The Virginia Library Association has an Internet listserv mailing list, sponsored and maintained by the Library of Virginia. The VLA-L listserv provides an opportunity for members and other interested parties to make announcements, request assistance from colleagues, and participate in discussions of mutual concern. The Library of Virginia also sponsors a youth services listserv for discussion of issues relating to serving children and teens in Virginia libraries. For instructions on how to subscribe to these listservs, see the VLA web page at http://www.vla.org and choose "Contact VLA."

The Scholarship Committee is pleased to announce the two recipients of the 1999 Virginia Library Association Scholarships.

Carolyn Gardner currently works for The Mariners’ Museum Research Library and Archives in Newport News, where she answers research requests, provides descriptive writing for special museum exhibits, and works in Acquisitions. She has a BA in English from Christopher Newport University, and an MA in Victorian Literature from Old Dominion University. Carolyn will be attending the Florida State University’s library program and hopes to eventually focus on library conservation projects and research.

Louise Taylor is currently employed by the Johnson Center Library at George Mason University in Fairfax. She has undertaken a variety of roles in the Circulation and Cataloging departments, and currently works as a reference and instruction assistant who manages the library’s electronic classroom. Lou received a BA in Environmental Science from the University of Virginia, and will be attending the library program at the University of Maryland, College Park, in the fall. She would like to continue to work in an academic library as a science reference librarian.

Both recipients were awarded $2,000 to assist them in pursuing Master’s degrees in library science. VLA congratulates Carolyn and Lou and wishes them well in their studies.

These scholarships are made available this year through the generosity of Blackwell North America and the Information Access Company. The Scholarship Committee gratefully acknowledges this support.

The VLA Scholarship Committee is soliciting donations from generous craftspeople for this year’s Scholarship raffle, to be held at the annual conference in October. Through this raffle, the Scholarship Committee helps raise money for the two $2,000 scholarships that it offers every year to students pursuing a master’s degree in Library Science. If you are a potter, quilter, weaver, jewelry maker, glass blower, or some other artistically gifted individual who would like to offer a handcrafted object to be displayed and raffled at this important fund-raiser, please contact: Lindsey Ideson, (804) 973-7893, lideson@vsla.edu. Your creative talents are greatly needed and appreciated!

1999 VLA conference registration programs are out! Experienced conference goers can attest to The Homestead's outstanding resort hospitality. The VLA price of $126 per person daily (double) and $199 (single) compares favorably with other conference locations because the price includes an attendee's lodging, breakfast and dinner at the acclaimed hotel plus gratuities. Those on State of Virginia expense accounts actually have a special rate when a meeting is held at the Homestead so those VLA members should check.

Solid program! Terrific entertainment! And, a stay at The Homestead. Please join us.

--The Conference Committee

Are you planning to attend the VLA annual conference? Are you from Tidewater? Interested in going by charter bus? If so, please contact Mary Mayer-Hennelly at (757) 664-7328 or mmayerhe@vsla.edu by September 15. We are investigating a charter if enough people raise their hands.

--The Conference Committee

"Technical Services Librarians: The Training We Need, The Issues We Face" is the theme of PTPL's 75th annual meeting, which will be held at Western Maryland College in Westminster, Maryland, on Friday, October 8. Marietta Plank, Executive Director of Chesapeake Information and Research Library Alliance, will be the keynote speaker. Panel members will include Jean Hirons of the Library of Congress on serials, Lynda Clendenning of the University of Virginia on acquisitions, John Walsh of George Mason University on collection development and Barbara Anderson of Virginia Commonwealth University on cataloging. The cost of the program, including PTPL dues and lunch, is $35.00; student rate, without membership, is $15.00. For more information, please contact Heidi Hanson at University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742; telephone: (301) 405-9338; email: hh41@umail.umd.edu or check the website at http://www.lib.virginia.edu/ptpl.

Rhonda Belyea, storyteller and teacher, will present a free day-long storytelling workshop at Loudoun County's Rust Library on Saturday, October 16. The program will provide tips, techniques and suggestions for stories that delight and stretch the imagination of both children and adult audiences. The workshop will be followed by a presentation by Mary Carter Smith, Official Griot for Baltimore. Smith performs regularly at the National Storytelling Festival and was a founding member of the National Association of Black Storytellers. Both programs are sponsored by the Loudoun Library Foundation, Inc. Space is limited and registration is required. For more information call (703) 771-5624.

U.S. libraries of all types are invited to apply for a $4,000 National Library Week grant sponsored by the Grolier Publishing Company and administered by the National Library Week Committee of the American Library Association. The application deadline for the Grolier Grant is October 15, 1999. The Grolier National Library Week Grant is awarded for the best library promotion/public awareness campaign tied to the goals and theme of National Library Week. The theme for next year's National Library Week, April 9-15, 2000, is "Read! Learn! Connect!@ the Library." The winner will be notified in December. The application form and guidelines are available from the ALA Public Information Office. For more information call (800) 545-2433 or e-mail pio@ala.org. Information is also available on the ALA website at http://www.ala.org/pio/grolierapp.html.

Two new librarians joined the Longwood College Library staff in August. Dr. Sharon McCaslin, formerly acting director at Peru State College Library, Peru, Nebraska, assumed the post of Serials Librarian on August 2. Elizabeth Kocevar-Weidinger arrived in mid-August to coordinate Longwood's library instruction program; Liz had previously served as Library Instruction Librarian at Frostburg State University in Maryland.

Renee Davis has accepted the position of Science and Technology Reference Librarian at Perry Library, Old Dominion University in Norfolk. Renee has an MLIS from the University of Oklahoma. Previously, she was a Library Assistant in Reference at the Oklahoma State University Tulsa Library. Renee holds both a BA and an MS in geology. Her BA is from the College of William and Mary and her MS is from Miami University. She will join the staff on September 10th.

Phyllis C. Self was appointed to the new position of Vice Provost for Academic Technology at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has been Interim Executive Director of University Library Services since October 1, 1998. Dr. Self received her BS in Biology and her MSLS and Ph.D. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois.

Caroline Arden died at her home in Arlington on August 18, 1999. She was the founding director of Catholic University's Virginia Program of the School of Library and Information Science and taught in that program for many years. Dr. Arden was active in VLA and ALA, serving as Chapter Councilor from 1976-1984 and was a founder of the Chapter Caucus of the ALA Council. She retired from George Washington University two years ago.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has given the University of Virginia Library a $500,000 grant to fund Phase II of the Early American Fiction digitization project. Phase I, a Mellon-funded World Wide Web archive of over 560 volumes of American prose fiction from 1789-1850, is near completion after three years of work in the Library’s Special Collections Department and the Electronic Text Center. Phase II will carry the digital archive into the years 1851-1875, creating preservation-quality images and fully searchable texts, as well as supporting materials for scholarship and teaching.

Descriptive records of the Virginia Historical Society's collection of seven million manuscripts, including letters, diaries, and financial and legal records dating from the seventeenth through twentieth centuries, will become fully automated thanks to a $500,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. By June 2005 the collection will be fully accessible via the Society's website at http://www.vahistorical.org.

The Norfolk Public Library has received a match for its $100,000 grant to develop public access computer labs at three sites. The library received the match of $100,000 from the Norfolk Foundation for labs at libraries primarily serving lower income residents. Each lab will employ a full-time Computer Technology Specialist to help install the lab and work with the community and staff to develop and implement programs and services that meet community needs. The first site will be Park Place Branch.

As a result of a unique collaboration between the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the Friends of Virginia Libraries, each of the 90 public library headquarters in Virginia has received a free copy of The Bill of Rights, The Courts & The Law, a guide to the recent decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. Coinciding with the publication of the book, the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities is sponsoring 50 public forums on the Bill of Rights to be held at 10 sites throughout the state. For more information about the forums contact the Foundation at (804) 924-3296 or visit the website at http://www.virginia.edu/vfh.

The next VLA Council meeting will be held in Charlottesville at the Northside Library on September 10.

Sponsor: Local History and Genealogy Forum

Place: Library of Virginia

Contact: Gail Tatum

(804) 692-3558

gtatum@vsla.edu

Sponsor: Youth Services Forum

Place: Library of Virginia

Contact: Diantha McCauley

(540) 949-6354

dmccaule@vsla.edu

Sponsor: Region V

Place: The Newseum, Arlington

Contact: Maggie Zarnosky

(703) 845-6017

nvbruin@nv.cc.va.us

Sponsor: VLA Paraprofessional Forum, Region V

Place: Centerville Library, Fairfax

Contact: Barbara Rittinger

(703) 228-5978

britti1@co.arlington.va.us

Sponsor: Potomac Technical Processing Librarians

Place: Westminster, MD

Contact: Heidi Hanson

(301) 405-9338

hh41@umail.umd.edu

VLA Annual Conference

The Homestead