Volume 18, Number 3 - APRIL 1999
Published by the Texas Library Association
LIBRARIES LINKING CENTURIES • DALLAS • APRIL 20-23
CONFERENCE News
& Updates
TLA
Preconferences
All TLA Preconferences will be held at the Dallas Convention Center with the exception of the "Uncle Sam, Texas, and TEKS on the Web: Finding Government Information to Support K-12 Curriculum," sponsored by the Government Documents Round Table, which will be held at the Dallas Public Library, 1515 Young Street (across the street from the convention center).
New hours for Exhibits and General Session I
Looking forward to checking out the exhibits on Wednesday, April 21? Great, but you'll have to wait until noon to get in. Because the First General Session will be held from 8:30 to 9:50 a.m. on Wednesday morning, and because exhibitors and conferees have asked for a conflict free time to view exhibits, hours for the exhibit hall on Wednesday have shifted later. The hall will be open noon to 6 p.m. on Wednesday. Exhibits will be open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday and 9 a.m. to noon on Friday. The hour from 5 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday will be uncontested time for viewing the exhibits.
Early birds get more than the worm
Three TLA members have been selected to receive free attendance to the 2000 TLA Annual Conference. The winners are Sylvia R. Green of Hondo, Beverley L. McLaughlin of Copperas Cove, and Cathy L. Lancaster of Henrietta. The winners were picked from among preregistrations for the 1999 Annual Conference received by March 1, 1999.
Unit stipend winners
Several TLA members will travel to the TLA Annual Conference in Dallas with special assistance from various units of the Association. Four individuals have received stipends from the Public Libraries Division. They are: Richard Zimmer, Alpine Public Library; Evelyn White, Tom Green County Library; Susan Massey, Fort Bend County Libraries, First Colony Branch; and Scott Erps, Weslaco Public Library.
Three librarians will receive Laura Edwards memorial stipends from the Children's Round Table and the Texas Association of School Librarians. They are: Nancy McReynolds, Bean and Williams Elementary Schools, Lubbock; Shirley Petersen, Tom Green County Library, San Angelo; and Cheryl Smith, Cyprus Creek Branch, Harris County Public Library.
Jacquie Wilson of Pillow Elementary, Austin ISD, is the winner of the New Members Round Table Professional Development Grant. Valori Poskey is winner of the Escue Conference Stipend.
Dining in style
The list of writers to be in attendance at An Evening with the Authors continues to grow. This event, to be held at the Dallas Public Library 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. the evening of Thursday, April 22, will be the first of its kind ever at TLA and promises a unique opportunity for librarians to meet and mingle with authors and to hear them read from their works. As TLACast goes to press, the following authors will be present and reading: Rudolfo Anaya (emcee), William Bernhardt, Carol Dawson, Tomie dePaola, Jim Magnuson, Pat Mora, Bernice Rabe, and Javaka Steptoe. In addition, the following authors will be present to meet TLA members, but will not read from their works: T.A. Barron, Janell Canon, Robert Draper, Susan Guevara, Bill Hampton, Michio Kaku, Carmen Lomas Garza, Patricia McMahon, Rosemary Wells, and Paul Zelinsky.
President's Party Fun
Everyone knows the President's Party is a great party, but this year's all-conference social--to be held at the historic Union Station--will feature a variety of fun and interesting activities. Among this year's activities will be a raffle and silent auction for such items as baby beanie babies;, a state-of-the-art data projector; American Airlines tickets; books, maps, and original cover art for the Babysitter's Club; a collection of photographs of librarians over the last century; a vintage costume fashion show presented by the Collin County Historical Society; and a jazz ensemble.
We're outta here!
The TLA office will be closed the entire week of conference, and no one will be available to take calls that week from April 19 to 23. Also, the TLA office will be closed Monday, April 26, a much-cherished "crash day" following conference. We'll talk to you on the 27th!
Who says librarians live boring lives? Just ask Deborah Svenson, librarian at Forestwood Middle School, who spent the first week of March attending the fabled Iditarod dog sled race in the Alaskan wilderness. Ms. Svenson served as "Lead Dog" for "Team Forestwood," which included two 7th grade reading teachers and a school district Internet specialist who traveled to Anchorage, Alaska, to witness the start of the annual race.
The journey to Alaska started with a book: Gary Paulsen's Woodsong, a novel about the Iditarod. The librarian and her colleagues have been reading the book with students for several years and wanted to find a way to "establish a link for Texas students to the actual event." The journey became a school project complete with lesson plans and an online chronicle, including live chat and a daily journal of the group's activities.
The trip was especially interesting for Ms. Svenson, who took an 11-mile ride at the start of the race with Norwegian musher Harald Tunheim. Ms. Swenson's Alaskan adventure will be featured in the summer edition of the Texas Library Journal. For current information on the journey, visit the Team Forestwood web site at http://www.lisd.net/special/alaska/index.html
The Texas State Legislature is in session and is considering several bills important to public libraries. Join Mark Smith, director of communications for TLA, and the Texas Municipal Library Directors Association (TMLDA), for a TLA Conference Program that will provide the latest information on these bills and their status in the Legislature. The program will be held on Thursday, April 22, 1999, from 8:30 to 9:50 a.m. This program will outline the proposed changes to the Library District Law, the status of the Texas Public Library Fund, how changes in TexShare could affect public libraries, and other actions under consideration by the Legislature. Each of these bills, if passed as proposed, could have a very positive effect on public libraries in Texas. Each bill needs our support. This TLA program will provide members with the current status of each bill and the information members will need to encourage legislators to support the bill.
Twenty-four librarians and library supporters have been chosen to attend the 1999 TALL Texan Leadership Development Institute to be held at Harambe Oaks May 31 to June 4. The following attendees were chosen out of a field of over 80 applicants:
Joyce Baumbach, Allison Beechwood, Lonnie Beene, Mary Cissell, Jacquelyn Crinion, Diane Duesterhoeft, Camille Fiorillo, Sharon Gullett, Sheila Henderson, Barbara Knotts, Sherri Lazenby, Mary Long, Pixey Mosley, Tina Oswald, Carrie Jo Parmley, Beth Pettit, Elaine Plotkin, Norma Ruiz-Hearne, Kitty Spalding, Jill Cherie Sumpter, Gayle Travis, Mary Jo Venetis, Diane Warner, and Katherine Weimer. These attendees are representative of the spectrum of divisions, round tables, and interest groups in TLA.
The 1999 TALL Texans Institute will be the sixth annual gathering of mid-career library practitioners for a week of intensive instruction and interaction at the rustic Harambe Oaks training facility in the Central Texas Hill Country.
The First Lady's Family Literacy Initiative for Texas is a program of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. This statewide initiative is a partnership of the First Lady of Texas, Laura Bush, who serves as Honorary Chair, the Barbara Bush Foundation, and Texas literacy providers. The project awards one-time grants of up to $20,000 to enhance existing literacy instructional programs so that a complete family literacy program can be created.
Programs that receive these grants must:
Priority will be given to projects that collaborate with public schools or school districts which use validated assessment instruments to diagnose students' reading skills in the early grades. The deadline for application is April 16, 1999.
For applications or additional information, contact: Deborah Liggett
711 Louisiana, 33rd Floor, Houston, TX 77002-2716
Phone: 713-336-7889 Fax 713-336-7887
The Book Festival Award applications are judged by two teams of reviewers in geographically disparate areas. TLA staff divide applications to ensure that reviewers never see applications and scores from libraries in their areas.
The two teams, using the same scoring sheets, receive training on scoring the awards, including instruction on criteria and designated weighting. Each grant is read and scored by at least two reviewers. Applications with greater than average spans among scores are flagged and read by additional reviewers. Score sheets are sent to the TLA office, keyed into a database and notifications prepared.
Over 100 Texas public libraries will receive grants of up to $2,500 each from funds collected at the Texas Book Festival. In all, 107 Texas Public Libraries will receive a total of $256,910 in Texas Book Festival Awards, significantly more than in either of the two preceding years. Because preference was given in this year's scoring to libraries that had never won a Texas Book Festival Awards and because of the number of applicants, all of this year's recipients are first-time winners.
In this year's grant cycle, 234 libraries submitted applications totaling $442,256. Over 45 percent of all applications were funded, a much higher percentage than in the two previous years of the grant.
Funds distributed in the form of Texas Book Festival Grant Awards represent the proceeds from the Texas Book Festival, an annual celebration of Texas books, authors, libraries, and reading held in Austin. The third annual Texas Book Festival, held November 13-15, 1998, generated the largest amount yet for Texas public libraries-- more than double the amount raised last year. In three years, the Book Festival has generated over $500,000 in grants to over 200 public libraries and branches statewide.
TBF grants were made possible by the interest of First Lady Laura Bush, a former librarian and honorary chair of the Book Festival, who urged that the festival benefit Texas public libraries.
A variety of activities have been set to honor Texas Writers Month,
a celebration of Texas literary arts held each year in May. This year's featured
author is Larry McMurtry, author of The Last Picture Show, Lonesome
Dove, Terms of Endearment, and many other books that have chronicled
the changing landscape of Texas.
Once again this year, Texas Writers Month will make available to Texas public libraries the festival poster featuring Mr. McMurtry, by noted Austin graphic artist Marc English. Previous years' posters--including the 1998 poster of Katherine Anne Porter --are considered collectors items.
A number of book stores and other groups are planning various events to focus on Texas Writers Month, including book and author programs at Borders Books and Music and Barnes and Noble stores in cities across Texas. These programs will include appearances by such authors as Elmer Kelton, Robert Draper, Marion Winik, Tim McCandless, and Mary Willis Walker.
Texas Writers Month will kick off May 4 with a day of activities in Austin, including recognition by the House of Representatives and events that evening. The Texas Library Association is one of several organizations partnering with the nonprofit Texas Writers Project to plan Texas Writers Month.
Judy Thomas, adjunct professor of children's literature at Abilene Christian
University, and former librarian at Dyess Elementary School in the Abilene ISD,
is the winner of the 1999 SIRS/Mandarin Intellectual Freedom Award. During her
more than 30 years in education in Texas, Ms. Thomas has established a reputation
as a tireless advocate of the needs and rights of young readers. While she has
experienced challenges to titles in her collections, she has been honored for
her consistent promotion of the importance of allowing children to choose their
own reading materials from a variety of sources of information. She is well
known among her colleagues for providing a balanced collection for young readers.
The SIRS/Mandarin Intellectual Freedom Award is given each year to a Texas librarian
who has upheld the principles of free access to information in Texas libraries.
Ms. Thomas will be honored and receive her award at the closing luncheon of
the Texas Library Association Annual Conference
April 23 in Dallas.
The Woll Memorial Grant Committee has notified four libraries that they are recipients of the 1999 Woll Grants Awards. The awards-- named after longtime TLA member and Texas Bluebonnet Award Coordinator Christina Woll-- are used to purchase children's books for public and school libraries.
This year's winners are Bethune Academy, Aldine ISD; Goliad County Library; Marshall Public Library; and Houston Elementary School, Lancaster ISD.
A full color version of the Rosemary Wells illustration featured on the cover of this TLACast will be matted, framed, and raffled at the second general session of the 1999 TLA Annual Conference in Dallas. Tickets are $5 each and you may purchase as many "chances" as you like. Only one lucky librarian will walk away with the masterpiece, but since proceeds from the raffle support the Disaster Relief Fund for Texas libraries, every ticket is a winner.
Your raffle form MUST BE RECEIVED in San Angelo by APRIL 16, the Friday preceding annual conference. More opportunities to purchase raffle tickets will be available for conference attendees.
Maribelle Davis has retired after many years of dedicated service to
the Plano Public Library System. Joyce Baumbach has been named director
of libraries to succeed Ms. Davis.
Virginia Gaines has retired from her position as Germanic languages bibliographer and cataloger at the University of Texas at Austin after 19 years.
June Garcia has resigned as director of San Antonio Public Library to
accept the position of CEO, CARL Corporation.
Dana Rooks, dean of libraries of the University of Houston, will hold the newly created Elisabeth Rockwell Dean's Chair in the M.D. Anderson Library, the library's first endowed chair.
Patricia Potter Wilson has been selected Distinguished Alumni of the Year by the University of Houston Clear Lake Alumni Association.
Lena Armstrong, director of the Belton City Library for over 50 years, passed away January 24.
Marie Braun Berry, formerly the head librarian of the History and Texana Department of the San Antonio Public Library, died February 24, at age 85.
