Astronomy Roundtable

(Thanks once more to everyone who showed up bright and early Wednesday morning for the Astronomy Roundtable after partying the night before at the IT/PAM/LMD dance party!)

The AstroRT this year was, unexpectedly, standing room only. Apologies to folks who had to stand or sit on the floor; we thought seating for 48 would be enough and will plan better next year! Also thanks to my co-moderator Michael Blake; ya did good for first time outta the slot, dude!

Our speakers this year shared a lot of information with us, and I'd like to thank them all again for coming!

• Kerry Kroffe, from IOP Publishing, reviewed the publishing contract for the AAS journals and outlined what IOP had to do in a short amount of time to get the Astronomical Journal switched over and ready to go by January 2008. The Astrophysical Journal transition is currently in process, and many exciting things are planned for the future (VO tables, 30-day turnaround between acceptance and web publishing, and Object/Feature linking).
• Chris Biemesderfer, from the American Astronomical Society, picked up from where Kerry left off and shared some information about other things to come from AAS (data cubes, digital printing, and print on demand options, along with print bundling and regional delivery options).
• Karrie Berglund, representing the International Planetarium Society, shared a brief history of the IPS and discussed collaboration options between IPS and SLA/PAM. If you have any ideas or are interested in collaborating, please let her know.
• Donna Thompson gave us the latest information from the Astrophysics Data System (which I kept referring to as "service", eek!), including information about the CrossRef collaboration and the rescanning project for older journals.

We had a few brief announcements, then a round-the-room introduction; then the roundtable closed and became a networking and discussion opportunity. Thanks again to everyone who attended!