Issue 70 (Spring 1999)

APLIC-INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATOR
Spring 1999, Issue #70

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

Table of Contents

President’s Message
By Peggy D’Adamo, Johns Hopkins University/Center for Communication Programs

My year as President is just beginning and I would like thank last year’s co-presidents, Anne Ilacqua and Lisa Newman for the great job they did, not only in their own jobs as co-presidents, but also in supporting me as conference planner. Following such an effective team is a bit scary but at least I know that there will be an equally creative team to follow me next year in Tonya Allen and Nika Baraket.

I hope each person who was able to attend the APLIC Conference this year found something of interest and relevance to his or her own work. In the past I have felt that some of the presentations and discussions were not as relevant to my own personal work situation as others. Finally I got a chance to design the conference program of my dreams! I tried to create a program that would include presentations that I personally would want to attend and would learn from but that would also be relevant to librarians working in other settings. For me, each session was excellent. I was inspried by the creative uses of CD-ROM, Internet and Intranet technology that other APLIC members are finding for their own organizations. I hope the rest of you were as impressed as I was by the quality and depth of every one of the presentations. It is impressive that we have such a wealth of talent within our own association.

I would like to thank all the presenters, and especially those APLIC members who did such a fantastic job — Kay Willson, Laurian Carroll, Harriet Schick, Susan Jamison, Diane Rubino and Susan Pasquariella. Dr. Chickering gave an excellent overview of technology. . .with just the right mixture of thoughtfulness and humor.

It was great to meet old friends like Bill Record, Abby Hourwich, and Cheri Coe. It was also a pleasure as well to finally meet and talk with David Rose and Neil Zimmerman. David’s presentation was lively, humorous and insightful. We look forward to the success of his project.

I’d also like to thanks our three European participants. It was an honor to have Nancy Vaupal, Angelica Deigner and Francoise Meunier attend the conference. I enjoyed talking with each of them, and hope they had a chance to talk with each other. Let’s keep in touch with them in the future.

I’d also like to thank Jean Sack for graciously volunteering to stand in line and purchase the theater tickets. Jean was able to get tickets to Miss Saigon and The Scarlet Pimpernel for a group of people. Great job, Jean!

Finally, a big thank-you from everyone to Anil Kumar for organizing the fantastic APLIC banquet at Meli-Melo Restaurant. I think it will be a banquet that will go down in APLIC history.

Peggy D’Adamo

Board of Directors 1999

President:

  • Margaret A. D’Adamo, Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs,

Vice Presidents:

  • Tonya Allen, Population Research Institute, Penn State University
  • Nika Bareket, Population Studies Center, University of Michigan

Past-Presidents:

  • Anne Ilacqua, Population Studies & Training Center, Brown University
  • Lisa Newman, Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania

Recording Secretary:

  • Wendy Brand, University ofWisconsin at Madison

Treasurer:

  • Anil Kumar, Population Communications International

Class of 2000:

  • Bill Barrows, Family Health International
  • Samantha Wheeler Mars, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
  • Katherine Willson, The Future’s Group International

Class of 2001:

  • Laurian Carroll, Management Sciences for Health
  • Diane Rubino, Population Council
  • Susan Jamison, PATH-Seattle

Class of 2002:

  • Maryann M. Belanger, OPR, Princeton University
  • Julia Cleaver, INTRAH, North Carolina
  • Eleanor Gossen, Center for Social & Demographic Analysis-Albany

Committee Chairs:

  • Archives: Edith Ericson
  • DUPS Program: Lisa Newman, Bill Barrows
  • Membership: Lisa Newman
  • Newsletter: Jean Sack, and Diane Rubino
  • Publications & Web Task Force: Lisa Newman, Wendy Brand, Tonya Allen
  • Publicity: Maryann Belanger
  • APLIC Distribution list (email): UNC

Spring 1999 Board of Directors and Annual Business Meeting Summaries
By Wendy Brand, APLIC-I Recording Secretary

During the 32nd Annual APLIC-I Conference in New York, two meetings were held. On Monday, March, 22nd the Board of Directors held their Spring Meeting, and the Annual Business Meeting was held on Wednesday, March 24th. What follows is a summary of the reports, discussions and decisions that were made at these meetings. Any comments should be sent to the person in charge of the issue or to President, Peggy D’Adamo.

Election results
Jean Sack presented the slate of officers which was approved by the membership. The Board would like to thank Lisa Newman and Anne Ilacqua for their hard work as Co-Presidents last year. We welcome the new officers and board members, particularly our new President, Peggy D’Adamo.

Treasurer’s Report
Gera Draaijer presented a full report for the last fiscal year and an interim report from the for the current fiscal year. The current balance is about $27,000. She also had the report from last audit of the books if anyone was interested in looking at it. She is in the process of transferring the treasury and financial records to the new treasurer, Anil Kumar. Thank you Gera for your many years of service as treasurer.

Membership Report
Lisa Newman presented an interim membership report as she is still accepting membership renewals. She reported that from her preliminary figures the organization should have about the same number of members as last year. So far 10 new members have joined, some of which replace former members.

Archives
Anne Ilacqua presented archivist Edith Ericson’s report that was sent to the Board for the Fall Board Meeting. Peggy D’Adamo will contact Edith to get an update on her activities and to see if she intends to continue acting as archivist. Members with items that may be appropriate for the archives should contact Edith.

DUPS Program
Lisa Newman presented the DUPS report. The email system continues to go well. The DUPS listserv has 26 subscribers. Since September, 26 lists have been posted. Bill Barrows volunteered to take over sending printed copies of the lists to participants without email from Gretl Cox. As it can often take several weeks for mail to get to and from these members, it is suggested that items be kept for at least two months to give them a chance to make their requests.

Communicator
Diane Rubino and Jean Sack discussed the progress of the Communicator. Jean recently surveyed members about the newsletter and reported overall positive feedback. Peggy D’Adamo presented hit rates on individual articles. The membership list and conference articles have been the most popular. Jean Sack is leaving Johns Hopkins to spend time in Bangladesh and will no longer be able to serve as an editor. Gretl Cox volunteered to help in that role, and Jean hopes to act as an Asian reporter if technical and connection issues permit.

Web Page
Lisa Newman is always looking for ideas from the membership for changing or adding to the APLIC-I web site. Her goal is to keep it as simple as possible.

Union List of Serials
Anne Ilacqua read a report from Mike Zimmerman about the status of the project to update the APLIC-I Union List of Serials. He has not been able to spend much time on the project, but hopes to get back to it soon. He reported some technical issues, such as a complicated database structure that requires new entries to be made in two different databases and a security problem that allows users access to the entire database, not just their own entries. Watch the Communicator for updates on this project.

Nominating Committee
Lisa Newman, Anne Ilacqua and Gretl Cox will form the new Nominating Committee to fill vacant positions on the Board of Directors and the Executive Board. If you are interested in becoming a Board Member or Officer, or would like to nominate someone else, contact Lisa, Anne, or Gretl.

APLIC-I brochure
It has been many years since the APLIC-I brochure has been updated. Diane Rubino and Laurian Carroll have volunteered to make a new one. Lisa Newman gave them some suggestions and has copies of the brochure and will send one to anyone interested in looking it over. Diane and Laurian would appreciate any feedback from the membership.

APLIC-I Survey
It was decided that reviving the APLIC-I survey started by Gloria Roberts is a worthwhile project. This survey, which was sent to new members, asked for information about the collections, staff and services of their libraries. Returned surveys were published in the Communicator. In recent years, it has not been consistently sent to everyone, and the information for long time members is probably very out of date. Lisa Newman posted the old survey form on the APLIC-I web site for comments and will work on updating it. Julia Cleaver reported that Lisa Croucher could help with the technological aspects of creating an interactive version of the survey on the Web. Kay Willson will collect the paper surveys from members.

1998 Conference
Lisa Newman and Anne Ilacqua presented a report on the successful 1998 Conference in Chicago. The Conference was attended by 28 people. Problems with the size and arrangement of the room were noted. One speaker had to cancel at the last minute, so the schedule had to quickly be adjusted. They also reported a good working relationship between the two of them facilitated the joint conference planning process.

They asked for a discussion on conference format as the 1998 Conference followed a different format from previous years and the current year. The Board and Business meetings were held consecutively on the last day to try to avoid duplication and increase attendance. It was felt that this arrangement made for a very long morning of meetings and time ran short for the Board Meeting. A discussion followed as to how to increase attendance, particularly at the Business meeting. Holding it at the end is most proper for the purposes of electing new officers, but it often means losing members who leave town early. The pros and cons of the lunch meeting from 1997 were also discussed. It was the best attended and very efficient. It was, however, expensive and very rushed. The officers most involved in the meeting, such as the president and recording secretary, were unable to enjoy their lunches.

It was suggested that the Business Meeting be held in the middle of the conference to so that members will more likely be still in town. Elections could be held separately at the end of the conference. It was also suggested that the Business Meeting be renamed to make it sound more interesting. Suggestions included: Members Meeting, Membership Meeting, General Session. If you have opinions on this matter, please contact President Peggy D’Adamo.

1999 Conference
Peggy D’Adamo reported that 35 people registered for the 1999 Conference, including 2 student and 3 international participants. She anticipates that we will break even on conference expenses this year. Thank you Peggy for organizing this year’s interesting conference.

2000 Conference
Tonya Allen and Nika Bareket, as Co-Vice-Presidents, will be planning next year’s conference to be held March in Los Angles. After much discussion, the following theme was tentatively chosen: Knowledge in the digital age: Preservation and training. Possible session include preserving and cataloging the Web, changing media and obsolete formats, training of end users, perserving and using Census data, particularly 2000 Census data, ownship issues of electronic information, and distance learning. If you have any ideas for topics or presenters for next year’s conference, please contact Tonya or Nika. They are also looking for someone to plan the banquet. If you have knowledge of good restaurants in the LA area or are willing to look into it, please let Tonya or Nika know.

Fall Board Meeting
Lisa Newman volunteered Philadelphia as the location of the Fall Board Meeting location. Tentative dates are September 16th and 17th, or September 23rd or 24th. All members are invited to attend, and we hope to see you there or at the next year’s Conference in Los Angeles.

Membership Renewals

Membership Renewals will be mailed out this week!

Send all renewals and fees to:
APLIC-I Treasurer
c/o Demography Library
Population Studies Center
University of Pennsylvania 3718 Locust Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6298

Thanks!

APLIC News

Andrew Plumer will be shifting work sites back to the Center for Communication Programs from the POPLINE Liaison offices at NLM. Andrew will be taking Nicole Pelsinski’s position as the NPIN Librarian (National Prevention Information Network, the new name for the CDC National AIDS Clearinghouse). Nicole is moving to Seattle this Spring.Angelika Designer from GTZ joined the group for conference events and shared some of her work insights with APLIC-I members while in New York. She can be reached in her office in Eschborn, Germany by e-mail at angelika.Deigner@gtz.de

Gretl Cox of John Snow is a new grandmother. She will be flying to Colorado to assist her daughter and granddaughter at the end of April for two weeks. Grandparents and relatives have been viewing the newborn on the hospital website. Congratulations to Gretl!

Francoise Meunier from INED in Paris, France, visited over 10 different population libraries in New York, Baltimore, and D.C. during the two weeks prior to her attending our APLIC-I conference. Special thanks to Maryann Belanger, Princeton OPR Library Director, for scheduling these visits. Francoise is a new member and can be reached at her offices Chef du Service de la Bibliotheque et de la Documentation, Institut National d’Etudes Demographiques , 133, Boulevard Davout, 75960 Paris CEDEX 20 FRANCE. 33(1)56.06.21.78 FAX 33(1)56.06.21-99

New information staff at Planned Parenthood Federation of America in New York are Helene Kendler and Susan Pichler. Visit their Katharine D. McCormick Library and search their InMagic database at http://www.plannedparenthood.org/Library/ppfa-library/DEFAULTLIBRARY.HTM or e-mail to library@ppfa.org

Jean Sack will be leaving Hopkins Population Center on July 1, 1999 and packing their household for a three to six year move to Dhaka, Bangladesh where her husband. Dr. David Sack, will be the new director of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (Centre for Health and Population Research) http://www.icddrb.org.sg/. Her position of Director, Library and Information Services Core is being advertised on the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health website in May to be filled this summer. See http://www.jhu.edu/~hr1/employment/empoph.htm.

APLIC-I Communicator Report
By Diane Rubino and Jean Sack

Over the past four years the APLICommunicator has been published three times a year. The January/February issue announces the Annual Conference schedule and provides registration forms and relevant links. The May/June edition carries APLIC-I conference papers and session summaries. Finally, the Fall issue covers topics from the APLIC-I Board meetings.

Additionally, the Communicator has regular features such as the presidents’ message; lists of Officers, Board and Committee Chairs; a membership report and link to the membership list; member news/photos and profiles; DUPS and Listserv instructions; an Internet resource section with reviews of both web sites and print or electronic titles; and discussion of key issues, like our organization’s involvement in developing nations, gray literature, or HIV/AIDS policies.

Diane Rubino (The Population Council) and Jean Sack (Johns Hopkins Population Center) have been the co-editors since January 1998. Peggy D’Adamo and Nicole Pelsinsky (Johns Hopkins Center for Communications Programs) convert the word-processed files into HTML and mount the issues on a Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine server. Lisa Newman creates a link to the publications page of APLIC-I’s web site, housed on the University of Pennsylvania server for each new edition. Lisa and Peggy also print copies for those without web access (about 11 people).

Jean Sack recently conducted an informal survey to see how we’re faring in popular opinion. We’re delighted to report that most people like us. The rate of hits has increased dramatically over the past two editions. Issue 67 received 28 visits, but Issue 69 received a whopping 912 hits! Individual survey comments were overwhelmingly positive, with a few suggestions for specific articles and creating a printable version of the newsletter. As Jean is heading off to Dhaka, Bangladesh in a few months, Gretl Cox is stepping up to the co-editor plate. Thanks for your willingness, Gretl and we hope that we continue to generate positive thoughts and comments. Remember, you are always encouraged to send comments because we would like the newsletter to reflect the interests and needs of you, our audience.