The College of Information recognizes the alumni that have achieved great accomplishments in the information studies field:

• Elisa F. Topper Appointed Library Director
• Ann Parham Our Librarian at the Pentagon

Elisa F. Topper Appointed Library Director

In November of 2003, School of Information Studies alumna Elisa F. Topper was hired as district director of the Dundee Township Public Library. Carrie Brecke, the Board of Trustees President stated, “. . . Elisa Topper was clearly the best candidate for our library, our community.” Topper received accolades from the Library Journal when they named her one of the top “50 Movers and Shakers” of her profession. She now looks forward to getting to know the Chicago suburb of Dundee, its library staff and board, and to providing library resources throughout the area. Elisa extensive professional experience include acting as Business Reference Librarian, a Special Librarian for a career counseling social service agency, the Director of Training for the Chicago Public Library and Director of Member Services for the Association of College and Research Libraries. Also, an active member of professional library associations, she continues to address workplace and career issues in the “Working Knowledge” column of the ALA’s American Libraries publication.

Ann Parham Our Librarian at the Pentagon

Ann Parham, U.S. Army Librarian, was named 2002 Federal Librarian of the Year by the Library of Congress' Federal Library and Information Center Committee (FLICC) in March 2003. The award is one of three bestowed by FLICC, which established the awards in 1997 to honor outstanding federal libraries, librarians, and library technicians.

Parham, who graduated with a Master of Science degree in Library Science from FSU in 1974, was recognized for her efforts in managing the worldwide U.S. Army Library Program, developing an innovative professional development program for libraries and advocating for the return of the library to the Pentagon. The library was moved out of the Pentagon shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon -- the U.S. Department of Defense Headquarters. The library's collection sustained minimal smoke and water damage and was moved out of the Pentagon in December 2001 to make space for another army organization.

Parham said finding out that the library was moving out of the building was nearly as bad as experiencing the attack itself. She was watching TV coverage of the World Trade Center attacks with colleagues shortly before the plane crashed into the Pentagon. She was so close to the impact area that the force of the explosion knocked her to the ground and broke her toe. The ensuing fireball swept over her head and caused second-degree and some third-degree burns on her face, hands, ears and top of her head.

"Having just gone through that attack (and) then to find out, before you even have a chance to recover, that the library was going to move out of the Pentagon was pretty horrifying," Parham said during a recent phone interview from her office at the Pentagon.

The library, which serves the Pentagon's 23,000 military and civilian employees, was moved several miles away to the Crystal City residential and commercial center. There was little notification that the library was going to be moved and Parham and others were concerned that the library would be housed off-site permanently.

Parham is the policy director and advocate for the U.S. Army Library Program. Her responsibilities do not include The Pentagon Library. But since she has worked in the library field for more than 28 years and felt that the library's presence in the building was vital, she felt compelled to be "instrumental in keeping the issue alive," lobbying with others to make sure that the library was moved back into the Pentagon as soon as possible.

"The library needed to be in the building because it supports the Department of Defense," said Parham. "It is the DOD corporate library. So I worked with other concerned users in the building from all the various military services . . . to try to ensure that the library was returned to the Pentagon so it would be in the same location as its users."

Parham said that even though the off-site location was only a 15-minute bus ride away, it was very inconvenient for users, some of whom used the Pentagon Library to perform research to support decision-making at the highest level of the Department of Defense.

"The action officers, the people who are the ones who do the legwork and research to support those decisions, they don't have the time to spend 30 to 45 minutes in a round-tip bus ride to get that stuff," Parham said. "Although there is an awful lot of information that is provided electronically these days . . . an awful lot of materials that these folks are looking at are in paper and until there is a lot of money available for digitization it is going to stay in paper."

The consistent lobbying of Parham and colleagues got the attention of high- level military leaders. As a result, a small reference center was set up at the Pentagon six months after the attack. Just over a year later, the main library re-opened for business in a temporary building located near the south parking entrance of the Pentagon.

Parham takes pride in knowing she played a part in returning the library to the Pentagon. Her efforts were recognized by the national award, which was presented to her at the 20th Annual FLICC Forum on Federal Information Policies at the Library of Congress in mid-March.

"I was very honored to have received the award because there are 1,700 federal librarians so it is quite an honor to have been selected," she said. "It was critical to get (the library) back. (It) has been here a long, long time. That was what the effort was all about."