The AstroRT this year was, unexpectedly, standing room only. Apologies to folks who had to stand or sit on the floor; we thought seating for 48 would be enough and will plan better next year! Also thanks to my co-moderator Michael Blake; ya did good for first time outta the slot, dude!

Our speakers this year shared a lot of information with us, and I’d like to thank them all again for coming!

• Kerry Kroffe, from IOP Publishing, reviewed the publishing contract for the AAS journals and outlined what IOP had to do in a short amount of time to get the Astronomical Journal switched over and ready to go by January 2008. The Astrophysical Journal transition is currently in process, and many exciting things are planned for the future (VO tables, 30-day turnaround between acceptance and web publishing, and Object/Feature linking).
• Chris Biemesderfer, from the American Astronomical Society, picked up from where Kerry left off and shared some information about other things to come from AAS (data cubes, digital printing, and print on demand options, along with print bundling and regional delivery options).
• Karrie Berglund, representing the International Planetarium Society, shared a brief history of the IPS and discussed collaboration options between IPS and SLA/PAM. If you have any ideas or are interested in collaborating, please let her know.
• Donna Thompson gave us the latest information from the Astrophysics Data System (which I kept referring to as “service”, eek!), including information about the CrossRef collaboration and the rescanning project for older journals.

We had a few brief announcements, then a round-the-room introduction; then the roundtable closed and became a networking and discussion opportunity. Thanks again to everyone who attended!

Photographs are available on the U of H library website. 9” of rain in 6 hours, 50 year flood, debris formed a dam at a bridge, then washed over the banks.

Gov docs – 95% lost. Comprehensive depository library since 1907. Also a UN depository.

Library school class trapped in the basement. They had to throw a chair out of a window and climb out over broken glass.

Tips:
• Keep backup files off site
• Hire someone to do the documentation and replacement
• Look at the Library Disaster Planning Handbook

They’ve got some donations from BYU (Oahu) and UN. But will not be able to replace a ton of things that are local to Hawaii.

ADS Update
Donna Thompson, H-S CfA

myADS
• Notification service
• http://myads.harvard.edu (also from query page)
• registration for two different products, weekly or daily e-print notification
• weekly notification

• e-mail for each database (astro, phys, preprint)
• toc updates for a list of journals,
• can login and retrieve a query or run the saved query on demand

• Daily e-print (new articles)

• RSS
• E-mail

• FAQs

• Not run exactly every week, more like every 10 days
• Old articles recently added to the database will appear as new articles

Historical Literature
• With a grant, hired some students to work on getting metadata for old volumes
• Missing journals – even if not on their list! Send her an e-mail.
• If you get a request for a specific journal you would like to see in ADS let her know.
• ESA-SPs are in progress getting scanned (yay!)
• She needs old ApJ Letters from the 1970

Harvard Sciences Digital Library
Michael Leach
Experiences with an institutional repository

Issues:
• 7 months behind schedule
• Inability of new version to use math/phys symbols in title
• Handle system (permanent url) – won’t operate through a firewall right now. Alternatives to handle system aren’t accepted by d-space
• Click through copyright/license (not tested in Mass. State law)

• Research articles (so authors have to obey those rules for original publication/publisher)
• Data sets
• Learning materials
• Serials
• Videos
• Theses

• Logo issues, name issues with administration

Non-issues:
• Getting content – researchers are lining up impatiently to give content (exception of math community)
• Content is ps or pdf almost exclusively
• No conflict with ADS

Databases
• High demand to store datasets
• How do you do it so it’s usable

Policies and Procedures
• Useful to the community
• Agreement on policies has been easier than expected
• Best practices

Big Questions
• Relationship to google print or google scholar?
• Relationship to non-science libraries
• Virtual journal or virtual subject overlays envisioned haven’t really happened
• Relationship to metasearch or federated search
• Redundancy and preservation
• How to get the man-hours to really support this

MMST – multi-mission at space telescope
International Virtual Observatory – collections of datasets
NAS – recent report asking what will be done to preserve these large datasets
DAS – at NASA GSFC digital assets system using a customized version of Dublin Core, Goddard Core.

Weblogs at the Library
David Bigwood, http://tinyurl.com/8kg57

• Easy to do
• Inexpensive
• A good way to distribute information in multiple formats automatically (IM, SMS, e-mail, RSS)
• Particularly helpful for new acquisitions lists
• Keep in mind

• Less formal – but check spelling, grammar, etc.
• Keep it up to date – don’t let it get stale, probably at least once a week
• Write for your readers – what do they want to read and need to know

• RSS

The whole point of weblogs is to tell our stories to our constituencies.

Note: Here are the PAM blogs I know about
Individual, professional (there are at least a couple of personal ones which I’m not sure the owners are advertising? feedback?)

• Christina (mine!) http://christinaslibraryrant.blogspot.com
• David http://catalogablog.blogspot.com
• John http://jdupuis.blogspot.com
• Catherine http://englib.info
• Randy http://stlq.info
• Sara

Organizations

• LPI Recent Additions to the Library Collection at the Lunar and Planetary Institute
  New & Noteworthy
• Univ of Hawaii, Manoa (abandoned?)
• Georgia State
• UCSD
• Drexel: drexelphysics.blogspot.com
  drexelbioscience.blogspot.com
  drexelmath.blogspot.com
  drexelchemistry.blogspot.com

I’ll try to add to this when I’m a bit more awake

Edited: 6/13/05, 5pm (Eastern), added linking for blogs, fixed some bullets

This has lessons in astronomy for your… down time?

We took this picture to really feature Brenda who is center front. A copy will be sent to the archivist and others

LISA V
Donna J. Coletti and Uta Grothkopf
2006, the week after SLA, 3 days long at Harvard. Reception at Harvard-Smithsonian CfA. Check the web page for updates.

Science Organization Committee: common challenges, uncommon solutions
Keynote: Dr. John Huchra, H-S CfA

Program
1) Virtual observatory and what’s in it for libraries – bibliometric studies on ADS, datasets, metadata
2) E-journal swamp
3) Changing publishing sector – open archive, traditional journals, institutional archives
4) Preservation/ archiving/ historical session
5) Beyond ADS and Google – use of commercial databases, hidden literature, Google print and Google scholar
6) Cutting edge technologies – e-metrics, OPACs, blogs/wikis
7) Creative librarian – outreach, marketing

The call for papers will be sent out soon. If your subject is not listed, submit anyway.

Lowell Observatory Logbooks Digitization Project
Antoinette Beiser
They’ve received a grant to conserve older logbooks containing original observations, drawings, etc., 1894-1925, because the originals have been deteriorating. The logbooks are currently being scanned at 72dpi and 400dpi and entered into a database. Scans will be linked to the text of the notebook. Higher quality will be available for a fee. For photos – no thumbnail, just a lower res copy.

They get about 50 requests a year for items found in their archives

http://www.lowell.edu/Research/library

Changing World of the Astronomy Librarian, 1973 to Present
Brenda Corbin, US Naval Observatory
Brenda gave a wonderful overview of her time as the Naval Observatory librarian and the changes in technology that dramatically changed how she conducted her work. She had some great slides with pictures of punch machines, typewriters, catalog cards, and dumb terminals.

Learning Astronomy in your Bathroom
Liz Bryson
Liz showed a roll of toilet paper developed in Japan to teach astronomy. English versions include on on the life of a star and telescope pictures. Liz will provide the URL to order.