ICSTI, the International Council for Scientific and Technical Information, offers a unique forum for interaction between organizations that create, disseminate and use scientific and technical information. ICSTI's mission cuts across scientific and technical disciplines, as well as international borders, to give member organizations the benefit of a truly global community.

ICSTI's Winter Meeting was held in Paris on 28 February - 2 March. The meeting included: an update for members on the status of 3 ongoing multi-contributor technical projects and commitment to a new initiative on Interactive Publications; agreement on a new remit for the Policy Committee and issues demanding immediate focus of attention; a review of developments and activities by the members of the WorldWideScience Alliance. The agenda, minutes and presentations made at the meeting will be found in the Members' Area.

The first meeting between the Executive Boards of ICSTI and CODATA (the Committee on Data for Science and Technology) was held after the Winter Meeting in Paris on 2 March. Issues of common interest and concern were identified as well as opportunities for collaboration, from which emerged agreement for a jointly sponsored project and a collective resolve to act ever more closely with the scientific unions. Minutes of this meeting will be found in the Members' Area.

A Workshop on Primary Data in Libraries' was held as part of the Winter Meeting on 2 March in Paris. At this event a partnership between leading libraries in Europe was announced to facilitate access to research data through the assignment of persistent identifiers and registration of datasets. Documents from the Workshop are accessible here: agenda - presentation - press release - photograph.

ICSTI's 2009 Summer Conference was recently held in Ottawa on 9-10 June, followed by the General Assembly Meetings on 11-12 June. Hosted by CISTI, the Canadian Institute for Scientific and Technical Information, this year's conference theme was 'Managing Data for Science'. For program and speaker details, please go to the Events page and click through to the conference website.

Members should go to the Members' Home Page for the General Assembly overall programme and agenda.

In addition to Microsoft, the National Agricultural Library (US), and IFLA (the International Federation of Library Associations), who all joined ICSTI in 2008, we are pleased to welcome 5 new members for 2009: OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), ETH-Bibliothek Zurich, BSi (British Standards), Molecular Connections PVT Ltd, and the Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors, as well as INIS (the International Nuclear Information System) who have rejoined.

ICSTI Insights is a new quarterly 'critical issues' communiqué presenting in-depth analysis of subjects customized to member interests. Go to the Members' Area to see the first Insight on 'Open Access' - 'What Shape the Future?', and see the next Insight on 'Researcher Workflow' at the end of April.

The new weekly news and alerting service launched exclusively for members in May 2008 has now been refined and is linked directly to the ICSTI website.