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This will be my last message as President. Chris Vathis-Howell will be providing the messages for the next year. That does not mean that this will be the last time you hear from me, though!
Chris and I have worked together over the last year to provide programming which we hope you have found useful. We jumped into the realm of distance learning with the sponsorship of two videoconferences. Also, with the support of SLA Headquarters we now have both a stable web page and a chapter listserv. The new listserv will replace the cumbersome distribution list now in use.
I now step into the role of strategic planning chair for the chapter and I plan to work with Chris and Laura to strengthen the programs we have already begun and to look at possible future directions for the chapter. This will not happen, or not happen nearly as well, without your active support. I will be calling on you to assist us in making this an even more successful chapter.
Thank you for a great year!
The political process has always been the reality in any environment in which the desire to receive money and other support from management exceeds the available supply. The political process has taken an even sharper focus for librarians with the arrival of such terms as downsizing and outsourcing.
We now know from objective studies that neither has really reduced costs. However, these activities at least give the appearance of doing something constructive and positive.
Information professionals need to understand how to navigate in a greatly energized political process - a process which will have winners and losers, and a process in which semblance is sometimes more important than substance. What credit you get is probably at least as important as what you do.
Dr. Herbert S. White, distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Arizona, will be our captivating speaker on this topic "how to succeed in a political environment." This presentation should not be missed by any information worker!
Dr. White's employment history is fascinating: Atomic Energy Commission, IBM, NASA, Institute for Scientific Information, and Professor, Dean and Director of SLIS at Indiana University.
Please plan on attending this lecture and encourge your coworkers to attend!
There will be a minimal $5.00 charge per person.
The Arizona Special Library Association will be conducting a Business Meeting preceding the lecture. It will be held from 11:30-12:30 in the same room. All SLA members are encouraged to attend.
The chapter not only has a web page at http://www.sla.org/chapter/caz/index.html but we now also have a listserv!
The name of the list is sla-caz and Ann Eagan is currently the list owner.
To subscribe, send a message to the listserver, listserv@listserv.sla.org with subscribe sla-caz Firstname Lastname in the body of the message.
Example:
To: listserv@listserv.sla.org
From: aeagan@bird.library.arizona.edu
Subject: subscribe sla-caz Ann Eagan
To send messages to the list once you have subscribed, send the message to: sla-caz@listserv.sla.org
The Arizona Tobacco Information Network Clearinghouse, which began in March of 1996, is a project of the Arizona Department of Health Services funded with monies raised from The Tobacco Tax and Health Care Act of 1994.
The Clearinghouse provides information services on tobacco cessation and prevention including bulk distribution of tobacco publications, library services including interlibrary loans of books and videos, access to tobacco curriculum materials and a quarterly newsletter.
To find out more about the Clearinghouse or to order publications, call (800) 432-2772.
The Clearinghouse also staffs the Arizona Smokers' Helpline. This helpline provides counseling services for those interested in stopping smoking and will follow-up with individuals who have already stopped. The Helpline can be reached by dialing (800) 556-6222.
In addition, the Clearinghouse maintains a web page at http://www.hs.state.az.us/aztepp
For a comprehensive listing of tobacco education and prevention programs in the sate, visit this site. Copies of the newsletters and bibliographies can also be downloaded.
Arizona Tobacco Information Network Clearinghouse
Contact: Gail Chadwick (602) 727-2772
Regional Centers
Evaluating information on the WEB seems at first a daunting experience. Remember Evaluating Library 50whatever in grad school? Back then the criterion was straightforward and easy to follow. Now we have the WEB and a glut of information, some good, some bad and a whole lot in-between. Given the anonymity of WEB publishing and that accurate information is a necessity in today's business and research world, evaluation of WEB documents is critical. Log on to most any search engine and you will see a list, by subject, of sites reviewed. I have found the following aids to be useful.
Ann Scholz at the Purdue University Libraries has taken the criteria of old and tweaked it for the internet. Her, "Evaluating World Wide Web Information," which is located at //thorplus.lib.purdue.edu/research/classes/gs1753/evaluation.html, is worth a visit and a print. It is a handy at-a-glance reference tool geared for the librarian. Some elements may sound familiar such as, Institution, Intended Audience, Who is the Author? Some not so familiar such as Link to Home Page or What institution or Internet provider supports this information? My favorite.
I gave a copy of "Evaluating information found on the internet," by Elizabeth Kirk (milton.mse.jhu.edu:8001/research/education/net.html) to a client of mine when he asked for a guide for his kids. At four pages it fleshes out Ann Scholz's outline in a readable form. So much so that my client thought it terrific. While he did not follow it word-by-word, he said it did give him a good idea what to look for, especially with his children's homework assignments. I find it a good reference for doing research and is appropriate for both business professionals and scholars.
Cyber Guru Hope Tillman's, (www.tisc.net/users/hope/findqual.html), "Evaluating Quality on the Net," is the be all, end all for WEB evaluation. Although nineteen pageslong, it is worth a print. Hope covers the search engines that have review source links such as Excite and Infoseek review criteria that the search engines use. She also analyzes the independent evaluation guides such as Gales Cyberhound Guide and PharmInfoNet. I particularly like the links that appear throughout the text and her "My key indicators of quality (my checklist)" at the end.
Evaluating WEB information is not an easy task. Librarians and users have to develop the skills and tools to evaluate what we find whether it is for scholarly research or buying a car - www.kbb.com - Kelley Blue Book. As Elizabeth Kirk wrote, "If you find information that is 'too good to be true', it probably is. Never use information that you cannot verify."
This CD-ROM features comprehensive information on more than 600 low-water use plants. Select a particular plant and several screens of information become available. The main screen features multiple photographs of each plant, including a whole-plant shot, a close-up of its flower, seed pod or bark, and the plant within a landscape. Every picture in the CD can be enlarged to full-screen size by clicking on it with a mouse. Nearly 100 items of information are provided for each plant, including common and botanical names and their pronounciations, size and growth characteristics, water, sun, soil and temperature needs, xeriscape zone, flower color and season, growth rate, habitat value, area of origin, and dozens of others.
The CD-ROM as reference book begins with an alphabetized list of common or botanical plant names. A plant is selected either by typing its name or clicking on it.
Desert Landscaping is available for either Windows or Macintosh computers with double-speed or faster CD-ROM drives. Hardware requirements for PCs are a 486 or Pentium-class CPU, Windows 3.x, NT, or Win95, and 4mb RAM (8mb highly recommended). A sound card is optional.
Requirements for Macintosh systems are a Centris 650 (68040, 25 mHz) or better, System 7.1 or later, and 8mb RAM (12mb highly recommended).
The CD can be purchased for $25 directly from:
For a listing of retail outlets throughout the Southwest, or to view sample screens from the CD, check out the WRRC's website at http://ag.arizona.edu/AZWATER/
Rivers write their own histories in geological records, recording the mighty natural forces that created and formed them along with canyons and valleys. Yet, to tell the complete story of rivers changing throughout time, a record of human impact on rivers also is needed. Arizona's Changing Rivers chronicles the history of human influences on the state's rivers. Like geological forces, such influences have profoundly affected Arizona rivers.
Arizona's Changing Rivers is 200 pages in length, containing 160 maps, charts and illustrations. Key maps and graphs are presented in a full-color section. Navigational aids allow the reader with a particular information need to find just the material on a particular river basin, river use, or historical era. A companion bibliographic database on floppy disk contains nearly 2,000 entries.
Arizona's Changing Rivers is available for $15.00 or $17.50 (with bibliographic database) from:
Ann Eagan called the meeting to order at 12:26 p.m. on Friday, May 16, 1997, with eighteen members present. Louis Howley moved and Kathy Large seconded that the minutes of the March 7, 1997 meeting be approved; motion passed.
Executive Board Reports - President (Ann Eagan). Ann and Chris Vathis Howell reviewed some recent accomplishments. Ann mentioned finding out how to set up the Chapter web site and enlisting Jack Mount's help as Webmaster. A Chapter listserv now exists. New members have been asked to write their impressions of meetings. A manual was created for incoming officers. Donna Gerometta will be publishing the SLA competencies in the next AzLA Newsletter. Ann also mentioned that there will be a reception on June 9 from 4 to 6 p.m. in Seattle and she encouraged members of the Arizona Chapter to attend.
President-Elect/Program Chair (Chris Vathis Howell). Chris noted the addition of a Leadership Conference for incoming and remaining officers. She noted that a committee needs to be formed to prepare for the twentieth anniversary of the Chapter. Her vision is that all past-presidents will be invited and that there will be a dinner and/or event. It is possible that the President of SLA will attend. She would like some members from the ten-year anniversary committee for continuity.
Laura Bender and she will be working on programs. There will also be a member satisfaction survey. Chris noted that she will be building on the solid foundation created by Ann Eagan.
Treasurer (Polin Lei)
Secretary (Louis Howley). Louis prepared the minutes for the March 7, 1997, meeting.
Officer Reports
Affirmative Action Chair (Sheila Donnelly) Jenny Mueller-Alexander will be the incoming chair as Sheila Donnelly has accepted a new job position in Show Low. Jenny mentioned that members should let her know if they hear about any Career Days at high schools or other locations.
Bulletin Editor (Carla Smith). Carla has a new job at Motorola. She would like an assistant editor to help with the Bulletin.
Bulletin Business Manager (Esther Gil) Esther has accepted a position at the University of Denver. Chris is trying to appoint a new Bulletin Business Manager.
Career Guidance Chair (Ann Strickland) No report.
Chapter Archivist (Jack Mount) After he received the Chapter's archives, Jack made an initial cursory inspection of the contents. Jack found the holdings to be spotty and incomplete in most categories, indicating a number of years of inactivity and neglect. There were a number of folders and "bags" of unsorted papers, and Jack has filed all of those. For the early years of the Chapter the holdings are very good--the archives were well cared for. For later years the holdings are poor.
Jack has started making a more in-depth inventory. Here are the results to date: Chapter Bulletin: the holdings are now complete from volume 1, number 1 to date. Some issues were missing; however, Jack was able to supply those issues from his personal holdings.
-- Directory of Special Libraries and Collections in Arizona: the 4th edition, 1991, edited by Katherine Whitley, is missing.
-- Chapter Annual Reports: the following years are missing: 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996.
Jenny Mueller-Alexander suggested some possible sources for some of the missing material.
Consultant Chair (Lucy Marshall) No report.
Employment Chair (Cinda McClain) The Desert Botanical Garden has a job opening.
Government Relations Chair (Barbara Hutchinson) Barbara is going on sabbatical. Sara O'Neill will be the incoming Government Relations chair.
International Relations (Pat Morris) She organized a meeting for Special Librarians Day in Tucson. Ninfa Duran spoke about an international conference involving government officials and business people from border areas. She was the creative force behind this conference, which was her idea and which she helped organize. The program was poorly attended but Ninfa did a stellar job. Pat solicited ideas for programs and speakers.
Membership Chair (Tom Turner) There are now 122 members. This number fluctuates due to graduation of students.
Networking Chair-Phoenix (David Bickford) There was one dinner this year. Sara Ashton will be the incoming chair.
Networking Chair-Tucson (Claire Macha) There were eight lunches last year and attendees sampled many cuisines. The last event was a potluck at Ann Strickland's home and was moderately attended.
Professional Development (Jennie Oleksak/Bambi Wessel) Bambi invited Dr. Herb White to speak at a Chapter event and he would like to do so. Four topics are his specialty: downsizing/outsourcing; how to function in an organization; planning and evaluating in the library; and how do we succeed in a political environment. Discussion ensued about the location, time and speaker's fee.
Publications (Laura Bender) Directory sales are steady. Discussion of where and how to market the Directory ensued.
Public Relations (Donna Gerometta). No report.
Strategic Planning (David Bickford). No report.
Student Chapter Liaison(Jack Mount) The University of Arizona SLA Student Chapter has been alive and well during the past year.
It has general meetings about every other month during the Fall and Spring semesters.
It has had seven field trips during the two semesters.
The student chapter loaded its new Web page; the URL is: //timon.sir.arizona.edu/lf/sla/index.html
The student chapter received $100 from SLA headquarters.
The officers during the Spring semester:
Webmaster (Jack Mount) The old, essentially inactive Chapter Web page was completely reconstructed, revised and reorganized. It was loaded in the SLA Headquarters' Web server on February 12, 1997. This will allow the Web site to remain active and vital when the Webmaster changes. The old Web page was removed from its server and replaced with a change of address message.
The new URL is: http://www.sla.org/chapter/caz/index.html
The Chapter's Web site consists of the main page and ten linked pages of Chapter information. Jack strongly urges and solicits contributions to the Web site from the Chapter Membership.
Old Business
Ann talked about the Florida survey of the top 100 public and private companies based on revenues as reported by Florida Trends. Such a survey could yield valuable information about curriculum concerns, identify job sites, and help find new members. There are many similarities between Arizona and Florida. Sandy Hirsch is willing to act as the principal investigator. She would use library school students as investigators. She is currently on maternity leave this summer. It is hoped to find some way to get reimbursement for long-distance phone calls. Phone cards could possibly be supplied to students conducting the survey.
Jenny Mueller-Alexander moved, and Laura Bender seconded, that the Executive Committee investigate methods of reimbursement, in particular phone cards, for those conducting this survey. Bambi Wessel wondered how the students would know who to contact in this survey. Chris Vathis-Howell suggested they could use the Directory to locate a contact person. Motion passed.
New Business
Conference Funding for Officers and Designates. Ann noted that it was necessary to reauthorize funding for the President, the President-Elect or their designee to attend the Annual and Winter Conferences. These meetings are important for training and to represent the interests of the Arizona Chapter.
Jenny Mueller-Alexander moved, and Laura Bender seconded, that the Arizona Chapter designate $1200 ($300 for each officer for each of the two conferences) to be used to support the attendance of the Chapter President and President-Elect or their designees at the Annual and Winter Conferences. Motion passed.
Since the new President-Elect/Program Chair officially does not take office until the Annual Meeting, Laura Bender would not be able to partake of the money just approved and so would not be able to avail herself of the DACOLT (Division and Chapter Officer Leadership and Training) session. Jenny Mueller-Alexander moved, and Louis Howley seconded, that, in light of SLA's changing goals, that $300 be allocated to allow the President-Elect/Program Chair to attend the DACOLT training at Annual Conference prior to taking office. Motion passed.
Elections. Laura Bender was elected as the new President-Elect/Program Chair and Louis Howley as Secretary.
Program Ideas. Laura Bender solicited program ideas.
Handouts. Ann Eagan handed out a flyer on the Chapter web site and listserv.
Gavel transfer - Chris Vathis Howell presented Ann Eagan with a card and gift for her mentoring, hand-holding, and for what she's done for the Chapter during the past year such as helping to establish a functional web site. She also gave the flowers that decorated the meeting to Ann.
Jenny Mueller-Alexander moved, and Louis Howley seconded, that the meeting be adjourned. The motion passed and the meeting was adjourned at 1:36 p.m.
On February 1, 1978, the Arizona Chapter of the Special Libraries Association was formally approved by the Special Libraries Association. Some of you may recall the tenth (10th) anniversary celebration held at the Sheraton Tempe Mission Palms Hotel on January 22, 1988. Well, another ten years have quickly passed and it's time to celebrate again!!!
It isn't tooo early to plan this event; thus, the first order of business is to ask for program committee volunteers. This ad hoc committee will be responsible for the logistics and content of the celebration. They will design the program, arrange for the site and refreshments, communicate the event to the membership and SLA, and have fun planning a party!
If you are interested in being a member of this committee, please contact Chris Vathis at 602-554-8474 or via email: alma_c_vathis@ccm.hf.intel.com
The SLA Biomedical and Life Sciences Division is planning its annual Contributed Paper Session for the Indianapolis Conference in June, 1998.
Session Theme: Cooperation Is the Key: How Biological, Medical and Life Sciences Librarians and Information Specialists Have Shared Electronic or Print Resources to Meet Users' Needs.
Here is an opportunity to share with your colleagues recent research or works in progress that address shared information resources. What critical electronic or print resources are you sharing among libraries or institutions? Are you using existing consortial arrangements or implementing new cooperatives? How satisfied are your users with the arrangements? What impacts do these arrangements have on the effectiveness or efficiency of your library's or institution's services? What positive or negative impacts has the use of shared resources had on your relationships with collaborating libraries or institutions?
ABSTRACT: A 200-500 word abstract should accurately convey the subject of the paper, its scope, conclusions and relevance to the program theme. Priority will be given to papers that demonstrate analysis of the program over those that merely describe it.
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS: SEPTEMBER 15, 1997.
SUBMIT ABSTRACT (preferably by e-mail) to:
In compiling Hermograph Press' "Net.Journal Directory, The Catalog of Full Text Periodicals Archived on the World Wide Web," we've noticed electronic article archives fall into three categories: publisher websites, new or re-tooled classic dialup services, and information gatherers-turned-archivers.
For a specific publication, you could use a Web search engine and look up the publisher's homepage. You aren't hip if you don't have one but probably less than 10% of them have a past issues archive. The fact is, most publisher sites are "teasers," with a couple of selected feature articles from the current issue. If a backfile exists. it usually has just one to three years of depth; conversely, current issues often are online at or before print publication.
The best thing about most publisher archive sites? They are often free, IF they are a trade publication or a mainstream magazine. (We maintain a list of free archives off our Hermograph homepage). However, if the periodical is from an academic or scholarly publisher (Springer-Verlag or Academic Press, for example), you probably can't get an article online unless you are a subscriber.
Though publisher homepages are many, the majority of trade and mainstream periodical titles are archived on fee-based services.
The classic services, like Dialog, NewsNet, and Dow Jones, finally offer Web access. In some cases, i.e. DialogWeb, there's no substantial difference between the Web and dialup services. There are also new services that had no previous online counterpart. Examples: BioMedNet gathers over 100 biomedical journals, on a pay-as-you-go system. Electric Library has a library package that is only a few grand a year, great if you run a terminal for the public.
The people who gather articles into databases for the dialups have gone into the archive business themselves. Sometimes, more than once. Information Access Company, EBSCO Publishing and UMI have services ranging from inexpensive home and student services (Cognito, Collectanea Personal) to high-annual fee but all-you-can-eat services such as InSite or InfoTrac from IAC, or UMI's ProQuest Direct. Library and corporate archive services start at $500 a year for a small subset and don't stop until you've passed $10,000 or more. You get a lot of titles, at a high annual price.
You have one more step--getting your copy. If just a hard copy is needed, display the article and click on your browser's Printer icon, or Select File, Print from the Menu bar. For an electronic copy of the text only, do a File, Save As... to a .TXT file. (Unfortunately, graphics must be saved individually, using your right mouse button.) This will remove all HTML coding and graphics; what's left can be cleanly imported into a word processor. If the article is available in Adobe's PDF format, you must obtain a copy (it's FREE!) of Adobe's Acrobat Reader program. With that you will be able to view and print text and graphics indistinguishable from the original publication's pages. Then it is on to the next project.
Larry Krumenaker is Publisher at Hermograph Press, which produces "Net.Journal Directory." The spring edition of the semi-annual book contains listings for 7000 periodical titles on 15 Web services and hundreds of free and fee-based Web sites.
Thanks to Chris Vathis-Howell of Intel for providing the group with an informative tour!
These were all separate entities doing operations differently. It was decided they needed consistency throughout each site and that is was important to show the value of the libraries. During 1990s, staff undertook "Project One" - a major reorganization of libraries led by a hired facilitator.
Evaluation sheets - Point of Service Survey
Each month surveys are generated by Merlin and sent to people who have used ERC during that time. 25% of people return survey.
Information Specialists also do a point of service satisfaction survey after they "close out a ticket" with a business group. This will hopefully provide a measure of how much the Information Specialist added to the project.
The ERCs are under the umbrella of Human Resources so they are able to leverage off their resources and offer many other services to employees such as career counseling, and various assessment tools.
The product order form, and ordering instructions for the Arizona Library Awareness Campaign,
is now on the opening page of thestate library web site:
The Joint Meeting Program Committee invites members of MLGSCA and NCNMLG to share your knowledge, experience and wisdom with your colleagues at our 1998 annual meeting!
The theme is "Infinite Vistas: Creating the Future, Celebrating The Past" -- which we think fits wonderfully in our beautiful location. This conference brings together co-workers who use traditional time-honored methods as well as newer technologies in providing health information to those we serve. In this conference, we seek perspective - theoretical technical views, general and specific outlooks, forecasts and historic surveys which influence our working environments and shape our future. Submissions of papers, posters and electronic posters on all topics relating to this vision are welcome and encouraged!
Instructions for submission:
Please submit two copies of an abstract (250-word max) describing your paper or poster. One copy should list all authors and institutional affiliations and the email address of the primary author. The second copy will be used in the blind review process and must NOT include any identifying authors or institutions. Be sure to indicate whether your abstract is for a poster, an electronic poster or a paper. Speakers should prepare a 15 minute presentation, though the full text of papers is not required. Selection criteria for proposed papers and posters will include originality of ideas, clarity of content, currency, significance to librarians in our chapters, and relationship to the conference theme. Submissions can be sent electronically or mailed. Electronic submissions are preferred.
Please send two copies of the abstract describing your paper to:
Electronic submission:
Please email to:
fredh@u.arizona.edu
Deadline - September 15, 1997. Notification of acceptance or rejection will be sent on November 17, 1997. At least one author of each accepted paper or poster will be required to attend the conference to present the work.
The Directory is 173 pages long and features 261 special libraries and collections; up-to-date information on addresses, access, holdings, services, subjects, and staff. It also boasts three separate indexes: Library Name Index, Personal Name Index, and Subject Index.
I enclose: _______ Check for $___________ or ______ Money Order for $___________
NAME____________________________
ADDRESS_________________________________________
CITY________________
STATE_____________
ZIP__________________
The following is the planned publication schedule for the upcoming year. The copy deadlines are not absolute, but if you cannot submit an article by the stated deadline, please contact the Bulletin Editor, Carla Smith, at 602-814-8862 (home) or 602-413-6400 (work) or via e-mail: R37066@email.sps.mot.com
| COPY DEADLINE |
ISSUE DATE | VOLUME AND NUMBER | PUBLICATION DATE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sept. 12, 1997 | Aug./Sept. 1997 | Vol. 20, No. 5 | September 30, 1997 |
| Nov. 14, 1997 | Oct./Nov. 1997 | Vol. 20, No. 6 | November 30, 1997 |
| Jan. 19, 1998 | Dec. 97/Jan. 1998 | Vol. 21, No. 1 | January 31, 1998 |
| March 18, 1998 | Feb./Mar. 1998 | Vol. 21, No. 2 | March 31, 1998 |
The Arizona Republic/The Phoenix Gazette, Phoenix Newspapers, Inc. - P.O. Box 100, Phoenix, AZ 85001. 602/271-5656. Web site: http://www.azcentral.com
Document Center - 1504 Industrial Way, Unit 9, Belmont, CA 94002-4044. 415/591-7617. E-mail: info@doccenter.com. Web site: http://www.doccenter.com/
EBSCO Subscription Services - P.O. Box 92901, Los Angeles, CA 90009-2901. 310/322-5000. Web site: http://www.ebsco.com
Majors Scientific Books, Inc. - Houston. 713/662-3984 or 800/458-9077. E-mail: houston@mail.majors.com. Web site: http://www.majors.com
OPAMP On-Line Technical Book Catalog On the Web - 1-800/468-4322. Web site: http://www.opampbooks.com
TDI & Co. - 2118 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 787, Santa Monica, CA 90403-5784. 310/820-3651. E-mail: tdicolib@class.org. Web site: http://tdico.com/
Chapter
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