Reference Round Table - Minutes - 2000

Reference Round Table
Executive Board Meeting

Present: Jack Becker, Vice-Chair; Gerald Churchill; Fran Ebbers; Sandy Gillman;
Claudette Hagel; John Hepner; Lynn Hamrick; Marianne Jackson; Jana Knezek; Jeff
Levy; Tina Oswald, Secretary/Treasurer; Jeanne Pyle; Patricia Switzer; Martha Tarlton,
Chair

The Reference Round Table, Executive Board met on Wednesday, April 12, 2000 at 
12:45 p.m. during the Texas Library Association Conference 2000 in Houston, Texas.  
The meeting was called to order by Martha Tarlton.  Introductions were completed, and 
all were reminded that if there was anything to vote on only current members would be 
allowed to vote.

Tina Oswald, Secretary/Treasurer, read the minutes from the Reference Round Table, 
Executive Board Meeting held on July 12, 1999 at Texas Library Association Annual 
Assembly, and they were approved.  The Treasurer's Report stated that there is a balance 
of $6,973.57 as of March 10, 2000.

Jack Becker, Vice-Chair, reported that there were 54 who attended the Reference Round 
Table Pre-Conference on genealogy, so RRT should make about $1,000.00 from the Pre-
Conference.  He stated that if we decide to do another program on genealogy, we should 
put an emphasis on ethnic genealogy.

Jana Knezek had nothing to report from the Executive Board.

Fran Ebbers, RRT Councilor, gave the Councilor's Report.  The Council reminded us of 
the theme of Inclusiveness.  The Community Party is scheduled for Wednesday evening 
at the Convention Center.  All are encouraged to attend.  The by-laws proposition failed 
with 55% against and 42% for it.  This proposition would have allowed TLA members to 
be from other states.  At this time, people from other states will not be allowed to have 
TLA membership.  There will be a Council Caucus on Friday at 2:50 p.m.

Jeanne Pyle reported from the Nominations Committee that Marion Jackson was elected 
Councilor. 

Jack Becker reported that the RRT program would be held on Thursday, at 8:30 a.m. The 
program is on Censorship, and Pat Ensor, a librarian at the University of Houston, and 
Gretchen McCord Hoffman, a librarian in law school, will be the presenters.  They will 
discuss Censorship Policies and whether or not librarians are protected by that policy.  
What are the legal aspects that need to be considered?

Sandy Gillman reported that there would be another program on this same topic from the 
Library in Plano.  They were ordered to filter by the City Council, and librarians will 
discuss what they went through during the filtering process.

Patricia Stinson Switzer reported that the winner of the Texas Reference Source Award 
for 2000 is: Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico: Texas, Louisiana, and Adjacent Waters, second 
edition, by H. Dickson Hoese and Richard H. Moore, published by the Texas A & M 
University Press.
We were reminded that nominations are needed each year for this award.  They are 
accepting nominations now for the 2001 award.  The Award Committee thought that the 
nominations would come from Reference Librarians, but that has not been the case.  
Nominations usually come from the Publishers or from the Award Committee members.  
The Committee would like to receive more nominations from librarians, and a discussion 
followed on how to have this occur.  The award needs to be publicized, so librarians 
know that they can nominate a title.  The nomination form and an explanation of the 
award should be on the RRT web site and the TLA web site.  It was suggested that it be 
put in the TLA Cast, as well.

Claudette Hagel from the Public Relations/Membership Committee reported that there is 
a complete list of members.  An e-mail will be sent to all the members, reminding them 
to continue to join and be active in RRT.  There are over 600 members in RRT.  There 
was discussion of the need for an RRT logo.  There was a motion from Claudette Hagel 
that RRT run a contest for the RRT logo with the winner receiving a $25.00 prize.  Tina 
Oswald seconded the motion.  In the discussion that followed, it was decided to put an 
announcement in the RRT newsletter about the competition to create a logo for RRT, and 
the person with the winning logo will win a $25.00 prize.  The motion was passed.  Once 
a logo is designed, then RRT would like to have a banner made with the logo on it.  The 
cost for that would be about $200.00. The banner will be used at the RRT booth during 
the TLA Conference.

Martha Tarlton reminded everyone that there are open time slots for the RRT booth.  It 
must be staffed while the Exhibits are open.

Tina Oswald and Lynne Hambric discussed the Planning Committee meeting.  We are 
trying to go forward with the publication of a new edition of Texas Reference Sources.  
There has not been much response to the letter that went out to all RRT members asking 
for help in the writing and editing process.  We also need new Texas reference titles 
to include in the new edition.

John Hepner discussed the TLA Centennial that will be in 2002.  We need to work on an 
RRT history.  It was asked if anyone had a full run on the RRT newsletter.  RRT began in 
1963 or 1964 as an off shoot of the Reference Services Division, now RASD, of ALA.  A 
list of all programs and pre-conferences that RRT has done needs to be compiled.  It 
would be helpful to have a chronology of RRT, and a complete list of officers and 
membership counts for each year.  John would like to find the original petition for RRT, 
but has not found it so far.  There will be a time capsule created for TLA in the year 
2002.  RRT would like to donate a copy of Texas Reference Sources for the time capsule.

Fran Ebbers reported that the TLA Program Committee for 2001 is hard at work.  There 
are stickers for the badges with the 2001 Conference theme: 21st Century Libraries: 
Unique, Unlimited.  The 2001 Conference will run from Wednesday, March 28, 2001, 
with the pre-conferences until Saturday, March 31, 2001 in San Antonio.
Copyright Š2007, Reference Round Table, TLA
