libraries’ mission, future discussed at international seminar · bylaws chair, barbara semonche,...

Vol. 27, No. 2/Winter 2005

LIBRARY PROFILE/ 7

Amy Disch takes apeek into the Library ofPolitiken Newspapers inCopenhagen, Denmark.

ELECTIONS/ 10-11Get acquainted with

nominees for DivisionBoard.

THE ROMANIANPRESS/ 12

Take a trip intoRomania with JeanieStraub and her fellowcolleagues from EmporiaState University.

CONFERENCEADVANCE/ 14

Check out the sched-ule for the 2005 SLAConference in Toronto.

THE INSIDESTORY

BY LEIGH MONTGOMERY, LIBRARIAN

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

The baroque Austrian city of Salzburg is famous as thebirthplace of Mozart, for its salt mines and as the settingfor the movie “The Sound of Music.” Lesser known is

that since 1947 it has been home to the Salzburg Seminar, aunique educational opportunity held periodically throughout theyear. Conceived as an intellectual Marshall Plan to help rebuildwar-torn Europe, it continues to bring together professionalsfrom many countries—often nations who have been in conflictwith one another—to convene for a week of global dialogue.

Fifty-seven information professionals from over two dozencountries gathered to discuss the challenges and opportunitiesworldwide for libraries, to rethink institutional functions and torenew civic and social purposes at the Salzburg Seminar,“Libraries for the 21st Century” held October 23-30, 2004.

Susan Fifer Canby (National Geographic Society), Lu-AnnFarrar (Lexington Herald-Leader), Marion Paynter (TheCharlotte Observer), Susann Rutledge (BusinessWeek), BarbaraSemonche (The Park Library at the University of North CarolinaChapel Hill), and I were the fortunate recipients of KnightFellowships to attend this Seminar, representing more than halfthe U.S. contingent. Altogether, news libriarians comprised 12%of the attendees.

The meeting was held at the beautiful Schloss Leopoldskron,a rococo palace built in 1736 by the Prince Archbishop ofSalzburg Leopold Anton Freiherr von Firmian. In 1918 theSchloss was sold to Max Reinhardt, Europe’s most famous theater

director and the co-founder of the Salzburg Music Festival.During World War II, the Schloss was confiscated by the Nazigovernment as “Jewish property.” After the war, it was returnedto the Reinhardt family, and Reinhardt’s wife donated the prop-erty to the Salzburg Seminar for its permanent home. It wouldbecome the outdoor setting and interior inspiration for the 1965

Libraries’ mission, futurediscussed at international seminar

Continued on page 5

NLN FEATURE

Salzburg Seminar participants (L-R): Barbara Semonche, LeighMontgomery, Susann Rutledge, Lu-Ann Farrar, Marion Paynter andSusan Fifer Canby

NEWSDIVISION

EXECUTIVEBOARD

News Library News (ISSN 1047-417X) isthe bulletin of the News Division of theSpecial Libraries Association. SLAHeadquarters address is: SLA, 331South Patrick St., Alexandria, VA22314. The phone number is: 703/647-4900. News Library News is publishedfour times a year by the division.Reproduction in whole or part withoutpermission is prohibited.

Special Libraries Association assumesno responsibility for the statements andopinions advanced by the contributorsof the association’s publications.Editorial views do not necessarily rep-resent the official position of SpecialLibraries Association. Acceptance of anadvertisement does not imply endorse-ment of the product by SpecialLibraries Association.

To place advertisements or to obtainadvertising information, you can con-tact Kathryn Pease, the managing edi-tor, at her e-mail address: [email protected]

Copy for bylined columns should besubmitted to the column editor. Allother copy may be submitted toKathryn Pease at her e-mail address.

News Library NewsWinter 2005

Vol. 27, No. 2

PAGE 2 NEWS LIBRARY NEWS WINTER 2005

COMMITTEECHAIRS

NLN STAFF

CHAIR, Jennifer Small Evert, LexisNexis,Miamisburg, OH, 800/227-9597, x58037,e-mail: [email protected]

CHAIR-ELECT, Denise J. Jones, News andObserver, Raleigh, NC, 919/829-9818,e-mail: [email protected]

PAST CHAIR/DIRECTOR-AWARDS, LindaHenderson, Providence Journal, Providence,RI,401/277-7887, e-mail: [email protected]

SECRETARYMerrie Monteagudo, San Diego Union-Tribune,San Diego, CA, 619/718-5431e-mail: [email protected]

TREASURER, Justin Scroggs, NewsBank, Inc.,Naples, FL, 800/762-8182,e-mail: [email protected]

DIRECTOR-EDUCATION/PROFESSIONAL DEVEL-OPMENT CHAIR, Jim Hunter, ColumbusDispatch, Columbus, OH, 614/461-5039,e-mail: [email protected]

DIRECTOR-PUBLICATIONS, Leigh Poitinger, SanJose Mercury News, San Jose, CA, 408/920-5972,e-mail: [email protected]

NEWS DIVISION COMMITTEE CHAIRSARCHIVIST CHAIR, Teresa Leonard, News and

Observer, Raleigh, NC, 919/829-4866e-mail: [email protected]

AUTOMATED-TECHNOLOGY CHAIR, PeterJohnson, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, CA,213/237-3349, e-mail: [email protected]

BROADCAST CHAIR, Melinda Carlson, ABC News,Washington, DC, 202/222-7048e-mail: [email protected]

BYLAWS CHAIR, Barbara Semonche, The ParkLibrary, University of North Carolina-Chapel HillSchool of Journalism and Mass Communication,Chapel Hill, NC, 919/843-8300e-mail: [email protected]

DIVERSITY CHAIR, Kee Malesky, National PublicRadio, Washington, DC, 202/513-2356,e-mail: [email protected]

GOVERNMENT RELATIONS CHAIR, vacant

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS CHAIR,Wil Roestenburg, PCM Landelijke Dagbladen,Rotterdam, (NL), 31-(0)10-406-7741,e-mail: [email protected]

MEMBERSHIP CHAIR, Alice Pepper, Detroit FreePress, Detroit, MI, 313/222-5135,e-mail: [email protected]

NOMINATIONS CHAIR, vacant

PUBLICITY-PUBLIC RELATIONS CHAIR, DanaGordon, Newsweek Inc., New York, NY, 212/445-4012, e-mail: [email protected]

SMALL LIBRARIES CHAIR, Marcia MacVane,Portland Newspapers, Portland, ME, 207/791-6318, e-mail: [email protected]

STRATEGIC PLANNING CHAIR, Jim Hunter,Columbia Dispatch, Columbus, OH, 614/461-5039e-mail: [email protected]

TELLER/ELECTIONS CHAIR, Bill Van Niekerken,San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, CA,415/777-7230, e-mail: [email protected]

WEBMEISTRESS, Jessica Baumgart, HarvardUniversity, Cambridge, MA, 617/495-4739,e-mail: [email protected]

NLN MANAGING EDITOR

Kathryn PeaseNewsdayMelville, NY631/843-2333e-mail: [email protected]

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

PEOPLEJennifer O’NeillThe Florida Times-UnionJacksonville, FL904/359-4184e-mail: [email protected]

LIBRARY PROFILESAmy DischWisconsin State Journal and Capital TimesMadison, WI608/252-6114e-mail: [email protected]

WHO WANTS TO BE A NEWS LIBRARIAN?Angelica CortezFt. Worth Star-Telegram817/390-7742e-mail: [email protected]

Total membership: 676

News Division members certainly are players in the global community. Not onlydo we have NewsLib members in approximately 30 countries, but we also haveDivision members who travel overseas performing a wide variety of duties. Some

have provided community-needs assessments to rural libraries in Eastern Europe. Othershave conducted Internet training in Bolivia, Poland, China and the Philippines. Still, oth-ers were selected to meet with colleagues from around the world to discuss libraries in the21st century.

Since SLA’s annual conference is in Toronto this year, I thought an international issuemight be in order. Besides the conference advance, Amy Disch talks to Danish news librar-ian, Aase Andreasen. Jeanie Straub and her colleagues at Emporia State University discussrural libraries, politics and the press in Romania, while Leigh Montgomery shares high-lights of a Salzburg Seminar on challenges facing libraries worldwide. I knew our memberswere talented, but who would have guessed they could lead a “Sound of Music” sing-a-long?

On the home front, Angelica Cortez explores change in the new year; and for your con-sideration, we’ve listed this year’s Division Cabinet nominees.

Enjoy the issue.

KATHRYN PEASE

THE ASIDE BAR

WINTER 2005 NEWS LIBRARY NEWS PAGE 3

Elyn BlackmanStudentColumbia, SC

Carol BursackThe ForumFargo, ND

Kelli CornforthGlobe and MailToronto, ON

Theresa DonahueStudentRosemont, PA

Molly EgerStudentNew York, NY

Matt Gibson Bass, Berry & Sims Nashville, TN

Jacqueline GoinsStudentLexington, KY

Dyanna GregoryStudentChampaign, IL

Sara HayesStudentAustin, TX

Anne Holcolmb Kalamazoo Gazette Kalamazoo, MI

Kathy Kerrihard San Francisco Chronicle San Francisco, CA

Mary Anne KlasenStudentHudson, OH

Sarah MasonStudentBoston, MA

Teresa MacGregor LexisNexis St. Joseph, MO

John MichaudThe New YorkerNew York, NY

Sharon MosenkisNBC Universal

Information CenterFair Lawn, NJ

Ander MuraneRocky Mountain NewsDenver, CO

Katherine PospisilStudentChagrin Falls, OH

Davenport Robertson National Institute of

Environmental Health Sciences Research Triangle Park, NC

Joan Schopf Arapahoe Library District

Smoky Hill Centennial, CO

Craig Schulin Free-Lance Star Publishing Co. Fredericksburg, VA

Katharine Schopflin BBC London, UK

Bert Solivan Fox News New York, NY

George StrawleyStudentNew Brunswick, NJ

Janis TyhustGeorge Fox UniversityNewberg, OR

Karen Van RossemScholastic Inc.New York, NY

Lydia WrobelStudentBuffalo, NY

New MembersSeptember 2004-January 2005

NEWS LIBRARY NEWS WINTER 2005

BY JENNIFER SMALL

EVERT

NOTESFROMTHECHAIR

As of January 2005, News Divisionmembership stands at 676. For the pastseveral years, we’ve seen a steady decline

in our membership numbers. In fact, we haven’thad more than 800 members since 2000. Thisdownturn in membership corresponds withsimilar declines for other divisions and for SLAas a whole. I’d like 2005 to be a year that theDivision focuses on membership, for therecruitment and retention of new members iscrucial to our continued success. Some of thequestions to ponder: Why are we losing mem-bers? What can we do to add value to a NewsDivision membership? What can each currentmember do to help with recruitment?

Some of you may be interested in what weare doing now. Currently, Alice Pepper, ourMembership Committee chair, does an excel-lent job of introducing new members to theDivision. When a new member signs up withSLA, Alice sends out a letter of introduction, amembership directory and instructions forusing the News Division Web site, the onlineedition of NLN and NewsLib. TheMembership Committee, however, has been acommittee of one. At last year’s board meeting,we talked about adding people to Membershipso that it would become an actual committee. Ithink that this is the year to do that. If anyoneout there has an interest in getting involved inthis effort, please let me or Alice know.

Over the past year, the board has brain-stormed several ideas for recruiting new mem-bers. Some of these ideas would have to bedone in an organized fashion by ourMembership Committee—but some are thingsyou can do on your own as well:

❖ Take advantage of recruitment campaignswhich SLA sponsors. In December, for exam-ple, they sponsored the Member-Get-A-Member Campaign complete with fun prizeslike free conference registration and PDAs.

❖ Reach out to library schools. There are a lotof students out there who may be interested innews librarianship but they’ve never beenexposed to the News Division. Do you have alibrary school in your community? Does theschool offer a special libraries class? If so,

maybe you can get on the speaking schedule totalk about news libraries and the benefits ofmembership in SLA. If not, have an openhouse at your library and invite interested stu-dents.

❖ When you hold regional programs, makean extra effort to invite librarians from small-er papers and media outlets.

❖ Talk to people who are no longer membersand ask them why they left. This informationgives us valuable insights into what we couldpossibly do better.

❖ Establish outreach programs to journalismorganizations (ASME, ASEE, etc.) about thevalue of employing news librarians/re-searchers.

❖ Partner with organizations like Poynter,IRE and NICAR.

Recruitment is only one piece of the puzzle.We also need to focus on retention. For this, wehave to ask ourselves the hard questions: Whatvalue does or can the News Division bring toour day to day work lives? Does membershiphave benefits that are worth the price of ourdues?

To bring value, we must continue to offerstrong professional development programs atboth the regional and national level. I think theregional news librarian groups are vital to ourrecruitment and retention efforts. These pro-grams are often more accessible to those whodon’t have the budget to travel to an annualconference. Perhaps the Division should workto increase the number of regional workshopsoffered. If you live in an area where there is nota regional group, you could think about form-ing one. The annual conference is anotherexcellent example of the benefits of NewsDivision membership. Where else can you findsix days worth of programming that are focusedon the workings of a news library? DeniseJones is in the process of planning a great pro-gram in Toronto and Jim Hunter has puttogether two more exceptional CE courses.

In addition to professional developmentopportunities, the Division also needs to start

Continued on page 11


NLN FEATURE

film “The Sound of Music,” though film-ing was not permitted inside, as a Seminarwas taking place. And of course, it has amagnificent library, complete with secretstairway. Shelves that once held Goetheand libretti are now filled with booksabout foreign policy, sociology and tech-nology.

Faculty for this Seminar included:Martin Gomez of the Urban LibrariesCouncil; Paul LeClerc of the New YorkPublic Library; Kay Raseroka, president ofIFLA and library director at the Universityof Botswana; Chris Rusbridge of theUniversity of Glasgow; and SohairWastawy of the Library of Alexandria,Egypt. Coordinators of the Seminar wereDr. Alberta Arthurs, principal ofArthurs.us, and William Simpson of theUniversity of Manchester, UK.

Over the course of the week many top-ics were addressed in lectures, followed byintensive group discussion. Issues includ-ed information literacy (and illiteracy),which librarians in all disciplines havefound a niche in expertise, as well as train-ing users to navigate through the chaotic,unindexed Internet. Another recurringtopic throughout the week was tension oflocal heritages within the world communi-ty, which includes the need to preserveindigenous culture, oral traditions andknowledge against the pressures towardworking in English with commercial inter-ests. In addition, attendees were encour-aged to view ‘nonusers’ as potential usersof library services, including audiencesoutside of the tradition of reading books,which is not universal.

Other topics included the increasingexpectation for libraries to compete forresources and demonstrate accountability.Related to that issue is the need to beengaged in public policy: libraries must beadvocates for equitable access at the pointof service and link the library’s mission to

freedom and democracy. This later pointwould emerge later in Mr. LeClerc’s talkon successful fundraising for libraries,which he strongly encouraged attendees toemphasize in their capital campaigns.

Attendees expressed high interest in themedia’s role in promoting the right toread, the freedom to learn and how to putattention on what libraries are doing. Thenews librarians collaborated in draftingtips for Seminar fellows toward developingsuccessful partnerships with the media. Anumber of these came from NewsLib afterMarion Paynter called for suggestions onthe listserv that week, including askingyourself, “Why should anyone care?” andpointing out to journalists how your newswill have an impact, be useful or be inter-esting to the community.

The Seminar was an affirming oppor-tunity to converse with librarians frommany different settings and cultures, yet todiscover that all 57 of us shared the samepassion for our field and communities.

Barbara Semonche summarized someof the learning that took place outside theclassroom setting: “A librarian from SouthAfrica declared that she wanted me to beher mentor. I was deeply touched andhonored and I accepted.” She also noted anumber of cultural differences: “From anEgyptian library director I learned thatthere is no word in her language for ‘pro-fessional.’ From a librarian in Vietnam, Idiscovered that retirement for femalelibrarians was mandatory at age 55; it was60 for the men. One of our Chinese fel-lows described the strict adherence to theseniority system governing promotions.”

After the Seminar ends, the fellows’work continues through the connectionsand friendships made in and out of thelecture hall, as well as over the piano onthe last evening, where the Schloss parlorwas filled with the sound of librarianssinging to Lu-Ann Farrar playing “Soundof Music” favorites on the Bosendorfer

Libraries’ mission, futurediscussed atinternational seminarContinued from page 1

Schloss Leopoldskron



PEOPLE

BY JENNIFER O’NEILL

On the MoveThe San Francisco Chronicle’s, Judy

Canter retired after a long career in newslibrarianship in October 2004. Prior tobecoming the Chronicle’s library director,Judy had been head librarian at The SanFrancisco Examiner before the two papersmerged.

Toby A. Lyles, formerly a newsresearcher at The News & Observer(Raleigh, NC), is now a news researcher atThe New York Times. You’ll see her creditline on the A1 story, “Ruling is Awaited onDeath Penalty for Young Killers,” by AdamLiptak, along with Tom Torok and MargotWilliams. Toby was one of the winners ofthe Special Libraries Association DiversityLeadership Development Award for 2003.

Theresa Moore was promoted fromnews researcher to executive producer atTampa Bay’s Channel 10. She will be over-seeing the Web site as well as newsroomresearch until she gets some people trained.

Gay Nemeti, library manager at TheMiami Herald, has retired to her beachhome in Melbourne Beach, Florida tobegin a new life of longboarding and culi-nary classes. However, she will continue towork with The Herald, where she says shegrew up, as a consultant and as contest edi-tor.

There have been several changes at theCanadian Broadcasting Corporation.Among them:

Leone Earls was appointed operationsmanager of Libraries, Archives andDocumentation. She had been head of theReference and Design Libraries.

Michele Melady, who was acting man-ager of the Reference Library sinceNovember 2003, was appointed perma-nently to the position in October 2004.

Ty Grundig, a graduate of theUniversity of British Columbia, was hiredas a senior librarian in the ReferenceLibrary.

Awards & AcknowldgementsAmy Disch received her Master of Arts

degree in library and information studiesfrom the University of Wisconsin-Madisonin a ceremony on December 19th.Currently she is an assistant in the library ofthe Wisconsin State Journal and The CapitalTimes.

Vicky McCargar, associate technologyeditor for the Los Angeles Times, had an arti-cle in the Fall 2004 issue of The MovingImage (The Journal of the Association ofMoving Image Archivists, vol. 4, no. 2). It’scalled “News That Moves: AccessioningVideo for Newspaper Archives,” and it’sabout the ins and outs of archiving videofootage shot by newspapers for their Websites.

Margaret Neu, information serviceseditor for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times,received the E.W. Scripps President’s Clubaward for her coordination of the newspa-per’s literacy campaign in 2004.

Cheers to Leigh Montgomery of TheChristian Science Monitor Library whotaught a session on Computer-AssistedReporting as part of a journalism appren-ticeship done through Citizen Schools. It’sthe third apprenticeship The Monitor hasdone through the Boston-based program,which was started by a journalist, to con-nect students (usually in urban schools) andcompanies for after-school learning oppor-tunities. Leigh says, “We had them all infront of computers and told them we weregoing to rocket them right past middle andhigh school, college, and right into journal-ism school—if they were lucky enough toeven have this in j-school—and taughtthem about finding stats and background-ing Web sites and finding experts. It WAS alot of work but it was hugely satisfying.”

Jennifer O’Neill, library director at TheFlorida Times-Union, received a first placecitation of special achievement for herresearch on a Sunday A1 centerpiece,

Continued on page 8


LIBRARY PROFILE

Danes deliver a decade of service

BY AMY DISCH

Politiken Newspapers, head-quartered in Copenhagen,Denmark, publishes two

daily newspapers, Politiken, abroadsheet which began in 1884and Ekstra Bladet, a tabloid whosefirst issue appeared in 1904. Thepapers’ original parent company,Dagbladet Politiken, was foundedin October 1884.

The Library of PolitikenNewspapers was established in1994 and is managed by headlibrarian Aase Andreasen. Thelibrary celebrated its tenth anniver-sary in November 2004 andmarked the occasion with the pro-duction of a 12 page “festschrift” orcelebratory publication, as well as astaff reception which included cakeand wine.

The library’s reference collectionis comprised of between 5,000 and6,000 books, 30 Danish and for-eign newspapers and approximately100 journals and news-related mag-azines. Clip files spanning the years1940 to 1974 and microfilm ofboth papers beginning from theirinceptions are also available. Thepapers’ stories from 1975 to thepresent are available electronicallythrough the Infomedia database.Andreasen notes that, “Today this isthe biggest database in Denmark,”indexing not only PolitikenNewspapers’ titles, but variousother newspapers and magazines aswell.

Archiving of the papers is entire-ly handled by an outside companyrather than the library staff.Andreasen says this is the main dif-ference she sees between theirlibrary and its American counter-parts. “We have respect for that job

and it is very, very important, butwe are happy that it’s done bysomeone else.”

The library also provides accessto several Nordic databases, as wellas to Factiva, Dialog and Genios.Selective newspaper and magazinetitles are also available electronically.There is a fairly even mix of printand online information sources.According to Andreasen, “We stillbuy reference books in print butpublications such as annual reports,investigations and some statisticsare no longer represented in printededitions but only via the Web.”

Andreasen says that the library’smain priorities are “doing researchfor journalists and answering ques-tions from the public.” All mem-bers of the library’s staff participatein these two important functions.A variety of other tasks are evenlydistributed among staff members.They include purchasing books and

other materials, writing for thelibrary’s newsletter, creating andmaintaining databases and anintranet, performing surveys, par-ticipating in computer-assistedreporting projects, writing “search-ing tips” articles and compiling quizquestions for the Politiken newspa-per, training new employees inInternet and database research andother administrative duties.

A particularly interesting facet ofthe library’s work is its 85-year-oldtradition of answering questionsfrom the public. The staff acceptsquestions via telephone Mondaythrough Friday between 2 p.m. and6 p.m. and also accepts queriesthrough e-mail. On a typical day,between 40 and 50 questions areanswered, and on Saturdays sixquestions and their correspondinganswers are published in Politiken.

Politiken Library staff (L-R): Aase Andreasen, Gitte Ronberg, Michaela Rosendal,Gertrud Baun and Jutta E. Jensen.

Continued on page 9


WHO WANTS TO BE A NEWS LIBRARIAN?

Happy New Year! Many of us arelikely making promises for a freshstart, whether it’s shedding a few

pounds, paying off debt or other personalgoals. I don’t usually take a part in these res-olutions, but this year I definitely feel likechange is coming.

I recently opened the latest issue ofInformation Outlook and was very pleasedand excited about the opening column bythe honorable Ethel M. Salonen, presidentof SLA. She discusses the resistance manyrecent MLS graduates receive when seekingemployment and encourages librarians toembrace these new professionals and appre-ciate what they have to offer. Discussion isoften the first step in solving the problem,which is why I was so excited that a leaderaddressed this issue.

Change is inevitable. One of the reasonsI became so interested in becoming a librar-ian is because I truly admire how the pro-fession has adapted to the rapid technolog-ical changes that have arrived. Searchingthe Internet and online databases, develop-ing Web sites and blogging are all areaswhere librarians have been on the frontlines. Yet, there still seems to be a bit ofresistance to change in the library profes-sion.

I hope that this resistant stance willeventually adjust to one of acceptance.With intelligent and articulate leaders suchas Ms. Salonen and Rachel Singer Gordondiscussing the need to adapt to the newentries into the profession, I have faith thatthis discussion will lead to the beginning ofincreased diversity in the profession.

So who wants to be a news librarian? Ido, and as I’ve learned through writing ofmy struggles to enter the profession, manyothers like me do as well. I’m very pleasedto share that I have recently accepted a full-time position with The Palm Beach Post. I’mgrateful, excited, nervous, happy and anx-ious all at the same time.

Indeed, change is coming. With the newyear, let’s all welcome whatever changescome our way. A new year, a new job, a newplace to call home... I’m definitely readyfor the changes coming ahead. Are youready?

BY ANGELICA CORTEZ

PEOPLEContinued from page 6

“Who’s Coaching our Kids? Flawed SystemAllows Volunteers with Violent Pasts toSlip Through,” by Matt Galnor. Usingpublic records, Matt and Jennifer examin-ed the backgrounds of 2,000 Jacksonvilleyouth sports coaches. In response to thestory, Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton saidit was “intolerable” that the city’s back-ground system was apparently not work-ing. He ordered his staff to investigate cityprocedures for conducting backgroundchecks on youth coaches, which led tochanges in their screening procedures.


LIBRARY PROFILE

Those that run in the paper also appear inthe Infomedia database, enabling staff to“reuse the most popular and difficult ques-tions in an easy way.” Andreasen cites thisinteraction with the public as being “goodPR for the newspaper.”

In addition to Andreasen, the library’sstaff includes one part-time and three full-time librarians, as well as one part-timelibrary clerk. Prior to being appointed headlibrarian, Andreasen spent 15 years workingas a reference librarian in a public libraryand six years working as the “PolitikenInformation” (the newspaper’s telephoneservice) librarian. Andreasen says that for anew hire, “The skills we are looking fortoday are the abilities to do research in a tal-ented way, to market the skills of librarians,to train and cooperate with journalists andto both create and use computer-assistedreporting tools.”

The library is open between 9 a.m. and8 p.m. Monday through Friday. Dutiesperformed during a typical day includelocating background information and factsfor stories, editing chronologies or “factboxes” and attendance at a morning editor-ial meeting. The staff also spends timeupdating the library’s intranet content withnew magazine articles and new informationon topic areas of current interest.

The library’s marketing efforts aredemonstrated through frequent intranetupdates, participation in staff meetings, thepublication of a monthly newsletter and“trying to be where things happen.” Thestaff also gives all new journalists a tour andintroduction to the library and its services.Andreasen notes that the notion of market-ing yourself and your library wasn’t some-thing that was taught or emphasized whenshe attended library school. “What we did-

n’t learn at that time was how to marketyourself and your skills, thereby promotinglibrarians and their competencies.”

In the future, Andreasen foresees “jour-nalists performing more and more of theresearch for their stories themselves. But Ithink we have an important job to do—compiling information resources for themin a smart and systematic way. We also

have to be proactive in our informationgathering practices so that needed materialsare available before a request is made.” Sheadds that while “I don’t think our companywill add librarians to our staff, I also don’tsee our numbers being reduced because Ibelieve that our library is highly valued andappreciated.”

Danes deliver a decadeof serviceContinued from page 7

Gertrud Baun staffs the telephone service desk for the public.

Journalists celebrate the library’s tenth anniversary.

Ihave been theNews ResearchCenter director at

The Plain Dealer(Cleveland, Ohio)since 1982. Prior tothat I was the assistanthead librarian. Undermy supervision theNews Research

Center has made the transition from a clipsand photo library to a more proactive, com-puterized information center which has anelectronic archiving system, newsresearchers in the newsroom and offers avariety of database training.

My involvement with the SpecialLibraries Association has been at both thelocal and the News Division levels. Ichaired the first News Division silent auc-tion as well as the election ballot committeefor the division. On the local level I havechaired the advertising and public relationscommittees and the continuing educationseminar for the Cleveland Chapter of SLA.

In 1985, after a10-year stint innewsroom and

wire service environs,I returned to graduateschool and earned myMLS. In 1987 Ijoined news librarian-ship as a researcher inthe Editorial Library

of the Los Angeles Times and never lookedback.

After 12 years in news research, I movedto the library’s electronic archiving group,where we manage the content of the Times’text, photo and graphics databases. Soonafter that move, we migrated to a paginated

archiving system, which resulted in a verydifferent—and much improved—work-flow. Now, instead of getting out at 3 a.m.,our archiving team finishes around mid-night alongside the newsroom.

My first SLA experience was in 1987,when I attended the Anaheim conference asa recent graduate looking for work. When Ivisited the News Division suite, someone(Richard Geiger probably) talked me intobartending, and I was hooked on the NewsDivision.

It would be 10 years before I got toattend another annual conference. In 1997Tom Lutgen asked me to handle audio-visual planning and support for the NewsDivision sessions in Seattle. I enjoyed thejob so much that I did it for subsequentconferences in Minneapolis, Indianapolisand Philadelphia.

For the San Antonio conference, Iaddressed the Archiving Update session onarchiving practices and procedures at theTimes. Following that, I moderated theArchiving session in Los Angeles, thenmoderated and spoke in New York andmoderated once again in Nashville.

In between I assisted with conferenceplanning and attended the mid-wintermeetings in New Orleans andAlbuquerque, serving as technology chairfor the News Division from 2002-2004,and serving as nominations chair for the2003-2004 News Division elections.

In New York, I worked with incomingTreasurer Justin Scroggs to collect suitefees and with Justin and Dana Gordon tohelp run the silent auction. In Nashville lastyear, I gave the treasurer’s report in Justin’sabsence, and again I helped collect suitefees at the door, thus increasing substantial-ly the amount collected to defray Divisioncosts.

It has been a pleasure to work with sucha dedicated group of industry professionals


CHAIR-ELECT

Ihave managed TheColumbus DispatchEditorial Library

since 1974. Our staffnow consists of sevenlibrarians—six havean MLS.

I have always hada keen interest inarchiving issues and

technology projects of all kinds. I beganelectronic text archiving at The Dispatch in1985, digital image archiving in 1992 andintranet operations in 1999. Now, severalsystems later and much wiser, we operate alarge image archives, two text archives andthe editorial intranet. The second textarchive is a local commercial text archivesite, which is actually profitable.

We are now working with IBM’s newarchive system, NICA, which includesimages, graphics and PDFs. The textarchive will be transferred to NICA in early2003.

I also provide extensive support forComputer Assisted Research & Reportingprojects (CARR), including identifyingand acquiring public record data sets,importing data and teaching reporters howto analyze data using Excel, MASACCESS, SPSS and SAS software. Muchof this work finds its way onto the intranetsite, which the library created and contin-ues to run. We currently have over 42 mil-lion public records on the site. I also havemanaged The Dispatch political pollingoperation since 1982.

Teaching journalists to be more profi-cient users of information technology isone of our greatest challenges.

My most satisfying accomplishment hasbeen the creation of highly qualified pro-fessional library staff.

ELECTIONS

Nominations for Division Board announced

JIM HUNTER PATTI GRAZIANO

PETER JOHNSON

TREASURER

Continued on next page

for the past 7 years, and I enjoy giving backwhere—and when—I can. So I’m pleased tobe a candidate for News Division treasurer,and I look forward to the opportunity to servein this new capacity.

DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION/PROFESSIONALDEVELOPMENT CHAIR

Ihave been thedeputy director ofthe Newsweek

Research Center since1996, responsible formanaging our researchintranet, training endusers and customizingapplications for ourstaff. I have held previ-ous information pro-

fessional positions at Bankers Trust, McGraw-Hill and Business Week; I got my start in newsresearch as an intern with New York Newsday.I cherish the variety of job experiences I’vehad—each one has contributed in some wayto my current work.

I have been active in the News Division asthe public relations director and organizer ofour annual silent auction over the past fewyears, and I am also active in the SLA NewYork Chapter and currently serve as theinternship coordinator on the Library LiaisonCommittee. I have been active at the annualconference, speaking on several panels aboutintranets and news research.

I am concerned with such ongoing profes-sional development issues as demonstratingour value to management and learning andmaintaining skills competencies against thebackdrop of our rapidly changing informa-tion landscape. Another interest is in devel-oping and working with the so-called “next

generation” of information professionals andend users. On my job I am continually chal-lenged in training nextgen end users whosepoints of reference and information seekingbehaviors are so different from my own.What is the best way to reach them? Whatcan we learn from them? These questions alsoapply to our relationships with newly mintedinformation professionals as well, and they arequestions we should all be concerned about. Ilook forward to working on these issues withyou as your next education director.

Iobtained an arthistory degree atthe University of

Virginia, and after ayear-long stint work-ing in Santa Fe, NM,I started as a libraryassistant at the USAToday library in 1983.I received my MLSfrom the University

of Maryland in 1986, and a promotion to ref-erence librarian soon followed. In 1989 Imoved to Marin County, CA to head thelibrary at the Marin Independent Journal,another Gannett newspaper. There, whileattempting to clean up a two-year backlog ofunclipped newspapers, I momentarily wishedfor the destruction of the library during theWorld Series Earthquake (my first). Thelibrary was saved, though, the backlogcleared, and I returned to Washington in1990 to be a reference librarian at the Bureauof National Affairs, Inc. I have remained thereever since, although I have been promoted tosenior reference librarian and am also the cor-porate archivist. In 2001 I took over the edi-torship of BNA’s Directory of State andFederal Courts, Judges, and Clerks, and in2002 that publication debuted a Web version.

I have been a member of SLA since 1991and got involved by volunteering to do thePeople column for News Library News in1995. From 1996 to 1998 I was managingeditor of NLN. I served as treasurer for the


ELECTIONS

DANA GORDON

CATHERINE KITCHELL

�

thinking about resources that we canmake accessible to members. Are thereresource guides, lists of experts, pre-sentations, etc. that could be madeavailable on our Web site to membersonly? It’s easier to justify membershipdues to your editor if you can point tospecific perks (e.g., resources) thatcould benefit the entire newsroom.

I hope I’ve given everyone somethings to think about for the next year.When we meet in Toronto, I hopewe’ll be further along in our efforts tospread the word on the value of theNews Division.

Shifting gears just a bit, I’d also liketo announce a bit of news. In ourefforts to streamline costs for theDivision, we would like to stop print-ing a full run of the News DivisionMembership Directory. NewsBankgenerously produces the directory forus each year. If you would still like apaper copy, we will enclose an orderrequest form with the News Divisionballot. Otherwise we plan on creatinga PDF version of the directory formembers only. If you have any ques-tions or concerns, please let me know([email protected]) assoon as possible.

Finally, I’d like to close by congrat-ulating the excellent slate of Divisionoffice candidates: Chair-Elect: JimHunter, The Columbus Dispatch;Treasurer: Peter Johnson, Los AngelesTimes and Patti Graziano, The PlainDealer (Cleveland, Ohio); Director ofEducation/Professional Development:Dana Gordon, Newsweek andCatherine Kitchell, Bureau ofNational Affairs. Congratulations toall of these excellent candidates. Don’tforget to vote when you receive yourballot!

Notes from the ChairContinued from page 4


Nominations for DivisionBoard AnnouncedContinued from previous page

BY JEANIE STRAUB AND MINDY WHIPPLE

WITH JAMES NYCE, PH.D.EMPORIA STATE UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION

MANAGEMENT

As part of their MLS program,Jeanie Straub, a News Divisionmember, and fellow student Mindy

Whipple traveled to Lunca Ilvei, a ruralcommunity in the Transylvania region ofRomania, to collect qualitative data for acommunity-needs assessment under Dr.James Nyce of the School of Library andInformation Management at Emporia StateUniversity. (See http://slim.emporia.eduro-mania.) Here the three discuss Romanianlibraries, the Romanian press and otherimpressions on topics of interest to theNews Division.

JEANIE STRAUB: We spent a good sixmonths reading every peer-reviewed andinformal source we could get our hands on,not the least of which was BarbaraSemonche’s report on her 1996 work inBucharest for the Freedom Forum’sInternational Library Division fellowship incooperation with SLA. (See http://parkli-brary.jomc.unc.edu/buchr.html.) Duringour preparatory reading, analysis and dis-cussion I had assumed that articles writtenbefore 2000 would no longer apply becauselife would have improved exponentiallyevery year since the fall of dictator NicolaeCeausescu in 1989. That was not the case atall. While the catastrophic economic condi-tions Semonche found were probably con-siderably worse than what we saw, the econ-omy is far more depressed than anything Icould have envisioned—so much so that itwas almost surreal at times. An article writ-ten in the mid-1990s could have been writ-ten in 2004. A positive note is that newspa-pers get read in Romania. WhetherRomanians believe what they read, anddespite that Romania is criticized for failingto protect its reporters (more than 20 jour-

nalists have been physically attacked in thelast 18 months for offenses such as exposingscandals like the mysterious prosperity inthe ranks of the ruling Social DemocratParty), at least people are reading those sto-ries. If you leave a Romanian newspaper ona train and others pick it up, you can seethat the press has value even if there is deepdistrust of official information.

JAMES NYCE: But we saw little printedmaterial in Lunca Ilvei. We also saw fewbooks in the homes we visited.

STRAUB: The lack of printed material wasrelated to a number of issues, not the leastof which was money; most people wereworking a minimum of two jobs, and com-modities we take for granted, such as sham-poo, were considered luxuries to some.Most people have to choose between neces-sities and items such as books or newspa-pers—making the lack of library service inthe village terribly significant—and most ofthe customers we encountered in one book-store in Bucharest were tourists.

NYCE: University students both buy booksand use bookstores as meeting places,almost as if they were cafes. And there were,at least in the university quarter, manybookstores, even in the subway. The situa-tion in rural Romania was quite different.

STRAUB: The contrast between urban andrural areas was notable in other cases aswell. In Bucharest people would reallyspeak their minds, especially about theeconomy and politics. But in Lunca Ilveieveryone was mum about the approachingmayoral election, and I asked one respon-dent why everyone seemed so disinclined todiscuss the mayor or other local aspects ofthe election. He said no one had the time todiscuss politics, as if it was a luxury to dis-cuss politics, and I let it drop.

NYCE: I don’t think discussing politics is aluxury to Romanians. And even when onecan’t afford periodicals, there is still radioand TV.

STRAUB: People seemed to be willing todiscuss national or other politics that werenot local in nature. Clearly the mayorseemed to be off limits. And regarding thepress, one official in Lunca Ilvei said, andthis seems to be a common perceptionamong the public as well, that there was nota lot of “good” information in the pressbefore 1989 and that the same was trueafter. Readers still needed to be skepticaldespite the guise of democracy. It is as ifRomanians received all the dubious benefitsof a market-oriented economy but few ofthe critical benefits of democracy:Romanian newspapers have the cutoutphotos as refers on Page 1, and they’ve gotthe Internet poll on Page 2. However, thecountry has a long way to go toward achiev-ing a truly free press (be too good of aninvestigative reporter and you could beimprisoned or beaten), and very few canafford Internet access. We sought out anInternet café and found a vacant storefront.We eventually found other Internet cafes.Libraries are not only under-funded—atone point the mayor in Lunca Ilvei said ifresidents wanted a library, they could buybooks for themselves—but they are alsoinaccessible in many cases.

MINDY WHIPPLE: There is also confu-sion as to what role librarians play inRomania.

NYCE: This has to do with the role librar-ians had in the old regime. While there wassome resistance to the role the former gov-ernment assigned them, clearly there is alegacy of distrust both about librarians andwhat librarians provide.


NLN FEATURE

Continued on next page

Romanian Press, Libraries still face steep journey


NLN FEATURE

STRAUB: Librarianship is also devalued asan occupation because of the pervasivenotion that what librarians do is shelve andretrieve books. Semonche noted that newslibrarians or news researchers were nonexis-tent in Romania, and that in fact there wasno direct translation for such an occupa-tion. When I visited the press building inBucharest, a security guard was in charge ofaccess to what was little more than a closetfor back copies. Later we discovered thatthe two librarians in Lunca Ilvei were actu-

ally secretaries thatacted as librarians asan afterthought.

WHIPPLE: It allgoes back to policyand lack of supportfor informationinstitutions.

NYCE:: AndRomanians are skep-tical of what the elitesay about change,institutions and gov-ernment no matterwhat media it isreported in. Againand again we heardcomments suggest-ing Romanians as apeople don’t seethemselves as actorsin whatever game isbeing presented tothem. One result isthat media con-sumers tend to bemore interested innumbers and count-ing related to topicssuch as sports thaneconomic facts andfigures. After many

years of Soviet domination, Romanianshave a healthy respect for the unreliabilityof numbers related to public institutionsand the common good.

STRAUB: Romanians definitely have ahealthy respect—or healthy cynicism—about reported information and the natureof truth. One man asked whether our pres-ident orchestrated September 11. That’show little they believe anything they hear or

read; they question everything—at leastthat which will not get them killed—andthey are not at all shy about asking toughquestions or leveling criticism regarding theUnited States. We were asked by a familywe interviewed whether Iraq wasn’t, as ourtranslator put it, “awfully far to go” todefend our own soil. People tended to bepoint-blank when asking questions aboutthe United States and U.S. foreign policy.The details about the torture of Iraqi pris-oners were starting to break. Iraq madeheadlines daily.

WHIPPLE: Do you remember theRomanian soldiers on the train? What didthey say? They made a choice to join themilitary to make their lives a little betterbecause jobs are so scarce in Romania. Butdid they imagine where they would end up?And for whom they would be fighting?

STRAUB: This was May and they wereleaving in July for Iraq. My first reactionwas to apologize; I said I was sorry that theyhad to go to Iraq. They told me not to apol-ogize because they were paid well; the mili-tary provided a good income, enough thatthey could buy Winston cigarettes insteadof the generics everyone else smokes. Onesaid, “In Iraq it is spaghetti everyday”—spaghetti being a perk. The economy worksfor few others except for those in power,such as the mayor in Lunca Ilvei.

WHIPPLE: Often we were asked if therewere jobs for Romanians in the UnitedStates. Almost everyone asked this. I’d liketo think we were asked this questionbecause they wanted an encouraginganswer to how a market-oriented economyworks for us. But often people were leavingtheir wives and children to work in othercountries, and I think that they were givingup on the possibility of employment inRomania. What we saw in the librarianprofession is probably true of much of theprofessions in Romania.

Free Press building in Bucharest. Photo: Jeanie Straub


Romanian Press, Libraries still face steep journeyContinued from previous page

As if the multicultural excitementand mild temperatures weren’tenough reason to attend this year’s

SLA conference in Toronto, just take a lookat the News Division’s programming.

In addition to informative and practicaldaily sessions and two very interesting CEcourses, you won’t want to miss touring theToronto Star Library on Saturday or theThursday luncheon at the CanadianBroadcasting Corporation. Tuesday’sawards banquet, in a castle no less, promis-es to be as memorable as ever.

If you have any questions on the pro-gram, please contact Denise Jones [email protected]. For generalconference and lodging information, seehttp://www.sla.org.

Come join us!

SATURDAY, JUNE 4

2:00-5:00 - Tour of the Toronto Star Library

6:00-12:00 - Networking in Suite

SUNDAY, JUNE 5

8:00-12:00 - Blogging for News: Creating andManaging Weblogs and Newsfeeds CE Course

In this weblog workshop for beginners, the classwill be divided into small groups, each using a lap-top to create, post to and manage a weblog. Smallclass size is very desirable to accomplish the objectiveand provide each attendee with hands-on bloggingexperience. There will also be an introduction toRSS feeds. Participants are encouraged to bring lap-tops with wireless capabilities or ethernet cards, ifpossible.

Speakers: Jessica Baumgart, Harvard University;Liz Donovan, The Miami Herald

1:00-4:00 - Design for News: A Live Tour of FiveNewsroom Intranets CE Course

Design for News will explore five newsroomintranets using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) togain real time access to these Web sites. Library man-agers of the presentation Web sites will offer adescription and explanation of the hardware andsoftware that supports the intranet and discuss designand usability issues as well as the degree of difficultyinvolved in creating high-powered intranets. Eachintranet webmaster will discuss the technology used,development cycle and plans for future development.

Speakers: Dana Gordan and Madeline Cohen,Newsweek; Mike Meiners, St. Louis Post-Dispatch;Denise Jones, The News & Observer; Liz Donovan,The Miami Herald; Jennifer Ryan, The AtlantaJournal-Constitution

5:00 - Board Meeting in Suite

6:00 - Networking in Suite

MONDAY, JUNE 6

7:30-9:00 - Vendor roundtable - public records vendors

Moderator: Leigh PoitingerA chance to meet and talk with the public records

vendors. How is the data compiled? Where does itcome from? How do vendors ensure accuracy—or dothey? What is “credit header” data? What’s on thehorizon for privacy concerns?

11:30-1:00 - Mary Ellen Bates - The NextInformation Revolution, and Our Role asRevolutionaries

Looking ahead at the impact of technology andthe Web on our profession and how we can thrive onthis change and turn challenging situations into newopportunities for professional growth.

3:30-5:00 - News Division business meeting

7:00 - Silent Auction and Networking in SuiteSponsor: ProQuest

TUESDAY, JUNE 7

7:30-9:00 - Top Ten Tips: Ten ideas to make yourlibrary more effective

Moderator: Judy GrimsleyGreat ideas that your colleagues have used to

improve their libraries. Ten of the best are sharedwith you.

11:30-1:00 - Managing Copyright and LeveragingRevenue in Your News Organization

Moderator: Kathy FoleyA panel of seasoned copyright experts (not lawyers)

will discuss copyright issues, including encouragingyour newsroom to follow good copyright practices,managing reprint permissions and developing rev-enue by repurposing editorial content. If your newsorganization assumes you are an expert on copyrightissues, come join the conversation.

Speakers: Sharon Clairmont, Orange CountyRegister; Ginny Everett, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Peter Simmons, The New York Times

1:30-3:00 - Gary Price - Searcher extraordinaireGary’s latest discoveries in Web searching.

3:30 - Board meeting in Suite

6:00 - Awards banquet at Casa Loma

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8

7:30-9:00 - Ratios, Percentages and Statistics!Oh my!

Moderator: Megan GallupDo you have trouble balancing your checkbook?

Does looking at Census data give you a headache?You’re not alone. As a librarian or informationprovider you may have assumed that you were donewith math when you were done with school. But ina news organization, math skills are more importantthan ever. Researchers need to know how to calcu-late ratios and percentages and work with statistics.Come learn (or re-learn) these skills and more, thengo back and teach your reporters!

Speakers: Stephen Doig, Arizona StateUniversity Cronkite School of Journalism; JohnMartin, St. Petersburg Times

11:30-1:00 - Enter the Matrix: Social NetworkAnalysis

Moderator: Kathryn PeaseLearn how matrices and graphs can be used to

unlock seemingly invisible relationships between peo-ple, companies and even terrorist organizations.Learn the concepts and techniques behind SNA.What type of questions should be asked? What typeof software should you use? Join panelists as theyexplain how to create your own “matrix revolution.”

Speakers: Jaimi Dowdell, Investigative Reportersand Editors; Brant Houston, Investigative Reportersand Editors

1:30-3:00 - The Urge to MergeModerator: Shira KavonConsolidation of graduate library schools and

schools of communication, information technologyand other disciplines has become a fact of academiclife in the 21st Century. Often as a result of thesemergers, graduate library programs and journalismschools coexist under the same academic umbrella, adevelopment that should benefit News Divisionmember libraries. Have these mergers helped tobuild a better-skilled, more news-library-ready MLSholder? If not, have library programs merely becomethe “silent partner” of the new model graduate pro-grams?

Speakers: Michael Koeing, Palmer School ofInformation Science of Long Island University;David Spencer, University of Western Ontario


CONFERENCE ADVANCE

Toronto: You belong here


NYCE: Librarians also seem to be demoral-ized about what they and their institutionscan do for patrons. It was unclear in whatsense conventional LIS terms such as “user-centered” and “service” (almost taken forgranted in the United States) would have ina Romanian context.

STRAUB: There was no understanding inLunca Ilvei of the concept that a publiclibrary is universally accessible. And thisseemed to be true of all other libraries.Access is restricted. At one point I waswalking to the press building in Bucharestand ran into an ex-patriot who thought Iwas on the way to the press building to gainaccess to the National Library. Access is anissue.

WHIPPLE: The problem again goes backto the policy-makers. One woman told usshe would go to the mayor of the commu-nity for agricultural information ratherthan the library. And when interviewing themayor we found that he didn’t see thelibrary as a priority. That is probably reflec-tive of the nation as a whole.

NYCE: In Romania the entire culturalenterprise regarding what knowledge is andwho or how it is determined to be truthfulis weak. Consequently, if libraries are trans-fer points for knowledge and information,they too are regarded as suspect.

STRAUB: A few people in the larger citiesreported that they were uncertain whetheryou needed to buy a library card to gainaccess. According to Western and evenRomanian academics, the public librarysystem is free. But everything seems to befor sale in Romania—even test scores to geta student into the university. You can buy

access, test scores, on and on. If it isn’t, thenyou’re stuck at the bottom with the other90 percent of the population for whom thetransition is not working. The economy isnot in transition at all for many peoplebecause they cannot see anything transi-tioning.

NYCE: There seemed to be an absence ofcommonly agreed upon facts. Jeanie men-tions what free means in reference to alibrary card. Another example is if you trav-el station to station by rail in one directionyou may get three tickets, but upon yourreturn you may get one ticket for the exactsame route. Now this may be relativelypetty, but it points to a society where verylittle is relatively stable. And this is not justa perception of outsiders; Romanians them-selves told us much the same.

WHIPPLE: It was difficult to determine iflibrary cards were free. Our translator saidthat there is a small fee for a library card butthat checking materials out was free. I alsothink that Romanians do see things chang-ing, but only for the Romanian elite. Thetransition is working for the elite, and, sincethis small segment of the Romanian popu-

lation also makes policy, things continue tolook bleak for those on the bottom. Ourinterpreter told me the mayor of LuncaIlvei owned three homes, including a vaca-tion home on the Black Sea.

STRAUB: Most people expressed that theydid not have faith that EU membershipwould improve life in Romania.

NYCE: This view is surprisingly strong inrural Romania. As you mentioned earlier,people we interviewed saw the transitionfrom a planned economy to something likecapitalism as really no transition at all.More cynically, they saw the supposed tran-sition much like a play in which the scenerychanged but the actors didn’t.

WHIPPLE: That is precisely what hap-pened—the scenery changed but the actorsdid not. Former communist countries thathave made a more successful transition suchas Hungary, Poland and Ukraine put intooffice political leaders who were moreremoved from the former CommunistParty. Since 1989, Romania’s most power-ful political leaders have been former


Romanian Press,Libraries still face steepjourneyContinued from page 13

Library research group taking the preferred mode of transportation in Lunca Ilvei.Photo: Mindy Whipple.


NLN FEATURE

Communist Party members. Why didRomanians allow them to stay in power?Fear of the unknown? Nostalgia? In anycase, Romanians sent their leadership amessage during the last election when theyvoted the dominant party out of office. Thenew leaders will be instrumental in workingtoward EU accession and the 15 billionEuros that comes with that accession.

STRAUB: Many expressed distrust in theelections, and that goes back to the mostlyuniversal distrust of the system. An exampleis that after the 1989 revolution, peoplewere unsure for about a week what was real-ly happening—they thought the talk of arevolution might be a ploy. It wasn’t untilthe broadcast of the execution of the formerdictator and his wife that it became appar-ent to everyone that a revolution hadoccurred. According to one source, AnimalFarm was broadcast after that. I asked thesame man where the tapes of the executionwere kept. He was sure they were some-where, but he could not identify where theywere kept or exactly how a Romanianwould be able to access the tapes, and hewas an educated man.

WHIPPLE: Access to the videotapes, trustin the government as it transitions and arelated mistrust of the EU—Romanians arehaving a tough time of it. Lack of trans-parency and lack of open access to knowl-edge are directly tied to the difficulty inRomania. In the Western world we havelong associated libraries with democracy,and there doesn’t seem to be that connec-tion in Romania.

STRAUB: I noted real nostalgia among theyounger set—say 35 and younger—for lifeunder communism, because Romanians are

worse off financially now than they wereunder communism. The average wage isabout the same—the equivalent of less than$200—but high inflation has undercutbuying power. A 35-year-old hotel securityguard in Bucharest put it this way: Before1989 Romanians did not have the freedomto leave, but they still cannot leave becausethey don’t have the money to leave. Thatwas early in the trip, and it became moreand more difficult to encourage people notto lose hope in the transition. It has beeninteresting to follow the presidential elec-tion in Romania, and I look forward toencouraging news resulting from the elec-tion of former Bucharest mayor and conser-vative opposition candidate Traian Basescuas he faces challenges in forming a govern-ment from fragmented parliamentary sup-port. One of our subjects I have been incontact with was surprisingly optimisticabout both the mayoral elections in his cityof Suceava and the presidential elections.He said this of the mayoral elections in arecent correspondence: “In my town thewinner was a hardworking and honestman.” This same source was one of the fewwho expressed confidence that integrationinto the EU would be important for thefuture success of Romania, and newly elect-ed president Basescu has said his priority is“to form ... a government capable of con-tinuing ... negotiations for Romania to jointhe European Union.” We’ll be followingthese negotiations for Romania with hope.

Romanian libraries: the skinnyAccording to Romanian librarian

Herminda Anghelescu, development ofRomanian libraries mirrored developmentof libraries in Western Europe, from theemergence of monastic and ecclesiasticallibraries in the 14th century to the creationof public libraries supporting universal edu-cation in the 19th century.

Anghelescu wrote the definitive disserta-tion, “Public Libraries in Modern Romania:Legacy of French Influences and Soviet

Patterns, 1830-1990,” at the University ofTexas Austin. She traces a Romania acade-mic library system that gained momentumbeginning in 1866. Almost 50 years ofCommunist Party rule decimatedRomanian libraries, which had degeneratedinto repositories of party propaganda.Library science as a discipline was gutted in1974 with the closing of the sole libraryschool at the University of Bucharest.

Libraries have continued to suffer underharsh economic conditions since the fall ofdictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989. Theperception that librarians shelve andretrieve books is so pervasive that practicinglibrarians omit the name of their professionon business cards, according to Anghelescu.

Anghelescu’s 1990 figures offer the mostreliable recent statistics on Romanianlibraries:

❖ The public library network consist ofBucharest Municipal Library, 40 countylibraries and 2,823 municipal, city, com-mune and village libraries

❖ 43 academic libraries

❖ 10,956 school libraries

❖ Special libraries, including medical andmilitary libraries, total about 2,908, pri-marily in Buchrest, but there are no newslibraries that could be compared to thosein the United States and elsewhere; in fact,there is no direct translation for “newslibrarian” or “news researcher.”

Sources: Anghelescu (2000-2001), Anita Breland(1991-1992) (see http://web.simmons.edu/~chen/nit/NIT’91/001-bre.htm), and Barbara Semoncheof the News Division (see http://parklibrary.jomc.unc.edu/buchr.html).

Pressure on Romanian pressMarch 2004: Germany urges Romania toexecute sweeping reforms in anticipation ofits 2007 European Union admission.

February 2004: Romania bans aHungarian journalist who had written arti-


Romanian Press,Libraries still face steepjourneyContinued from page 15

NLN FEATURE


piano. A listserv was set up for the atten-dees by the Seminar staff for the librariansto stay in contact. Since that time photos,recollections and articles have been shared.“I wonder if the Salzburg Institute has anyidea of what they have unleashed,” said

Paul Callister, library director at BlochLaw Library, University of MissouriKansas City. “Librarians are experts at net-working and expect our group to continueand expand its work in perpetuity.”

For more information about theSalzburg Seminar, see http://www.salzburgseminar.org.

Susan Fifer Canby, Marion Paynter, SusannRutledge and Barbara Semonche contributed to thisreport.

cles critical of the Hungarian DemocraticUnion of Romania

December 2003: An international com-mission condemns eroding press freedomin Romania, citing continuing terrorizationof Romanian media workers, including thesavage beating of an investigativereporter—the 14th to be physicallyattacked in 2003. The commission alsocites the chilling effect of Romania’sextreme penal code as well as the undueinfluence of business interests on privatenews outlets.

May 2003: The U.S. CongressionalCommission for Security and Cooperationin Europe calls on Romania to cancel cur-rent defamation laws to promote freedomof the press.

April 2003: An international report singlesout Romania as the only EU candidatewithout a truly free press, citing routinepolitical meddling and newly adopted legis-lation restricting access to classified infor-mation.

February 2003: The Romanian DefenseMinistry refuses access to information on

the use of a Romanian military airfield bythe United States.

October 2002: Reporters WithoutBorders, publishing its first world index,reports that Romania is among the worstoffenders in Europe in regards to freedomof the press violations. The index trackscases of journalists being arrested or killed,censorship, the performance of statemonopolies, and media legislation.Sources: BBC, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, RadioFree Europe/Radio Liberty, Ziua

Sharing the wealth of NewsDivision knowledge through IFLA

The International Federation of LibraryAssociations and Institutions (IFLA)advances library and information servicesworldwide, including international cooper-ation and resource sharing. Reviews ofIFLA annual conferences by SLA membersare available on the SLA site.

❖ For information on individual or insti-tutional membership in IFLA, seehttp://www.ifla.org/III/members/index.htm.

❖ To read about the Newspapers Sectionof IFLA, see http://www.ifla.org/VII/s39/pr1/achiev.htm.

❖ SLA offers a comprehensive list of otherinternational library associations athttp://www.sla.org/content/resources/inforesour/reftool/librassn.cfm.


Romanian Press, Libraries still face steepjourneyContinued from page 16

NLN FEATURE CONFERENCE ADVANCE

3:30-5:00 - Research Management Trends: Gettingahead of the questions

Moderator: Donna ScheederWhat happens when you combine research man-

agement software, including virtual reference appli-cations, and knowledge management techniques inorder to respond to the conflicting demands of news-room research projects? What best practices are col-leagues employing to facilitate knowledge sharingamong de-centralized research staff? Is the invest-ment worth it? The speakers for this session willattempt share techniques, evaluations of softwareand provide time for best practice sharing among theattendees.

THURSDAY, JUNE 9

11:30-2:00 - Lunch on the 10th floor of the CBCBuilding.

The speaker will be Evan Solomon, co-host ofCBC News Sunday and host of Hot Type, a bookshow in which he interviews fiction and non-fictionwriters. Lunch will be followed by tours of CBClibraries. This tour will be handled by the NewsDivision and pre-registration will be required.Lunch and tour will be limited to 50 people andcost will be $20. Watch NewsLib for details on sign-ing up.

Toronto: You belong hereContinued from page 14

ELECTIONS

Nominations for DivisionBoard AnnouncedContinued from page 11

DC Chapter from 1999 to 2002 and astreasurer for the News Division from 2001to 2003. I received the DC/SLA Board ofDirectors Award 2001-2002 for my workas treasurer for the DC Chapter.

I am interested in running for educationdirector because, as we all know, trends inthe news library field are changing expo-nentially, and it is imperative for all of usto stay as current as possible. Holdingmeaningful CE classes at the SLA confer-ence is an efficient, relatively low-cost wayto provide members with the latest think-ing in our field.

Libraries’ mission, futurediscussed atinternational seminarContinued from page 5

libraries’ mission, future discussed at international seminar · bylaws chair, barbara semonche,...

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