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Janet Fisher
Arizona State Library, Public Records, and Archives (Phoenix)
Arizona State Coordinator for the IMLS Grant

Janet Fisher is the Director of the Law and Research Library in the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records.  She also serves as the regional depository librarian for Arizona, providing the people of Arizona with access to and information from a large collection of federal publications dating from 1895 and earlier, and coordinating and assisting federal publications libraries within the state.  Janet has worked with government publications collections for over 20 years and has trained librarians in the use of these publications at workshops in Arizona, workshops for the 5 Intermountain states (Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Nevada), and at the Government Printing Office’s national conferences.

Major collections in the Law and Research Library and under her direction include federal agency publications, Arizona state agency publications, the state law library, genealogy, maps, and a professional collection of resources for librarians, archivists, records managers, and museum professionals. 

In 1998, Janet received the Bernadine Abbott Hoduski Award for contributions to the field of state and federal document.  She has also served on and chaired the Depository Library Council to the U.S. Public Printer.

Janet has an MLS degree from the University of Illinois, a Masters in Public Administration from Arizona State University, and an undergraduate degree from the University of New Mexico.  She is a member of the Arizona Library Association, Arizona Association of Law Libraries, Special Libraries Association, American Library Association, and the American Association of Law Libraries.  She serves in a leadership role on the Arizona Depository Library Council.

Susan Acton
Northland Pioneer College, Little Colorado Campus  (Holbrook)

Hi, my name is Susan (Susie) Acton.  I am a second-generation Arizonan.  I was born in Globe and moved to Kearny when I was seven.  I lived there for 44 years—married my husband (31 years), raised three sons and have four (soon to be five) grandchildren.  I moved to Winslow August 1, 2002 when I was hired as Associate Librarian/Government Documents Librarian for Northland Pioneer College (NPC) on the Little Colorado Campus.  NPC serves both the Navajo and Apache counties of northeastern Arizona.  We have four campuses and six centers scattered throughout the 21,175 square miles that incorporate these two counties.

I had worked in libraries for twenty-two years, but was new to government documents when I started with NPC.  The project I was given when I first started was to inventory the government documents section of the library so that all tangible items would be in our online catalog.  This involved finding records, importing, and changing information in the MARC tags to meet specific criteria.   I have been working on this project four and a half years and am about two-thirds finished.

The most used government document is in the health section—Public Health Reports.  We have several nursing and allied health programs through NPC that use this title and many others in the health section.  My personal favorite is in the history section—Civil War/Revolutionary War eras and battlefields.

Being on the ground floor of the digital revolution with the FDLP and GPO has given me the opportunity to provide up-to-date information in many subject areas that we provide for our students and the programs they have chosen.  I have embraced the technology and look forward to many more interesting years as a government documents librarian.
 

Nancy Deegan
Central Arizona College (Coolidge)

I'm a librarian with Central Arizona College in Pinal County of Arizona.  Central is a unique community college with three campus locations.  The county has largely been an agricultural and mining community.  However, the town of Coolidge, which is where the main campus is located (and where I work), is experiencing rapid growth as more and more people are residing in this area and commuting to Phoenix for work.  This has resulted in a shift in the college's student population and the types of academic programs offered.  I have been with Central since November of 2006 and I am enjoying the challenge of meeting the needs of this diverse student population.  Thanks to our small staff size, I enjoy wearing many hats and provide reference, instruction, and outreach services – just to name a few!

My favorite government document is not controversial or even scintillating.  Instead, it is a mainstay in our collection and has the ability to meet the need of every student at Central Arizona College.  The government document I'm referring to, of course, is the Occupational Outlook Handbook.  In a community college, I deal with students who may be exploring their first career or possibly their third.  The Handbook, which is also available online at http://www.bls.gov/oco/, is a great resource for them to learn about their career choices.

Patricia Esposito
Pima County Public Library (Tucson)

I have recently become the document librarian at the Pima County Public Library, Joel D. Valdez Main Library. I have been working in the Pima County Library system since 1989.  From 1998 to 2007, I was in charge of the Periodicals section.  In 1993 I started doing reference work.  I was in charge of LOGIN, a government reference database where various governments (City, County, etc.) exchanged ideas.   From 1989 to 1993 I worked as a Children's Librarian.

Before I started at Pima County Public Library, I worked as a school librarian, a piano teacher, a law library associate, a Maricopa Count Librarian, a Business Science and Technology librarian and a high school history teacher.

My library degree is from the University of Southern California.  My undergraduate degree is from Arizona State University. My B.A. is in Education. For my education degree I focused on teaching history in High School.  I also have a minor in School Library Science.

I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, so I am very familiar with the state of Arizona.

Mollie Gugler
Yavapai College Library (Prescott)

I have been living or working in a library since I was a young kid. The Public Library in my hometown was 1/2 block away from my house so it was my favorite haunt.  I'm sure I drove the librarians there nuts.  I worked in my high school library and had several student worker positions at the Ohio State Library (the Main Library, Architecture and Photography Library, and the Slide Library in the Art Dept.).

I took a hiatus from working in libraries to try my hand at weaving and spinning and became a starving artist who was having the time of her life.  I met my future husband after moving to Arizona.  We had 2 boys--the youngest of which I started taking to the local Public Library when he was only 2 weeks old.  I'm sure I drove the librarians there nuts too!

I went back to work in a library 21 years ago; first at the local Public Library for a year and I've been at Yavapai College Library for the last 20 years.  Where has the time gone?

My favorite Doc is a toss-up between Agricultural Research because of all the innovative programs the Dept. of Agriculture is working on and the Statistical Abstract because of its wealth of information in such a small space.

Camille O'Neill
Arizona Western Collge (Yuma)

Camille O'Neill is a Reference Librarian for Arizona Western College in Yuma, Arizona.  Camille also coordinates the selective Federal Depository collection in Arizona Western College's and NAU-Yuma's joint-use Academic Library.  Camille's previous professional positions include Undergraduate Reference Services Librarian at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Librarian-Generalist at NAU-Yuma and Library Instruction Librarian at the University of Arizona Library. 

Favorite Government Information Source:  The U.S. Bureau of the Census web site www.census.gov, for its very useful, in-depth data on population, social and economic characteristics.  On the Census site, I also like American Factfinder, the user-friendly interface, which allows novice users to create their own customized data tables and maps.

Sean Evans
Northern Arizona University

Sean is a former documents librarian for the Cline Library, Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ. (1989-2002). Sean earned his MLS from the University of Arizona in 2001 and is now a member of the Arts & Letters Team in the Cline Library.

In real life, Sean's interests still include government information and policy, and all things pertaining to Route 66.

Sean came on board the Gi21 project following the tragic death of Martha Portree, a colleague and friend.  When asked if he would take on this work, he replied: "Science, and the environment, were her enthusiasms ... I had no hesitation about trying to complete Martha's work."

Sandy Rizzo
City of Mesa Library

Put libraries and radio stations together, and you’ve got my two well-loved careers. In high school and college, I was a book and music lover, working in school libraries, bookstores, and radio stations.  I worked for years as a commercial dj in Illinois and Phoenix, my favorite being KZON in Phoenix from 1992-94.  In ‘95, I went back to school for my Masters in Information Resources and Library Science from the University of Arizona, received in ‘97.  I took a job at the City of Mesa Library in ‘95, becoming a librarian in ‘97.  I’ve been a business librarian since then (received the ALA Dun & Bradstreet Public Librarian Support Award in business librarianship in 2002), and Docs librarian since 2004. I’ve spoken at conferences including a program “Strictly Stats: Federal and State Statistics for Librarians” at the 2005 AzLA Conference.   I’m also a supervisor.  My feet still touch announcing  – I record phone messages for our library.  I continue to be a big music fan and volunteer usher at Mesa Arts Center.  I love writing, reading, photography, history, movies, and baseball.  And librarianship – it’s so incredible that we have a job we love that helps people so much.  There’s something for everyone and we play a big role in people improving/enjoying their lives.

My favorite doc – wow, that’s tough!  I find the Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States interesting and enlightening, love the Census for many features and new discoveries each time I use it, enjoy the Historic Structure Reports (a great substitute for visiting these places), and love the US Army in World War II series for photographs and history.  Too many to choose from!

Atifa Rawan
University of Arizona (Tucson)

Atifa Rawan is currently a full-librarian with responsibilities in Law, Political Science, Public Policy and Government Documents at the University of Arizona Library in Tucson, Arizona.  She has been a government documents librarian for over 20 years. Atifa has worked as the head of Government Documents at the Arizona State Library and since 1988 she has been a government librarian at the University of Arizona.

She has provided leadership in numerous projects at the University of Arizona, including the virtual depository library project.  Atifa is the 2005 recipient of the American Library Association Elizabeth Futas Catalyst for Change Award, which recognizes and honors a librarian who invests time and talent to make positive changes in the profession of librarianship.

Atifa has a MLS degree from the University of South Carolina, Master degree in Cultural Anthropology from New York University, and BA degree from the University of Hawaii.  She also has two years of law program from Kabul University. She has several scholarly publications and presentations and has served in ALA/ ACRL and Government Documents Round Table committees and taskforce both at the national and at the state levels. She is also one of founding member of the Arizona Depository State plan.

Kerry Skinner
Arizona State University, Ross-Blakely Law Library (Tempe)

I am the Acquisitions Librarian at the Ross-Blakley Law Library at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University where I am primarily responsible for overseeing the ordering and payment for all of the library’s materials and assisting in collection development.

I completed my MLS in Dec. 2006 at the University of Arizona.  Previously, I held two paraprofessional positions in the same library – 1 year as Acquisitions Supervisor and 4 years as Access Services Supervisor.  My other library experience includes 5 years at Mesa Community College in Access Services and 5 years at the ASU Hayden Library in the Circulation, Interlibrary Loan and Acquisitions Departments.  I’m just getting my feet wet with Government Documents and I think the

My other interests include environmental issues, sustainable living, vegetarianism, and my main passion, animal rights and welfare.  One of my favorite government resources is the Animal Welfare Information Center (AWIC).  AWIC, part of the National Agriculture Library in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is mandated by the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) to provide information for improved animal care and use in research, testing, teaching, and exhibition.  Though not covered by the AWA, as a convenience AWIC also provides information regarding issues relating to companion animals.  This website can be browsed by subjects including Research Animals, Farm Animals, Zoo, Circus and Marine Animals, Companion Animals, Government and Professional Resources, Alternatives to Animal Testing, Pain and Distress, etc.  Codes and regulations link directly to the full-text on the AccessGPO website making this resource a great place to research legal issues involving animals.

Brad Vogus
Arizona State University (Tempe)

Brad Vogus is the head of the Government Documents, Maps, and Social Science Services Department at Arizona State University Libraries, Tempe campus.  He has been a government documents librarian for over 10 years.  Brad was previously the Government Document/Reference Librarian at Indiana University - Kokomo.

Brad has served as the Chair of the Government Documents Roundtable (GoDoRT) in the Arizona Library Association (AzLA).  He has given presentations at professional conferences, including "The Fast and The Furious: Online Paths to Government Information," which highlighted electronic government information resources for public librarians.

Brad received his MLS from the University of Michigan and his undergraduate degree from Indiana University.