Goddard Has the Library of the Year, 2002

Janet Ormes Head of Library and Information Services at Goddard gives acceptance remarks at Library of Congress, Libarary of the Year Award ceremony.

The Homer E. Newell NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Library located in Building 21 has been recognized as The Federal Library of the Year for 2002 in the larger library category. Janet Ormes, Head of Library and Information Services along with Goddard's Chief of Information Linda Rosenburg represented Goddard during an official ceremony, March 19 in the Mumford Room inside the Library of Congress, Washington DC.

The Federal Library of the Year Award recognizes and commends outstanding, innovative and sustained achievements during a particular Fiscal Year by a federal library or information center. With over 1,000 federal libraries, competition for this award is keen.

"This year's recipient is recognized for its promotion of various innovative technologies and approaches to knowledge management," said Susan Tarr, Executive Director, Federal Library and Information Center Committee, Library of Congress. "In fiscal year 2002 this library succeeded in eliminating the boundaries of traditional library support by partnering with its agency's scientists and engineers to support their research initiatives with extensive web-based electronic resources," added Tarr.

According to the director, the library also initiated a project to index images created by scientific instruments, providing higher visibility for the products of the United States Government's scientific inquiry and enhancing service to the research community through a website averaging more than 22,000 user visits per month.

Janet Ormes has been at Goddard for more than 15 years and in her current position for three years. She becoming the Head of the library was a dream come true, a dream she has had since graduating with a degree in library science. "It has been my desire to be able to provide a single interface of all kinds of information that people need to do their work," said Ormes. "I feel that here we are moving along a spectrum and we are getting closer to that ability," she added.

Ormes said that she was very proud of the people in the organization that have gone beyond business as usual to do creative and challenging work. "I want to help Goddard to capture and preserve knowledge that will benefit future researchers. I am excited about playing a part in the advancement of science and about using technology to access and preserve knowledge," Ormes said.

The Award's selection criteria are based on the FY02 achievements of the library. Achievements recognized include mission support, the extent to which the library assisted in fulfilling its organization's mission; creativity and innovation in services, including bringing new services to users and marketing existing services in an exceptional manner, and customer satisfaction, the extent to which the library met the needs of its users.

During the ceremony Ormes was presented a plaque that is now displayed proudly within the library. According to Ormes the library staff is very proud of the accomplishments of FY02. She insist that the plan is not to rest on their laurels but continue to stretch and grow the library, so that it is worthy of being part of the world class institution that makes up NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

The library is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. but closed on Federal holidays.

Group photo of Goddard library employees. Photo Credit: Chris Gunn