In attendance were: Chair Adam Wright, Past Chair Christine Peterson, Councilor John Hammer, Alternate Councilor Jeanette Mosey, Secretary/Treasurer Beth Marsh, Diane Neal, Nancy Buchanan, David Bavousett, Angela Skaggs, Roy Lewis, Sharon Castleberry, Richard Wayne, Brian Peterson, Cami Loucks, and Robert Gillette.

The meeting was called to order by Chair Adam Wright at 8:00 a.m.. After Adam’s welcome and introductions around the table, Adam presented the agenda. Adam requested that the agenda be amended to include Nancy Buchanan, liaison to the 2005 conference program planning committee. The agenda as amended was approved.

Secretary/Treasurer Beth Marsh presented the minutes from the July 10, 2004, meeting for review. Nancy Buchanan motioned to approve the minutes; Roy Lewis seconded the motion. The motion passed.

Beth provided the treasurer’s report, noting that the 2004 conference income and expenses, including the Technology Showcase, have not yet been entered into the ledger by TLA staff. David Bavousett motioned to accept the treasurer’s report; the motion was seconded by Richard Wayne. The motion passed.

Our "old business" began with Nancy Buchanan, the 2005 conference planning committee liaison to ATRT, spoke to us on the theme of next year’s TLA conference, "New Realities, New Directions." Nancy distributed hand-outs of the TLA 2005 Goals & Objectives and reminded us that the conference will be held in Austin next year.

Adam Wright raised the issue of ATRT stipends. ATRT gave away one stipend to attend TLA Conference this year; it went to Gail Cunningham, technical services librarian at East Texas Baptist University. At annual assembly we will discuss how many stipends we wish to sponsor for next year’s conference.

Beth Marsh reported on the preconferences ATRT sponsored this year. We sponsored two preconferences on web site usability testing presented by librarians at the University of North Texas Science & Technology Library. Attendance was low – there were 10 people in the morning session and 11 people in the afternoon session – but we made a profit.

Adam Wright presented statistics on this year’s NetFair: over 302 people attended; the most popular sessions were those presented by Kevin Marsh, TSLAC, on the new Resource Discovery Service, and Jerry McCulley, NETLS, on firewall security. Sound remains an issue at NetFair, as some participants commented on the difficulty in hearing the presenters. John Hammer asked whether NetFair hand-outs can be made available on the TLA website; Adam will look into it. Adam told us that there was not one NetFair session with less than 10 attendees. General discussion followed on possible topics for next year’s NetFair. Roy Lewis suggested it may be time for another "introduction to computers" session. Christine Peterson agreed that this is still needed. John Hammer suggested a session on computer terminology. Christine proposed a "track-based" series of sessions all geared toward beginners, i.e. "introduction to …" in nature, and asked about attendance at the higher-level NetFair sessions this year, such as the program on open URL and web services. Adam replied that attendance at both of these was good. Christine commented that there was a good balance of low-end and high-end topics this year. To Roy’s inquiry on whether any topics had been settled on for next year, Adam replied that he has already been approached and at our meeting at annual assembly this summer he will have more to tell us.

Christine Peterson reported on the Technology Showcase. For the first time in a long time, both rooms of the showcase were booked by vendors for both days. Attendance was low, however. In the past, the average attendance at vendor presentations was 10-15; this year the average was 6 to 7; some vendors had no audience at all, while some had over 30 participants. Mitinet had the best attendance. Christine suggested that holding the conference during spring break may account for the low attendance, not just at the Technology Showcase but at the conference in general. This year we provided the best accommodations for the vendors: carpeting, Internet access, and curtains.

More discussion on the sound issue followed. Some of the presenters in NetFair complained that they were drowned out by the vendors in the Showcase. It was suggested that maybe next year we can split the two events to opposite ends of the exhibit hall. Beth suggested moving NetFair to a room and leave the Showcase on the floor, a preferable arrangement for vendors. Christine said she would contact the vendors to see whether they prefer to be on the exhibit hall floor or in an enclave. Adam suggested having only one Showcase room next year. Christine agreed that either one room for two days, or two rooms for one day, would be a good idea. She did receive a lot of positive feedback from the vendors this year.

Adam then spoke to us on the co-sponsorship of NetFair by NetTrekker. They gave us $2400 for NetFair. He is going to approach them about sponsoring again next year. Adam then led a discussion on an evaluation of the Internet access line provided to NetFair vendors. We provided a 384mbps connection for the 3 rooms. Christine said that the convention center technical staff created a VPN. Because we did not get the full T-1 line we expected, we may only be charged ¼ of the T-1 line cost.

Jeanette Mosey wanted us to know that she will not be able to attend annual assembly this summer and asked whether someone else would be willing to take over responsibility for maintaining the site. Adam will ask for volunteers.

John Hammer reported that not much happened at Council Meeting I, but one thing coming out of the meeting is that TLA wants treasurers to use the TLA web site for financial activities. He also said that he will confer later with Adam and Christine on the annual report form.

This concluded "old business."

"New business" began with Adam asking the group to think about how much we wish to contribute towards Tall Texans sponsorship this year. Roy motioned to include sponsorship in next year’s budget. Robert Gillette suggested giving more money this year. Christine motioned to give $2500 in the 2005 budget for Tall Texans sponsorship. Sharon Castleberry seconded the motion. The motion passed.

Christine then raised the issue of how much ATRT should budget for the legislative reserve fund in 2005. It was asked how much we have given in the past and whether the 2002 minutes would show this. Discussion was tabled until annual assembly so that we can look into this.

Adam presented the election results: Diane Neal is the new chair-elect; Angela Skaggs is the new secretary/treasurer.

Adam presented the group with a hand-out titled, "T4 – Top Texas Technology Trends for Libraries," a draft document, and opened discussion on the topic. Richard Wayne said that we may learn from LITA’s experiences in tracking library technology trends. Richard would like to see the identification – nomination and voting – of the top trends be as wide-spread as possible. We might use TLA Cast and the ATRT website to solicit nominations for trends. In response to Richard’s comment, Christine said that we need to clearly define what a "trend" is. We need to set criteria. Adam asked for a show of interest in serving on a subcommittee to work on this. Jeanette suggested breaking down the trends by type of library. John asked whether this could be a program topic for next year’s conference. Adam replied that it might be a good topic for NetFair. Adam asked for a volunteer to chair the subcommittee on this and Richard volunteered. Adam tasked Richard with first arriving at a definition or criteria on what will be considered a "trend." Christine recommended developing a timeline for the first year to get a handle on what can realistically be accomplished. John, Roy, and Robert offered to work with Richard.

The next issue was finding for a new website for "Library Technology Reviews," a project coming from the NTRLS technology committee. Adam distributed a letter from the committee which asks ATRT to consider matching their $500 budget and opened discussion. Adam said we would need to vote on whether to amend this year’s budget to include the $500. Adam spoke to people at the UNT about the website project. UNT students expressed interest in developing the website. Jeanette asked whether other library systems would be interested in donating funding to the project. Adam said that he had not asked the other system coordinators; the project only needs $1000 to get started; the issue isn’t so much funding but finding people willing to contribute content to the site. Jeanette asked how this project might relate to what the State Library does, and Chris replied that there is currently no technology consultant at TSLAC. Jeanette wondered what kinds of things, what range of products, would be reviewed on the sight. Adam said everything would be included, both hardware and software products. John asked if RSS would be used; Christine suggested that would be the best way to go. Richard reminded us that other activities are going on, such as Library Technology Review, both the journal and the website, and Computers in Libraries. John proposed a link on the ATRT website to this new project site. Adam talked to TLA about the legalities of ATRT giving a grant for this project and was told that it can be done as a one-time grant to a 501(3)(c) – which NTRLS is.

Jeanette moved that we provide a one-time grant of $500 to NTRLS for the "Library Technology Reviews" project. The motion received a second motion by Robert. The motion passed. Christine asked that Adam give us a report on the project when we meet at annual assembly this summer.

"Other business" discussion started with John asking whether there has been any feedback on the conference programs that ATRT co-sponsored this year. Adam replied that the two programs we co-sponsored, one on XML and the other on metadata, went well.

We had one special "announcement:" Adam informed us that he has been accepted to the TALL Texans Institute class of 2004. (Congratulations, Adam!)

Adam adjourned the meeting at 9:45 a.m.

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