News from the IAU Working Group on Libraries

• The IAU WG Libraries will hold a session during the General Assembly XXVIII, to be held August 23 & 24, 2012 in Beijing, China. The program is available.

  (July 26, 2012)
  
  

• As of December 2008, Fionn Murtagh and Uta Grothkopf ended their term as co-chairs of WG Lib. The working group has unanimously accepted the nominations of Robert Hanisch and Marsha Bishop as new co-chairs. Congratulations Bob and Marsha!

  (December 2, 2008)
  
  

• In July 2008, two contributions in the context of the IAU WG Libraries appeared in the IAU Information Bulletin: Terry Mahoney from IAC Tenerife initiated the so-called "Manifesto", a declaration that reflects concerns regarding the increasing invisibility of research libraries and librarians in the digital era. Several WG Libraries members contributed to the Manifesto and signed the final document. It was published in IAU IB 102, July 2008, p. 70-72.
  
  The same issue also contained a report by Uta Grothkopf and Christopher Erdmann, librarians at ESO, on "Open Access - State of the Art". It gives an overview of OA with a special focus on the situation in astronomy, including examples of models from a variety of publishers. The European Commission as well as the U.S. Congress issued open access mandates in December 2007. Summaries of these mandates are given in the last part of the document. The report has been published in IAU IB 102, July 2008, p. 64-70.

  (September 8, 2008)
  

• The WG on Libraries held a joint Business Meeting with the WG Publishing at the IAU General Assembly XXVI, Prague, Czech Republic, August 18, 16:00 - 17:30 h. PDF versions of the presentations are available via a dedicated page.

  (August 19, 2006)
  

• In order to simplify the meeting proposal procedure, the IAU announced a new structure for their meetings in 2007. IAU Colloquia will stop at no. 200, and the Colloquium series will be upgraded to Symposium status. For more information, see the message from Karel van der Hucht, IAU Assistant General Secretary.

  (September 3, 2005)
  

• Starting in 2005, Cambridge University Press has become the official IAU publisher. See http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=IAU&bVolume=y for a list of currently available volumes.

  (July 29, 2005)
  

• We are very pleased to inform you that two new members have joined our working group: Laurence Bobis from Observatoire de Paris, France, and Halima Naimova, Observatorio Astronomico de Lisboa, Portugal. They kindly provided summaries of their professional careers:
  
  Laurence Bobis,  Observatoire de Paris, France
  After a cursus of archivist-palaeographist and a Ph.D. in medieval history, I became librarian, first in the french national library (Cabinet des m†édailles). Then I  worked for several years in Ministry of culture, where I was in charge of organizing  the national patrimonial policy concerning municipal libraries collections, and particularly of leading actions for preservation, enrichment and outreach work of collections. During three years, as project manager, I created a national data base to collect contemporary literary manuscripts located as well in libraries as in archives, museums etc. Since 2001, I am director of the Paris Observatory library, which is in the same time a library (about 150 000 volumes of periodics and monographs, 100 000 scientific instruments) and a museum (about 1000 instruments, medals, paintings, sculptures etc).
  
  
  Halima Naimova, Observatorio Astronomico de Lisboa, Portugal
  After a post-graduation studies in  Information Sciences on Librarianship by Lisbon University and MA in Oriental Studies by St. Petersburg University (Russia), I worked in Portuguese National Library (manuscript section); then I worked for several years in the Library of the  Catholic University. After some period I set up especial collections in the Documentation Centre for the Orient (private foundation). Since 2001 , I am responsible for the Library of the Observatorio Astronomico de Lisboa òÀÓ Universidade de Lisboa (circa 40000 periodics and monographs). Our Library makes part of SIBUL-Collective Data Basis of the University of Lisbon; currently follows informatization of the Library.
  
  Besides , I teach Persian language, literature and Islamic culture in the Catholic University (Institute of Oriental Studies) .
  
  I have published some articles and collaborated in books; all of them in oriental studies.
  
  I have finished my translation into Portuguese from farsi quatrains of Omar Khayyam, an astronomer, poet and scientist.

(June 17, 2005)