Federal Librarians Round Table Board Meeting

ALA Annual Conference, Chicago
Saturday, July 8, 2000, 2:00-4:00 PM (CST)
Hotel Intercontinental, Chicago, IL

Present:
Stephanie Jones, Andrea Morris Gruhl, Richard Hanusey, Janet Ormes, Joan Taylor, Maria Pisa, Fran Perros, Arlene Luster, Lynn McDonald, Carol Bursik, Mary-Dierdre Coraggio, Shirley Loo, Wil Danielson, Jane Sessa

Visitor:
Adina Lack, Adelaide Del Frate Conference Scholarship Award Winner

  1. President Stephanie Jones called the meeting to order at 2:05 PM.
  2. Approval of Minutes - Janet Ormes. Minutes for 1999 Membership Meeting were approved. Minutes for Board meetings at Midwinter 2000 were discussed. Andrea Gruhl suggested two corrections to Saturday minutes and one to Monday Board minutes. Minutes were approved as amended.
  3. Treasurer's Report - Joan Taylor. Estimated balance July 6, 2000 $4637.52. Several ALA-internal transfers haven't been registered yet. The report was approved. Joan reported that FLRT has a separate bank account that has been used for t-shirt sales and other income that didn't go through ALA (approximately $415). Joan moved that the account be closed and the remainder added to FLRT funds. Maria Pisa seconded. Motion approved.
  4. Membership - Joan Taylor. April 30 membership count - 338. Down a little from April 99. Maria Pisa asked if there were any FLRT brochures left. There are only a few. A suggestion was made to photocopy a few to cover this year. There are 35 FLRT t-shirts left.
  5. Merger Report - Stephanie Jones. The name of the new organization is the Federal and Armed Forces Libraries Round Table (FAFLRT). It was approved by an overwhelming majority of FLRT and AFLRT voters in the ALA election. Carol attended the ALA Committee on Organization (COO) meeting this morning where the merger was discussed. COO approval is needed before submitting the merger to ALA Council. A few questions were raised at COO, but answered to the Committee's satisfaction. The Committee will forward the proposal to ALA Council for consideration Tuesday or Wednesday. Stephanie reported that the merger seems to be going smoothly. Her understanding is that, if the merger is approved by ALA Council, the two Round Tables will continue to function separately until at least June 2001. We will need to develop a new constitution and bylaws and elect a new slate of officers.
  6. Federal Librarian - Maria Pisa. Advertising rates have been revised in accordance with the motion at the last Board Meeting, and revenues projected through Spring 2001. Maria will be distributing copies of the newsletter in Exhibit Hall.

    Andrea Gruhl reported that the three bound volumes of Federal Librarian have been placed in the ALA Washington Office. A suggestion was made that there be a plan for archiving subsequent issues until the merger. This question was tabled until the Monday meeting when Jane Sessa, new editor of Federal Librarian (who had to leave), will be present.

  7. Nominations - Andrea Gruhl. The Nominations Committee prepared the ballot for the ALA elections and the newly elected officers are: Vice President/President Elect - Richard Hanusey, HQ, U.S. Army, Pacific; Treasurer - Wil Danielson, U.S. Government Printing Office; Director 2000-2003 - Jane Sessa, Dept. of Commerce Law Library. The proposal to merge FLRT with AFLRT was approved overwhelmingly.
  8. Handbook Committee - Shirley Loo. Shirley handed out copies of revised Handbook. She asked members to send corrections to her by e-mail. Shirley will provide an abbreviated version of the Handbook for the FLRT Web site. A suggestion was made that the FLRT Vision Statement be included in the Handbook.
  9. Awards Committee - Shirley Loo for Dan Clemmer. Awards were given at the Reception Friday night July 7. The winner of the FLRT Achievement Award is Pam André, Director, National Agricultural Library, and the Adelaide Del Frate Conference Scholarship Award winner is Adina Lack, University of North Carolina. Our Awards program is planned to continue next year as the merger will take place after the annual conference.
  10. FLICC Liaison - Carol Bursik. The FLICC Personnel Working Group has proposed moving the 1410 into the Professional and Scientific group and is actively pursuing changes for Qualifications Standards. They hope to tighten up the description of experience as a substitute for the MLS. Votes on the FLICC/FEDLINK budget were due July 7. It looks as if a FEDLINK revolving fund won't happen soon. It didn't surface in Congress this year when it seemed to have had a good chance. Also, Commerce did not get the money it requested for closing NTIS this Fiscal Year. However, NTIS has a hiring freeze and is currently down 100 positions. The second annual presentation of FLICC awards was made at the FLICC Forum in March. There was a tie for Federal Library of the Year - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Library and Los Alamos National Laboratory Research Library. Librarian of the Year is Marion Jerri Knihnicki, Library Director of the U.S. Army Transportation School, and Federal Library Technician of the Year is Rosette M. Risell of the Ruth H. Hooker Research Library, Naval Research Laboratory. FLICC put streaming video of these awards on the Web at http://lcweb.loc.gov/flicc. Congratulations to all the honorees.
  11. Booth Update - Mary-Deirdre Coraggio. Mary reported that a small number of FLRT members give materials and a small number of people are interested in picking them up. Most popular items were giveaways, such as mints, pens and notepads. Information about Government jobs was also sought. Mary-Dierdre asked that the group consider the payoff for this activity relative to the effort involved. Maria Pisa pointed out that it is an excellent opportunity to raise awareness of our libraries and what we do. Maybe we should rethink what we include at the booth. Others pointed out that we don't always staff the booth full time. A suggestion was made that we consider more popular giveaways. Bags were suggested as a popular giveaway. Stephanie felt that vendors would sponsor bags for our booth. Andrea suggested that we give away American flags.
  12. GPO Liaison - Wil Danielson. Two developments are going on simultaneously. A private company has announced plans to provide "almost-real-time" transcripts from congressional committees. This service would be expensive for subscribers and would require significant infrastructure. Also, President Clinton announced "firstgov.gov" will be created in 90 days or less to provide citizens with a source for government information and documents. GPO has planned improved access to electronic information products coming into the FDLP Electronic Collection. The Library Programs Service is providing a new service called New Electronic Titles (NET) and will provide enhanced functionality for document access.
  13. Intern - Stephanie Jones. We have no intern this year.
  14. GODORT Resolutions - Jane Sessa. There are two draft resolutions on GPO - advocating full funding of 2001 appropriations, and supporting a study of transferring SuDocs to LC. A third resolution opposes the House and Senate doing their own printing, bypassing GPO. Jane proposed that FLRT support all three. After discussion, Board members endorsed all three.
  15. Other Business: Arlene Luster proposed that the Midwinter 2001 Board meeting be held jointly with AFLRT.

    President Stephanie Jones gave out Certificates of Appreciation to those who provided extraordinary support to the FLRT organization during the past year.

  16. Adjournment. The meeting was adjourned at 4:15

Respectfully submitted, Janet Ormes, Secretary

Note: These minutes were approved at the FAFLRT/FLRT Board Meeting July 15, 2001.