ASSOCIATES (2004, July, v. 11, no. 1) - associates.ucr.edu
From the Editor
Welcome to our special 10th Anniversary Associates issue! The first email version of Associates: The Electronic Library Support Staff Journal was sent out in July 1994, under the editorship of Kendall Simmons. Back in September, 1993, Mary Kalnin, University of Washington, and also listowner of LIBSUP-L, and Ed Gillen, then NYSLAA Recording Secretary and editor of the NYSLAA newsletter, proposed the creation of an electronic library support staff journal. Seven people from around the United States volunteered for the editorial board. Over 1500 subscribers from a dozen countries signed-up.
In the first issue of Associates, Kendall said, "I know that I want it to be useful; that I want it to appeal to a broad range of people, both in terms of interests and in terms of skills; and I want it to "have an attitude affirming the value of paraprofessional work." Most importantly, I want it to be a positive force in people's lives, giving them encouragement, knowledge, ideas, and an opportunity to teach as well as learn." As current Editor, I feel that Associates has met Kendall's original expectations and will continue to do so.
The name "Associates" is credited to Janet Anderson-Story, then Stacks Supervisor at the University of Kansas. About the time Kendall and the Editorial Board were thinking of names for the new journal early in 1994, a group of Kansas support staff were in the process of choosing a name for the organization they were creating as part of the Kansas Library Association. Janet said that "Para means to work beside or around. Therefore, paraprofessionals are those who work beside professionals." She explained further, that "… we wanted a title that was descriptive of *our* work, not our work in relation to others. We work as associates, equals, or partners with those who are in MLS-degreed positions." The founders of the new journal felt Janet's definition of "associates" also expressed the purpose and meaning of this venture, so the title Associates: The Electronic Library Support Staff Journal was created.
To celebrate 10 years of publication, I contacted many of the contributors to the early issues and asked them to write follow-ups of their original articles. I also contacted others who were involved in the creation of Associates over the years. I felt as if I were organizing our 10 year high school reunion! We all had a wonderful time remembering our shared experiences and how libraries and we, ourselves, have changed in the past 10 years. A talented and resourceful group of contributors makes this issue of Associates very special.
In July 1998, Associates began a webpage, housed at the University of Kansas. Joy Wanden designed each page, keystroke-by-keystroke, as was required for a class she was taking at the time. Joy's distinctive green lettering on white with feather design ran from July 1988 until March 2002. I thought the addition of her original masthead to our current webpage would add a nostalgic feeling to our boast of 10 years of publication. Because the masthead was designed to load letter-by-letter, neither Joy nor I knew how to convert it to a single image. We both thank her grandson who recently converted her original masthead into digitized format! The old masthead is now being recycled into an Associates logo that will remain on the Associates Homepage for our 10th year anniversary celebration. By the way, the Associates webpage and listservs are now housed at the University of California, Riverside. We have over 3,000 world-wide email subscribers and over 500 website notification subscribers.
EventKeeper has become an integral part of Associates for listing library workshops and events. Several people added events directly by following the directions at the online Calendar page. Your library events can be added at anytime. Email subscribers will receive printed calendar events up to mid-November 2004. Plymouth Rocket, Inc. offered Associates a one-year free demonstration subscription to EventKeeper that will expire in November 2004. I hope to find a funding source so that we can continue with EventKeeper for the Associates Calendar. Please see the detailed product review <http://associates.ucr.edu/we1103.htm> in Associates (2003, November, v. 10, no. 2).
My special thanks are given to each contributor for this special issue. I also appreciate all the hard work that Jim Clark, here at UCR, does as Assistant Editor, and I cannot thank him enough. He richly deserves all the credit for the successful linking of sites, the layouts, and designs. My heartfelt appreciation and warmest regards go to Jim Jackson at the University of Exeter. He wrote me months ago, excited that the July 2004 issue would mark 10 years of publication. He helped me in every aspect of this special issue and offered ideas and continuing enthusiasm. And, he always had on hand some tasty chocolate donuts and special blends of coffee!
Happy reading! I hope you enjoy this special 10th anniversary issue.
Wendee Eyler
Editor, Associates
rivwe@ucr.edu