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May 12, 2011
August 20, 2010
February 17, 2010
SLA Names Reece Dano and Christopher Vestal as Rising Stars
SLA has named two members of the GLBTI Issues Caucus as Rising Stars for 2010, Reece Dano and Christopher Vestal.
The SLA Rising Star Award is presented annually to recognize up to five new members who show exceptional promise of leadership and contribution to the association and profession.
Reece Dano joined SLA in 2007, while he was an MLIS student at the University of Washington’s iSchool. He initially served as the UW-SLA distance liaison for those enrolled in the online program. Today he is the Membership Director of the Oregon Chapter and participates in the Division of Advertising and Marketing.
As an Information Specialist at Ziba Design, an interdisciplinary design and branding firm, Dano works to “help make every Zibite smarter, every day.” Since 2007 he has worked to build an embedded librarianship model at the company. He provides strategic support on multiple design and branding projects, working with team members throughout the design process. He regularly prepares hypotheses for primary consumer research, conducts competitive brand analyses, provides proof-of-concept support, and normalizes external clients' research models. He also supports Ziba's business development and marketing initiatives. More recently he has made web-based ethnographic studies of consumer-generated data a core competency for the company’s Consumer Insights and Trends group.
As Membership Director of the Oregon Chapter, Dano works to promote ties with students who may be unaware of the wide variety of career paths available to them after graduation. He hopes to inspire students to seek careers outside the traditional canon and think of ways to develop careers relevant to 21st-century demands. He is forging stronger connections to information professionals outside the Portland Metro area via online outreach.
Dano currently serves at the Alignment Ambassador for the Oregon Chapter and the Division of Marketing and Advertising.
Previous to Ziba, he worked in technical positions at the libraries of Boston University, Johns Hopkins University and Reed College.
In addition to his MLIS, Dano holds a Master of Music in Composition from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Arts from Linfield College.
Christopher Vestal has been a member of SLA since 2006 and is currently the co-convener for the GLBTI Caucus, Editor-in-Chief of the Washington, DC, Chapter’s newsletter, an Alignment Ambassador for the DC Chapter, and SLA Public Relations Advisory Council member.
Vestal works for ASRC Management Services supporting its Information Resources and Instructional Service Contract with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Vestal assists patent examiners by researching patent applications relating to computer architecture, software, and cryptographic technologies using Dialog, IEEE Explore, and other commercial databases. He also develops and implements training for patent examiners on searching commercial databases and the latest web-based information resources.
Vestal earned his Master of Science degree in library and information science from Drexel University in 2008. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Winners of SLA’s Rising Star Award must have one to five years of professional experience as an information professional and must be SLA members for five years or less.
Nominees must meet one or more of the following criteria:
- Outstanding work and professional activities on behalf of SLA
- Develop notable innovations on the job.
- Actively participate in SLA units and association programs.
- Promote the visibility of SLA or the value of information professionals.
The first class of SLA Rising Stars was named in 2009. Recipients receive complimentary registration for the SLA Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO in the year in which they receive the award.
December 17, 2009
SLA San Diego Chapter Honors Kathy Quinn With President's Award
SLA's San Diego Chapter has honored Kathy Quinn, who is a member of that chapter and the GLBT Issues Caucus, with its President's Award.
Chapter President Cindy Shamel presented the award with sincere thanks and appreciation at the chapter's December 3 Annual Business Meeting and Holiday Party. (See accompanying photo.) Kathy has served on the Chapter Board for the last seven years as Director, Secretary, Hospitality Chair, and President. Her leadership has enabled members to grow as professionals and to develop as leaders in the Chapter and in their organizations. Among other things she has dedicated her talent and time to developing and implementing successful Chapter programming. Kathy has also made herself available to coach new leaders and to share her knowledge of organizational management.
In addition, Kathy organized the successful and well attended West Coast Chapters Reception at the annual conference in Washington, D.C.
November 16, 2009
October 12, 2009
Member Interview: Craig Cruz Jr.
Craig
Cruz is originally from Honolulu but has spent most of his life in California,
growing up near Ontario. He attended university in Irvine
where he received his bachelor's in (yes) English. After school, he moved to
San Francisco and has lived there ever since. In 2006, he graduated from the
School of Library and Information Sciences at San Jose State University.
He and his partner Richard just celebrated 17 years together. His partner works as a computer researcher at a tech company in Silicon Valley and they share a house in San Francisco's St. Mary's Park neighborhood. Unfortunately, they don't have pets because Craig is very allergic to cats, dogs, and birds, but he’s been racking his brain (scheming) on how to share a living space with a cat.
He is currently Library Manager at Krames, a patient education publisher. The library supports the writers, artists, and designers who produce the content for their products, so the collection contains everything from clinical journals and textbooks to diet books and consumer health ("Popular Works"). Craig is responsible for collection development, serials management, maintaining the Web site and OPAC, and research. He likes that his job requires a little bit of everything. He’s never bored as a typical week will include cataloging, ordering, answering reference questions, communications with vendors, and updating the Web site.
What was your first library job? How has the profession changed since you started your career?
My very first library job was as an undergrad at UC Irvine. My tasks included the usual student worker duties like shelving, shelf reading, answering the phones for the reference department librarians, and filing. Oh, and filing pocket parts! How I hated those. But I really enjoyed that job, and the librarians took notice. When an Information Desk position opened, they offered to train me for it. For the first time, I helped patrons directly, assisting them in using the online catalog (this was in 1991) and answered simple reference questions, directing patrons with more complicated needs on to the reference department.
In some ways, I don't think that the profession has changed since I started my career. My career properly started only in 2002. Colleagues talk about deeper specialization, and I've seen some of that. More recently, though, I've seen librarians needing to juggle more than before with the incredible number of layoffs due to the recession. I know several librarians that have had to take on tasks that had been done by entry-level staff, staff that have been laid-off. So now they juggle cataloging with database license negotiation. Is that terribly new? Maybe not, but as someone who's recently had to start working with vendors, I can tell you that it is a new challenge to me.
How long have you been a member of SLA? How long have you been a member of the GLBT issues Caucus? What ways have you been involved in SLA and the caucus?
I've been an SLA member for 6 years, and joined the GLBTIC right away. At the local chapter level, in the past year, I've helped to plan a couple of meetings, finding venues for events and working with restaurant event planners. I also functioned as "deputy" to the local Hospitality chair, which basically meant that I checked people in at meetings, handed out name tags, and set up chairs. Grunt work, but oh so necessary for successful events. I haven't been very active yet in GLBTIC because of volunteer work with another local library organization, but my work there is winding down. My plan is to become more active after a little downtime.
What has SLA meant to you/how has it helped in your career?
I love being a part of SLA and find it to be the most supportive and useful association of the 5 library associations of which I'm a member. The classes at conference -- both the pre-conference workshops and the free presentations -- are the most consistently interesting and applicable to what I do. The people I've met have been genuinely helpful in finding ways for me to participate in the organization, and have also been available -- and more importantly, willing -- to mentor me when I needed assistance.
What do you consider the biggest issues facing librarians/libraries today, and if applicable, their impact on GLBT communities?
What
a huge question. I can't think of any way to answer this question without
venturing into controversy. But as anyone who knows me will tell you, I
often don't let that stop me from weighing in on a topic. Among the major
issues facing librarians today are copyright and the redefinition of
“library” and “librarian.” I know these issues are not new, by any means,
but they remain important developments. A decision on the Google
settlement will be due this autumn, which could ensure a more heated
contest over “fair use” and access for quite some time. The idea that
fair-use access can be denied by a single commercial entity is scary. I
don’t know which way this will go, but I do foresee a continued fight by
librarians and rights-holders if the Google settlement is approved.
As for the definitions of libraries and librarians, maybe special library practitioners have been dealing with the increasing fluidity of these words longer than our academic and public library colleagues, but I still see resistance to change. A place where information and knowledge is stored in books and printed materials might obviously be called a library. For us, a library can encompass so much more. But what about our “stakeholders,” what do they imagine when they hear about their libraries? And is the image conjured by that word something that they want to continue funding? Surveys show that no, many of them don’t want to continue funding their libraries. But they do see the need for a research department, an information center, a resource center, etc., and they’re willing to put their money into supplying that need. For me, the solution seems to be, “Well, let’s make sure our title matches what the funders see as fulfilling their needs.” We're already providing the services they need. Why not sync our terminology? Look, I didn’t grow up dreaming of being an information professional or a resource manager. I wanted to be a librarian. But I’m willing to accept that as libraries’ functions have evolved – as they have encompassed more – so too might my title have to evolve.
What do you consider the biggest issues facing the GLBT community today (challenges and/or victories)?
Ah, more landmines. Well, no one ever said life would be easy. At least, I never received that message. I think the biggest challenge for the GLBT community right now is equality: equality in marriage, in salaries, in acceptance from without and from within our community. Right now, maybe the most public of these challenges is over same-sex marriage. I know a lot of couples here in California married their life partners during the short window of time when it was legal to do so, after wanting to do for decades. Some couples I know didn’t marry because they have sought to conduct their lives outside of the hetero-paradigms. I think we need to respect both points of view, and the viewpoints in-between. I guess, in terms of equality, my over-riding concern would be self-determination.
Any other interesting facts you’d like to share about yourself?
An easy one. I’ve become more and more interested in classical music, including opera and modern concert music, over the last few years. I recently started learning to play the violin, too, although I’m mostly a fan. Of course, as a librarian (yes! My own internal reference uses this term), I’m digging I’m always willing to giving new operas a chance – even Philip Glass – no matter the period or the language, and I’m always looking for people to accompany me to the opera house. If you’re visiting my town and want to hit up an opera, let me know. If I’m visiting your town, one of the first things I’ll do is see if any opera or classical music concert will beperformed during my time there.
October 02, 2009
August 12, 2009
August 02, 2009
July 20, 2009
Member Interview: Eric Schwarz
Eric Schwarz joined SLA shortly after beginning his MLIS studies at Rutgers University in February 2005. At the same time he joined the GLBT issues caucus, and in 2007 and 2008 volunteered to be a co-convener working with Chris Mulready and Chris Vestal in running the caucus and planning events. In 2009 he was selected as one of five winners of the Diversity Leadership Development Program Award for "up and coming information professionals."
His first library job was as a student assistant at the Kilmer Area Library at
Rutgers (from 1989-92). He recalls that twenty years ago most research that he
and other students did involved books and indexes. There were a few CD-ROMs
available with full text and images from periodicals creeping into the
university at that time. Now he imagines there are many students who either never
need to consult printed materials for their research - or try very hard not to
do so. In fact, one of his library school colleagues confessed that she had
never had to borrow a book during her studies.
Eric currently works full-time job is as a Customer Service Executive for Dow Jones,
helping customers with research and account questions for Factiva and Newswires
databases. He also works part-time on alternate weekends (except in the summer)
as a reference librarian at Clarence Dillon Public Library in Bedminster, NJ.
Where are you from and where are you currently located?
I
grew up at the Jersey Shore, in the small city of Brigantine.
(You'll love that island for life, but you might need to leave for excitement.)
I've lived in Somerville,
a county seat north of New Brunswick and Princeton, for 10 years.
Tell us about your Partner/Family?
I've been with my wonderful boyfriend, Seth Bookey, for seven years. Seth has a great sense of adventure, has brought me closer to my family and his, and supports me in everything I do. Seth is also a librarian and active with the GLBT Issues Caucus.
What has SLA meant to you/how has it helped in your career?
I've met a lot of smart, caring people through SLA, and I've had the opportunity to plan, lead and facilitate connections within the information professional community. The connections and confidence I've gained from SLA have given me insight into how and why people seek and use information.
What do you consider the biggest issues facing librarians/libraries today, and if applicable, their impact on GLBT communities?
The biggest issue we face is proving and reproving our value. If people think of libraries and information centers as expendable, eventually they become expendable. In the world of business and specialized information centers, the term library is thought of as positive but antiquated. That's why it's important that SLA members seriously consider the results of the association's Alignment Project, which is meant to position ourselves and our profession in terms and actions that are meaningful to our clients and partners. That just might mean jettisoning the term "libraries" in our name. The impact of this issue cuts across all demographics. However we and the rest of the world envision the information profession, it's always important to remain sensitive to diverse populations including GLBT communities. One of SLA's strengths is our global constituency, and that's why Stephen Abram cringes when people refer to the association as "national" and why Gloria Zamora traveled to the Arabian Gulf Chapter. SLA of course was founded as a U.S. organization but is much stronger because it's global -- with the irony that the term "special libraries" is understood even less outside the United States.
What do you consider the biggest issues facing the GLBT community today (challenges and/or victories)?
The biggest challenges and victories in gay and lesbian America lately have involved relationship equality (of course, this is almost a non-issue in Canada and much of Europe). Three states in the United States now fully recognize same-sex marriages, three other states are imminent, and there are protections in some other states. (HRC.org has a succinct summary.) All of these state victories have happened in the past few years. But the biggest challenge is the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman. The act is very important because many benefits of marriage are federal, not state. However, gay-rights advocates are forced to attack the issue state by state because Congress and President Obama are unwilling to expend their political capital on the issue.
Any other interesting facts you’d like to share about yourself?
As a teenager, I would hang out at the Atlantic County Library in Brigantine, shelving and stamping books and watching the library staff cataloguing and searching for materials, and probably one of the few kids on the island who knew that a zebra code was a bar code, and that APATIDs were codes for patrons or items. For example, Rebecca Flanders' The Key would have an APATID of FLAKEY* (first three letters of the creator's last name followed by the first letter of the first four words in the title, or if fewer than four words in the title, then filled out up to four in the final word of the title). There was also a number after the APATID to disambiguate duplicates. "FLAKEY*" was featured as a humorous item in the library staff newsletter.
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Recent Posts
- GLBT Issues Caucus Events at 2011 SLA Conference
- Lambda Literary Begins 'Confessions of a Librarian'
- SLA Names Reece Dano and Christopher Vestal as Rising Stars
- SLA San Diego Chapter Honors Kathy Quinn With President's Award
- New Jersey (and New York) Librarians Introduced to GLBT Issues Caucus
- Member Interview: Craig Cruz Jr.
- Congrats to Mary Ellen Bates and the other new SLA leaders!
- Southern California SLA Happy Hour
- MD/DC/NOVA Happy Hour