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ITI Bloggers June 8th, 2005
Before the business meeting, SLA Executive Director Janice Lachance greeted the closing keynote speaker, Gary Hamel.
Marydee Ojala
Editor, ONLINE: The Leading Magazine for Information Professionals
ITI Bloggers June 8th, 2005
Most divisions held their incoming board meetings this morning — early this morning. Not the News Division. They did a full scale program from 7.00 to 8.30 on ratios, percentages and statistics. Here’s Arizona State University Journalism Professor Stephen Doig answering questions:
Marydee Ojala
Editor, ONLINE: The Leading Magazine for Information Professionals
ITI Bloggers June 8th, 2005
In July, Ovid’s Web Gateway will have a new look. Diana Bittern, Ovid’s Director of Software Product Management said the company refers to it as a “refresh.” The interface will be cleaner, less cluttered, and offer better navigation. In addition, “Find Similar” and “Find Citation” search options will be added, as well as “cited by” references pulled from its Journals@Ovid repository. Some customers have already started to use the trial version. Looking further into the future, the company plans to introduce a new search engine, a merged content repository, and more flexible access authentication and personalization features.
Paula J. Hane
News Bureau Chief
Information Today, Inc.
www.infotoday.com
phane {at} infotoday(.)com
ITI Bloggers June 7th, 2005
As of today at 1.30 p.m. SLA reported a total registration of 5,218 people. Of those 2,245 were members, 399 non-members, 661 exhibits only, 16 press, 314 other (VIPs, speakers, students, retirees, CE only), and 1,583 exhibitors. These numbers may grow if people walk in tomorrow for the program. They won’t see the exhibit hall, since it’s closed.
Marydee Ojala
Editor, ONLINE: The Leading Magazine for Information Professionals
ITI Bloggers June 7th, 2005
The first half of the business meeting was scheduled to run from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m. today. Astonishingly, it didn’t take the entire hour for the membership to vote "yes" on both issues. SLA will now have electronic voting and the association year and its fiscal year will coincide. No one offered to speak either for or against electronic voting and it passed with, I think, only 1 dissenting vote. Three people spoke in favor of aligning the association and fiscal years (although one seemed both for and against it, which confused me) and the membership voted overwhelmingly for the proposal. Less than 10 people voted no.
It was certainly different from the European Constitution votes last week in France the The Netherlands!
Marydee Ojala
Editor, ONLINE: The Leading Magazine for Information Professionals
ITI Bloggers June 7th, 2005
Yes, Paula, I agree–it’s been a busy time! I didn’t get a massage yesterday, but I should have–I think I was as tired as you were…
Anyway, here’s what the “Reuters Massage Parlor” looked like.
Don Hawkins
Columnist Information Today
ITI Bloggers June 7th, 2005
This July Euromonitor International will launch an improved Web platform for its premium business reference service for libraries, the Global Market Information Database (GMID), which is a source of international statistics, in-depth market reports, and company profiles, used by investment banks, advertising agencies, government organizations, and business schools worldwide. The new interface is less cluttered, more intuitive, and offers guided navigation using menus of categories for searching. It will offer an easy click feature to build a full text report or drop results into Excel. According to a company representative, there will be a consolidated menu for all data conversion options, and the service is adding new currency conversions. The company will be contacting its current customers soon about moving to the new interface.
Paula J. Hane
News Bureau Chief
Information Today, Inc.
www.infotoday.com
phane {at} infotoday(.)com
ITI Bloggers June 7th, 2005
After several days of non-stop appointments, sessions, and trekking between the hotel and the conference center and around the exhibit hall, I hit bottom at 4:30 yesterday. I didn’t think I could walk back to my hotel or even consider all the party hopping I wanted to do last night. Then I discovered the wonderful attendee amenity offered by Reuters. The company thoughtfully sponsored a relaxation massage station just across the aisle from its booth. My aching feet were treated first to an invigorating massage. Then I sat in a forward tilted chair and got a wonderful 10-minute massage on my back and neck. I felt like a new person. Thank you, Reuters!!! After that I was reenergized enough to walk back and hit several of the receptions. (That special martini at the Wiley InterScience party hit the spot.) My suggestion—there should ALWAYS be a massage station at conferences. Vendors, you’ll get our sincere gratitude.
Paula J. Hane
News Bureau Chief
Information Today, Inc.
www.infotoday.com
phane {at} infotoday(.)com
ITI Bloggers June 7th, 2005
This morning’s President’s Series session presented an engaging and entertaining presentation by author Dan Pink. I read his first book, Free Agent Nation, just a month or so ago, and I’d been hearing about his recently released book, A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age. Pink said we have moved from the information age of knowledge workers to the “conceptual age,” which he calls an age of creators and empathizers. He challenged the standing-room only audience to consider that more conceptual, right brain thinking (as opposed to left-brain analytical thinking) can transform one’s career. He said to ask yourself these 3 questions:
Can someone overseas do it cheaper?
Can a computer do it faster?
Is what you are selling in demand in an age of abundance?
He then highlighted 6 abilities that matter most: design (not just function), story, symphony (big-picture thinking), empathy, play, and meaning. Good food for thought. For more information visit www.danpink.com/.
Paula J. Hane
News Bureau Chief
Information Today, Inc.
www.infotoday.com
phane {at} infotoday(.)com
ITI Bloggers June 7th, 2005
Hope Tillman, Director of Libraries, Babson College, gave a review of today’s technology “toys” in a session entitled the “Technology Petting Zoo” (what a great title!). Click here to see them all.
Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today
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