CALLING ALL IAMSLIC MEMBERS!

Please check your email for a message from IAMSLIC regarding our upcoming membership meet-up on 25 May, 2021 at 10:00am EDT (UTC -04:00). The email will include a link to register for the online meeting via zoom. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. We hope you can join us to hear updates from your IAMSLIC Executive Board, Committee Chairs, and Regional Representatives, and network with your fellow IAMSLIC Members. We look forward to seeing you online!

For those who cannot join us for the live online meeting, we will be recording this session and sharing it with all current IAMSLIC members in the Member Access area of our website. We will also be rotating the online meetings throughout the IAMSLIC regions and time zones every couple of months in order to ensure our membership has the opportunity to attend at least 1 live online meeting each year. Please stay tuned for future meeting invitations!

If you have any questions, please contact Jaime Goldman at hjaime@nova.edu.

Dear IAMSLIC members,

We would like to invite you to contribute to the next issue of the ASFA Magazine, which is due to be published in July 2021. The theme for the next issue is: Information systems to support aquatic science, fisheries and aquaculture. The attached document provides more detail on how to submit an article, and some ideas for articles are outlined below.

If you are thinking of submitting an article, please let me know as I'm happy to provide any support or guidance. Please feel free to share this call for proposals with anyone who might be interested in writing an article - we hope to receive submissions from as many people as possible!

For reference, issue five of the ASFA magazine is available here: http://www.fao.org/publications/card/es/c/CB2829EN/

Any questions or comments, please let me know.

Best wishes,

Tamsin Vicary

• ASFA Secretariat

• Fisheries Statistics and Information (NFIS)

• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

• Viale delle Terme di Caracalla 00153 Rome, ITALY

• Room F-221

• Office telephone: +39 06 570 59000

• Email: Tamsin.Vicary@fao.org
  

Ideas for articles on Information Systems to support aquatic sciences:

• The role of information systems in supporting the UN Decade of Ocean Science (2021-2030, see https://www.oceandecade.org/)or UN Decade of Ecosystem restoration (2021-2030, see https://www.decadeonrestoration.org/). This could be a repository, database or service you use or manage that provides information relevant to either of these two decades.
• The role of information systems if providing access to trustworthy and reputable research. In an age where people rely on search engines and social media to access information, what is the role of databases, repositories and other systems in ensuring access to reliable information? Does more need to be done to ensure the public has access to scientific information and knowledge, and how can information systems combat misinformation?
• Meeting user needs – you could describe how an information system you use or manage meets specific user needs in the fields of aquatic science, fisheries or aquaculture. This could include use of the ASFA database at your institution.

Dear IAMSLIC Members,

The recording and minutes from our first virtual International Association of Aquatic and Marine Science Libraries and Information Centers (IAMSLIC) Membership Meet-up of 2021 are now available!  We had 92 registered attendees, and 58 participants that were able to join us live for this meeting on 24 February, 2021.  Please use the links below to hear updates shared at the meeting from your IAMSLIC Executive Board, Committee Chairs, and Regional Representatives, and more!  The link can be found on our IAMSLIC Website under Member Access > Meeting Minutes > Membership Meetings: 

• 24 February, 2021 Membership Meet-Up Recording & Minutes

All current IAMSLIC members are able to access this page by logging into their membership account.  For those who could not join us for the live online meeting, we hope you find this helpful and informative. 

As mentioned previously, we will be rotating the online meetings throughout the IAMSLIC regions and time zones every couple of months in order to ensure our membership has the opportunity to attend at least 1 live online meeting each year.  The next meeting will be held at the end of May at a different time.  Please stay tuned for that announcement! 

East-West Connections: Bridging the Continent/Connecting the Seas

May 19-20, 2021

Hosted by Gunter Library/Gulf Coast Research Laboratory/School of Ocean Science & Engineering/The University of Southern Mississippi (Virtual Conference via ZOOM)

As SAIL and CYAMUS collaborate to create a useful, timely, and engaging conference, they mirror the members libraries that collaborate with their constituencies to support scientific communication, scholarly engagement, and mission success. Building the bridges within our communities, connecting people and knowledge, and serving as trusted arbitrators, SAIL and CYAMUS libraries are leaders in partnering and supporting each other and our researchers, faculty, students, administrators, and public.

Some potential topics:

•             Identifying successful library partnerships.

•             After a year of challenges including closures and remote work, what short term responses will become long term changes to services and resources?

•             Engagement with users for insight into better delivery of products.

•             New developments in collection development.

•             The “Big Deal” packages—gone for good or undergoing changes?

•             Working with your Office of Research, Foundation, and other partnership opportunities.

•             Increasing diversity and inclusion (engagement with users; developing diverse collections, etc.)

Other ideas welcome!
 
Proposals for 30-minute presentations, 60-minute moderated panel discussions, and 10-minute lightning talks are due by April 16, 2021. Conference registration is required for presenters.              

Deadline Expended for conference proposal submissions: New deadline is April 23, 2021
Using the link below, please submit proposals by April 23, 2021. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe11xdDX0hVEXILpJfA3VKLibl2mRyvOWaMyyLyWazt4bVyLg/viewform?usp=sf_link

Calling all IAMSLIC Members! 

Please check your email for a message from IAMSLIC regarding our upcoming membership meet-up on 24 February, 2021 at 3:00pm EST.  The email will include a link to register for the online meeting via zoom.   After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.   

We hope you can join us to hear updates from your IAMSLIC Executive Board, Committee Chairs, and Regional Representatives, and network with your fellow IAMSLIC Members.  We look forward to seeing you online!

For those who cannot join us for the live online meeting, we will be recording this session and sharing it with all current IAMSLIC members.  We will also be rotating the online meetings throughout the IAMSLIC regions and time zones every couple of months in order to ensure our membership has the opportunity to attend at least 1 live online meeting each year.  Please stay tuned for future meeting invitations!

If you have any questions, please contact Jaime Goldman at hjaime@nova.edu. 

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.