ASSOCIATES (vol. 1, no. 1, July 1994) - associates.ucr.edu
Editorial
Welcome to _ASSOCIATES: The Electronic Library Support Staff
Journal_.
In September, 1993, Mary Kalnin, listowner of LIBSUP-L, an
electronic discussion list for library support staff, University
of Washington and Ed Gillen, then NYSLAA Recording Secretary and
editor of the NYSLAA newsletter, proposed the establishment of an
electronic library support staff journal. Seven people from
around the United States volunteered for the editorial board.
For many months, we worked on the technical aspects of developing
and publishing an e-journal. With the much appreciated
assistance of a couple of computer gurus here at the University
of Kansas, Marianne Reed, Program Assistant, and John Miller,
Automation Librarian, a new listserv (ASSOC-L) was developed for
the sole purpose of publishing _ASSOCIATES_.
At the end of May, the board decided to be daring and to announce
our existence, telling the world we would be publishing our first
issue in July and inviting everyone to subscribe. To date we
have over 1500 subscribers from over a dozen countries, from
large academic libraries to small public libraries, from
corporate libraries to private foundation libraries, from
military libraries to forestry libraries, and so on. As varied
as the list of libraries is, so are the people who work in them.
But they all seem to have one thing in common - they are all
hoping that ASSOCIATES will fill a perceived need.
When I first agreed to serve as editor-in-chief, I gave some
thought to what *I* wanted _ASSOCIATES_ to be. I had no
specifics in mind and, in fact, still don't. 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", to steal a phrase from an old colleague.
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.
The name _ASSOCIATES_ comes from a quote by my Stacks Supervisor,
Janet Anderson-Story, who was writing about something else:
"we chose...associates because we wanted a title
that was descriptive of *our* work, not our work
in relation to others. This is not to say we don't
like librarians. However, we are associates with
others who perform library work, not supporters of
or those who work around those who do library work."
We hope that this first issue of _ASSOCIATES_ starts us on the
road toward meeting your perceived needs, whatever they may be,
so that eventually we may all be able to confidently affirm our
standing as true associates.
Kendall Simmons
Editor-in-Chief