A General Meeting of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Bibliographic Center was held in the auditorium of the King's College Library on Friday, July 16, 1999.

Those in attendance:
Judith Tierney (King's), Narda Tafuri (U Scrn), Fred Walters (LCCC), Mia Bassham (LCCC), Marianne Sodoski (Penn State Geisinger Wyo Vly), Diane Suffren (Osterhout), Bonnie Oldham (Misericordia), Susan Bevan (LCCC), Janell Carter (Wilkes), Brian Sacolic (Wilkes), Charles Kratz (U Scrn), Cathy Schappert (Marywood), Dave Schappert (E. Strouds), Mary Jane Donnelly (King's), Anne Buchanan (King's), Magge Restuccia (U Scrn), Sharon Romaniello (Marywood), Carolyn Elliott (Keystone), Wayne Wheeler (Keystone), Rosemarie Taylor (Wyo Vly Health Care System), Sr. Elizabeth Brandreth (Mercy Hosps WB/Scrn), Sr. Mary Sharon Gallagher (Misericordia), Susan Yeager (Misericordia), Mary Smith (King's), Linda Pawlowski (King's), Barbara Nanstiel (Wilkes).

President Judith Tierney called the meeting to order at 10:30 a.m.

The minutes of the July 17, 1998 General Meeting were approved as distributed.

Online Union Catalog
Judith Tierney gave an update on the grant proposal submitted to Commonwealth Libraries on March 12. The grant would fund hardware and software to develop a Web version of the Union Catalog. We would need only one interface to simultaneously search across the catalogs of the 8 academic and public member libraries, regardless of platform. No word has been received regarding the outcome of the proposal. If awarded, the grant would have to be carried out by next year. It would still be possible to produce paper copies of the Union List for those members who would want them. Judith reminded members that the deadline for Union List updates is October 31.

Director's Report
Cathy Schappert announced that membership renewals are in the mail. The balance in the treasury is $18,612.87. Money is available to build some sort of "Web presence" for the consortium. If anyone is interested in working on this, s/he should contact Cathy.

Nominating Committee
Bonnie Oldham, Chairperson, presented the proposed slate of officers:
President, Narda Tafuri (University of Scranton)
Vice-President, Michelle Sitko (Marywood University)
Secretary, Linda Sturgeon (Osterhout Free Library)
Treasurer, Sr. Elizabeth Brandreth (Mercy Hospitals)
The slate was voted on and elected.

President's Report
Judith expressed thanks to those who had worked in various capacities during the year. She noted that there will be new chairpersons for the CE Committee: Mary Jane Donnelly and Carolyn Elliott. Earlier surveys had indicated that members felt the most important functions of NEPBC were continuing education and resource sharing. Judith voiced her hope that there would be greater interest in resource sharing, perhaps in cooperative purchase of electronic resources. She also stressed the need for directors to be supportive of and active in the consortium.

Standing Committee Reports Interlibrary Loan
Brian Sacolic announced that an Ariel demonstration will be held at the University of Scranton on August 5th. A memo with details will be forthcoming. Following that session, Bonnie Oldham will demonstrate how to do custom holdings on OCLC. The committee also discussed general issues relating to interlibrary loan such as which document delivery vendors libraries have found to be efficient and the impact of Ebscohost on interlibrary loan activity.

Continuing Education
During the past year the Committee has sponsored three programs:
Intergrating New Technologies into Reference
Advanced searching the Web
Stress Management

Two programs were also co-sponsored:
Exceptional Information Delivery (with HILNNEP)
Joint Workshop (with Northeast Chapter of PaLA)
All programs were well attended.

The Committee also distributed flyers for the OCLC SiteSearch demonstration held at the University of Scranton and for the two College of DuPage teleconference series (Soaring to Excellence and Dancing with Change).

Because of the positive response to one of the PaLA workshops, the Committee has arranged for Leslie LaRocco to expand her presentation and present two sessions of Maintaining Your Computer at the University of Scranton on Tuesday, July 27. The workshop is free but space is limited and re-registration is required. Flyers have been sent to all NEPBC libraries.

Other ideas being considered: technical training, Y2K, advanced searching on the Web, electronic publishing, intellectual property rights, staff exchanges.

Old Business
There was no old business.

New Business
Cathy Schappert raised the question of changing our name in light of our present structure and activities.
Judith suggested it might be time to review our constitution and bylaws.
Judith reported for Scott Thomas that there has been no meeting of the Council of Pennsylvania Library Networks.
Three libraries reported disruptions of service do to building and renovations:
Osterhout is offering only phone reference using the core collection from the current date until August 2. The Children's Wing is now open but will be closed from August 15 until Labor Day.
College Misericordia will be closed for 2 weeks beginning July 23.
Luzerne County Community College will have only the core reference collection and journals available until next spring. All other books will be in remote storage. Other local colleges should expect increased usage from LCCC students who have been advised that they will need to present a current picture ID.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 11:05 a.m.

Barbara Nanstiel, Secretary