Judy Burnham
“If you want to become a leader, Southern Chapter will allow you to become a leader, and will mentor you and help you to become the kind of leader you should be. You can start off with leadership opportunities in small committees and then just go from there.”
Nancy Clemmons
Nedra Cook
"The nicest thing about it [Southern Chapter Meeting] was the personalities and attitudes that we ran into in those days, of not looking on us as a small budget, small potato in the corn field kind of thing. They included us [hospital librarians] and they nurtured us and made us a big part of Southern Chapter. I think that speaks extraordinarily well for our Chapter. I’m not sure that’s the way everybody across the country would have been accepted. I felt very, very lucky, very special."
Lynn Dennison
Full Transcript
"The main thing I remember [about my first meeting] was the friendliness of the Chapter. I just felt welcomed with open arms."
Lynn Fortney
"[Southern Chapter provides] the opportunity to meet people in other libraries undergoing the same experiences, being introduced to people that are more experienced, finding out that almost everyone is so giving of their time and advice – and, that was something I did early on because I had been encouraged to get active, join committees."
Sarah Gable & Karen Thompson
Full Transcript
Sarah: "One of the funniest things I ever experienced in my whole life was at a Southern Chapter meeting, when Ada Seltzer did a roast of Ted Srygley. She disrobed as she talked. It was hilarious!"
Karen: "I remember always having a real good time [at Southern Chapter meetings]... it was always so nice to get together with people and talk to them face-to-face and to see what they were doing. Whenever I came back, I always had a renewed sense of the things that were possible. I always brought back one really important piece of information that would transform some of the processes that I used."
Irene Graham
Summary
Full Transcript
"Southerners are social. Southerners are storytellers... Southerners are people who like to gather together, like family, to eat. The [Southern Group] was a very, very social group of people, and a great deal of fun."
Desmond Koster
Notes from Interview
"I remember that [at an early Southern Group meeting] everyone seemed very professional, very stylish, very well-dressed. They wore hats and white gloves, and they knew everyone."
William (Bill) Leazer
Ann Macomber
Full Transcript
Notes from Interview
"The beautiful part of the Southern Group was that, because the meetings were small, you knew everyone there."
Jess Martin
"The one Southern Chapter tradition that I remember most and appreciate most is the tradition of friendship and friendliness. These people in the Southern Chapter are friendly to everybody; they even displayed a friendly attitude toward me, a transplanted Yankee from the north."
Faith Meakin
Danny O'Neal
"I said for years that once I got into librarianship that it validated much of my life in that everything I’ve ever seen, heard, read, learned, experienced somehow comes into play. It gives me relevance. I don’t feel like I’ve lived a life that didn’t have any purpose. It’s given me the opportunity for lifelong learning and teaching to work honorably within a discipline, the field of medicine, with the satisfaction that I’m contributing to something worthwhile and possibly noble that will make the world a better place because I played my small part."
Suresh Ponnapa
"There are lots of people who come to my mind when I talk about all the things I have learned from. Of course, the person that I replaced at the Medical Library at Johnson City, Janet Fisher. She was very instrumental in my becoming quite familiar with medical librarians and introducing me to all the other directors. I remember the great role Tom Basler, from the Medical University of South Carolina, played and Scott Plutchak. Almost all the librarians, directors and the friends I made, all had a great effect on my career."
Nilca I. Parilla
"[What sets the Southern Chapter apart] is its excellent leadership, its warm-hearted and very nice people, its members with high professional standards that serve as examples to new members, its good communication, and the encouragement to its members to participate in the organization."
Mary Fran Prottsman
Full Transcript
"[In the Southern Chapter] there is an underlying graciousness and just an enjoyment of one another that I have not found in many chapters."
"My advice to new librarians is to get involved at both the chapter and the national levels."
Ken & Anne Robichaux
Ken:
I think Southern Chapter has always been unique. I went to other chapter meetings as a vendor, and when librarians from
other chapters would come to a Southern Chapter, they would always comment that it was unlike any chapter they... Because it really was and still is a big family.... Southern Chapter has always had a great social element to it and was a lot of fun to go to. Always, still is.
Anne: I think so, the underlying current of friendship. It’s more than, I think, collegiality. We all seem to genuinely like each other.
Ada Seltzer
“…Southern Chapter members have reason to be proud of our chapter and the progress we have made and are continuing to do. We have a wonderful personality as Southern Chapter’s people! We maintain our cohesiveness and we are still able to grow individually and then come back and share it. I’m very proud of that.”
Ted Srygley
Full Transcript
Notes from Interview
"The aim of those early [Southern Chapter] meetings was to socialize and get to know people. Southern Chapter for me was a way to meet colleagues in the field."