 |
Home | Search | Browse | About IPO | Staff | Links |
|
Home | Search | Browse | About IPO | Staff | Links |
|
You Too Can Win a National Award! Irene Herold
Part One: The Application
I wrote to the jury chair, Jan B. Swanbeck, and stated my desire to be considered for the award to attend the two conferences. She sent me an awards application. I filled out the application, provided the required employment history, education history, career goals, professional activities, and my purposes for the grant, benefits from it and proposed reporting methods. I also contacted the ILA/GODORT 1993 Forum manager, Shelia Nollen, and my then boss, Gillian Gremmels and asked if they would write letters of recommendation for my application. I want to share with you my statements of purpose and benefit: Purposes for the Grant: I would like to better understand my job responsibilities and how the Federal Depository Programs work, therefore, I would use the grant to attend the April 20-22, 1994, 3rd Annual Federal Depository Conference and the May 18-25, 1994, 7th Annual Interagency Seminar held in Washington, DC. The grant would go toward the cost of airfare, hotel, meals, conference fees, etc. Benefit From Grant: The grant would allow me to attend the two meetings, which I would not be able to do otherwise. Being from a small academic institution, there are no funds available for such travel and accommodations. Attending the meetings would broaden my perspective and understanding of the Depository Program. It would give me the chance to ineract not only with those running the program, but also other depository librarians, developing a network of support and information. I know from the local and state meetings I have attended how valuable this is. Not only will the meetings give me a global perspective of the Depository program, but it will also show me the opportunities available to get involved in the broader Depository community. This will benefit me personally, my library through my greater knowledge, and the Depository Program through my informed running of the program. I figure that if I can win a national award with this application, so can you! Part Two: The 3rd Annual Federal Depository Conference This was a tremendous experience. I arrived too late on April 19th to attend any of the informal pre-dinner get-togethers, but found my way from the airport to the hotel to a restaurant with no glitches. The first day of the conference, April 20th, opened with remarks from Michael F. DiMario, the Public Printer, and Wayne P. Kelley, Superintendent of Documents. It was nice to put faces with names that had become familiar through Administrative Notes, the newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program. This was to happen throughout the 35 conference as folks from the Government Printing Office stood up to speak. The first informational session was called "Informing your Congressional Representatives about the Federal Depository Library Program," and it was excellent. Four Congressional staffers spoke and gave tips on how best to contact and inform your Congressperson about their local depository. From this session I later created a handout of my notes that I shared with the other Federal Depository Librarians from the 17th Congressional District in Illinois, and we have been trying to implement the strategies with Congressman Lane Evans' office. See Appendix A for a copy of the handout. Next J. D. Young, Director of Library Programs Service, gave an update; and then there was a Government Printing Office (GPO) information exchange/open forum. After lunch, the rest of the day passed in a blur of groups discussing CD-ROMS. I identified several that we received, but that no one had ever attempted to use; and was abashed at how simple some were to start up, and intimidated by the complexities of others—besides being mystified at times as to what the information on the CD-ROM meant and how one would use it. After returning to my library I "played" with several of our CD-ROMS and can say that as a direct result of attending this conference we now use the 1990 Census STF 3A, National Trade DataBank, U.S. Code on CD-ROM, and others quite frequently. . The highlight of the second day was a session presented by Kathleen Keating and dark McLean, both from the University of New Mexico, on "Government Information on the Internet." Our campus had just connected to the Internet shortly before I left for the conference, so their handouts, guides and lecture were the overview that I needed. Another session covered "Developing a Service Policy for Electronic Products," something I had already written a draft policy for in early April. It was useful to compare my approach to the conference presenters' document. I also heard an update on the status of current legislation affecting the Federal Depository Library Program, and attended an afternoon-long Internet panel discussion. The last day I focused on sessions dealing with maps and the Geographic Information System (GIS) Software. Monmouth College does have a topographical map collection, and has received a few of the map CD-ROMs, but I must confess that without a geology or geography department these collections are not utilized enough. The session on the "Future of Maps in the Federal Depository Library Program" helped me focus on my priorities for our collection, and the GIS session was over my head. The final session was on the Americans with Disabilities Act, This session outlined six steps in areas of planning: Read Public Law 101-336; Appoint a liason and/or committee; do staff development activities; review the library in terms of policies, programs, services and facilities; implement needed changes; and seek feedback. This was one of the best conferences I have ever attended. Not only did I learn a lot, but many things were immediately applicable and I was able to implement the information in my work situation. I wish I had the funds to attend every year, and I would urge others who either work in a depository or work with depository materials to attend. Your patrons will reap the benefits! Part Three: The 7th Interagency Seminar There were sixty-five attendees at the seminar. Even though the promotional information encouraged librarians new to documents to attend, the experience level ranged from brand new to over ten years of documents experience. Each day upon arrival at GPO, where the seminar is held, you sign in and receive a visitor's badge that must be worn when in the building. The elevators are old, ornate and slow, but better than climbing up seven flights of stairs. The seminar is held in a large, dark-paneled room, except for the day spent at the Library of Congress. The schedule for the first day consisted of a welcome by DiMario and Kelley; a tour of GPO; an explanation of inspections and depository requirements; presentations by Jim Cameron, Director of Sales for the Sales Management Division; Vicki Roan from the Office of Marketing; and Mike Bright, a program analyst from the Electronic Dissemination Information Service. While on the tour with John Tate, he explained that there are sometimes shortfalls—so a depository might not receive an item. A title is sent to GPO from an agency with a notice that they are intending to publish it. Based on the title only, a Superintendent of Documents Classification Number (SuDoc#) is assigned to the future document. Based on the SuDoc#, GPO determines how many Federal Depository libraries select that item, and the GPO tells the agency how many copies to print using this count. When the actual document arrives, the publications management specialists in the receiving area may realize that the item has been assigned the wrong classification number, and they reclass the item. This may change the quantity needed for dis- 36 tribution to the libraries, thus causing a shortfall or an overage. If the overage item is one that is considered important, it may be publicized as a special offer through the Administrative Notes. This cleared up one mystery for me. Other highlights from the first day included the information that the Sales Management Division must make money, has twenty-three bookstores, is looking at a diskette format for the Publications Reference File (PRF), and will be making the subject bibliographies available in electronic format (they are now on the NTDB CD-ROM). The Office of Marketing currently does not do paid advertising and aims awareness campaigns toward other libraries and then to promoting awareness of depository libraries. From the Electronic Dissemination Information Service came the information that the March 1994 NESE CD-ROM has the Acrobat Software. The second day was at the Library of Congress. I had high expectations, but through a variety of circumstances the content of the day fell far short of them. The people lined up to speak at the first session were all of the same gender, and when I asked if there were any women in middle management, it created a chain reaction that permeated the whole day. Everyone who spoke felt the need to explain and defend. Then the fire alarm sounded, and we spent the better part of two hours standing across the street from the building. When the session finally got underway, the information covered was merely a listing of the types of holdings in each department. When questioned if items were available as depository items, the answer was either no or they didn't know. This added to the audience's frustration. The afternoon picked up with an intense tour of the Congressional Research Service (CRS). The Congressional Reference Division of Readers' Services employs 101 people and forty-three are reference librarians. CRS answered 600,000 requests in 1993. Of those, 375,000 were covered by Readers' Services. They handle approximately 1,700 phone calls a month on the hotline.
The third day of the seminar was back at GPO with a Census Bureau presentation—it was excellent. The method of reporting each census was explained. I finally learned the difference between Summary Tape Files 1A and 3A from the 1990 Census of Population and Housing CD-ROMs. The difference is the 3A information is based on the long form questionnaire and 1A on the short form, so the information on 3A is an extrapolated estimate for the total population, while 1A contains exact numbers collected. The morning of the fourth day the Federal Register's office presented and in the afternoon the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) spoke. The Office of the Federal Register's presentation was organized and efficient, moving us through material on the Presidential and Legislative Division Publications to a step-by-step walk through the Federal Register and The List of Sections Affected. The afternoon with the EPA was less organized. The EPA was not established by statute, but rather set up by President Nixon in the 1970s. It originally employed 6,000 people, but today employs 19,000. There is a move to make the EPA a department instead of an agency, because as an agency they function as a loose confederation with poorly defined communication and coordination between offices. As a department the hope is that the structure will tighten, making them more effective. They also spoke about many items not available through the depository program. On the fifth day the topics were patents, trademarks and copyrights. Mande Putnam from the Patent Office defined the three types of patents (utility, design and plant); discussed the statutory regulations for patents' described what could be patented, what could not and why; as well as patent infringement and patent application procedures. Trademarks were given the same thorough treatment. Ed Rogers from the Copyright Office gave an historic overview of the copyright. He explained that the current "rule of thumb" is that anything copyrighted prior to 1919 is public domain. The copyright earning the highest royalty currently is held by the person who has the rights to "Happy Birthday to You." On the last day, the Bureau of Labor Statistics was alloted only half a day, but the amount of information felt like a full day's worth. They covered LabStat (Labor Statistics), which is a database (in existence since 1977) that tracks items like toothpaste since the 1930s. The Bureau warned us not to try the Internet interface for a couple of months, because even though the data is "good," the database crashes. The Office of Employment and Unemployment Analysts explained that they don't collect the data, they just try to explain it. The same applies to the Employment Projections Office. They take secondary data from other agencies—such as the Current Population Survey and Current Employment Statistics Survey—to create the Monthly Labor Review, Occupational Outlook Quarterly, and the Occupational Outlook Handbook, among others. As I left the Interagency Seminar, I felt that the days spent with the Census Bureau, Office of the Federal Register, Patents, Trademarks, and 37 Copyright, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics expanded my knowledge and helped me to do my job as a Federal Depository documents librarian more efficiently. I now had a better grasp on the tools I was receiving. The first day of the seminar, covering the functions of GPO, helped clarify the inspection process and how documents move from GPO to my library. Of the other presentations, my response is less enthused, although talking to other attendees I found that some of them found them useful. Would I recommend this seminar? Yes, especially if the librarian is new to documents. I wish I had known much of the information in my first year as a depository librarian. The value to a more experienced documents worker is subjective, but of less value the more years previously worked in documents—except as a refresher course. On the other hand, I did receive many phone numbers, email addresses, and names to contact, which would be of value to anyone working in documents, regardless of their experience level. Part Four: Conclusions Have I used the knowledge I gained during the annual conference and the seminar? Yes. Not only did I create the handout with tips on how to contact Congresspeople, but I also brought back many ideas about community outreach and the lesson on the Federal Register, both of which I have shared with the 17th Congressional District Federal Depository Librarians' Group that I helped found. The group has cooperatively created a Congressional District brochure, handouts on various depository publications, and some models for contacting community groups who might be interested in the depository materials. I also presented the section of this article on the Interagency Seminar at the Fall 1994 ILA/GODORT meeting in Springfield. At least one librarian told me it helped clarify who she should try to send to the seminar and what benefits she could expect to gain from sending someone. I presented information about the depository at Monmouth College to the local junior high school and on topographical maps to a third grade class. While I had always tried to include government documents, my instructional sessions now highlight documents in sessions taught to beginning business, speech, and comparative societies students, besides in sociology courses. Professors are excited to learn about the larger variety of documents pertaining to their areas that are presented in the sessions. This academic year usage of documents, while on the rise since I started working at the Hewes Library, has grown, especially in the number of times the CD-ROM products are used. Receiving the Readex/GODORT/ALA/Catharine J. Reynolds Grant allowed me to become a more empowered documents librarian. The application procedure was not difficult, and the benefit of being able to attend two national documents' meetings improved my job performance. I also connected with numerous documents librarians and learned from them, something which one can get a flavor of from GovDoc-L, but the Internet connections do not really allow the give and take of a face-to-face meeting would urge others to apply for the Readex/GO ORT/ALA/Catharine J. Reynolds Grant, and to take advantage of attending the offered Federal Depository programs. My only regret was not having the funding available to attend ALA last year to officially "receive" the grant at the awards ceremony, but I'm back to flipping through the awards section of the ALA Handbook, and who knows what I'll apply for next. You too can win a national award!
Appendix A Notes From the 1994 Federal Depository Conferee Informing Your Congressional Representatives about the Federal Depository Library Program Gail Nicula, U.S. Armed Forces Staff College, VA Ask Congressperson: • What types of questions do you get? • Which do you refer to depository libraries? • What do you provide or wish we could provide • Is there someone on your staff who works with depository libraries? • Educate them as to what you can do • Suggest to them: send us some of your requests and let us see how many of them we can respond to Shirley Woodrow, Minority Staff, Joint Committee on Printing: • Make direct contact with Congressional offices (who receives the mail on information policy, libraries, etc.). Find out the staff person's name. • Make an appointment • Tell what you can do for them and vice-versa • When sending mail, only send a letter on one subject at a time • When in person, bring a one page typed document with your name, how you can be reached, a summary of the issue (why you are there) • Thank them
38 • *Take initiative *Be brief*Relate facts *Extend thanks Susan Callanan, Legislative Assistant, Congressman Owen Pickett • Encourage constituents to come to you • December and August are good times to make appointments • Provide written information on your facility, directions, maps, number of copiers available in reproducible format • Local depository should get in touch with the D.C. office also, so all have the information and know what you're offering.
• Ask them to call you before they send someone to you to see if you can really help them before they make the trip to your depository. • High staff turnover in congressional offices, so keep in touch to make sure your contact information is current. Wyatt Sheilds, Legislative Assistant, Senator Charles Robb • They get laws pretty instantaneously, so you can refer folks to their congressperson. (This comment generated a discussion about CRS, Congressional Research Service, and that we need to write to our congresspersons and ask them to disseminate the information. Enrolled Bills are now available on the GPO Wais Server. Internet will be an option within a year for all congressional offices, although all may not opt to participate.) *Irene Herold, Public Services Librarian, Hewes Library, Monmouth College. 39 Directory, Illinois State Library
(Printed by the Authority of the State of Illinois) (X28014-5,850-02-95) Opinions expressed in signed articles are not necessarily those of the editors or the Illinois State Library
40 |Home|
|Search|
|Back to Periodicals Available|
|Table of Contents|
|Back to Illinois Libraires 1996|
|