DC/SLA Chapter Notes - December 1997

Chapter Notes/December 1997

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Volume 57, No. 4 December, 1997 Contents: Winter Meeting and New Members' Reception New DC/SLA Chapter Members SLA's Competencies for Special Librarians in the 21st Century Job Openings 1998 Legal Research Institute In Memory of Paula Lovas Chapter Officer Nominations Communicate Via E-mail The President's Corner Employment Referral Service TeleSec Award Winner Winter Meeting Takes Flight Accounting for libraries

Winter Meeting and New Members' Reception Place: Great Hall, Library of Congress Date: January 22, 1998 Time: 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Cost: z $20 (Members) z $10 (Student Members and Retirees) z FREE for New Members Special invitation for DC/SLA members: you are invited to attend the SLA Winter Meeting Welcoming Reception which will take place in the magnificently restored Great Hall of the Library of Congress, January 22, 6-8 p.m.

The Washington DC/SLA chapter is sponsoring this reception for the leaders of SLA attending the Winter Meeting. At the same time, we will hold our annual new members reception. Here's an opportunity for you to meet and welcome the Association, Chapter, and Division leaders, plus greet the new members of our Chapter. The evening will include speeches by the Librarian of Congress and the President of SLA, as well as guided tours conducted by the Library of Congress staff of the Treasures of the Library exhibit and the Main Reading Room.

The Great Hall is located in the Jefferson Building, 10 First St. SE, Washington, DC. Attendees must enter the GROUND LEVEL entrance facing First St. and be escorted upstairs to the Great Hall. There will be no admittance directly into the Great Hall. The closest Metro Station is Capitol South on the Orange/Blue lines.

PLEASE NOTE: SPACE IS LIMITED. To attend, YOU MUST REGISTER IN ADVANCE; absolutely NO registration will be permitted at the door. If you wish to confirm your registration has been received, write: "January 22 reception" on a self-addressed, stamped postcard and return it with the form below. z Register early since we may be unable to register everyone. z Registration is limited to Chapter members; sorry, guests cannot be accommodated. First come, first serve z

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registrations will be processed until the limit is reached. Registrations and fees will be returned to those whose registrations arrive too late.

Send your registration by January 12, 1998; no refunds for cancellations after January 19. Checks should be made out to Washington DC/SLA. Send the following form to: Estelle Alexander, AARP Research Information Center, 601 E Street NW, Washington, DC 20049; e-mail to: ealexander@aarp.org; or fax to 202/434-6408.

Name:_________________________________________ Phone/E-mail: ________________________________ Organization:_________________________________ The Washington/DC SLA Chapter gratefully acknowledges the sponsors who are underwriting most of the cost of this reception: these include West Group, Dow Jones, Bureau of National Affairs, Telesec Corestaff, Blackwell's Information Services and Endeavor Information Systems, Inc. A Tip of Our Hat to Our Corporate Partners In appreciation for their valuable support of the gala Evening Reception at the Library of Congress Great Hall, the District of Columbia Chapter of Special Libraries Association (DC/SLA) would like to recognize the following Corporate Partners: The West Group http://www.westgroup.com Dow Jones and Co. http://www.dowjones.com The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. http://www.bna.com TeleSec CORESTAFF (301) 939-2665 Blackwell's Information Services http://www.blackwell.com Endeavor Information Systems, Inc. http://www.endinfosys.com Representatives of the sponsoring organizations will be attending the Evening Reception for Winter Meeting attendees, January 22, 1998. A special "Corporate Partner" ribbon will be attached to sponsors' name tags.

Please express the Chapter's heartfelt thanks for their sponsorship. Advanced, acknowledged reservations are required for this event.

NEW DC/SLA Chapter Members Samia Benedir, Int'l Monetary Fund, IMF Joint Library Giselle Foss, Catholic Law Library Betty Harris, Manning & Napier Information Juanita Hendricks Chris Horn Catherine King, VSE Corporation, VSE Corporate Library Jennifer King, Furash & Company Information Center Elisabeth Lubar, Davies Consulting, Inc. Carrie Nelson, MBNA Career Education Center Diane Schug, Center for Naval Analyses, Information Resources Michael Smith, Catholic University, Chemistry Library Andrea Wilson, Baltimore Sun, Library & Information Services

SLA's Competencies for Special Librarians in the 21st Century Barbara Folensbee-Moore, Head Librarian, Pepper Hamilton, folensbb@pepperlaw.com

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On October 22, 1997, the second program of the Well Rounded Professional Series headlined Barbara Spiegelman. As an information professional at Westinghouse Energy Systems and the editor of SLA's Competencies for Special Librarians in the 21st Century, Barbara was well qualified to speak on the topic.

In spite of some unexpected room changes and challenging routes to reach the site of the presentation, the meeting was well attended. Barbara spoke mainly on the change in how managers and employees in libraries have shifted from viewing their achievements in terms of goals reached or missed to viewing the achievements in terms of competencies they have achieved She stressed being a well-rounded professional and not letting skills and training become stale. She also emphasized you need to ensure the areas of training you think are important to your job and the company where you work are also those skills that the company values.

The program was short but full of ideas and information; again reminding us to make sure that we stay in touch with the profession and keep our skills current in order to stay successful.

Job Openings Library Aide: The O.P. Norton Information Resources Center at the Headquarters of the American Society for Industrial Security, International. Part-time position for 10-15 hours weekly, available immediately.

Duties include shelving books and periodicals, packing and unpacking library loan materials, processing newly acquired items, general filing, and photocopying. Previous library experience is desirable, but not required. Manual dexterity and the ability to lift light loads of up to 10 lbs. is required, along with good filing skills.

Educational Materials Manager: American Society for Industrial Security. Full-time, permanent position. Responsible for media acquisitions for sales catalog and bookstore at the ASIS Annual Seminar. Experience in acquisitions, publishing, copyright desirable. Librarians looking for a nontraditional career may be interested.

Send letter and resume to Eva Giercuszkiewicz, IRC Manager, ASIS Intl., 1655 N. Fort Myer Drive, Suite 1200, Arlington, VA 22209; fax: 703/243-9385; phone: 703/312-6370 ASIS is located 1 1/2 blocks from the Rosslyn Metro Station; however, we will be moving to Alexandria in early 1998, and will be 1 1/2 blocks from the King Street Metro Station.

1998 Legal Research Institute THE LAW LIBRARIANS' SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, D.C. EDUCATION COMMITTEE PRESENTS 1998 LEGAL RESEARCH INSTITUTES I & II The Legal Research Institutes are hands-on all day programs aimed at those working in law libraries who want to sharpen their research skills and non-law library personnel and paralegals with limited experience using basic American legal sources.

Program:

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Primary Law - Cases Legislative History Sources Primary Law - Statutes Administrative Law Secondary Sources Internet Resources Loose leaf Services Updating Your Research Dates: Tuesday, March 17,1998 Thursday, March 19,1998 Location: George Washington University, Jacob Burns Law Library, 716 20th Street, Washington, DC 20052 Time: 8:30 am - 5:00 pm Cost: LLSDC members:$30 each day Non-members:$75 each day Limited enrollment (Includes mid-morning continental breakfast and mid-afternoon snack) Mail registration (via mail only) by February 28, 1998 to: Jane Walsh, E.B. Williams Law Library, 111 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20001, 202/662-9199 1998 LEGAL RESEARCH INSTITUTES I & II Make check payable to: Law Librarians' Society of Washington, DC Name __________________________________________ Phone _________________________________________ Address _______________________________________ _______________________________________________ Fax ___________________________________________ Please check: Legal Research Institute I, Tuesday March 17, 1998 Legal Research Institute II, Thursday March 19, 1998 LLSDC MEMBER NON-MEMBER NOTE: Registration will be confirmed by fax or mail. Contributions, gifts, dues or registration fees paid to the Society are not deductible as charitable contributions for Federal tax purposes.

In Memory of Paula Lovas Paula Lovas, Immediate Past President of the DC Chapter of SLA, passed away in Montana on Sunday, November 23. Cards may be sent to her mother, Mary-Alice Layng, 301 West Front Street,

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Apt 715, Missoula MT 59802. Her son Daniel may be reached by e-mail at Daniel.L.Lovas@vanderbilt.edu; a mailing address was not available at press time. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to Mountain Valley Hospice House, 10450 Mullan Road, Missoula, MT 59802.

Chapter Officer Nominations The Washington DC Chapter will elect four new officers in the spring: First Vice President/President-Elect, Second Vice President, Corresponding Secretary, and Director. The Nominations Committee is beginning its search for candidates and would like to extend an invitation to you to recommend a chapter member for one of these offices or volunteer yourself for consideration. Contact the Nominations Committee chairman, Karen Holloway, with your suggestions (703/264-7523 or karenh@aiaa.org).

Communicate Via E-mail The SLA/DC Chapter listserv has been established and is now ready to accept subscribers!

To subscribe to the list, send an e-mail to: listserv@listserv.sla.org with the following in the body of the message: subscribe sla-cdc Firstname Lastname You will receive an automatic confirmation message once subscribed. If you have any questions, please let me know: Greta Ober, gretaober@aol.com

The President's Corner

by Ellie Briscoe, DC/SLA President, ebriscoe@ngs.org I remember as a kid being intrigued by the word "disenfranchised."

I came across it in Social Studies books, in discussions of citizenship and the right to vote, and I even remember hearing it used at my family's dinner table. So it popped into my mind automatically when I heard last spring about how many SLA members' ballots for Association office were invalid because they didn't fill out the forms correctly. "They disenfranchised themselves," was my sad thought.

You know how your computer gurus tell you "read the screen," when your system gives you problems? Read the instructions, please, friends, when you get your SLA ballot in January, much earlier than in past years! It's silly to throw away your vote because you left your name off the outside envelope, or didn't use the pre-addressed one they sent, or used a red pencil, or didn't get it mailed in time to make the February 23 deadline. Make your vote count, both locally and in the Association-wide election.

On another topic, SLA has a new fax-document-on-demand service designed for members who have a touch-tone phone, but who may not have access to the World Wide Web. To request publication order and registration forms, bibliographies, membership information and so on, call 888/411-2856 toll free. The documents are faxed to you immediately.

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I wish you all a safe and happy holiday season!

Employment Referral Service Another SLA/DC Chapter member found a job through the Chapter's Employment Referral Service.

But a word of caution. The job started months after the notice first appeared. Patience is a requirement.

Here's how the Employment Chair "clearinghouse" seems to be working in the Washington. (You may remember the reason I decided last year to say "yes" when the Chapter President asked if I would be Employment Chair of the DC Chapter of SLA was: of the five jobs I've had in libraries, I found four through the local SLA Chapter's Employment Chair/clearinghouse in different cities.)

Although we seem to not be successful at matching SLA member's openings with SLA job-seekers, we have been able to expand the number and breadth of position opening announcments jobseekers see by combining resources. This is not necessarily because the metropolitan area is larger than those I was looking in, but new methods of communication are changing the process.

I have been forwarding (usually weekly) job opening information I receive from a variety of sources: listservs I'm on, referrals from other members of jobs listed in listservs to which they subscribe and openings within organizations sent to me by DC Chapter members. When possible, these are forwarded e-mail or the regular mail.

If you would like to be on the distribution list, or if you see openings other SLA members would be interested in, please send them to me at mackinn@erols.com or Barbara MacKinnon, LABATANDERSON INCORPORATED, U.S. General Accounting Office, 441 G Street NW, Room 6530, Washington, D.C. 20548 Additional information from Barbara MacKinnon will appear in the January issue of Chapter Notes.

TeleSec Award Winner (picture in newsletter) Congratulations! Nancy Matthes (center) accepts her $2,000 TeleSec CORESTAFF/Special Library Association Scholarship Award from Mandy Baldrige, Manager of TeleSec CORESTAFF's Library Staffing Branch (right) and Ellie Briscoe, President of DC/SLA (left).

Winter Meeting Takes Flight

by Dave Shumaker, Local Arrangements Chair, dshumake@mitre.org As I write this, we're at two months and counting until SLA's Winter Meeting and Winter Education Conference come to town. Preparations are advancing nicely. Here's a recap of progress to date: The inside scoop on what to do in D.C. is available to meeting attendees through our web site, thanks to Holly Chong-Williams and the Chapter webmeisters. Check: http://www.capcon.net/dcsla/WMeet98/welcome.html

z

Preparations for a memorable Winter Meeting/Chapter New Members reception at the Library of Congress are well underway, led by Estelle Alexander. (See registration information elsewhere in this edition)

z

Generous corporate sponsorship has been lined up to defray the costs of hosting the Winter Meeting attendees at the reception. Thanks go to our sponsorship team, led by Sharon Lenius -- and special acknowledgements go to our benefactors: West Group; Dow Jones; Bureau of National Affairs; TeleSec Corestaff; Blackwell's; and

z

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Endeavour Information Systems.

We're lining up volunteers for several important positions, including: Conference Registration (Laura Foy 202/2508-4755, laura_foy@wyattconsult.com), Hospitality (Mandy Baldridge, 301/929-2665), and Dinner Buddies (Michele Crecca, 703/305-9570, crecca@uspto.gov). We need lots of volunteers -- especially for registration and hospitality, so please contact these folks to volunteer your help. Volunteers get the oppportunity to see their Association at work (during Winter Meeting, meetings are open and free to any Association member); and to visit exhibits of the latest in information services and technology (exhibits are open during Winter Education Conference). So plan to come down to Crystal City, take advantage of these opportunities, and volunteer to help the Association and your Chapter at the same time. Thanks.

z

Accounting for libraries

by Nancy Matthes, MIC@iafc.org Accountability will be a major factor in justifying the importance of libraries, according to one library manager. "Future libraries may not all become profit centers per se," said John Sherrod, Library Project Manager at the Department of the Interior (DOI) Library, "but the successful library manager must be able to demonstrate clearly that the library benefits outweigh the library costs."

He points out the success of the DOI Library's collection and services that support the DOI's mission to: 1) use and conserve natural resources on, or associated with, the 450 million acres of federal land, and the 1,800 million acres of the outer continental shelf it manages, and 2) meet its trust responsibilities to American Indians and Alaska natives.

The Library also serves as the library of record for all DOI publications. The library opened in 1937 and houses a collection of technical books and reports in the natural sciences, current and historic materials on Native Americans, and a broad collection of legal documents. There are 14 staff members who serve DOI staff and other federal employees, university students, and the general public.

Sherrod's responsibilities include overseeing a library which has been contracted out to Aspen Systems Corporation of Rockville, MD. "The contracting out process works for the DOI Library. The Library has effectively saved the government thousands of dollars by controlling labor costs, consolidating library collections to release space for other uses, and by combining other DOI publication orders with those of the Library."

Sherrod brings a wealth of experience to his position including Chief Librarian of the Science and Technology Division at the Library of Congress, Director of the National Agricultural Library, and General Manager of the NASA Scientific and Technical Information Facility.

He has a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Allegheny College (Meadville, PA), master's in meteorology from Penn State (State College, PA), and studied Library and Information Science at Catholic University of America and American University of Washington, D.C. and University of Maryland in College Park.

The DOI Library is located at 1849 C Street NW, Washington DC 20240. The hours are 7:45 - 5 p.m. and staff can be reached at 202/208-5815.

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