ALANEWS (JULY 20, 1994) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/alanews/alanews-940720 Note: conversion from a BITNET transmission format not suitable for mail delivery was locally attempted. This type of conversion may sometimes require "choices" to be made by the conversion program, based on the (lack of) support for various file formats on the target operating system. The "choices" made by LISTSERV may not be the ones you expected, since it does not know anything about the system you are using. However, you would not have been able to use the file at all if it had not been converted. If you have trouble using the file as you received it, please contact the person who sent it and arrange for an alternate delivery method. *------------------------------ Cut here -------------------------------* NEWS RELEASES JULY 20, 1994 This batch contains: 1. Michael Gorman, Mary Sommerville ALA presidential candidates 2. Former President Jimmy Carter, Virginia H. Mathews named ALA Honorary members 3. Donations sought for new LAMA Diversity Fund 4. Born to Read project criteria set, application deadline October 14. 5. Isadore Gilbert Mudge -- R.R. Bowker Award recipient named 6. Jesse H. Shera Award for Research recipients named 1. For Immediate Release From: Pamela Goodes June 1994 Linda Wallace 312-280-5043, 5042 Michael Gorman, Mary Somerville ALA presidential candidates Michael Gorman, dean of Library Services at California State University at Fresno, and Mary Somerville, newly appointed director of the Miami (Fla.)-Dade Public Library System, are candidates for president of the American Library Association (ALA) for the 1996-97 term. The winner of the presidential race will serve as ALA vice president/president-elect in 1995-96 and as president in 1996-97. Ballots will be mailed to members in April 1995 and the results tabulated in June. Gorman has held a number of positions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign including acting university librarian, director of General Services at the University Library, professor of Library Administration, director of Technical Services Departments, departmental affiliate for the Graduate School of Library and Information Science and visiting lecturer. He has also worked as head of the Bibliographic Standards Office and bibliographic consultant for the British Library, and head of cataloguing and author cataloguing reviser at the British National Bibliography. Gorman also served as research assistant at Polytechnic of Central London Library School, British National Bibliography. Somerville was interim director of the Miami-Dade Public Library System until her June appointment. She previously served as assistant director for branches and special services and youth services administrator for the Miami-Dade Public System, youth services administrator at the Broward County Library in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., manager of personnel and project manager for automation at the Louisville (Ky.) Free Public Library, and reference and government documents librarian at the Lincoln (Neb.) City Libraries. Gorman is a member of the ALA Council, the association's governing body, member of the ALA Resolutions Committee, member (for the United Kingdom) of the County Resource Panel for the ALA Standing Committee on Library Education (SCOLE), member and past chair (1989-1992) of the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) Task Force on International Relations, and member and past chair (1987-89) of the LITA Education Committee. He served as chair (1984-85) of the former Reference and Technical Services Division (RTSD) Technical Services Directors of Large Research Libraries Discussion Group, chair (1982-84) of the LITA Publications Committee, chair (1982-83) of the LITA/ISAS Nominating Committee, chair (1981-82) of the former RTSD Margaret Mann Citation Committee, member (1984-87) of the LITA Executive Board, member (1982) of the ALA Interdivisional committee on the Catalog: Its Form, Function and Use and member (1979-81) of the LITA International Mechanization Consultation Committee. Somerville is a member of the ALA Executive Board and serves as the Public Library Association (PLA) representative to the Born to Read project. She has served as an ALA Councilor-at-large (1992), chair of the ALA Nominating Committee (1992), chair of the Melvil Dewey Committee (1989), president of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) (1987-88) and as a member of the ALSC Board of Directors (1989-90, 1986-88, 1981-84). Somerville was also elected to the ALA Planning and Budget Assembly (1993)- over - and served as a member of the Caldecott Award Committee (1992), as ALSC consultant to the U.S. Department of Education (1988) and was co-moderator of the ALSC/Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)/Library Administration and Management Association (LAMA) Managing Youth Services Institute. She was also a member of the ALA/ALSC/IREX-sponsored delegation to the former Soviet Union (1989) as part of an international scholars exchange program. An extensive writer and speaker, Gorman received the ALA Melvil Dewey Medal in 1992 and the former RTSD Margaret Mann Citation in 1979. A speaker and author of a number of publications, Somerville received the H.W. Wilson Library Staff Development Award on behalf of the Louisville Free Public Library in 1986, the Public Employees Roundtable Award (PERT) Award in 1994 on behalf of the Miami-Dade Public Library and managed children's library programs that won four John Cotton Dana Awards in two public libraries. A native of Whitney, Oxfordshire, England, Gorman is a graduate of the Ealing School of Librarianship, and an associate and Fellow of the British Library Association. Somerville has a bachelor's degree in English literature from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, a master's degree in English literature from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a master's degree in library science from the University of Oklahoma, Norman. LITA, PLA, ALSC, YALSA and LAMA are divisions of the American Library Association. The former RTSD, is now the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS), also an ALA division. - END - 2. For Immediate Release From: Pamela Goodes June 1994 Linda Wallace 312-280-5043, 5042 Former President Jimmy Carter, Virginia H. Mathews named ALA Honorary Members Former President Jimmy Carter and Virginia Mathews of Madison, Conn., will received recognition as Honorary Members of the American Library Association (ALA) on Saturday, June 25, at the Opening General Session of the ALA Annual Conference in Miami Beach. It will be held from 4:15 to 5:45 p.m., in the Miami Beach Convention Center, Hall D. "Jimmy Carter is a person who believes in the worth of libraries, librarians and reading," according to the Honorary Membership resolution. "Virginia Mathews has made a consistent, dedicated and creative impact on libraries, the work librarians do and the understanding the public has about libraries," the resolution states. President Carter, humanitarian, diplomat and human rights advocate, has been a strong supporter of America's libraries. He began his political career as a member of the Sumter County (Ga.) Public Library, where he still holds that library's card number five. He is a long-time advocate of reading and libraries, believing that libraries empower people through knowledge and thus play an important role in helping to ameliorate the problems of society. He has been active in such humanitarian programs as Habitat for Humanity, Global 2000, Inc., and the Carter-Menil Human Rights Foundation. President Carter continues to work for world peace and human rights from the Carter Center, a nonpartisan public policy organization that he and his wife, Rosalynn, founded in Atlanta in 1982. He has received numerous awards for his leadership and commitment to world peace and human rights including the Gold Medal of the International Institute of Human Rights, the Martin Luther King, Jr., Nonviolent Peace Prize, the Liberty Medal and the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarians. Mathews has devoted more than 45 years of her life to writing, editing and speaking about the importance of literacy and libraries. She has organized and conducted hundreds of conferences, workshops and institutes on library services and resources and on the development of lifetime reading habits. An active member of ALA for more than 35 years, she currently serves as chair of the ALA Office for Library Outreach Services (OLOS) Advisory Committee and chairs the ALA youth divisions' interdivisional task force on the second White House Conference on Libraries and Information Services. She is also involved in the implementation of the "Omnibus Children and Youth Literacy through Libraries" initiative. Mathews has chaired and served on many other ALA-wide and division committees. She was a member of the ALA's first committee on Outreach and Service to the Disadvantaged and was ALA's first delegate to the National Coalition for Literacy. She has served the library profession as a consultant to the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Services. Mathews has contributed to the betterment of libraries through her groundbreaking work with the Center for the Book Advisory Committee, her work with Congress helping to interpret what libraries are all and why special programs to Native Americans, children and the aging deserve special funding, as an editor of professional books and as a producer of television and radio programs on reading aloud. - END - 3. For Immediate Release From: Pamela Goodes June 1994 Linda Wallace 312-280-5043, 5042 Donations sought for new LAMA Diversity Fund Donations are being sought for the new Library Administration and Management Association (LAMA) Diversity fund designed to increase ethnic diversity in the management and administration of libraries. "While many library administrators recognize the need to promote diversity within their institutions, many lack the resources or technical expertise to accomplish this goal," said Carol F.L. Liu, LAMA president. "It is essential that LAMA, the division devoted to developing vision, leadership and administrative skills, aggressively champion diversity in an area where administrative commitment is of paramount importance." The fund will be used to support various projects which may include biannual lecture series dealing with the issues surrounding the advancement of minorities in library administration and management; new collaborative projects with national organizations such as the NAACP, the National Council of La Raza and other groups, regional training institutes focusing on diversity issues such as "moving into management;" public relations campaigns featuring library administrators and managers who can effectively promote the need for more minority managers within the profession and LAMA-sponsored memberships for minority librarians to encourage greater diversity within LAMA. Donations, should be made payable to the ALA/LAMA Diversity Fund. Send to: LAMA/ALA, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. For more information, contact: Carol F.L. Liu, 162-20 Ninth Ave., #9C, Whitestone, N.Y. 11357. Telephone: 718-990-0890. Fax: 718-291-8936. E-mail: qladmin@class.org, or the LAMA Office at 800- 545-2433, ext. 5031. - END - 4. For Immediate Release From: Pamela Goodes June 1994 Linda Wallace 312-280-5043, 5042 Born to Read project criteria set, application deadline October 14 The criteria for public libraries applying for the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) Born to Read: How to Nurture a Baby's Love of Learning Project has been developed by the project's National Advisory Committee. The focus of the project, funded by The Prudential Foundation, is to help at-risk parents-to-be understand the importance of rearing their children to have healthy minds and bodies. Five national demonstration sites of librarians and health care providers will receive $30,000 grants to develop and implement Born to Read in their communities. The committee, composed of nationally recognized librarians and health care providers from across the country recently met to define the overall scope of the project, create a timeline for the three-year project and review the grant application. Priority will be given to libraries that meet the following criteria: -The library must have a minimum of one full-time master's in library science children's librarian on staff. - The library must justify the need for funding based on the existence of an at-risk population residing in its community. At- risk may be defined using terms such as, but not limited to, the age of parents, level of income, education level or lack of access to a health care facility. - The library must provide evidence that a strong level of commitment and support exists with management. - Partnering health care providers must have the qualifications and experience to work with pregnant women, parents, infants and toddlers. The partner must currently be working in this capacity in a public, private or nonprofit health care facility. - Partnership teams of a librarian, who will be responsible for fiscally overseeing the project, and a health care provider must attend an invitational two-day training session scheduled for December 2 and 3. Grant applications will be mailed to interested libraries in July. The deadline for completed grant applications is October 14. Selected public libraries will be notified by November 1. Projects are scheduled to be implemented at the selected sites by March 1, 1995. To receive an application, or for further information, contact: April L. Judge, Project Manager, ALSC/Born to Read Project, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. Telephone: 800-545- 2433, ext. 1398. ALSC is a division of the American Library Association. - END - 5. For Immediate Release From: Pamela Goodes June 1994 Linda Wallace 312-280-5043, 5042 Isadore Gilbert Mudge -- R.R. Bowker Award recipient announced Anne Grodzins Lipow, founder and director of the Library Solutions Institute in Berkeley, Calif., is the 1994 recipient of the Isadore Gilbert Mudge - R.R. Bowker Award presented by the Reference and Adult Services Division (RASD). The award, $1,500 and a citation cosponsored by R.R. Bowker, a Reed Reference Publishing company, recognizes distinguished contributions to reference librarianship. "The award is not only for Ms. Lipow's efforts at targeting critical issues in terms of technology and reference, but for her role in establishing a 'think tank' approach to reenvisioning reference and for bringing these concepts to national attention," said Nancy Fisher, chair of the Mudge - R.R. Bowker Award. "She has been a leader in helping reference librarians understand and respond to the major changes taking place in the electronic environment, especially new and expanded resources available via the Internet," Fisher said. "Realizing that changing service demands require changing organizational patterns, Ms. Lipow has designed and implemented 'Rethinking Reference' institutes to bring reference managers together to think through the impact of technology on their units." Lipow was director of Instructional Services at the University of California, Berkeley, for many years. Following her early retirement from the university, she started the Library Solutions Institute and its publishing arm, Library Solutions Press in 1992. She has published two books -- "Crossing the Internet Threshold: An Instructional Handbook," coauthored with Roy Tennant and John Ober (Berkeley, CA: Library Solutions Press, 1993), and "Rethinking Reference in Academic Libraries," a proceedings volume which she edited based on her 1993 institutes of the same name (Berkeley, CA: Library Solutions Press, 1993). She has also published more than a dozen articles on topics ranging from the public service impact of online catalogs to library instruction for faculty to staff development in academic libraries. Lipow has been active in the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), the Library Information and Technology Association (LITA) and RASD. She has a master's degree in library science from the University of California, Berkeley. The award will be presented on Monday, June 27, at the RASD Awards Presentation and Reception from 4:30 - 5:30 p.m., during the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Miami Beach. RASD, ACRL and LITA are divisions of the American Library Association. - END - 6. For Immediate Release From: Pamela Goodes June 1994 Linda Wallace 312-280-5043, 5042 Jesse H. Shera Award for Research recipients named Judith Serebnick, associate professor in the School of Library and Information Science at Indiana University, Bloomington, and Frank Quinn, reference librarian and doctoral candidate at Indiana University, Bloomington, are the 1994 recipients of the Jesse H. Shera Award presented by the American Library Association (ALA) Library Research Round Table (LRRT). The $500 award is given for an outstanding original paper reporting the results of research related to libraries. This year, the award will be split in two equal parts between Serebnick and Quinn. They received the award for a paper, "Measuring Diversity of Opinion in Collections in OCLC Public Libraries," which describes research supported by an Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) Library and Information Science Research Grant. The paper will be published in the January 1995 issue of Library Quarterly. The authors tested actual diversity in sample library collections. They used Simpson's Index, a statistical measure of diversity, to assess more than 100 library collections. While several factors seemed to favor diversity in collections, including size of the population served, Serebnick and Quinn found that the key factor seemed to be value of circulation. "The significance of this paper is twofold," said Suzanne Hildenbrand, chair of the Jesse Shera Award Committee. "On the one hand, it is a bold methodological innovation which, I feel certain, will be adopted by others. On the other hand, and really more important to our national life, is the evidence it offers of how well libraries are helping users become informed about major issues confronting a democratic society." The award will be presented on Sunday, June 26, at the LRRT and Library History Round Table Joint Research Awards Program during the ALA Annual Conference in Miami Beach. Shera, former dean of the School of Library and Information Science at Case Western University, was known for his outstanding leadership in promoting the importance of research to the effective development of the theory and practice of library and information service. He died in 1982. An endowment to support the award was established in 1987 and additional funds are needed. Checks should be made payable to the ALA Library Research Round Table and sent to: Shera Endowment, LRRT, American Library Association, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. Deadline for submission of papers for the 1995 award is February 1, 1995. A copy of the guidelines governing competition will be available in September 1994, by writing to: Office for Research and Statistics, ALA, 50 e. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. E-mail: Mary.Jo.Lynch@ALA, ORG, or consult the ALA Gopher. - END -