President

Information Outlook Online is the electronic version of the Association’s monthly magazine, providing the most authoritative coverage of the information industry. It is available to the Association’s membership, free of charge, via the Member’s Only section of Virtual SLA (www.sla.org). SLA Executive Director, Roberta I. Shaffer remarked, “We are particularly pleased by S&P's support of this SLA initiative. Information Outlook Online is an innovative and flexible way to deliver important information to busy professionals. Standard and Poor's embraces this same goal in the products and services that they provide. ”

Standard & Poor's, Director of Reference Markets, Doug Doremus, commented that “this is only one piece of our strategy to become a trusted partner with the information professional community. We are proud of our continued partnerships with the Special Libraries Association.”

A graduate of Vassar College with a BA in economics, Ms. Shaffer also holds a master's degree in librarianship from Emory University and a law degree from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana and an M.A. at American University in Washington, DC. Prior to her appointment as Executive Director of SLA, she served as the Dean of the Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin.

[Congratulations Heather, as always, the Chapter is very proud of you!]

Sharon Lezotte, MHE, MLIS, joined us in November as the new Outreach and Consumer Health Librarian. With her Master's degree in Health Education, as well as her Master's of Library and Information Science, Sharon brings a strong educational background as well as experience as the former Consumer Health Coordinator at the National Network of Libraries of Medicine Midcontinental Regional Library at the University of Nebraska. She formerly worked as Education Services Librarian at Thomas Jefferson University and as Manager/Community Health Librarian at the du Pont Rehabilitation Institute.

Joining the library faculty in December from the Health Science Center Library at Emory University is Ingrid endrix, MLIS, new Nursing Librarian. As Reference Librarian at Emory Health Sciences Library, Ingrid provided reference services, developed and taught classes, designed and created web-based class materials, edited the the library's online newsletter, and was active in library associations in Georgia. Ingrid's professional degree is from the University of Michigan.

Last January, the library added the faculty position of Pharmacy Librarian, which is now held by Charity Karcher, MLIS. Charity served as Medical Librarian/Information Specialist at the Dunn School of Pharmacy at Shenandoah University where she supported distance education students. Prior to that Charity was a staff member at the Greenblatt Library, Medical College of Georgia.

From: Janis Teal, MLS, MAT Associate Director, Education Services Health Sciences Library & Informatics Center The University of New Mexico

Sarah Morley presented a paper entitled "Clinical Medical Librarians: extending library resources to the clinical setting." and Linda Morgan Davis presented a poster entitled "Addressing senior needs in the accessibility of Internet health-related information."

Bill and I attended this year’s exhibition of the Girls’ art and poetry. The young artists and writers were enthusiastic and outgoing in showing their creations to family, friends and invited visitors.

Chapter and Division Cabinet officers are designing a Leadership Development Institute shaped by the comments you provided. Watch for more detailed information to be provided later in the year. Back again, will be the Town Meeting to discuss issues critical to the Association's strategic path and the opportunity to hear from Board candidates so that you may learn their view for the future of your professional organization.
http://www.sla.org/content/Events/meeting/index.cfm

First, a little history. The World Library Partnership was founded by Laura Wendell, a former Peace Corps volunteer. She was sent to Togo, West Africa to teach people how to farm fish. When she reached the village, she found they already had a lake full of fish. While waiting until she could be assigned to another project, she found that the people there placed a high value on books and reading. Even her Newsweek magazines were eagerly passed around for the pictures. She decided to help build a library for the community. She raised money and got a few shelves of books. They were very popular, the first month she had over 2,000 checked out! Soon the library grew, and the community built a new building. The community told her that their sense of pride and ownership rose with the walls. There are now literacy classes, story hours, essay contests, and vivid discussion groups.

Laura writes, "the experience has shown me how books can transform people and communities. They encourage people to become knowledge seekers, even in the most isolated places. Yikpa is currently being faced with some hard decisions about controversial issues, like how to manage diminishing resources and an expanding population. These questions are only going to get harder in the future, and I hope that people will view the library as a resource to help them create solutions. In the library, the wisdom and folklore of the Ewe people sits side by side with modern books on conservation and agriculture so that people can see and appreciate the value of both. I will never forget seeing my "Papa" reading a book he had confiscated from two of his sons who were fighting over it. I interrupted him to ask if he liked the book. He didn't hear me at first, and when he finally looked up, all he said was '...I was transported.'"

Upon returning to the U.S., Laura created the World Library Partnership so that more libraries could be started and supported in Africa. To find out more about WLP, please visit their website: http://rtpnet.org/~wlp/. There is also a volunteer program to Honduras now as well.

There were 19 volunteers on our trip. We were from: Alaska, Arkansas, California, Florida, Indiana, New Mexico, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin. Our ages ranges from the 20s to the 70s. Art Freed, another Rio Grande SLA member, was also a volunteer.

We were paired in groups of two, and assigned to different regions in South Africa. I was fortunate to get my top choice--KwaZulu-Natal, a province rich in culture and heritage. Each of our situations were vastly different. Some volunteers had no running water, and cooked over open fires. The township I was in was very poor, but there were a few modernized houses. We stayed with four families in all, which was a wonderful opportunity as we were welcomed into their lives.

WLP partnered with the South African Department of Education and READ, a nonprofit organization. One of the most important things about this project is that we raised money here to buy books while we were within the country. Sometimes people believe that sending donated books to developing countries can help with literacy and libraries. Often this is not the case. These books may be damaged, not applicable to the people, expensive to transport (also import taxes may be imposed), and it does not help support their book industries. I raised money for the books by having a South African dinner. I invited my friends and coworkers to eat and then explained about my trip. I received many generous donations. The fact that I was fortunate to be working for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation helped me as well, since they have a matching donation program in place for employee donations.

We visited a few public libraries while there. I was overwhelmed by how many children were in the libraries, even on Saturdays. I had heard that many times students use the libraries only to study their schoolbooks, but I was happy to see many children using the library books as well.

We were assigned to a primary school library in Nseleni township. One of the first mornings we were there, a huge school assembly was held for us. Over 1,200 students crowded into the school yard. Many dignitaries were there and traditional singing and dancing was performed by the students. We were told that we were the first white people to stay in their township.

In KwaZulu-Natal there is a very developed library system for the school libraries. Regional advisors teach classes and help in book distribution. We asked what they wanted us to accomplish while there and we were told that we should increase the status of librarianship. That was a little intimidating, so I asked if they had any ideas how we could go about this. Then we learned that we were to develop workshops for rural teachers. We would be taken to several rural schools in the afternoons, and teachers from surrounding schools would be invited to participate in our workshops. Again, I was thankful for my work at the Gates Foundation, because I knew that I could put together a workshop in a few days. I had been paired with an academic librarian, and at that point Jane and I both wished we had more experience with school libraries. I had to think back to grade school and remember what went on in my school library. We had two parts to our workshops. First we talked about libraries in the U.S., and why we believe them to be invaluable. The quote, "When an old woman dies, a library burns to the ground," hit home, as we told of how important it is to have a history of local culture. Many of the schools had no books, and one of the teachers even said to me, "How can I have a library, with no books?" This brings me to the second part of our workshops, bookmaking. WLP had taught us to make books by making tabs in the paper and fitting the pages together. So we showed them this process and had them create their own books. We asked them to write a story with pictures (or cut out magazine photos). The teachers completely enjoyed this project. Afterwards, they read their books to each other. The teacher that had told me he had no books stood and informed me that after tomorrow he would no longer be able to say that, as he was going to show all his students how to make books and soon his school would have thousands of books.

In the mornings, we worked in the school library in Nseleni. It was a small room with a few books that were mostly uncataloged. We taught the school teacher librarian about the Dewey Decimal system. She only had a few hours a week in the library, and had no library training. By the time we left, however, the principal promised us that the librarian would have more time for the library.

At the end of our trip, we made the journey to Pretoria with the principal and the teacher librarian to select books for their school. This was a big event. We had previously explained a little about collection development and had spoken with the teachers about books that they needed for their classes. The ideas of book reports and reading time was new to them, but they were very excited to learn more.

I recently received a letter from one of the teachers. They just had a successful Readathon at the school. She tells me that we opened the doors for them. She writes, "It is not only the books that you gave to us, but you changed our attitudes towards books and the fear of going to the library. You will be amazed to see how happy and enthusiastic learners have become towards reading and going to the library. All this started after your visit."

I can tell you that this trip was the most important thing I have done my entire life. It has changed me for the better and made me truly realize how fortunate I am. I have a greater appreciation of the human spirit, and the quest for knowledge. In our country, we have so many opportunities, so much is given to us that we often do not see how very lucky we are, and how much we can contribute, just through opening our hearts and minds. I completely recommend the Inform the World volunteer program to anyone interested.

Please contact me, Stephanie Gerding, if you have questions: sgerding@stlib.state.nm.us.

Stephanie Gerding is the new Continuing Education Director at the New Mexico State Library in Santa Fe. he is excited about becoming more involved in the Rio Grande chapter of SLA. She recently moved from Seattle, WA, where she was a training coordinator for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and editor of the SLA ewsletter. Stephanie received her MLIS from the University of Tennessee, where she was a cataloger. Upon graduation, she became a trainer and customer support specialist for SIRSI, a library automation company. She has also been a Systems Librarian for Federal Express, automating a library and training staff.

Rio Grande Chapter
Special Libraries Association
c/o 455 Wagon Train
Rio Rancho, NM 87124

RGC Home SLA Home Copyright © SLA. All rights reserved.   Disclaimer Email suggestions and announcements to: Frances Knudson. (fknudson@lanl.gov)   Author: Frances Knudson   Last update: Dec. 2001   URL: http://www.sla.org/chapter/crio/bulletin/2001/rgcb1201.htm