E-NEWS

Hi, y’all!  As your new President for the 1999-2001 biennium, I would like to assure you that NCLA is not only a fiscally strong and mission-driven organization, but also a caring organization sensitive to the needs of the diverse groups that contribute to its strength.  Several things have already happened that I know you will be interested in.

At our 53rd Biennial Conference, two collections were taken for the benefit of the victims of Hurricane Floyd in eastern North Carolina, which together netted approximately $2,000.  On 11 October 1999, a check was presented to Secretary of Cultural Resources, Betty Rae McCain, and from her office to Governor James B. Hunt, to establish the Floyd Relief Fund for Eastern North Carolina.  I mentioned in my letter to Governor Hunt on your behalf that this would be a continuing fund since the problems of rebuilding lives and libraries will not be over soon.  Please continue to send your contributions to NCLA and note “Floyd Relief Fund” in the lower left-hand corner of your check.  Send your checks to Maureen Costello, NCLA, 4646 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-4646.

The resolution from the Documents Section, which was passed unanimously by those present at the third and final General Session, was distributed to all twelve House and Senate sponsors of the NC General Assembly bill entitled “Study Use of Internet for Agency Publications.”  On your behalf, I encouraged each of the twelve sponsors to consider the ramifications of such legislation and to incorporate the resolution’s suggestions for improvement before passage.  I encourage other NCLA sections and round tables to follow the example of the Documents Section in keeping the NC Legislature informed about legislation that affects North Carolina libraries and the right of North Carolinians to information.

I am in the process of appointing NCLA Committee Chairs for the 1999-2001 biennium.  I wish to thank the committee chairs for the 1997-1999 biennium.  I hope to announce the 1999-2001 Committee Chairs in a forthcoming issue.

Patrick Valentine, Director of the Wilson County Public Library and newly elected NCLA Director, has expressed interest in continuing the investigation into the impact of charter schools on public libraries.  As soon as he has appointed his committee, I will announce the membership of the Ad Hoc Committee on Charter Schools.

Karen Gavigan, Chair of the NC Association of School Librarians Section, and I have been working diligently to make the Commission on School Libraries a reality.  We have secured the help of Lou Wetherbee, a library consultant from Dallas, Texas, to be our facilitator.  We are in the process of appointing ten school librarians to the Commission.  The charge of the Commission is straightforward: “To determine the challenges facing school libraries and school librarians in North Carolina, and to define the roles of the North Carolina Library Association and the North Carolina Association of School Libraries Section in meeting these challenges.” Karen and I agree that the final product of the Commission’s deliberations will be an “Action Plan for Better School Libraries in North Carolina.”  The deliberations of this Commission will begin in November 1999 and conclude by October 2000.  I pledge my wholehearted support of the decisions of the Commission and thank all of its members in advance for their consideration of this most important issue.

The first meeting of the NCLA Executive Board will be our traditional Biennial Retreat.  It will be held Thursday and Friday, 27-28 January 2000, at the Rowan Public Library, in Salisbury.  On Thursday, Lou Wetherbee will be sharing with us ways NCLA can be more responsive to its membership.  She will bring to the discussion the results of a workshop on the same topic that she will have just led with the American Library Association, at the request of ALA President Sarah Long.  On Friday, we will have our business meeting.  Chairs and vice-chairs of sections, round tables, and committees are invited.

Thank you all for giving me this opportunity to serve our profession.  I am looking forward to what we can accomplish together during the 1999-2001 biennium.
 --Plummer Alston "Al" Jones, Jr., NCLA President
 
 

The North Carolina Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library and the North Caroliniana Society, Inc., extend a special invitation to North Carolina Library Association members to attend a conference on the history of printing in North Carolina. The Conference is being held in commemoration of the establishment of North Carolina's first printing press by James Davis in New Bern in 1749--250 years ago this year.

The Conference will be held on Friday, November 12th, in Wilson Library on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus.  Speakers and their topics will include

Hilary Hicks of Tryon Palace on James Davis;
Alan Watson, professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, on the role of printing in eighteenth-century North Carolina;
Maury York of the North Carolina Collection at the East Carolina University Library on the origins of the State Library of North Carolina;
William S. Powell, professor emeritus of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, on the bibliographic studies of Douglas McMurtrie;
Alice Cotten of the North Carolina Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library on Confederate textbooks publishing in North Carolina;
Kevin Cherry of the Rowan County Public Library on nineteenth-century collegiate literary magazines in North Carolina;
Jeffrey Crow, director of the North Carolina Division of Archives and History, on the newspaper wars of the 1890s; and
Robert Anthony of the North Carolina Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library on bibliographers and bibliography.

The Conference is free and open to the public.  While in the Library, Conference attendees will be able to view "Almanacs to Zines: Two Hundred Fifty Years of Printing in North Carolina," a major exhibition of materials from the North Carolina Collection.  The exhibition will run from October 5, 1999, through January 31, 2000.

If you would like a schedule of the Conference, please let me know by email, telephone, or letter.  Formal reservations are not required, but if you plan to attend we would appreciate it if you would let us know so
that we can plan enough refreshments.

I hope to see you November 12th for what we believe will be an informative and enjoyable day.  Also, please share this invitation with others you think might be interested in attending.

Robert Anthony, Curator
North Carolina Collection
Wilson Library, CB 3930
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514-8890
Telephone: (919) 962-1172
Fax: 919 962 4452
Email: Robert_Anthony@unc.edu
 
 

APRIL 8, 2000  -- The Big Start!

Something big is about to happen in libraries across North Carolina-and you are invited to be a part of it!  Join the State Library of North Carolina and your school and public library colleagues in making libraries

"THE VERY BEST PLACE TO START."

SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 2000

Save this date for The Big Start, a kick-off media event in your community for an exciting three-year campaign aimed at making libraries top of mind for children and youth.

You'll be hearing more about a "campaign-in-a-box," complete with public relations, merchandising, media relations and marketing materials-everything you need to help you get the most from National Library Week and the ensuing campaign.  Questions?  Contact:  Tracy M. Casorso, State Library of North Carolina at (919) 733-2370 or via email at tcasorso@library.dcr.state.nc.us.  For more information go to the State Library's website at http://statelibrary.dcr.state.nc.us and click on 'Youth Services Project.'
  -- Tracy Casorso, State Library of North Carolina
 
 

The North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame site on the Web has recently been expanded to include biographies and bibliographies on all 26 inductees, making it a unique educational resource for teachers and lovers of literature.  Inaugurated in 1996, the Hall of Fame is a state-supported program of the 1,800-member, nonprofit N.C. Writers' Network.

North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame
http://www.ncwriters.org/lhof.htm

  -- Charles Blackburn, Development Communications Manager, Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society

During the NCASL luncheon at NCLA on Friday, September 24, a proposal was made for NCASL to administer $500.00 grants to school libraries suffering damage from Hurricane Floyd.

Bound To Stay Bound and Perma-Bound have both offered to discount books purchased with hurricane grant funds. It was suggested that other vendors be approached. This proposal was voted on and approved by members attending the luncheon.

If you are in a library that suffered hurricane damage, or if you know of someone whose library was damaged, please contact Karen Gavigan at kpw@aol.com. There will be more information coming out in the next NCASL newsletter.
  -- Karen Gavigan, NCASL Chairman, Rockingham County Schools, (336) 342-1823
 

We would like to encourage you to think about school librarians in Eastern North Carolina as they return to their wet facilities and determine the amount of damage caused by Hurricane Floyd. If there are any of you with contacts in that area, please encourage the school librarians to file for a $500.00 grant from NCASL for rebuilding their collections.  All they have to do is send one of the photographs they have to take for their insurance and federal disaster relief to me, Melinda Ratchford, or Karen Gavigan.  It's that simple.  Some schools will receive money, but few dollars will go to the library when they don't have a cafeteria or classroom furniture. NCASL wants to help those in need.
  -- Karen Perry, Griffin Middle School, East Washington Drive, High Point, N.C., 336-819-2870
 

The East Carolina University Manuscript Collection at Joyner Library has begun collecting information from residents throughout Eastern North Carolina about their experiences of Hurricane Floyd and the "500-year flood" that followed.

The Manuscript Collection welcomes oral or written statements, photographs, videos, and any additional documentation concerning the devastation caused by the hurricane to the region and its citizens.   Staff of the Manuscripts Collection are willing to record on tape any oral statements one may have about the flood.  The gathered information will be used to establish an archive dedicated to this historic event.

If you would like to share your hurricane experiences, or know of someone who like to do so, please get in touch with Mary Boccaccio, Manuscript Curator, Special Collections, Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, N.C., 27858-4353; telephone numbers are 252-328-0275 or 252-328-6671; e-mail address boccacciom@mail.ecu.edu.

The NCLA Task Force on Charter Schools is being reformed with Patrick Valentine (pvalentine@wilson-co.com) as Chair.  Please let him know of any experiences you have with library services to charter schools.  He can be reached at Wilson County Public Library, 249 West Nash Street (PO Box 400), Wilson, NC 27893; telephone 252/237-5355; fax 252/243-4311; http://www.wilson-co.com.
  -- Patrick Valentine,  NCLA Director
 
 

Documents Section

The fall issue of The Docket, Newsletter of the Documents Section of NCLA is now available at the Documents Section web site, http://metalab.unc.edu/reference/docs/ncladocs/pub.html.
  -- Marilyn Schuster, Documents Section

Library Administration and Management Section

The LAMS Personnel and Staff Development Special Interest Group met for the first time at the NCLA Conference.  We had a nice catered lunch during our roundtable discussions.  Each table focused on one of the following topics: new employee orientation; new student assistant orientation; supervising temporary, part-time and student employees; managing volunteers; or employee recognition.

Following are a few ideas/issues from each table:

New Employee Orientation - mixing "old timers" with new employees, mentoring, well-written manuals, training checklists, recognition of new employees.

New Student Assistant Orientation - schedule orientation pizza party for new and returning student assistants, checklists showing tasks to accomplish during specific hours, have orientation checklist or orientation cassette tape for students hired later in year.

Supervising Temporary, Part-time, and Student Employees - scheduling can be difficult, especially when part-timers are on service desks, training and re-training because of turnover, who answers the questions when the supervisor is gone, orientation and staff procedures manuals as part of solution.

Managing Volunteers - need for volunteer policies, recognition of volunteers important in order to keep them, types of volunteer activities, discussion of competition among non-profits for volunteers.

Employee Recognition luncheon or picnic catered and paid for by library, certificates at anniversaries, recognize special projects, goody bags for student assistants during exam week, book given in honor of employee's anniversary (bookplate inside).

If you would like more information about the discussions, contact Deborah Lambert directly at lamberdn@wfu.edu.  Anyone interested in joining the special interest group is encouraged to indicate such on the NCLA membership form.  You only need to be a member of NCLA/LAMS to join the special interest group ... there is no extra charge.
 -- Deborah Lambert, Library Administration and Management
 
 

Jeffery Beam's ninth book of poems, AN ELIZABETHAN BESTIARY: RETOLD, transports us to a time before ours in a world inhabited by beasts both fabulous and real, where the human imagination and the natural world playfully converse.  It celebrates the variety of human dreaming and the multiplicity of earth's creatures, and will enchant children and adults.

The book contains 30 beastly poems, quarried from some of the most celebrated prose picture books of Shakespeare's time.  They are illustrated with 29 fantastically intricate and fanciful drawings by Ippy Patterson, three portrait action shots of the author by M. J. Sharp, and an essay on the history and importance of bestiaries and zoos.

"Being poems retold from the text of The Elizabethan Zoo: A Book of Beasts both Fabulous and Authentic, selected from Philemon Holland's translation of Pliny's Natural History (1601), and Edward Topsell's Historie of Foure-Footed Beastes (1607) and his Historie of Serpents (1608).

First 100 copies signed and numbered by all three artists and accompanied by a frameable poem / illustration broadside of "The Ibex," $100 plus $6.00 postage and handling. Remaining 900 copies, $35 plus $3.50 postage and handling.

40 % discount to book stores and libraries; Order direct from:  Jeffery Beam, An Elizabethan Bestiary: Retold, P. O. B. 83, Chapel Hill, NC 27514
 

A CONTEMPLATION UPON FLOWERS:  Garden Plants in Myth and Literature
by Bobby J. Ward; Foreword by Ann Lovejoy

As Ann Lovejoy notes in her foreword, this book provides "yet another delicious escape from work, weather, and worry for gardeners who love to trace the history of plants, following their travels and remarking their shifting popularity... Here gathered in a single, fruitful volume is a harvest many years in the gleaning. Curious, questing, and determined, Ward has trailed, traced, and tracked down hundreds of literary references to our favorite flowers."

It is indeed an entertaining survey of 80 classic garden plants, with a multitude of references to, and extracts from, myth and literature from the earliest times to the recent past. Based on prodigious research, it includes much literature that has fallen into undeserved obscurity, as well as selections from the great poets. For plant lovers, it is a delightful study of the influence of the world's flora on humanity, from the mundane to the mystical, including lore and legends. It is a perfect bedside book for the literate gardener.

Bobby J. Ward is editor of The Trillium, the newsletter of the Piedmont chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society. He resides in Raleigh, North Carolina, and is writing a book for Timber Press on contemporary plant hunters.

approx. 430 pp, 78 b/w illustrations, 6 x 9", hardcover, 0-88192-469-5, 1999 ; Orders from:  Timber Press, 133 S.W. Second Avenue, Suite 450, Portland, Oregon 97204-3527   U.S.A.  (503) 227-2878, (800) 327-5680, fax (503) 227-3070, US: $24.95
 
 

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DESCRIPTION: NCLA E-News is a publication of the North Carolina Library Association, published six times a year.

Please submit news, conference or workshop information, and other items of interest to the Editor or Assistant Editors below.

EDITOR:
Pam Burton
Head, Systems Department
East Carolina University
burtonp@mail.ecu.edu

ASSISTANT EDITORS:
Margaret Foote
Head, Cataloging Department
East Carolina University
footem@mail.ecu.edu

Marilyn Schuster
Local Documents/Special Collections
University of North Carolina Charlotte
mbschust@email.uncc.edu