Federal Librarian Fall 2009

2009 FAFLRT Awards Recognize Excellence

The Pritzker Military Library in Chicago provided the setting for presentation of the 2009 FAFLRT awards recognizing early career librarians with high potential and seasoned professionals who have made outstanding contributions to the profession.




Adelaide del Frate Conference Sponsorship, Kenneth Kozel,Valdosta State University




Kenneth Michael Kozel of Valdosta State University is the 2009 recipient of the Federal and Armed Forces Libraries Round Table’s Adelaide del Frate Conference Sponsorship Award. The Conference Sponsorship Award supports the attendance at an ALA annual meeting of a library school student who has an interest in Federal Librarianship.The $1,000 award was established 13 years ago, in 1996, in memory of Adelaide del Frate, distinguished federal librarian and active member of our Round Table. This year the award was again generously supported by Ron Clowney of ProQuest.



Ken is in the Master of Library and Information Science program at Valdosta State University. He expects to graduate this fall with an emphasis in management and technology. Ken has maintained a 4.0 grade point average throughout the distance learning program. He is a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, the VSU Leadership Honor Society and was nominated by VSU as a 2009 PMF Presidential Management Fellowship Nominee.




Since 2006, Ken has been Assistant Librarian at the Pitts Library of Andrew College, a small private academic library, where he manages the daily operations of the library and manages work-study students. He is also a Focus Lab Mentor at Andrew College, tutoring students with attention deficit disorders and learning disabilities. He brings years of library experience to his studies and current position: ranging from special libraries, information centers, and academic libraries. While at the Centers for Disease Control, Ken became aware of his great desire to serve the public and a greater cause. It is important to him that his work is relevant and somehow makes a difference in the scheme of things. Ken is eager to grow in the profession and upon graduation hopes to work for a federal organization like the Environmental Protection Agency, National Institutes of Health, or the Library of Congress.




The Awards Committee received glowing recommendations from Ken’s professors at VSU describing him as a leader, a take-charge person, and actively engaged in in-class discussions; qualities that we all look for in our library workforce.



Cicely Phippen Marks Scholarship, Michelle Demeter, Florida State University




Michelle Demeter of Florida State University is this year’s recipient of the ALA Cicely Phippen Marks scholarship award. Now in its third year, this scholarship helps support the education of a student enrolled in an ALA-accredited master’s degree program in library and information studies who has an interest in working in a federal library. Named in honor of the late Cicely Phippen Marks, federal librarian, the scholarship is supported by a generous donation from her husband, Charles L. Garris. The late Ms. Marks was a 24-year member of ALA who was active in FAFLRT. The annual award of $1,500 is sponsored and administered by FAFLRT.




Michelle is completing her second semester in the College of Information at Florida State University. She completed her undergraduate degrees in English literature and religious studies at the University of South Florida and also earned an M.A. in religious studies at USF. She was appointed the Public Services Graduate Assistant for FSU Libraries for the 2008-2009 term. Michelle is also Vice President of the Student ALA Chapter at FSU and is very active in coordinating presentations and events. She coordinated a presentation about federal libraries, giving a PowerPoint presentation about how to use the USAJobs application site. Two speakers also attended the presentation, which was well received by the FSU MLS students. As a result, she was invited by FAFLRT to speak about this presentation at the “Careers in Federal Libraries” event for the ALA 2009 Annual conference. Michelle currently works as a graduate assistant in the FSU Strozier Library, Public Services Department. She has taught high school English and also worked for several newspapers and literary journals as an editor and copy editor. As a community outreach member for AmeriCorps Hillsborough Reads, Michelle was responsible for developing, creating and distributing tutor recruitment materials. She helped recruit and train more than 200 community reading tutors for elementary schools countywide.




Michelle is very much interested in working in a federal library because of the wide range of opportunities federal libraries offer. She believes federal libraries hold themselves to high standards and seek to provide the best information possible to their users. She is considering working overseas, possibly on a military base, as she feels our servicemen and women need and deserve the best assistance they can get as they take classes and learn more about their specialty areas. She is also considering academic libraries and the Smithsonian library/museum system. She is looking forward to the time when she begins applying for these jobs in the hopes of finding a career that is both rewarding and helpful to others.




FAFLRT Distinguished Service Award, Fran Perros, U.S. Department of State




The Federal and Armed Forces Libraries Round Table’s Distinguished Service Award recognizes a FAFLRT member for outstanding and sustained contributions to the Round Table. This year we were delighted to be able to present the FAFLRT Distinguished Service Award to long time FAFLRT member, Fran Perros of the U.S. Department of State.

Fran Perros is Branch Chief for Information Resources at the Ralph J. Bunche Library U.S. Department of State, a position she has held for over 20 years. She is a graduate of Mercy College and earned her MLS degree from the University of Michigan. She began her career as an Army Librarian and held several positions of increasing responsibility within the Army library system and in federal libraries.




All who know Fran will share the sentiments of Fran’s nominator who wrote “It is an honor to nominate Fran Perros for the FAFLRT Distinguished Service Award. Fran Perros has been an active member of FAFLRT for many years. Throughout her time as a member of FLRT (later FAFLRT), she has served the roundtable in many capacities, including Secretary/Treasurer, Director, Nominating Committee Chair, and representative to the Public Employees Roundtable. In each of these positions she has given generously of her time and expertise to promote the mission of the organization.”

Perhaps Fran’s most significant contribution to FAFLRT has been her work on the bylaws - one of the most important and onerous duties in any organization. When FLRT and AFLRT decided to merge, Fran worked with Jewel Player to develop a new set of bylaws that were approved by the two merging boards with minimal revisions. The bylaws were then approved by the membership. She tackled this assignment with her usual attention to detail and her sense of humor. She is considered FAFLRT’s bylaws guru and is often called upon to assist with updates and other revisions.




Fran served for many years as FAFLRT representative to the Public Employees Roundtable (PER). As a member of the PER board, Fran made significant contributions to that prominent organization. As always, she represented FAFLRT with professionalism and her extensive knowledge of the issues and concerns affecting public employment. In addition to serving on the PER board, Fran served a three year term as a member of the Committee that evaluated the nominations for the Public Employee Service awards presented each year during Public Employee Recognition Week.




In sum, Fran is the kind of Round Table member that keeps other members inspired, motivated and eager to participate. She is always available to offer a helping hand, solve problems, and support Round Table programs and activities. We congratulate Fran for her extraordinary contributions to FAFLRT as an active, effective, and tireless member.





FAFLRT Achievement Award,Donna Scheeder, Library of Congress





Donna W. Scheeder of the Library of Congress is this year’s recipient of the FAFLRT Achievement Award in recognition of her distinguished service to the federal information community. Donna is the Director of Law Library Services and Acting Director of the Law Library of the Library of Congress since April 1, 2009. As Director of Law Library Services, Donna provides leadership for the provision of a wide range of information and collection services for the U.S. Congress, the Courts, the Executive Branch agencies and the public. The Directorate includes both the Collection Services and the Public Services Divisions of the Law Library which includes responsibility for the over 3.3 million item collection over 50 percent of which is in languages other than English, and a 60,000 volume collection of rare materials. Since coming to the Law Library, Donna instituted a number of new programs including the digital reference “ask a librarian” service and has taken on responsibility for some additional programs already in existence including content ownership of THOMAS, the legislative database for the public. An RSS feed was recently added to Thomas under her direction. She is involved with the Global Legal Information Network (GLIN), a shared electronic legal resource. She also had a role in the initiation of Legal Blawgs, a resource that the Law Library began building in 2007.




Previously, she had served for 30 years in the Congressional Research Service in increasingly responsible positions climaxing in being appointed the Deputy Assistant Director of the Information Research Division. As a manager, she played a role in redefining the role of library professionals in CRS and assisted in raising the status of library professionals to that of other CRS professional staff. As an information professional, she has served the profession well.




Donna has been a consultant to parliamentary research libraries and organizations and has traveled to Japan, Brazil, Australia, and Canada to give keynote addresses, lectures and workshops at the request of the parliamentary library or the association of parliamentary libraries. She is a member of the IFLA Standing Committee on Parliamentary Libraries and Research Organizations (1997 to present). She has been a presenter at Computers in Libraries, Internet Librarian, Internet Librarian International, National On-Line, and KM-World Conferences. She has also written articles and served as the guest editor for the winter 1990 issue of Special Libraries. Donna has also served the Special Libraries Association with distinction. She served for three years on the Board as Treasurer (1994-1997) and was chair of the Finance Committee.

She has also been a member of the Strategic Planning and Office Operations Committees. She was subsequently elected to the presidency of the association where she provided strong leadership during her presidential year from 2000 to 2001. She has served as chair of the Awards and Honors Committee (2001-2003) and has been active in the News Division, the Leadership and Management Division, and the Washington, DC Chapter.




Her contributions have been previously recognized with induction as an SLA Fellow (1998) and the John Cotton Dana Award (2004). In the News Division, she received the Ralph Shoemaker Award (1994) and the Agnes Henebry Roll of Honor (1997). The DC/SLA Chapter awarded her the Board of Directors Award in 1989. Donna is a leader in the Federal and legal information field who is known nationally and internationally. She has achieved and will continue to achieve in the Federal library community.




Please join us in congratulating this year’s award winners!




FAFLRT Awards Committee


Shirley Loo, LC


Maria Pisa, NAL


Michelle Worthington, GPO

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