Through thin air: The creation of the Atmospheric Science Librarians International

In January 1998 the Atmospheric Science Librarians International (ASLI) held its first inaugural meeting in Phoenix, Arizona. The meeting was attended by more than a dozen atmospheric science librarians from around the world. At the meeting participants profiled their libraries and services, discussed issues related to site licenses, electronic publishing, metadata and archives for polar and oceanographic data. In addition the group met with representatives from the World Meteorological Organization, the American Meteorological Society and several commercial vendors. ASLI is a free and open forum for librarians around the world to discuss and exchange information relating to the atmospheric sciences. This paper describes the evolution of the ASLI organization, its goals and activities and looks at ways that the Polar Libraries Colloquy, the International Association of Aquatic and Marine Science Libraries and Information Centers and ASLI could benefit from future collaboration.