SLA 2010 Call for Presentations

Call for Participation:  SLA 2010 Annual Conference

The Special Libraries Association is pleased to announce its 2010 Annual Conference and INFO-EXPO, to be held 13-16 June in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.  The theme of the conference is “Entering SLA's Next Century: Let the Good Times Roll."

It's no secret that today's changing technology and more demanding management expectations require information professionals to demonstrate a positive impact on their organizations.  You have to be a great researcher and manager, but you also have to help your organization put knowledge to work as a strategic asset -- across the enterprise, day in and day out.

What should I know about the SLA Annual Conference and INFO-EXPO?

The SLA Annual Conference and INFO-EXPO is the premier networking and educational event for information professionals.  The conference takes place over four days, with additional days for continuing education and local tourism.  For more information, visit the conference Web site.

What should I know about conference planning?

The SLA Annual Conference is planned on an 18-month timeline.  The Annual Conference Advisory Council sets the parameters of conference programming, including (but not limited to) schedule, keynotes, time blocks, and theme.  In addition to this council, divisions and caucuses devise the educational sessions that are put on Monday through Wednesday of the conference.  If you are a member of SLA, you should approach your unit chair or unit planner with your conference programming idea before submitting it to SLA headquarters.  Proposals submitted directly to SLA headquarters will be forwarded to the appropriate unit(s).  Continuing education courses may be organized either through divisions or through SLA headquarters. 

What types of submissions are you looking for? 

* Presentations *
Educational sessions are held Monday through Wednesday of the conference.  Sessions may be 60, 90, or 120 minutes in length.  Presentation ideas should be submitted to the unit chair or unit planner.  These presentations can be panels, lectures, roundtables or any learning format that you think would be appropriate. 

* Contributed Papers *
An opportunity to share your knowledge!  Are you using your expert knowledge and talents to shape the future?  Do you have a vision of what the future will look like?  Are others inspired by your ideas, innovations, and passion?  How is your workplace preparing for the future?  Do you have valuable insight from lessons learned that could help other information professionals?  If so, here is your opportunity to engage in scholarship and share that knowledge with your peers.  Accepted papers will also be published on the SLA Web site and in Information Outlook.  Proposal forms are located here.

We are still accepting contributed papers for our 2009 conference, so feel free to submit a proposal for consideration for this June.

* Continuing Education Courses *
By submitting a CE course proposal, you demonstrate your commitment to helping information professionals become indispensable through learning and help broaden our growing understanding of library and information profession practice in the 21st century. Courses are offered on Saturday and Sunday, 12-13 June.  Courses may be half-day or whole-day, and are open to both members and non-members. Continuing education courses may be organized either through divisions or through SLA headquarters.  Proposal forms can be found here.

UPDATE:

Deadlines

* 14 January 2009:  SLA unit conference planners will meet at Leadership Summit to begin the 2010 planning process and brainstorm program ideas/collaborations.

* 15 May 2009:  Proposals are due to unit planners by this date.  Conference proposals not submitted at the SLA unit level must be turned into Kristin Foldvik, SLA's events director, at kfoldvik@sla.org.  (Only authors of accepted proposals will be notified.)

* 3 August 2009:  Final presentation descriptions are due to the Annual Conference Advisory Council by SLA units.

We look forward to hearing your ideas.  If you have any questions, please contact Kristin Foldvik, SLA's director of events, at kfoldvik@sla.org.

Comments

[Lisa Zilinski]

Considering the strain on the ecomony and the fact that many organizations are cutting back on travel budgets, will any portion of the conference be in Second Life?

[Kristin Foldvik]

At this time we are not considering to have any portion in Second Life. We are hoping to have a live web cast of the Closing General Session Panel. We are constantly trying to make improvements, so this could change. We are hoping that some of our tips and information will help everyone convince their companies that they should attend the SLA 2009 Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO.

[Re Mishra]

Do you have the 2010 proposal due dates available yet?

[Kristin Foldvik]

Oops! The deadlines were left out of the original post. I've now added them above. Proposals are due on the third of August.