Corbin Has Planet Named in Her Honor

Brenda Corbin, astronomical librarian at the U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington, DC, and husband Thomas Corbin recently had a planet named in their honor. Corbin is one of the most renowned astronomical librarians in the world. She has been recognized for her work in the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Commission 5 Working Group on Nomenclature which distinguishes and names objects in space. She is active in the Washington, DC Chapter as well as the Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics and Military Librarians Divisions.

Head To Receive H.W. Wilson Award

Alison J. Head, director, Information Management, The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, CA, has been selected by the SLA Awards and Honors Committee to receive the H.W. Wilson Company Award in recognition of her article, "Managing Computers and Work: Are Companies Informated Yet?", which was published in the September 1997 issue of Information Outlook. She will be presented a $500 cash award and a certificate at the 89th Annual Conference. Head is a member of the San Francisco Bay Chapter and the Information Technology and News Divisions.

Corcoran Appointed Vice President

Mary Corcoran was appointed vice president of Outsell, Inc., an information industry research and advisory firm located in Burlingame, CA. Before joining Outsell, Corcoran founded, and was principal and managing partner of The Knowledge Forum, Moss Beach, CA. With the appointment, Outsell will acquire Corcoran's company. SLA member Anthea Stratigos is the president of Outsell, Inc. In her new position, Corcoran will be responsible for supporting Outsell's rapidly expanding business in the information professional and information vendor markets. She is an active member of the San Andreas Chapter, as well as the Science-Technology, Library Management, and Information Technology Divisions.

Correction

Judith A. Siess, president of Information Bridges International, Inc., Richmond Heights, OH, was inadvertently omitted from the member news section in the March 1998 issue of Information Outlook. Siess is the new publisher and editor of The One Person Library: A Newsletter for Librarians.

Industry News

UI Libraries Creates New Web Site Project

The University of Iowa (UI) Libraries' Information Arcade recently created a new electronic scholarly project that will afford faculty members, staff, and students the opportunity to explore their personal academic passions utilizing HTML to create highly specialized and creative Web sites. The Web sites will be used for experiments focusing on particular areas of activity or specialty interest, which serve a different purpose than course Web sites or academic departmental information servers.

WSU's Medical Library Wins Award

Wayne State University's (WSU) Shiftman Medical Library was awarded the 1998 Innovation in Instruction Award from the Association for College and Research Libraries (ACRL). This award was given in recognition for the library's Health Sciences Information Tools 2000 Program.

Bertelsmann Buys Random House

The German media group, Bertelsmann, has become the world's largest trade book publishing company with the acquisition of Random House, a New York-based publishing group whose imprints include: Alfred A. Knopf, Pantheon, and Fodor's Travel Guides. Bertelsmann is the world's third biggest media group and now, with the merger, is the biggest publishing company in the English-speaking world with sales of about $1.5 billion.

Reed Elsevier and Wolters Deal Collapses

The merger planned between Wolters Klewer and Reed Elsevier to create the largest specialist publishing company in the world was abandoned in the face of objections from European regulators. The planned merger--worth $33.4 billion--collapsed after Reed Elsevier, the Anglo-Dutch company, rejected an attempt by Wolters of the Netherlands to renegotiate terms.

Chapter and Division News

Boston Chapter Affirmative Action Committee Announce Scholarship

The Boston Chapter's Affirmative Action Committee announced that it will be awarding a $2,000 Minority Scholarship for the 1998-1999 term to promote diversity in the field of special librarianship and information science. Minority applicants who meet eligibility requirements and are accepted or matriculated in an ALA-accredited graduate library science program are encouraged to apply. For more information, contact Betty Eddison, chair of the Affirmative Action Committee at 1-781-938-4442; e-mail: beddison@inmagic.com.

In Memoriam

Susan L. Adkins

Susan L. Adkins, technical information specialist at NASA Langley Technical Library, died on March 1, 1998, in Hampton, VA. Adkins graduated from Madison College (now James Madison University), Harrisonburg, VA, in 1970 with a B.A. in English. She later attended Catholic University in Washington, DC, where she earned a Master's degree in library science. Adkins joined NASA in 1977. During her career, she was instrumental in developing strategies for delivering scientific and technical information to the aerospace researcher's desktop, and providing full text of old NASA reports to the research community. Adkins was an active member of SLA, serving as director and chair of several committees in the Virginia Chapter and the Information Technology Division.

The blockbuster movie Titanic had just opened for worldwide release in February when 13 U.S. librarians visited the special library and archives housing the original documents, blueprints, photographs, and letters concerning the construction and loss of the Titanic. Built in Belfast by the renown shipbuilders Harland and Wolff, the Titanic has its historical records in the Northern Ireland special library and museum, the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. Staff members were being inundated by requests for information, photographs, and photocopies, but cheerfully exhibited some of their treasures for our group of mostly academic librarians.

Roger Dixon is the special librarian responsible for the collection of 20,000 volumes and some 200 periodicals, focusing upon transport, textiles, costumes, domestic life, and architecture of Northern Ireland. Dixon escorted us through the museum exhibits displaying various modes of transportation from bicycles to railroad cars to automobiles, including the ill-fated DeLorean manufactured in Belfast. A model village on the beautiful grounds above Belfast Lough recreate a typical Ulster turn-of-the-century town with its shops, homes, churches, and farms.

Few of the librarians we met during our ten-day tour of Northern Ireland libraries, archives, and museums call themselves special librarians, although clearly several work in specialized institutions or in special departments of academic or public libraries. Most affiliate with The Library Association of the UK or with the Library and Information Services Council (NI). Librarians meet regularly with their colleagues in the Republic of Ireland also.

Meeting our colleagues, sharing professional information, and learning of our mutual challenges and opportunities were made possible through the generous support of The British Council, the cultural and educational arm of the British government. Its director, Peter Lyner, himself in 1969 head of the Shankill and Falls Road public library branches in the most troubled neighborhoods of Belfast, wanted us to see for ourselves how our colleagues serve patrons, direct daily operations, and build unique collections. The British Council arranged visits to 17 special, public, and academic libraries, as well as to Protestant and Catholic churches, a private country estate, and beautiful tourist sites throughout Northern Ireland. We were treated to an excursion along the magnificent North Coast where we encountered the geological marvel of 40,000 basalt columns extending into the sea, The Giant's Causeway, then stayed overnight in Derry.

The Derry Public Library, like most libraries in Northern Ireland, has an extensive special collection on genealogy and local history, including materials on the political "Troubles" begun in 1969. We arrived in Derry hours after 50,000 people had marched to commemorate "Bloody Sunday" when 13 Catholics were shot dead by the British Army in 1972. Although a ceasefire has been in effect for two years, 10 killings had occurred recently, so tensions were rising again throughout Ulster.

Libraries are considered neutral, non-partisan, community institutions and have been spared terrorist attacks. Serving Protestant and Catholic communities, their hiring practices are non-discriminatory, and they "never felt religion to be an issue" in the library profession. Indeed, the Northern Ireland Political Collection at the subscription Linen Hall Library in Belfast "contains something to offend everyone," its special

librarian acknowledged. From 1968 over 80,000 items on the Troubles have been systematically collected on all sides of the conflict, a unique collection used by international scholars and journalists as well as by active participants in the Troubles.

Conflict Archives on the Internet (CAIN) is being collaboratively developed by the Linen Hall Library, Queens University in Belfast, and the University of Ulster at Magee in Derry. This multimedia graphical database includes full-text pamphlets, newsletters, and broadsheets among other documents and ephemera that can be accessed by users on the World Wide Web. Its URL is http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/.

Another special library using advanced technology and the Internet to share its resources with remote users is the Ulster-American Folk Park with its Centre for Emigration Studies research facility. The library collection and its emigration database focus upon the Irish emigration to the USA and Canada in the eighteenth through nineteenth centuries. It includes shipping advertisements, passenger lists, government reports, family papers, emigrant letters, and other sources to document the history, social life, agriculture, economic hardships, and accomplishments of Irish emigrants to North America. John Winters, emigration database manager, when asked how he stays abreast of technological developments in rural County Tyrone, replied, "Like a duck--calm and serene on top, paddling like hell underneath." We agreed we feel much the same in our U.S. institutions.

Yet some "low-tech" libraries remain in Northern Ireland, housing quite astonishing collections of rare books. Springhill, a seventeenth century plantation house now managed by the National Trust, has 3,600 uncataloged rarities in its private library. An ecclesiastical library which functions as the Armagh Public Library contains 25,000 rare books, including an annotated first edition of Gulliver's Travels and two holograph letters by Jonathan Swift who served as Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral. The Armagh Observatory has amassed an outstanding collection of rare astronomical books and periodicals over its 200-year existence. John McPartland, its librarian/astronomer, hopes to computerize the collection as funds are made available.

At the end of the library study tour, participants all agreed our preconceptions about Northern Ireland had been dispelled, that our horizons had expanded by seeing the beautiful country and its resources, we were safe throughout, and all had benefited from interacting with colleagues. We made commitments to share our experience with U.S. colleagues, and to stay in touch with each other and our new friends in Northern Ireland. The British Council funding for study tours is being cut, so other U.S. librarians may not be sponsored in the future. This would be an unfortunate end to a wonderful program designed to further cooperation between U.S. and Northern Ireland librarians at a time when international communication is increasingly important for all special and academic libraries and institutions. $