Minutes September 2003
Arkansas Innovative Users Group
September 30, 2003
Boreham Library, University of Arkansas at Fort Smith
Susan Goldner opened the meeting at 2:00 p.m. and passed around a list of members and a new member sign-up list, then called for participants to introduce themselves. She also passed around a sheet for participants to indicate interest in breakout sessions after the program.
Susan reported on the results of the previous day’s Planning Committee Meeting, where it was decided that our next two meetings would be held in March and June of 2004. One of the two meetings will likely be held at Henderson State. Susan gave two possible program topics for upcoming meetings (creating a new books list and using the create lists feature) and solicited new ideas. None were stated, but a survey will be done on the list to determine interest in purchasing group training from III.
The nominations of Dena Plaisted and Jennifer Chilcoat for webmaster and secretary, respectively, were approved by acclamation.
Susan inquired whether the group felt positively or negatively about allowing Katja Moos, Innovative’s Sales Consultant for our area, to join our e-mail list. Most comments were positive, and it was decided to let her join.
Dennis Van Arsdale and Martha Coleman presented the program about UA Fort Smith’s database, the Fort Smith Regional Index. The project indexes newspapers, magazines, web content, etc., for the eight surrounding counties of Fort Smith, beginning with content published in 1988. Criteria were given for inclusion in the index. Dennis discussed the search for the appropriate software to organize the information, and the decision to use the MARC bibliographic format. Martha discussed how they chose and trained the student workers who would perform the input. Martha and Dennis covered the challenges they faced in the input stage, e.g. consistency, sorting and limiting capabilities, and the “1932 bug.” They demonstrated the actual index. Susan Goldner spoke briefly about the Arkansas Legal Index, a project of the UALR Law Library, and Dennis and Martha visited and demonstrated the site.
The meeting was adjourned shortly before 3:30, and breakout sessions were convened on systems and cataloging.
Jennifer Chilcoat
Head of the Main Library
Central Arkansas Library System
100 Rock St.
Little Rock, AR 72201
voice 501/918-3031
fax 501/375-7451
