JUNE/JULY 2011

Director's Corner

SIL staff are known for their service, but not always for research. That's why I'm so happy about the IFLA Award for best research paper, mentioned below. IFLA is an international association, which makes this award even more prestigious. Congratulations to Grace, Bianca and Erin, along with their colleague Becky Morin for this effort, above and beyond their routine duties!

2011 IFLA Award Goes to SIL Staff

L-R, Erin Thomas, Bianca Crowley, and Grace Costantino

SIL's Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) librarians Grace Costantino, Bianca Crowley and Erin Thomas, along with Rebecca Morin of the California Academy of Sciences, were awarded the De Gruyter Saur International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) Research Paper Award for 2011. Their paper, titled Heeding the Call: User Feedback Management and the Digital Library, uses the collaborative BHL project to demonstrate how users' views and feedback can be captured and integrated in order to improve the quality and breadth of large digitization projects. Bianca Crowley will represent the authors and attend the President's Lunch at the Annual IFLA World Library and Information Congress in San Juan, Puerto Rico in August.

Welcome Gilbert Borrego and Sue Graves!

Gilbert is the new Library Technician for the Biodiversity Heritage Library project at the Smithsonian Libraries. He is responsible for the identification, preparation, pagination and quality control inspection of material to be digitized for BHL. He also helps to administer and post items for the BHL and the Libraries' Facebook pages. Born and raised in El Paso, TX, Gilbert graduated with a master's degree and a bachelor's degree in anthropology from Stanford University. He has worked as a professional archaeologist, a museum preparator, and most recently as an Interlibrary Loan Supervisor for Virginia Tech. He and his wife, Maura, live in Arlington, Va.

Sue Graves has joined the Metadata Unit in the Technical Services Department of the Libraries. She comes to the Smithsonian with a history of technical services experience in law, academic and public libraries and a brief contract stint involving the historic shelf list at the Government Printing Office. Sue graduated from the University of Vermont with a major in English and a minor in French and has dabbled with graduate studies in English and Library Science. Sue's position includes work with the Smithsonian Research Online, the Smithsonian Research Information System (SIRIS) and developing projects using Drupal.

SIL Participates in OCLC Research Partnership Meetings

Georgetown University hosted the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) Research Library Partnership meetings on June 8-10, which provided stimulating discussions on the future of libraries. Several SIL staff attended in person or watched George Oates, our SIL research associate, on a live feed speaking about Looking at Data Consumption. Other notable talks included The "Futures" of Publishing by Brian O'Leary and The Future of Higher Education and the Global University by Ben Wildavsky. Each speaker roused conversation on services, collections, staffing and collaboration. The conference plenary papers are available on the OCLC site.

ALSO OF INTEREST

	L-R, Brian Soldo and David Kaufmann

The Smithsonian Libraries has welcomed 16 interns this summer. These interns are working in various posts all over our 20 locations. We look forward to updating you with stories and pictures in upcoming editions!