IAU WG on
Libraries: Report October 2005
In the era of Virtual Observatories, institutional repositories and open
access to scholarly literature, astronomy libraries and librarians are
facing severe paradigm shifts. The role of small, specialized libraries
has to be redefined in this context. Our general mission is still the
same, namely to fulfill the information needs of our users by selecting,
collecting, preserving, and providing access to relevant resources. This
mission, however, has to be interpreted in light of the changed settings.
In order to investigate the current situation of astronomy libraries and
explore possible ways into the future, the 5th LISA (Libraries and
Information Services in Astronomy) conference is being planned. It will
take place in June 2006 in Cambridge, MA, USA, co-hosted by the John G. Wolbach Library & Information Resource Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Libraries of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Shortly afterwards, in August 2006, the XXVIth IAU General Assembly will
take place for which the WG on Libraries is currently planning a joint
event with the WG on Publishing.
Two long-time and enthusiastic members of the Working Group retired
during the current triennium. Marlene Cummins, from the University of
Toronto Astronomy Library, took early retirement in 2004 and Brenda Corbin, librarian of the US Naval Observatory Library for 32 years and
one of the 'founding mothers' of this Working Group and instrumental in
shaping its work, retired at the end of September 2005. We thank them
cordially for their numerous contributions and initiatives and look
forward to Brenda's continued advice even after retirement. At the same
time, we are happy to welcome two new members: Laurence Bobis,
Observatoire de Paris, France, and Halima Naimova from Osservatorio Astronomico de Lisboa, Portugal.
Uta Grothkopf and Fionn Murtagh, WG Lib. chairs
October 2005
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