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 [log in to unmask] -----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 [log in to unmask]