On March 19, 2009, Rebecca Christie at the Washington State Dept. of Transportation (WSDOT) Materials Laboratory Library posted a message on TRANLIB trying to find a home for historical ASTM standards volumes (1939-1999) that were being withdrawn by the Washington State Library (WSL).

Rebecca outlined how access to historical ASTM standards is problematic due to limited availability of print copies, along with high cost, licensing restrictions and limited coverage in the online environment.

After some investigation, the FHWA Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center (TFHRC) managers agreed to take the standards both because TFHRC labs frequently need inactive historical standards and as a service to the transportation community.

Now that a home for the standards was found, WSDOT librarians went to work on the logistics of packing and shipping the standards, most importantly who would pay for the shipment of 60 boxes (1200+ volumes) across the country?

Kathy Szolomayer, WSDOT Librarian, submitted a proposal to the Transportation Library Connectivity Pooled Fund Study to fund the relocation of the standards from Olympia, WA, to McLean, VA. Much to our delight, the pooled fund selected our proposal as a project to fund.

Upon learning of this project, Inez Hopkins offered several additional years of historical standards from Idaho DOT. She graciously boxed-up and shipped these to FHWA, too.

The standards have been received, shelved, inventoried, and cataloged. Kim Edwards, Technical Services Librarian, has provided detailed holdings information in the OCLC serial records (5918504, 5828986, 5828994, 5829001, and 2187052) so that libraries will know exactly which years/volumes FHWA holds.

"From concept to completion, this project was a collaborative effort of pooled fund and TKN members that directly illustrates the power of networking."

"By adopting these volumes that would have been discarded, the FHWA Research Library will insure that access to this information is preserved... Completion of this project represents a very successful outcome that will benefit the transportation information and knowledge management community for many years to come."

(Kathy Szolomayer, Final Report on Proposal #2 to Transportation Library Connectivity Pooled Fund Study, Year 4)

Recognition also goes to the Washington State Library who agreed to give the collection to transportation libraries, worked with WSDOT on access to the WSL storage facility, did the de-acquisition work, and followed-through by searching for missing volumes in other parts of their collections.

John McKenna, Collection Management Librarian, shelving ASTMs in new location.

Dear colleagues,

 I'm excited and honored to be chair of the SLA Transportation Division for 2010, following in the footsteps of Rita Evans, our new past chair. Thank you, Rita, for your excellent leadership of the Division; you are a true role model!

A few initiatives the Board and I hope to focus on this year include:
1) A new award for Division members, to be unveiled at the SLA Annual Conference in June
2) The development of a strategic plan for the Division
3) Membership growth

The SLA Annual Conference will be June 12-16 in New Orleans, Louisiana. I encourage all of you to attend. Registration is now open at http://www.sla.org/content/Events/conference/ac2010/index.cfm; register by April 2 for the best rate.

Highlights of the conference include:

    * All-day networking and learning from each other at GTRIC, on Sunday June 13
    * Keynote speeches by James Carville & Mary Matalin, and a provocative talk by Nicholas Carr of the Harvard Business Review on why IT is no longer relevant
    * Educational sessions to help you refresh your professional skills
    * Dinners and receptions for fun and socializing
    * Continuing from last year's conference: Unconferences and free wi-fi

I just returned from the Leadership Summit in St. Louis, Missouri. It was so motivating to learn more about SLA, the benefits the Association provides, and its future direction. Did you know that most of the resources in  Click University are free to members? Topics range from search strategies to web site management tips to career development tips.  SLA also offers free access to book summaries from execuBooks, so we can all stay up-to-date on the latest business and management books. Not to mention the resources of the Career Center, Information Outlook magazine, discounts on other library association memberships and conferences, and outstanding networking opportunities. Check it out at www.sla.org.

If you have questions or suggestions, or if you'd like an opportunity to become more involved in the Division, please call or e-mail me.

Regards,

Arlene

Arlene Mathison, Chair
Transportation Division, SLA

Director of Digital Information and Library Services
Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota
mathi032@umn.edu
612-624-3646

A.J. Million recently blogged the value of transportation libraries, updating ROI work that had been done in the 2003 MNDOT report. Check it out!

Make your voice heard in the SLA election that is now in progress - this is your chance to affect change in the direction of the Association.

Since we all know the value of information and that an informed voter will cast an informed vote, I want to pass on a package of information about each of the candidates. This information has been circulating on many chapter and division lists and offers no endorsements one way or the other.

The polls close October 1st at 5:00 pm EDT. To learn more about the eVote and to vote, just login at this URL: <http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/governance/2010bodelect/evote.cfm>

>>> Psst, pass this on! >>>
_________________________________________________
2010 Board of Directors Candidates
http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/governance/bodsection/can/09cand/index.cfm

President-Elect:
Agnes K. Mattis
Biography http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/governance/bodsection/can/09cand/mattis.cfm
SLA TV Speech & Response to Questions http://www.slatv.org/media.cfm?c=549&m=2394&s=118&
Twitter http://twitter.com/agneskm
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/agnes.mattis
Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/pub/agnes-mattis/3/399/796
Blog

Cindy Romaine
Biography http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/governance/bodsection/can/09cand/romaine.cfm
SLA TV Speech & Response to Questions http://www.slatv.org/media.cfm?c=549&m=2395&s=118&
Twitter http://twitter.com/cindyaromaine
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/cindy.romaine
Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/in/cromaine
Blog http://futurereadyblog.com/

Treasurer:
Karen Reczek
Biography http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/governance/bodsection/can/09cand/Reczek.cfm
SLA TV Speech & Response to Questions http://www.slatv.org/media.cfm?c=549&m=2392&s=118&
Twitter
Facebook
Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/pub/karen-kreizman-reczek/0/666/245
Blog

Dan Trefethen
Biography http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/governance/bodsection/can/09cand/trefethen.cfm
SLA TV Speech & Response to Questions http://www.slatv.org/media.cfm?c=549&m=2393&s=118&
Twitter
Facebook
Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dan-trefethen/3/95b/319
Blog

Chapter Cabinet Chair-Elect:
Liz Blankson-Hemans
Biography http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/governance/bodsection/can/09cand/blanksonhemans.cfm
SLA TV Speech & Response to Questions http://www.slatv.org/media.cfm?c=549&m=2390&s=118&
Twitter http://twitter.com/lizbh
Facebook http://en-gb.facebook.com/people/Liz-Blankson-Hemans/684559128
Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/pub/liz-blankson-hemans/2/8ab/884
Blog

Debal C. Kar
Biography http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/governance/bodsection/can/09cand/kar.cfm
SLA TV Speech & Response to Questions http://www.slatv.org/media.cfm?c=549&m=2391&s=118&
Twitter
Facebook
Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/pub/debal-chandra-kar/8/b70/4b4
Blog

Division Cabinet-Elect:
Mary Ellen Bates
Biography http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/governance/bodsection/can/09cand/bates.cfm
SLA TV Speech & Response to Questions http://www.slatv.org/media.cfm?c=549&m=2396&s=118&
Twitter http://twitter.com/mebs
Facebook
Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/in/maryellenbates
Blog http://www.librarianoffortune.com/

Stacey Greenwell
Biography http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/governance/bodsection/can/09cand/greenwell.cfm
SLA TV Speech & Response to Questions http://www.slatv.org/media.cfm?c=549&m=2397&s=118&
Twitter http://twitter.com/staceygreenwell
Facebook
Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/in/staceygreenwell
Blog http://staceygreenwell.blogspot.com/

The Transportation Division of SLA has received a generous $5000 donation from the University of California Berkeley Transportation Center to support the efforts of libraries to facilitate the transfer of information and research results from universities and other sources to practitioners in state DOT's, transit agencies, metropolitan planning organizations and private industry.

A five-member Division task force has been created to recommend to the Division Board how best to use this gift.  The task force has come up with some possible ideas for using the funds and is seeking additional suggestions from SLA TD members and friends. 

Suggested criteria for initiatives include:

•  An innovative project, technique, tool or practical solution that improves or would improve access/ dissemination/ retrieval of transportation research and would benefit the transformation information community
• Topics may include but are not limited to cooperative collection development, outreach, metadata, knowledge management, technical services, Web 2.0, etc.
• Initiatives can be for a single year or cover multiple years
• Funds will not be used for travel
• Ideas should be submitted by Friday, October 2, 2009 to: Jane Minotti, Treasurer, SLA Transportation Division   jminotti@dot.state.ny.us