Military Librarians’ Workshop ’98 – Conference Update

Reported by Tracy Landfried, MLD Membership Chair

    The SLA Annual Conference was held this past June in Indianapolis, IN. Tracy Landfried, MLD Membership Chair, attended the conference and contributed the following three reports on sessions and programs she attended. Other MLD members who attended the conference are encouraged to contribute their reports for inclusion in a later issue of The Military Librarian.

Session Title: How to Effectively Use a Library Committee
Sponsor: Solo Librarians Division
Moderator: Gerry Hurley, SilverPlatter Information, Inc.
Speakers: Marcelle Saint-Arnaud, Frances Drone-Silvers, Sally Henderson, and Mary Eller McMurtrie, solo librarians all.

    The consensus of the speakers was that solo librarians need a library committee. The library committee enables them to market to users, non-users and organizational VIPs who never see the library. A good library committee can generate support for services or build a business case for additional funds to support new services, automation, collections or equipment. A library committee’s support can add credibility to such requests by virtue of its membership or simply because someone other than the librarian is making the request.

    To be effective, a library committee needs a charter and/or mission statement. The charter should include the library’s location, use, and the services it provides.

    The library committee should function as a knowledge source about the organization and a sounding board for changes or new policies, equipment, and services in the library. Most library committees have some input on the selection of materials. Many are liaisons between the librarian and other workers within the organization. Some help set policy.

    The speakers set out the criteria they think are important for a strong, functional, helpful library committee:

1. Library committee members should represent a cross-section of the organization.
2. Committee members must be library supports, though they do not necessarily have to be active library users.
3. The committee should not include too many newcomers to the organization. Instead, members should have an understanding of the organization’s needs or culture.
4. Schedule regular committee meetings be they bi-annually or bi-monthly. Reschedule the meeting if it conflicts with organizational or division-wide meetings.
5. Run the meeting from a pre-approved agenda.
6. Distribute minutes of the meeting to committee members. Minutes are the official record of the business conducted at the meeting.

    In summary, the speakers felt it was worth the time and effort needed to set up a library committee.

Session Title: Speaking to Your Public: Effective Communication with an Audience
Sponsor: Library Management Division Consulting Section
Moderator: Mary K. Dzurinko, M.K. Dzurinko Associates and Maryland SLA Chapter Director
Speakers: Claire Hart, Dow Jones Interactive; David Lantz, Toastmasters International; and Roger Harvey, local Indianapolis TV station reporter

    Dzurinko open the session by noting that public speaking is most people’s number one fear—a full two places ahead of death!

    Hart, although not a professional speaker herself, discussed lessons on public speaking she learned from Dorothy Sarnoff’s Speech Dynamics class. Sarnoff identifies four "vibes" of a commanding speaker, which Hart presented as joy and ease; sincerity, credibility and concern; enthusiasm, energy and intensity; and authority. Hart also recommended Sarnoff’s book, Never Be Nervous Again.

    Harvey presented the following as a means for "Winning Over an Audience in Eight Steps:"

1. Know your subject inside and out,
2. Practice, practice, practice,
3. Use eye contact,
4. Use humor appropriately and if you are good at it,
5. Make the presentation as exciting and as fun as possible, if appropriate, so you "grab" your audience,
6. Move the presentation along; do not get bogged down on any one point,
7. Use visual aids, if they have substance, and
8. Slow down the speed of your talk.

    The speakers’ insights are helpful to anyone who has to speak to an audience, whether briefing a Commander on budget requirements or speaking at a conference.

Session Title: SLA Competencies: Personal Benchmarks and Organizational Standards
Moderator: Esther Bierbaum, Museums, Arts & Humanities Division Chair
Speakers: Lynda Moulton, SLA; Tom Rohmiller, our own incoming MDL Chair; and Frank Spaulding, SLA Fellow

    Moulton served on the original committee that created Competencies for Special Librarians in the 21^st Century (hereafter referred to as Competencies), and she explained its history and development. It arose from a sense that Special Librarians—particularly corporate and government librarians--require personal and professional competencies above and beyond those required for successful public and academic librarianship. Because corporate and agency librarians must keep informed about the operational aspects of their business’s or agency’s operations and long and short-term goals, special librarians must be able to "see the big picture" and "seek new business."

    Moulton suggested evaluating one’s personal and professional skills against those enumerated in Competencies. Managers should use them to evaluate skills of existing staff as well as guidelines for hiring. Because core librarian competencies of collection development, organizing and packaging information, subject expertise, and knowledge of information resources are all covered in Competencies, Moulton advised using the document to "sell" yourself and your skills to your employers.

    Moulton also stressed the need for special librarians to serve as adjunct faculty, board or council members.

    Rohmiller, Library Team Leader, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, discussed the application of Competencies in the Air Force Information Systems Command, which oversees all Air Force libraries, and the Air Force Library and Information System (AFLIS), which oversees the MWR Air Force base libraries worldwide. AFLIS centrally procures core collection materials to set a minimum standard for professional continuing education for Air Force base librarians.

    Rohmiller described the library contracting out process currently underway in the Air Force. He drew parallels between a contract’s description of services and performance standards for successful bidders and the Competencies list of core abilities and skills that special librarians need to possess to do their job effectively.

    Finally, he showed how the both elements of and standards of performance from the Competencies document are being incorporated into annual performance and training plans at the Air Force Research Laboratory. Other federal sector librarians are using SLA’s competencies to create Individual Training Plans (ITPs) for federal and military librarians.

    Spaulding, former SLA president and a fellow of the Association, discussed the Competencies document as it relates to the 57 ALA-accredited graduate library science programs in the United States. He urged working professionals to become involved in graduate education programs by teaching about special librarianship as adjunct faculty, urging their alma mater to update its curriculum for special librarianship, and by following the Graduate Education Caucus. He lamented a dearth of continuing education programs offered by graduate schools in library science and noted that local, regional and annual SLA-affiliated conferences and self-study are the only venues for professional CE for many special librarians.

Change and Continuity in Librarianship: Approaching the Twenty-First Century
Proceedings: Military Librarians Workshop ’96  40^th Annual Military Librarians Workshop,
US Naval Academy Nimitz Library, Annapolis, MD 20-22 Nov 96

Edited by Dr. Richard Werking, Librarian/Associate Dean for Information, USNA
Prominent speakers included Walt Crawford of RLG, Dr. Keith Swigger of Texas Woman's University, and Wayne Kelley, Superintendent of Documents.

AD Number: A352039

Vision 2000: Strategies for a New Millennium, Proceedings: Military Librarians Workshop '97.
41st Annual Military Librarians Workshop, Wright Patterson AFB, OH 18-20 Nov 98

AD Number: ADA349711

Order copies through the National Technical Information Service (NTIS): tel. # 1-800-553-NTIS/703-605-6000
5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, VA 22161, or via the Internet at http://www.ntis.gov/ordering.htm
You may also order through the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC): tel. # 1-800-CAL-DTIC (1-800-225-3842)
8725 John J. Kingman Road, Suite 0944, FT. Belvoir, VA 22060-6218, or via the Internet at http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/docorderform.html

In conjunction with the 42nd Annual Military Librarians Workshop, FEDLINK is sponsoring two sessions on acquisitions and procurement.

The pre-conference workshop, Basic Acquisition of Library Materials, will be held on Monday, November 16. It presents basic information on acquiring and processing materials in the most efficient and cost-effective manner with an emphasis on:

• Collection Management vs. Acquisitions
• Order Processing
• Purchases and Cancellations
• Automation

The responsibility of library acquisitions personnel is to obtain books, serials, electronic, and other informational materials needed by their libraries at the best price with the best service and in the most efficient processing of materials by the library. In this class you will learn the basic information needed to acquire and process these materials for your libraries in the fastest possible time with the least possible cost.

The post-conference workshop, Advanced Acquisitions/Procurement, will be held on Friday, November 20. This workshop applies traditional acquisitions in a federal government context with a focus on:

• Federal Funds
• Contracting
• Licensing
• Federal Collection Development

Librarians who purchase information for the Federal Government need to know how to fit the traditional practices of library acquisitions into the framework of government finance and procurement rules. Building on a librarian's basic understanding of the acquisitions process and the publishing industry, this advanced workshop will address the special terminology, processes, and restrictions that federal

librarians must incorporate into their regular way of operating.

Both workshops will run from 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m, with registration beginning at 8:30am.

Registration fees are $100 for one workshop or $150 for both workshops, to be paid from your FEDLINK training account.

To register, please note the class(es) you will take on the MLW form AND contact Milt McGee at FEDLINK to register with him and arrange for payment. Milt can be reached at (202) 707-4800 or via email at mmcg@loc.gov.

DTIC is offering free DROLS training for a maximum of thirteen individuals on Friday, 11/20. Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis through your MLW registration form.

Note the Friday, November 20, FEDLINK and DTIC classes conflict with each other. Please register for only one, if interested.

For questions on the registration process only, please contact Suzanne Lanterman at (703) 767-9180; DSN 427-9180; email slanterm@dtic.mil.

For questions on workshop content, please contact Carol Jacobson at (703) 767-9167; DSN 427-9167; email cjacobso@dtic.mil or Gerri Shane at (703) 767-9108; DSN 427-9108; email gshane@dtic.mil.

Monday – Optional FEDLINK training, see above. Following the opening reception at the hotel, the following restaurants will be the sites of Dutch treat dinners:

Carlyle Grande Café – American
East Wind Restaurant – Vietnamese
Café Marianne
Bilbo Baggins – vegetarian
Ecco – Italian
Le Gaulois – French
Gadsby’s Tavern – Colonial Amer.
Cajun Bankok – fusion

Sign up for the restaurant of your choice at the registration desk.

Tuesday – Brigadier General Donald L. Scott, Deputy Librarian of Congress, will be the keynote speaker. His talk will address our theme of "Managing the Digital Library."

Dinner is at the Torpedo Factory, a former World War II torpedo factory converted to artist’s studio. It’s on the waterfront and amidst other shops and restaurants. It promises to be an evening you won’t want to miss!

Wednesday – The afternoon tour of the American Memory/Library of Congress Bicentennial preview exhibits, followed by tea at LC, is limited to 150 persons. If you wish to attend this session, you must register for it.

Wednesday’s dinner is on your own.

Thursday – The afternoon brings the opportunity to register for one of two optional tours. Space is limited for each tour, please note your preference on your MLW registration form. You may choose between the following.

DTIC
CIA – limited to 45 people, US citizens only, must have a social security number for clearance.

Friday – Optional FEDLINK or DTIC training, see above.