Henebry Award to Jim Hunter

About Park Library

Park Library News

Collections

For Students

For Faculty

For Researchers

By Barbara P. Semonche
Fellow of the Special Libraries Association
and News Division Chair 1982-1983

Good evening everyone. And an especially warm welcome to News Division award honorees Jim Hunter, Sharon Clairemont, and M.J. Crowley. By my calculations Jim is the 58^th recipient of the Henebry Roll of Honor. And, since there are past Henebry Award honorees with us this evening, would they all please stand and be warmly recognized.

This is a very special evening on several counts. I'd like to take a few moments to credit Agnes Henebry's legacy. She was, for a long time, the supervisor for the Lindsay-Schaub newspaper libraries and dispatch rooms in Illinois. It seems appropriate now, 20 years after her death and 70 years after joining the Newspaper Division, to celebrate her contributions.

Miss Henebry is remembered with great respect and affection by all who knew her. There are not many of us left now who have had direct contact with her. Jim Hunter is one of them. Here tonight is Jim Scofield, title-holder for longest consecutive News Division conference attendance and also among the few who actually knew Miss Henebry.

We credit our profession's vitality and intensity to Miss Henebry's near-missionary zeal in transcending the highest standards of news library management and research. To her students, friends and colleagues she was our cheerleader, our coach and star player, our advocate who taught, inspired, encouraged us all.

It would have been great to interview Miss Agnes. That thought stayed with me one fine spring evening. I carried my "special brand of southern liquid refreshment" to our terrace, stretched out on a chair, propped my feet up and meditated about Miss Agnes and all the other champions in our profession.

The late afternoon rain stopped. Dusk settled. A light breeze carried the faint fragrance of honeysuckle. A mockingbird serenaded. Silence slipped in. It was quiet. Very quiet.

"Do you have an appointment?"

Puzzled, I replied, "I'm not sure."

"Well, what's your name and where are you from?"

"I'm Barbara Semonche and I'm from North Carolina."

"Ah, yes, of course. Miss Agnes Henebry and Miss Rose Vormelker are expecting you. They're in the garden having 'tea.' Follow me, please."

I did. Down a flower-bordered path to a gazebo. And there they were. The doyennes of the News Division: Miss Agnes, tall, fair, serene, and Miss Rose, petite, dark, intense.

They both smiled and gestured to a chair. I sat.

Miss Agnes began, "Hello, Barbara, thanks for coming. Would you like some tea?"

"Yes, please." I took a sip, then another. This was some kind of "special" tea.

Miss Rose eyed me speculatively. A knowing smile emerged.

Miss Agnes continued. "Barbara, I'd like to hear more about this Jeff Hunter."

Before I could reply, Miss Rose pounced. "It's JIM Hunter. JIM, not Jeff. Jeffrey Hunter is some kind of actor which Jim definitely is not!"

Miss Agnes replied, mildly: "You sound as if you know Jim Hunter very well, Rose."

"Well I should, Agnes. I'm the one who got him his first job. I was doing some consulting work for the Columbus Dispatch in the early 70's. Naturally, I recommended the paper hire a librarian. Jim was interviewed, but the editor had some doubts about hiring him. So he asked me what Jim knew about newspapers. I told him, 'Not a damn thing, but he'll find out!'"

Miss Agnes smiled knowingly and said, "And apparently he did."

Then I burst in with, "Absolutely!"

Both Miss Agnes and Miss Rose regarded me thoughtfully and waited for me to continue.

"Well, I've discovered quite a bit about Jim. I've collected a dossier on his career."

They both chorused, "Did you bring it with you?" I replied softly, "No, but I remember most of what was in it."

Miss Rose replied testily, "Well, get on with it, then; that's why you are here." I thought to myself, I wondered about that.

I began: "Jim manages the editorial library of the Columbus Dispatch. He's done so since 1974 when he attended his first SLA conference in Toronto. He remembers having lunch with both of you that week."

Miss Agnes nodded. Miss Rose grinned and said, "I recall that conversation, Agnes. It was about newspaper libraries selling book review copies. You and Jim disagreed about it. Actually, I thought he was brashly witty."

Miss Agnes said, "Please go on, Barbara."

"Well, what struck me first was what he was doing before getting his M.L.S. degree at Kent State University."

"And what was that?" they both wanted to know.

"He was a U.S. Army Captain from 1969-1972." They were both thoughtful again. I continued.

"Jim has always been interested in technology, although lately he's gone off on this 'metadata' thing. He was among the very first (in 1993) to subscribe to the NewsLib list, and, from Carolyn Edds (Research Director at IRE) we discover that Jim was a pioneer in seeking newsroom training materials for journalists' Internet use."

"Jim was also involved in the creation of a full-text archival system for the Columbus Dispatch and continues with upgrades and enhancements, such as developing a digital image archive and a host of other sophisticated research and library management tools."

"Yes, yes, we know all about that, but what has Jim done that is really SIGNIFICANT!" demanded the thorny Miss Rose. Miss Agnes looked pained.

"Oh, there are several things. In 1986, Jim undertook the first salary survey of news librarians. He planned and designed the questionnaire then spent more than 200 hours doing the statistical analysis. Over time Jim has learned a veritable alphabet of computer skills: UNIX, OS/2, VMS, DOS, SAS, SPSS, EXCEL, ACCESS, QUARK, PhotoShop, and Illustrator." Now, they were beginning to be impressed.

I went on: "What is truly unique about Jim is that he actually manages the Columbus Dispatch Political Poll operation. Selecting samples, monitoring the data entry, as well as writing and running statistical programs to analyze the data. He has been doing this for years. Even more amazing is that the CD poll is regarded as more accurate in predicting state and national political election results than any other media poll."

Miss Agnes inquired, "Is the media really involved with political polling?" I assured her that media all over the world are involved with polling. But even more impressive, according to the world renowned polling guru and University of North Carolina journalism professor, Phil Meyer, in his USA Today column dated Feb. 9, 2000, declared that the Columbus Dispatch does the job right. The doyennes were rapt.

"Further, Jim has a sharp eye for generating new revenue streams for his company. He developed and marketed what has become a profitable web site of the Columbus Dispatch archives."

Miss Rose gasped, "You mean that newspaper libraries are now supposed to make a profit? We certainly didn't have to do that in my day! It was quite enough to be accurate, current, and comprehensive."

Miss Agnes replied calmly, "Rose, accountably was always involved. Apparently some librarians were more aware of this business fact than others and discovered how to be serious players." Miss Rose looked astonished.

I hastened on. "Both of you, as first-rate teachers, coaches, and mentors yourselves, will appreciate the fact that Jim is deeply involved in education. Recently he has taught courses in Internet Research and web design at Otterbine College as well as special libraries classes at Kent State University. And he finds time to support Nora Paul's and Kathy Hansen's research on the crisis in news libraries." His library chief of staff, Linda Deitch explains Jim's many and diverse activities by claiming that he is, indeed, the "King of Multitasking!"

I took a breath and then ran on with topical highlights of his recent presentations at News Division conference programs:

• Archiving Bracket Creep
• "US Census"
• "Media Convergence"
• "GIS"

Miss Rose stopped me, "What is GIS?" 

"Well, ma'm, I hardly know myself. It has something to do with geographic information systems, but you’ll have to get Jim himself to explain it."

I paused again. I wanted to be composed when I described this next special event involving Jim and a 1998 Columbus Dispatch series titled, "The Ghosts of War." This series examined a mental disorder that experts are just beginning to understand in regard to older veterans.

"Columbus Dispatch medical reporter Mark Somerson discovered the hard lesson inherent in any investigative research: live or die by your data. The early statistical data that Mark and Jim collected led them to believe that they had a story of national significance. It was a heady feeling. Health departments in other states were confirming a pattern similar to Ohio's: that the number of suicides among veterans of WWII and the Korean War was four times as high as for non veterans in the same age groups. The reporter talked with Veterans Affairs departments. These figures made sense to them. However, an epidemiologist warned them not to get ahead of themselves. Still, they were confident. They had good data and they had great interviews with veterans, historians, therapists, and post-traumatic stress researchers.

Then, the bottom fell out. Jim created a huge chart that showed populations figures for both older veterans and non-veterans in Ohio as well as suicide rates for both groups. Something didn't look right. No wonder. Nearly 90 percent of Ohio's male residents between the ages of 65 and 80 had served in the wars. Their suicide-rate calculations had to account for that fact. But they didn't. When the correction was made, there was no significant difference between the groups. A national story, gone, but the local one was still published. Still, Jim and the reporter are rightfully proud that the data wasn't fudged. They did the right thing. Both the reporter and Jim came out stronger and smarter."  

I stopped. Miss Agnes and Miss Rose were quiet. They exchanged looks. I waited. Finally, Miss Agnes said, "Jim's career is genuinely impressive, but even more remarkable is his strength of character. When you see Jim next, please tell him I'm very proud of him. Will you do that, Barbara?"

"Yes, I will, Miss Agnes."

Miss Rose turned her gaze to me and said, quietly, "I was right about Jim. He really did learn a lot about newspapers. More than I could have ever taught him. Tell Jim that. And tell him one more thing from me, please."

"What's that, Miss Rose?"

"Tell Jim not to rest on his laurels."

And so I did.

Jim Hunter, please come forward and claim your Agnes Henebry Roll of Honor Award. 

Jim Hunter, far left, with friends Lany McDonald, 
Barbara Semonche, and Kathy Foley.