Events outside of our control generally change our
lives greatly. The tragic events of September 11 have no
doubt affected each of us individually. They also
affected us institutionally. A broadened Executive
Committee meeting that was scheduled for middle of
October was cancelled. This was supposed to be our "get
organized" meeting; we hope to reschedule it sometime in
February. ACM Headquarters was closed for a while and
staff took some time to get back to their normal
routine, which contributed to the delay in producing the
current release of SIGMOD Digital Library, which will
consist of Volume 5 of the Anthology, the DVD Silver
Edition, and the 2001 DiSC. We are now (hopefully) back
to normal and these should be produced by the end of the
year.
In parallel with the production of the current
edition of the Digital Library, we have started to make
preparations for the upcoming releases. We are preparing
a list of publications that should be added to the
Anthology. I can now announce that the VLDB Endowment
and Springer-Verlag have relaxed the requirements for
the inclusion of the VLDB Journal in DiSC so that we can
now include each year's volume without delay (previously
we could include the volumes with one year delay). We
are working with other institutions and publishers to
expand the scope and coverage of SIGMOD Digital Library.
After years of hard work, some SIGMOD volunteers have
expressed a desire to "retire". DiSC founding editor
Isabel Cruz is one of those; after the incredible amount
of effort and energy that she spent starting DiSC and
producing three volumes, she certainly needs a rest. We
are fortunate that Aidong Zhang (University at Buffalo,
SUNY) has agreed to take over DiSC editorship. She is
highly qualified for this job. Isabel will stay on the
Editorial Board for at least one year to smooth the
transition. Aidong is now working to establish the new
DiSC Editorial Board; we are also working on
transferring the required infrastructure to Aidong's
laboratory. The Advisory Board is also renewed and the
new members are listed in this issue. There will be
other changes in coming months. If you can volunteer for
any SIGMOD position or activity, please let me know.
| M. Tamer Ozsu |
| October
2001 | |
