by Alison Verbeck

Lauren Gala has been promoted to her new position as the Science & Digital Initiatives Librarian at the University of Pennsylvania.

Debra Kolah, Physics, Math, Statistics and Astronomy Librarian at Rice University, coauthored an article in the November/December 2012 issue of Information Outlook.  “Information Professionals and User Experience” (http://www.sla.org/io/2012/11/1177.cfm).  In addition, she wrote “Usability Methods in the Information Environment” with Gretchen McNeely in the same issue (http://www.sla.org/io/2012/11/1178.cfm).

by Joy Painter

I began my career in libraries in the late 1990s in the old Astrophysics Library in the Robinson Building at Caltech. Robinson was built in 1932 and at its center was a solar telescope intended for George E. Hale. The building included a traditional branch library with painted ceilings, special celestial lamps, lovely wooden shelves and a rolling staircase to reach journal volumes shelved way up high. The astro collection moved into a newly constructed building in 2008. The current astrophysics library here is in the new Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics.

For many years Helen Knudsen was the astronomy librarian in Robinson.  She collected and indexed astronomy print materials from all over the world. Some of you will remember the monthly Astronomy and Astrophysics Index that she produced. We still have almost all of what Helen collected. When we moved from Robinson to Cahill the things that would not fit in the smaller Cahill space were moved into storage.

Like many other schools, there are space pressures at Caltech. This year the Library is doing a major collection shift because of the loss of floor space. All of the print collections are being analyzed, including the astro print collection that was amassed through the 1990s.

Bookplate

In going through the print materials there have been some gems. I found and digitized a copy of the logbook used at Palomar. Publications of the Owens Valley Radio Observatory, another Caltech observatory, were scanned and added to our institutional repository and linked to ADS. There were a number of unpublished reports from the Big Bear Solar Observatory (now NJIT) that too, were scanned and added to our IR. I found some lovely old books that came out of Hale’s private library that have found a home in the Caltech Archives.

Material that has not been used and is not related to astronomy research at Caltech is more difficult to justify keeping. There simply is not space to keep the vast collection of print observatory publications from around the world. We have material in Russian, German, French, Italian and more. Our collection here must be more focused.

Journal cover from 1883 L’Astronomie. Now in Caltech Archives

I’ve been checking with Donna Thompson and sending her what we can and what is needed in ADS. This is an ongoing process.

As things continue to evolve and change in our field I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to work with this collection and through it look back at the way it used to be for astronomy librarians. I think about the librarians who carefully collected this material and hope I make good choices about what to keep.

by Robert Hanisch and Marsha Bishop

The proceeding papers from the IAU GA Beijing Working Group Libraries are posted at http://iau-commission5.wikispaces.com/LibWG+Beijing+2012.

Many thanks to Lance Utley for editing this volume, organizing it, and ensuring an interesting cover. He has also kindly agreed to catalogue the proceedings, ensuring the record will be on OCLC with the link. Many thanks to Bob Hanisch for not only chairing the meeting, but setting up the wiki, and posting the papers.

The meeting would not have happened had it not been for the very generous sponsorship of IOP Publishing, IEEE, SPIE, and Elsevier. Our appreciation for their support is boundless.

Many, many thanks to those who participated; you made the meeting and now the results are available for everyone to learn from and enjoy.

Robert Hanisch & Marsha Bishop
Co-Chairs
WG Libraries

by Sara Tompson

Sara Tompson, PAM Member, past PAM Secretary (2005-07) and SLA Board member reports that she is happy to have been appointed the Board Liaison to PAM for 2013.  Please feel free to contact her with questions:  sarat@usc.edu.  She would like everyone to know about some essential links for staying on top of our Association and maximizing PAM’s impact.

• SLA Board Minutes and Agendae: http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/governance/bodsection/bodmtgs/index.cfmSLA
• Blog: http://slablogger.typepad.com/sla_blog/
• SLA e-newsletter: please subscribe here: http://www.sla.org/content/Shop/enewsletters/index.cfm

She also noted that the Chair and Chair-Elect are, or will be shortly, subscribed to the SLA Leadership List.  That is a communciation vehicle for Unit Leaders, Board Members, and SLA staff to keep each other up to date.  Unit leaders are asked to consider the impact of items discussed on the list for the Units, and to respond and share appropriately.

by Emily Poworoznek

It’s an arm of the PAM Professional Development Committee.  As such, we work to provide opportunities for on-the-job and at-the-conference professional development.  We organize the PAM Mentoring Program and Annual Conference Buddy Program. So, what are these programs?

PAM’s formal Mentoring Program is a great opportunity to learn on the job and/or give back to our profession.  For this program, the Mentoring Subcommittee sets up a partnership between a PAM mentor volunteer and a PAM member who would like mentoring.   Mentoring can be centered on a specific area (on instruction, perhaps, or writing for publication).  Or, it can be more general (Help! I’m new at this!).  Mentor pairs are based on expressed strengths/needs and preferences. The time commitment and duration of a mentorship vary; typically, there’s more communication at the start and then it levels off — and may last a year, or perhaps two based on mutual agreement (beyond that, you really don’t need us anymore!).

In contrast, the Conference Buddy Program is just for the SLA conference.  Open to all PAM members and friends, it’s an opportunity for newer conference-goers to be matched up with more experienced SLA attendees who can help pave the way and navigate the conference.  Depending on preferences, you can share as much time, info and/or fun as you want, or even just meet for a chat at the PAM Suite.  As buddies are just for the conference, it’s a short-term commitment but a great way to network and learn about the conference.

So, if you’re interested in either mentoring/being mentored or have questions about it, please let us know.  And, please consider the Buddy Program for this year in San Diego (you can contact us now or in May when we send out The Buddy Call). For more info, please see our page on the PAM website (http://pam.sla.org/projects/mentoring-services/ . Thanks!

PAM Mentoring Subcommittee:

Emily Poworoznek, Chair  (el@unh.edu)

Kathleen A. Lehman (kalehman@uark.edu)

Jennifer Hart (hartj@uchicago.edu)

by Mangala Krishnamurthy

The PAM Awards Committee cordially invites you to submit, **by May 1**, your nominations for the 2013 PAM Division Award and/or for the 2013 PAM Achievement Award.

Previous recipients of the Division Award include the Jahrbuch Project, the American Physical Society, and John Gardner for developing assistive technologies.

Previous honorees of the Achievement Award include Martha Tucker, Bob Michaelson, Kris Fowler, and Molly White.

There are many more deserving colleagues and worthwhile endeavors to honor.

See http://pam.sla.org/manual/awards/  for award overviews including lists of past recipients.

Please send nominations for individuals or groups to any of the committee members via the e-mail addresses listed below. If you’re thinking of someone but aren’t quite sure if you can make the May 1 deadline, then please send a message to any of the committee members.

Mangala Krishnamurthy (Chair) , mkrishna@ua.edu
Debra Kolah, dkolah@rice.edu
Kathleen Lehman, kalehman@uark.edu

by Kathleen Lehman

Although the election results have been announced on PAMNet, the Nominations and Elections Committee would again like to congratulate Barbara Kern for being elected as the new PAM Division Chair-Elect and Jeffra Bussmann as the new PAM Division Secretary!  Both have already served PAM in numerous capacities and graciously accepted their new roles. See their bios below for more information.

Barbara Kern is the Co-Director of the Science Libraries at the University of Chicago with responsibilities for public services as well as collection development for astronomy, astrophysics, physics and technology.  Prior to coming to the University of Chicago in 2000, she was a librarian at the University of Toronto, where she completed in her BA and MLIS. Barbara is Past-Treasurer of PAM and served on the Nominating Committee. In addition, last year she was the program planner for the Academic Division.

Jeffra Bussmann joined the library faculty at California State University, East Bay Libraries as a science librarian in August 2012. She became a member of SLA and the PAM division in 2009, when she began working as the Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy Librarian at University of California, Irvine Libraries. For 2009-2010, she served as the PAM Alignment Ambassador to liaise with SLA administration and headquarters on the alignment project, which included the proposed name change. She joined the PAM Strategic Planning Committee in 2011 and later that year, became the chair of the committee. The committee drafted a new Strategic Plan for PAM 2012-2015 that Jeffra presented to PAM via email, the website, and in person at the PAM Business Meeting at SLA Annual.

Serving on the Nominations and Elections Committee this past year were Jeff Bonds (Chair), Kathleen Lehman, and Michael Blake.  Lehman will be serving as Chair for 2013. Blake will continue to serve on the committee, and they will be joined by Michiko Tanaka.  This committee is responsible for developing a slate of candidates and running elections for Chair-Elect, Treasurer, and Secretary for the PAM Division.

And it’s never too early to think about the next elections!  Please forward any nominations for PAM Chair-Elect and PAM Treasurer to Lehman, Blake, or Tanaka.  The next Chair-Elect will commit to three years of service (Chair-Elect 2014, Chair 2015, and Past Chair 2016).  The Treasurer will serve from January 2014 to December 2015.

Kathleen Lehman kalehman@uark.edu

Michael Blake mblake@cfa.harvard.edu

Michiko Tanaka mtanaka@bnl.gov

by John Kromer

As this year’s SLA Conference draws nearer, there is a small change to report with the PAM Roundtable.  Mat Willmott has stepped down as co-moderator, so John Kromer will be the sole moderator as we head into the conference.  If you previously volunteered to speak during the Roundtable, you should expect to hear back from John in the next couple of weeks to confirm your topic.  If you did not previously volunteer but would like to do so, there are still some opportunities available!  Additional ideas for Roundtable topics are also still welcome as well.

John Kromer

kromerjd@miamioh.edu (note the domain name change)

by Dianne Dietrich and Lance Utley

Unified Astronomy Thesaurus Announced

Through PAMNET and other outlets, we are learning about the Unified Astronomy Thesaurus (UAT). The project is and “open, interoperable, and community-supported” effort to unify divergent astronomy thesauri of the past. Visit http://astrothesaurus.org to learn more.

Astronomy Round Table @ San Diego

The moderators of the Astronomy RT continue to accept volunteers interested in participating in lightning talks (5-10 minutes) for the session at SLA 2013. Topics include:

• Adjusting to the diminishing (or loss of) physical collections and space
• How to use bibliometrics, or tracking staff publications to demonstrate impact of institutions, instruments, and scientists
• Miscellany of import to the community including but not limited to Data Curation, Instruction and Open Access.

Contact Dianne (dd388@cornell.edu) or Lance (lutley@nrao.edu) for more information.

by Carol Hutchins and Laurie Reeves

Call for discussion topics

The Mathematics Roundtable is scheduled to be held at the annual conference in San Diego on Sunday, June 9^th at 3:30pm. We would like this session to include a discussion of topics of current interest. Please send any and all ideas to co-moderators, Laurie Reeves (laurie.reeves@unc.edu) and Carol Hutchins (carol.hutchins@nyu.edu).

MathSciNet enhancement 2012

Gathering information on soon to be published mathematics papers is now a bit easier.  From MathSciNet: “MathSciNet now includes Preliminary Data items, which are created from bibliographic data received directly from publishers.  This data allows users to view early information about new papers in mathematics while full processing, including author identification and editorial decisions, is ongoing.” Publishers that are including preliminary data items are the American Mathematical Society, the Canadian Mathematical Society, the European Mathematical Society, the Mathematical Association of America, SIAM, Elsevier, and Springer. For more information about this new tag, visit http://www.ams.org/mathscinet/help/fullitem_help_full.html.

American Institute of Mathematics, Open Textbook Initiative

As with other subjects, the cost of mathematics textbooks is increasing and becoming an even heavier burden for students. The American Institute of Mathematics’ Open Textbook Initiative is encouraging the use of open textbooks to combat the rising cost. The five member editorial board, composed of experienced mathematics professors, has developed guidelines for evaluating open mathematics textbooks and maintains a list of approved open textbooks. For more information, visit http://www.aimath.org/textbooks/.

Episciences Project

Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe has developed a new platform to encourage the development of epijournals, “open access electronic journals taking their contents from preprints deposited in open archives such as arXiv or HAL, that have not been published elsewhere.” The project will be launched during the first half of 2013 with Episciences-Math, with the CCSD working with the Institut Fourier in Grenoble, France. Tim Gowers, of Elsevier boycott fame, will be taking part in the project as indicated on his blog.

Report on the present and future of Mathematics

The National Research Council recently announced a report entitled The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. The Board on Mathematical Sciences and their Applications within the Division of Engineering and Physical Sciences examined the current state of mathematics, both in preparing future mathematicians and necessary changes for those currently in the field. As we all know, mathematics is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary and this report expands on that observation. A prepublication version of the report is available for free from the National Academies Press.

Report on the Joint Mathematics Meeting

From January 5-9 over 6,000 attendees flocked to unusually chilly – but sunny – San Diego for this annual mega-meeting. This JMM was also the kick-off for the initiative called Mathematics of Planet Earth 2013. Several sessions treated topics of current interest to mathematicians and librarians alike.   The Special Session on Electronic Publishing highlighted the variety of ways, means, and achievements of small, independent math journals, e.g Houston J. Math. and the J. of Humanistic Mathematics.  Apart from these sessions, a Science Policy panel entitled “Who Will Pay for the Papers We Publish?” failed, in my view, to give a definitive answer to this most provocative and pressing question.  We heard Sastry Pantula explain that the NSF is still pondering what its policy shall be regarding OA publishing.   Rob Kirby gave his back-of-the-envelope estimate that the monies currently devoted to subscription payments could support journals via “page charges” (APCs).   This latter point was sharply questioned by some in the audience.  Perhaps most notable was the statement by David Goss, editor of J. Number Theory, (Elsevier) recounting his experience at the peak of the  boycott in 2012, “I went through post-modern hell.”