InULA President's Report

Gary Wiggins
2002/2003

InULA had a very successful and exciting year in 2002/2003, despite losing one of its most active members, Julie Nilson. Julie's death was a tremendous blow, but the organization took a very significant step by naming the scholarship program in her honor, now called the Julieann V. Nilson InULA Scholarship Program. A number of people made special donations to the scholarship fund in Julie's honor. The program itself was significantly revised, and eligibility criteria were extended to allow incoming SLIS applicants on both campuses to be considered for the awards. The SLIS admissions offices now assist by screening their prospective students for admission the following fall and recommending those whom they would like InULA to consider for an award. They request permission of the applicants to share their SLIS application essays with us, thus avoiding a separate application procedure. Two students received the award for 2003/2004. One of those was a continuing student, Jen LaMaster, and the other was a new SLIS student, Elizabeth Dehne.

The revised constitution and bylaws were placed on the InULA Web site. The revised wording allowed InULA to officially become a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. (The EIN listed on the letter from the IRS dated Sept. 6, 2001 is 35-2134409). In accordance with the new documents, we implemented staggered, two-year terms for the offices of secretary and treasurer, with Anne Haynes serving as secretary for a two-year term, and Deloice Holliday taking a one-year term as treasurer. The Constitution/Bylaws requires that committee appointments be for two years, with half the people being replaced each year. Therefore, about half of last year's committee members were encouraged to continue their assignments. Another InULA tradition that was followed was to offer a significant committee appointment to members who ran for office, but did not win the election.

Another procedural change that occurred was to reduce the number of cycles for InULA Research Incentive and Professional Development grants to 3 times per year, with deadlines for application on October 1, January 1, and April 1. This allows the new leadership to get settled into their roles before having to deal with evaluation of the applications. Suzanne Mudge, Ellen Bosman, Linda Cantara, and Bob Noel received Research Incentive awards this year, and Lou Malcomb got a professional development grant.

The holiday meeting was a huge success. It was held in the Coronation Room of the Indiana Memorial Union and included a speaker from 1stBooks Library, a publishing company in Bloomington that has enjoyed considerable growth in the last few years. IUB Metadata Librarian Linda Cantara was the lucky winner of the door prize donated by 1stBooks. The spring meeting was held in the 3rd floor lounge of the Main Library and included ample time for socializing.

The 2002/2003 year saw the inauguration of a book sale at IUPUI. Both the Indianapolis and Bloomington sales were huge successes. Storage of material has always been a problem in Bloomington. With the pending renovation of the 5th floor of the west tower of the Main Library, alternative storage sites were investigated. These included an area beneath SLIS and a caged area on the ground floor in the processing area of the east tower. The latter was likely to be the future storage site for InULA donations in Bloomington. The President presented checks to Dean Suzanne Thorin and to Dean David Lewis in appreciation of their support of the book sales.

This was the second year that InULA donated a basket to the Indiana Library Federation silent auction. It included a basketball signed by Coach Mike Davis.

The InULA archives were moved to a Main Library study, with Sylva Turchyn handling access to the site.

It was a great privilege to serve as President of InULA for most of the 2002/2003 year. On July 1, 2003, I began a new assignment that took me out of the IU Libraries. Consequently, I resigned my office and turned over to Miriam Murphy all of the duties for the remainder of the year. InULA is a great organization, and I sincerely thank both the members of the board and those who participated in the planning and successful conclusion of our many activities throughout the year.

Gary Wiggins