MELA Members--
On behalf of the MELA Executive Board I would like to thank all of you
who were able to attend this year's meeting in Boston, which proved a
success in terms of attendance, member satisfaction (from everything I
have heard) and overall organization. Credit is due to our Harvard
colleagues, especially Michael Hopper and Lesley Wilkins, MELA Secretary
William Kopycki and all the others who volunteered to serve our
association. Boston proved to be a very popular site, offering a venue
rich in history and culture; (the weather was excellent). The official
minutes of the Business meeting will be distributed at a future time, but
here's a recap:
The MELA Program this year was, by many accounts, one of the best ever.
The six presentations were fascinating. Most MELA committees either met
or sponsored discussion groups, all were well attended and productive. As
usual, there was an array of well attend ancillary meetings: MECAP, MEMP,
and OCLC, etc. This year the RLG-OCLC Transition Forum RLIN organized an
informal group discussion that included two Arabic-script users of OCLC's
Connexion. The Collection Development Workshop (Turkish Materials), the
first of several planned workshops, can be counted as a success and I
hope we can do more workshops on a variety of other topics.
ATTENDANCE FIGURES:
We had 76 attendees who registered for one or more MELA-related
activities (lunch, business meeting, program)
There were 59 persons who signed the attendance sheet for the Business
meeting.
THIS YEAR'S AWARDS WERE:
David H. Partington Award, 2006
Abazar Sepehri
George Atiyeh Prize, 2006
Jodi Goodman
THE RESULTS OF THE ELECTIONS OF OFFICERS WERE:
MELA Elections, 2006
*Kris Kern, elected Vice President / Program Chair,
2006-2007 [Replacing Michael Hopper]
*Joyce Bell, elected Member at Large, 2006-2008 [Replacing Shayee
Khanaka]
SUMMARY OF ACTIONS TAKEN BY THE MELA EXECUTIVE BOARD
*Annual Meeting Duration.
Starting next year in Montreal MELA will meet for TWO days, Thursdays and
Fridays immediately preceding the MESA Conference.
*Annual Meeting Dues Increase.
Registration cost for the Montreal meeting will be $30.
*George Atiyeh Prize.
The Prize will be doubled to $500.
*Mentorship Program.
Any MELA member, new or continuing, is eligible to participate in the
Mentorship Program, either as a mentor or a mentee. The Board will
develop this new program in the coming year and it shall be ready to go
prior to Montreal.
*MELA Registry of Membership.
We need to create an historical list--NOT just a current list of paid-up
members but of all members since the inception of the association--that
will be maintained by and transferred among the various secretaries.
(Yes, it turned out that we lack such record).
*Officers' Manual.
Current MELA office holders (President, Vice-President,
Secretary-Treasurer, Editor, List Manager, Webmaster Member at Large)
will write up an outline and explanation of their activities, and
practical hints for the benefit of newly elected officers succeeding them
in their respective offices. That information will be kept in a separate
file of the MELA Website.
Again, thank you to all of our attendees, speakers, and sponsors for your
support and participation in the annual meeting. This year we received
contributions from IranFarhang, Suleiman, and MECAP. Many thanks also to
everyone who shared suggestions.
We look forward to seeing you at our next annual in Montreal.
Ali Houissa
Middle East & Islamic Studies Librarian
President, Middle East Librarians' Association, 2005-2007
509 Olin Library
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853-5301
Tel. (607) 255-5752
Fax (607) 255-6110
http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast
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