SLA ENDOWMENT FUND REQUEST LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES IN ASTRONOMY V (LISA V), JUNE 2006 SUMMARY OF GRANT PROPOSAL The PAM Division requests a grant of $3000 from the SLA Endowment fund to be used for grants to librarians from developing countries to help defray their travel and lodging costs for attending the LISA V meeting. BACKGROUND INFORMATION Members of the Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics Division are actively involved in planning for the fifth meeting on the topic LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES IN ASTRONOMY (LISA V). This meeting, hosted by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics' (CfA) John G. Wolbach Library & Information Resource Center (http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/library/) in Cambridge, MA, will be held June 18-21, 2006. The theme of this meeting will be Common Challenges, Uncommon Solutions. A history of previous meetings is outlined briefly below. The first very successful LISA meeting was held in Washington in 1988, sponsored by the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO). To make this conference possible, funds were donated by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the USNO, individuals including many PAM members, publishers, and SLA. A part of the funds collected were used to provide travel expenses for our international colleagues from developing countries who would not have otherwise been able to attend. The second meeting of LISA (LISA II) was held in Garching, Germany in May, 1995, sponsored by the European Southern Observatory. Funds from SLA, added to others from publishers, individuals, the Soros Foundation, and the IAU made it possible to have even more colleagues from developing countries attend this important meeting, where impressive updates in information technology were explored. For the third LISA meeting (LISA III) in 1998 in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, SLA provided $2000 in support, and we also received a grant of $2000 from the SLA Endowment Fund. Other funds came from publishers, institutions, and individuals, and allowed 21 librarians from developing countries to attend the meeting. LISA IV was held in Prague, Czech Republic, in 2002. The SLA Endowment provided a grant of $3000, which, along with funding from publishers, institutions, and individuals, and allowed 26 librarians from developing countries to attend the meeting, including the 2002 PAM International Membership Award winner and two previous award winners. (see details below) LISA V The Scientific Organizing Committee (SOC) for LISA V includes the following SLA/PAM members: - Christina Birdie, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, India, is Co-Chair of the SOC. Christina was the first (1999) winner of the PAM International Membership Award, and attended the Minneapolis SLA meeting. She has been very involved in developing consortial projects among the many astronomy libraries in India. She was a member of the SOC for LISA IV. - Uta Grothkopf, European Southern Observatory in Garching, Germany, is Co-Chair of the SOC. Uta is a past chair of PAM's International Relations Committee. She has been very active in sharing information about SLA and PAM with her European colleagues. She was Co-Chair of the Local Organizing Committee for LISA II, Co-Chair of the SOC for LISA III, and a member of the SOC for LISA IV. - Donna Coletti, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics' (CfA) John G. Wolbach Library & Information Resource Center, is both a member of the SOC and Chair of the Local Organizing Committee. - Jessica Moy, National Optical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO), Tucson, AZ. - Sarah Stevens-Rayburn, Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), Baltimore, MD The other 7 members of the SOC are a mix of astronomers and librarians from Australia, France, Finland, Italy, Ukraine, and the US. We feel that the committee is geographically balanced, represents both astronomers and librarians, and covers a variety of areas of interest. The program is currently being developed, and includes sessions on the role of libraries and librarians in the era of the virtual observatory, bibliometrics, metadata, the e-journal "swamp" (pricing, access, e vs print, copyright, etc), the changing publishing sector, preservation and archiving, and cutting edge technologies. Information on past LISA meetings, including programs, is available at http://www.eso.org/gen-fac/libraries/lisa.html. We have attached a copy of the program for LISA IV so you can see the range of issues addressed at that meeting. We have no doubt that the forthcoming meeting will be as exciting and informative as the previous ones were. The Friends of LISA (FOL) committee is again chaired by Ellen Bouton, retired librarian at National Radio Astronomy Observatory and now their part-time archivist, past secretary and past chair of PAM. The other members of the committee are: - Brenda Corbin, librarian at the U.S. Naval Observatory, and past chair of PAM; she has been active in PAM at many levels since the Division's founding, and has served in such capacities as member of PAM's International Relations Committee, PAM secretary, and Bulletin editor. She also planned and moderated the PAM session at Global 2000, and was a member of the SOC for LISA IV. - Liz Bryson, librarian at Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Corp. She is a past chair of PAM, has chaired several PAM committees, and was instrumental in starting the PAM Asia-Pacific Forum and electronic discussion list. She was Co-Chair of the SOC for LISA IV. FOL is for the fourth time working to raise money in order to award travel grants. We are always aware that our colleagues in developing countries actively support astronomers conducting important research, but with far fewer tools than most of us have in the US, Canada, and Western Europe. It is very important to offer assistance to these colleagues in learning as much as possible about the latest developments and trends in information technology. The LISA conferences are a wonderful opportunity for librarians from all over the world to meet each other, and they increase the potential for future communication and mutual assistance among these librarians. LISA meetings have in the past provided the first introduction to SLA for many meeting attendees. GRANT REQUEST The PAM Division requests a grant of $3000 from the SLA Endowment Fund to be used for grants to librarians from developing countries to help defray their travel and lodging costs for LISA V. Additional funds will be solicited from publishers, institutions, and individuals. Applications for support from librarians hoping to attend LISA V will be received between November 1 and December 1, 2005. The FOL Committee will evaluate applications and make grants by the December 15, 2005 , since many librarians from developing countries need several months to complete the visa process for US entry. Note that not all librarians require full support, since many can get some support elsewhere, e.g. their institution can get a reduced rate air ticket on a national airline, or their institution will cover lodging but not travel. All funds raised by the FOL Committee are used to support librarians attending the LISA meeting. After the LISA V meeting, the FOL Committee will, as in the past, provide the SLA Endowment Fund with a report on the funds raised and the number, country of origin, and amount of support provided to FOL grant recipients. A brief summary or funds raised and grants awarded for LISA IV (2002) is attached. As SLA has encouraged international involvement in recent years, PAM has been at the forefront in this endeavor. Funding for LISA V would help continue this trend, and further increase visibility for SLA among the librarians attending this conference. The PAM Division strongly encourages the SLA Endowment Fund to support LISA V with a grant of $3000. =====================(info below goes on a separate sheet) FOL IV Financial Summary A total of $18,275 was raised for FOL IV grants. Donors: SLA Endowment Fund American Astronomical Society American Overseas Book Company American Physical Society Associated Universities, Inc. Dietmar Dreier Wissenschaftliche European Southern Observatory Institute of Physics ISI Kluwer Academic Publishers University of Toronto 13 individual librarians Grants awarded to 29 recipients totaled $18,275 Grant recipients country of origin: Argentina (2) Chile (1) China (2) Finland (1) Hungary (4) India (6) Mexico (2) Poland (3) Russia (4) South Africa (1) Ukraine (2) [FOL also paid the $180 registration fee for two invited speakers, from Australia and the US; the speakers were able to use the small grant as leverage to persuade their institutions to pay the rest of their costs.]