News

  • 29 Jan 2015 2:37 PM | Deleted user

    By: Amy Lauder and Angela Forest


    Photo (from left to right): Jenise Overmier, Jennifer Manning, Christina M. Bailey, Damon Austin, Amy Lauder, Angela Forest, Faith Williams, Melissa Jackson, and Julius C, Jefferson Jr.

    Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?” Martin Luther King, Jr., with that sentiment in mind, on January 19, 2014, Martin Luther King, Jr., Day of Service volunteers from the District of Columbia Library Association (DCLA) honored a commitment to serve the community at Ballou High School in Southeast Washington, DC. Volunteers assisted Library Media Specialist Melissa Jackson in organizing the collection for the school’s brand new media center. This Martin Luther King, Jr., Day of Service was part of the #MySchoolLibrarian campaign organized by DCLA and DC Public School libraries. #MySchoolLibrarian brings together librarians, information professionals, and library supporters to help D.C. school librarians organize and catalog their collection of books and other material.

    DCLA President Christina M. Bailey said the service project evolved from American Library Association President Courtney Young’s advocacy challenge. “I thought it would be a good project to physically support and advocate for school libraries,” said Bailey, who works as an Information Research Specialist at the Congressional Research Service. “I’m a firm believer of advocating for libraries, and to advocate for them you need to work in them and know about them.”

    Melissa Jackson, Library Media Specialist at Ballou High School, directed the volunteers in organizing and re-shelving several hundred new books and other material provided to the school. Jackson said the service project was a tremendous benefit to the students of Ballou.

    “It’s great. We have enough people to organize, sort and shelve.” said Jackson.

    She noted she was glad she connected with other D.C. area librarians for help “to try and work smarter, not harder” to prepare the library and its collection for use by students and teachers.

    Jennifer Manning, Information Research Specialist for the Congressional Research Service, said she has often done service projects on the King Holiday through different organizations, so she was pleased to participate in the Ballou project organized through the efforts of the DCLA leadership and DCPS.

    Manning stated, “I hardly ever do any shelving or anything like that, so it’s nice to get back to my roots. It’s nice to do something physical.” She hopes that DCLA will make the service project an annual event. “It’s been fun, it’s been satisfying.”

    Jenise Overmier, a librarian at American University, said she came out Monday to volunteer because “In the spirit of Dr. King I think it’s important to carry out his legacy of service to the community, especially the schools.” She added that she appreciates school librarians and that they need support from others in the profession. “I think it’s a great cause,” she said. “I would love to do this next year.”

    DCLA Vice President Julius C. Jefferson Jr. stated “We hope that as a tribute to the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., librarians and folks in the community will provide service in a library in the community on Martin Luther King Jr day.”

    The Ballou project in honor of the MLK holiday is part of an ongoing campaign by DCLA in support of public education and literacy.

    In December DCLA volunteers worked with the librarian in the Whittier Education Campus in Northwest DC as part of the #MySchoolLibrarian campaign. DCLA is currently assessing the needs of individual schools in the DC Public Schools in hopes of expanding the #MySchoolLibrarian campaign in the future.

    You can follow DCLA on Twitter @DCLALibrarians or our Facebook page.

  • 22 Sep 2014 4:50 PM | Deleted user

     

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    Save the Date – November 20, 2014


    Data Infrastructure: The Importance of Quality and Integrity

     

    Thursday, November 20, 2014   9:00 am - 4:30 pm  
    A One-Day Workshop Co-sponsored by CENDI and NFAIS

    Hosted by NTIS at the US Patent and Trademark Office

    Madison Auditorium, USPTO, 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, VA  22314

     


    WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

    This one-day workshop is a must for anyone involved in creating, managing, or using scientific data. The Open Data movement dramatically is changing the flows as well as the roles of all involved.   This workshop will explore the technical, financial, political, and social/cultural forces that must be considered when assessing the quality and integrity of the data.  We will investigate with major stakeholders how can we rely on the quality and integrity of the data that are becoming increasingly available.  Mark your calendar now to reserve the date of this informative workshop.  Registration will open September 15, 2014to accommodate those who need to pay before the new fiscal year begins.

     

    THE FOCUS OF THE DAY

     

    The day opens with a keynote on the current landscape of data quality and integrity, including a discussion of policies, major stakeholders, needs, and issues. This will be followed by in depth discussion of the laws and policies that impact data quality and a speaker panel of data creators, funders, and managers.

     

    After a hosted lunch, speakers from the publishing, aggregating and archiving communities discuss their roles and several of the tools and applications they use to support data quality and integrity, as well as an exploration of basic requirements and expectations, assessment of user needs, and establishing quality benchmarks.  

     

    The day closes with a facilitated discussion of speakers and attendees of the day’s material, possible applications, and the envisioned future.  Discussion will include the challenges, identified gaps and next steps in building a more robust data cycle.

     

    SAVE THE DATE – NOVEMBER 20, 2014

    Speakers will be announced very soon.  They are industry and government experts who will make this day engaging, informative, and constructive.  Mark your calendars and stay tuned for further developments as the agenda is completed.  Registration opens September 15, 2014.

     

     

     

     

    FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, CONTACT:

    Jill O’Neill                                                      Kathryn Simon

    Director, Communication and Planning         Administrative Coordinator, CENDI Secretariat
    NFAIS                                                                        c/o Information International Associates, Inc.
    1518 Walnut Street, Suite 1004                      104 Union Valley Road

    Philadelphia, PA 19102-3403                         Oak Ridge, TN  37830
    (215) 893-1561  Voice                                    (865) 298-1234  Office

    (215) 893-1564  Fax                                       (865) 293-2537  Mobile                                 

    jilloneill@nfais.org                                          (865) 481-0390  Fax

                                                                            ksimon@iiaweb.com

     

     

    MORE INFORMATION ABOUT:

     

    CENDI (http://www.cendi.gov)
    CENDI, the Federal STI Managers Group, was formally created in 1985 when a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by four charter U.S. government agencies (Commerce, Energy, NASA, and Defense). From this small core of STI managers, CENDI has grown to its current membership of 13 major science agencies involved in the dissemination and long-term management of scientific and technical information.

     

     

    NFAIS (http://www.nfais.org)
    The National Federation of Advanced Information Services (NFAIS™) was founded in 1958 to advance scholarly, scientific, and professional research by enabling members to examine issues of content, technology, and business models integral to their future success.  Today, NFAIS continues to help information industry leadersundefinedinternational scholarly associations, public and private companies, libraries, major corporations, and government agenciesundefinedstay on top of the latest trends, technologies and research methodologies by advancing communication and collaboration across the global information community
    .

     

  • 03 Aug 2014 9:48 PM | Deleted user

    Read the full transcript of Dr. James Billington's, Librarian of Congress, address at DCLA's 120th Anniversary and Awards Ceremony Banquet on June 20th, 2014.

    Download it here: 2014_Annual_Banquet_Speech.pdf

    To learn more about Dr. Billington, click here.

  • 03 Aug 2014 9:36 PM | Deleted user

    The attached report is a summary of actions and reports of the 2014 ALA Annual Council Sessions. All council documents, when applicable, are presented in their numerical order. The reports from ALA offices and committees summarized are the reports which were presented to the Council by their representative. Reports not presented in Council session, along with procedural documents, tributes, and honorary resolutions are not referred to in this report but may be viewed from the ALA Council Documents webpage through the following link: Council Documents.

    All Council documents in this report are accessible through links in the section headings.

    Resolutions are presented in their official title (with the exception of CD 18, the resolution for ALA to be a signatory to the Lyon Declaration, as no official title was given), their Council Document number (CD Number), and the action taken by the council–whether or not the resolution passed or failed. Beneath the headings are the only the resolved clauses of the resolutions. For the full text of the resolution click on the CD number. If necessary, there is additional information about the resolution beneath the resolved clause. However, in many cases, the resolved clauses are self-explanatory and no synopsis is given.

    Reports of the committees are listed by their titles with a link to the full report and then summarized beneath their headings.

    In addition to the resolutions, reports, and actions summarized in this report, there is also information regarding elections to the ALA Committee on Committees and Planning and Budget Assembly, as well as final conference attendance.

    Respectfully Submitted,

    Christopher J. Corrigan, DCLA Chapter Councilor (2014-2016) American Library Association

    Download the report here: DCLA_Councilor_Report_ALAAC14.pdf.

  • 30 Jul 2014 10:09 AM | Deleted user

    FTRF to award two scholarships for "Intellectual Freedom and Censorship" LIS course

    http://www.ftrf.org/news/184122/FTRF-to-award-two-scholarships-for-Intellectual-Freedom-and-Censorship-LIS-course.htm

    The Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) will provide two scholarships to interested Library & Information Science (LIS) students for “Intellectual Freedom and Censorship,” a two-credit online course taking place August 26–October 10, 2014.  The course is provided by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) in conjunction with FTRF’s Judith F. Krug Fund Intellectual Freedom Education Project.

    The scholarships are open to anyone currently enrolled in an LIS program other than the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign GSLIS. Interested students are asked to fill out a short application, including a 200-word essay describing their interest in taking the course.  Course lectures will be synchronous, and students must be available on Tuesdays from 4:00–6:00 p.m. Central Time.  For technical requirements associated with the course, please visit http://groups.lis.illinois.edu/itdweb/bbcollaborate/started.php.

    Students enrolled in programs affiliated with the WISE consortium will be provided course credit automatically upon completion of the course.  Others will need to coordinate course credit with their home institution.

    Applications are open through Monday, August 4 and the winners will be announced on Thursday, August 7.  To apply, and more information about the course and FTRF’s Krug Fund Intellectual Freedom Education Project, please visit http://www.ftrf.org/?Krug_Education or contact Jonathan Kelley at jokelley@ala.org or (312) 280-4226

  • 29 Jul 2014 4:01 PM | Deleted user

    The results are in! Congratulations to the following new members of the DCLA Board who will serve 2014-2016, with the exception of the Vice-President/President-Elect who will serve a 3 year term.

    • Vice-President/President-Elect: Julius C. Jefferson, Jr., Congressional Research Service
    • Treasurer: TaChalla Ferris, DC Public Library
    • Membership Secretary: Barbara (Bobbie) Dougherty, DC Public Library
    • Director, Systems: Jamilla Coleman, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

    The Nominations and Elections Committee thanks everyone who ran for a position. If you or someone you know is interested in serving on the Board, it is never too early to submit a nomination for the coming year. Next year we will be filling the positions of Vice-President/President-Elect; Secretary; Director, Career & Leadership Development; and Director, Advocacy. Attend an open board meeting throughout the year to learn more about the leadership of the association. You can also get involved by joining a committee, or forming an interest group.

  • 10 Jul 2014 11:02 AM | Deleted user

    The Nominating & Elections Committee is pleased to open the voting for this year's Board Election cycle. Candidate bios and the ballot are available in the Member Resources section of the site. Voting will be open until Friday, July 25.

    http://www.dcla.org/2014-Board-Elections

    Thank you!

    Jacqueline Protka, Bill Turner, April King, Richard Huffine

    DCLA Nominating & Elections Committee

  • 02 Jul 2014 12:38 PM | Deleted user
    At their meeting in Las Vegas on June 28th, the Council of the American Library Association (ALA) overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling on Congress to grant the District of Columbia budget autonomy thereby allowing libraries, to remain open during a federal government shutdown. The text of the resolution is below.

     

    The resolution recognizes the unnecessary burden library users and staff face due to the DC's inability to spend its own funds without authorization from Congress. There are a lot of people to thank for this, Not wanting to use their names publicly without their permission, they'll be omitted from this email. However, their hard work to make this happen is truly appreciated.

    ---

     

                                                              2013-2014 ALA CD#45_6/29/14_act

                                                                            2014 ALA Annual Conference

    Resolution on Granting the District of Columbia Government Budget Autonomy to Allow City Services, including Libraries, to Remain Open during a Federal Government Shutdown

     

    Whereas Congress did not pass a continuing resolution to fund the federal government at the beginning of fiscal year 2014;

     

    Whereas the District of Columbia (D.C.) government had passed its budget for fiscal year 2014 but was unable to spend local tax revenue without authorization from Congress;

     

    Whereas D.C.’s nearly 700,000 residents would have been subject to a government shutdown if Mayor Vincent Gray had not declared all D.C. government employees to be essential and used the city’s reserve fund to pay them;

     

    Whereas a D.C.-government shutdown would have deprived its citizens of access to the 26 public library branches throughout the city, access to the 90 meeting and study rooms in those branches, library services to patrons with disabilities, resources from the library’s adult literacy division, and the library’s early childhood literacy campaign, and

     

    Whereas during October 2013, the month of the shutdown, the DC Public Library registered 2,207 children and teens for library services, served 22,875 children through programming, held classes for 1667 patrons in library space, and provided access to 35,031 people who used the library for meetings in the library’s public meeting space, now, therefore, be it

    Resolved, that the American Library Association urges Congress to grant the District of Columbia budget autonomy in order to prevent the unnecessary closing of city government facilities, including public libraries, in the event of a federal government shutdown.

  • 20 May 2014 6:11 PM | Deleted user

     

    The “USA FREEDOM Act” (H.R. 3361) is now poised for a vote by the full House of Representatives on or about Wednesday, May 21st, barely two weeks since a deal was struck by their Chairmen to spring a new version from the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees. As reported in District Dispatch on May 8, while the Committees’ new version of H.R. 3361 doesn’t make all of the changes in current law that ALA and other civil liberties advocates believe necessary to fully protect the American public’s privacy, it does take the important step of ending the “bulk collection” of telephone record data so sensationally disclosed in the press over the past year.

    Before reaching the House floor, however, H.R. 3361, must first be considered by the powerful Rules Committee. Sources say that it is likely to make further changes in the bill, including some that could weaken the public protections afforded by the current Judiciary/Intelligence version of the bill. As always, the Rules Committee also will decide what further amendments to the legislation undefined if any undefined will be in order when the bill reaches the floor and all other terms of the floor debate.

    Together with 32 of its library and other coalition partners, ALA wrote last week to all key House leaders and Members urging them to strengthen and clarify the Judiciary/Intelligence version of H.R. 3361 in the Rules Committee . . . and endorsing Congressional adoption of critical further privacy protections. The most sweeping of those recommendations are not likely to be accepted and included in the Rules Committee’s version of the bill that the full House will consider. The odds are good, however, that vital corrections urged by ALA and others will be made to assure that, at minimum, the USA FREEDOM Act will truly end the bulk collection of telephone data as Congress says it intends.

    NOW is the time for all ALA members, friends, supporters and privacy protectors of all kinds to contact their Representatives in the House! Use the fast and friendly tools at ALA’s Legislative Action Center to easily find your Member of Congress and to tell him or her:

    1. correct and strengthen HR 3361 as recommended by ALA and its coalition partners in their joint letter to assure that it really will end bulk telephone data collection;
    2. don’t water the bill down by weakening key protections now in the bill; and
    3. pass more legislation later this year to restore the right legal balance between guarding our liberty and our security.
  • 20 May 2014 5:58 PM | Deleted user

    We are currently accepting nominations for the following District of Columbia Library Association awards:

     Elizabeth W. Stone Outstanding New Leader Award

     This award made its debut last year and  honors a recent library/information school graduate who is making substantial contributions to his or her employing library or the DC area library community. Nominees should be DCLA members, have at least two years of DC area library work experience, and have earned their library/information science degree no more than 5 years ago. The inaugural award winners were Christopher Corrigan and Rebecca Trinite.

     

    Ainsworth Rand Spofford President’s Award

     Named for the first president of DCLA, this award recognizes outstanding, long-term contributions to the development or improvement of library and information services.  This was awarded in 2012 to Nancy Gwinn, past DCLA president and current Director of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, and in 2013 to the Lubuto Library Project.

     

    Distinguished Service Award

     This award recognizes outstanding contributions to the organization by an active, current member of DCLA.  This was awarded in 2012 to April King for her activities with the DCLA Board and the Children’s and Young Adults Interest Group, and in 2013 to Barbara Conaty for her long service to the DCLA Board and the DCLA newsletter.

     

    Community Service Award

     Candidates for this award must have volunteered their library expertise to develop or improve a library service, program, or facility unrelated to their employment. The nominee must demonstrate a significant level of service and commitment that directly benefits the community in the greater Washington area. Preference is given to current DCLA members. This was last awarded in 2009 to Richard Huffine for his dedicated leadership of the Federation of Friends of the D.C. Public Libraries, and in 2013 to Abby Yochelson for her work with the Literary Hill BookFest, Everybody Wins! DC and the DCLA Financial Aid Committee.

      

    For full awards criteria and lists of past winners, please see http://www.dcla.org/awards . Since DCLA membership is  required for some  award categories, please also check the Membership Directory on the DCLA website.

      Please keep in mind that we do not issue awards in every category every year. 

     

    To nominate a worthy colleague (there are no forms to fill out!), please contact Jennifer Manning, Awards Chair, at jmanning@crs.loc.gov  or 202-707-7565. Please submit nominations by Tuesday, June 3rd.