Where’s the time gone?

When many of us last set eyes on each other, it was six months ago at the Fall Depository Library Council meeting. At that time, I promised Council members would use the FDLP Community Desktop in a proactive fashion to reach out to the depository community. Since the October meeting, Council and the GPO staff responsible for these web features partnered in an effort to make the Desktop’s social networking aspects more responsive to the needs of our far-flung community of libraries.  

Consider this first posting, which I plan to update at least once a week – along with the list of initial strategic questions found elsewhere on the community web site -- to be the first down payments. Indeed, one of Council’s goals  before the April 25-28 meeting, and the months after, is take fuller advantage the Community social networking capabilities. 

In subsequent blog posts, I want to try and  deepen this part of our conversation and ask members of the depository library community to consider the series of questions/discussion points that will be at the core of our plenary sessions in Buffalo next week. Our purpose in listing them on them a few weeks before the meeting is to get the conversation started. We know not everyone is going to be able to travel to the shores of Lake Erie, and we know many of these issues are somewhat timeless….

Here are the topics of the plenary:

Plenary II: Monday, 4/26; 2pm to 3:30pm "Preservation and Access"
Council will engage in a discussion about the challenges and opportunities for the program as the depository community and GPO wrestle with evolving demands of an electronic government information environment.  Council members to lead the discussion: Jacobs, Sears, Holterhoff, Otto

Plenary III: Monday, 4/26; 4pm to 5:30pm "Progress with FDsys"
Council will engage in a discussion about the progress and promise of FDsys, hoping to illuminate specific opportunities gained so far by the transition to a more robust digital infrastructure, what remains to be done in the near future, as well as the fate of the existing, and rapidly aging, legacy systems. Council members to lead the discussion: Tubbs, Moriearty, Greer, Trotta

Plenary IV: Tuesday, 4/27; 8:30am to 10am "Regional Issues"
Council will engage in a discussion about the current and immediate challenges confronting the roles of Regional Depositories in a world that is demanding innovative solutions to fiscal responsibilities, collection development, and ongoing relationships with GPO and selective depositories in the states.  Council members to lead the discussion: Sinclair, Cismowski, Sanders, O’Mahony, Lawhun

These topics will be covered in Buffalo. Council wants to hear from the entire community, not just those that will be attending the conference next week. You can share your thoughts on the above topics on the FDLP Community forum at: http://community.fdlp.gov/forum/forum?f=51.

- John Shuler, DLC Chair (2009-2010)