Volume 60, No. 6
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February 2001 Volume 60, No. 6 |
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Contents
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Special Libraries Association assumes no responsibility for the statements and opinions advanced by the contributors to SLA’s publications. Editorial views do not necessarily represent the official views of SLA. Acceptance of advertisement does not imply endorsement of the product by SLA.
Chapter Notes is free to DC/SLA members. Subscriptions to non-members are available at $10 per year. Advertising rates effective September 1997 are: $95 - 1/4 page; $175 - 1/2 page; $290 - full page. Discounts are offered for both pre-payment and for purchasing ad space in five or more issues. Donna Kanin, PG&E National Energy Group, 7500 Old Georgetown Road, 12th floor, Bethesda, MD 20814, 301/280-6785; e-mail: donna.kanin@neg.pge.com tmgarcia@bellatlantic.net EDITORS’ NOTE: Friday, February 16 is the deadline for materials, which can be included in the March 2001 issue. The issue is distributed approximately three weeks after the deadline. The preferred submission format is ASCII text sent via e-mail. Materials for Chapter Notes should be sent to both of the editors:
Event announcements should also be submitted electronically to the DC/SLA Internet Committee chairs:
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DC/SLA Presents Career Day at CUA The Catholic University of America’s picturesque, springtime campus will provide the setting for this year’s Career Day, jointly sponsored by DC/SLA and the CUA School of Library and Information Science. All interested information professionals, and currently enrolled and prospective library and information science students from metro-area schools, are invited to this free event. Career Day will feature various panels of information professionals, working in a wide array of settings and specialties, describing what their jobs are like. Come hear the insider’s perspective that they and Catholic University’s LIS faculty will offer about achieving success in our profession and the job market.
Date: Saturday, March 24
Program Details:
12:00 noon -- 1:00 p.m.
1:00 p.m. -- 3:00 p.m. NOTE: Please see the March issue of Chapter Notes for additional program details. To register, volunteer to serve on a panel, or receive further information, please send an e-mail to Meg McCully, DC/SLA Event Chair at McCully.Meg@bcg.com
Follow the Money! (Part 2) OR Last month's column began a discussion of the Chapter's 2001 budget. It presented a summary of our income and expenses, and made some observations about the story that these numbers tell. This month, let's look more closely at how the budget is aligned to the Chapter's strategic goals. Do we put our money where our mouth is?
Review
Budget Priorities and Strategic Priorities Programs and meetings came in second on the Committee's list of Chapter services. We're able to provide these services at a very reasonable cost. Thanks to our Chapter sponsors and our allotment, we break even and can afford to lose a little money on these. Again, it is appropriate that we do this. Not only do many of our programs provide valuable continuing education, they also provide opportunities for sharing "war stories" with old and new friends in the profession. As Carolyn Birken pointed out in her award-winning essay published in last month's Notes, this is an important part of the "what's in it for me" that attracts and retains members. When we turn to long-term priorities, the picture isn't as rosy. Only 12% of our funds go to outreach, and almost half of that is the InfoCurrent-sponsored scholarship. Considering that our top long-term goal is to help attract new members into our profession and into SLA, it doesn't seem like enough. The Chapter Strategic Planning Committee has challenged us to improve in several areas including attracting new members, strengthening mentoring, and publicizing consultation services.
The Bottom Line I think our challenge for the future is to make room in our budget for the long-term priorities that the Strategic Planning Committee identified -- recruiting, mentoring and consultation. If we are to make progress on these, our budgets, both monetary and in-kind, will have to change. That's our challenge for the future: to strengthen the areas we need to strengthen, while continuing to support what we already do well.
This April, Spend a Day with a Prospective Special Librarian The DC/SLA Student Affiliation Committee invites Chapter members to host one or more students for a full- or half-day visit to your workplace during April’s "Spend a Day with a Special Librarian" program. Popular with library and information science students attending the University of Maryland and Catholic University, this program gives students the opportunity to see how special libraries operate and how they differ from academic and public libraries. The professional insights you offer these students about the kind of work you do, its challenges and rewards, will help them decide if special librarianship is a field they wish to pursue. If you would like to host one or more students at your library / information center this April, please complete, and return, the following form. Along with your contact information, please specify the dates and hours you will be available, the type of library / information center where you work, and the number of students you can accommodate. The completed forms will be posted at the library schools, and students will contact you directly to schedule a visit.
Please return the form, or e-mail this requested information, by March 2 to:
Trends in the Organization and Accessing of Information for the Knowledge Centers of Today as Heard at a Conference of Professionals As the Chapter Liaison to the SLA Committee on Cataloging, it is my duty to inform you, the membership, of the news from the cataloging community. (And you all thought I did this for fun!!) Perhaps you noticed crowds of people in sensible shoes, with bags of posters and name tags, wandering around D.C. the weekend of January 13-15? What you saw were some of the 7,000 librarians who flooded the city to attend the ALA midwinter meeting. And these attendees were joined by 3,000 other information professionals registered for "exhibit-only" passes. It was during this midwinter meeting that some cataloging groups got together to discuss a variety of issues including: Some meetings were held close to the D.C. convention center and others at more distant hotels, and some meeting times conflicted. On Monday (Martin Luther King Jr. Day), because the metro ran on a holiday schedule, traveling to meetings took more time. Complicating these logistical considerations is the fact that I do like to eat a meal every once in awhile. In short, it wasn’t the easiest conference to attend and see/hear all that peaked my interest. I am new to all this committee work, and still haven’t figured out when we will hear final decisions related to these cataloging issues. But as soon as I know, you will know too! Meanwhile, here are brief notes to inform you of just some of the topics discussed at just some of the meetings. Machine-Readable Bibliographic Information, affectionately called MARBI (pronounced MAAR - bee), is a committee dedicated to looking at MARC. Please see http://www.lcweb.loc.gov/marc for overall MARC information and for links to the MARBI discussion papers and proposals. Here are some of the things MARBI discussed over the weekend:
2) Ways to record the narrator of a work in a bibliographic record was discussed. A discussion paper pointed out how MARC records use two fields to inconsistently treat on-screen narrators and voice-over narrators. The committee seemed to agree with the discussion paper regarding the consolidation of the narrator credit into one field. 3) What is the meaning conveyed by using various date information in specific MARC fields? The Dublin Core initiative people who are trying to cross walk into MARC, raised this issue. The committee recognized the need to examine the various uses of the date in conveying created, valid, available, issued, and modified information. The committee seemed to think that the idea of dates in MARC needs further examination.
2) Coming developments regarding using one record to describe a work that might be issued in various manifestations (hard-copy book, electronic resource, Internet, e-mail, CD-ROM, e-book, microfilm, down-loadable to a personal digital assistants (e.g., Palm Pilot, etc.). Should we use a "One-to-One" relationship (each manifestation gets one record), or "One-to-Many" (one record describes lots of manifestations)? There is a growing interest in a tiered effect that uses a simple OPAC display to make patrons aware that the title is available in many formats. Some argue that the solution is to record data in the holdings tags. This problem will take some time to solve! 3) Always discussed when you get more than one metadata specialist (a.k.a. cataloger) in a room, is the topic of continuing resources -- items that don’t have a completed date. Formerly, these resources were called "serials." For more details about continuing resources, I recommend that you take a peek at http://www.ala.org/alcts/organization/ccs/ccda/tf-serr2.html. 4) Electronic- resource cataloging issues were also discussed. For those out there trying to grasp what to do with Internet resources, see http://www.ala.org/alcts/organization/ccs/ccda/tf-scer1.html. While, this site will not give you an answer, it does show that other people are wrestling with the same topics! While I’m on the subject of the future…. Yoo-hoo, OCLC users out there. Look out! Heads up!! Duck!!! OCLC is moving from the current WorldCat "interface" to a browser interface -- probably within three years. I believe they are going to stop "supporting" Passport for windows in one year. However, I never got a good definition of "support." They are putting their eggs in the CORC basket. ILL will also be moving away from its current "look and feel" to a browser-run application. Last but not least, OCLC’s CORC (Cooperative Online Resource Catalog) project -- the topic I had to pay attention to for a full weekend -- is moving right along. Special Interest Groups are forming. For more information on CORC, check out this new user’s page at http://www.sil.si.edu/staff/corc-user-group/index.htm. Keep an eye out for announcements of changes in MARC tags and AACR2 descriptions. If anyone has any ideas, comments, questions, or knowledge you want to share, send it to me at Pilsks@sil.si.edu. I’ll include it in one of my future Chapter Notes cataloging columns.
Coming Attraction: Stage Set for Joint Spring Workshop, Friday, April 20 DC/SLA and the Law Librarians’ Society of Washington, DC, Inc. are presenting the 2001 Joint Spring Workshop on Friday, April 20. The event’s morning speaker, Linda Burrs, will explore three prominent topics in today’s workplace – situational leadership, creating excellence in customer service, and managing change. The afternoon speaker, Robert Newlen, is the author of Writing Resumes That Work: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians. He will talk about resumes from both the applicant’s and the employer’s point of view. Please read the March Chapter Notes for additional program and registration details.
Discussion List ALERT!!
You may have noticed a recent problem with the DC/SLA Discussion List. Sometime between October and December 2000, the server at SLA Headquarters where our Discussion List resides, began breaking down. Unfortunately, many of our DC/SLA subscribers were automatically removed from the List. With each breakdown of the server, we lost some List members, and some messages that were posted, never made it to all subscribers! The SLA server has since been upgraded, all members have been restored, and everything, hopefully, is up and running. If you unsubscribed from the List at one time, and find that you are now back on and are receiving messages, I hope that you will continue to be a part of this List. However, if you wish to unsubscribe, please send the following command to lists@lists.sla.org: unsubscribe sla-cdc Additional information and commands for the DC/SLA Discussion List can be found on the Chapter website at http://www.sla.org/chapter/cdc/list.html. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns regarding the Discussion List (gretaober@aol.com or greta@worldbank.org). Hopefully, I will be able to assist you directly, or I will forward your concerns to the appropriate person for a response. Both I, and the Information Technology Group at SLA Headquarters, apologize for any inconvenience this technical problem may have caused.
Mini-Minutes of the December DC/SLA Board Meeting Highlights of the December 14 meeting conducted by DC/SLA President Dave Shumaker and held at the Urban Institute, include: The board approved the motion to accept Donna Kanin as Chapter Notes Business Manager, as Mary Talley-Garcia has stepped down. The Joint Spring Workshop will take place on April 20. The topic will be teambuilding, with Linda Burrs and other speakers tentatively scheduled. The Consultation Committee received a request from Librarians Outreach Effort (LORE), which seeks volunteers to help organize DC public school libraries. The request was turned over to the Public Relations committee. The Business Information Finders requested funds to advertise its upcoming program "Data Presentation - A Guide to Good Graphics and Tables" on January 23, 2001, at 7:00 p.m. The board approved the spending of up to $100 for advertising and the use of "Business Information Finders of DC/SLA" in its flyers for this program. For the full minutes, please see the Chapter website at http://www.sla.org/chapter/cdc.
DC/SLA to Co-Sponsor ISLD Program during National Library Week Please join your fellow special librarians at the Freedom Forum for a program celebrating International Special Librarians Day (ISLD) on Thursday, April 5 at 4 p.m. The featured speaker is Jack Kelley, a veteran foreign correspondent for USA TODAY who has reported extensively on events in the Middle East, Cuba and the Balkans. His assignments covering battles in the Balkans included an unprecedented report from inside the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Co-hosts of this event are the Freedom Forum, Factiva, the Special Libraries Association, and DC/SLA. The Freedom Forum is located at 1101 Wilson Boulevard in Arlington, close to the Rosslyn Metro station (Blue/Orange Line). Call 703-284-2818 for more information about the program. Held annually on the Thursday of National Library Week, ISLD is a unique occasion for information professionals around the world to celebrate the profession. On this day, SLA members and their supporters promote the value of special libraries and information centers, their services, and accomplishments within their organizations. The theme of this year’s ISLD is "A World of Information Within Your Reach." For more information about ISLD, visit http://www.sla.org/content/memberservice/communication/pr/isldweb/isldtheme.cfm.
Military Librarians Present: "Conversations with Some Tuskegee Airmen" When: Wednesday, February 21 from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m.
Where: U.S. Naval Heritage Center, 701 Pennsylvania Ave, Suite 123, Washington, DC. What: An evening honoring the bravery and tenacity of that group of World War II pilots and support staff known as the Tuskegee Airmen. Dr. Alan Gropman, historian and faculty member at the National Defense University, will moderate a panel of four retired U. S. Air Force officers who were among the Tuskegee airmen: COL Woody Crockett, COL Elmer Jones, COL Charles McGee and COL Harry Shepherd. Cost: $20. Price includes appetizers/desserts For more information, call Sharon Lenius at 703 601-2709 or email her at: leniussa@pmorcas-arng.ngb.army.mil. To sign up, mail your check to Military Librarians Group c/o Connie Wiley, 1002 Shaw Ct, Fredericksburg, VA 22405. Make checks payable to DC/SLA. The deadline for reservations is Monday, February 19, 2001.
Subscribe to the Chapter Discussion List! A great way to keep up with Chapter news and events is to join the DC/SLA Discussion List! This List provides DC/SLA members a means of quick and easy communication.Return to contents
Infocurrent and DC/SLA Chapter Scholarhips InfoCurrent (formerly TeleSec Corestaff) and DC/SLA Chapter scholarships will be granted for graduate study in librarianship/information science leading to a master’s or doctoral degree at a recognized school of library/information science. One $2,000 scholarship sponsored by InfoCurrent and one $1,500 scholarship sponsored by the D.C. Chapter of the Special Libraries Association will be awarded in Spring, 2001. Eligibility Requirements:
Applications may be found on the Web sites of:
Copies are also available from your student chapter representatives:
Faculty liaison: Eileen Abels Sara Osborne (barlow7@earthlink.net) Faculty liaison: Judy Bateman Mail completed applications by March 2, 2001 to:
Linda Páez
The Law Librarians' Society Of Washington, D.C. 2001 Legal Research Institutes I and II The Legal Research Institutes are hands-on, all-day programs aimed at those working in law libraries who want to sharpen their research skills, and non-law library personnel and paralegals with limited experience using basic American legal sources. PROGRAM
LOCATION: George Washington University TIME: 8:30 a.m.- 5:00 p.m.
COST: LLSDC members:$30 each day/Non-members:$75 each day
Mail registration to: Registration By Mail Only: Registration Deadline: March 2, 2001 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Make check payable to: Law Librarians' Society of Washington, DC
Name:
Phone: _____________________ Fax:_______________________
Mailing Address ____________________________________________________________________
Please check:
__ Legal Research Institute I, Tuesday March 13, 2001
__ Legal Research Institute II, Thursday March 15, 2001
Please check: LLSDC MEMBER: ____ NON-MEMBER: ____
Registration Confirmation Will Be Available On The Llsdc Website.
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