Oklahoma Library Association
University and College Division
Annual Report
July, 1997 - April, 1998
The University and College Division (UCD) enjoyed a very
successful and productive year. The division's activities began
with a meeting at the University of Tulsa's McFarlin Library on
July 9, 1997. Members attending this meeting made decisions that
set the agenda for the rest of the year and organized committees
to carry out those decisions. Thereafter UCD met about every 7
or 8 weeks to hear reports from these committees and make other
decisions regarding division activities.
Workshop Planning Committee
The most significant decision made at the July meeting was to
sponsor a workshop. Sheila Johnson agreed to lead a taskforce to
examine possible workshop topics (as well as topics for
conference programs). Other members of the taskforce included
Dottie Davis, Nancy Leibee, Linda Taylor, and Peggy Wolfe. At
the September meeting at Langston University, the taskforce
recommended that UCD develop a workshop on Internet filtering.
Members at the meeting voted unanimously to accept this
recommendation and Sheila Johnson volunteered to chair a
workshop planning committee. Members of the committee were:
Peggy Wolfe and Darcy Rankin from UCD; Glenda Lamb from PLD; and
Bill Cunningham from Automation Roundtable.
After months of hard work by Sheila and her group, the
workshop, officially titled "The Internet: To Filter or
Not", was held at Oklahoma City Community College in
Oklahoma City on March 31, 1998. Because of the intense interest
in the topic, both the Public Library Division and the
Automation Roundtable co-sponsored the workshop with UCD. The
final number of registrants came to 79, setting an attendance
record for an OLA workshop.
Dr. June Lester, Director of the University of Oklahoma
School of Library and Information Studies, gave the keynote
address. A panel of librarians followed. Debra Engel, OLA's
President-elect, moderated the panel. Each member of the panel
presented his or her library's policy on Internet filtering and
answered questions from the audience. The panel consisted of
John Augelli (Stillwater Public Library), Ann Blakely
(University of Tulsa), Anne Fischer (Metropolitan Library
System), Mark Herring (Oklahoma Baptist University), Kathryn
Roots Lewis (Norman Public Schools), and Pat Sprowls (Elk City
Carnegie Library). After lunch John Corbett, administrator of
the Office of Library Technology at the Oklahoma Department of
Libraries, reviewed several of the major software packages
available for filtering. Finally, two vendors spoke concerning
their own products: Troy McConnell from GuardiaNet and James
Teaters from The Library Channel. Peggy Wolfe of Oklahoma State
University served as moderator of the workshop. Judy Wilkerson
from UCD and Michael Murray from PLD both provided assistance at
the workshop.
Conference Program Planning Committee
At the September meeting, the Workshop/Conference Taskforce,
chaired by Sheila Johnson, also recommended that UCD sponsor a
conference program related to distance education/learning. Judy
Wilkerson agreed to chair this committee. Other members of the
committee included Colleen Ward, Linda Taylor, Laura Bottoms,
and Christy Ryan. Marty Thompson provided invaluable advice.
Because the Library Education Division also planned to develop a
conference program related to distance education, the two groups
decided to work together to co-sponsor three different
presentations, each related to that topic. These were:
"Future of Distance Education" with Phil Moss;
"Western Governors Project" with James Hromas; and
"Distance Education in Oklahoma" with Pat
Weaver-Meyers, Jennifer Goodson, and Jan Powell.
World Wide Web Committee
Helen Hill chaired a committee to develop a web presence for
the division. Other members of her group were Pat McCall,
Kathleen Todd, Judith Rigsby, and Richard Page. They worked on
putting together information on the division to link off of the
OLA website. This information included officers, by-laws,
minutes of meetings, and resolutions.
Salary Survey Committee
One ongoing responsibility of the division is to survey
academic libraries in Oklahoma each year to determine the
starting salary for beginning professional librarians. Judy
Wilkerson volunteered to chair a committee to do this. Robert
Baca and Nancy Leibee also served on the committee. They
developed a survey form which they mailed to 54 directors of
academic libraries in the state. They submitted the results to
ALA.
Nominating Committee
R.D. Bell chaired this year's nominating committee, which
included Helen Hill and Elaine Watson as members. The committee
compiled a full slate of candidates for chair (the position of
vice-chair being vacant), vice-chair/chair elect, and secretary.
OK-ACRL
Because of interest expressed by the Board of the Oklahoma
Chapter of the Association of College & Research Libraries
(OK-ACRL), some discussion took place during the year concerning
a possible merger between OK-ACRL and UCD. Both groups appointed
small committees to meet to discuss the possibility. Dottie
Davis and Laura Bottoms represented UCD. This resulted in a
recommendation of closer cooperation between UCD and OK-ACRL,
rather than a formal merger. As of the spring of 1998, nothing
further had been done concerning this issue.
Assistance for Colorado State University
On June 28, 1997 a flood devastated the collections of
Colorado State University's Morgan Library. At the September
meeting UCD approved a resolution introduced by Judy Wilkerson
calling on Oklahoma academic libraries to "assist with
replacement of Morgan Library collections; ... to temporarily
adjust services to alleviate increased demands for services
created by loss of access to research collections at Colorado
State University; and ... participate in assistance efforts by
means at their disposal within the policies and guidelines of
individual institutions." Judy Wilkerson assumed the
awesome task of coordinating these efforts on behalf of UCD.
Discussion List
In July Richard Page created a mailing list through Oklahoma
State University to assist members in communicating with each
other. Called UCDOLA-L, the listserv had almost 50 subscribers
by the spring.
New Officers
In the spring OLA elections UCD members chose the following
officers to serve during 1998-1999:
Chair: Tom Biggs
Vice-Chair/Chair Elect: Jonathan Woltz
Secretary: Alan Lawless
Submitted by Charles Brooks
Chair, University & College Division
See also:
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