Music Library Association-Atlantic Chapter

Fall 2004

Minutes of Business Meeting

Introductions

The meeting began at 9:30 a.m with Chair Carl Rahkonen inviting new members to introduce themselves. Tim Sestrick (Gettysburg College), Steve York (Christopher Newport University), Linda Dempf (College of New Jersey), Carlos Peña (University of Pittsburgh), Terra Mobley (Duquesne University) and Mary Wedgewood (Library of Congress) were welcomed into the chapter.

Secretary-Treasurer's Reports

Minutes of the Spring 2004 meeting in Arlington, VA were approved, with one correction to the Membership Committee report. In response to a question by Secretary-Treasurer Mary Prendergast, the membership agreed that the ATMLA-L list was a good means of distributing the minutes, and Mary agreed to post them there and make sure they got onto the website. She handed out amended Treasurer's reports from the spring meeting, with a revised date of 2/10/04, and read the fall 2004 report, showing a balance of $3,242.16 in the treasury. One bill from the 2004 national meeting is still outstanding, to LC catering for the LAC reception. [Update: this is estimated to be about $400.] The Treasurer's Report was approved.

Membership Committee Report

Steve Landstreet applied on behalf of the chapter for a chapter grant from MLA to fund travel to the chapter meeting, which was awarded in the amount of $850.00. No applications were received. The question of using grants to fund attendance at the national meeting in Vancouver was debated, with Jim Cassaro voicing some reservations about the likelihood of such an appeal being accepted by the MLA board. It was decided that Steve would ask the board for permission on a one-time basis, stressing that we made a good attempt to fulfill the original stipulations of the grant.

Anne Harlow asked for feedback on the development of a chapter mentorship initiative, requesting members to e-mail comments to officers or the Membership Committee. After discussion, Carl proposed that Anne approach the mentorship coordinator at MLA and request that those requesting mentors at the national meeting be assigned to someone within the chapter. Kathy Glennan suggested that a list showing areas of expertise within the chapter would be useful in matching up mentors with mentees. Anne will ask for input from members, and compile a list that will be posted on the website. Alice LaSota reminded members that ATMLA-L would be a good forum for this type of discussion.

Communications Committee Report

Steve was charged with appointing a new chair for the Communications Committee. Brian Cockburn has requested a replacement as webmaster, and Linda Dempf volunteered to take over in that capacity. Kathy suggested the chapter should investigate a static web address; Jim said there is discussion on this topic at the national level, with the aim of getting all websites co-located.

Carl asked for volunteers to serve as Newsletter Editor. John Anderies proposed creating a blog as an alternative to the Newsletter, and giving rights to post to any chapter officers. The blog would be ongoing rather than deadline-oriented, and readers could subscribe for e-mail notification of updates. The membership agreed with this proposal, and John volunteered to coordinate this project and solicit articles from chapter members.

Alice encouraged all interested parties to subscribe to the list and reminded subscribers who change their e-mail addresses to unsubscribe and then resubscribe with the new address. Bonnie Jo Dopp expressed concern over possible archiving of list messages, noting that anyone posting personal information should remain mindful of the public nature of the list. Archiving was judged to be a useful feature, and it should be possible to archive and prevent search engines from harvesting anything in the archives.

Plans for Future Meetings

On behalf of Peabody Institute, Bob Follet invited the chapter to Baltimore for the fall 2005 meeting.  Accommodations will be available at the Peabody Inn for a favorable rate, and Bob has been at work on setting up the program. Jane Cross invited the chapter via e-mail to the fall 2006 meeting at the new Marine Corps Band Library in Washington, D.C.

Announcements

a) News about other chapters: Jim announced that the New York State--Ontario chapter met over the weekend of Oct. 22-23 to join in the Sibley Music Library Centennial celebration. He attended the opening of the new Jean Gray Hargrove Music Library at Berkeley.

b) News about MLA and MLA committee work: Jim reported that the Hilton Towers in Pittsburgh is the site for the 2007 national meeting. The LAC will convene after the Vancouver meeting and begin to work on setting up tours and other activities. Mark McKnight is program chair, and the reorganization of the program committee will allow for more input from other members, leading to a more competitive selection of speakers than has been the case in the past.

c) News about our libraries: Bonnie Jo reported several items of interest: Bruce Wilson retired on July 1 as head of the UMD Performing Arts Library; the Library now has full audio-visual capabilities; and there is a new Assistant Dean for Digital Projects at UMD who is investigating the needs of the Performing Arts Library.  Alice LaSota further reported that the UMD library director is funding a second music cataloging position.

Jane Penner also had several items to announce: the opening
of the new special collections library at UVa in late August; her new position as Interim Director of Clemons Library; and the imminent rollout of UVa's Digital Library Repository. She also remarked on two new non-traditional hires within the Library, a legal consultant who's been instrumental in negotiating a favorable deal for Elsevier journals and a dedicated budget analyst who's helped implement the university-wide integrated financial system.

Carl reported that the IUP music library was moved over the summer into temporary quarters in the main library. It will be returned to new quarters in the Music Building after the completion of a two-year long construction project.

The meeting concluded at 10:45 a.m. Carl thanked WVU for hosting the meeting, and asked to chapter to join him in thanking Beth Royall for all of her work. Steve, who assumed the office of Chair at the conclusion of the meeting, then asked the chapter to join him in thanking Carl for his three years of service as Chair.

Respectfully submitted,
Mary Prendergast, Secretary/Treasurer
November 4, 2004