WebJunction

Tim Byrne
University of Colorado at Boulder
Principle Investigator and Colorado Coordinator for the IMLS Grant

Tim Byrne has been the Head of the Government Publications Library at the University of Colorado at Boulder since 1985. Prior to that, he was Government Documents Librarian at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia and holds an MSLS from the University of Kentucky. He has been active in ALA GODORT since 1978 and has held numerous offices, including Secretary, Treasurer, Coordinator of the Federal Documents Taskforce, and Coordinator of the State and Local Documents Taskforce. He has made numerous presentations on government information at the national and state level. He is currently a member of the Depository Library Council to the Public Printer.

In 2006, Tim received an IMLS grant of $264,000 for a training project titled, “Government Information in the 21 st Century: Training Librarians to be Government Information Specialists” working with depository librarians in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming .

Tim is currently one of the few, if not the only government documents humorist in the country. He regularly publishes a humor column, “Tips from Tim” in the GODORT journal, DttP: Document to the People.

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Mark Anderson
University of Northern Colorado (Greeley)

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Diane Briel
Mamie Doud Eisenhower Public Library (Broomfield)

Diane is a newly-minted librarian who graduated from the University of Denver. Having served in the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Federal Service, she jumped at the rare chance to study government documents at DU with Chris Brown, the Government Documents librarian at DU. During a practicum with him, she wrote an online research guide for Foreign Broadcast Information Service and became very interested in the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents.

She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Colorado. She is a reference librarian at the Mamie Doud Eisenhower Library where she is very happy to be included in GoPIG and the IMLS WebJunction project as a way of keeping a finger in the govdocs pie.

Chris Brown
University of Denver

My familiarity with documents began at Cornell University where I worked on the reference desk as a Senior Information Assistant at the graduate research library. I received by MLIS from the University of Denver and have taught in the program ever since I graduated. I have taught many courses including Internet Reference & Research, Information Access & Retrieval, Reference, Understanding the Information Environment, and Government Publications.

My most recent publication is "Government Documents across the Disciplines." in Research within the Disciplines: Foundations for Reference and Library Instruction (Scarecrow Press, 2007).

I currently am a reference librarian at Penrose Library at the University of Denver. My current title is "Reference Technology Integration Librarian". Although I have had a number of position titles, I have been overseeing our library's participation in the depository program since 1998.

If I had to select a favorite document (and I do!) I suppose it would be the Statistical Abstract of the United States (not pictured here). It is the easiest way to become familiar with the many statistical series published by the government when you have no idea where to begin, thanks the the extensive footnotes.

Kirsten Clark
University of Colorado at Boulder
IMLS Grant Project Manager (through August 31, 2007)

I began my career in government information as Government Documents Librarian at the College of St. Benedict/St. John's University (Minnesota), then spent several years as Documents Librarian at New Mexico State University.  Talk about a climate change--from 10,000 lakes to the little Rio Grande.  Well, it was little where I lived.

My current position is Project Manager for the "Government Information in the 21st Century" IMLS Grant at the University of Colorado at Boulder where I enjoy playing in the snow (the blizzards were not my fault), temperatures that drop below freezing, and the joys of living near a large metropolitan area again.

My favorite document is the Public Papers of the Presidents.  Used countless times while writing papers for my history degree, the series provides a snapshot of both the individual and the nation as a whole.  Where else can a researcher run the gamut from "a day that will live in infamy" (Franklin D. Roosevelt, December 8, 1941) to "I am not a crook" (Richard Nixon, November 17, 1973).

Joining me in the photo is Richard Nixon, the Bobble Head, researching what his real-life counterpart did in the early seventies.

Doug Ernest
Colorado State University (Fort Collins)

Professor Ernest is a Government Publications Librarian at CSU’s Morgan Library. He is currently is responsible for federal and state publications, maps, and the departments of Foreign Languages, Music, Theatre, Dance, and Philosophy. In past years he served as library liaison for history and political science.

At present he is a member of the Libraries´ Tenured Faculty Committee, a member of the Faculty Council Committee on Responsibilities and Standing of Academic Faculty, and Secretary of the Colorado State University chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.

He has written numerous articles and two books: Information Sources of Political Science, 2005 (co-edited with Stephen W. Green) and Agricultural Frontier to Electronic Frontier: A History of Colorado State University Libraries, which received the 1996 Colorado Library Association Literary Award. In 2004 Professor Ernest received the Libraries´ Faculty Award for Excellence.

His favorite documents include the online NASA World Wind as well as a couple print publications:  the National Park Service handbooks and the USGS topographic maps at various scales.

Jennie Gerke
University of Colorado at Boulder

I am the Electronic Government Information Librarian at the University of Colorado at Boulder. I started off my life in libraries with no plans of being a government documents librarian, but in library school got sucked into the land of documents, despite a background in English and Computer Science. Although, with some of the creative reports coming out of the government that isn't too much of a surprise.

I don't really have one favorite document, so I am going to cheat and say the U.S. Congressional Serial Set. I figure with the over 14,000 volumes in existence I am never going to run out of interesting new facts to discover. Did you know that you can find out how much the mail carriers made in 1890 (Serial Set 2765)? Or maybe you would rather know about the Congresses investigation of Indian frauds (Serial Set 1578)? For those of you who can't read small print, I'm holding the second volume in my picture.

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Samantha Hager
Colorado State Publications Library (Denver)

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Rob Jackson
Denver Public Library

I was raised in New Jersey but am a naturalized Colorado resident who has taken advantage of it's mountainous terrain for the last 35 years. I started my government publications career when Pr39 was in office, and it helped that few people in the DPL system wanted to work with documents.

My favorite paper format gov pubs are the USGS topo maps and my favorite online government site is the Astronomy Picture of the Day, http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html .

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Margaret (Peggy) Jobe
University of Colorado
IMLS Grant Principal Investigator (starting November 1, 2007)

Peggy received her MA in Librarianship from the University of Denver in 1985. From 1986 to 1995 she was the Reference/Interlibrary Loan/Internet Instruction Librarian for the Central Colorado Library System. In 1995 she joined the Government Publications Library at the University of Colorado at Boulder as the International Documents Librarian. She also maintained the Government Publications Library website--described by Bruce Maxwell in How to access the federal government on the Internet as one of the "best places to start" your search for government publications. With Debbie Hollis, she created the award-winning "Colorado by the Numbers" online statistical abstract.

Peggy's published research includes work on access to government information, the Toxics Release Inventory, environmental information, and a brief history of the Census population counts for Native Americans. After serving as the judge for international documents for several years, she chaired the GODORT Notable Documents Panel from 2000-2003. After achieving tenure in 2002, she became the Faculty Director for the Gemmill Engineering Library at CU Boulder.

Starting November 1, 2007, Peggy is the new Faculty Director and Head of Government Publications, University of Colorado and the Principal Investigator for the Government Information in the 21st Century IMLS grant. She's excited to be returning to Government Publications.

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Jeremy Nelson
Western State College (Gunnison)

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Lisa Nickum
Colorado School of Mines (Golden)

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Judith Rice-Jones
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

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Katherine Sayer
US Courts Library, 10th Circuit Court of Appeals (Denver)

The United States Courts Library serves the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals and the lower courts within the Circuit.  It is my responsibility to handle the government documents program and to support staff and patrons in their needs.  I have an MLS from the University of Denver.  My experience as a law librarian is reaching twenty-seven years, including three years experience as a corporate librarian for a minerals company.  I work part-time for the courts and volunteer in the Library at Dunstan Middle School.  I have been married for fifteen years and have a twelve year old daughter.

Favorite Document:  My favorite Document is the United States Senate Catalogue of Graphic Art.  I especially enjoy the political cartoons and caricatures.  It is fascinating to see that the more things change the more things really stay the same.  Many of the subjects are still being cartooned and caricatured today.  Only the names and titles have changed.

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McKinley Sielaff
Colorado College (Colorado Springs)

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Susan Simmons
Mamie Doud Eisenhower Public Library (Broomfield)

Susan Simmons really got into book date due stamping early since her mom was an elementary school librarian.  Her first paying job after babysitting was as a library page at her local public library branch.  As far as an early interest in government information, Simmons always had a fascination with those mysterious booklets that come out of Pueblo.  She finally sent for a whole slew of them in the early 1990's.
 
With a BA in Microbiology and German from the University of Kansas, she returned to the US from studying and working in Germany with $8 in her pocket.  Her first career was as a microbiologist in the pharmaceutical industry.  She later moved into Quality Assurance document control (foreshadowing her future) and Quality Assurance auditing where she escorted the FDA during their facility inspections.  During this timeframe, her favorite government publication was the current Good Manufacturing Practices, 21 CFR 211.  Her least favorite was form FD 483, the formal observations from an FDA audit.
 
Following a layoff from a biopharm company, Simmons started her master's in Library Science.  After graduation in 1998, she began her second career in librarianship.  As a new Reference librarian at the Mamie Doud Eisenhower Public Library in Broomfield, CO, she became "indocumented" by the Colorado/Wyoming Government Publications Interest Group.  Government publications now make up about 5% of her job in addition to supervisory responsibilities, collection development, Reference work and those ubiquitous "other duties as assigned."  She is pictured here with her current favorite government publication, the National Park Service website for Rocky Mountain National Park.

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Daniel Sullivan
Colorado State University - Pueblo

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Louise Treff-Gangler
University of Colorado at Denver

I have been the Government Publications Librarian at Auraria Library now since 1985! How did that happen?  Just having too much fun to look elsewhere, I guess.  Since 2004 I have also been responsible for the Reference and Instruction programs at the library.  It keeps me busy! 

I actually got started in government publications after college as a library assistant at the CU Boulder Government Publications Department under the tutelage of Catharine Reynolds and Martha Campbell.  I found I just couldn’t stay away from libraries and worked in various positions at Texarkana (TX) Community College; the University of Louisville (KY); University of Kentucky (government publications and the Agriculture library); Libraries Unlimited, book publisher, Englewood, CO; and finally back to government publications at Jefferson County Public Library in Lakewood before taking the job I now have at Auraria.  I must say it’s been great and I am so glad I am doing what I do.  I especially like my comradeship with the GOPIG gang; we really have become great friends.

In my spare time, I enjoy square dancing, camping, riding a motorcycle with my husband George, sewing, walking our new dog Jake, and playing with my grandchildren, ages 4, 6 & 9.

Deb Van Tassel
University of Colorado at Boulder
IMLS Grant Project Manager (starting September 1, 2007)

My library career actually began at the Auraria Library on the CU Denver campus where I worked as a student doing telephone reference.  It was there that I met Louise Treff-Gangler and got my first initiation in government publications.  Her influence led me to take a course in government publications and do an advanced practicum in the government documents department of the Colorado State University where I saw my first GIS application applied to forestry in Colorado.

A graduate of Emporia State University’s School of Library and Information Science (Colorado III), I began my professional career working for Tim Byrne in Government Publications at the University of Colorado Libraries.  What a great experience to learn state, federal and international documents under his tutelage!  I then became a Government Publications and Business Librarian with the Denver Public Library maps, patents, and economic information were the hot topics and Rob Jackson was my colleague.  I returned to CU for several years work in Reference and Instructional Services where my gov pubs experience was invaluable.

I took that knowledge on to work at the Louisville Public Library, one of the busiest public libraries in our state, where I was liaison in a multi-library ILS migration, coordinated an RFID system installation, and, as Operations Manager, supervised public services and managed the move to a new building.  It was there that I met Susan Simmons from the MDE Library in Broomfield.

So, it seems only natural that I join all these wonderful people in the “Government Information in the 21st Century” project.  As the new Project Manager I hope to carry forward the amazing work that Kirsten Clark has put into this project and look forward to working with everyone devoted to this important endeavor.

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James Walker
Mesa State College (Grand Junction)

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