Graduate Library School Notes -
Katherine Bertolucci, AM'76, chaired the annual Graduate Library School (GLS) reunion at the American Library Association (ALA) Conference in Chicago this past July. In addition to its usual table at the ALA Cooperative Library School Reunion, the GLS group toured the Regenstein and Crerar Libraries. Bertolucci, a library and information management consultant, planned the event but couldn't attend. As chair of SLA's Library Management Division, she "reluctantly elected to go to that conference instead."

However, Dorothy J. ("Dodie") Ownes, AM'86, of Cahners Business Information and Lee K. ("Kimball") Clark, AM'88, of the Dumbarton Oaks Library both returned as hosts. Dodie reports that the ALA reunion reception was standing room only for GLS grads, who had to borrow chairs from less well-attended (though still open) schools. The honored guest was Martin D. Runkle, AM'73, a GLS grad, GLS professor, and director of the U of C Libraries-who was surprised to find many copies of the June 1 issue of Library Journal on the table, with his own face smiling from the cover. As usual, many GLS alums were table-hopping among the many reunion tables. One table-hopper was Thomas D. Walker, AM'86, director of the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Kimball reports on the library tour: "Rain could not dampen the spirits of the alumni who waited outside the Palmer House Hotel on a muggy July morning for their bus to the Joseph Regenstein and the John Crerar Libraries. Around 9 a.m., we were delivered to Regenstein and entered a building familiar and yet vastly changed. Gone are the GLS classrooms, computer room, and offices. In their stead is a brighter, more open lobby, a new customer service desk, a new reserve book check-out, and new ILL and circulation services. The card catalogs have vanished and more computers have taken their place. One remnant of the past remains: the orange carpeting on the second and third floor. "Jim Vaughn, assistant director for access and facilities, led us to the lower level for coffee and to meet our other tour leaders: Sandra Roscoe, reference librarian and bibliographer for current English and American fiction, and Rebecca Woolbert, science reference librarian and biomedical specialist at the Crerar. We split into two groups, led by Jim and Sandra, to see the Reg's many changes (for more on the changes, go to lib.uchicago.edu/e/reg/reconfiguration).

"We began with a tour of the stacks offices and the new compact shelves. We then went to the third floor and a display from the Library's Chicago Jazz Archive, curated by GLS grad Deborah L. Gillaspie, AM'88 (who, I hear, plays a wicked set of drums). The group wound its way back to the Special Collections Department, to bindery processing, where digitization projects of Special Collections materials were in progress, and then through the cataloging department. "As we headed to the John Crerar Library, Rebecca Woolbert gave a brief history of the Crerar, which houses materials on the applied sciences and the history of science and medicine. I recalled my days as a GLS student, when I worked at the Crerar (Mr. Crerar's collection development policy: 'No skeptical trash or dirty French novels.'). Descending to the lower level, the group was overwhelmed by a new facility: the USITE/Crerar Cluster.

"This computer laboratory has more than 100 state-of-the-art machines and includes dedicated systems for e-mail, Web access, and digital media production. There are three separate areas: a cyber-cafe; a main cluster; and an advanced computer and collaboration space, which can be used for presentations and teaching. (To find out more: intech.uchicago.edu/ccc/crerar.html.) "We went from state-of-the-art computers to the old Crerar catalog in the reference area. We toured the reference collection, the new journal display, and the binding prep area, which houses another old card catalog affectionately known as 'The Morgue.'

"Near noon, the tour came to an end. The sun shone hotly and the humidity was tropical. But we all felt refreshed by our trip back to our halcyon days at GLS.

Are you on the GLS database? Send your address to Katherine Bertolucci, Isis Information Services, P.O. Box 1074, Healdsburg, CA 95448; isisinform@aol.com. Says Katherine: "We'll see you at the 2001 ALA reunion in San Francisco."