Last night’s holiday party/business meeting was a lot of fun. It was *fantastic* to see everyone there! The Asgard was a great venue – good space, great food, fantastic staff. The only downside? No mic. My throat is still a bit sore from having to shout the entire business meeting so people could hear me…hahah. Shouting above the Irish punk rock playing in the bar was no small feat, but we all got through it and it made for a short, straight-to-the-point meeting – much to people’s delight.

I promised that I would post my thoughts from the year instead of shouting myself hoarse and making people sit there through 5 million thank yous – all of which are much deserved and worth repeating. I warn you, this is a long post.

On to business…

Our Sponsor: First, I would like to thank Dow Jones again for their generous sponsorship of the event, especially during these uncertain economic times. We sincerely appreciate their continued support of SLA and SLA Boston. Without our wonderful vendors, we wouldn’t be able to provide such important programs and events for our members. To Peter Ryttel and Scott Garland: thank you very much for joining us last night! It was great to have you there and, from what little I saw on table toward the end of the night, it looked like a lot of people stopped by to at least say hello.

The year in review…
This past year we had an incredible number of programs and events.

• We heard from both Mary Lee Kennedy and Stephen Abram about innovation in the early part of the year. We learned how we all as librarians and information professionals need to be innovative in our workplaces, with using technology, and with how we can rely on/encourage SLA to support us as innovators.
• We heard from our innovative colleagues at Fidelity on the tools they were using to connect with their non-librarian colleagues.
• In New Hampshire, we learned how to have successful negotiations when purchasing content thanks to Buzzy Basch, Toby Pearlstein, Rich Burke, and Bob Lucic.
• In Maine, Heather McCann, Jessica Baumgart & Ben Sawyer (Digital Mills / Games for Health) shared technology tools and showed us how emerging technologies are creating opportunities for non-entertainment gaming applications in business.
• In Western Mass Les Campbell shared information about the Quabbin Reservoir and his wonderful photography. It was a breathtaking presentation.
• We had a picnic along the Connecticut River in Northfield and dine arounds in the North End, Deerfield, Cambridge, and of course in Boston with SLA President Elect Gloria Zamora, where she shared some of what’s happening in the Association.
• The kick off party at Tia’s in Boston was a great time – a beautiful night to be on the waterfront!

Posted on behalf of SLA Headquarters:

The SLA Diversity Leadership Development Program (DLDP) Award aims to accelerate the advancement and visibility of members who represent a diverse population of the Association by mentoring them for more leadership opportunities within the Special Libraries Association, to ensure that the Association remains vital, relevant, and representative of its diverse membership.

Recipients receive:

1. An award of $1000. The awarded money should assist with airfare and/or accommodations and may cover at least one SLA Continuing Education course.
2. Complimentary registration, provided by SLA, to attend the annual conference and specific ticketed events as appropriate.
3. An assigned mentor who is an Association leader.

To Be Eligible for the Award:

• Applicant must have been a member of SLA for at least 1 year.
• Applicants are eligible based on SLA’s definition of diversity, which includes but is not limitied to race, ethnicity, physical abilities, religious beliefs and/or sexual orientation.
• Applicant must have at least 3 years of professional library/information experience.
• Applicant cannot be a current SLA DLDP Committee member.

Only applicants who meet all the eligibility requirements at the time of application are submitted to the DLDP Committee for award consideration.

Expectations of the Award Recipients:

• Award recipients must attend the SLA Annual Conference the year the award is given. (As part of the registration package, SLA will pay for the Awards Ceremony ticket.)
• Award recipients must demonstrate a willingness to learn about SLA and have the potential for leadership responsibilities.
• Award recipients should be willing to attend DLDP sessions and events at the Annual Conference and participate in a group photo session administered by SLA.
• Award recipients will attend the Breakfast Reception hosted by the DLDP Committee and the Annual Business Meeting on Wednesday morning at the Annual Conference.
• Keep in contact with the assigned mentor.

Application deadline: January 9, 2009
Applications are available at:  http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/awardsrecognition/awardsdescriptions/dlpnomform/dldpnomfrm.cfm
For more information about the Award and previous Award recipients, please see: http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/awardsrecognition/diversityaward/index.cfm

The Centennial Committee put together this fantastic video contest – what does the information professional of the future look like? Submit your videos – yours could be shown at Annual in Washington, DC! The deadline is approaching: December 15th. Details are below.

The SLA Information Professional of the Future

John Cotton Dana…1909…Bretton Woods…

The founders of SLA had a vision for how to fill the networking and educational needs of special librarians. With the forming of SLA in 1909, these fabled past leaders created an amazing professional association. For 100 years SLA has grown and transformed itslef, and the association that started as one idea, by one person, now serves a global market of over 11,000 information professionals, librarians, and their partners.

In 2009, SLA celebrates its 100th birthday and as we look toward a second century of service, we are asking the questions:

• What will the next 100 years of connecting people and information look like?
• Can you peer into the future and see SLA’s leaders of tomorrow?
• Do you have an inspired vision of how SLA’s members will change in 25, 50, or even 100 years?

Celebrate SLA’s Centennial with your video representation of SLA’s information professional of the future.

Contest Theme
The SLA Information Professional of Tomorrow

Timeline

• Contest entry period: November 1 – December 15, 2008
• Finalists announced at Leadership Summit, Savannah, Georgia: January 14-17, 2008
• Judging of finalists by SLA members: January 14 – February 7, 2009
• Winners announced: February 15, 2009
• Winners presented and all entries displayed at Annual Conference: June 14-17, 2009

Prizes
There are two categories of entries: Student and Professional.
The winning entry in each category will be awarded:

• $1,500 cash
• Up to $1,500 to attend the Centennial conference in Washington, DC, June 14-17, 2009
• Up to $1,500 for Chapter programming
• Up to $1,500 for Division programming

Complete rules and submission information: http://wiki.sla.org/display/CCWIKI/Centennial+Video+Contest

Promotional Video on YouTube: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=yXR-e2tiDQs

[Submitted by Dav Robertson on behalf of the Centennial Commission; David Cappoli and Tamika McCollough video contest coordinators.]

Information to Inspiration: Knowledge & Vision Shaping the Future
Celebrating the SLA Centennial, 1909-2009

Press Release from SLA Headquarters

September 30, 2008
Following Public Outcry and Congressional Orders, EPA Headquarters, Chicago, Dallas and Kansas City Regional Libraries Open to the Public and Agency Employees

For immediate release

Alexandria, Virginia, September 30, 2008
Special Libraries Association (SLA), the first library association to denounce the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regional library closures, today applauds the agency for its efforts to restore service and collections in its regional libraries. Under congressional orders, and following an outcry by the scientific and library communities, EPA will again provide access to library services for agency employees and the public in 15 states and its own headquarters in Washington, DC, starting today.

"We are thrilled that after two years of diligent work by SLA and its members to educate EPA officials and members of the U.S. Congress on the importance of access to information, EPA is re-opening its libraries and restoring a much needed service for the public, business community and government scientists," stated SLA CEO Janice R. Lachance. "SLA, with assistance from our vocal members around the world and other allied library associations, remained vigilant in pushing the EPA to reexamine a short-sighted move that placed public health at risk. We are pleased with the direction EPA is now taking with its information network."

In its September 24, 2008 Federal Register notice, EPA states that these re-opened libraries "will be staffed by a professional librarian to provide service to the public and EPA staff via phone, e-mail, or in person…for a minimum of 24 hours over four days per week on a walk-in basis or by appointment."

"We are most pleased with the EPA’s commitment to staffing the libraries appropriately with trained information professionals and librarians," said Lachance. "EPA scientists and researchers, other Federal agencies, state and local governments, industry and the academic community are just some of those who rely on the information in EPA’s libraries to make decisions that affect everybody’s health. Simply digitizing materials and putting them online would not have met the needs of the community. The opening and staffing of these libraries is a happy new beginning to what started as a tragic story over two years ago, when we learned that the Bush Administration planned to cut funding for EPA’s network of 27 libraries and information centers."

EPA will re-open its regional libraries in Chicago (serving the Great Lakes region), Dallas (Mid-Southern region) and Kansas City (Mid-Western region) after more than two years. In addition, one library in EPA Headquarters will re-open and include a small portion of holdings from what had been a free-standing chemical library, for research on the properties and effects of new chemicals, as a "special Chemical Collection".

EPA announced plans in February 2006 to close libraries and began to eliminate services and collections at regional facilities shortly thereafter. These actions continued until Congress intervened and directed the agency to reverse course in December 2007. In response to this order and criticism from SLA and allied organizations, EPA has undertaken an elaborate "National Dialogue on Access to Environmental Information" to develop a new Library Strategic Plan in December 2008, just before the Bush administration leaves office.

SLA Boston is pleased to announce a contribution to the non-for-profit organization, Games for Health.

Games for Health is a project produced by The Serious Games Initiative, a Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars effort that applies cutting edge games and game technologies to a range of public and private policy, leadership, and management issues.

The Initiative founded Games for Health to develop a community and best practices platform for the numerous games being built for health care applications. To date the project has brought together researchers, medical professionals, and game developers to share information about the impact games and game technologies can have on health care and policy.

The goal of the Games For Health is to help foster and support a community of researchers, developers, and users of applications that use game, game technologies, and game development talent to create entire new ways of improving the management, quality, and provision of healthcare worldwide.

As part of that goal Games For Health also plays a greater role in helping to organize and accelerate the adoption of computer games for a variety of challenges facing the world today.

In addition to the Games for Health conference, the Initiative is working to catalog use of games in health care, to assist current development, collect best practices, share research results, and explore ideas that might improve health care administration and policy.

For more information about the organization, please visit the website: http://www.gamesforhealth.org/

SLA Boston is finally jumping into the world of blogging! We’re
really making an effort to increase communication throughout the
chapter this year and this is one of the ways we’re making it
happen…but we need your help & feedback to make it successful.

In addition to the emails sent on the discussion list, we’re going
to post items of interest and items for discussion here; from program
announcements and reviews of programs/other items to association
information, spotlights of members/libraries, and Marian answering your
questions. We also have a calendar of events on the right hand side.

I’d love for everyone to participate in the discussion, so post comments/questions back to us…get the conversation going!

If you’d like to blog for SLA Boston, let us know! Email us at slaboston@gmail.com.