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May/June 2003 Volume 62 No. 5 |
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| It's Nifty Fifty for
the Military Librarians Division Subimtted by Sharon Lenius, sharon.lenius@ngbcio.ngb.army.mil Join the Military Librarians
Division in celebrating 50 Years of partnership with SLA. The Division will
be celebrating with,... what else, a Birthday Cake at the Annual Conference
in NYC. Reserve 1 to 2 pm. in your very busy Conference schedule on Tuesday,
June 10th for a Military-Style Cake Cutting Ceremony at the Hilton, Mercury
Rotunda (3rd floor)! Stop by and sing Happy Birthday as we celebrate this
50th Anniversary.
Vendors today are attempting to capture valuable library dollars by collecting or aggregating articles from journals into searchable databases and then charging considerable access fees. To their delight, users can have ready access to many full-text articles, right on their desktops. At the same time, some information centers fear this may be the final web-induced blow to their existence. What’s the real truth? Come hear local representatives from several aggregate producers tell us what’s new and what’s true about aggregator databases. Who? Sponsored by Interlibrary Users Association (IUA) of the Washington Metro Area When? Thursday, May 29, 9 a.m. - 12 noon Where? ENSCO, Inc. Cost? Free to IUA Members Questions/ Irene Minich, ENSCO, RSVP? Inc., (703) 321-4604, Intracity
Librarian Scrabble Championships Time for the third installment of the Intracity Librarian Scrabble Championships! We've had an LLSDC Scrabble champ, then an SLA winner, now our challenge has been accepted by DCLA! Check your calendar for June 19th for a Scrabble Tournament and Game Night with local DCLA, SLA and LLSDC members from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at McKenna, Long & Aldridge LLP, 1900 K Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. (near the Farragut North and Farragut West Metro Stations). Enjoy free pizza and beer, play Scrabble, Big Boggle and Uno, plus learn other great games with your friends and colleagues. Advanced and beginner play; two-letter word lists available on request. Questions? Contact Kate Martin, (202)496-7752 or kmartin@mckennalong.com |
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.
Subscriptions: Advertising: EDITOR’S NOTE: Materials for Chapter Notes should be sent to the Editor: Cynthia Holt Event announcements should also be submitted electronically to the: Listserv Moderator: DC/SLA Web Committee: Send address changes for Chapter Notes to: SLA Headquarters |
Peggy Garvin is editor of the 6th edition of Government Information on the Internet (Lanham, MD: Bernan), a reference book with a companion online database. Originally edited by Greg Notess, the book is an extensive directory and guide for U.S. federal government information on the Web and is designed specifically for librarians and researchers. The book and database also include information on state, local, and international Web sites. For the current edition, Peggy has revised the subject and author indexing, written a section on tracking changes related to the Homeland Security reorganization, and added a new “Bookmarks and Favorites” feature highlighting essential Web sites for researchers.
The North Carolina Chapter of SLA had it's annual Awards banquet on Thursday, April 3rd and DC Chapter member Richard Huffine was their keynote speaker. Richard is the National Library Network Manager for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and spoke to the NCSLA about some of the challenges and opportunities he finds in coordinating library services for the Agency. The NCSLA Banquet was held at the EPA facilities in Research Triangle Park, NC, and featured tours of the new facility, its library, and the state of the art scientific labs that support research activities within the EPA.
Robert Cagna will be one of the speakers at the “Winner's Circle of Web Sites" session at the SLA conference. The session will be on Wednesday, June 11th, at 2:00 p.m., and he'll be covering web sites related to social gerontology (issues related to older adults). Robert would love to see chapter members who are interested!
Ronald A. Rader, M.L.S., is author of the second edition of BIOPHARMA: Biopharmaceutical Products in the U.S. Market, the only reference concerning biopharmaceutical products. The 654-page book is published by the Biotech-nology Information Institute (Rockville, MD; see http://www.biopharma.com/).
PayPal Now Used to Accept Credit Card Payments
Submitted by Erin Clougherty, eclougherty@marketresearch.com
DC/SLA is now using Paypal to accept credit card payments for events starting with this year’s Annual Business Meeting and Banquet. PayPal is an account-based system that lets anyone with an email address securely send and receive online payments using their credit card or bank account. PayPal accepts Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express, thus expanding your payment options. First time PayPal users will need to set up a PayPal account. Instructions for paying by PayPal are found on the event’s webpage at: http://www.sla.org/chapter/cdc/events_files/banquet03.html
Upon completion of payment, PayPal will email a receipt to both DC/SLA and yourself. PayPal payments are not refundable.
If you have any questions about using PayPal, please contact DC SLA’s Treasurer, Erin Clougherty at eclougherty@marketresearch.com or (301) 468-3650 x208
Futurists Nab NARA For NYC
Submitted by Katherine Bertolucci, SLA Information Futurists Caucus
Convener
Dr. Kenneth Thibodeau, one of the major players in electronic records
preservation, will speak at SLA's 2003 Conference in New York City, co-sponsored
by the Information Futurists Caucus (KINF) and the Library Management Division.
Dr. Thibodeau directs the Electronic Records Archives (ERA) of the National
Archives and Records Administration (NARA). He will address SLA during the
Future Directions track on Tuesday, June 10th at 3:30 p.m.
An internationally recognized expert in electronic records, Ken Thibodeau taught at the University of Notre Dame and led records management programs for both the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense. At NARA since 1988, he now heads NARA's effort to build "the archives of the future," preserving our nation's electronic records, from NASA photographs to White House email. Ken Thibodeau is a key player in the development of effective new methods for preserving electronic records through generations of information technology.
Digital preservation is becoming an important topic for SLA. First introduced to us by Stewart Brand in Minneapolis/1999, the Information Futurists and LMD followed up at San Antonio/2001 with Jeff Rothenberg of the Rand Corporation and his highly entertaining talk on preservation basics, "Digital Information Lasts Forever - Or Five Years, Whichever Comes First." The September 2002 Information Outlook featured an article on the digital preservation efforts at the Library of Congress, "Digital Preservation Looks Forward," by Amy Friedlander of the Council on Library and Information Resources.
The momentum continues for New York City. Stewart Brand will again address SLA, this time as keynote for Tuesday's Future Directions track at 9:30 a.m. In an interview for the February 2003 Information Outlook, Brand stated that one of his themes will be digital preservation. Dr. Kenneth Thibodeau follows in the afternoon with a program about the very exciting preservation projects at NARA/ERA. Be sure to attend both these important programs for the latest in digital preservation. You just might find the solution for your own preservation efforts.
Plan to join the Information Futurists for two more great conference events. Get an early start on the Future Directions track by attending the always lively KINF business and networking meeting on Monday at 5:30 p.m. You'll also enjoy a program on wearable and mobile technology with members of the MIT Media Laboratory. KINF is co-sponsoring this program with the Information Technology Division at 1:30 during Tuesday's Future Directions track. Be sure to attend all the Information Futurists' events for an exciting look at the emerging technological world.
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Teleworking--What Will It Mean? The World of Virtual
Work Submitted by Alison Ince, aince@ngs.org Do you have the discipline to work at home without being distracted by piles of laundry or a sunny day outside? Does a work station in your living room mean you will be working 24 hours a day? Your company's Help Desk doesn't make house calls, so what happens if you have computer problems? Will your career be hurt if you lose "face time" in the halls and miss meetings? These were some of the issues raised by four speakers on the morning of April 22nd at "Teleworking--What Will It Mean? The World of Virtual Work." About 20 people attended the event at the Sumner School organized by librarian Maggie Turqman. Linda J. White from the Library of Congress described librarians' experience teleworking with the Library of Congress Ask A Librarian service that uses QuestionPoint, a digital reference management and networking tool developed by OCLC and the Library of Congress. Six reference librarians telework a maximum of two days a week from home. The librarians enjoy not having to deal with regular office interruptions and are glad to be able to offer reference service on snow days (since patrons in California may not be aware that DC is covered in snow and the government has closed). Some of the problems of teleworking reference include not having access to the book stacks and not being able to access all online databases from home. Monica Martinez, research analyst for the MITRE Corporation, provides research support to analysts in the critical infrastructure protection team. Three part-time employees and two full-time employees telework from Virginia to Massachusetts to write a daily 11 to 15 page newsletter summarizing major news stories from the open Internet for their clients. She appreciates the flexibility of her schedule when teleworking. She also discussed the importance of attending departmental meetings in the main office, having a back up plan in case servers go down, and having the technology infrastructure to support working from remote locations. Alex Kramer, principal of Kramer Research, an information based service specializing in private investigations, public records, film, literary, and media research, gave the audience insights on what it is like to work from a home-based office. She described the need for stamina and discipline when working at home and listed some of the rules she follows: up and dressed by 9, treat yourself to lunch out, no TV before 5, and leave the country once a year. She also mentioned the importance of reminding people you are there and suggested pushing information to clients through email, dropping off information in person to get face time, and staying active in professional organizations. Julie Arnold is coordinator of reference services at the Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Maryland and coordinator of virtual reference services at the UM Libraries. She discussed telework plans in effect at the University of Maryland for faculty librarians and issues surrounding the choice not to telecommute. She also brought up the topic of the "virtual customer" and some of the benefits and challenges of setting up a virtual reference service and doing it from home. She teleworks one day a week but says it can be difficult to leave work behind when you are so efficiently connected at home. The issue of how bibliographic instruction and knowledge navigation can be accomplished in a virtual reference world came up in the Q&A after her presentation. |
Metadata Standards: What's New & How Will They Impact Your Work
Submitted by Suzanne Pilsk, PilskS@si.edu
All you metadata mistresses and misters, catalogers, information organizers
(etc.) should take a look at the upcoming event at the SLA conference in NYC.
Mark your planner now and check closer to the date for the location on the
Committee for Cataloging webpage at
http://www.sla.org/committee/catalog1/index.html
Date: Monday, June 09, 2003
Time: 1:30 - 3:00 p.m.
Location: TBA
Sponsored by:
Inmagic, Inc. & Technical Standards Committee, Committee on Cataloging, Division of
Information Technology
As information technologies evolve, metadata standards have become widely
accepted in organizing information resources of both print and non-print. The
most noticeable standards activities include Metadata Encoding & Transmission
Standards (METS) and METS’ extension schema Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS).
METS schema is designed to encode descriptive, administrative, and structural
metadata for objects within a digital library using the XML schema language.
MODS is an extension of METS in the form of XML schema for descriptive metadata
that uses MARC definitions, so is compatible with existing library bibliographic
data. By using the new XML technologies, METS and its extension schemas are
bridging AACR2 and MARC with the new technology to make it easier and more
effective for the cataloging and management of information resources. Do you
want to know how these standards will impact your work? Come to this session to
find out more!
Speakers:
Overview of metadata standards: Marcia L. Zeng, Kent State University
METS: Jerome McDonough, New York University
MODS: Rebecca Guenther, Library of Congress
All interested folks are encouraged to attend our Committee on Cataloging Meeting Annual Buiness meeting: Monday, June 9th, 2003, 3:30 - 5:30 p.m. Location: TBA. Moderated by Jian Qin , School of Information
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Smithsonian Libraries Takes Parisian Design Online:
Unique Challenges of Digitizing a Library Collection Submitted by Kitty Scott, (202) 554-3928 Date: Tuesday, June 10, 2003 Sponsored by: Focusing on the unique challenges of digitizing Le Garde-meuble, ancien et moderne (Furniture repository, ancient and modern), this program presents the first digital edition from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Library's collection to be made available on the Smithsonian Institution Libraries' Galaxy of Knowledge website. Reception to follow program and tour. Program will be held at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, 2 E. 91st St. KRET meeting following the tour. Moderator(s): Ann Shea, Librarian, California African American Museum Library; Frank Spaulding, Retired Members Caucus; and Catherine "Kitty" Scott, Smithsonian Institution Libraries (Retired). Speaker(s): Stephen Van Dyk, Librarian, Cooper-Hewitt Museum; Martin Kalfatovic, Head, New Media Office, Smithsonian Institution. |
One Dot Shopping: An Update of the Best International
Business Sites Submitted by Greta Ober-Beauchesne, greta@worldbank.org Date: Wednesday, June 11, 2003 Join us for our third annual program, where expert searchers show you their favorite free wesbites for conducting international business research. This year's countries covered in depth are Mexico, Canada, and the United States. Learn about best sources for country information, NAFTA trade agreements and disputes, business and government, statistics and more. Moderator: Iris Anderson, Joint World Bank/IMF Library Speaker(s): Benita Vassallo, Inter-American Development Bank Greta Ober-Beauchesne, Joint Bank/IMF Library Kerry Prendergast, NBC Information Center. |
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