For Immediate Release
April 17, 2000
For Information Contact
Denise M. Davis

AWARDS PRESENTED AT
ANNUAL FEDERAL-STATE COOPERATIVE SYSTEM (FSCS)
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE

Washington, DC - The 1999 Helen M. Eckard Award for Exemplary Use of FSCS Data was presented on Tuesday, March 28, 2000 by Data Use Subcommittee chair Keith Curry Lance to Edward Lakner, Assistant Director of the Library Research Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, for his article, Optimizing Samples for Surveys of Public Libraries: Alternatives and Compromises, Library and Information Science Research, v. 20, n. 4, pp. 321-42 (1998). The Eckard Award, first presented in 1995, is named for an NCES staff member who provided outstanding leadership as a professional librarian for the support of the Library Statistics Program.

The 1999 Francis Keppel Awards were presented to 35 states and 1 territory during the annual FSCS Professional Development Conference on Tuesday, March 28, 2000 in San Antonio, Texas. The Keppel Award is named after Francis Keppel, a U.S. Commissioner of Education who served from 1962 to 1965. He also served as a distinguished member of the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) from 1978 to 1983. Dr. Keppel was an early and enthusiastic advocate of reliable and regularly reported national, state, and local library statistics that would provide a basis for public policy formulation and the improvement of library services to the entire spectrum of the U.S. population. Dianne Carty, Chair of the FSCS Steering Committee presented the Award to 10 first-time individual winners.* The first Awards were earned by four states at the 1992 annual Training Workshop. To date, all but three territories have earned the Award.

The Award is presented each year to the qualifying Chief Officers (listed first) and Data Coordinators (listed second) of state library agencies. The Award is given for submitting prompt, complete, and high-quality public library data and is in the form of an abacus with a mounted engraved brass plate.

Following is a list of the 1999 Keppel Award recipients:

ALASKA
Karen Crane; Mary Jennings
ARKANSAS
John A. "Pat" Murphey; Carolyn Ashcraft
CNMI
Terry McLaughlin*; Paul Steere
COLORADO
Nancy Bolt; Keith Curry Lance
CONNECTICUT
Kendall Wiggin*; Leon Shatkin
DELAWARE
Tom Sloan; Tom Dunlop
FLORIDA
Barratt Wilkins; Sondra Taylor-Furbee
HAWAII
Virginia Lowell; Betty Kingery
IDAHO
Charles A. Bolles; Frank Nelson
ILLINOIS
Jean Wilkins*; Stanley E. Adams
INDIANA
C. Ray Ewick; Roberta Brooker
IOWA
Sharman Smith; Gerry Rowland
KANSAS
Duane Johnson; Roy Bird
KENTUCKY
James A. Nelson; Jay Bank
LOUISIANA
Thomas F. Jaques; Gretchen Fairbanks
MAINE
J. Gary Nichols; Felicia Kennedy*
MARYLAND
J. Maurice Travillian; Michael Osborne
MASSACHUSETTS
Keith M. Fiels; Dianne Carty
MICHIGAN
Diane Odrobina (acting)*; Naomi Krefman
MISSISSIPPI
John Allen Pritchard; Lynn Shurden
MONTANA
Karen Strege; Diane Gunderson
NEBRASKA
Rod Wagner; Kathleen "Kit" Keller
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Michael York*; John Barrett
NEW YORK
Janet Martin Welch; Judy Peters*
NORTH CAROLINA
Sandra Cooper; Tracy Casorso*
NORTH DAKOTA
Mike Jaugstetter; Carol S. Boganowski
OHIO
Michael Lucas; Darla Cottrill
OREGON
James Scheppke*; Christopher Rumbaugh*
RHODE ISLAND
Barbara Weaver; Ann Piascik
SOUTH CAROLINA
James B. Johnson, Jr.; Libby Law
TEXAS
Robert Martin; Patty Davis
UTAH
Amy Owen; Sandi Long
WASHINGTON
Nancy Zussy; Karen Goettling
WEST VIRGINIA
David Price; J.D. Waggoner
WISCONSIN
Calvin Potter; Alan Zimmerman
WYOMING
Lesley Boughton*; Joe French*


* Number of Keppel Awards Received

Alabama *
Alaska ****
Arizona *****
Arkansas *****
California ****
CNMI **
Colorado *****
Connecticut ******
Delaware ********
District of Columbia **
Florida ******
Georgia ****
Guam *
Hawaii *****
Idaho *******
Illinois ******
Indiana *****
Iowa *********
Kansas ****
Kentucky *******
Louisiana *******
Maine *****
Maryland ******
Massachusetts ******
Michigan ******
Kansas ****
Minnesota ****
Mississippi *******
Missouri ****
Montana *******
Nebraska ******
Nevada ****
New Hampshire ******
New Jersey *
New Mexico *****
New York ****
North Carolina *******
North Dakota *******
Ohio ********
Oklahoma ****
Oregon First Award
Pennsylvania ******
Rhode Island ********
South Carolina ********
South Dakota *
Tennessee *******
Texas ******
Utah ********
Vermont ******
Virginia ****
Washington ********
West Virginia *******
Wisconsin *******
Wyoming ******

FSCS is a cooperative program of the National Center for Education Statistics and the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science that has been in operation since 1988. The purpose of the Professional Development Conference is to improve the annual collection, reporting, and use of national public library data. Participants included Data Coordinators from all of the States and Territories.

"The purpose of the National Center for Education Statistics shall be to collect, analyze, and disseminate statistics and other data related to education in the United States and in other Nations." - Section 406(b) of the General Education Provisions Act, as amended (20 U.S.C. 1221e-1).

The U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science is a permanent, independent agency of the Federal government charged by Public Law 91-345 to advise the President and Congress on national and international library and information policies and plans.