Sunday, July 12, 2009 8:00-10:00 a.m.
Fairmont Hotel, State room
(Meeting notes provided by Sally Bosken, FAFLRT Secretary 2008-2010)
1. Call to order: Nancy Faget, FAFLRT President, called the meeting to order at 8:00. 32 people signed in.
2. Introduction of Guests:
A. Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth, from Purdue University , professor of Family studies and director of the Military Family Research Institute (MFRI) ( http://www.mfri.purdue.edu/) The Our Heroes’ Tree is a national initiative founded to recognize and honor the sacrifices made by the families of current service members, veterans, and deceased service members. In Indiana, this program provides a forum for libraries to erect heroes’ trees to recognize citizens who have served our nation in times of peace and conflict. Dr. Wadsworth would like all the FAFLRT libraries to join with them in the month of November to have Heroes’ Trees in our libraries. Register at this location: http://purdue.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_8knfKZk8owtmFww&SVID=Prod To participate you need a tree - real or pretend. Or if space is at a premium, simply use a bulletin board or a wall for ornaments created to honor service members. Military Family Research Institute would love to have any pictures of your tree.
B. Nellie Moffitt from Navy General Library Program will work with MFRI and get word out to all the military librarians. The spotlight for this is October-November in celebration of Veterans Day.
C. Scott Peterson and David Huff, students from Dominican Graduate School for Library and Information Science, passed out FAFLRT business cards they designed. The business cards give all the information you would normally get in a brochure - but you are less apt to throw it away. Thanks to Scott and David Huff for making these for us!
3. Welcome and congratulations to
A. Kenneth Kozel , a student from Georgia State University who is the FAFLRT scholarship for annual winner.
B. Fran Perros, from the US State Department library who was our FAFLRT Achievement Award winner this year.
4. Report of the President - Nancy Faget
A. Friday was a wonderful day at “Careers in Federal Libraries.” Thanks to the Chicago Public Library for their great venue. Diane Velasquez of Dominican Graduate School of Library and Information Science was a wonderful co-sponsor. Her dozen GSLIS volunteers were a critical factor in the success of this event. Ways to enhance CIFL include:
- Contribute similar content to ALA websites (Get A Job and IloveLibraries.org) and the Partnership for Public Service
- Many library schools would like to have mini events. Gather federal librarians close to each library school, and write instructions for how to organizing mini events so they can be easily replicated
- Sponsor a CIFL at Mid-winter
- Get grant funding for CIFL
B. Pritzker Military Library was an excellent location for our awards ceremony. Thanks to Jane Sessa for the suggestion. Shirley Loo, Maria Pisa and Michelle Worthington did a marvelous job. Congratulations to our winners: Ken Kozel, Michelle Demeter, Fran Perros and Donna Scheeder.
C. A tribute to Andrew Carroll who is involved with doing oral histories of service members will take place at the 2010 conference in DC
D. Thanks to FAFLRT board members whose terms are ending this year: Janet Scheitle, Doria Grimes, Jannie Davis, Marie Nelson, and Richard Huffine.
E. Welcome to new board members: Karl Debus-Lopez, Jane Killian, Erica Stiner, and Kim Lyall
F. Special thanks to Trent Reynolds (Armed Forces Director and Membership chair) as well as James King (Webmaster) for their continued contribution and work on behalf of FAFLRT. Thanks to the continued support from Ros Reynolds and John Chrastka of ALA. FAFLRT members should know that we owe a debt of gratitude to Mary McInroy, our ALA Councilor for FAFLRT, for her commitment and work as champion for the ALA Round Tables.
G. FAFLRT members should extend their thanks to sponsors of our events at the 2009 ALA Annual conference. Library Associates Companies sponsored 2009 Careers in Federal Libraries at the Chicago Public Harold Washington Library. Gale Cengage Learning supported the Pritzker Military Library Tour and 2009 FAFLRT Awards gathering. ProQuest sponsored the 2009 Adelaide del Frate conference scholarship. Mr. Charles Garris sponsors the Cicely Phippen Marks scholarship each year. Springer sponsored the 2009 Homeland Security Digital Initiatives presentation.
H. Richard Huffine read a letter of thanks to Nancy Faget for her outstanding service to FAFLRT this year from past president Janet Scheitle.
5. Board and Committee Chair updates:
A. Richard Huffine gave an update on legislative issues -
- He attended the Spectrum Leaders Institute to educate them about FAFLRT.
- He attended a good forum for US Government information on Friday morning. Attendees were asked how they use government information. We all use our own agency information, and we use government information from other agencies, too. The information needs to be freely accessible to all.
- Richard is hosting the FAFLRT COL meeting today at noon to discuss legislative issues over lunch. Are we a collection of last resort or a legacy collection?
- Federal research grant for a depository for all federal agencies ($100,000,000 threshold) look at expanding the amount of money. Maria Pisa says this helps to show awareness to our federal agencies. If you fund research, you want people to know about it. Preserving American history records – give NARA money to give to states to save records – confederation - for NARA and state archives like LSTA – a formula appropriation.
- Some members of ALA Council are interested in writing an ALA resolution to send books to soldiers. Richard spoke with MWR libraries, and they distribute books for soldiers. USO also helps provide reading materials to troops. Virginia Sanchez works to get books to soldiers in Afghanistan. Lucille Rosa noted that another organization also does this. ( http://www.booksforsoldiers.com/) Anyone can become a member; soldiers put in requests for titles. Some request books for their career, others request care packages. She will write up an article about this. Jannie Davis will get info out to us. Also, Soldier's Angels delivers books in care packages to soldiers and family members.
- Richard Huffine urged ALA to not just do book drives, and collect junk that nobody wants. FAFLRT should compile information about existing efforts and disseminate in the newsletter and discussion lists. Terry Kirk, FAFLRT liaison from the ALA Executive Board, can help get an article out to Council and others. Since the ALA COL referred the question to us, FAFLRT COL will see if we want a resolution for midwinter. Richard says between now and midwinter we need to come up with a plan; we need to work out the pathways instead of all jumping right now.
- We need people to volunteer for the 2010 conference committee and also for the FAFLRT COL legislative committee.
B. Electronic Newsletter roll out - Angelique Simmons and Mike Colarusso showed us the new interactive FAFLRT newsletter. Discussion followed about changing the name to not confuse people with the old paper version. Discussion also followed concerning the need to have a paper newsletter so people feel they are getting their money’s worth from their FAFLRT membership. This will be more of a “live” site. It is not totally ready but will be soon. We currently mail out paper copies twice per year of the old version. We want to make sure that everything is sustainable. Subscribers and vendors should understand that they might get more information, more frequent information, and possibly more advertising bang for their buck in an e-newsletter. First and foremost, FAFLRT must remain solvent for the rest of the year! Mike and Angelique, the e-newsletter editors, will survey the membership on format, frequency, advertising, etc.
C. ALA Education Assembly/FLICC Liaison - Helen Sherman reported on the committee gathering
D. FAFLRT Communications Team comprised of volunteers (Joni Savage, Ann Davis, Sandra Weeks, Julie Brammer, and GeGe Chamblee) created Web 2.0 capabilities for FAFLRT. We now have Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Delicious, Slideshare, FLICKR, and more! There are widgets and more functionality on the FAFLRT President’s blog. Communications are integrated within these tools. A web conference will be set up to inform the membership of these tools.
E. Armed Forces Director - Jannie Davis reported on the activities of the Army MWR libraries.
MWR Annual Report 2008
The Libraries provide the military community with effective, professionally directed library services 24/7 to support expeditionary forces in a time of persistent conflict, and to contribute to the quality of life of the military community with programs and services supporting educational advancement, military reference and research, and leisure needs activities. Their importance is validated in all three major Army surveys: Leisure Needs, Sample survey of Military Personnel, and the Army Family Survey.
Collections emphasize military art and science including the Army’s Chief of Staff Reading List, both professional and off-duty Soldier education, military Family specific and general information needs, lifelong learning and recreational use of leisure time. Use of current technology facilitates remote access to installation libraries, providing virtual library services to expeditionary forces and improving morale communications between geographically dispersed family members. Technology has also improved business based operations in libraries with the ability to better assess collections, to improve circulation operations including automated checkouts, and to facilitate PC management operations.
Events-type programs highlight the collection, enable collaboration between other MWR activities, improve literacy and computer skills, and offer fun and diversion for Soldiers and Families. Professional staffs are available to assist in reference/research and to offer insights into the hidden web. Additional reference support is available 24/7 through the Army librarian managed service “Ask a Librarian” on the Army Knowledge Online (AKO) portal. Available teen corners, which include gaming resources, are popular and have reintroduced reading to a vulnerable age group.
Electronic databases purchases centrally at FMWRC in FY08 saved the government $7.1M. These resources, combined with titles funded by DoD and purchased enterprise-wide across the services provided over 41 full-text online commercial databases including 9,390 magazines and newspapers, 18,086 e-books, and 3,769 audio books. Partnership arrangements with Army Knowledge Online (AKO), Army OneSource and Military OneSource extended these resources to military personnel in Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, and members of the National Guard and Reserves and their families.
War-time operations in OIF/OEF during FY08 were supported with 108,275 paperback book and 103,516 Playaways. In addition to supporting Army deployments and war-time operations, the Army MWR Library Program manages the Navy and the Marine Corps Paperback book Kit Programs through support agreements, providing kits for ship and shore libraries, and to Marine Corps Security Guards at US Embassies. Additionally, the Army supports more than 140 military missions with paperback books and magazines. The military mission support is directed by Department of Defense policy.
The General Library Information System (GLIS) was fielded in FY08 to twelve libraries in Korea, and (1) one each at Fort Belvoir and Fort Jackson. This brings the total of active GLIS MWR libraries to 59. The remaining libraries will be brought into the system over the next few years when new software will be available to provide an updated product. The long term goal of GLIS remains to be the web based information system for all Army MWR libraries. Other types of libraries, e.g. TRADOC and MEDCOM libraries are encouraged to join where feasible.
A pediatric literacy program, Reach Out and Read, was authorized as a pilot project by Congress to promote literacy among military children. Approximately 20 military hospitals/health clinics are participating in the pilot. Literacy is promoted by incorporating reading aloud, advice to parents, and books into the well-child visits. The Army is the executive agent of the project with the FMWRC library program providing oversight.
Library collections on specific subjects of interest to Family Readiness Groups (FRGs) and Army Community Services (ACS) were established for use at Army garrisons. The collections included book and audio books – any material supporting Families, re-integrations and re-union training, and wounded warriors/survivor support. Titles were selected by both FMWRC library and Army Community Services personnel and ordered by the Library Program. The collections are available in Army libraries and also in ACS, Soldier and Family Support Centers, FRGs, and in Family Assistance Centers identified with the National Guard and Reserves.
Libraries are annually assessed using Army MWR Baseline Standards and DoD MWR Core Library Standards. Both assessments in FY08 highlighted deficiencies in the areas of staff, training, library collections and technology. In the Program Budget Review 11-15, requirements have been identified and validated to correct deficiencies. Funding will be distributed through the Common Levels of Support (CLS) model to meet requirements.
6. President Nancy Faget closed the meeting promptly at 10:00