September/October 1997
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September/October 1997 |
In this Issue
Message from the Chair
Program Planning for Seattle
Bring your Reeboks
Call for Papers |
Message from the ChairI'm musing this morning, kicking back and relaxing while I think. What do I say to my colleagues in my first note as Chair of the Engineering Libraries Division of the American Society of Engineering Education? I will run get some coffee, pace, and think... and do the same again... First of all, thanks for being actively involved in the Engineering Libraries Division and thanks for attending this year's annual conference in Milwaukee. Each year, I realize that division members have accomplished a lot in four days. We have learned and listened; looked at new challenges and considered new solutions; renewed old friendships and found new friends; found colleagues working in similar settings and developed networks for solving similar problems; laughed and had fun. More than 60 librarians attended the annual conference. We had attendees from all over the United States, Canada, and New Zealand. We discovered that our libraries are more alike than they are different. Conference stars - Having just finished my program chair responsibilities, I would like to thank the many people who made the conference possible, especially the following: workshop presenter Jill Powell; session moderators Linda Musser, Paige Gibbs, Andy Shimp, Sheila Curl, Anita Colby, Michael White, Kate Thomes, and Mel DeSart. All the capable session speakers and poster presenters; Hosts for social events: Membership Committee, Mel DeSart, and Locke Morrisey. And special thanks to Nicole Michels at ASEE Headquarters for conference planning extraordinaire. 1996-97 ELD Officers: Andy Stewart, Chair; Beth Brin, Secretary-Treasurer; Bob Schwartzwalder, Past Chair; Sheila Curl and Locke Morrisey, Directors. Program Presentations - Since I was busy with program preparation and did not have a pen in hand when I heard "famous quotes" from session moderators and speakers, I welcome speakers and attendees who can share presentation basics and notable quotes with ELD members. It is possible that we could put this information on our web site. I am willing to compile the list. Please send me e-mail -- erdmann@ecn.purdue.edu. I also encourage speakers and poster presenters to consider avenues for publishing your presentations in journals. Many of your library colleagues could benefit from seeing your presentation in print! Corporate Sponsors I want to thank our corporate sponsors who helped underwrite the costs of the Division's activities. Without them, many division events would not have been possible. Financial support from Knight-Ridder Information Services, EI Information, Inc., and the Institute for Scientific Information funded one-day registrations for guest speakers, and partially funded the Distance Learning Lunch and Cocktail Hour before the Banquet. Knight-Ridder also sponsored refreshments and snacks for the Professional Issues Wrap-Up. ELD would also like to thank Ford Motor Company for funding the Digital Librarian Award, which was presented to Joseph Kraus of George Mason University. New officers elected at the annual conference are: Sheila Curl, Secretary-Treasurer and Mel DeSart, Director. I welcome their participation in the leadership of the Engineering Libraries Division. The business meeting generated discussion and ideas for various ELD committees. I encourage the committee chairs to identify the challenges facing them and begin working on these areas. I am interested in developing closer working relationships with providers of engineering and technology information. If you are interested in this project, please contact me.
Charlotte A. Erdmann Program Planning for SeattlePlanning for the ELD program at the Annual ASEE Conference to be held in Seattle, June 28-July 1, 1998 is in full swing. I appreciate all the willing volunteers/ draftees that are helping me plan this program! Eight ELD sessions and two workshops are being planned, plus the Annual Banquet, the Annual Business Meeting, a Monday lunch, and the Extended Executive Committee meetings. In addition, Kate Lee is organizing a 5K run for accomplished or aspiring athletes among us. ASEE has made two changes from their traditional program schedule--the Main Plenary has been moved from Monday to Tuesday, 10:30-Noon, and the Society-Wide Picnic will be held Sunday evening, 7:00-9:00 p.m. rather than the traditional 5:30-8:00 p.m. Here's a preview of the 1998 program, with moderators' names after the session: Get-Acquainted Meeting, Eileen Dorschner, MIT Monday Luncheon, Locke Morrisey, UC-Irvine Poster Session, Catherine Soehner, UC-Santa Cruz Annual Business Meeting, Charlotte Erdmann, Purdue University Annual Banquet, Mel DeSart, University of Kansas Professional Issues Wrap-Up, Ron Rodrigues, Knight-Ridder Information, Inc. ABET Accreditation and the Library: Issues, Developments, and Concerns, Marilyn Von Seggern, Washington State University Building Digital Libraries: Theory, Practice and Implications, Larry Thompson, Virginia Tech Information Technology Update: Pushing, Searching and Filtering on the Web, Nancy Schiller, SUNY-Buffalo Aerospace Engineering Information: How is it helping to keep the competitive edge?, Thomas DePetro, Wichita State University, Co-Sponsor: Aerospace Engineering Division Instructing in the Webbed Environment, Deborah Kegel, UC-San Diego Creating Your Own Web Page for Beginners (workshop), Fred O'Bryant, University of Virginia Advanced Home Page Creation--Forms and Image Maps (workshop), Jill Powell, Cornell University Please send any comments or specific suggestions regarding programs to the moderators and to me. These events have a tentative schedule that will be confirmed in October by the ASEE Program Planning Committee. I'll publish that confirmed schedule in the December newsletter, as well as more detailed descriptions of the sessions. Information about the Seattle area will also be included in future newsletters; I'll be working with our Seattle cohort to identify some fun and some fine points of interest in the area. Stay tuned!
Beth Brin, ELD Program Chair Bring your Reeboks to Seattle!We all know that "focus groups" are the in thing right now. They're very chic, very hot, very much what's happening. For the ASEE Annual in Seattle, this writer proposes a focus group with a difference: a 5K race/run (depending on whether we feel competitive) through the botanical gardens at the University of Washington, followed by a klatsch over some of that famous Seattle coffee. Anyone who runs at all knows that often the world's biggest, or smallest, problems are solved between and among running partners. No reason not to include libraries in these problem-solving sessions! And why not call them focus groups? That way your boss will think you've had a hard working session. It's worth a try, anyway. Keep posted for details as they emerge. Any and all ideas are welcome, as for instance, for a name for our focus group: First Annual ELD Mobile Focus Group? First Annual ELD Race for the ___________? Prizes are also a definite possibility and will be investigated. They could be given to the fastest runners, or to the runner with the most highly customized running attire, or to the most rabidly enthusiastic runner among us, etc.
Kate Lee, Marston Science Library, University of Florida Call for Papers, New Engineering Educators DivisionThe New Engineering Educators Division (NEED) of ELD sponsors sessions to help new engineering faculty. In two of the Seattle sessions, the librarian viewpoint would be relevant: Tricks of the Trade Outside the Classroom" and "Tips on Proposal Writing". NEED is currently seeking abstracts of proposed papers for these panels. Abstracts of 300 words or less are due by November 1, 1997 to: Kevin D. Taylor For information on the Division and its concerns, check out the NEED web site at http://www.purdue.anderson.edu/nee/ So if any of you are interested, write up that abstract and send it to Kevin Taylor. I talked with him while at the 1997 conference, and he agreed that the librarian perspective would be an excellent contribution. And if you get selected, let me know, and I'll publicize your participation along with the other ELD program announcements.
Beth Brin, ELD Program Chair Call for Posters, ASEE 1998Show off your latest project! Educate your colleagues with a display in the poster session for the upcoming ASEE conference in Seattle. Posters are easy to create and allow for informal discussions on topics of interest to you.
Poster session concepts -- titles and abstracts -- are required
by January 6, 1998 in order to be listed in the final program. For the more
ambitious, a paper may be submitted detailing the project you intend to display.
If you would like this paper submitted for publication in the conference
proceedings, notice of your intent should be sent by October 10, 1997 and
the completed paper is due by November 7, 1997. Contact Catherine Soehner
at soehner@cats.ucsc.edu or
408-459-2554 Engineering Libraries Division Annual Business MeetingMinutes Milwaukee, WI, June 17, 1997 The meeting was called to order at 4:40 p.m. by Chair Andy Stewart. Locke Morrisey, banquet host, made an announcement giving directions to the banquet and providing associated information. A motion and second to approve minutes of the 1996 ELD Business Meeting was made. There was a unanimous vote for approval. An update of the treasurer's report published in the May 1997 ELD newsletter was given by Beth Brin. Out of the Operating Account, expenses for the Membership Directory had been paid ($528.42), the March Newsletter ($72.19) and part of the May newsletter ($27.75) bringing the Operating Account to $0. The Bass Account incurred the remainder of the May newsletter expense ($58.35) bringing the balance to $4,372.84 as of June 17, 1997. The decrease in the operating account allocation was discussed. A question on conference income from workshops was noted. The Ford Motor Company's Digital Librarian Award was awarded to Joseph Kraus, George Mason University, by Robert Schwarzwalder, Ford Motor Company. Committee Reports (updates from the May 1997 ELD Newsletter, unless identified as the Annual Report)
Accreditation and Standards To address this situation, Kate Thomes and Amy Allen completed a project to identify all colleges and universities with programs in engineering. They created an electronic directory of that information. The Committee is now looking for volunteers to make phone calls, especially in the midwest and western regions, to identify the engineering collection 4 specialist at each institution and recruit them to complete a survey. The 92/93 survey results are available to contributing libraries for free by sending 2 diskettes (3" DOS-formatted) to Karen Andrews. The Committee has been exploring different distribution methods for the 95/96 data currently being collected. After experimenting with mounting data on the Web, they have found it is not a good vehicle for displaying the information. They plan to provide a summary on the Web, with full data available by ftp or other means. The ABET 2000 process is revamping accreditation criteria for engineering programs. The Committee will draft a letter recommending the inclusion of information literacy skills as one of the required outcomes. Suggestions for appropriate terminology (i.e. buzzwords) that will mean more to engineers can be sent to Karen. The rationale for adding these skills to the English and writing proficiency skills currently required will be tied to the importance of information literacy in meeting life-long learning and continuing education needs for engineers. Members of the committee this year were Karen Andrews, Chair, Susan Herring, Pat Johnston, Locke Morrisey, Claire Swanson, and Kate Thomes. Respectfully Submitted, Karen Andrews, Chair
Archives
Awards
Listserv
Membership Gretchen Sneff is leaving the Membership committee; there are openings on the committee, especially for someone in the Midwest region interested in doing the New Bio spot in the newsletters.
Publications The Literature Guides Subcommittee Co-Chair, Jean Whelan, has resigned and Kelly Jordan has taken that position. Sheila is also Co-Chair.
Newsletter
Nominations
Elections
Old Business Literature Guides--electronic publication Sheila sees the guides as having three main purposes: 1) generating funds, 2) disseminating validated engineering information and 3) providing the membership with a means for refereed publication. Depending on the value placed on each of those purposes, the outcome of the discussion would vary. Comments included: Agreement that having a refereed publication was very important to the membership, especially in recognition of refereed publications becoming more valued at many institutions during promotion and tenure deliberations; Revenue producing would be easiest in print but in light of the current healthy financial status of the Division, with increased dues and continuing corporate support, perhaps that money making purpose is less important; Creating a highly visible topic for the web like "finding a job" as a test case and looking at the issue after that; Keeping the Union List in print, since it produced more revenue, and putting other guides out electronically; Commercial enterprises advertising (as seen on other Web pages), perhaps providing a trade of service for advertising; The value in ELD being an example in producing refereed electronic publications; Publishing print resources for revenue and placing a chapter on the Web, with regular updating; Selling "licenses" for downloadable copies that could be enhanced (with local call numbers for example); Providing the guides as shareware; Concern about maintenance of the guides if they were on the Web with responses that there could be active and archival copies, or going PDF, which aren't expected to be kept up-to-date, rather than HTML (but losing immediate linking capability). Sheila and Godlind will follow-up.
New Business Newsletter -- Dena stated that discussion and/or exploration of producing an electronic newsletter will be initiated, especially looking at the Web environment. The Extended Executive Committee will discuss the prospect. There was a motion and second to express appreciation to Charlotte Erdmann for the planning and coordination of this year's wonderful program, and to moderators and speakers for their parts. The motion was modified by the amendment to add recognition of Andy Stewart's work for the Division. All in favor, applaud. Loud applause. Meeting was adjourned at 6:01 p.m.
Respectfully submitted, CongratulationsAnne Fullerton, University of Waterloo has been granted a study leave to pursue two projects: In the first project she will analyze and publish survey data for research funded by ALAs Baber Research Grant (1996-97) on "Science and Engineering Faculty Perceptions of Library Instruction." Her co-investigator on the project is Prof. Gloria Leckie at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Western Ontario. The other project is an investigation of successful library instruction programs at the University of Virginia and at other nearby institutions. (Note: At UW librarians do not have faculty status so a sabbatical of any length is rare, especially a funded one!)
Nancy Schiller, Engineering Librarian in the Science & Engineering
Library at the State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY), is a recipient
of this year's SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Librarianship. The
award is given to selected librarians within the state university system
who have distinguished themselves in the following three areas: skill in
librarianship, service to the university and to the profession, and scholarship
and continuing professional growth. People & Places
Carol Reese reports that the ASCE Publications Division will move to the
Society's new headquarters in Reston, VA this September. After September
1st, her new address and phone number will be: ASCE Her e-mail will stay the same: creese@asce.org As always, feel free to contact her if you have any questions, problems, suggestions regarding the ASCE publications program. Bob Schwarzwalder has been named as a member of the new Cambridge Scientific Abstracts User Group. CSA is a long established publisher of scientific and medical indexes and abstracts and has moved aggressively onto the web with direct access databases in areas such as metals and environmental information. Bob is also a member of advisory groups for Engineering Information and SAE's Electronic Publishing Group. Tom DePetro introduces Ei Village to the Wichita State University College of Engineering this fall semester. WSU Libraries are considering participation as a beta test site for the AIAA Journal on the Internet. On a personal note, he will "engineer some ice" when he competes in the Wichita Figure Skating Club regional meet in October. The Club is affiliated with the United States Figure Skating Association, USFSA. (Ed. note: Good luck, Tom!) The Linda Hall Library in Kansas City, Mo., is pleased to announce the appointment of Kelly Pangrac as Head of the Document Services Department. Before coming to the library, Ms. Pangrac served as Document Delivery Librarian at the Kansas City, MO, Public Library. Previous experience includes service in periodicals and government documents at the Kansas City Public Library. Ms. Mary Moeller, head of the Reference Services Department, has been named head of the newly formed Information Services Department which includes Documents Services, Reference Services, and Stacks.
Kathleen Alshouse Publications"Enhancing NTIS Database Access at a Multi-Campus University" by Tom Conkling and Kelly Jordan. Science & Technology Libraries, v.16(2), 1997, pp. 27-35.
"In Distance Learning, Is There a Role?" by Nestor Osorio. Issues in Science
and Technology Librarianship, no. 14, Spring 1997. Call for NominationsThe ELD Nominating Committee invites you to send nominations for two positions: (1) ELD Secretary/Treasurer, and (2) ELD Director. Questions about specific duties of these positions may be answered in the ELD bylaws; other questions may be directed to one of us. Please submit the names of possible nominees to any member of the committee by December 1, 1997. A list of candidates for these two positions will be published in the May, 1998 ELD Newsletter. Nominations will also be accepted from the floor at the ELD Business Meeting of the 1998 ASEE Annual Conference. Committee members are: Christy Hightower (619-534-1216) or chightower@ucsd.edu, Ann Ward (909-869-4670) or aeward@csupomona.edu and Andy Stewart (573-341-4007) or astewart@umr.edu
Andy Stewart, Chair, ELD Nominating Committee
Engineering Libraries Division
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