There is very exciting news to report from PIRG. In November, PIRG (Pacific Islands Regional Group) became APIRG (Asia & Pacific Islands Regional Group), to reflect the growing number of group members based in Asia. The name change was first discussed at a PIRG meet up during the 2020 IAMSLIC Conference. After that discussion PIRG representative Hannah Russell queried the group for new name suggestions, and then put together a short poll with two questions – a yes or no on a name change, and then a vote between seven names suggested by members. The vote to change PIRG’s name was unanimous, but it was very close between the two frontrunners for the new name, so a second poll was created just between these two. The results were very close again, but APIRG was the slim winner in both votes. Hannah presented the new name to the IAMSLIC Executive Board meeting on 13th November, and the board voted in favour of the new name. Thank you very much to Dorene Naidu who suggested the name, and to everyone that voted (twice!).

-Hannah Russell, APRIG Regional Representative

This past year has certainly been challenging for everyone. Covid has changed all our lives and will continue to do so, and I know that many libraries have had to make significant changes to our services while facing budget crises and in some cases reduced staff. However, as we have faced these challenges, there have also been opportunities to collaborate more broadly across the world. IAMSLIC/IODE would like to remind everyone of the opportunity to become an Associate Information Unit (AIU) of IODE.

The AIUs were created to give librarians the opportunity to achieve recognition of their work by AIU accreditation January 2021, marks the start of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. As a part of UNESCO, IODE has been charged with improving the accessibility and interoperability of existing data and information, and to contribute to the development of a global ocean data and information system. As librarians there are numerous ways that our expertise and skills could be useful in these efforts. New opportunities becoming available to librarians include IODE Ocean Data and Information System (ODIS) which is now starting, as well as the IODE Ocean InfoHub (OIH). Both of these initiatives should address both data and information, but this can only happen as both data manager and information managers participate.

There are currently five IAMSLIC libraries that have become accredited AIUs. IAMSLIC and IODE would like to encourage more libraries to apply. It is not a difficult process and is not only targeted at larger libraries/information centres. Even if your information unit is not separate but within a Data Centre - and they provide the AIU criteria - they can still apply for AIU accreditation.

For more information on becoming an AIU, please see the application information page.

Thank you,

• Jen Walton
• Pauline Simpson
• Lisa Raymond
• Peter Pissierssens
• Katerina Kulakova

EURASLIC Newsletter, No 49 (2020)

Newsletter 49 (2020) has been published.

Find out news about virtual meetings held this year, 47th IAMSLIC Conference/19th EURASLIC conference, Russian ASFA network and OpenASFA, about news from the EURASLIC libraries or books and movie recommendations.

Have a nice read!

Dear IAMSLIC Members -

The IAMSLIC Executive Board is seeking a volunteer from our membership to serve as the next chair of the Website & Communications Committee.   This is an exciting opportunity for someone who is tech savvy and would like to become more involved with our organization.  IAMSLIC uses the Wild Apricot platform, which is very user friendly (even for first time users) and provides a wonderful collection of support documentation and help pages.  The chair would lead the committee for the next two years (2020-2022), with the option to serve a second two year term, and be invited to attend the monthly IAMSLIC Executive Board Meetings in this role.  The committee charge is as follows, and is supported by various long standing committee members as well as the chair: 

• Maintain the open-source content management software (Wild Apricot) for managing the website.
• Train IAMSLIC officers, committee chairs and members to maintain content areas of the website as appropriate. Coordinate content management responsibilities with the junior President-Elect.
• Assist the Conference Committee with the creation of a sub-site within Wild Apricot to serve as the Annual Conference website.
• Assist any Committee or Regional Group that would like to create web pages for the IAMSLIC site that are specific to their activities (e.g. AFRIAMSLIC).
• Maintain the IAMSLIC blog and assist members with posting news if necessary.
• Coordinate the submission of conference proceedings and presentation files into the WHOAS repository hosted by MBLWHOI Library.
• Maintain and monitor the IAMSLIC listserv.
• Publish the annual conference proceedings.

If you are interested in this position or would like more information, please contact Jaime Goldman at hjaime@nova.edu today! 

This paper was originally presented at the 2017 IAMSLIC Conference in Hawaii.  Congratulations to our IAMSLIC Members Daryl, Mary Grace, and Joy!  

SPECIAL LIBRARIES, SPECIAL CHALLENGES Patti Gibbons and Deborah Schander, Column Editors

The information-seeking behavior of aquatic science librarians in response to a query

Daryl L. Superio , Mary Grace H. Oliveros , Vince Ervin V. Palcullo & Joy F. Geromiano

Pages 280-291 | Published online: 26 Nov 2020

• Download citation
• https://doi.org/10.1080/15228959.2020.1792815

Abstract:  When searching for information in response to a query, their own library’s online public access catalog (OPAC) and databases remain the most preferred resource for most aquatic science librarians. This preference does not vary regardless of age, gender, educational degree, position or designation, country classification, or type of library. While the Internet acts as a supplement to the library collection, whenever the requested information is not available at the library, librarians prefer Googling instead of looking at other sources. Other than aquatic science-specific open access repositories and databases, some of the librarians have identified Google Scholar, DOAJ, ResearchGate, and Academia, among many others as valuable resources that help them fulfill their clientele’s query.

Congratulations to our new IAMSLIC Executive Board Officers!  Following the close of the October 2020 IAMSLIC Annual Conference, your new board of officers includes: 

Thank you to our officer board for their dedication to our organization and willingness to serve!  For more information, please visit our Executive Board page and the Voting Results page.  

I would also like to take this moment to thank the IAMSLIC Officers rolling off of the board: 

Jeanine has been an incredible mentor and driving force for new initiatives and documentation during her tenure as IAMSLIC President.  Kristen has served for many years as our treasurer, and ensured that our membership database, transition of financials to Wild Apricot, and work on our conference financials ensured accountability and transparency for both the board and our members.  Thank you both!  

Finally, thank you to Stephen Alayon for your work as IAMSLIC President over the last year.  Although you are still on the board, I wanted to take this moment to acknowledge your hard work and leadership.  

The full conference program for the 46^th Annual Conference of the International Association of Aquatic and Marine Science Libraries and Information Centers (IAMSLIC) is now available! 

The conference program was designed with convenient times for our speakers and with our international IAMSLIC membership in mind.  If you cannot join us live or will miss a session due to your time zone or a conflict, please stay tuned after the conference for links to the recordings for all registered attendees and IAMSLIC Members!  Please click on the link below to see the full program PDF, or visit the conference program page to view each day at a glance. 

IAMSLIC 2020 FULL CONFERENCE PROGRAM PDF

Dear IAMSLIC Members,

The IAMSLIC Online Poll is still open for the Election of IAMSLIC President-Elect 2022-2023 and IAMSLIC Treasurer for 2020-2022. Voting will close at 1200 Central Time on Wednesday, 14 October 2020.

The candidate page and electronic voting system are now located on the IAMSLIC Wild Apricot (WA) website. No more printed ballots will be mailed. Proxy votes are not allowed.  You can cast your vote through this LINK.

You will need to log in using your IAMSLIC WA Account - Email Address and Password. Only current IAMSLIC members are eligible to vote. For those who are not yet a member or have not renewed, I would like to personally invite and encourage you to Join/Renew IAMSLIC Membership.

If you have questions about your membership status, please contact Kristen LaBonte, IAMSLIC Membership Database Manager, at klabonte@ucsb.edu for assistance.

I would like to thank Michelle Leonard and the Nominating Committee for searching suitable candidates, and Jaime Goldman for setting up the voting system.

Good luck to the candidates!

Stay safe,

Stephen

During day 2 of the 46^th Annual Conference of the International Association of Aquatic and Marine Science Libraries and Information Centers (IAMSLIC), we will beholding our yearly IAMSLIC Business Meeting.  All IAMSLIC members are encouraged and welcome to join this meeting, regardless of whether they attend the conference or not, but you need to register in order to join us!  Please register for the conference, then use the Day 2 Zoom link you will receive via email to gain access to the business meeting on the second day of the conference.  

• Register at: https://iamslic.wildapricot.org/event-3628872
• Conference program (see day 2 for the business meeting): https://iamslic.wildapricot.org/conf2020/program

It's The Final Countdown da-da-da-da!

Only 4 days to go until our first ever virtual conference and we’re very excited in IAMSLIC HQ.

So, you may have noticed that we’re doing things a little differently this year…

Usually before our conferences we like to take some time to introduce our speakers, tell you a little about them as a person, give you some talking points for meeting them at the conference and introduce their talk. Well COVID made sure we had no time to do that in our usual way this year, so we've had a little think outside of the box and we think you're going to like our new idea! 

In the spirit of Changing Tack and Adjusting our Sails, we’ve asked our speakers to provide us with a brief video introduction. Let's hope the last eight months of video calls have eased our presenters nerves a little bit in front of the camera. We'll be honest, we just threw this one at them this week, so I'm impressed that we've received two videos already, co-incidentally they happen to be from our first speakers on Tuesday morning, both from Euraslic: Sofija Konjevic and Stephanie Ronan

Sofija_Konjevic.iamslic.mp4

Iamslic.Stephanie.ronan.mp4

We think they did a great job, we really just want to see everyone and feel a little bit more together. I mean, it going to be hard for anyone to top the Texas Two-Stepping intro we received from Dave Bacca last year, but I think that might have been asking too much from our presenters at such short notice! (https://youtu.be/usBdsGRwkB0)! 

Networking is going to be slightly more challenging this year, so for any of our almost 100 participants who have registered so far, if you would like to get in on the action and give us a video introduction... hold out your camera, press record and introduce yourself, simple as that. Then share with us on Twitter @IamslicOrg and use the hashtag #IAMSLICVirtual. We would love to hear and see from you all.

Conference kick off is Tuesday, so get Tweeting!