• BMW - January 16, 1997
• Furman University - April 17, 1997
• Clemson University - July 16, 1997
• Spartanburg County Public Library - October 7, 1997

The October 7, 1997 meeting of the Piedmont Library Association was convened at Spartanburg County Public Library at 10:00 a.m. by President Carolyn Edds, with 33 PLA members in attendance. President Edds began the business meeting by asking for any corrections to or comments on the minutes of the July 1997 meeting and the current Treasurer's report. No corrections were offered and the minutes and financial report were approved as mailed.

President Edds then encouraged those attending to send their library's information for inclusion in the new PLA directory. A group at Clemson University (led by Pam Draper) is inputting data and formatting web pages as information is received. It is hoped that the web directory and a printed version will be available by Spring. Expenditure of up to $250 was approved by the membership for production of the printed version of the directory. Upcoming meeting sites were announced: Winter at Greenville's Nelson, Mullins, Riley & Scarborough law firm, Spring at Tri-County Technical College, and Summer at the Greenville Hospital System Library.

The podium was turned over to Dennis Bruce, County Library Director at 10:15 a.m. for his introduction to the creation of the new Spartanburg County Headquarters Library. His outline of the planning, design, and construction of the facility stressed the involvement of local companies and individuals whose private funding allowed Spartanburg to add many features to the building they could not otherwise afford ($3.6 million of the $14.6 million budget came from private contributions). Mr. Bruce demonstrated the building's multimedia distribution system and fiber-optic network in the beautifully-appointed auditorium before breaking the group up for tours of the building.

The building's quiet was punctured by exclamations of amazement, appreciation, awe, and mostly envy, as our groups toured the beautiful new headquarters. Highlights included the children's train, puppet theater, and reading garden; the Kennedy Room for local history; the networked printing for microforms; and the beauty of the "infrastructure" -- stored ice tanks for air conditioning at off-peak rates, card-keyed security, and "atomic clocks" corrected by satellite. It was noted with admiration by those attending that most areas and resources that could be "named" bore a sponsor's plaque that noted the contributions of the Spartanburg community.

At 12:15, the meeting adjourned, with many of those attending walking to nearby Abby's Grill for conversation and lunch.

Minutes submitted by Peg Tyler, Secretary/Treasurer

The July 15, 1997 meeting of the Piedmont Library Association was convened at Clemson University's Madren Center at 10:05 a.m. by President Carolyn Edds, who began the business meeting by asking for any corrections to or comments on the minutes of the April 1997 meeting and the current Treasurer's report. No corrections were offered and the minutes and financial report were approved as mailed.

President Edds then asked the group to review the list of items that will be requested from each library in PLA's seven counties for a new PLA directory. Those with suggestions for the directory (and volunteers to help compile the print and Web versions) should contact Peg Tyler at Clemson. Work on the directory will take place throughout the fall. Upcoming meeting sites were announced: Fall Meeting at Spartanburg County Public and Winter at Greenville's Nelson, Mullins, Riley & Scarborough law firm.

President Edds then asked Philip Ritter, Director of the Greenville County Library, to talk about Greenville's ongoing Playboy magazine controversy. The request (eventually denied) for the Library to remove Playboy from its holdings received national media attention and polarized community reactions. There was no new business, so the floor was turned over to Dean Joseph Boykin of the Clemson University Libraries at 10:20 a.m.

Dean Boykin outlined the history of electronic library technology at Clemson; he was followed by a series of Clemson librarians who demo'ed various computer resources and discussed how each had added to the staff's level of "Technostress". Coping strategies for reducing technostress were then shared with the group.

At 11:30, the meeting adjourned to the Madren Center's restaurant overlooking Lake Hartwell for lunch, followed by afternoon tours of Clemson's libraries and other campus sites (such as the dairy sales center for some Clemson ice cream).

Minutes submitted by Peg Tyler, Secretary/Treasurer

The April 17, 1997 meeting of the Piedmont Library Association was convened in the Trustees Dining Room at Furman University at 10:05 a.m. with a welcome by Dr. Janis Bandelin, Director of Furman's J.B. Duke Library. She introduced prominent South Carolina historian Dr. A.V. Huff, who gave a brief history of Furman. The meeting was then turned over to PLA President Joan Sorensen, who began the business meeting by asking for any corrections to or comments on the minutes of the January 1997 meeting and the April Treasurer's report. No corrections were offered and the minutes and financial report were approved as mailed.

President Sorensen then brought to the floor the slate of candidates for 1997-98 PLA office put forward by the Nominating Committee (Jan Comfort of Clemson University (Chair), Carol Gaines of Laurens County Library, and Marguerite Keenan of Pickens County Library). Nominated were: Carolyn Edds (Spartanburg Herald Journal) for President, Bill Cooper (Laurens County Library) for Vice-President/President-Elect/Program Chair, and Peg Tyler (Clemson University) for Secretary-Treasurer. No additional nominations were made from the floor, and the unopposed nominees were elected by acclamation.

Outgoing President Sorensen then addressed the assembled group to thank them for making the past year a successful one for PLA and to thank the officers who had served with her. She then turned the meeting over to incoming President Carolyn Edds, who expressed PLA's gratitude to Joan Sorensen for stepping in to lead the group for an extra year (after Beth McIntyre's early departure last year) and presented her with a gift from the membership.

There was no more old business, and new business began with a proposal for PLA's next project -- a detailed directory of all libraries in the seven PLA counties. Peg Tyler will be directing a group of volunteers in compiling information about each library, copying and binding it, and distributing it to each library listed in the directory. Ideally, the directory will also appear in its entirety at PLA's web site. General approval of the project and a call for volunteers was made. The Summer meeting was announced for July 15th at Clemson University. The business meeting adjourned at 10:25 p.m.

The April program was presented by Janis Bandelin, Doug Anderson (Systems Librarian), and Steve Richardson (Reference Librarian), who described the grant projects the J.B. Duke Library has pursued and won in consortium with the Associated Colleges of the South and with Wofford College. The ACS Palladian Alliance project received funding from the Mellon Foundation for computer hardware and database subscriptions, greatly improving the ACS libraries' access to current periodicals. The Furman/Wofford joint program was also a Mellon grant, and included funding for projects to increase faculty knowledge and use of new information technologies and for joint access to library databases.

After many questions to the presenters about their experiences in implementing these programs, many of the attendees adjourned to a wonderful luncheon, followed by library and campus tours.

Minutes submitted by Peg Tyler, Secretary/Treasurer

The January 16, 1997 meeting of the Piedmont Library Association was called to order at 1:50 p.m. by PLA President Joan Sorensen in the BMW Zentrum Conference Room. She asked for any corrections to or comments on the minutes of the July 1996 meeting and the Treasurer's report. No corrections were offered and the minutes were approved as mailed.

Due to a significant delay at lunch, the meeting was extremely brief. Upon a suggestion by President Sorensen, the membership voted to pay the $3.50/person tour charge (totaling $140) out of the PLA treasury. There was no new business, and the meeting adjourned at 1:55 p.m.

Those attending then broke up into groups for an entertaining and enlightening tour of BMW's manufacturing facility. (Alas, unlike most factory tours, they did not give out samples.)

Minutes submitted by Peg Tyler, Secretary/Treasurer

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Web Manager Pam Draper | Last updated July 19, 2006 .