DC/SLA Chapter Notes - November/December 2001

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November/December 2001 Volume 61, No. 2/3 Contents z z z z z z

Disaster!

Important Listserv Announcement President's Corner Portals: Windows Into the Soul of Your Intranet War Stories To Dream the Impossible Dream: A Cataloger's Nightmare?

Disaster! a Joint meeting for DC/SLA and VASLA When: January 18, 2002 from 12:30 - 2:30 pm Where: Marriott at Metro Center 775 12 Street, NW Washington, DC (Red/Blue/Orange Lines on Metro - exit at Metro Center and go out the 12th Street Exit - go North (away from the Mall) 2 blocks) What: Lunch meeting / panel discussion As a result of the corporate generosity of Factiva, we are able to reduce the price of admission. Price: Members$20.00 , Non-Members - $30.00, Students/Retired $10.00 (limited to 80 places so register early!)

Registration Form: (Print-ready Form) Name ____________________________________________ Phone: _____________ E-mail: _______________________ Payment Method: _______ Check _______ VISA/MC

http://units.sla.org/chapter/cdc/cnotes/2001/nov-dec01.html

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. Chapter Notes, published 10 times per year is the newsletter of the DC Chapter of the Special Libraries Association (SLA). It is free to DC/SLA members.

Advertising rates effective September 2001 are: $95.00- 1/4 page; $175.00 1/2 page; $290.00 - full page. For information, please contact Chapter NotesBusiness Manager: Mari-Jana O. Phelps School of Library & Information Science, The Catholic University of America, 8632 Sanderling Dr., Manassas, VA 201105849, 703-221-3618; mphelps@pwcgov.org EDITORS' NOTE: The issue is distributed approximately three weeks after the deadline. The preferred submission format is a Word document sent via e-mail. Materials for Chapter Notes should be sent to all of the editors: Marie Kaddell, LexisNexis, 1150 Eighteenth Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20036; 202/857-8223; fax 202/8578233; marie.kaddell@lexisnexis.com Jan Alfieri, The Association of Fundraising Professionals, (AFP) -

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formerly NSFRE, 1101 King Street, Suite 700, Alexandria, VA 22314; 703/5198458; fax 703/684-0540; jalfieri@afpnet.org

If paying by credit card, include: Card number __________________________________ Card Type ________ VISA _______ Mastercard Expiration date ________ Name on Card ________________________________ Signature _____________________________________ (Due to fees incurred, all payments made by credit card will be non-refundable. Payment must be made in advance. No credit card payments will be accepted at the door. Credit card payments can be faxed to 202-4677522). Please send completed from and payment to: Barbara Folensbee-Moore, Library, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, 1800 M Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036

Layout: Amy Pass, Easter Seals, 700 13th Street, NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC, 20005; amypass@mindspring.com Event announcements should also be submitted electronically to the DC/SLA Internet Committee chair and discussion list moderator: Liz Farley, (List Moderator) International Monetary Fund, 700 19th Street, N.W, Washington, DC, 20431;phone 02/623-7042; efarley@cais.com Kristina Lively, (Webmaster) National Endowment for Democracy; 202/2930300; fax 202/293-0258; kristina@ned.org, Send address changes for Chapter Notes to: SLA Headquarters, ATTN: Address/Name Changes, 1700 18th Street, NW, Washington, DC 200092508.

All registrations must be received by Tuesday, January 15, 2002.

Back to Top IMPORTANT LISTSERV ANNOUNCEMENT As a service to DC/SLA members, the Chapter Board has decided to automatically subscribe new, incoming DC/SLA Chapter members, as well as all members not currently subscribed, to the Chapter Listserv (Sla-Cdc List, Sla-Cdc@Gatekeeper.Sla.Org). You are encouraged to actively participate in discussions and send announcements. In order to maintain quality and keep unnecessary message numbers down, please remember that if you are responding to ONE person to use their e-mail address, and not the listserv address.

The DC/SLA listserv is an increasingly important communications vehicle that was established to spur discussion among Chapter members. It has become vital in keeping people informed on the latest Chapter and Association business, issue discussions, upcoming events, job postings, etc. We consider your access to it as a major privilege of membership. If you do not want to be subscribed to the listserv, please feel free to use the easy options to unsubscribe.

If you have any questions please e-mail Liz Farley at efarley@cais.com.

-- Liz Farley, Listserv Administrator Back to Top

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President's Corner

by Sue O'Neill Johnson This month initiates the first combined November- December issue of "Chapter Notes." The decision to combine two issues into one was made partly due to the disruption of the mail. But it is also to encourage you to use the DC SLA list to keep informed on the latest information about Chapter activities. To subscribe to the list, go to the SLA website (www.sla. org), go to "Chapters/ Divisions and other units," select "Washington D.C.," and "Subscription instructions."

If you have not received messages lately from the CDC(Chapter DC) list, you may not be currently subscribed, even though you have been previously. Technical interruptions have caused some people to be inadvertently dropped. Also please get used to using the SLA "Who's Who Online" Directory to find the latest location information of SLA members, and for searching for those who can provide you help and information. It is a member service that can be very helpful to you. You need a pin number, which is on the back of your SLA card. If you can't find your pin number, you can send a message for it from the site. Just click on "Who's Who Online."

This issue's "Innovator in our Midst" is Gary Price, Innovative Reference Librarian.

Gary Price is a consultant, formerly a reference librarian at the George Washington University Ashburton campus. He has created and manages numerous highly-regarded information products on the web. He is now beginning collaboration with Will Hann, British founder of the Free Pint web site (http://www.freepint.com/). Gary Price graduated from Wayne State U. Library School in 1995, but he already has the World Bank calling him about projects, and has Barbara Quint asking his opinion! He is hyper, confident, modest, enthusiastic, and abashedly amazed at his success. He is simply following his instincts, and what he has learned from his mentors, he says.

Gary Price's latest product, a web log entitled, "Virtual Acquisition Shelf & News Desk," (http://resourceshelf.blogspot.com/) to be hosted on Free Pint, has been his most satisfying venture to date. He suggests you come to the log once or twice per week. There you will find search engine news and tips, industry news, points to full text document, etc. that might be of interest. The difference between Prices' services and others is his sense of urgency to keep them updated. VAS&ND is intended for all audiences. He will give a major presentation at the Joint Spring Workshop in April, 2001. His first book , The Invisible Web; Uncovering Information Sources Search Engines Can't See has just been released by Information Today, Inc. He is a past recipient of a special award from the News Division Of SLA. How has he been able to make such a big name for himself, while others who have been around a lot longer and are supposedly wiser are still anonymous and not doing as well or having nearly as much fun? Gary gives credit to empowerment by library school professor Judy Fields (President of SLA 1997-1998), a gift of a computer from his salesmen parents (whose attitudes he emulates), and good timing as the Internet exploded at about the same time as he got his computer. Looking more deeply, Gary's innovative reference techniques are models which could be helpful to our members. These mindsets are what make Gary Price tick. They are as follows: The Number one attitude needed by a reference librarian is sharing, sharing and more

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sharing. Sharing is Gary's core mindset, and he has a passion for sharing high quality information with professionals everywhere. He shares current awareness lists with fellow professionals. He has drastically expanded his sharing into international sources, and is pleased at how many nonAmericans use the free reference services he maintains, and share information with him. Sharing includes giving talks, writing articles and teaching what you know.

Don't shy away from the "L" word. Gary loves being a librarian, and is driven to change the stereotype of the "librarian" that he doesn't like. He's a librarian first and uses that title. "The great thing about our profession is that we're allowed to be interested in everything. Can a hand surgeon say that?" Librarians need to act more like salesmen, and market themselves and their library services. Until we do that, and librarians are notoriously bad marketers, we will continue to be undervalued, underpaid, and stereotyped.

Use the basic skills you learned in library school. Gary thinks of his services as "acquisition tools," which contain highly scrutinized selections. He applies the same criteria of scope, currency, authority, and indexing as one would in the selection of a print acquisition. You also need to show your users that the mass media has fooled them into thinking "if it isn't in Google it doesn't' exist anywhere," and that traditional paper and electronic sources are still essential and are not free. By using the web log a reference librarian can get an idea of what you can and cannot find on the web; that also tells you what you have to pay for. He is also a reference librarian who genuinely enjoys cataloging.

Constantly educate yourself even though nobody is looking. Usually nobody will require you to keep up, and there is no continuing education requirement in this profession. However, you will build confidence and networks if you do, and you will fall further and further behind in this profession if you don't. Gary's employer soon appreciated that he knew so much about web resources, and overlooked the time it took him to do it. We are all in the middle of unfolding developments, and you need to read everything you can get your hands on. Think about the interrelationships between things and look at them from a different angle; it will help you find new resources. Take advantage of new access to primary documents on the Internet, and make sure your boss knows about your hard work.

Consider Lists as your lifeline and venue for your sharing activities and current awareness. Become an "infofilter, " scrutinizing multiple lists. Gary monitors 15 different lists every week, and covers a lot more than those strictly for librarians. You should read lists even if you do not participate in the online discussions. You can use them to post current awareness information. Gary sends "ticklers" of his service updates to lists.

Think towards the future. Find something that is not being done and figure out how to do it. What's going to be the next big resource? Try something new and different, reinvent, and read between the lines. It's not just text any more. For example, Gary is now creating current awareness resources using streaming media. You can keyword search a news program, find when a word is mentioned, and watch the relevant segments. All of NPR from 1995 forward is searchable, and useable for reference.

You can watch a keynote speech in Bombay, and by tomorrow morning have the transcript created on the fly and be able to search it.

Gary Price, Consultant, can be reached at gprice@gwu.edu Back to Top Portals: Windows Into the Soul of Your Intranet

By Robert Farina The Delphi Group presented "The Corporate Portals Seminar" on November 14-15, 2001 at the Hyatt Regency in Reston, VA to a group of approximately 80 attendees from federal libraries (thank you FEDLINK) and systems junkies from the corporate world, think tanks and the non-profit sector.

Participants learned what this new technology is, why it is continuing to be a hot topic especially in

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intranet development, and why it is the wave of the future.

A portal is a personally customized single point of access that brings knowledge management capabilities to the individuals and teams of your organization through your intranet. Remember the DOSworld and what the Windows desktop did to help you organize the information on your computer?

Portals can expand your access to the information sources of your choosing from all of the accessible electronic information access points within your organization and on the Internet. If you think of your computer as the cockpit, think of all of those gauges and levers as objects that you can decide to include and customize on your desktop PC. Described above is the simple idea of what portal technology can mean for you, but think about the possibilities. Did you ever have to interface between two or more systems at the same time on different platforms (PC, Mac, Unix) and call someone over to view this amalgamation of data to explain a process or outcome? Been there; done that. Now, with portals, you can recreate that simultaneous real-time environment in a portal snapshot that can be forwarded on for that re-creation in one click of the mouse via your internal email system.

Duh?! Mind boggling for a guy who remembers keying in punch cards, Commodores, Trash80s & the Velcro strips that kept MacIIs together. We've left the infancy of the computer revolution and it's just starting to get interesting now. Tune in and turn on your portal to everything that is within you and without you if you're really interested in efficient multitasking in the ever-downsized environment of today's workplace.

To see a demo version of portal technology developed by NIH, go to http://my.nih.gov and play! For more information on this specific seminar, portal technology and a list of portal software vendors, go to http://www.delphigroup.com/events/portalseminar/index.htm.

Back to Top War Stories

By Diane Schnurrpusch On October 13th, the Military Librarians Group of DC/SLA toured the "War Stories" Exhibit at the Newseum in Rosslyn, Va. The exhibit, which ran from May 18th to November 11th, depicted war reporting from the mid-1800s to today. Attendees saw a large variety of documents, artifacts, and multimedia displays, including interviews with nearly 50 war correspondents.

Curious about the research that went into preparing the exhibit, the participants were treated to a presentation by Rick Mastrioanni, a librarian at the Freedom Forum Library. He and his fellow librarians support the work of the Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan foundation dedicated to free press, free speech, and free spirit for all people. The Freedom Forum's activities include the running of the Newseum, an interactive museum of news.

Rick explained that the "War Stories" exhibit was divided into four different themes, instead of being arranged chronologically. In this way, stories with similar themes but from different eras could be grouped together. The themes included: Romance vs. Reality, Propaganda vs. Professionalism, Secrecy vs. the Story, and First Draft vs. Final View.

As the lead researcher, Rick's job was to look for compelling and diverse stories that would fit into those categories. He used a variety of primary, archival, and biographical sources. One priority was finding photographs to be displayed with the stories' text. To help the audience visualize the amount of research behind the exhibit, Rick told the audience that a 200-page file was reduced to about 70 words of exhibit text. He answered questions about present day war reporting in light of the September 11th events in New York and at the Pentagon. He also pointed out some of the print resources he used for the exhibit and provided participants with handouts listing many of those resources.

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Other DC/SLA members and students from the local library schools joined the Military Librarians for the tour. One of those students, Karen Huffman, has designed a web page that tells about the event and includes Rick's presentation handout. Go to http://www.glue.umd.edu/~clisla/events/tour01/newseum.html to view the site.

Back to Top To Dream the Impossible Dream: A Cataloger's Nightmare?

By Suzanne C. Pilsk * Sometimes I get a bit bogged down in the details and forget what it is I am doing in the big picture. I catalog. I provide access to materials by examining the items and describing it physically and then applying subjects. All of this is to help the end user identify materials on topics of interest. This sounds straightforward until I begin to really think. I should never "really think". It just gets me confused, even a bit muddled - in a Don Quixote sort of way. We are taught to be as specific as possible when assigning subject access points. If title A is about "bridges" the subject should be "bridges". If title B is about "knights in shining armor" then the subject access should be "chivalry". If title C is about the life cycle of the blue crab then the subject access should be "blue crabs".

Okay. What did you, dear reader, think the title A is about? Bridges? Suspension bridges? Fiddle bridges? Dental bridges? Musical bridges? Bridge, the card game? The bridge on a ship? "Bridge to Captain Kirk"? You must have brought your own perspective to the term and assumed some sort of definition. Even when I am thinking I am specific - I might not be. And sometimes when I think I am right on target, I might be way, way off. How am I supposed to anticipate the question the searcher will have formulated before sitting down to the catalog to research their topic? Am I thinking "giants" when I should be thinking "windmills"?

I want it to be easy for the researcher to use the catalog and find everything we have on their topic an easily obtained, exhaustive search. I want the researcher to find all the relevant hits and few or none (ha!) miss hits. I want them to use the catalog with precision. I think this is an impossible dream. I think relevance, precision, and exhaustiveness all destroy each other!

We have: the author's perspective (the intent of the creator of the item); the cataloger's perspective (subject access terms assigned); the searcher's perspective (access terms used to find answers to a question); and the reader's perspective (reading the item and seeing if it is about the topic requested).

I am curious to know if I am successful in interpreting the author's perspective and assign terms that are relevant and specific. I also want to know that the terms I assign are ones the searcher uses and thinks of when formulating their queries. Ultimately, I wonder if the topics I assign match what the reader finds in the item (told you I can get confused when I begin to try to think too hard).

If I get too specific, will some searchers not find the materials? Back to title C above. If I give the assignment of "blue crabs" will searchers who use just the term "crabs" miss the materials that are on the special little blue ones? If I assign just "crabs" will the searcher who is looking specifically for blue crabs get frustrated by the hits on irrelevant works on Alaskan kings and hermit crabs?

I think I need to come to terms with the fact that even though my degree is in Library SCIENCE there is still a lot of the human factor involved. Cataloger's JUDGEMENT still plays a large part in the job.

There will never be a clear way to apply subject access without involving human biases. Computer interpretations are too dry and miss the point of authors' intentions. And human catalogers can "over think" what the searcher is looking for.

I have only good intentions. I'll continue to live in my dream world where I am applying just the right amount of specificity, using all the right terms, the windmills are giants, and my researchers are so pleased that they never complain. Hey, a cataloger can dream can't she?

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(*Author's ruminations after hearing the presentation of Heidi Lee Hoerman, Instructor Specializing in Technical Services. College of Library and Information Science. University of South Carolina.)

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