CALAMW Chapter Annual Program'03
-- Brief Report from Chapter President Haipeng Li

I would like to take this opportunity to briefly report to you on the CALAMW Chapter annual program, which was held over the weekend (Friday and Saturday) at OCLC in Dublin, Ohio.

Due to the careful designing of the Program by the Program Committee, and the detailed planning by the Local Arrangements Committee, the Program was a success. Everything went very smoothly, as planned. In large, this happened also because of the tremendous amount of assistance we recieved from OCLC, particulaly from Mr. Andrew Wang and his office staff. We greatly appreciated thier help and support.

Around 45 members and friends participated in the annual program. Attendees came from six states in the Midwest region, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin, representing 20 institutions. The Program started with an OCLC tour on Friday afternoon, which was well-attended. On Friday evening, all committees gave their committee reports, and people had a wonderful time to get acquainted with one another. Other issues such as membership drive, mentoring program and archving chapter documents were also discussed.

The two featured speakers on Saturday morning offered very impressive and insightful comments on the development of technology and its impact on libraries, and the history and growth of CALA and the Midwest Chapter over the years, and how CALA has grown in this information age. The two program themes were well reflected in their talks and valuable discussions followed speakers' presentations.

The panel discussion session by past MW Chapter presidents in the afternoon further offered much insignt into the history and developemt of CALA and its Midwest Chapter. Uniquely each president talked about his/her own experience of working with CALA and the chapter and his/her own role as president, which provided a rare opportunity for participants to hear some of the exciting events that took place during their presidencies.

The afternoon workshops by OCLC professional staff were equally impressive. All four sessions (two ref, and two tech) were very well attended, with overviews by the ficilitators, and questions and discussions from the audience. These workshops focused on new services and products that OCLC is working on, many of which were new to participants. They were indeed great learning opportunities for attendees.

The Program was held in the Smith Building at OCLC, which offers wonderful conference facilities and state of the art technologies. We all felt that we were fortunate to have OCLC as our confernece host.

Most importantly, I would like to thank all our members and friends who made an effort to come to the Program. As we discussed at the conference, the program was specially designed for all of you!

More detailed information on the Program will be available soon on the program website. Please check back for further information.

It was wonderful to see you all!

======================================
Haipeng Li
Reference Librarian/Outreach Coordinator
Oberlin College
Oberlin, OH 44074
Phone: 440/775-8285, x235
Fax: 440/775-8739
Email: haipeng.li@oberlin.edu
======================================