From: T Scott Plutchak <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:17:56 +0000

I was a member of the initial Library Advisory Committee for the New
England Journal of Medicine from 2002-4.  Currently I'm a member of
the PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) Library
Advisory Group, the STM Library Relations Committee (International
Association of STM Publishers), and the recently formed Silverchair
Library Advisors.

Each of these groups has been quite different in terms of time
commitment, topics, etc., but I've found them each to be extremely
valuable to me -- and the organizations seem to feel that they are of
value since they continue to invest in them.  The most fundamental
benefit is the opportunity to spend time in serious conversation with
people from other segments of the scholarly communication community
regarding issues of importance to all of us.  And while I may not
always agree with the decisions made by the people at these
organizations, I have always felt that I've had plenty of opportunity
to express my views and that those views are taken seriously.


T. Scott Plutchak

Director, Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences
University of Alabama at Birmingham
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-----Original Message-----
From: LibLicense-L Discussion Forum
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2012 8:05 PM
Subject: Publishers' Librarian Advisory Boards
From:  Ann Okerson <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:52:55 -0500

Dear Liblicense-l Readers:  A number of publishers have librarian
advisory boards for your presses/publishing houses or specific
products (examples would be, say, Nature Journals, or Gale World
Scholar); a number of librarians serve on such boards.

If you are a publisher who convenes such a library board, could you
give us some information about how you choose members, how you
develop agendas, what is the charge and purpose of the group, how
helpful is it in content development, or user interfaces, or pricing, and
the like?  Are there better or less good ways to utilize this expertise?

If you're a librarian, have you found your experience to make a
difference and if so, then how?  Do you get advance insights into new
products?  Help to shape them?  Are you better informed about your
library work, as a result?  Otherwise put, is either the journal or you
demonstrably the better for the experience -- or both of you?

All responses are most welcomed; this is a topic much discussed in
corners so it would be useful to bring it out to a wider audience.

Cordially,  Ann Okerson
Moderator
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