June 2000 issue
New Site for VLA
Listserv
The Virginia Library Association listserv, formerly hosted by the Library of Virginia, has a new home on the VLA server. Those previously subscribed to the VLA listserv have been automatically added to the new VLA-LIST. There should be no need to subscribe to the list again. To send a message to everyone on the VLA-LIST, address your message to vla-list@vla.org. The VLA-LIST provides an opportunity for members and other interested parties to make announcements, request assistance from colleagues, and participate in discussions of mutual concern. For new subscribers, send an email message to VLA-LIST-request@vla.org. In the text of the message, type: subscribe VLA-LIST [your email address]. Do not include the brackets in your message.
VLA Shipping List
Among the other gems on the VLA web site (www.vla.org) is the Public Documents Forum's newsletter the VLA Shipping List. Quarterly issues are posted from April 1999 to the present. The SL features summaries of important meetings on government information issues, news about documents librarians around the state, reviews of new Virginia, US, and international government documents and web sites, and much more. To view the SL simply go to the VLA web site, click on Units, then click on Public Documents Forum.
The VLA Shipping List is one of the oldest state documents newsletters, started by Walter Newsome of UVA's Alderman Library in 1971. Editors have included Walter Newsome, Susan Tulis and Barbie Selby. The present editor is Janet Justis of Old Dominion University.
VPLDA Awards
The Virginia Public Library Director’s Association at its annual meeting on April 27 at Graves Mountain awarded 14 library programs and individuals its outstanding achievement awards for the year 2000.
For Outstanding Programs: in the children’s category, Chapter One is a Page Turner from the Poqouson Public Library – children who graduated from pre-school story time met once a month for the reading of the first chapter of a fun book. In the adult category, Three Sites: Three Centuries of Williamsburg from the Williamsburg Regional Library – thematically linked exhibits of three libraries (public, academic and research) marked the city’s 300th anniversary. For young adult programs, Get Real! from Arlington County – an online directory of services and resources for teens. For Senior programs, Life on the Home Front from Roanoke County – events and lives of those who supported World War II from the home front.
In the cooperative program category, also from Roanoke County – Tons of Fun at the Mall, a countywide celebration coordinated by the Library. For service innovation, Winchester Greens Resource Center of the Chesterfield County Public Library – a library at a federally subsidized housing complex for single parent families. For the best website, Building the Community’s Future through its Past – A Virtual Archives – photographs, maps, postcards and documents were digitized for the web and formed a virtual archives.
In the overall support category, Virginia Beach’s Internet training program received the staff development award. Northern Pittsylvania Library and Learning Center was chosen as the outstanding new facility for a 6,400 square foot library that serves as both a public library and support for the community college. And the outstanding public relations project was A Card for Every Kid from the Norfolk Public Library –1,000 children who never had a library card signed up!
Staff and Library supporters were also recognized for their contributions: Outstanding Library Director – Richard Murphy of Prince William County; Outstanding Trustee – Barbara Severin of Fauquier County; Outstanding Friend of the Library – Calvin P. Otto of Jefferson-Madison Regional Library. And for Outstanding Library Staff - the staff of the Bedford Public Library built an entire library system in 46 months.
Public Library programs and supporters are alive and growing in Virginia. VPLDA applauds these outstanding programs and individuals.
--Bill Muller, VPLDA Awards Chair
2000 Jefferson Cup
Award
The Virginia Library Association is pleased to announce that Katherine Paterson's Preacher's Boy (Clarion Books) is the winner of the 2000 Jefferson Cup Award.
Beginning on Decoration Day in May 1899, and ending with Robbie and his father welcoming 1900 by ringing the church bell together, Preacher's Boy makes a powerful contribution to children's literature. This historical fiction novel gives a glimpse of small town life in 1899 and tells in first person the story of Robbie Hewitt, a spirited lad who does not measure up to the town's expectations of a preacher's son. Robbie decides to make the most of his life before the end of the world, an event he heard predicted by a former minister of his father's church. He gives up being a Christian, become an "apiest" and gets himself into all sorts of mischief. With her signature warmth, humor and memorable characters, Paterson has created another multilayered coming-of-age, historical fiction masterpiece that radiates enduring family values.
Three honor books were also named: Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges (Scholastic Press), The Perilous Journey of the Donner Party by Marian Calabro (Clarion Books) and The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich (Hyperion).
The Jefferson Cup Award was initiated in 1982 to honor distinguished books written for young people in the areas of United States history, historical fiction and biography. The award seeks to encourage quality writing for young people and to promote the reading of books about America's past.
The award is conferred each year by the Jefferson Cup Committee of the Youth Services Forum. Its members are drawn from all regions of the state of Virginia. This year the committee received and read 375 books submitted by publishers located throughout the United States. The official award presentation will take place during the Virginia Library Association Annual Conference to be held in Norfolk October 19-20.
Sherry B. Inabinet, Executive Director of the Middlesex County Public Library, has chaired the group for the past two years. For further information, please contact Mrs. Inabinet.
Intellectual Freedom Update
More About Rockingham County & “Read a Banned Book” Pamphlet
On April 10, 2000 the ACLU asked a federal judge to allow Rockingham teacher Jeff Newton to display the controversial “Read a Banned Book” pamphlet on his classroom door until the case is settled. The ACLU claims that the principal’s order to remove the pamphlet violated Mr. Newton’s constitutional right to free expression. Attorneys for the school board argue that the principal acted within his authority to force the removal. They argue that Mr. Newton is free to use the pamphlet as a classroom teaching resource, but posting the pamphlet on his door gives the appearance that the school endorses the titles. However, in early May, 2000 the judge ruled that Mr. Newton could not re-post the list on his classroom door while the suit is being contested.
Librarians File Grievances: a New Twist on the Filtering Debate
Seven Minneapolis librarians filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claiming that library users who view pornography on the Internet have created an “intimidating, hostile, and offensive working environment.” The librarians complain that the Minneapolis Central Library’s policy of allowing unrestricted access to the Internet constantly subjects them and other library users to offensive and inescapable images on screen and off. The attorney for the librarians says that the librarians “should not have to choose between their jobs and working in a hostile, sexually perverse and dangerous workplace.” The attorney said that privacy screens are inadequate when someone suggested that privacy screens could be added to the computers to alleviate the problem. The city must “provide an environment that is not hostile and offensive. They’re going to have to make some choices,” he continued, suggesting that MCL should add filters to correct the problem.
More Internet Filtering-Related Issues
In what was probably the first such ballot measure in the nation, voters in Holland, Michigan (described in newspaper accounts as a “conservative Michigan city”) voted against requiring the public library to install Internet filters to keep youngsters from looking at pornography. The unofficial results indicated that the measure failed by a vote of 4,379 to 3,626. For more information about the measure and the vote, see “Library Internet Filtering Move Fails” (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 2/23/2000, p. A7).
Two South Carolina bills affecting libraries and the Internet stalled or were modified. One bill, Senate bill 1031, would have required all public, school, and public university libraries to install filtering software. But the legislation was revised to require libraries to have an “Internet policy designed to hinder people from using the Internet to access obscene materials” (“South Carolina Drops, Revises Library Bills,” Library Journal, 4/1/2000, p. 11).
Utah unanimously passed H.B. 157, which bars state funds from any public library that does not adopt and enforce a policy to restrict access by minors to Internet or online sites that contain obscene material. The Utah Library Association supported the bill, which will take effect in July, 2001 (“Utah Passes Library Net Bill,” Library Journal, 4/1/2000, p. 13).
Librarians are heroes of freedom, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. At the EFF’s annual Computers, Freedom & Privacy conference librarians were recognized as “the unsung heroes of the fight for free expression, intellectual freedom and access to the Internet” and were awarded an EFF Pioneer Award. Accepting on behalf of librarians, Karen G. Schneider, assistant director for technology at the Shenendehowa Public Library in Clifton Park, N.Y., said “We really do get it.” Filters strip out valuable, constitutionally protected content along with the stuff that worries parents, penalizing children and adults alike, Schneider commented. “All I know is that if you want to read, it’s my job to help you do it,” she said. (See Dan Gillmor’s column in eJournal - http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/columns/gillmor/docs/dg040700.htm.)
The Jefferson Muzzles
Since 1992 the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression has celebrated the birth and ideas of Thomas Jefferson by giving out “Jefferson Muzzle Awards” to draw national attention to abridgments of free speech and press. Who are the 2000 Muzzle recipients? There are twelve 2000 award winners, including the George W. Bush presidential campaign, the Clinton administration, CBS News, the Rockingham County School Board, and ... yes ... the 1999 Virginia General Assembly. For a complete list and description of the winners and reasons why, see http://www.tjcenter.org/muzzles.html.
Hit Man Available On-Line
Many of you know that Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors is no longer published by Paladin Press as part of the settlement between the parties in Rice v. Paladin Enterprises (the court opinion can be found at 128 F.3d 233). The text of Hit Man, however, is available through the Internet at www.overthrow.com/hitmanonline.html and at www.queensu.ca/epu/mehta/interpol/hitman.html. The Intellectual Freedom Committee has proposed a program about issues relating to Hit Man for next fall’s VLA conference with Professor Rodney Smolla of the University of Richmond School of Law, one of the attorneys who represented the family of the murder victims in the Rice v. Paladin case. (Professor Smolla also is one of the attorneys representing teacher Jeff Newton in the Rockingham County controversy.)
--Timothy L. Coggins, VLA Intellectual Freedom Committee
People &
Happenings
McKinley Sielaff is the new Government Information Librarian at the University of Richmond. She grew up in the east. After earning her MLS at Rutgers University, she was hired as the Federal Electronic Librarian at the University of Wyoming and became the Head of Documents there in 1998. While in Wyoming, she was a cofounder of the Government Information Section of the Wyoming Library Association. She now looks forward to meeting and visiting her new group of documents colleagues.
Janet Justis was named 1999 Librarian of the Year during a reception at Perry Library of Old Dominion University hosted by the Friends of the Library on May 3, 2000. Since joining the staff in 1995, she has been part of many changes at the library including the merger of government documents with reference and technical services, a multi-year building renovation and expansion project, and increased efforts to deliver information in an electronic environment.
On behalf of the City of Virginia Beach, the Municipal Reference Library accepted a certificate of appreciation from the Technical Assistance Program of the Virginia Institute of Government for providing the "most responses". This award acknowledges the many times City staff have shared their expertise and knowledge with staff from another jurisdiction in Virginia. The Technical Assistance Program provides local government staff with answers to questions by broadcasting the question to Virginia jurisdictions. The Municipal Reference Library coordinates this activity for the City of Virginia Beach by posting its own employee questions and routing questions to staff who have knowledge in the area being requested. The Library appreciates that City staff are willing to go the extra mile to share what they know to help others.
The Williamsburg Regional Library has been awarded the 2000 Loleta D. Fyan Grant for a proposal entitled Feed Me A Story. The project will allow the library to take storyhours to a place where most families spend time each week- a local supermarket. The goal is to reach children who may never visit the library and who are not included in the regular outreach sites serviced by the library. The $10,000 grant is given annually by the American Library Association.
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded a $250,000 preservation grant to the University of Virginia Library, representing VIVA, the Virtual Library of Virginia. The grant will support the creation of the Virginia Heritage Project, a database integrating thousands of Encoded Archival Description (EAD) tagged finding aids that describe and provide online access to a large body of primary source materials held by major academic and research libraries in Virginia.
VLA Council Meetings
The next VLA Council meeting will be held in Charlottesville at the Main Library on September 15.
Library of Virginia
Board Meetings
The next Board meeting is scheduled for June 19 in Richmond.
June 22-25
Children's Literature:
Landmarks, Boundaries, and Watersheds
Sponsor: Children's Literature Association
Place: Hotel Roanoke
Contact: J. D. Stahl
June 23
Changeweavers:
Collection Developers and Policy Writers for the 21st Century
Sponsor: Collection Management Forum
Place: Library of Virginia
Contact: Cathy Williamson
(757) 664-7346
October 19-20
VLA Annual Conference
Norfolk