DC/SLA Chapter Notes - November 2002

President’s Corner: The Rest of the Story

By Anne Caputo, DC/SLA President In the September issue of Chapter Notes, we looked at the top two themes of the 2000 Strategic Planning Report; those of Member Communications and Programs. Following on that note, I’d like to take this column to look at several of the specific calls to action recommend in the detailed report portion of the Strategic Plan.

November 2002 Volume 61 No. 12 http://www.sla.org/chapter/cdc Inside this issue:

Improving Chapter Notes Chapter Notes is one of the most visible and highly-valued methods of communication for members of DC/SLA. As of this month, you will be receiving the printed version of the newsletter ONLY if you sent back the request form found in the October issue. Otherwise you’ll get an email notification of the availability of Chapter Notes on the Website. This action will enable us to increase the size of the newsletter and include more articles and other substantive copy. A printed calendar will replace the monthly newsletter mailing to keep you informed about the chapter programs and other events. This was a key recommendation from the last strategic plan and one that an electronic newsletter can permit us to create.

President’s Corner

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Member News

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Welcome New Members!

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Legal Division in Liverpool

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Farewell to Ann Williams

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Increase Networking Opportunities The institution of a monthly Happy Hour, the new DC/SLA Book Club, several networking receptions and the Young Professionals coordination of movie nights, ‘Duck Tours’ and other informal events has upped the opportunities for networking tenfold. If you haven’t found an event to attract or interest you…let us know what will and we’ll try to make it happen.

Oktoberfest and Library Tour A Grand Success

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Address Soup

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Warm-up the Keyboard!

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Professional Development Programs We’ve had one highly successful professional development event already this year with the excellent program on “Finding and Selling Your Library’s Value”. Look for the “Library Education: Point Counterpoint” program on November 12th and the Holiday Party presentation with Toni Carbo on December 4th. Several excellent programs are planned for 2003 including one on presentation skills and another on life planning.

Make Meetings Accessible The Strategic Plan suggested concerns about both the location and time of chapter events as well as the cost of attending meetings. We are working hard this year to vary the locations and days of the week for our chapter events as well as offering meetings with a variety of costs. Some, such as the Book Club, are free. We will work to use the funds saved by decreasing the cost of printing and mailing Chapter Notes, to help subsidize the attendance cost of our meetings. Our Directors are also working diligently to find vendor sponsors for chapter events to lower the cost to individual attendees.

Special points of interest: • • •

A chance to see yourself in print.

Help out the editor with addresses.

Tribute to a departed Chapter member.

Check us out on the Web http://www.sla.org/chapter/cdc/

Publicize the Chapter Website and Discussion List Use of both the Chapter website, found at http://www.sla.org/chapter/cdc/list.html, and the Discussion List are skyrocketing. If you have not visited the website or used the list hurry there immediately, do not pass GO and do not collect $200 until you have done both of these. In our busy lives, these two methods are out primary way of contacting you and facilitating communication among our members. The website allows us to post pictures in the Chapter Photo Gallery, to create an up-to-date Events Calendar, to post and archive Chapter Notes and much, much more. Do what more than 100 of your colleagues do each day and come see what our electronic communications capabilities can offer.

DC/SLA Chapter Notes | November 2002

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Special Libraries Association assumes no responsibility for the statements and opinions advanced by the contributors to SLA’s publications. Editorial views do not necessarily represent the official views of SLA. Acceptance of advertisement does not imply endorsement of the product by SLA. Subscriptions: Chapter Notes is free to DC/SLA members. Subscriptions to non-members are available at $10 per year.

Advertising: Advertising rates effective September 1997 are: $95—1/4 page; $175—1/2 page; $290—full page.

For information regarding advertisements, contact the DC/SLA Chapter Notes Business Manager: Kelley Weber, Surface Transportation Board Phone: 202-565-1668 Email: weberk@stb.dot.gov EDITOR’S NOTE: Friday, November 15th is the deadline for materials which can be included in the December 2002 issue.

The issue is distributed approximately three weeks after the deadline. The preferred submission format is a Word document sent via email.

Materials for Chapter Notes should be sent to the Editor: Cynthia Holt The Gelman Library George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington, DC 20052 Phone: 202-994-1352 Email: holt@gwu.edu Event announcements should also be submitted electronically to the: Listserv Moderator: Kelley Weber, Surface Transportation Board Phone: 202-565-1668 Email: weberk@stb.dot.gov DC/SLA Internet Committee: Frederik Heller Phone: 202-383-1157 Email: fheller@realtors.org

Mark your calendar to participate in at least one DC/SLA event between now and the end of the year. I promise you’ll network like mad and have fun learning and sharing with your colleagues. Check us out and see how we’re doing’ after all.

Member News Robyn Frank (Robyn_C._Frank@oa.eop.gov) was at the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, until mid-July. She is now the Director, Library and Research Services, Executive Office of the President.

Bill Turner was recently elected treasurer of the District of Columbia Library Association. He began his two-year term on July 1. At the same time for one year, Bill will be serving on the SLA Board as Corresponding Secretary. Shirley Loo was elected as director of DCLA for a two-year term.

She joins Mike Kolakowski on the DCLA Board. Mike is serving the second year of his two-year term. Shirley had served as DCLA President 19891990. She received the DCLA Community Service Award at the annual banquet. Shirley and Betsy Knauff, past SLA Chapter President, are the cochairs of the DCLA Student Financial Assistance Committee. The committee awarded the first $5,000 Ruth Fine Memorial Student Loans earlier this year. Ruth Fine was SLA Chapter President in 1953 and she also served as DCLA President in 1963. (http://www.dcla.org/) The 6th-ever PAM Achievement Award was given to Brenda Corbin at the recent SLA Annual Conference! This exciting event honored Brenda, who is librarian of the U.S. Naval Observatory Library, for her work over almost 25 years in the PAM (Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics) Division and her dedication to librarianship in astronomy. Within the Division, Brenda has held many important posts, including Chair, head of Strategic Planning Committee for several years, Bulletin Editor, Secretary, Nominating Committee, Government Relations, and she led the first Astronomy Workshop, the precursor to the Astronomy Roundtable. Beyond these offices, Brenda has made unique contributions to the Division, such as the creation of the PAM International Membership Award during her term as Chair; creation of the Member's Corner of the PAM Bulletin; and spearheading PAM's program at the SLA Global 2000 Conference. Brenda Corbin's dedication to librarianship is evident in the collections and services of her U.S. Naval Observatory Library, which serves as the de facto national library for astronomy. She has been recognized for her organization of the first LISA meeting, and she has continued to be involved with each of these international conferences for astronomy librarians, and maintains contact with astronomy librarians around the world. Brenda's mentoring has helped many of us -she is always willing to share her experience and broad knowledge of the literature as well as her thoughtful approach to difficult questions.

Welcome New Members!

Submitted by Alphonse Vinh, avinh@npr.org

Send address changes for Chapter Notes to:

Please welcome the following new members to the SLA/DC Chapter: SLA Headquarters ATTN: Address/Name Changes 1700 18th Street NW Washington, DC 20009-2508

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Kenneth B Allen Amy Blaine Jennifer E Blackford Elizabeth A Brooks Margaret T Cossman Kathyrn C Deschler Donna M Doering

Lisa M Gaddy Gillian V Grant Sage E Hulsebus Josephine A Kirks Violetta Loyevsky Mara R McGarry Vic M Monti

Dan Onstad Jenny L Smith Abdul Salam Syed Miranda A Turner Beverly E Walker Michael J White

DC/SLA Chapter Notes | November 2002

Legal Division in Liverpool Submitted by Larry Guthrie, lguthrie@cov.com The SLA Legal Division maintains formal liaisons with other law librarian organizations, specifically the Canadian Association of Law Librarians (CALL), the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL), the Australian Law Librarians Group (ALLG). Other formal liaisons are developing through Marth Foote, the Division's chair of the International Relations Committee. The Legal Division has initiated reciprocal visits with these organizations, sending a delegate to the CALL conference in 1999 and this year to the BIALL conference. Legal Division Chair Jeff Stickle intends on attending CALL next summer. Also, delegates from CALL, BIALL, and ALLG have attended the SLA conference in the past few years.

This year I attended the BIALL conference in Liverpool June 13-17. Valerie Stevenson, Chair of BIALL from the Queen Mother's Library in Aberdeen, hosted a summit dinner of Overseas Delegates including Liz Bourne, Chair of the Organisation of South Africa Law Libraries(OSALL); John Eaton, President of the Canadian Association of Law Librarians (CALL); Carol Nicholson, President of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL); and myself as Past Chair of the Special Libraries Association Legal Division. Barbara Tearle, the Oxford Law Librarian was also in attendance. Mary Greenfield, President of the Australian Law Librarians Group (ALLG) arrived the next day. These delegates at the Annual General Meeting, gave a short speech, inviting BIALL members to attend their association's next year's conference. I did as well, and added emphasis that law librarians should speak in a unified voice globally through cooperation among law librarian associations. I also announced that the Legal Division sponsored two librarians from developing countries to attend the SLA conference this year.

Valerie Stevenson gavelled in BIALL's 33rd Annual Study Conference and announced that two law librarians received awards in the Queen's Birthday Honours. The award is called the Order of the British Empire, Civil; and recipients can now add the designation after their name "MBE". They are Mary Catherine Stocks, Librarian, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, Scottish Executive (Edinburgh); and Evelyn Anne Elizabeth Stevens, Senior Librarian, HM Treasury Solicitor's Department.

The conference theme “We've Got To Have I. T.� (Information Technology) anticipated the future with programs on electronic interlibrary loan including using electronic signatures; Electronic Record Management (ERM) where Australia leads the field; using firm web page services including practice area subject resources to sell to clients. A large librarian organization in the UK is CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals) with the publications "Library Association Record" and "Update". They are particularly concerned with positioning the library profession at the heart of the information revolution, and noted that 80 libraries were destroyed on September 11th attack. They are concerned, "Is the Google Factor a threat to librarianship; ie. does it contribute to the invisibility of the profession? Some BIALL do not work in "libraries" and are not called "librarians"; and BIALL recently sponsored a Continuing Education course on Intranet TaxonoDC/SLA Chapter Notes | November 2002

mies. Many British law librarians are members of a union.

Another session covered Linux as a desktop framework for those who want alternatives. Dr. Paul Maharg, University of Strathclyde, Graduate School of Law said they have created a "Virtual town" named "Ardcalloch" for law students to cooperate within transactional learning. His book is Effective Learning Teaching Law. Lorraine Boyd from the Royal Bank of Scotland, told of how the Human Resources of their company were converted to e-learning on computer. Their people strategy is (RICES) Recruitment, Induction, Competence, Excellence, Succession. There is no need for traveling for HR seminar; They are done via Distance Learning on digital, interactive videos.

Entertainment was engaging each evening: dinner at the Liverpool Football Club in Anfield with a speech by the most colorful Emlyn Hughes, a local football hero. Saturday night was a formal dinner with big-band music; and Sunday dinner with a Beatles impersonating band. Special guest drummer was John Eaton, CALL President who also plays in such a band.

Coincidentally, Paul McCartney had just been married in Ireland and his artwork was on display in the galley near the Adelphi. In addition, England was still in the World Cup (soccer) competition which added an electricity everywhere in Liverpool.

In all, BIALL engaged and challenged members in the words, "The future of law librarianship is now." The conclusion is that law librarians provide the content and I.T. the delivery in a coordinated effort. For the Legal Division, BIALL was a milestone, initiating a new era of enthusiastic global cooperation with other major law librarian associations.

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DC/SLA Chapter Notes | November 2002

Farewell to Ann Williams Submitted by Montrese Hamilton, MHamilton@SHRM.org The Washington library community lost one of its most talented members with the September 11th passing of SLA member Ann W. Williams, former director of the American Health Care Association (AHCA) Information Resource Center and most recently, AHCA's director of member relations.

Ann, who died suddenly in an automobile accident, arrived in Washington in 1992 for a post-graduate internship with the Library of Congress after an internship with the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and earning her MLS from the University of California, Los Angeles. She joined AHCA in October 1992 as a library and information specialist and her versatility, determination, and leadership soon elevated her to AHCA's director of information management where she developed innovative news products to connect staff and members with the most up-to-date long term care information.

Ann also held a bachelor of arts degree in biology from Mary Baldwin College which she used to teach elementary school science, and a master's in health policy from Johns Hopkins University. Her professional affiliations included Beta Phi Mu, the American Society of Association Executives and the American Library Association.

Hailed by colleagues as loyal, steadfast, and "astonishingly productive", Ann will be remembered for her energy, concern for colleagues, and capacity to have fun under any circumstance. She was also a breast cancer survivor and a strong supporter of breast cancer research charities.

Ann is survived by her father, William Collins Wirth; her daughter, Sarah Ramsaur McLean, and son-in-law, Grey McLean; two grandchildren, Conner and Anna McLean; and her fiancĂŠ, Paul Boran.

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Oktoberfest and Library Tour A Grand Success Submitted by Sharon Lenius, Sharon.Lenius@ngbcio.ngb.army.mil Photos by Diane Schnurrpusch, dschnurr@dtic.mil Saturday morning, October 5th, 2002, 17 people gathered to tour three libraries and the Fest Tents, Craft Fair and carnival rides at Fort Belvoir's Oktoberfest. This event was sponsored by the Military Librarians Group of DC/SLA. After light refreshments, the caravan departed for the Van Noy Library. Linda Cheung, the Post Library Manager greeted us as we arrived. The friendly atmosphere of the Children's Room, with colorful area rugs, snuggly animals and comfortable parent/child reading areas, brought back warm memories! Then I remembered chewing gum everywhere‌.well moving on. On the second floor we viewed an extensive Reference Collection. Of special note at the Van Noy Library is the Military History Collection amassed over the years by Reference Librarian, Phyllis Cassler, an active DC/SLA member.

At the Acker Library of the Defense Acquisition Library Helen Haltzel, a DC/SLA member, gave us access to her recently renovated library. Some of you must know the joys of replacing carpeting and painting walls while still remaining open. Helen and her staff did just that. She provides many materials to the faculty, staff and student populations via the desktop. Acker Library has self checkout. The refreshed library presents an atmosphere for study groups and quiet study along with specialty resources for the Acquisition Corps.

The imposing building housing the Army Management Staff College Library, LOOKS like a "real library;" in fact it was built to serve the US Army Corps of Engineers Basic and Advanced Officer Courses. It was built with metal stacks as an integral part of the structure. "Once a library always a library" must have been their building guidance. The thick glass floors of the walkways between the 4 stories of stacks was a bit disconcerting. Peggy Poirier, library staffer cheerfully greeted us and explained the mission and services of this 24/7 accessible library. After a pause for lemonade and cookies at the checkout it was on to the Fest Tent.

The warm day necessitated several rounds of brew and brats in the Fest Area. The German Army Band from Stuttgart played American tunes; we requested some Munich Fest songs. They obliged. We lifted a mug and saluted a successful day.

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DC/SLA Chapter Notes | November 2002

Address Soup Submitted by Cynthia Holt, holt@gwu.edu Each month SLA Headquarters sends me the address list for mailing the events broadsheet and Chapter Notes. I’ve noticed that many of you have gotten very creative in recording your addresses in your member information. I can see why it might be a lot quicker and easier to write MA Ave. or Mass Ave. instead of Massachusetts Ave. Common shortenings like Rd, Ave, St, etc. are okay. Unfortunately, the shortened street names cause great havoc for me as your newsletter editor as I need to scan for these creative addresses in the mailing list and convert them to USPS standard addresses. Please take a few minutes to check online at http://www.sla.org/content/ memberonly/index.cfm to make sure that your address is written in a standard way. Your mailing label on this issue has already been corrected so don’t use it as a guide to how it looks in the database.

Warm-up the Keyboard!

Submitted by Cynthia Holt, holt@gwu.edu Have you always yearned to write the grand epic? Ever wanted to have a monthly column? Now is your chance to get started.

With the change in format for Chapter Notes, we would like to start seeing some more articles on issues or topics. Please send all submissions to: Cynthia Holt Reference Department The Gelman Library George Washington University 2130 H Street, NW Washington, DC 20052 holt@gwu.edu The preferred formats for articles are Microsoft Word or a text file. Please attach all images in .gif, .jpg or .tif formats.

DC/SLA Chapter Notes | November 2002

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