Representatives from all CRL member institutions are invited to attend the 54rth annual meeting of CRL’s Council of Voting Members, to be held on Tuesday, April 22, 2003. The meeting will take place at the Sofitel Hotel at 5500 N. River Road, Rosemont, IL, adjacent to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport
The keynote speaker for the meeting will be Kennette Benedict, Senior Advisor on Philanthropy at the John and Catherine D. MacArthur Foundation. Dr. Benedict will discuss the MacArthur Foundation’s current development agendas in key emerging regions of the world, and roles that North American research libraries might play in supporting those agendas. Given the growing globalization of information resources, Dr. Benedict’s perspective should be highly enlightening and valuable.

The program session of the meeting will focus on the security of knowledge resources, a topic prompted by recent pricing decisions by e-journal publishers and the resultant pressure on libraries to discontinue purchase of print titles for Elsevier’s Science Direct and other electronic resources. Three speakers will discuss approaches to print archives. Beverlee French, Director, Shared Digital Content, California Digital Library, will describe the University of California System’s project to archive Elsevier Science Direct titles in print. Edward Shreeves, Director, Collections and Information Resources, University of Iowa Libraries, and project leader for the CIC’s print archiving of Elsevier titles will explain their approach. Melissa Trevvett, CRL, will update members on the Center’s Distributed Print Archives project, funded by the Mellon Foundation, and address how this project’s objectives could apply to Elsevier print archiving.
The meeting will begin with the annual business session at 8:00 AM. CRL Councilors (directors and designated non-library councilors from CRL Voting Member institutions) will hear operational reports and register votes for new directors and the approval of the FY04 operating budget. (Continental breakfast will be provided.).The program session will commence at 9:00 AM. Lunch will follow, and we expect to adjourn by 1:30 PM.

For those who arrive the evening before the meeting, there will be a welcoming cocktail reception at the Sofitel Hotel from 5:30-7:00 PM. Additional information about the format, agenda and keynote speaker will be posted on CRL’s web site in coming weeks.

We request that attendees notify Yvonne Jefferson as soon as possible if they are planning on attending the reception and/or the business/program sessions. Room reservations should be made directly with the Hotel Sofitel. CRL has obtained a special guest rate of $149 single/$169 double per night; however, hotel rooms at this rate are limited. Contact the Hotel Sofitel at 1-800-233-5959 for overnight accommodations also by March 23, 2003 (The hotel has complimentary shuttle service from O’Hare Airport or parking is available for $12.00 per day.)

We sincerely hope that all our member institutions will be represented at this meeting, to discuss and offer their perspectives on these issues and CRL’s current directions. If you have any questions, please contact Yvonne Jefferson at the Center.