President's Letter
Editor's Note
Association Name Change Fails in Close Vote
Teresa Eva Frydryk Obituary
Bulletin Publication Statement
Here's What You Told Us: the Results of the Boston Chapter Survey
News and Notes
Increasing Your Value in Trying Times
Simmons Student Chapter Wins Two Awards!
New Members
Marian the Librarian

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President’s Letter

Submitted by Elizabeth A. Bibby, ebibby@hbs.edu

As I sped towards New York on the Acela train this June, to attend the Annual Conference, I fully expected to begin my year as President of an organization sporting a new name and a new set of Chapter governing documents. However, that was not to be!

As I write my first column as your Chapter President, we are still the Boston Chapter of the Special Libraries Association.  However, the energy that was directed towards the name change is still a vibrant force within our Association and is now being turned towards spreading the message that SLA members represent a dynamic group of library and information professionals.  We work in a huge variety of organizational and entrepreneurial settings, including but not limited to libraries, which create information products and services that meet strategic goals. SLA’s branding initiative will help us to articulate this message, at the Association, Chapter, and personal levels.  Call us what you will – it’s an exciting time. While I was personally disappointed that a new generation has chosen to stick with a label that some of us consider limiting, rather than embrace one that reaches out to be more inclusive, we need not let that label alone define us.

The new governing documents fared better than the proposed name change and suffered only a minor delay when the Chapter and Division Cabinets each proposed small but inconsistent changes.  These documents are being revised for presentation to the Board and will hopefully be adopted by the Cabinets in January at the Albuquerque meeting.  Our Cabinet Chairs and Chairs Elect are to be commended for all their work on these documents, which will free our units from the cumbersome and lengthy Bylaws that many of us have.

Soon after returning from the conference, I was shocked and saddened to learn of the sudden death of Teresa Frydryk.  Teresa had been our Bulletin editor, and a very fine one. We had all looked forward to another year enjoying her contributions. The newsletter she published was always on time, always extremely professionally written and produced, and always interesting to read.  (You may read more about Teresa in the obituary written by Margaret Howe-Soper.)  The Chapter made a donation to the Cardillo Library Fund, Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, in memory of Teresa and several members of the Board attended the wake and funeral service in Providence, to express condolences to her family.

The Executive Board and Committee Chairs for the 2003-2004 Chapter year were joined by several of last year’s committee chairs for a planning session on July 23^rd. We reviewed the results of last year’s membership survey (see the article, Here’s what you told us) and brainstormed about things we might adjust this coming year to better meet your needs. The survey results confirmed that we are, indeed, a diverse group and that a few large meetings probably can never meet all the expectations that members expressed in the survey. The group decided we would not appoint a Professional Development Chair this year, but ask the Program Committee to keep professional development firmly in mind as they plan programs. We also agreed to try having more smaller, focused programs, instead of a few large ones, and do more to support some of the informal groups that have sprung up under our umbrella. We will, however, keep the Fall Kick Off and the Annual Business Meeting. Stay tuned as Leslie Knapp and her Program Committee swing into action!

Over the last few years your Chapter Board has experimented with new meeting formats and activities, striving to keep things fresh.  You’ve seen this in the numerous Outreach Programs around Massachusetts and in southern New Hampshire, as well as in the very popular informal social gatherings.  We’ve been fortunate to have new members like Claire Burday with energy and creativity to start up new groups like the Job Hunters Group and spearhead events like the WGBH fundraiser volunteers.  If you have ideas for something new, don’t hold back or sit around waiting for someone else to suggest it!  Life is too short to spend it on the sidelines – jump into the fray.  I’m happy to report that a nice group of new volunteers filled out forms at the Annual Business Meeting in May.  I plan to have volunteer forms at all the events this year.  It may seem a cliché to say that what you get out of something is in direct proportion to what you contribute – but many clichés contain a basis of truth and this one surely does! 

This Chapter enjoys a talented pool of members and I feel very fortunate to be able to draw on them to fill our committees with enthusiastic and capable people. I am excited that our new group contains a great mix of members. Some of them come with lots of experience and others are recent library school graduates. It is this mix of diverse talents and experiences that keeps us moving forward and embracing new ideas, yet at the same time saves us from reinventing the wheel. The list of new officers and committee chairs appears elsewhere in this issue.

I look forward to a busy but exciting year.  I hope to see each of you at a Chapter event soon!

Warm regards,
Liz

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From the Editors 

This issue represents our quick effort to publish the Fall Bulletin on schedule, very soon after we assumed the responsibilities, and at the same time begin the transition of the Bulletin from a pdf file to an html document. It is our goal that by the start of the next volume, we’ll have designed a completely new approach, presenting you with an informative, web-based publication that can be quickly browsed and printed, story by story. Since this is a stop-gap issue, please don’t over-react to the new format!  We agree that one long document is a little clumsy, but it was quick to produce and it’s not at all what we have in mind for the final product.  We’ll let you know when we’ve reached our ultimate design goal and will invite your comments and feedback then.

We’d like to include more photographs in future issues (unfortunately the ones that were taken by Teresa at recent meetings aren’t available to us.) If you own a digital camera and enjoy taking photographs, we invite you to join our team. Please e-mail deanna@ll.mit.edu to volunteer!

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Association Name Change Fails in Close Vote
Submitted by Jessica Baumgart, jessica_baumgart@harvard.edu  

As you probably know by now, the official name of this professional organization is still Special Libraries Association, Inc.  The main business at the Annual Business Meeting at the Special Libraries Association 2003 Annual Conference was the vote on whether to change the organization's name. 

The Branding Taskforce proposed the vote to change the name. Branding Taskforce chair, Stephen Abram, told the Boston Chapter about the work of the taskforce at this year's Annual Business Meeting. The committee decided that the name of the organization harms its members more than it helps them, so they thought a change was necessary. After much research, including a survey sent to association members, they chose what seemed to be the most popular two names: the initials SLA and Information Professionals International.  (For more on the work of the Branding Taskforce, see “Delving into the Association’s Name Change with Stephen Abram” in the Summer 2003 issue of the Bulletin.)

At the association’s Annual Business Meeting, members in good standing first voted for which association name they would prefer. Eighty-seven people voted in favor of the initials SLA and 867 voted against that choice.  Favoring Information Professionals International were 656, while 343 opposed it. Next, they voted on whether to change the Bylaws to adopt the new name, which would officially change the name of the association.  That vote failed to get the two-thirds majority needed to change the bylaws by 73 votes (594 in favor and 369 against).  

Before the vote on the names took place, outgoing president Bill Fisher opened the floor for comments from association members who wanted to speak about the merits of either name. Donna Scheeder, a past president of SLA who spoke at the Boston Chapter's Annual Business Meeting in 2002, favored the name Information Professionals International: "The name of SLA should reflect that it is an organization of individuals and not institutions.  I feel strongly that the name should represent the people of the organization.  The name Information Professionals International recognizes professionals of the organization and looks to the future."  

Additional comments during this time included how attractive either name might be to people in nontraditional careers, the current name best representing what the organization is, and that the name may not be as important as how we market the organization in the future.  

After Information Professionals International was selected as the preferred name, Fisher opened the floor for comment from the audience about whether the association name should become Information Professionals International or remain Special Libraries Association.  People talked about how the current name of our association hurts corporate librarians, the way either name could be understood internationally, and how choosing a title with "libraries" or "librarians" reflects our belief in librarianship.  One person expressed the concern that Information Professionals International seems like we're selling out to the information technology world and losing the importance of content and being content-providers.  

Members then voted to keep the name Special Libraries Association.  

Many people wonder whether the results of the vote mean that the work of the Branding Taskforce was a wasted effort.  Since the committee has completed its charge, it has been disbanded. Taskforce members are now working on other committees throughout the association and will continue to share what they learned during their investigation of the association's brand.  

“We do have a new branding strategy and we will go forward to reposition special librarians,” said Abram in a recent Information Today article about the results of the vote.  He outlined some goals the organization will work toward, like forming a stronger international presence and better promoting specialized librarianship instead of focusing on libraries.   

The taskforce supports the statement, Cindy Hill, the new association president, made. "Keeping our name allows us to build on our heritage over the past century, while keeping our focus on the expanding information economy of the 21st," she said.  

It is the Special Libraries Association's Board of Directors’ decision whether to try to change the name of the association again, but Abram does not think that will happen soon.  

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Teresa Eva Frydryk 
Submitted by Margaret Howe-Soper

Teresa Frydryk, former editor of the Boston Chapter “Bulletin”, passed away on July 8, 2003 at age 49.  She is survived by her husband Thomas P. Fairchild, children Mark J. and Daniela Fairchild (all of Somerset, MA), her mother Maria (Olejarz), and brother Erwin K. Frydryk. Teresa and her family lived in Providence, RI. 

At the time of her death, Teresa was employed as manager of the Charles S. Morgan Technical Library of the National Fire Protection Association in Quincy, MA. Until three years ago, she had been a long-time employee of the JSI (John Snow, Inc) Research and Training Institute in Boston. She received her library education at the University of Rhode Island. 

Teresa was a member of both the Rhode Island and Boston Chapters of SLA.  As the Boston Chapter’s “Bulletin” editor, she transformed the publication from paper to an electronic format.  In 2002, she was awarded the Boston Chapter Achievement Award for doing an outstanding job with the “Bulletin.”  She was also a member of the Medical Library Association’s Public Health/Health Administration Section.  

Teresa was a private person in many ways, but she was devoted to her family and her profession, proud of her children, and expressed her passions by the causes she espoused and where she spent her time. Teresa had a long history of working for the benefit of the poor, the abused, and the sick.  She believed that literacy, health care, and education were the keys to social justice, and volunteered for, or was employed by, organizations that promoted such issues. Her work ethic, combined with a good sense of humor, made her a valuable contributor to any organization fortunate to have her as a member.

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Bulletin Publication Statement

Bulletin, The Newsletter of the Boston Chapter of the Special Libraries Association, is produced for Boston Chapter members.  It is published four times per year: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.  Deadlines for 2003 issues are February 15th for issue #1, May 15th for issue #2, August 15th for issue #3, and November 15th for issue #4. 

For 2003 advertising rates or other advertising information, contact Sue Wolfman, 320 Hall Street, Dunstable, MA 01827.  E-mail: swolfman@ebsco.com Voice: 978-649-6544, Fax: 978-649-9461. Acceptance of an advertisement does not imply the endorsement of the product by SLA Boston Chapter or the Special Libraries Association. 

Chapter members are invited to contribute to the Bulletin. Contact Deanna Briggs, Bulletin Content Editor, MIT Lincoln Laboratory Library, SO-783, 244 Wood Street, Lexington, MA 02420-9176. Voice: 781-981-0370, Fax: 781-981-2645; E-mail: deanna@ll.mit.edu.

Consideration of space, format, or editorial policy may make editing of submissions necessary.

Bulletin Production Editor: Vicki Law, Knowledge Center, Adventis, 10 St. James Ave., 17th Floor, Boston, MA 02116. Voice: 617-421-9990, Fax: 617-421-9994, E-mail: vlaw@adventis.com. 

Regular section contributors include:

President’s Letter: Elizabeth Bibby, Harvard Business School, Humphrey 16, Soldiers Field, Boston, MA 02163. Voice: 617-496-5979, Fax: 617-495-8948, E-mail: ebibby@hbs.edu.  

Student Relations: Stephanie White, Library/Knowledge Lab, Olin College of Engineering, Olin Way, Needham, MA 02492-1245. Voice: 781-292-2386, Fax: 781-292-2388, E-mail: stephanie.white@olin.edu

SLA/Simmons Student Group: Position open

News and Notes: Margaret Howe-Soper, Harvard Business School, Kresge 129A, Soldiers Field, Boston, MA 02163. Voice: 617-496-0903, Fax: 617-496-6909, E-mail: mhowesoper@hbs.edu.

New Members: Sandra Peters, Wellesley College, Science Library, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481. Voice: 781-283-3021. Fax: 781-283-3651. E-mail: speters@wellesley,edu.

Marian the Librarian: Anonymous. Send your questions to the Bulletin Content Editor, deanna@ll.mit.edu, to forward.  

A listing of current Executive Board members and Committee Chairs may be found at http://www.sla.org/content/chdiv/chapters.cfm.  

Special Libraries Association assumes no responsibility for the statements and opinions advanced by the contributors to the Association’s publications.  Editorial views do not necessarily represent the official position of the Special Libraries Association.  Acceptance of an advertisement does not imply endorsement of the product by SLA.  

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Here’s What You Told Us: Results of the Boston Chapter Member Survey
Submitted by Liz Bibby, ebibby@hbs.edu 

In the spring of 2003, Kathy McCabe, then President of the Chapter, spearheaded an effort to compile and distribute a survey of Boston Chapter members.  To take advantage of SLA’s agreement with surveymonkey.com, Kathy quickly learned how to utilize the handy software tool, solicited question ideas from the 2002-2003 Board, developed the questionnaire, pre-tested it with a few Board members, and revised it for distribution.   

Kathy distributed the survey to members via the Chapter discussion list in April.  Interested members needed to click on a web link and complete the poll, which took about 5 minutes.   

178 members completed the survey, representing approximately 30% of the Chapter, a statistically significant response. 

Here are some highlights from the results:

• 67.8% of the respondents had 11 or more years of experience working in the information industry/profession, while at the other end of the spectrum less than 6% had two years or less experience.  (Our chapter clearly fits the industry profile and is skewed towards the “graying” generation.)

• The most preferred location for Chapter meetings ranged all over the city and suburbs. The most popular choice was Boston, but it only received one third of the votes.

• Members were split almost evenly between those who drive and prefer meetings with nearby parking (54.4%) and those who use public transportation and prefer locations near the T (45.6%)  (This finding definitely represents a challenge for meeting planners.)

• Members are similarly diverse in their preference of time of day for meetings.  40% prefer mornings, 25% prefer afternoons, 26% prefer evenings and 11% prefer all day meetings.

“the most important determinant of whether [members] attend a meeting
 is that the topic has immediate application to their job”

• Almost 60% stated that the most important determinant of whether they attend a meeting is that the topic has immediate application to their job.

• Conversely, almost 67% of members say that when they choose NOT to attend an event, it is usually because the topic is not directly applicable to their job.  In a close second place (63%) as a reason not to attend, was the time conflicting with work responsibilities.

• 53% of members stated that the most important service the Chapter provides is presenting local programs on stimulating topics.

• A whopping 90% of members prefer to receive announcements via e-mail. (Our Chapter Bylaws currently require us to send meeting announcements via mail, but the Board plans to cease this as soon as the new Chapter Governing documents are adopted.)

• There is much interest in our Chapter co-sponsoring events with other organizations, including NENON (68%), ASIST (62%), SCIP (53%) and others.

• 59% of the members expressed interest in attending Chapter sponsored virtual seminars.

“90% of members prefer to receive announcements via email”

The Board considered these findings in their planning for the forthcoming year.  Specific suggestions for program topics were forwarded to Leslie Knapp and the Program Committee for consideration as they plan events for the 2003-2004 year. 

The Boston Chapter is clearly a diverse group, in many ways. Programming a range of events and opportunities that satisfactorily meet members’ diverse needs will require flexibility, experimentation, and more market segmentation than in the past. 

The Chapter Board thanks those who took the time to respond to the survey to let us know what you want from the Boston Chapter.  We hope to make member surveys a regular part of our Chapter year.  

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News & Notes
Submitted by Margaret Howe-Soper, mhowesoper@hbs.edu 

Please share your information with Margaret in preparation for the next issue.  Send news of new jobs, promotions, awards, presentations, publications or other professional activities.  Your colleagues will be interested to hear about you, so please don’t be shy! 

Leslie (Jacobs) Barrett of Outsell, Inc. was married to her long-time sweetheart John Barrett in May, 2003 and will now be known as Leslie Barrett.  

Margaret M. Cohen assumed the position of Head Librarian of the Educational Resource Center at Boston College on August 4^th.  She was at the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library at Phillips Academy, where she held a number of increasingly responsible roles for the past five years and was most recently Head Librarian/Coordinator of Instructional Services.  She holds a BA in Communications from the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) and an MS in Library and Information Science from Simmons College. 

Sue Ann Connaughton has been promoted to Intellectual Capital Unit/Research Manager at Silver Oak Solutions, Boston.  She was previously the Senior Research Coordinator. 

Ann Cullen, business information librarian and financial services subject specialist at Baker Library, spoke at Simmons College in March, 2003 as part of the panel discussion about “Spotlight on Special Librarians”.  Her topic was “How do you provide value to your organization?”  Other members of the panel included moderator James Matarazzo (former dean of the GSLIS program at Simmons and an SLA fellow), Ethel Salonen (Millennium Pharmaceuticals) and Helen Keil. 

Denise Davis will become Assistant Dean for Admissions and Recruitment at Simmons College, Graduate School of Library and Information Science on September 15^th.  She is the former Simmons College School of Management Librarian. 

Tiffany Ellis has recently been hired as Document Delivery Supervisor for Infotrieve’s Boston Office. 

Deborah Garson, head of Research Services in the Graduate School of Education’s Gutman Library, was program planner and chair for SLA’s Education Division at the June Annual Conference.  At the Conference, Deborah was responsible for a number of the Division’s programs including “Professional Competencies for the Digital Age,” “ERIC and the 21^st Century,” and “Distance Services: Librarians without Walls.”  Finally, Deborah was a speaker representing education web resources at the program “Spotlight: The Best Social Science Websites.” 

New England Chapter of American Society of Indexers is the new name of what was formerly known as the Massachusetts Society of Indexers. The new name reflects the growing geographical diversity of the chapter’s membership. The New England chapter represents over one hundred professional indexers from all six New England states. The group sponsors two conferences per year on professional development topics such as marketing, business management, indexing specialties, and web site design.  For more information, please contact Jennifer Ammirati-Doyle, chapter president at atozinformation@mindspring.com or visit the web site at http://www.marisol.com/maasi/.  The American Society of Indexers is a national association, founded in 1968, to promote excellence in indexing and to increase awareness of the value of well-written, well-designed indexes.  A nonprofit educational organization with over 1000 members, ASI services American indexers and other professionals concerned with indexing.  More information is available at http://www.asiindexing.org.  (Submitted by T.E. Frydryk in June, 2003)

The Simmons College, Graduate School of Library and Information Science Alumni Association has four SLA members on the Board for 2003-2004:  Cynthia Correia (Fuld & Co.)  is President, Margaret Howe-Soper (Baker Library, Harvard Business School) is Vice-President, Tanya Mollenauer (Analog  Devices) is Past-President, and Helen Keil is Treasurer.

Meagan Stefanow is the new librarian at the Insurance Library Association of Boston.   Meagan is a graduate of Smith College, and expects to complete her MLS at Simmons in May, 2004. 

Stephanie White graduated from Simmons College GSLIS in with her MLIS in May 2003, and is now the Resource Librarian at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham, MA.

Sally Wyman will be the new Senior Reference Librarian/Bibliographer for Chemistry and Physics at Boston College’s O’Neill Library beginning in September.  She was formerly a librarian at Brandeis University.

Two of our Boston Chapter members are running for the SLA Board in 2004.  Elizabeth (Liz) Bibby (Baker Library, Harvard Business School) is running for Chapter Cabinet Chair-Elect and Dee Magnoni (Olin College Library) is running for Director.  For more information about these and other candidates, please see http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/Structure/board-index/04Candidates.cfm.

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Increasing Your Value in Trying Times
Submitted by Mary Chitty, mchitty@healthtech.com

The Northern Outreach, SLA Boston Chapter, broke with tradition and presented a summer program on August 25, 2003, in Manchester, New Hampshire.

A lively panel of seasoned and savvy librarians shared their thoughts and experiences about facing the challenges of managing today’s and tomorrow’s information needs in a climate of dynamic changes, industry globalization, and other forces which may well be outside of their control. 

Buzzy Basch, chair of the Northern Outreach, moderated the program. Many thanks to Basch Subscriptions for sponsoring this meeting, organizing the program, and assisting with logistics.

The panelists included the following: Liz Bibby, Director, Business Information Services Center, Harvard Business School and SLA Boston Chapter President; Dr. Toby Pearlstein, Bain & Company; Marilyn Redmond, International Sematech; and Ethel Salonen, Millennium Pharmaceuticals and SLA President-elect.

Marilyn Redmond, from International Sematech, a consortium of semiconductor companies (including Hewlett Packard, IBM, Intel, Motorola, Phillips and Texas Instruments), was the first speaker. She recommended seeking new people and contacts, perhaps eating lunch with them. (She also suggested finding an attractive outgoing female for the library staff for outreach.) She cautioned that adding value doesn’t really help if people don’t know the value is there. She advocated that information professionals spread the word, despite the capability of industry events to overtake even the best services. 

Redmond discussed a case in point: a few years ago the library at International Sematech was almost eliminated, as only 2 staff remained. Marilyn offered advice on preserving space (and collections) and marketing library services, even during a downturn. She built an online catalog, which incorporated holdings information, allowing patrons to track down material. She also added online reference books, switched to online journals, inaugurated a table of contents service, and gave web-searching classes. She promoted the library and the librarians using these slogans: “If you’ve got librarians you’ve got a library”; “Your best Internet connection is a librarian”; “Still here. We’re still searching.”  To her credit, as of July 14, 2003 the library was reopened.

Ethel Salonen, Manager of External Content (now Strategic Intelligence) at Millennium Pharmaceuticals (and President-elect of SLA), described her experience with Arthur D. Little, crediting Ann Wolpert (now at MIT) with being visionary and teaching her the value of outreach and lunching with senior people. She remarked upon how food at the reference desk, candy in particular, can be useful. Through her time working for Dialog in their sales department, Salonen became acutely aware that librarians sell everyday, and ought to think of new jobs and responsibilities in terms of 90-day sales situations. The bottom line is that librarians need to get the attention of busy people with many competing demands. Salonen remarked that “librarians are connectors” and cited the value of the portal and Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point as very useful resources. 

Toby Pearlstein, from Bain & Co., spoke from the perspective of an information professional in a global information division, with 21 information centers. She championed flexibility, the ability to offer the customer various alternatives and use professional judgment, benchmarking, prioritizing, financial efficiency, risk-taking, and  establishing credibility. Without these, she found that fragmented access to critical research tools may be one result.

A robust intranet and knowledge management are also critical to capturing, codifying, and disseminating information for customers. But Pearlstein cautioned that knowledge management and the technology to deliver it is not the same thing. Pearlstein said that a global desktop designed to “be in everybody’s face when they look at their computer” is important, as well as being able to “align yourself with your company.” 

Pearlstein cited one of the most critical success points for information professionals at Bain: globalizing the way Bain contracted for and recovered costs, which was an “out of the comfort zone” process. Developing relationships with vendors, piloting and testing products at local offices with subsequent integration, obtaining a better understanding of industry verticals, and attending industry conferences were all part of the effort to make their value known.  

But among the biggest challenges for those at Bain were forming alliances with other departments, particularly IT, Finance, and HR. This required improved skills in planning, better self-assessment and client evaluation forms, and viewing operations from a management standpoint. In doing so, Pearlstein and others realized that vendor business models don’t always fit. Instead, it might be useful to examine partnering with the vendor, by piloting a project, including a mixture of fixed fee and pay as you go options, then planning to ramp up contracts. Ultimately, Pearlstein suggested that information professionals may have to be willing to walk away if a vendor is inflexible. Industry benchmarking and a data sources finder, indexed and searchable, are also important.   

Liz Bibby, from Harvard Business School, advised information professionals to step outside traditional roles and comfort zones. A few methods to accomplish this goal are to collaborate with others and keep the focus on the important agenda items. She suggested that traditional hierarchical structures are too constraining, hiding the true value of the information professional. 

Another important tenet Bibby mentioned was keeping a strong customer orientation. For instance, Baker Library appointed customer liaisons for each of its major customer segments. The liaisons’ responsibilities include ensuring that their assigned customer segment receives customized orientation, training, and instruction, and also acting as ombudsmen for effective communication with the customers. 

Bibby discussed Harvard Business School’s interest to reach out to alumni and help them connect with the intellectual capital of the school and faculty.  Information professionals achieved this goal by delivering new products to alumni, include eBaker, a subscription service for alumni, and HBS “Working Knowledge”, a timely, highly selective free e-mail newsletter offering the latest research and book and web reviews. Bibby noted that during development, “Working Knowledge” was originally intended for alumni, however, it is now available to anyone.  Yet branding these products is still a challenge for information professionals there.

With new responsibilities, added outreach, and more teamwork that often bombard information professionals, Bibby said that it’s important to give up some activities. She found it is useful to ask oneself about the kind of impact being made and subsequently allot time accordingly. For example, one can often have a greater impact by working at an organizational level, than by focusing on local activities within one organizational unit. Bibby, an instinctive planner, admits that, “more and more, I find that I can just wing it sometimes.”

Throughout the morning, panelists took questions from the audience and discussions during the breaks were lively. Buzzy Basch summed up the event by saying, “Focus on solutions, not problems. Present alternatives.”

In the end, I came away with a number of action items. I’ve signed up for “Working Knowledge,” am determined to eat fewer lunches at my desk, and to seek out key people, both internally and outside. I’ll keep plugging away at trying to develop a more robust intranet “digital desktop.” And I’ll make even greater use of SLA, both for the face-to-face and virtual networking, and via benchmarking. And I’m trying M&Ms for the candy at the reference desk!  

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Simmons Student Chapter Wins Two Awards!
Submitted by Stephanie White, Stephanie.White@olin.edu, Student Relations Chair.

For several years prior to the 2002-2003 academic year, the student chapter of SLA at Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) was inactive. After a lot of hard work by student volunteers, the chapter was revived.  As a result of the efforts of many students, the Simmons Student Chapter of SLA (SLA@S) received two Certificate of Merit awards from the Student and Academic Relations Committee (SARC).  SLA@S received a first place award for “Creative Use of Electronic Resources," as well as a third place award for "Innovative Programming."  These awards were presented by Claire McInerney, the SARC Chair, and Cindy Hill, the incoming SLA President, at the SLA Annual Conference in New York City in June 2003.  Students Dorothy Barr, Millie Gonzalez, and Stephanie White were present to accept the awards for the student chapter.  Before the conference, Zola Porter and Melissa Fox joined with these three students to prepare handouts and posters about SLA@S to present at the conference. 

Dorothy Barr, (from left to right), Stephanie White, and Millie Gonzalez show off their awards with SLA President Cindy Hill at the awards ceremony in New York.

SLA@S was recognized for its creative use of various electronic resources.  They used several vehicles of communication to facilitate and increase active participation among Simmons GSLIS students and to reach students on both the Boston and Mount Holyoke campuses. Some of the resources used included a listserv, an intranet site using WebCT courseware, and a public website available at http://web.simmons.edu/~slaats.  Students used the listerv to communicate with each other about job openings and searches, announcements, events of interest, news affecting special librarians, and more.  The SLA@S WebCT site contains information about SLA, the Simmons student chapter, the bulletin board, the calendar, chat rooms, and links to useful resources, such as the SLA Boston Chapter Bulletin. SLA@S hosted a live chat on the WebCT site with Lynda Moulton, a knowledge management expert, and the transcript was posted for students who couldn’t participate in the live conversation. The WebCT chat feature provided a way for the Boston and Mount Holyoke students to meet together virtually, and SLA@S hopes to host more live chats in the future. This intranet site has been accessed over 2100 times since it was first advertised in January 2003! 

SLA@S was also recognized for innovative programming. A record number of students participated in the Boston Chapter’s “Day on the Job” event.  Students also volunteered with other members of the SLA Boston Chapter at a WGBH pledge drive and hosted a panel discussion about bringing value to your organization. Panelists included Jim Matarazzo, Ethel Salonen, Ann Cullen, and Helen Keil.  SLA@S had several showings of the SLA video “I Told You I'm Worth It: ROI and the Information Professional.”  They coordinated four tours to local special libraries. The libraries included Gradient Corporation, the Boston Athenaeum, the John G. Wolbach Library and Astrophysics Data System at the Harvard Smithsonian Center, and the Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity. 

Many students were involved in SLA@S activities last year, and they’re hoping for even more participation this year.  If you have an idea for a way that library school students and librarians can work together, please send your ideas to Stephanie.White@olin.edu. 

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New Members
Submitted by Sandra Peters, speters@wellesley.edu

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Marian the Librarian (#14) 
Do you have questions for Marian? Send them to the editor, Deanna@ll.mit.edu, to forward to Marian.

*** *** *** *** ***

Dear Marian, 

After the recent major power outage, I'm really worried that something like that might happen where I work.  We have a lot of digital materials and my library serves locations around the world.  How can I safeguard the collection from damage and help people access the collection during power interruptions?

Signed,
Afraid of the Dark

Dear Afraid of the Dark,

Providing access to digital materials without electricity is certainly tricky.  My recommendation is that you find out what kind of backup power supplies and other emergency preparedness measures your office might already have in place. Your IT department may have an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) or a generator ready to go in case of a power emergency. They may already have a plan for protecting the company's computer equipment during a sudden loss of power. Their preparations may not be enough to support access to the collection during a long power outage, but it should last long enough for them to safely shut down any systems.  If there are no backup power supplies or an emergency plan dealing with power outages, you might want to talk to your managers about getting the necessary equipment and establishing an emergency plan. Backing up data regularly can safeguard against losing the collection. You might want to visit the Special Libraries Association's list of resources about disaster planning: http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/sept11help/disip/index.cfm.

Helping people access the collection during power interruptions is much trickier, especially if you do not have print copies of the digital materials or even print access guides.  If it's an electricity shortage over a large geographical area, maybe many of your customers will be in the dark, also.

Good luck,
Marian

Dear Marian,

I work at a library in an academic institution.  A few days ago, I noticed a female student standing at the circulation desk wearing a white shirt with, well, nothing underneath. I've seen other students wearing revealing clothing that I don't think is appropriate for the study environment we try to create in the library.  Our library does not have an official dress code. With all of the revealing clothing I see on campus, I'm afraid it might become a real problem in the library. Is there some way I could politely ask a student to dress more appropriately for a public place?

Signed,
Properly Dressed

Dear Properly Dressed,

Confronting someone, especially a stranger, about the clothes she chooses to wear can be difficult, especially if there isn't already a dress code in place. If other people on the library's staff perceive it as a problem, then you should definitely pursue doing something about it. Have you checked the student conduct regulations at your college?  Perhaps your institution has some kind of dress code in the student handbook or some other code of conduct you could use to support your library's effort to impose a dress code.  If not, perhaps your library could develop a dress code and begin enforcing it.

Good luck,
Marian

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