. 4 and Nov. 6, including keynote addresses by R. David Lankes and Char Booth. The livestream schedule and links are available at http://www.diglib.org/archives/5244/. You can also follow the conversation on Twitter, #DLFForum, and review the Community Notes Google docs by clicking on the link in the session description at http://www.diglib.org/forums/2013forum/.

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Conference presentations now available

Dear IAMSLIC members,

The presentation files are now available as PDFs in the members’ area of the website at:
http://www.iamslic.org/member-access/members-area/conference-presentations

Because we did such an excellent job of “visualizing”, I had to reduce the file size which impacted the quality of the images in some cases. Feel free to send me a better PDF as long as it’s less than 7 MB.

I’ve also uploaded my photos to flickr at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sataylor/sets/72157637071675306/

Thank you to our local hosts, conference committees, sponsors, presenters, moderators and attendees for such an interesting and enjoyable week!
Sally Taylor, 39th IAMSLIC Annual Conference Convenor

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Thursday, October 24 #IAMSLIC2013

Can only imagine how much worse I would have felt if I had actually had a drink at the banquet.  Moving slowly, (ok, maybe only I was moving slowly), we returned for the FINAL day of our conference.   Ou day began with the sad news of library consolidations.  The difficulties faced by 3 of our colleagues as their collections were re-absorbed in the centralization efforts at their institutions.  These situations are NEVER easy even though most administrations make it sound like the process should be easy and will only better services for patrons throughout the institution.  Well, from their towers looking down, I’m sure the process looks quite easy.  But for the workers being forced into all the change, the integrations are never easy.

We then talked about the Aquatic Commons with short anecdotes from participants at various levels in order to increase interest in the group for depositing materials.

Break and a very short business meeting where we finished reports from regional groups and then had a brief discussion about the problem we’ve been having reaching quorums at our annual business meetings. Again, please find a way to get to the conference so we can make decisions about the direction of OUR association.

Kris Andersen and Elizabeth Connor were named as the new officers.  Kris Andersen is the new jr president-elect and Elizabeth Connor is the new secretary.  Thanx to Angela Clark-Hughes and Susan Berteaux for also sticking out their necks in the election process.  Perhaps next time, they won’t be so lucky.   Until the next election process, I hope they will stay active and volunteer for committees & task forces.  We truly need the help.

Now the part we’ve all been waiting for:  the invitation to the 40th Annual Conference in New Caledonia.  Oh my goodness, I cannot wait until next year.  Look for lots of information on transport to the South Pacific.  Plan to spend extra time in the beautiful blue waters as well as taking in the sights around the atoll.

This afternoon, we will be spending time in an Aquatic Commons work party to get documents into the Commons.  And with sadness we bid adieu to a few of our colleagues, but Friday will see a large group heading off to ride swamp buggies and airboats around the Everglades.

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Wednesday, October 23 #IAMSLIC2013

Back to our usual schedule of 3 shuttles to the NSU Oceanographic Center, we began a very busy day of presentations and tours mostly on time.  Stephen Alayon & Arame Keita presented on Research Dissemination  at their institutions & regions.  We adjourned for the morning break and everyone again visited the Guin Auction as the bidding ended at the close of the break.  Yes, there were a few contentious items and we raised $1,161 for the Guin Fund this year.

Missed the next set of presentations on Florida special collections as I was working with Liz Winiarz, Kathy Heil & Jen Walton to gather and total all the winning bids/bidders so the items could go home with their new owners.  If you weren’t here, you don’t have the chance to bid on some of the many excellent donations to the auction.  And this year, we had some really GREAT items.  There was a tie for the highest bids: a lovely pair of earrings and a painting of fish from one of Stephen Alayon’s co-workers.

Returned to the auditorium in time to hear Mathias Seaman and Ian Stewart talk about publishing and institutional repositories from the publishers’ point of view.  They were quite engaging, as usual, and brought up some really good points about the detail orientation of researchers/authors and their ability to self-edit (or not) their own papers.  Several examples were presented of errors that made it all the way to ABPO (all but posted online) in the publication process.

After another tasty lunch of salad, rice pilaf and grilled chicken, we were treated to tours of the coral nursery onsite. Interesting how they propagate specimens for research and they also use these specimens to restore coral reef habitat in the Ft Lauderdale area.   During the second tour, the rain began.

The afternoon session was limited to the Green Flash session.  I again missed a bunch as we were checking people out of the Guin Auction.  We piloted using Paypal to accept plastic (debit/credit cards) to pay for winnings.  Several members helped pilot and we have successfully received payment via this service. Woo hoo!

We all raced back to the hotel to change for the banquet at Hyatt Pier 66.  Sadly, the rain could not hold back and while we rode the water taxi down the intracoastal waterway, the rain began in earnest.  Most opted to retain their good looks for the banquet by sheltering in the cabin on the taxi and then there were the rest of us. Yeah, yeah, I was busy taking pictures of the lovely ships sights along our route,  especially the yachts that I plan to purchase when I win the lottery.  The reception area and hors d’oeuvres were served on the lower level of the hotel rather than outside on a lanai.  We then rode a Great Glass Elevator to the very top of the building.  There was a balcony to take pictures of the vista and the sun setting around the rainclouds.  Then inside, there was a surprise.  Most dropped of purses and items on tables as they settled who they wanted to dine with and then went outside to take pictures.  While we were outside, the room began rotating.  As we filed back in to begin the food portion, folks were wondering where their stuff had gone.  Just had to look around to figure out where the table had rotated to.  Several opted to take pictures inside against the windows as they backed up to the window overlooking Ft Lauderdale. Many discovered that the handrail did not rotate with the floor, resulting in some interesting poses. Luckily, the dance floor was stable as well.  I can only imagine the chaos if that floor had also been spinning.   Much fun and laughter as we all danced to our favorite tunes and the party had to break up much too soon at 930 pm.  Wednesday, October 23 #IAMSLIC2013

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Tuesday, October 22 #IAMSLIC2013

The morning started off well enough. We were all able to amek the 830 am bus to the NSU Oceanographic Center, though I did TRY to sleep in a bit and missed my morning walk.  Good thing I do minimal morning maintenance to get ready for the day.  (Does that avoid TMI? [too much information])

Anyways, as we all collaborated to get to the meeting on time much to Jaime’s delight, the discussions on collaboration by Susan Berteaux, Alice Endra (actually presented by Guillermina Cosulich) and Becky Morin.  There are some really fine projects going on that involve working with others.  Yeah, I won’t be on those teams.  The collaborations I recently was forced to do at my work only resulted in several imaginative ways of gutting my co-workers.  Ok, no one really died, but I really should not watch as many horror movies as I do.

During the coffee break, I coached folks to bid more on Guin Auction items. Put some more items out for bid and tried to take care of putting together some stuff for myriad treasurer details that popped up before the business meeting.  As I ran back and forth, I noticed Kathy H. taking a little cat nap in a chair by the Guin Auction room.  When the sessions started back up, I nudged her to go back. OH NO!  She informs me she’s not feeling well.  OK.  Get some cold water in her, some protein and let her rest.  In the meantime, we’ve got Jaime and the security guard named Dave to help out.  Avoided an ambulance ride, though that might have been good.  Kathy H. ended up going back to the hotel as we all filed out for the group photo and transport to the IGFA Museum & Hall of Fame.

IGFA: International Game Fish Association.  Lunch was catered by Gino’s and some very fine Italian was inhaled by the group.  Some inhaled more than others, but we’re not pointing any fingers, are we?   We were also granted tours of the extensive library on angling and game fish.  Not only books find their home here, but also art work, realia such as fishing rods and tackle, and other miscellaneous items.   The museum itself includes loads of interactive displays including a fishing game with real fishing rods where Kristen LaBonte caught a 400 lb marlin in just 5 minutes.  Talk about some serious muscle reeling that monstrous fish into the screen.  The nature walk outside meanders through several habitats for south Florida complete with free roaming animals. OK, the alligators were behind a fence which is a good thing as one group had an alligator very interested in them as they stood on the boardwalk observing his behavior.  S/he kept sinking down and we watched the bubbles come closer as s/he slowly snuck up on the tasty looking snacks on the other side of the fence.  A few of us also saw a marsh bunny that was NOT inside the fence with the gator.

We actually had lunch theatre (much like dinner theatre except at lunch time) with Gerry Sawchuck from Cengage-Learning presenting on some initiatives with the Smithsonian Institutions to digitize many of the collections.

Somewhere in all this, we had a business meeting, but since we did not have  quorum, we couldn’t make any decisions.  Really folks, if we want to do stuff, we really do need to have more than 60 out of 300 show up at our meetings.  As punishment, you’ll be required to take part in some voting online.  Better take part or we really will never get anything done.  Reports were presented and items discussed.

Executive Board also met again and discussed some matters.

Tuesday night was free time.  Ended up at a Peruvian restaurant with Kathy H.  David Baca was there already.  Was quite glad as he knew the food available. I had never had Peruvian cuisine, so didn’t know what anything was.  He quite gently coached us and we ended up with some very tasty dishes.  Back to the hotel for some much needed rest.

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Conference program finalized!

The program for the 39th IAMSLIC Annual Conference and 23rd SAIL Annual Meeting is now finalized and available on the conference web site! Thanks to our presenters, moderators, planning committees and sponsors, we have a wonderful variety of presentations and activities planned for you.

http://www.iamslic.org/conf2013/program

A few items of note:

The Green Flash session scheduled for the afternoon of Wed. Oct. 23 will include brief presentations on new technologies, services, resources, initiatives and more! Planned talks include demonstrating new collaborative tools, setting up a repository, library renovations, collaborative projects, and digitization projects. It’s not too late to be included! Do you have a program to brag about that was particularly successful? What about a new resource that others might find useful? Did you find a particularly funny cartoon we can all enjoy? Contact Kristen LaBonte at klabonte@library.ucsb.edu if you would like to share news, reviews and other flashes of insight with colleagues.

Don’t forget to bring something for the Guin Auction! The Guin Fund was established to support participation in IAMSLIC by subsidizing memberships and attendance at meetings. A silent auction is held at the annual conference to raise money for the fund. Members bring smallish items to donate to the auction. Jewelry, liquor, handmade items, posters, books, unique items from different countries and t-shirts all sell well. Each person is assigned a secret name to bid on items. Bids are in the local currency (U.S. dollars this year) and ROUND amounts only (NO quarters, dimes, nickels, or pennies). Don’t forget that the space you have in your luggage bringing items can be used to take items home.

It’s not too late to sign up for the fun and exciting pre and post conference field trips – spaces are still available! On Sunday, October 20, we visit Flamingo Gardens in the morning, and on October 25, we spend a full day at the Billie Swamp Safari. Sign up today and join your colleagues on these fun eco-adventures to see even more of South Florida during your stay! To register, login to your registration account and add your selections.

Safe travels to all. Looking forward to seeing you in sunny Florida!

On behalf of the conference planning committees,

Sally Taylor, Conference Convenor
Jaime Goldman & Keri Baker, Local Hosts
Maria Kalentsits, IAMSLIC President
Joyce Shaw, SAIL Representative

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Spaces still available for the 2013 IAMSLIC Conference Optional Field Trips!

It’s not too late to sign up for the fun and exciting pre and post conference field trips – spaces are still available!  Sign up today and join your colleagues on these fun eco-adventures to see even more of South Florida during your stay!

 

Flamingo Gardens – Sunday, October 20th (9am-1:30pm)

Guided Garden Tours at Flamingo Gardens

$45/person (need a minimum of 15 participants) – Includes Lunch!

Description: “Our Wray Botanical Collection contains some of the largest trees in the state.  Our Everglades Wildlife Sanctuary is home to Florida’s largest collection of native wildlife including alligators, bobcats, eagles, otters, panthers, & flamingos.  Visit the historic 1930’s Wray Home Museum.  Take a Narrated Tram Tour through some of the last remaining jungle growth in South Florida!”

 

Billie Swamp Safari – Friday, October 25th (9am-7pm)

Billie Swamp Safari on the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation – Swamp Safari Day Package

$70/person (need a minimum of 20 participants) – Includes Airboat Ride Tour & Swamp Buggy Eco-Tour!

Description: “Welcome to Billie Swamp Safari on the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation.  We invite you to explore 2,200 acres of untamed Florida Everglades preserved in its pristine state by the Seminole Tribe of Florida.”

 

For more info, please visit the Optional Field Trips page on the 2013 IAMSLIC Conference site at: http://www.iamslic.org/conf2013/conference-outings/.

 

To register, login to your registration account and add your selections: http://www.iamslic.org/conf2013/registration/

 

Thank you,

 

Jaime Goldman

IAMSLIC 2013 Local Host

jaime.goldman@nsu.nova.edu

 

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