Chapter News

In Memory of Kay Denfeld -- July 6, 2001
Report from Student Chapter -- April 23, 2001
Earthquake Story -- April 20, 2001
Report from 2000 SLA Conference -- April 2001
SLA Scholarship Program Winner -- April 16, 2001
Chapter Officer Nominations -- Apr. 10, 200

In Memory of By Carol Green
July 6, 2001

Kay Denfeld, Science Libraries Computer Resources Coordinator at the University of Washington, died on Sunday, June 24, 2001 in a kayaking accident. Her kayak capsized and was pinned between boulders in the fast moving current of the Sauk River in NW Washington. Her companions were unable to free her and by the time rescue was possible she could not be revived.

The Northwest kayaking and the library communities have lost an enthusiastic and talented friend and colleague. Whitewater kayaking was Kay’s passion and joy. She lived to be out on the water, and used to complain about the sunny days that kept the rivers low. Her friends in kayaking have mounted a web page in her honor at www.wakayakclub.com. 

A gathering in Kay’s memory will be held at 4pm, Sunday, July 15, 2001 at the University Friends Meeting, 4001 9th Ave NE, Seattle, just northwest of University Bridge. Friends and colleagues are invited to bring recollections and light food to share. Beverages provided; no alcohol, please. Remembrances may be made to American Rivers Inc., 150 Nickerson St. #311, Seattle, WA 98109 or American Red Cross, Seattle-King County Chapter, 1900 25th S, Seattle, WA 98144. 

Kay was a native Oregonian, graduating from Portland State University. After library school at the University of Denver, she started her career at the University of Oregon and then moved to Washington State in 1968 to work at the Washington State Library and later to provide library services to the members of the Washington Medical Association. In 1973, Kay became the Online Services Coordinator for the Health Sciences Library at the University of Washington introducing many students, staff and faculty to the intricacies of online database searching. From 1987 through 1993, she served as head of the Forest Service Information North West ( FS INFO NW), a contract service between the USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station and the University of Washington Libraries, which was housed in the Forest Resources Library. When that contract ended, she served for one year as the Special Assistant to the Associate Director of Public Services, then moved to the Odegaard Undergraduate Library to serve as Head, University Libraries Media Center. In 1996-1997, she served as Acting Head of OUGL. In her most recent position, she worked out of the Engineering Library and coordinated the computing needs of all Science units.

For many of us at the University of Washington, Kay was the one who introduced us to the cutting edge of technologies. She was an early adopter of computers and spearheaded the UW Health Sciences Libraries’ foray into literature searching and computer applications. She introduced technology into document delivery for the Forest Service, updated the Media Center, and helped establish an open access computer facility in the Undergraduate Library. She became the computer specialist for the Science Libraries and kept our systems and equipment up and running. As one colleague expressed it, Kay served as an “ambassador/translator/interface” for us into the world of computer technology. She helped us to understand the complexity of systems and software and gently fixed our problems.

During all these years, Kay was very active professionally, particularly in the American Society for Information Science, the Special Libraries Association, and the Association for Educational Communications & Technology. She was always available to help with conferences and programs, serving on many task forces and planning committees. She received several recognition awards including the ASIS Certificate of Recognition for Outstanding Contributions to the Pacific Northwest Chapter, in 1990. She was also a workhorse for the University of Washington Libraries. Her list of committee and task force memberships is long including participating in the Task Force to Review the Librarian’s Personnel System, from 1992-1997, and chairing the Task Force on Implementation Issues for the new code in 1995. In the 1980’s, she served a term as President of the Association of Librarians of the University of Washington, and had just volunteered to serve again when the position became vacant this spring.

Kay will be greatly missed by her friends and colleagues at the University of Washington and in the wider library community. She touched us in many ways both professionally and personally. We are grateful to have known and worked with her and mourn her loss from our lives.

Carol Green
Head, Forest Resources Library
University of Washington Libraries

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Report from Student Chapter
By Pam Green
April 23, 2001

The network of professional contacts and resources you create through SLA is one of the greatest benefits of this organization--Donna Scheeder, SLA President, shared this thought with students during her recent visit to the UW iSchool. I have heard this since I first became involved with SLA in October 1999 during my first quarter in the UW's Masters in Library and Information Science program. Over the past year I come to understand what this benefit really means. We've received great support from many of you over the past year and our SLA-UW would not be as successful as it's been without your help. Thank you to: 

• Dana Bostrom and Kim Emmons our SLA-PNWC liaisons 
• Nancy Gershenfeld, our faculty liaison to the UW iSchool
• Nola Sterling-Nola has welcomed student involvement and been very proactive in alerting us to opportunities, such as a special visit from SLA President Donna Scheeder. We'll also be visiting Nola's library for our Spring tour in May.
• Stephanie Rawlins-Stephanie visited students at the UW (on a Friday afternoon, no less!) to give a presentation about her experience with World Library Partnership in South Africa this past summer. (Note: two iSchool students will be following in Stephanie's footsteps this summer--Stephanie Wright and Valerie Wonder will both be going to Africa.)
• Chris Mulready-Chris worked closely with Sharon Grant and myself to help maximize student involvement in the April joint chapter meeting/Professional Development Day.
• Our Brown Bag Speakers who came to the school to speak with students on special topics: Dottie Smith, Linda Falken, Zoe Holbrook, Laurie Ellis (our next May brown bag!), Nancy Huling, Dan Trefethen, Dana Bostrom, Christa Bindel, Nancy Gershenfeld and Josh Duberman (future presenter).
• Thank you to everyone who participated in the February Student Night including our presenters and the many helpful resume reviewers!
• Also thanks to Christy Leith and Nola Sterling for opening up their libraries for our Spring tour.

• Tour of Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle and Davis Wright Tremaine libraries on May 3.
• Brown Bag discussion about Web site management and redesign with Lauri Ellis of Microsoft on May 15.
• SLA-UW elections for 2001-2001 academic officers the week of May 14-18.

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Earthquake Story
By Dan Trefethen
April 20, 2001  

Here's my earthquake story: 

The day of the earthquake was our office's first day in our new location on the top floor of a four-story building in Kent. My entire library was in boxes on the floor. After the shaking, I crawled out from under my desk and took a quick look into the library, saw that everything looked fine, and that the empty shelves hadn't fallen over, despite not being attached to anything. We left the building immediately, and didn't return for 48 hours, when our building received the "green card" for occupancy. I was thinking that I got away clean, and that having a library in boxes was the best possible situation during an earthquake. 

Friday morning I came back into the building to find that a mechanical coil had sprung a leak, and half my carpet was soaked. Yikes! Now the boxes sitting on the floor were a liability, and I furiously moved and opened boxes, trying to locate any damp material. By noon I had isolated all the wet material, tagged a few things for destruction and was busy air-drying the rest, as most were only "edge-damp" from standing on edge within the box. We brought in one of the big air blowers to dry out the room. Again, I got away pretty clean - there are only a few materials I need to replace, and I could detect no mold in the room on Monday or Tuesday when I got down nose-to-fiber with the carpet.

A little later, one of the Facilities guys came by. The day before the earthquake I was inspecting the library area, and he had come by to chat. I actually brought up the fact that I was concerned that the shelf units were freestanding, and might come over in an earthquake. He had discounted the possibility. Now I decided to strike again. "You know, these empty shelves didn't fall over," I said, giving them a shake and making them wobble, "but that may not be true when they are fully loaded. And I'd hate to be standing in this room when it happens. Any chance we could bolt them to the wall and add cross-bracing along the tops?" He thought about standing in front of a fully-loaded seven-foot tall freestanding bookshelf in an earthquake, and acknowledged that it might be a good idea. 

This Monday, when I arrived for work, I found that the seismic retrofit had been done over the weekend. I feel better about my chances during the next "big one".

Epilogue: The building we had just moved out of was declared condemned after the quake, and will not be occupied by regular staff for at least three months. We got out in the nick of time.

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The SLA Annual Convention, Philadelphia, PA, June 10-15, 2000
by Barbara Wetzel

I left for the Philadelphia meeting the day after receiving my MLIS. My new degree, combined with the Professional Development grant I received from the SLA-PNW, prompted great expectations for the Convention—I could imagine myself in professional positions, using the job-hunting seminars and resources . But when I got there, I mostly felt overwhelmed.

Special librarians were everywhere—easily identifiable not by the sensible shoes but by the bright red bags that attendees received with their conference materials. The conference program was a half-inch thick, with only a small blank page to lay out your schedule (really, the way to do it is to plot out your chosen talks and set up your intended schedule before you leave home—the materials are all at the SLA website). So many concurrent offerings—while it is exciting to see so many great sessions, it is frustrating to not be able to attend them all, or to find out the one you really wanted to hear was cancelled, or to realize that that long line outside the room you’re looking for is actually all the people who want to hear the next talk (same as you!)—or (maybe worse) to get a great seat in a session that then doesn’t match what you expected or wanted to hear (or the speaker isn’t very good, or…)

Some of the highlights for me were: Terry Gross’s interview with David Talbot, founder of Salon magazine, hearing the SLA presidents’ (outgoing and incoming) addresses, and meeting other students and hearing about their student chapter activities, classes, etc. It was exciting to see SLA-PNW’s Dan Trefethen honored as an SLA Fellow. I learned a lot at the session with Mary Ellen Bates and Greg Notess, search engine superstars, and at a session about job-seeking (the one I learned the most from was not the speaker!). The Cyber Café provided a place to sit down and check my email (a handy way to keep in touch with the homefront), not to mention popcorn and lemonade (I even won a door prize!). 

Attending some of the Division functions was interesting—it is a great way to connect with other librarians, and learn more about the content or subject area opportunities available in SLA. The SLA organizational structure was very confusing—Divisions, Chapters, Round Tables—though I felt like I was beginning to understand it better by the end of the conference.

The annual convention is a great show, with a lot of content—almost too much. It’s a really rich experience, and I thank the SLA-PNW for their support for me to attend.

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SLA Scholarship Program Winner
by Nola Sterling, chapter president
April 16, 2001

It is my great pleasure to announce that David Hurley, a student SLA member, was one of the three 2001 SLA Scholarship Program Winners.

The official announcement will be made in San Antonio, June 11, 3 - 4:30 at SLA's President-Elect's Poster Session and Awards Presentation for Students.

Please join us there to give all the winners a big hand!

Great going, David!

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