Message From The Chair

As you are making your plans to attend MLA, do take advantage of the excellent programming that Cecilia Botero and her committee have arranged for us and direct potential new members to Section Shuffle which will be held again this year.  Ramune Kubulius is coordinating our participation in the Shuffle. Look for additional information on these events in this issue of “Developments”. We are also looking forward to seeing you attend the Collection Development Section Business Meeting which will be held Monday, May 21, from 4:30-5:15 pm in Room 303 of the Washington State Convention Center.

For budgetary reasons and to streamline the work of the CDS Awards Committee, the CDS Board has merged all CDS travel awards into one review system, and developed a point system. The point system will be documented on our website for the assistance to future committees. Ramune Kubulius , our Section Council Representative, queried the other MLA sections about their travel awards practices. The CDS Board also brainstormed about fun-raising activities.  Katherine Chew and Suan Kendall are exploring the addition of ads to the “Developments “ website. Other suggestions include inviting corporate sponsorship of the awards, developing online continuing education efforts, and updating MLA Dockit  Collection Development and Management for Electronic, Audiovisual, and Print Resources in Health Sciences Libraries (2nd revised edition ed). Chicago, IL: Medical Library Association, 2004. Please contact me if you are interested in assisting with any of these efforts or have others to suggest.

One of the responsibilities of the CDS Chair is the opportunity to help MLA identify good people for various committees. Mary Langman, MLA headquarters staff, contacted me about the appointment of a CDS liaison to the MLA Scholarly Communications Committee which will become a standing committee June 1^st.  Katherine Chew, chair of the Scholarly Communication Collaborative for the University Libraries at the University of Minnesota,  was recommended for this position.

Thanks to all of the CDS officers  and committee members for their hard work this year.

Mary Fran Prottsman,
Collection Development Section Chair, 2011-2012