Transportation Library Colleagues,

It is my honor and privilege to announce to you that Roberto Sarmiento has been designated a 2012 SLA Fellow.  Congratulations Roberto!   No more than five Fellows are designated in a given year.

From the SLA website:  “Fellowship in SLA is bestowed on mid-career SLA members in recognition of past, present, and future service to the Association and the profession.  The designation of Fellow is presented to active professionals who are not presently serving on the Board of Directors.  Fellows are called upon, and expected to advise the Association’s Board of Directors, to prepare necessary documentation, and to alert the membership to issues and trends warranting action.  Individuals receiving this honor will be able to use the title Fellow of the Special Libraries Association.”

 Roberto’s professional contributions include:

• Gift Management for Transportation Libraries: Observations and Recommendations
• A Collection Development Policy Template Proposal for Transportation Libraries
• Migration of Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) records into TRIS (now TRID)
• The TLib Program – an agreement between the University of California – Berkeley Institute of Transportation Studies Library and Northwestern University’s Transportation Library to contribute records into TRIS/TRID
• Migration of 3800 transportation theses records into TRIS/TRID
• Long-time member and past chair of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) B0002 Committee
• Original cataloging of National Technical Information Reports (NTIS) (another co-op project with UC – Berkeley’s ITS Library)
• Preservation of the SLA Transportation Division’s communications and organizational memory though establishment of the Division’s archives at Northwestern University’s Transportation Library
• Founder, supporter and sustainer of the Midwest Transportation Knowledge Network and the National Transportation Knowledge Network
• Forthcoming chair of the TRB Library and Information Science for Transportation (LIST) Committee and past committee member for many years

When Kate Arnold approached me last fall about this honor for Roberto, she asked if I would be able to gather the necessary information and documentation in a short time frame for her to arrange and submit to the awards committee.  She was well aware of working with Roberto in an SLA setting, but did not have much knowledge of his involvement with both the Transportation Division and the transportation information community at large.  It was an honor for me to perform this task, and in doing so, not only discovered the wide involvement of activities, committees and projects Roberto has been involved with, but also how much of Roberto’s involvement is dedicated to the greater good for all of us in our profession.  As part of my information gathering process, I want to thank the valuable input I received from Bob Sweet, Rita Evans, Barbara Post and Sheila Hatchell, each graciously giving of their time on very short notice.

Thanks again Roberto, your recognition is so well-deserved!

 John

Last month, an updated version of http://libraryconnectivity.org/ went live.

As the project website for FHWA’s TPF-5(237) Pooled Fund Study topical news, special products, and other information is provided.  The project’s goal is to provide a full-time consultant to offer technical assistance to member libraries and to carry out an annual work plan aimed at improving information access.

Right now, for example, the project’s Technical Advisory Committee is in the process of selecting special information projects for FY2011-12. These are intended to benefit the community at large. For more information, contact Maggie Sacco at msacco [at] hsinfocus [dot] com.

Congratulations to Roberto Sarmiento, Head of Northwestern University Transportation Library, for his award winning paper, Gift Management for Transportation Libraries: Observations and Recommendations. Roberto received the Division’s newly created Innovation Award along with its $1,000 prize at the Transportation Division Business Luncheon at the SLA Annual Conference in Philadelphia on Tuesday June 14, 2011.

For information about the Innovation Award and to link to the full text of Roberto’s paper, see here. As the award was created to stir innovation, we look forward to more entries in the future.

Thanks so much, Roberto, for this gift to the Division and to all libraries!

For a while now I have been bumping into “revolutions.” Not only the political kind (Buddha knows that we are having plenty of those lately), but in remote areas of my personal thinking and reading.

Like all good stories, it all started for me before the holidays last year…I do not know if it was the cold, the darkness or the arbitrary finality of another year, but I sensed that deep within me the time was coming to fix me some Molotov cocktails, crank up The Police (my proven revolutionary soundtrack – let’s leave this one for another time) and start looking for banners.

And low and behold, “revolutions” started popping up no matter what I read: music, management, innovation, education, information… People kept calling me to arms to start, to pick-up, to continue, to fight against/for something…and I said YES…I am ready…I want a change, I need a change…and only I can get myself ready for it. So I started my revolution!

No bloodshed, no tear gas, no burning tires…but a deep strong commitment to do better, to be better, to be nimble, to be prepared, to recognize and anticipate change…to be present. I am living my revolution.

So, now it is my turn to raise my (right) arm and insistently whisper into your ear: Future Ready is a revolution, or more precisely: it is part of my and shouldbe part of your revolution!

You may be thinking: am I ready for this? If deep down you have this funny (and not ha-ha funny) feeling that what you got right now will not be good enough in the future, then I urge you to take matters into your own hands and start your own revolution to be become a better you, a more prepared you…a ready you.

Now, GO…do what you need to do! Write in your own little red or black or pink book – but do it with passion, be bold, go on the streets and with your chin jutting out and wrists on your hips tell the world “to bring it on,” you are ready.
Now, look to your left…that’s me next to you…look to your right and behind you…that’s the rest of us who believe in being future ready. Welcome to the revolution…

…don’t forget a good playlist!

Roberto “Brother-in-Arms” Sarmiento

Presentations from the GTRIC Roundtable session, Sunday June 12, 2011 (Philadelphia, PA)

• Implement EAD Now – Paul Burley, Northwestern Transportation Library
• Transportation Librarians Roundtables: A Look Back at Their Effectiveness and a Topical Analysis – Bob Cullen, AASHTO
• E-reader Pilot Project: Amazon Kindle – Karen Neinstadt, MnDOT Library
• Gift Management for Transportation Libraries:  Observations and Recommendations – Roberto Sarmiento, Northwestern Transportation Library
• Organizing a Local History Collection in a Small Library – Hank Zaletel, Iowa State University Institute for Transportation/Iowa DOT Library

Hello Transportation Division members:

I wanted to send out some much overdue thanks to our members who helped enormously in making sure that our Division had a worthwhile annual conference in Philadelphia.
Knowing that these economic times have made travel difficult for many,  I sincerely hope these travel struggles aren’t as prevalent next year and that many more of our members can attend.
I’ve been very lucky to have such dedicated help on many fronts – there was never hesitation from anyone in helping out when asked:

and so, my thank you list:

• Sheila Hatchell — for her great help on planning GTRIC and making everything run smoothly as moderator as well as being an exceptional sounding board when talking items concerning the division.

• Betsy Aldridge — for keeping on top of our division finances, creating our division budget and responding quickly to requests from SLA Headquarters … and Jane Minotti has been crucial in the smooth transition between our division treasurers.

• Kendra Levine — for migrating our electronic content to our new, easier-to-use Web interface (http://transportation.sla.org)

• A.J. Million — for his solid work as Secretary and  coordinating the collection and ultimate display of our division archives – Roberto Sarmiento and Kay Geary deserve thanks for housing our print archives.  (Extra thanks to both A.J. and Kendra for strategizing on things we can do to better communicate within our division using SLA’s new Web tool.

• Maggie Sacco and her team – for making travel arrangements seamless in getting over half of this years attendees to the conference via the Library Connectivity and Development Pooled Fund.

• Arlene Mathison — for helping me by readily sharing her advice, notes and wealth of experiences when she was Chair last year.  Also, her work on the Nominating Committee and strategic planning.

• Bob Sweet – for his superlative work at fund-raising and keeping solid relationships with our vendor sponsors, along with working with Rita Evans in revising our currently outdated Recommended Guidelines and Practices.  Also for passing on his vast knowledge to Karen Neinstadt, our new fund-raising Chair (thanks Karen for stepping into this role)

• Rita Evans – for her tireless efforts in working on the Recommended Guidelines and Practices, especially in light of her increased time commitments at her job at UC – Berkeley.  Rita was sorely missed this year!

• Sabina Tannenbaum – for her efforts in organizing a smooth no-host dinner as well as maintaining excellent logisticial control during our division-sponsored tour of the Arcadia Fine Arts Library at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.  About a half hour before the tour,  I had a head count of about 10 people.     The number swelled to 41 right before the tour started and Sabina helped immensely in making sure  everyone arrived at the library on time.

• Carol Paszamant – For her first-class  job in chairing the Awards Committee, and in creating the actual award and presenting it to Roberto …. and speaking of …

• Roberto Sarmiento – for taking the time to work on an award-winning document that is of benefit to the entire transportation library and information community.  He is very well deserving of our first ever Innovation Award!

• Bob Cullen, Hank Zaletel, Kim Edwards, Amanda Wilson, Paul Burley, Karen Neinstadt for creative and interesting presentations on a variety of visionary and technical topics … from TLRs to eReaders to Archon to archival digitization to cooperative cataloging … we covered a nice array of topics important to all of us.  (Hint:  Bob’s talk on TLRs as an entity in our community would make a great TR News piece

• Marie Manthe, Kay Geary and Laura Whayne – for their continued commitment working on the Awards and Nominating Committees

Special congrats to Hank for correctly answering the transportation quiz question!

For members that were not fortunate to attend, please consider making it to Chicago next summer if at all possible.  With Sheila as Chair and Kendra as Chair-Elect next year, the Transportation Division is in great hands!

Please thank the above people individually in the future if you can … for they make me look far better than I deserve!  If I have missed anyone who should be thanked, my apologies.

Best,

John

Maggie Sacco and AJ Million are speaking about the new pooled fund

Will you be in Philadelphia? If you are, please make some time to stop by the Transportation Division’s sponsors’ booths in the exhibit hall. (Before you do, check out this blog post about tips for talking to vendors.)

Let them know how much you (we) appreciate their support. These partnerships are what make it possible for us to host sessions, hold our business meeting, and get together for socializing and networking at our yearly reception.

Here’s whom to see and where to go:

• OCLC – booth 1028 – sponsoring GTRIC (Sunday, 6/12, 8:00 am – 3:30 pm, Convention Center Room 103A)
• J.J. Keller & Associates, Inc. – booth 1423 – sponsoring Mary Ellen Bates’ session, “OMG, the Millennials are Coming!” (Monday, 6/13, 2:00 – 3:30 pm, Convention Center Room 114)
• ASCE – booth 701 – sponsoring our annual business meeting and luncheon (Tuesday, 6/14, 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm, Convention Center Room 110AB)
• Dialog – booth 900 – sponsoring the Transportation Division networking reception (Tuesday, 6/14, 6:30 – 8:30 pm, William Penn Room, McCormick and Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant, 1 South Broad St.)

GTRIC
(Government Transportation Research Information Committee)
Transportation Division – Sunday, June 12, 2011 – 8:00 am to 3:30 pm
Convention Center Room 103A
At the SLA Annual Conference, Philadelphia
Agenda

Casual networking breakfast - 8:00 – 8:30 am

• 8:30 – 8:40 -  Welcome:  (John Cherney, Chair-Transportation  Division)
• 8:40 – 9:40 – Introduction/overview/round robin/library updates (Sheila Hatchell, Director, Minnesota DOT Library, GTRIC Moderator and Chair – elect, Transportation Division)
• 9:40 – 10:00 – New Transportation Division Web site update/goals – (Kendra Levine, UC- Berkeley and Chair Elect-Elect, Transportation Division)

Break – 10:00 – 10:15 am

• 10:15 – 10:35 – New Library Connectivity and Development Pooled Fund, TPF-5(237) - overview/update – (A.J. Million, Missouri DOT Library and Maggie Sacco, HSInFocus Library Consultants)
• 10:35 – 11:30 – NTKN (National Transportation Knowledge Network) update and open forum (Amanda Wilson, United States DOT Library/all)

Lunch – 11:30 am – 12:15 pm

• 12:15 – 12:55 – Use of eReaders:  MnDOT Library’s experience using Kindles (Karen Neinstadt, Minnesota DOT Library)
• 12:55 – 1:35 – Transportation Librarian Roundtables: a look back at their effectiveness/topical analysis (Bob Cullen, American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO))

Break – 1:35 – 1:45 pm

• 1:45 – 2:20 Organizing a local history collection in your library: the Iowa DOT experience (Hank Zaletel, Head Librarian, Iowa DOT/Iowa State University Transportation Research Institute)
• 2:20 – 2:40 – Gift Management for Transportation Libraries  – Summary – (Roberto Sarmiento, Northwestern Transportation Library)
• 2:40 – 3:30 – Use of Archon for Encoded Archival Description to describe archives, historical materials, gray literature, and gifts.  (Paul Burley, Technical Services, Northwestern Transportation Library)

Adjourn – 3:30 pm

This Thursday, June 9th at 2:00pm Eastern, the Transportation Librarians Roundtable will feature a report and update of the efforts of the NTKN Cooperative Cataloging group.

To participate, access the following web site: http://fhwa.acrobat.com/translibrarian.
Phone number (for audio portion): 1-570-310-0170 ; pass code: 958303

To help ensure that your system is properly configured for participation in the web conference, please use the following link to test your setup: http://admin.acrobat.com/common/help/en/support/meeting_test.htm.