Notes from the Meeting of the PUBLIC LIBRARIES Advisory Committee

Sunday, January 20, 2002

PRESENT: Victor Kralisz, Chair; Lynn Lockwood; Ellen Kardy; Patty Duitman; Mary Cosper-LeBoeuf; Kathleen Hughes. Catherine P. Hakala-Ausperk participated as an electronic member and said she was asked to serve in this capacity.

Excused: Renee Vailancourt; Faye Clow; Janet Foster; Robert Rohlf;

The Committee discusses procedures for voting on the writing award for the number 1 and number 2 best articles in PL written by a public librarian. We decided to exclude articles written by Committe Members and Trustees. A long and complex discusssion led us to award the two prizes. The articles and authors were forwarded to Katleen Hughes.
The Committee reviewed recent issues of the magazine and encouraged Kathleen Hughes to use color whenever possible. Most of the suggested changes from the June meeting have been incorprated.
Kathleen Hughes, managing Editor, delivered her report and Renee Vailancourt's Features Editor Report. Kathleen reported that the magazine is running a smaller deficit than budgeted, ad sales on on target, subscription base is at 600, and subscriptions will be handled in house once the subscription management firm has been let go. This will give us better performance information and possibly better performance. Renee let it be known that the 2003 theme issue will be on serving the disabled. The Committee was positive in its comments on the e-libraries issue and had not yet seen the International Librarianship issue because of a mailing delay. Also, the plan to publish earlier in the bimonthy cycle is almost complete and the magazine should arrive at members/subscribers addresses in the first month of the cycle beginning this year. Finally, there will be no supplementary issue this year.
The Committee decided that the Committee websites were a great idea and would put that in its workplan for the next six months.