Re: ALA / ALCTS / PARS REFORMATTING DG

[rpeek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Peek, Richard)]

On 6/8, Walter CYBULSKI wrote: "Would it not be a useful exercise for all of 
the various fragmented, Balkanized interest groups to work toward a 
"harmonic convergence" rather than continue the pattern of redundant effort?

Yes Walter, there is a sanity clause. You may have noticed that the flyers 
for the upcoming ALA/ALCTS/PARS preconference "The Transformation of 
Recorded Sound in the Digital Age" identify SAA as a co-sponsor. The 
upcoming preconference - long in the making - was specifically designed as 
an outreach effort to repeat (albeit with a somewhat expanded focus and with 
additional speakers) the 1997 SAA Annual audio preservation program in hopes 
of reaching a broader audience, improving communications among professional 
groups, and  lessening - to some extent - redundancy. Designed by the 
members of the PARS/Photographic and Recording Media Committee, the 
preconference is an attempt to work with other groups in designing special 
interest programs that can be "taken on the road", i.e., a program at ALA 
might easily be duplicated at another group*s annual meeting, a program 
presented at AIC might easily come to ALA, etc. Hopefully the bigger 
audience can be reached, notes compared, possible publications produced with 
the assurance that all groups - if not converging harmonically - are at 
least humming very similar variations of the same recognizable tune. For the 
ALA preconference, in addition to SAA members, representatives from other 
groups (ARSC, MLA) were also consulted prior to the expanding of the SAA 
session agenda. Hopefully this sort of outreach effort  will continue and 
programs with a special interest focus will be designed and "taken on the 
road" in the very near future.

Richard Peek
Head, Preservation Dept.
University of Rochester Libraries



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From: padg
To: padg
Subject: Re: ALA / ALCTS / PARS REFORMATTING DG
Date: Monday, June 08, 1998 10:15AM

Very interesting. I just attended a day's worth of sessions
dealing with many of the same concerns at the recently-concluded
American Institute for Conservation (AIC) meeting in Arlington. Would
it not be a useful exercise for all of the various fragmented,
Balkanized interest groups to work toward a "harmonic
convergence" rather than continue the pattern of redundant
effort? What I call the "Cherry Orchard" effect? If it is not
already clear enough, I note that the title of the session speaks
of "archives" yet "archives" are the turf and domain of yet
another sovereignty, the Society of American Archivists; who
continue to go (if they go at all) their merry independent way,
with a splendid disdain for both librarians and conservators.
According to Walter CYBULSKI:
>
> American Library Association (ALA) Annual Meeting 1998
> Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS)
> Preservation and Reformatting Section (PARS)
>
> PARS Reformatting Discussion Group
> Sunday, June 28th
> 11:30 a.m.  - 1:00 p.m.
> Washington Hilton & Towers - Military Room
> 1919 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington DC
>
> Topic:  MAKE STRAIGHT FOR THE ARCHIVES, FULL SCAN AHEAD: Recent 
developments
in digital input quality and the long term preservation of digital records.
>