SLA San Diego Chapter

Talking with Martha McPhail about the value of SLA

Since the late 1970s, Martha McPhail has not just been an SLA member, she's gotten the most out of her membership by seizing leadership opportunities and staying engaged with the association's decision making and strategy. Here Martha shares a few thoughts regarding the value of her long-term involvement with SLA.
 
Currently, Martha works for San Diego State University as a catalog librarian and women's studies librarian.
 
If you'd like to contact Martha, please write to her at [email protected].
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Talking with Martha McPhail about the value of SLA

As an academic librarian, how do you benefit from SLA? 
 
SLA’s broad scope allows many academic librarians to identify and network with compatible colleagues. I certainly have, through the three divisions I belong to: Museums, Arts and Humanities; Social Sciences; and Education. All of these are relevant to my daily work as a bibliographer for women’s studies.

I do belong to more specialized associations, such as SALALM for Latin American subject librarians and ACRL to keep up with academic trends. I belong to ALA to read American Libraries and to support our public and school libraries through ALA’s lobbying efforts. ALA conferences are too large and overwhelming.

SLA’s annual conference is right-sized, the exhibits showcase new technologies and services, the programs are educational, and I enjoy being in a different city each year. So I find SLA suits me professionally and personally.
 
What do you remember the most, or the most fondly, from your years of SLA membership? 

I first joined SLA in the late 1970s while serving as a sci/tech librarian in Sorrento Valley, back when there were horses on the hillside. I conducted all the online searching for our scientists on topics such as astrophysics, geothermal energy and nuclear testing. I also had to acquire, catalog and reshelve the books and journals: the whole gamut of operating a small special library.
 
Networking with other one-person library colleagues was greatly helpful to me, and I met them through our San Diego SLA meetings.
 
But then I decided to retool and pursue my personal interests, so I attended night classes at SDSU to get my second master’s in Latin American Studies. I was very fortunate that SDSU Library needed a librarian to catalog all the Spanish-language materials, and they hired me in May 1988. I’ve been able to merge my personal interests with my professional responsibilities, to serve twice as a Fulbright Scholar in Honduras and El Salvador, and to be professionally active internationally.
 
I’ve had a great career, and SLA has played a big role in my success.
 
What do you feel has been your biggest contribution to SLA?
 
That’s a hard question. For SLA-SD, I've served as the archivist, a director of the chapter's annual seminar, and the president during 1996/97. For SLA international, I've served as Chair of the Division of Museums, Arts and Humanities; on the Committee on Cataloging several times; on the Denver Conference Planning Committee; and on various task forces.
 
Chapters are the core of SLA, and as the SLA-SD Chapter president, I initiated the President’s Award which acknowledges outstanding service by a chapter member. I appointed our chapter’s first liaison to LIS students, beginning our support of scholarships for emerging young leaders. I am pleased both have continued. Serving since 1991 as one of SLA’s representatives to IFLA, the International Federation of Library Associations, I’ve been a big booster of internationalizing SLA. Locally, I organized a bus tour of special libraries in Baja California and arranged for our chapter to pay two Mexican librarians’ SLA dues for two years. Some of our members still talk about that great bus tour. 
 
If you had it to do all over again, would you still contribute so much time and energy to SLA?

Yes, indeed! SLA has advanced my professional development and enriched my personal life. I owe SLA a great deal; it is why I have accepted various posts when offered. SLA is run by volunteers and is only effective when members contribute their abilities.

When you look in the crystal ball, what do you see in coming years for SLA and SLA-SD?
 
It’s pleasing to meet new colleagues at chapter meetings and events; SLA-SD has a bright future in our beautiful corner of the world. SLA will provide outstanding opportunities for learning, networking and service for us librarians and information professionals, and hence for our patrons. “Putting knowledge to work”: that’s SLA!
 
What's next for you?
 
I am retiring in June 2010! I’ll continue working the spring semester at SDSU for a couple of years, but will live in North Carolina during summer and fall. I expect to volunteer at an art museum library, assist Latinos with learning English, attend folk music festivals, read novels and travel.
 
I wish continued success for SLA-SD. Ya’ll come visit me in my beautiful Blue Ridge mountain home!

XXX

Interview conducted and written by Daria DeCooman

Talking with SLA-SD President Elect Bobbi Weaver about the Power of Volunteering

During the 2009 SLA Conference, SLA-SD President Elect Bobbi Weaver received the inaugural Business & Finance Division’s Leadership & Service Award. This new award was created to recognize members who demonstrate exemplary leadership and service to community or nonprofit organizations. In the interview presented here, Bobbi fills us in on her experiences as a volunteer and offers insights into the benefits that volunteering brings.

Photo: Bobbi Weaver receives the Business & Finance Division’s 2009 Leadership & Service Award from (on the left) Margaret Nelson with EvaluatePharma USA (the sponsor of the award) and (on the right) Terri Brooks, the Business and Finance Division's chair. 

How did you get started as a volunteer? What was your inspiration?

Since I was a child, I’ve been doing volunteer work. I was a Brownie and Girl Scout, and we often were recruited to do various community activities. When I was in college, I was an officer in the Canterbury Club, an Episcopalian-affiliated student fellowship group, through which I did outreach to an area nursing home. 

More recently, I became involved in volunteering to enhance my foreign language skills. In July 2004, I did a volunteer vacation at the Fundacción de Proteción Animal (FPA) in Loja, Ecuador where I organized the group’s small library and did a guest lecture on animal law for the law students at a local university. 
 
In later years, I began relearning French. To help my French skills, I developed an HTML file for La Société Québécoise pour la Défense des Animaux with links to Quebec municipal laws related to companion animals. I later became involved in literacy issues in Haiti, and periodically sent French books to a private school there.

How did you get involved with Haiti Reads, the group cited in the SLA Business & Finance Division's announcement regarding its awarding you the award?

A few months ago, a shipment of French books to the school in Haiti was returned to me. Rather than attempting to resend the package, I searched the Internet for organizations within the US that assist people in Haiti.
 
During my research, I found Haiti Reads. I contacted the president of the organization, Jeanette Attiso, and asked if she could use the French books. She said yes. As we conversed by email, I told her I was a librarian and she indicated that Haiti Reads was planning a small library to serve a community in Port-au-Prince. She later asked if I would be interested in serving on the board of Haiti Reads, and in advising them on the organization of the new library. I agreed, and have been assisting with issues of fundraising, collection development, preservation, cataloging and classification.
 
What results have you seen from your personal volunteer efforts, as well as efforts of nonprofits for which you've served as a volunteer?

In Ecuador, FPA was able to provide materials to a variety of patrons (e.g., members of the general community, university students, veterinary students, farmers), and thus able to help educate people on the humane treatment of animals. For the group, in addition to print materials, I compiled a list of Spanish-language links for information on animal welfare and environmental protection. Unfortunately, FPA later closed due to financial constraints, but the library’s collection was donated to a local university library. 

For Haiti Reads, I’m glad to have been able to provide the direction to launch the new library project. Though the new library is still in development, the building has been rented and is scheduled for renovations next month. This library will provide books and literacy training to children in one of the poorest areas of Haiti’s capital city. 
 
What does volunteering bring you?

Volunteering makes me thankful for what I do have, rather than envious of what I don’t. I am also personally motivated by my faith. 

Volunteering also enhances professional skills that I may not use in my regular job. For example, my job primarily involves reference, but in my volunteer work I’ve used other librarianship skills. I’ve also been able to keep up-to-date on resources outside the traditional legal resources that I use day-to-day.

What advice do you have for other info pros looking to get going with volunteering?

Many local organizations could benefit by having volunteers with librarianship skills. Additionally, because of our proximity to Mexico, librarians might want to consider opportunities across the border. In addition to educational institutions such as schools, organizations dealing with animal protection, environmental protection and human rights can use information professionals to help with community outreach. 

A great place to find volunteer opportunities is the website Idealist.org.  This site offers a database of volunteer opportunities throughout the world. Also, for job-seekers, Idealist.org includes job listings for nonprofit organizations in the US and worldwide.  

XXX

Interview conducted and written by Daria DeCooman

International librarianship conference draws SLA members

Info pros from the US, Mexico and beyond gathered March 4-6, 2009 at the XV Transborder Library Forum (FORO) conference in Tijuana. This year's conference addressed "Exploring Common Interests; Expanding Opportunities."
 

SLA-SD member Martha McPhail, a longtime FORO participant, moderated in Spanish a panel on how the economic crisis is affecting bookstores. SLA-SD President-Elect Bobbi Weaver gave a presentation on Spanish-language legal resources. Other SLA-SD members also participated in this year's FORO.
 

During a conference dinner at the library on the CETYS Tijuana campus, several SLA members paused for photos. The group photo shown here includes, left to right: SLA Business & Finance member, Jenny Mueller-Alexander with Arizona State University; Jesus Lau with Universidad Veracruzana and incoming president of the Mexican Library Association AMBAC (www.ambac.org.mx); Martha McPhail with SDSU; Dorothy McGarry with UCLA; Pat Sullivan with SDSU; SLA-SD member Daria DeCooman with Elsevier; and Armando Robles with CETYS.
 

This year, San Diego State University and CETYS Universidad organized and helped support the FORO. However, notably, FORO isn't officially part of any association and has no ties to other organizations. On March 5, during a conference session, Dr. Jesus Lau showed photos of past FOROs and talked about the valuable impact of these grassroots conferences on his life. After his talk, folks raved about the personal-testimonial-type approach in taking a look at the importance of FORO conferences. Attendees loved the photos Dr. Lau shared and praised him for taking them on a trip down memory lane.
 

The 2011 FORO will take place at the University of Texas in Austin. See the FORO site at http://foro.cetys.net/FOROINGLES/index_in.html.

Martha McPhail moderates a 2009 FORO panel.

SLA-SD members and colleagues from both sides of the border
have fun at the 2009 FORO in Tijuana.

Submitted by SLA-SD Archivist Daria DeCooman ([email protected]). 

SLA-SD donation helps support shelter library in Tijuana

Thanks to an SLA-SD donation of $200, the La Roca Library in Tijuana is outfitted with needed supplies to help make it through the rest of this academic year.

The library serves impoverished youngsters attending the La Roca Primary School as well as young people and their moms living at the La Roca shelter for homeless and abandoned single-parent families.

Through an RE Cares grant, librarian Maria Luisa Mendez Lozada (standing at the left in the photo) is staffing the La Roca Library this academic year and delivering library services to La Roca young people and adults. Generous donations, such as the one from SLA-SD, have helped stretch the grant dollars and are much appreciated.

The SLA-SD donation has purchased supplies needed to help keep the library in good shape. This photo shows Maria Luisa and La Roca kids happily receiving the supplies. (Photo courtesy of George Perez, a Corazon de Vida staff member.)

Maria Luisa and youngsters who rely on the library have sent a big "Thank you!" to SLA-SD.

For more on La Roca, visit the Corazon de Vida website. A nonprofit, CDV supports La Roca, along with 13 other Baja orphanages and shelters.

Or visit Elsevier's La Roca blog at www.projectlaroca.blogspot.com/ or Library Connect News blog at http://libraryconnect.blogspot.com/

La Roca Library Update: Donations Needed!

PLEASE COULD YOU DONATE MATERIALS NEEDED AT LA ROCA LIBRARY?

This is an update on the La Roca Library project, an international librarianship project supported by southern California librarians including SLA-SD member Daria DeCooman.

 

La Roca Librarian Maria Luisa Mendez Lozada, on board at La Roca since October 2008, reports the library needs the below items. The Reed Elsevier Cares grant, received in spring 2008, has already funded the library's physical upgrade and continues to pay Maria Luisa's salary as well as
that of Isidro Santiago, who manages the La Roca Library's computers. However, the RE Cares grant doesn't comprise sufficient funds to cover the cost of additional items needed for the library at this time.

Please, if you have any of the below items, won't you donate them to the La Roca Library? New or used items will be gladly accepted. (For any specific donation, US-based nonprofit Corazon de Vida (www.corazondevida.org), which is helping administer the library's RE Cares grant, can provide a letter for tax purposes.)

If you have any of the below-listed items to donate, please contact me. I'll get the items delivered to La Roca.

Happy holidays,
Daria DeCooman
La Roca/Corazon de Vida/RE Cares Volunteer

SLA-SD Archivist

[email protected]

MATERIALS NOW NEEDED BY LA ROCA LIBRARY

The following list is from La Roca Librarian Maria Luisa Mendez Lozada
([email protected]).

CLEANING MATERIAL:
Windex to clean windows
Pinol
Paper towels, toilet paper, newspaper to clean windows Trash bags Spray
or liquid cleaner for computers

CRAFT MATERIAL:
Plastina or play dough
Spatulas
Flannel
Brushes of different lengths & thicknesses Tempura paint

FURNITURE AND OFFICE SUPPLIES:
2 tables, each for 10 children
20 children's stackable chairs
Clear 3M tape to protect library labels on book spines Typewriter or
laser printer

AUDIOVISUAL:
6 headsets
6 microphones
Digital camera with USB

EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS:
Wood puzzles (with all the pieces please) Jigsaw puzzles of about 100
pieces Concentration games for preschool to grade 6 Games to encourage
learning to read (in Spanish, or in Spanish and English) Scrabble in
Spanish

BOOKS (all in Spanish):
Riddles
Children's fables
Picture books about animals
Books by Anthony Browne
World almanac
Stories about Mexican culture
Title: "Oink"
Title: The happy Trapito Book on dinosaurs with illustrations
Title: "Zoom lens" and "Rezoom"
Book of events
Atlases of the human body, the world, Mexico
Subject: First aid
Dictionary of computation
Dictionary of computer science for dummies Encyclopedias about Mexico
Animal encyclopedias
 
CDs & DVDs (all in Spanish):
Encarta reference library
The Reading Rabbit: First steps, the Way of the reading, Pre-school,
First...
Pingu and its friendly
Dr. Seuss's ABC
Tortoise and the Hare
To add and to subtract (a program of Z multimedia) Incredible animals (a
program of Z multimedia)