As co-chairs of the ALCTS Creative Ideas in Technical Services
Discussion Group, we would like to solicit facilitators to assist
with the round table discussions for the Discussion Group's
meeting at the ALA MidWinter Conference in San Antonio, Texas.
The Discussion Group will meet on Sunday, January 21 from 4:30 to
5:30 p.m.

If you have not attended a meeting of this discussion group
before, the meetings consist of 13 round table discussions on 4
different topics.  Facilitators at each table assist in the free
flow of discussion by asking persons at that table to introduce
themselves, distribute a roster for attendees to record their
names and addresses, keep track of meeting time, keep the
discussion moving, and make sure participants complete the
evaluation form.  Facilitators will also take notes of the
discussion and will prepare a report of the discussion.  The co-
chairs will use those reports for an article (in which the
facilitators will receive acknowledgement) in a professional
journal.

The co-chairs will develop a list of questions for each topic
that facilitators will use in helping the discussion to keep
moving.  Experience has shown, though, that very few tables make
it through all the questions in the time provided!

The topics for MidWinter's meeting are:
     1.   cross-training
          a.   reasons and purposes
          b.   how to do
          c.   how it has worked
     2.   the interface between technical services and library
          systems
          a.   who has responsibility for library systems in
               libraries
          b.   is their background in computer science or
               librarianship
          c.   how are communications handled between the two
               areas
          d.   how are priorities established
     3.   electronic journals - acquisition and retention
          decisions
          a.   how do you decide which titles to obtain
          b.   who has responsibility for obtaining the issues
          c.   what retention options have you considered (local
               electronic archive, remote access to archives,
               paper archives, how long retained, etc.)
          d.   do you keep paper copies if also published in
               electronic form
     4.   the impact of electronic resources on technical
          services
          a.   how to decide what electronic resources to catalog
          b.   does your library maintain URLs in your local
               catalog for WWW sources
          c.   do you catalog titles available in a full-text
               database
          d.   do you catalog titles indexed on CD-ROM that you
               don't have in your print collection

If you would like to serve as facilitator, please respond to:
Cynthia M. Coulter                      Marilyn Mercado
cynthia.coulter@uni.edu                 marilyn.mercado@uni.edu
Phone: (319) 273-2801                   Phone: (319) 273-2781