Volume
2005, Issue 1
February 28, 2005
Inside this Issue:
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Project Highlights
IIa's Newest Project at Kirtland
In October 2004, IIa began operating the Phillips Research Technical Library (PTL) at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As part of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the library serves the scientific and technical research needs of the lab. As with other libraries IIa manages, staff at PTL are responsible for collection development and management, budgeting and acquisition management, marketing, reference, circulation, interlibrary loan, customer services, electronic acquisitions, cataloging, and computer systems administration and integration. In addition, they manage a huge collection of technical documents in electronic format. Staff interact with the library personnel at both Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, as well as the AFRL technical libraries at Wright Patterson, Eglin, and other locations.
In addition to eight full time staff members, including three professional library personnel, an advisory committee has been named to develop innovations and forward thinking goals for the library. The advisory committee includes Gail Hodge, IIa senior information scientist; Randy Hoffman, project manager for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Library; Deborah York, IIa CIO; and Pat Powell, contract manager for the library.
Our current library director, Pamiela Hight, is leaving us because of family demands, so a search is being conducted for the lead position. In the interim, IIa CIO Deborah York is serving as temporary director until a replacement is identified. In addition, we are seeking a systems administrator and a fourth library assistant. If you, or anyone you know is interested in a position at this location, please contact Pat Powell. Position descriptions are available on the IIa web site.
ALISE Conference
At its annual conference in Boston in January, the Association
for Library and Information Science 
Education
(ALISE) celebrated its 90th
anniversary.
Managed by IIa, ALISE is the professional
organization of university faculty in library and information science.
ALISE staff (Deborah York, Susanne Dupes, and Lance Vowell)
successfully managed their second conference for the association, with
nearly 500 attendees. In addition to coordinating logistics and catering
for the event, IIa staff also create and produce all conference materials,
including
the conference program, process conference registrations,
organize networking events, and coordinate exhibits.
In addition to conference planning and facilitation, IIa's three-person ALISE staff manages the organization's daily operations. This includes managing the organization's finances, processing membership registration and renewals, managing subscriptions for the Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, coordinating external communications, and organizing and facilitating quarterly meetings of ALISE's Board of Directors.
Science.gov
As the Secretariat for CENDI, the Federal STI Managers Group, IIa is heavily involved with the ongoing development of Science.gov , the Firstgov gateway to federal science information. Staff coordinate the activities of the Science.gov Alliance, work on promotional activities, and provide technical and administrative support.
IIa President Bonnie Carroll, as CENDI's Executive Director, serves
in an observer capacity on the Science.gov Alliance Principals group--the
oversight body for the portal. Gail Hodge, IIa senior information scientist,
supports the Alliance co-chairs from the USGS/NBII and the
National Agricultural Library. She also coordinates the activities of
the Alliance principals group,
the Communications
Task Group,
the
Content Managers Task Group and the Usability Task Group and helps
to maintain the Science.gov taxonomy.
At the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, IIa staffers Patti Clark and Cathey Daniels support Science.gov. Clark, a unix system administrator, maintains the servers and system level software on which Science.gov resides on. She also provides metrics reports on the activity the web site experiences from the internet community.
Daniels coordinates promotional activities of the Communications Task Group. The most recent activity has been the announcement of the Science.gov Alert Service and its promotion at this month's annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This new service enables subscribers to receive electronic notification of relevant results from federal science information sources of their choosing.
At the corporate office, Fred Rascoe provides support for a number of Science.gov activities, both promotional and technical. He and June Crowe recently did critical testing of the new Alert Service during its beta phase. In addition, Rascoe and Todd Peck maintain listservs for all of the Science.gov task groups.
News from Barksdale AFB Library
This month, the Barksdale Base Library became a partner in a consortium for Air Combat Command (ACC) libraries. Library staff have been working to complete a major project changing over a new integrated library system, Sirsi.net. From June through January, over 32,000 items within the library were rebarcoded and prepped for use in Siris. This time-intensive effort was necessary to enable a “clean” transfer to the new system as well as to provide an accurate physical inventory of all materials within the facility.
The military provided $54K for purchase and 
installation
of new computers throughout the Library. The computer lab was expanded
from 12 workstations
to 17 workstations, including one designated “The Parents’ Corner.” This
unit is located near the children’s computer (loaded with early
childhood education games) and allows the parent to work on the computer
while being near his/her child. Additionally, a new router switch increased
the speed of all connections. The upgrade and expansion were sorely
needed, and response from patrons and staff has been tremendous. This
expansion
also caused a need to relocate the lab and all the furniture throughout.
Patrons have expressed that they feel like they have come into a
new facility!
The Library held an Open House to highlight nearly 3,000 new items received throughout the fall of 2004 and to kick off the “Free to Read” Adult Reading Program. Participants receive a special bookmark and pin when they sign up. When they have completed reading 6 books, they receive their choice of some small prizes. When they finish reading 15 books, their reading logs are placed in a jar for a drawing to be held the end of March for two $25 gift certificates from Barnes and Noble. Participation has been steadily increasing, and response has been positive.
News From Eglin AFB
Eglin CCSS
IIa’s staff who
manage the Eglin AFB Education Center was named 
Best in Command for 2004,
receiving the Nathan Altschuler Award for Excellence
in Educational Programs. This award marks the third straight year the
Education Center
has garnered
the distinction for large bases in the Air Force Materiel Command.
The recognition included acknowledgement of IIa’s team as the “DoD leader in providing ‘cutting edge’ educational services programs.” The award cited their “superior professional dedication” and noted that the IIa team is “always proactive for customer needs.” The IIa team has won the award every year that it has managed the Center.
Eglin Library
Eglin
library is proud to have achieved
the top distinction in the Air Force Library "Five Star Recognition
Program" for
2004. 
In 2003, the inaugural year
of the
program,
only three
libraries across the Air Force earned all five stars. Eglin was one
of only six to achieve four stars that year.
The Library was also recognized in January for their teamwork and excellence by being awarded the Commander's Cup for Teamwork and Excellence in Service.
The programs and activities they provide were a big factor these achievements, including
- Built a
4'x8' "Christmas Card" for the Base organizational
greeting card contest/display. Although
not a prize winner, the sight
of their mascot parrot reading a Christmas story beneath a lighted
palm tree was an attention-getter! - Hosted a November art contest/show celebrating the "Month of the Military Family." Winners were announced at a Family Craft Night program, where family members worked together to create Thanksgiving table decorations. The winning entries sent for display at the Fine Arts Center at Okaloosa Walton College.
- Participated in the October National Teen Read Week theme -- "It's Alive @ the Library". Along with spooky decorations in the library, staff awarded a daily prize to the first 10 teenagers to check out a book each day provided an spooky evening in the "Haunted Reading Room" screening vintage episodes of "The Twilight Zone" television series, along with snacks and some scary story telling.
- Created a "Mystery Customer" in October, a staff-created monster that a customer dubbed "Bob." Bob" moves about the library and could be found sitting at the reference desk, lounging on a love seat, speaking into the PA system. Customers joined in the fun and were sure to look for him when they came in.
News from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
The Annual Open House at the NASA
GSFC Library was held October 20, 2004. The theme “Information@work” 
focused
on putting information to work for researchers and scientists at
Goddard. The
event was launched with Center Director, Dr. Ed Weiler, providing
opening remarks.
In the afternoon, NASA Chief Historian, Dr. Steve Dick provided a
stimulating and thought provoking presentation on “The Living
Universe: NASA and the Development of Astrobiology” which is
the title of his recently published book.
Throughout the day, demonstrations were provided to attendees on the Library’s Reference Services, the Digital Archiving System, Library1Search, Video Technologies, Knovel Interactive Handbooks, the Web of Knowledge, and IEEE Xplore.
The event was very well attended and included librarians and information scientists from the metro D.C. area and even a librarian from New York City! As always, the Annual Open House Event included many giveaways and refreshments and an informative time for everyone.
To see Dr. Dick’s presentation go to library.gsfc.nasa.gov/Announce/Oct2004/GSFCAstrobiology.pdf.