Posts about APLIC Member News

Tara Murray: Former APLIC-I member now Director of Information Services/Librarian at the American Philatelic Society (stamps!)

I first joined APLIC-I when I started my job as Information Core Director at Penn State’s Population Research Institute. I was a new professional – just a year out from receiving my MLIS – and new to the field of population. My colleagues in APLIC helped me understand the information needs of demographers and helped me locate difficult-to-find articles and documents, but perhaps most importantly they gave me a network of other information professionals to talk to.

My first exposure to conference planning came during my first APLIC-I conference, in Atlanta in 2002. I remember listening to discussions about the conference’s theme, programming, and social events and having my eyes opened to what it takes to plan a successful event. I didn’t know it at the time, but I would go on to work on many events in the following years, from planning APLIC board meetings and conferences, to hosting events for my local SLA chapter, to coordinating an international postal history symposium in my current job.

I’ve been involved in many other professional organizations, but APLIC-I always stands out for two reasons: the small size of the organization allowed me to really get to know the other members, and the diversity of the membership – including many different kinds of information professionals in many different settings – exposed me to new ideas and ways of doing things

The possibilities of digital information are transforming the way we work. Documents that were never searchable can be searched. Datasets can be combined. Huge amounts of data can be accessible from a desktop. This opens up powerful new opportunities, but also many questions about ethics, privacy, security, and intellectual property.

On the other hand, I think personal relationships will be even more important. We can no longer expect that users will come to the library – either its physical or virtual presence. Libraries and librarians need to become more embedded in their users’ lives and work. It is crucial for information professionals to act as part of teams within their organizations, rather than as cost centers. All that said, and despite the potential of digital information, I’ve yet to see a technology as adaptable and long-living as print on paper, and I don’t see books going away any time soon.

I came to the American Philatelic Research Library in July 2010, after spending nine years as an information services director for the Population Research Institute at nearby Penn State University. I’m active in the Special Libraries Association (SLA) (Cabinet Chair, 2014; Secretary, 2015) and Pennsylvania Library Association (PaLA) and serve on the editorial board of the Journal of Library Administration. The world’s largest library dedicated to stamp collecting and postal history, it is just 11 miles from Penn State’s campus so I still live in State College. Philatelists are incredible researchers and writers, and most place a high value on libraries. It’s refreshing to work in a place where the library is considered so integral to the larger organization. In 2016, we opened a new 19,000-square-foot library, and I was deeply involved in the design, construction, and moving. Believe it or not, I still use census data in this job – we do censuses of stamps!

I’ve been very active with the Special Libraries Association, and recently served on the board of directors and as secretary. I always enjoy seeing friends from APLIC at conferences. I also serve on the editorial board for the Journal of Library Administration, editing a column on special libraries. I’d love to get a contribution for the column from an APLIC member – if you have an idea, please get in touch with me! Tara Murray tmurray@stamps.org

Outside of work, I’ve gotten even more into running. In 2010, I ran a 50-mile race, and I’m getting ready to run the Boston Marathon for the ninth time this April. I’m excited to be raising money for Centre Volunteers in Medicine, a local organization providing medical, dental, and case management services to people without health insurance.

 

 

 

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Historic APLIC-I photos shared from Anne Ilacqua

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Margaret (Peggy) D’Adamo

In celebration of APLIC-I 50th Anniversary, we are posting profiles of many of our retired former members.  We are also seeking current contact information for colleagues who should be appearing in this blog or attending our Chicago Conference April 24-26 2017.  Please contact Jean Sack with former member information / your profile!

I joined APLIC-I when I was working at JHU/CCP.  I don’t think my colleagues helped me directly since my job at the time was somewhat unique.  However I valued the community of like-minded librarians.

[Find Peggy! Was this photo of APLIC-I taken during the Chicago conference ?  We invite APLIC-I to name the 10 friends in your comments]

I valued belonging to APLIC-I for being part of a community of librarians who work in population and RH and who share many of the same challenges and priorities. Now I am concerned that librarians will be less valued as people access digital tools and resources in the future.

Since leaving JHU/CCP and joining as KM/IT Adviser at USAID/GH/PRH/PEC, I have had lots of great experiences at USAID with travel to many different places including a focus on work in South Sudan and West Africa.

Margaret (Peggy) D’Adamo
KM/IT Adviser, USAID/GH/PRH/PEC 

 

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Ruth Sandor

In celebration of APLIC-I 50th Anniversary, we are posting profiles of many of our retired former members.  We are also seeking current contact information for colleagues who should be appearing in this blog or attending our Chicago Conference April 24-26 2017.  Please contact Jean Sack with former member information / your profile!

In 1970 I was hired as the first professional information specialist at the Center for Demography, Department of Sociology, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  The Director of the Center told me there was an organization of other population information specialists and more or less ordered me to join and attend a meeting at Chapel Hill.

I went, was astounded at the depth of knowledge of the field and delighted to have colleagues with whom to consult.

The fact that APLIC met in conjunction with PAA raised my standing with my professorial team at Wisconsin.  Some of the other NIH-funded population research centers did not have libraries nor information professionals, and it became a recruiting tool for Wisconsin.  As our grads dispersed, they pushed for such services.  Or called for assistance.

Speakers and workshops, along with networking, were valuable features of APLIC.

If I were to write of the value of belonging to APLIC-I in haiku

Kolbe, Green, Zuga

Hankinson and Zimmerman

Reservoirs of pop knowledge

In envisaging our information field progressing into the next 50 years:  The basics remain the same: selection of solid dependable information, storage and retrievability, and using reliable criteria.  Subject specialist do not often have the training to use the tools in the way that information specialists do.

What fascinating places, jobs, life-experiences have you had in the years since you were an APLIC-I member? I have reinvented myself as a watercolor artist.  I spend half of the year in the middle of a forest in a small cottage with no internet signal, and the other half in a glass condo in the center of the state’s capitol city. Common to both places: a great public library.

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Susan Pasquariella

In celebration of APLIC-I 50th Anniversary, we are posting profiles of many of our retired former members.  We are also seeking current contact information for colleagues who should be appearing in this blog or attending our Chicago Conference April 24-26 2017.  Please contact Jean Sack with former member information / your profile!

Susan Pasquariella is also enjoying retirement, although she hadn’t been able to do as much travelling as she and her husband would have liked because of her mother’s health.  In 2009, Bernie still had a small private practice and that had its own demands.

She wrote the following in a 2009 email: I didn’t really pursue consulting after I left UNFPA, although I did do some work for Columbia University.  I had planned to do volunteer work at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center but several of our close friends have become ill and passed away recently and the prospect of spending even more time in a hospital is not so appealing at the moment. On a happier note, I’ve tried to keep in touch with some APLIC-I colleagues and have promised to donate my large collection of APLIC Conference Proceedings to the archives.  Bernie is pushing to deliver them to Margie and Julia in person some time during 2010 Spring.  This is really an excuse to sample the North Carolina barbeque, but it would be fun to see everyone again.  I do miss the APLIC collegiality.

In 2016, Susan has actively been sharing APLIC-I contacts with Jean Sack to pursue for updates!

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Elizabeth ‘Libby’ Evans

In celebration of APLIC-I 50th Anniversary, we are posting profiles of many of our retired former members.  We are also seeking current contact information for colleagues who should be appearing in this blog or attending our Chicago Conference April 24-26 2017.  Please contact Jean Sack with former member information / your profile!

I was working at the Carolina Population Center at UNC-Chapel Hill when I first joined APLIC. I began at CPC in November 1993 and went to my first APLIC conference that spring in Miami. Jean Sack took me under her wing although she was also quite new, and made sure I met everybody and felt thoroughly connected. To this day, years out of the population arena, I still think of that conference as an exceptional example of collegial fellowship.

APLIC reinforced my inclination to think of the future. I still think one of the best things we did during my time in APLIC was to run an internet room during at least one PAA conference (in New Orleans) so attendees could check email, get help with internet questions, etc. It seems so “old hat” now that everybody has mobile devices and can be online anywhere anytime, but in 1996, that was definitely not the case. Most people didn’t have laptops or, if they did, they didn’t carry them around at conferences. Wireless was nonexistent. We arranged for computers, hardwired connections, and staffed the room during the entire PAA conference. It was great to work with a group of people willing to take a chance, to push the envelope, and to do something innovative to meet the needs of the people we served back on our home turfs.

It’s about people.
Smart, thoughtful, sharing people.
No group is better.

How do you envisage our information field progressing into the next 50 years?  Augmented reality and virtual reality may finally have a real impact on the non-entertainment world. I envision easier ways to visualize data in 3D with the ability to interactively manipulate it. How will libraries be involved in creating, storing, analyzing, accessing 3D data sets? (And make them retrievable?) Imagine having someone ask about the impact of climate change on the population in an island country and be able to pop the person into a virtual environment where he or she can experience the changes and alter variables to see how the impact might change?

What fascinating places, jobs, life-experiences have you had in the years since you were an APLIC-I member?
When I left CPC, the two things I knew I would miss most were my staff and APLIC. I was absolutely right. But I’ve had a great time since then getting deeply involved in teaching and learning technology, first at UNC and now at Duke. My current job is to explore new and emerging technologies and how they might be applied to higher education teaching and learning, and I love it. But I still miss the people I met in APLIC. They’re the best!

 

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Christine Matthews

In celebration of APLIC-I 50th Anniversary, we are posting profiles of many of our retired former members.  We are also seeking current contact information for colleagues who should be appearing in this blog or attending our Chicago Conference April 24-26 2017.  Please contact Jean Sack with former member information / your profile!

Chris Matthews

I joined APLIC-I in June of 1996 as I started work as a consultant, primarily organizing collections for small nonprofits, particularly organizations working on health or gender issues in developing countries. APLIC primarily kept me in touch with librarians in the field, gave me moral support, and helped keep me up to date in information trends.

When I returned as librarian at Bread for the World, I had contacts I felt comfortable asking for help from. Workshops and luncheons kept me abreast. I usually came back from gatherings being very grateful for my relatively low demanding job, thinking “I’m so glad I’m not in their shoes! How do they manage??”

All professional contacts/associations provide invaluable support, and APLIC is good at that.

Bread for the World Institute, Volunteer archivist

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Anne Ilacqua

In celebration of APLIC-I 50th Anniversary, we are posting profiles of many of our retired former members.  We are also seeking current contact information for colleagues who should be appearing in this blog or attending our Chicago Conference April 24-26 2017.  Please contact Jean Sack with former member information / your profile!

 

Anne Ilacqua

When I first joined APLIC, I was hired at Brown University Demography Library for the experience I had acquired as head of a special library in a large university. I had collection development experience, but the field I was entering was new to me. Fortunately, Carol Knopf, an APLIC member, was staying with the Demography Library and she was familiar with the faculty and students and with the collection. Also, the APLIC listserv produced prompt leads and answers to questions, and lending of unique materials.

I’m glad I had the opportunity to serve as a Board Member and, also, as a Co-President in charge of planning an Annual Meeting. In so doing, I acquired additional skills, perhaps too numerous to mention. I also recruited new members, by extolling the values of belonging to APLIC. Touring others’ libraries provided a valuable opportunity to spark ideas upon returning to one’s space. I am very grateful to the Population Studies Centers Directors for including and funding and providing meeting rooms for their librarians to meet at the Annual PAA Meetings.

Meetings with APLIC members from all over the country were occasions to look forward to, for the congeniality shared by like-minded, smart, friendly professionals in a specialized field of librarianship. I feel very fortunate to have been a part of this organization and I learned a lot from colleagues’ presentations and informal conversations.

I have been retired ten years. The library was disbanded (sigh) when Pop studies got a totally renovated bldg. on campus (a big deal!). I was kept on, as Information Specialist. When I retired, a Rockefeller Library librarian was assigned to assist students and faculty at Pop. Studies Ctr. Recently, I chatted with a former colleague still working in the larger University realm. It was somewhat troubling to learn that the reference collection had been moved to the stacks and the reference area converted to comfy chairs and nooks. One can imagine students reading, but more likely laptops and phones than books! That said, I embrace the world of electronic resources, which I take advantage of, daily.

With my husband, I have traveled to many places since retiring in 2006. Most notably, we spent a month in China, where he lectured at three universities. We were resident in Wuhan for two weeks and in beautiful Zhuhai, as well. As tourists, on that trip we spent a week in Beijing and a few days in Hong Kong. We cruised the Mediterranean, out of Barcelona, and we have forthcoming trips planned. Joe and I took a Viking cruise, last Fall 2015, from Budapest to Amsterdam. Also, we have rented a boat and cruised the Shannon River with son, grandson and daughter-in-law.  In 2017 we plan to travel to Russia and Scandinavia and to the National Parks in the US.

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Inside Higher Ed article features APLIC President Claire Twose

APLIC President Claire Twose was featured in an article about embedded librarians on Inside Higher Ed.

Embedded librarianship is a hot topic (there were two sessions about it at the SLA conference last week). APLIC members got an early look at what Claire is doing at the Hopkins Population Center during the 2005 APLIC conference.

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