3rd Annual Atmospheric Science Librarians International Conference
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Wednesday, JANuary 12, 2000
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| 8:30am | Session 1 1.1 ASLI Roundtable Discussion Moderator: Doria Grimes ASLI members and attendees will describe their libraries and unique collections.Roundtable discussion was held starting at 8:30 am, moderated by Doria Grimes from the NOAA Central Library, Silver Spring, MD. Each person gave a short presentation about their library and its unique collection. Some people gave out brochures and went online to their library’s website. The NOAA Central Library has a wonderful homepage, one of the best at http://www.lib.noaa.gov/. |
| 10:00am | Break |
| 10:15am | Session 2: ASLI Business Meeting |
| 12:15pm | Lunch |
| 1:30pm | Session 3: Collection Evaluation: A Key To Management and Cooperative Planning Dennis Stephens, University of Alaska, Fairbanks – will present the Research Library Group’s Conspectus.Dennis recommended the book Using the Conspectus Method: A Collection Assessment Handbook, by Mary Bushing, Burns Davis, and Nancy Powell, 1997. Some key concepts of collection assessment/evaluation include: An assessment provides a description of the library’s total resources; A Collection policy with conspectus division and subject details is an ideal tool for explaining information resource decisions and expenditures; The purpose of an assessment is to develop a snapshot of existing collections; Collection management involves making choices and implementing priorities; The primary conspectus procedure employed as a qualitative technique is shelf-scanning; Keep it simple, make decisions, perfect is unlikely, get it done! As Dennis said “Perfect is the enemy of good.” A good collection evaluation demonstrates accountability to governing bodies and colleagues. |
| 3:00pm | Break |
| 3:15pm | NOAA’s Treasures. |
| 3:00pm | Session 4: New National Science Foundation Programs
4.1 Research Experiences for Teachers Madeline Needles, from the Haystack Observatory in Westford, Mass., spoke on research experiences for teachers. The Haystack Observatory does a lot of outreach in the surrounding community. The National Science Foundation sponsored teachers in the science field to come and learn about the Observatory and help do research. However, Madeline stated that “the only thing in the universe that is not expanding is the budget here at the Observatory.” The e-mail address is http://www.haystack.mit.edu 4.2 Geoscience Education Digital Library UCAR is open to the public, but its main mission is to the staff. They get about 1000 distinguished visitors a year. Karon spoke on the Geoscience Digital Library (GDL), which is being funded by the NSF. UCAR is part of the collaboration team to create this digital library, a pilot project from DLESE (Digital Library for Earth System Education). The goal of the GDL is to help educators and learners find, evaluate, use and create resources that support active learning about the Earth system. The GDL will not be a single library but a URL controlled by a Central Coordinating Manager. For more information: Geoscience Digital Library www.page.ucar.edu/gdl/. or Digital Library for Earth System Education www.dlese.org |
| 4:15pm | Session 5: Vendor/Publisher Updates Academic Press, American Meteorological Society, Meteorological Geophysical Abstracts, CIESIN-Columbia UniversityKeith Seitter from AMS spoke about their publications and getting online subscriptions to them, both current and back issues. The three-tier structure is retained with differentials of $30.00, $90.00, and $150.00 over the print counterpart for perpetual online access. The Journal of Hydrometeorology went online recently. There is good “interlinking” between the indexes and full-text articles. The Bulletin online will still be available at no charge. The Meteorological and Geoastrophysical Abstracts (MGA) now have simple search screens and advanced search screens. This is due to various librarians asking for these features. The MGA journal number is actually the MGA abstract number, and the classification is the UDC system. You may reach them at www.mganet.org. Joe Schumacher from Colombia University spoke about ordering free documents from the U.S. Global Change Research Information Office (GCRIO). The main thing they put out is “Our Changing Planet” www.gcrio.org. Representatives from Academic Press said that the Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences and Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences are due out August, 2001. Thermodynamics of Atmospheres and Oceans is available now. |
Thursday, JANuary 13, 2000
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| 9:00am | Session 6: Presentations by International Atmospheric Science Organizations Barry Green, Clients and Partners Directorate of Atmospheric Environment Service, Environment Canada. Etienne Gregoire, Environment Canada Graham Proctor, Account Manager Aviation, The UK Meteorological Office Dr. Mark Hibberd, Principal Research Scientist, Atmospheric Pollution Program, Division, of Atmospheric Research, CSIROEtienne Gregoire from the Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC), Environment Canada was our first speaker this day and gave a very interesting talk on this organization. The previous name of this organization was the Atmospheric Environment Service (changed at Christmas-time). He spoke about the two-year study on the usefulness of the MSC – was proven useful! Environment Canada has had its Meteorological Service since 1871; the Water Survey of Canada since the 1910s; the Military Weather Service since the 1940s; and, the Canadian Ice Service since the 1950s. There are 1600 employees under 5 directorates in 5 regions. 5 Directorates: The 5 Regions are Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario, Prairie Northern, and Pacific and Yukon. Right now the Environment Canada is low staff due to downsizing so severely. The Canadian universities know this and have stopped offering meteorology degrees for now. Therefore, the Environment Canada is actively recruiting from the United States. E-mail is www.ec.gc.ca Mark Hibberd from Melbourne, Australia spoke about CSIRO – Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization of Australia that started about 1930. There are 20 divisions, but they do not do human medicine research. Mark is a member of the Atmospheric Research Division (DAR) which started in 1947. Overall e-mail address is www@dar.csiro.au; Librarian’s address is library@dar.csiro.au and publications can be seen at www.publish.csiro.au. Graham Proctor from the British Meteorological Office in Bracknell, England said they have a very good global model, do a lot of aviation flights, and put out data. He stated how the United States does not charge for much of their data so does not want to pay for what they receive from Canada or Great Britain. There is a bit of controversy over this between Britain and the United States. The next session was “Fire Weather by the National Weather Service – Alaska.” This turned out to be an extremely fascinating topic for all attendees. |
| 10:00am | Break |
| 10:15am | Session 6: Continued |
| 11:00am | Session 7: Fire Weather by the National Weather Service – Alaska. Lee Kelly, NOAA, NWS, Fairbanks, Alaska Richard Ochoa, NOAA, NWS, Boise, Idaho David Goens, NOAA/NWS, Missoula, MontanaLee Kelley from the Fire Weather Operations, National Weather Service spoke on what operations are used for this kind of weather forecasting: 1) AWIPS (Advanced Weather Information Processing System); 2) WSR-88D; 3) NOAA Weather Radio and Console Replacement System (CRS); and 4) Training. There are field offices in Fairbanks, Alaska; Boise, Idaho; and Missoula, Montana. Fire crews get routine forecasts twice a day. Spot forecasts are given on request, and Red Flag Warnings are issued when necessary. With so much land in Alaska, some fires are allowed to burn out naturally. Rick Ochoa from Boise, Idaho is a Fire Weather Meteorologist. Their biggest mission is to fight fire safely. They go on sight to fires and provide meteorology by using a “portable” weather office. Fire weather meteorologists usually have a background in “fire behavior” and know basic safety aspects. Dave Goens from Missoula, Montana said their field office came into existence in 1915 because of the many California fires. Smoke jumpers started in Missoula in the 1930s. A defining moment of fatality fires occurred in 1949. This started the need for fire research, safe fire-fighting gear, etc. |
| 12:15pm | Lunch |
| 1:30pm | Session 8: May’s Fury: Spetacular Footage from the 1999 Oklahoma City Tornadoes. Commentary by Dennis McCarthy, NOAA, Oklahoma City, OK.After lunch, our room was crowded with AMS Conference attendees to view our next presentation “May’s Fury” – Spectacular Footage from the 1999 Oklahoma City Tornadoes. No one was disappointed. Dennis McCarthy from the NOAA Oklahoma City office showed two unbelievable videos on the May 1999 tornadoes and gave a wonderful commentary. There were a lot of ooohs and ahhhs from the audience. During the tornadoes, some people thought they would be safe by going under bridges or ramp areas. NOT TRUE SAID DENNIS. A wind tunnel effect goes through these openings. Debris could kill you, or you could be sucked out! |
| 3:00pm | Break |
| 3:15pm | Session 9: A Comparison and Contrast Between the Oklahoma City Tornadoes and Hurricane Andrew. Doria Grimes, NOAA Central Library, Silver Spring, MDNext, Doria Grimes, from the NOAA Central Library, gave a very interesting talk on the comparison and contrast between the Oklahoma City tornadoes, 1999 and Hurricane Andrew, 1992. She discussed dates, measurement scales, movement, width and duration, deaths, and damages. According to the Saffir-Simpson Scale, Hurricane Andrew sustained winds of 145+ mph after landfall in Florida, August 24, 1992. The Fujita Scale showed 261+ mph winds for the Oklahoma City tornadoes on May 3, 1999. The width of Hurricane Andrew was 30 miles wide across Florida. Oklahoma City tornadoes were 1/4 to 1 mile wide and covered 70-100 miles. There were approximately the same number of deaths per each natural disaster, 54-62. The damages of each natural disaster were vastly different — $30 billion for Hurricane Andrew (with 1 million people impacted), and $1.5 billion for the Oklahoma City area. |
| 4:00pm | Session 10: Use of Atmospheric Journals Maria Latyszewskyj, Environment Canada Library, Downsview, OntarioMaria Latyszewskyj, from the Environment Canada Library, was the last speaker of the day. She described the Downsview Learning Centre which was established in the Spring of 1995. It is a joint venture by the Environment Canada (EC) Library at Downsview, Atmospheric Environment Service (now called the Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC)) and Human Resources to support MSC and EC Ontario Region staff needs in career development and changes. E-mail addresses: http://www.ec.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=7FC25CA0-1 for the library’s website, http://199.212.19.41 for the library’s catalogue, and http://www1.tor.ec.gc.ca/learning/index_e.cfm for the learning centre. |
| 4:30pm | Session 11: Follow-Up Discussions – ASLI members
The ASLI members attending this conference then got together and discussed different issues like pros and cons of electronic journals, list serve helps, patron issues, and how to get upper management support. We also discussed ways of getting more ASLI members to attend the conference next year. We ended the day by meeting for dinner on the Queen Mary. What a neat experience! Respectfully submitted, |
Friday, JANuary 14, 2000
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| 8:30am-4:30pm | Annual ASLI Field Trip JET PROPULSION LAB/NASA IN PASADENA, CA. Registration must be made two week in advance. Please e-mail your registration to Judy Triplehorn. (Fygilib@aurora.alaska.edu) The van will leave at 10:00 am from the Queen Mary parking lot. |
