SLA’s Centennial Commission map of past conferences caught my eye. Tiny Haines Falls, New York, (population 913) was the site of SLA’s 1915 annual conference. The only possible place could be Twilight Park, a private resort, built in 1888, and my vacation retreat for the past fourteen years. How? Where? What was it like?
Only six years young, SLA held its 1915 annual conference in conjunction with the New York Library Association. The program placed emphasis on the library field of possible service rather than on matters of technique. Men of note from other professions were also invited to address the conference.
Fire has since claimed the headquarters hotel, Squirrel Inn, but a portion of Santa Cruz Inn (shown at left) still stands as a private residence. Santa Cruz was described as the alternate selection for those wanting a quieter environment. A five-minute hike through the woods and you would be at the headquarters hotel. Rates were $2.50 per day, or $3.00 if you wanted a private bath. Groups might rent a cottage. The marketing for the conference outlined various transportation options. You would travel “but six hours by rail from New York City” (100 miles from Manhattan) where the Squirrel Inn stage met all trains.
SLA had 354 members from every section of the U.S. and foreign countries in 1915. Leaders also discussed the need for a Headquarters Office to facilitate the needs of this growing membership.
So, today, on SLA’s 100th anniversary, I’m sitting in my cottage, reflecting on the wonderful journey of information professionals to this centennial marker. Later today, I will hike around the park and find a quiet spot in front of a waterfall and dream the future that is being created by SLA’s 11,000 members as we “Align in ‘09” and what my small contribution might be.
All the photos taken by SLA's photographer during SLA 2009 are available for viewing and download now! These will remain posted for a limited time, so be sure to take a look and download your favorites today!
4.You’ll be brought to your main category page – click through to see the list of categories.
5.To view a category, click on it.
6.You’ll be brought to a page of thumbnails. To enlarge a thumbnail for a better view, click on the image. You can view that category “slide show” style by using the arrows at the top of the screen.
7.You can collect the images you like in a Light Box to review/download at a later time if you wish. The images in your Light Box will remain there until you remove them. To access your Light Box, click on the lightbulb icon on the top right of the screen.
8.To download images click on an image – the dialog box that appears will guide you with your choices for download.
Information sharing. We do it all the time. The discussion lists are busy with requests for assistance in finding a citation, an article, or even a place to start for research on an unfamiliar topic. We strategize about ways to organize and present information, and knowledge, to our clients ways that will be most effective (current awareness services! mobile updates! content management systems!).
Now, have you filled out the 2009 Salary Survey questionnaire? Here's another opportunity to share information with your professional community, and help bolster those requests for salary increases...which might be a tough sell in this economy. Having data, recent data, to present in a salary negotiation will, ultimately, benefit the membership as a whole...and it'll help *you*, too.
The survey instrument is fairly brief (it will take about 10 minutes of your time), and the results will be available for just $7.95 for participants. Links to the questionnaire were distributed through e-mail last week, and the results will be available in September. Please take a few moments to complete the survey, and be sure to click the link at the end for the coupon codes.
For more information about this year's survey, please read this post over on Information Center Connections. If you have questions, don't hesitate to get in touch with me at csosnowski (at) sla (dot) org.
When SLA members meet, things happen. A group of SLA members are circulating a petition for the creation of a new SLA division, focusing on ways to organize and structure information so that content is accessible and useful. The proposed Taxonomy Division would offer a practical context for exploring issues and sharing experiences related to planning, creating, maintaining and using taxonomies, thesauri, authority files, and other controlled vocabularies and information structures. To learn more and sign the petition, go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=6tJ5CLQkMDsBnVSKgCFHxw_3d_3d. You must be a current SLA member to sign the petition. Contact Margie Hlava (mhlava@accessinn.com) or Janice Keeler (jkeelersla@sbcglobal.net) for more information or to volunteer to help get this division started.
Did you know that our SLA members can now receive a complimentary trial to the BNAInfoDash Economic Stimulus Dashboard?
As the economic stimulus bill creates billions of dollars in funding opportunities, your organization may be among the many that need a source of reliable, focused, up-to-the-minute information. SLA would like to make you aware of an innovative tool created by one of our partners--BNA.
The BNA InfoDash Economic Stimulus Dashboard offers tailored, relevant content to empower your organization's decision-making--in an easy dashboard format. Track the flow of economic stimulus news and dollars, with breakdowns covering infrastructure, energy and environment, health care, communications, education, taxes, labor and employment, and funding opportunities and awards. The dashboard filters news from thousands of authoritative sources, including premium BNA content.
Please join CEO Janice Lachance and 2009 SLA President Gloria Zamora for a post-conference "unconference" at the SLA space in Second Life!
Chat with them and other SLA members about the highlights of the SLA 2009 Conference. Here's a chance to share what you learned at the conference, and ask questions about the conference if you were not able to attend!
Getting started: Haven't been into Second Life yet? This is a great reason to jump in and join the conversation! The SLA in Second Life wiki site has a great section on what you need to do to get started.
Second Life help: Members of the SLA in Virtual Worlds Council will be in Second Life 1 hour prior to the session on the 26th to help you with some Second Life basics, answer any questions, etc. Join us at 7am SLT (7am PT / 10am ET) if you need some additional help prior to the session.
Right next to the DTIC booth was the very busy Patent and Trademark Depository Library Program booth. There was a lot of excitement to be seen at the government booths and the PTDLP booth drew a good crowd.
Patent and Trademark Depository Library ProgramBooth, SLA 2009, Washington, DC
Interested in hearing more about PTDLP? In August of 2007, Chris Black, Patent and Trademark Depository Library Program Librarian, joined Marie Kaddell, LexisNexis Information Professional Consultant, in a discussion about the Patent and Trademark Depository Library Program. In this interview, Chris shares information about the Patent and Trademark Depository Library Program, how the PTDLP uses exhibit space at professional conferences to reach out to librarians, special products and services that they offer, how the PTDLP leverages technology to enhance their training programs, exhibit experience take-aways and more.
Listen from the player, download from the mp3 link and listen at your convenience, or grab it right off iTunes.
In the INFO-EXPO at SLA 2009 in Washington, DC, the DTIC booth was so popular every time that I walked by that the crowd spilled into the aisle. It's great to see government librarians as participants in the exhibits.
Each issue of Information Outlook is unique, but the October/November 2009 issue (Vol. 13, No. 7) will differ from its predecessors not only because of the content it contains but also because of who's determining that content.
SLA President Gloria Zamora has appointed eight information professionals to serve on the new Information Outlook Advisory Council (IOAC). The council will work with the editor of Information Outlook to set the editorial direction of the magazine and determine theme topics. The council will also provide feedback on article proposals and recommend article topics and authors.
The members of the IOAC, who will serve staggered two-year terms, are as follows:
Doris Helfer (chair)
Susan DiMattia
Dennie Heye
Betty Jo Hibberd
Jill Hurst-Wahl
Renee Pope
David Shumaker
Tony Stankus
The council held its first meeting at the 2009 SLA Annual Conference and will soon begin work on determining article topics for the October/Novermber 2009 issue, developing an editorial calendar for 2010, and creating an online survey of SLA members to determine how they use the magazine.
Feel free to contact an IOAC member if you have any suggestions for improving the magazine or if you would like to recommend an article topic or write an article.
Yes, what a week! This conference, which celebrated our 100th anniversary as an organization drew 5,856 conference attendees, up 16% from last year and the most in six years. Conference attendees came from 30 countries. It was wonderful to hear a broad range of languages in the hallways and exhibit hall. Our location was also multicultural, which seemed quite fitting. The Convention Center is a few blocks away from D.C.'s Chinatown. Washington, D.C. itself has residents from around the world and their influence can been seen all around.
Our speakers came from a variety of backgrounds and locations. Retired General Colin Powell was a surprising opening keynote speaker. While most of us had likely seem him comment on foreign policy on some news broadcast, who knew that he would be such an inspirational, funny and down-to-earth speaker?! I was also very pleased to hear Neil deGrasse Tyson, who was part of the final keynote (panel). And I'm very pleased to see that his online profile state that he "was born and raised in New York City where he was educated in the public schools clear through his graduation from the Bronx High School of Science." Yes, public education can and does produce people who have a positive impact on our view of the world. (We tend to forget that.)
For those who ventured away from the conference to see parts of D.C., they saw the impact that information has had on our world. For example, data that was turned into information, which was turned into knowledge was at the heart of our missions to the moon in the 1960s as was a tremendous drive to make it so. As Tyson noted, those inspiring dreams create a drive in each of us to contribute which causes us to learn and to participate in careers that we might not consider otherwise. What dreams do we need to inspire our young people with now?
We also had fun. What would be a conference without open houses, networking events, and group activities that provided opportunities for us to know each other better? Activities included a road trip for some to the Mets vs. Orioles baseball game in Baltimore, MD. It seemed fitting that when SLA was in Baltimore that we journeyed to D.C. for game and this year (due to the game schedule) we had to journey to Baltimore!
As has become the custom with our conferences, there is a lot of content out on the Internet about what happened. There are nearly 900 photos in Flickr that have been tagged SLA2009. Technorati currently shows nearly 90 blog posts that use the tag "sla2009", but I would think the number of blog posts should be higher than that (perhaps there are more blog posts on their way?). And there are some videos in YouTube, but they have not been consistently tagged, so it's hard to find them all at once. This year, our Twitter stream carried a ton of information -- much more than last year! Twitter is searchable, so you can find older tweets from the conference.
(Note to bloggers, etc., please tag your stuff from the conference with sla2009. BY using that tag, you conference related content becomes more findable. Thanks!)
With SLA 2009 now history, preparations are underway for the Leadership Summit in St. Louis (January 27-30, 2010) and the next annual conference in New Orleans (June 13 - 16, 2010). With the economy still fluctuating, don't wait until the last minute to talk to your management about the benefits of attending the conference. If you attended to conference this year, write a 1-2 page report for your management about what you learned and how that knowledge will help your organization. If you were unable to attend, talk to your management about what you have gleaned from the blogs, etc., and why attending in person allows you to learn more. When budget estimates are requested for 2010, be sure to include in your estimate funds for professional development. In other words, make sure that your management understands that this is important to you and to them.
Finally, below is a video that shows some of the exhibit hall. The exhibit hall (INFO-EXPO) was packed this year with companies that had exhibited before as well as some new ones to the conference.
Charles Francis, a public affairs consultant in Washington,
D.C. who founded “The Kameny Papers Project" addressed the SLA’s Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues Caucus at their annual meeting at the
2009 Annual Conference.
Mr. Francis spoke about his work with Kameny Papers Project,
an archive of letters, memorabilia, and writings of Frank Kameny. Francis
described Kameny as the “Rosa Parks” of the LGBT Rights’ movement.
Kameny, a veteran from WWII, was fired from his job in the
federal government when it was discovered he was gay. Instead of accepting the dismissal
Kameny began a letter writing campaign to administrators in the federal
government. Mr. Francis distributed copies of letters from the collection,
written by two different administrators in the federal government. The letters
were a stark contrast from language used today referring to LGBT people as “sexual
perverts not suitable for federal employment,” saying that all LGBT individuals
are “automatically a security risk” and “a disruptive factor within any
organization.”
Kameny refused to accept these letters as the final answer.
He appealed his case all the way to the Supreme Court. He then became an
activist and organized the first LGBT White House picketing in 1966. In the
1973 he stormed the American Psychiatric Association’s Conference and helped
motivate the association to remove homosexuality from its list of mental
disorders. Today at the age of 84 Kameny remains active in the LGBT community
and recently headlined in the Washington DC’s 2009 Capital Pride Parade. Kameny’s
papers chronicles his experiences first as an outraged dismissed employee and
later as a trailblazing activist.
The most remarkable aspect of the collection isn’t its size
(over 50,000 documents) but that the items survived. LGBT material has
historically not stood the test of time. According to Mr. Francis this could be
due to simple neglect or societal prejudice. Mr. Francis described the destruction
of the largest collection of LGBT material by Nazis in 1933, at Magnus Hirschfeld’s
library in his Institute for Sexual Research as an example of governmental
endorsed obliteration of knowledge and history. Because of the incredible loss
of knowledge and history to the LGBT community Mr. Francis sees the
preservation of LGBT material as a kind of activism.
So in 2006, when Mr. Francis first learned that Kameny still
had this material sitting in the attic of his house, he saw the importance of
this collection. Given the hostile history haunting LGBT material Mr. Francis
wasn’t sure how interested the Library of Congress would be in owning its first
openly LGBT collection. However shortly after meeting with the 20th Century
Political Historian of the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, Mr. Francis
received a letter of interest from the historian that read, “A comprehensive
understanding of history requires that historians, and those who read history,
see how government policies and public attitudes affected real individuals and
how individuals reacted, adjusted, and grappled with their position.”
Mr. Francis worked with a professional appraiser to
ascertain the value of the collection. The problem however was that at the time
there were no other LGBT archival materials to compare the collection to for appraisal.
Once a value was agreed upon funds were raised via private donors to purchase
Kameny’s material and donate it to the Library of Congress. The Library of
Congress spent over a year and half indexing the collection and today the
material is available to the public in the Library’s manuscript reading room.
Mr. Francis finished his presentation by recalling a meeting
he had with Harry Rubenstein, the head of the Politics and Reform section of
the National Museum of American History. Mr. Rubenstein showed Mr. Francis that
the picket signs Kameny used at his White House protest were housed with Thomas
Jefferson’s lap desk and the inkwell Lincoln penned the Emancipation Proclamation
with. What the curator was telling Mr. Francis was that “the gay and lesbian
papers and pickets do not exist in a world apart from the American story; they
actually embody and renew America’s story.”
Doris S. Helfer (right), advocated the need to ensure that library disasters don't become catastrophes at the panel on "Preparedness for Info Pros: Lessons Learned from Recent Disasters," organized by the Museums, Arts, and Humanities Division. The other speakers on the panel were Alfred E Lemmon and Cynthia B. Love.
Slides:
* Doris S. Helfer (ppt) * Alfred E Lemmon (ppt) * Cynthia B. Love (ppt)
You don't stop having fun at SLA conferences just because you are 89. Past President Vivian Hewitt (1978-1979) enjoying her dance with the robot Millenia.
Congratulations to Ann Sweeney, 2009 recipient of the Social Science Division's Gale Group Murray Wortzel Award. The award was presented at the International Reception at the Zambian Embassy - a fitting location as Ann is the organizer of the reception and chair of the Social Science Division's International Relations Section.
The award was established by the Social Science Division to honor the memory of Murray Wortzel, a long-time member of the division whose dedication and commitment to both the division and SLA exemplify the consummate information professional, and is given at the annual conference every other year.
I have been thinking about how I am participating in this conference and how that is different from years past. In 1992 at my first SLA conference, I diligently went to as many sessions as possible. My goal was to learn, learn, learn and ensure that I returned back to my place of work with valuable information. For several years, my modus operandi was to soak up what others were providing during their sessions and visit as many exhibitor booths as possible. If my days went completely full, then I had failed.
In more recent years, I have continued to soak up information. My days are still full, but not always because I'm attending every session possible. Instead this "soaking up" occurs in a manageable number of sessions and during networking events (open houses) and committee meetings. I am also now in a position to give back by giving workshops and presentations. I'm among a wonderful group of people who are providing content that others need.
How are you participating in this conference? Are you soaking up as much information as possible? Are you now at a stage in your career where you can provide information, tips-and-techniques, and lessons learned to others? Perhaps you're doing a bit of both? Knowing that answer can help you as you plan your days.
By the way, if you are here just soaking in as much stuff as possible, know that one year you'll also find yourself providing content to an audience that cares about your viewpoint and knowledge. I hope I'm in the audience for your debut!
The three keynote panelists will be participating in book signings on Wednesday prior to the Closing General Session. Don't miss your opportunity to say hello to these authors and speakers.
Visit the SLA Marketplace, Booth 639, in the INFO-EXPO, 11:00am-11:45am.
Neil deGrasse Tyson will be signing The Pluto Files, Robyn Meredith will be signing The Elephant and the Dragon, and John R. Patrick will be signing Net Attitude: What It Is, How to Get It, and Why Your Company Can't Survive Without It.
I was so happy to see that L. Ron Hubbard has a booth in the INFO EXPO! He really has a lot to teach us all about integrity in the provision of information. Because SLA is venturing into new waters with INFO EXPO exhibitors, I humbly offer here a few suggestions for folks we can get for future conferences:
Flat Earth Society - Their innovative use of GIS is remarkable
Intelligent Design proponents - Very imaginative use of text analysis
The Government of Iran - Using the power of technology to drive policy
I invite you, dear readers, to add more suggestions here.
It's turned into an annual event, and once again it's a standing-room-only one. This year, the speakers are John DiGilio and Gayle Lynn-Nelson. Among the most interesting sites I heard about were drop.io (share files in real time privately), gethuman (talk to a real person at the company you've been trying to reach for days), and Tripit (get your itinerary organized just by emailing your confirmation to the site). The complete list (with clickable links!) is available at drop.io/60Sites.
I've been attending similar sessions at SLA's annual conference since 2005, but this is the first time I've been able to check out each site as the speaker comments on it... thanks to the excellent conference wifi, which has also allowed me to blog about sessions even before they end. And so, it didn't matter that I was sitting at the back of the room =)
Michael Edson (right), the Smithsonian Institution's Director of Web and New Media Strategy, presented his vision for a new Smithsonian Commons that will provide knowledge sharing opportunities in the public domain. Michael helped to create the Smithsonian's first blog, Eye Level, and the first Alternative Reality Game to take place in a museum, "Ghosts of a Chance." His slides and notes are now available on slideshare:
Gloria Zamora (right) joins this year's Diversity Leadership recipients, from left: Julia Leggett, Regina Beard, Nedelina Tchangalova, Eric Schwarz and Nora Martin.
Five information professionals were honored today at the Annual Diversity Leadership Development Breakfast. Holly Bussey from EBSCO, sponsor of the DLDP awards, presented each of the awardees with their trophies. Julius C. Jefferson, Jr., the featured speaker, shared the results of his research on "The Black Male Librarian: An Endangered Species."
The photos above show Holly Bussey presenting Nora Martin with her award (left), and Julius C. Jefferson, Jr.
Copies of Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat, compliments of Vintage Books, were given to all who attended the annual breakfast. The event was organized by the Diversity Leadership Development Program Committee, whose members include Lyle Minter (chair), Rebecca Pernell, Innocent Awasom, Vernon Totanes, Elizabeth Bibby, Tom Rink and Vernon Hemphill.
For more information about the award and the recipients, check out the press release.
Michael Edson, the Smithsonian Institution's Director of Web and New Media Strategy, will speak at the annual conference on Tuesday, June 16 from 9:30 to 11:00 on "Envisioning the Future of Museum, Arts, and Humanities Libraries." This presentation should be of particular interest to all members since Michael will be describing his vision for a new Smithsonian Commons that will provide knowledge sharing opportunities in the public domain. Michael helped to create the Smithsonian's first blog, Eye Level, and the first Alternative Reality Game to take place in a museum, Ghost of a Chance.
Please join us for this exciting presentation in room 144C of the Walter E. Washington convention center. Hosted by the Museum, Arts and Humanities Division.
From left: Linda Stoddart (United Nations), Richard Hulser (Library Consultant), Stephen Abram (SirsiDynix) and Cindy Hill (Hill Information Consulting Group)
I found it interesting that the first question asked at a session on the Library of the Future was about "info pros," not librarians. Times are changing and terms are being used that are not always clear to everyone... So what else is new? =)
Dan Clancy, engineering director at Google Book Search, will be the featured speaker at the SLA Public Policy Update. The Google Book Settlement is a hot topic right now, so you'll want to hear Dan speak about the settlement components. If you have questions about the settlement and its implications, now is the time to get some answers.
This session will take place from 11:30am-1:00pm on Tuesday, 16 June, in room 143AB of the convention center.
Steve Weiss (right) from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), and Eliza Robertson and Phillip Barron from the National Humanities Center (NHC) discussed the digitization and transcription of the 862 half-hour episodes of the popular weekly radio show "Soundings." The project, a collaborative effort between UNC-CH, NHC and the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI), goes live later this year. The panel on "Collaboration for Digital Preservation" was organized by the Museums, Arts, and Humanities Division.
When I left the opening session of the SLA conference yesterday, I left inspired. The event opened with a series of awards that recognize professionals in various fields for the numerous contributions. Prefacing each award, there was a "trailer" where interviews and other information on each award winner was displayed on the ball room's large monitors. As a new member to SLA, I found this especially useful as it introduced me to many new people. Not only that, these video presentations benefited from some high quality production work. The award presentations exceeded my expectations and energized me about the profession.
The opening keynote address by Colin Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State, struck a counterpoint to the awards. While Powell did not speak about librarians directly, I still found the speech quite interesting. He covered everything from his many pursuits, his views on leadership and his efforts to modernize the U.S. State Department. His speech also showed that it is althogether possible to deliver a very good speech without PowerPoint or any other visual aids.
A growing number of people at the conference are using Twitter. The use of this year's conference tag (#sla2009) has already surpassed the used of the conference tag (#sla2008) last year. We also have a re-tweet facility that was setup by YankeeInCanada (Daniel Lee). So follow @sla2009 to get tweets from people who are using our hashtag (#sla2009).
Above is a flat screen display in the ProQuest-Dialog booth that is showing tweets from the conference, including tweets that are using the #slait hashtag. Thanks to ProQuest-Dialog for helping to promote the use of Twitter at this conference.
A history of the Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics Division will be presented on Tuesday, 9:30am-11:00am, in room 201 in the convention center.
Speakers for this session include Dorothy McGarry, David Stern, Michael Fosmire, and Brenda Corbin. Come hear stories about this division and meet with fellow division members.
Elizabeth Joffrion (right) shared her knowledge of the projects funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities at the panel on "Funding for the Future: Preserving the Past," organized by the Museums, Arts, and Humanities Division. The other speakers at the panel were Rachel L. Frick (Institute of Museum and Library Services) and Kathleen M. Williams (National Historical Publications & Records Commission).
Jane Kinney Meyers (left) was awarded a one-year SLA membership for her poster "Lubuto: Excellent Special Libraries for African Street Children" at the Poster session & open house of the Social Science, Museum, Arts & Humanities, and Education Divisions. The open house attendees, who chose the winner by voting with chips, also selected two runners-up: Jacy Bell ("Information Accessibility and the Disability Community") and Cheryl Klimaszewski ("Putting a Face on the Information Divide: A Look at Two Romanian Villages").
Each Fall, SLA members submit abstracts to the Contributed Papers Selection Committee. This year we received over 40 abstracts, 9 of which were selected to be presented at the conference.
These sessions are a great opportunity to hear from your peers -- what are they working on? What are best practices? Trends in the field? 3 papers are presented at each session, so it's a great chance to hear a little bit about each project.
First session is Monday at 3:30 in room 141. Check out the full schedule.
Washington, DC has beautiful architecture, so as you roam around the city, remember to look at the buildings. Check out both new and old structures, and especially old churches. You may be surprised and the architectural elements that you'll see.
By the way, the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. is a Carnegie Library building. Admission to its library and exhibits are free and open to the public.
Wondering what the future of SLA looks like? It was on display at the first-timers' reception Sunday afternoon. More than a hundred young information professionals ate finger food, swapped business cards, made new friends, and chatted with longtime SLA members for nearly two hours.
Conversations ranged from the casual ("Oh, a friend of mine used to work at the Justice Department") to the curious ("What do you think of the Google book settlement?") to the controversial ("My friends at public libraries don't agree with me about this, but they're looking at it too narrowly"). But one common thread ran through all of them--a longing to connect, to be with other information professionals and learn from and share with them. By the end of the reception, the purple "First Timer" ribbons they were wearing had become status symbols.
What does our future look like? It's all around us ...
In celebration of our 20th anniversary, the Environment & Resource Management Division will be presenting some green entertainment. So...Monday at around lunchtime, you may see a juggler strolling about near the entrance to the INFO EXPO, or perhaps near the Registration area. We all get enough pens, post-its, candies and what have you...but there's never too much fun! Come by and smile.
SLA Tech Zones, sponsored by Dow Jones & Company, offer hands-on training in a few different technology areas. This year, the course topics are podcasting, taxonomy and SharePoint, and Microsoft PowerPoint.
There are still tickets available ($35) for the following courses. Visit the SLA Registration Center to purchase a ticket. Classes are held in convention center room 204C.
Monday:
7:00am-8:30am: Podcasting--Make Noise the New-Fashioned Way (#625)
1:30pm-3:00pm: Microsoft PowerPoint 2007--Beyond the Bulleted List (#655)
3:30pm-5:00pm: Taxonomy and SharePoint--A Powerful Combination (#660)
Tuesday:
7:30am-9:00am: Microsoft PowerPoint 2007--Beyond the Bulleted List (#755)
9:30am-11:00am: Podcasting--Make Noise the New-Fashioned Way (#765)
11:30am-1:00pm: Taxonomy and SharePoint--A Powerful Combination (#805)
1:30pm-3:00pm: Microsoft PowerPoint 2007--Beyond the Bulleted List (#825)
Wednesday:
8:30am-10:00am: Podcasting--Make Noise the New-Fashioned Way (#910)
As a first time attendee to the SLA conference, I must say that I am much impressed. The conference is very well organized, there is free wireless (well done to the organizers!), and a conference canvas bag made from partly recycled materials. I have also enjoyed reading through the latest issue of Information Outlook which came in the conference bag. It was also fun to see flags of all the countries where SLA members hail from. Though the conference proper does not start until tomorrow, I decided to get started early by taking two courses.
Both courses I took today were interesting and left me full of ideas. One of these courses included a CD full of PDFs on knowledge management - which has been a great resource. It has also been really interesting to see the range of organizations where information professionals work. Today alone, I met librarians that work in pharmaceutical companies, government libraries, and statistical companies.
"Would you have any interest in touring the Patent and Trademark Office?" the woman behind me asked.
"Not really," I answered. "I'm not sure what I would see that would interest me."
Working for other associations, I'd grown accustomed to thinking of tours in visual terms. Clearly, SLA tours are different. As Ruth Wolfish proceeded to explain to me, the tour of the Patent Office is all about learning--about how the patent and trademark processes work, from start to finish.
"These days, when it's all about adding value, we can tell our clients we can help walk them through the patent process," she said. "It's another service we can provide."
The tour can accommodate 50 people; only seven spaces are open. I'm betting on Ruth to fill the empty seats.
During th Asian Chapter Conference in New Delhi, there was a serious terrorist attack in Mumbai Many calls and e-mails have been received by staff attending the conference as well as at headquarters Mumbai is in another part of the country and from all information gained anecdotal at the conference, no one's family or coworkers were injured or killed Security throughout the country is heightened as it would be in your own country under similar unfortunate circumstances
SLA 2009 doesn't officially open until tomorrow, June 14, but already the D.C. Convention Center is alive with the voices of SLA. But the noise isn't coming from the main floor--it's reverberating along the walls.
Here in the registration area, the sign-in desks are along one wall, the D.C. Chapter's hospitality booth occupies part of another wall, and the Cyber Connection (where I'm using a computer to write this) consumes a third wall. And that's where all the activity is--along the walls.
Tomorrow morning, the halls and rooms will be filled with librarians renewing friendships, picking up their tote bags, asking directions, looking for meeting rooms, and streaming into the INFO-EXPO Hall. Today, it's just the walls that are crowded. Tomorrow, the noise really begins.
If you are attending SLA and have been involved in your
company’s metadata initiative, I would be very interested in hearing about your
experience. Let’s meet on Monday at the entrance to the Info Expo hall at 12:15
p.m. (where free lunch is being offered for conference attendees). That'll give
us lots of time to grab some lunch and find someplace to sit and chat. I’m
especially eager to hear if anyone has been working with metadata as part of a
SharePoint rollout. You can contact me at the conference at
917/881-5096.
"There’s much to read between the lines. But in this simple schematic, we see a vital organization evolving with its times, surviving economic ups and downs, enduring wars, and adapting to technological change.
The SLA centennial site is a reflection of where the organization stands at the end of 100 years. It’s very 2.0: There are Flickr photos to peruse and user-generated oral histories to read. There’s even a set of YouTube videos to watch.
What the site’s users seem to be saying with their contributions is that they are not only proud to be a part of today’s SLA, but they are proud of who they are and what they do for the enterprises they serve. An ad agency couldn’t be paid enough to produce finer testimonials than these."
Andy Woodworth, a Librarian with the Burlington County Library System in New Jersey says, "In these economic conditions, the role of the library is becoming more important in the lives of its patrons. Diminished incomes have stopped people from buying books, newspapers, magazines, music and movies as well as dropping services like home internet. They are turning to the library for the media and materials that they would have normally bought for themselves in the past. With employers moving their hiring applications to their websites and most job searches move online, the ability for people to be able to access the internet increases in importance. In reaction to this, libraries have added job hunting, resume writing, and interview materials, classes, and programs. On top of this, we are helping people everyday navigate this new age of information. But we are still struggling to maintain services in the face of stagnant or slashed state, county, and municipal budgets.
Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream has a long history for corporate advocacy for different causes. From their mission statement, they seek to conduct business in a socially responsible and environmentally sensible way. Over the years, they’ve created flavors to raise awareness for poverty, global warming, water preservation, family farmers, disadvantaged children, and world peace. Their activism extends to their employees who volunteer their time for community projects. Plus, they make some pretty tasty ice cream.
Join the group, spread the word, and let’s make the library an even cooler place to be!"
Calling all SLA 2009 Attendees: Don't miss the International Reception on Monday June 15 at 6:00 pm at the Zambian Embassy in Washington, DC! This event is already attracting international media attention:
"In recognition of SLA’s global support in launching the Lubuto Library Project in Zambia,Zambian’s Ambassador to the USA Dr. Inonge Mbikusita-Lewanika has welcomed Dow Jones to host the SLA’s centennial International Reception at the Zambian embassy, to celebrate SLA member’s support for the Lubuto Libraries.
The Lubuto Library project is an initiative, in cooperation with local governments,which provides library services,literacy skills targeted programs and educational growth opportunities for vulnerable sub-Saharan African children.
“Dow Jones continues to support the Lubuto Library Projects mission to bring literacy and hope to Africa’s most vulnerable children,” Anne Caputo, Executive Director of Learning and Information Professional Programs for DowJones and SLA President elect has said."
Welcome to the SLA Blog! This site will bring you useful information about the global information profession and about SLA.
SLA Centennial Message
Oral History Project
The "Voices of SLA: an International Oral History" is an initiative
of the Fellows of SLA in partnership with the SLA Centennial Commission. To
learn more or to volunteer and/or to offer suggestions, go
here.
