Publications Committee
March 6, 1998

	Jeanne Brown, board liaison for the Publications Committee, began
the meeting with a report from the pre-conference board meeting.  She
identified two problem areas the board would like the Publications
Committee to focus on in the coming year.  They are the need for stronger
revenues and financial stability, and better communications among the
organization's publications.
	During the previous year, the committee considered expanding its
roll to provide more oversight.  One suggestion was to make the editors of
Update and Art Documentation and the Web manager ex officio members of the
committee.  In keeping with this suggestion, the editors were invited to
the meeting and their attendance and suggestions proved especially
valuable.  In line with the board's interest in improving communications,
it was suggested that the committee might want to consider making the
editors an d Web manager permanent members rather than ex officio members. 
In addition, Stephanie Sigala, Art Documentation editor, noted that the
committee's charge was unclear regarding serials publications and
suggested the charge be re-worded to include serials . 
	Another area of oversight the committee addressed during the
previous year was to work on the development of policies and procedures
that would help to standardize the organization's publications.  The
committee submitted a procedures and timelines document for the
Occasional Papers which has been combined with procedures and timelines
from the other publications.  These will become a part of a larger
document, Services and Standards, currently in draft form. 
	In discussing various means for improving the financial revenues
of the organization's publications, one suggestion was to begin migrating
Update to the ARLIS Web page with the possibility of eventually
eliminating the paper publication.  Currently, Update is published in
both paper and electronic format.  Linda Zieper, Update editor, also
mentioned the importance of timeliness for a newsletter, noting that by
the time the paper copy reaches the membership, news items are often out
of date.  To discover what percentage of the membership have internet
access and what percentage might be willing to forgo receiving Update by
mail, it was suggested the committee survey the membership.  This could be
accomplished by adding questions to the new membership form .  It was also
suggested that the Update editor send a notice to ARLIS-L each time a new
issue has been posted to the Web page in order to get the membership
accustomed to referring to the Web page. 
	Another way the publication's financial revenues could be improved
would be through a more concerted effort to promote the Society's
publications, possibly through carefully targeted advertising; to
investigate joint publications such as the joint publication with ALA for
the ArtMARC Sourcebook; and to solicit new Occasional Papers on topics of
current interest.  Previously, the committee had recommended appointing an
Occasional Papers editor whose primary responsibility would be the
promotion of existing Occasional Papers and the solicitation of new
manuscripts.  The board liaison suggested the committee draft a job
description and submit it to the board for approval. 
	Linda McRae, incoming Chair, continued the meeting with a report
on the status of new proposals for Occasional Papers.  The Collection
Development Committee, chaired by Ann Whiteside, is working on two
separate documents, Collection Development Policy Statements and
Collection Development Standards.  She expects to have these completed by
the end of this year.  The ARLIS/VRA Task Force on Professional Issues has
been working on a handbook, edited by Kim Kopatz.  Margaret Webster, Chair
of the task force, has sent a proposal to both the ARLIS and VRA Boards
recommending they jointly publish the handbook.  
	The discussion closed with the committee agreeing to follow up via
email on several proposals including gathering data on web access through
the membership form, re-wording the charge making serials clearly a part
of publications and making the editors a nd web manager permanent members
of the Publications Committee, and drafting a job description for the
position of Occasional Papers Editor. 

Linda McRae
University of South Florida

Linda McRae                          (813) 974-9234 VOICE
College of Fine Arts/FAH 110         (813) 974-2091 FAX
University of South Florida          mcrae@arts.usf.edu
Tampa, FL 33620-7350