sist NEWSLETTER vol.1, no.
2

United States Secretariat Report

Judith Rowe
Computinq Center

Princeton University

The United States response to the first lASSIST Newsletter has been very

gratifying. Fifty people are already on the list of paid members and 22 atten-
ded the February conference. Information about lASSIST is being sent to rele-
vant journals, and library subscriptions to the Newsletter are being solicited.

The AGs are all in high gear and reports of their activity appear in the

AG section of the Newsletter . All lASSIST members are encouraged to become in-

volved in the activities of one of the AGs. Get in touch with me or the US

coordinator of the AG. The Newsletter will continue to serve as a vehicle for
keeping you apprised of all lASSIST activities, but the more action group par-

ticipation, the more productive lASSIST will be.

Don Harrison of National Archives has replaced Michael Leavitt as coordin-
ator of the US Process-Produced Data AG, leaving a vacancy in data acquisition
which should be filled as soon as possible. If you are interested, please let

me know. The position requires intelligence, commitment, hard work and an

interest in studying an issue which heretofore has received little attention in

data services.

REPORT ON THE FIRST lASSIST NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE
FEBRUARY 16-20 , 1977

lASSIST was organized to meet the needs of data information people to devel-

op more professional services by working together on joint projects and by shar-

ing problems and experiences. The informal exchange of ideas on data information

services which conferences provide is as important as the formal sessions. Both

of these needs were met at the First North American Action Group Conference by

the enthusiastic and hardworking group of 32 data information professionals who

met in Cocoa Beach, Florida from February 16th through 20th, 1977.

Four of the AGs held full sessions with both Canadian and United States

coordinators present: Data Archive Development, Classification, Process-Pro-
duced Data, and Data Organization and Management. Proposed activities for the

Data Archive Registry, Data Acquisition, and Documentation AGs were discussed in

plenary sessions. In addition to the AG and plenary session discussions, two

program committees were organized to plan for future meetings and announcement

was made of the Toronto lASSIST [Canada] conference to be held in May. The group
also discussed an omnibus questionnaire designed to incorporate questions from

each of the AGs regarding data services organizations, personnel, policies, and

planning activities. It is hoped that with proper screening lASSIST data collec-
tion efforts can be kept at a minimum and that we can avoid frequent repetative
questionnaires.