Released by the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division(NAWCWD) China Lake Public Affairs Office--

Last month, 144 librarians attended the 49th Annual Military Librarians Workshop at the Riviera Hotel Convention Center, in Las Vegas, Nev. Hosted by the NAWCWD Technical Library, Sandy Bradley and the library staff spent the last 18 months planning and publicizing the event. The Military Librarians Division of the Special Libraries Association sponsors the annual workshop. This year’s theme was “Bright Lights: Military Librarians Shining in Uncertain Times.”

Capt. James Clifton, military director of AIR-4.9 at Patuxent River, MD., gave a welcome address that set the tone for the entire workshop. He challenged military librarians to prove their library’s value to their chain-of-command rather than quietly serving the organization behind the scenes.

After attending a full day of the conference, Clifton said, “Please pass on my thanks for the honor of speaking at your workshop. The venue was impressive and a real credit to the Weapons Division Technical Library Team as this year's host of the Military Librarians Workshop. Very professional job.”

Teresa Bailey, librarian at the Jet Propulsion Lab(JPL), Calif. Institute of Technology , gave one of the most popular presentations, “Storytelling in the JPL Library: From Practice to Theory.” Bailey runs a successful storytelling program at JPL. For the past six years, Bailey has found storytelling to be an effective way to communicate and understand an organization’s culture, helping employees to develop a sense of organizational identity.

Ann Moorehead, of the NAWCWD Technical Library, followed Bailey with a presentation on how Bailey’s program inspired a similar program at China Lake. Moorehead showed short film clips from four of the China Lake programs that pointed out a unique China Lake achievement or capability. Moorehead credited Mark Pahuta of the video projects office for his expertise in editing the film clips into a cohesive presentation. Several librarians said they were inspired to go home and start a similar program in their library.

Rick Luce, research library director at Los Alamos National Laboratory, spoke about using Strategic Business Management in his library. He traced the development and evolutionary stages of a research library repositioned to adapt to continuous change in the environment. He showed how to develop a strategic context to examine if a library is positioned to thrive in chaos.

Michael Loescher, executive director of the Copernicus Institute, spoke on “The Paradox of the Information Revolution.” He discussed the problem knowledge loss and how to prevent that loss. Loescher is the originator of the Navy’s Copernicus Architecture, the service’s first Information Warfare doctrines.

Keith Ray and Joan Goppelt, from China Lake’s People, Process and Product Resource (P3R) group, organized a “World Café” to wrap up the conference. They provided a dynamic experience that helped to foster the community of military librarians and to build on their collective intelligence through the power of conversation.

Two more China Lakers were among the 25 speakers at the workshop. Matt Anderson, Division Manager for L-3 Communications GSI, spoke about Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC). Anderson head of the BRAC Office at China Lake from 1994-1995, and he is a member of Indian Wells Valley 2000. Don Summer spoke on the National Security Personnel System (NSPS). Summer serves as Deputy Project Manager for the Naval Air Systems Command NSPS Implementation Team, and serves as staff assistant to the Human Resources Director at China Lake.

Several other speakers presented topics that included strategies for ensuring organizational vitality, Army Knowledge Management, and information literacy.

In addition to Bradley, the planning committee included Ann Moorehead, Barbara Lupei, Bob Bloudek, Chrissy Everett, Cyndy Kitchens, Flora Whiting, Linda Merwin, Linda Robinett, Mara Bowen, Mary Ray, Pat Backes, and Robin Daly. They received credit from the attendees for the excellent program, the delicious lunch provided at the business meeting, and the elegant dinner banquet. The banquet included entertainment and a sweeping view of the city lights.

More than 80 vendors, representing 35 companies, set up computers and displays in the exhibit hall where librarians could learn about new resources and innovations.

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#1 Photo by Janice Lachance

Photo cutline:(Left to right) Attendees at the recent Annual Military Librarians Workshop were Ann Moorehead, Barbara Lupei, Mara Bowen, Capt. James Clifton, Mary Ray, and Bob Bloudek.

#2 Photo by Bob Bloudek
Photo cutline: Sandy Bradley was surprised with an award from the Military Librarians Division for her contributions to the association and the workshop.