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Contact: Joyce Kelly or Linda Wallace
ALA Public Information Office
800-545-2433, ext. 5043/5042
jkelly@ala.org or lwallace@ala.org

ALA News Release
For Immediate Release
June 1999

REFORMA to host preconference on electronic resources; planning session scheduled for New Orleans

"Electronic Resources for a New Majority" will be the topic of a preconference held in connection with the National Conference II (RNCII) of REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library Services to the Spanish Speaking, an affiliate of the American Library Association (ALA). The conference will be August 3-6, 2000, at the Holiday Inn Center, in Tucson, Ariz.

A presentation of plans for the preconference will be made at the RNCII program, "Planning the 2nd REFORMA National Conference: An open discussion, scheduled Saturday, June 26, 1999, from 2 to 4 p.m., during the ALA Annual Conference at the Ernest Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.

Librarians, exhibitors, vendors and Internet providers interested in participating in the preconference or in planning post-conference services should contact the Preconference Planning Committee Chair Rafaela Castro.

Castro said one outcome in the planning stages is the establishment of Internet services such as a weekly e-mail listing of Internet sites, publisher catalogs, government sources, full text journals and newspapers and other Web sites. Continuing education credits are being explored.

Demographers have forecast that the US Latino population will reach 31 million by the year 2000 and will double its 1995 size by 2020. The continuing dramatic growth of the Latino population along with ongoing technological change demand that librarians serving these communities be active participants in shaping tomorrow's electronic libraries and resources.

The preconference workshop will present sessions on Internet web sites for collection development of Spanish language materials for children and adults; commercial online databases, periodical indexes and full text Spanish language newspapers; use of electronic discussion lists, internet subscription services and electronic reference publications; and the best search engines and gateways for Latino reference resources, including Caribbean, Cuban, Latin American, Mexican and Puerto Rican sources.

The "Electronic Resources for a New Majority" preconference will be held August 3, 2000. Registration will be $100 (including lunch). Maximum attendance will be 100. For more information, contact Rafaela Castro, Social Sciences/Humanities, Shields Library, University of California-Davis, Davis, CA 95616. E-mail: rgcastro@ucdavis.edu.