Bulletin

Advertising and Marketing Division
Fall 2003
Editor Kristine Spanier,
Carmichael Lynch

Contents A Message from the Co-Chairs A Message from the Past Co-Chairs June Conference Recap Library Websites in the Advertising Industry Collecting Market Research Online Information Sharing Across a Global Agency Network Managing Corporate Archives: The New “Old” Knowledge Management Tool Publications Report 2003 Award of Merit Winner Sue Stepek Monitoring the Branding Initiative A Look Inside…With Christie Koontz, Florida State University Our Favorite Resources Member News New Members New Member Bios Bulletin Submissions

A Message from the Co-Chairs

Jen Hahs and Betsy Hoza

Mixing up new biz pitches? Vendor bills screaming for payment?

We would hazard a guess that you're coming out of a very BUSY summer. Everyone is in the same boat of juggling a heavy request load against 'projects' all the while trying to stay on top of housekeeping duties. Yes, there's nothing like being 'slammed' for an entire quarter to raise your stress levels!

That said, your friendly new DAM co-chairs would like to request that you consider adding another 'to do' to your busy schedules. We promise it will be fun, effortless AND should be a definite stress-buster.

DAM Co-Chair Challenge:

Try to meet socially once a quarter to network with fellow information professionals. A strong professional network benefits both you and the division. Equally important is the fun factor. Who doesn't enjoy an occasional lunch or happy hour with friends in the field?

In Minneapolis there are two active groups that meet for lunch. Sometimes we talk (gripe!) about work stuff and sometimes we don't. What's important is that we have an active network.

It would be WONDERFUL if you could take the time to share your networking experience with our editor, Kristine Spanier. Your contribution can be as easy as a one-sentence summary, a photo, or a full article covering the event. If we get enough responses, we can start a DAM 'Goings On' column.

So get out there and hit some happy hours!

Jen and Betsy

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A Message from the Past Co-Chairs

Gwen Loeffler & Stephen Fleming

So many members participated in the Ad/Marketing Division this year. It’s thanks to you that our term as Co-Chairs was successful. Kudos to all!

2002-2003 was a year of many firsts for our Division. Here are a few we would like to recall:

Discussion List

The Division’s discussion list has seen an enormous increase in activity over the past year. Members use it regularly for advice and recommendations. It is also proving to be a noteworthy source for notifying colleagues about new resources and services.

Thanks to all of you for posing questions and posting answers – especially on Fridays!

Website

We inaugurated The Branding Resource this year. Division member and branding authority Chris Olson conceived of the Resource and compiled the initial list of recommended readings. Division members then contributed additional references to create this valuable tool.

Cindy Hill, the new President of SLA, said The Branding Resource is “an excellent example of tapping into each other’s strengths, knowledge and passions. Thank you…for identifying and addressing a need…congratulations on this cool tool.” And FindSVP’s e-newsletter, The Best of the Business Web, suggested that individuals “consider this source when you are involved in a branding or naming project and need to quickly get up to speed on how to go about the process.”

We also started accepting advertisements on our website with Mintel being our first advertiser. Funds from this ad space subsidized travel to the SLA Winter Meeting for Division officers, enabling us to plan the New York conference better and gain visibility within SLA.

Praise for our rich website goes especially to Steven Knittweis, our Division Webmaster. We’re very glad that he is staying on in this capacity for another year!

June Conference

The June conference in New York was the highlight of the year for many of us. We were very happy with the participation level of our division and grateful for all the positive feedback.

For those of you who could not make it, summaries of some of the events are included in this bulletin. Additional materials, including some Powerpoint presentations, are available on the Division website: http://www.sla.org/division/dam/index.html.

Some of the notable firsts at this year’s conference were:

A large group of us hiked around Manhattan, battling traffic and humidity, for a unique behind-the-scenes tour of the Advertising Libraries of New York.

We witnessed operations at four ad agencies (BBDO, Bates, Young & Rubicam and Interpublic Group’s Center for Marketing Intelligence), one media house (Conde Nast) and one trade association (Association of National Advertisers). Each library was, of course, special in its own way. Check out the Division website for photos of this event.

Thanks go to hosts Sylvia Wachtel, Chris Brune, Sara Stein, Maureen Pine, Cynthia Cathcart, Kathleen Hunter and Robin Feuerstein for being so generous with their time! Where else but at SLA could we have done this?

The Association of American Advertisers also hosted a tour this year, introducing us to their staff and resources. Many thanks go to Julie-Ann Zilavy and Marsha Appel for arranging this unique event.

In another Division first, four members demonstrated their Intranets during a special session at the conference. Each speaker provided a candid, informative presentation identifying many of the obstacles and challenges faced during development. For more on this presentation, see Library Websites in the Advertising Industry.

Au Revoir!

We wish Jen Hahs and Betsy Hoza the best of luck as they begin planning for the 2004 Conference in Nashville. And we welcome Jo-Ann McQuillan as the Chair-elect for the 2005 conference in Toronto.

We have enjoyed our term as Co-Chairs very much and it is with sadness (and relief!) that we step down. We’re very grateful to have met so many of you, our amazing colleagues, and we hope to deepen these friendships as time goes on.

We encourage all of you to volunteer for a leadership position in the Division. You will get so much back from it. It’s a terrific experience!

All the best,
Gwen and Stephen

Stephen and Gwen

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June Conference Recap

Library Websites in the Advertising Industry
Sponsored by LEXIS-NEXIS

By Stephen Fleming

At this “show and tell,” four DAM division members shared how they use the Internet to deliver information services. The presentation was well-attended and generated a lot of positive feedback.

Christopher Brune, VP Knowledge Manager at Bates Worldwide, spoke first discussing the evolution of their Intranet site called The Big Brain.

Chris discussed how The Big Brain was designed to be Bates’ way of managing intellectual property, identifying expertise, developing communities of practice and accessing online information.

Their original concept was to create a site that was fun, irreverent and playful with the hope of attracting the attention of their creative clientele. They rolled with out with an impressive internal ad campaign and waited to see the reaction.

What became apparent was that “fun” didn’t work. It was too cute and confusing. There were also some technical difficulties with users outside New York who did not understand the idiomatic humor.

So after a period of time, they scaled back The Big Brain, eliminating the cartoon icons and funny names and re-focused it on only the knowledge management and research functions.

The latest version allows users to search for internally created reports as well as many external sources such as Dialog and Lexis-Nexis. Users are also able to search the Bates Library Catalog and to submit research requests online.

l to r: Stephen Fleming, Kathleen Hunter, Robin Feuerstein, Adam Schmidt, Chris Brune

Robin Feuerstein, Vice President & Director of Information Services for the Center for Marketing Intelligence at Interpublic Group, spoke next. Accompanying Robin was CMI’s webmaster, Adam Schmidt.

Robin shared information about the evolution of her company’s Intranet site, which is called CMI Online.

Robin and her team were thinking about knowledge sharing as far back as 1984, but it wasn’t until the birth of the World Wide Web that they were able to implement their ideas. In 1998, CMI Online (then called CASNet) was born.

The current version of CMI Online has many features, including links to subscription services (such as Yankelovich) and other great websites selected by their staff of Internet research experts.

However, the main attraction on CMI Online is the extensive collection of internally produced research. These reports are the hallmark of Robin’s library and feature detailed market research from in-house experts.

Kathleen Hunter, Director, Information Resource Services at the Association of National Advertisers, spoke next. Kathleen discussed the ANA’s site IRC Online.

IRC Online, unlike the other sites in this presentation, is an Extranet site. It exists on the ANA Intranet, but is also accessible from outside the organization. ANA members access the public ANA website and then enter the “members only” section by using the appropriate passwords.

IRC Online was launched in 1999 and uses Inmagic to manage its content. IRC Online provides members with access to publications, surveys, job descriptions, meeting notes and conference summaries published by the ANA. It has a section of “Member FAQs” and also allows users to contact librarians for customized research.

The ANA Extranet delivers information to members 24/7 and also allows library staff to provide more service in less time. It has been such a success that it is used as a major selling point to prospective new members. This is all evident in the steadily increasing traffic to the site.

Kathleen pointed out that the unique content and the collaboration with senior management were major factors in the site’s success.

Stephen Fleming, Manager of the Virtual Library at Young & Rubicam Advertising, spoke last. He presented their Intranet portal known as The Virtual Library.

Stephen explained that The Virtual Library is an Intranet-based research tool that exploits the expertise of the Y&R Library staff. It provides access to information-rich websites, subscription services, internal research and the library catalog. It also allows users to submit requests online.

The Virtual Library was begun in 1997 and developed “under the radar.” Since then it has gone through transformations to make it more user-friendly and more integrated with other research initiatives. It is currently being overhauled again for a re-launch in the near future.

The Virtual Library changed the way business was done at Young & Rubicam. It allowed end-users to do more searching on their own. Users in remote offices also gained access to previously unattainable sources. It liberated librarians from routine requests and saved thousands of dollars with commercial vendors.

You can view the powerpoint presentations for Chris Brune, Kathleen Hunter and Stephen Fleming at the Advertising and Marketing Division’s website: www.sla.org/division/events/2002programs.html.

Collecting Market Research Online
Sponsored by Marketresearch.com

By Stephen Fleming

Speakers:
Will Febbo, CEO & Co-Founder, MedPanel, Inc.
Carol Fitzgerald, Partner & Founder, BuzzBack
Lynn Edlen-Nezin, PhD, VP, Strategic Planning & Research, Grey Healthcare Group

Facilitator:
Gwen Loeffler, Senior Researcher, Y&R Advertising/Wunderman

The panel of experts discussed the pros and cons of using the Internet to conduct market research. The topic mainly concerned conducting focus groups in an online setting rather than face-to-face but also touched on e-mail surveys and other techniques.

Among the interesting findings were:

ADVANTAGES OF ONLINE RESEARCH

COST
Online focus groups are less expensive than face-to-face ones. Cost is the number one reason why most places now use online market research tools.

LOGISTICS
Another important advantage is that online focus groups are not conducted in one place or time. Because of this, researchers are able to gather information from a larger, more accurate sampling.

CUSTOMIZATION
Online market research also makes it easier to customize questions on the fly, which is helpful for researchers who want to tailor their questions as they go.

Preliminary testing of new products is also more easily done online, or when the client just needs to get a general direction of a product or trend.

ANONYMITY
Participants are freer and more anonymous in the online setting, making their answers to questions more honest and reliable. This especially applied to situations where the survey group was a highly trained set of professional, such as medical doctors. This group was able to be more honest and relaxed in the online sessions because they felt less pressure to impress their peers.

Online research groups are also less biased because they don’t allow people to do as much “selective listening” as in face-to-face groups.

Also, people tend to respond more passionately online which is what researchers want. The “wallflowers” speak up more and the “leaders” are less able to dominate the conversation.

RECRUITMENT
Online works better for recruitment of participants than newspaper ads or cold calls do. The screening process is similar to that for face-to-face. Respondents have a preliminary screening, and then a secondary one by a research expert. As with face-to-face research, the group composition is crucial, but with online situations, the pool of candidates is bigger to begin with..

MORE QUALITY CONTROL
There are less omissions and mistakes in e-mail questionnaires than in paper ones. This is because each page of an online questionnaire must be filled out correctly before you can advance to the next page.

l to r: Carol Fitzgerald, Will Febbo, Lynn Edlen-Nezin

DISADVANTAGES

MISSING INFLECTIONS
Nuances are harder to notice in written responses than they are face to face. However, it is debatable how important these inflections really are.

TECHNOLOGY INCOMPATIBILITY
Technical compatibility issues arise when respondents are using their own equipment. This holds true especially when graphic files need to be viewed and everyone’s monitor displays colors and shapes a different way.

TARGET MARKETS
Some target markets are not online as much as others. In particular the Hispanic market is not as much online as the mainstream US. As of now, Hispanic market research online is unproductive.

PRIVACY
Consent forms become more complicated when the respondents are submitting answers online. New tools are being developed though to counter these and other privacy problems.

CLIENTS
Interestingly, many clients are still resistant to having market research done over the Internet and would prefer the tried and true methods of the past.

CONCLUSIONS
Whether online or face-to-face, the most important aspects of good market research remain the same: you must have the right group with the right questions and the right facilitator to bring about the best results.

However, online research does offer a number of specific advantages:

• savings in costs
• better responses due to anonymity
• customizable questions
• information from a larger, more geographically diverse group of consumers

For most situations though, a combination of online and offline (quantitative and qualitative) still works best.

Information Sharing Across a Global Agency Network

by Derek Scheips, Wunderman

Speakers:
Ted Graham, Worldwide Director of Knowledge Management Services , Hill and Knowlton
Laura Limbach, Chief Information Officer, Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide
Mark Taylor, Chief Information Officer, Young & Rubicam/Wunderman

Moderator:
Gretchen Reed, Director of Information Services, Euro RCSG MVBMS Partners

This panel brought together representatives from some of the world’s leading marketing services companies to discuss the challenges of creating and evolving corporate information systems that can both engage employees and help them work better. The wide range of topics included promoting compliance with a company’s global information policies, measuring employee participation online and the security implications of access to these information-sharing sites.

Moderator Gretchen Reed first asked whether compliance with information policies could be consistent globally. But when it comes to corporate intranets, it seems that the “one size fits all” plan rarely works. At Saatchi & Saatchi, Laura Limbach explained, they took a two-tiered approach. “To promote usage, our leadership council developed the policy that virtually all corporate news and communication are only be available on the intranet. But we discovered that at the same time it was not practical or wise to aim for 100% of all account-related information being placed on the system. Different lines of business require flexibility. So those guidelines call for collaboration via a private account community whenever possible.”

At Young & Rubicam/Wunderman, they’ve also learned that one solution can’t fit everyone. “I believe we have three main “buckets” of activities in our industry,” said Mark Taylor. “There’s relationship management, with duties like account management and new business, ideation, which covers creative and analytics, and manufacturing, referring to areas such as studio and production. People who work in different areas will have different uses for an information-sharing site. On our intranet, which is called The Loop, we’ve worked to fulfill those needs with a range of features and capabilities that will engage them and provide a faster exchange of information.”

“We don’t have formal, overreaching information policy,” added Hill & Knowlton’s Ted Graham. “But it certainly is crucial to have employee contact numbers, bios, case studies and many other items posted on the site. When it comes to biographies we can figure out who does what and who doesn't, but it's much harder to chase down a great case study on your own.”

Graham went on to explain that while compliance and participation is voluntary, Hill and Knowlton has put into place incentives to get the employees to visit and return to the site. For a time, their employees had the chance to earn “Beenz” (a micropayment system developed by www.Beenz.com) for CDs and other prizes when they downloaded intranet pages. The company also developed “best-seller” lists of the most frequently accessed pages. Plus, departments that have shown a high level of participation also receive cash bonuses.

Getting employees to initially visit and then return for more has been a challenge for all the panelists. At Saatchi, Limbach said, it involved a campaign similar to a rollout for a client: “It’s no longer just enough to send people an email that there’s a new site. We hired a creative team to come up with a concept. The campaign had several lead-up days, then the main event on the actual launch date. The overall strategy was a set of visual props, both at the individual level as well as a public 'scene' to announce the birth of the site and tease them into going to the site to check it out.”

l to r: Gretchen Reed, Mark Taylor, Laura Limbach, Ted Graham

Limbach pointed out that some of the resistance to intranets had to do with the nature of the ad business: “Advertising is competitive, so it’s kind of counterintuitive to be asking people to post their best ideas for all to see. Fortunately, access and security are more sophisticated now, so you can have more control over who’s seeing your ideas. And ultimately I believe that while you can drive people to visit the site, they have to want to “play” there for you to secure any lasting involvement.”

One successful strategy for involvement at Hill and Knowlton was the installation of a webcam pointed at the bar room of their London office, providing some refreshing, global 24/7 viewing, and the encouragement of employees to include material about their families and interests in their public folders. This combination came to be known as “booze, babies and Bob” (Bob was an employee training for an Iron Man competition). “The idea was to give employees the chance to find out about their colleagues beyond the typical bio, and that this interaction could lead to opportunities with different offices and teams in our global network,” explained Graham.

At Y&R/Wunderman, Taylor explained, a big effort has been made to integrate knowledge management into daily activities: “If sharing requires an additional step, it becomes a burden, and if it is a burden it will be done less well.” He added: “Though much of what we do is unique, the way we do it does not have to be if we have a system in place to learn from experiences. With The Loop, our people have an easy way to make sharing and learning simply a part of doing their job every day. They can post important presentations, studies, client work, and much more, so that they and others can reapply those learnings for future engagements. I think that’s the big selling point for intranets, the progress organizations like ours are making in the marriage of internal and external knowledge.”

Next the panelists discussed advances in technology and how it has improved collaboration and security. In particular, Limbach noted the improvement in search engines and portals: “Previous versions of the intranet were primarily focused on the document management technology. All documents were 'in there' somewhere. The portal approach has allowed the introduction of many other functions and perhaps more importantly, the creation of uniquely branded and organized communities dedicated to the specific account group or project team. Each community can be secured down to the individual document level if necessary. Plus, all information can be organized exactly as the community administrator wants it, not as the document management software dictates.”

Taylor noted the importance of Intraspect, which he’s found well-adapted to fast-paced distribution on knowledge and Y&R/Wunderman, plus the industry-standard Webtrends for understanding who’s visiting the site, where they go, and what they do.

Graham added that his company uses Intraspect to capture team discussion in email archives on Intraspect, which can not only help new team member’s catch up, but also provides an electronic trail in the event of any security concerns when people leave the firm.

All the panelists agreed the future looks bright for information sharing and its place in global companies because technology continues to get cheaper to use and easier to deploy. The takeaway:

Limbach: “I agree with the Gartner Group analysis I read that within the next 2-3 years collaborative efficiency management will be considered a critical success factor and a well exercised discipline in 80% of enterprises with revenue more then $1 billion"

Graham: “I think we've come a long way but we need to continue to be more creative on the technology side to match the way creative people work and share information. We need to create more sense of communities and give them some fun things to do online to get over the hesitation to share around the globe with people you don't know very well.”

Taylor: “Now we can focus more on the business and human values and resources people need to get the job done. The next big thing is the further sophistication of autonomic computing systems, now in development, which will offer self-monitoring and self-repairing features. These computers will be able to learn from the routine things that you do each day, to the point that the computer will be able to do a lot of the work for you.”

Managing Corporate Archives: The New “Old” Knowledge Management Tool

By Janie Hughes, American Association of Advertising Agencies

Speaker: Jeanette M. Bergeron, Archivist & Special Librarian

Our group gathered from various industries and levels of archival sophistication. For those of us with little experience in the field, it was evident that archiving is not as simplistic as many of us had previously thought.

The session started with the fundamentals. Some of the areas covered included:

• Establishing an archival committee & setting up policies. This encourages staff to understand the value and role of the archivist.
• Standard archival supplies. Storage boxes, file folders, paper, labels (all acid-free); ph testing pen (to determine acidity levels of paper); #2 pencils; etc.
• Cost & space considerations. Typical startup supplies (boxes, folders) average $1000 or less for a year’s stock. Add another $700 for steel file cabinets, shelving, disaster kit, and dehumidifier. If you don’t have a walk-in vault, choose a location that is away from excessive sunlight, pipes, and kitchen areas.
• Permanent collection identification. It has been estimated that only 1 to 5% of corporate records need archiving. Is the item relevant to the foundation of your organization? Will it be useful for an anniversary celebration?
• Archival of equipment that may become obsolete. If part of your collection is on slides, you will need the projector if it is no longer manufactured.
• Disaster plans. Know how to respond to a flood and minimize water-damaged documents.
• Get educated. Consider joining the Society of American Archivists. Attend courses and invest in several good books, particularly KEEPING ARCHIVES, 2nd ed., edited by Judith Ellis. [ I have since discovered that this book is out-of-print, but Thorpe in Australia is considering a reprint. If you can’t find a used copy, write to customer.service@thorpe.com.au and ask to be placed on their back-order list for a future release. ]

Ms. Bergeron shared with the group an excellent catalog software package entitled “PastPerfect Museum Software.” It includes an Archive Catalog Screen with an image display area and essential data fields. For more information on PastPerfect, visit www.museumsoftware.com.

Finally, Ms. Bergeron touched on the subject of scanning vs. microfilming/microfiching. While some corporate materials are candidates for scanning, be advised that scanned/digitized items are NOT an archival option yet. Hardware and software change constantly and the images do not have long-term stability. Microfilm & microfiche are still the archival gold standards. They have stood the test of time and only need the most basic of equipment. In an emergency, a source of light and magnifier will do.

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Publications Report

By Gretchen Reed, Chair

In 2000, the second edition of International Advertising & Marketing Information Sources was published by SLA, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Advertising & Marketing Division. In 2002, we became aware that, with the exception of the Salary Survey, SLA was discontinuing its publishing operation and existing books were being discarded. After some negotiation, we were able to retrieve the remaining copies of IAMS. Since June of 2002, we have been selling the book directly at $25 per copy, with all proceeds going to the Division. The book, along with ordering instructions, is featured on our Division Website.

Although not a Division publication, several Division members are featured in Grace Villamora's Super Searchers on Madison Avenue, which was published in March of 2003.

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2003 Award of Merit Winner Sue Stepek

Congratulations to Sue Stepek, winner of the Division’s 2003 Award of Merit. Sue was nominated for the award by not one, but two Division members. She has served as both Treasurer and Chair of the Division, and as Chair-Elect she planned programs and events for SLA’s annual conference held in New York in 1984. She has consistently encouraged her staff to be active in the Division -- Rebecca Rydzewski is currently Public Relations Chair, Chris Schim served as Chair, and Nan O’Connor served as Treasurer and Bulletin Editor.

Sue has been senior vice president, manager of the Reference Center at Campbell-Ewald since 1987. She has spent her entire career as a special librarian at Campbell-Ewald, first as a reference librarian, then assistant manager, and finally manager. She was named vice president in 1982.

Following in the footsteps of the venerable Mildred Treat and Elizabeth Smith, Sue is only the third head of the 77-year old information resource at Campbell-Ewald. Her credo has always been to anticipate needs. For this reason, she and the other five librarians in her group have always participated in new business initiatives, worked on client teams and volunteered in all agency activities from focus groups to softball teams. For over 25 years, her group has been publishing a trends newsletter which goes to clients and prospects. And in these days of revenue pressures, Sue and her team of eight sell their reference services to outside customers.

l to r: Sue Stepek, Marie Connelly, Gwen Loeffler

Barbara Munro, Campbell-Ewald’s head of new business says, “The Reference Center is our first call at event the hint of a new business opportunity. Sue Stepek and her staff are masters at understanding our needs and the importance of responding quickly. They are always on the lookout for new sources and new ways to help us, and they do an outstanding job of keeping us up-to-date on companies we have identified as prospects.” Agency president Jim Palmer says “Sue’s operation is the best; we rely on them heavily.”

Sue graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in political science and history, and received her MSLS degree from Wayne State University.

Marie Connelly of Lowe Worldwide introduced Sue and outlined her career and contributions to the Division at our Open House during the 2003 Conference in June.

Sue was presented with a plaque and a check for $500 in recognition of her continuing support of the Division and the profession.

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Monitoring the Branding Initiative

Chris Olson, M.L.S., M.A.S.
Lead Strategist and Coordinator
Special Libraries Association Branding Initiative

Every month I write a one page column for Information Outlook called Brand Talk. The first column appeared in the July issue. The column briefly reports on what the brand team is doing and sometimes discusses a branding topic.

Another way people can track the association's branding activities is to visit our new web page on the SLA web site at http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/assocbrand/index.cfm. The page includes an overview of planned brand team activities, a longer, 3 year view of the branding initiative, and links to branding resources, the name change vote archives, and Brand Talk articles.

One of the objectives of the branding initiative is to be an educational vehicle by providing members with insights into branding tools and concepts in an effort to help them with their own branding initiatives. I'm hoping the new web page helps to accomplish this objective while keeping members abreast of what is happening with the association's branding efforts. The brand team has its own e-mail address, so if anyone has a question or comment about the branding initiative, they are welcome to correspond with the team using this address.

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A Look Inside…With Christie Koontz, Florida State University

Christie Koontz, a member of SLA and DAM since 1999, is the director of the GeoLib program at Florida State University, serving libraries through geographical and marketing research. She teaches marketing and marketing research domestically and abroad, is a columnist for Marketing Library Services, published by Information Today www.infotoday.com, co-authored a virtual campus marketing course utilizing GIS which can be found at www.esri.com, and published "Library Facility Siting and Location Handbook, Greenwood Press, 1997. Her new research interest is the spatial nature of the interior of libraries, as impacted by the population the library serves.

Q: How did you end up in a geographic information system (GIS) software “shop” as the director of GeoLib (www.geolib.org) ?

I have always said the most interesting thing about librarians is that they are not—not usually librarians—originally that is. Library and information studies schools are filled with students choosing librarianship as a second career—blending mixing and cross-training. I was one of those starting out in journalism and advertising, getting a scholarship to get an MLS at Florida State University in the early 80s to help publicize and promote public libraries. I worked as a public librarian for two years and returned to get my Ph.D—more interested in the broader topic of marketing. I cross-bred once again, and got interested in how libraries are located—studying retail location theory and using GIS in my dissertation—voila—and here I am since 1990!

Q: How do you continue to participate in the library profession?

I have kept an active interest in the associations, ALA, PLA and SLA as well as IFLA, serving on committees, and using these as vehicles to develop and communicate my research. Currently I serve on the Research and Statistics committees of ALA and PLA. I served as SLA’s representative on IFLA’s Management and Marketing Section for the past four years, gaining experiences with library professionals in other countries that are also interested in marketing applications. I wrote an international library marketing glossary based upon the American Marketing Association’s dictionary (which is on the GeoLib and IFLA website.) This created a standard of exchange and understanding of western marketing concepts in diverse environments.

Q: Could you describe some of your past and present research interests?

My research training includes identification of U.S. Census data relevant to public library use, and utilization of marketing research methodology to optimally site and re-locate public library facilities to best serve diverse customer markets with disparate information needs.

In the late 1980s, my research pioneered the critical need to understand the geographic and spatial nature of individual libraries, by collecting data that describe people who use a single library, and what materials and services they use, and approximating the distance they will travel for library services. In 1992, I won the prestigious Carroll Baber Research Award from the American Library Association, to identify differences in use patterns amongst communities comprised of people with greater or lesser income, education, and racial diversity. This research led to a nationwide study in 1996, utilizing GIS (geographic information system software) to identify 3500 lower income and majority minority library markets, and describe how people within these markets use materials and services in the library. This type of in-library use is rarely collected by public libraries, and provided a picture of the critical and diverse information needs of people who often have less discretionary time to use libraries, and who are less likely to have the library and reading habit.

Utilizing 1980, 1990, and now 2000 U.S. Census data that are relevant to library use, such as income levels, education, age, sex and race, my research is the basis of the recent IMLS project to develop a national public library database that identifies population characteristics, and levels of library use within 16,000 US communities.

Currently, the GeoLib staff develop library master plans for local governments, work with federal agencies to provide data for policymaking, and have thrown all our efforts in the past year into the Public Library Geographic Database—which is an Internet mapping project.

Q: Could you tell us a little more about this national public library database?

The Public Library Geographic Database (PLGDB) is located at www.geolib.org. The beta release will be in September. The database includes the locations of America’s 16,000 public libraries, population characteristics from the US Census that best describe people that use libraries, and library use statistics from the National Center for Educational Statistics. The goal of the database is to provide consolidated information on public libraries nationwide, easily accessible over the Internet. The project partner is FSU’s Information Institute www.ii.fsu.edu and is sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services ( www.imls.gov )

A key ingredient to the long term success of the PLGDB is the ongoing incorporation of other relevant data. We hope the database will offer users access to data that can shape local, regional and national library policies. We have created downloadable powerpoint and AVI tutorials to help first time users who are unfamiliar with geographic databases. The database is a culmination of over a decade of research and study—starting with my dissertation! I am fortunate that I “landed” in this environment so I could continue my research.

Q: What advice would you give library professionals seeking to work in alternative settings?

Well, you have to have initiative—often your colleagues from other professions—no matter what your expertise--cast you as ‘the librarian.’ And it is the librarian they remember of old—this is not meant to be unkindly but a limited perception in this day and age. Even with all the experience and research I have conducted—people will often ask me something regarding cataloging (the only subject in graduate school I got a “C” in.) I think that we often do not ‘brag’ enough about our innate skills of information seeking ability, organization, summation of tons of material for general consumption—and our general abilities to continue all this when others give up. While I started out as a journalist—went into advertising—I found using these skills for the betterment of libraries is one of my greatest joys and rewards. Last semester I taught advertising at a local community college—I thoroughly enjoyed it and was struck by how the principles of true professions stay the same—research, advertising, marketing and librarianship. I am glad to be swimming in all the ponds.

Additional Note from Dr. Christie Koontz, DirectorGeoLib
Florida State University
E-mail: CKoontz@admin.fsu.edu

You are invited to review the beta version of the US Public Library Geographic Database (PLGDB) available through www.geolib.org

The PLGDB includes:

• the locations of 16,000 public libraries;
• select data sets from the US Census best describing potential and actual library customers;
• and library use statistics from the National Center for Educational Statistics.

Please notice the future data and features listed under ‘Coming Soon;’ the ability to print a map of any location in the US; glossaries and metadata; the ‘Quicksearch’ and search by radius functions.

Through your review, we can prioritize the most valuable augmentations, enhancements and corrections. There is a feedback button on the opening map page that provides area for comment. For more information about the latest status and data releases of the National Public Library Geographic Database check back on this website regularly.

Florida State University's GeoLib Program www.geolib.org is developing the PLGDB. The FSU’s Information Institute, www.ii.fsu.edu partnered on this project. The project is sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

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Our Favorite Resources

From Jennifer Guberman, Director, Information Services
Magnet Communications

Our new favorite resource is the Google News Alerts: www.google.com/newsalerts

This new beta allows you to sign up to have Google News delivered right into your e-mail inbox. You just enter your keywords, the timing for which you'd like to receive the alerts, and your e-mail address, and *poof* they start appearing. Currently, you're allowed to enter up to 50 e-mail alerts. We love it because not only is it FREE, but it's an easy way to track our clients in online news hits. Another big hit for Google!

From Sara Stein, Information Specialist
Association of National Advertisers

Here's one favorite resource: www.cahnerscarr.com/carrindex.htm

Much of the info is available free of charge. Better still, it's always straight to the point and visually accessible.

From their website: THE CARR REPORTS (a Cahners publication): CARR is a research information service designed to help you better understand the medium of business-to-business publications and advertising (print and on-line). It provides benchmark research and strategic advice to advertisers about the bottom-line effectiveness of communications programs.

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Member News

By Gretchen Ebeler Hazlin

In September, Sara Stein starts her new position as an information specialist at the Association of National Advertisers, reporting to Kathleen Hunter. Her former supervisor, Chris Brune, will be starting up a knowledge management department at J. Walter Thompson (which Bates is being merged into).

Chris Brune and Sara Stein

Deb Linksvayer, Knowledge Specialist, recently transitioned from the Media Department to Marketing Intelligence at Carmichael Lynch, Minneapolis. She is expected to graduate with her MLIS from the College of St. Catherine/Dominican University in May. She’s currently the president of the SLA Student Group at the College of St. Catherine.

Past Chair and current Bulletin Editor, Kristine Spanier, returned to work part time at Carmichael Lynch, Minneapolis, in August after a six-month maternity leave. Baby Josephine is currently learning to crawl backwards and is showing an unusually high interest in books.

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New Members

Laura A. Baird Prior Lake, MN Jane R. Barrer Student New York, NY Janet K. Bates Eagan, MN Christine M. Brandenburg Dobbs Group South Plainfield, NJ Erica E. Bresler Student Scarsdale, NY Alexandra Briseno MarketResearch.com Rockville, MD Alisa K. Coddington Student Boston, MA Florrie Cohen Center for Marketing Intelligence New York, NY Yee-Wah E. Chow Northrop Grumman Space Technology Redondo Beach, CA Valerie A. Cortelyou Parker, CO Carol A. David AAAA New York, NY Kim Dority G.K. Dority & Associates Inc. Castle Rock, CO Mary F. Evangeliste American University Washington, DC Jean W. Fisher QVC, Inc. West Chester, PA Shawna Ford LexisNexis Canada Vancouver, BC, Canada Julia F. Fox Ariel Professional Services Chatham, NJ Katherine Gilkinson Student Dallas, TX Susan M. Gormley McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. New York, NY

Stephanie Hornung Student Berkeley, CA Alexia Hudson Coca-Cola Co. Columbia, MD Christina (Tina) L. Jantzi Cooper-Standard Automotive Auburn, IN Helen B. Josephine Intel Corp. Santa Clara, CA Cherie C. Kemmerer Colorado Springs, CO Karen M. Kozak Student Hatboro, PA Sandra C. Lahtinen Gartner, Inc. Stamford, CT Linda Langston Effective Information Solutions Norwalk, CT Charin Lin Student North York, Ontario, Canada Stephen A. Lippman Marymount College of Fordham University Tarrytown, NY Heather MacKenzie Bombardier Aerospace Doral, PQ, Canada Joyce Magruder Turner Broadcasting New York, NY Renee A. Massoud KPMG LLP Montvale, NJ Lynne K. McCay Library of Congress Congressional Research Service Washington, DC Deborah A. Mills Student Lexington, KY Eytan Moked New Brunswick, NJ Johanne Mongrain Groupe Cosettte Communication Montreal, Canada

Casian Moscovici National Public Relations Toronto, ON, Canada Robert A. Murnan Cleveland Public Library Cleveland, OH Florence M. Palomo Conde Nast Publications New York, NY Allison J. Perry Gaylord Information Systems Syraccuse, NY Sommers Pierce US State Department Dulles, VA Leslie J. Reynolds Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN Joan B. Schlimgen University of Arizona Arizona Health Science Library Tucson, AZ Greff M. Schwenk RSM EquiCo Costa Mesa, CA Jon-Anne Elise Seiffert PRN-Premier Retail Networks San Francisco, CA Lisa G. Skriloff Multicultural Marketing Resources Inc. New York, NY JoAn Street Pearl Information Services Portland, ME Veronica A. Toussaint Student Glenview, IL Marcos Vera Entertainment Weekly New York, NY Heidi M. Weinkam Student Hoboken, NJ Bonnie L. Wittkop James J. Hill Reference Library St. Paul, MN Patricia A. Wolfgram MidMichigan Medical Center Midland, MI 48670

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New Member Bios

Janet Bates lives in the Minneapolis-St.Paul area and just earned her MLIS from the College of St. Catherine/Dominican University program. She has an undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Journalism. For the past 15 years Janet has operated her own marketing communications business, offering freelance copywriting, secondary research, PowerPoint presentation writing and development as well as promotional planning consultation. Prior to that she worked in the sales incentive industry. She is currently looking for a full-time job in the Twin Cities area where she can use her writing and research skills, hopefully with a Marketing Communications firm.

Janet is married and have two sons aged 20 and 17 and one extremely crabby cat named Spock who was rescued from the Human Society. Her older son is a Junior in college at the University of Minnesota-Duluth where he is majoring in Technical Theater Production and her younger son will be a senior in high school.

She enjoys reading biographies, buying books at the Friends of the Library Book sale that she keeps promising to find time to read, trying to make flowers grow in the frigid northland and walking. She is rarely without coffee, enjoys trying new wines, and has a small collection of Mickey Mouse memorabilia. Although it will probably land her heirs in court with Disney, Janet hopes her tombstone will sport a Mickey Mouse image with the words "Eccentric even in death."

Cherie Kemmerer is new to SLA and the A&M division. She has a Research Consultant/Information Specialist/Marketing background. She currently researches, selects, retrieves, analyzes, compiles, and summarizes relevant and timely competitive intelligence and market research materials on a quarterly basis for senior managements' review. She received both her M.B.A. and B.A. from Regis University in marketing strategy, with a minor in international business. Beyond consulting, Cherie enjoys engaging in activities with her family.

Bonnie Wittkop is presently employed at the James J. Hill Reference Library in St. Paul, MN and hopes to begin working towards an MLIS in the near future. While her current job duties are primarily Acquisitions and Collection Development, she hopes to soon move up to a paraprofessional reference librarian position because her interests lie in research and marketing. In her spare time, Bonnie enjoys anime, cinema, literature, traveling, hiking and cooking.

Heather MacKenzie is Manager, Marketing Information for Bombardier Aerospace. In this capacity, she supports the organization by conducting industry & market research, corporate aircraft market analytics, list generation for direct mail campaigns etc. as well as customer and target audience profiling. Heather has been in this role for three years prior to which she was responsible for all organizational presentations, competitive product comparisons and web content. Heather attended Vanier College majoring in psychology and has been an SLA member since 2000. Her spare time is dedicated to her husband, two sons and miniature dachshund. She has coached several soccer teams, managed several intercity hockey teams and works out 4-5 days a week at the gym. She actively undertakes home renovation projects and gardening.

Yee-Wah Chow is a Senior Analyst at the Competitive Intelligence Center of Northrop Grumman Space Technology. Her work involves profiling competitors and strategic partners globally as well as analyzing market opportunities. Yee-Wah received a BA in German and MLIS from UCLA, and a MBA from Claremont Graduate University Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management, with dual specialization in Marketing and Global Strategy. Prior to joining Northrop Grumman, Yee-Wah enjoyed a full-time career as an Engineering Librarian at Claremont University Consortium for nearly seven years.

Deborah Mills is a new SLA member, having joined in Spring 2003 during her first semester at the University of Kentucky School of Library Information and Science, where she should earn her MLS by May of 2004. Deborah decided on this degree after asking herself "what's the most fun I've had in my work life?" and finding an immediate answer: "The thrill of the chase -- finding and delivering information!"

Previous positions doing prospect research for a museum and a university, and a stint as Development and PR Director for a nursing home all involved gathering, analyzing and compressing large amounts of information on short deadlines for delivery to a variety of audiences. She is learning all she can about online information systems, web design and usability issues, and delivering business intelligence.

Deborah joined the Marketing and Advertising Division in part because of her experiences marketing herself when she ran her own business as a woodcarver and artist. She plans to return to New York City to live sometime in the next year or so, and is eager to plug into the NYC network.

Tina Jantzi currently oversees market, industry, competitive intelligence and research at Cooper-Standard Automotive. She is also responsible for vehicle volume forecasting for the company. Previous positions include Sales Analyst, Program Management/Quality Assurance Analyst, and Bilingual CSR. She is new to SLA and to the Advertising and Marketing Division. Tina earned her BA in French from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada and her MSA in International Business from Central Michigan University. She enjoys kickboxing, reading, and taking courses for personal and professional purposes, and has a cat named Chaz.

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Bulletin Submissions

We are always looking for submissions from our division. We publish the bulletin four times a year, so send in your articles and ideas and anything else you’d like to see in print, and it will be published in our next bulletin. I’m particularly looking for someone to interview for our next “A Look Inside” – if you’d like to have your library and your job profiled, please contact me. And please keep sending me your favorite resources. We’d like to grow this into a usable database for us all to benefit from. Questions? Call or write, 612.334.6031 or kspanier@clynch.com.