Virginia Libraries is a quarterly journal VLA CENTENNIAL published by the Virginia Library Asso- ciation whose purpose is to develop, promote, and improve library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to advance Keepsake Edition literacy and learning and to ensure access to information in the Common- wealth of Virginia. The journal, distributed to the membership, is used as a vehicle for members to exchange information, ideas, and solutions to mutual prob- Virginia lems in professional articles on current topics in the library and information field. Views expressed inVirginia Librar- ies are not necessarily endorsed by the editor or editorial board. The Virginia Library Association (VLA) holds the copyright on all articles published in Virginia Libraries whether Libraries the articles appear in print or electronic July/August/September, 2005, Vol. 51, No. 3 format. Material may be reproduced for informational, educational, or rec- reational purposes provided the source Ruth E. Kifer 3 President’s Column of the material is cited. The print ver- sion of Virginia Libraries is designed by Lamp-Post Publicity in Meherrin, Virginia. The electronic version of Vir- Section 1: VLA in Perspective ginia Libraries is created by Virginia Alyssa Altshuler 5 The Virginia Library Association: Tech’s Digital Library and Archives and A Retrospective is available at http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ Alyssa Altshuler 11 Officers of the Virginia Library Association ejournals/VALib or as a link from the Greg S. Grunow 15 A VLA Conference Retrospective Virginia Library Association web site at http://www.vla.org. Virginia Librar- ies is indexed in Library Literature, a database produced by the H.W. Wilson Section 2: Paraprofessionals and Partnerships Company. Donna Gant 21 The Paraprofessional Forum Sandra Gioia Treadway 29 A Century of Partnership: LVA and VLA Items for publication and edito- Jim Gwin 35 The Win, Win Machine: Dennis Robison rial inquiries should be addressed to Reflects on VIVA, Undergraduate Libraries, the editor. Inquiries regarding mem- and Library Instruction bership, subscriptions, advertising, or claims should be directed to VLA, P.O. Box 8277, Norfolk, VA 23503- 0277. All personnel happenings and Section 3: VLA Awards announcements should be sent to the Alyssa Altshuler 38 Virginia Library Association Awards VLA Newsletter, Audrey M. Kelly, 2320 Sandra Shell 42 VLA Scholarship Winners Park Avenue, Richmond, VA 23220, [email protected], 804-359- 1925. Virginia Libraries is available by subscription at $25 per year. Section 4: VLA Publications Alyssa Altshuler 46 Publications of the Virginia Library Association The editors and staff are listed on the Cy Dillon and 48 A Particular Perspective: Our Editors Speak inside back cover. C. A. Gardner JULY–SEPTEMBER, 2005 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 3 PRESIDENT’S COLUMN Our Libraries: The Second Hundred Years, A Vision by Ruth E. Kifer n 1905, leaders in the library means, including carriage and bi- profession would have had cycle. When the cost of manufac- little way of knowing that in turing automobiles was decreased Ione hundred years the library as an in Henry Ford’s assembly line fac- institution would serve the role that tories, ownership of this mode of it does presently, or that the library transportation came within reach as a physical entity would look as of the average American. That de- it does today. Libraries in the first velopment dramatically changed decade of the twentieth century the culture and society of the were scholarly, quiet, intimidating, United States in ways that those elite, restrictive institutions that early automobile makers would not served primarily as warehouses of have been able to predict. Similar- books. Over the past one hundred ly, information technology today years, libraries of all kinds have is changing at an ever-faster pace, become more accessible, inclusive, making the future of libraries and service-focused, dynamic, learning- learning difficult to foretell. How- centered, and format neutral; and … today’s students are ever, we need to be able to see the they have become less restrictive, not the people that our information technology corollaries stuffy, elitist, and prescriptive. To- to the national highway system, day’s libraries provide 24/7 access educational systems were the need for automobile registra- to digital resources, offer commu- tion, cars dependent upon com- nity programming, teach users to designed to teach. puter chips, or GPS automotive effectively retrieve and use infor- navigational devices. mation, serve as community and The number of individuals who campus gathering places, and give physical spaces survive? Will the have never known a world without access to the universe of informa- book as a relevant medium for con- computers continues to grow, and tion available via the World Wide veying information, knowledge, that population mass of consum- Web. Both public and academic learning, understanding, entertain- ers, learners, teachers, parents, leg- libraries include teaching library ment, and discourse exist outside islators, and other library constitu- users lifelong learning skills as a of museums? Are we in 2005 any ents think and behave differently crucial part of their missions; and better equipped than the founders than those who came of age in an all libraries hold sacred their com- of VLA to peer into the future and earlier time. Marc Prensky, author mitment to provide open, uncen- predict the state of libraries one and producer of video games, ex- sored access to information. hundred years hence? plains in his writings that today’s Questions about the future of What we do know is that li- students are not the people that the library abound in library litera- braries have developed and grown our educational systems were de- ture and in conversations taking over the past one hundred years signed to teach. He refers to those place within the profession. Will in response to the changes and ad- who have grown up in a digital libraries as we know them exist in vancements in our society at large. world as “digital natives” and those ten, twenty, fifty, or more years? In 1905, although automobiles who have moved to the digital Will librarianship as a profession were owned by wealthy individu- world later in life as “digital immi- remain viable? Will libraries as als, most people traveled by other grants.”1 Librarian Sarah Ann Long, PAGE 4 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES JULY–SEPTEMBER, 2005 building upon Prensky’s premise, human portals. Librarians will not are about lifelong learning, about suggests in a recent article that not only teach library users to navigate relationships, about community, only must our schools change to the information technology ter- about place, and, most important, meet the needs of students whose rain, but also be an important part about people. brains have actually developed in of the design and development of As we commence upon the next ways different than those of “digi- information systems that are more one hundred years of the Virginia tal immigrants,” but libraries must intuitive to “digital natives” so Library Association, I challenge all also change in order to remain that information literacy skills in- Virginia librarians to look beyond relevant.2 If Prensky and Long are struction will be embedded in the the library as we know it; to look correct, and I believe that they information resources themselves. beyond the perceived differences are, then our libraries, academic There are enormous challenges between public, school, univer- and public, must make dramatic facing librarians as we make this sity, and college libraries; to look changes, and quickly. In his 2004 transformation. Librarians must beyond the divisions between article, David W. Lewis challenges publishers and librarians; to look academic librarians to prepare to beyond our sometimes elitist view live in a library world shaped by …libraries are of the inadequacy of Google; to disruptive technologies. He coun- look beyond the current pool of sels that librarians must be ready about lifelong learning, prospective library recruits; and to diametrically change our orga- to effect change in our collective nizations, invest in new and some- about relationships, mindset and create libraries that times untested technologies, take about community, will truly be responsive to the calculated risks, and trust groups needs of the generations now born within the organization to develop about place, and, most into a digital world. We need not exploratory projects. Like Prensky compromise our underlying and and Long, he makes the important important, about people. historical mission and goals; rath- point that we must listen and act er, we must be willing to risk em- upon the needs of students (digi- ploying vastly different means to tal natives), not just their teachers become active players in the na- achieve the very same values held (digital immigrants).3 tional public policy debate sur- by our founders in 1905. The future of libraries is being rounding intellectual property and shaped by visionary leaders in licensing issues. We must partner Notes the profession today. These lead- with publishers, vendors, and lead- ers see libraries as gateways to ers such as Google so that libraries 1 Marc Prensky, “Digital Na- comprehensive digital collections, are proactive and not reactive. We tives, Digital Immigrants,” in Marc as institutions committed to ac- must engage our communities in Prensky — Writing [website] October cess to information resources and the planning, design, and imple- 2001 [cited 24 June 2005]; available not ownership of resources, as mentation of new technologies from http://www.marcprensky. valued community resources, as and services. We must reach out to com/writing. interactive learning centers, and our allies and prospective donors 2 Sarah Ann Long, “Digital Na- as institutions that have both re- in the public and the private sector tives: If You Aren’t One, Get to tained a physical place and built to provide enhanced funding for Know One,” New Library World 106 a ubiquitous virtual place in the our organizations.