October 2000

Professional Development Program Awards In September, the Professional Development Program made three awards. Jacqueline Timer, Canton Free Library was awarded a stipend of $250 to attend "What's New In Young Adult Literature." Kathy LaBombard, Clinton Essex Franklin Library System, was awarded $265 to attend this year's New York Library Association Conference. And the Clinton Essex Franklin Library System was awarded $500 to assist them in sending staff members to attend "The Great American Bookmobile and Outreach Services Conference." The Professional Development Program assists the staff of member libraries in their professional development. Financial aid from this program enables staff to attend conferences, seminars, workshops and other educational activities that are not available locally. Stipends to a maximum of $500 are available to applicants. If you would like to know more about this program, guidelines and applications are available on the Council's website at www.nc3r.org or by telephone at (315) 386-4569. Previous recipients of Professional Development Grant stipends have provided notes from the events they attended. As always, library staff in the area are welcome to call upon these people to share their expertise. Elizabeth Young, SUNY Oswego, attended the American Library Association Conference 2000 in Chicago. Of special interest is the poster session she created for the conference. The presentation was titled The Coming of Age of Free Scholarly Journals? An Analysis of the Acceptance of Free Ejournals by Libraries and Abstracting and Indexing Services. She notes: "Our poster session was very well received and attended. There were people inquiring about the work even while we were setting up the display. Feedback was positive and constant. Many institutions have been concerned about providing access to free electronic journals but didn't have the initial concerns - e.g. where to find them, are they really free? - ironed out. Hopefully, the session conveyed places (websites) to approach as well as realize what is available and how other institutions promote their ejournals. Follow-up was provided for 35 individuals who requested further information on this topic and a handout of 'The Top 25 Free Scholarly Electronic Journals' was available to all who stopped by. This poster session was in collaboration with a former SUNY librarian, Michael Fosmire, currently at Purdue University."