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Info '96: A Short-Term Reference Success Sara R. Tompson Introduction We came, we set up, we answered more than 250 questions from the media and we left, all within one week! But "Info'96", the coordinated effort of librarians and information professionals to provide reference services at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago took nearly a year of advance work by a number of volunteers as well as generous support by Knight Ridder, Inc. and other sponsors to ensure the success of that one hectic and energizing week. Planning John Marcus and Mary E. Beall, public relations chair and government relations chair, respectively, for the Illinois Chapter of Special Libraries Association (SLA-IL), chaired the Info'96 project. They had researched "Information Central," a similar reference project for the 1992 Democratic Convention in New York, and took up the challenge of Information Central organizer John Ganly (New York Public Library) that professional information services should be provided at all such events of national importance.1
Marcus and Beall convened an Info'96 planning committee in December 1995. Representatives from the Chicago Library System and the Chicago Public Library were part of the planning process. The first hurdle for Info'96 was to find space for our reference service within the media pavilions. The pavilions were temporary structures outside the convention site, Chicago's United Center, built to provide working space for the print and broadcast media covering the convention. Info'96 hooked up with Chicago'96, the nonprofit, bipartisan host committee charged with all city-related public and media relations during the convention. The Info'96 mission to provide quality information services at the convention fit nicely with the Chicago'96 mission to "provide world class services to visiting media in order to shed the best light possible on the city." 2 Chicago'96 designed a multi-faceted booth, dubbed "Chicago'96 Central," featuring: "...information and research services from professional librarians [Info'96], media relations assistance from PR experts, and concierge and personal services from a large pool of general volunteers." 3 A number of meetings were held as the Info'96 plan jellied and went through various levels of negotiation and approval at Chicago'96. The final hurdle, the Democratic National Committee's okay for Chicago'96 Central, came in late July. In January, 1996, the Info'96 effort expanded to include many more SLA-IL chapter members, as well as other Chicago information professionals. Info'96 was featured on the cover of the January issue of the SLA-IL chapter publication, the Informant. That issue included Info'96 co-chair Mary Beall's article "Info'96: A Chance to Help Our Profession Cast Chicago in a Favorable Light." 4 An Info'96 Steering Committee was created, along with six subcommittees, to coordinate the different aspects of the project that were emerging as Info'96 plans were enhanced and the Chicago'96 requirements were formulated. The subcommittees were: • Chicago'96 Liaison • Vendors • Resources • Recruitment and Staffing • Public Relations • Logistics 11 The Steering Committee included: Amy Affelt, Beth Anderson, Hank Anderson, Alice Calabrese, Jan Chindlund, Mart Colello, Rebecca Corliss, Diana Culbertson, Annamarie Erickson, Carol Gates, Janet Hartmann, Denise Horan, Melissa Koenig, Terry Passaro, Sharon Rhodes, Lynda Sanford, Sara Tompson, Liz Tormey, Joann Wieklinski, and Lorri Zipperer. Steering Committee members chaired the subcommittees, the membership of which ranged from one to five participants. The subcommittees met monthly in the spring and more frequently as August approached, with telephone calls and flurries of e-mail messages in between. John Marcus has said that Info'96 got off the ground because he and co-chair Mary Beall are "e-mail addicts!" The Info'96 Steering Committee reached out beyond SLA to the entire library community of Illinois, inviting leaders from the Chicago Library System, Chicago Association of Law Libraries, Chicago Public Library, the Illinois Library Association, the Medical Library Association and the American Library Association to sit on an Info'96 Advisory Committee for the project and help recruit volunteers from their organizations. SLA-IL Past Presidents David King and Linda Hanrath served as co-chairs of this advisory group.
Volunteer Recruitment On March 20, 1996, the SLA-IL chapter program meeting featured Julie Thompson, communications director for Chicago'96. Julie's enthusiasm and professionalism sparked the interest of many members who subsequently volunteered for Info'96. The Illinois Library Association provided Info'96 with a booth at the annual ILA conference. Steering committee members staffed the booth for three days, and got the word out about the project to many colleagues. The Info'96 Steering Committee held two publicized informal get-togethers at a downtown Chicago restaurant, one in June and one in July, to give Info'96 volunteers the opportunity to meet one another and learn more about the planned reference service. Other volunteer recruitment efforts included: • Info'96 Steering Committee members' talks at various information organization meetings • Posting the Info'96 call for volunteers and volunteer sign-up form on a variety of Chicago, Illinois, and national library listservs • Inclusion of the volunteer form in several issues of the Informant • Mailings to Illinois' two library school programs • Mailings to Chicago area university libraries • Mailings to Chicago area library systems Info'96 planners were fortunate to have the experiences of the 1992 Information Central group, and the collective expertise of the Chicago'96 staff (gained from the 1994 World Cup, the 1996 Olympics and other events) to use as guidelines for volunteer recruitment and staffing issues. The goal of the Recruitment and Staffing Subcommittee was to recruit 130 or more volunteers. They calculated that at least 100 volunteers were needed to fully staff the reference service from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. during the week of the convention. Some volunteer drop out was deemed likely, hence the 130 target. The Info'96 Steering Committee determined the project required volunteers who had: • At least one year of experience in a reference setting, so they could rely on previous experience to keep cool in a fast-paced information service setting • Familiarity with Chicago and/or political and governmental information resources and/or • Experience searching DIALOG databases and/or the World Wide Web. By the volunteer registration cutoff date of June 15th, more than 100 people had volunteered, and a few more did so soon thereafter. Only a very few dropped out, much less than expected. All Info'96 volunteers had to register as Chicago'96 volunteers as well. The Chicago Library System was 12 authorized to send Chicago'96 registration forms to all Info'96 volunteers, and to collect the forms and forward them to Chicago'96. These registration forms required personal data, including driver's license numbers and social security numbers. Chicago'96 used this infomation to screen out volunteers who had fines or other charges outstanding. Training Info'96 was not able to do a great deal of advance training of volunteers, given the large number of volunteers, and especially because it was impractical to mock up a high-pressure, rapid-question environment like that of the convention. The Steering Committee did host two informal meetings, and committee members were able to answer a number of volunteers' questions at those events and allay some fears. Info'96 Subcommittee Chairs had the opportunity to attend Chicago'96 training sessions for Media/PR volunteers, and most were able to do so. These sessions definitely helped us grasp the hectic, but upbeat atmosphere that was expected at the convention, and to pass this on to other Info'96 volunteers. Info'96 held a formal orientation preceded by a reception for all volunteers on Thursday, Aug. 22. The Chicago Public Library hosted the event. At the event, all volunteers received official Chicago'96 polo shirts, which were to be worn with khaki or navy blue slacks or skirts, to adhere to the Chicago'96 dress code. At the August orientation, Info'96 Steering Committee members presented to volunteers: • A preview of the print and electronic resources that would be available onsite at the convention • The Chicago'96 rules of conduct: don't drink alcoholic beverages while working, smile, be proactive, etc. • The concepts of team work and flexibility as the keys to Info'96 success. Public Relations
Chicago'96 retained the right to do general advertising of the collective efforts to showcase Chicago for the Democratic National Convention attendees. Info'96 was able to do advertising within the library and information community. Info'96 volunteer recruitment mailings and postings all had an intentional PR aspect to them. The Info'96 press release was approved by Chicago'96 in July and sent out to a number of publications. Several national library journals printed articles based on the press release: Corporate Librarian had a story on Info'96 on the front page of the August issue,5 and Library Journal discussed Info'96 at the top of the "L J News" section in the August issue 6. Vendors/Sponsors Knight Ridder, Inc. (KRI) was an early and generous sponsor of Info'96, providing funding and online access to the KRI DIALOG databases. Info'96 also received support from Lexis-Nexis, Dow-Jones News/Retrieval, Sorkins Directories and Information Access Company. Several other information vendors also contributed support in the form of services or funding, but wished to remain anonymous. The remaining board members of the recently dissolved Chicago Library Club voted unanimously to turn over the remaining funds in their treasury to Info'96 in the form of a $3,000 grant. These funds were used to buy a number of core reference books for the project. This core collection was augmented by publisher donations. The following companies donated copies of some of their reference publications for use at Info'96: • Bernan • Carroll Publishing • Congressional Quarterly • Gale Research, Inc. • Leadership Directories, Inc. • Majors Scientific Books, Inc. • McGraw-Hill • Robins Bookshop • Sorkins Directories • Staff Directories, Ltd. Resources The Info'96 Resources Subcommittee organized the reference resources into the following categories: • General reference, including: dictionaries, almanacs, AP's Guide to Good News Writing, Encyclopedia of Associations, etc. • Government directories and statistics, including: U.S. Congressional Directory, U.S. Government Manual, U.S. Statistical Abstract, etc. • Political and election information, including: Almanac of American Politics, Election Data-book, Running for President, etc. • Chicago resources, including: articles on Harold Washington and Richard J. Daley, Grain's Who's Whom Chicago Business, Chicago's Famous Buildings, Chicago Neighborhood Map, Metro Chicago Political Atlas, clippings and other resources on the infamous 1968 Democratic National Convention, etc. • Illinois resources, including: Almanac of Illinois Politics, "Illinois Issues" Roster of State Government Officials, Illinois Statistical Abstract, SLA-IL Chapter Membership Directory, etc. 13 In choosing these reference resources, committee members relied on the experience of 1992's Information Central, plus on the expertise of Chicago Public Library and Chicago Municipal Library reference staff. After the convention, the Info'96 reference books were donated to local libraries through the Chicago Library System.
The Info'96 Resources Subcommittee also created a Web page and links to useful resources. The URL of this page is: http://www.uic.edu/~mkoenig/info96/ resources.html. A copy of the page appears as Figure 1. The Info'96 computer workstations and the Netscape browser were configured so this Web page was the default home page. (All the organizations in the media pavilions had Internet access via Ameritech.) Info'96 leased two Pentium-based PCs, running Windows, to use as workstations at the convention. Info'96 volunteers loaded Netscape, DIALOG'S Diallink, Win32bit Internet applications, Dow-Jones News/Retrieval, CompuServe and America Online's browser on these machines. Staffing and Logistics Thanks to the efforts of Chicago Library System staff, Annamarie Erickson in particular, Info'96 was able to create a volunteer database, adding information as soon as each volunteer form came in. The forms required that volunteers rank their preferences for morning, afternoon or evening shifts at the convention. This information was used to complete the complicated
14 task of scheduling each volunteer tor at least one three-hour shift. All Info'96 volunteers had to be credentialed to get through the convention site gate. The Chicago'96 volunteer forms were used in part to determine volunteers who could not be credentialed. The Democratic National Committee could only give a limited number of credentials to Info'96. The Chicago Library System agreed to serve as the site where volunteers could both leave drivers licenses or passports in exchange for credentials on the way to the convention, and turn in credentials and pick up identification cards after their shifts. On Site at the Convention Info'96 operated from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 25 through Thursday, Aug. 29, 1996. Volunteer shifts were from 10 a.m.- 1 p.m., 1-4 p.m., 4-7 p.m. and 7-10 p.m. One hundred and eleven (111) volunteers staffed Info'96. Shift staffs ranged from five to eight people. Info'96 was located in Chicago'96 Central, in Media Pavilion 3 on the south side of the United Center. Info'96 had a banquet-sized table, two PCs, two sets of bookcases and one telephone. Info'96 volunteers had access to the Chicago'96 fax machine and to their Macintosh PCs as availability allowed. Once Info'96 volunteers got onsite, and saw what a large area was encompassed by the media pavilions, additional advertising of Info'96 seemed warranted to ensure potential customers knew about our free reference service. Co-chairs Marcus and Beall printed handbills advertising Info'96's location, services and contact information. Volunteers walked through the grounds and distributed these to members of the press for the first few days. This effort was definitely worthwhile, as some later customers came to the booth carrying handbills with them! Info'96 volunteer staff answered questions by phone, fax, e-mail and in person. We assisted print and broadcast journalists, had many repeat customers, and were heavily used by the foreign media. About 50 percent of the queries Info'96 received were answered from online resources, either DIALOG databases or Web pages. The World Almanac and Book of Facts held the answers to a number of reporters' questions.
Info'96 answered a good portion of the more than 250 questions received early in the week, especially on Sunday and Monday before the convention officially began. As the week went on, we received more and more questions via telephone, especially from repeat customers, and responded more and more often by faxing material to journalists in neighboring pavilions. While we received fewer questions during the Some of the media organizations served by Info'96 included: • ABC News • Canadian Broadcasting Company • "Chicago Sun-Times" • Cox News Service • Fox TV News •"Houston Chronicle" • Japan Broadcasting • Kyodo News Service • "The National Journal" • "San Diego Union-Tribune" • "Seattle Post-Intelligencer" • Voice of America During most of the shifts, Info'96 volunteers were able to develop a team approach to reference that worked well in this setting: one person would talk to the member of the press requesting information, and the rest of the team would use the whole variety of available resources (print, DIALOG databases, the World Wide Web) to come up with the answer. The person fielding the question had to be good at an on-the-fly reference interview, asking a few key questions to clarify what the customer wanted, without taking up any extra seconds of that journalist's harried time. All the volunteers had to be assertive and able to jump right in to provide service; there was no time to plan service responses in advance. Info'96 volunteers also had to be cooperative and collaborative with the colleagues sharing their shift. Info'96 volunteers answered more than 250 reference questions. The Chicago Public Library provided back-up reference service to Info'96; CPL staff answered 30 of the 250 questions received. Answers to most of the questions put to Info'96 required some digging; these were not the sort of queries that could be answered with a simple fact, or the journalists would have had the time to handle these themselves. Some of the questions Info'96 volunteers answered were: • What were the charges against the Chicago 8/Chicago 7 and did they serve time? • Where and when was Susan Bayh, Indiana Governor Evan Bayh's wife, born? • If Clinton is re-elected, will he be the 3rd, 4th, what number Democratic president to serve consecutive terms? 15 • What is the history of the Macarena? • List of sex scandals during Bill Clinton's political career. • Biography on former Governor Henry Horner (for Peter Jennings). • Was any presidential candidate ever defeated after having a double-digit lead in August? • Delegate demographics? • Sales tax in Chicago? • TV reporter looking for park with kids for filming background. • How many days between Labor Day and Election Day? • Voting demographics for Oak Lawn? • Mayor Daley's age? • What nationality is Birch Bayh? • In what building did William Jennings Bryant give the Cross of Gold speech in 1896? • When was the Chicago fire? • Is Judge Kaufman or the prosecutor of the Chicago 7 still alive? • What non-profits in Chicago are devoted to children's issues? • Is Wyoming 50 percent federally owned? • How did President Clinton spend the last three Labor Days? • How tall is the Home Insurance Building? • What was the turnout for women voters in 1992 and 1994? • What is the correct spelling of "Achy Breaky Heart?" • How many parking spaces are there in Chicago? The convention site was an exciting place to be day or night, with journalists, politicians, television stars and volunteers all hurrying on foot or in golf carts from pavilions to the United Center to food booths, and back again, frequently talking into cellular phones en route. Several Info'96 volunteers had the chance to tour the United Center convention hall and hear key convention speakers, including Hillary Clinton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and President Clinton. Some of the celebrities at the convention came to us! Notables who visited the Info'96 booth include: • Mayor Richard M. Daley • Senator and Mrs. Paul (Jeanne) Simon • Senator Carol Moseley Braun • Congressman Luis Gutierrez • Ralph Nader, Green Party Presidential Candidate
• Peter Jennings, ABC News • Alderman Edward M. Burke • Charlie Wojciechowski, WMAQ-TV Conclusion Info'96 was a very successful collaborative information project. The most challenging aspects of the project were those we could not control, the decisions of the organizations that had veto power over our project. It was easier for us to define the nature of our Info'96 reference service early on than it was for Chicago'96 to define all their multi-faceted projects as a host committee. Info'96 had to ramp up to be ready to work at the convention, and then had to wait for both the Chicago'96 and the Democratic National Committee to approve our project. Few of the elements that the Info'96 Steering Committee could control would need to be changed for a similar future event. Perhaps the ability to think on one's feet in the midst of a hectic environment deserved more emphasis in volunteer recruitment efforts. A few volunteers had some initial difficulty in dealing with the rapid, unpredictable pace at Info'96. However, almost all acclimated and became valuable members of the reference team. Info'96 successfully provided the best possible reference service to the national and international press at the 1996 Democratic National Convention. The number of questions we received and answered, plus the numerous thank yous we received from customers and dignitaries, demonstrate that this sort of speedy reference information service is needed and appreciated at national events. Info'96 was also able to make an impact on the library and information profession — we created positive public relations for the profession and provided a meaningful public service opportunity for members of the Chicago area information community. Notes 1. "NYPL Plays Role in Democratic Convention; Library Organizes Information Center to Assist Press and Delegates." Library Journal 117:13 (August, 1992), 20, ff. 2. "The '96 News: Official Newsletter of Chicago'96," Issue no. 2, (June, 1996), 5. 3. Chicago'96 press release (June, 1996). 4. Mary E. Beall, "Info'96: A Chance to Help our Profession Cast Chicago in a Favorable Light," the Informant, 60:3 (January, 1996), 8. 5. "Dem's Convention Info Team Led by IL Special Librarians," Corporate Librarian, 5:10 (August, 1996), 1. 6. "SLA Aids Democrats," Library Journal, 121:13 (August, 1996), 20. * Sara R. Tompson, Library Administrator, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois, and co-chair of the Info'96 Public Relations Subcommittee. 16 |
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