2005 GODORT Award and Scholarship Recipients

James Bennett Childs Award

Recipient:
Ernest G. (Gil) Baldwin III
U.S. Government Printing Office

Ernest G. (Gil) Baldwin III was chosen as the 2005 recipient of the James Bennett Childs award. After 32 years of dedicated service to the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) and the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), Gil Baldwin has earned great respect and abiding affection from the depository library community. He began his career at GPO in 1973 and served in a variety of staff and management positions including Director of Library Programs. He now is the Director of the National Bibliography Program Planning Coordination Office.

Gil’s leadership has strongly influenced the FDLP and open access to government information. One nomination letter stated, “I’ll start with the bottom line—in my seventeen years as a documents librarian I have not met anyone who has provided better service to the documents community than Gil Baldwin.” Gil is widely known in the community for his quiet leadership, his interest in listening to depository librarians’ concerns, and his sustained commitment to the profession of documents librarianship and public access to government information.

His nominators all noted his qualities as a strong mentor, leader, and manager who knows how to pull people together for effective teamwork. Some of the programs at GPO that began under his leadership include the visiting experts program, preparation of a collection development policy for the electronic collection, and development of an integrated library system to assist with managing the library-like processes at GPO. He was also responsible for the pilot project that made GPO Access free to all citizens, and he oversaw the beginning of the transition from a paper-based program to a mostly electronic program.

In addition to his work at GPO, Gil’s professional contributions include long-term advocacy for the FDLP and depository librarians, contributions to the professional literature, and active participation in professional organizations, although none of this was required by his positions at GPO. He has gained a reputation in the community and at GPO for standing up for what he believes is right even when that stand may be unpopular.

Gil is best known for his quiet manner of working, never demanding center stage or attention for himself. In fact, he would probably be embarrassed to know how much he is admired by his colleagues. In honor of his years of leadership and his abiding dedication to the Federal Depository Library Program and no-fee, permanent public access to government information, GODORT has named Gil Baldwin the recipient of the 2005 James Bennett Childs Award.

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

Recipient:
Daniel P. O’Mahony
Brown University Library

Daniel P. O'Mahony, Brown University Library, has been chosen as the 2005 recipient of the LexisNexis/GODORT/ALA “Documents to the People” Award. This award is a tribute to an individual, library, institution, or other non-commercial group that has most effectively encouraged the use of government documents in support of library service. Dan began his work in government documents as a Library Technical Assistant in 1984. He progressed into a national leader in the field – contributing greatly to documents librarianship and the development of federal information policy.

The decade of the 90’s witnessed many challenges to the traditional dissemination of government information. Central to many of these initiatives was the incorporation of electronic government information into the Federal Depository Library Program and the resulting impact these endeavors had on Title 44 of the U.S. Code. Beginning with the pioneering efforts of the DuPont Circle Group, then the Chicago Conference on the Future, and continuing through the Inter-Association Working Group on Government Information Policy (IAWG), Dan was an integral member, and usually the driving force behind each of these efforts. Dan’s sharp analytical skills and unparalleled attention to detail coupled with his ability to embrace new concepts and technologies made him the ideal candidate to lead the depository library community during this time. To say that he thrust his heart and soul into these projects would be an understatement of grand proportions.

Dan is a proven leader within the ALA GODORT community and beyond. He chaired the Depository Library Council (1995-96), GODORT’s Legislation Committee (1996-97), the IAWG (1997-99) and ALA’s Government Information Subcommittee (1997-2001). Under his skillful leadership, the IAWG did substantive work in drafting legislation with staff of the Joint Committee on Printing to reform Title 44 of the U.S. Code. In his capacity as chair of the DLC and IAWG, he testified before the Senate Rules Committee twice on behalf of the depository library community. As both a member and Chair of GODORT’s Legislation Committee, Dan helped craft countless resolutions defining the guiding principles supporting public access to government information.

Prior to his promotion in 2003 to Department Leader, Library Administrative Services, Dan was coordinator for the Brown University Library’s government documents services. Since 2003, he has continued to pursue his commitment to government information policy by serving on state and regional documents groups. Perhaps his most important current contribution to our profession, though, is his position since 2002 as an Adjunct Professor teaching the online government documents course for the University of Rhode Island, Graduate School of Library and Information Studies. His students are, not surprisingly, thoroughly versed in the issues, curious as to the real life activities of a librarian/lobbyist, and articulate in debating policy questions.

Although Dan no longer works directly with government documents, this award is a long-overdue recognition of his many contributions to the advancement of government information. He was in the right place at the right time and through his unselfish and unassuming leadership during a time of controversy and change, all stakeholders in the life cycle of government information are the beneficiaries.

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

Not awarded in 2005

Bernadine Abbott Hoduski Founders Award

Recipient:
Sue Selmer
Retired, Everett (WA) Public Library

The 2005 Bernadine Abbott Hoduski Founders Award is presented to Sue Selmer, retired Documents Librarian from the Everett Public Library in Everett, Washington. This award recognizes documents librarians who may not be known at the national level but who have made significant contributions to the field. Their contributions are to have benefited not only the individual’s institution, but also the profession. These criteria easily describe Sue Selmer.

Sue began her professional career at the Everett Public Library when she became its government documents librarian. During her 33 years in this position, she was responsible for the local, state, and federal documents in the collection. The letters from her colleagues speak highly of her work in organizing the collection and publicizing government documents. Prior to Sue’s arrival the documents in the library were shelved and little used. Sue began adding subject headings to those documents that she thought would be useful to the patrons and had those records included in the card catalog. Those of us who were young librarians at this time know that this was not the common practice within libraries. Sue began to work with documents beyond the federal collection by gathering city and county documents to supplement those issued by the state of Washington. As no classification system existed for these reports, she devised one. Government information on all levels was becoming accessible to the public.

Sue also began to publicize the documents within the library by working at the reference desk and informing her colleagues of their usefulness. As new librarians were hired, Sue gave them a test to determine their familiarity with government resources. Her continual training resulted in the reference staff being able to provide good service during her absence. With the use of email, she kept the staff aware of newly received publications by sending them weekly updates. She worked with the staff of the county law library, as well as those at Everett Community College library, to keep them informed of the public library’s documents holding and services that she could provide. Sue also conducted an annual orientation class for the students at the community college. As her knowledge of the collection increased, Sue became a resource herself for the library. Library patrons were referred to her from both inside and outside the library. A fellow librarian at Everett Public said, “She was never too busy to spend whatever time was necessary in assisting them with research.”

Sue was active in the documents activities within the Washington Library Association and was a founding member of the Northwest Government Information Network, a professional association of documents librarians in the Pacific Northwest. Sue’s participation in state, regional, and national meetings allowed her to give input into the policy making decisions of the Federal Depository Library Program. A former director said, “Her highly professional demeanor was refreshing and she could be a formidable proponent of her cause.”

Another supporter of Sue Selmer noted in her concluding statement, “she will remain in her colleagues’ and the public’s mind as someone who made a difference��� who served as a role model for new and aspiring librarians��� Sue demonstrated that the actions we take to index, archive, safeguard, and provide access to the records of our political life and times can have a permanent effect on our shared future.” As one letter stated, “do recognize an unsung hero from a medium sized public library who believed in an individual’s right to know what their government was doing.” This is done, in part, with Sue Selmer receiving the 2005 Bernadine Abbott Hoduski Founders Award.

W. David Rozkuszka Scholarship

Recipient:
Julie Tanis Sayles
University of South Florida (student)

The W. David Rozkuszka Scholarship was created in 1994 in memory of David Rozkuszka, a former Documents Librarian at Stanford University. Its purpose is to provide financial assistance to an individual who is currently working with government information in a library and is trying to complete a masters' degree in library science. The 2005 scholarship recipient of the W. David Rozkuszka Scholarship is Julie Tanis Sayles, who is currently enrolled as a graduate student in the Library and Information Sciences Department at the University of South Florida. She has been employed as the Senior Library Technical Assistant in the Government Documents Depository Library at the University of South Florida since January 2000. In this position she is involved in the processing, cataloging, and collection development of all the collections in the library, including the Patent Library, the State of Florida depository, and the U.S. Federal depository. She also provides reference service and supervises student assistants.

Julie has worked for the University of South Florida for 18 years---in the Media Center, Serials Department, Acquisitions Department, and, for the last four years, the Government Documents/Reference Department. It was the influence and dedication of Cheryl McCoy, her supervisor and mentor, and coincidently Head of the Government Documents/Reference, in providing government information to users, and the transformation of the depository and government information landscape, that led her to apply and be accepted as a graduate student in the Library and Information Sciences Department at the University of South Florida. She has investigated and followed the issues surrounding the transition to an electronic depository, some of which are the archiving of electronic information, the ability to easily suppress or withhold information, and the elimination of the depository program as it currently exists.

Julie’s long-term goals are to incorporate her experience and skills with the changes that are occurring in libraries. She is interested in knowing how people find and use information in a changing environment and in finding a balance between creating physical library environments and virtual environments.

Supervisors and colleagues note that Julie is an accomplished member of the Government Documents/Reference Department. She possesses an in-depth understanding of the depository program, capably and confidently assists patrons in the use of the collections, manages the transition from manual processing to subscription tape loads efficiently, and supervises students in a complex shelf reading project. Her letters of support indicate a high regard for her talent, knowledge, interpersonal skills, curiosity, and thoughtfulness in all aspects of her work.

Julie expects to receive her degree in July 2006. Although she does not yet know what type of library setting she will choose, she looks forward to working in a library as a professional where she can be part of a dynamic setting that integrates the physical and virtual information environments.