Dr. Suzanne Vesely, Director of MUM Library, was involved with planning and hosting four sessions for the Iowa Library Association (ILA) Annual (121st) Conference held in Council Bluffs, Iowa October 12-14, 2011. This year's theme was "Treasuring the Past, Transforming the Future." As Chair of the ILA Government Documents Roundtable, Dr. Suzanne Vesely co-planned two events with another division, Local History and Genealogy.Genealogy is very important to public libraries. At the conference Dr. Vesely helped to host these events, presented by Jessica Edgar, Archives Specialist for the National Archives in Kansas City. There was a preconference workshop ("Piecing Together the Puzzle: Including Federal Records in Genealogical Research") and a regular session ("Navigating the National Archives Website: Exploring Internet Resources for Genealogy."
The other presentation, also according to Ms. Edgar, focused on finding certain pieces of key information on the National Archives website. There are five main categories to the website; see the National Archives main page (archives.gov). The bulk of the time was dedicated to the first three categories: research, veteran's services, and teacher's resources.
Ms. Edgar's programs were enthusiastically attended and people asked to have her return next year. Ms. Edgar's extensive PowerPoints revealed many little-known strategies for using extensive government resources not only for genealogical research, but also for history.
In addition to the Edgars presentations, Iowa GODORT hosted Tom Keyser. Mr. Keyser has been working for the State Library of Iowa for many years, and the institution was recently reinvented as "Iowa Library Services" by the State Government. Keyser specializes in showing how to find valuable information on the state web pages with precise searches using directories and navigation menus. His talk was "Information for Everyone: Finding What you Need on Iowa State Government Websites".
Dr. Vesely also chaired the business meeting for GODORT. Local History and Genealogy and the Iowa Library Association Executive Board were also in attendance, to facilitate planning for the upcoming year. The meeting was praised for having a good plan for next year. New officers for 2012 were also introduced: Brett Cloyd, Government Documents Librarian for the University of Iowa Library systems, will be chair next year. Vice chair will be Lyn Friesner, Reference Manager from Council Bluffs Public Library. Tom Keyser of Iowa Library Services agreed to become Secretary-Treasurer if no younger librarian stepped up to take over that position, and subsequently he accepted the job. A personal note: this has been a very rewarding year and I have met many fine people around the state with whom I have worked. One of them was Barbara Peterson, who has made a large donation to MUM Library from the Public Library in Council Bluffs. More about that in another entry!
According to Ms. Edgars' summaries, the pre-conference presentation dealt with topics for genealogists: census records (benefit of using this as a tool for beginning genealogy research), military records (how to order and who to contact for certain military engagements), court records (bankruptcy, civil, and criminal cases), and immigration records (passenger arrival lists, naturalizations, and alien files).
Ms. Edgar's programs were enthusiastically attended and people asked to have her return next year. Ms. Edgar's extensive PowerPoints revealed many little-known strategies for using extensive government resources not only for genealogical research, but also for history.
In addition to the Edgars presentations, Iowa GODORT hosted Tom Keyser. Mr. Keyser has been working for the State Library of Iowa for many years, and the institution was recently reinvented as "Iowa Library Services" by the State Government. Keyser specializes in showing how to find valuable information on the state web pages with precise searches using directories and navigation menus. His talk was "Information for Everyone: Finding What you Need on Iowa State Government Websites".
Dr. Vesely also chaired the business meeting for GODORT. Local History and Genealogy and the Iowa Library Association Executive Board were also in attendance, to facilitate planning for the upcoming year. The meeting was praised for having a good plan for next year. New officers for 2012 were also introduced: Brett Cloyd, Government Documents Librarian for the University of Iowa Library systems, will be chair next year. Vice chair will be Lyn Friesner, Reference Manager from Council Bluffs Public Library. Tom Keyser of Iowa Library Services agreed to become Secretary-Treasurer if no younger librarian stepped up to take over that position, and subsequently he accepted the job. A personal note: this has been a very rewarding year and I have met many fine people around the state with whom I have worked. One of them was Barbara Peterson, who has made a large donation to MUM Library from the Public Library in Council Bluffs. More about that in another entry!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.