[Asis-l] New Publication Available

[GSLIS Publications Office]

Now available from the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library
and Information Science Publications Office:

Library Trends, 51(1), Summer 2002
"Services to the Labor Community" edited by Deborah Joseph Schmidle

Single copies are $25, including postage. Subscription rates for the
quarterly are: Institutional, $94 per volume ($101 for international
subscribers); Individual, $66 per volume ($73 for international
subscribers); and Student, $28 per volume ($35 for international
subscribers). ISSN 0024-2594 Order single copies or subscriptions from the
University of Illinois Press, Journals Department, 1325 S. Oak Street,
Champaign, IL 61820; 1-866-244-0626; fax: 217-244-9910; e-mail:
journals at uillinois.edu.

This issue is the brainchild of a committee with an unusual membership:
six librarians and six representatives of organized labor. The American
Federation of Labor/Congress of Industrial Organizations
(AFL-CIO)/American Library Association (ALA) Joint Committee on Library
Service to Labor Groups, which celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in
2001, is committed to the current charge to "initiate, develop, and foster
ways and means of effecting closer cooperation between the librarian and
labor organizations and the large constituency represented by the labor
organizations" (ALA Handbook of Organizations, 2000-2001, pp. 21-22). 

While serving as cochair of the joint committee, and as a reference
librarian in Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations
Library, I noticed that the subject of library services to American labor
unions received scant attention. This dearth of discussion is remarkable,
not only because of the long history of library-labor interaction, but
also because of the scale (or potential scale) of such interaction. There
are over 16 million labor union members in the United States (Bureau of
Labor Statistics, 2002) and approximately 100 industrial and labor
relations programs in universities throughout the United States and
Canada.*

The nine articles in this issue reflect the diversity of the joint
committee membership and the collaboration between librarians and labor
union members. These articles draw upon the experiences and perspectives
of academic, public, and special libraries, as well as labor unions'
education and research departments. Authors include librarians,
archivists, labor educators, and a professor in labor relations.
Contributions include those of current and past joint committee members.
The submissions discuss the history of library-labor interaction, as well
as the ways in which libraries are currently working with union groups to
provide research assistance and to facilitate the use of evolving
technologies.

--From the Introduction by Deborah Joseph Schmidle

Note
* This figure was the result of information gathered from Peterson's
Graduate Program's in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences 35th ed.,
2001, and Peterson's 4 Year Colleges 31st edition, 2001.

Articles and Authors Include:
"Library Service to Unions: A Historical Overview," Elizabeth Ann Hubbard

"Service to the Labor Community: A Public Library Perspective," Ann C.
Sparanese

"A Fifty-Five Year Partnership: ALA and the AFL-CIO," Arthur S. Meyers

"The Information Needs of Local Union Officials," Margaret A. Chaplan and
Edward J. Hertenstein

"The Evolution of Research and Information Services at the American
Federation of Teachers," F. Howard Nelson and Bernadette Bailey

"Librarians and Working Families: Bridging the Information Divide," Gaye
Williams

"Preserving the Historical Record of American Labor: Union-Library
Archival Services Partnerships, Recent Trends, and Future Prospects,"
Thomas James Connors

"Simple Exhibits, Effective Learning: Presenting the United Farm Workers'
Experience on the World Wide Web," Daniel Golodner

"Labor on Campus: Academic Library Service to Labor Groups," Deborah
Joseph Schmidle