This year UKSG awarded six sponsored delegate places to students who had answered the call for applications.The following is an amalgam of excerpts from their reports on impressions and experiences of the 27th UKSG Annual Conference and Exhibition

Hine, L. (Laura)

Peel, M. (Michele)

Serrano-Vicente, R. (Rocio)

Stuart, P. (Pamela)

Valpereiro, R.S.(Rosa Sofia)

Zhang, X.(Xu)

Dadun, University of Navarra

160The students’ view Serials – 17(2), July 2004First impressionsWhen I was told that I had a sponsored place toattend the UKSG Conference 2004, I was thrilled.This would be an opportunity to learn more aboutthe serials universe and attend my first conferencein England. Therefore, I had high expectations.Were they met? Well, yes indeed! I set off for Manchester with some trepidation.Would I manage the networking I was so con-fident of before leaving for the conference? WouldI be out of my depth? On arrival on 29 March wewere warmly welcomed by Ross MacIntyre andPaul Harwood, representing UKSG, and were alsoable to meet our fellow colleagues – sponsoredstudents from other universities – and ask anyquestions. The overall atmosphere was friendlyand welcoming, with clearly (and to my relief) afew other conference first-timers around, a factconfirmed in the conference opening speech when,of over 500 delegates, at least 150 were welcomedto their first UKSG conference.It was also surprising to discover that 50% of thedelegates came from fields other than libraries.Indeed, the workshops and briefing sessions, aswell as the plenary sessions, reflected this fact,because we were able to hear from informationprofessionals and also from people working in thecommercial field. I found this very enlighteningbecause they gave us another perspective on thejournals and electronic products business. Conference – day oneWith British punctuality, the conference officiallyopened at 11.00 on the dot, with a welcome fromUKSG Chair, Keith Courtney. There was also clearlyThe students’ viewRoss MacIntyre, UKSG Education Officer (pictured left) with the six sponsored students, from L to R: Michelle Peel and Laura Hine (Manchester Metropolitan University), Pamela Stuart (Leeds Metropolitan University), Rosa Sofia Valpereiro(Manchester Metropolitan University), Rocio Serrano-Vicente (University of Sheffield) and Xu Zhang (Loughborough University)Photo by Paul Harwood, camera courtesy of Xu Zhang. All other photos by Jess Eustace, Sue Hill and Terry Morrow.This year UKSG awarded six sponsored delegate places to students who had answered the call forapplications.The following is an amalgam of excerpts from their reports on impressions and experi-ences of the 27th UKSG Annual Conference and Exhibition.161Serials – 17(2), July 2004 The students’ viewa strong international element to the delegates, withopening greetings from Anne McKee, the currentNASIG President. The presentations that followedwere very informative and covered a much widerrange of topics than I had imagined they would, asdid the briefing sessions and workshops. The first day’s plenary sessions covered a variety ofareas with the common subject of changing roles,whether in libraries or publishing. Helen Hayesmade an excellent start in the first of the plenarysessions by highlighting the important role of thelibraries in the development of the university.Librarians are managers of knowledge and infor-mation, competent to make use of information, toidentify, access, evaluate, organize and to communi-cate knowledge. Therefore, as knowledge managers,our role is going to be different from professionalsin other areas and includes fostering collaborationand reminding the academic and research com-munity of the need for innovation in order to pro-vide the best access to resources. Our role is, infact, to become collaborators and supporters. Thefuture should not be geared to technology alone.People must also be considered valuable, havingthe unique combination of memory, experienceand human instinct. Information professionals arerecognizing this, and with it, benefiting the ‘infor-mation society.’René Olivieri then gave an overview of STMpublishing, bringing attention to the large numberof smaller and society publishers struggling toadapt to the challenges facing the industry today.This was certainly a useful reminder, as much ofwhat I had learned on my course about changes inthe publishing industry had focused on the largercommercial organizations. His presentation alsogave us valuable insights into the acquisition andmerging aspects of the publishing industry andhow they related to the rising journal price.The afternoon plenary session brought an inter-esting view of university partnerships. GaryLawrence identified optimistic developments origin-ated by the University of California Librariespartnerships but explained that partnership is nota trend activity: it is a hard and complex relation-ship between interested bodies that aims, throughthat, to achieve mission goals. He outlined theadvantages of co-operation in libraries, in pro-viding access to a wider collection, improved ser-vices, more effective collection management andgreater capacity to innovate.Bruce Heterick from JSTOR then gave us theFaculty vision of electronic journals. The results ofa survey carried out in the USA indicated that elec-tronic resources were very important to Facultyand electronic archiving worried them, becausethey depended on the resources for their research.This confirmed much of what I had found in mycourse: that electronic resources were increasingin importance for academics from all disciplines,and that there remained a certain amount ofconcern over the availability of archives of theseresources.This was certainly an interesting start to the con-ference. After having attended a UKSG Roadshowin December of last year, I was aware that thegroup comprised not only librarians, but peoplefrom all backgrounds, with a wide range ofinterests and aims. The sheer variety of presen-tations in plenary sessions and topics covered inworkshops and briefing sessions only confirmedthis – from tips for those new to serials to meta-data standards, from copyright legislation to thefuture developments of Google – there was some-thing for everyone, and a great deal to learn forstudent members. The first day ended withproduct reviews and the chance for more exhibi-tion viewing.162The students’ view Serials – 17(2), July 2004Product reviews and exhibitionI found the product reviews of particular interest,especially as I was a little reluctant to approach thecompany stands. I had seen product presentationsbefore, but none of them were as good as these!The sessions were organized so well that eachpresenter finished their job exactly according tothe schedule (not an easy feat). Product introduc-tion is often boring, but this one was fun, espec-ially when every presenter started to compete fordelegates with the gifts they had! It was interestingto hear about the kinds of innovations being madein the serials industry.There was also plenty of time on the first day tosee the vast array of exhibition stands – with moretime over the next couple of days to understand alittle more about the huge range of products andservices on display. The exhibition gave us theopportunity to contact some vendors and see aselection of the new electronic products on themarket. Some of them were very useful in themanagement of serials.Social events – including the famous quiz!By night, we all enjoyed a relaxing atmosphereaccompanied by good food, drink, music andentertainment. The social events allowed us tomeet many delegates in an informal context, andwere a great way to network with one another. Allthe delegates I met were very pleasant and onecould see that regular conference-goers have agood, friendly relationship with each other. On thefirst night, a reception and dinner were followedby entertainment in the form of a quiz, althoughI’ve heard easier questions on Mastermind! Ourteam narrowly scraped into a position just abovelast, thanks to knowing one more football teamending in ‘Rovers’ than the losers, giving us a 1/4 point ahead of them. Had I been the decision-maker for our team, we would definitely have gotthe ‘I lost it in Manchester’ T-shirts! This challenging but interesting quiz wasfollowed by a disco and late bar, meaning thatJust a few of the 59 exhibition stands163Serials – 17(2), July 2004 The students’ viewmany of us had a more than slightly tough timegetting up the following morning. But we did getup, and began the second day of presentations andsome more excellent workshops and briefingsessions.Conference – day twoI was particularly interested in plenary session 3on aspects of open access. I have already writtenan assignment on the topic and have been follow-ing with interest the debate on mailing lists and inthe newspapers. Therefore I was interested to hearwhat the three speakers would have to say and tohear any discussion that might ensue. All of thespeakers had real experience in the industry andwere very well prepared. The speeches on openaccess were deliberately arranged to show the‘three’ sides of a coin (three speakers, three opin-ions), quite like a parliamentary hearing.Hugh Look gave a balanced account of theconflict taking place between for-profit publishers,society publishers and open access. This is not aneasy task considering the ferocity of the argumentson all sides. However, I did feel the fate of mypension should not be a factor in accepting thehigh prices of for-profit publishers. Not surpris-ingly, Nick Twyman of PLoS thinks open access isthe way forward and that PLoS have a sustainablebusiness model. The third speaker, Michael Held,represented a society publisher and felt thatneither the subscriber-pays model nor the openaccess model was a solution to journal publishingbut recommends the non-profit model. I think wecan look forward to many more heated discussionson this topic.The workshops and briefing sessions were alsovery useful, and it was difficult to choose whichones to attend. They gave us a very practical visionof some of the problems in serials and electronicproduct management in libraries.The workshop on ‘Resource discovery and e-journal linking’ gave me plenty of informationon library portal and journal linking, which is veryimportant to my dissertation. I had chosen theworkshop ‘A copyright law for the digital age’which was very informative, and it was interestingto hear other delegates’ views, particularly thosefrom other EU nation states. As a student, theworld of serials was completely new to me, myThe winning teamdrinking their prizeDancing the nightaway … andpart of the morning164The students’ view Serials – 17(2), July 2004experience being limited to journals check-in andoccasional claiming of issues, so I chose the work-shop run by Jayne Everard and Paul Harwood on‘Tips and practical solutions for those new toserials’. I found this very useful, and once again itwas interesting to hear what others in the pro-fession had to say about different aspects of serialsmanagement and publishing. The briefing session entitled ‘Open for business’given by Andy Powell was fairly technical andcovered some things such as RSS which I knewnothing about. The information on metadata, suchas the Dublin Core, and Andy’s work at UKOLNwas of great interest. The session has given mefood for thought.The only problem I had during the conferencewas that time was too short. As a result I had togive up some of the briefing sessions or work-shops which are important to my dissertation andfuture work. Thankfully, UKSG have put most ofthe material on their web site.On Tuesday afternoon we had a choice of con-current sessions. I attended a remarkable sessionby Carolyn Squire. Her experience in creating,developing and sustaining a virtual library mademe think about the implications. Even withtechnology to support the relationship betweenthe library and their clientele, I still think the exist-ence of face-to-face human interaction is necessary.The social contact established between informa-tion professional and user creates additional valuefor both parties. It is something difficult to quan-tify, but adds quality. A student colleague of mineparticularly liked Bill Simpson’s concurrent talk onchange in libraries, and found it very inspiring. Ittackled many problems academic libraries arefacing at the present. Conference dinnerTuesday evening brought the highlight of theconference – the conference dinner at the ImperialWar Museum North at The Quays in Trafford Park.What a pleasant surprise! The dinner began, andso the enjoyment of sharing a table full of pub-lishers, librarians and researchers. The food was adelight to the eyes, and delicious. The museumprovided a wonderful setting. It was slightly sur-real eating dinner beneath a Harrier jump jet, butthe dinner was lovely (especially the chocolatetart), and the wine was once again flowing freely.After the dinner, we all got on buses back toUMIST and joined another disco with morealcohol and an even later bar.“It was slightlysurreal eatingdinner beneatha Harrier jump jet”165Serials – 17(2), July 2004 The students’ viewOne of the special features of this conference, Ibelieve, was the intense personal contacts. Since I was a newcomer and speak awkward English, I thought I might feel lonely and uneasy at the con-ference. But the worry soon disappeared. Every-one was very friendly, and I was easily accepted. Inoticed there were plenty of renewed contacts inthe conference which made the conference looklike a big family reunion. Some people told methey have attended the conference more than tentimes (years), and these are not rare!Close of the conferenceThe following morning was probably the toughestyet, due to the enthusiastic ‘networking’ the nightbefore, but the end of the conference broughtmore interesting presentations. The first talk onWednesday morning began at 9.00. (All there,some more awake than others.) More carefullyselected speeches followed, covering many of thehot topics in the industry. Finally, in the last plen-ary session, Cathy Gordon from Google gave us abroad view of the past, present and future of Google,including some projects with libraries which could“Like a big family reunion”Whoops!Edinburghwas nextyear …166The students’ view Serials – 17(2), July 20042004 UKSG conference in UMIST was an unfor-gettable experience to me. I was deeply impressedby the efficient organization, the close personalcontacts which set it apart from the other confer-ences, the high quality speeches made by the emi-nent speakers, the hot topics broadly discussed. I do wish I can participate in the meeting nextyear.XuI understood that this was an occasion to seestimulating people gathered to excite their mindswith challenging thoughts. It serves to remindeverybody that information professionals are atthe heart of a thrilling modern society.I thank all for having the opportunity to bethere.SofiaWe’ll meet up again there!Rociomake this tool still more useful. When she spokeabout organizing information, she mentionedsomething not new to me – a considerable numberof information professionals are secret Googlers. Iconfess that I am also a bit of a Googler. Theirinformation retrieval system works, but manyhave doubts about it. It seems that for some, scien-tific work needs to be reached by the long route,and through complex alleyways. However, humaninstinct tells you to follow short cuts, and get tothings using minimum effort. Google acknow-ledges that, and their people are revolutionizinginformation science by the way they want toorganize and retrieve information.Keith Courtney closed the conference, not forget-ting to give us the dates for the next one: 11 to13 April 2005 at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. To conclude, let the students sign off individually with their closing remarks:I would like to thank UKSG, especially RossMacIntyre and Paul Harwood, for giving me theopportunity to attend this conference.Pam It was an invaluable experience, not only in termsof improving my knowledge of issues affecting all those working with serials, but also in terms of meeting new people and learning more aboutthe variety of roles that are available to thosestarting careers in the library and informationfield. LauraI found the conference a very worthwhile event to attend and can honestly say that the world of serials covers many more areas than I hadimagined. I have come away feeling as though I have learnt a lot, although I also feel that thereis an awful lot more to learn! I would definitelyrecommend the experience to any other students,and am considering a move into serials librarian-ship in the future so that I can enjoy theexperience (and networking!) provided by theconference again! Michelle

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Dadun, University of Navarra

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