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Volume 39, Nos. 8-11 Autumn 1997  

MEET OUR NEW SJVIS LIBRARIAN
by Mike Drake

I was born in San Jose, California, but have enjoyed the opportunity to live 
in other parts of the country.  I received my B.A. in Philosophy from the 
University of Texas in Austin, and just recently graduated with an M.L.S. 
from the State University of New York in Albany.  My previous library 
experience has been in circulation in both public and academic libraries, 
in three different states (Texas, Washington, and New York).  My passions 
are reading and backpacking.  I am looking forward to exploring the Sierra 
Nevada next year.  My wife and I and our two year-old son (Nathaniel) are 
happy to be settling down in one place for a while.  So far our experience
of Fresno has been positive, and I am very happy with my job at SJVIS and 
the people that I work with.

SJVLS HAS A NEW AUTOMATED SYSTEMS MANAGER
by Mary Ellen Huls

I come originally from Beatrice, Nebraska.  Although a Nebraska football fan, 
I'm not obnoxious about it, I hope.  My BA from St. Olaf College is in 
History and Psychology with a concentration in Women's Studies.  I received 
my MLS from the University of Denver. My library career has been spent in 
academic libraries.  At Iowa State University I started as government serials
librarian and over the years held positions as supervisor of the Media 
Center and reference librarian to the Extension Service, as well as doing 
general reference, online searching and library instruction.  Since 1991 I 
have been  Head of Public Services at the College of St. Catherine, a 
(mostly) women's college which is part of a consortium of academic 
libraries in Minneapolis and St. Paul.  About half of my time in recent 
years has been spent managing our electronic resources, the other half doing 
reference, library instruction, and Web page creation.  As for personal
interests, in addition to watching football, baseball and hockey, I'm an 
avid reader of mysteries and pretty much a walking encyclopedia on women 
mystery writers.  I also enjoy brisk walks and riding my bike, and I'm 
looking forward to being in California where I can enjoy those activities
for a greater part of the year than has been possible in Minnesota.

REGION III DIRECTORY

Each SJVLS and AWLNET member library will soon receive one paper copy of the 
Region III Library Directory (R3D).  The page format generally follows that 
of the AWLNET Directory, which it was modeled after; the most obvious 
difference is that the R3D also includes libraries from the 49-99 Library 
System s service area.  The R3D is currently available online via the World 
Wide Web at: 

Incidentally, you can now access Valleycat from WWW at: 
 or via telnet at: 
  The OPAC login is: 


                                 CALENDAR
 
  
     SJVLS Children's and Youth Services Committee
      December 3, 1997, 10:00 a.m. at the Central Branch, Fresno Co. Library

     SJVLS Administrative Council
      January 9, 1998, 10:00 a.m., at the Tulare Co. Library, Visalia

     SJVLS Advisory Board
      January 9, 1998, 10:00 a.m., at the Tulare Co. Library, Visalia

     SJVLS Collection Development Committee 
      January 14, 1998, 10:00 a.m. at the Central Branch, Fresno Co. Library
      (Joint with Reference)
      
     SJVLS Reference Committee 
      January 14, 1998, 10:00 a.m. at the Central Branch, Fresno Co. Library
      (Joint with Collection Development) 

     SJVLS Automation Committee
      January 28, 1998, 10:00 a.m., at the Tulare Co. Library, Visalia

     SJVLS Cataloging Committee
      Date not set 

     SJVLS Circulation Committee
      Date not set

Please report all meeting dates, changes and cancellations to Dave DeLaurant at
(209) 488-3229, or add a note yourself to the CALENDAR email file in Dynix.


CHILDREN S SERVICES TRAINING

The North State Cooperative Library System recently published a revised 
edition of their programmed course of instruction for children s services 
personnel.  While SJVIS does not administer this course, we have obtained 
one copy of the instruction manual that staff from SJVLS libraries may 
borrow for study purposes.  Additional copies of this manual are available 
from NSCLS for $40.00 each.


LIBRARY TECHNOLOGY INSTRUCTORS WANTED

The Foothill - De Anza Community College District is seeking applicants to 
maintain their part-time pool of library technology course instructors.  
Applicants must have an MLS degree or the (unspecified) equivalent, and  
an understanding of the diverse academic, socio-economic, cultural, 
disability and ethnic backgrounds of community college students.   To apply 
for this employment pool, contact the Foothill - De Anza personnel office 
at 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022; (415) 949-6217.  You'll 
need to submit a resume and copies of college transcripts as well as an 
application form.  Salary is based on education and experience according 
to a non-negotiable schedule, and applications will be accepted continuously 
until otherwise noted.


1997/98 TARGETED GRANT PROGRAMS
by Dr. Kevin Starr, State Librarian

To help libraries meet the ongoing challenge of effectively serving their 
communities, I am pleased to announce that we will be offering a variety of 
targeted grant programs in 1997/98.  I will be making available a total of 
$640,000 in Library Services and Technology Act funds to California public 
libraries through the following four programs: Building Community Support
Grant Program, Grandparents and Books Grant, Non-English Language Materials 
Grant Program, and the Shades of California Grant Program.  To help you plan 
for these, I am providing the following tentative time line for announcement 
and application deadlines for these programs.

Grant Program Title         Applications Distributed Application Deadline
Building Community Support     late October 1997      December 19, 1997
Non-English Language Materials late October 1997      December 29, 1997
Grandparents and Books         late October 1997      December 2, 1997
Shades of California           late November 1997     January 30, 1997

Under the Building Community Support program, grants of $10,000 each will 
be awarded to 10-15 public libraries to support the organization, 
implementation or revitalization of library foundations.  A grant 
application form for this program is attached to this issue.  [Please 
contact CSL s Library Development Bureau for applications for the other 
grant programs.] 


AWLNET DIRECTORY UPDATES

At the moment, we're waiting for the last few AWLNET membership renewal 
payments to arrive before beginning work on the annual revision of the 
AWLNET Directory.  Once we re finally ready to begin, it usually takes about 
2 months  work (barring mechanical problems) to collect the revised data and 
to prepare it for distribution.  Hence, we ve attached quite a few updated 
Directory pages to this issue!

VALLEYCAT STATISTICS, OCTOBER 1997
by Pat Forcella
  
  Holdings (copies of items)                                  2,972,525
  Bibliographic records                                         648,595
  Patrons registered                                            704,899
   
  
California Statewide Serials Database to be Re-organized
  a press release by the California State Library
  
CDB-S lives!  One of California s oldest continuous union lists of serials, 
the California Database of Serials (CDB-S), will continue its life 
uninterrupted.  As the result of a competitive procurement to select a 
permanent agency to operate the database subsequent to the role played 
since 1976 by CLASS (the former Cooperative Library Agency for Systems and 
Services), a new home has been found for CDB-S.
  
GRC International, Inc., of Santa Barbara, has been selected as the 
vendor for the service bureau that will maintain the CDB-S file.  The 
bureau, to be housed at GRCI s headquarters, will furnish and coordinate 
update reports to the University of California s MELVYL online public 
access system (administered by the UC Office of the President, Division 
of Library Automation).  Also planned are both standard and custom 
products requested by contributing libraries.
  
The GRCI contract, administered through the auspices of the Peninsula 
Library System, San Mateo, succeeds the CDB-S s interim host since early 
1996, San Jose State University s School of Library and Information 
Science, sponsored by the San Jose State University Foundation.  Thanks 
to the leadership of former Dean Stuart Sutton and the project s academic 
directory, Professor Judy Tessier, the School managed the project for the 
past 18 months.  SJSU has provided vital resources and continuity of 
operations for the serials file after the dissolution of CLASS in late
1995.
  
A Library Services and Construction Act (LSCA) grant has been awarded to 
support the contract with GRCI, which will assume responsibility for the 
project assets and working materials in June 1997.  The grant reflects the 
California State Library's commitment to maintaining the CDB-S and the 
statewide access envisioned for all serials records under the Library of 
California Act, the state s multi type library networking plan.  The 
project has grown from a paper file originally in the State Library to a 
computerized database with products issued in various media, such as the 
microform California Union List of Periodicals (CULP).  Additional 
products and subset lists have been extracted to serve local, regional and 
cooperative library systems  needs.  The CDB-S project will be re-located 
this month from the interim site to Santa Barbara.  During the transition, 
the database will continue to be updated and maintained while the contractor 
establishes operations and schedules periodic updates to the merged files 
in MELVYL.

Through the cooperation of the University of California, the National 
Library of Medicine and PSRMLS during the past four years, modifications 
to MELVYL search capabilities, library identifiers and holdings codes have 
been implemented to pave the way for wider online access to the three-file 
database.  The CDB-S data are being merged with the California Academic 
Libraries List of Serials (CALLS) database mounted on MELVYL, along with 
medical library holdings (SERHOLD), to create a combined statewide database 
of serials records and holdings reports. The integrated file is called the  
Bibliographic Database of California Library Serials Collections or 
Statewide Serials Database (SSDB)  for short.  Field testing of online 
searching of this  union of union lists  by library staff is scheduled 
to begin in 1997.
  
The project fulfills directions set by the California Library Networking 
Task Force that addressed facets of multi type library cooperation.  In 
the future, the SSDB is expected to become a service supported under the 
Library of California Act, a new law pending in the state legislature.  
The proposed Act includes a commitment to the availability of bibliographic 
and location information of serials publications held by participating 
libraries.
  
GRCI brings a record of established and proven performance in the 
bibliographic market to the library community.  The firm has delivered 
products and services to all types of libraries.  Because of the company's 
long experience, it is well-positioned to assume responsibility for CDB-S 
and coordination of unified access to the three major lists that promise 
to maximize provision of serials information to all Californians, said Jay 
Cunningham, project monitor for the State Library in Sacramento.   I am 
pleased that support by the California State Librarian, Dr. Kevin Starr, 
for the union list of serials effort has been confirmed from Library 
Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funding next year. The testing of a 
new apparatus for access is very exciting and represents the fruition of 
a long-sought dream -- one-stop shopping for these materials for the 
benefit of all library users.