InULA President's Report

Andrea Morrison
August 14, 1998

InULA is maintaining tradition and forging ahead with strength and pride. I'm proud of how hard we worked this year to promote excellence in library service and to provide opportunities for continuing education and professional development, which is our purpose as stated in our Constitution. The accomplishments of the InULA Board and Committees have made this organization stronger today than it was a year ago. They include improving communication and social interaction, revising the Constitution and By-laws, and increasing professional development and other grant opportunities.

InULA began the year with the theme: Exploring the issues of academic librarianship. We wanted to focus on the question 'Are we meeting the challenge of a changing profession?' both as an organization and as individual members. The kickoff to our membership year began with our annual fall membership meeting, Oct. 13, 1998 at the University Club in Bloomington Indiana. The program for this meeting focused on our theme and included speakers Sylvia Turchyn from Bloomington, Sue Skekloff from IUPU-Fort Wayne, and Marie Wright from IUPUI, with Mary Rosen from IUSE as the moderator. About 30 people attended, and the feedback on this program and venue were very positive. By the end of the year, on May 26, 1998, InULA had 100 members, including 90 regular members, 5 associate members, and 5 friends.

This past year, InULA has increased our scholarship awards. We have increased support for professional development by implementing the first year of the new professional development grant, which funded two programs. We have improved the procedures and the reporting for this grant and for the Research Incentive Fund Grant, a dependable source of funding for librarian research. We have completely revised InULA's web pages this year and our Listserv InULA-L. One issue of InULA Notes has been published, and one is nearly ready to be published. We are in the process of revising the Constitution and By-Laws in order to help this organization achieve its goals more easily. We also had a successful Booksale, which is crucial for funding InULA activities. We are actively planning future activities, social and program events for members, and encouraging member involvement.

InULA awarded three Research Incentive Fund grants of $800.00 each in 1997/98. Emma Dederick-Colón was awarded a RIF in September 1997 for her research project: "Latin American Popular Music: A Collection of 78s sound recordings available at the Archives of Traditional Music at Indiana University." Jo Burgess was awarded a RIF in December 1997 for her research project: "The David S. McIntosh and Garry L. Harrison Collections of Southern Illinois Folk Music." Also, in March 1998, Lou Malcomb was awarded a RIF for her research project: "Preserving Indiana's Cartographic Heritage: Indiana Maps at IUB." These grant recipients will write a report on their research for the InULA Board, partly to be published in InULA Notes. This year the Board revised the Guidelines and Application forms for the Research Incentive Funds grants and for the scholarships and then posted them on the InULA web pages.

InULA awarded two $1,000.00 scholarships this year to SLIS students Lisa Marie Julka and Brianne Williams. This was an increase from last year's total award of $1,200.00, also made to two students. The Board felt increasing this amount matched inflation, provided two students with substantial benefit and opportunity, and met the scholarship intentions of InULA as stated in the past. The winning scholarship essays will be published in InULA Notes.

I wish to thank all of InULA's Board members and Committee members for their commitment, hard work, and numerous accomplishments this past year. I particularly thank the Committee Chairs for their outstanding contributions. These are Suzanne Mudge and MaryAnn Hight, Booksale Committee, Co-Chairs; Emma Dederick-Colón, Communications Committee; Richard Humphrey, Constitution and By-Laws Committee; Gail Mackay, Professional Development Committee (Continuing Education Committee); and Charlotte Hess, Social and Program Committee. Each year InULA's Committees make a formal report to the Board, which we should see on InULA's web pages.

The Booksale Committee, in charge of InULA's main fundraiser, ran a successful booksale April 19-20, 1998, which raised $4,331.10. The Communications Committee completely revised, updated, and maintained InULA web pages at http://www.indiana.edu/~inula/. They added an archival section to keep track of changes to the website for the Board. They published notes/v14/no1/inulanotes14-1.html InULA Notes, vol. 14, no. 1, March 1998 on the web and offered a printed and an e-mail version to members. This issue included a letter from the President; articles "The Tie That Binds", by InULA Vice-President, Larry Griffin; "Publish, Perish - or Participate?" by Nancy Cridland; and "Opportunities for Collaborative Research on Information Technology and Social Change in Academic Libraries", by Mark T. Day. It also included news, up-coming events, membership information, and last year's scholarship essays, "Philosophy of Librarianship and Career Goals", by Eve Bates, and "Librarianship: A Gateway, A Challenge, An Enthusiastic Goal", by Maeleah Carlisle. A second issue of InULA Notes is forthcoming. The InULA Listserv, InULA-L, was updated. It was used regularly for announcements from the Board and from Committees, and for membership discussions. An archives for InULA-L will soon be available. [visit the InULA-L Archives]

Our Constitution and By-Laws Committee presented amendments to the membership for a very thorough updating of InULA's Constitution and By-Laws. A ballot is planned to be sent out Fall 1998, after the Constitution and By-Laws and the proposed revisions are published on InULA's website.

The Professional Development Committee implemented the new InULA Professional Development Grants, which were established in 1996/97. Two grants were awarded in 1997/98. A joint project by Nancy Wootton Colborn and Michele Cash Russo of IUSB received $671.33 to fund a program entitled "CLASS: Customer Service Training." CLASS is an acronym for Customer Leaving Appreciative, Satisfied and Sold. This program was presented three times throughout 1997/98. The second grant, of $560, was awarded to Chris Long of the IU School of Law, Indianapolis, to provide a workshop entitled, "Coping with Technostress: How to Stay Sane in Interesting Times." A video of this workshop will be cataloged for the IU Main Library, Bloomington. The Committee also refined the Professional Development Grant procedures printed in the Guidelines and Application documents, which are available on the InULA web pages. Although we have referred this year to the old Continuing Education Committee as the Professional Development Committee, this actually requires a change in the Constitution and By-Laws, and it will be considered when the membership votes on the ballot to change the Constitution and By-Laws Fall 1998.

InULA's Election Committee is chosen by lot, according to the Constitution and By-Laws. This year's committee had the difficult task of running InULA's first electronic election. The decision to do this was made at the May Business Meeting, May 26, 1998. Problems concerning privacy and authorization were immediately apparent when the ballot was first mailed on the InULA Listserv. Also, the ballot was corrected electronically several times, which added to the confusion. I invalidated the electronic election and assisted the Election Committee to send out paper ballots. A new InULA Board was elected before the beginning of its term August 1, 1998. InULA is ready to learn from this experience and to apply this knowledge to developing a better method of balloting. The Board has received written recommendations on this subject from the Election Committee and the Communications Committee, and next year's Board has been charged with the challenge of planning and running an election with new technology.

InULA's Social and Program committee focused its activities on the theme of faculty status for librarians. It sponsored several lunches in various parts of the state, and also a special festive program on faculty status at Librarians day in Kokomo. The Committee is planning future programs on this topic and possibly an anniversary program for InULA next year.

Among additional activities, InULA co-sponsored the preservation program "Into the Future", on April 23, 1998, which provided a panel discussion on the hidden crisis of digital information. On Librarians Day, May 8, 1998, Vice-President Larry Griffin presented the president's report. He also presented InULA's $800 donation to University Dean of University Libraries, Suzanne Thorin, which represented two year's of InULA's traditional Dean's Fund gift.

InULA began the fiscal year with a balance of $13,622.26 and ended with a balance of $12,250.20. Considering all we have done this year, and the fact that revenue varies quite a bit with booksale receipts, a total fiscal year loss of $1,372.06 is within acceptable parameters. The Board has long recognized that InULA needs an additional revenue source, instead of depending on one fundraiser.

These funds have helped us meet our goals this past year. The Preamble to the InULA Constitution, as approved in 1994, states:

In support of the mission and goals of the Indiana University Librarian's Association (InULA), members are committed to enhancing the professional excellence of Indiana University librarians throughout all stages of their careers. InULA is a self-directed and self-governing organization. It provides professional and personal support to its members by helping them develop opportunities and celebrate their achievements.
I think two key words in this Preamble are 'self-directed' and 'self-governing.' InULA is and should be what the members desire, and actively pursue. This past year we have focused specifically on the theme: Exploring the issues of academic librarianship. It's a good theme, but that's not the point of InULA. I think our point is well-expressed in the Preamble: "we are committed to enhancing the professional excellence of Indiana University librarians throughout all stages of their careers." With this as our purpose, InULA can always be fresh, always be optimistic, and always plan for the future with enthusiasm and hope. I hope that you share this vision of InULA with me, and will share in the activities of InULA next year. Let us consider what future we members want for InULA. As the outgoing President, it is my pleasure to show in this report that InULA has provided wonderful opportunities to its members in research, communication, professional development, and programming, and has promoted the library profession at Indiana University. InULA has a bright, shining future, and I am proud I was part of this past year, and I am looking forward to what we will see. Be a part of it.