ITI Bloggers June 22nd, 2009
Time to say goodbye to Washington and look forward to next year’s SLA conference in New Orleans. But the Information Today blogging team is trying something new this year. For the first time, we’ll also be blogging at the American Library Association annual conference in Chicago. So tune in here starting July 11th for our ALA coverage.
And see you next year in New Orleans for SLA 2010!
Marydee Ojala, Editor, ONLINE: Exploring Technology & Resources for Information Professionals
ITI Bloggers June 22nd, 2009
With SLA in DC setting records for attendance, let’s hope that New Orleans can 
show us equally good numbers. Is it too early to think about #SLA2010 for the Twitter tag? Or to speculate about whether Twitter will still be the social networking tool of choice for SLAers? Certainly the party in Washington DC following the business meeting demonstrated the New Orleans spirit, with Mardi Gras characters and food on offer. Let the good times roll!
Marydee Ojala, Editor, ONLINE: Exploring Technology & Resources for Information Professionals
ITI Bloggers June 20th, 2009
As Gloria Zamora reminded me, the association now votes electronically, so SLA members won’t need to be in New Orleans to vote on any potential name change. Which is not a good reason to decide against attending next year’s conference, I should add!
But what might our new name be? I joined the Special Libraries Association years ago and lived through the time when SLA was equated to the Symbionese Liberation Army. Information professional seems to have supplanted librarian in our vocabulary. Yet many members cling to the notion of being a librarian. Maybe incorporate both concepts in a new association name? IPLA for Information Professional Library Association seems a bit redundant. IAIP for International Association of Information Professionals might work.
What are your ideas for a new name? Inquiring minds want to know. Comment here and send to Leadership {at} sla(.)org.
Marydee Ojala, Editor, ONLINE: Exploring Technology & Resources for Information Professionals
ITI Bloggers June 18th, 2009
The last morning before the exhibit hall closed, I had fun just cruising the aisles to catch some of the exhibitors I’d missed. In the process, I snapped some photos to capture a bit of the diversity.
The Hoover’s robot was busy chatting up anyone who wandered by. He was quite an engaging fellow. He also entertained during the opening reception.
There was more to the exhibit hall than digital products. There was fun apparel and accessories. Stop Falling Productions (www.stopfalling.com) was selling shirts, t-shirts, jackets, socks, pins, earrings, and more. I liked the “talk books to me” shirt and also “Librariantini.” Clever and eye-catching!
New product news is great, but the chance to have a tarot card reading-now that’s unique! A long line formed to take advantage-and then got to hear about a new directory while waiting. The Leadership Directories, Inc. (www.leadershipdirectories.com) publishes fourteen Yellow Books, each a specialized directory, available in print and as an integrated database known as The Leadership Library. At SLA, the company was introducing its newest online product called Leadership Companies. The business development tool includes contact data for over 100,000 executives and board members at 3,000 of the largest U.S. and global public corporations (plus the largest U.S.-based private companies and high-growth corporations). It will be available on June 22.
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ITI Bloggers June 18th, 2009
I kept seeing folks walk by with a green ribbon on their name tags-KnowItAll. A bit presumptuous I thought, but still kinda cool. So, I asked and then found the booth for Bio-Rad Laboratories, Informatics Division (www.knowitall.com). It seems the company has a unique resource for chemists called KnowItAll U that provides access to spectral data and downloadable software. Since I’m not a chemist, this was mostly lost on me, but I was quite impressed with the software tools and user interface. Plus, I now have a green ribbon myself.
Paula J. Hane
News Bureau Chief, ITI
ITI Bloggers June 18th, 2009
Nature (www.nature.com), the flagship journal of the Nature Publishing Group (NPG) was named ‘journal of the century’ by the SLA BioMedical & Life Sciences Division (DBIO). The award was presented at the annual DBIO business luncheon. The award was voted for by DBIO’s 686 members. Runners-up included the New England Journal of Medicine, Science, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and The Lancet.
I stopped by the booth to offer my congratulations and happened to catch Jean Crampon of the USC Libraries who had presented the award (on right in photo) and Becky Fishman, senior marketing manager with NPG. Exciting news!
In conjunction with SLA’s Centennial, DBIO conducted a poll of its members to identify the 100 most influential journals of Biology & Medicine over the last 100 years. The top 100 journals were announced in March 2009 and are available on the SLA website: http://units.sla.org/division/dbio/publications/resources/dbio100.html.
Paula J. Hane
News Bureau Chief, ITI
