A Message from the President
by Jill Ann Hurst, Hurst Associates
Although many things go dormant in the winter, work within the Chapter has not.
- Sheila McKilligan, a Director on our Board, completed work on the Chapter Directory and sent it to all Chapter Members. The directory is a great networking tool for Chapter members.
- Barbara Beverley and the library students at SUNY Albany planned a Local Area Meeting for students and area librarians, which was held on February 18. (Barbara is the Chapter's liaison with Albany's School of Information Science and Policy.)
- A Local Area Meeting was organized by Susan Price in Syracuse to view the ARL/SLA video conference on March 4.
- Boodie Newsom-McGinnis, our President-Elect, attended the Association's Winter Meeting, which includes Division and Chapter Officers Leadership Training (DACOLT). She returned with program ideas for the coming year.
- Jeannette Smithee and Susan Wood (our most recent Past President) have been working on a Long-Range Survey to send out to Chapter members. Through this, we hope to understand your needs better, and the direction the Chapter should take to meet those needs.
- Karen Kreizman, our Membership Chair, has been contacting new members in the Chapter and providing information to them on the Chapter's activities.
- And last, but not least, the Board has been attending to the details that face any business -- paying the bills, reporting to HQ, marketing, talking to other organizations about cooperating on programs, etc.
We are working with other organizations on program ideas for this year. We are finding that cooperating on programs, with the Library Councils or other professional organizations, can be a win-win situation in time, cost and effort. The cost of producing a program has increased and the vendor sponsorship has decreased, so that cooperating with someone else and sharing the cost is very important. We are also working with other Chapters to ensure that our members know about regional SLA meetings, such as one that will be held in Philadelphia this spring. Keep an eye on your mailbox (paper and electronic) for more information.
One final note, Total Information, Inc., has graciously hosted the All-New York Reception at the SLA Annual Conference for a number of years. The Eighth All-New York Reception will be Monday, June 7, 1999, from 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. Stop by and join SLA members from the other NYS Chapters in a time of networking. We all hope to see you there!
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Chapter Award Nominations Due April 15th
Do you know a Chapter member who has:
- given years of service to the Chapter?
- published an article to support the profession?
- worked on special projects for the Chapter?
- introduced a new technology to support their organization?
- supported development of libraries in their geographic region?
- acted as a mentor to graduate students or other prospective librarians?
If so, send in your nominations with a short justification to:
Patricia Oliver
PO Box 7400
Schenectady, NY 12301
E-mail to Oliverp@kapl.gov
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All Eyes Open by Susan Wood, University of Wisconsin
Watch your mailboxes!!!! No, it's not another quick rich scheme! It's a chance for you to shape the Chapter's role in 2000 and beyond. It's the Chapter's Long Range Survey. Guaranteed not to take you 25 hours like the IRS promises on your l040s! But a very critical step in trying to decide just where we are going to go as a Chapter.
BEWARE Members! The Board approved sending out the Long Range Survey to the entire membership. But we know that the percentage of people who send back surveys is very small. Hopefully that won't happen with ours!! However, wanting to ensure that all types of libraries and that all parts of the Chapter region and that a wide diversity of members were covered in the survey, we have selected certain members to be phoned by a Board member to get survey results. You will know if you are to get a phone call by reading the cover letter on your survey and its' unique color. This will tell you if you should expect a phone call during March from a Board member. We are hoping to get all surveys mailed back and all phone calls made in March.
Please, don't put it off if you are a mail survey member. It's your chance to shape YOUR Chapter!!! A really high response would certainly be appreciated by the Board and those who have worked on this project. Surprise us!!! It will make you feel good and certainly be a great aid in determining the Chapter's Long Range Plan.
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I Network, Therefore, I Am by David Fulton, UNY-SLA Webmaster
When I attended my first SLA meeting six years ago, I didn’t know a soul. As a student in Syracuse University’s Independent Study Degree Program, I had joined SLA because I saw special libraries as offering challenging career opportunities. I liked the ideas of working in a small library, getting to know a collection well and having lots of responsibilities. But as I looked around the lobby of the Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga that day, I had another kind of responsibility. It was time to "network."
The contacts I made that day began to help me almost immediately. I had heard of Barbara Beverley from a friend who worked in the Department of Economic Development, where her library is located. We had a delightful conversation. She was very interested in Syracuse’s MLS program and in sharing her knowledge with me. A year later she offered me an internship in her library, an experience that gave me a good idea of how a special library operates and convinced me, more than anything else, that this was the kind of work I wanted to do. I did everything that she did; online database searches, cataloging, reference queries, routing. She even left me in charge once while she went to a meeting. Since then, Barbara has acted as a job reference for me and provided sound professional advice.
When I moved to Syracuse three years ago, I didn’t know many people here, including librarians. I found Sue Price’s name on the SLA membership list and volunteered my services. The need for an Upstate SLA web site grew out of our conversations. Although I had not managed a site before, I was eager to try. We networked virtually with other SLA members and the present site reflects their suggestions and input. The skills I learned in this experience helped me get my current position of Electronic Services Librarian at Barclay Law Library where, among other things, I am responsible for developing content for the library’s web site and consulting with the webmaster on its presentation.
Networking continues to have unpredictable benefits. Often, these come in the form of advice from colleagues who have been there and done that. At a recent conference, a fellow law librarian recommended an alternative to an online service that was unsatisfactory. In another case, I got free technical support for a home PC problem during a coffee break. A dinner conversation resulted in a generous gift from a local organization to my wife’s school library. Sometimes even the most unlikely opportunities for networking are useful.
Recently, the Liverpool Public Library hosted a "get-acquainted" social for its new Director. I was very late and almost decided not to go. Since it was nearly over when I arrived, most of the others had already left. This gave me the opportunity for a longer one-on-one conversation with the Director than I would have had if I’d been punctual.
Networking always pays back to me. In addition to job interviews, collection development ideas and equipment recommendations, often it’s enough just to enjoy the company of colleagues.
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Candidates Needed!
The Chapter is seeking candidates for the position of President-Elect. Responsibilities include:
- Assists the Chapter President in the performance of duties of the presidency.
- Represents the Chapter at meetings of the Chapter Cabinet (which meets at the Annual Conference).
- Developing continuing education programs for the Chapter, working with an ad-hoc committee.
- Attends the Board Meetings, which are held three times each year.
After a year in office, the President-Elect assumes the position of Chapter President for one year. The President is the chief executive officer of the Chapter and supervises Chapter activities. The President presides at all business meetings of the Chapter and of the Executive Board. With the Secretary, the President shall sign all contracts and other legal documents. The positions of President-Elect and President are important to overall operations of the Chapter. Most of the work by these two officers can be accomplished via e-mail and the telephone.
The Chapter provides travel money for use by the President-Elect and President to attend SLA’s Annual Conference and Winter Meeting, if the person's organization will not fund attendance.
The President-Elect and President are in contact with their counterparts in the various Chapters and Divisions. They are often in correspondence with other information-related organizations. Therefore, they are in a wonderful position to network with other professionals, develop and hone leadership skills which can be helpful not only to the Chapter but also to their professional lives.
Are you up for a challenge? Are you looking for a unique opportunity? Would you like to become a leader? If yes, then the role of President-Elect is for you! Contact Jill Hurst, Chapter President, for more information. Also contact Jill to nominate yourself or a colleague for this position. Nominations must be received by April 10.
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Candidates for Chapter Positions
Barbara Watson is running for a second one-year term as Chapter Secretary. The Chapter Secretary is responsible for keeping a record of all meetings of the Chapter and of the Executive Board. The Secretary attends the Board Meetings, which are held three times a year, ensuring that minutes are taken, disseminated and archived. In addition the Secretary signs all contracts and other legal documents with the President and may perform other duties as necessary.
Barbara Watson works in the Technical Services department of the Martin P. Catherwood Library at the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University, as an original cataloger and serials librarian. Within Cornell, she is a member of the Professional Development Committee and Working Group Cataloging. ALCTS SS Division of ALA has recently selected Barbara to serve a two-year term on the Worst Serials Title Change of the Year Committee. She served this past year (1998-99) as the secretary for the Upstate NY SLA Chapter.
Ann Gunning is running for the position of Director. Two Directors serve on the Chapter's Executive Board, each for two-year terms, with one Director elected each year. The Directors act as advisors to the Executive Committee and are voting members of the Board. Often the Directors taken on special projects for the Chapter such as compiling lists of past award recipients or working on the Chapter directory. The Directors attend the Board Meetings, which are held three times each year.
Ann Gunning is a student at SUNY Albany and anticipates receiving her MLS in August 1999. She was president of the SLA Student Group at Albany in 1998. Ann was a syndication editor for TV Data from 1981 - 1997. Ann's job at TV Data, a company that supplies television listings and other TV-related to newspapers and entertainment businesses, lead her to consider librarianship as a new career. Ann was responsible for collecting television information from outside sources, organizing and describing that information in standard formats so that it was accessible to others within the company, and assisting co-workers in the proper use of the information. Prior to that, Ann was a secondary education English teacher. Prior to 1981, Ann was a secondary education English teacher.
If elected, both Ann and Barbara would take office at the end of the SLA Annual Conference in June, when all elected officers step into their new positions.
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Harry Beckwith to Speak on Special Library Marketing at SLA Minneapolis Conference by Katherine Bertolucci,LMD Consulting Section Chair
Harry Beckwith, services marketing authority and celebrated author of Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing, will speak on Tuesday, June 6, 1999 at 9:00 am at the SLA Annual Conference in Minneapolis. Selling the Invisible is about selling services and is the top-selling business book of the 1990’s. Mr. Beckwith will research and address the issue of marketing special libraries for his SLA presentation. Libraries have always provided services, but traditionally have struggled with marketing those services to their best advantage.
Mr. Beckwith will prepare for his SLA address by interviewing a group of special librarians selected by the program sponsors: the Consulting and Marketing Sections of the Library Management Division, the Advertising and Marketing Division, the Business and Finance Division, and corporate sponsor LEXIS-NEXIS. This select interview group will represent diverse perspectives within the profession and will discuss with Mr. Beckwith the unique marketing issues that face today’s special library.
The SLA membership is indeed fortunate to have the marketing analysis of Harry Beckwith, the foremost expert on services marketing. He has also addressed and consulted with major corporations such as ABC Television, Wells Fargo Bank, the U.S. Postal Service, Northwest Airlines, Compaq, and the U.S. Golf Association, among others.
SLA members will be able to purchase Selling the Invisible on Tuesday, June 8, at the LEXIS-NEXIS sponsored Internet Room. In addition, LEXIS-NEXIS is arranging a book-signing event with the author.
Be sure to attend the other marketing programs at this year’s conference:
- Annual Marketing Swap & Shop will be presented by LMD’s Marketing Section during the afternoon on Monday, June 7. Swap & Shop is always an exciting gallery of marketing ideas. SLA member libraries and consultants are encouraged to submit examples of their marketing efforts for their colleagues’ perusal. Examples of past Swap & Shop contributions consist of promotional materials, videos and brochures.
- As part of the LMD Consulting Section’s all-marketing program in Minneapolis, SLA’s very own Special Librarian, John Latham, will speak about the new CONSULT Online, on Tuesday June 8 at 1:00 pm., This is an important new marketing tool for members who are consultants or for anyone who is seeking a consultant.
- The LMD Consulting Section is co-sponsoring "Contractor Opportunities" on Wednesday, June 9. Presented by the Military Librarians, this program will help special librarians get those lucrative government contracts.
- The LMD Consulting Section offers an exciting CE Course for prospective, new or established consultants who are interested in library management consulting. Sylvia James and Katherine Bertolucci will present the all-day course, "So You Want To Be A Consultant," on Sunday, June 6. It covers the basics from setting up your office, to getting the contracts, to doing the job.
- Interested SLA members from all Divisions and Chapters are invited to attend the LMD Consulting Section Breakfast on Monday June 7 at 7:30 am, sponsored by Inmagic.
If you need to market your library services or your own services, be sure to attend the SLA Annual Conference in Minneapolis. These inspiring programs will help you promote and perform your way to success.
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Announcing the birth of a new discussion list: NEWLIB-L
NEWLIB-L is a discussion list for librarians new to the profession who wish to share experiences and discuss ideas, issues, trends, and problems faced by librarians in the early stages of their careers. However, this list is also of interest to those who are considering becoming librarians, and to those established in the profession who might wish to mentor newcomers. The list is currently open to all librarians--academic, public, special, etc.
To subscribe, please send a note to: listproc@usc.edu with the message:
subscribe newlib-l Your Name
Please feel free to contact me, Susan Scheiberg, if you have any questions at scheiber@usc.edu
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Demystifying Site Licensing by Susan W. Price, Syracuse University Library
Ten Librarians and one student participated in the SLA/ARL video conference, De-Mystifying the Licensing of Electronic Resources, down linked to Syracuse University Library on Thursday, March 4, 1999.
Publishers are sending agents to libraries, going straight to the reserve desks, trying to catch them in the act of copyright infringement. In non-profit institutions, the concept of fair use protects most libraries against these over zealous agents. But in the for-profit sector there is much less leeway provided by the concept of "fair use". Incidents in special libraries are scrutinized in terms of the amount of material that was taken, whether it was for a non-profit or educational purpose, effect of the copying on the nature of the copyrighted material itself e.g. did the copying avoid a royalty to the author?
The whole area of copyright infringement is fuzzy right now and will remain so until the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is passed. Most of the licenses that accompany electronic resources are contracts that are governed by contract law, not copyright law. Participants were given a fictitious contract of licensing terms and conditions to analyze. It is necessary to read all the fine print, understand it all, and negotiate where there are problems. Publishers are eager enough to make the sale that they are very willing to negotiate a mutually agreeable, reasonable contract.
The teleconference was taped and is available for review. Call the Media Department of Syracuse University Library. There are a few relevant web sites for further information.
For definitions of terms and sample pricing strategies, go to: www.library.yale.edu/consortia/statement.html.
For additional resources from SLA and ARL go to:
http://www.sla.org/professional/license.html
http://www.arl.org/scomm/licensing
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The 36 Hour Technology Day, April 29-30, 1999
Crowne Plaza Hotel, 18th & Market
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
April 29 8AM to 6:30 PM
April 30 8AM to 12:30PM
The expanded Technology Day format offers you a wide selection of sessions to attend, including: Building the Virtual Community, Security/Firewall Issues, Internet Search Engine Comparisons, and Y2K. Friday will feature Breakfast Round tables on "Hot Topics".
Includes registration ($75 for SLA members/ $90 for non-members) includes breakfast both days, lunch on Thursday, and the evening Reception (5-6:30PM Thursday). Library school students and professionals in the area will be displaying posters as part of the Tech Day activities.
Speakers include Tim Green (Ernst & Young—Keynote Speaker), Bonnie Snow, Mignon Adams, and Duncan Scott.
This is an opportunity for professional development and networking, and for expanding your vision of what technology can do for you.
Contact Mindy Paquette-Murphy at (610)889-6181 or paquette@hslc.org for further details. The Chapter website: http://www.libertynet.org/slaphil/ will also have information. Registration forms will have been mailed by the time you read this, so sign up right away.
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URL Sitings
Recommendations
- By Jill Ann Hurst, Hurst Associates
CIAC Security website: http://ciac.llnl.gov
The CIAC Security Website is maintained for the U.S. Department of Energy. It tracks information on hoaxes, viruses, chain letters, and other Internet security issues. This is "the site" to check if you receive an e-mail message about a virus, a too-good-to-be-true giveaway, or unwanted chain letter. This site is highly reliable and heavily used.
- By Allison Perry
Information Please: http://www.infoplease.com
The Web site, infoplease.com, is a one-stop reference site from Information Please LLC that integrates various Information Please Almanacs on sports, entertainment, and general knowledge with the Random House Webster's College Dictionary and the Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition.
Research Companies Online http://home.sprintmail.com/~debflanagan/index.html
This business research tutorial presents a step-by-step process for finding FREE company and industry information on the World Wide Web. These pages include links to a plethora of online information for profit and not-for-profit companies.
- By Shiela McKilligan, Unison Industries
Military Standards, Military Specifications: http://assist.daps.mil
The web site which allows users to access the full text of Military Standards, Military Specifications, Federal Standards, QPLs is finally up and running. If you have paid vendors thousands of dollars in the past for these documents and updates to them on CDs, or microfilm, you know how happy your Manager is/will be when you tell him/her that they are finally FREE!
It is advisable to use Netscape evidently because the Defense Automated Printed Office built the service using this. We found it smooth to use, and often met error messages when using MS Explorer. You will need an Account No. and a password. I faxed a request on company letterhead to Assist Online at 215-697-1462 indicating that we designed and built aerospace components for military use. I received my account number and password by voice mail promptly. You can register online, but I was unsuccessful in pulling up the form.
Not all military documents are available digitally. Icons indicate format availability. All I have printed were in electronic format. I found that my old laser jet HPIII was very slow in printing, but a nearby HPIV is almost instantaneous. You can also order a paper copy online. The users here are all happy at the speedy service. Try it out.
