22nd Polar Libraries Colloquy - Thursday, June 5, 2008

Several talks focused on the North today. Bjorn Skancke talked about NORAS, which is a planned service that provides access to open scholarly documents that are geographically defined in the North, rather than by subject. Sandy Campbell discussed how they define "The North" for their Canadian Circumpolar Collection at the University of Alberta. Peter Geller and Stan Gardner talked about how a regional library system was being built in Northern Manitoba for the University College of the North. Members from the University of the Arctic instructors talked about their program and some of the problems that are encountering with getting library materials to their students. As a partner with the University of the Arctic, the PLC has an important role to play in helping with this dilemma. We also heard about the Caninuit Database from Sharon Rankin.

There was a panel discussion about the Future of Polar Libraries and an lively discussion took place about our role in this ever changing environment. Phil Cronenwett also talked to us about the spiraling costs of polar literature and made some suggestions on how we as collectors of polar literature for our libraries could cope with this situation.

It's official - Marcel Branneman from the Alfred Wegener Institute extended an invitation to the PLC for 2010 and so it will be in Bremerhaven, Germany then. Birit Jakobsen from UNIS in Norway also extended an invitation for us to travel to Svalbard in 2010. Everyone agreed that Svalbard would be a fantastic locale for the PLC, but there were reservations about the costs of air travel and fuel and the fear that the costs would only escalate rather than remain the same or be less. The Steering Committee felt that many of the members would not be able to travel to Svalbard because of the costs.

Also at the PLC Business Meeting, Daria requested contributions from the membership and there were several panel discussions held at this PLC, including the one today about the Future of Polar Libraries. David Walton, the chair of that session, suggested that those on the panel write up something from their own perspective to be included in an issue of the Bulletin.

New steering committee members added to the PLC are: Shelly Sommer from INSTAAR, Ross Goodwin from ASTIS and Marcel Branneman from Alfred Wegener Institute.

Everyone was given the opportunity to sign up to be on a committee that they were most interested in - I signed up for the committee for making a union list of polar digital projects or initiatives. We will meet after the formal conclusion of the PLC on Friday to discuss how we should get started. Others that are not at the meeting are welcome to join the committee and probably any other committee that is organizing. Look for information about the committees in the Bulletin or contact Judy Triplehorn who is the keeper of the lists of volunteers.

Lynn Lay