This message has been cross-posted to Astrolib, PAMnet, and PAM-APF

Information from the Friends of LISA Committee regarding assistance
grants to librarians from developing countries will be distributed to
these three lists in early 2002.


1st Announcement

LISA IV - Library and Information Services in Astronomy
July 2-5, 2002, Prague, Czech Republic

General Information

The 4th meeting Library and Information Services in Astronomy will
take place in Prague from July 2 to 5, 2002. This meeting will be
hosted by the Astronomical Institute Charles University Prague. This
First Announcement is meant to provide general information about the
meeting and to solicit a declaration of interest from prospective
participants. Additional details, the final registration form, the
hotel registration and the call for papers will be given in the Second
Announcement, to be distribute by February 28, 2002. Please bring this
information to the attention of potentially interested colleagues.

Venue

The meeting will be held in Karolinum, in the historical buildings of
the Charles University in city center of Prague. A conference Blue
hall hosting up to 200 people, smaller room for poster presentation
will be available. 

Objectives of the Meeting

LISA IV will cover a wide variety of topics centered around the theme:
Emerging and Preserving: providing astronomical information in the
digital age. 

Proceedings

The proceedings will be published by the United Stated Naval
Observatory. Instructions for preparing the camera-ready papers will
be given in the Second Announcement. The speakers are required to
bring their camera-ready papers to the conference, to guarantee a
timely publication of the proceedings.

Registration

Please, use the Pre-Registration Form on the web page
http://lisa4.cuni.cz or from the printed announcement, which is in the
post to many institutions at this time. The contact address
is lisa4@carolina.cz (subject: LISAIV).

Traveling to Prague

Prague can be reached easily from all over Europe. The city center is
at distance of 20 minutes by car from the Prague airport and 30
minutes by public transport. The train stations are in the city
center. Please check whether you need the Czech visa. 

Accommodation

Hotel reservations will be handled by a professional organization
Agentura Carolina, which has already made a block-booking in hotels of
various price ranges in downtown Prague. Please notice, that July is
the beginning of tourist season in Prague. You are strongly
discouraged to arrive in Prague without having secured
accommodation. We will reserve a number of rooms in a cheap dormitory
type residence. Details will be given in the Second Announcement. 


The preliminary program is listed below:

I. Changes in libraries and librarians' tasks
     - Copyright
     - Physical vs virtual libraries
     - Electronic-only libraries

II. The astronomy information network
     - Networking and communicating among astronomy librarians
     - What's not on the Web?
     - Online astronomy library catalogs: what's in them and what
isn't?
     - National Virtual Observatory
     - Global update of Union List of Serials

III. Ejournals, eprints, ebooks: where are we now and where are we
going?
     - Usage patterns
     - Costs

IV. Preservation and history of astronomy
     - Historical literature and its use in research
     - Available online resources
     - Preservation of observatory publications

V. Developing nations: where are they going and how can we help them
to get there?
     - Panel discussion - librarians from developing nations
     - Publisher programs and projects

VI. New tools and perspectives
     - Bibliometrics
     - Panel of astronomy information users: ADS, SIMBAD, NED, and
others

VII. Moderated general discussion:  Topics of interest to participants


Calendar of events

Preliminary registration deadline: January 31, 2001 
Second Announcement: February 28, 2002   
Deadline for registration and payment of the basic fee: April 30, 2002  
Deadline for abstracts: May 15, 2002


Scientific Organizing Committee (SOC)

L. Bryson (Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Corp.), co-chair 
F. Genova (Observatoire de Strasbourg, France), co-chair 

R. Albrecht - Germany, P. Binfield - Netherlands, B. Corbin - U.S.A.,
G. Eichhorn - U.S.A., B. Gertner - Poland, U. Grothkopf - Germany,
C. Louis - India, B. Madore - U.S.A., V. Mata Acosta - Mexico,
E. Potter - Russia, M. Wolf - Czech Republic

Local Organizing Committee (LOC)

M. Hermanova, M. Kovarova, R. Svaskova, L. Subr, M. Wolf (chair)

Conference Secretariat

Local and travel arrangements registration, accommodation and payments

Carolina, Ltd.  
"LISA IV"
Address: Albertov 7/3a, 128 01  Praha 2   
E-mail: lisa4@carolina.cz
Phone: +420-2-2499 0828,	+420-2-2499 0811
Fax: +420-2- 2491 8681

On-line information can be found on the web page:
http://lisa4.cuni.cz