Marie Concannon, Head, Government Information & Data Archives, University of Missouri Library, Awarded RUSA Award for Excellence in Reference and Adult Library Services
For outstanding achievement in creating the Prices and Wages by Decade library guide, and for supporting a more informed citizenry by making economic history more easily accessible to all.
PROJECTS:
• The Prices and Wages by Decade Libguide points to primary sources showing retail prices for common items or “necessities of life” from colonial times to the present. Prices for foods, clothing, household items, fuels for heat and transportation, and fees for services fall within the domain of the guide. It also helps researchers find costs of major purchases such as houses, cars, and college education. Because prices can only be understood within their historical context, this site juxtaposes prices with wages, salaries and earnings within the same decades.
LEADERSHIP:
• Appointed member, Hathi Trust Federal Documents Advisory Committee, 2020-2021. Cocompiled a guide to 1950 Census publications.
• Founding Steering Committee member, Preservation of Electronic Government Information (PEGI) Project, 2017-2020 and co-author on its final report, Toward a Shared Agenda: Report on PEGI Project Activities for 2017-2019. The IMLS grant funded PEGI Project addressed national concerns regarding preservation of born-digital government information for long-term public access and use.
• Chair, Depository Library Council (DLC), 2014-2015; and DLC Councilor, 2012-2014. The DLC advises the United States Public Printer and the U.S. Superintendent of Documents on policy for cataloging, indexing and public availability of documents, and advises on matters concerning the general administration of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP).
SERVICES:
• Judge, American Association of Law Librarians’ Government Information Hackathon, a preconference to the AALL’s 2014 annual meeting, San Antonio, July 12, 2014.
• National History Day judge at Missouri state finals in 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006.
• National History Day guest presenter at workshops for Missouri school teachers:
o “Debate and diplomacy in federal government publications,” sponsored by the State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, MO, August 7 and September 11, 2010.
o “Revolution, reaction and reform in federal government publications,” sponsored by the State Historical Society, Columbia, MO, August 20 and September 17, 2011.
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS:
• “Preservation of Born-Digital Government Information Concerning Economics” presented at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’ annual conference, Beyond the Numbers: The Economic Data Ecosystem. Co-presented with Katrina Stierholz, Vice President and Director of Library and Research Information Services Research Division, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, and Lynda M. Kellam, Data Services Librarian & Librarian for History, Political Science, Sociology, and Peace & Conflict Studies and Assistant Director of International and Global Studies, University Libraries, University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Presented on November 9, 2018, in St. Louis, MO at the Federal Reserve Bank.
• PEGI Project National Forum, a two-day event co-organized and presented by PEGI steering committee members and held in conjunction with the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) conference, December 8-9, 2018, in Washington DC.
• “All Collections are Local, Part 2: Pages,” presented at the HathiTrust meeting in collaboration with Michelle Paolillo, Digital Curator at Cornell University Library on October 30, 2018.
• “Needles in the haystack of history: How to use the WPA Historical Records Survey,” copresented with Dr. Kristine Stilwell, Government Documents and Business Librarian at Troy University in Alabama, and Sandra McAninch, Head of the Federal Depository Unit & Regional Depository Librarian at the University of Kentucky. This was sponsored by ALA GODORT and presented at the ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas, June 30, 2014.
PREVIOUS WORK HISTORY
• My first professional position was at the State Historical Society of Missouri, 1989-2000. I compiled three genealogical indexes during that time:
o Index of residents State Federal Soldiers’ Home of Missouri, St. James, Missouri, 18891946. (Columbia, MO: State Historical Society of Missouri, 1998).
o Index to Missouri military pensioners, 1883. (Columbia, MO: State Historical Society of Missouri, 1997).
o Grand Army of the Republic, Missouri Division, index to death rolls, 1882-1940, taken from Proceedings of the Annual Encampments. (Columbia, MO: State Historical Society of Missouri, 1995).
AWARDS:
• 2020 ALA GODORT Margaret T. Lane / Virginia F. Saunders Memorial Research Award given to PEGI Project steering committee members “for outstanding published research in which government information form a substantial part of the documented research.”
• 2014 ALA GODORT Bernadine Abbott Hoduski Award “in recognition of her contribution to documents librarianship” and “for turning challenges into win-win opportunities that have directly benefitted libraries throughout the state of Missouri.”
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
• Chair, State and Local Documents Task Force, American Library Association (ALA) Government Documents Roundtable (GODORT), 2010-2012. Initiated a nationwide State Documents Needs and Offers resource.
• Committee member on ALA GODORT committees and task force:
o Federal Documents Task Force, 2014-2016
▪ contributed comments to change Title 44, Chapter 19 of United States Code as it relates to the Federal Depository Library Program.
o Cataloging Committee, 2014-2016
o Legislative Committee, 2016-2018 • Secretary, Missouri Library Association, 2005.
MEMBERSHIPS: ALA, GODORT, RUSA, BRASS, HS, RSS
Established in 1990, the RUSA Award for Excellence in Reference and Adult Library Services, sponsored by ReferenceUSA is a citation and $1,500* monetary award presented to a library or library system for developing an imaginative and unique resource to meet patrons’ reference needs.
The selection committee was Chaired by Chris LeBeau.