AISTI 2000 Summary
Annual Reports
2000
Summary Report
Highlights and Accomplishments
The Alliance continued to grow and expand in the year 2000. The business plan was completed, an Alliance brochure, intended for quick reference, was produced and the Alliance successfully hosted a one-day mini-conference in Albuquerque in August. Attended by members and non-members alike, the conference was intended to provide information not only about the Alliance, but serve as an educational vehicle. Speakers from Adobe Systems, High-Tech Gurus, an Albuquerque company, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory gave stimulating and thought-provoking presentations about the future of information technology.
Two of the Alliance member libraries were recognized by the Federal Library and Information Center Committee (FLICC) with awards for federal librarianship. The Los Alamos National Laboratory Research Library received an award as 1999 Federal Library/Information Center of the Year. LANL was recognized for "its singular vision linked to sound business processes that have led to unprecedented levels of customer service, technological innovation and leadership in the information community".
Rosette M. Risell of the Ruth H. Hooker Research Library, Naval Research Laboratory was recognized as 1999 Federal Library Technician of the Year. She was recognized for "routinely performing beyond the call of duty to maximize her contributions to the mission of the Naval Research Laboratory."
The Alliance successfully negotiated new contracts with Kluwer, Institute of Physics Publishing, and Blackwell. The Alliance continues to solicitate input from current member libraries and negotiates contracts that will be advantageous to them. At the same time, the Alliance will actively work to put together a package of products to attract new members. Alliance products currently available include the following citation databases: Biosis® at LANL, DOE Energy® at LANL, Engineering Index® at LANL, INSPEC® at LANL, Nuclear Science Abstracts at LANL, SciSearch® at LANL, Social SciSearch® at LANL. All databases are provided through a single interface and search engine with links from the databases to the full text of journal articles. The Alliance offers the full text of journals from Academic Press IDEAL, Blackwell, Elsevier, Institute of Physics Publishing, and Kluwer.
In December, the Alliance hired a Certified Public Accountant to review Alliance financial records and tax returns in preparation for the IRS five-year review and final determination of Alliance non-profit status. In 1996, the Alliance received provisional status as a 501(c)(3) organization, and early in 2001, the final determination will be made.
Alliance Officers and Members
Johann van Reenen served as Chair of the Directors Group. Sally Landenberger served as Chair-elect and David Myers, New Mexico State University, continued as Secretary-Treasurer until June, when he took another position at NMSU. Sally Landenberger agreed to serve as Secretary-Treasurer until the end of 2000. Dr. Elizabeth Titus, new Dean of the Library at New Mexico State University, became a member of the Alliance Board of Directors on August 1, 2000.
Membership in the Alliance changed in 2000, and some members moved from one category to another. Santa Fe Institute and NASA's National Scientific and Technical Information Program moved from associate to full member status, while the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology moved from full to associate member status. A new associate member, Montana State University, joined the Alliance near the end of 2000. This brings Alliance membership to a total of eight full members and six associate members.
Other libraries have shown interest in joining the Alliance and we expect that the number of members will continue to grow in 2001.
Future Directions
The Alliance has seen a significant increase in the number of customers for its products each year. The Alliance seeks to continuously broaden the availability and type of product offered. The Alliance will continue to actively seek out and recruit members that share its vision and commitment to developing the most comprehensive seamless digital library collection supporting science and technology discovery in the United States.
The Alliance will continue to license content that can be loaded on local servers in order to provide features and functionality that are not available from any other source. Products such as FlashPoint, and LinkSeeker, developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, will allow researchers to search a single interface, retrieve information and analyze it more easily. Demand is rising for new products such as these. As stated in the business plan, the Alliance and its member libraries want to take on a new role as suppliers of digital collections and as creators of tools that facilitate scientific communication and collaboration.
