Well, we are leaving summer behind but not the heat!  The library has stayed pretty busy over the summer.  Our Thursday Nights dwindled down to just a few people but is picking back up with more and more people using it all the time.  We have hired a Wichita State University student to work Thursday nights.  Her name is Marjorie Crane, “Marj.”  She is a graduate student in the Geology Department and we are thrilled to have her working in the Library.  Welcome aboard Marj!

     Well, if you did not attend this years picnic, you missed a really good time!  The picnic committee decided to try something different this year and changed the location of the picnic to All Star Sports on west 21st street.  We had a good turnout, a little over 200, and those who were there seemed very pleased that we could eat and play Bingo inside the air-conditioned banquet room.  The food was excellent and it was nice to be able to relax and eat inside, with no bugs or wind or HEAT to bother us!  We had some wonderful prizes donated for Bingo and we had a lot of support in monetary donations.  Thank you to all of you who gave to this event, we really appreciate your support.  The picnic committee was chaired this year by Corey Baker.  Other committee members were Brian Wilhite & Mike Maroney.  Please thank these guys when you see them.

     We are entering into our second season of Technical Talks.  The first one is scheduled for September 12th.  Bob Cowdery has a great deal of talks already scheduled and the promise of some very interesting presentations for this fall.  Keep an eye on page 5 of the Bulletin for a complete and up-to-date list of talks.  Geologists whose name starts with A-L will be able to earn CEUs during this fall period. 

     Other items of interest: The Kansas Geological Foundation is having a “Garage Sale” in the basement on September 26 & 27. See the ad on pages 24-25 for more details on this

     We are moving ahead on the scanning project and with the Walters Digital Library.  We have set a target date to “go live” with our “on-line memberships” January 1, 2003.  Please keep watching for more information on this. We have completed  Phase I of the project ahead of schedule and below budget!  These are very exciting times that we are participating in and we can be very proud that we are the first private library to offer this type of service. 

     The KGS & KGF shared a booth at the KIOGA Annual Convention at the Airport Hilton on August 18 & 19.  This was very well attended and we were able to display a sample of the Walters Digital Library, working on-line.   There was much excitement and interest in this project.  Keep watching for more information on the Digital Library as we are preparing to offer “on-line” subscriptions by the first of the year.  In the meantime, the project needs your financial support to keep the scanning moving along at the present pace.  Please see Tyler Sander’s article on page 14 for more information

Respectfully,
Rebecca Radford