MEMBER PROFILE:
IRENE CORDOVA

By Jane Cohen, Writer

Having served as an alternate delegate from Texas to the 1991 White House Conference on Library and Information Services, appointed to the Library Services and Construction Act Advisory Council of the Texas State Library (1991), and currently serving on the Diversity Committee of the Texas Chapter of SLA as well as Chair of the MLD Bylaws Committee, MLD member Irena Cordova has proven that a later-in-life entry into librarianship is no barrier to an enthusiastic and productive professional career.

Born in Honduras, Irene began her journey to a 1990 MLS from Texas Woman's University (TWU) after raising a family and helping fellow immigrants by serving as a translator to the New York City courts and other social agencies. She continued this work after moving to Oklahoma and then Texas.  She worked at the TWU Library while obtaining her Masters, served her Practicum at American Airlines, and currently manages the Technical Publication Library at Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc.

Irene's duties include maintaining databases from all service branches and serving as Bell Helicopter's resource for standards and technical publications on commercial and military rotorcraft. Since joining Bell Helicopter, she has seen a steady migration fro hard copy to digitized information and, as a result, feels that primary importance must be given to the ability and expertise to access computers quickly.  She stated that things are, "...changing so quickly.  What you get this morning will be changed by this afternoon," and librarians must be prepared to deal with this new environment.  While stating that, "Everything is becoming digitized, so libraries in the military field seem to be shrinking", Irene believes the skills developed to cope with continuous evolution should serve librarians, even if the profession's name may change to match a new environment.

Asked why she decided to join and actively participate in MLD, Irene said, "A great deal of my work involves military publications and, as a solo librarian, I like to stay current with the latest developments in the field while doing some networking to develop mutually beneficial relationships with my colleagues."

Web Wisdom 

by Marie O'Mara, DTIC, Ft. Belvoir, Virginia 

Greetings from cyberspace!
Because we are spending more work time on the Web, I thought it would be fun to share the good sites we come upon. I recommend a new find called Hypertext Library Lingo: A Glossary of Library Terminology (http://www.wcsu.edu/library/library_lingo.html). The Glossary is designed as a reference resource for ordinary library users and library professionals.  Technical vocabulary of publishing and information technology and of library and information science has been included. It is an on-going Web publication and definitions will be revised and added from time to time.

If you have comments on sites to share, please contact me.

Marie O'Mara
Internet Instructor
Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC)
Phone (703) 767-8221; FAX (703) 767-8228
DSN: 427-8221
momara@dtic.mil

Conferences | Newsletters | MLW | Site Map | What's New | WWW Links
MLD HOME		Last updated 11/25/00  Webmaster: Dolores Knight