This is the first of a series of periodic updates that will be sent electronically from the Mortenson Center to keep you informed about our activities to strengthen international ties among libraries and librarians worldwide and to let you know about opportunities for involvement.
The new Director, Barbara J. Ford, joined the center in January. Susan Schnuer continues in the key role of Assistant Director.
RECENT ACTIVITIES
On January 31, we said farewell to the Mortenson Associates from Fondayson Konesans AK Libete (FOKAL), Open Society, Haiti, who spent 6 months with us. Thierry Cherizard whose Mortenson friend was Scott McEathron, Pierre Fouche whose Mortenson Friend was Al Kagan, and Frantz Telfort whose Mortenson friends were Barbara Jones and David Dorman, left us to spend one month at the Queens Borough Public Library before returning to Haiti to continue their work with public libraries. The Mortenson friends felt they got a lot out of participating in the program.
Two Mortenson Associates are still in the Center. Tatiana Rassokhina from Tula State University, Russia, and Maira Tungatarova from National Youth Library, Kazakhstan, are with us for one year and will leave later this spring. They are Muskie Fellows funded by a U. S. government program. Mortenson friend to Tatiana is Lisa Hinchliffe, and Maira’s Mortenson friend is Mitzi Williams. Tatiana recently met with Stephen Smith and Michael Norman to discuss copy and serial cataloging.
On January 30, 13 librarians from Ecuador and their interpreters sponsored by the State Department spent the day with us. Thanks to Nelly Gonzalez, Robert Burger and Cindy Ingold who spoke to the librarians and helped us host them. They left after only one day to visit the American Library Association in Chicago and then to go on to the University of Kentucky. Special thanks to Nelly and her staff who set up a display of materials about Ecuador and books written by authors from Ecuador. In return, we received a number of publications to add to our collections.
For the second year in a row, GSLIS and the Mortenson Center have awarded a scholarship to two individuals to attend the BOBCATSSS conference. The BOBCATSSS conference is an annual European symposium in the field of library and information education and research. The symposium is organized by library science students from two different European universities. This year, the symposium will be held in Torun, Poland, from February 3-5, 2003. We are pleased to announce that Lynne
Rudasill from the University Library and Jessica Jones Moyer, a GSLIS student, are the recipients of the 2003 scholarship.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Upcoming events include a one day visit by 6 Azeri librarians and their interpreters on February 7 sponsored by the State Department. Fred Schlipf, Lisa Hinchliffe, Linda Smith and Tatiana Rassokhina (Mortenson Associate) will make presentations for the librarians during their one day visit and Muzhgan Narazova (a GSLIS Ph.D. student from Azerbaijan) will assist in hosting the visitors.
Olena Bashun from the Dontsk Regional Scientific Library, Ukraine, will arrive on February 20 and be at the Mortenson Center for about 4 months.
Stefan Siebert from Universitatsbibliothek Rostock, Germany, will arrive on March 8 and be with us for about four weeks. Tom Kilton will welcome him while Barbara and Susan are in South Africa.
The Mortenson Center Advisory Committee will meet on February 11 in the Center. Suggestions for possible Mortenson Distinguished Lecturers are welcome.
On February 12, Susan and Barbara will make a presentation about the Mortenson Center to Terry Weech’s GSLIS Global Issues class.
Susan has been very involved in organizing the library’s participation in the University’s International Program Fair on February 13. Join us in welcoming students as we promote the use of our resources.
Barbara and Susan will leave at the end of February for South Africa to continue work on the South Africa Library Leadership Program in association with the Library and Information Science Association of South Africa and funded by the Mellon Foundation. Susan Russell from the University of Toronto will join us on this two week evaluation trip. Sue Searing will continue to be involved with this project and is helping us prepare for the orientation training in South Africa. Barbara will spend two days in Botswana with Kay Raseroka, the president-elect of IFLA, talking about her planned presidential activities at the beginning of the trip.
On March 17, a group of Russian librarians will spend the day with us at the Mortenson Center. On March 19, Susan and Barbara will make a presentation at the On the Front Lines Conference sponsored by the State Library in Springfield.
We always need people who are interested in serving as Mortenson friends to work with Associates and help them get oriented to the library and community. If you would like more information or are interested in getting involved in any Mortenson Center activities, please let us know.