Oklahoma Library Association
University and College Division
Annual Report
June, 1998 - March, 1999

Workshop Planning Committee

The UCD Workshop Planning Committee is chaired by Sheila Johnson. The other committee members are Christy Ryan, Sally Shelton, Carolyn Warmann and Helen Webbink.

The Committee is planning a workshop titled "Taking Control of the Internet", to be held on April 27, 1999. The workshop will focus on discovering new and useful Internet resources and tools. The workshop will include discussions of search engines, collection development tools, and subject directories. The workshop site will be the Bird Library on the OU Health Sciences Center campus.

Conference Program Planning Committee

The Conference Program Planning Committee is chaired by John Rosenhamer. The other committee members are Alan Lawless, Pat McCall and David Oberhelman.

UCD is involved in many sessions at the 1999 OLA Conference. On Wednesday, March 24, UCD will assist with "Really Hand On Web Design", a half-day session that gives librarians experience creating their own web pages.

On Thursday, March 25, UCD and LED are co-sponsoring a session titled "Effective Bibliographic Instruction - Traditional or New Age?". The session will feature presentations from bibliographic instruction librarians in a range of academic settings. The audience will also have a chance to ask the presenters questions and share their own library instruction experiences.

On Friday, March 26, UCD is hosting "Librarians, Libraries and Librarianship in the 21st Century". This session will feature Dr. Robert Swisher from the OU School of Library and Information Studies. Dr. Swisher will discuss the ways technology is changing libraries and how librarians can thrive in this new information-rich environment.

Posters and Papers Committee

The chair of the Posters and Papers Committee is Peggy Wolfe. The other members are Laura Bottoms and Judy Wilkerson.

UCD issued a call for papers and posters to be presented at the at the OLA Annual Conference to provide librarians and library school students an opportunity to present their research and share ideas. The Posters and Presentations Committee received an excellent response - there will be nine contributed paper presentations and six poster presentations on a fascinating and diverse range of topics.

Electronic Communications Committee

The Electronic Communications Committee members are Charles Brooks, Helen Hill, Richard Page, Darcy Rankin, Judy Rigsby and Michael Strickland.

UCD has a web site at http://www.lib.utulsa.edu/ucd/. The site is maintained by Charles Brooks. The site contains minutes of UCD meetings, announcements of future meetings, bylaws, resolutions, and links to Oklahoma academic library home pages, schedules, catalogs.

UCD also maintains a listserv, UCDOLA-L. It is used for meeting announcements, academic library position openings, and other news of interest to UCD members. The list is hosted by Oklahoma State University and maintained by Richard Page. The list currently has about 50 subscribers.

Salary Survey Committee

The Salary Survey Committee members are Barbara Bradley, David Scott, and Colleen Ward.

Each fall, the division conducts a survey to determine the starting salary for beginning professional librarians. The survey was mailed to 53 academic library directors. Twenty-six returned the survey. The average reported salary was $26,744 (minimum, 20,600; maximum 36,710; median, 25,150). A complete summary of the survey is available on the UCD web site. The results of the survey have been reported to ALA.

Nominating Committee

The nominating committee members are Jonathan Woltz, Charles Brooks, and Donna Schwarz.

The committee returned a slate of candidates for vice-chair/chair-elect and secretary in mid-December.

New Officers

The ballots for vice-chair/chair-elect and secretary were distributed to the membership, returned, and tallied in February, 1999. The new vice-chair/chair-elect is Peggy Wolfe; the new secretary is David Scott.

Special Committee on Video Conferencing

In 1998, Thomas Biggs suggested that the Division hold a meeting using interactive video. The reason was twofold: first, to have greater participation from librarians state-wide, especially those far from Oklahoma City or Tulsa; and second, to make attending meetings more convenient for all UCD members by reducing travel distances.

David Scott volunteered to make arrangements with distance education coordinators at sites around the state for the January 1999 UCD meeting. Six interactive video sites, covering almost every area in the state, agreed to participate. The meeting went well - attendees were able to exchange the information they needed and librarians who would not have been able to attend a "conventional" meeting were able to participate. There were some glitches with audio and video, but participants were pleased overall. UCD plans to hold another interactive video meeting this summer.

Division Plans for the Future

UCD is investigating the practicality of sponsoring a mentoring program for library school students. The program would provide library school students a chance to gain first-hand knowledge about the career opportunities in academic libraries.

UCD has made tentative plans to hold a workshop in the fall of 1999. Planning for this workshop will begin in earnest after the OLA Annual Conference.

Report submitted on March 15, 1999 by Jonathan Woltz, UCD Vice-Chair

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