VLA Newsletter
December 2000
Membership Renewal
Your current VLA membership expires on December 31, 2000. If you have not received your renewal form in the mail, the application is available online under Membership at http://www.vla.org.
New Scholarship Deadline
As was reported in the
August newsletter the application schedule for VLA scholarship awards has
changed. Previously, the deadline for
application submission was May 15. Applications will now be due on March
1. This was changed in order to
accommodate the VLA Paraprofessional scholarship award process. With this new schedule both scholarship
awards will be selected by the VLA Scholarship Committee. VLAPF’s biennial award will be given at the
Paraprofessional Conference in May and announced at the Annual Conference. Please make a note of the new application
deadline as outlined in the VLA Scholarship flyer.
--Marianne Ramsden, Chair,
VLA Scholarship Committee
Editor's Farewell
I
can't believe three years have gone by already since I took over the editorship
of the VLA Newsletter from Sue
Trask. It's been a great three years
for me of being so closely connected to our Association's activities. I've enjoyed working on each issue of the Newsletter, going to Council meetings
and conferences, helping to advertise programs, and meeting so many different
members of VLA. I think I'll miss
working on the issues each month, but I also think it's time to pass the role
along to someone else.
Our
new editor for 2001 is Helen Quam
Sherman. She is also guest editing
this issue. Helen is Librarian for the
DTIC Technical Reference Library at the Defense Technical Information Center,
located at Fort Belvoir. I hope she
will enjoy being editor as much as I have and I'm sure she will do a fantastic
job.
I'd
like to thank the many people who helped make my term as editor such a
rewarding experience. Sue Trask, past editor of the Newsletter, helped make our transition
go smoothly and answered all of my many questions. Barbie Selby, Chair of
the Publications Committee and also a former Newsletter editor, provided great support and guidance as new
issues emerged in the last three years.
Thanks to VLA presidents Tom Hehman,
Sandy Heinemann and Carolyn Barkley for writing articles,
commenting on Council reports and forwarding interesting material. I appreciated the work of our many regular
contributors: Alan Bernstein with
Library of Virginia Board meeting minutes;
Scottie Cochrane and Mary
Meyer-Henelley with ALA reports; and Tim
Coggins with intellectual freedom updates.
Thank you to Steve Helm, VLA
Webmaster, for keeping everything up to date on the web page, to Jon Marken at Lamp-Post Publicity for
wonderful layout, and Dan Dwyer at
Farmville Printing for smooth printing and distribution. It was a great pleasure to work with all of
them.
And
finally, for those of you at Council in September who were wondering…my husband
and I have a brand new baby girl, Erin Elizabeth Hansbrough, born on October
26, 2000. She was exactly two weeks
early but kindly waited until the day after I firmed up the November Newsletter with Jon Marken. How
convenient! We're all doing fine and
I'm happy to be at home with Erin and pleased to leave the VLA Newsletter in Helen's capable hands. Farewell.
--Mary Hansbrough
White House Briefing
About
120 people, including a number of Virginia librarians, gathered on October 25
in Washington at the Old Executive Office Building for a special briefing by
White House officials. Laura Efurd, Deputy Assistant to the
President and Deputy Director of Public Liaison, hosted the briefing and
introduced four speakers. First to
speak was Bethany Little, Associate
Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, who talked mainly about
education initiatives of the Clinton administration. She noted that the White House has been battling Senator McCain’s
efforts to require filters on Internet access computers in schools and
libraries. However, she said it’s an
uphill battle because of the difficulty inherent in the White House being
portrayed as wanting to “weaken kiddie porn protections.”
Peter Fowler, Chief of Staff of the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) of the Department of Commerce, began by
saying he has been a law librarian and a library trustee. He spoke glowingly about his office’s web
site (http://www.uspto.gov) and its independent inventor resources and
kids’ pages. He noted that Congressman
Coble’s database protection legislation isn’t going anywhere this year and
stated that accessibility for fair use of databases is the main, unresolved
issue, though everyone agrees that it is not right for the investment a company
makes in creating a database to just be taken.
He said the PTO view is that the best way to design this legislation is
to create a misappropriation right rather than a sui generis right. This
idea is amplified in the executive summary of the PTO’s April 1998 Conference
on Database Protection and Access Issues. (http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/dcom/olia/dbconf/dbase498.htm)
Richard Huff, Co-Director of the Office
of Information and Privacy at the Department of Justice, discussed the major
developments of the past 4-5 years with regards to accessing government
information. He referred attendees to
the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) button on the web site (http://www.usdoj.gov) and said
information requests from any federal agency are explained through that part of
the site. He also talked about the
electronic records of any material in any of the reading rooms at federal
offices, which since November 1, 1996 have been required and which are on the
site. Finally, frequently requested
records are listed on the site for any record requested more than three
times. So this is where you can check
for Elvis Presley’s FBI file!
Thomas
Freebairn, Agency Expert of the Office of Government-wide Policy at the General
Services Administration, spoke about “FirstGov: Your First Click to the U.S.
Government.” (http://firstgov.gov/)
This is a new portal to federal government information on the web,
including 20,000 federal web sites and over 27 million web pages. FirstGov has achieved a high degree of
visibility through President Clinton’s June announcement and the September 22
launch of the site. Eric Brewer, chief
scientist at Inktomi Corp., a software developer and marketer in Foster City,
Calif., developed a powerful search engine which will be in use for at least
2-3 years on the site. According to
Freebairn, the site does not archive government information and does not
compete with the Superintendent of Documents’ GPO Access. (http://www.gpo.gov)
ALA
President Nancy Kranich made opening
remarks to the assembly, which had gathered from across the country for this
briefing. Virginia librarians in
attendance included VLA President Cy
Dillon, Librarian of Virginia Nolan
Yelich, Arlington PL Director Ann
Friedman, Prince William PL Director Dick
Murphy, Alexandria PL Director Pat
O’Brien, Norfolk PL Director Sally
Reed, George Mason University Associate University Librarian Ruth Kifer, St. Leo’s College Librarian
Dr. Christie Vernon, American
Association of Law Libraries lobbyist Mary
Alice Baish, and myself.
-- Skip Auld, Chair, VLA
Federal Legislation Committee, and Assistant Director, Chesterfield County Public
Library
Library of Virginia Board News
The
Library of Virginia Board met in Richmond on November 13. Its first order of business was approving
resolutions honoring Nelson Worley
“for his professionalism and creativity in support of the Commonwealth’s public
libraries” and Mary Ann Harmon “for
her volunteerism in support of the Commonwealth’s public libraries.”
The
Archival and Information Services Committee reported that its RFP for a new
information technology system will be finished in January. The department is working on two cooperative
projects with other institutions. One
is digitizing Civil War maps with the Virginia Historical Society and the
Library of Congress. The other is
microfilming materials located at the Huntington Library in California.
Collection
Management Services has obtained 1910 and 1920 microfilm census records for
states adjacent to Virginia and the District of Columbia.
Legislative
and Finance reported that the General Fund Budget has been reduced by $230,000
in “productivity savings” (budget cuts), with more reductions on the
horizon. The Board instructed Nolan Yelich, the Librarian of
Virginia, to explore how best to obtain funding to pay for the Library’s new
integrated library system, estimated to cost between $700,000 and one million
dollars.
Public Library Development reported that $450,000 in public library construction money may be available in next year’s state budget. The Board approved 43 LSTA project enhancement grants totaling $285,420 and disapproved 5 totaling $29,879. It also approved 31 Youth Services grants totaling $73,411. The Board tabled until its January meeting a vote on adopting the latest revision of “Planning for Library Excellence.” The vote postponement had more to do with Board procedure than with document content.
Publications
and Educational Services will publish a collection of essays in the spring that
deals with Ellen Glasgow. Volume 2 of
the Dictionary of Virginia Biography is on schedule, and the Virginia maps book
and the Tredegar Iron Works history are both selling well.
Records
Management reported that microfilm standards are being revised and that
electronic records management is still the current hot topic in the profession.
The
next two Library of Virginia Board meetings are scheduled for January 19 and
March 19. The annual legislative
reception will be held on January 18.
--Alan Bernstein, VLA
Observer to the Library of Virginia Board
Scholarship Committee Raffle
In addition to selecting and awarding the two $2,000 scholarships that were recently announced and presented, the Scholarship Committee held its sixth raffle at the Annual Conference. The Committee members solicited gifts from various sources, bought gifts themselves and put together 14 baskets that were raffled off on Thursday during the conference. In one day we raised over $800 for the Scholarship Fund.
Heartfelt thanks go to all those generous conference attendees who answered our repeated solicitations. We also extend special thanks to exhibitors, vendors, and others who donated the prizes.
The Committee worked long and hard to assemble the large, attractive baskets which each bore a theme. Among the many baskets put together by the Committee were Family Fun, a Made in Virginia collection, Solitary Pleasures, Mystery, The Puzzler, Bath and Beyond, Homemade, Garden, Snacks, Bag o’ Books, Virginia Wesleyan, and Magic Moments. Other raffle prizes included a large coffee maker, handmade earrings by Carolyn Hughes, and all the books selected by Oprah Winfrey this year.
The success of this year’s raffle will most certainly lead to another raffle next year, as well as the pursuit of other fund raising ideas generated by the Committee.
I would like to extend my thanks to the members of the 2000 Scholarship Committee for all their hard work and dedication to making this a great raffle: James Bagby, Marie Carter, Connie Gilman, Velma Haley, E.A. Mayo, Sharon McCaslin, Carol Sinwell, Clara Stanley and our ex-officio member, VLA President Carolyn Barkley.
--Marianne
Ramsden, Chair, Scholarship Committee.
VLA Newsletter Gets a New Editor
I’m happy to announce that the VLA
Newsletter has a new editor, Helen
Quam Sherman. Helen comes to the
Newsletter with an excellent background in English and editing.
Helen received her MSLS from Catholic University of America. She has her MEd
Degree in secondary education with a concentration in English from Auburn
University, and her BA in English from the University of North Dakota. Helen lived both in the U.S. and overseas with
her former military husband before they settled in Virginia.
Helen’s editing experience includes four years as editor of educational
audio-visuals for schools and of the marketing catalogs for the programs.
Helen has worked in state and federal libraries in Virginia, including the
library at the Richard Bland College of the College of William and Mary and the
Marine Corps University Library. She
just began a new job at the Defense Technical Information Center in Fort
Belvoir, Virginia. Additionally, Helen
has worked as both a teacher and a guidance counselor. This varied work experience in education,
librarianship, and publishing, will certainly serve Helen well in her new
duties.
The VLA Publications Committee would like to thank Mary Hansbrough for her three years as VLA Newsletter editor. Mary
had a tough act to follow, in Sue Trask, but did so with energy, enthusiasm,
dedication, and good humor. The
Association is lucky to have such well qualified and hard working people as
Mary and Helen to edit its Newsletter.
--
Barbie Selby, Chair, VLA Publications Committee
One
of the main reasons I enjoy my VLA membership is that it provides the
opportunity to meet other professionals and participate in both the formal and
informal sharing of ideas. I am looking
forward to working with all of you as I prepare editions of the VLA Newsletter
this next year.
--Helen Q. Sherman
People & Happenings
Andrew
Clay accepted the Administrative Program Specialist II
position in the Serials Department of the Old Dominion University Libraries in
Norfolk, effective November 10. He
received his BA in political science from Christopher Newport University. Prior to his new position, he was a Data
Processing Assistant for the City of Norfolk and a media assistant at
Christopher Newport University Library.
Holly Finch joined the Chesapeake
Public Library System in March as Librarian II in charge of the brand new
Children's Department at the Major Hillard Area Library. Holly graduated from Simmons College of
Library and Information Science in 1984 and has been a Children's Librarian for
16 years, working at public libraries in Johnson City, NY, and Fort Wayne, IN.
Bonnie Hanks accepted the position of Librarian at Tandem Friends School in Charlottesville,
effective November 9th. Bonnie
previously served as Webmaster to the Department of Surgery at University of
Virginia. She has an AB in English from
Duke University and earned an MS in Information Sciences from the University of
Tennessee in May.
Karen Kearney started working as Librarian I in the Reference Department at the
Central Library, Chesapeake Public Library System in July. She received her BA in 1975 and worked as an
insurance claims adjustor for 19 years before deciding to pursue her Masters in
Library Information Services. She
received her MSLIS from the University of Alabama in May.
Albert
Liu became the new Dean of the Regent University Library on
November 6. He came to Regent
University in 1994 as Director for Library Support Services and later served as
Acting Dean and then Associate Dean. He
used to be the Assistant University Librarian for Technical Services and
Automation at Old Dominion University.
Michelle Ornat joined the Chesapeake Public Library System in July after receiving her
MSLIS in May from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Michelle is the new Children's Librarian and
Young Adult coordinator at the Indian River Library.
Victoria Strickland-Cordial returned to the Chesapeake Public Library System in
July and is now Librarian II in charge of the Children’s Department at Russell
Memorial Library. Victoria graduated
from UNC at Chapel Hill in May. Prior
to that she had about 15 years of paraprofessional experience, including 7 at
Russell Memorial. While in school, she
worked for the Southern Historical Digitization Project at Wilson Library and
ran the University Career Services Library (a paid internship).
Barbara White returned to the Reference Department of Central Library, Chesapeake Public
Library System, in July after a year as the Media Specialist in the Currituck
County Middle School, NC. Prior to that
she had worked as a Reference Librarian at Central for 3 years. Barbara received her B.S. in Library Science
from State University of New York and her MLS magna cum laude from North
Carolina Central University. She has
worked as a teacher and librarian in Virginia and North Carolina for the past
10 years.
VLA Council Meetings for
2001
Charlottesville
on February 9, April 6, June 1, and September 7.
Library of Virginia Board
Annual
legislative reception on January 18.
Board
meetings in Richmond on January 19 and
March 19.
Virginia Tech Workshops
January
22 - "Strategies for More Effective
Documentation,"
9am-4pm, Donaldson Brown Conf. Center, Room A, Virginia
Tech.
Contact: Brenda Hendricks, (540) 231-6730, brendah@vt.edu
January
23 - "Designing Instructions for High
Usability,"
9am-4pm, Squires, Virginia Tech.
Contact: Brenda Hendricks, (540) 231-6730, brendah@vt.edu
March 1, 2001
Deadline for VLA Scholarship Applications
March 30, 2001
Technical Services & Technology Forum Meeting at
State Library in Richmond
Topic:
"Those Nasty Little Numbers: Gathering and Using Library
Statistics."
April 27, 2001
Friends
of Virginia Libraries Annual Meeting
Place: Hampton Public Library
Contact: Bill Whitesides (804) 932-8261
October 17-19, 2001
VLA Annual Conference
Richmond, Virginia
Editor
(for submissions):
Helen
Q. Sherman, Librarian, DTIC Technical Library, Defense Technical Information
Center, 8725 John J. Kingman Road, Suite 1819, Fort Belvoir, VA 22060-6218
(703)
767-8180, fax (703) 767-8228, email hsherman@dtic.mil