VLA Newsletter
December 1998 issue
Membership Renewal
All VLA memberships expire on December 31, 1998 (except for those who renewed at the annual conference). If you have not yet sent in your 1999 membership renewal, please contact Linda Hahne at (757) 583-0041, or e-mail hahne@bellatlantic.net.
Amendments to VLA Bylaws
The Executive and Administrative Services Committees of VLA held a joint meeting in Charlottesville on Friday, Nov. 13, 1998, to draft amendments to the VLA Bylaws. These proposed amendments are in response to VLA Council's vote on recommendations made by the Ad Hoc Committee on VLA Purpose, Goals and Structure. The current wording of the sections affected by the amendments appears below. Text in Italics replaces text struck through. Publication of the proposed amendments in the VLA Newsletter, the VLA web site and the VLA listserv serves as notification to the membership prior to the official ballot as prescribed in the current VLA Bylaws. The official ballot will appear in the next publication of the VLA Newsletter.
Article III. Membership
Section 2. Honorary Life Membership may be accorded selected individuals who are proposed whose nominations are approved by Council and elected thereto by members of VLA by means of a mail ballot.
Article VI. Council
Section 2. Terms of Office. All elected councilors shall serve until the adjournment of the annual conference at which time their successors are chosen assume office.
Section 5. Two-thirds
Section 8. Any action of Council may be set aside at any annual business meeting by a two-thirds vote, a quorum being present, or by a majority vote of the members voting by mail, electronic mail, or telefacsimile. , in which one-half of the members of the Association have voted.
Article VII. Executive Committee
Section 1. The Executive Committee shall consist of the elected officers of the Association. The editor of the VLA Newsletter
Article VIII. Officers and Duties
Section 2. Executive Director. A person designated as executive director shall be an officer of the Association, shall be appointed by the Executive Committee, and shall hold office at its pleasure.
Article X. Amendment of Bylaws
Section 1. Amendments to the Bylaws require a two-thirds vote of the members present at the annual business meeting, a quorum being present, provided that the proposed amendment has been mailed to the members, or published in an official VLA publication which is mailed to the members, at least two months
Section 2. Mail vote on Amendments to the Bylaws requires a two-thirds vote of the members voting in a mail, electronic mail, or telefacsimile vote, provided that the proposed amendment has been mailed to the members, or published in an official VLA publication which is mailed to the members, at least two months
Library of Virginia Board Meeting
The Library of Virginia Board met in Richmond on November 16, 1998. In perhaps the most significant action of the day the Board unanimously passed "Infopowering the Commonwealth: Virginia’s Public Libraries: Electronic Resource Libraries for 21st Century Information." This document is more commonly known as the technology plan for public libraries. If enacted by the State Legislature, the plan will cost 17.3 million dollars. The plan has five components or recommendations dealing with 1) infrastructure, 2) content, 3) acceptable internet use policy, 4) retrospective conversion, and 5) monitoring and evaluation. The purpose of the plan is for the Legislature to do for public libraries what it has already done for schools and academic institutions: fund technology projects as a special and separate budget appropriation. The recommendation that generated the most discussion was the one dealing with acceptable internet use policy. The Board will require every public library that offers public internet access to create, adopt, and file with the Library of Virginia an acceptable use policy. Access to obscene materials will be prohibited. The Library of Virginia will assist public libraries if called upon to do so. The Board also adopted two resolutions: the first states that public libraries inform patrons that library terminals may not be used to access obscenity or child pornography; the second states that public libraries adopt acceptable use policies for internet access that minimize harm to minors by providing parental consent before minors are furnished unfettered access to the internet or by other appropriate measures.
In other matters, the Archival and Information Services Committee reported that archives has 17,185 boxes of unprocessed (backlogged) archival materials on hand. This constitutes a 54 year backlog. In addition, the Library receives 1.2 million new items each year. To address this problem, the Library will add 17 additional staff positions at a cost of $800,000. Even with this additional staff it would still take 19 years to clear up the backlog.
The Legislative and Finance Committee will support full funding for state aid. It also wants the Legislature to end its reorganization study of the Library of Virginia and leave the existing structure intact by not recommending detachment of the Archives component from the rest of the Library. The Records Center is 85% completed; occupancy will begin in February with a formal opening scheduled for July 1, 1999.
Ann Friedman, director of Arlington County Public Library, and Bess Haile, director of Essex County Public Library, were named citizen members of the Public Library Development Committee. The Library of Virginia Foundation added two members: Dr. Dorothy Cowling, a former Library Board member, and Floyd Miles.
Volume 1 of the long-awaited Dictionary of Virginia Biography was published on November 17.
The Board next meets in Richmond on Friday, January 22 and then in Charlottesville on Monday, March 22.
-- Alan M. Bernstein, VLA Observer to LVA Board.
1999 Conferences and Symposiums
SLA Conference in San Francisco
Following the 1999 Special Library Association Winter Meeting held January 21-23 in San Francisco, special librarians will have the opportunity to attend SLA’s Winter Education Conference, "Crossing the Bridge to the 21st Century." This three day event, held January 24-26, will focus on dealing with the latest developments in technology, including how to develop competencies and advance technological skills. Participants will have the opportunity to explore Intranets, knowledge management, Internet technologies, metadata, content management, electronic copyright, search engines, and JAVA scripts. For further information, contact SLA’s Professional Development Department at profdev@sla.org or phone (202) 234-4700, ext. 649.
ALA Conference in Philadelphia
The American Library Association will hold its 1999 Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia, from January 30–February 1, 1999. In addition to the regular business meetings, special events include the president’s program "King Island Christmas," a musical oratorio featuring a Broadway cast of singers. Heckman Bindery, the Free Library of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Library Association will provide an opportunity for ALA members to volunteer in the community and provide services, such as shelf-reading, storytelling, Internet training classes, and tutoring, for local libraries and community organizations. A gala dinner celebrating the 30th anniversary of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom and its sister organization, the Freedom to Read Foundation, will feature author Susan Issacs as the special guest speaker. For more details, see ALA’s web page at www.ala.org.
PLA Spring Symposium in Chicago
The 1999 Public Library Association Spring Symposium "Decisions. Decisions. Decisions." will be held March 25-27, 1999, at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel in Chicago, Illinois. Participants will choose one workshop from a list of five whose topics include leadership, team building, readers’ advisory services, library building projects, and tools for trustees. Chicago author Carol Anshaw will be the keynote speaker at the author luncheon and Australian author Thomas Keneally will speak at the opening general session. For more information, contact Kathleen Hughes at (312) 280-4028 or visit the PLA web site at www.pla.org.
People & Happenings
Elizabeth A. Jones has joined the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library staff as the Branch Manager of the Louisa County Branch. New to Virginia, she formerly worked at the Peabody Institute Library in Peabody, Massachusetts.
Lydia Patrick, coordinator of the Fairfax County Public Library’s Networking Department, has been named Virginia’s "Cybrarian of the Year" by MCI. A Fairfax County librarian for 16 years, she supervises the development and maintenance of the Library’s award-winning Web site, which is located at www.co.fairfax.va.us/library.
Odile Heisel, librarian at Plains Elementary School in Timberville, Virginia, is the 1998 recipient of the Progressive School Library Media Award sponsored by Winnebago Software Company and the Virginia Educational Media Association. Heisel received the award October 16, 1998 at the annual conference in Virginia Beach.
Kendon L. Stubbs, Deputy University Librarian at the University of Virginia, is the 45th recipient of the University’s Thomas Jefferson Award. The award honors an individual who exemplifies in character, work and influence the principles and ideals of the University’s founder. Stubbs is the first librarian to receive the award since the late Harry Clemons in 1956.
The Library of Virginia is pleased to announce the release of volume one of the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. This first volume with 477 biographies of Virginians with surnames from Aaroe to Blanchfield begins an ambitious project to document four centuries of contributions by Virginians to local, state and national history.
Calendar
Library of Virginia Board Meetings
The next Board meetings are scheduled for January 22 and March 22, 1999.
December 3; December 8
Web Page Design, Construction, and Publishing
Sponsor: College of Library and Information Services, University of Maryland
Place: College Park; Baltimore
Contact: Robin Albert
(301) 405-2057
December 10; January 11
Right on Target: Using Internet Search Engines Effectively
Sponsor: College of Library and Information Services, University of Maryland
Place: College Park; Richmond
Contact: Robin Albert
(301) 405-2057