SLISSpring2011

Volume 33 Number 1

Gail Kennedy, LLAMA President, Is School’s 2011 Outstanding Alumna Gail Kennedy (’74), LLAMA President and a senior administrator in University of Kentucky Libraries, has been chosen to receive the School of Library and Information Science Outstanding Alumna Award for 2011, which will be presented to her at the alumni and awards banquet, to be held Friday, April 29. Gail was nominated by Professor Lois Chan, who wrote in her nominating letter: “In addition to her numerous important assignments in UK Libraries, Gail Kennedy has an extensive record of University service, including adjunct faculty member to what was then the College of Library and Information Science, when she taught cataloging and classification, library networks, and technical services.

Nationally, she has been active in ALA’s Library Leadership and Management Association, and currently is President of LLAMA. She has served as Chair of the Resources Section of the Resources and Technical Services Division, received the KLA Outstanding Academic Librarian of the Year Award and has been President of the Kentucky Library network.”

Gail graduated from UK with a BA in English. While an undergraduate she worked in the cataloging department in King Library, and while in library school she worked full time in circulation. At the time she completed the MSLS program she was Head of Acquisitions in King Library.

Today, she is Director of Branch Libraries and Director of Little Fine Arts Library, University of Kentucky Libraries.

Gail’s career in UK Libraries has been quite varied. In addition to being Head of Acquisitions, she was, early in her career, Head of Circulation and Assistant Director for Technical Services. During the period 1988-1996 she was Associate Director of Libraries, in which she supervised eleven branch libraries and served as Deputy Director in the absence of the Director. She coordinated the reporting of annual statistics to the Association of Research Libraries, as well as other national statistics for the library system.

Spring 2011 In 1996-1997 Gail was Team Development Coordinator, in which she was responsible for the daunting but essential task of guiding staff development and training for the reorganization of UK Libraries into a team-based organizational structure. This required that she develop a training program for the entire library staff, 275 FTE. As a part of this assignment, Gail taught courses in effective meetings, decision making, consensus building, and problem solving in a team setting. She worked with the consultant to redesign UK Libraries’ strategic planning and leadership.

During the period 1997-2000 Gail led the planning effort for the renovation of King Library North, which reopened in October 2000 as the Lucille Caudill Little Fine Arts Library and Learning Center. In addition to developing the building program and serving as Libraries contact with the architect and contractor, she supervised the reorganization of staffing that resulted from merging two branch libraries and adding comprehensive technical service operations. At the conclusion of that major effort, she was appointed Director of Little Fine Arts Library. In 2007 she was asked to take on the added responsibility of Director of Branch Libraries, in which she coordinates six branch libraries, including the direct supervision of the branch librarians.

As Professor Chan noted in her letter nominating Gail for the Outstanding Alumna Award, she has been active in the Library Leadership and Management Association, a division of the American Library Association, and is the 2010-2011 President of LLAMA. The press release announcing Gail had been elected Vice-President/President-Elect of LLAMA noted she “has been a member of LLAMA for 19 years. Active in LLAMA’s Buildings and Equipment Section (BES), Kennedy currently chairs the Interior Design Awards Committee and was a mentor for new librarians in LLAMA’s mentoring program. She has also served on LLAMA’s President’s Program, the joint Association of College and Research Libraries ACRL/LLAMA Interdivisional Committee on Building Resources, and chaired the Buildings and Equipment Section.”

School Receives 1st ASIS&T Lecture Award

SLIS Director Appointed to Library Board

The School has received the first in an annual series of awards by the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) to sponsor a public lecture by a major scholar in some branch of library and information science. The grant application for the lecture was submitted by Donald Case, Jeff Huber and Sujin Kim, of the School’s faculty. Professor Case provided this information: “On April 11 the SLIS and ASIS&T will offer a lecture by Dr. Sherrilynne Fuller, of the University of Washington, entitled “From intervention Informatics to prevention informatics.”

The lecture will take place at the Lexington Hyatt Hotel, most likely between 4 and 5PM. A reception will follow.

The speech will focus on Dr. Fuller’s work on developing health information systems (from individual patient records to building integrated databases and tools to support disease surveillance). She will discuss how the established model of information systems to support intervention is leading to what she calls "prevention informatics,” in which information systems help prevent disease in the first place. She will discuss the use of information and communications technologies for improving health in low resource settings. She believes that many of the information systems problems in developing countries are mirrored in a variety of ways in the United States.

Dr. Sherrilynne Fuller is Professor of Biomedical and Health Informatics at the School of Public Health and the Information School, University of Washington. Professor Fuller is also CoDirector of the UW Center for Public Health Informatics. She received her BA (Biology) and MLS (information Science) degrees from Indiana University and her PhD (Information Science) from the University of Southern California.

In 2008 Fuller led the session on Public Health Informatics at the Rockefeller Bellagio E-Health month-long summit, which has resulted in the creation of a number of global ehealth initiatives. In addition, Fuller serves as the leader of the Global Partners in Public Health Informatics, a virtual organization focused on improving health in low-resource settings through the application of health information and communications technologies. She has lectured and consulted around the world, such as in Vietnam at the Hanoi School of Public Health, and in Kenya at the University of Nairobi School of Computing and Informatics. Fuller has published dozens of articles, books, book chapters, and conference papers, 13 of them in the last four years alone.

Professor Fuller served as a member of the President’s (White House) Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) 1997-2002 and co-chaired the PITAC Subcommittee on Health. She also served as a member of the Board of Regents of the National Library of Medicine and is an elected fellow of the Medical Library Association and the American College of Medical Informatics.

Dr. Fuller, a Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics and the Medical Library Association, in 2010 received the Noyes Award, the Highest Professional Distinction of the MLA. Dr. Fuller’s website can be found at: http://faculty.washington.edu/sfuller/”

Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry appointed the School’s Director, Jeff Huber, to serve on Lexington Public Library's Advisory Board. The appointment was effective January 2011 and is for two years. Members of the Advisory Board work in conjunction with members of the Board of Trustees to assist Lexington Public Library's Executive Director in providing direction for the library.

Spring 2011

Jeff Naidoo Joins UK SLIS Faculty . . .

Jeff Naidoo, who was born and raised in South Africa, joined the School’s faculty in January of this year, after completing his PhD in Communication and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama. Jeff earned a bachelor’s degree in Commerce and Management at the University of South Africa and then joined the corporate sector, where he worked as a management accountant with the firm Billion Plc. He was later appointed to the firm’s corporate headquarters in Europe, based jointly in the United Kingdom and Holland. He served as the project manager on a project to develop a technology-enabled solution to standardize the operational reporting among the corporation’s various international subsidiaries.

Jeff was subsequently recruited by Cap Gemini Ernst and Young (CGEY) North America, a global Big Five management consulting company, as a Senior Management Consultant, and while with the company, he told the newsletter, “I worked on various IT consulting projects of varying scope and across multiple industry sectors. Industry sectors included Media and Entertainment, Retail and Aerospace.

While working for CGEY I completed my MBA [at TUI University] with a specialization in Information Technology. I left the corporate world to complete my Ph.D. in Communication and Information Sciences.”

Jeff also told the newsletter: My dissertation broadly encompassed the areas of business intelligence and predictive modeling. Specifically, I focused on how adequate forewarning of an imminent recession can significantly limit its severity and mitigate the gravity of its impact. I argued that conventional methods of forecasting recessions had not met with much overall success historically. These methods were particularly ineffective when it came to long-range forecasting. The purpose of my study, then, was to augment the predictive power of conventional recession-forecasting models by examining the interrelationships among macroeconomic indicators, government information sources and performance data of public companies. The study sought evidence of a predictive relationship between institutional artifacts and macroeconomic vulnerability, and then modeled these possible associations to provide long-range predictive insights that will serve as a forewarning of impending recessions.”

This spring Jeff is teaching a section of LIS 603, the required management course.

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. . . and Receives the James D. Ramer Outstanding Dissertation Award Less than a month after joining the School’s faculty, Jeff Naidoo learned he had been selected to receive the University of Alabama School of Library & Information Studies James D. Ramer Outstanding Dissertation Award, to be presented at Honors Day, April 8. James D. Ramer was the first Dean of the University of Alabama School of Library & Information Studies, and the endowed Award is presented “to a doctoral student in SLIS based on the quality of his or her dissertation.”

versity uses the Blackboard course management system for online courses. Blackboard can be troublesome, and has been especially so early this semester. For some time those of us in the School have turned to Professor Joe Miller to solve Blackboard-related problems, and the University has begun to do the same. The newsletter recently asked Professor Miller to report on what he has been up to beyond the School, concerning Blackboard in particular and Information Technology in general, and we thank him for taking the time to reply:

“I have been involved with University online learning initiatives this year, serving on two different committees in this area. The first is a University-wide committee looking at Learning Management Systems (LMS), which for us Prof Donald Case to Devote Sabbatical to means Blackboard. The University is planning new BlackBook Manuscripts, Expected in 2012 board features, including a mobile app for students to use with Blackboard. However, the huge growth in Blackboard Professor Donald Case is working on two book manuuse coupled with some bugs in the latest version have crescripts, the first a new edition of his ated challenges for online students. The award-winning text, Looking for University is planning on adding more The School will host information: A survey of research on online classes, so it is important that we a reception information seeking, needs, and get this right. The committee is working for its alumni on behavior, to be published by Emerald with UKIT [University of Kentucky Tuesday, April 12, in the United Kingdom. The second is Information Technology] and with CELT in conjunction with the Health information seeking, co(Center for the Enhancement of Learning Kentucky Public Library authored with former CCIS Dean J. and Teaching) to examine problems and David Johnson, and to be published by Association Conference. recommend solutions.

Peter Lang International. Both texts are Terrace Atrium The other group I have been involved expected to appear sometime in 2012.

6:00-7:00 pm with is the Chellgren Learning Dr. Case will be on sabbatical fall Community, comprised of faculty from semester 2011, to work on these books and other projects. across campus interested in online and hybrid courses. This group is not focused on technology per se, but instead is focused on pedagogical issues and faculty concerns about Prof Lisa O’Connor, Will Buntin Receive how online learning affects the learning community of the Awards at Annual College Ceremony University. A new technology that the University has purchased to support these initiatives is called echo360. It is a At the College of Communications and Information Studlecture capture technology installed in many classrooms ies annual awards and recognition ceremony, held in Nothat then uploads all the captured content and makes it vember of last year, the School’s Professor Lisa available in Blackboard. This is envisioned as a means to O’Connor received the 2010 Outstanding Teacher support both online and hybrid style courses by recording Award. Professor O’Connor received the Award in 2008 face-to-face sessions for use later.” as well. Also at the November program, Student Affairs The School is within the College of Communications and Officer Will Buntin received the 2010 Outstanding Staff Information Studies, and Associate Dean for Research Dr Award.

Nancy Harrington several years ago instituted a monthly research seminar series, at which faculty present their reProf Joseph Miller Reports on His search. We attended the seminar in the fall at which ProfesService and Research Activities sors Miller and Donald Case presented their joint research, and we asked Professor Miller the status of that undertaking. He replied: The School of Library and Information Science has been a leader in Distance Education at the University of Kentucky, “My other agenda last semester was working with Proas Distance Education has evolved from faculty traveling to fessor Case on a research study; this work resulted in a off-campus sites, to reaching two or more sites via interacsoon to be published article in JASIST [Journal of the tive television, and finally to teaching online. The School’s American Society for Information Science & Technology] spring 2011 schedule comprises 23 courses, excluding protitled ‘Do Bibliometricians Cite Differently from other fessional field experience, school media practicum, and Scholars?’ It was gratifying to have the opportunity to work independent study, and 19 of the 23 are online. The Uniwith Professor Case, a well-known scholar in this area.”

Spring 2011

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At the College awards and recognition ceremony, clockwise from top left: Dean Dan O’Hair presents the Outstanding Staff Award to Will Buntin; Patricia Deacon and Barbara Stephenson, daughters of Hallie Day Blackburn, flank Elyse Brown French, who received the Hallie Day Blackburn Scholarship; Lacey Fiorella and Matt Cockerell; Patricia Deacon, Dan O’Hair, and Barbara Stephenson; Director Jeff Huber presents the Research Challenge Trust Fund Scholarship to Matt Cockerell; Dennis Carrigan enjoys Maker’s Mark: “If I visit the bar three times, the speakers are eloquent,” he told the newsletter.

Spring 2011

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Will Buntin Uses Varied Means to Maintain SLIS Enrollment In a successful effort to maintain enrollment at the upper end of the target range, a headcount of 180-220, Student Affairs Officer Will Buntin employs a variety of recruiting efforts. He participates each year in “career fairs” on a number of campuses, to include Berea College, Hanover College, Eastern State University, Kentucky State University, Northern Kentucky University, University of Louisville, and of course UK. He has published advertisements in student newspapers at a number of schools, to include Marshall University and the University of Cincinnati. And, he has a table at conferences, for example, the annual Kentucky Library Association conference and Kentucky Public Library Association conference.

As yet another way to recruit students, Will bids on search terms so that, when someone enters a search phrase on Google.com, such as “online library science degree,” the School gets a prominent spot on the results page. Will explained to the newsletter: “This lets us target those people who are searching for information about library science programs, or more specifically online library science programs.” He holds online information sessions for those interested in the program, and he continues to make a concerted effort to make people aware that our program can be completed entirely online. This often involves correcting inaccurate information, that even with online courses students must still travel to the UK campus. However, as Will reminded the newsletter, faculty voted to adopt the policy, effective fall 2010, that there are no required face-to-face sessions in online courses. Finally, he reminded the newsletter that a person who has been admitted to a UK graduate program pays in-state tuition, no matter where the student resides, as long as s/he takes only online courses.

McConnell Center Reunited with SLIS After remaining on the fifth floor of the King Library building for more than three years following the relocation of the School of Library and Information Science to the Little Fine Arts Library building, the McConnell Center for the Study of Youth Literature was reunited with the School in February, in the Center’s new facilities on the third floor of the Fine Arts Library building. The Center, named after beloved educator and mentor Anne McConnell, was created and is maintained to serve as a unique examination, study, and research center of the School. The McConnell Center supports teaching, learning and research related to children's and teen/young adult literature by serving as a resource for UK students and faculty, researchers, public librarians, school librarians, teachers, child care providers, parents, authors and illustrators of youth literature, and other adults who work with children. The McConnell Center's noncirculating collections include current, retrospective, and historical books published for children and teens/young adults. The Center is managed by SLIS Professor Stephanie Spring 2011

D. Reynolds and maintained by Graduate Assistant Rachel McGuire. The Center is staffed Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm, and Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. The Center is available for use at other times by appointment. To arrange for special assistance, make inquiries, or to schedule the Center for a class or group meeting, please call 859-257-5797.

McConnell Center in its new home

Dean Sees Opportunities for Synergy in Move to Little Library Building When College of Communications and Information Studies Dean H. Dan O’Hair arrived at UK the summer of 2009, he moved into the Grehan Building, where most College units were housed, and discovered the building was bursting at the seams, while a substantial part of the third floor of Little Library Building, to which the School of Library and Information Science had relocated, was unfinished. He saw an opportunity not only to relieve the pressures on the Grehan building but also, by relocating certain College units to the Little building, to achieve synergies within the College. He worked with the School’s Director, Jeff Huber, to configure the space, and the renovation was completed in February.

Dean O’Hair recently told the newsletter: “The College’s Graduate Studies program, Risk Sciences Division, Information and Communications Technology Co-laboratory, Dissemination and Implementation Science Consortium, Division of Instructional Communication, the dean’s office, and several faculty and graduate students came over in an effort to develop synergy, not only with each other, but with our LIS colleagues as well. We appreciate the vision and cooperativeness from our SLIS colleagues in making this happen. There is already a buzz about it on campus. The two new classrooms alone are generating foot traffic among hundreds of undergraduates students who otherwise would not have visited the 3rd floor of Little Library or known that the School of Library and Information Science was one of UK’s academic units.”

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Accreditation Review Panel Visits School

The most recent Lunch-N-Learn, on February 3 of this year, featured a panel comprised of Martha White, Director of Public Services at Lexington Public Library; Tonya Head (’05), Manager of Adult Services at LPL’s Central Library; Nancye Browning (’95), Assistant Director, Public Services, Louisville Free Public Library; and Greg Schwartz, Library Systems Manager, also from LFPL. They discussed issues facing public libraries and what it is like to work in public libraries today. Following their presentations, the four took questions from the audience.

As part of the regular, periodic comprehensive review of the School’s accreditation, the American Library Association Committee on Accreditation External Review Panel will visit the School February 27 – March 1. Panel members are to meet with members of the School’s Advisory Council, alumni, and employers at a reception on Sunday afternoon, the 27th, following which they will meet with School faculty. While on campus members of the ERP will interview President Lee Todd, Provost Kumble Subbaswamy, College The Lunch-N-Learn on Friday, January 28, 2011, featured of Communications and Information Studies Dean Dan the School’s newest faculty members, Dr Wade Bishop and O’Hair, College AssociDr Jeff Naidoo, each of The School’s Alumni and Awards Banquet will be held ate Dean for Research whom discussed his Friday, April 29, at Embassey Suites Lexington.

Nancy Harrington, Vice dissertation, areas of President for InstituFor information and to make a reservation: research, and courses he tional Diversity Judy expects to teach. http://www.uky.edu/CommInfoStudies/SLIS/students/banquet11.htm Jackson, Dean of Libraries Terry BirdwhisOn November 17, 2010, three recent graduates discussed tell, Chief Information Officer Vince Kellen, and LIS stutheir current jobs, experiences in and out of the program that dents. They may sit in on face-to-face classes, and they will helped them get their positions, and suggestions for current have access to online classes. students about searching for the first professional position.

At the conclusion of its visit the Panel will write a draft Presenters were Zachary Young, Information Services Lireport to the Committee on Accreditation. The School will brarian, Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing; be given the opportunity to review the draft to correct any Amy Laub, Technical Services & Acquisitions Manager, factual errors. The ERP final report is the basis for the COA Paris-Bourbon County Library; and Sara Abdmishani, Coldecision about the School’s accreditation, which will be lection Coordinator, UK Libraries Special Collections & announced in conjunction with the ALA Annual Conference Digital Programs. this summer. Members of the ERP are: In September of last year Constance Ard (’95), owner of Marilyn Irwin ERP Chair Associate Professor, School of Answer Maven, was the speaker at a Lunch-N-Learn, on the Library and Information Science, Indiana University, Inditopic, “Information Science Career Alternatives: From Real anapolis, IN. to Unexpected.” Constance discussed her transition from a Eileen G. Abels Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, traditional special library position to owning her own conCollege of Information Science and Technology, Drexel sulting business. In her talk she stressed the importance of University, Philadelphia, PA. professional organizations and networking.

Mary Arnold Public Service Supervisor, Maple Heights PubIn March 2010 Jessamine County Public Library Director lic Library, Cuyahoga County Library, Maple Heights, OH. Ron Critchfield (’95) discussed the events that led to the Edward D. Garten Coordinator and Core Faculty, Higher dismissal of two JCPL employees for violating library polEducation Leadership EdD Program, Richard W Riley Colicy, and the controversy surrounding the dismissals. For his lege of Education & Leadership, Walden University, MN. leadership and commitment to the principles of intellectual Robert Holley Professor, School of Library and Informafreedom, Ron received the 2010 ALA John Phillip Imroth tion Science, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI. Award.

Diane G. Schwartz Director of Libraries, Kaleida Health At a Lunch-N-Learn in November 2009 Sheree HuberLibrary, Buffalo, NY. Williams (’81), Director of Library Services, Jefferson Community & Technical College, talked about what it is Lunch-N-Learn Brings Librarians to Campus like to work in a community college library.

Director Jeff Huber in 2009 introduced Lunch-N-Learn, a program that brings librarians to campus to make presentations and answer questions. Jeff told the newsletter: “I see Lunch-N-Learn as a way to enhance the on-campus experience for our students while providing an additional resource for our distance students, since we record these sessions and post them in the student organization area in Blackboard.”

Spring 2011

Eastern Kentucky University Dean of Libraries and member of the School’s Advisory Council Carrie Cooper inaugurated Lunch-N-Learn in September 2009, when she shared her thoughts on current trends and issues in a talk that she titled “Academic Library Issues and Trends: A Visit with a School Library Media Specialist Turned Academic Library Director.”

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SLIS Participates in Library of Congress Alternative Spring Break Internships As a result of a meeting last summer between Director Jeff Huber and Deanna Marcum (’71), Associate Librarian of Congress for Library Services, students enrolled in the School’s program have the opportunity to participate in the Library of Congress Alternative Spring Break Internship Program. Five students, who received financial support from the School, will spend spring break 2011 in LC internships.

The five and their internships are: Emily Rae Aldridge’s internship will be in Reference and Processing Assistance, European Reading Room. According to information provided by the Library: “This would be a combination of activities that would include assistance for reference questions and processing the European Division’s collections. It would involve searching for information in support of reference, or serving as a backup to the reference librarian on duty. It would involve processing the Division’s Slavic periodicals and other collections, to be determined by the needs of the week when the student will be here.”

Bowling Green, Kentucky, native Emily Rae Aldridge is a second semester student in the School of Library and Information Science. She has degrees in History and Russian and “is excited to use her Russian language while interning at the Library of Congress in the European Reading Room.

It was a childhood dream to work at the LOC and I can't wait to explore its hallowed halls.”

Emily Pike’s internship is referred to as Subject Indexing Historic News Photographs, Prints and Photographs Division. The description reads: “The student would learn to assign subject headings to news photographs in the National Photo Collection. The images feature portraits of presidents and celebrities along with scenes of social life, primarily in Washington, DC between 1909 and 1932.”

Emily Pike is a former teacher and is pursuing school media certification. She opted to take additional coursework to further explore her new interest in cataloging. After her courses in cataloging, she declared she would one day work at the Library of Congress and, she told the newsletter, “is excited to have the opportunity so soon.”

In her internship, Meredith E Nelson will work with Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. The description reads: “Chronicling America Topic Pages assignment. The University of Kentucky is one of our 25 institutional partners in building the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) of which Chronicling America is an outcome.”

Meredith Nelson holds an undergraduate degree in American Studies from UK and is in her second year in the LIS program, which she expects to complete this summer.

She is an employee of the Council Clerk's Office in the LexSpring 2011

ington-Fayette Urban County Government, and anticipates a long career in some type of public service, whether it be in information organization or public libraries. Meredith told the newsletter that, from the Library of Congress program, she hopes “to gain further insight into the federal government's role in preserving history for posterity.”

Sarah Wood will devote her internship to African Pamphlet Collection Processing. The Library provided this informaton about her internship: “The African Section of the African Middle Eastern Division is the custodian of the African Pamphlet collection, which encompasses ephemera from Africa which is outside of the Library’s collection guidelines. Because these documents, pamphlets and other ephemera are important to the study of African nations, we have kept the materials which are divided into subject areas for each country in Africa.

The intern would assist in the processing and sorting of materials recently acquired from East African countries.”

Sara Wood is in her second year in the School’s program.

Her research interests include preservation and exhibit design, collection development, program development and evaluation, and research for vulnerable populations.

Jessicah Cheyenne Hohman’s internship will be devoted to the Electronic Book Web Guide Project. According to information from the Library: “The recent growth in the popularity of ebook readers and mobile devices has led to a corresponding growth in the demand for ebooks among library users. During the past several months, the Library of Congress has seen a significant increase in digital reference inquiries from patrons who want to know how to access ebooks, in a variety of formats, through our website. While the Library describes basic resources for accessing ebooks on its website at http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/libsci/faq.html#books1, a more comprehensive guide is required to detail the various options patrons have for accessing ebooks not only though the Library of Congress, but also though other libraries and elsewhere on the Web (for instance, online bookstores and repositories such as the internet Archive and Google Books).

The goal of this project is to develop content that will become part of a Library of Congress “web guide” to ebooks. The intern who works on the project will be responsible for surveying the current ebook environment to identify key resources and topics that should be addressed in an online guide to ebooks. The final product will be a Word document outlining all of the sections and resources that should be included in the guide.”

Cheyenne Hohman is from Louisville, Kentucky, and has completed 18 of the 36 credit hours required to finish the School’s program. She told the newsletter she “is excited to go to the Library of Congress not only to get a sneak peek at what's behind the scenes there, but also to gain valuable experience in the field and learn more about the intersection of print and digital media for her internship.”

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Nick Nelson, Former Submariner, Enrolls in UK SLIS Program We are certain that, among the School’s students, in any semester of any year, there are interesting stories and unusual backgrounds. Unfortunately, we become aware of only a few of them. Nick Nelson, who enrolled in the program last fall, has an unusual background that we did learn of: For five years after graduating from high school, Nick spent a fair amount of time underwater, as a submariner in the U.S. Navy. The United States has had an all-volunteer military for decades, and so Nick volunteered to serve in the Navy. However, within the Navy the submarine service is volunteer, and so he volunteered a second time. Nick is the first person we have known to have served on a submarine, and, certain that alumni would be interested, we asked Nick if he would answer a few questions for the newsletter. He did, and we thank him for doing so.

What prompted you to enter the Navy following high school, rather than go directly to college?

To be perfectly honest I lacked direction at that time in my life. I did poorly in school because I never fully understood why I was there and had very little parental pressure. I have seven brothers and sisters, and I think my parents didn’t have much time to make sure I was on the straight and narrow. I came to the conclusion that I better do something or else I would end up unhappy or worse and luckily I did well on the ASVAB [Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery] exam to get into a good job.

What led you to choose the submarine service?

I never had anything in mind other than I didn’t want to run 17 miles while wearing a heavy backpack. I always liked the movie “The Hunt for Red October,” and when they told me I’d be shooting torpedoes and tomahawk missiles I thought that sounded pretty good. It was also explained to me that I’d get a fair amount of schooling in electronics and mechanics and I thought at the time those skills might help me get a job if I decided to get out after my first enlistment.

Are there psychological tests administered to a person who hopes to enter the submarine service?

There are some tests but you would really have to try to fail them. I only really remember taking one written exam and the questions were rather out of this world. “Have you ever imagined that you were dead and people were standing over you and speaking but they couldn’t hear you yelling for them?” Err… No I haven’t. The real “test” so to speak is getting your security clearances. Even the cooks had to have a Secret clearance just to be on board. That was some amount of paperwork. I even found out later they had tracked down my 3rd grade teacher and gave her a call.

What was the name of the ship – or is a submarine referred to as a “boat”? – you were assigned to, and is it conventional or nuclear powered?

Spring 2011

It is commonly called a boat. I was on the USS Columbus (SSN-762) from 1998 to 2002 where I made three 6-month deployments in the Western Pacific. It was a nuclear submarine. All of the US Navy’s subs are nuclear now. I remember looking through the leaded window at the reactor. Pretty neat.

When you went aboard a submarine for the first time, were you surprised by the closeness of the quarters?

It is a bit intimidating how close it all is. It was the only time in my life I was really grateful to be 5’8”. It’s a common joke you can pretend to be on a submarine if you built your house with all the pipes, ducting, and wires on the outside of the walls and invited 150 of your not-so-closest male friends over to hang out in the basement for 6 months. I’m always hearing people say that they could never do that but honestly once the hatch is closed and you’re 200 feet underwater you don’t think about it much.

What was the longest period you were submerged?

On my very first deployment during Operation Desert Fox we were under for 78 days straight. The thing is we were just waiting around to see if we were going to shoot Tomahawk cruise missiles at a particular country. We came close to shooting once but never did and we were so incredibly bored. I remember the Officer of the Deck getting screamed at by our captain because he tried writing his name on the navigation charts by steering the boat during his watch. I was really new and very low on the totem pole so it wasn’t much fun.

Can you describe the sensation of submerging as well as the sensation of surfacing?

The thing about submarines is you don’t feel a lot of motion when you are submerged. Most things are rather gradual an only when we do high speed maneuvers do you feel much of anything. We would practice “Emergency Blows” which many people have seen in the movies as the submarine shooting up out of the water. That is kinda fun and feels like a really fast elevator.

You were a Fire Control Technician. What does that involve?

Fire Control refers to firing weapons. Basically we were in charge of weapons systems maintenance and operation.

Most of my job while underway was to help the ship navigate and maintain a good picture of the traffic on the ocean.

You have to remember, the whole idea of a submarine is that no one knows you’re there so you have to be extra careful to maneuver the boat and avoid collisions and so forth.

The sonar techs sent us the sound information in the form of a bearing and we would use our computers to basically do trigonometry to track contacts. In the event of hostilities, we would do this to potentially fire a torpedo or track another ship to spy on them.

What was your work week on the boat? Not what did you do, but what days and hours were you on duty?

When we were in port we would be on a duty rotation in which every 3 to 5 days you would have to be "on duty" for 24 hours. This means that you would conduct housekeeping Page 8

responsibilities like cleaning the boat, standing security watches, conducting shipboard maintenance like taking on potable water from shore connections, pumping the sanitary tanks off the boat, and taking readings on equipment.

Depending on your rank and how short-handed you were, you would stand one or two watches throughout the day, and when you were doing that you'd be tasked with the things that needed to be done. When you weren't taking care of duty-related needs, you would be working with your division at whatever jobs needed to be done that day. Generally, duty days were not too pleasant and the longer the duty cycle (5 section [duty every 5 days] is a whole lot better than 3 section [duty every 3 days]), the better.

When we were underway we would switch to an 18 hour day as opposed to the typical 24. This is done because of the lack of personnel onboard and all of the jobs that need to be done. Some surface ships do this kind of thing to keep the crew rotating to different times of day. A typical submarine day starts by being woken up by the control room messenger. You have about 20 to 30 minutes to get dressed and get some chow (usually the line is not too bad), and get to your watch station to relieve the person waiting for you.

You have 6 hours of watch to stand and then you are done. With the 12 hours you have between watches, you have a chance to conduct maintenance, study for your qualifications (to get certified to do things like stand watches or run equipment, etc), go to training sessions, watch a movie or otherwise have leisure time and get some sleep. It really depends on what is scheduled and so forth. Sometimes the ship will conduct drills and those, while necessary, are no fun at all and if you're really unlucky, you might not get to sleep very much.

What did you do when you were not on duty or sleeping?

Looks like I kind of answered this one above. Drills, shooting the breeze, studying for qualifications, movies, reading and things like that were what you did to pass the time. I remember smoking a lot of cigarettes back in “shaft alley” where the shaft connecting with the propeller left the boat at the very rear of the ship.

It seems life on a sub could become quite boring. I wonder if you experienced that. What did you do to put in the time?

I was bored a lot, but there were times when you were very scared or super super busy and not getting a lot of sleep.

There are probably a dozen examples but one that's fairly innocent and kind of funny. I remember standing watch on a long special operation where we were basically waiting to see if we were going to shoot Tomahawk missiles at a certain country back in 1998. We were on station rather far out from any populated areas and were bored to tears.

Normally, when you are on a “spec-op”, a fast attack submarine is very busy tracking contacts, navigating tricky places and things like that. This time we were just stuck in a box of water waiting for orders. The Officer of the Deck (the officer who is currently in charge of navigating and steering the boat for that watch) was trying to write his last name in cursive on the chart by steering the boat and makSpring 2011

ing various turns at precise times. There were no other contacts around so this was relatively safe to do and we were all terribly bored. He made it to the second to last letter before the captain saw what he was doing on his electronic display in his stateroom and came barreling into the control room to scream at the OOD. That was one of the funnier things and a great example of just trying to entertain yourself.

Alumna Leoma Dunn Is 2011 SLA Fellow We were pleased to learn that Leoma Dunn (’03) is a member of the Special Libraries Association 2011 Class of Fellows and Rising Stars. Leoma told the newsletter: “This was a huge surprise and a great honor as my colleagues had kept it very quiet that they had nominated me. There are only five members accepted per year. We will be honored at the Awards Reception at the SLA Annual Conference in Philadelphia this summer.” Leoma provided this information: Fellow of SLA Presented to an SLA member to recognize leadership in their career as an information professional. Fellowship in SLA is bestowed on mid-career SLA members in recognition of past, present and future service to the Association and the profession. The designation of Fellow is presented to active professionals who are not presently serving on the Board of Directors. Fellows are called upon, and expected to advise the Association's Board of Directors, to prepare necessary documentation, and to alert the membership to issues and trends warranting action. Individuals receiving this honor will be able to use the title Fellow of the Special Libraries Association.

NOTE: No more than five SLA members will be selected for Fellowship each year.

Leoma is Assistant Library Director at Thomas More College in northern Kentucky and is the 2011 Kentucky Library Association President.

Under Alumna Becky Ryder’s Leadership Keeneland Library Receives NEH Grant Keeneland, best known for its fall and spring thoroughbred racing, has an outstanding library, and since May 1 of last year Becky Ryder (’92) has been Director of the Keeneland Library. At the time, Becky referred to it as “a 14-month appointment to implement some strategic objectives that will make the library more visible and its collections more accessible. I am ‘on loan’ so to speak for this period of time.” Becky’s work at Keeneland is paying off in a tangible way, in dollars, as a late-January news story in the CourierJournal makes clear: “Keeneland receives grant for archival efforts The Keeneland Library announced Tuesday [January 25] that it is receiving a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to aid in preserving two special collections involving photographer Bernard Stanley Morgan and caricaturist Pierre ‘Peb’ Bellocq.

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The grant will enable the library’s Preservation Project to buy supplies for archiving the collections. The year-long project targets 20,000 of the 1935-1961 ‘Bert’ Morgan photographic negatives in the poorest condition and 4,000 ‘Peb’ works, which date from 1945.

‘The NEH award is a sort of “stamp of approval” that acknowledges the national significance of the Keeneland Library collections,’ library director Becky Ryder said in a statement. ‘The award also paves the way for future preservation proposals to NEH and other funding agencies.’

The Morgan collection has photographic negatives from the New York and Florida racing circuits during the 1930s and 1940s. Bellocq, best known for his caricatures and cartoons in the Daily Racing Form, donated his collection to the library in 2009.”

Becky told the newsletter students in the School’s program would have the opportunity to assist the preservation, and gain relevant experience, through professional field experience.

Dennis Miller Reflects on Changes in Public Librarianship Over the Past 15 Years In November of last year, we received a nice e-mail from Dennis Miller (’95), who wrote: “Just enjoyed reading the departmental newsletter online. It’s been 15 years since I finished my degree and probably 15 of the most enjoyable years of my life. In addition to my reference work full time with the Abilene (TX) Public Library I’m working part time reference at the McMurry University Library for a little extra pocket change and the enjoyment of working in a university setting. At the public library we’ve been most fortunate in that we’ve not had to make staffing cuts. I just turned 61 but plan on working at least 5 or more years full time then hopefully part time. Hoping to make a stop in Lexington sometime to or from Columbus, OH where my kids/grandkids reside. The new library [at UK] was just in beginning stages of construction when we left.”

We asked Dennis to write something for the newsletter – to reflect on changes in public librarianship over the decadeand-a-half since he completed the MSLS program. He agreed and sent the following, for which we thank him: Quite obviously the increase of computer literacy, expansion of the worldwide web and advances in computer and other technologies with a host of new products has greatly impacted the public library in the past 15 years.

Those of us on the reference desk are spending some less, I’ll estimate 10-20 percent less time than 15 years ago responding to specific inquiries for information and at least that much additional time in the role of teaching/assisting patrons in computer use. Aside from one-on-one help with anything from opening an email account to assistance with a Microsoft Office product, we provide a one hour “beginner” computer class four times/week, an internet search class three times/week, a session on email twice a month plus other special classes from time to time from our main library and branches.

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In our fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 1996 we recorded 88,948 reference transactions while in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2009 we had 116,113 which interestingly equaled almost precisely Abilene’s population as of that date. Part of the increase would be attributed to moderate population growth (roughly 6,000), the addition of two branch locations (1998 and 2009) and an increase in hours.

In 1996 we had only a bookmobile in addition to the main library downtown and were open 57 hours/week compared to 63 in 2009. In 2009 we had (and have today) six full time and one half time positions in information services, unchanged from 1996, which includes genealogy operating from our main library. Branch personnel handle reference transactions in addition to circulation functions and other duties. In 1996 we had 11 with master’s degrees from an ALA accredited program and in 2009 we had 12.

In 1996 we recorded 265,091 patron visits and in 2009, 408,882. Circulation transactions grew from 487,684 to 922,982 with much of the increase in circulation of audio visual materials.

Obviously some who 15 years ago would seek reference assistance (phone and in person nearly equal)) now feel competent (rightly or wrongly so) to do their own research online. Some may also access our databases from home or office. But there are patrons, primarily 60+, who 15 years ago wouldn’t touch a computer, now coming to us for computer assistance and instruction. The number of seniors who still believe they can function without computer skills has dropped significantly. Grandma is now seeking our help to be able to communicate electronically with her family at their insistence.

Patrons who may have once used our reference service now doing their own inquiries are still likely to continue to check out print and increasingly audio-visual materials, attend workshops, bring children to story time or youth programs, download audio books/music from our web site, utilize our databases (50 in 1996, 68 in 2009) or do family history research in one of the most extensive genealogy collections in the State of Texas.

With the downturn of the economy and loss of jobs, the number of those coming to us researching employment opportunities or computer skills to become more employable is greater today although public libraries nationwide have probably experienced this more than Abilene. As families have been forced to trim expenses, borrowing library materials has become an alternative to some of the book and audio visual material purchasing. And if we don’t have it, patrons will request from other libraries.

We’ve experienced a steady increase since 1996 in interlibrary loan requests. They are also processed much faster today than 15 years ago thanks to technology. In 1996 the average time to receive an ILL item was 14 days. Today it’s 6-7 days. (Sorry I don’t have specific ILL data to compare then and now).

Serving children and young adults remains as important today as it was 15 years ago. Our children’s librarian offers the following observations regarding change: Page 10

1) No subject is any longer taboo. Books are being printed on sensitive subjects for all ages.

2) Story time is no longer just in-house. We go out into the community (primarily to day care centers) with story time, rarely the case 15 years ago.

3) Parents were not encouraged and often discouraged from participating in story time. Today it’s not only encouraged, it’s required for the youngest age groups.

4) In 1996 we offered story time just for ages 3-6. Today we offer programs for all ages beginning with infants and much more in our collection and programming for teens.

5) Today much more conscious of literacy attempting to build the child’s “phonemic awareness” skills.

Today there is greater tolerance for noise. We want the library to be “family friendly”, parents and children enjoying use of computers, browsing the collection or participating in programs. On the other side of the coin, we get occasional complaints from patrons who hold to, and want librarians to enforce, the traditional “rule” that anything above a whisper is unacceptable. Some of us “traditionalists” find particular annoyance with cell phone use and while some libraries may designate a certain area for their use, we do not.

One fact that has remained a constant over the years and likely true of most public libraries is that the percentage of residents utilizing reference services remains low – easily under 10 percent. But of those who do seek librarian help for information, a high percentage, probably more than half, use reference services at least half a dozen times a year. One patron in fact, often a multiple daily caller for primarily business and technology related information, has by our calculation in 15 years made over 10,000 information inquiries.

Downloadable audio books and music is the “hottest” product added in the past four years, popular with all age groups, particularly those under 40. As of this writing we have 2273 patrons utilizing this service and growing rapidly (93 new patrons in July, 2010). DVDs naturally have replaced VHS formatted materials. Our collection of large print and Spanish language materials has grown considerably. One reason behind the growth of large print and audio books has been the creation of a “Books on Wheels” program whereby library materials are shipped weekly to the Meals on Wheels program and distributed to some 140 clients. That program was instituted in 2005.

Facebook and YouTube have been added as a communication tool. Our Facebook page monthly now has over 200 active users with some 1400 visits and each month continuing to grow while the YouTube site (updated regularly) from it’s inception in November, 2007 to the present has had nearly 37,000 views.

Wireless connectivity at all three of our locations obviously not provided 15 years ago is one more technological advance our patrons enjoy.

Abilene is a retail center for a 75-100 mile radius in West Texas with a diversified economy largely supported by a major air force base, three universities and a large number of medically related positions with relatively few manufacturing firms. The diversity has helped maintain employment Spring 2011

stability. Thankfully Abilene Public Library while not able to replace some vacated positions has been spared job cuts that many public libraries have endured.

The population we serve is roughly 65% Caucasian, 20% Hispanic, 10% African-American and 5% Asian or Native American.

Lucinda Zoe: from Librarianship to the Top Ranks of Academic Administration We recently caught up with Lucinda Zoe (’85), who told the newsletter: I am in touch with Alan Barrish [’85] here in New York and he gives me occasional updates on what is happening at UK. I also get the alumni bulletins and newsletters from the University, the Philosophy dept and the School of Library and Information Science. I am so proud to be a University of Kentucky graduate, as I now realize what an excellent education I received at UK. The undergraduate degree in Philosophy was the perfect choice for my career path, and the library program at UK was terrific – so much more so than the program I attended at Columbia [where she earned a doctorate in library and information science in 1999]. Really. I was exposed to an extraordinary faculty at UK and upon reflection – (and after having had oversight over 6500 students, 200 FT faculty and the academic side of the house myself) – I have an intimate understanding of what it takes to create and maintain excellence in academic programming.

Wayne Weigand, Michael Harris, Anne McConnell – what great faculty we had! I remember them fondly, along with the faculty in the Philosophy dept – Dan Breazeale, Henry Shankula, Ron Bruzina – wow – terrific teachers and thinkers. I always enjoy receiving the materials about the university, especially now that I have made a career in academic administration.

I have been in the CUNY [City University of New York] system for almost 18 years now, and am currently in the midst of a transition to a new position. After 8 years as Chief Librarian and Chair of the Library Department at Hostos Community College/CUNY in the South Bronx, I was appointed to the position as Interim Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs for a 2-year period from 2008-2010 while the college hired a new president and a new provost. After completing my appointment as Interim Provost, and having just returned from sabbatical, I will be serving as Advisor to the Executive Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs at the City University of New York.

My family moved to North Carolina a few years ago, so I don't get back to KY too often, although I do have good friends there that I try to visit now and again – in the spring when the Dogwoods are in blossom! They do love to come and visit me in NYC though, so I see my KY friends often.

In fact, while on sabbatical I took a trip to Istanbul and Turkey this past fall with KY friends. And I do see Alan fairly often since I have a place in upstate NY about 45 minutes from him, so we do keep up.

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Danny Hales Receives Florida Library Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award This is old news, but certainly worth reporting. The Florida Library Association awarded Danny Hales (’73), Director of the three-county Suwannee River Regional Library, the Lifetime Achievement Award. We learned of this recognition through an article in the Suwannee Democrat that appeared under the headline, “Library director John D. “Danny” Hales Jr. recognized for long list of accomplishments.” We take the following from the article, with permission from the paper: John D. “Danny” Hales Jr., was recognized by the Florida Library Association with its highest honor recently, the Lifetime Achievement Award. …

“Hales has championed the advancement of library services for his entire 34 year career in public libraries,” his award nomination states. “His many awards and certificates are proof of his outstanding contributions to the library and community organizations. He has served on literally hundreds of committees and task forces and has been involved in the decision making process of not only library issues, but also community and governmental issues as well.

He has been a mentor, to not only his employees, but also to youth in the community. He is always available to staff and the citizens. I can think of no one more deserving than Mr. Hales.”

In his years of service to FLA, he was elected and served as president and elected to several terms on the executive board of directors. He has been chair of numerous committees through the years, most notably the budget and finance and conference planning. For years he has been a leader in working with the Florida Legislature to improve funding and services for libraries statewide. He has mentored several staff, who have pursued their graduate degree in library science and who now are active leaders in FLA. He was a delegate to the Florida Governor’s Conference on Libraries and subsequently one of only six Florida librarians to be selected for the White House Conference on Libraries in Washington, D.C. Currently he serves on the Library Technology Taskforce for the State Library of Florida. …

During his tenure at SRRL [Suwannee River Regional Library] he began new libraries in Greenville, Lee, Jennings and White Springs, expanding regional services to eight locations. He developed a complete new organizational and intra-local agreement organizational structure to administer the regional system, initiated a youth services department, a literacy program, automated all libraries, installed high speed Internet connections, tutoring programs and improved and enhanced several other services during his tenure. …

On the National scene Hales has represented his colleagues in Florida on the American Library Association Council, the governing body of ALA for two terms of eight

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years. He was elected to the Public Library Association Board of Directors for two separate terms, and was also president of the small and medium sized libraries section of ALA. He has served on many national committees by appointment of ALA presidents based upon his ability, enthusiasm and knowledge of rural libraries.

He was involved in the establishment of the Ebsco Excellence in Small and or Rural Library Services Award, given annually by ALA and has served as chair of that committee on numerous occasions. Currently he is active on the Rural, Native and Tribal Libraries Committee of ALA. He frequently speaks on rural library services at ALA. He is a member of Beta Phi Mu, the national library and information science honor society.

In 2002 Hales was selected and continues to serve on the initial advisory committee of Webjunction, a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation national project, providing an Internet based information portal for 60,000 small and rural libraries. In 2006 he was asked to serve on the Bill and Melinda Gates, U. S. Libraries Initiative Partners Advisory Council, that advises on library assistance programs, which has provided hundreds of millions of dollars for computers, software, training, and Internet connectivity to rural libraries throughout the United States. …

From e-mail, we knew Danny was thinking about retiring, and in mid-February we asked about his plans. He replied: I will be completing the Delayed Retirement Option Program, in which one actually retires, and then can work 5 more years. My completion date is October 31st.

I plan on staying involved on the Gates U.S. Libraries Initiative Partner’s Advisory Committee and the Webjunction Committee as well. I also will maintain my seat on the ALA Rural, Tribal, Native and Tribal Libraries of All Kinds Committee and be involved at some level in ALA and PLA, and also with the Florida Library Association.

I plan on continuing my community work on the Suwannee County Historical Commission, the Foundation for Excellence in Education, the Kiwanis Club, Take Stock in Students Mentoring program, the Florida Folklife Festival, and a few other community involvement projects.

My wife and I love to travel, we have upcoming trips to Belgium/northern France, and a few months later to China.

We are planning a long stay in central Italy, too. My golfing buddies and I are planning a trip to Ireland and Scotland for golf and pub exploration for 2012.

We have a beachfront property in Amelia Island and will be spending lots of time at Fernandina Beach, watching the waves, having great fresh seafood and walking on beach.

I have hundreds of books to read, and lots of family historical information to organize as well. I will have more time to visit with my daughter and son in law, and watch my son, as he is entering medical school this year.

I’ll also visit Lexington more often during basketball season to see the Cats, and some of my college chums.

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Alumni Activities We received a nice e-mail from Delmus Williams ('74) in November of last year: Thanks for the newsletter. I have enjoyed it for years and continue to do so. Thought you might also want to know a little about what is going in my life. I retired from the Library at the University of Akron in February. I served as Dean of the Libraries for 14 years then stepped back in to the faculty there until 2004. We have moved to Villa Rica, Georgia, but I keep my hand in a bit, editing Advances in Library Administration and Organization. The big news going forward is that I have been awarded a Fulbright to lecture at Klaipeda University in Lithuania for the spring term. Sounds like a new adventure.

We recently exchanged e-mail with Alan Barish (’85). Alan is Director of the Ethelbert B. Crawford Public Library in Monticello, NY, a position he has held since 1988. According to the Library’s Web site, it serves “residents of a special public library district encompassing the Towns of Thompson, Bethel, and Forestburgh within the Monticello Central School District.”

In the old days, you never knew what would come over the transom. Today, it’s the e-mail in-box that sometimes has surprises. Here is an example, from Ginny Daley (’85), that arrived in early February: I’m a new hire at UK, managing a small (but growing) departmental library/archive. I’d like to develop internships or assistantships for SLIS students to assist us with our work (and amplify their education as well, of course!). Jobs might include archival processing, evaluating digital photo management systems, improving physical handling of drawings, development of access policies, as well as a host of routine tasks like refoldering, filing, shelving materials, etc.

Ginny attached her resume to the e-mail, and from it we learned she is Archivist/Library Manager, Facilities Library, Physical Plant Department, University of Kentucky, a position she has held since December. We visited Ginny in her emporium the afternoon of February 8 (the same afternoon that, according to student Matt Cockerell, witnessed “the biggest snowflakes of the season”) and had a nice tour and delightful conversation.

From Ginny Daley we learned the whereabouts of Lucinda Zoe (’85). Lucinda joined the faculty of Hostos Community College, in the City University of New York system, in February 2001, as a full professor. Prior to going to Hostos she was an associate professor and Instructional Services Librarian at Baruch College, CUNY. During the period 2008-2010 she was Interim Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Hostos, and currently is serving as Advisor to the Executive Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs at the City University of New York. Lucinda earned a Doctorate in Library and Information Science at Columbia in 1999.

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In November of last year Nancy Allen (’86) spoke to students in two writing classes at her alma mater, University of the Cumberlands, in Williamsburg, KY According to the University press release, Nancy and fellow author Marge Fulton, “discussed their experiences as writers, shared helpful hints about the writing profession and read from some of their work.

Allen, of Hazard, Ky., is a children's author whose current published work includes 18 picture books, one chapter book and two short stories in anthologies. Her book Trouble in Troublesome Creek was selected to represent Kentucky at the 2010 National Book Festival.”

From Ginny Daley we also learned that Dan Barkley (’87) is Associate Professor, Coordinator, Government Information & Microforms, University of New Mexico.

JC Morgan (’97) won the 2010 Kentucky Library Association James A Nelson Advocacy Award. Although he admits he was tempted, JC decided not to give up his day job, Director of the Campbell County Public Library in northern Kentucky.

Leoma Dunn (’03) is President of the Kentucky Library Association. In her day job, Leoma is Assistant Director of the library at Thomas More College in northern Kentucky.

Amy O’Neal (’03) was thoughtful to forward information she received from Nancy Fawley (’03): I wanted to let you all know that I will be leaving Doha and VCUQatar [Virginia Commonwealth University Qatar] in early February and moving to Tuscaloosa, Alabama.(!) I have accepted a position at the University of Alabama as Head of Gorgas Information Services. The position is a step up: it will be tenure track at the rank of associate professor and supervising a staff of eight, mostly professional librarians. I will go from working at a school of 210 students to a university with over 28,000 students.

We got in touch with Nancy, who wrote: Yes, after six and a half years in the Middle East, I am returning to the States. Professionally it is time for a change and time to be closer to my parents. I have had a great experience in Qatar, I have been able to do a lot in my job and travel to interesting places, but I am looking forward to being in a country where I can get a beer with a pizza and run in shorts and a tank top without the fear of offending someone or getting arrested.

Sara Chatfield (’08) let us know, near the end of November, “I decided to join the Army over a year ago and am now a Second Lieutenant at Ft. Riley KS. Having my Masters has been beneficial and the technical information that I learned while in school has helped me learn what I need to know in the Signal Corps.”

Bookie Wilson (’09) is Assistant Youth Services Librarian, Woodford County Public Library, KY. Page 13

Among Recent Graduates Elizabeth Arnold is on the staff of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.

Sara Ashworth is Library Media Specialist, Holmes Middle School, Covington, KY. Jeanna Bender is Public Services Librarian, Young Library, Kentucky Christian University, Grayson, KY. Philip Fitzgerald, MD, is a physician at Community Medical Associates, Louisville.

Mary Hall is on the staff of Louisville Free Public Library.

Lynda Jones is Teacher/Librarian, Ockerman Elementary School, Florence, KY. Jaclyn Marrs is Children’s Librarian Assistant, Louisville Free Public Library.

Jennifer Martin is a member of the circulation staff, William T Young Library, University of Kentucky.

Marcia Rapchak is Lecturer, College of Communications and Information Studies, University of Kentucky.

We thank Paul Roberts (’10) for his e-mail: The SLIS alumni website indicates that you wish to be kept abreast of the activities of alumni, so with that in mind I wish to inform you that I have been approved to deliver a paper entitled "Pierre Viret and the Politics of Piety" at the Institut für Schweizerische Reformationsgeschichte (Institute for Swiss Reformation History) at the Universität Zürich (University of Zurich, Switzerland) this June, 2011. This is in conjunction with my ongoing studies on the Sixteenth Century Swiss Reformer, Pierre Viret, as I inch ever closer to my Dr. Theol. dissertation.

I have also been invited to deliver a similar paper in Louisville this April, and a popular biography on Viret is presently being discussed with a publisher for release later this year.

The MSLS, by the way, helped greatly in securing a doktorvater for my doctoral research.

Paul is Director of Patron Services, James P Boyce Centennial Library, Southern Seminary, Louisville.

Jessica Roe is Access Services Specialist I, Camden-Carroll Library, Morehead State University, Morehead, KY.

Kimberly Maynard is Director of Libraries, Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College, Mt Gay, WV.

Anna Stewart teaches at The Lexington School.

Daniel Mulcahy is Instructional Assistant, East Jessamine High School, Nicholasville, KY.

Amy Stoneburner is Learning Resources Manager, Fortis College, Cincinnati.

The newsletter is published, electronically, spring and fall.

Please send information for it to carrigan@uky.edu

The School’s Alumni and Awards Banquet will be held Friday, April 29, at Embassey Suites Lexington.

For information and to make a reservation: http://www.uky.edu/CommInfoStudies/SLIS/students/banquet11.htm

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