OVERVIEW *

DIRECTOR’S REPORT *

LIBRARY EVENTS *

REFERENCE SERVICES *

QUESTIONS USED TO EVALUATE LIBRARY WORKBOOK *

ACQUISITIONS *

CATALOGING *

Staff Changes *

MEDIA SERVICES *

1997-1998 O’KEEFE LIBRARY STAFF *

STAFF DEVELOPMENT *

John H. Pollitz *

Kathy Byers *

Marylaine Block *

Nanette Miller *

Sue Baumbach *

Harold Krubsack *

Jennifer Davis *

Nancy Johnson-Van Hecke *

Eliza Gillies *

Susan Green *

Connie Schroeder *

OVERVIEW

The 1997-1998 academic year was filled with activity and change in O’Keefe Library. It was a transitional year. John H. Pollitz completed his first year as library director, following the leadership of Corinne Potter who had been director for twenty years. This was the second year in the new building. The initial excitement of opening the new building transformed into a coordinated effort to develop a library program that will live up to the expectations of the campus.

Some of the highlights of this year were:

• The Brown Bag series that brought educational and entertaining lectures, readings, and discussions to the Library.
• Increases in the book and periodical budgets that allowed us to expand our resources in a significant manner.
• New services for students and faculty such as laptop computers for checkout use in the library, unlimited faculty interlibrary loan use, and a streamlined book ordering system.
• Several new fulltext databases and services that provide instant information to all of our computers on campus.
• Business ASAP
• Expanded Academic Index ASAP
• Newsbank
• College Directories Online
• ABI/Inform
• In May, we negotiated an increased discount from our book vendor which should result in savings of over $2,500 next year.
• The first efforts to expand library services to our students at off campus sites. These efforts will be greatly enhanced in the coming year.
• A complete inventory of the collection that gave us a more accurate picture of how much material we actually have and established a baseline for future collection development studies.

The O’Keefe library staff was busy learning to work together this year. We enhanced existing services and introduced new services and products. As students, faculty, and staff became more accustomed to the new library building, we worked on ways to make the library part of everyone’s lives. We were fortunate to be able to receive $2,420 in direct donations to the library, which increased our materials budget. This enabled us to purchase additional material beyond our planned expenditures. Through a state program designed to encourage interlibrary cooperation, we were reimbursed $1632 for the interlibrary loans we supplied to other Iowa libraries. The State money, along with the fines we collect, is added to the University’s general fund.

During the fall semester of FY98 we activated more network connections on the third floor of the library. Now we have active network connections in all of the group study rooms and all of the study carrels along the south wall. In the lower level, we activated the network connections in all the individual study rooms.

In March we completed a grant application to the Iowa State Historical Society. We requested $1770 to engage a consultant to evaluate the current state of our Special Collection area and offer advice on future directions. The results of that application have not yet been announced.

LIBRARY EVENTS

In May the library hosted a ceremony that dedicated a time capsule donated by George and Katie Kanzaki. The time capsule, which will be buried and opened in 100 years, was filled with student and staff writings as well as memorabilia from our era.

In April the library sponsored a PBS teleconference, "Am I a Crook?" attended by O’Keefe Library staff, University faculty and staff, and local Quad City Librarians. Some faculty members who weren’t able to attend the broadcast were able to watch a videotape of the event. In the coming year we hope to continue the discussion of copyright initiated by this event.

COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT

One of this year’s goals was to take the first steps towards developing a more active involvement by librarians in the development of our various collections. The first step toward this was taken when we closed the library for one day in January to take a complete inventory of the physical collection. It was felt that this would be a good year to look at the statistics we had reported in the past, check their accuracy, and move forward from an established baseline. Kathy Byers took the lead in organizing the day by designing the means of counting material and reporting our findings. We found that we did not really have as many titles and volumes as we previously thought. We are now confident of the gross numbers representing our collection.

The next step is to look at the collection in a more qualitative rather than quantitative manner. To do this we are developing ongoing collection development duties for each librarian. They are all assigned subject areas within the collection that are based on our various academic departments. The librarians will work closely with faculty members in each area of responsibility to help faculty identify the resources our students need. To this end in FY98 we allocated funds to each librarian for purchases that will enhance academic department purchases in each subject area. Many of these selections come from the various "best of" lists that librarians carefully watch.

REFERENCE SERVICES

The reference librarians made a concerted effort to teach information literacy concepts to more students last year through workbooks and classroom sessions. We had a dramatic increase in the number of faculty who brought their classes to the library for a presentation by librarians. The previous year librarians taught 19 information literacy classes; this year they taught 44. Many of these classes were presented to students in higher level courses and were discipline specific. As part of the effort to improve library service to our off-campus students, we taught one session over the ICN to a group of Special Education graduate students. We hope to continue and expand information literacy classes to off campus students during the coming year.

Use of electronic databases expanded greatly in FY98. We added five new subscriptions this year. All had fulltext articles as a component. Expanded Academic Index ASAP covers general information; Business ASAP focuses on business information; Newsbank includes articles from regional newspapers; College Catalogs online replaces our little-used collection of catalogs on microfilm. At the end of the academic year we were able to acquire access to Lexis-Nexis at a very favorable discount through a nationally organized consortial buy. Lexis-Nexis contains a range of fulltext databases that covers news, medicine, business and legal information. It promises to greatly expand our students’ access to valuable information.

Through our consortial relationship with local Illinois libraries, we have continued to benefit from free access to a selection of 18 FirstSearch databases that are subsidized by the Illinois State Library. Additionally, through our library’s separate subscription to FirstSearch, we access over 40 more databases. We pay $.60 per search for any searching and $3.00 to print fulltext articles in these databases. Both offerings represent a valuable resource for our students. As shown in the three-year history graph, we have seen tremendous growth in the use of the FirstSearch databases. As we collect data on the use of our other databases we will be able to present information regarding use of the other services we subscribe to.

Use of fulltext databases promises to have a major impact on campus. During the coming year we hope to work with Campus Computing to secure the means of allowing all students, on campus and off, access to all electronic library resources. Currently only the FirstSearch databases offer access from off campus. Our other databases limit access by IP address. This effectively limits use of those databases to on campus computers and students who dial into the campus system.

During the year we found that Business ASAP was not getting the use we expected. Students found searching in this database to be confusing and the search interface too complicated. This summer we arranged to change vendors for this product. The new search interface is the same as Expanded Academic Index ASAP and is much easier to use.

The library requirement workbook continues to be a practical way to introduce a large number of students to the research process. According to the vast majority of evaluations, students found the workbook useful. During the past year we made a particular effort to inform transfer students of the University’s library requirement.
 
 

QUESTIONS USED TO EVALUATE LIBRARY WORKBOOK

Please help us evaluate the library workbooks. Let us tell you what we tried to teach you in this exercise, and you tell us whether we succeeded.
 
 

1. By taking one topic and following it through the various kinds of resources in the library, and by giving you a model of this method to take with you, we tried to show you a research strategy that you can apply to your own future projects.
 
 

2. We wanted to show you different ways to find terms to search with, using an encyclopedia article, the Subject Headings List, and the subject headings on the cataloging records in QuadLINC and Academic Index. Did you find this useful?
 
 

3. We wanted to show you how to find information in every form it comes in: books, periodical articles, and Internet sources. Did you find this useful?
 
 

4. We wanted to show you strategies for finding what you want when a subject search fails, whether you’re in QuadLINC, periodical indexes, or the Internet. Did you find this useful?
 
 

5. We wanted to show you how to find information on the Internet using subject indexes (Where the Wild Things Are) or search engines, and how to evaluate what you find. Did you find this useful?
 
 

In January we began counting reference desk activity and reference questions by type. The results, though not surprising, were useful in tracking our reference patterns. Our busiest times are during weekdays with Mondays and Thursdays showing the most activity.

We also tracked the types of questions our students are asking librarians. The greatest single area where librarians helped students was in what we considered "brief reference questions". It is interesting to note that when the two areas of computer assistance are combined they represent a large proportion of the duties of reference librarians.
 
 

In May we came face to face with the issues of copyright, licensing, and the Internet. We received a letter from Sony Entertainment demanding that we cease using the title "Where the Wild Things Are" for the website Marylaine Block had created to organize the Internet for our students. Evidently they had secured exclusive licensing rights to that title in order to market products related to the Maurice Sendak book of the same name. From that point on, Marylaine’s valuable resource has been called "Best Information on the Net" (BIOTN). This resource has been used extensively by our students as well as others around the world. SAU faculty often refer their students to the site as the starting point for any Internet research. Not surprisingly, the "Hot Topics" pages get the most usage. Of those the gun control and death penalty pages saw the most use.

One of the real strengths of BIOTN is that its structure is based on University majors. Looking at the statistics broken down by majors yields some interesting results. This chart looks at usage of the 12 most popular of the 60 webpages designed to support our majors. Not surprisingly, the religion page, dedicated to Catholicism on the Internet, shows the most use. The next two high-use majors are more puzzling. History often is not seen as a highly technological pursuit yet it returns the second highest use numbers. The mathematics page, not a high research area in the traditional library sense, is the third most used area. Finally, the art page also shows high usage, another area traditionally not highly technological. When looking at this chart in light of the number of students represented in these majors, one can’t help but speculate on the use of BIOTN pages by others on the Internet. Certainly the Catholic and math pages’ statistics would indicate an impact beyond the campus. We will continue to track BIOTN usage to follow its impact on campus and off.

TECHNICAL SERVICES DEPARTMENT

ACQUISITIONS

Because of a generous increase in the library book budget we were able to increase the number of titles purchased this year by 63%.
 
 

During the second semester the Library professional staff began making Collection Development decisions and ordering books to enhance specific areas of the collection. Each professional was responsible for a number of specific disciplines and ordered books accordingly. Over 500 new books were added this year because of the Collection Development effort.

During FY98 we made video purchasing more efficient by having all the orders go to Harold Krubsack, the Head of Media Services. We increased our purchases of media and videos by 77%. As a result of requests made by the Music Department we began to purchase music Compact Discs that support their curriculum. We started out small but plan to build our collection as budget allocations allow.

There has been a noticeable drop in our purchases of microfiche. This was a result of transferring our subscription to NewsBank, a regional newspaper index with fulltext, from microfiche to World Wide Web access. We hope that this change to a more useable format will result in more use of NewsBank.

A new addition to the Library this year was the McNaughton Collection. It is an assortment of leased "Leisure Reading" books available for members of the St. Ambrose University community. Currently there are 146 titles in this collection featuring a number of different genres and many popular, best-selling authors. This collection proved popular and well received. Within the first week of circulation we had two people from the Housekeeping Department sign up for staff library cards. Preliminary use patterns indicate that the students are using the collection. Note the significant drop in circulation in April when studying and research needs are more pressing. Plans are to continue the collection, increasing the numbers of books available, and striving to maintain a core of best sellers for the enjoyment of our campus community.
 
 

CATALOGING

As the above chart indicates, we cataloged the greatest number of books to the social sciences area (H classification) of the collection. Another area where there has been significant change is in the English and American literature areas (PS-PZ classifications). Finally, we also added more titles than past years in the areas of science and medicine (Q and R classifications) saw some growth. This data reflects the areas of the curriculum that have been targeted because of new programs and strong interest by the faculty.

Because we added more material to our media and videorecording collection, our time spent cataloging this material also increased dramatically. As more faculty use this format to support their teaching, we expect to continue increases in this area. We received a smaller number of media gifts FY98. This is not a concern as our media needs are better served through well-considered purchases of up-to-date resources.
 
 
 

MEDIA CATALOGED
							% incr/dec
		93/94	94/95	95/96	96/97	97/98	96/97-97/98
MEDIA, NEW
	Titles	120	118	188	92	218	37%
	Volumes	202	168	221	158	346	119%
MEDIA, GIFT
	Titles	9	0	4	32	2	-94%
	Volumes	9	0	4	50	4	-92%
MEDIA, RECLASS
	Titles	1	0	0	0	0	N.A.
	Volumes	1	0	0	0	0	N.A.
TOTAL MEDIA
	Titles	130	118	192	124	220	77%
	Volumes	212	168	225	208	350	68%

 

The cataloging department undertook a major project this spring to create records on OCLC for all of our periodical holdings. To date, our holdings have not been entered in the national database. By creating accurate records we will accomplish a number of results. Foremost, whenever our students pull up a record for a journal article in FirstSearch, they will see whether or not we own the journal. This should help students make decisions regarding which articles to use in their research. Another benefit of listing our holdings is that we will be able to better share our resources with other libraries.

It is useful at this point to note some of the patterns reflected in our cataloging statistics. We have seen the most significant addition of material to our collection during the past two fiscal years.
 
 

CIRCULATION

In FY98, Carol Anne Chouteau and Jennifer Davis worked together to develop a means of checking out reserve materials on the QuadLINC system. This will give us a better means of tracking material on reserve. We are now sending faculty members information about which reserve readings circulated and which didn’t during a given semester. With this information teachers can make informed decisions regarding future assignments.

During FY 1998 the library purchased 2 laptop computers and 5 portable compact disc players for use within the library. The laptops have been used for group projects in the Group Study Rooms and as relief for our word processing computers during busiest times.
 
 

Circulation of our material continues a steady rise. Student use of material increased this year by 74% and faculty use increased 65%. We continue to serve the community well. Circulation to members of other libraries in the Quad Cities increased 11%.

Reserve item circulation shows a decline that reflects a change in procedures more than a change in usage. Past numbers were built on estimates of use rather than a direct checkout on our system. We also have changed processing of reserves to a method that allows us to get reserve material ready for checkout faster but it means that circulation counts are of packets of readings rather than individual articles. This all causes circulation numbers to drop. As we develop our electronic reserves system in FY99 we may see further drops in circulation statistics.
 
 
 

	CIRCULATION
							% incr/dec
	93/94	94/95	95/96	96/97	97/98		96/97-97/98
Books & Media
By Students	4,666	6,868	5,166	5,506	9,601		74.37%
By Faculty	1,582	1,569	1,322	2,075	3,413		64.48%
Of Reserve items--by all	3,145	4,748	4,402	5,061	2,634		-47.95%
Reciprocal (by Quad-City Community)	2,814	2,947	2,858	3,760	4,235		12.63%
Books & Media-by all patrons	12,207	16,132	13,748	16,402	17,249		5.16%

 
 
 

Periodical use within the library showed growth this year. Last year’s dip is more a result of getting a more accurate count than a drop in use. Statistics from the past two-years are more reliable than from previous years.

Figures on library attendance have never been very accurate and this year is no different. Our figures show a drop in attendance but we also know that there were two times this year when the counter was out of commission due to a power failure that set our counter back to zero. We are changing some of our procedures so that we will recognize these problems sooner, thus getting more reliable figures.

Staff Changes

INTERLIBRARY LOAN

Interlibrary loan experienced significant growth last year. We expect that to happen every year for the conceivable future. Our overall total interlibrary loan activity increased 49%. We borrowed 924 items for our faculty representing a 75% increase. This can be attributed to two factors. We have a large number of faculty pursuing doctoral degrees. In recognition of this the library no longer imposed limits on the number of interlibrary loans we process for faculty. One very interesting change that we experienced this year was a drop in material borrowed for students. These numbers were down 8%. It is possible that the addition of fulltext databases accessed over the Internet have lessened our need to go to other libraries for material we do not own. We will continue to watch these statistics carefully and compare them to usage of fulltext databases. If this is indeed a case where the Internet and fulltext databases become the primary source for our students’ research, the challenge is to help them acquire the skills to evaluate their sources and not just accept that which is most readily available.
 
 
 

		INTERLIBRARY LOAN 97/98
													% incr/dec
	93-94		94-95			95-96		96-97		97-98			96/97-97/98
For Students	376		548			572		1050		962			-8%
For Faculty	237		340			356		527		924			75%
Total Borrowed	613		888			928		1577		1886			20%
Loaned	1406		2235			2377		1524		2746			80%
TOTAL	2019		3123			3305		3101		4632			49%

 

MEDIA SERVICES

The fall semester began with a rush and this did not seem to ease up until late October. A renovated McMullen Hall was opened for classes, but not all of the final work was done. There were no writing surfaces in the classrooms and this resulted in a rush purchase of overhead projectors so faculty could have something to write on even though it had to be projected onto the walls. Whiteboards were eventually installed. Televisions on carts were borrowed from other buildings in order to offer classroom television service. Wall brackets were later installed and television/vcr units were installed in all the general classrooms of the building. By the end of October, McMullen hall setup was completed and service returned to normal.

As was the case last year, more and more media production was done in faculty and staff offices on computers and fewer requests are now made of Media Services for outright production. Now requests are more for advice.
 
 

Wall mounted television/vcr units have been installed in two additional classrooms in Lewis Hall. This will make it much easier for faculty to use video in that building. In addition, a video projection unit has been installed in the Modern Languages Classroom of McMullen Hall.
 
 

1997-1998 O’KEEFE LIBRARY STAFF
 
 
 

Title	Name	Start Date	End Date
Director	John H. Pollitz	6-16-97
Associate Director for Public Services	Marylaine Block	9-15-77
Reference and Systems Librarian	Nanette Miller	10-4-96
Reference Librarian	Patricia Kranovich	7-5-96
Evening Reference Librarian	Stella Herzig	1-3-94
Head of Technical Services	Jennifer Davis	1-4-93
Head of Media Services	Harold Krubsack	4-6-86
Administrative Assistant to Director (1-15-96)	Mary Kathryn (Kathy) Byers	1-4-93
Administrative Assistant for Acquisitions (1-3-96)	Nancy Johnson-Van Hecke	3-7-84
Administrative Assistant for Circulation Services (4-18-93)	Carol Ann Chouteau	1-18-88
Evening Circulation Supervisor	David Buffington	1-31-94	5-28-98
Evening Circulation Supervisor	Sue Baumbach	6-15-98
Library Technical Assistants – Cataloging	Susan Green	8-21-95
	Eliza Green	3-4-96
	Connie Schroeder	6-1-97
Library Technical Assistant – Interlibrary Loan	Kathleen (Katie) Dobbeleare	7-8-96

 
 

STAFF DEVELOPMENT

During the day we closed the library for our inventory the entire staff viewed a videotape of a teleconference about library customer service titled "How may I help You?"

John H. Pollitz

• The most important activity I was involved in was the New Library Directors Mentoring Program sponsored by the College Library Section of the Academic College and Research Libraries division of the American Library Association. This yearlong program teamed me with an experienced library director, Richard Doyle from Coe College, who met with me and advised me about the first years of being a library director. The program included a three-day seminar at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in New Orleans in early January.
• Attended the Iowa Library Association (ILA) Conference in Souix City.
• Served on the program committee for the Iowa Academic College and Research Libraries (IACRL) section, which is involved in planning next year’s ILA conference.
• Was elected Vice President/President-elect of the Iowa OCLC User Group (IOUG) and Vice President/President-elect of the St. Ambrose University Staff Assembly.
• In May attended the annual IOUG conference in the Amana Colonies along with other library staff.
• Appointed by the State Librarian to the Library Network Advisory Committee to the Iowa Communications Network.
• This spring served as a grant application reviewer for the Institute of Library and Museum Services. This is the organization that took over management of library grants for the Department of Education last year.
• Continued to write reviews for Choice magazine.

Kathy Byers

• A workshop at RBLS for using Windows 95, August 1997.
• University Staff Development workshop about Stress Management.
• Grant Writing Workshop at Loras College by the State Historical Society of Iowa about the REAP/Historical Resource Enhancement & Protection Program (November, 1997).
• "Internet World Conference" in Chicago
• Earned 10credits of Continuing Professional Education (CPE) at technical meetings of the Institute of Management Accountants, ILLOWA Chapter.
• Received training from Carol Anne Chouteau and Pat Kranovich on circulation and basic reference procedures.
• "Am I a Crook?" presentation on the ICN regarding copyright issues and the Internet (April, 1998).

Marylaine Block

• Attended the Internet Librarians Conference in Monterey, where she learned a lot more about search techniques and selection.
• Started subscribing to and reading Searcher Magazine, which does detailed studies of search engines, but also does meta-analysis of data.
• Started subscribing to and reading Danny Sullivan’s Search Engine Watch.
• Wrote an article for Knowledge Quest (the school librarians’ journal) on developing a selection policy for Internet web sites.
• Put the selection policy, and the guide to "When and How To Search the Net" and several tutorials on use of the medical, social work, and criminal justice literature directly on Library web pages.
• Began writing a weekly Internet column, "Observing US", for Fox News.

Nanette Miller

• In July completed classes on Administering Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 and Supporting MS Windows NT Server 4.0 - Core Technologies. In order to support the Library’s new NT Server and the migration to Windows 95.
• Attended a number of events sponsored by the River Bend Library System including training sessions on Windows 95 and managing library computer networks.
• During September represented St. Ambrose at the GEAC Midwest User’s Group Conference in Downer’s Grove, Illinois, sitting on the steering committee as the academic representative for the second year.
• Attended a one-day informational session on OCLC’s Electronic Collections On-line.
• Attended the Association for College & Research Libraries annual meeting in Des Moines.
• In May attended the RBL-XTRA meeting to coordinate local efforts to better improve services for the consortium. Nanette worked to develop a survey, which will ultimately result in an expert directory of people available to provide services or advice to other libraries.
• This year the library has assumed a pivotal role in developing services for distance students. Under the direction of John Pollitz, Nanette and Pat Kranovich developed a way to provide Interlibrary Loan services to off-campus students. In November, we launched a pilot project to pre-test the integration of On-Line Interlibrary Loan ordering. To that end, Nanette presented a bibliographic instruction session over the Iowa Communications Network to students on the Ambrose campus and students working in Burlington. The results of the project greatly influenced the further development of on-line ordering services at O’Keefe.
• During the past year, Nanette worked as a liaison with the Quad-City Times newspaper planning for "Reading Adventures in the Park," an annual literacy event held at Middle School in Bettendorf.

Sue Baumbach

• Sue attended an HTML workshop given by Academic Computing, St. Ambrose University.

Harold Krubsack

• Harold attended the Iowa Educational Media Association’s annual conference. He also attended several meetings of the Iowa Association of Communications Technology.

Jennifer Davis

• Beginning HTML, Advanced HTML
• "Dancing with Change with Michael Gorman"
• Reference Services on the Internet
• "Acquisition Round Table".

• As a part of our project of listing our journals, attended an OCLC Union Listing Workshop in Ames (April, 1998).
• Attended the Iowa Association of College and Research Libraries annual meeting in May at Drake University.

Nancy Johnson-Van Hecke

• Attended the "Acquisitions Round Table" at River Bend Library System.

Eliza Gillies

• Windows ’95 training through River Bend Library System (August, 1997).
• Iowa Library Association seminar for library support personnel (September, 1997).
• Grant Writing Workshop at Loras College by the State Historical Society of Iowa about the REAP/Historical Resource Enhancement & Protection Program (November, 1997).
• Program on book making/Japanese binding/end paper marbleizing at the Davenport Museum of Art (January, 1998).
• "Am I a Crook?" presentation on the ICN regarding copyright issues and the Internet (April, 1998).

Susan Green

• Windows ’95 training through River Bend Library System (August, 1997).
• Grant Writing Workshop at Loras College by the State Historical Society of Iowa about the REAP/Historical Resource Enhancement & Protection Program (November, 1997).
• Soaring to Excellence at River Bend Library System (November, 1997).
• Marc records: Introduction to Tags, Indicators, and Subfields by BCR in Cedar Rapids (November, 1997).
• Program on book making/Japanese binding/end paper marbleizing at the Davenport Museum of Art (January, 1998).
• SAU Staff Development Day (March, 1998).
• OCLC Union Listing Workshop in Ames (April, 1998).
• "Am I a Crook?" presentation on the ICN regarding copyright issues and the Internet (April, 1998).
• OCLC User’s Group Conference in Amana (June, 1998).

Connie Schroeder

• HTML I workshop at River Bend Library System.
• HTML II workshop at River Bend Library System.
• Windows ’95 training through River Bend Library System (August, 1997).
• Iowa Library Association seminar for library support personnel (September, 1997).
• Program on book making/Japanese binding/end paper marbleizing at the Davenport Museum of Art (January, 1998).
• QuadLINC database maintenance workshop at River Bend Library System (March, 1998).

BIOGRAPHIES OF LIBRARY STAFF
 
 

Susan Baumbach-- Secretarial Degree from Skills Business Training Center. With this degree, she has eight years of experience in the field. She has volunteered for the O’Keefe Library approximately one year helping in the Special Collections Area as well as the Technical Services Department.
 
 

Marylaine Block-- MLS, 1977 University of Iowa; MA American Civilization, 1968 University of Iowa. Began as reference librarian at SAU in 1977, being promoted to Associate Director in 1979; initiated Library's formal bibliographic instruction program; reviews books for Library Journal; writes internet weekly column, My Word’s Worth, originally for the London Mall Magazine, now located at QC Online; created and maintains WWW "Best Information on the Net" (BIOTN) and a site on all things book-related, BookBytes. Also writes a column for Fox News Online called Observing US (that title being the result of brainstorming between Marylaine, Pat and Nancy).
 
 

Kathy Byers--BA Accounting, 1995, St. Ambrose University. Twenty years experience in management and bookkeeping responsibilities for family owned business. Worked for 3½ years in Technical Services Department of this library prior to becoming administrative assistant to the library director. Member, Board of Directors - Illowa Chapter of the Institute of Management Accountants, Treasurer 97-98 and 98-99.
 
 

David Buffington--AA English, 1991 Scott Community College. Worked for Davenport Public Library for seven and one-half years in children's library, circulation, and technical services, as well as having experience in retail merchandising. Has been at SAU since January 1994, becoming Evening Circulation Supervisor in July 1995. Resigned May 1998.
 
 

Carol Anne Chouteau--BM Vocal Performance, 1982 St. Ambrose University. Experience in all aspects of library work progressing from page (Davenport P.L.) to circulation supervisor (SAU). Also worked at University of Missouri Kansas City, (general library) in Acquisitions and Serials/Continuations, and Midwest Research Institute Science and Technology Library overseeing the Barstow Library (economics department).
 
 

Jennifer Davis--MS in Library Science, 1990 Florida State University. From 1974 worked in research and statistics for various criminal justice agencies and the Division of Tourism for the state of Florida before joining SAU in 1993. Member - American Library Association, Beta Phi Mu.
 
 

Kathleen Dobbeleare--Black Hawk College LTA and computer management courses. Held circulation services positions at Black Hawk College and Rock Island Public Library. Member Phi Theta Kappa.
 
 

Eliza Gillies--BA English, 1973 Macalester College. Additional graduate hours in Library Science at the University of Iowa. Experience in educational advising and transcript evaluation at post-secondary institutions.
 
 

Susan Green--Board of Governors Degree, 1992 Western Illinois University. Six years at DeWitt Public Library as library clerk and children's librarian.
 
 

Stella Herzig--MLS, 1985 Kent State University. Ten years of experience in libraries including five years as reference librarian at Santa Barbara Public Library, California. Has been at SAU since January 1994.
 
 

Nancy Johnson-Van Hecke--BA English, 1973 Augustana College. Has progressed from Library Technical Assistant in cataloging to Administrative Assistant in Acquisitions. Has also worked occasionally as backup in Circulation and Reference. Prior to joining the SAU library staff, job experiences included restaurant management and social services for abused children.
 
 

Nanette Miller--MLS, 1995 University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. BA, 1994 Classical Languages, Kenyon College. Graduate study focused on computer automation and reference services. Three years experience working as assistant in several aspects of academic library settings, including circulation and document delivery. Created and maintains the library homepage.
 
 

Patricia Kranovich--MLS 1980, University of Iowa. Held Reference Positions at Cedar Rapids Public Library, Minnesota Valley Regional Library and Wartburg College. Member - American Library Association.
 
 

Harold Krubsack--MS in Education Technology, 1969 University of Wisconsin at Stout. Initially an instructor in media technology at U. of Wisc.; then 10 years as director of learning resources at Southwest Wisc. Technical Institute; moving to SAU in 1986 to coordinate the extensive media resources available to faculty, students, and staff. Member, Association of Education Communications Technology, Iowa Educational Media Association.
 
 

John Pollitz--MLS, 1990 University of Iowa. MA/History 1978 University of Denver. Began his career as a reference librarian at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. Was promoted to assistant director, automated services in 1992. Served as interim director at Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois during the 1994-1995 academic year. While at Augustana served as project director for an LSCA Title III grant-sponsored program that digitized local historical documents and photographs about the Quad Cities. The digitized material was then placed on the World Wide Web for use in elementary and high school classrooms. Began as library director of O’Keefe Library in June 1997.
 
 

Connie Schroeder--Secretarial degree from Eastern Iowa Community College, 1969; eight years in Bettendorf elementary school library and most recently one year in the SAU Records & Registration Office before coming to the library in June, 1997.