The VASLA Executive Board has two vacancies that offer members excellent opportunities to take an active role in Chapter Leadership. Please let current President Jason Sokoloff (sokolojk@jmu.edu) or Past-President Bettina Peacemaker (bjpeacemaker@vcu.edu) know if you would like to volunteer or nominate anyone for the two roles described below. No experience is required for either role, just the eagerness to serve our members.

President-Elect

The President-Elect is the incoming President of the Chapter and is responsible for planning chapter programs throughout their term. The President-Elect is assisted by the Executive Board in developing and executing professional development programs that occur up to three times each year throughout the Commonwealth. Programs not only provide invaluable knowledge to the membership, they serve to sustain and grow the Chapter and are attended by members and non-members alike. The President-Elect role is a two-year commitment and is mentored by both the President and Past-President. Upon completion of the President-Elect term, the occupant assumes the role of President for the following term.

Membership Committee Chair

The Membership Committee Chair maintains the Chapter’s membership rolls received from SLA Headquarters. The Chair offers regular reports to the Board at Chapter Meetings on current membership levels and addresses any discrepancies in individual members’ status within the Chapter to Headquarters. The Chair advises the Board on strategies to grow and maintain membership in the Chapter, confirms members’ status for participation in Chapter functions, and serves on the Board in planning and sustaining operations. The position is a one-year, renewable appointment by the Chapter President.

Current Executive Board

The Embedded Librarianship Program and annual chapter meeting were held at the Virginia Historical Society on November 30th. The event was well attended and participants enjoyed presentations on the topic by Shannon Jones of the Tompkins-McCaw Health Sciences Library of Virginia Commonwealth University, Jill Stover Heinze of Competiscan, and David Shumaker, faculty member at the School of Library and Information Science at the Catholic University of America and author of the book, “The Embedded Librarian: Innovative Strategies for Taking Knowledge Where It’s Needed.”

Dr. Shumaker’s presentation can be found at http://embeddedlibrarian.com/2012/12/06/presentation-to-sla-virginia-chapter/. Other presentations will be posted here as they are made available. Thanks to all those who attended and a special thanks to Katherine Wilkins of the Historical Society and Chapter member for being such a gracious host.

VASLA Membership Director Greg Stoner of Williams Mullen in Richmond has been published in the February 2011 issue of Virginia Lawyer.  Greg wrote the current entry in the publications recurring column, Law Libraries.  You can download the article here:

http://www.vsb.org/docs/valawyermagazine/vl0211_libraries.pdf

or view the homepage of Virginia Lawyer.  Congratulations, Greg.

From the Library of Virginia:

What about the Library? The Value of Libraries Before and After a Major DisasterLibraries have served many roles in communities affected by disaster.   Have you considered what important roles your library could play in emergency response for your community or institution?

 Join us on Wednesday, October 6, 2010, at the Twin Hickory Branch of the Henrico Public Library in Glen Allen, Virginia for a half-day conference (9 -12 or 1-4)  on roles libraries can play before and after a major disaster.

Featured speakers:

Rebecca Hamilton, State Librarian, State Library of Louisiana, will be the keynote speaker.  Her talk will focus on emergency preparedness and response lessons, issues, and strategies for public librarians, based on her experience with Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall on the Gulf Coast just 60 days into her tenure.

Dan Wilson, Coordinator for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine’s (NN/LM) Emergency Preparedness & Response Initiative, will highlight the many risks inherent to Virginia.  He will also introduce conference participants to a one-page emergency response plan designed for the continuation of core services and resources following a disaster.  During lunch, Dan will provide instruction in designing and implementing a table-top exercise for your library, using a Category 3 hurricane as the scenario.

The conference will be presented twice on October 6th.  The morning session will run from 9 AM to Noon, followed by lunch from Noon until 1 PM.  The afternoon session, including lunch, will run from 1 PM to 4 PM.  (Those participants from both sessions who can stay for lunch will be together during the lunchtime table-top exercise session.)

Seating is limited to 25 participants at each session, so please register early.  The cost of the conference is $15, which will help to defray lunch and meeting expense costs.

Special Note:  all participants attending the Twin Hickory Branch conference will receive a free emergency radio.  The radio is excellent to have on hand in the event of power outages and other emergencies because it can be re-charged by cranking a handle, and includes an LED flashlight.  It will also power a cell phone via adaptor, and issues NOAA severe weather alerts as well as transmitting AM/FM radio and NOAA weather channels.

For those of you who cannot attend the Richmond meeting, Dan Wilson will be speaking to groups to be convened in Southwest Virginia and the Tidewater areas of Virginia later in the fall.

The conference is sponsored by the Library of Virginia and has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. NO1-LM-6-3502 with the University of Maryland Baltimore.

To register for this event, please visit Virginia Libraries Event Calendar and choose either the morning or afternoon session on Wednesday, October 6th: http://host5.evanced.info/lva/evanced/eventcalendar.asp

ICF International seeks a Librarian to work within the Health, Education and Social Programs (HESP) group. This position is full-time and based in our metro accessible Fairfax, VA headquarters office. The Librarian will support the Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) line of business within HESP. Currently, FSS has about 30 employees and is led by a Vice President.

Please join me in congratulating our 2010 VASLA Adkins Travel award winner Jason Sokoloff, Business Librarian at James Madison University.  I know that Jason will represent VASLA well in New Orleans and will share what he’s learned at the National Conference via the chapter blog.  Thanks and please consider applying for next year.

Christian R. Pascasio
President
VASLA

The deadline to apply for the VASLA Susan Adkins Travel Award has been extended.  Applications will now be accepted until Wednesday, March 17, 2010.

The VASLA Adkins Travel Award will pay $500 of your travel expenses to attend SLA 2010 in New Orleans. Apply today. The application materials are available at from VASLA website.

The VASLA Adkins Travel Award will pay you $500 toward your expenses to attend SLA. Apply today. The deadline is March 8th!

Get more info.

Be sure to check out the January/February 2010 issue of Information Outlook, where VASLA member Jill Heinze has an article on “Leveraging Internal Partnerships for Library Success.” Jill is a research analyst in the Marketing Department at Affinion Loyalty Group in Richmond, VA, and a member of SLA’s Competitive Intelligence Division.

If you are planning to attend the SLA Annual Conference in New Orleans and could use some financial help with travel expenses, please submit an application for the Susan Adkins Travel Awards.

To be considered you must:

• Be a current member of SLA and VASLA.
• Submit an application form found on the VASLA web page, a copy of your resume or curriculum vita, and essay justifying your need for this award. You may write in terms of professional development, commitment to the profession or financial need.
• For the student award you must be currently enrolled in coursework for library and/or information science studies.

Applications are due March 8th, 2010. Winners will be notified by March 22nd , 2010. Winners are required to submit a written conference participation report that will be shared with VASLA members.

Send applications to the VASLA Awards Committee, c/o Megan Nunemaker, VASLA Secretary.
Submit by e-mail at:
mailto:mnunemak@nrao.edu?subject=Adkins Travel Award

Download application materials here, VASLA Adkins Award Application.