2002 GODORT Award and Scholarship Recipients

James Bennett Childs Award

Recipient: Ridley R. Kessler, Jr.

The 2002 recipient of the James Bennett Childs Award is Ridley R. Kessler, Jr., currently the Assistant Head of Reference at the University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill.

The Childs award is a tribute to an individual who has made a lifetime and significant contribution to the field of government documents librarianship. Ridley began his 30+ year career in government documents at UNC as the Assistant Documents Librarian in 1970. This position was followed by a 2 1/2 year stint as the International Documents Librarian, after which he became the Federal Documents/Regional Librarian in 1973. Twenty years later he moved into his current position as Assistant Head of Reference. In addition to working at the library, Ridley taught the Public Documents course at the School of Library Science for 14 years and has advised over 50 masters papers. As his nomination letter stated, "Ridley Kessler casts a large shadow in the field of government documents librarianship. Not only is he devoted to his profession, but he has inspired others to enter the field as well." Ridley has served as a wonderful advisor to his students while they are in library school, and he continues the mentoring and advising after most of this students enter the profession. It is not uncommon for Ridley to check up on "his babies" - encouraging them to attend meetings of the Depository Library Council, actively participate in GODORT, and by all means, to ask questions.

As the Regional Librarian for North Carolina, Ridley has gone well beyond the norm to support and counsel his selectives. Ridley has taken a lead in projects directed toward operational issues, such as the several attempts to tackle problems associated with Regionals and superseding documents. Most recently, Ridley has co-spearheaded efforts to define depository library service expectations in the electronic environment. Ridley's other contributions to the profession are many. Just to name a few - he was a member of the Depository Library Council from 1987-1990. During his term as Chair of the Council (1989-1990), he brought a new level of excellence and commitment to the Council and fostered new communication and cooperation between GPO and the depository community. Ridley was a member of the GODORT Legislation Committee in 1992-1993 & 1994-1995 and Chair of the Committee in 1994. Even when he wasn't officially on the Legislation Committee he would attend the numerous meetings and offer assistance and advice. Ridley has testified for the American Library Association before congressional committees three times - twice in favor of GPO's budget and once on the subject of "Government Information as a Public Asset." He has been on the GODORT Ad Hoc Committee on GODORT Organization and chaired the GODORT Ad Hoc Committee on GPO/2001 Vision. Ridley was part of an informal group (Dupont Circle Group) that initiated discussion on reshaping the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). He was instrumental in helping to organize the "Chicago Congerence on the Future of Federal Government Information", held in October 1993. And he was a member of the Coalition of Many Organizations (COMA)/ARL, ALA-GODORT, ALA, SLA, AALL - a group of members from the four major library associations to discuss and come up with a general statement concerning mutual agreement on what must constitute the Federal Depository Library Program in any future Congressional legislation. In addition to being awarded the CIS/GODORT/ALA Documents to the People Award in 1992, Ridley received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the UNC-CH School of Library and Information Science in 1996 and was the third ever recipient of the University of North Carolina Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2000. What better way to honor someone who has devoted his career to providing access to government information, who has shared his enthusiasm and love for government information with colleagues, students, faculty, staff, members of Congress, congressional staff, and "anyone else who will listen" then by awarding them the James Bennet Childs Award?

CIS/GODORT/ALA "Documents to the People" Award

Recipient: Andrea Sevetson

The 2002 recipient of the CIS/GODORT/ALA "Documents to the People" Award is Andrea Sevetson This award is presented to the individual, library, institution, or other noncommercial group that has most effectively encouraged the use of government documents in support of library service. The award includes a cash stipend and has been sponsored Congressional Information Service, Inc., since 1977.

This award is being given in recognition of Andrea's impact on the ability of GODORT to effectively serve the interests and needs of government documents librarians, her work on the GODORT web site, and for her organization efforts for the round table.

Her leadership, collegiality and ability to articulate issues have contributed greatly to the cohesion and success of the round table. She has demonstrated long-term dedication by undertaking many positions in GODORT. A sampling her GODORT positions include International Documents Task Force Coordinator, GODORT Chair (1996-97), and Chair Bylaws and Organization Committee.

In 1994 Andrea worked with a several of GODORT committees to create a Gopher site for GODORT. This effort grew into the sophisticated GODORT web site (http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/GODORT/.) Andrea served as the GODORT Web Administrator until 2001 and during her tenure the web site developed into a major resource for GODORT members and those interested in government information policy. Andrea enhanced the site for content, she added a search engine and created standards for metadata for the site and for all GODORT committee sites or pages. She worked with committee chairs or Web administrators to accomplish this work. GODORT members have become dependent on the currency and accuracy of the information contained on the site and recognize it as a major resource in the practice of documents librarianship.

Andrea's organizational skills, knowledge of government information policy and familiarity with the structure of ALA has also assisted the numerous committee and task force chairs. One of the most significant organizational contribution was Andrea's reorganization of the GODORT Policies and Procedures manual. Andrea has for many years worked tirelessly to promote timely access to government information advocated for no-fee access to government information. She served as an at-large representative to the Inter-Association Working Group on Government Information Policy which worked on reforming Title 44 during 1997-98. Andrea was appointed to the Depository Library Council of the Public Printer to the Public Printer in 1999 and is currently serving as its chair.

Readex/GODORT/ALA Catharine J. Reynolds Research Grant Award

Recipients: Cathy Hartman/Valerie Glenn & John S. Walters

This research award which is supported by a $2000 grant from Readex, a Division of NewsBank, Inc. for the purpose of encouraging research that will make a contribution to the field of documents librarianship. Two projects have been awarded funding for 2002.

The Depository Library Community, Members of Congress, the American public and all users of government information are fortunate to have in their midst professional librarians who continuously have important, innovative ideas and act upon them. The need for permanent, free access to Congressional Research Service/CRS Reports has been a cause for concern for decades among government information specialists and others who support open access to U.S. Government documents and information. Cathy Hartman and Valerie Glenn have been selected to receive one of the 2002 Readex/GODORT/ALA Catharine J. Reynolds Research Grant Awards. Their award-winning study revolves around capturing electronic copies of CRS Reports and making these permanently available without fee to the public. As part of this investigation they will build a database storage structure to facilitate search and retrieval of the reports. The award will be used to cover the costs of additional staff and also training in support of this applied research project. Cathy and Valerie anticipate this work will serve as a model for similar projects, and contribute to the growing body of technical information regarding the organization, and mechanisms for accessing and archiving substantial digital collections.

The success of this project is a foregone conclusion. The CRS Reports collection will become part of the Cybercemetary. The Cybercemetary is the Government Documents Department, University of North Texas Libraries', content partnership with the U.S. Government Printing Office. Cathy Hartman is currently Head of the UNT Libraries' Government Documents Department, and Valerie Glenn is the Documents Librarian at UNT, and also its Electronic Resources Coordinator and Texas Documents Librarian.

Cathy Hartman led the way in the formation of the Cybercemetary site, and continues to have primary responsibility for this unique resource. In addition, she is responsible for the establishment of related digital partnerships at both Federal and State levels, including that with the Texas Secretary of State's Office to electronically house the back issues of the Texas Register. Cathy has been a member of the Depository Library Council since 2000, and will become chair in fall, 2002. She has contributed greatly to ALA GODORT. At present she is chair of its Ad Hoc Committee on the Digitization of Government Publications, and a member of the roundtable's Nominating Committee. Cathy has previously served as GODORT's Awards Committee chair, and was recently a member of the American Library Association's Government Information Subcommittee of the Committee on Legislation. She has also been extremely active within the Texas Library Association, including TLA's GODORT organization. Cathy is generous in sharing her knowledge and expertise with other professionals; she has compiled an extensive list of publications and presentations, and given numerous guest lectures at UNT's School of Library and Information Sciences, during the past dozen years. Cathy Hartman is an alumnus of UNT's SLIS. Valerie Glenn is a May 2000 MSLS graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Information and Library Science program. She is currently a member of ALA GODORT's Legislation Committee. She is also responsible for the committee's web site. Valerie has also contributed to the Ad Hoc Committee on Digitization of Government Information, and is an active member of one its Working Groups. GODORT members and fans can rest assured that this research project and its results will receive "perpetual care" from these award recipients, and we look forward to having permanent and free access to the CRS Reports digital collection. Congratulations to Cathy and Valerie! They are most deserving of this award.

The second 2002 research grant recipient is John S. Walters who has been awarded $500 to defray the cost of travel to the National Archives and Records Administration and other libraries in the Washington DC area. John will be continuing his research in the field of U.S. government publications in order to expand the various articles that he has written and published serially over the last 10 years into a book-length manuscript.

John is currently the Regional Depository Librarian at Utah State University (USU). He has written ten articles on the topic of U.S. government publishing, covering such issues as the Joint Committee on Printing from 1919-1921, the Federal Depository Library Program, fugitive publications, the Monthly Labor Review, and the politics of U.S. government printing and publishing from 1960-1970. These articles have all been published in Government Publications Review or the Journal of Government Information. John has been the recipient of four Bernard M. Fry/Journal of Government Information awards for the year's best article (1993, 1994, 1996, and 1998). John's work has also been nominated twice (1991 and 1993) for the James Madison Prize from the Society for History in the Federal Government for the best article on government history. Prior to his current position at Utah State University, John held documents positions at University of Central Florida and University of Richmond.

Bernadine Abbott Hoduski Founders Award

No award was presented for 2002.

W. David Rozkuszka Scholarship

Recipient: Laura Sare

The 2002 recipient of the David Rozkuszka scholarship is Laura Sare, who is a library assistant in the Government Documents Department at the Cornette Library of West Texas A&M University. She is responsible for all aspects of recording serials in the librarys online system, including working with electronic serials and cleaning up document serial records after the library ILS transition. She supervises students, tracks depository claims, and works at the main Reference desk. She is active in the universitys Staff Council and is the current webmaster for the Council.

While researching her masters thesis in history, Laura became very comfortable at the Cornette Library at West Texas A&M. She describes her documents position as the first job where she really looked forward to going to work, and a place where she really belonged. Laura was motivated to become a librarian in order to become more involved in management, in order to be part of the information loop and to help develop solutions to problems, both in the library and in the larger realm of government information at the national level.

Her long-term goal is to work in an academic library in cataloging of government documents. She is especially interested in the archiving of government information through projects such as the Web Document Digital Archive Project and the Texas TRAIL project. She would also like to do retrospective cataloging to incorporate all documents in the online catalogs and to digitize important older government documents for their preservation and long-term access.

Laura is enrolled in the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library.