Plans are well underway for SLA’s 2012 Conference in Chicago. The PAM division is putting together ideas for many events including the roundtable sessions. This Conference’s Physics Roundtable will be held on July 17th from 2:00 until 3:00, and we invite you to join us! Michael Chesnes, an LAC contractor for NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and Kathleen Lehman, of the University of Arkansas Physics Library, will be facilitating the discussions. Current plans are to hold the session in the café style similar to SLA 2011’s PAM-wide roundtable, with a bit of a change. Rather than staying with just one topic for the length of the time, participants will be able to switch tables part way through the session and participate in a second discussion. A portion of the session’s time will be set aside for sharing discussion summaries and for having a brief question/answer time.

At this point, we are looking for your assistance with two things. First of all, what are important topics you would like to discuss with your PAM colleagues? We have several ideas such as library instruction, space planning, and institutional repositories, but are looking for a total of 7-8 topics that are of high interest to you. We encourage you to come prepared with questions you would like to ask or experience you would like to share about these topics. Secondly, would you like to serve as a table leader? Not every table will need to have a designated facilitator, but if you feel particularly interested in or knowledgeable about a topic, please share that interest! Designated table leaders will stay with the same topic for both discussions. Please e-mail us if you have topic ideas or wish to volunteer as a discussion leader. We look forward to hearing from you!

Michael Chesnes michaelchenes@gmail.com

Kathleen Lehman kalehman@uark.edu

by Ruth Kneale

Well, here we are facing the end of another year full of excitement, learning, and travel. This will be my last message to you as Division Chair, and I want to start off by saying a huge THANK YOU. I have had a fantastic (and sometimes frazzling) time as Chair, and it’s all due to you, the amazing members of PAM. I can’t tell you how much I have appreciated this time, and how honored I am to serve the division. Fear not, I’m sticking around – you won’t get rid of me that easily – but we’re in excellent hands with our Chair-Elect, Nisa Bakkalbasi, and I have no worries for the division’s future.

As I write this, the polls are still open for our new staff; Barbara Kern will be joining me in moving off the Executive Board in December, after two years as an excellent Division Treasurer. Elizabeth Brown will be continuing her great work through 2012 as Division Secretary, welcoming the new Treasurer and Chair-Elect.  Emily Poworoznek will get to take a break after three years of wonderful service to the Division, as she gives up the Past-Chair position. We have a great slate of committee chairs and members, folks who have stepped up to keep the Division active, vibrant and diverse. I truly feel that we are one of the best Divisions in the Association!

It has been a busy year; we’ve seen folks leave, welcomed new members, had a smashing annual conference in Philadelphia, saw the debut of our new web site, and continued our efforts into social networking. The annual conference was well-attended, and we got some great feedback from the attendees; that feedback will be folded into future conference planning. We geared our strategic planning back up for a fresh new look at the Division’s goals and priorities; the survey is still open as I write this, and I’m looking forward to hearing what you have to say. We have some potentially difficult decisions to make in the days to come, but I have no doubt we’ll come out of it stronger and more able to catch whatever curveballs the economy, the profession or the Association toss our way. If you’d like to be part of those discussions and decisions, please let anyone on the Board know!

Next year is the Division’s 40th anniversary – amazing but true – and I’m so pleased to be a part of it as we move into our future. Thank you for this opportunity, and I look forward to continuing to serve the Division in any way I can.

by Barbara Kern

Stella Ota, PAM Chair-Elect 2012

Michael Chesnes, PAM Treasurer 2012

The Nominations and Elections Committee is pleased to announce that, in the October 2011 online vote, PAM members elected Stella Ota as Chair-elect (Jan-Dec 2012) and Michael Chesnes as Treasurer (Jan 2012 through Dec 2013).

Stella  Ota (skota@stanford.edu) is Physics Librarian at Stanford University  and has served as a session moderator and on the PAM Awards Committee.

Michael Chesnes (michaelchesnes@gmail.com) is a Reference Librarian at the NASA Goddard Library in Greenbelt, MD and has served as PAM Bulletin Editor.

Both Stella and Michael have been loyal PAM members and have included science librarianship in their career paths. We are grateful for their willingness to serve the division in their new capacities.

PAM Nominations and Elections Committee

Alison Verbeck (chair)  alison@wustl.edu
Deborah Kegel  dkegel@ucsd.edu
Jeff Bond  j.bond@tcu.edu

by Martha Bishop and Margaret Lam

Astronomy Education Review Celebrates 10th Anniversary
http://aas.org/press/pr2011Oct11

PAM Author
Uta Grothkopf, Head Librarian at the European Southern Observatory, has written a chapter titled “Astronomy libraries – your gateway to information” in the proceeding book, Scientific Writing for Young Astronomers Part 1, which was edited by Christiaan Sterken.
ISBN: 9782759805068; European Astronomical Society, Publications Series 49
More information can be found here: http://www.swya.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=220&Itemid=294&lang=en_GB.utf8%2C+en_GB.UT

SLA 2012 – Astronomy Roundtable Discussion Topics
The following discussion topics are under consideration for the Astronomy Roundtable at the SLA 2012 Conference in Chicago, Illinois.

1. E-science and Data Curation
2. Scholarly Communication Issues
3. Developments in Astronomy Librarianship

If you wish to present on any of the above topics, please contact Margaret Lam (mlam3@gmu.edu) or Marsha Bishop (mbishop@nrao.edu).

We look forward to seeing you at the Astronomy Roundtable in Chicago in July 2012!


by Jane Holmquist and Andy Shimp

2012 Journal Pricing

• American Mathematical Society (PDF)
• Cambridge University Press (XLSX)
• Duke University Press and Project Euclid
• Elsevier
• European Mathematical Society (PDF)
• De Gruyter
• International Press of Boston
• Mathematical Sciences Publishers (PDF)
• Oxford University Press
• SIAM
• Springer
• Taylor & Francis (PDF)
• Turpion
• Wiley (XLS)
• World Scientific

Mathematicians Receive Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE)

Two mathematicians were among the 94 recipients of the 2011 award, the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. Joseph Teran is an associate professor of mathematics at UCLA and Maria G. Westdickenberg is an associate professor of mathematics at Georgia Tech.

2011 International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO)

The 2011 IMO was held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, July 16–24, 2011, with 101 nations competing. It is the world championship mathematical competition for high school-age students. Held over two days, participants take a 4.5-hour, three-problem exam each day. China took first place and 6 gold medals. USA took second place, with all six members receiving gold medals. Singapore came in third place.

National Academy of Sciences Elections

The National Academy of Sciences has elected four new members and one foreign associate who work in mathematics for 2011, in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. The new members are: James W. Demmel, University of California Berkeley; David Gabai, Princeton University; Stuart Geman, Brown University; Joseph Harris, Harvard University; and Jean Bourgain of the Institute for Advanced Study.

Scripta Manet

An editorial in the August issue of the Notices of the American Mathematical Society announced a new column focusing on the changing nature of mathematical publication. The first contributor to Scripta Manet is Peter Olver, who is the new chair of the Committee on Electronic Information and Communication (CEIC) for the International Mathematical Union. His topic is the changing nature of the mathematics journal. The article was published in the September issue: http://www.ams.org/notices/201108/rtx110801124p.pdf. Additional columns concerning the “author pays” model of journals by Ilya Kapovich and book publishing by Steven G. Krantz appear in subsequent issues.

MathSciNet Tutorials

The American Mathematical Society announced that tutorials are available at http://www.mathscinet.info/index.html. The tutorials include: Publications, Authors, Journals, and Citations searches, as well as tutorials on the Free Tools and Preferences options.

MSRI Workshop on Mathematics Journals

A summary report about the MSRI workshop on the changing nature of mathematics journals was published in the September 2011 issue of Notices of the American Mathematical Society: “Mathematics Journals: What Is Valued and What May Change” by James Crowley, Susan Hezlet, Robion Kirby, and Don McClure. The paper is available at http://www.ams.org/notices/201108/rtx110801127p.pdf. As reported in the May 2011 PAM Bulletin, reports of the talks are available at http://www.msri.org/attachments/workshops/587/MSRIfinalreport.pdf.

Author Authority Talk Published

Norman Richert of Mathematical Reviews/MathSciNet published a talk he presented at the PAM Vendor Roundtable at the 2010 annual conference in New Orleans. The paper is titled “Authors in the Mathematical Reviews/MathSciNet Database” and published in Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, v. 49 no. 6 (August 2011), p. 521-7. It is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01639374.2011.603821.

Joint Mathematics Meetings and Call for Agenda Items

The next Joint Mathematics Meetings will be held in Boston on January 4-7, 2012. In a recent PAMNET message, Linda Yamamoto posted a call for agenda items for the AMS Library Committee meeting that has been scheduled for Wednesday, January 4, 2012 from 3:35 pm to 4:50 pm in Beacon D, 3rd Floor Sheraton. Please contact her with ideas at linday@stanford.edu or 650-723-0864. The meeting is open to all who are interested. If you wish to know more about this committee, see http://carma.newcastle.edu.au/jon/AMS.shtml. A special rate of $50 is available for librarians registering for the Joint Mathematics Meetings by December 15. Please let Linda Yamamoto or Jane Holmquist (jane@princeton.edu) know if you plan to attend and would like to get together for dinner. Information and registration is available at http://jointmathematicsmeetings.org/jmm.

Obituary

Steven A. Orszag, a mathematician who performed pioneering work in the field of fluid dynamics dies at 68.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/us/08orszag.html

First Call for Roundtable Discussion Topics

The Mathematics Roundtable is scheduled to be held at the annual conference in Chicago on Wednesday, July 18 at 10am. We would like to devote this session to group discussion about topics of current interest. We are looking for your ideas as we plan this session. Please contact Jane Holmquist at jane@princeton.edu or Andy Shimp at andy.shimp@yale.edu.

This year the PAM Wide Roundtable will be on July 16th from 10:00  to 11:30 am (1.5 hours).  We will have a totally traditional roundtable!  You will be talking about your institutions, cool projects, budget woes and whatever professional news that will help your colleagues in their institutions to move forward.  We will limit ourselves by subjects.  Therefore please email me the topics that you think should be discussed in this roundtable.  I look forward to your emails.

Zari Kamarei
Director of Science and Engineering Libraries
University of Rochester
zkamarei@library.rochester.edu

by Muhammad Shahid Soroya, PAM International Membership Award Winner 2007

A few years back, I often wondered why organizations give awards to people and sometimes spend reasonable amounts on travelling grants as well. I could understand the efforts behind such activities, especially when the team of volunteers are people working behind the scenes. What is the overall advantage of these awards and scholarships? How does a specific community or public at large benefit from it? Spending time and money to recognize one’s efforts also raises these questions within the minds of other people.

I could easily remember the day when I received an email from Nisa Bakkalbasi regarding the announcement of the PAM International Membership Award for 2007. While sending my nomination, in my mind, I had a very few chances of winning such an award. But I did! The level of my happiness can never be expressed in words as I was getting a chance to visit abroad for the first time, to the USA. Everybody understands that this award is given to a person who is from a developing country and contributes something extraordinary in the areas of Physics, Astronomy or Mathematics. Most working professionals in developing countries are unable to get a chance to travel to the USA on their own because of high expenditures and visa issues, so this opportunity to get a membership in SLA and also a travelling grant definitely fulfills the dream of any person.

The first impression that I got from the PAM family was really unexpected and very positive, when Nisa personally called me.  She was very conscious about my Visa from the US Embassy and asked if I required any help in this regard. She remained in touch with me till the finalization of my Visa process. It was quite difficult to leave my son and family even for a very short period. But I must share with everyone that the PAM family provided me hospitality more than I expected. Care, Love and Affection given by the people of PAM Division is an asset for me. I am personally thankful to Nisa, Joe Kraus, Ruth Kneale and all other members of the PAM family who gave their time, shared their experiences and guided me in many ways.

My first professional experience was my presentation, which I tried to prepare at my level best, but I was little confused and again Nisa said, “Don’t worry” and it made me more relaxed. It was a quite satisfactory moment for me after completing my first international presentation. The participants shared their remarks and also pointed out a few areas for improvement.

Many people get such awards, travelling grants, medals and scholarships but very few get true benefit from such recognitions (from my point of view). I had detailed discussions on PAM and SLA structures, its funding and its activities. What I learnt from all these communications was that most important is your determination to do something, and finances never matter. During the stay of one week, the second thing which I observed from the people of United States of America that they are loyal to their country and committed to their nationhood. Individual efforts could be far better when transformed by an organization with clear vision and goals. I came back to my homeland with a decision that I would start my struggle for the betterment of my profession and professionals.

It is important to share with the readers that in Pakistan the Library profession is unfortunately neglected and libraries have never been important for the governments, which has resulted in different services structure in different organizations with different salary packages. The job market is saturated, and exploitation by the private institutions in terms of salary packages is there to disturb and frustrate the young professionals. At the same time the only national body for library professionals, the Pakistan Library Association (PLA), remained dead for a long period, and elections were held in 2007 after a gap of around 10 years.

We had an online discussion group named Librarian Welfare Group for general communication which provided a platform to discuss and share the issues regarding PLA and played a very important role in the revival of PLA. I succeeded in gathering a few young sincere persons together and founded the Pakistan Librarians Welfare Organization (PLWO), taking the responsibility of President of said organization. The basic purpose was to help the professionals in many ways like indicating job opportunities, information sharing, continuing education etc.

Meanwhile the PLA announced elections and my nomination was sent in for Treasurer PLA, Punjab Branch. I succeeded in winning the position with maximum votes cast in the election. Immediately after taking oath I was given the assignment to Chair the Image Building & Public Relations Committee and also joined the editorial board of PLA Punjab Newsletter. The next task was the re-organizing and updating of PLA Punjab website (www.plapunjab.org). During the following two-year tenure I tried to deliver in given areas of the organization by organizing five Talk Shows at Pakistan Television, press conferences, contributed in Newsletter and tried to enhance the membership of PLA. The tenure was completed in April, 2011.

In the next phase, Pakistan Librarians Welfare Trust was established, with PLWO as functional part and we succeeded in forming a team of dedicated persons for PLWO and started our website (www.plworg.com). The first big event organized by PLWO was World Book & Copy Right Day on 23rd April, 2010 in collaboration with US-Consulate, Lahore, Pakistan. We also involved the media (Electronic & Print) and libraries by sending emails/letters to highlight the importance of the day.

In 2011, PLWO focused on continuing education and organized more than 10 workshops and seminars for training of librarians. For the first time, scholarships and Travelling grants for the participants/students were announced. Again April 23, 2011 was celebrated as World Book & Copy Right Day all over Pakistan, and PLWO organized a national seminar in collaboration with Allama Iqbal Open University. Media also highlighted the importance of the day through news and columns/essays. The Prime Minister of Pakistan announced 22nd April National Book Day.

PLWO has started its annual Research Journal titled ”Pakistan Journal of Information Science” with international members on the editorial board including Zari  Kamarei from the PAM team. The first issue is expected in January, 2012. A Quarterly Newsletter is also going to start in December, 2011. Membership in different categories has also been offered and people are getting onboard with enthusiasm. A new website (www.librarianswelfare.org) is under process, and a Face book group is there for people using social networking websites.

Although I am leading the PLWO team, everybody is contributing according to his/her capacity, and I have ensured those results and acknowledgement of their volunteer work. Many times I have heard the words “international exposure” but I really learnt from that opportunity given to me in the shape of the PAM International Membership Award and I dedicate all these outcomes, all these successes and standing to my PAM family, who gave me confidence to take such initiatives.

by  Alison Verbeck

Uta Grothkopf, European Southern Observatory Library, has a chapter titled “Astronomy Libraries – Your Gateway to Information” in the book Scientific Writing for Young Astronomers, EAS Publication Series, 2011.

For the past two years Shaun Hardy has been working with Ruth Duerr at NSIDC on a project to digitize Carnegie’s extensive data archive from the 2nd International Polar Year. From a web announcement: In 1932-1933, Carnegie Institution scientists journeyed to Alaska and northern Canada to take part in the 2nd International Polar Year (IPY2) – a coordinated campaign of geophysical and meteorological observations by scientists from 40 nations. Now, thanks to a two-year collaboration between Carnegie’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism (DTM) and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), the original records from the Department’s IPY2 work have been digitized and are available online in NSIDC’s ROCS Archives Catalog (http://nsidc.org/rocs/archives-catalog/). Shaun Hardy (Carnegie-DTM) and Ruth Duerr (NSIDC) coordinated the project, which involved scanning thousands of instrument recordings, log sheets, photographs, and technical documents.

Uta Hussong-Christian is one of the authors of an article in The Digital Shift detailing an experiment at Oregon State University examining the use of ereaders – by academic librarians. “Four Librarians, Four Ereaders, One Month” by Evviva Weinraub Lajoie, Jane Nichols, Uta Hussong-Christian, and Laurie Bridges, October 11, 2011.
http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2011/10/11/four-librarians-four-ereaders-one-month/

Bob Kelly, Director of Journal Information Systems, has announced his retirement after 18 years of outstanding service with the American Physical Society. Bob’s last day will be December 31, 2011. We wish the very best for Bob and his family.

Pat Viele, retired physics and astronomy librarian, gave a poster session at the joint New York State Sections of APS and AAPT on October 7th. The theme of the meeting was “Celebrating the 100th Year of the Discovery of Superconductivity”.  Pat’s poster, “Information Fluency: Where to Start” is based on the collection of materials in her comPADRE file cabinet. http://www.compadre.org/portal/filingcabinet/share.cfm?UID=31&FID=21329&code=7CE89E751B

by Cunera Buys

Work is starting to get underway for the next PAM Membership Directory.  Remember, I obtain your information from SLA, so please update your membership information with any changes. To update your information go to http://www.sla.org/ and log in using your SLA user name and password.  Click on “Update Your Information” under the Membership tab on the SLA home page.  You can then update your name or contact information.

The information I receive from SLA is your preferred mailing address. If your preferred mailing address is your home address, send me an e-mail with your work information if you want your work information in the listed in the directory.

SLA is currently in the middle of a recruitment campaign.  As part of SLA’s ‘Picture’ of Success Campaign.

• One prize each will be given to the chapter and division with the highest total member number increase between October and December 1.
• One prize each will also be awarded to the chapter and division with the highest total member percent increase in membership.
• The winning chapter and division will be announced and recognized at the SLA Leadership Summit 2012.
• A digital photo camera will be awarded to the winning chapter and division membership chair (or the volunteer that the unit selects).

PAM is currently holding steady at 216 members.

Please join me in welcoming new or returning PAM members since the last PAM Bulletin.  If you are new and not on this list, drop me a line and I will update my list and make sure you are included next time.

Allison Romanyshyn
Subscriber Relations Manager
SPIE Digital Library
allisonr@spie.org

Paul Paar
paulpaar@yahoo.com

Leah Johnston
lajohnston@gmail.com