by Larry Enoch

Picture this: Somewhere in a software development corporation in the heart of the city's technology corridor, the Human Resource Manager has just finished a multimedia, Web-based, browser-run presentation of "interactive benefits enrollment using the corporate Intranet". A group of seventy directors, managers, developers, and project leaders are present. Smiles, nods and even applause follow the closing remarks.

Now the final presenter, none other than the corporate librarian, stands up. The content of the presentation is: "How to effectively use the library's periodical abstract and financial database CD-ROM search engines". After setting up an overhead projector, the librarian proceeds to "market the library" in a dull, sleepy monotone, using black-and-white overheads without graphics to teach about library tools.

Ask yourself these questions. Why was the librarian last? How does the library presentation compare to the HR presentation in terms of technical merit? How many in the audience will be awake at the end of the presentation? Who cares about CD-ROM search engines? Will the library see increased usage due to this presentation? Will the library be able to attribute increased usage to this presentation?

My answers to these questions are rather harsh.

Most likely the librarian was last because no one in the library had the gumption to fight for a better time slot, or even realized that a better time slot was important. The library presentation stinks compared to the HR presentation.

Surely in a software development company, or for that matter in any company, there are resources available to bring the library out of the overhead projector age. I doubt many will be awake, or even present, at the end of the presentation. We have all seen the effect of a weak, boring presentation placed last on the agenda. The parking lot empties early. This is the era of graphics in advertising. A monotone with plain text is thoroughly inadequate in the 1990's.

Consider the audience in this story -- managers, directors, etc. I doubt any of them will actually have a direct, personal information need that would bring them to the library, much less require them to do their own searching on the library CD-ROMs. The presentation has totally miscast the content for the audience.

Finally, will the library see increased usage? Maybe. But, I would suspect that it is likely to come from persons not at the presentation -- from persons directed to go to the library by the managers, et. al, or from persons who have heard of the library through word-of-mouth.

So what went wrong here? To put it gently, often librarians are not good marketers.. True, the story above may be extreme, but in general we do not do anywhere near what we could do or should do to market our libraries. In the past, we could afford to let marketing be a minor, and sometimes, ignored, function of the library. Now it is a matter of life and death, ignored at our peril. More than ever, we are faced with competition in the form of the Internet,

outsourcers, and competing information disseminators within our own companies. Even vendors can be competition - - they typically do not view libraries as their primary sale.

We can no longer afford to be reactive, sitting back and waiting for our constituents to walk in and discover our treasures. We have to go out to the masses and spread the word, succinctly, enticingly, and vigorously. This is a tough mandate.

Marketing is a somewhat neglected topic in our professional training. We do not enter the library world with a marketing mentality. We have difficulty seeing our tools and services as products. We cringe at the thought of learning how to run our libraries as though they were businesses. Through lack of personal ability or resources, we often do not have the capability to produce our own polished marketing materials.

First, a goal is needed. This goal should be simple, direct, and feasible. "Increase user awareness of the library's services" is a reasonable goal. It can be achieved, measured, and does not need to be changed to fit specific situations or the evolving mission of the library.

Second, a marketing philosophy is needed. This philosophy should be cast around meeting your goal. A marketing philosophy is something like "we market our utility and value to the company, not our features" or "our marketing addresses the bottom line, time and cost savings, and our availability, rather than our tools, CD-ROMs, and holdings."

Third, think products, not tools. Identify your key services. Here you will need to think creatively, keeping in mind that a tool such as a CD-ROM, online vendor,

or list of periodical holdings is NOT a service. Remember your philosophy. If you customize research, market

that research as a service, rather than marketing the tools from which you get the information. If you can profile the news, market that, rather than marketing the news databases. If you can cut a department's research time in half, market that cut, rather than the tools you use.

If you have difficulty identifying or quantifying your services, use a consultant to do a neutral assessment of your site to identify and recommend key services and products. In the opening story, the managers and directors would have found a list of services that benefit their departments much more meaningful than a how-to lesson on tools they will seldom use.

Fourth, determine who will represent the library in marketing situations. Keep in mind that marketing must become a pervasive mentality in the library. In that sense, everyone working in the library must market at every opportunity. However, the library should have a well-defined marketing plan that designates one or more individuals as chief marketer. It is essential that those assigned to this role be skilled public speakers with poise, character, and natural ability.

Last, have a plan. When you plan your budget and staffing needs for the upcoming year, you should set goals and objectives for your marketing effort as well. Budget for marketing needs, as marketing often involves travel, presentation preparation, software, and equipment needs. Set finite, realistic goals, such as "x number of presentations per month" or "y number of new employee tours".

Benchmark your progress, so you can report your growth. Manage the marketing plan as a project, with timetables, deliverables, and a manager. Periodically review and refresh your materials. Devise some sort of follow-up for persons or groups you have talked to.

In sum, any good marketing plan consists of a number of well thought out strategies which are complementary, working together to achieve the goal of the plan.

Use smart marketing strategies.

1. Concentrate on selling the benefits of the library, rather than offering a catalog. "Here is how we can benefit you..." sounds much more enticing than "Here is what we have." Remember: your library is a service industry, not a retail outlet

2. Keep your message simple. Focus on getting people to the library, rather than listing your resources. Once they are there, then you can fill them in on what you have. Remember, you can't show growth unless they come in (or log-in).

3. Work up a two-minute sales drill that any library staff member can pitch at any opportunity. Remember, many sales are made in elevators and parking lots.

4. Develop a "Commando Raid" presentation that you can deliver in 15-20 minutes, with only a half-hour notice.

5. Concentrate on headcount, rather than individuals. Get your 20-minute "Commando Raid" on the agenda for manager's and director's meetings, all-hands meetings, and other similar events. Remember, most managers and executives give time reluctantly. You may have to sell the "commando raid" with the two minute sales drill developed above. Make it a valuable 20 minutes.

6. Get them while they are new! Get your "Commando Raid" onto the agenda for new employee orientation.

7. Develop integrated marketing materials. Coordinate your website colors, graphics, and text with those you use for your brochures, flyers, stationary, posters.

8. Get a commercial. Beg, borrow, or steal time with your company's creative services department -- or anyone who can help you make a self-running digital movie or high-quality presentation that can be mailed on a disk or downloaded from a website. Pass these out liberally. When you cannot get your "Commando Raid" onto an agenda, ask if the commercial can be played instead. Hint: your two-minute sales drill is an ideal candidate for this commercial!

9. Get a road show. If you have a good website with remote capabilities, designate a traveling computer that can be taken to off-site meetings, kick-offs, technology shows, and other similar events. Send a librarian along and set the computer up as a kiosk. Hang out a sign that says "The library is open!"

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Library marketing was the topic of this 2-day CE course, one segment of SLA's 5 part Middle Management Institute. Instructor Arlene Sirkin presented the sessions, gave specific examples and encouraged discussion from the participants at every stage of the course. The packet of materials will prove useful for attendees at any phase of the marketing planning process, whether starting from ground zero or revising and updating an already successful plan. Libraries and information centers are most similar to non-profit organizations, even though their organizations themselves may be for-profit.

One important concept presented early in the class is the necessity of presenting customers with the benefits of using the library services, rather than just providing a list of the library's features. Benefits that will most influence the continued viability of the library are those that affect the bottom line, such as time and money savings, legal compliance, efficiency, resource sharing, improved communication, better decision making and increased competitive advantage. Each library should focus its marketing strategy toward presenting a focused set of key benefits which support the overall corporate mission and goals of the organization. Different parts of the organization could conceivably have different goals and therefore would recognize different key benefits than other parts. Information centers in larger organizations may require several sets of marketing materials and activities focused on the varied needs of their customers. One way of looking at the value of a library is through its "lifetime benefit" - figured by calculating the number of service actions per year (or amount of savings effected by these actions per year) times the number of years that service has been provided, which equals the average lifetime benefit. Top management is often more impressed by such an aggregate than with specific per-service savings.

Various types of market analysis methods were explained and discussed. Libraries should be aware of the types of services used by various segments within the company. The marketing mix includes the 4 P's: product, price, promotion and place (distribution). Sirkin recommends Kotler and Andresson's "Strategic Marketing for the Non-Profit Organization" for further information on this topic.

Participants were also led through the steps of creating a marketing plan. Describe where you are now in regard to marketing, create a mission and a roadmap to where you want to go with the marketing. Analyze the market segment served and list the key benefits that the library provides for each segment. Analyze competitors to the library's services and identify any alternative information resources that current customers may be using.

If the information center charges for services, determine the effectiveness of the current pricing policy. Consider advertising and promotional activities, including expenses for these. Identify ways the information center reaches its targeted users. Consider any changing factors within the organization or external to it that may affect usage levels and information needs. Evaluate current products and services to weed out unproductive ones. Think about new products and services that may be needed.

Develop mission statements, objectives and strategies that will accomplish the stated mission of the information center or library. Create a plan of work which details the measurable steps to reaching the objectives. Prepare a budget to support the chosen activities and be able to concretely justify the amount.

Participants broke up into groups to work on a case study marketing plan for a hypothetical library, and each group presented marketing strategies which could have improved conditions for the test case. The second afternoon closed with a group critique of marketing materials (print brochures) from organizations who were not part of the workshop. Consensus in all groups was that the best marketing brochures must be simple, eye catching, easy to read and focus on BENEFITS of using the product or service. Those described as worst were generally crowded, "gray" (too much small print, not enough white space), boring lists of statistics or definitions. Many of these did not even contain the very basic piece of useful information -- how to contact the library for more information.

Ms. Sirkin generously included among the course materials a collection of related articles and references to provide additional reading and study on this very crucial topic.

by Ann Griffith

On March 19, the SLA Dallas/Fort Worth LPG hosted "Cookies with Cliff". Clifford Stoll, author of The Cuckoo's Egg and Silicon Snake Oil and a much-quoted authority on the impact of the Internet, spoke to a group of about twenty local special librarians (and at least one significant other) for just over an hour. SLA Texas Chapter was fortunate in being able to co-sponsor this event and we wish to thank Clifford Stoll and Texas Instruments, the DFW LPG co-sponsor, for making it possible.

Texas Instruments sponsored a technology forum earlier that day, at which Stoll had spoken. He tailored his material, originally designed for all types of librarians, for SLA's benefit. Stoll expounded on his Silicon Snake Oil book, including a very funny spiel to induce sales of the book. He spoke with few interruptions or questions about his perceptions of librarianship, based on his expertise as a library advocate and patron, a professional researcher, a scientist, and an author.

Stoll outlined the three main features of information by using a triangulated schema: quick, cheap, and good. The catch being, one can usually have only two of these three qualities at once. He defined the Web as quick and cheap: 'Cheap' in both cost and quality. He defined libraries as good and cheap: 'Cheap' as in cost. He described his informal street survey on what people most value in a library, which found that people want access to books, helpful librarians, and the qualities of serendipitous browsing and sanctuary/inspiration that libraries offer. Stoll concluded that the Internet cannot offer library services with these features nor with the high level of quality that physical libraries can offer.

Stoll noted that most library budgets are decreasing in real dollars while increasing amounts of those budgets are being spent on technology. He stressed that isn't what most library users want. Instead, he suggested that librarians need to get back to basics and stop giving themselves job titles like "information specialist" - which he felt to be a meaningless and misleading term. There was scattered laughter at this last observation.

He expressed concern about the many library school closures and that those which are still open are changing their curriculum and core courses, focusing on skills he feels are irrelevant to core library concerns.

The author's talk ended with some marketing tips. Stoll emphasized that librarians must get out of the library and market to the people who control their budgets. He had some suggestions geared to special libraries: Ask to attend Sales/Marketing staff meetings to find out what the customers need (corporate library end-users are often the companies' customers); take old and / or out-dated books around the building on a cart to give away; have occasional luncheon booths with 'hot' new books and materials on display; ask to see work areas where library staff doesn't usually venture (in his example, an observatory tour for library staff).

It was refreshing to hear a non-librarian advocate professional librarianship in such enthusiastic and proactive terms. And to those who would dismiss Mr. Stoll as a Luddite, well, there was no cake to eat at this event

By Gail Wilson, Past Pres.

Please join me in congratulating Janice Anderson, the 1997 recipient of the Texas Star Award. This award is presented to a Texas Chapter member who has contributed in specific and measurable ways to Chapter achievements and effectiveness.

Janice has served the Texas Chapter as a valued member of the executive board - serving as Bulletin editor, First Vice-President and President. She served the chapter well as chair of the long-range planning committee and strategic planning committee and continued to represent the professional excellence of the members of the Texas Chapter in a national capacity in division, cabinet and SLA board offices.

Janice has provided a positive image of librarianship and leadership through the establishment of her company, Access Information Associates, Inc. and participation in community and international activities.

AIA has grown from a one person library and records management consulting firm to the current 50+ employees working in Texas, Louisiana and Alaska. Janice's vision to provide services to small and medium sized

engineering firms not able to support full time library and records management departments, was only the beginning of many innovative practices. Her insight and the determination to act on her ideas resulted in AIA being listed twice to the list of the 100 small businesses having the greatest impact on Houston and to the list of the top 50 women owned businesses in Houston.

Janice serves as a successful role model for entrepreneurial activities in librarianship, leadership and community responsibility.

Janice has represented the profession in lecture and speaking engagements as well as appearances on local television. She was one of the three coordinators who conceived the idea of establishing the successful Media Reference Center at the Economic Summit of Industrialized Nations held in Houston in 1990. Janice is an also an active member of the Greater Houston Partnership/Chamber of Commerce CEO roundtable.

Please plan to attend the summer educational meeting on August 1, 1997 when Janice will be presented the Texas Star Award and offered the congratulations of many long time friends and colleagues.

"Change as Opportunity," the conference theme, became the main focus of Gates' encouraging and informative kickoff speech. Librarians, like Microsoft and Gates himself, are constantly meeting the challenges of fast-paced changes in communications and information technology. Gates has always been aware of the value of libraries and information professionals. Microsoft's library system is at the heart of the company's efforts to provide information to the researchers, developers and business support areas of the company. But further and more significantly, Microsoft librarians are themselves the developers of the company's web-based information access tool, which demonstrates an effective use of a software product that will provide revenue for the company. Gates turned the podium over to a member of the team of librarians who developed the company library's web site, and she demonstrated the look and features of their internal and external web sites.

Gates continued his remarks by recognizing the importance of the services provided by the library in qualifying sources, organizing the access to information and arranging site licenses for various products. The great efficiencies thus provided are of recognized value to the corporate leaders. In conclusion Gates sees a future progression toward paperless offices and businesses, which has begun with simple steps, such as the use of electronic forms and memos, and communication by email to eliminate meetings. Managing internal electronic information resources becomes an additional challenge for information professionals. Gates' remarks were rewarded with a standing ovation from the audience of nearly 6000 conference attendees.

"The Web in the Blink of an Eye,"

Richard Wiggins

Wiggins, author of The Internet for Everyone, addressed the problem of slow access to the WWW (world wide WAIT, he calls it). Many people blame "narrow bandwidth" for the problem, however Wiggins explained that this is important, but still only part of the difficulty. He says that other factors are latency, inherent delays of the routers, servers and other components of the infrastructure, and Amdahl's Law, that each component of the system will introduce delays and all will be combined to adversely affect overall performance. System performance improvement involves revealing and improving as many of the bottlenecks as possible. Wiggins discussed various steps involved in viewing a web page and how each adds to the total delay. First the client's system must convert the URL into a numeric IP address and send the signal across the Internet to find the correct server. Wiggins says users can get in idea of this complexity by using the command TRACEROUTE or TRACERT along with a valid URL to see the paths to that site. Congestion of the systems also causes delays. Campuses and corporations often must share links to the Internet 'backbone" with many others. Peak usage times (mid-morning and mid-afternoon) are generally slower than other times.

Slow modems are a major bottleneck in web browsing, since they take time to do their data compression routines. External modems are even slower than internal ones. There are delays which take place at the server of the web site. Very fancy web pages with animated, sound-enhanced graphics will be served much slower than text based ones. Image handling is particularly detrimental to service speed. It is recommended to servers to keep images smaller than 20K or less. Also, for clients, leaving an animation running on the computer consumes increasing amounts of CPU resources the longer it runs.

Other even more costly (in terms of system speed) applications are being used widely and affecting web browsing speed: Shockwave, real time audio and video, and real time data transmission - which consumes more time by using a buffer to keep the transmission appearing "smooth" to the viewer. Java applets cause delays, including those which record information about the client to the server's system or put "cookies" on the clients system to allow recognition in succeeding contacts. Future delay problems are to be expected as the use of these enhancements increases. Faster processors and more memory may provide faster service. but they certainly are not the only problem. Many of the delays are completely outside the user's control.

Solutions include:

Wiggins points out that no matter how many system elements are improved, there will me increasing numbers of users to slow the system down. Economists believe that public services will always be oversubscribed. Even if the world begins to use wireless communications, web browsing will never be infinitely fast, nor even go at the speed of light, due to the delays of broadcast to satellite and back to earth.. A round trip of the earth takes 1/5 sec. at the speed of light, even with absolutely no system degradation or delays. We will probably never get the web in the blink of an eye

.

Eugenie Primes's keynote talk, delivered in her inimitable style, was inspiring and thought provoking, as well as humorous and entertaining. The Hewlett-Packard Library manager calls on all librarians to quit whining about image and begin walking the walk. As her speech title implies, the fault is in ourselves that we feel, like Rodney Dangerfield, that we get no respect. She calls for librarians to earn respect by forgetting about image and doing our jobs better than anyone else could. We can, she tells us, accomplish the goals we set for ourselves. Prime had the audience in complete agreement by the conclusion, answering her challenges with a resounding "YES, YES, YES!"

Moderators: Christine Darnowski, Oliver, Wyman & Co. and Lois Remeikis, Booz, Allen & Hamilton Speaker: Laurice Klemarczyk, Aetna CIC, Hartford

Lois Remeikis opened this session, defining knowledge management as the creation, capture, exchange, use, and communication of a company's intellectual capital. She introduced speaker Laurice Klemarczyk, who described the origin and development of the knowledge management system at Aetna.

Due to organizational changes, budget cuts, a physical move, new management, and subsequent changes in the information needs of the company, Aetna completely eliminated the circulating collection

Cont. p. 9.

and began to focus entirely on electronic information services, which took the form of a corporate intranet. The information center and the IT department cooperated in developing this knowledge management system. Klemarczyk detailed the steps the participants went through as the system was being planned and developed. First, the group researched, read, tracked web sites and held staff meetings on knowledge management. Second, a series of conferences and seminars, benchmarking efforts and a Gartner Group teleconference on information centers were used as further data for consideration.

The process implementation began fairly simply with a home page on the corporate intranet, including links to Internet Resources. Then the team developed electronic forms submission methods for information requests from users. Information Center staff were assigned to participate on key corporate committees. The group continues to partner with IT to continue development of the knowledge management system. major roadblocks they encountered in the process were lack of upper management support, due to the difficulty in measuring ROI (return on investment). The information center is now a fee-for-service group, which caused the need for reinventing their budget. They had trouble identifying the appropriate prototype project and "fear of the unknown" was daunting at times.

Christina Darnowski presented a view of the information infrastructure of Oliver Wyman & Co. (a management consulting firm). She noted that knowledge management is not merely records management, nor electronic desktop delivery of information. OWC uses Lotus Notes databases to collect company publications, brief reports, project views, white papers, and database models. One aspect of the system is a searchable database of project summaries which consultants must populate with abstracts of the problems, solutions and conclusions of each project. The knowledge contained in these models, papers and databases can be analyzed and conclusions can be drawn from the intelligence provided therein. Thus it becomes a smart system used to manage the company's knowledge.

The premise of this workshop is that print subscriptions will eventually be phased out of many libraries, creating a demand for electronic subscriptions at a fair price. In some libraries there is already such a demand, especially if the e-copy comes out before the print.

Melia Hoffman describes how Lucent Technologies' librarians provide the Lucent Global Electronic Library on the web to the company's 140,000 employees. The library system, designed by Lucent's Bell Labs, has 35,000 customers being served by 114 staff members at 20 branches. The library charges for its services and provides both intranet as well as dial-up access to their virtual library. The contents of the electronic library include tables of contents of 6000 journals via tapes purchased from vendors and mounted on company servers. Electronic subscriptions to a variety of journals from 55 different publishers, including 20 full text versions, are paid for by departments and projects. The web site experiences 1.7 million hits per month. Features evaluated in choosing vendors for such a project include ease of integration with current computer systems, end user needs, pricing structures, availability of archival versions of the content and cost. Libraries considering such projects are also advised to consider publishers' retention agreements for "back issues," deciding whether to select a single publisher, and aggregator service or "do-it-yourself." Lucent has been in do-it-yourself mode, because there were no acceptable suppliers at the time their project started. However, Hoffman is ready to turn as much as possible over to a vendor to save staff time and resources.

Sharon McKay of Blackwell's described the aggregator's functions and benefits for libraries establishing the electronic journals collection. Aggregators are intermediaries, such as subscription agents, secondary publishers, indexing and abstracting services, library membership organizations or consortia, and providers of automated library management systems, as well as some individual libraries. Functions of the service include integrating various titles into one access point, assisting with license negotiations, technical support, set up and maintenance of web links, IP addresses and domain names, ensuring secure connections to publishers, combined invoicing for print and electronic subscriptions,

usage reports for collection development and selection, searching, alerting, and browsing services, delivery in electronic and/or print, and connections to document delivery services. At present the services of aggregators are expensive due to the current start up costs and to the small customer base. Future efficiencies such as improved purchasing methods, consortia sales, and partnerships may help lower the prices. The demand for such services is growing rapidly, so they should become more attractively priced in the future.

The meeting agenda included reports from SLA officers including President, Treasurer, Executive Director, Chapter Cabinet Chair, and Division Cabinet Chair. The SLA 97-98 Fellows were introduced and several awards were given. 1997-98 officers were seated.

Association President Judith J. Field gave her inaugural address: "A New Renaissance." Field characterized today's special librarians as microbiologists of the knowledge ecology, who present organized usable information, advance literacy skills, facilitate the global movement of information, participate in ethical, collaborative decisions, balance the rights of access with privacy, and who are not dependent on technology, but are networked to use it effectively. In the SLA area of our ecological landscape we are marketable members, volunteers, mentors, networkers, lifelong learners, adaptable to change, collaborative team players, with no PUNY visions. We seize opportunities and meet any challenges. We champion the knowledge-based economy.

Field presented selected SLA success stories such as the competencies document, distance education programs, the website with over a million hits in under a year, the kickoff of the SLA virtual bookstore. New foundations seen for SLA include: SLA strategic plan, long term financial health of the association, 24 X 7 virtualization of HQ, rethinking professional development needs and opportunities, and more partnerships with similar associations.

Field called on members to build a "knowledge association" by being involved, communicating with leaders, volunteering, and networking. Her closing remarks described SLA as the incubator of the best information professionals. She invited the membership and participants to attend SLA 1998 Annual Conference in Indianapolis, where the them will be "Excellence: Information Professionals in the Driver's Seat."

_____________________________

forwarded-message----> 1997 Jun 16 at 17:42

To: Texas Chapter Members

From: f1srvcs@ix.netcom.com

Subject: SLA "trip report"

______________________________

As all of you who have to write trip reports know, summarizing the SLA Conference experience is difficult. However, as we reviewed our five days in the sunny Northwest on the trip back to the Dallas sauna, several events and people stood out. We think that in the future, the last day of the conference should be devoted to an awards ceremony. Here are our picks for 1997:

Welcome Wagon Award: to the Seattle-Tacoma Airport for signs in the terminals welcoming the Special Libraries Association.

General George Custer Award: to Linda Cooper for persevering in her efforts to convince librarians that Teltech is their friend.

Telemarketer of the Year Award: to the Associated Press rep for her persistence in sticking to her script in spite of repeated attempts to derail her.

Gloria Steinem Award: to the proprietor of the Inn at Queen Anne for commenting that the hotel was full due to "some women's group being in town."

Sara Lee Award: to the Crumpet Shoppe for the warm fresh crumpets topped with butter and Nutella.

John Ehrlichman Stonewall Award: to John Whitehill-Ward for refusing to comment on the new SLA logo.

Masterpiece Theater Award: to Marcia Kosmerchock of International Food Information Services for being impeccably British.

Miracle-Gro Award: to Pike Street Market for the incredible variety of picture-perfect fruits, vegetables and flowers - not to mention stores that sold unique kitchen implements and ethnic foods. Runner-up: to the University of Washington for their 6-foot tall foxglove. Honorable mention: to Seattle Center for their 5-foot tall delphiniums.

Carmen Sandiego Award: to the SLA housing office for placing late registrants at the airport Red Lion Motel.

Canned Sardine Award: to the SLA Conference Planners who consistently misjudged the interest level for sessions. Honorable Mention: to Inmagic for exhibiting in a booth half as big as they needed.

Where's Waldo Award: to the Hilton Hotel for providing a map with pictures of buildings for the directionally-challenged.

Julia Child Award: to the Food, Agriculture, and Nutrition Division for providing food at sessions, and champagne and a cake with chocolate-covered strawberries at their open house. Runner-up: the Communications Division (formerly Telecom) for the ultimate chocolate cake at their open house on Tuesday. Honorable mention: to Databooks for the exhibit booth fudge.

LensCrafters Award: to speakers at the Knowledge Management session on Tuesday for overheads of screen prints that only eagles could read. Runner-up: UMI for their reception

at the Harbor Club which provided a spectacular view of both Mount Rainier and the harbor.

John Molloy Dress-for-Success Award: to the men and women attendees at the UMI reception who wore t-shirts and shorts.

Crime Watch Award: to SLA for reminding attendees to remove their badges when outside the Convention Center. Undoubtedly any nefarious characters lurking nearby were frightened off by the impression that a new cult was in town whose members carried their weapons in black tote bags bearing the CAS insignia.

Sherlock Holmes Award: to CASPR for their OPAC interface which is "elementary (school) my dear" - we especially enjoyed the antique paper look. Runner-up: On Point Inc. whose TLC system requires a detective to find information on the screen.

Fifth Amendment Award: to the rep at the Ameritech booth who refused to incriminate herself by answering ANY questions. Runner-up: the rep at Newsnet who had no idea if any of their sources were covered by the IAC Newsletter Database. Honorable mention: all the reps who were hired the week before the conference -- there appeared to be many.

Rip Van Winkle Award: to the Hilton Hotel for elevators that seem to take years. Runner-up: the City of Seattle for programming the traffic signals to allow the famous Seattle slugs plenty of time to cross without danger from vehicles.

Carnegie Award: to Profound for cheerfully dispensing free gifts without a sales pitch.

Etch-A-Sketch Award: to the City of Seattle for having the most intersections involving five or more streets.

Strom Thurmond Award: to EOSi for retaining the same president and customer service people since 1985.

The Artist Formerly Known As Prince Award: to EOSi for a gratuitous name change -- what was wrong with Datatrek?

Sorcerer's Apprentice Award: to the Consultants Section of the Library Management Division for increasing attendance at their business meeting from 4 to 30 - providing breakfast helped.

Endangered Species Award: to the Copper River Salmon, available only three weeks each year - unfortunately for them, during SLA.

American Heart Association Award: to the City of Seattle for encouraging aerobic activity by incorporating hills or steps within each city block.

Walt Disney Award: to the Monorail which sped the two miles from downtown to Seattle Center "every 15 minutes, in just under 2 minutes, at speeds up to 50 miles per hour" for only $1. Runner-up: to Seattle Center, a lovely park with grassy lawns, a fantastic fountain, roller coasters, food, jugglers, roving musicians, and no street people.

full page ad Dow Jones

I hope "they" are right about Librarians. You know. The ones who say Librarians are Change Agents. I hope "they" are right because I want to offer you an opportunity to become Agents of Change for your colleagues.

The impact on our profession of the accelerating frequency of change makes it more difficult than ever to stay abreast much less stay ahead. Texas Chapter members have a great deal of expertise, lessons learned, case studies, and war stories that could be shared.

Make this the year you increase your activity in the Association as a way to become a Change Agent for your fellow practitioners. Contribute your time and talents to the Association as a way of contributing to the profession and to your fellow practitioners. "Give back" today so that others can give back tomorrow.

Board and Advisory Council members will be looking for volunteers to assist in all phases of Chapter activities. An announcement about the 7/31/97 Summer Planning Meeting and 8/1/97 State Chapter Meeting has undoubtedly already arrived in your mailbox. Consider attending either or both of these sessions to renew old acquaintances, meet new librarians, and to discover ways you can share expertise.

The Texas Chapter has a long and illustrious history having been established in 1949. I should like to extend a Texas sized Thank you to the members for giving me the opportunity to serve the Association in its 48th year.

Mcarroll@microsoft.com

(972) 756-7778 - voice

(972) 753-6113 - fax

UT, Austin SLA Student Chapter, sponsored by GSLIS Prof. Julie Hallmark, elected new officers for 97-98. They will attend a summer planning meeting to finalize events for next academic year.

Laura Tyner, Pres.

Lee Bell and Amanda Rose, Co-VP's

Caitlin Kelly, Sec.

Wendy Lyon, Treas.

Hillary Barmantje and Gary Murray, Webmasters

1/2 page ad GSI / Edgar

Marilyn Redmond is enjoying a sabbatical in Liechtenstein while husband Wally conducts research there. They are managing to hike in the Alps and see Vienna, Rome and Athens, too, while in Europe.

Changes: Judith Kraatz Johnson, San Antonio LPG Chair, becomes an employee of PG&E Gas Transmissions (new owner of Valero Energy Corp.). The mailing address will remain the same.

Former Student Liaison for Denton, Melanie Scott has moved to Las Vegas, NV and works for TRW there.

Leslie Campbell, outgoing Membership Chair, has accepted a new position with Motorola Austin, overseeing their electronic library and web library services. Her new phone number is 512-794-4013. Sharon Stanley, formerly of Intermedic Orthopedics will be assuming Leslie's former duties with the Motorola semiconductor group.

Retirement: Stan Brewer has retired from the Chevron Library and Information Center in Houston after 22 1/2 years. Congratulations!

Two Texas Chapter SLA Student Travel Stipend Awards were presented April 10, 1997: The Texas Chapter of the SLA was pleased to announce its student travel stipend awards of $1,000 each to two Texas Library School students , to be used to defray the expenses of attending the 1997 SLA Annual Conference in Seattle, June 7-12. Eligible students were required to write an essay of 500-700 words on their personal perception of Information Professionals at the Crossroads. The winners were Theresa (Teri) Huff and Morgan Tucker, who both attend UNT. Congratulations!

Announcements: Houston Local Planning Group holds their monthly Dutch treat lunch meeting on the last Thursday of each month at the Autry House 6265 Main Street (next to Palmer Episcopal Church) 11:45 a.m .till 1:00 p.m. Join them for the upcoming summer months! July 24th (early, since the last Thursday is our annual summer planning session in Dallas) and August 28th. Stay tuned for future announcements for fall dates! Questions? Contact Susan Yancey 713 796-1444.

Texas Chapter's World Wide Web page will be relocating soon to SLA's official web server. Please look for the announcement on the web soon and change your bookmark accordingly.

The Austin LPG will be presenting the video of "The Future for Librarians: Positioning Yourself for Success," an *encore* performance of the SLA/ MLA/ AALL distance learning program presented last March. but the whole program will be included.

When: Tuesday July 8, 1997 5:30 - 7:30ish

Where: MCC Library 3500 West Balcones Center Dr

(southwest corner of MoPac and Breaker)

Goodies: SLA will provide drinks and cookies, bring your own dinner Cost: NONE

RSVP: RDaulong@aol.com or Renee Daulong 320-8354

** PLEASE RSVP as we will need to have badges, an escort and enough cookies. **

Erika Mittag, June 18, 1997

The Annual Conference in Seattle afforded most GR representatives from Chapters and Divisions their first opportunity to meet face to face with the new (since September) Director of Government Relations for SLA, John Crosby. Copyright was a major topic of discussion including reviews of the current situation in the US and in Canada. Members of the GR group had been given an early chance to respond to a survey on government relations topics which appears in the June issue of Information Outlook (be sure to send in your responses) and John highlighted some of the very preliminary data from the survey with this group. We hope to use this feedback to provide even more focus to our government relations program.

At the beginning of each month, John Crosby summarizes activities and actions regarding legislative and regulatory issues important to SLA members. This notice is provided via e-mail to members of the SLA-GR discussion list (see note at end of article) and is posted to the Government Relations section of the SLA homepage. Topics in the update for May 1 included: Canadian Copyright Bill Clears Senate Committee; U.S. Congress Waits on Clinton Administration for WIPO Treaty Action; Scheeder Represents SLA During Joint Testimony on U.S. Government Printing Reform; Library Groups Offer Suggestions on U.S. Copyright Term Extension Bill; Standard Occupational Classification Revisions Due Soon; FCC Chair Committed to Universal Service, Access Charge Reform; U.S., Vietnam Agree on Protection of Copyrights; Clinton Advisor Says Private Sector Input Key for E-Commerce Policy, while topics included in the update dated June 2 were: ConFU Concludes Work Without Formal Endorsement of Guidelines; U.S. Legal Group Wants Copyright Recognized In Information Licensing Laws: SLA, Other Library Groups Meet with Commerce Officials on WIPO Implementation; FCC Approves Universal Service, Access Charge Reform; Hundt Resigns. John provides excellent summaries of the issues and includes documentation such as testimony and other links to provide in-depth information.

The Texas Library Association provides an irregular update e-mail newsletter called TexLine covering actions of the Texas Legislature during the legislative session and other regulatory issues as the need arises. Issues are also available at the TLA website (http://www.txla.org) under the Government Affairs section. Among recent notes were the following: notice of the defeat of HB237, a bill to make non-return of library materials a misdemeanor

because it failed a vote to report out of committee; adoption of school library standards by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission; doubling of the appropriation for the TexShare academic library consortium to about $2 million for the biennium to allow most community colleges and independent colleges and universities to join this resource sharing network; approval of SB 1674 by Barrientos that permits voters to approve the creation of special library districts to be funded by sales tax revenue; and in the waning hours of the legislative session, appropriations to support Governor Bush's Reading Initiative by providing additional funds to school libraries.

Notice was forwarded through the ALA Washington Office updates that both the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M (including the Institute for Biosciences and Technology at Houston) are among 64 research institutions receiving funding from the National Science Foundation to connect to the very high speed Backbone Network Service (vBNS). Connections to the vBNS will play a central role in achieving a major goal of the Clinton Administration's "Next Generation Internet" initiative by linking roughly 100 leading universities and their research partners. The network will facilitate the joint development of software applications and communications technologies for the Internet of the future.

Rep. Christopher Smith, R-NJ has introduced H.R. 1748, the Netizen Protection Act of 1997, and Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-AK has introduced S. 771, the Unsolicited Commercial Electronic Mail Choice Act of 1997, both seeking to address the increasing problem of unsolicited commercial e-mail (aka SPAM). Smith's bill, focuses on the "opt-in" approach whereby an individual proactively seeks to be added to mailing lists for specific types of mail while Murkowski's bill uses the "opt-out" approach which includes provision of filtering software at the Internet Service Provider(ISP) site and the self identification of messages with the keyword "advertisement" in the subject header. The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail (CAUCE) suggests that the House Bill puts the onus and the costs more fairly on the sender of the message rather than on the intermediary ISP and the receiver. Additional information is available at the CAUCE website: http://www.cauce.org/

These three topics touch the core of democracy - the right of an individual to privacy and the need for open government (lack of government privacy?). The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has released a report on consumer privacy and the Internet, "Surfer Beware: Personal Privacy and the Internet" based on a review of the privacy practices of the 100 most frequently visited Internet web sites. The survey found that few web sites today have explicit privacy policies (only 17 of the sample) and none of the top 100 web sites meet basic standards for privacy protection. The report is available at: http://www.epic.org/reports/surfer-beware.html

On May 14th, the House Judiciary Committee approved HR 695 "The Security and Freedom through Encryption Act (SAFE)", designed to enhance the ability of Internet users to protect their privacy and security on-line. SAFE will prohibit the government from imposing mandatory law enforcement access to private on-line communications inside the US, affirm the right of American Citizens to use whatever from of encryption they choose, and relax current export restrictions which prevent the development of strong, easy-to-use encryption technologies. The legislation is opposed by the Clinton administration led by the FBI and the National Security Agency. More information is available at

http://www.privacy.org/ipc/safe_letter.html

The bipartisan Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy presented its report on March 4 to the President and Congress. The Commission, chaired by Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY), sharply criticized existing practices that keep too much information confidential but often fail to protect secrets critical to national security. "The Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy" can be found at http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/index.html.

As always, your comments and concerns are welcome. Send me e-mail: at ecmittag@mmm.com. SLA updates from Government Relations Director John Crosby can be viewed from the SLA Homepage at http://www.sla.org/ or you can subscribe to the SLA-GR discussion list to receive e-mail copies of each update as well as participating in discussions on the various issues. To subscribe, send an e-mail to: lists@lists.sla.org with the following message: subscribe sla-gr (your name). Your input and participation are most welcome.

The Help Desk

A. Cycle time improvement will translate into better service to your customers . It can also give your manager a better appreciation of the effort involved in the tasks you perform, so it is definitely a win-win situation.

Make the best use of this opportunity by highlighting tasks you think may be undervalued or not completely understood. Some candidates for cycle time reduction are interlibrary loan, online searching, acquisitions, and cataloging/technical processing. Backlogs also indicate processes that need cycle time improvement.

First make a list, diagram, or flowchart of all the tasks involved in the process. For example, the interlibrary loan task list might include:

1. Check request for completeness

2. Determine availability of item

3. Order item

4. Receive item

5. Notify and/or deliver item to requester

Each of these tasks can be further divided, of course. You may want to address only one part of the ILL process.

After you have identified all steps in the process, estimate the time it takes to accomplish each step. Conduct a simple time study if necessary. Total the amount of time for all the steps to obtain your cycle time. Don t include the time spent waiting for a response from someone else for example, waiting for a check from accounting for prepayment, or, after the order is placed, waiting for the item to arrive. Do include the time it waits on your desk for your action! Don't ignore the wait times if you can to speed them up by finding alternatives.

Can you use a deposit account or corporate credit card for prepayment? If the mail room receives mail twice a day from the post office, but delivers only once a day to your location, can you arrange to pick up your mail at the mailroom twice a day? The walk will relieve stress and get you out of the library, too! These also constitute cycle time improvements.

Next, examine each step and identify those where you can affect the greatest impact on cycle time. List all possible changes before selecting the one(s) to implement.

Please help Texas Chapter leaders to communicate more effectively with our membership. What are your preferred ways of receiving news and announcements from the Chapter? We are considering alternatives to regular mail to save time and money for the group. Please feel free to include any additional comments or suggestions for the Chapter and the officers. Please complete and return this pre-addressed questionnaire. Just detach from newsletter, fold, fasten, stamp and mail by July 21.

Your name and title:

Business (or daytime) address:

City, ST, Zip

Phone:

Fax:

Email:

URL for your organization or personal web pages: http://

1) Do you have access to email, either at work or at home, to receive Chapter messages and information?

2) Would you subscribe to a Chapter discussion list if one were created?

3) Do you have access to the World Wide Web for browsing and reading Chapter messages?

4) What are your top 2 preferred methods of receiving Chapter communications?

(Label 1 for preferred and 2 for alternate. Be sure to include on this questionnaire, in the area provided above, your current contact information.

________ Mail ________ Electronic Mail

________ Fax ________ List

________ Phone call ________ Read TX Chapter web page

5) Please list any suggestions, ideas, topics or preferences regarding programs or business matters for upcoming Chapter or local meetings.

____ Student Chapter Liaisons (3)

____ Local Planning Group Chairs (Austin open)

____ Public Relations Chair

____ Procedures Chair

____ Parliamentarian

____ Networking Chair

____ Membership Chair

____ International Relations Chair

____ Government Relations Chair

____ Employment Chair

____ Consultation Chair

____ Chapter Archivist

____ Bylaws Chair

____ Affirmative Action Liaison

____ Advertising Chair / Vendor Liaison

____ Operations Chair (Past President)

____ Treasurer

____ Secretary

____ Second VP & 2nd VP Elect (Newsletter)

____ First VP / President Elect (Programs)

____ President

Washington, DC * November 6-7, 1997

In today's competitive environment, the difference between success and failure will be the ability of organizations to manage their information assets and create new value through the acquisition and application of knowledge. Achieving this goal requires new concepts, tools, and strategies.

__________________________

*** Important *** Texas Chapter Questionnaire on reverse of this page. Please complete, fold the sheet, fasten closed, affix a stamp and mail to address below.

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______________________

______________________

______________________

Microsoft / Las Colinas Library

1212 Corporate Dr.

Irving, TX 75038

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For additional information, contact the Professional Development

at 1/202/234-4700, ext. 649, or by e-mail at valerie@sla.org

Executive Board

1st Vice President/President-Elect
OPEN

2nd Vice President
Ann Griffith
Sr. Information Specialist
Nortel
2201 Lakeside Blvd. MS D0305
Richardson, TX 75082
(972) 684-5688 - v
(972) 684-3742 - fax
anng@nortel.com

2nd Vice President-Elect
Dell Johnson
Sr. Research Analyst
Sematech
2706 Montopolis
Austin, TX 78741
(512) 356-7626 - v
(512) 356-7008 - fax
dell.johnson@sematech.org

Secretary
Olga Wise
Technical Librarian
Tandem Computers Inc.
14231 Tandem Blvd.
Austin, TX 78728-6699
(512) 432-88330 - v
(512) 432-8037 - fax
olga@austx.tandem.com

Treasurer
Blaise Turney
Deloitte & Touche'
2200 Ross Ave. Suite 1600
Dallas, TX 75201
(214) 777-7045 - v
(214) 777-7050 - fax
bturney@dttus.com

Past-President/Operations Chair
Susan Yancey
Director of Research
InfoScope Partners, Inc.
6631 Main St. Suite 300
Houston, TX 77030
(713) 796-1444 - v
(713) 796-1888 - fax
syancey@infoscope.com

Advisory Council
Advertising Mgr./Vendor Liaison
Richard N. Fletcher
Practice Information Mgr
Booz, Allen & Hamilton
901 Main St. #6500
Dallas, TX 75202
(214) 746-6563 - v
(214) 712-6660 - fax
fletcher_richard@bah.com

Affirmative Action Liaison
Open

Bylaws Chair
Carolyn Ernst
Vice President - Consulting
F1 Services
3141 Hood St. Suite 610
Dallas, TX 75219
(214) 528-9895 - v
(214) 528-9819 - fax
f1srvcs@ix.netcom.com

Archivist
Open

Consultation Chair
Karen Deakin
Information Specialist
918 Kipling St.
Houston, Texas 77006
(713) 520-1347 - v
deakin@neosoft.com

Employment Chair
Ann Spoth
Electronic Data Systems (EDS)
5400 Legacy Dr. MS-B5-1B-02
Plano, TX 75024
(972) 604-3898 - v
(972) 604-7997 - fax
ann.spoth@exsc01.exch.eds.com

Government Relations Chair
Erika Mittag
Supervisor
3M Austin Information Services
6801 River Place Blvd.
Austin, TX 78726
(512) 984-3236 - v
(512) 984-3237 - fax
ecmittag@mmm.com

International Relations Chair
Una Gourlay
Rice University Library, MS 44-C
6100 Main St.
Houston, TX 77005-1892
(713) 528-3553 - v
(713) 523-4117 - fax
gourlay@rice.edu

Local Planning Groups
Austin - Open

Dallas/Ft. Worth
Michael Zimmerman
Library Administrator
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
2200 North Perl
Dallas, TX 75201
(214) 922-5219 - v
(214) 922-5222 - fax
mike.c.zimmerman@dal.frb.org

Houston
Sandra Silverman
Ass't Mgr - Social Science Dept.
Houston Public Library
500 McKinney
Houston, TX 77002
(713) 247-3463 - v
(713) 247-3302 - fax
ssilverm@hpl.lib.tx.us

San Antonio
Judith Kraatz Johnson
PG&E Gas Transmission Texas
PO Box 400, MS 13LL
San Antonio, TX 78292
(210) 246-2869 - v
(210) 246-2272 - fax
johnsonj@pge-texas.com

Membership Chair
Tracy Williams
Information Specialist
Taylor & Company
201 Main St. Suite 3300
Ft. Worth, TX 76102
(817) 339-7123 - v
(817) 339-7194 - fax
t.williams@airmail.net (home)

Networking Chair
Lawrence M. Enoch
Lawrence M. Enoch Consulting
618 Mimosa Dr.
Denton, TX 76201
(940) 382-9586 -v/fax
lenoch@iglobal.net

Nominations Chair/Committee
Denise Chochrek - Chair
Manager of Information Research
Taylor & Co.
201 Main St. Suite 3300
Ft. Worth, TX 76102
(817) 338-2024 - v
(817) 339-7194 - fax
dcsnowball@earthlink.net

Peggy Shaw
Rice University
Jones Graduate School
PO Box 1892
Houston, TX 77251
(713) 527-6062 - v
(713) 285-5251 - fax
pshaw@rice.edu

Gail Wilson
Deloitte & Touche LLP
333 Clay St. Suite 2300
Houston, TX 77002
(713) 756-2416 - v
(713) 756-2001 - fax
gwilson@dttus.com

Parlimentarian
Margaret A. Aycock
Environmental Librarian
Gulf Coast Environmental Library
Lamar University
PO Box 10671
Beaumont, TX 77710-0671
(409) 880-8897
aycock@library.lamar.edu

Procedures Chair
Ernestine Chipman
Ref. Librarian / Cataloger
Winstead Sechrest & Minick
5400 Renaissance Tower
1201 Elm
Dallas, TX 75270
(214) 745-5487 - v
(214) 745-5390 - fax
echipman@winstead.com - wk
echip@unicomp.net - home

Public Relations Chair
Renee Daulong
Information Resource Services, Inc.
PO Box 200563
Austin, TX 78720-0563
(512) 320-8354 - v
(512) 320-8841 - fax
rdaulong@aol.com

Strategic Planning Chair
Paula Day
Information Specialist
McKinsey & Company
2200 Ross Ave. Suite 5200
Dallas, TX 75201
(214) 665-1212 - v
(214) 665-1607 - fax
paula_day@mcKinsey.com

Student Liaisons
Denton
Janice Findley
Technical Information Specialist
Ericsson Inc.
740 East Campbell Rd. T-IRC
Richardson, TX 75081
(972) 583-0871 - v
(972) 583-1854 - fax
janice.findley@ericsson.com