News
Reports
1996-1997 Annual Report
Joanne Goode
PAM membership continues to grow. As of December, 1996, membership totaled 200. This compares with 190 in December of 1995 and 183 in December of 1994.
The PAM treasury remains solvent. Vendor support this year should match last year's contributions. The largest portion of our funds goes to support programs and activities at the Annual Conference. It is becoming a continual challenge to fund both the equipment needs for programs and the Open House events. This year we will try a different approach. Instead of the three traditional Open House suites in the hotel, we will hold one Open House at the University of Washington and one at a conference hotel. The third night, we are partnering with several other divisions to sponsor a reception. We hope this will help somewhat with the funding crunch and at the same time provide an exciting mix of programs and networking events.
The second major expense is the publication of the PAM Bulletin. Here, too, we have taken some cost saving steps while at the same time adding value to the Bulletin. Our Bulletin editor has designed and put into production the PAM Bulletin Online - published on the Web. We may be able to eventually phase out or at least greatly reduce the number of printed copies mailed out each quarter. This year we discontinued mailing the copies to other Division Chairs and invited them to view our Bulletin Online.
Major Accomplishments:
The PAM Division continues to perform on the leading edge of networking, collaboration, and innovation. A sampling of what we have accomplished or have in the planning stages follows:
1) The PAM WebPage continues to evolve. This year, we looked for ways to enhance its use as a division recruitment tool. In the process of being added to the page are these sections: the PAM Awards and a list of recipients, term dates for officers and committee chairs, and the PAM procedure manual. We also plan to develop mirror sites to enhance access.
2) The PAMnet Listserv survived two moves to new machines with little disruption to its subscribers. We hope to move it eventually to the SLA HQ site. This will allow us to rotate the List Manager responsibility among our membership. PAMnet continues to be a valuable communication tool, not only to PAM Division members, but to the community of physics, astronomy and mathematics information professionals worldwide.
3) The Division continued to expand collaboration with PAM related professional societies and publishers. This year a new liaison relationship was established with INSPEC. A PAM member designed and presented a poster session on the PAM Division at an American Astronomical Society Meeting in Toronto. Another PAM member was invited to participate in a meeting of the American Physical Society Subcommittee on Journal Pricing. We will continue to explore and develop these opportunities during the coming year.
4) PAM Committees worked on a number of projects. A sampling of the work that is going on follows. The Public Relations Committee designed a Kardex form that has proved to be a good promotional tool. We used it in our fund raising efforts and it was mentioned at the Winter Meeting DACOLT session as an innovative Division idea. The PR committee has also developed a price list of other promotional tools which might be developed for next year. The Membership Committee is working on some enhancements for the PAM Directory which parallel those being added to the WebPage by the Networking Committee. The Professional Development Committee is developing a membership survey and the development of a CE course for SLA 98. A Web based guide to publication guidelines of PAM related publishers is in development under the direction of the Government Relations Chair. The Hospitality Committee has chosen a wonderful setting for the Networking Dinner and planned equally exciting Open House events.
5) The continued success of the PAM Division is due to the generosity of its members - people who give so much of their talent, skills and energies to the Division. To recognize these people in a special way, the Awards Committee, this year, proposed the addition of a new Award. This was approved by the PAM Board and a call went out for nominations. The recipients of both PAM Division Awards will be announced in Seattle.
The Future:
Our past Chair predicted in her Annual Report that PAM members will continue to influence the future of scientific information both electronic and print. This year's accomplishments reflect the timeliness of that prediction - and I predict next year's accomplishments will strengthen it.