Librarians in the News

By Kate Bird

U.B.C. Scholarship and Award Winners

A Vancouver Sun article titled "U.B.C. grads take the stage" published Tuesday, May 30, 2000 listed recent U.B.C. scholarship and award winners.

Bethan Jane Davies was awarded the Marian Harlow Prize in Librarianship for leadership and ability in study of special librarianship and WCC member Caroline Claire Hyslop received the Neal Harlow Prize for outstanding graduating student in the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies.

Other recipients included Joanna Elizabeth Andow, who received the Archives Association of British Columbia Mary Ann Pylypchuk Memorial Prize for outstanding graduating student in Archival Studies. Helen Margaret Moore was awarded the Stanley and Rose Arkley Memorial Prize for outstanding contribution to the field of children's literature. Tara Kathleen O'Coffey received the Beverly Maureen Becker Memorial Prize for top-ranking student in the advanced reference course. Jeanette Marie Turner was awarded the C.K. Morison Memorial Prize for specialization in some aspect of public library work. Debbie Lee Landi won the Gordon New Memorial Prize for outstanding work in the course related to college, university and research libraries and Dovelle Dawn Buie received the Roy Stokes Medal in Archival Studies as the head of the graduating class in Archival Studies, MAS degree

Another good reason to become a MLS, MLIS?

"NAFTA-approved professions a ticket to lucrative U.S. jobs for Canadians" reads the headline in a brief article in the May 30, 2000 issue of Business in Vancouver. A Canadian journalist returned to UBC for a Masters degree in library and information studies which allowed him to work as a Reference Librarian at the University of Idaho under the NAFTA agreement. Ken Haycock, director of SLAIS, is quoted as saying that "the program graduates about 50 students a year. In some years up to 20 per cent of graduates have moved to the US to work."

Information Professionals in Demand

An article in the Straits Times, Singapore June 16, 2000 entitled "NTU to raise intake for popular master's course" Describes how the information explosion brought on by the Internet has boosted demand for their programme. Associate Professor Schubert Foo, who heads the Information Studies division at NTU, states that "IT professionals were in demand in the '90s, but the next wave of demand will be for information professionals who are able to source, evaluate and organize information for use.'' He goes on to say that "graduates of the programme can expect their market value to increase as there is a shortage of such professionals here."

Hyperlink patent?

ZD News reports that British Telecom claims to have a 14 year old U.S. Patent on hyperlinking technology. The article states that "British Telecom believes it owns a 14-year-old U.S. patent for the World Wide Web's hyperlink technology and has hired an intellectual property specialist to ensure it can commercialize the patent, in court if necessary. Buried amongst 15,000 global patents, BT claims it discovered its lapse during a routine update of its intellectual property. Hyperlinks are used to connect to other words, pages or pictures on the Internet and are central to its operation."

Item contributor and librarian Gary D. Price of George Washington University comments that "it is also a good illustration of how important it is to keep important information well organized. (: At the same time it is hard for me to understand how BT simply "overlooked" or "missed" this patent. It's not as if hyperlinking and the web have been seldomly discussed topics in the last few years."

Last month Gary received an award from SLA’s News Division at the division awards banquet in Philadelphia. The award was given in special recognition of Gary’s considerable contribution to web research for librarians. Gary is the creator of the amazing Price’s List of Lists as well as five other Internet resource compilations for information professionals. He consults, writes, and teaches on searching the Internet more effectively.

Ask Us a Question

An article titled "Libraries Test E-Mail Reference Services" in the July 2000 Quill & Quire describes the e-mail reference services developing the Edmonton, Richmond and Vancouver public libraries in response to the growing demand for online information. The article states that by "offering service outside of traditional library hours, it will help prevent librarians from becoming obsolete in the face of a steadily growing number of commercial information providers, such as AskJeeves.com or Exp.com, not all of which are entirely trustworthy or professional".

The article also outlines an international initiative involving the National Library of Canada, the National Library of Australia, some U.K. public libraries and a number of U.S. libraries who are developing a global reference project called Collaborative Digital Reference Service (CDRS).

Check this out: a global library grovels for books

An article in the June 1, 2000 Wall Street Journal describes the new library in Alexandria, Eqypt.

"The new library in this storied Mediterranean city abuts the blue sea, its foundation sunk so deep that the first four floors are below ground. Surrounded by a reflecting waterpool, the library has 17 elevators, self-cleaning windows and a safety system so advanced it can extinguish fires without leaving so much as a drop of water on a rare text. The library is short on one crucial element. Books."

"Librarians Everywhere" named recipients of the Electronic Frontier Pioneer Awards

A ceremony for the Ninth Annual EFF Pioneer Awards took place on April 6th, 2000 as part of the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference held in Toronto. The online civil liberties group chose to honour "Librarians Everywhere", in appreciation of the difficult and often overlooked battles that many librarians have fought to protect free expression on the Internet, as well our privacy and equity of access rights.

Karen Schnieder of Clifton Park, New York, accepted the award on behalf of and as a representative of librarians around the world fighting for the public's right to free expression in cyberspace.

The awards citation notes that:

• librarians have been on the front line working to prevent censorship of the Internet in libraries, privacy of library check-out records, and equity of access to all information contained in the library.

• librarians act from a strong core ethic. Their individual actions show admirable bravery as they stand up for intellectual freedom and democracy though in many cases, their jobs are on the line.

Louise Addis Interview

An article in the internet journal First Monday by Melissa Henderson features an interview with Louise Addis, a librarian at SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center).

Henderson originally found a reference to Addis in the book Weaving the Web: the Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web By Its Inventor by Tim Berners-Lee. In the book, the author describes how California physicist Paul Kunz, on returning home from Europe to Stanford, told Louise Addis, a SLAC librarian, about a new invention he had seen, the World Wide Web.

Berners-Lee states that Louise saw the Web "as a godsend – a way to make SLAC’s substantial internal catalogue of online documents available to physicists worldwide. He further states that under Louise’s encouragement SLAC started the first Web server outside of Europe" and that Addis saw the potential in this revolutionary technology before the majority of the world had even heard of the Internet.

Anita Cocchia was appointed Manager of the British Columbia Electronic Library Network in June. Anita joined the Open Learning Agency in 1990 and moved to ELN in 1994. During that time, she has been integral in the development of ELN as a model for cooperation among the post-secondary library sector. Open Learning Agency president and CEO Jaap Tuinman states that "Anita's knowledge of the BC library and academic community, political astuteness, integrity, resourcefulness and good humour ensure that ELN will continue to fulfill its mandate in providing excellent service to its members and to the B.C. library community at large"