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APLIC-INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATOR

Winter 1999, Issue #69

Table of Contents
The APLIC-International Communicatoris published several times yearly by the Association for Population and Family Planning Libraries and Information Centers, International. Mailing address: c/o Family Health International Library, P.O. Box 13950, RTP, NC 27709 USA. ISSN 09-9847

Editors:

Jean Sack, Hopkins Population Center, Johns Hopkins University, 615 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205.Phone: 410-614-5222; Fax 410-614-7288; E-mail: jsack@jhsph.edu

Diane M. Rubino, Gender, Family, and Development Program Population Council/USA, 1 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, New York, NY 10017.Phone: 212/339-0657; Fax: 212/755-6052; E-mail: drubino@popcouncil.org

Presidents' Message
By Lisa A. Newman, Population Studies Center - University of Pennsylvania
Anne K. Ilacqua, Brown University Demography Library
APLIC-I Co-Presidents

Our year as co-Presidents is coming to a close and we would like to reflect on some of the advantages (and the very few disadvantages) of this kind of partnership. It has been wonderful to have someone else to share ideas with before presenting them to the organization as a whole. We brainstorm together and come up with solutions to problems that would have been difficult and frustrating alone, had we been by ourselves. Some of the anxiety of the conference planning process was alleviated by dividing responsibilities and sharing the emotional ups and downs.

We were also able to work well together, in spite of our different personalities and work habits - or perhaps because of them! The few difficulties we had were mainly a result of slight miss-communications (easy when using email and having a delayed reaction time) and busy work schedules. This organization managed, however, to accomplish some great things, and we would like to mention some of them now.

The APLIC-I By-Laws were completely revised after many years of discussions and we now have a working set of guidelines to use when conducting association business (and thank you to Audun Gythfeldt for taking the lead in this). The revised by-laws are mounted on the APLIC-I web site and are easy to consult when we are confronted with issues like Board members who can't come to meetings anymore, Officers resigning and being replaced by "Acting" Officers, election schedules, Treasurer's responsibilities, and so on.

APLIC-I has made a start in organizing its archival collection and a solid plan has been devised by Edith Ericson. We have begun collecting materials to be archived after a long hiatus of inactivity. We are also talking about how to archive electronic material and what items should be kept and in what format. It is all very exciting to see APLIC-I's history being preserved like this!

The APLIC-I Communicator has been transformed thanks to Diane Rubino, Jean Sack, Peggy D'Adamo and Nicole Pelsinsky, into a truly professional looking electronic document. We are proud, as Presidents, to have this represent our organization on the Internet. The articles are well written and informative and the web-format allows us to offer up-to-date membership information, listserv subscription information, and a conferences calendar in every issue.

We are looking forward, with interest and anticipation, to the March conference! Peggy D'Adamo has done a wonderful job arranging speakers and topics that truly represent the conference theme. We know how difficult conference planning is and Peggy has remained calm and competent through it all - though we're not surprised! It will be a great conference in a great city and we know you will all try and attend.

Thanks for a rewarding year and we'll see you in New York!

Lisa Newman and Anne Ilacqua

APLIC-I Member News

  • Julia Cleaver, INTRAH http://www.intrah.org (nominee for APLIC-I class of 2002)
    "This fall my husband and I bought a new house just south of Chapel Hill. We are out in the country, and yet are right across the road from our childrens' school. It is wonderful. My new address is: Julia Cleaver, 295 River Forest Road,Pittsboro, NC 27312 (919) 968-3747.

    Just before Christmas INTRAH moved into a brand new building that UNC has built on the North side of Chapel Hill. We are all slowly getting settled into our new offices. Just a week ago Friday the shelving was installed in our new Resource Center. The books had been packed on temporary carts for a month. We have quickly moved books and arranged everything just in time to welcome the External Evaluation team visiting the PRIME project. OK, I do have a lot of boxes still to unpack and sort through. But the place looks great. It is the best space that the INTRAH Resource Center has ever had. Notice that we even changed our name from Resource Collection to Resource Center. Our new address (please note that this is a new email and web address as well) is: INTRAH Resource Center, 1700 Airport Road, Suite 300, Chapel Hill, NC 27514. Phone: (919) 962-6846. E-mail: jcleaver@intrah.org

     

  • Lisa Croucher
    Lisa has returned to INTRAH in a new position as Innovative Learning Approaches Specialist. It is great to have her back. Her email is lcroucher@intrah.org

     

  • John Rollin Watson III, 44, Medical Librarian and AIDS Information Specialist
    Washington Post (01/21/99) P. B6 International AIDS educator John Rollin Watson III died on Saturday, January 16, of AIDS complications. Mr. Watson, 44, played a key role in the development of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National AIDS Clearinghouse, working from 1988 to 1996 as a librarian and Senior International Multicultural liaison at CDC NAC. His fluency in languages and his experience around the world helped to further his understanding of how cultural and ethnic subtleties affect the way in which people accept HIV prevention information. In addition, Mr. Watson provided intensive, tailored training and technical help to AIDS information providers sent to the CDC by foreign governments for training. Mr. Watson's many other achievements include serving on the Maryland Governor's Advisory Council on AIDS, serving as a member of the Whitman-Walker Clinic AIDS Services Operating Committee, and serving as an advisor to the Pan-American Health Organization's AIDS programs. He also was a founding member of GENA, participated in AIDS meetings across the world, advised Infoshare Russia, and mentored a Washington, D.C., youth AIDS group. Mr. Watson is survived by his life partner, Bill Owens-Smith, his son Jason, his mother, and three siblings.

     

  • University of Michigan Population Studies Center has moved. Nika Bareket writes that the new mailing address is 426 Thompson Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1248. For those of you who think a visit might soon be in order, the actual street address is 311 Maynard, 2nd floor. Nika J. Bareket, Info Resource Coordinator/Librarian Population Studies, University of Michigan. Phone: (734) 998-6277 Fax: (734) 998-7415. http://www.psc.lsa/library. E-mail: una@umich.edu.

New Project Announcements 

Frontiers in Reproductive Health: Operations Research Project

The Population Council, http://www.popcouncil.org/orta/ has been awarded a five-year $60 million cooperative agreement by USAID to improve family planning and reproductive health services in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, the Near East, Latin America, and the former Soviet Union. The new project, Frontiers in Reproductive Health, uses OR to improve clients' access to care and enhance the quality and sustainability of reproductive health services. The Council's partners are Family Health International http://www.fhi.org/ and Tulane University School of Public Health http://www.sph.tulane.edu/

Frontiers will use OR not only to foster the development of new reproductive health policies but also to demonstrate how these policies can be implemented at the community level. Frontiers will develop innovative solutions to service delivery problems; communicate research results to policymakers and program managers; and improve managers' ability to solve problems by building OR capacity in local organizations. Frontiers consolidates the Council's three regional OR/TA Projects in Africa, Asia and the Near East, and Latin America and the Caribbean, into a global program to study common problems in different contexts.

The OR E-Mail Network, an automated electronic mailing system that transmits e-mail messages on OR findings from the Council's headquarters in New York to over 500 subscribers worldwide, is from now on based in the Council's Office in Washington, D.C. For further information, please contact:
Cynthia Green, Ph.D.
Director for Policy Communication
Population Council - Frontiers
4301 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Suite 280
Washington, D.C. 20008
Tel: (202) 237-9400;

Fax: (202) 237-8410
E-mail: cgreen@pcdc.org

JHPIEGO Corporation Awarded USAID Cooperative Agreement to Strengthen Reproductive Health Training Systems

JHPIEGO Corporation http://www.jhpiego.jhu.edu/WHATSNEW/mnh.htm, an affiliate of Johns Hopkins University, has been awarded a five-year $97 million cooperative agreement by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to strengthen reproductive health training systems in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Near East and the former Soviet Union. The new Training in Reproductive Health III Project (TRH) builds on JHPIEGO's previous awards. It will establish integrated training systems for family planning and reproductive health by developing, disseminating and implementing national policy and service delivery guidelines; developing a network of trainers to provide expert technical and training support in the preservice and inservice arenas; and helping ensure management support for the entire training system. Currently, more than 100 professional and support staff located at the U.S. headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland and in field offices in 11 countries are responsible for conducting projects in 37 developing countries.

JHPIEGO has also been awarded a five-year $60 million cooperative agreement by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Office of Health and Nutrition, to increase use of appropriate maternal and neonatal health and nutrition practices and services globally, with priority given to countries having high numbers of maternal deaths. The new Maternal and Neonatal Health (MNH) Program will focus on applying known approaches and testing and implementing new technologies to reduce maternal and newborn deaths in developing countries. JHPIEGO's partners in the MNH Program are Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs (JHU/CCP), the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA) and the Program for Appropriate Technology for Health (PATH). The Program Director, Adrienne Allison, and a team of technical experts will manage this global program from JHPIEGO's offices in Baltimore, Maryland. According to Noel McIntosh, JHPIEGO's President, the MNH team will work closely with the Corporation's technical and programming offices and the MNH Partners field-based staff, who are located in more than 40 countries, to implement its initiatives.

Building on the progress made to date by the global Safe Motherhood Initiative and USAID's MotherCare Program, the new MNH Program will demonstrate that deaths of mothers and newborns can be prevented through increased community awareness, commitment and participation; improved policies and political support; and strengthened service delivery practices. The MNH Program will provide global leadership to build stakeholder support at the local, regional and national levels and to leverage resources from the public, for-profit and nonprofit sectors.

Revising the APLIC Members Survey

Many new members and information centers have become part of the APLIC-I professional network since Gloria Roberts first collected surveys about our library resources in 1993. At theboard meeting last Fall, the APLIC-I Board pledged to revise Gloria's original form to reflect the new electronic age and then ask current members to update the profiles of their collections and services.

But, before we begin the task of updating the form, we want your feedback on it. Please look at it and send your suggestions to our membership chair: Lisa Newman [newman@pop.upenn.edu] by e-mail.

We will be discussing the revision at our APLIC Business Meeting at 2:00 on Wednesday March 24th during the New York conference. Your feedback is essential now, particularly if you are unable to attend the March 22-24 conference. Here are some other questions to consider.

  • -- Are you willing for this information to be mounted on our website? (it would not be in a format for general mailings so that someone could use it as a mailing list but it might be mounted with a searchable interface... )

     

  • -- Do you have ideas about how you personally would utilize such a directory?

Click -> to review the survey. http://www.pop.upenn.edu/library/survey.htm

Defining shades of grey: Document and technical papers collections and policies*
Jean C. Sack, Johns Hopkins Population Center

At a recent meeting of the Development Librarians working group in D.C., Lili Vivanco (FHI) and I led a discussion of screening and selection policies for our grey literature collections. This is not a new topic, of course. See Valorie Huynh's article On "Cataloging Grey Literature" in a past issue of the Communicator http://www.med.jhu.edu/ccp/aplic/Issue65/student.htm. In the fall of 1999 a third international grey literature conference will be held in Washington, D.C. [footnotes #1, #2]. Many conferences have sessions on cataloging grey literature and Internet sites. The Association of Research Libraries issued a SPEC paper presenting a survey of documents collections in many major universities [footnote #3] which shows that only 1/2 of the libraries provide access to electronic documents via their OPACs. Most of the D.C. development information specialists in attendance on January 20, 1999 (Peace Corps, AED, FHI, USAID...) did not have Collection Policy Statements specifically aimed at documents acquisition and weeding or web site cataloging. We provided guidelines and websites for judging the worth of documents and for composing a Collection Policy Statement [footnote #4].

Developing selection criteria to triage ephemera

The discussion of individual sample documents was lively and a good exercise in judgment, using the following criteria:

A. Content analysis

  • Does it fit the current scope of your collection or the work of your organization?
  • Is it useful to your target clients?
  • Is there evidence of hard data (statistics, tables, graphs or charts) or just a description of case studies?
  • Is the information current or historical/ Is it well documented (references, bibs)?
  • What is the authority (project staff, government official, expert in the field)?
  • Date (is there one?) Date of issue vs. date of data collection.
  • If not current, does it have historic value?

B. Format analysis

  • Type of format?
  • Frequency and provenance (Is this part of a known project; regular or irregular conference?)
  • Table of contents, index?
  • Does the author include descriptors, abstracts or cataloging in publication, ISBNs?
  • Does the author provide citations, list of references or bibliography?
  • Where is this item indexed?
  • Is the document available in other formats (book chapters, conference proceedings, forthcoming in a journal, full text on the web, on CD-ROM)?
  • How easily can it be accessed? How long will it be retained on that web site or when will it be purged?
  • Will this publication be updated in the future?

Once selected, the cataloging or indexing also offer a challenge. Participants estimated that at least 30 minutes per document is required since very few technical documents are cataloged in full MARC format.

Guidelines for developing a collection policy for documents

Although many small, specialized libraries do not currently have updated collection policy statements, they can perform a large role in screening out unwanted documents and in clarifying the project-specific purpose of the collection. For many reasons, these policy statements should be updated: training/curriculum changes, funding sources or budget transitions, staffing changes or technological change which allow new electronic formats, translations, archival storage, etc. Such statements can also include criteria for weeding during collection evaluation periods, downsizing, or transition to a new project. Often cooperating agencies can develop joint statements to delineate which libraries retain which materials [footnotes 6, 7]

Obtaining and maintaining document collections

Several techniques for reciprocal exchange agreements were discussed but very little insight was gained about where weeded grey literature should go when withdrawn. The APLIC-I dups program was the envy of the group! In fact, Susan Pasquariella, at the Fall APLIC board meeting pointed out that an even more regular distribution system could be set up for distribution of series, journals and documents: "Pasquariella would like to encourage partner relationships between libraries to regularly send publications directly as collection is weeded, journals in particular. This activity could be in addition to the DUPS program." [Fall 1998 Board minutes]

Archiving electronic grey literature

In analyzing format items 7-9, many development librarians had not considered how they would be treating electronically mounted documents - could they place a URL or URI into the catalog or index record If printed grey literature is ephemeral, what about their electronic formats? When a project dies or is transferred, do the items mounted on that server also die? Who actually owns that material in terms of copyright? Apparently the lifetime of some web-mounted, full-text documents issued by USAID contractors is being more assured by the DEC project (http://www.dec.org) but retrieval may be costly. Other e-print prepublications papers are being mounted by professional societies (see six examples listed in the Internet Resources page of this issue of The Communicator). In some cases, an on-line document delivery service or vender license to full-text journals stipulate that only one copy can be made and the electronic image cannot be forwarded outside the user group. What are some of our APLIC-I member institutions doing to preserve the integrity of their web publications and also be faithful to copyright?

At Johns Hopkins Population Center, we carefully work with the researcher who is submitting a manuscript for our Papers on Population series. We need him/her to check with the journal or publisher to whom that paper may later be submitted to be sure that the pre-publications electronic format will not forbid later publication. When the work is drastically revised and printed in a peer-reviewed journal, we replace the full-text on our website with a citation to the new source and an abstract. We may, however, continue to send out the printed, original working paper upon request. Black and white blend in the field of intellectual property rights and ownership of grey literature, particularly in prolonging its initial electronic existence.

Adapting documents for web audiences... a discussion is needed!

"From printing press to information superhighway. Until now, print materials have been transformed into HTML or PDF files and uploaded. But do we need to think about and develop new ways to adapt documents for dissemination to web audiences? What would be the role in this process for APLIC members?" In October Diane Rubino suggested that electronic document formats would be an excellent topic for our listserve - or may again be a discussion to be pursued at our 1999 New York conference during some of our lunch times. Which formats expedite quick downloading and least bandwidth? Tonya Allen of Penn State is moving from Postscript to PDF formats. What are reasonable charges for print copies of papers now mounted on the web? $3.00 per item was the norm in 1998 but will new postal rates change this? For current practice, here is a sampling of APLIC-I member agencies' working and training papers (thanks to APLIC members who responded to my listserve request!):

* "The term grey literature refers to a wide range of types of informational material which is made available to the general public by public and private sector organizations whose function is not primarily publishing. Such information includes reports, brochures, guides, dissertations, product information, budgetary data, memoranda, and research findings. A more formal definition is: "That which is produced on all levels of government, academia, business and industry in print and electronic formats, but which is not controlled by commercial publishers". The essential difference between other sorts of publishing and grey literature is that the latter not produced as a commercial undertaking, but as part of a communications process. There have so far been two international conferences dealing with grey literature, with a third scheduled for Autumn 1999, and the term is becoming established in information science."

http://www.quinion.com/words/turnsofphrase/tp-gre1.htm World Wide Words is copyright © Michael B Quinion, 1996-9. Last updated 16 January 1999. Accessed 27 January, 1999

Footnotes:
1. Cataloguing beyond the walls: APLA 1997: The Catalogue as information gateway. URL: http://www.mun.ca/library/cat/catnet/gateway.htm. Last revised: 24-May-1997 12:57 NST Document author: Charley Pennell Accessed on January 27, 1999

2. Bailey, Charles W., Jr. Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography, Version 22: 11/20/98 University of Houston Libraries, 1996-98. http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepb.html. Accessed on January 27, 1999.

3. Cynthia D. Clark [and] Judy Horn. Organization of document collections and services: SPEC kit, 227. Washington, DC: Association of Research Libraries, Office of Leadership and Management Services, c1998.

4. The American University Library Collection Development Policy. Last revised: December 13, 1995. http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepb.html

5. Hazen, Dan C. "Collection development policies in the information age." College and Research Libraries 56 no.1:29-31 (1995)

6. Collection development policy statement of the National Agricultural Library, The National Library of Medicine, and The Library of Congress: Human nutrition and food. http://www.nal.usda.gov/acq/cdhumnut.htm Accessed on January 27, 1999.

7. DRAFT Collection Development Policy Statement, Columbia Universities Library WWW Information System, Anthony W. Ferguson, Associate University Librarian, Last update: 11/25/98 http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/about/colldev/ Accessed on January 27, 1999.

Center for Social and Demographic Analysis (CSDA) at the University at Albany
By Beth Adelman, Data Archivist, Center for Social and Demographic Analysis, Albany

The Center for Social and Demographic Analysis (CSDA) at the University at Albany, SUNY, is an interdisciplinary research center whose mission is to assist researchers in preparing grant proposals for external funding and then assist researchers with their projects once they are funded. Recently, the Center has received a population center grant from the National Institute for Child and Health Development and is currently one of eleven population centers in the nation.

This past month, the CSDA has initiated a working paper series. In preparing for the series, we talked to other population center representatives and journal editors regarding copyright issues, long-term consequences of pre-publication on the web, and the process of obtaining papers from our research associates and affiliates. Here are the findings from our discussions with these representatives:

  1. Most working papers are voluntarily submitted.
  2. Population center representatives reported no problems with plagiarism in their existing Working Paper Series. The inclusion of a statement such as "Do Not Cite Without Permission of the Author" acts as an appropriate deterrent for this.
  3. Upon publication, copyright problems are avoided by removing the full text of the working paper from the web and replacing it with an abstract and bibliographic citation to the copyrighted article.
  4. Journal editors (those we talked to were from social science journals) reported no serious concerns about accepting articles that had been previously published as a work in progress as long as copyright compliance was met at the time of publication. It was noted, however, that blind peer review for journal submissions may become more challenging.
  5. Population center representatives reported no hesitation on the part of their affiliated researchers in submitting "works in progress" that would eventually become published in a professional journal.
  6. Strategies used by other Centers to encourage working paper submissions include:
  7. Creating Center policies that require the work product derived from Center resources to become working papers
  8. Marketing to junior faculty by pointing out advantages of such a series in helping them build their vitae
  9. Citing the series as a way to obtain peer reviews prior to submission for publication in a journal
  10. Offer free editing of manuscripts
  11. Offer free binding of working papers
  12. Offer free copies sent to conference attendees who request a paper from the presenter

For more information on the CSDA's working paper series or the CSDA, please visit our website at http://www.albany.edu/csda/index.html. We would like to thank all of those population center representatives and journal editors for their help and advice.

The Central American Population Program Programa Centroamericano de Población
By Ricardo Chinchilla-Arley

The University of Costa Rica's Central American Population Program (PCP) was established in 1993 with a multidisciplinary center for research, training and dissemination of population information with a Central American scope.

The PCP offers information services in the following areas:

  1. consultation of large statistical databases and population censuses
  2. access to the fecundity and health statistics for Central America,
  3. production of statistical tables for Costa Rica and Central America
  4. support for Central American postgraduate studies in Population and Health,
  5. organization of seminars and courses of training
  6. publication of books and papers.

Recently we inaugurated an interactive Web-based service which allows users to create personalized tables from the 1973 and 1984 Costa Rican censuses.

The PCP includes the Demographic Information Center (CID), a specialized Documentation unit that forms part of the University of Costa Rica's Library System. The CID is part of the Costa Rican node for Information On Population from Latin America and the Caribbean Net (IPALCA). The CID has a Bibliographic collection of 10,000 documents, 173 periodic publications, 30 maps and atlases and a laboratory for Internet consultation.

The PCP also counts with a site in Internet, in which it publishes relevant information about Central American population issues. Through this page one can consult on-line the censuses, births registration and mortality data, the population projections, as well as obtain access to the CID's public catalog.

For more information contact:
Ricardo Chinchilla
Central American Population Program
University of Costa Rica
PO Box 2060 San José, Costa Rica.
Telephone (506) 207-5693, fax. (506) 207-5692
Internet: http://populi.eest.ucr.ac.cr/

APLIC-I Membership Profile: Margaret D’Adamo, JHU Center for Communications Programs
By Diane M. Rubino, The Population Council
(a series that explores the APLIC-I community)

Are you looking for a salt and pepper shaker set that promotes family planning? What about an umbrella that encourages safer sex? Surely you need condoms packaged so they resemble lollipops. Who can you turn to acquire such useful items?

Try consulting with Margaret "Peggy" D’Adamo, head of the Media/Materials Clearinghouse (M/MC) library at the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs. Billed as "an international resource for health professionals who seek samples of media/materials that promote reproductive health," (phew!) the Clearinghouse is an idea bank, meant to spare designers of promotional materials from reinventing the wheel. Under the guidance of Peggy since 1991, the M/MC library houses a prodigious collection of oddities—including such difficult-to-classify items as clothing, umbrellas, and tchatckas.

If you’ve been active in APLIC-I, then you probably already know Peggy D’Adamo. Notable for her practical ideas, ready wit, and strong sense of civic duty to the APLIC-I community, Peggy’s contribution to the organization have been constant and plentiful. She attends annual and board meetings, has been the APLICommunicator’s editor, an officer, and is currently in the process of planning our Spring meeting (click here for details). When queried about the inspiration for her continued volunteerism, she replied, "I feel like each member has a duty to get involved in some way or other at some time or other."

D’Adamo’s affiliation with the organization stems from 1991, when she started working at Hopkins. "Before that I was a school librarian. Not having any background in the field, I thought this was a good way to educate myself and to get to know people in the field." So far, joining APLIC-I has been a useful didactic tool and Peggy has gleaned tangible benefits from membership. "I have received help finding materials and information through the listserve and [have] been able to talk with people from other organizations about software that we're thinking about and they already have, for example." She also notes "…it's important for people to find a way to communicate with each other." The rewards of her association extend beyond the professional realm, though. "I’ve enjoyed being in APLIC-I," says D’Adamo. "Its a good organization and I’ve met a lot of nice people."

When queried about the shortfalls of our distinguished association, Peggy is frank about her own foibles as well as ours. On the subject of the incessant problem of public relations, she says, "I need to do a better job to educate [my colleagues]. For building name recognition and a wider base of support D’Adamo recommends "conducting activities in conjunction with other organizations besides PAA. I’ve tried to get people interested in NCIH and APHA, because these organizations have many more program people. I think that people are concerned about linking with other groups because we’re a small group and [because] it would be difficult to develop the kind of relationship that we have with PAA, which is also small. They’re good to us, but they have a research and scholarly focus. Our members service both academic and program clients and that needs to be better reflected in how we conduct our business. That’s why I tried to focus the ucpoming conference on the collaborating agencies community—but I think it will be helpful and interesting to everyone!"

Peggy and the rest of APLIC-I look forward to seeing you in March.

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