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UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY School of Librarv and Inforn~ationScience Kenton County Public Library Director Award Wayne Onkt Wins ALA Wayne Onkst ('79), Director of the Kenton County Public Library in Northern Kentucky, won the ALA Sullivan Award For Administrators Services To The Award was presented during the anrmal conference in June. The ALA announcement read: CHICAGO - The American Library Association (ALA) is pleased to announce Wayne Onkst as the recipient of the Sullivan Award For Public Library Administrators Supporting Services To Children. The award honors an individual who has shown exceptional understanding and support of public library service to children while having general management/supervisory/administrative responsibility that has included publiclibrary service to children in its scope.

During his tenure as director of the Kenton Public Library in Covington, Kentucky, Wayne Onkst has demonstrated outstanding commitment to providing library services for children in his community. As a library administrator, he supplied vision and support for his staff. Upon his appointment in 1999, Wayne Onkst laid out an action plan to reach as many children within the county as possible.

"He has the wisdom and judgment to select talented librarians," states Lois Schultz 1'741, Kenton County Public Library Trustee. "He then gives them the freedom and support to implement new programs."

With his encouragement and leadership, the children's services staff developed new approaches not only to reach children, but also families.

"Under Onkst's guidance, partnerships were established with the schools and multiple groups and agencies in the community resulting in the development of a wide range of innovative programs for children and families as well as the receipt of multiple grants," said chair Penny Markey.

In 2001, Wayne Onkst received the Children, Inc. award for "innovative services that imagine a better tomorrow for children". It is an honor to name him as the recipient of the 2005 Sullivan Award for Public Library Administrators to Children Award.

Onkst is a member of ALA and Public Library Association (PLA). He received a BA in History and a MSLS from the University of Kentucky.

School Receives Favorable UK Review Review Panel Urges UK to Complete Renovation an.

Recommends that School Consider Enrollment Management as High Enrollment Continues University of Kentucb Administrative Regulations provide that academic units undergo periodic program review According to AR 11-1.0-6 REVIEW OF EDUCATIONAL UNITS: The purpose of programlunit review is to improve the quality of teaching and learning, research, and public service by systematically reviewing mission, goals, priorities, activities and outcomes. Continuous prograrnlunit improvement requires a planning process which integrates current goals and priorities with the basic mission. Continual improvement also requires a review process which evaluates progress toward goal achievement and provides feedback which assists in refinement of plans and direction for the unit. The planning and review processes used by each unit should be appropriate to that unit, but all such processes will include three basic elements: (I) strategic planning; (11) annual review; and (111) periodic review.

The AR continues: The purpose of periodic review is to provide the unit with the opportunity for an in-depth analysis of itself, a review of its strategic plan, and a review by a committee external to the unit, fegarding effectiveness in meeting goals in instruction, research, and public service.

The periodic review comprises three elements: "(1) preparation of a self-study report by the unit, (2) evaluation by a review team external to the unit, and (3) revision of the unit's strategic plan as based on recommendations from the self-study process and the periodic review team."

In conjunction with program review by the ALA Committee on Accreditation, the School completed an extensive Program Presentation in January 2004, which the UK Office for Institutional Research, Planning, and Effectiveness accepted as the required self-study for the periodic review.

At the heart of the periodic review is an analysis of the unit by a committee most of whose members are not in the unit to be reviewed. When it has completed its review, the committee issues a report. Dean Johnson appointed the fivemember review team the first of December of last year; the team issued its report on March 10,2005.

In its review the committee looked at quality of six areas:

instructional programs and student learning; research and service programs and benchmark comparisons; productivity of research and service programs; recruitment and retention of a diverse faculty, staff, and students; management, adherence to policies, and collegial environment; planning, evaluation, and resource support.

While not a criticism, it concludes discussion of instructional programs and student learning with a recommendation that reflects high enrollment: "The School may want to use enrollment management to handle their heavy demand.

That will allow faculty to balance required and elective coursework so that students are able to form some specializations."

Among managerial challenges, the report observes, "First and foremost, the fragmentation of space available for SLIS usage presents a major managerial challenge." It points out that faculty and staff ofices and lab facilities are in one building, "while main SLIS classrooms and student lounge facilities are located in a separate building." Thus, the report adds another to the list of appeals to UK's central administration to complete the space on the third floor of Little Fine Arts Library (formerly King Library North) so that the School finally is able to relocate to permanent quarters.

Q and A with CCIS Dean David Johnson College of Communications and Information Studies Dean J. David Johnson met with School faculty in early May to discuss the review committee final report. He characterized it as a "very positive report," for which, he said, "the faculty in general and Tim in particular -deserve credit." He reminded faculty the recommendations must figure into the School's annual plan, and he urged faculty to consider enrollment management. "The School is unlikely to get an infusion of resources," he continued, referring to the need for additional faculty to support current high enrollment, and he recommended that the School "develop target enrollment and a method to achieve it." Finally, Dean Johnson stressed the need to review the School's curriculum with the goal of matching resources to promises and not promising, or even implying, more than the School can deliver in terms of specialties or tracks within the master's program.

As we were thinking about the fall issue of the Newsletter, it occurred to us School alumni would be interested in Dean Johnson's answers to several questions, and he agreed to our request. His answers appear in italics: When you talked to LIS faculty in May of this year, about the report on the School issued by the unit review cornrnittee, you said you believed the School is unlikely to get additional resources from the University, and as a result it should address the issue of high enrollment by devising an enrollment management plan. Is it correct to infer you believe enrollment has little to do with resource-allocation within the University of Kentucky?

Fall 2005

Yes, that has been my experience.

By "resource-allocation" I mean money in the budget, especially for faculty lines. There may be other, non-monetary considerations. Is it also correct to infer you believe there are few benefits to the School, within the University, pf having an additional 50 graduate students - for example the difference between enrollment of 250 and 200?

Although there are very limited monetary benefits, there may be intrinsic ones associated with serving the nee& of students and of the Commonwealth.

In the typical academic year the School offers half-a-dozen sections of LIS 510, our children's literature course. A high percent of those who enroll in the course are UK undergraduates. Do you believe the significant cost the School incurs to offer the many sections of LIS 510 produces a benefit to the School commensurate with the cost?

Again there is very limited monetary benefit, but in this instance there may be a near contractual obligation based on past curricular practice.

I want to return to the issue of an enrollment management plan. Do you have thoughts about the major criteria the School should use in devising such a plan?

The other units in the College have been addressing these issues for the last several years. Most notably the CJT graduate program has said that it h&r three primary areasinterpersonal, mass, and health [communication]- drawn fiom the score or more areas it could potentially offe~The faculty, who have the primaiy role in curricular decision making, in this program used as their primary criteria whether there was a crirical mass of faculty who could advise students and offer courses in the chosen areas.

Also when you talked to faculty in May, you said the School should be careful not to promise more than it can deliver.

What did you mean by that?

This was part of the decision making of the CJT faculty, ultimately they believed it was unfair to students to list courses of study in areas in which courses where inJFequently offered and for which there was not an adequate support structure.

I understand one or more programs within the College of Communications and Information Studies are among the most popular undergraduate majors at UK, and I'm aware the Department of Communication brings in substantial grant money. How does the College fare in the allocation of resources within the University?

The current historicplly based, incrementally adjusted budgeting system of the University does not reward growth or accomplishment. All of the College's units have had explosive enrollment growth and other signifcant enhancements in the quality of their programs. These accomplishments have not been adequately reflected in the growth of our College k budget.

The fact that the University has not completed the work on the third floor of Little Library must be an ongoing source of frustration to you. Do you see any reason to be optimistic - or even hopeful - that the University will complete the Page 2

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work within the next couple of years?

If UK had the sort of Responsibility Centered Management budgeting approach used by many of our aspirational benchmarks that reward growth and quality, then we would have jnished this work five years ago and be benefiting from the jkrfillment of the additional opportunities that could have been pursued as a result. Under our current budgeting system we can only hope for random acts of progress.

I believe I heard you say, earlier this year, that you s q the University facing signif~antfinancial difficulties in the next couple of years. If I'm correct about what I heard you say, would you elaborate on that?

Simply put, given the pressures on UK's budget from increasing health care costs, un&nded commitments to retirees, defrayed infrastructure needs, increasing energy costs, competitive pressures (e.g., higher salaries at other institutions), high internal subsidies for certain professional colleges, and so on, when coupled with declining state support, it is unlikely, asidefrom privately raised development funds and government earmarks, that any unit at the university will receive a substantial increment to its budget.

President Todd has been in office a little more than four years. At the time he assumed the presidency, and for a while thereafter, he frequently referred to reallocation of resources within the University. Has that taken place to a significant degree?

There have been some reallocations to meet budget cuts at the level of central administration. There has not been a reallocation based on performance at the College levelji-om underperforming Colleges to ones like ours that graduate 10 per cent of the masters and the undergraduates students at UK with less than 1% of its resources.

Dean Johnson, Director Sineath Meet with Others to Discuss School's Unfinished Space Dean David Johnson and Director Timothy Sineath in August met with UK Interim Provost Scott Smith, to discuss work remaining to be done before the School is able to relocate to the third floor of Little Fine Arts Building. Dean Johnson and Director Sineath subsequently met with representatives of UK's facilities office and were told the University's finances dictate that the unfinished work be done in segments. Director Sineath was asked to 'divide the unfinished portion into segments, and did so. For the first time, he reported to faculty at the end of August, he has a little hope there may be progress on the project.

Awards Banquet Continues Tradition This year's Alumni & Awards Banquet was held Friday, April 29, once again at Spindletop Hall. The tradition of an enjoyable evening continued. Those who attended included retired faculty Anne McConnell Cotterill, Joy Terhune, and Tom Waldhart. We enjoyed talking with Debbie ('94) Fall 2005

and Wayne Onkst ('79), and it was nice of former Adrninistrative Assistant Pam Thompsom to attend the banquet.

Jennie Lair Carrigan ('67) did her best to see that the Newsletter editor remained a paragon of sobriety throughout the evening. Professor Jackie White ('77) received the Outstanding Alumnalus Award. Tammy Kirk received the LISSO Leadership Award, and Tammy and Nicole Montgomery received the Melody Trosper Award.

A number of those in the graduating class were invited to membership in Beta Phi Mu, the international honorary society in library and information science, and the initiation of new members is a part of the banquet program each year.

Those invited to membership who completed the program in August 2004 were Lori Alvey, Shellie Ball, Karen Buntin, Emily Orady, Heather Waters. Those invited to membership who completed the program in December 2004 were Charlton Bragam, Melissa Braun, Noel Gnadinger, Elizabeth Jones, Jim Kelly, Tammy Kirk, Jaelithe Lindblom, Nicole Montgomery, Jenny Nelson, Emily Pierce, and Jeremy White-Zeager. Those invited to membership who completed the program in May of this year were John Bondurant, Amy Charley, Melissa Journey, Judy Kepple, Traci Mahone, Rebecca Montano-Smith, Mark Schulz, Aaron Smith, Miranda Svindland, and Rebecca Whipple.

Sharon McQueen Joins School's Faculty Recruiling Success Believed to Improve School's Prospects in Kentucky Hog-Calling Condests Sharon McQueen joined the School faculty this fall as Assistant Professor. Prior to coming to Kentucky, she taught for both The University of Wisconsin-Madison and UWMilwaukee, and this past spring semester she taught Resources for Chilhen and Resources for Young Adults at the University of Iowa. Sharon's doctoral studies focused primarily on youth services in the public library setting and culturaVhistorica1 studies of literature for youth. She also holds a doctoral minor in Early Childhood Education, with an emphasis on emergent literacy.

She has been active in many professional organizations including ALA, ALSC, and ALISE (the Association for Library & Information Science Education). Currently Sharon serves on Michael Gorman's ALA Presidential Library Education Initiative, and last year she was named one of Library Journal's 2004 Movers & Shakers, a list of "the people who are shaping the future of libraries." Her fmt book, a manual on in-house bookbinding and repair, is scheduled to be published by Scarecrow Press later this yea; and her first research article, Telephone Reference Rotcny Wheels - Still a Good Idea? was published in the Septemberloctober 2003 issue of Public Libraries.

Professor McQueen has presented extensively across North America for groups and associations, including the Children's Literature Association, the Society for the History of Childhood, the Center far the History of Print Culture in Modem America, Library History Seminar, Library Research Seminar, several state library associations, and a Page 3

multitude of Youth Literature conferences including .the Rabbit Hill Festival of Literature.

Librarianship is a second career for Sharon, who was formerly an actress and theater producer. A native of Wisconsin, she is proud to have taken third place in the Hog Calling Contest of last summerIs Wisconsin StaTe Fair.

Hazards of Teaching bath Ney Heights In Determined Pursuit of Tz.ath9S W Faculty Vow to Ignore Fufibe?Fast-Moviirg Thretzt . Avoiding

R e s t r ~ o mBrings Growing Discomfort

On September 7 Professor Kwan Yi sent an urgent e-mail alert: "A real and flying .bat was found at the SLIS floor yesterday night around IOpm. Kimberly [Professor Kimberly Black-Parker] found it at the ceiling of the main coqidor, and I was a witness. We are not sure whether it is our long-time family or a stranger. It flew back and forth'a couple of times. It finally disappeared after we saw it fly to the section of restroom close to faculty offioes. f doubt it can escape from the isolated section. We might do something fa secure it. The picture taken by Kimbetfy will confirm its appearance. Contact her if you need it fot your research or teaching."

Brad Grissom Dies Just Shy of 57 Brad Grissom ('76).died in June in Lexington. In addition to being a graduate of the Sichool and a library faculty member at UK for a number of yeais, Brad taught for the School for a while. Stephanie Aken ('75) arranged a memorial service on campus for Brtid, abd she wrote the foklowing.

Bradley 0 9 N e i l lGrissom 1948 - 2005 "The Net isn't the same place it used to be," mourned Anne Toal, a WORDS-L list-serv colleague who remembered Brad Grissom not only discussing nuances of the English language, but also pondering over the number of egg slots in a reffigerator or providing a vivid description of a headless chicken. During the memorial service for Brad held July 7 in the Niles Gallery at the Lucille Little Fine Arts Library, only days before he would have been 57 years OM, nearly fifty friends and coworkers, some from as far away as Phoenix, St. Louis, and AM Arbor, shared their memories and celebrated the life of this librarian, scholar, tea&&, southern gentleman, rascal, curmudgeon, .beer and veal devotee, interpreter, ladies' man, devoted son and brother.

Above all else, howeyer, he was a Seeker. During the service, it soon became evident that his brilliance and charin shone on each of us in uniqye ways, and it was only through the numerous anecdotes and obseniations of others that we began to build a collective c.oncept of this complex and multifaceted individual fined with contradictions, who loved Nicholson Baker and Patsy Cline, Elvis and Robert E. Lee, classic movies and Emily Dickinson. As Anne further observed in her contribution, Brad "opened a corner'of his soul Fall 2005

up for ~ u b l i cinspection. He felt things deeply - and pain-. fully at times. His posts were, above all, profoundly hu-

man."

In addition to Anne's piece, read by another WORDSLer, Cany Kestenbaum, who also read a tribute from Marcia Franzen and mentioned the gefierous donation to the Tupelo, MS,public library on behalf of that group, were Toni Greider ('72), Brad's first library supervisor; Carol Iglauer, Sharon Smith and Tim Kuryla, members of the infamous "Mill Street Gang" (described later by Lany as an apparent "social group, in this libtarian &etto7'); Hank Harken, formerly of the Reference Departpent; Roxanna Jones ('78), who reported to Brad in Reference; James D. Birchfield, former editor of the Ke~tuckyRevim now Curator of Rare Books; Mark Ingram, medical librarian and German language, culture and beer enthusiast; James Burgett ('92), longtirtle fiend and language scholar, who brought the gronp to teys with his moving description of his last phone coriversation with Brad; and Rab Aken ('83), webmaster for the Libraries, friend, and'"ph~nesports" participant, who remembered a happier time when Brad announced that he "felt like a million dollars!" The memorabilia table could not adequately reflect Brad's varied and full life, but the 'cards, letters, essays, pictures, and favorite books elicited additional stories from attendees waiting for the reception that followed.

Additional support for the memorial was generously provided by Beth Kraemer, designer of the Biological Sciences Library website and former student worker there; Becky Womack, lover of the language and English professor at KCTCS; Joyce Gilmore, formerly .of the .Agriculture Library; Gail Kennedy ('74), Director bf the Fine Arts Library; Mary Vass, Director of Intkrdiseiplinary Information r Jackson, MS, another Literacy at UK; Natalie M a y n ~ from WORDS-Ler and farmer English professor 'at Mississippi State University; and Sandra Lollar, a family friend of the Grissoms.

Brad was a native of Tupelo, MS, and lived in Fulton, where his father, the Rev. Leroy Grissom, was a member of the First Baptist Church. He attended Union University and graduated from the University of Kentucky with a B.A. degree in philosophy. He served in the U.S. Army as an interpreter in Germany. In 1976, he received his M.A. in Libmy Science from the University of Kentucky. He worked in the library system till his retirement in 2000, first as a cataloger, hired by Toni [Powell] Greider in the Agriculture Library, then as Head of the Reference Department in the Margaret I. King Library under the direction of Paul A. @illis, and finally as the Biological Scien~esLibrarian until it closed.

During his years of service, he taught the itrtroductory cataloging course in the College of Library and Information Science, served in various capacities in the Kentucky Library Association, and devoted many long hours to the Kentuc@ Review. New Orleans Drive became home to Brad, Leroy and Nancy Faye following the death of Brad's beloved sister Ginny in 1988. Brad's remaining sistet., Kay Hood, and husband, Buddy, live in Sniithville, MS. Before his death, Brad wrote of himself "He was a lifelong bachelor but the intricacies of human relationships Page 4

never ceased to fascinate and delight him. He loved books and movies and the rich tapestry of life. His family and friends will note his passing-with a warm smile of rehembrance." His legacy website at http://www.uky.edu/-grissom cheerfully and tirelessly continues to show Brad morphing into hero Elvis Presley.

Donations for a memorial book fund will be used to purchase books related to southern culture and language for the UK library system. Suggestions for purchases as well as contributions (checks should be payable to Stephanie Aken) and requests for programs from the memorial service can be directed to: Stephanie N. Aken, Electronic Resources Coordinator, Collections & Technical Services, W.T. Young Library, University of Kentucky, Lexington KY 40506-0456.

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Donald Pinney Dies in Arizona at 87 We have learned that Donald Pinney ('62) died in Arizona in May of this year, a month before he would have turned 88.

According to information in his alumni file and in his obituary in The Arizona Republican, Donald was born in West Chester, WV, in 1917 and graduated from Chester High School in 1935. Prior to the outbreak of World War II and for a year afier the US entered the War, Donald was a steel inspector at Crucible Steel Company, Midland, PA. He served in the Army during the War, graduated from Washington & Jefferson College after the War, and completed the program at what was the then the University of Kentucky Library Science Department in 1962.

Photos from the Alumni & Awards Banquet Friday, April 29,2005 (additional banquet photos pages 7, 1 1)

I" k-ermi&~ebm,Alex qkgg. and;4aron Smith

Tammy Kirk and Nicole Montgomery receive the Melody Trosper Award from Director Sineath

Jim and Karen Falkenstine enjoy some chocolate

Fall 2005

Asststant D~rectorD e n n ~ Carrigan s wlth ret~red faculty Joy Terhune and Anne McConnell Cotterill

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Happy Trails: Musings of a Youth Services Librarian Professor Jackie White Professor Jackie White ('77)' who received the School's Outstanding Alumnalus Award for 2005, delivered the Karen Cobb Memorial Lecture at the Awards Banquet in April.

She passed along the text of her talk to the Newsletter with permission that we reprint it.

T

HANK YOU FOR THIS GREAT HONOR. It is my privilege to speak to you this evening as the outstanding SLIS alumna. Certainly when I was working "in the trenches" as a school library media specialist this honor never seemed a possibility (especially on that first day of working with rowdy high school students and experienced, sometimes cynical teachers) but more about the trenches later.

SLIS faculty members have been generous mentors throughout the years to numerous students. Anne McConnell and Joy Terhune inspired many youth librarians, including me. While I was a student, Anne encouraged me to submit my first young adult literature article for publication.

After obtaining my SLIS degree and school media certification, Joy selected me to appear with her on a couple of the KET professional development broadcasts for library media specialists. And later Joy asked me to teach young adult literature for the School as an adjunct professor. I continue to be gratehl to both Anne and Joy for believing in me and providing such amazing opportunities.

Tonight I am giving the current SLIS students and graduates a pep talk rather than a bona fide speech and I promise to not be long-winded so the chocolate won't melt?!!

Whatever your role as an information professional consider the end-user of your service. This is easy for those of you who are employed (or soon wil'l be) as a reference librarian in an academic library, a children's librarian in a public library, a research librarian in a law library or a school library media specialist. You will see the patron and be able to surmise how they will use the information that you've provided them. But what about those of you who plan to work as an information technology professional, a cataloger, a database manager? The career opportunities for graduates of our program are endless.

Consider these scenarios from my own experience when I was the information resources consultant at the Kentucky Department of Education and far removed from the enduser: The technical side While developing the request for proposal for the automation system to be partially funded by the KETS division of the Kentucky Department of Education in 1994 the development team considered the end user - school librarians unfamiliar with technology who needed an automation system powerful enough to "get-the-job done yet one that was user friendly for the LMS and students. Convincing the techies that we had to have a proprietary system was even more difficult than selecting a user-friendly but adequate system.

Fall 2005

Software selection In the infancy of Kentucky Education Reform, lovingly known as KERA, educators had to begin thinking out of the box. Textbook adoption change was an area that threatened or perhaps scared many educators. You know you can't teach unless you have a textbook! While at KDE I developed the process for including computer software in textbook adoption and purchase. Again, students (and to some extent teachers) as the end users drove the project.

Database development I had the good fortune to be involved in the early stages of planning the Kentucky Virtual Library as the KDE representative. Many hours of intense discussion always came back to the databases that would be the most helpful to the end user - whether the user was in a public, academic or school library. And as many of you know that concern for the end user is still in evidence as K W L continues to grow and improve.

Conference, event planning (which may someday be part of vour job description) Because I was a consultant in the division of Instructional Technology at KDE I helped plan the annual Kentucky Education Technology Conference now known as the Kentucky Teaching and Learning Conference. This involved working with technology vendors and technology educators from around the nation to provide technology professional development to teachers who were often afraid of a computer. Again the driving force in our decision was selecting the vendors and the sessions to encourage teachers to t q new hardware or a different software program in their classroom.

Training for Trainers In the mid 90s, SLIS faculty member, Professor Joe Miller provided essential technology training as one component of professional development for the project LMS Online Training, sponsored by my technology office at KDE. The intent of the project was to help library media specialists all over Kentucky become more proficient with rechnology, specifically the Internet and information literacy. Again, the focus of my planning for the training as well as the delivery of the professional development was the end user. The library media specialists who would soon need to train teachers and students to use and then evaluate and even create web pages.

I have reviewed each of these because of my "in the trenches" encounters with students when I was the library media specialist in a school that served students in 7-12 grade. Sometimes these encounters came after demanding

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teens' attention by giving them the librarian's glare!! Tubby Smith's glower on the sidelines of a Cat's basketball game doesn't begin to compare to the look a high school librarian can give a misbehaving teen.

It is not always the high achievers that school librarians remember the most vividly; sometimes it is the kids who have lots of obstacles to overcome. Here are just a few of the students that I will never forget: A 15 year old girl who was intelligerit but could not read well enough to pass a test unless it was read to her- but thankful that she still had the opportunity to come to the library - if only to look at the magazine advertisements for prom dresses.

A 17 year old 8Ih grade boy who was the recipient of my famous librarian glare numerous times. Gary (not his real name) finally read and finished a book because he could relate to the main character. Even though to my knowledge that was the only book he read I am still grateful that 1 witnessed his enjoyment of that success.

Students who became excited about learning something new - something that opened a door to the future and decided to pursue that idea in college - and some ofthose kids came from homes where education was ridiculed.

Students with learning disabilities that were determined to be independent and wanted to check out books like the average kids.

I sometimes get "weepy" even thinking about this last group of teens . . .

Kids who came into the library because it was a place of refuge for them.

They could get away from the bullies, o or they could forget for awhile that they didn't fit in with any of the cliques, o or they could escape the situations they faced at home - where they had to the responsible adult o and in the library could forget those responsibilities for awhile and just be a kid.

All of these teens had problems which were made a little better by having the library media center and adults who provided resources and time for them. All of these teens made me grateful for the lessons learned in the SLIS program so that I was able to provide some assistance.

Youth services librarians in public libraries and schools see the impact that a book can have on a child or teen who is struggling - to give them hope that the future will be better than the past.

Children and young adult authors also know that impact --- that is why they write! As Bryan Collier stated at the 2005 McConnell Literature Conference each of us who work with kids or adults can be windows and doors of opportunity for them.

No matter the field of library or information science that you have chosen I hope that you will embark upon your career with enthusiasm!

1 hope you will seize the opportunity to provide important, sometimes life-changing resources, programs and services for the end-user in your selected work environment.

But don't forget to offer a bit of chocolate along the way! !!

Thank you and please help yourself to some chocolate!!

Professor Jackie White receives Outstanding Alumna/us Award from School Director Timothy Sineath

Professor Jackie White Fall 2005

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Phonathon, Planned Giving Opportunities In each issue of the Newsletter, College of Communications and Information Studies Development Officer Janice Birdwhistell discusses ways available to alumni to support the School. We thank Janice for the following discussion.

Annual Phonathon October 2-6 The College's annual Phonathon is October 2 to 6. Gifts from our alumni support our student scholarships, enhance our student and faculty technology and enrich the school's programs, particularly in the field of children's literature and services. When you receive a call from a UK student, please consider making a gift to the SLIS Fund for Excellence in Technology Enhancement, the SLIS Alumni Endowed Scholarship Fund or the Anne McConnell Fund.

These are the three priority funds for the School but gifts may be made to other funds in the School. If you would like a list of scholarship funds in the School, please contact Janice Birdwhistell at jebird2@email.uky.edu.

We are also continuing to provide you with options available through UK to make gifts to the School. College of Communications and Information Studies Development Officer Janice Birdwhistell provided the following: Gifts of Stock - Still a Smart Way to Give Opportunities to Increase Your Income. In addition to outright stock gifts, individual stocks also are very popular for funding life income gift plans. With little if any valuation problems, such gifts are easy to make. What's more, the plans can generate substantial tax benefits in the year they are set up.. .and provide a good income for the donor for life or a term of years. With some plans, you can choose between a fixed and variable income. There are many reasons for using appreciated stock to fund a life income plan. Here are just a couple: Unlock highly appreciated, low-yielding investments and increase income. If you have participated in the market in the last few years, you may have some highly appreciated stocks that pay very little in dividends. Suppose you now want more income, say, for retirement. You could sell your stock and reinvest it to achieve a higher yield, but generally you will face a 15% capital gains tax liability. If you are charitably inclined, a better strategy might be to fund one of our life income gift plans with the stock. There is no capital gains tax when we sell the stock, and the undiluted proceeds can be used to generate a high-income stream for your lifetime or for a term of years. You also receive a substantial income tax charitable deduction, which wit1 further improve your cash flow. In addition, you have the personal satisfaction of knowing that the remainder of your gift ultimately will have an impact on our future work.

Rebalance your portfolio. If you are retired or approaching retirement, you may want to be more conservative with your investments. Fixed income often replaces growth as a pri-

mary investment objective, especially during times of economic uncertainty.

Let us say your investment objective now is to have a mix of 40% in equities and. 60% in fixed income, but you are still over weighted in stocks. Again, selling off stock to rebalance your investment mix might trigger a hefty and unwanted capital gains tax. You can use a life income plan to avoid the tax, rebalance your portfolio, and, at the same time make an impact gift to further our go.od work. Another good example how charitable pjving Gan be used to solve personal financial planning objectives as well.

How Can You Benefit?

It is easy to find out. Simply write, call or e-mail the UK Office af Development, and we will be happy to answer any of your questions. You can even request a Free, noobligation proposal which will spell out the anticipated financial and tax benefits of a hypothetical gift. We will provide you with the procedures for making a gift of your choice to ensure that you receive the maximum benefits and personal satisfaction.

Call Dion Guest or Renee Mussetter, Gift Planning Officers at 800 835-6272.

Jim Blanton Reports from Norfolk We received a report From Ji.m Blanton ('00) the first of July t~ let us know he was about to finish a second master's pragram. In his day job, Jim is on the staff at the Chesapeake Public Library, VA: Greetings from Virginia! Sorry it's been so long since I've dropped in with an update, but I've been swamped between work and completing my MPA degree [at Old Dominion University]. In fact, I'm just six weeks shy of being (finally) done. I've really enjoyed it though. The coursework was right up my alley, and it's been very interesting. It was definitely a trick to balance work and school+but it was worth it.

I continued to work full time while I went through the program (toward the end I really started to feel it). I'm still overseeing our local history rbom and serving as the liaison to our local historical society. I also still coordinate our computer training classes for both the public and city employees (I've also instituted a tutoring program for individuals).

My other big responsibility is running a program called FantaSci in the month of July. I think I may have mentioned starting it up a few years bwk. It's basically a sci-fi csnvention, the likes of which you see spring up in big cities. This was my fourth year running it. It started out fairly small, but attendance is now in the thousands! We even made the front page of the weekend section of the local paper here this time around (which is practically unheard of for a library program). Sure made for a busy summer (thankfully this year I had a few more helpers).

Its been so successful it spawned another program in October called Monsterfest (which .I don't &I thank goodness),

and also a monthly B-movie film program (which I do run).

For the film program, I have in guest speakers (usually authors or folks in the film business) to introduce cheesy films of varying quality. It's a lot of fun, and we've had a tremendous response. Ij's typically the biggest programming draw each month at our library (barring large events). So, inad: vertently we're becoming known for our quirky programming.

Alumni Activities In May, Virginia Gaines Fox ('69) was inducted into the

UK Alumni Association Hall of Distinguished Alumni.

James A. Nelson ('69)' State Librarian and Commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, was elected SOLINET Board chair for 2005-2006.

We thank Frank Smith ('71) for his note and for allowing us to reprint it: "I graduated from UK SLIS in August of 1971 and went on to a career as the reference librarian at Radford College for two years followed by a stint at the Virginia Beach (VA) Public Library which lasted until the end bf 2001. I have been retired since then with my wife, Laurel, also a retired librarian, here in Virginia Beach. I spent most of my career iii front-line reference service, lid brary i n s t r ~ c t i oand ~ was the library's unofficial desktop publisher on the side. I did, end up in a couple of management positions but that was not my strength. I went back to the reference desk when the opportunity arose. I have no regrets."

Karen McDaniel('75) has retired fiom her position as Director of Libraries and Prbfessor at Kentucky State University.

Christina Baum ('77) is Dean of Library Services at Lamar University, Beaumont, TX. Before going to Texas, Christina held academic library positions in Wisconsin, New York, and Kentucky.

Governor Ernie Fletcher in September appointed Terry Birdwhistell ('78) to Kentucky's State Archives and Records commission.' Teny has a day job, too - or claims to as Ass~ciateDean of Special Collections and Digital Program, University of Kentucky Libraries.

Sally Doyen ('79) the end of April was appointed Superintendent of Schools in Portland, CT. She had held the same position in Lebanon, CT. Wayne Onkst ('79)' Director of the Kenton County Public Library, KY, received the &LA Sullivan Award for Public Library Administrators Supporting Services to Children.

The award is given to one public library administratof nationwide who shows exceptional understanding and support of public library support to children.

Michael Fisher ('89) is the Director of Weslaco Public Library, TX. Lisa (Hall) Breithaupt ('93) has been appointed branch manager of the Owensville Branch of the Clermont County

Fall 2005

Public Library, Batavia, OH. Prior to her promotion Lisa was Youth Services Librarian at the Goshen Branch. Much more importantly, however, Lisa and her husband, Tim, welcomed their daughter, Isabel Rose, to the family in February. Lisa has assured us that Joshua, at 2 %, is excited to be a big brother and is carrying out his responsibilities quite well, although at times there is concern he will love his sister to death. "He doesn't understand the concept of gentle love quite yet but we are trying to teach him."

In May of this year, Roger Adams ('94) was elected unanimously as president-elect of the Kansas State University Faculty Senate for 2005-2006 and president for 2006-2007. ~ o ~ e relection 's marks the first time that a member of the library faculty was chosen to serve as Faculty Senate president.

Stephanie Midkiff ('94) is a Reference Librarian with the University of Oregon's School of Law, Eugene, OR. , We appreciate Tim Capehart's ('98) letting us know he has been elected to the Newbeny Committee to read in 2006 and to.deeide on the award in 2007. "I now need to come up with some new career goals. I wanted to write reviews for Hornbook & I started guest reviewing for them late last year ... and I wanted to be on Newbeny."

Susan Foster-Harper ('98) is now Medical Reference and Instruction Librarian at Alden Library, Ohio University, Athens, OH. In September, Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher appointed Jennifer Riddle Gregory ('98) to the State Archives and Records Commission.

Jeanine Hastings Akers ('99) is on staff at St. Mary's Episcopal School, Memphis, TN. Mary Ellen Weber Starmer ("99) is Preservation Coordinator at University of Tennessee Libraries.

The headline writer at The Idaho Statesman summarized it this way: "Librarian is 'a kid magnet."' The 'kid magnet,' it turns out, is Jillian Subach ('99). When Statesman staffer Michelle Cork wrote about Jillian and her work as Head of Youth Services at Meridian Library District, ID, Ms Cork quoted AnnMarie McCaw, whose three-year-old daughter, Ruby, was quite attracted to Jillian.

When we heard from him the first of July, Jim Blaeton ('00) reported he was only six weeks shy of completing the MPA program at Old Dominion University. With the end in sight, Jim wrote: "Just looking forward to a little more free time (and being able to read for pleasure again)." All the tiqe he has been in the MPA program Jim has worked fill time at Chesapeake Public Library, VA. Mykie Howard ('01) has been promoted to the Leader of the Serials Unit position at the National Agricultural Library in Beltsville, MD. "In addition to all the serials duties I was doing before, I now supervise 6 technicians." Mykie and her husband were especially happy to announce the birth of their son, Thomas Michael, on July 20 of this year.

Page 9

After working for three years in one of the branches at Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Susanne Wells ('02) is now Adult Selector in the PLCH Collection Development Department.

Cindy Judd ('03) in September accepted the offer from Eastern Kentucky University to be Team Leader for the Learning Resources Center.

We thank Jo Ann Knight ('03) for letting us know she left her position as librarian at Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women to become Library Director at the Moms Swett Technical Library, Fort Sill, OK. According to Jo Ann, "The Swett library serves the field artillery branch of the Army."

Brandy Babb ('04) is Catalog Librarian at the Campbell County Public Library, in Northern Kentucky.

Valerie Edgeworth ('04) is on the Public Records staff at the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, Frankfort, KY Jim Kelley ('V4) IS a Law Librarian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Jeanna Cornett is the Librarian at Alice Whitman Memorial Library, Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing, Hyden, KY.

Jim Falkenstine let us know in August he had accepted a School Media Specialist position at Holy Trinity Parish School in Louisville.

Michael Fiedler is a Librarian at the Thayer Library, West Point, NY. James Gardner is on staff at Clark County Public Library, Winchester, KY. Shara Hoskins is Library Media Specialist at Eastside Elementary, Cynthiana, KY. Katrina Johnson is Library Media Specialist at Henry County Middle School, New Castle, KY. Pamela Slone Klinepeter is the Acquisitions and Serials Librarian at Ashland Community and Technical College, Ashland, KY. Niambi LeeKong is Education Curriculum Librarian, Blazer Library, Kentucky State University, Frankfort.

Tammy Kirk ('04) is a GG-9 Llbrar~anwith the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH.

Traci Mahone is an English teacher at Scott County Ninth Grade School, Georgetown, KY.

David Webb ('04) is an Adult Reference Librarian for the Kern County Public Library, Bakersfield, CA.

Marsha Mattox is on staff at Bourbon County Middle School, Paris, KY.

Nikole Wolfe ('04) has joined the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives Field Services Division as a Children's and Youth Services Consultant.

Abigail McCurry is a Children's Librarian at Lexington Public Library.

Among Recent Graduates

Bruce Miracle is Librarian at Union College Library, Barbourville, KY.

Jill Anderson teaches at Eastside Elementary, Cynthiana, KY. Jill and Shaun's son, Cooper, was born August 15.

Rebecca Montano-Smith is Librarian I with Lexington Public Library's Village Branch.

Kate Breen wrote: "1 am actually wearing two hats at DeSales High School, an all-boys school in Louisville, this year. Primarily, I am the Library Media Specialist, but I am also Chair of the English Department. The library needs to be updated, so my first task is to weed. I am writing grant proposals to purchase an OPAC and suff~cientnew materials. I have subscribed to KYVL. Because every student and teacher is issued a lap top, we are going to initiate a strong emphasis on information literacy. It will be easier for librarian Kate to do that because she can get English chair Kate to collaborate with her. As English chair, I am writing a new curriculum and supervising teachers. (That management course has already come in handy)."

"I wanted to report that I absolutely and totally love my job," Jenny Nelson wrote. "It is an excellent fit for me. My title is Reference Librarian, but in fact I do much more than that. The reference desk is staffed with graduate students (usually tirom the medieval history and Classics departments, because you're required to know Latin to work the desk), and they do most of the book retrieval for patrons.

I'm also involved in some reclassification projects from old call # to new ones (our books were originally cataloged according to L.A. County classification system - whatever the heck that is - but slowly being re-classed to LC). I'm also hopefully going to head up a medieval and renaissance manuscript cataloging project. A little bit of everything! at You're welcome to check out our website (http://www.law.berkeley.edu/library/robbins, but I must warn you that it's not our strongest feature and needs a lot of improvement. In fact, one of my tasks in my job is to help redo the site. I'm hoping we can get cracking on that soon."

Jenny is Reference Librarian for the Robbins Collection, the special collections within University of California Berkeley's School of Law.

Diane Bundy is a Children's Librarian at Lexington Public Library.

Prestine Chapman is on the staff at Phillip A. Sharp Middle School, Butler, KY. Amy Charley is Children's Programmer at Kenton County Public Library, Erlanger, KY.

Fall 2005

Page 10

Paul'Page ik a Re&mwLilsmim act Lam& Mm@PidtlLi. brary, ~-k$vit]h Godl* hrf&ywille,TN. David ~&weil' &.eirgul&og S&ms MMagw at J~ssanine €bun@Publie Ltbr@qs Nbholas~ill$.gV.

Jeff &dingw sent aa e-mail in July ~ G I let ;ui b o w he ''found b n a t empkymenf%at the Milnar ~i&rarsy~ Illimis

State Un,ivergity, as Access Smfws ~ i b ~ q n . . z-

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Natice sfthe deiahs af ,B%aigaretC. B ow r36).,BiUik J. Bur~taM!'&)., Domthy L: Day (r49j9 N a h a J; Cibse ('54)$ Joan V. AIb~aghc559, Myrtle F. ECelky (@tZQi Pam~l& M. B w 4 ~ rP'TJ),and TiWie Trrrnfani p91) a m e ta , us withwt further infa~mition.

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Jeremy White-Zeager receives Beta Phi Mu honorary cord from Director Sineath

Professor Lois Chan, Su~2a.nDaole, and Jennie Lair Carrigan visit with Anne McConnell Cotterill.

Fall 2005

Page 11

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School of Library and Information Science University of Kentucky 502 King Library Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0039 MEMBERSHIP DUES - 2005

Postal address

Email a d d w Please make check, in the amount of $5.00, pwable to SLIS Alumni Association, and send check, with this form (or photocopy), to the above address. Thank you, If y ~ wish u to contribute to a School Fund, design& the Fund below, make your check payable to the University oflYentucky, and send your check and this form (or photocopy) to the . -.

School at the above address. Thank you. ( I'iL-;; >,c.,kZ ' ! & < '4,. ~ ~ < - ~ ~ ' 3'4 .& - .*: P :t :**.--\ :. , ( ) Anne Y McCannen k&d ( j Director's Fund for Excellence ( ) Scholarship Fund

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Please complete the following to have us change your name, address, and/or position in om records, or to submit aews to the NEWSLETTER. Please ~ p or e print legibly, and d any item that is a change. Or, send news to carrigan@uky.ed% . -. t,

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