Inside this issue...

Thoughts from the WAAL Chair - Gene Engeldinger

WAAL Colleagues:

I hope the New Year finds you all in good spirits in spite of the budgetary challenges most of our institutions are facing. Such times can be downright depressing if we allow it, so it is best to imagine better times to come. And indeed they will come.

Nothing helps to dissipate depressing thoughts like taking on new challenges, and I for one have several on my horizon, not the least of which is the presiding over WAAL for 2004. It is not often that we get a second crack at something, but I am honored that the opportunity was offered to me again--more than a decade after my first stint as WAAL chair. Second time is a charm, they say, but we will see if it is true in this case. Actually, just I hope I can live up to the challenge.

That said, it is with some confidence that I look forward to the year ahead. I have always been impressed with the intelligence and drive of my librarian colleagues, particularly our WAAL members who contribute their talents and energies to make the organization as professionally rewarding as it is, not only for our members, but for others as well.

That pride and trust in our colleagues has been affirmed again over the past few months as I have watched Patricia and her committees deal with myriad issues. Of late, I have been particularly impressed with the conference planners working on the April 2004 meeting slated for Elkhart Lake. Those of us who have participated in such planning can fully appreciate all that is involved and know it is no mean feat to pull off a successful conference. There is no question in my mind that we will be doing it again this year, a feat made more difficult because each new year produces a conference that is more impressive than the year before. One wonders if we can keep up that record.

Besides the conference, there will be a number of other projects and issues the WAAL committees will deal with, such as increasing membership, providing professional development opportunities, and maintaining an excellent newsletter and web presence. But more about those activities later…

Again, I am pleased to be able to work closely with WAAL colleagues and hope I can fill the shoes worn by Patricia and earlier WAAL chairs. Most of all, I hope I do not make Paula Ganyard regret her decision to step aside because of her other important professional obligations. The various WAAL offices and their committees will have much on their plates, but that should not deter our members from making suggestions and offering other projects for us to pursue. Anything we are not able to address this year will be added to the list of suggestions for future projects. So, if you have ideas for us, please send them on.

Gene Engeldinger
WAAL Chair, 2004

I do not know if tiny fanged snails are eating at your brain, but winter and I have never had a very warm relationship. One remedy that has consistently worked for me is plenty of Hot Toddies to rid the chill from my bones. This winter, in addition to Hot Toddies, I will be thinking about my stay at the Osthoff Resort for the annual WAAL conference in spring.

After perusing the Osthoff’s web site, I can already predict it will be somewhat challenging to pry myself away from the luxurious room suite equipped with a full kitchen, dining and living room area with fireplace, private balcony, and even whirlpool baths in some of the suites! The Osthoff offers three suites: one, two, and three bedrooms. Each bedroom has a queen-size bed. As WAAL members, we have special rates (with taxes included): the one-bedroom suite is $119; two-bedroom is $141; and three-bedroom is $185. What a great excuse to room with your friends and colleagues and have slumber parties!

Aside from the wonderful accommodations on site, there are a number of attractions in Elkhart Lake, including horse-drawn carriage rides through the country, Henchel’s Indian Museum, Abler’s Art Glass Gallery, or the Village Green Tavern’s selection of microbrews.

Oh yes, the conference. Well, it goes without saying that an excellent program has been carefully planned (I have over 500 email messages from the WAAL planning committee to prove it!). Here is a preview of what will take place:

Dane Ward – Building an Exemplary Information Literacy Program
Randy Hensley – I’m not going to learn and you can’t make me,
Kathy Pletcher – Legislative Advocacy (Plenary Session)
Zora Sampson – Civility in Diverse Relations
Mark Beatty, et al – AskWisconsin Virtual Reference Round Up
INFORMATION LITERACY AWARD – FIRST EVENT EVER FOR WAAL!

I think everyone will leave the conference feeling inspired, full of new ideas, and will have a wonderful place to stay. What more could anyone want (aside from a million dollars)? See you in April!

Scholarships Available!

The WAAL Professional Development Committee has scholarship opportunities available for attendance at the WAAL conference on April 21-23, 2004, at the Osthoff Resort and Conference Center in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

Scholarships are available to:
Undergraduate students and/or library student assistants,
Paraprofessional staff, or,
Graduate student currently enrolled in library science programs.

Application forms for all of the scholarships are available from the WAAL web site at: http://www.wla.lib.wi.us/waal/committees/pdcomm.html.

Before completing the application, please refer to Guidelines for Scholarship Applicants. These guidelines can be accessed at the following web address:
http://www.wla.lib.wi.us/waal/committees/app_guidelines.pdf.

Nomination and application forms must be received by January 31, 2004. Please send all completed scholarship applications to:
Laurie Swartwout, IMC Coordinator
Cardinal Stritch University Library
6801 N Yates Rd, Milwaukee, WI 53217

Fax: 414-410-4268 or e-mail: lgswartwout@stritch.edu

Information Literacy Award Winner to Present at WAAL Conference --Eliot Finkelstein, WAAL Information Literacy Award Committee The WAAL Information Literacy Award Committee is meeting to determine the winner of this first annual award-- not an easy process, we must say. The winner will present his or her winning project/activity during a session at this spring's WAAL conference. That's just one more reason to attend the conference! The Award Committee would like to thank all of the people who sent in nominations and supporting materials. It is very satisfying to see all the creative and innovative information literacy instruction that is happening all over the state of Wisconsin. Stay tuned for the announcement of a winner...

An Experience of a Lifetime...World Library Partnership Program

--Patricia Peterson, IPC, College Library, UW-Madison

During the summer of 2002, I spent a month volunteering in a rural South African library with the World Library Partnership (WLP), a nonprofit organization that works to establish and improve library service in developing countries. Since its inception in 1996, WLP has sent volunteer librarians to four countries in Africa and Central America, including Zimbabwe, South Africa, Honduras, and Guatemala (programs to Zimbabwe have been temporarily suspended due to political issues in that country, however).

My 22 co-volunteers in the South Africa program came from the United States, Canada, Switzerland, New Zealand, and Qatar. We represented a wide range of library types and professional roles, including public, school, and academic librarians, catalogers and reference librarians, library science professors, graduate students and retirees, and library consultants from state and regional library systems. We spent three days in training sessions in Pretoria and then sent off in pairs to our host libraries for the next 25 days.

This area, virtually untouched by the tourist industry, is part of the former Gazankulu homeland. Makhuva is about 50 miles from the nearest town, Giyani, but because the roads outside Giyani are dirt or gravel, “going into town” is a two-hour bus ride – when the busses run. Poverty and unemployment rates in the region are extremely high and literacy rates are low.

While in Makhuva, we stayed at the home of the Ngobeni family. Sam and Cecilia were teachers (he, a high school math and science teacher, she, an adult education instructor). They had two sons, Gil, age 14, and Pfukani, 7. Their house, although very modest by United States' standards (about 1200 square feet and no hot water), was a mansion by village standards. While most people lived in one- or two-room huts with no running water or kitchens, the Ngobeni family had several rooms, including an indoor kitchen and bathroom. We knew we were spoiled – living conditions were definitely not quite so plush for many of our fellow volunteers! As there was no place to go in Makhuva in the evenings or on the weekends, we spent a lot of time with the family – playing Scrabble with the boys, watching TV, or discussing politics with Sam. We also attended several funerals, church services, a graduation ceremony (Cecelia graduated from college while we were there), and a traditional, indigenous religious ceremony that included animal sacrifices.

Also, it was clear, on first glance, that some heavy weeding was in order. Of the 3000, we, along with the library staff and volunteers, processed 1200 items. The remaining items – over half of their collection – was so irrelevant or in such poor condition that we decided not to re-shelve them. These materials included several issues of the Journal of Pediatric Care from the 1980’s, a textbook entitled Applied Mechanics for Engineers (published in 1934), several copies of the Harvard Business Review, random volumes of encyclopedias from the 1950’s and 1960’s, a handbook entitled English in Asia: Teaching Tactics for the Classrooms of Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, and several copies of Century Preferred Physicians Directory, which was a directory of physicians practicing in the state of Connecticut. In addition, there were hundreds of copies of high school textbooks (and often several copies of each edition), most from the United States and many either outdated, irrelevant, or in very poor condition.

One of the most enlightening tasks for us was showing the library staff how to classify materials. We came armed with a simplified Dewey schedule (Dewey, although very Western-centric, is the system recommended by the national education department in South Africa). Although it was evident from the start that the staff members were very bright and caught on quickly to what we were doing (even to the point of memorizing many of the classification numbers), it took much longer to do this than we had anticipated because of unforeseen obstacles. For one thing, we were trying to apply a Western classification system to Western materials that our Western educations had enabled us to interpret. About 90% of the time, Margaret or I could pick up a book and determine, practically without opening it, how it should be classified. Not so with the library staff. They did not share the same background knowledge that we did to be able to do this without doing a fair amount of detective work. Partially, it was because of differences in culture, but it was also, undoubtedly, partly due to the effect of the educational system that existed under apartheid. Black South Africans, prior to 1994, were systematically and purposely undereducated so that they would have little hope of moving beyond sustenance farming or manual labor. Over the two-week period we spent processing materials, we were hit repeatedly with the realization of how shortchanged they were by apartheid-era educational policies.

In addition to processing, we assisted them with writing a collection development plan, trained them in basic library usage and management (we were surprised to find that none of the staff had ever used an encyclopedia), created a brochure rack, re-arranged the shelving and furniture to make the library appear brighter and more accessible, weeded the reference corner, and hung up lots of colorful posters and maps that we brought with us from Pretoria. The maps were of particular interest to patrons. Practically everyone who entered the library headed directly to the maps and studied them carefully for sometimes five minutes or more. It occurred to us later that this might have been the first time some of them had ever even seen maps!

After a tearful good-bye, we returned to Pretoria with our host librarian for two days of wrap-up and a book fair organized by WLP and the Atteridgeville Public Library. The book fair included about a dozen publishers; most were African or with materials in indigenous languages or of South African interest. Each host library was presented with a voucher for $800, which came from donated funds, with which to purchase materials for his/her library.

If you would like more information, I have more to share. Feel free to contact me at ppeterso@facstaff.wisc.edu, or visit WLP’s Web site at http://www.worldlibraries.org. While the Central American programs will be revised this summer (look for them again in summer 2005), WLP is currently recruiting volunteers to participate in its two South African programs. I hope you will consider joining them!

Member at Large

Sue Riehl's responsibility as Member at Large is to represent the membership of WAAL at the WAAL Board Meetings. Members who have an issue or a suggestion that they would like Sue to present to the WAAL Board, on their behalf, are invited to contact her via email, telephone, or U. S. Postal Service.

Sue Riehl, Cataloging Coordinator
Elton S. Karrmann Library
UW-Platteville
1 University Plaza
Platteville, WI 53818
608-342-1192
riehl@uwplatt.edu

People & Places in the News

Alverno College

In Fall 2003, the Alverno College Library acquired a SMARTBoard™, an inter-active whiteboard, to use with Information Literacy Instruction. The SMARTBoard's flexibility has enabled librarians to improve service to students and staff.

In January 2004, librarians Rebecca Bark, Charles Elftmann, Anne Pach, Jacqueline Rice and Sara Shutkin gave a faculty/staff workshop entitled How do our students conduct their research? Myth and Reality at Alverno. Using the article, Desperately Seeking Citations, as a starting point, the group discussed how undergraduate students complete their assignments. The librarians feel faculty were surprised to discover that most students do not think in terms of an information-seeking strategy, but rather in terms of a coping strategy. The library group touched on how cognitive development and information literacy skill levels relate to the information seeking behaviors of undergraduates. They further provided tips for creating effective library assignments and provided examples of common misconceptions among students, faculty, and librarians.

Leckie, G.J. "Desperately seeking citations: uncovering faculty assumptions about the undergraduate research process." Journal of Academic Librarianship, v. 22 (May 1996) p. 201-8.

Beloit College

Beloit College is in the midst of migrating from DRA Classic to Sirsi's Unicorn online system with a planned go-live date of June 16, 2004.

In a pilot, joint venture with the campus ITS Department, a computer help desk will be established in the library during the spring semester as a first-step toward a possible "information commons" or integrated service point.

Marquette University

Marquette University Libraries has created a video tour of the new John P. Raynor, S.J., Library. Take the tour at: http://www.marquette.edu/library/information/news/2004/Tour.html

The final phase of the Raynor library project involves renovation of three floors in the adjacent Memorial Library, including installation of compact shelving and shifting the entire bound journal collection. All phases of the Memorial project are expected to wind up before the beginning of the fall ’04 semester. For an overview of the project, see:
http://www.marquette.edu/library/information/news/2004/journals.html

The Libraries’ Department of Special Collections and Archives announces an important addition to the Tolkien Collection. The several-thousand item acquisition was collected over two decades by retired Vancouver librarian Grace Funk. Weekly drop-in orientations to the Tolkien Collections continue this semester. For more information, see: http://www.marquette.edu/library/collections/archives/tolkien.html and
http://www.marquette.edu/library/information/news/2004/Tolkien.html

UW Madison

Michael Cohen was named head of the Copy Cataloging and Catalog Maintenance Unit, CTS, December 1, 2003. Michael previously served as a Technical Services librarian and assistant director for the Center for Instructional Materials and Computing.

Jaime Martindale is the new Map and GIS Librarian at the Robinson Map Library. Jaime, a Milwaukee native, previously served as the GIS Librarian at Cornell University. She replaces Mary Galneder, who retired in 2003.

Al Quattrucci is the new Access Services librarian at Memorial Library. Prior to this appointment, Al served as a research intern for Wendt Library and as the librarian for the Astronomy Department. He has also worked in Memorial Library's Reference Department, the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research and the Wisconsin Survey Research Lab.

UW Milwaukee

Jim Tobin, Collections Manager, retired December 23 after 17 years with the UW-Milwaukee Libraries. Jim began his tenure at the Libraries as a reference librarian, becoming head of Acquisitions in 1994 and later taking on the duties of Collection Management Librarian.

The UWM Libraries Outstanding Staff Award winners for 2003 are Kathy Bowes, academic staff; Brandon Stanley, classified staff; and Stacy Toonen, student staff. The three were honored on December 17 at a reception in the Libraries' Conference Center.

The UWM Archives has been awarded a fellowship by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to assist in the preservation and administration of the Archives’ WTMJ-TV News Film Collection. Lisa Janssen, who holds an MLIS, with a concentration in archives, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been selected for the yearlong fellowship.

UWM Libraries’ staff member Christel Maass’ book Illuminating the Particular: Photographs of Milwaukee's Polish South Side was recently published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. The book features images from the UWM Archives’ Roman Kwasniewski photograph collection illustrating the Polish-American experience prior to World War II.

A National Endowment for the Humanities Preservation Assistance Grant has been awarded to the American Geographical Society Library (AGSL). The grant will support a preservation assessment of the AGSL’s rare materials collections as a preliminary step in the building of an endowment to maintain an ongoing preservation program.

UW Oshkosh

In January 2004, Polk Library hired Crystal Buss as the Late Night Circulation and Reserve Supervisor, Library Services Assistant-Advanced. Crystal is a recent graduate of UW Oshkosh and has worked in the library as a student worker and LTE.

Joshua Ranger, University Archivist, recently attended the Midwest Archives Conference (MAC) in Dearborn, Michigan, where he was part of a panel discussion entitled Adventures in the Digital World. Joshua reported on the UW Digital Collection's Belgian American Research Collection and discussed the unique challenges endemic to putting full-length oral histories on-line (http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/). Joshua is the Public Information Officer for MAC, the largest regional archives organization in the country.

UW Parkside

Penny Durst officially became the library's Interlibrary Loan Officer on December 1, 2003. She first joined the Circulation Department in 2000, then later transferred to Archives. Before coming to UW Parkside, Penny worked at Kenosha Public Library.

Viterbo University

Marilyn Adam, Information Services Librarian, joined the staff in October 2003. She received her MLIS from the College of Saint Catherine in St. Paul, MN, May 2003.

John Hempstead, Director of the Todd Wehr Memorial Library, retired in January after 13 years at Viterbo University. During his time at the library, he oversaw a much-needed 1991 library expansion, implemented the transition from card catalogs to computer searching, and brought about an increase in professional library staff.

Rita Magno, Assistant Director and Technical Services Librarian, was promoted to Library Director. Rita joined the staff in 1996 while in library school. In 1998, she received her Master of Library Science from UW-Milwaukee. She plans to begin a second master’s degree in network administration next fall.

Kim Olson-Kopp joined the staff as the Outreach and Technology Librarian, December 2003. She is a 2001 graduate of Indiana University’s MLS program. Most recently she was the Youth Services Coordinator at the La Crosse Public Library.

Nancy Steinhoff, Instruction and Reference Librarian, was promoted to Assistant Director. She received her MLS from UW-Madison. Nancy began her career at the Todd Wehr Memorial Library in 1999. During her time at Viterbo, Nancy has expanded the library’s instruction program greatly, both on and off campus.

WISPALS Library Consortium

The WISPALS Library Consortium welcomed Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC) as its eighth Full Member in July. The FVTC Libraries serve 5,300 FTE students at campuses in Appleton and Oshkosh. Work is underway to convert to the Voyager Library Management System with a targeted completion date of March 30, 2004. FVTC will maintain a separate library database on a central server owned by WISPALS. Karen Parson is the Library Services Manager at Fox Valley Technical College.

WISPALS and Moraine Park Technical College, a member of the WISPALS Library Consortium, announced a partnership last fall with Agnesian Healthcare Health Sciences Library based in Fond du Lac. The Moraine Park Technical College Global Learning Libraries will share the library system (Voyager), staff expertise, collection development, and research services with Agnesian Healthcare professionals. WISPALS will provide technical and administrative services to ensure access to the Health Sciences Library records. Charlene Pettit is the District Learning Resource Associate for the MPTC Global Learning Libraries and Cathy Boyle is the Health Sciences Librarian for Agnesian Healthcare.

Seven of the eight WISPALS Consortium members completed installation and set-up of the Docutek E-Reserves system last year. Each WISPALS library maintains a separate database on a dedicated server purchased by the Consortium. The server currently houses approximately 2300 documents assigned to 220 different courses.

Members of the WISPALS Consortium presented, Our Best Customers Are The Ones We Never See: A Library Consortium Approach to E-Learning as part of the League for Innovation Conference On Information Technology in Milwaukee in October 2003. Gary Flynn and Jerry Perona, Gateway Technical College; Charlene Pettit, Moraine Park Technical College; Kim LaPlante, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College; and Ellen Pedraza, WISPALS Coordinator presented the session that described and demonstrated library programs that enhance the learning experience of distance education students.

WISPALS enters its fifteenth year of service to technical college libraries in Wisconsin this year. The Consortium was organized in 1989 under Wis. Stats. 66.0301 by the district librarians at Gateway Technical College, Moraine Park Technical College, and Waukesha County Technical College. Membership has expanded to include Fox Valley Technical College, Lakeshore Technical College, Mid-State Technical College, Northcentral Technical College, and Northeast Wisconsin Technical College. Members of the WISPALS Library Consortium participate in discounted licensing agreements with vendors of electronic library services and resources to advance library innovation through technology. More information can be found at the WISPALS Library Consortium Home Page: http://wctclnx.wctc.edu/~wispals.

The WAAL Newsletter welcomes articles of interest to academic librarians. Please consider sharing summaries of research or research in progress, announcements/results of meetings or conferences, and news of staff changes and/or accomplishments. Deadline for the next issue:

Material should be sent to:
Karen Dunn
Steenbock Memorial Library
550 Babcock Drive
Madison, WI 53706-1293
(608) 263-3899
kdunn@library.wisc.edu

WAAL Publications Committee:
Michael Strahan (Chair), Julie Fricke (Web), Stacey Burkart, Karen Dunn (Newsletter Co-Editors)

© 2003 Wisconsin Library Association. Portions may be quoted or copied if credit is given. Contact the WLA Executive Director when quoting or reproducing extensively. WLA Phone: 608-245-3640; Fax: 608-245-3646

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Send questions or comments regarding these newsletter pages to Karen Dunn (kdunn@library.wisc.edu)

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