NASIG Newsletter

PROFILES

AWARDS & RECOGNITION COMMITTEE
Susan Davis, Profiles Editor

The Awards & Recognition Committee began life as the Student Grant Committee in 1987, when we only offered conference grants to library school students. The name changed in 1996 when NASIG added the Horizon Award and began investigating additional awards.  The committee was also given responsibility for the recognition gifts presented at each conference starting in 1997.  A&R was last profiled as this transition was taking place, so it seemed like an update was quite overdue!

I asked current co-chairs Clint Chamberlain and Patrick Carr to share some insights about the committee’s activities. Continue reading 23:1 (2008:03) Profiles: Awards & Recognition…

PROFILES

SARAH SUTTON
Susan Davis, Profiles Editor

Sarah is the serials/electronic resources librarian at the Mary & Jeff Bell Library of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. I met Sarah at the 2003 conference when I was a member of the Awards & Recognition Committee and she was the Horizon Award winner. Thanks to the essay she had to write as part of the award application (http://www.nasig.org/awards/timedated/horizon.html) I had a head start preparing some questions to help us learn more about this very busy lady.

I read that Sarah had been a travel agent before becoming a librarian. So I asked her to tell us how she became a travel agent and to share some of her experiences and any memorable trips or stories.

Sarah Sutton, Serials Electronic Resources Librarian
Continue reading 23:1 (2008:03) Profiles: Sarah Sutton…

PROFILES

NEW BOARD MEMBERS: PETER WHITING, ANNA CREECH AND JEFF SLAGELL
Susan Davis, Profiles Editor

In light of the recent discussions about recruiting more members to run for office, I thought it would be interesting to see what our most recently-elected class of board members had to say and to learn a little more about them. I asked them some questions about their NASIG involvement and what advice they would give others who are interested in becoming more active in NASIG. I hope you find their comments as informative and inspiring as I have.

Member at Large Jeff Slagell

HOW DID YOU FIRST GET INVOLVED IN NASIG?

Peter probably has the most seniority as a NASIG member. He writes that he heard about NASIG while taking a serials class for his master’s degree in library science at Rosary College. The class was taught by Jim Mouw and one of his classmates was another NASIG member, Christine Stamison. He attended the 1992 conference in Chicago and has been hooked ever since! He even went to the White Sox baseball game because he likes baseball and it was a good way to network (as we huddled together on an unexpectedly chilly night). His first committee assignment was actually the Horizon award task force headed by Anne McKee.

Jeff had a fortuitous encounter with a NASIG member. His story began at a SOLINET workshop at the University of Alabama when he was a freshly-minted serials librarian. He decided to introduce himself to some of the library faculty and arranged to meet with Beth Holley. One of the first sentences out of her mouth was, “Have you ever heard of NASIG?” Jeff reminds Beth of the meeting every year at our annual conference and refers to her as “my NASIG Mom.”

Anna also had a push in NASIG’s direction. She was a freshly-minted librarian in her first professional job as a serials cataloger, and her supervisor suggested she look into the NASIG conference. There was a preconference seminar that seemed to be spot on with what she needed to learn, so her library sent her to the William & Mary conference. She’s been involved ever since. Continue reading 22:4 (2007:12) Profiles: New Board Members…

PROFILES

ALICE RHOADES
Susan Davis, Profiles Editor

One of the perks of preparing these profiles is the chance to meet and learn more about fellow NASIG members. The subject of this issue’s profile, Alice Rhoades, is truly a Renaissance woman. At present she is a serials cataloger at Rice University’s Fondren Library in Houston. Alice had a life in the theater before becoming a librarian, and has put her theatrical talents to use at NASIG conferences. She performed in the wonderfully hilarious, and all too true, skits at the 20th anniversary celebration. Alice has also graced the “stage” at NASIG’s Open Mike sessions. Plus I learned that we danced some of the night away in San Diego!

Alice majored in theatre as an undergraduate, and worked in theatre, mostly in acting, for about a dozen years before becoming a librarian. She mainly worked at small theatres in the northeast, doing all kinds of stuff–Shakespeare, children’s theatre, the New York Renaissance Faire, dinner theatre comedy, you name it. Her first paying role in New York was a chicken in a children’s play (because she did a fabulous job clucking!)—she always knew she would be able to use that story when she was famous and appearing on a talk show. Instead, she gets to share the story with a much more discriminating audience, fellow NASIG members. While she was an apprentice at the Alley Theatre in Houston, she saw Katherine Hepburn backstage. Ms. Hepburn had come to see her good friend Kate Reid star in “The Corn is Green,” which she watched discreetly from the lighting booth. By the time she came down, word had spread and all the cast and crew were not-so-nonchalantly loitering in the hallways to try to get a glimpse of the legend. Alice was so excited to see her that she realized only years later that meant that Katherine Hepburn had seen her act!

Continue reading 22:4 (2007:12) Profiles: Alice Rhoades…

PROFILES

CHAR SIMSER
Susan Davis, Columns Editor

Some things change, some things stay the same.  What has changed?  The person responsible for putting together this column is no longer Maggie Rioux.  However, following tradition, the newly installed NASIG President, Char Simser, is the subject of this profile.  I think she sets a record by being the first individual to be profiled twice.

I was coerced into taking over this column when Maggie subtly mentioned it during our convivial evening on a NASIG dine-around in Louisville. I must have made a serious dent in my margarita to have even considered accepting, but Maggie and Kathryn Wesley are a tough team to say “no” to.  Luckily I had Char’s earlier profile in v.19, no. 1 (March 2004) of the NASIG Newsletter to fall back upon for material.  Feel free to refer back to the earlier article (http://nasig.org/newsletters/newsletters.2004/04march/04march_profiles.html#CHAR) if you get lost or are confused by my questions or Char’s answers.

As a former NASIG President, I couldn’t resist asking Char some questions about the president’s column she has to write for each issue.  And as a former editor of the newsletter, the tables are now turned on her!  I could hear the “Argh!” as she responded to my question about how she felt now that she has to turn in copy on deadline.   I then asked her if she had any pets that might be speaking in her column (referring to the past adventures of Twyla, Jimmie Dale, and my cat Peaches.)  Char has a cat named Tinkerbell who was adopted by her co-worker but could not adjust to her new home with two other cats.  Tinker will be 10 later this year and is not a people cat and will not be appearing in Char’s columns.  However, you may be able to sneak a peak at Tinkerbell on Char’s Flickr site (http://www.Flickr.com/photos/kstatelibrarian/).

I also asked Char to compare the time she spent on the NASIG Newsletter as editor-in-chief versus NASIG President.  Since she only has experience as the vice president she did confess that editor-in-chief took much more time.  However, she reserves the right to reconsider her answer at the Phoenix conference.  And after the discussion about running for office recently, she has a head start on a topic for her column.

Char clearly has a creative bent.  She’s into creative writing and Maggie told us in the March 2004 piece to ask how her novel was coming along.  So I did ask.  Just like many of us, she admits that her brain has very little in the way of creative juices at the end of the workday. She set the novel aside for awhile, but was able to complete a first draft by switching to a screenplay format.  Now she has to find time (maybe when she needs to escape from the pressures of the presidency) to revise it again.  She has an affinity for Star Wars, having become addicted to the GFFA (Galaxy Far, Far, Away).  She began reading the Star Wars novels, which got her into writing (publishing stories under the name of Charlene Newcomb), which led her to AOL and chat rooms, where she discovered thousands of others who shared her enthusiasm.  She became part of a group of women who met for weekly chats about the novels and the original trilogy. Thirty women met in person for the first time in Las Vegas in 1997, and the group, which has grown to 80+ members, still meets annually. 

I would be remiss in not mentioning that this year is the 30th anniversary of the original Star Wars movie.  A huge gathering of over 30,000 people convened to celebrate the occasion in Los Angeles this past May.  Char and others in her group were able to work the convention as stage hand, green room wrangler, crowd control manager, and more, including “Team Cake.”  According to Char’s blog, volunteers worked tirelessly to prepare the many birthday cakes needed for the 6,000 fans who sang “Happy Birthday” to Star Wars on May 25, 2007.  And think about how many days Char had to refocus her attention to the NASIG conference, which started for her with a board meeting on May 30.  The woman is a trooper!

Char has created a Star Wars character, Alex (Alexandra) Winger, and in an exclusive interview with yours truly reveals that Alex has a cameo in Vision of the Future by novelist Timothy Zahn.  Star Wars enthusiasts have detailed her life (based on Char’s stories) fairly accurately on Wookieepedia (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Alex_Winger). 

Char and friend at at the UFO Watchtower in Hooper, Colorado.

Words are not the only things Char plays with.  In high school she played rhythm guitar and electronic organ for an all-girl rock band called “liberation.”  How many other catalogers have been members of rock bands?  She also loves to take photos with her digital camera.  She inherited the shutter bug from her dad, who was an avid still and 8- & 16-mm film photographer.  Thanks to her dad, there is a family history going back to 1943.  Char’s Flickr site has a large collection of family photos and she tells me that her two oldest children are carrying on the photo bug.

And speaking of children, I asked Char is she had become an empty nester yet.  She will be one as of August 19 when her youngest son, Jeff, heads off to college in Texas where he has a cheer scholarship.  He transferred there from K-State to improve his tumbling skills.  Jenny is a junior at K-State majoring in marketing and a team coach at a local gymnastics center.  Do I detect a theme here??  Char’s oldest son, Joel, is a video production editor in central Florida.  He has aspirations to write, direct and edit his own films.  Maybe mom will get him to turn her script (aka the novel) into a movie someday. Char is extremely proud of her brood, with good reason.   I found a May 2006 photo of the “kids.”

Char’s kids, left to right, Joel, Jenny, Jeff.  No wonder she’s proud!

 In her spare time she likes to garden. Char believes her thumb is not green so she looks for low maintenance plants like daylilies and perennials to fill her huge backyard.   She hopes to reduce the amount of grass she needs to mow to a mere ¼ of her yard.  My brother-in-law who is also a cataloger has the same idea.

I have to admit that while I’ve known Char professionally for years, I didn’t know her very well. She is up to some amazing things and clearly has the creative talent and energy to be a super NASIG President.  I encourage the membership to visit her blog and Flickr space frequently to keep up with this extraordinary woman.
 

RIOUX RETIREMENT
Maggie Rioux, Profiles Editor

Gentle readers – This will be my last column as your NASIG Newsletter Profiles Editor.  I’ve been doing this for four years now and I think that’s enough, so I’m retiring from the Newsletter Editorial Board. Kathryn Wesley, my esteemed and talented editor, said I could have some space in this issue to say a few final words to you all (after all, it’s only a few extra electrons, not like it costs more money to publish or anything).

Now Maggie will have more time for her origami 

First off, I want to thank Kathryn and her predecessor, Char Simser, for allowing me to occupy this bully pulpit for four years.  As I was finishing my past-presidential year in 2003 I figured out that I was sure to get tagged for some other assignment the minute I was off the board, so I thought I’d find my own slot.  One of the things I enjoyed most about my term as president was writing the “President’s Corner” column for the Newsletter.  Unlike a formal professional article, with the column I could relax and just write as if I were talking to you all face to face.  The profiles editor slot was vacant at the time so I harassed Char until she hired me for it. (I reminded her that she owed me one since I’d appointed her as editor-in-chief the year before.)  I promised her three things: 1) I would always answer any email she sent me; 2) I would not disappear from the face of the earth without notice and 3) I would always get my copy in by deadline.  I think I’ve kept my promise pretty well.

I also want to thank the subjects of all the profiles I’ve written over the past four years. Thank you for responding to my emailed questions and demands for CVs with good grace, reasonable promptness, and not too much nagging on my part.  Thank you also for being good sports when I teased you in print and destroyed whatever shreds of dignity you might have been clinging to.  I did have one bit of leverage in getting subjects to answer questions (which I never had to resort to, I’m glad to say): I threatened that if I didn’t get answers on time, I reserved the right to make something up.

Maggie can also spend more time hanging out with her friends

And a final thank you to you, gentle readers.  Thank you for reading the profiles and taking them in the spirit of fun in which they were meant. It’s been a lot of fun for me and I hope for you all too.
 
One last note – I’m retiring from the Newsletter, but not from my place of employment or from NASIG. I’ll hope to see you all in Louisville real soon.

See you around!

BOTH SIDES
Maggie Rioux, Profiles Editor

I’ve heard it said that there are two kinds of people in the world: those that think everything can be divided into two groups and those that don’t.  Well, it seems to me that NASIG is in the first group of those two.  We tend to think that NASIGers fall into two groups: serialists who work in libraries and serialists who work in non-library settings (notably subscription agents, publishers and other content providers, and miscellaneous vendor-types).  The problem comes not with the taxonomy, but when we start to see whichever group we, personally, fall into as “us” and the other group as “them.”  When this happens, we also tend to see the membership in each group as unchanging (i.e., once a “whatever,” always a “whatever”).  This fits neither the concept of NASIG as a whole bunch of miscellaneous serialist “us’ns” nor the reality that serialists have a perverse tendency to change jobs.  Often this job change involves “crossing the street,” so to speak.

NASIG includes all serialists and has always aimed at providing a “perspective-neutral” setting in which to network and learn.  We have also sought to have our conferences include programming of interest to all types of serialists and also to allow us to see the world from others’ perspectives.  Sometimes these goals have been elusive, but that doesn’t mean we quit trying.  In view of this history and purpose, I thought it might be worthwhile to take a look at some NASIGers who have, as alluded to above, worked both sides of the street in order to see how NASIG has worked for them in each role and also to see what led them to cross over. 

The group for this profile was assembled entirely unscientifically. I started with a group of names that my editor (the lovely and talented Kathryn Wesley) and I came up with through a little brainstorming.  I emailed these folks with some questions and several of them suggested other names that would be good to include. All told, I ended up with responses from twenty NASIGers who have been employed at one time or other in both library- and non-library-based settings.

Since all the people we’re looking at have worked in library-based settings, it’s not surprising that their educational background is library-oriented rather than business-oriented. Most of the folks started out in a library-based setting after, or shortly before, getting a master’s degree in library science. Some of them started in serials because they developed an interest in the field during graduate school or in a previous position (often a student internship). Several fell into serials accidentally when that was the job that opened up. However they got into serials, all of them discovered that serials are cool and decided to remain as serialists. A couple of our subjects did actually start their careers in a non-library-based setting, but one into which they were hired because of their library education and interests. The types of entry positions reported were quite varied – collection development, serials cataloging (“I swore I’d never be a serials cataloger, and then I became one.”), customer relations, etc.

The reasons that led the members of our subject group to change between library-based and non-library-based settings tended to fall into two groups. The first group changed spheres for the most practical reason around: “I needed a job and they had one.” This usually had to do with a family move to a new location, but I think we can include in this group the folks who switched from library to non-library because of the offer of a major pay increase.

The other folks who switched sides offered more philosophical reasons. Those going from library to non-library were attracted by the chance to do more travel, meet more people and be in a less bureaucratic setting. Those moving the other way were looking for something with less travel and less uncertainty – something a little more predictable, maybe.  One person who moved from a library to a subscription agent in order to get out of the office went back to a library when she realized that all the agents at the airport recognized her by sight. Time to stay home for awhile!
 
The most important questions I asked the group to answer had to do with their experiences in NASIG and whether there were differences depending on which side of the street they were working at the time.  The first NASIG-related question was whether both types of employers had supported their NASIG membership and activities.  Interestingly enough, most folks said that their non-library employers had been more supportive, especially with financial help for attending conferences.  While library employers thought membership in the organization was good, there was less money forthcoming when conference time rolled around. There was also a tendency by library employers to push ALA.

Everyone thought that NASIG had been equally helpful to them in both types of positions. Programming and networking were both mentioned. Some respondents were new on one side of the fence, but felt that they were going to get good benefit from NASIG in their new positions. Even the respondents who worked with monographs in the non-library sector found NASIG conferences to be worthwhile.

I also inquired as to personal benefit from NASIG contacts and conferences.  Specifically, I wanted to know if NASIG contacts had helped them get a job, especially when crossing the street. While several people said that they thought being able to put NASIG involvement on a resume had helped them get a job or promotion, only two actually were actually able to attribute getting a specific job to a NASIG event. One person was recruited to a new job over late-evening beer at a NASIG conference.  Another respondent says she first met the person who is now her boss on the Ohio River cruise at the Carnegie Mellon conference (Hmm, there’s a river cruise at the Louisville Conference and it’s even on the same river.  Anyone looking for a new job?  Several folks intimated that NASIG contacts and programming had helped them broaden their horizons in seeking new situations. The opportunity to interact with and learn from other serialists from many different venues gave them more options (at least mentally) when looking for a new job.

I also wanted to know, in general, how NASIG had helped them in their varied serialist careers. You can probably come up with the answers yourself with just a little reflection: networking, learning, staying up-to-date on the latest serials issues.  NASIG proved especially valuable in keeping current on broad serials issues and aspects of serials in which they were not directly involved at the moment.

As stated several times above, networking was one of the most valued benefits of NASIG.  My respondents valued this on both sides of the street.  As library-based serialists, they appreciated being able to interact socially with non-library-based colleagues, some of whom they already knew from business relationships.  When based outside the library, they especially enjoyed being able to be sociable with, and learn from, library-based colleagues and also colleagues who work for other companies.  They valued having non-business interaction with other serialists, being able to be informal and not having to be “on duty” all the time. However, one respondent did say that while vendor-based he always felt that people saw him as a representative of his company even at NASIG.

My last area of inquiry was to ask what my respondents thought NASIG could do to improve diversity and make serialists of all flavors feel welcome.  This, after all, is a basic purpose of NASIG – the proverbial level playing field.  Every one of my respondents indicated that they felt equally welcome at NASIG conferences no matter which side of the street they were working at the time. One indicated that while subscription agents and vendors were welcome (which is what most of my respondents are or had been), she thought that publishers might have been greeted with less enthusiasm at times. Replies to my request for suggestions were mostly along the lines of “keep providing a variety of programming at conferences that will be of interest to all serialist flavors.” There was interest in programming where the audience can view the world from another’s perspective and also a couple of people said they thought the publisher speed dating being offered in Louisville is an excellent idea. The main point was to keep people talking to each other and I think, looking at the program for Louisville, this is what my respondents had in mind.  Personally, I think the social events and meals are just as important, since they are a chance for us all to interact on an informal basis. One person did, however, mention that as we greet old friends from the other side of the street, we shouldn’t forget the newbies.

Speaking of newbies, something else we need to work at is getting new members from all sectors. One respondent suggested that vendor and agent reps might volunteer to be NASIG good will ambassadors and promote NASIG informally in some of their customer visits, especially with management-level serialists and librarians.  (Library-based NASIGers might also mention NASIG to the reps when they visit, just in case they’re not yet members.)  Membership Development Committee, please take note.  I know that, in the past, some commercial NASIG members have had brochures in their booths at ALA and other meetings, but I don’t think anything has ever been done in an organized fashion. Other programming suggestions included offering professional technical training which could attract corporate-library-based and commercial-sector attendees to our conference, offering traveling workshops at other conferences (perhaps a mini-seminar with a multi-sector panel) and including sessions in the conference dealing with big-picture topics.  A frequent theme of suggestees was to concentrate on common interests, which will make NASIG appealing to all sectors of our membership.

My conclusions: only a few that haven’t been covered.  First, it seems that NASIG is pretty much doing okay with its purpose of bringing together all flavors of serialists; we just need to keep doing it, only more so.  Second, we should all be aware that serialists don’t just stay in one sector: just as they change jobs, they also change arenas, going from library to non-library, vice versa and back again.  So it all seems to come down to where we started: there isn’t (or at least shouldn’t be) any “us” and “them” in NASIG – there should only be one big WE.

P.S.: thanks to the following twenty NASIGers who responded to my request for information.  It’s greatly appreciated.

Amira Aaron
Barbara Albee
Rick Anderson
Bob Boissy
Morag Boyd
Kathy Brannon
Marla Chesler
Tina Feick
Rachel Frick
Beverley Geer
Katy Ginanni
Judy Luther
Anne McKee
Steve Oberg
Alison Roth
Bob Schatz
Reeta Sinha
Christine Stamison
Dan Tonkery
Davette Zinik

PROFILES

CONFERENCE PLANNING COMMITTEE
Maggie Rioux, Profiles Editor 

If someone were to ask you what the most important thing is that NASIG does, it’s highly probable that you’d answer, “Well, the annual conference, of course.” (Unless you think NASIG is a networking node for folks who love corn flakes, but if that’s the case, you should take a closer look at the S in our name.) For most of us, the annual get-together in May or June is a highlight of our professional year and one of the things we appreciate most about the organization. But … this conference doesn’t happen magically by itself. It takes a lot of people, working really hard for pretty much the whole year preceding it, to make it happen.  

There are actually two committees involved in bringing the conference to fruition. The Program Planning Committee is in charge of arranging inspiring vision session speakers, sorting out the more practical tactics sessions and organizing the various sessions where NASIG members can discuss the whichness of what. The Conference Planning Committee is in charge of everything else. You know, minor stuff like where do we sleep, where and what do we eat, where do we have all those sessions that PPC has put together, what do we do to have fun when we’ve had enough inspiration for the day, how do we get to all those places, and most of all, do we have enough coffee ordered in to keep us going (a notorious NASIG need). 

If you’ve been a member for more than a couple of years, you’ll know that the way a NASIG conference plays out has changed over the years and the CPC structure and function have evolved to accommodate this. Although the number of attendees has remained at between 600 and 700 for most of its history, the venue changed drastically beginning in 2003. Prior to this, NASIG conferences were held on college campuses with most of us “camping out” in dorm rooms which ranged over the years from Spartan to wicked cool. Our last dorm experience was at the College of William and Mary in 2002. For 2003, Portland State University in Oregon was the host institution, but they didn’t have any dormitory rooms we could use; however there were several hotels nearby their downtown Portland location. So we did a hybrid conference as an experiment – staying in hotels and meeting mostly on the campus. It worked well and beginning with the 2004 conference in Milwaukee we went to an all-hotel conference. It’s opened up new locations for us (for example, the University of Louisville could never have hosted a 600-attendee conference on their campus) and has forever changed the way that CPC does its work. Also, even though I enjoyed the dorms, I must admit that I like the hotel-based conference too – I have my very own bathroom, my very own big soft bed, and since we’re all staying in the same place once again (the wimps among us had long ago fled the dorms for hotels), I once again get to see everyone over breakfast.  

One thing that has changed for the CPC is the way they’re chosen. Back in the campus-based days, the CPC had to do most of the detail work of planning and organizing things. This meant that they had to be physically present at the conference site in order to oversee a lot of the planning and deal with about a gazillion different people. So the easiest way to appoint a CPC was first to find a chair (easy to do since (s)he had probably volunteered the campus in the first place) and then have him/her dragoon as many warm bodies as possible (preferably NASIG members or at least serialists) who lived/worked within about 25 miles of the site. Now, the NASIG Site Selection Committee tends to choose a site first and then recruit CPC co-chairs from the area chosen. The CPC also gets to work with a hotel event planner, a city visitors’ bureau contact and other commercial entities rather than, at most, a college events coordinator. Instead of “being volunteered,” most committee members actually volunteer themselves by filling out the regular NASIG volunteer form. They may even live quite a distance away from the conference site. Although most of this year’s CPC members are from within a hundred miles or so of Louisville, the committee also includes Kat McGrath from Vancouver, British Columbia, and Steve Kelley from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Steve is in charge of A-V arrangements and has been able to work via email and phone with an A-V provider who services the Galt House Hotel. And, thanks to the wonders of conference calling, both Kat and Steve have been able to “attend” committee meetings (of course conference calling does have its drawbacks – it seems there was one meeting where the university suffered a campus-wide power outage, causing all the virtual attendees to miss the meeting). 

A good deal of what CPC does hasn’t changed. They still have to make arrangements for social events, Sunday tours, transportation to off-site (campus or hotel) events, make sure the hotel (or campus) has enough meeting rooms set aside, arrange meals, etc.  Having local folks on the committee really helps with the social events since they know what visitors want to see and also what visitors would want to see if they knew it existed. In Louisville, the first category includes Churchill Downs, while I’m told the second category includes a dinner cruise on the Ohio River. Committee members are also working on a dine-around evening (by sampling the cuisine?) and making sure we’ll all have breakfast and lunch. It’s hard putting together all the innumerable details, especially since a lot of the decisions have to be referred to the Executive Board, which has its own ideas about how things should be done (always has, always will). It’s also a little scary signing big contracts for lots of money and hoping everything goes well. And then there’s the interesting task of picking an “official airline” for the conference. Co-chair Tyler Goldberg says that they thought of picking UPS, about the only air transportation company for which Louisville is a major hub, but then they didn’t think many NASIGers would be interested in shipping themselves to the conference in cartons. 

If all this sounds daunting, it is, but the feedback I’ve gotten from committee members for this profile tells me that while it’s a lot of work, they wouldn’t have missed it for the world.  Deberah England in particular said she has most enjoyed meeting and getting to know the other committee members and also learning a lot about the heart of Louisville. Deberah also mentioned the drive to meetings in Louisville as being beautiful, especially the stretch from Covington on down the Ohio River. 

One thing that might help future committees in their work is more continuity between successive conference-years. Unlike most other NASIG committees, CPC is a one-year appointment instead of a two-year one. The logic behind this is that this committee does as much work in its single year as your average (albeit hard-working) NASIG group does in two. Also, in the past, when committee membership was closely tied to conference site, it would have been difficult for someone to work on, e.g., a conference in San Antonio and then stay on the committee to plan the next year’s conference in Williamsburg, Virginia. The Board has attempted to work around this by encouraging past CPCs to produce a very complete committee handbook and also by having as many of the incoming CPC members as possible attend the current year’s conference and shadow their counterparts around during the event in order to get an idea of what needs to be done. Now that we’re doing things differently, the Board has begun re-appointing some past CPC folks to the committee (like Kat McGrath who was CPC chair for the 1994 conference at the University of British Columbia). Also, the Board tries to find consultant-members and Board liaisons with CPC experience (Joyce Tenney, Consultant to this year’s CPC was co-chair for the 2002 conference and has also served as a consultant and Board Liaison in past years). However, the Board might want to consider asking members of this year’s CPC if any of them would be willing to serve on next year’s committee as well. I’d wait until a good month after the conference to ask them though – let them have a little time for recovery. 

So, your CPC continues hard at work. If I can borrow an analogy from a committee member who said that bringing a conference to fruition is somewhat like giving birth, the committee is currently in hard labor. I fully expect we’ll all experience the birth of a wonderful, healthy, beautiful conference in just a few months. I certainly am looking forward to enjoying the fruits of all the hard work these folks have put in over the past year. Oh – one last thing – Deberah England says that one important thing she’s learned is the correct way to pronounce Louisville and she promises to teach it to all of you too.

PROFILES

JOYCE TENNEY
Maggie Rioux, Profiles Editor 

I may well have met Joyce Tenney for the first time at NASIG’s 1992 conference at the University of Illinois/Chicago (my first NASIG) since she’s one of the few remaining “everytimers” who have attended all twenty-one conferences. However, the first time I remember meeting her was in the fall of 2000 in the course of a site-selection visit to the University of Maryland at College Park. Joyce was determined to get a NASIG conference in the area and since her own institution, University of Maryland Baltimore County, didn’t have the facilities to take us on, she had proposed the sister institution. Fran Wilkinson and I, a two-person Executive Board Site Selection Committee, made the campus visit in company with Joyce. College Park didn’t work out, but after some more recruiting and gentle arm-twisting on Joyce’s part and another site visit by Fran and me, we ended up holding the 2002 conference (our last completely campus-based conference) at the College of William and Mary, about 200 miles from UMBC. Joyce served very successfully as CPC co-chair for that conference with Stephen Clark[1] although I think she practically moved to Williamsburg the last month or so.

 
Joyce (far right), Greg (center rear), co-chair Stephen Clark (far left), and
other CPC members demonstrate a typical warm NASIG welcome to the
2002 Williamsburg conference. 

This tendency to stick with something is typical of Joyce. She’s been at her current institution of employment since she was an undergraduate there, has hung on to her spousal unit for a lot of years (more on him later) and has been a member of, and active in, NASIG since its beginnings in 1986. Let’s start with the first item – University of Maryland Baltimore County. Joyce was born and officially grew up in Maryland, although she spent lots of time in West Virginia as a child. When the time came for college her high school Latin teacher recommended UMBC (Joyce was interested in classical studies), they were willing to give her a scholarship and she could live at home and commute (frugality is one of her long-time assets). She worked in the library as a student assistant and after graduation she quickly got a full-time job as a technical assistant. A year later she started on her MLS at University of Maryland College Park, going to school nights while continuing to work. Her tech. assistant job involved check-in of standing orders and when the Serials Librarian left, she moved into that job as Acting Serials Librarian. Graduate degree in hand, she became Serials Librarian for real and never looked back. As of last May, she moved up to Head of Serials and Acquisitions. 

As to NASIG, Joyce heard about the newly-forming organization through a mailing list she signed up for after attending a serials conference in Crystal City, Virginia. She attended that first conference at Bryn Mawr College in June of 1986 and never looked back from that either. She’s attended every single NASIG conference since then with the upcoming Louisville conference making number twenty-two. No more than ten other people can make that same claim. And she’s been active too – Chair of the Bylaws Committee in 1993-94, Chair of Regional Councils and Membership in 1996-97 and member of the Nominations & Elections Committee in 1998-2000. Of course we can’t forget that second fulltime job she had for a year or so as co-chair of CPC for the Williamsburg Conference. She was so good at that job that we elected her to the NASIG Executive Board as a Member-At-Large in 2002 and then to the office of Secretary in 2005. In the course of all this, Joyce has also willingly shared her hard-earned conference planning expertise as Board Liaison and/or Consultant to several CPCs, including the one currently planning our Louisville Conference, for which she is a consultant.     

Back to that spousal unit … Joyce is somewhat unique in that her husband, Greg Roepke is also committed to NASIG and has also attended all twenty-one, going on twenty-two, conferences and that doesn’t count the many Board meetings and other events to which he has willingly accompanied her. Personally, I can’t even get my spouse to attend one library conference, let alone twenty-two.[2]  Greg is also a Maryland native and has both undergraduate and graduate degrees from theUniversity of Maryland, but he’s not in any way, shape or form a serialist (except by marriage). Greg’s field of endeavor is public safety. He worked for twenty-five years in the U/Maryland system including a number of years as Associate Director of Public Safety at U/Maryland Baltimore County. Joyce tells me that they actually met in the parking lot in front of his police station at UMBC. She refuses details, but I am absolutely positive it doesn’t involve his arresting her. Greg attended that first NASIG conference at Bryn Mawr with Joyce because it was part of their vacation (makes it tax-deductible, don’t ya know), discovered he liked the social events and the people (serialists really are fun folks), and also enjoyed spending the days exploring the host campuses and cities. He’s been coming to NASIG conferences ever since.[3] Just like Joyce, Greg has also done more for NASIG than just attend conferences. When Joyce was co-chair of CPC for the 2002 conference, Greg was made an honorary member of the committee and also “CEO of NASIG Ground-Air Transportation.” He organized all the shuttles between the airports and the William and Mary campus. After Joyce was elected to the Board in 2005 and she was appointed Board Liaison to your Newsletter Editorial Board, we unanimously declared Greg to be honorary liaison. I didn’t ask Joyce what he’s doing for the Louisville CPC to which she is Board Liaison, nor did I inquire as to his duties as Secretarial Spousal Unit, but you can bet that he’s helping out. Actually, Greg now has more time to spend on NASIG since he’s retired from UMBC and loving it. His domestic duties involve cooking and spoiling the dogs on a daily basis. 

Speaking of dogs (i.e., short, hairy children who walk on all fours and don’t speak clearly)… Joyce and Greg have three children of the canine variety and they want you to know about them. All three are shelter dogs. Cody is a 13-year-old cocker spaniel, Buffy is an age-unknown but at least 10-year-old cocker mix and Sadie is an 8-year-old golden retriever. Since all are light-colored, visitors are advised not to wear black and especially not to fuss about dog hair (that’s why they call it fur-niture, right?). Also, don’t put anything on the floor that you don’t want eaten or gummed. Dogs rule![4]  The dogs do not, however, attend NASIG conferences. They help her with her NASIG responsibilities by sitting on her lap and providing blood-pressure-lowering services.  With Joyce’s talent for follow-through and all this help from both spousal unit and furry kids, I think we can be totally confident that NASIG secretarial responsibilities are in good hands. And speaking of follow-through, remember I said that I first recall meeting Joyce on a preliminary site visit for a potential conference at University of Maryland College Park? Well, just to bring things full circle, I asked her if there’s any chance of a Maryland- or Baltimore-based NASIG conference now that we’re doing things in hotels instead of on academic campuses. Even after several years, she hasn’t given up the idea. She’s still interested in bring NASIG to Baltimore and if the stars (and the bids) align properly, it just might happen a few years from now. That, I think, would be the final star in Joyce’s NASIG crown and maybe then the doggies could come to the conference too.

KATHRYN WESLEY
Maggie Rioux, Profiles Editor

The more of these profiles I write, the more I am struck by the preponderance in our field of accidental serialists – for many of us our karma seems to have caused us to just fall into some aspect of serials and then gotten hooked on them. Serials definitely are addictive.(1) Also their showing up at odd intervals (particularly the irregulars) causes them to fall into a pattern of random-interval reinforcement, which I learned, in a graduate course in a former lifetime, is the most strongly addictive of all.

This issue’s profile subject, Kathryn Wesley, exemplifies both the accidentalness and the addictiveness of this area of endeavor. Kathryn first got hooked on librarianship as a way of making herself employable. She started in college (Northeast Louisiana University – she’s definitely a southern girl) as a biology major, switched to English, and was persuaded by a cousin to get a minor in library science. She became both employable and a cataloging junkie. She worked for several years at the public library in Natchez, Mississippi, doing reference, cataloging and acquisitions (no serials yet to speak of).

Southern belles Carol Green, Kathryn Wesley and June Garner discover the
joys of Polish food during NASIG 2004 in Milwaukee. Photo courtesy of NASIG
member Paula Webb.

In 1991, Kathryn tried to break away from the path that fate had laid out for her, but even though she tried this before serials had taken hold as the final addiction, her attempt was doomed to failure. Seeking a life outside of librarianship, she took a job related to her original field of biology as a lab technician for a mid-sized poultry company in Jackson, Mississippi, where she was now living (how’s that for a career change?). The company had several feed production and processing plants scattered across Mississippi and Alabama and the lab was a separate facility which did quality-control testing of various sorts. It was a broad range of test subjects: nutritional content of feed and feed ingredients, pesticide residues in fat samples, assorted microbiological subjects (salmonella, listeria and other bad guys) and even QC testing on the wax-covered boxes that are used to ship chicken to restaurants and grocery stores. She started out doing calcium and phosphorus assays, then moved to doing prep work on fat samples. She says that wearing a lab coat to work was wicked cool, but unfortunately, that was about the only perk – the job paid minimum wage. She moved to an administrative assistant position and ended up in charge of the HazMat database for the company. There she was – cataloging and organizing data again, but not near as much fun as doing it in a library.

About this time Kathryn’s spousal unit decided he needed more education and they packed up and moved to Mississippi State University where our intrepid heroine found herself another library job (no lab coat, but decent pay), this time in acquisitions and serials. While hubby studied, Kathryn got herself hooked on serials.

Hubby finished his schooling and it was Kathryn’s turn. They went straight to library school at the University of Southern Mississippi, where she received her MLIS in 1997. The next stop was Clemson University in South Carolina (moving steadily east, but definitely staying south) where she started in March 1998 as a serials cataloger. She gets to solve all sorts of interesting database and cataloging problems, but no lab coat. No salmonella, either.

It was here, as soon as she started, that Kathryn was told by her supervisor that she was going to want to join NASIG and attend the conference. That first conference was Boulder, Colorado, and Kathryn says it was great positive reinforcement for both serials and NASIG. She was hooked on both. She decided to get involved in committee work and volunteered for Database & Directory, figuring that her experience in both cataloging and the database in the chicken lab gave her a solid background. She was right. Kathryn spent four successful years on D&D, the last two as chair. She was also a consultant to the group which developed our online conference registration system. She then moved on to spend two one-year terms on the Nominations & Elections Committee, again as chair in her second term. This past spring (for her sins), Kathryn was appointed editor-in-chief of the NASIG Newsletter (succeeding the wonderful Char Simser) and is now my new boss.

What’s next? Well, first there are a whole bunch of Newsletter issues to get out. Kathryn was well-oriented by her predecessor and thinks she’s starting to get the hang of it (Of course, she’s aided by a marvelous and highly-talented staff, especially the profiles editor). She’s done a lot of editing for friends and colleagues over the years, although on an informal basis, and says she’s actually more comfortable editing than writing. And of course we know she’s really well organized (there’s that chicken lab again). She also sees the Newsletter continuing to evolve. First we went all-electronic and now we’re starting to move from the static html format to a potentially-interactive newsblog format. “The Newsletter has always been one of the primary avenues of communication for the organization, but now that communication has the potential to be two-way.” Also, she says we should look for less capitalization – she wants less capitalization of Non-Proper Nouns. Yes, ma’am.

And after the Newsletter? Well, who knows. Our last two editors-in-chief have gone on to become NASIG presidents, so who can say, but if she’s elected, I think she should open the conference wearing a lab coat and maybe even carrying a rubber chicken. Don’t you agree with me, gentle reader?