The past three months since my last report have been full of HSLI committee business. As conference planning chair, most of my time has gone into meeting planning. The committee has put together a great program and made extra efforts to reach out to non-HSLI members. We did attract some non-members this year, so please be sure to tell your colleagues outside of HSLI about what HSLI meetings have to offer.
I am very pleased to have three student interns from the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign participating in conference planning and attending the meeting. Please be sure to introduce yourself to Nicole, Rachel, and Taylor if you are attending the conference.
Daneen and I are working on the 2015 conference in Peoria, A Library State of Mind. This is a joint meeting of all Illinois library associations and should be an excellent opportunity to expose more Illinois librarians to HSLI. If you want to join the conference planning committee, please contact me or Daneen.
As a member of the ad hoc Helen Knoll Jira Scholarship committee I worked with Daneen Richardson and Dianne Olson to set up an investment account for the fund through Vanguard. Through the generous donations of HSLI members and the dividends paid to the fund we hope that the fund will soon generate enough income that we will be able to begin offering awards for graduate study in library science and allied fields. Information on a bylaws amendment to make the Helen Knoll Jira Scholarship Committee a standing HSLI committee will be distributed at the Business Meeting on Friday and also to the HSLI Newsletter and Listserv. After the 30 day comment period, we will hold a vote on the question of amending the HSLI Bylaws to add the committee.
Those of you attending the conference will have a chance to purchase an HSLI shirt. Shirts are available in unisex short sleeve, ladies’ long sleeve, and men’s long sleeve. Stop by the table at Nancy’s Reception to purchase a shirt. Short sleeve is $15.00, long sleeve $20.00. I hope that everyone will wear these shirts often to raise awareness for HSLI.
With the upcoming retirement of Rhona Kelly, I have appointed Laura Wimmer to serve as a new Regional Advisory Committee representative. I know Laura will clearly present the issues affecting Illinois hospital libraries. Arlis Dittmer has also recently retired and a replacement for her RAC position will be appointed soon.
The Midwest Chapter MLA has changed their procedures for appointing state liaisons, and we are waiting to see who will be appointed. If you are an active Midwest Chapter member and interested in being included in the selection pool as the HSLI liaison, please contact Mary Hitchcock, mhitchcock@library.wisc.edu.