President's Blog

President's Message - July 2020

Hello New Jersey Community,

To begin, I am hoping that you and your loved ones are safe, healthy, and abiding by mandates and recommendations that we know slow the spread of COVID-19. While it’s incredibly unfortunate that we haven’t seen each other face to face, I know that if we all do our part we’ll be able to with each other and those we love soon enough.

With that said, the high levels of uncertainties have significantly impacted how we move forward with planning the rest of 2020’s events. Our community’s leadership has made the difficult decision to cancel the New Jersey SLA 85th Anniversary Celebration. However, the programming committee has already convened to identify ways to celebrate and honor our community's milestone virtually. Other traditional in-person events will likely take place virtually, too. Please reach out to me if you would like to be involved.

In addition to our community’s event, SLA HQ has also announced that the annual conference, which was first postponed to October, will now be entirely virtual. I encourage you to read SLA’s official statement on the Coronavirus.  

The more we as a community and as New Jerseyans keep doing our part, the closer we are to being able to celebrate being together again. If there are any resources you need, I encourage you to review the New Jersey COVID-19 site. You can also find someone to talk to by dialing 1-866-202-HELP (4357) for free, confidential support. 

Stay safe, stay healthy, stay home when you can, 

Angela Pagliaro

Staying safe, staying healthy, and staying home 

Hello New Jersey,  

First and foremost, I am hoping that you and your loved ones are healthy, safe, and trying to find silver linings in this uncertain time. NJ.gov has resources available for learning more about COVID-19, keeping healthy, monitoring symptoms, and other information for public health and safety.    

The spread of the virus has put a lot of our lives, careers, and even our own optimism on hold, but I do want to share some positivity and updates for our community members.

The New Jersey Program Planning Committee had their first virtual round table! The event was held on April 3 during lunch, and had ten attendees sharing our “new normal” experiences (and grievances) with work and life. The committee would like to continue these programs and will announce the upcoming virtual round tables. Look out for more events similar to this one and find out how you can get involved or lead one of the discussions. 

As our state is instructed to continue practicing physical distancing for the foreseeable future, many of our planned events will be pushed back into the fall. This includes the 85th anniversary celebration that was originally planned for later this April. The event will be held in late September this year at the same location, the Hyatt Regency in New Brunswick, NJ. More details will follow as our state continues to slow the spread of the virus. 

At the association level, the annual conference (typically held in June) is now rescheduled for October 15-19, 2020 in Charlotte, North Carolina. 

I know we’re all eager to leave our house, hug loved ones, run a quick errand, make plans (then cancel plans!), and just have our lives back but it’s going to take time. Being in the field that we’re in, I know we’ll be vigilant about following the best practices for keeping our community safe and healthy, while sticking to the facts and the new reality the virus has forced on us. We’ll get through it, and we’ll do so by supporting each other (and for now, keeping our physical distance). 

If there are any resources you need, I encourage you to review the New Jersey COVID-19 site. You can also find someone to talk to by dialing 1-866-202-HELP (4357) for free, confidential support. Of course, if you’re interested in getting involved in our SLA community, please feel free to reach out to me directly. 

I like to take time to thank our program committee chair, Linda Salvesen on her flexibility and quick actions to create virtual programs this spring. I would also like to thank Julie Peters for her swift efforts to reschedule the 85th anniversary event. 

Stay safe, stay healthy, and stay home, good things will come. 

 Thank you,

Angela Pagliaro

Kicking off the new year!

Hello New Jersey,

Happy 2020! I’m Angela Pagliaro, your community president for this year, and I am looking forward to leading and growing our community for the next 12 months. I’d love to get to know as many members as possible during this time, whether it’s working with you virtually or seeing you at one of our events. 

You may have noticed that I referred to our unit as a ‘community’ and not a ‘chapter’. This is just one of the sweeping changes that the international association is making to the SLA brand and structure. This set of changes is intended to appropriately scale our association, while reducing the administrative burden of unit leaders. By moving away from these administrative responsibilities, our community can spend more time focusing on networking events, professional programs, and finding ways to support the professional development of our community members. So, in that spirit, please be sure to save the date for our New Jersey 85th Anniversary Celebration, the evening of Tuesday April 28th at the Hyatt Regency in New Brunswick!

One of the biggest changes that we will experience is a centralized, association-wide budget, no longer divided by unit. This change is concurrent with a reduction in required board positions- specifically, that of treasurer. However, communities still have the freedom to operate with additional board positions as they see fit; and therefore New Jersey will still operate with our treasurer (Anya Bartelmann). 

 The volunteers that will make up this year’s New Jersey leadership are: 

• Vice President/President- Elect: Linda Salvesen 
• Treasurer: Anya Bartelmann 
• Secretary: Emma C. Moore 
• Past President: Janet Cooper Weiss 

Kathy Taggart will continue to serve as our Director of Communications, and Jeanne Mauriello will continue to serve as our Webmaster. Committee work will also continue; Nick Consales will lead our membership committee, Tami Marshall is our employment chair, and Louise Deis remains our archivist; if you are interested in helping out or learning more, please get in touch. 

While more detailed changes will continue to unfold, my goal as New Jersey president is to continue finding new ways to serve our members. Programming, professional development, and networking opportunities will remain important priorities. If you are interested in getting involved in our community, please let me know and I can connect you! 

New Jersey is a small state, but we boast a healthy membership, and it is our members and volunteers that have made, and will continue to make, our community strong.

Thank you all and hope to see you soon! 

-Angela 

Fall 2019

Greetings All!

We are finally approaching the official end of summer although, from the temperatures outside today as I write this, that is not yet evident.  I hope you all had a bit of time to relax and refresh these past few months.

For NJ SLA, the summer was a time for dine-arounds (no host dinners) and planning programs for the future.  Coming up next, the Holiday Party and Annual Business Meeting.  Tentative date, December 11^th.

Plans are also underway for the 85^th Anniversary Celebration of the Founding of the NJ Chapter. SAVE THE DATE: Tuesday, April 28, 2020. Location: Hyatt Regency New Brunswick.

Summer also brought a call for nominations for the chapter's Executive Board.  Thanks go to Karen Botkin and her nominating committee, Sue Gleckner and Carol Paszamant.  We are fortunate that a few energetic people, committed to the continuation of this organization have volunteered to lead us into the next decade.  Nominations and self-nominations are open until September 20^th.

I encourage you all to consider building your resume and volunteering to assist Angela Pagliaro as she appoints people to head up the various committees that will help the group move forward.

As we move into the 85^th year of the NJ Chapter's existence, Louise Deis is investigating options to combine the archives of the NJ Chapter with the archives of the Greater Princeton-Trenton Area Chapter.  Digitization is one option on the table.  If you have experience  with this type of activity, please contact Louise to participate in the upcoming discussions.

From HQ and the SLA BOARD: 

• Virtual Career Fair– October 15, 12-3 p.m. (ET)
• Dates and location for the next LEADERSHIP SYMPOSIUM have been announced, January 18-20, 2020 at Hilton McLean Tysons Corner in McLean, VA. All members welcome.  Please attend to learn about how SLA functions and how you can contribute to SLA.  More info coming soon.
• Member Referral Program… Details coming soon.
• Unit Restructuring Proposal – proposal to restructure divisions and chapters into "COMMUNITIES". Search CONNECT or contact me if interested.

Thanks in advance for your input and energy.

Janet

Janet Cooper Weiss
jcweiss@optonline.net

Greetings NJ SLA! 

 I hope this message finds you well and enjoying some of the warmer weather we have been having lately. 

 Let me begin by thanking the 2018 Executive and Advisory Boards of the Chapter most expertly led by our outgoing President, Karen Botkin.  Karen stepped up to lead the chapter at a crucial time last year, most notably through the merger of the New Jersey Chapter with the Greater Princeton Area Chapter of SLA.  Blending units is never an easy task but Karen made it look seamless and effortless and we closed the year with this smoothly accomplished.

 Going forward, our Executive Board for 2019 includes:

 The Program Committee has been busy planning the first few meetings scheduled for the spring.  A webinar on the topic of succession planning is in the works for March.  A tour of the Firestone Library at Princeton University is on the calendar for early April, and a tour of the Holocaust Resource Center at Kean University in Union is scheduled for May.  Expect some dates and further details from Program Chair Angela Pagliaro very soon.

 Linda Salvesen, Membership Chair, and her committee have developed and distributed a new survey to gather input from you, our members.  I encourage you to respond. 

 Maxine Goldsmith and the Scholarship Committee have revised the criteria and deadlines for the Rosemary Allen Little and Frank H. Spaulding scholarships.  Applications will be accepted starting March 1^st.  Please see the website for further details.

 As you may have noticed, the website is under construction.  Jeanne Mauriello, our webmaster, has been diligently transferring files and content to a new website.  You can watch the progress by logging in at https://connect.sla.org/newjersey/home. 

 And speaking about the website, it would be terrific to have some photos to include there.  Volunteer to be the photographer!  Additional volunteer opportunities include hospitality at meetings (handing out name tags and greeting people as they arrive), and website migration assistance.

 Looking forward to hearing from you.

Cheers,

Janet

president.njsla@gmail.com

The Programming Committee and everyone associated with this year’s Technology Program deserve a round of applause for a wonderfully successful program.  Debbie Ginsberg was an energetic and informative speaker.  While we’re not yet ready to start trafficking in bit coin, the attendees mostly came away with an understanding of the blockchain process and how it might impact us as librarians.

We’re all anticipating a wonderful holiday party on Dec. 11.  The Rutgers Inn and Conference Center is the location for this event.  The evening will include our Annual Business Meeting, including the elections for next year’s Executive Board for the NJ Chapter.  We still need a member to step up and volunteer for the position of Secretary.  We will finish off the evening with the annual Gloria Dinerman Memorial White Elephant Gift Exchange.  Each year seems to bring the favorite gift that gets stolen often and yes, at least one white elephant.

 I have a standing offer to anyone along the northern part of the Route 287 corridor: if you cannot/prefer not to drive to the meeting, suggest a place on my way south to the meeting where you can be picked up easily.   I will pick up and deliver as many people as I can fit into my CRV and return each one, at the end of the evening, to the location where I picked you up.  I hope that location is far closer to home for you than it would be for you to drive to and from the meeting.  If there is anyone in the southern area willing to make a similar offer and pick up people to drive them north, to our meetings, please speak up.  We’re trying to pick physical locations for our meetings and dine arounds that are in the middle of the state.  We would like to see more people attend our in-person meetings.  I must admit that the company in the car at the end of the night is an added bonus for me as are the available cell phones with WAZE driving instructions being read off to me as I navigate the NJ traffic.

The plans for the 2019 Chapter year are beginning.  If you want to chime in with suggestions, please contact President-Elect Janet Weiss or soon to be Past-President Karen Botkin.  I look forward to seeing all of you on December 11th.

NOW it feels like summer!   AKA Dine Around season.

The NJ Chapter starts the Dine Around season with a house event.  Thank you in advance to Kate Creegan for hosting the first Dine Around at her home.  The second event is scheduled for July 11 at Fresco Steak and Seafood Grill.  Keep your eyes on the NJ Connect page or the NJ Chapter website for details.  A Dine Around for the Mercer County area is also in the planning stages.  If anyone else would like to see a dinner in their area, please contact Janet Weiss or Karen Botkin.

The 2018 Baltimore Conference is behind us.  I hope everyone from the Chapter who attended enjoyed the learning, the networking, and the good Baltimore food.  The weather was quite a different story from last year’s conference.  Congrats to Anya C. Bartelmann, one of this year’s SLA Rising Stars and Tammy Marshall, who presented a paper at the conference.  Tammy’s paper can be found here: https://www.sla.org/learn/research/sla-contributed-papers/2018-contributed-papers/ .

Janet Weiss and I attended the Cabinet meeting and the Joint Cabinet/Division meeting.  A new governance document was made available to us, and we will probably be updating the governance documents for the NJ Chapter later this year and into early next year using this document as a base.  Janet attended SLA’s Annual Business Meeting.  According to Headquarters, membership numbers are growing.  More positive news…projected Conference attendance was 1750; more than 1800 people attended. Seventy-six percent of the 4289 members of SLA are full dues paying members, and although the majority are still from North America, 47 countries are represented in the 49 chapters, 23 divisions and 11 caucuses.

Our Chapter is already looking forward to our technology meeting on Sept. 25th when Deborah Ginsberg, a special librarian from Chicago, will explain blockchain and its uses in the library world to us at the Rutgers Club on the Livingston Campus of Rutgers in Piscataway.  On this date, we will hold our Chapter’s Annual Business Meeting.  FYI, we have moved this from December to earlier in the year to allow the next Chapter Board to get a running start at 2019.  A key agenda item is election of officers for 2019.

 The Nominating Committee will be meeting over the summer to discuss filling open positions on the Executive Board which include President-Elect, Secretary and Treasurer.  Be brave, be daring, say “yes” when asked to serve. We have experienced Chapter members who are available to mentor anyone who wants to serve on the Chapter Board. You can also contact Karen or Janet to volunteer.  Taking a Board position is a great way to gain leadership skills in a totally supportive environment.  These skills can translate to your work environment.  Please contact Karen Botkin for additional details.

 We also need to fill Advisory Council positions, which include committee chairs. Contact Karen for a list of committees.  Some require only a few hours of work.  If more people volunteer, the work gets shared and more members have a chance to get to know the other members better, working side-by-side for the good of the Chapter.  Many hands make light work.

 Enjoy the rest of your summer.

HAPPY SPRING!!  I hope you are enjoying the beautiful weather and the very green grass.

Thank you to Janet Weiss’ programming committee for another successful library tour.  Louise Deis and Carol Paszamant coordinated with tour guides Emma Moore, Librarian for the Mathematics and Natural Sciences and Marcia Tucker, Librarian for the Historical Studies-Social Science Library, both at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.  There was a great turn out to hear about the history of the IAS and to see and hear about the Institute’s two different libraries.  We had a lovely day and enjoyed starting out the tour networking outside of Fuld Hall.  Thank you to our tour guides.

A few years ago, then Chapter President Claudia Cuca, did a survey to inquire about the Chapter members’ expectations.  Library tours were high on the response list.  Many of us find ourselves working with totally or almost totally electronic collections these days.  Having a chance to tour real working libraries like those at the IAS, ETS, and the Morristown New Jersey Historical and Genealogy Center were wonderful program adventures.  If anyone has a suggestion for tours in 2019, please contact Janet Weiss.

The Baltimore SLA Conference is next month.  I hope many of you intend to go and participate in the learning, networking, and fun that the annual Conference usually produces.  Please be sure to attend the East Coast Chapters’ Reception on Tuesday evening.  While you should register for tickets, there is no cost to participate but there will be prizes!

One of our new members, Anya C. Bartelmann, now working at Princeton University as Astrophysics, Mathematics and Physics Librarian, comes to us from the West Coast.  She is also one of the SLA Rising Stars who will receive an award at the Baltimore Conference.  Congratulations Anya and welcome.

Jeanne Mauriello, our Chapter Web expert, deserves a round of applause for proactively protecting our Chapter web site from the hacking that some of the other chapters experienced.  SLA Headquarters has changed the URL for the chapters’ web sites slightly to prevent additional hacking.  Our new URL is Newjersey.sla1.org .  We have been told, as of this writing (early May) that many of the Chapter web sites, including our site, are experiencing temporary connection problems.  Try to check SLA Connect for news of the Chapter and the association until this is rectified.

The Nominating Committee is forming.  We are looking for a few people who wish to help our Chapter keep operating and growing.  The more members become involved, the more we learn and grow.  If we can work together, one or two people do not become overwhelmed trying to keep our train on the tracks.  Please contact Karen Botkin if you want to be a part of the Board (We are looking for a President-Elect, Secretary and Treasurer for 2019) or a part of the Advisory Committee (Committees include Membership, Scholarship, Archives, Nominating, Programming.) Guidance is available from those of us who have held these positions in the past, so no volunteer will be set afloat without a life preserver!  Participating at the Chapter level is a great way to pick up some new skills in a supportive environment.

Keep your eyes posted to our pages on SLA Connect and your email for announcements about our upcoming summer dine-arounds.  These informal gatherings are a great way to connect with other members.

As National Volunteers Month draws to a close, I want to express my appreciation to each person on the Board and on the Advisory Council who makes this group run:

President-Elect: Janet Cooper Weiss

Director of Communications: Kathy Taggart

Treasurer: Joy Whitney

Secretary: Richard Jutkiewicz

Web Mistress: Jeanne Mauriello

Employment Chair: Tammy Marshall

Membership Chair: Maria Ortiz Myers

Scholarship Chair: Carol Feltes

Program Committee: Carol Paszamant, Louise Deis, Pat Dawson, Julie Peters, Kate Creegan, and Danielle Crammer

And anyone else I’ve forgotten

Thanks to Jeanne Mauriello, we had a wonderful tour of the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center in Morristown followed by a no host dinner.  There was a good turnout for this program and we are hoping for a good turnout for the May 8 tour of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, followed by dinner on site.  The flyer for the May tour is on the website.  Please register soon.  Thank you in advance to Louise Deis and Carol Paszamant for making the arrangements. My standing offer to drive a car pool to this meeting from northern NJ stands.  Contact me, please, about seating, etc.

 On April 16, I joined other library membership groups as well as potential employers to participate in a Career Expo at the SCI at Rutgers University.  There were few library majors however.  I did have a chance to speak with the group from LibraryLinkNJ who have initiated a program called MentorNJ.  Check this out to either participate to “share your experience and knowledge with other colleagues” or “explore valuable resources for those new to the profession or the state.”

 During the upcoming SLA Annual Conference in Baltimore, the NJ Chapter will be joining the other chapters from the East Coast to host an East Coast Reception on Tues., June 12, from 7-9 pm.  I believe this is a ticketed but free event.  Prizes and networking are being arranged by the committee.

 The Program Committee has a technology program in the works for this fall.  September 25 will see us at the Rutgers Club on the Livingston Campus to hear librarian Debbie Ginsberg speak about blockchain.  We would like to encourage a few more people to join the Rutgers Club as we need to have a member of their club for every nine guests we hope to have at our meeting.  Please contact me or Julie Peters who is our SLA member contact at Rutgers for instructions if you are interested.  Save the date to hear about this fascinating topic that Debbie tells me will impact everything. 

Summer Dine Arounds and a December holiday party are also being planned.  We still need volunteers for the Nominating Committee and the Archives Committee.

 Looking forward to the rest of a great year.

Hoping that we’ve seen the last of the 2018 snow, I’m looking forward to our March 22 tour of the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center in Morristown, NJ. Please contact President-Elect/Program Chair Janet Weiss or Jeanne Mauriello who arranged for the tour for details if you have not received an email with our flyer. The information for this program is also on the Web site and on our SLA Connect page. Registration is necessary as we need to know how big our tour group will be and how many people are planning to join us for the no-host dinner afterwards.

A tour of another unique library is in the works for later in the spring for the Princeton, NJ area.

On April 16, Rutgers’ School of Communication and Information is hosting their annual Career Expo. They are holding a table for members of our NJ Chapter to explain SLA and special libraries to their information professional students. Three years ago, Cindy Rockoff and I did this, and we both thoroughly enjoyed talking to the library students about Special Librarianship and what they could do with their degrees after graduation. A very energizing experience. Janet Weiss will be at the table this year and would appreciate having at least one or two other members join her.

Planning on going to SLA’s annual conference in Baltimore this summer? Let us know if you are planning to attend. Plans for a joint reception at the conference with other area chapters are in the works. If we have some willing volunteers, we can explore the idea of a kiosk for the chapter to offer information on the NJ Chapter activities.

Our Archives Committee and our Nominating Committee could still use some volunteers. Each group has a base but sharing the efforts will make for a more creative result. The Programming Committee has been considering hosting a webinar as one of our meetings this year. If you have some technical experience in this area, please contact Janet Weiss or Karen Botkin and offer to assist us.

Hope to see each one of you at a meeting this year.

The SLA Board approved the merger of the NJ Chapter – Greater Princeton Area and the NJ Chapter of SLA in December 2017.   I wish to gratefully acknowledge that following members who have agreed to serve for 2018:

EXECUTIVE BOARD

President-Elect: Janet Cooper Weiss

Secretary: Richard Jutkiewicz

Treasurer: Joy Whitney

Director of Communications: Katherine Taggart

ADVISORY BOARD

Archives: Open

Employment: Tammy Marshall

Membership:  Maria Ortiz-Myers

Nominating:  Open

Scholarship: Carol Feltes

Webmaster:  Jeanne Mauriello

Last month, the Board of the newly merged groups began the work of planning the programs and events for our chapter.  We are still looking for volunteers for all the committees necessary to insure a successful chapter.  If everyone volunteers for even one or two hours, we can all take pride in the well-run chapter that will result.

Janet Weiss, our 2018 President-Elect, is serving as Program Chair and looking for members for her Programming Committee.  The first program is already on the calendar for Thursday, March 22nd at 4:00 pm.  Thanks to Jeanne Mauriello, we will tour the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center.  James Lewis, who is the head of the department, will be conducting the tour.  A no-host dinner will follow at the Dublin Pub afterwards.  We hope to announce a tour in the Princeton area in the March-April time frame very soon.

The communications for our chapter are overseen by Kathy Taggart.  The chapter events will be listed on SLA Connect and Jeanne Mauriello, will keep the chapter’s website up-to-date.  Kathy will also send out these notices using the email addresses on the SLA Directory.  Please make sure that you are signed up for SLA Connect and that your listing in the SLA Directory is current and correct.

The website also includes the weekly job postings by Tammy Marshall.  Check those out for job-hunting ideas.

Maria Ortiz-Myers is working to engage and involve our membership.  You can develop your network by volunteering to assist Maria with contacting current and past members to encourage them to attend programs or become active as volunteers.

The Scholarship Committee, chaired by Carol Feltes, includes Maxine Goldsmith, Rich Jutkiewicz, and Sue Gleckner.  They plan to continue the work from 2017 for the Rosemary Allen Little scholarship awarded to students studying to be information professionals in a special library.  Next step is to revise the text describing the Little scholarship as well as the Frank Spaulding scholarship for 2018 and to publicize both awards to potential applicants.

Every Chapter member is encouraged to volunteer for something, offering only the time you can spare.  The results, I promise, will be worth the effort.

----Karen Botkin, 2018 President, NJ Chapter