6th Annual Atmospheric Science Librarians International Conference
Long Beach, CA  February 12-14, 2003
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Wednesday, February 12, 2003
ASLI program and ASLI dinner

Ann Wolpert provided the keynote address entitled Back to the Future: Providing Information to the MIT Community. Ann discussed the State of Information Services and later engaged the group in a conversation about important issues in libraries today. A wide range of topics were covered including:

What does it mean to be a librarian today? Including the old stereotypes and new models for today.

The significant advances in information technology that occurred during the past 20 years.

The changing expectations of library clients/patrons/customers.

Radical changes in the library environment including asset management, new media formats and pricing structures, and a volatile legal and regulatory environment.

What is on the horizon for libraries? Changes related to print and electronic books, commercial journal publishing, societal journal publishing may well occur based on the current library environment.

The Achilles heel of the digital revolution and nontraditional publishing, e.g. Genome databanks, Open Course Ware, medical image collections, etc., is preservation. MIT is trying to deal with this problem by offering faculty DSpace, a tool that provides for the long term storage of digital works produced by faculty. Additional information about the DSpace project was provided.

A brief question and answer session followed the presentation.

Jim provided information about the work of Guy Callendar, a remarkable and dynamic climatologist who worked to revive concepts related to the artificial production of carbon dioxide and its impact on climate. Callendar compiled a massive amount of data from around the world and noted a significant upward trend in temperature for the first four decades of the twentieth century. He also noted rising concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide due to the combustion of fossil fuels. Ninety-five of Callendar’s notebooks from the University of East Anglia were scanned to gold CD-ROMs as part of this research project. The notebooks include Callendar’s notes and letters from others including Keeling, Plass, and Manley Additionally, family photos and records were scanned. A brief question and answer session followed the presentation.

Benjamin Franklin and Lightning Rod Research
Prof. E. Philip Krider, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

Phil briefly discussed Ben Franklin’s collection of books and the mechanisms he devised to store and retrieve books in his library. A more technical discussion of lightning followed. Discussion points included streak photography of lightning, the lightning strike process which includes multiple strokes revealed in streak photography, and the placement of lightning rods to protect structures. A brief question and answer session followed the presentation.

Doing Research in the History of Meteorology
Kris Harper, Ph.D. candidate, History of Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR

Kris described the research environment and some of the obstacles encountered by history of science researchers. Graduate students in science are often advised not to look at materials over five years old. Graduate students in the history of science, however, have to review materials more than twenty years old. One of the problems associated with older materials is that they are typically in storage. Often the older materials have to be reviewed one page at a time so they have to be retrieved from storage to allow browsing. Other hazards for historians include the disappearance of the library card catalog. Any materials that did not migrate to the new system can no longer be browsed. Indexing is also a problem encountered by historians. Subject specific indexes, like meteorology, may not have started until the 1950’s. Other indexes, for example, the Science Citation Index, may go back further in time but it still only goes back so far as well. A final topic of discussion was the loss of papers and notebooks of researchers. Kris encouraged librarians to advocate for the preservation of these materials. A brief question and answer session followed the presentation.

Thursday, February 13, 2003
ASLI program, vendor updates, business meeting

Recovering a Solar Cycle: Digitizing the Millstone Hill Ionospheric Profiles
Madeleine Needles, Librarian, MIT Haystack Observatory, Westford, MA

Madeleine provided background information on the Millstone Hill Atmospheric Radio Antenna. The antenna provides incoherent scatter radar data as an ionospheric research tool. The Millstone Hill Backscatter Report has provided uninterrupted data from the 1960’s to the present. Complete 1960’s solar data exists only in this report. The Lincoln Lab put the reports in pdf format and made them available on the web. In order to make the data usable, it needed to be available at a much higher resolution; images were therefore scanned using the R2V program by Able Software. Staff next completed all lines by hand and moved numbers so that the information displayed would be legible. The data will be regularized through time and has been downloaded into the CEDAR format. Finally the images were made available through the Madrigal database at Haystack and were included in the CEDAR database at NCAR for use by other scientists. These resources are particularly valuable for those studying solar weather and global change. A brief question and answer session followed the presentation.

Recent Literature Reviews in the History of Meteorology
Dr. David Schultz, NOAA/National Severe Storms Laboratory, Norman, OK

David pointed out that science literature is one vehicle by which science progresses and, therefore, a study of the literature is worthwhile. Librarians can play an integral role in literature reviews and thereby aid science. Three types or phases of literature reviews were noted along with specific examples of each: Phase 1 – Do It Yourself, Phase 2 – Librarian Assisted Searches, and Phase 3 – Librarian as Collaborator. Lessons learned from these personal experiences included: librarian’s methods of assistance are improving and making scientists’ jobs easier, new techniques (WWW, electronic databases, etc.) have helped scientists immensely, browsing is important, and the positive feedback that occurs in a collaborative effort can keep you excited about a project. A brief question and answer session followed the presentation.

Jean provided information about the creation of the online Bentley Collection which includes images of photomicrographs of ice crystals. Wilson Alwyn Bentley produced thousands of images of ice crystals. These images were available on lantern slides in the library collection. The goals of this imaging project included preserving the lantern slides, increasing accessibility by creating a searchable database, classifying all images and creating metadata, and using the project as a benchmark for other imaging projects. The steps taken to digitize the images were described including preparation and cataloging, equipment, staffing, and software, scanning output specifications, and the creation of the database. Various examples of the online images were also displayed. A brief question and answer session followed the presentation.

NOAA-AMS Collaboration on a Grand Scale: Digitization of the Monthly Weather Review 1886-1973
Doria M. Grimes, Librarian, NOAA Central Library, Silver Spring, MD

The Monthly Weather Review was not published by the American Meteorological Society from 1872 to 1973. NOAA is now working on scanning the journal starting with 1973 and working back in time. Many libraries contributed extra copies for scanning. There is no charge for the content from 1973 back. The content can be accessed from the Allen Press website or the NOAA Central Library website. Ten years have been submitted to Allen Press to link from the journal page. Next year at this time the project should be complete.

Doria also provided information about the U.S. Daily Weather Maps digitization project. The Daily Weather Maps are being scanned in color and will be available from January 1, 1871 until August 19, 2002. They are already available online after August 19, 2002. Color scanning allows users to see changes in the maps over time. A final update was provided on the Climate Data Imaging Project. Last year data was available for 23 countries. Data is now available for 65 countries. The data is provided in pdf format (not as keyed data) because the content makes up over 1.5 million pages. The data is linked from the catalog and from the NOAA site.

MGA Content Panel: A Detailed Discussion of Issues such as Coverage, Timeliness, and Criteria for Inclusion
Bring your MGA Questions!
Chair: Maria Latyszewskyj, Head, Environment Canada Library, Downsview, Ontario
Panelists: Keith Seitter, Deputy Executive Director, AMS,Boston, MA; Vicki Soto, Supervising Editor,CSA, Bethesda, MD; Judie Triplehorn, Librarian, Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK

Maria introduced each of the panelists and asked each to present their views of MGA.

Judy indicated that every field has its index and MGA is key in our field. With global change issues MGA becomes even more important. She is particularly interested in the compilation process, subjects covered, and foreign journal coverage. We need to be well informed about MGA in order to link users to the information they need.

Vicki provided a brief power point presentation to explain what has been done in the last year. CSA dealt with technology issues related to loading the backfile, integrated the production of new records into their workflows, integrated the monitoring list, processed a backlog of records, typeset the print edition, and hired and trained staff for work on MGA. Goals for next year include reviewing the monitoring list and expanding or reducing coverage as appropriate.

Keith provided comments on the transition of MGA to CSA last year. AMS is the copyright holder and publisher of record for MGA but they have given CSA the freedom to make the index as successful as possible. A small royalty goes back to AMS and CSA keeps the rest. Some transition problems occurred due to the database not being normalized before. He credited CSA for pouring resources into making the transition happen in a short amount of time. An Advisory Board was created for CSA and included users of MGA. In order to include more input from libraries, Maria and Judy have been asked to be on the Advisory Board. Future improvements might include the loading of AMS conference proceedings in MGA before the conference. AMS is working on a process to provide CSA with electronic files to load in the database. Finally, Keith mentioned that Ken Heideman ran a survey about the move of MGA in BAMS several months last fall and received very few responses and most were positive.

An open discussion occurred following the introductory comments. Some discussion points of note included:

One of the strengths of CSA is the ability to search across multiple databases at the same time. Also the new search interface makes it easier to do more complex searching.

Some browser incompatibility issues were raised. Some users expressed problems using Netscape.

The inclusion of international titles that are only published in the native language is still valuable. Creating access to these resources allows access to diagrams and other information that may be of great value.

Some of the foreign literature included in MGA is not current. Vicki indicated that the publishers may need to be contacted to get the back issues. This may not have been done due to the focus on the transition during the last year.

Various comments were made about the importance of including Tech Reports in MGA. Let Vicki know if there are particular series that are most important to include first.

An article was written comparing the content of MGA to other databases and indicated a high percentage of content overlap. The sample was taken during 2002 and may not have been fair to MGA given the transition period. Vicki compared the monitoring lists of the databases compared and the coverage included in each and found approximately 76% unique content in MGA.

Conclusion: Maria provided some concluding remarks. MGA continues to improve. She encourages input from our group including missing content and report series. She added that it is important to market and teach our clients about MGA. Maria provided each panelist with an Environment Canada calendar.

Keith, Ken, and Jeff provided news about recent developments related to the AMS publications:

Earth Interactions has been relaunched with a new Chief Editor, a new mission statement, and a new look. EI is available as part of the bundle of AMS online products. Other users will continue to have access to the backfile even if the new content is now restricted. As of February, more papers have been posted already this year than all of last year.

Usage reports for libraries is now fully functional.

The new BAMS is a success!

The electronic database is now the journal of record. The print and online content will not diverge until an evolution plan has been created by the Publications Commission and approved by the council. Page numbers are not being abandoned. They are still a unique, useful identifier.

The price for the backfile/Legacy collection has begun to ramp down. The 2003 price will be 25% less than 2002. Expect a similar discount next year. 80% of the cost of producing the Legacy Collection has been recovered. If reasonable sales continue, the loan should be paid off in three years. Once the loan is paid off, materials older than 5 years old will be freely available.

Institutional Pricing Information for the print versions of AMS journals for 2003 will increase 6.8%. Print plus a site license for online content increases only 5%.

Production time for the AMS journals continues to improve. For 2002, production time was 154 days compared to 210 days in June of 2001.

Four new monograph manuscripts are set to be published this year.

The new BAMS has shorter articles, more color, and topics of broader interest. A majority of people report that they are pleased with the changes. The question was raised whether or not the year end indexes need to continue to be provided and a brief discussion followed. Several people expressed an interest in continuing to see the indexes printed.

Cambridge Scientific Abstracts
Michael Miyazaki on Meteorological and Geophysical Abstracts’s product enhancements

Michael provided an update on MGA through CSA.

There were 158,000 searches performed in MGA in 2002.

CSA’s pricing model is based on site-wide, unlimited use so hopefully they are providing one of the lowest cost per use licenses.

New interface features include full text linking to 30 different online full-text services, the release of IDS 6.0, and RefWorks. CSA does link to the full text of AMS journals. They believe in creating an information ecosystem that allows linking from one service to another to increase use of their products and also make resources more cost effective.

IDS v. 6.0 was released last fall and ran concurrently with the older version. Recently the old version was replaced with v. 6.0. Changes were made based on customer feedback. Some new features include new limits available on the basic search screen. The limits are initiated by clicking or checking the appropriate box and include limiting to the latest update, journal articles only, and English language resources.

The advanced search screen has more boxes and structure to help clarify the use of AND and OR when doing a Boolean search. The box at the bottom of the Advanced Search screen is available for those who want to do even more complex, command-driven searching and supersedes any content in the top boxes.

The search results now provide more links from the initial result screen to make it easier to get to the document right away. Links to full-text, a specific Library Catalog, and document delivery services will display depending on the profile we have each set up with CSA.

You can now mark records at the detailed level as well as on the search result list.

RefWorks is a web based bibliographic management tool now available via CSA. Since it is web based it allows users to access saved information from anywhere. Collaborators can also share a centralized bibliography of resources. Also faculty can create a bibliography and post it for their students. RefWorks has direct export capabilities and is compatible with 40 different services. References can be added to Word documents and bibliographies can be created with 200 different possible output formats.

Please let CSA know if you have any other ideas for improvements to the interface.

Elsevier Science
Jacques Kiebert, Senior Publishing Editor, Earth Sciences Department

Jacques provided an overview of various Atmospheric Science resources available from Elsevier.

Recent book titles included the Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences, the Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences, and the upcoming Treatise on Geochemistry due in the summer of 2003.

ScienceDirect offers articles in press and some are available almost two months prior to the print content. Detailed usage reports are available including usage per journal title. The first official archive of their content is now being set up at the National Library of the Netherlands. SDConnect is a newsletter that is available for librarians.

An author gateway is being created to allow authors to check the status of their paper submissions.

Scirus, a free search engine for scientific information only, is now available. It includes approximately 120 million web pages and 17 million database records.

The Earth and Planetary Science portal is available and provides information about Elsevier’s publications in this area.

Institute for Scientific Information
Jeff Dougherty, MLS, Manager Global Sales Support, Thomson Scientific

Jeff Dougherty provided an overview of the ISI product the Web of Knowledge.

The Web of Knowledge includes quality content, provides integration of this content, and is designed for ease of use. It is made up of various components including ISI Chemistry, Web of Science, Current Contents, Inspec, etc. The Web of Knowledge provides easy download options for EndNote, Procite, or RefManager. In addition, interlinking between databases is available.

The search interface can be modified to include institutional branding.

In July 2003, users will be able to personalize the interface. Once they have registered, they can save searches and initiate alerts, create their own journal list and receive Table of Contents alerts, and choose a particular database as their home page.

American Geophysical Union
Steve Cole

Steve provided an update on the AGU journals.

The version of record is now the online journal. They now publish online five times per week. Production issues have caused a lag in the print version, but all December issues should be mailed before the end of February.

The print journal contains all of the content that appeared online during that month. The journal then should arrive by the end of the following month. January’s content, therefore, can’t be published until the end of January and it should typically be received by the end of February.

Year end indexes will be mailed separately and not as part of the December issues.

AGU has free alerting services available. Auto alerts are produced weekly.

Consortium prices and discounts will be available soon. Also pricing based on usage will be available. Steve will post pricing information on the listserv when it is available. The new pricing may have some new license options as well.

A formal library advisory board for the AGU Publications Committee is expected to be in place sometime in the next year.

Wiley
Louise Breinholt

Louise provided an update on Wiley publications that might be of interest in the Atmospheric Sciences.

The Handbook of Weather, Climate, and Water was published three weeks ago. The price is $275 and a discount code is available at their booth.

You can go to www.wileyeurope.com to set up e-mail alerting for environmental sciences publications. No Environmental Sciences alerting is available via the wiley.com site.

She also pointed out the Encyclopedia of Global and Environmental Change which was previously published.

Wiley InterScience contains over 360 journals with approximately 35 environmental science titles. An early view of many papers is available with some appearing two months before the print. Twenty-three reference works are also available. Content alerts (table of contents and profile alerting) are now available as well. You can expect a redesign of the Wiley Interscience interface in mid-2003. The redesign is based on focus group feedback and will include a more contemporary look and feel, better navigation, a simple search screen, links to related titles, and the ability to do some library branding.

Friday, February 14, 2003
Annual ASLI Field Trip