Virginia Libraries, the quarterly magazine of the Virginia Library Association, is available on line from the VLA homepage (http://www.vla.org) or from the Virginia Tech Digital Library and Archives page (http://scholar.lib.vt.edu). With a print circulation of 1,200 and full-text publication in H. W. Wilson's Omnifile, Virginia Libraries offers librarians an opportunity to publish to an almost unlimited audience. For more information about publishing in Virginia Libraries, see the Guidelines for Submissions in the magazine, or contact editor Cy Dillon at (540) 365-4428 or cdillon@ferrum.edu.

The fall meeting of the VLA Council was held September 10, 1999 in Charlottesville. Sandy Heinemann, President of VLA, called the meeting to order and introduced those candidates for VLA office who were present: Barbie Selby, Cy Dillon, and Kirstin Steele. She also introduced next year's Chair of the Legislative Committee, Sam Clay. The minutes from the June 11 meeting were approved.

The Treasurer's report was presented by Linda Hahne. As of September 8, 1999, the actual operating income has exceeded the budgeted income. Expenses are very close to budgeted amounts.

Linda Hahne also presented the Executive Director's report. VLA membership for 1999 is now closed; any new members will be applied to 2000. VLA has 1,180 members, which includes 242 new members. When the 287 members who did not renew were contacted, their reasons for not renewing were personal, such as a change of job, a move out of state, or retirement, rather than discontent with the Association.

The VLA financial plan will be presented at the October meeting, when the new Council will be in place.

The Executive Council reported that they were approached by ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom about whether VLA wished to join in a potential law suit to challenge HB 748. This is an amendment to the existing Code of Virginia law 18.2-391, which seeks to protect juveniles from harmful or sexually explicit images. The amendment broadens the law to include electronic messages and files. ALA is concerned because Virginia can't prohibit people who are out of state from sending electronic messages. The Executive Committee reported that they had voted to remain neutral and not become a plaintiff in the proposed lawsuit at this time. After some discussion, the Council passed a motion to endorse the Executive Council's decision to remain neutral regarding the potential law suit. A second motion also passed, to request the Chairs of the Intellectual Freedom Committee and the Legislative Committee to research this issue and give a recommendation to the Council as to whether VLA should take further action.

Susan Keller of the Awards and Recognition Committee made recommendations for three awards. All three recommendations were approved by Council. The Williamsburg Regional Library won the George Mason Award for its Phillip West Cancer Resource Center. The Friends of the Library Award goes to the Friends of the Virginia Beach Public Library, who raised approximately $50,000 for the Library. Linda Conti-White of the Loudoun County Public Library was honored with the Trustee Library Award for her continuous efforts to ensure open access to information. Susan reported that the Honorary Life Member awards are still pending. All awards will be presented during the annual VLA Conference in October.

Sam Clay gave the Legislative Committee report. He presented seven issues that will be on the fiscal year 2000 legislative agenda: state aid for public libraries, full funding of Infopowering (which funds access for all public libraries in the state), budget increases for the Library of Virginia, sales tax exemptions for Friends groups' activities, Internet access including VIVA initiatives, library capital construction funding, and support for public libraries who wish to increase fees. Sam encouraged all VLA members, especially Republicans, to send letters to legislators. He has model letters that can be used. In this pre-budget phase, the goal is to get state aid and Infopowering into the Governor's budget. The post-budget phase will work to maintain or increase the budgeted amounts.

Carolyn Barkley presented the report of the Ad Hoc Committee for Membership. She noted that the committee was already doing the things recommended at an ALA preconference on recruitment and retention. Although the committee accomplished many things, they were in the difficult position of creating a strategic plan and trying to implement it at the same time. The goal of increasing VLA membership by 5% was not met, but the retention rate was good for a year when dues increased. The report recommended changing the status of the committee to a standing Membership Committee.

A motion was carried to honor Linda Farynk for her contributions to VLA, particularly for housing the server for the VLA webpage at her institution, Radford University.

Louveller Luster of the Continuing Education Committee reported that they will be organizing a Program Planner Workshop November 12, 1999 at the Library of Virginia.

Barbie Selby of the Publications Committee announced that the Publications Manual has been revised, and the new version will be available from the VLA homepage.

The Volunteer Management Forum does not have a new chair for the coming year. Anyone who is interested can contact Nancy Schiff. Nancy announced that nomination forms for volunteer awards are available on the web page.

Ruth Kifer reported for the Administrative and Management Forum. There will be a salary survey forum at the annual conference to continue the effort to establish minimum salary recommendations for librarians in Virginia. These numbers tend to be goals rather than actual salaries in the states that have them. Ruth suggested that the Paraprofessional Forum might want to do the same for paraprofessional positions.

As this was the next to last meeting of the current VLA Council, President Heinemann thanked Council members with certificates of appreciation and letters. The final 1999 Council meeting will be at the annual conference at the Homestead. Additional pages for the VLA Manual were handed out at the same time.

--Andrea Kross, VLA Newsletter Assistant Editor

The Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library in Washington, D.C. is sponsoring a workshop about evidence-based medicine for librarians on Friday, November 12, 1999 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. "Panning for Gold, Intermediate Level" will be taught by Ann McKibbon of McMaster University in Canada and will include a review of EBM principles, an overview of systematic reviews and information on how articles are assessed for use with patients. Participants will earn eight contact hours of continuing education credit. The registration deadline for the course is October 15. For more information about the program or to register, call the Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library at (202) 994-2850.

Donald McCaig, Philip D. Morgan and Lou V. Crabtree were the winners of the 2nd Annual Library of Virginia Awards Honoring Virginia Authors and Friends presented on September 18, 1999. More than 165 books received nominations for the awards and ten were selected as finalists. The categories were fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

Donald McCaig from the mountains of western Virginia won the fiction award for Jacob's Ladder: A Story of Virginia During the War. McCaig's book captures the intricate relationships of slave and master before, during and after the Civil War. The author was an award-winning New York copywriter prior to moving to Highland County in 1971.

Dr. Philip D. Morgan, professor of history at the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture at the College of William and Mary and editor of The William and Mary Quarterly, is the winner of the non-fiction award. His book, Slave Counterpoint: Black Culture in the Eighteenth Century Chesapeake and Lowcountry, is a scholarly examination of the diversity of black culture in the colonial South.

Lou V. Crabtree won the award for best work of poetry for her River Hills and Beyond. Crabtree grew up on the North Fork of the Holston River and at age 16 left for Radford Normal School (now Radford University). She graduated in 1932 after only three years. Her book is divided into two sections. "River Hills" contains poems set in the immediate region while "And Beyond" includes poems ranging from the Old Testament to space travel.

As part of the Loudoun County Public Library's program "Live! At the Library," the Eastern Loudoun Regional Library will host several author presentations. Appalachian novelist Sharyn McCrumb will speak on Saturday, October 15 at 2:00 p.m. John Rolfe Gardiner, author of Somewhere in France, will speak on Wednesday, November 10 at 7:00 p.m. David Baldacci, author of Saving Faith, and keynote speaker at the 1999 VLA annual conference, will talk on Saturday, December 11 at 2:00 p.m. Tickets for these presentations will be available at the Eastern Loudoun Regional Library reference desk approximately one week in advance. For more information, call (703) 444-3228.

The next VLA Council meeting will be held during the Annual Conference at The Homestead.

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