Issue 64, Spring 1997

APLIC-INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATOR
Spring 1997, Issue #64

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:
Peggy D’Adamo, Center for Communications Programs, Johns Hopkins University, 111 Market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, MD. 21202. Phone: 410-659-6256; Fax: 410-659-6266; e-mail: mmc@jhu.edu
Jean Sack, Hopkins Population Center, Johns Hopkins University, 615 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205. Phone: 410-955-3573; Fax 410-955-1215; email: jsack@sph.jhu.edu

Table of Contents

President’s Message
By Jean Sack

This issue of The Communicator reflects the tremendous change and progress witnessed by APLIC-I during the past six months. Four of our long-term members are relinquishing their valuable services this year. Neil Zimmerman of the Population Council has passed the DUPS responsibilities back to all of us who wish to share our excess resources and Lisa Newman provided the opportunity to make this service more electronic. Ruth Sandor is retiring from the University of Wisconsin Center for Demography Information Services and is passing her excellent, moderated e-mail communications on to a new listserv created by Elizabeth Evans at CPC, University of North Carolina. An invaluable legacy left by Ruth is the electronic access to her POPULATION ORGANIZATIONS: FINDER’S GUIDE. Plain text version can be found at gopher://cde2.ssc.wisc.edu, and WWW version at http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/cde.

Bill Record retired this year from AVSC where the official APLIC-I mail has been sent for years. Bill Barrows of FHI has kindly consented to be the new mailman service for our organization and his address will appear on APLIC-I mailings. Finally, Edith Ericson has moved from the Penn State Population Center and we are seeking one or more of you to assume the duties of Archives and Publications. Although these are separate responsibilities, they are definitely related and of great benefit to our profession. We also hope to get help in keeping the valuable Union List of Serials up-to-date. Any nominations for the continuing editorship of this useful compendium of journal holdings?

48 people attended the 30th APLIC-I conference in Washington, D.C. and I witnessed very effective networking during the breaks between presentations. The pre-conference field trips provided valuable insights into the resources of the area for the 20 persons who participated and will be continued in Chicago, we hope. The caliber of our sessions demonstrated information/ teaching at its best –please take an occasion to interact with presenters and thank them personally. We especially welcomed Jolande Siebenga, who has been an APLIC-I member for years but had not been able to attend previous conferences. With Bob McCann’s leadership, we involved two talented Library School students in our Internet presentations and now hope each of you will continue this mentoring for students at the library and information science schools closest to your organization. Although the APLIC-I Internet room is still in toddler stage (2 years old) and proved to be more of an expense to our association than anticipated (we did receive $600 in donations and discounts from the providers), Libby Evans and her assistants reported heavy use during the PAA conference this year. Connections to Internet were an essential tool for our conference, just as to all of us who are attempting to “transform libraries for the 21st Century.”

I appreciate the roles many of you assumed at the conference and the new responsibilities taken to migrate the older services into new formats. Lisa Newman has requested a DUPS committee be activated to assist her. We welcome the Class of 2000 into our APLIC-I Board of Directors and were delighted that Laurian Carroll filled a 1999 class opening while Cheri Coe stepped into a 1998 vacancy. Members are always welcome to attend the Fall Board Meetings — this year we will meet in Baltimore on September 17-19th. Please do contact me or Bob McCann about possible nominees for Board vacancies: Archives, International, Publications, Liaison to POPIN.

Finally, if you haven’t already, please subscribe to the new APLIC listserver.

APLIC-I Member News

  • International Opportunity for an Information Specialist
    Maintain a network of third world demographic centers, have a role in selecting the next “international” guest lecturer for the 1998 APLIC conference, maintain valuable correspondence from population institutions overseas. Equal opportunity for professional development. Submit your name now for International Chair of APLIC to Jean Sack at jsack@sph.jhu.edu
  • New age of electronic publications necessitates creative leadership!
    Many of the past print publications so valued by APLIC-I members are now being updated and made available through the Web. Yet our historic collection of past publications, conference proceedings, minutes, photos and memorabilia needs an archivist with vision to plan with the Publications Chair for a new generation of web publishing. The chairpersonship of two committess could form a core of a newly proposed APLIC-I Web Committee. Please send names of interested members to Bob McCann at rmcann@coss.fsu.edu or Jean Sack at jsack@sph.jhu.edu by July 15, 1997 for selection prior to the Fall Board Meeting.
  • Congratulations to APLIC member Cindy Livingston on the birth of her new baby! We’ll expect to see mother and baby at the next conference.
  • Deepest sympathies from all to APLIC member Anne Ilacqua on the recent death of her mother-in-law.

Changes in the APLIC Duplicates (DUPS) Program
By Jean Sack, APLIC-I President

The DUPS program has been a cornerstone of APLIC and has been operating in an efficient way for about twenty years. During this time DUPES has been a major reason why developing country librarians have become members of APLIC.

Neil Patrick Zimmerman, librarian at the Population Council in New York has done an excellent job of administering this program, with very little support from the rest of the organization.

With the recent developments in electronic communication, especially in e-mail, APLIC is going to try an experimental new way of sharing duplicates with each other for the next year.

A special listserv (electronic mailing list) for APLIC members who would like to continue to participate in the DUPS program, both as suppliers and users, will be set up. Since only a few APLIC members do not have e-mail addresses, the listserv will be accessible to most members.

Each member with duplicate materials will send the list of duplicates directly to the listserv. Anyone who wants those particular duplicates will respond directly to the posting organization.

Materials will be distributed on a first come/first serve basis, with preference given to libraries in developing countries. The library that is requesting the materials will, if possible, offer to pay the postage for the materials it receives. If this is not possible, and the library that is offering the materials cannot afford to cover the postage, APLIC will reimburse the supplying library for postage costs.

Each library that supplies duplicate materials will keep a record of its donations and report on them at the 1998 APLIC conference. For information on how to subscribe to the Dupes Listserv, click here.

We think this will make the program more accessible to all APLIC members and will alleviate the burden that Neil Zimmerman has taken on for so many years. Many thanks to Neil for his excellent work.

Please note that this new system will not be implemented until Fall, 1997. Neil will continue to accept your paper lists of DUPS up until June 15th for a last list this summer. When the DUPS Listserv is officially announced by Lisa Newman, we urge members to subscribe.

Greetings From Your Former President
By Bob McCann, Librarian, Florida State University

I sincerely hope that everyone who recently attended this year’s annual conference had an enjoyable time in our nation’s capitol and returned home safely; although if you’re like me, you returned home just a tad worn out. By now I hope that everyone has had time to digest all of the new ideas and materials that we were all presented with at this year’s annual conference.

I want to take this opportunity to once again thank and commend Jean Sack for the terrific job she did in getting this year’s conference organized. I know that she put a lot of effort into planning the conference and seeing to it that everything went smoothly.

I would also like to once again thank you all for providing me with the opportunity to have served as your president for the past year. I enjoyed my tenure and encourage everyone who has not previously been actively involved in APLIC to seriously give some consideration to stepping up to the plate and becoming an active participant.

I also want to thank all those who were extremely helpful to me during my term as your vice-president and president…..your assistance was greatly appreciated!

Now we need to keep moving in a forward direction. Remember that we are all recruiters for APLIC, so we all need to keep on the lookout for potential new members. I think that this will be a very interesting year with a new look for the listserver, a new approach to the DUPS program, and the institution of APLIC’s new student member category (a gentle reminder here for those of you at universities with library/information science degree programs; please send me the name of the person involved with your library/information science school that I would contact about notifying them of APLIC’s Student Membership category); not to mention our “new-look” logo.

In closing, I have but one more thing to say……..”HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!!!”

Bob McCann

APLIC 1998 – 31st Annual Conference, March 30 – April 1, 1998
By Anne K. Ilacqua

Like many large U.S. cities, Chicago is rich in the history of the contributions of many immigrant ethnic groups. APLIC-I 1998 Conference planners, Lisa Newman and Anne Ilacqua and several APLIC attendees at the Wash. Conference explored the idea of using immigration as a theme around which we could build a conference program. Chicago is rich not only in immigrants from other countries, but in the history of those internal migrants, African-Americans, who contributed in many ways, but particularly their music. Chicago is also rich in social service history (Hull House, e.g.). With that in mind,we might invite a speaker from an organization serving the needs of the current immigrant population.

Visits to the Chicago Public Library and the Chicago Historical Society might be of interest to attendees. The CHS’s mission is “…to collect,interpret, and exhibit the diverse stories of Chicagoans…” A current exhibit, “Neighborhoods:Keepers of Culture” includes this description: These neighborhoods reflect a broad range of experiences and represent old and new immigrant and migrant groups, over forty spoken languages, diverse racial and ethnic perspectives, class stratification, numerous religious affiliations, and multiple political, social, and economic agendas. Collectively, the stories of these neighborhoods are a microcosm of contemporary social issues and the historical processes that have shaped our nation’s urban landscape.

Your comments, ideas, suggestions and volunteer offers are welcome. Please send them to: Anne_Ilacqua@Brown.edu or lnewman@pop.upenn.edu.

Anne K. Ilacqua,Head
Demography Library
Brown University
Box 1916
Providence, Rhode Island 02912-1916
(401)863-1863 Fax(401)863-3351