a wealth of history, culture and entertainment is waiting ... · news library news (issn 1047-417x)...

Vol. 27, No. 3/Spring 2005

NOTES FROM THECHAIR / 4

In her last column asDivision Chair, JenniferEvert talks about profes-sional development andmembership.

LIBRARY PROFILE/7

Amy Disch does athorough investigationof four key news librariesin Torono.

CONFERENCEADVANCE/ 10

Current informationon the program schedulefor the upcoming annualSLA confererence inToronto.

AND THE WINNERSARE…/ 16

Linda Henderson setsthe stage for the upcom-ing 2005 News DivisionAwards Banquet andintroduces the winners.

THE INSIDESTORY

BY MIKE FILEY, COLUMNIST, TORONTO SUN

Brief History of Toronto

Toronto has a rich and storied history. To begin, Torontowas named for the Huron Indian word for “meetingplace.” And for good reason - the area was well used in this

manner for centuries by people of the First Nations, and later byFrench traders, thanks to its naturally protected harbour.

In 1788, the British purchased the land from the MississaugaIndians, and a settlement slowly grew around the waterfront area.In 1793, Lieutenant-Colonel John Graves Simcoe established amilitary garrison and named the town York in honour of the Dukeof York of the time. It was renamed Toronto when the city wasincorporated in 1834.

During the War of 1812, the town was twice occupied by theAmericans (both times in 1813). By 1834, its citizens, mostlyBritish and Scottish immigrants, numbered close to 10,000.Others, such as Jews from the United States, Russia and Germany,would soon arrive, as well as some 40,000 Irish fleeing famine intheir homeland. Blacks escaping slavery in the U.S. soon followed,at a time when the seeds of Toronto’s current multicultural diversi-ty were already being sown.

As the population increased, so did the city’s infrastructure. TheUniversity of Toronto opened its doors in 1843. Growth continuedin spite of the Great Fires of 1849 and 1904. The new city includ-ed an extensive network of roads, railways, canals, shipping andtelegraph lines.

A Wealth of History, Cultureand Entertainment isWaiting in Toronto

Continued on page 11

CONFERENCE ADVANCE

Toronto’s skyline at night, as seen across the harbour from the TorontoIslands. Photo Credit: Tourism Toronto

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 2005Vol. 27, No.3

PAGE 2 NEWS LIBRARY NEWS SPRING 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, vacant

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 CortezThe Palm Beach Post561/820-3796e-mail: [email protected]

Total membership: 703

Spring is in the air. A time when many of us haven’t quite put away our winterwardrobes while others have already been basking in the breeze that an open windowbrings. A time when the SLA annual conference is just around the corner, and many

of us enjoy re-energizing our work lives while getting reacquainted with colleagues fromnear and far.

Even if you can’t make it to Toronto this year, I hope you enjoy Mike Filey’s brief his-tory lesson and highlights of the city. Mike is a Toronto historian and author whose week-ly column,”The Way We Were,” has been a popular mainstay of the Toronto Sun since1975.

For those of you able to attend, this year’s event promises to keep you busy with rele-vant sessions and continuing education classes courtesy of Chair-Elect Denise Jones andEducation Director Jim Hunter. From creating Weblogs and intranets to public recordsaccuracy and privacy concerns, copyright issues, and math skills, there is something foreveryone at this year’s conference.

Math in the newsroom was also a hot topic at this year’s CAR conference. Be sure toread what Julia Franco and Margot Williams had to say about this year’s Tinseltown gath-ering, and make note of Debbie Wolfe’s new Math for Journalists interactive Web site.

Presently, my math abilities are being tested by learning to convert American dollars intoChinese yuan, as any day now I’ll be embarking on an Asian adventure. Until next time, Ibid you farewell. Zàijiàn!

KATHRYN PEASE

THE ASIDE BAR

SPRING 2005 NEWS LIBRARY NEWS PAGE 3

NEWS LIBRARY NEWS SPRING 2005

BY JENNIFER SMALL

EVERT

NOTESFROMTHECHAIR

Wow! I can’t believe that the yearis over, and I am writing mylast column as chair of this

great division.Before signing off, I want to say a little

something about two of the issues that havebeen closest to my heart over the last year:professional development and membership.

I hope to stay involved in the division’seffort to reach out to other organizations,such as the Poynter Institute, IRE andNICAR. By partnering with other organi-zations in our field, we increase the numberand variety of professional developmentopportunities that we can offer. We hadsuch a successful Poynter seminar in 2004.The workshop participants still correspondon a listserv that developed after the ses-sions, and they keep in touch on the pro-jects they started at Poynter.

I was disappointed that there was notenough interest in the Poynter seminar thisyear to merit holding the course. I wouldlove to hear from the membership on thetypes of programs that you would like to see.What types of programs would your man-agement support? Do we need to look atmore regional programs so that travelexpenses are not so high? Do we need tofocus on certain topics to draw a larger poolof participants? The Poynter Institute iswilling to continue its partnership with us,and I hope to see another class offered in2006. In the meantime, please take amoment to drop me a line and give mesome input on how the News Division cancontinue to offer career assistance throughprofessional development.

I don’t think that you can completelyseparate professional development frommembership. Afterall, if a professional orga-nization doesn’t offer some tangible benefitsto members, the organization will have ahard time keeping old members and gettingnew ones. After my last column, some vol-unteers stepped forward to take part in anexpanded membership committee. Our

great membership chair, Alice Pepper, hasthese names and I’m sure is more thanhappy to accept other volunteers. I think weneed to dedicate ourselves in the comingyear to really examining why our member-ship numbers continue to decline. Now isthe time to put some effort into turningthat around!

Now on to some new issues. At the mid-winter SLA Leadership Summit, we wereinformed that we needed to change ourelection cycle so that our election calendaraligned with SLA’s fiscal year (January-December). In the future, our elections willbe held in the fall. As a result, new cabinetmembers will take their positions on theboard in January, rather than in June at theannual conference. The board is still work-ing out the logistics for how we are going tomanage this change in the calendar, so staytuned to NewsLib for further details. Wemay be holding a special election in the fallto start shifting our schedules as well as theworkloads for division board members.

Speaking of the board, I’d like to con-gratulate our new board members: JimHunter, Chair-Elect; Dana Gordon,Director of Education & ProfessionalDevelopment; and Peter Johnson,Treasurer. Thanks to all the candidates foryour willingness to take part in the NewsDivision elections. And a special thanks toour illustrious vote teller, Bill VanNiekerken, who makes this whole electionpossible.

I’d like to close by thanking everyonewho has provided assistance to me over thelast two years. I’m honored to have served asthe division chair. The News Division hasoffered so much to me over the years, and Ihope that I’ve been able to give a little bitback. I hope to see everyone in Toronto.Denise Jones has put together a fabulousprogram, and Jim Hunter has once againcreated some great CE classes. This promis-es to be a wonderful conference!

On the MoveJohn Cronin,

chief librarian at theBoston Herald for thepast 29 years retiredon April 4, 2005.John has been anextremely activemember of the NewsDivision serving onnumerous commit-

tees and in various chairs. He was awardedthe Joseph F. Kwapil Memorial Award in2004 in recognition of his achievements inand contributions to the field of newslibrarianship.

Alan Thibeault, formerly assistant chieflibrarian at the Boston Herald, has beennamed to replace “Cronin of Boston.”

Chris Donnelly, formerly the BostonHerald’s photo librarian, has been selectedas the new assistant chief librarian.

After nearly 21 years with the St.Petersburg Times, including 15 years as anews researcher, Kitty Bennett is retiring.Kitty and her husband Bob, who live on a36-foot sailboat, will be setting sail forNova Scotia sometime before the start ofhurricane season.

Sandy Freeman, a news researcher atThe Seattle Times, has retired after 45 yearsof service.

Laura Soto-Barra has left her positionas assistant managing editor for the libraryat The Post-Standard in Syracuse to becomethe new senior librarian at National PublicRadio in Washington, DC.

Lucy Shackelford of The WashingtonPost was promoted to research editor whileDerek Willis, formerly of the The Centerfor Public Integrity, is The Post’s newresearch database editor.

Andrea Mettert has rejoined TheJournal Gazette of Fort Wayne, Indiana, thistime as its photo librarian. Andrea had beenan obituary clerk and general-assignmentreporter at the newspaper before leaving toget an MLS at Indiana University. Mostrecently, she was head cataloger for the

metadata team at the Indiana HumanitiesCouncil in Indianapolis.

Connie Carter of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has been promoted to the positionof assistant librarian. Connie has been withthe department 16 years. Her new dutiesinclude supervision of the text, photo,graphic and page archives.

Jaimi Dowdell has accepted the posi-tion of assistant director of newsresearch/CAR specialist with the St. LouisPost-Dispatch. Jaimi was previously withInvestigative Reporters and Editors (IRE)as acting resource center director, data ana-lyst and instructor.

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PEOPLE

BY JENNIFER O’NEILL Continued on page 22

Cronin

Keynote Speaker

David Seaman to

Discuss Digital Libraries

David Seaman, foundingdirector of the ElectronicText Center at the Universityof Virginia Library, will dis-cuss issues of digitizationand their implications forlibraries. Since 2002, he hasbeen the director of theDigital Library Federation, aconsortium of academiclibraries. He has publishedwidely on humanities com-puting and digital libraries.

Make plans now to Attendthe Third South AtlanticRegional Conference, “ExploreA Timeless InformationJourney,” in Williamsburg,Virginia.

Member registration is $215with Early Registration avail-able through 8/15/05 for$165. Registration includesopening reception, two deluxecontinental breakfasts, twolunches, breaks, and a pass toColonial Williamsburg.

The conference hotel, theWoodlands Hotel & Suites atColonial Williamsburg is offer-ing an SLA rate of $99/night.

See the conference website http://www.sla.org/sarc3 for additionalregistration discounts, preliminary program, hotel information

and registration form.

Williamsburg,Virginaia • September 28 - October 1, 2005

The Woodlands Hotel & Suites • Williamsburg,VA

EXPERIENCE A TIMELESS INFORMATION JOURNEY

REVOLUTION AND EVOLUTION CONTINUE

C

5


LIBRARY PROFILE

Toronto Rich in Media Outlets

BY AMY DISCH

BY AMY DISCH

Editor’s note: Toronto is a city rich inmedia outlets. The four libraries pro-filed here represent three major news-papers and the CanadianBroadcasting Corporation. If you areinterested in learning more aboutthese libraries, the Toronto Starlibrary will be open for free tours onSaturday, June 4 from 2 p.m. until 5p.m. The CBC library is offering aluncheon and tour on Thursday, June9 from 11:30 a.m. until 2 p.m.Please see the conference advance inthis issue for more information.

The Globe and Mail LibraryThe Globe and Mail library’s col-

lections are comprised of between7,000 to 8,000 books, 300 journaltitles, clip files dating back to 1938and around 500,000 print photosbeginning in the 1920s. Storiesbegan being filed electronically in1977 and are currently availablethrough the Factiva database. Thenewspaper is also searchable in PDFformat beginning with the 1844editions. A digital image archivewas instituted in 1993 and at pre-sent contains 600,000 photos. Thestaff estimates that electronicresources, including the Internet,phone CDs, databases such asLexisNexis, Factiva, Dialog,Infomart, Quicklaw and Newscanare utilized for 75% of researchrequests. Both the Getty andCorbis digital photo archives alsosee frequent use.

The library’s staff includes headlibrarian Amanda Valpy, as well astwo researchers, a photo librarian, atechnical services librarian (whoalso spends part of the day perform-ing research) and a part-time stu-dent researcher. In addition, there

are five staff members who workfull time enhancing stories forinclusion into the database. Thelibrary is open from 9 a.m. to 9:30p.m. Monday through Friday andfrom 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday.The enhancing staff typically beginstheir evening shift at 8 p.m.

The staff regularly gives presen-tations on the use of Factiva andalso offers sessions on other libraryservices, “such as property, corpo-rate, court and lien searches.” Inaddition to having “an MLS orequivalent experience,” working inthe library requires someone with a“broad background, eclectic inter-ests and a strong grasp of currentevents.” Most importantly, theymust have “a strong grounding inonline searching and a free-wheel-ing mind.”

The staff notes that they “foresee— and welcome — constantchanges in technology. As reportersget more and more access to online

resources, we see our job as infor-mation coordinators, trainers, find-ers of those impossible to findnuggets and, above all, as news-room team members.” They alsohope to never encounter a typicalday on the job. “A typical day!There isn’t one and that’s what welove about it.”

Toronto Star LibraryThe Toronto Star library and its

staff provide a variety of services toreporters, editors and the news-room at large. This includes train-ing courses, the writing and com-piling of about 200 graphics andsidebars per year, working on com-puter-assisted reporting projects,maintenance of the newsroomresearch intranet and the answeringof an average 6000 reference ques-tions each year. Staff members arealso present at the daily news meet-ings, where they offer story ideas

The Globe and Mail staff (L-R): Johanna Boffa, Amanda Valpy, FrancineBellefeuille, Paula Wilson, Celia Donnelly and Rick Cash

Continued on page 9


WHO WANTS TO BE A NEWS LIBRARIAN?

What a lively discussion thatoccurred on NewsLib severalweeks ago when the question

of how one becomes a news librarian wasasked. Indeed, there are many people whoare interested in the profession, and unfor-tunately the jobs are rather difficult toobtain.

As you may remember, I started this col-umn when I, too, was a frustrated candi-date seeking employment in a news library,and I was asking the same question: Justhow does one land a position in a newslibrary? I felt I had done everything I couldto prepare myself to enter the profession,and yet the rejection letters kept piling up.

I wish there was some magic solution Icould give to those of you out there who areexperiencing the same frustration that I feltwhile seeking a full-time position in a newslibrary. An answer to make you thump yourforehead with your palm and say, “Doh!Why didn’t I think of that?” would be nice,wouldn’t it? I don’t have such a solution,but I can offer a few tips to help those ofyou trying to enter the field:

1. Great job! If you are reading this col-umn, you are already off to the right start.Why? Because it means you are at leastinterested enough to become familiar withthe News Division. Now, before you startpatting yourself on the back, move on totip number two.

2. Get involved. It’s not really enough tosimply scan over this newsletter, readNewsLib and/or browse the NewsDivision’s Web site occasionally. Althoughthat’s a great way to learn what newslibrarians do and to become familiar withsome of the issues in the profession, take ita step further and get involved. There aremany opportunities: attend local SLAmeetings, volunteer to help with the NewsDivision Web site, apply for scholarshipsto attend the annual SLA conference—dowhatever you can. These are excellent waysto network and to spice up your résumé aswell.

3. Walk the walk; don’t just talk thetalk. If you want to be a news librarian,don’t just say you do; show that you do. Ittakes a little more than reading the news-paper every morning to show your inter-est. Get an internship, and if you can’t, aska library if you can volunteer. For those ofyou still in school, most MLS programsrequire some sort of work experience. Takeadvantage of this. The message I’m tryingto get across is this: Do whatever you canto get in there.

4. Tailor what experience you do have.Maybe you’ve been an administrative assis-tant, a teacher or a paralegal for the pasttwelve years. That’s okay—in fact, it’sgreat! Take whatever experience you dohave and relate it to the job you want.Librarianship encompasses a variety ofskills, and virtually any job you have hadcan somehow correlate to the responsibili-ties of being a librarian. Be creative andshow what you have to offer.

BY ANGELICA CORTEZ



LIBRARY PROFILE

and research suggestions and are involvedin the early development of feature newsstories.

Library manager Joan Sweeney estimatesthat the library’s collections are split at 70%electronic and 30% print. Within the lattercategory are 7,000 books, 40 print journaltitles and 15 newspaper titles, as well as “asmall ready reference collection that is stillinvaluable.” The clip files go back to the1890s, and microfilm of the paper is avail-able from its beginnings. There is also a“Pages of the Past” product which offers thepaper in PDF format. The photo collectionis both print and electronic; however, printsare no longer retained and valuable histori-cal images are digitized for future use.

The library has nine full-time and twopart-time staff members. Library supervisorAndrea Hall says, “We all do a variety oftasks.” The library is open seven days aweek from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Library manager Sweeney’s backgroundincludes an internship at The Globe andMail library while she was in library schooland work as a radio, television and film spe-cialist for the Toronto Reference Library.She says that if looking for a new staffmember, “I would look for someone inter-ested in new trends, well versed in currentaffairs and with an investigative mind.” Acomfort level with and adaptability to newtechnology, a team player and a sense ofhumor are also invaluable.

Sweeney states that “more and more weare becoming the gate keeper to the infor-mation world” and that includes constantquestioning. “What’s out there? Is it anygood? How do we adapt it to our newspa-per’s needs?” She adds that she envisions afuture where “the library manager willbecome more and more like an editor ...following a story closely from conception tocompletion,” as well as “greater partner-

ships between researchers and reporters.”

Toronto Sun News ResearchCentre

The Toronto Sun news research centrehas an impressive number of holdings com-prising its collections, including 550 gener-al reference books, 65 journals, 250,000clip files (including those of The TorontoTelegram) which date to the turn of the cen-tury, 15,000 photos and 200,000 negative

envelopes. As has been seen with othernews libraries, the majority of questions areanswered using electronic sources.

The news research centre, headed bydirector Julie Kirsh, has 8 full-time staffmembers and 2 part-time enhancers. Theenhancers work exclusively on the archivingof Sun Media’s French language newspapers,but the rest of the staff does a bit of every-thing.

Toronto Rich in MediaOutletsContinued from page 7

Toronto Star staff (L-R): Rick Sznajder, Tony Yeung, Andrea Hall, Deborah Wingate, JoanneMadden, Virginia Doig, Kathleen Power, Astrid Lange, Joan Sweeney Marsh, Andy Murdoch andPeggy Mackenzie

Toronto Sun staff (L-R): Roxana Rezavand, Adam Bishop, Clarissa Feliprada, Julie Hornby, JoyceWagler and Julie Kirsh


CONFERENCE ADVANCE

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 LibraryThis tour is free. Please email Peggy

Mackenzie for directions at [email protected].

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, theclass will be divided into small groups, eachusing a laptop to create, post to and manage aweblog. Small class size is very desirable toaccomplish the objective and provide eachattendee with hands-on blogging experience.There will also be an introduction to RSS feeds.Participants are encouraged to bring laptopswith 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 ofFive Newsroom Intranets CE Course

Design for News will explore five newsroomintranets using Virtual Private Networks(VPNs) to gain real time access to these Websites. Library managers of the presentation Web

sites will offer a description and explanation ofthe hardware and software that supports theintranet and discuss design and usability issuesas well as the degree of difficulty involved increating high-powered intranets. Each intranetwebmaster will discuss the technology used,development cycle and plans for future develop-ment.

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 representa-

tives from ChoicePoint, LexisNexis andReferenceUSA. This will be a Q & A session, sobring your public records questions such as:What’s on the horizon for privacy concerns?How does “newsgathering” fit in to allowableuse definitions and disclaimers? How is thedata compiled? How do vendors ensure accura-cy-or do they? What is “credit header” data?

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

Looking ahead at the impact of technologyand the Web on our profession and how we canthrive on this change and turn challenging sit-uations into new opportunities for professionalgrowth.

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 makeyour library more effective

Moderator: Judy GrimsleyGreat ideas that your colleagues have used to

improve their libraries. Ten of the best areshared with you.

11:30-1:00 - Managing Copyright andLeveraging Revenue in Your News Organization

Moderator: Kathy FoleyA panel of seasoned copyright experts (not

lawyers) will discuss copyright issues, includingencouraging your newsroom to follow goodcopyright practices, managing reprint permis-sions and developing revenue by repurposingeditorial content. If your news organizationassumes you are an expert on copyright issues,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 check-

book? Does looking at Census data give you aheadache? You’re not alone. As a librarian orinformation provider you may have assumedthat you were done with math when you weredone with school. But in a news organization,math skills are more important than ever.Researchers need to know how to calculateratios and percentages and work with statistics.Come learn (or re-learn) these skills and more,then go 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 relationshipsbetween people, companies and even terroristorganizations. Learn the concepts and tech-niques behind SNA. What type of questionsshould be asked? What type of software shouldyou use? Join panelists as they explain how tocreate your own “matrix revolution.”

Speakers: Jaimi Dowdell, St. Louis Post-

2005 News Division Programming



CONFERENCE ADVANCE

In 1867, Canada was born and Torontobecame the capital of the newly createdprovince of Ontario. Between 1908 and1915, arts and culture flourished as the newnation established its identity, and the

Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the ArtGallery of Ontario and the Royal OntarioMuseum were all established.

Waves of immigration to Canada con-tinued and the diversity of immigrants

grew, particularly in the periods followingWorld Wars I and II. Toronto continued itstransformation into a manufacturing andindustrial powerhouse, thanks to its closeproximity to natural resources, agriculturalland, inexpensive energy and the nearbymarkets of the American heartland.

With the opening of the St. LawrenceSeaway in the 1950s, Toronto became aviable port and a surge of investmentflowed into the city. In 1954, Canada’s firstsubway system was created by the TorontoTransit Commission.

Since the 1960s, immigration fromEurope has slowed, to be replaced by aninflux of people from Asia, the Caribbean,Latin America and Africa. With the open-ing and subsequent expansion of Lester B.Pearson International Airport (one of threein the city), Toronto has become Canada’smajor gateway and entry point.

In 1998, the downtown core and fivesurrounding suburban cities were mergedinto a single “Greater Toronto Area.” Thecity is governed by a mayor and 44 full-time councilors, and Toronto’s economicand cultural influence continues to extendthroughout the “Golden Horseshoe” ofcommunities wrapping around the westernend of Lake Ontario.

City Highlights

The CN Tower

Defining the Toronto skyline, the CNTower is Canada’s most recognizable andcelebrated icon. At a height of 553.33m(1,815 ft., 5 inches), it is Canada’s NationalTower, the World’s Tallest Building, animportant telecommunications hub, andthe centre of tourism in Toronto. Each year,approximately two million people visit theCN Tower to take in the breath-takingviews and enjoy all the attractions it has tooffer.

The CN Tower was built in 1976 byCanadian National (CN) who wanted to

The inside of the Toronto Eaton Centre, a multi-level shopping complex that is one of Toronto’smost visited attractions. Photo Credit: Tourism Toronto


A Wealth of History, Culture and Entertainment isWaiting in TorontoContinued from page 1



demonstrate the strength of Canadianindustry by building a tower taller than anyother in the world. In 1995, the CN Towerbecame a public company and ownershipof the Tower was transferred to CanadaLands (CLC) Company, a federal Crowncorporation responsible for real estatedevelopment. The CN Tower, on the northshore of Lake Ontario, is situated on FrontStreet, which is located in the heart of theEntertainment District. The CN Tower iseasily accessible from Union Station as wellas many major streets and highways.

The Distillery DistrictFounded in 1832, the Gooderham and

Worts Distillery eventually became thelargest distillery in the British Empire. Seton 13 acres in downtown Toronto, its 44buildings constitute the largest and best-preserved collection of Victorian industrialarchitecture in North America. TheDistillery is now a pedestrian-only village

entirely dedicated to arts, culture and enter-tainment. Internationally acclaimed gal-leries, artists’ studios and workshops,restaurants, bars and cafes, as well as livemusic, all form part of this new landmarkcultural centre.

In addition to the history, arts and cul-ture, The Distillery has been the locationfor over 800 film and television produc-tions in the past decade, including“Chicago,” “X-Men,” “Against the Ropes”and “The Hurricane,” making TheDistillery District the most popular filmlocation in Canada. Numerous festivals andspecial events attract tens of thousand ofpeople each month. The Distillery Districtis quickly becoming one of Canada’s topdestinations.

The Entertainment DistrictYou’ll find some of the city’s best the-

CONFERENCE ADVANCE

Dispatch; 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-readyMLS holder? If not, have library programs merelybecome the “silent partner” of the new model grad-uate programs?

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

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

Moderator: Donna ScheederWhat happens when you combine research

management software, including virtual refer-ence applications, and knowledge manage-ment techniques in order to respond to the con-flicting demands of newsroom research pro-jects? What best practices are colleaguesemploying to facilitate knowledge sharingamong de-centralized research staff? Is theinvestment worth it? The speakers for this ses-sion will attempt share techniques, evaluationsof software and provide time for best practicesharing among the attendees.

Speakers: Jody Habayeb, The Tampa Tribune;Michael Jesse, The Indianapolis Star

THURSDAY, JUNE 9

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

The speaker will be Evan Solomon, co-hostof CBC News Sunday and host of Hot Type, abook show in which he interviews fiction andnon-fiction writers. Lunch will be followed bytours of CBC libraries. This tour will be han-dled by the News Division and pre-registrationwill be required. Lunch and tour will be lim-ited to 50 people and cost will be $20.

Please email Michele Melady at [email protected] for registration information.

2005 News DivisionProgrammingContinued from page 8

Trinity Street in the heart of the historic Distillery District. Credit: Lucas Digital Art

A Wealth of History, Culture and Entertainment isWaiting in TorontoContinued from page 11



atres, bars and dance clubs in this area oftown. The undisputed entertainment capi-tal of Canada, the Entertainment District isa lively concentration of theatres, restau-rants, nightspots, retail shops and visitorattractions - located in the vibrant city core.

Since the mid-19th century, the areanow known as the Entertainment Districthas been animated with music halls, the-atres and entertainment palaces. However,by the 1950s, many of these venues hadclosed, deteriorated or been transformedinto warehouses or office space.

With the 1977 opening of the EatonCentre shopping galleria and the renova-tion of the Royal Alexandra Theatre, lifewas breathed back into the area. The finalcatalyst for rejuvenation was the 1989opening of the SkyDome stadium, whichbrought crowds of up to 55,000 people intothe area for baseball games and otherevents. Restaurants and entertainmentspots began springing up overnight - andthe pace hasn’t stopped!

Each of the streets in the EntertainmentDistrict has its own flavor and its own spe-cialty. For example, Queen Street West is afunky retail street; King Street West is linedwith theatres, a concert hall and dozens ofrestaurants. Front Street West features theSkyDome, the CN Tower and large, livelyeateries, while Richmond and AdelaideStreets are home to massive, three-storeynightclubs and smaller, high-end restau-rants. And that’s just the start.

Places & Events of Interest❖ Theatres - The area is home to lavishBroadway musicals, traveling road shows,homegrown productions and classical con-certs. Theatres include the Pantages, theRoyal Alexandra, the Princess of Wales,the Elgin & Winter Garden Theatre

Centre, Roy Thomson Hall and MasseyHall.

❖ SkyDome - The first stadium in theworld with a fully-retractable roof, theSkyDome is home to the Toronto BlueJays, the Toronto Argonauts football cluband an exciting roster of big-name con-certs, sporting events and trade shows.

❖ CBC Broadcasting Centre - The homeof Canada’s national TV and radio net-works. Regular tours are offered in thisstate-of-the-art broadcasting facility, as areconcerts at the Glenn Gould Studio.

❖ Dining - One of the most challengingaspects of dining in the EntertainmentDistrict is deciding where to go. There aredozens, if not hundreds, of choices. Andthe restaurant scene evolves so rapidly thathot new opportunities arise overnight.

Toronto IslandsThe Toronto Islands boast a lovely

boardwalk, tennis courts, picnic areas, anamusement park, beaches, yacht club,restaurants and much more. The TorontoIslands exist just mere minutes from busydowntown Toronto. Centre Island offersbike rentals for those who wish to cover

plenty of ground in only a few hours.The only access to the Islands is via a 15-

minute ferryboat ride. The Toronto FerryDocks are located at the foot of Bay Streetand Queens Quay, just west of the WestinHarbour Castle Hotel.

The ROMThe Royal Ontario Museum is the

largest museum in Canada with an interna-tionally renowned collection numberingmore than five million objects. Located onone of the most fashionable corners inToronto and next to the University ofToronto, the ROM is a popular destina-tion. From galleries of art, archaeology andscience, showcasing the world’s culture andnatural history, to exciting public programsand events, the ROM offers a truly engag-ing museum experience. During the confer-ence, ROM is featuring, “FeatheredDinosaurs and the Origin of Flight,” a spe-cial ticketed event.

Editor’s note: For more information on whatToronto has to offer and getting around town, pleasesee the SLA Toronto Chapter’s Web site athttp://www.sla.org/toronto/2005/

CONFERENCE ADVANCE

A Wealth of History,Culture and Entertainmentis Waiting in TorontoContinued from page 12

The Olde Town trolley takes visitors on a tour of the city. Photo Credit: Tourism Toronto


A typical day includes the archiving ofall of Sun Media newspapers’ stories inpreparation for their inclusion in the SAVEdatabase, the Sun Media Web site, which isknown as CANOE (Canadian OnlineExplorer) and various online databases. Inaddition, the photo librarians archiveapproximately 250 images—in print, digi-tal and negative formats—a day.

The library staff assists editors, reportersand other employees with reference andresearch questions and serves the public in avariety of areas including “photo resales,commercial usage, copyright clearance andusage permissions, back edition andtearsheet requests, and book and calendarsales.” They also are involved in the creationof advertisements for the products soldfrom the news research centre, whichinclude books, photos, front pages, sportsmemorabilia and “Sunshine Girl” items.

Director Kirsh cites a variety of skillsnecessary to work in the news research cen-tre, among them “curiosity, attention todetail, perseverance, communication, com-puter skills, a quick study and a good mem-ory.” In addition, one should possess an“interest in popular, news, sports and busi-ness culture, and a love for current and his-torical facts and events.”

CBC Reference Library The CBC reference library is the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s mainsource for reference and research assistance.Reference questions, which average 500 to600 a month, run the gamut, from“straightforward requests such as `Who wasMinister of Justice when Diefenbaker wasPrime Minister?’ to more in depth queriessuch as `What are some of the longest jurytrials in recent Canadian history?’” MicheleMelady, who has served as the library’smanager since 2003, says she and her staff“are busier than ever ... many employees are

either too pressed for time to do their ownsearching or not confident enough in theirsearching abilities. They come to us becausewe can provide them with thorough, pro-fessional, prompt service.”

In addition to Melady, the library isstaffed by three reference librarians, alibrary technician, a subscriptions clerk anda generalist clerk. Each position has its spe-cific duties, with the librarians handlingresearch requests, arranging interlibraryloans and indexing newspapers for the clipfiles. The library technician is responsiblefor maintaining the library’s intranet,acquiring and cataloging book titles andtroubleshooting the Inmagic databases; thesubscriptions clerk for managing the vari-ous newspaper and magazine subscriptionsfor all departments; and the generalist clerkfor book circulations, overdues, shelvingand filing.

The library operates from 8 a.m. to 8p.m., with each of the three reference librar-ians working a shift from either 8 a.m. to 4p.m., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The typical practice is for one librarian tospend half a day answering phone ques-tions, while another responds to e-mailsand walk-ins. Then the two switch. Ataround 4 p.m., the librarian who beginswith the noon shift then assumes the phoneand e-mail questions to allow the otherlibrarians to finish their work for the day.

The library’s collections include over12,000 book titles, mainly concentrated inthe areas of “history, politics, biography,true crime, Canadiana, broadcasting andmedia.” Several “core reference works, suchas Who’s Who, Europa World Year Book andvarious almanacs, atlases and directories”are available. Trade publications, such asBroadcasting & Cable, American JournalismReview and Variety are represented, as are100 magazine and 12 newspaper titles.

Responding to their journalists’ prefer-ence to have articles e-mailed to them, thelibrary “recently bit the bullet and decidedto drastically reduce the amount we clip.

LIBRARY PROFILE


CBC staff (L to R): Louise Goldberg, Stacie Egerton, Cathy Ross, Anne Mercer, Michele Meladyand Tyana Grundig


Generally the librarians select only 15 arti-cles a day from both the Toronto Star andThe Globe and Mail, whereas previously theentire paper, excluding wire stories, wasindexed.”

At present the library is “redirectingmore of its money into the purchase of elec-tronic products.” These include “a numberof newspaper and magazine databases fromGale, Ebsco and ProQuest ... and theOxford English Dictionary, OxfordReference Online and EncyclopaediaBritannica Online,” all of which can beaccessed through the library’s intranet.

Marketing practices of the libraryinvolve publicizing new resources on itsintranet and presenting training sessions forsmall groups of new users. Melady statesthat “we need to do more of this type ofoutreach,” and notes that “in the next cou-ple of months, we are planning on attend-ing morning story meetings and givingbrief presentations on the services we offer.”

She adds that “we always endeavour to be aswelcoming and helpful to each and everyuser as we can. The best advertising for thelibrary comes from satisfied customers whowill spread the word to others about howfabulous we are!”

In addition to continuing to designate alarger portion of its budget for electronicproducts, the library “will continue to work

on building relationships with new usersthrough training and marketing of ourresources, as well as strengthening ourdepartmental ties to other CBC librariesand archives which house our television andradio assets.” It will also “continue to be arelevant and vital partner in the CBCresearch process.”


CBC Library

LIBRARY PROFILE


5. Be open. News librarian jobs are hard tocome by. So many people do “just fall intoit” somehow, and then they stay fordecades. (Frustrating, I know, for those ofus who do the internships, get the degree,get involved in the News Division and stillget turned down. Trust me, I’ve been there.)Be open to relocation, as well as to othertypes of libraries. The beauty of earning anMLS is that there are so many possibilitiesout there. Yes, I know that the thrill ofbeing involved in the news gathering pro-cess is very enticing. Remember, there arenumerous opportunities out there, so don’t

limit yourself to something too narrow.My last piece of advice: Keep your chin

up! Job-hunting can be a long, frustrating,Ramen noodle-filled process. Don’t give up.Like most things in life, it takes hard workand patience to reach the desired goal.

I sincerely want to help those of youseeking to become news librarians. I wouldlike to start spotlighting anyone out therewho wants to enter the profession. Whetheryou’re in school, out of school, never wentto school or you’re working as a copy editorbut dreaming of becoming a news librari-an—whatever your current situation is,write to me and let me know. I hope to fea-ture a different person in each issue of NewsLibrary News. Hopefully, this will be bene-ficial in that it will help those seeking toenter the profession to “get their name out

there.” I’m kind of a “reach for the stars”type of person who always dreams big. Butwho knows? Maybe an individual who isprofiled in this column will apply for aposition and stand out from the rest of theapplicants because of it.

There are two qualifications I must askfor those of you who would like to be fea-tured here:

1. You must have an earnest interest inbecoming a news librarian and be able todemonstrate it somehow.

2. You must be a member of SLA andthe News Division.

So, who wants to be a news librarian?Send me an email at [email protected] tell me about it. I look forward to com-municating with several of you and sharingyour experiences.

Who wants to be a newslibrarian?Continued from page 8


CONFERENCE ADVANCE

Join us atToronto’s “Houseon the Hill”BY LINDA HENDERSON

The 2005 News Division Awards ban-quet will be held Tuesday, June 7 at CasaLoma, a restored “castle” that was built byone of Canada’s leading citizens. We will behonoring award winners Richard Geiger(Kwapil), Ron Larson and Alice Pepper(Henebry) and Andrea Nemetz(Vormelker-Thomas). This year we will alsobe instituting a new award to honor the lateDavid Rhydwen. It is meant to acknowl-edge an outstanding scholarly contributionto news librarianship. The inaugural winnerof the Rhydwen Award is KathleenHansen of the University of Minnesota.

Casa Loma was the vision of Sir HenryPellatt, a financier of the late nineteenthand early twentieth centuries. It was built ata cost of $3.5 million and was completed in1914. Sir Henry started out as a stockbro-ker with his father, but he built his fortuneby starting and investing in many business-es. He was an early proponent of electricityand founded the Toronto Electric LightCompany in 1883, which gave him amonopoly on electricity in the Torontoarea. He also anticipated the emigration toCanada’s western frontiers by investing inthe Canadian Pacific Railroad and theNorth West Land Company.

Unfortunately, after losing his electricitymonopoly to public ownership and suffer-ing other losses due to unwise land specula-tion and increased debt, Sir Henry and hiswife, Mary, were forced to sell the magnifi-cent castle merely ten years after it wascompleted.

Casa Loma fell into disrepair until the1930s when the Kiwanis Club of WestToronto asked the City of Toronto, whichhad come to own the property, to lease it tothe club to use as a tourist attraction. CasaLoma was restored and opened to the pub-

lic in the late 1930s. The five acres of gar-dens at Casa Loma were restored in the late1980s by the Garden Club of Toronto andwere opened to the public in 1990. The cas-tle is currently undergoing more extensiverestoration work, so you will see scaffoldingand other signs of ongoing work. For moreinformation, go to http://www.casaloma.org.

The reception, which is once again gen-erously hosted by ProQuest, starts at 6 p.m.and the dinner will follow. Tickets are nec-essary for both the bus transportation andthe dinner. Because it is the policy of themanagement of Casa Loma to allow onlyone function at a time, we will be treated toan exclusive evening at the castle. A limitedself-guided tour of the upper floors will beavailable during the reception.

The Joseph F. Kwapil MemorialAward Winner

Richard Geigerof The San FranciscoChronicle will be thisyear’s recipient ofthe Joseph F. KwapilMemorial Award.

Richard has beenlibrary director and

research director at The Chronicle since1984. He previously was library manager ofthe San Jose Mercury News, 1980-84, andwas a librarian at The Chronicle, 1976-80.He received a master’s degree from theUCLA School of Library and InformationScience in 1975. He has worked in librariessince 1969.

Richard has been a member of SLAsince 1974, and his first SLA conferencewas in Washington, DC in 1980. His wife,Susan, and their babe-in-arms Brendan alsoattended. Brendan is graduating this year incomputer science and engineering fromUC Davis.

Richard served as chair of the NewsDivision, 1988-89, planning the 1988Denver conference. He also served as trea-surer, 1985-87. He was president of the SanFrancisco Bay Region Chapter, 1991-92.

He served two terms on the SLA Boardof Directors, as a director, 1993-96, and asSLA treasurer, 2000-03. He chaired severalSLA committees for the organizationincluding Public Relations, StrategicPlanning and Finance. He was named aFellow of SLA at the Nashville conference.

His professional activities have includedprogram planning, speaking and moderat-Richard Geiger

Casa Loma



CONFERENCE ADVANCE

ing at SLA, KM World/Intranets andInternet Librarian conferences.

Richard is known for enjoying a goodtime, so when News Division memberswere in town at the SLA winter conferencein 1989 and the annual conference in 1992,he and his wife invited them ALL over fordinner. In the latter case, that turned out tobe dinner for 75!

He also has a reputation for burstinginto song whenever he has an opportunity.So be prepared in Toronto!

He met his wife Susan in the Art Libraryat UCLA where she was working beforeentering library school. Richard was sosmitten that he went to library school, too!They spend their free time together boat-ing, gardening and traveling.

The Agnes Henebry Roll of HonorAward Winners

RON LARSON

Three weeks after receiving his MLSfrom the University of Wisconsin-Madisonin May 1978, Ron Larson began his news

career as the librari-an for the WisconsinState Journal. After27 years, he has notleft.

One of Ron’s firstduties as news librar-ian was to become amember of the NewsDivision, soaking upas much knowledge

and information from the division’snewsletter and by reading “Guidelines forNewspaper Libraries.” It was in 1981 whenRon discovered the true definition of newslibrarian when he attended his first SLAconference and News Division programs.

Since then, Ron has served on numerousdivision committees; written several articlesfor News Library News; has been a speaker

at News Division programs; served asEducation Director, 1996-1997; theBylaws Chair, 2000-2003; and managingeditor of News Library News, 2003-2004.He also organized a regional news libraryworkshop in 1988 and two regional imagearchive workshops in the 1990s.

In 1987, the State Journal merged itslibrary with The Capital Times library, andRon was named library director of themerged library serving both newsrooms.The library grew and evolved with the addi-tion of text and image databases, access tomultiple online services, the Internet andthe creation of an intranet.

During this period of technical growth,Ron made the library an integral part of thenewsroom by assisting in gathering infor-mation, research and writing sidebars andtimelines. Ron has won numerous awardsas part of newsroom reporting teams,including the Milwaukee Press Club awardin 1991, 1993 and 2003; the Inland PressAssociation award in 1991 and 1994; theJames K. Batten award in 2002; and the LeePresident’s Award for Excellence in News in2004.

Ron grew up in McFarland, Wisconsin,a small town 15 minutes from the StateJournal and The Capital Times, and he hasnot left there, either. Ron has been veryinvolved in local history, serving on hishometown’s historical society’s board ofdirectors for 15 years (9 as president), andby leading in the creation of a village land-marks commission. He has written threepublications on McFarland’s history andreceived the Local History Award of Meritfrom the Wisconsin Historical Society in1991. Ron is currently leading the planningfor McFarland’s 150th anniversary in 2006.

Ron also published a perpetual calendarin 1998 in celebration of Wisconsin’ssesquicentennial. The daily historical factswere published throughout the year in theState Journal. He has now turned that infor-mation into a Web site that he markets toschools throughout Wisconsin. The Website, Wisconsin History Day by Day, can be

found at http://www.wishistory.com. Thesite is currently password protected but willhave free access beginning in June. (Fornow, use mcf for the user name and pass-word).

Another publication of Ron’s is “LittleVisits with a Journal Reporter.” It is a com-pilation of columns written in the 1930s byState Journal reporter Iver Kalnes, who isRon’s grandfather. Kalnes finished his jour-nalism career as a reporter/columnist forThe Capital Times, so it is fitting that Ronnow works for both newspapers as hisgrandfather once did.

Ron received his bachelor of arts degreein 1976 from Luther College in Decorah,Iowa, majoring in history. He also playedpercussion in the Luther College ConcertBand where he met his future wife, DeAnn,who played the French horn. They havebeen married for 23 years and have threefantastic sons, Karl, 20, who is currently apercussionist in the Luther College ConcertBand, Lars-Erik, 17, a percussionist in theMcFarland High School band, and Leif, 12,a percussionist in the Indian MoundMiddle School band.

ALICE PEPPER

There are still two major daily newspa-pers competing in Detroit.

Ironically, a librarian at the other news-paper helped Alice Pepper get a job with thecompetition: the Detroit Free Press.

Alice and DianeDunn were bothactive in theMichigan Chapterof SLA. Dianeworked for TheDetroit News. Shedropped Alice’sname to MichelleKapecky at the FreePress. Alice had met

Michelle earlier when Alice arranged a tourof the Free Press Library in her role as presi-dent of the University of Michigan studentchapter.

Ron Larson

Alice Pepper


Join us at Toronto’s“House on the Hill”Continued from page 16


CONFERENCE ADVANCE

BY REGINA L. AVILA, CHAIR OF THE 2005VORMELKER-THOMAS STUDENT AWARD

COMMITTEE

This year’s Vormelker-ThomasStudent Award winner is AndreaNemetz, a student at Dalhousie

University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, whoseessay is titled, “Make Librarians Part of theNewsroom Team.”

Andrea has been a reporter at TheChronicle Herald in Halifax for severalyears. In her award application she said thatwhen she began her library studies she hadintended to begin a different career.However, as she nears graduation, she feelsthat she’s drawn to stay in the news busi-ness. “It’s in my blood,” she wrote. “Likemost reporters, I thrive on the deadlinepressure and like the feeling of being ‘in’ onthe top news events of the day.”

Now that her studies have shown hermore about special libraries, she’s feelingmore confident about using her degree to

continue in journalism. “I find as my careerprogresses, that I enjoy the research morethan the writing. I’ve always been consid-ered a resource person at the paper, helpingmy colleagues to find information in theelectronic archives or on the Web, and Iwould like to build on this.”

Judy Dunn, Graduate Coordinator ofthe School of Library and InformationStudies at Dalhousie University, recom-mended Andrea for the award. “Andrea hasbeen an active member of the SLA StudentGroup since the group’s inception,” Dunnwrote. She touted Andrea’s participation ina continuing education workshop, “MediaRelations for LIS,” that the school offeredlast year. “Andrea was one of three volunteerpanel members who ran the event, and herpresentation on writing news releases wasoutstanding.”

The Vormelker-Thomas stipend honorsRose Vormelker, former Cleveland Presslibrarian and Lou Thomas, retired director

of the State-Times Morning Advocate inBaton Rouge, Louisiana. It is given to agraduate student or recent graduate inter-ested in news librarianship and is to beapplied toward the expenses of attending anSLA conference for the first time. The$1,500 award is co-sponsored by ProQuestand the SLA News Division.

The award committee for this yearincluded Astrid Lange, Library andResearch Specialist at the Toronto Star; AmyDisch, last year’s award recipient and newslibrarian with the Wisconsin State Journaland The Capital Times; MaureenClements, a librarian at National PublicRadio in Washington, D.C.; and ReginaAvila, assistant library director at TheDenver Post.

Of the eight applications received,Andrea’s was selected unanimously by thecommittee as the best. Her award-winningessay appears below.

Vormelker-Thomas Award Winner a Team Player

BY ANDREA NEMETZ

There’s a library at the newspaper where I work as a reporter, adaily with a circulation of about 120,000 serving not only thecity of Halifax, but the province of Nova Scotia.

Many of the reporters haven’t visited the library since 1998, the yearin which our stories began to be archived online. Now, if we’re look-ing for the facts of a court case, background data on an entertainmentor sports personality or the history of a particularly troublesomemunicipal development issue, we can enter a name, a phrase or thereporter’s byline into the archives’ search box on our desktop comput-er and the relevant information is available at our fingertips nearlyinstantaneously. The decline in use of the library’s extensive hard copyfiling system actually began before the Web archiving started. Between1992 and 1997, news stories were archived on CD-ROM and wereavailable (and still are) at a special (though now rarely used) terminalwithin the newsroom.

Make librarians part of the newsroom team

Nemetz



CONFERENCE ADVANCE

I occasionally get sent by the editors tothe quiet confines of the library—separatedphysically from the bright, bustling news-room by a long, dark hall— most often tolook for hard copies of photographs of localand national celebrities archived alphabeti-cally in vertical files. I remember searchingfor photographs of Queen Elizabeth II for aretrospective on the 50th year of her reign,pictures of Cape Breton fiddler AshleyMacIsaac as a boy at the beginning of hiscareer, as well as shots of entertainers whohad performed in plays, films or jazz festi-vals in days gone by. Even this is happeningless often, as more and more of our inter-view subjects have access to digital camerasand computers and can send us current orhistorical photographs electronically.

Newspaper librarians need to remindreporters that they are not obsolete, thatthey cannot be replaced by the Internet andthat they are a valuable resource, not just forlocating past stories or photos, but for find-ing information for current projects—infor-mation reporters might not retrieve them-selves or even think to look for.

Before I entered the library and informa-tion science program at DalhousieUniversity, I believed, like many other peo-ple (not just reporters) that anything I need-ed could be found on the Web. Sure,Google might retrieve 25,000 hits on agiven subject, and many of those might bearno relevance to the topic I was actuallyresearching, but I was convinced that withperseverance I could find what I was look-ing for.

Wrong.While researching a presentation for my

Resources For Business Intelligence course,I came across an April 2002 paper entitled,“Free, Fee-Based and Value-Added

Information Services,” prepared for Factivawith contributions from Mary Ellen Batesand edited by Donna Andersen, which says,“Of surveyed knowledge workers, 62 per-cent believe anything is available on theWeb (Outsell, Super I-AIM study). Butnew research shows that more than two-thirds of publications used most often byknowledge workers either do not have Websites or do not make their material availableon the Web for free.”

1

While our reporters don’t have access toany outside databases, a librarian couldmake the case to the company to purchasean aggregator like Factiva, LexisNexis orDialog Profound to provide reporters withinformation they can’t find for free on theWeb. The librarian could also take a key rolein educating reporters on the use of thistype of product and situations in which itmight be helpful. A librarian could pointreporters to a fee-based government sourcelike E-Stat (from Statistics Canada) andguide them through research which couldbe used in a variety of stories from crime tolifestyles features. The information couldalso be used for internal marketing purpos-es, such as discovering the number of NovaScotians who have access to the Web (andwho might read our product online), howfrequently these citizens turn to the Weband for what purpose. Computer-assistedreporting (CAR) workshops are offered atmost journalism conferences. A librariancould deliver such presentations in-house.

Most reporters, I suspect, will continueto want to do their own research as it is theirname on the story, and they will be heldaccountable for the reliability of any infor-mation they include. Reporters aren’t alonein this desire to perform their own research.In the 2002 Factiva report, researchers con-clude that “68 per cent of knowledge work-ers prefer to look for the information theyneed themselves.”2

Perhaps the key is to make librarians part

of the newsroom both physically and as anintegral resource to daily operations.

Angela Edmunds and Anne Morris,writing in an article entitled, “The Problemof Information Overload in BusinessOrganisations,” in a 2000 issue ofInternational Journal of InformationManagement, discuss Helen Butcher’s sug-gestion that in the business world an infor-mation worker could be part of each teamin an organization rather than part of a sep-arate intelligence unit. Butcher, accordingto Edmunds and Morris, found that “man-agers often prefer to rely on verbal informa-tion and may also be wary of using infor-mation services if they believe this will justadd to their information overload but ifsuch a person were part of their team, therewould be fewer barriers, and in addition,the information specialist would have agreater knowledge of the team’s informationneeds.”3

We reporters are already relying greatlyon our colleagues for information.Questions of spelling, grammar, geographyand history are frequently bandied aroundthe newsroom as reporters seek informationfrom their fellow writers and editors. Byadding a trusted librarian/information pro-fessional to our immediate midst, the orga-nization can gain a wealth of knowledgefrom a skilled resource person to put out abetter product, more efficiently to the ben-efit of the readers and the newspaper itself.

1 Andersen, Donna, editor. Bates, Mary Ellen,contributor (April 2002). “Free, Fee-Based andValue-Added Information Services.” TheFactiva 2002 White Paper Series. p. 1.2 Andersen and Bates, p. 5.3 Edmunds, Angela. Morris Anne (2000). TheProblem of Information Overload in BusinessOrganizations: A Review of the Literature byAngela Edmunds and Anne Morris.”International Journal of InformationManagement 20 p. 26.

Make librarians part ofthe newsroom teamContinued from page 18


CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

BY JULIA FRANCO, TRAINING/COMMUNICATIONS

LIBRARIAN, LOS ANGELES TIMES

The 2005 Computer-Assisted ReportingConference was held March 17-20 at theRenaissance Hotel in downtownHollywood, California. The complex thatcontains the hotel, Hollywood andHighland, is also home to the KodakTheater of Academy Awards fame, andwhile there were no glamorous activitiesduring the conference, it was fun to walkpast the theater on the way to get a Cupid’shotdog.

There were 359 registered participants,many news librarians and researchersamong them. I counted at least nine panelson which a librarian or researcher was aspeaker. People came from 26 states as wellas Canada, Norway and Mexico. At leastfive of the major television networks sentrepresentatives. The major western states’newspapers all had registrants, along withthose from the other 20 or so states. Manyof the western states’ universities sent par-ticipants as well.

The first day, Thursday, was an“advanced” day that focused on serioustools, such as string functions in Access,SQL server, mapping and Web scraping.There were also myriad hands-on classes onFriday, Saturday and Sunday, taught onthree levels: Basic, Intermediate, andAdvanced, as well as a mini-boot camp witha structured agenda. You could have learnedalmost anything here.

The panels on Friday through Sundaycovered every kind of data resource a newslibrarian would use. Unfortunately, in thecourse of a month of reference work, we’llprobably get asked about every one ofthem, and we would be hard pressed to bean expert in each. Attending this and simi-lar conferences at least gives us some famil-iarity with concepts and techniques—and aplace to start.

There were two tracks of panels: Feature

and Broadcast News. (The co-sponsors ofthe conference were KNBC-Los Angelesand the Los Angeles Times.) I attended pan-els that featured the new census (a majorchange is coming), Internet searching, find-ing data on the “invisible Web,” and sever-al that featured data from particular kindsof agencies (transportation, geology, weath-er, assessors, campaign contributions,licensing, etc.).

I actually attended two of the census ses-sions because the census is going to change.It’s a challenge for researchers as it is, sohold on to your hats. Beginning in 2005,the American Community Survey will bereleased every year. Here is a quote from thehandout of Paul Overberg (USA Today) andDanielle Cervantes (The San Diego Union-Tribune):

“There will be no 2010 Census long

form. From now on, most of the demo-graphic data that journalists care mostabout - income, education, school enroll-ment, commuting, migration, immigrationand housing - will come from the ACS eachyear. The 24-page ACS questionnaire isvery similar to the 2000 Census longform.”

The catch will be in the size of the placesfor which you can get information. Becauseof the rolling nature of the surveys, in 2006you will be able to get an estimate for placeswith at least 65,000 people. In 2008 youwill have a 2005-07 snapshot for any areawith at least 20,000 people. In August 2011the Census Bureau will offer a 2005-10data snapshot of every census tract in thenation.

Hooray for CAR in Hollywood


What’s the Buzz?BY MARGOT WILLIAMS, DATABASE RESEARCH EDITOR, THE NEW YORK TIMES

For the advanced attendees on Thursday, the topics included using statistics in sto-ries, social network analysis, mapping, upcoming census data, tools and techniques forsharing data in newsrooms, open source software and SQL.

For the general conference, hot topics again were census, mapping, social networkanalysis and numbers in the newsroom. Practical panels on using data on beats,Internet research and tips on keeping stories error-free drew crowds. The hands-ontraining sessions ranged from Web searching, Excel and Access to SPSS, ASP and SQLand handy tutorials on data cleaning with UltraEdit, VBScript and Perl.

The most innovative use of a computer tool at this year’s conference: simulationsoftware, used by Paul Parker of The Providence Journal, to help in investigating the2003 Station nightclub fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island, in which 100 peopledied.

The best angle: graphics and visualization of data - mapping, social network dia-grams and visual simulations.

The best advice: Improve the use of basic math in the newsroom. (For an onlinecourse in math for journalists, check out Debbie Wolfe’s new interactive tool athttp://www.newsu.org.)

The most repeated warning: Get ready for the every year census.Tip sheets from the panelists are available to IRE members at http://www.ire.org

thanks to Beth Kopine, IRE’s research director.

Jennifer AgrestaNational Geographic SocietyWashington, DC

Jennifer BehneStudent, Brooklyn, NY

Mavis BelasseGleaner Co.Kingston, Jamaica

Victor BlackThe Columbus DispatchColumbus, OH

Joseph BohrenTampa, FL

Linda ButterfieldKroll AssociatesOak Park, IL

Kathleen CollinsStudent, New York, NY

Kathrin DoddsMississippi State UniversityJackson, MS

Angie Drobnic HolanThe Tampa TribuneTampa, FL

Kathleen GardnerStudent, Tucson, AZ

Shani GentryStudent, Somerville, MA

Julie GrahamStudent, Yakima, WA

Helene HertzlingerLevittown Public LibraryLevittown, NY

Cecilia HlatshwayoDept of Homeland SecurityWashington, DC

Lisa HyderStudent, Virginia Beach, VA

John KlemKnight Ridder DigitalSan Jose, CA

Rebecca MetzgerStudent, Jamaica Plain, MA

Maureen MilneIfocusEast Grinstead, UK

Mary MolnarBank of AmericaChicago, IL

Elizabeth MoranStudent, Los Angeles, CA

Melanie O’BannonThe Tampa TribuneTampa, FL

Stanislav OrlovStudent, Toronto, ON

Kathleen QuinnPlaza Investment ManagersRancho Sante Fe, CA

Ellen RatchyeBurning Glass ConsultingNew York, NY

Ingrid RedmanStudent, Brooklyn, NY

Patricia SharpUniversity of PittsburghPittsburgh, PA

Jason SokoloffStudent, Chapel Hill, NC

Christine SorensenFactivaPrinceton, NJ

Susan SzeligaNewsweekNew York, NY

Ruth TenenbaumNewsweekNew York, NY

Karen WieruckiOntario Legislative LibraryToronto, ON

Joyce YasnerBrooklyn, NY


Alice ended up getting an interview atthe Free Press and became a newspaperlibrarian.

“I am a poster child for SLA network-ing,” she says.

Alice was born in Detroit and all of herspecial library jobs-at the Free Press, an autoindustry trade association and a utilitycompany— have been within a few blocksof where she made her entrance. Thathometown experience has been very usefulto her in newspaper research, especiallywhen the out-of-town interns arrive eachspring asking for the clips on Detroit.

When Alice started working at the FreePress in 1981, the library was moving thoseclips into an in-house electronic database.She has taken those e-clips through severaldifferent configurations since then andeventually followed them into the Internet.Now her job is Web Editor and, 20 yearslater, she helps the interns find clips on

Detroit on their Web site.Alice’s mother loved to travel and her

family went on road trips across the UnitedStates every summer. That wanderlust hasstayed with her. She doesn’t try get awayfrom it all because she loves to visit othernews librarians (you know who you are),and she has checked the Free Press Web sitefrom Amsterdam, Nairobi, London andVancouver. Alice’s latest sojourn was toMexico.

The David Rhydwen Award WinnerKathleen A.

Hansen is a profes-sor in the School ofJournalism and MassCommunication atthe University ofMinnesota. She isco-author (withNora Paul) of a lead-ing text in informa-

tion-gathering, Behind the Message:Information Strategies for Communicators(Allyn & Bacon, 2004) and of Newspapersof Record in a Digital Age with Shannon E.

Martin (Praeger, 1998). She has been con-ducting research about new informationtechnologies in news work for 24 years. Asdirector of the Minnesota JournalismCenter since 1997, Hansen has organizednumerous professional development work-shops for journalists and news librarians inthe U.S. and internationally. Hansen’s workhas been published in Journalism and MassCommunication Quarterly, Journalism andMass Communication Educator, SpecialLibraries, Newspaper Research Journal,Editor and Publisher, Library Journal andother scholarly and professional publica-tions.

Hansen earned a master’s degree inlibrary science and a master’s degree inEnglish, both from the University ofWisconsin-Madison, and she worked as aserials librarian at the University ofWisconsin-Milwaukee before joining thefaculty at the University of Minnesota in1981. She goes scuba diving in warm, trop-ical places as often as possible and tells herfriends and colleagues that from now on,she is “working to dive.”

Join us at Toronto’s“House on the Hill”Continued from page 17

Kathleen A. Hansen

NEW MEMBERS


PEOPLEContinued from page 6

The advice from the folks presenting the sessions was: Getfamiliar now with the new format if you want to be one step aheadof your newsrooms. There is a link at the top of the page athttp://www.census.gov for the American Community Survey.Check out the multi-year profiles for some quick comparisons.

On Friday night, after the CAR Reception, the news librarygroup repaired across the street to the Hollywood HamburgerHamlet, where at least 20 of us dined under a very large mural ofHarrison Ford as Indiana Jones, and Steven Spielberg. There were

librarians from, among other places, Canada, Washington, DC,New York, Florida and Missouri, as well as Los Angeles, SanFrancisco and San Diego, California.

Even Sunday, the last day, was well attended. With the oppor-tunity to learn from the best practitioners of computer-assistedreporting, it behooved all who had come to the conference to getthe most out of it, and I believe we all did. I returned to work witha sheaf of resources, many of which I’ve now added to our library’sintranet. I also came back inspired to expand our training programand with more confidence to do it. If you have a chance to attendthe IRE conference in Denver in June, please take advantage.

Hooray for CAR in HollywoodContinued from page 20

Beth Kopine is the new Eugene S. Pulliam research director forIRE. She is also the contest coordinator for IRE. Prior to arrivingat IRE, Beth worked as the visual resources curator for the art his-tory and archaeology department at the University of Missouri. Sheis new to the News Division and hopes to meet many of you vir-tually and perhaps in person at a future conference.

Leslie A. Norman is the new assistant librarian at The WallStreet Journal in Princeton, NJ. Leslie graduated in January 2005with a master’s of arts in library and information science fromRutgers University.

Awards and AcknowledgementsJohn Maines, database specialist at the South Florida Sun-

Sentinel, was a 2004 IRE Awards finalist in the large newspaperscategory for his work on the story, “Cashing in on Disaster.” Thisinvestigation revealed that some relatively unaffected parts ofFlorida received more disaster relief than many areas that weredirectly hit by hurricanes in 2004.

Associated Press researcher Julie Reed was credited on journal-ist Justin Pritchard’s award winning series, “Dying to Work”, forher contribution to the piece. The series, an investigation of thehigh rate of job-related deaths for Mexican workers in the UnitedStates, won a 2004 George Polk Award in Labor Reporting.

Amy Disch was nominated by the faculty of the School ofLibrary and Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for membership in Beta Phi Mu, the InternationalLibrary and Information Studies Honor Society.

Suzanne Kincheloe has been invited to participate in a paneldiscussion at this year’s Society of American Business Writers andEditors (SABEW) conference in Seattle. The discussion is forsmaller circulation newspapers who are putting together top com-pany lists and special sections. Suzanne has been the list researcherat the Washington Business Journal for nearly five years.

PassingsAgnes Henebry Award winner Virginia Carter Hills, National

Geographic Society Librarian from 1944 to 1983, died March 1,2005. She served as an SLA consultant, was joint chairperson of theSLA conference held in Washington, DC in 1979 and was a dele-gate to the White House Conference in 1980. She was also hon-ored as one of Catholic University’s Outstanding Alumni inLibrary and Information Science in 1983 and in 1984.

Kitty Bennett seen in the distance aboard the Equinox

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