For 2013, IOP will be doubling the value to $2,000 apiece and the committee has agreed to extend the deadline for applications. The new deadline is Monday, March 11, 2013, and applicants will receive notification of award status by April 1, 2013.

We chose the Travel Stipends as a way to memorialize our dear friend and colleague because Louise was so proud to be a part of this program which both supports new librarians and deepens the relationships between those librarians and the PAM Division.

Those who have already applied for the travel awards do not need to resubmit their applications.

Thank you to everyone who has participated in this program in the past, and we look forward to selecting the 2013 awardees and getting to know them at the SLA in June.

For reference, below you will find the latest listserv posting with the details of the application process.

*********************************************************
Sharice P. Collins
Vice President, Marketing
IOP Publishing, Inc.
150 South Independence Mall West
Philadelphia, PA 19106
ioppublishing.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PAM Travel Stipend for attending SLA conference

The SLA-PAM Professional Development Committee is pleased to announce that IOP Publishing is once again sponsoring four conference travel stipends to help new librarians with the expenses of attending the SLA Annual Conference. The stipends aim to accelerate the advancement of new librarians entering science/technology librarianship by mentoring them to access educational and professional opportunities within the SLA. This is the fifth year running that IOP Publishing and the PAM Division have proudly offered these travel stipends.The selected recipients will each receive a $1,000 stipend to assist in defraying the cost of attending the 2013 SLA conference in San Diego, CA in June 2013. Learn more about the IOP Travel Stipend Award today and nominate yourself, or someone you know.

Eligibility

- Applicants must be graduates of a library science program.

- Applicants must have less than 3 years of professional library information experience.

- Applicants must work in a library focusing on one or more of the PAM disciplines (physics, astronomy, mathematics, or computer science) or act as a library’s subject specialist for one or more of these disciplines.

- Applicants must be first-time attendees of the SLA annual conference, or first-time attendees in a PAM discipline.

- International applicants must be eligible to travel to the United States and must be available to participate in US-based PAM activities throughout the year.

The committee reserves the right not to grant any of the four awards if not enough applications meet all eligibility requirements and adhere to all the application procedures.

Only applicants who meet all the eligibility requirements at the time of application are submitted to the SLA-PAM review committee for travel stipend consideration.

Candidate Expectations

- Candidate must attend the SLA Annual Conference the year the award is given.

- Candidate must attend the PAM business meeting and breakfast.

- Candidate must be willing to attend PAM sessions and events at the Annual Conference and participate in a group photo session administered by SLA.

- Candidate must be available to participate in US-based PAM activities throughout the year.

Application Procedure

1. Prepare a brief letter (approximately 750 words), answering the questions:- How do you meet the criteria?

- What do you hope to gain from attending the 2013 SLA conference?

- How do you expect/hope to be involved with the PAM division in the short and long term?

2. Submit current curriculum vitae/resume.

Applications can be submitted via email to Margaret Lam at mlam3@gmu.edu (subject line should begin with PAM Travel Stipend). Applications will be accepted until March 11, 2013. Late applications cannot be considered.

Notification

Applicants will receive notification of award status by April 1, 2013. The award check will be presented at the PAM business meeting and breakfast.

No money transfer will be made in case the award recipient can’t attend the conference for any reason.

The PAM Division is deeply grateful to IOP Publishing for their continued involvement with and support of librarians at the SLA conference, and most especially for their generous commitment to the professional development of young science librarians.

Selection Committee Members:
Sharice Collins, Vice President, Marketing, IOP Publishing, Inc.
Stella Ota, PAM Chair
Margaret Lam, PAM Professional Development Chair
Kathleen Lehman, PAM Mentoring Sub-Committee Chair

by Stella Ota

Happy 2013! January is the transition month for a number of Division leadership positions. All current PAM leaders, including Committee Chairs, Committee Members, and Annual Conference Moderators can be found on the Current Staff Listing page on the PAM website: http://pam.sla.org/manual/staff/current/. The listing of previous committee leaders is also linked off the current staff webpage. A huge thank-you to all the PAM volunteers, current and past, who have contributed to the greater good (and especially to webmaster Robin Dasler for making all the edits)! We are not a large division but we do a lot and make it count. Kudos to all the volunteers who make PAM a great division to be a part of! If you are interested doing more on PAM programs and endeavors, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Speaking of transitions, your new 2013 PAM Executive Board is:

Chair, Stella Ota
Chair-Elect, Barbara Kern
Past Chair, Nisa Bakkalbasi
Secretary, Jeffra Bussmann
Treasurer, Michael Chesnes

Congratulations to newly-elected Barbara and Jeffra! As a reminder, the Chair-Elect is elected every Fall and serves a three-year term cycling through the positions of Chair-Elect, then Chair, then Past-Chair. The Secretary and Treasurer have staggered two-year terms, so one or the other is elected each Fall.

Many thanks to Nisa for her steady leadership as Chair during 2012 as well as congratulations on a very successful year. Standing ovations to Ruth Kneale who steps down after her three years as Chair-Elect/Chair/Past-Chair and to Elizabeth (Beth) Brown who completes her two years as Secretary. I hope we will continue to benefit from their experience and advice!

Next up in February is the SLA 2013 Leadership Summit in Dallas, TX. The Chair and Chair-Elect attend to represent PAM at the Division and Joint Cabinet meetings and to bring back updates about SLA’s directions as an association. The Chair-Elect also attends to begin program planning for the 2014 conference. In addition, this year, the Leadership Summit organizers have invited PAM to speak about our strategic plan, in particular, how we went about it as well as lessons learned. Jeffra Bussmann as Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee will make the presentation. Plan on reading more about PAM’s strategic directions in a future Bulletin article. Meanwhile, the updated and approved PAM 2012-2015 Strategic Plan can be found on the PAM website: http://pam.sla.org/files/strategic-plan/.

Also coming soon in February is access to annual conference registration, hotel information, and online planner for SLA 2013 in San Diego to be held June 8-12. Our Fundraising Committee members Kiem Ta and Donna Thompson have been hard at work, contacting sponsors and confirming support for our conference events. The economic climate is still unsettled for attendees as well as exhibitors, so the commitment from our sponsors as greatly appreciated. I hope you are seeing similar support from your organizations as well. For more information about the PAM events planned for SLA 2013, check out the article that appears further in this Bulletin.

Meanwhile, I hope warm and sunny thoughts about June in San Diego keep the winter chills at bay!

by Jeffra Bussmann

The Strategic Planning Committee began the revision of the strategic plan in the Fall of 2011 with the PAM division survey (summary of results can be found at the PAM website). During the PAM Business meeting at the 2012 SLA Annual conference, a draft of the new strategic plan was presented. In addition to feedback gathered at that time, we also accepted feedback through email for those not in attendance. With a few edits made, the final version of the PAM Strategic Plan 2012-2015 was approved by the PAM Board on December 15, 2012. It has been posted to the PAM website.

http://pam.sla.org/files/strategic-plan/

Jeffra Bussmann, Chair
Lauren Gala
Ruth Kneale
Dorothy McGarry
Laniece Miller

by Stella Ota

Registration, reservations, and scheduling for the 2013 SLA Annual Conference in San Diego all become available in February. With the conference theme of “Connect, Collaborate, Strategize”, expect to have a lot of opportunities for interaction with colleagues. To help with your planning, below are the PAM-led or co-sponsored sessions as well as the major conference events for SLA 2013.

SATURDAY, June 8, 2013

• 10:00am-NOON:  PAM Board Meeting
• (2:00-5:00pm:  SLA 2014 Planners Meeting)
• (5:00-6:00pm:  SLA First Timers Reception)
• 6:00-9:00pm:  PAM Early Bird Dinner & Newcomers’ Dinner (Hospitality Committee Lead Coordinator Kim Bevis)

SUNDAY, June 9, 2013

• (9:00-11:00am:  SLA Opening General Session)
• 11:45am-1:15pm: Physics Roundtable (Mat Willmott & John Kromer, Moderators)
• 1:30-3:00pm: Science & Technology on the Go: An Update (Explores the developments and usefulness of mobile apps in science and technology information resources.) (PAM Liaison to CHEM Division: OPEN)
• 3:30-5:00pm: Math Roundtable (Carol Hutchins & Laurie Reeves, Moderators)

MONDAY, June 10, 2013

• 10:00-11:30am: Astronomy Roundtable (Lance Utley & Dianne Dietrich, Moderators)
• 12:00-1:30pm: PAM Business Meeting & Lunch
• 5:30-7:30pm: All Sciences Poster Session (PAM Liaison to BIO Division: OPEN)
• (6:00-7:30pm:  SLA Cabinet Meetings)
• 8:00-10:00pm: PAM Open House

TUESDAY, June 11, 2013

• 8:00-9:30am: PAM Vendor Update & Networking Breakfast (Susan Koskinen, Moderator)
• 10:00-11:30am: Information Technology Roundtable (CS Roundtable) (Ruth Kneale, PAM Liaison to IT)
• (4:00-5:00pm:  SLA Annual Business Meeting)

WEDNESDAY, June 12, 2013

• 9:00am-4:00pm: Scripps Institution of Oceanography Tour (PAM members-only tour! Highlights include the Aquarium, Institution Archives, Wave Pool, and Ocean Floor Drilling Cores collection. Ticket price will include transportation and Aquarium access. Max attendees: 20) (Hospitality Committee Lead Coordinator, Deborah Kegel; Event Co- Coordinator position: OPEN)

The PAM Daily Retreat days and times are still in the works. For the traditional Early Bird Dinner and Newcomers Lunch, we are trying something new with a combined dinner for Early Birds and Newcomers. All new PAM members as well as PAM members attending their first annual conference will receive a separate message about the newcomers gathering.   Keep an eye on PAMNET for details on the Early Bird Dinner and Newcomers’ Dinner, PAM Daily Retreat, and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography tour. As we close in on the conference and receive room assignments, Public Relations Committee members Khue Dong and Elizabeth Cheney will be developing the PAM Dance Card. Meanwhile, there are a couple liaison/co-coordinator positions open, so please contact me if interested to help and/or if you have any questions about SLA 2013. Hope to see you there!

by Ruth Kneale

Wrestling with the decision whether to switch to Windows 8 or not? Got questions about your network? Refereeing a battle between PC and Mac? Well, come to the Information Technology Roundtable with your questions and meet like-minded folks from the PAM, Sci-Tech and IT divisions who may just have an answer for you. If nothing else, it’s an excuse to spend some time with people who understand your problems, and share some astonishing user stories!

This session, formerly known as the Computer Science Roundtable, will be lightly moderated, and is happening Sunday June 9th from 10-11:30am. Join us for the conversation!

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.”

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 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 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