AISTI 1999 Annual Report
Summary Report for 1999
Highlights and Accomplishments
In 1999, the Alliance devoted much time and effort to strategic planning, reviewing its accomplishments and rethinking future directions. The Alliance vision is to be an innovative leader in cyber SCI/TECH information, producing new models of scholarly communication. Advancing toward this goal will require significant changes in the structure, activities and focus of the organization.
The Alliance believes that strategic partnerships beyond the state of New Mexico will enhance our ability to realize our mission and vision irrespective of time, national boundaries and organizational constraints. As a result of this thinking, the Alliance, formerly known as the Library Services Alliance of New Mexico, changed its name to the Alliance for Innovation in Science and Technology Information. This change reflects both changes in the group's philosophy and the geographic makeup of its membership. The Alliance mission is to acquire science and technology and to create, collaborative tool sets exploiting these to the best advantage for our researchers.
The Alliance has successfully negotiated contracts that allow members to access citation databases such as SciSearch® at LANL, Social SciSearch® at LANL, Biosis® at LANL, INSPEC® at LANL, Engineering Index® at LANL and the full text of journal articles from publishers such as Elsevier, Kluwer, and Academic Press linked to these citation databases. While these are significant accomplishments, the Alliance envisions a new role as a supplier of digital collections and a creator of tools that facilitate scientific communication and collaboration. The Alliance wants to be at the forefront of scholarly publishing and communication in the 21st century.
Alliance Officers and Members
Marsha Dreier, AFRL Phillips Laboratory, served as Chair of the Directors Group. Kay Krehbiel, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, served as Vice-Chair. David Myers, New Mexico State University continued as Secretary-Treasurer.
In 1999, New Mexico Highlands University became an Associate Member of the Alliance, bringing the total membership to seven full members and seven associate members.
Future Directions
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 Directors Group approved a new dues structure starting January 1, 2000 to advance its new vision.
The Alliance goal is to offer high-end, high-service products that are competitive with regard to price. However, the lowest price is not the primary Alliance strategy, but rather the Alliance will provide features and functionality that are not available from any other source.
The Alliance has begun to shift from a customer/supplier relationship with the provider of scientific information to a partnership relationship. The Alliance has developed a statement of preferred vendor relations, and is actively seeking to change the marketing models currently used by some journal publishers and secondary electronic database producers.
Demand is rising for new products that will allow researchers to search a single interface, retrieve information, analyze it and create new information. 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. We want to be at the forefront of scholarly publishing and communication in the 21st century.
