Annual Report 2005
Documents
Association of New Jersey, Inc. (DANJ)
The purpose of the Documents Association of New Jersey (DANJ) is “to promote the
use and further access to government information in libraries in the New Jersey
area.” The primary accomplishments of DANJ toward this purpose are summarized
below:
The State Documents Interest Group (SDIG)
Under the
leadership of Deborah Mercer, the SDIG received a grant from the New Jersey
Historical Commission in the amount of $8,200. The money from the grant was used
to digitize the annual reports from the Bureau of Statistics. These reports are
now available on the New Jersey Digital Highway website.
After
completing this project, there was grant money leftover. Deborah received
approval from the New Jersey Historical Commission to use the leftover money to
digitize the Annual Reports of the Inspector of
Factories and Workshops, 1883-1904.
There are two awards presented by the SDIG. Winning
the award for best printed “State Document of the Year” is the New Jersey
Women’s Heritage Trail published by the New Jersey Department of
Environmental Protection. Winning the award for the best “State Internet Site of
the Year” is the New Jersey State Legislature website.
The Federal Documents Interest Group (FDIG)
Under the leadership of Laura Saurs, the FDIG spent
this year discussing the future of the depository program and reacting to
different GPO proposals including the print on demand proposal, the essential
titles list, and the proposed cuts to print distribution.
In response to the print on demand resolution,
members of the FDIG drafted a resolution that was distributed to the GPO and the
New Jersey congressional delegation, as well as being published in the
Progressive Librarian and the DANJ newsletter.
This is Laura’s last year on the Depository Library
Council. We all want to thank her for her service, but we will really miss
getting the inside scoop on information about the Federal Depository Library
Program.
International Documents Interest Group (IDIG)
This year, Susan Lyons succeeded Mary Fetzer as the
chair of the IDIG. The IDIG usually meets once per year. Susan plans to hold a
meeting in December focusing on European Union documents.
The Web Page
With the help of Catherine Pontoriero, Rebecca
Zarabi transferred the DANJ webpage hosting to Go Daddy, an independent company.
This decision was made because we were not able to update information on the
website in a timely fashion while it was being hosted at the Rutgers website.
Now, information on meetings, announcements and accomplishments can be updated
on the website much faster. Catherine transferred all the documents from the old
host to the new host and updated the appearance of the website. She has done a
great job of revamping the website and getting us back up to speed. We hope that
the website will get more traffic in the future.
The Continuing Education Committee
In April, DANJ members were also treated to a hands
on presentation from Rhonda Allard of the National Library of Medicine. Much of
the presentation was centered on Medline Plus.
The head of the Continuing Education Committee, Ann
Grice, received much needed help from Deborah Mercer during the planning of this
year’s annual conference. This year’s conference is titled “Capital Resources :
Treasures in Your State Capital.” The conference will feature speakers who will
discuss preserving digitally born Capital treasures as well as discussing the
upcoming gubernatorial elections. In the afternoon, registrants will be given
the opportunity to take tours of the New Jersey State Library, the State
Archives, and the State House.
The Newsletter
This year, Dorothy Warner published two newsletters.
Dorothy invites contributions from all DANJ members. The Newsletter is an
effective communication tool for DANJ members.
Membership
In addition to serving as Vice President, Geetali
Basu kindly served as membership chair this year. DANJ currently has 49 members.
The Government Documents Award
The 2005 winner of the DANJ award for Outstanding
Achievement in a Government Documents Paper is Anne Marie Lyons. The title of
the winning paper is “A Social History of Paperwork Reform Efforts.”
By Laws
This year, members of DANJ voted to approve changes
to the Bylaws. The Bylaws will be available in the near future on the DANJ
website.
Conclusion
This was another productive year for DANJ.
Accomplishments and achievements would not be possible without a dedicated group
of active members. I would like to thank everyone for their support and help
this past year. It has been an honor to serve as President of the Documents
Association of New Jersey.
Comments/Questions: Catherine Pontoriero
(webpage editor)
URL=http://www.danj.org/
Last updated:
The page was created by Laura Saurs in September 1997. It was previously maintained by
Wen-Hua Ren and hosted by the Rutgers instructional web server.
