Retaining the institutional knowledge of librarians who will soon leave the profession by Amy Hartman and Meg Delaney
As libraries face the departure of staff with well-honed reference skills, years of experience in the community, and deep knowledge of the collection and traditional resources, how can we identify and retain their departing expertise—the gold in the library’s intellectual vault? How can we ensure that newly minted employees with e-knowledge skills have access to and a growing appreciation of what is most valuable in traditional knowledge? Now, perhaps more than ever before in the history of our profession, what we do and what we are will be affected by retirement’s brain drain. We need to be proactive in finding ways to hold on to valuable skills and knowledge. This is more than just succession planning; it is the redefinition and reinforcement of our core services and values. The Humanities Department of the Toledo–Lucas County (Ohio) Public Library’s (TLCPL) Main branch has developed tips and techniques for this critical effort that can be adopted by libraries of all sizes and applied to everyone from top administrators through front-line librarians and clerical staff. To retain the value represented by departing employees, it’s vital to plan ahead by keeping track of who is rotating toward retirement. Ideally, the formal process of in-depth evaluation should begin about three to six months before retirement, but the actual information gathering should be career-long, facilitated by the yearly review. We shouldn’t be surprised at the discovery of an employee’s key strengths shortly before he or she retires—or worse, when those capabilities are sorely missed later. Which employees exemplify the system’s best practices? Encourage them to document what they do; what’s their road map to success? Could they train their peers or incoming staff? We’ve narrowed the planning focus into three main categories: skills, knowledge, and connections. See more at: http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/features/10262010/wait-you-can-t-retire-without-sharing-us

The Federal Reserve Board on December 22 approved an interim rule amending Regulation Z, which implements the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). The Board is issuing this interim rule to clarify certain aspects of a September 24, 2010 interim rule, in response to public comments. The September interim rule implements provisions of the Mortgage Disclosure Improvement Act (MDIA) which amended TILA to require mort age lenders to disclose examples of how a loan's interest rate or monthly payments can change. Those statutory amendments will become effective on January 30, 2011. The MDIA seeks to alert borrowers to the risks of payment increases before they take out mortgage loans with variable rates or payments. Under the Board's September interim rule, lenders' cost disclosures must include a payment summary in the form of a table stating the initial rate and corresponding periodic payment and, for adjustable rate loans, the maximum rate and payment that can occur during the first five years as well as a "worst case" example showing the maximum rate and payment possible over the life of the loan. http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/bcreg/20101222a.htm

Iberia is an ancient geographical region to the south of the Caucasus Mountains that corresponded approximately to the present-day Georgia.
Iberia, or the Iberian peninsula, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes modern-day states Portugal, Spain, Andorra and Gibraltar and a very small area of France.
Iberia is a book by James A. Michener.
Iberia is a suite for piano composed between 1905 and 1909 by the Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz. It comprises four books of three pieces each; a complete performance lasts about an hour and a half.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:iberian&sa=X&ei=kNEQTbaME4TGlQe8y_D2Bw&sqi=2&ved=0CBcQkAE

Billionaire Aubrey McClendon was bouncing along Lake Michigan on a jet ski about 10 years ago when he spied a majestic stretch of dunes in Saugatuck Township, Michigan. "It was one of the most beautiful pieces of land I'd ever seen," said Mr. McClendon, chairman and chief executive of Chesapeake Energy Corp. of Oklahoma City. He envisioned what he could build amid the sandy hills: luxury homes; condos; a hotel; a marina; and a nine-hole golf course. In 2006, he bought about 400 acres of mostly undeveloped dunes for $39.5 million. Then, he said, "We ran into opposition we hadn't anticipated." Mr. McClendon is used to getting his way. He isn't getting it from this township of about 3,000 people abutting the little resort city of Saugatuck. While many municipalities struggle to lure investment and stay flush, Saugatuck Township has raised taxes and flirted with insolvency in a four-year battle over the zoning of the tycoon's land. He set his sights on dunes straddling the mouth of the Kalamazoo River. In the 1800s, a lumber town called Singapore stood there. For decades, the state tried to buy the land and preserve it as a park. He secured a half-interest in 2004. Two years later, he was about to finalize his purchase of the entire property when the five-member Saugatuck Township Board voted unanimously to rezone it, lowering the number of houses that could be built there and making it harder to build anything else. Mr. McClendon's lawyers asked the township to wait, saying they hadn't been notified. Township officials said the rezoning flowed from a comprehensive land-use plan publicly debated and adopted the year before. Mr. McClendon bought the property anyway. In 2007, his lawyers and township officials began to discuss easing the new zoning to avoid litigation. Last December, Mr. McClendon sold 171 acres to a land conservancy for $19 million, thinking it might appease his foes. It didn't. In March, he filed the federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the zoning, arguing the township illegally singled him out. His lawyers then unveiled specifics of his plan: Singapore Dunes, named for a mill town that once stood at the site, would be centered on a cluster including a hotel, marina and 28 condos. As many as 42 homes would be scattered across the rest of the property, including additional land Mr. McClendon has bought. Some local businesses display a poster supporting the project. "What's been shown in the paper looks pretty sharp to me," said Mike Carey, co-owner of the Del Sol apparel shop in Saugatuck. In July, the township settled a property-tax dispute Mr. McClendon brought, agreeing to lower his taxes and refund him $360,000. He remains the township's single largest taxpayer, meaning he is helping fund his opposition. In May, township residents voted 491-489 for a tax increase to help pay legal bills. Ballot inconsistencies halted a recount. Two residents have sued to void the election. Mr. McClendon is paying their legal bills. With an annual budget of $715,000, the township has spent more than $250,000 fighting the executive over zoning, taxes and the election. Officials say the burden could force it into state receivership. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703395904576025993432953986.html

Once a year the village of Stockbridge, Mass. transforms itself into a Norman Rockwell canvas. The painter and illustrator lived here for the last 25 years of his life, and he remains a big draw. During the annual Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas event, vintage cars line up by the Red Lion Inn as in Rockwell's famous painting, and throngs pour out of buses to visit the Norman Rockwell Museum and admire his festive holiday scenes. Down the road, Chesterwood, the 122-acre summer home of Daniel Chester French, the American sculptor who created, among countless other monumental works, the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, is a poster child for a host of cultural sites nationwide fading into obscurity. Mr. French rose to prominence in the late 19th and early 20th century. In addition to Lincoln, he sculpted the Minuteman statue in Concord, Mass., and Alma Mater, on the steps of Columbia University's Low Library in New York. Carol Bosco Baumann, chairwoman of the Chesterwood Advisory board, advocates updating the sculptor's image, starting with a name change. She and others now call him "Dan French." "I hate to sound marketing-ish, but it is all about branding," says Ms. Baumann, marketing director for the Red Lion Inn. "We have to figure out a way for people to connect with the man on a personal level." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704073804576023631871868552.html

For architects, 2010 has been another difficult year, with many commercial, institutional and residential projects killed, stalled or slowed to a snail's pace. That makes the year's highlights in good architecture all the more noteworthy. And there is plenty to celebrate. In a weird reversal of fortune, civic projects have never had it so good as the most talented architects vie for even the smallest public works and then have the time to do them right. It is possible that, someday, the schools, libraries, fire stations and park pavilions built in 2010 will be seen as the best and most carefully designed of the decade. In Washington, D.C., the beacon-bright Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Library designed by Davis Brody Bond Aedas is shaped into a dynamically jutting prow that is a far cry from the inward-turned, windowless brick models of yesteryear. Read about the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Mass., Brooklyn Bridge Park, and plenty of other notable buildings completed in 2010, particularly new art museums in Los Angeles, Richmond, Va., Raleigh, N.C., as well as the just-opened Museum of Fine Arts in Boston at: http://topics.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704457604576011463998077344.html