The SLA voting season is upon us but, sadly, less than one in five members (on average) will take the time to vote this year. That minority of voters determines who runs our association and our chapter, which affects who plans our programs, manages our budget, sets the future direction for the chapter and association, and basically ensures that we get value out of our SLA membership. Make the difference this year and VOTE!!
The 2011 DC/SLA Board of Directors election runs from Sept. 13 until midnight on Oct. 1. We have a stellar slate of members running for the board this year! Information about each candidate for the DC/SLA Board is available here.
All of the credit for this great slate of candidates goes to our Nominating Committee, led by Diane Schnurrpusch and includes Greta Ober-Beauchesne, Lynne McCay, and Rosa Liu. Beth Kirton-Crane is our Election Committee chair and is already preparing the online ballot. If you have any questions about the election or would like to receive a paper ballot, please contact Beth at bkirtoncrane <@> yahoo com or 703-749-1199.
On a separate ballot, SLA’s international 2011 Board of Directors election runs from Sept. 8 – 29. Given the tough decisions facing the association in the coming years (as described at the closing general session), the leaders being elected NOW will play a crucial role in deciding what direction is taken regarding benefits, services, and programs that our association offers. Our chapter is once again represented in the SLA slate of candidates so please, before voting, please take the time to review information about each of these candidates:
We have also planned a special networking time at SLA HQ to meet with the two SLA Presidential candidates on Aug. 31st - find out more about this free event here.
Who we choose as our leaders has a big impact on the future of our Association and Chapter so please take the time to vote in September!
The DC/SLA Community Outreach Committee is in the process of determining our next Community Outreach project. Please take a few minutes to answer some questions to help us with our planning.
You can find this survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VBT6N2G
In preparation for the Annual Conference in New Orleans June 13-16th, we've put together some tips on using Twitter to connect with fellow conference goers and with those who cannot attend but would gain from following the events. This list of tips will help you whether you plan to "live tweet" the conference (go here for some useful types on live tweeting, some of which I include below), post Twitter updates or comments as you feel inspired, or just want to be able to find out what's going on at the conference and around New Orleans.
Use hashtags, which allow users to group posts together by topic (want to know more about hashtags? Click here for info) Use #sla2010 for all goings-on at the conference. Here's an example from Liz McLean. Try to note when DC/SLA members are presenting using hashtag #dcsla (a potential example: Jane Doe from DC proposes paradigm shift in reference! #sla2010 #dcsla)
The heart and soul of Cinco de Mayo is defying the odds in the face of overwhelming adversity (to read about the history of the holiday see http://tinyurl.com/n4sd6). While no one actually engaged in combat this year, DC/SLA honored the holiday by keeping this theme in mind with speakers in unconventional careers.
Barbara Ferry and staff at the National Geographic Society Library hosted a lively celebration in the library’s space. Beginning with a trivia/scavenger hunt in the library stacks. The National Geographic Society’s library staff provided the trivia questions, posted them throughout the stacks, and even made some of the library’s resources available to answer them. Attendees entered their answers into a drawing for prizes, including Amazon.com gift cards, jewelry, and books published by National Geographic. Questions really ran the gamut of history, geography, and culture and included challenging ones, such as “What fruit is traditionally eaten in the evening to break the fast of Ramadan?” To hear all the questions and see the prizes see http://tinyurl.com/2vvwbgl.
Following the scavenger hunt and networking over tacos and margaritas, attendees broke into small groups and rotated among five speakers. Each speaker talked with individual groups about their non-traditional careers in this challenging economy.
Dave Hemingway-Turner, sales consultant for Innovative Interfaces, wowed some of the attendees by admitting that in the last 15 years he hasn’t had to apply for any of the jobs he’s had. He stressed the importance of forming connections with colleagues through professional associations like SLA.
Jennifer Whitfield, Outreach and Communications for the Joint Bank-Fund Library, spoke about the value of marketing and the challenges of developing communications and training material for multicultural environments. Whitfield is also a member of the Internal Association of Business Communicators and quipped that she hasn’t yet encountered any librarians who are also members.
Larry Lempert, Director of Product Research and Planning with BNA, noted that he enrolled in an MLS program to learn about Information Architecture and enhance his work at BNA, years after earning his law degree. He believes that librarians’ technical skills are easily transferable to positions that involve optimizing users’ experiences.
The National Geographic Society also contributed a speaker to the program: Ariel Deiaco-Lohr, account representative in the Society’s International Licensing and Alliances, talked about her experience in international publishing. Deiaco-Lohr spoke about the work she does to facilitate more localized content in the Society’s Traveler magazine.
View all the videos from the Cinco de Mayo event at the DC/SLA group on Youtube at http://tinyurl.com/2uqkw3v or view one of the videos of the scavenger hunt below:
The Washington, D.C. Chapter announces its 2010 scholarship program:
Catherine A. Jones Memorial Scholarship, sponsored by IOP Publishing $2,000
IOP Publishing Scholarship $2,000
These two scholarships will be awarded by the chapter in August 2010 for studies leading to a Master’s Degree from an ALA accredited graduate Library Science program.
DC/SLA encourages talented men and women to join us with a career in special librarianship by assisting students who are preparing for a Master’s Degree in Library Science. In support of this goal, the Washington, D.C. Chapter is offering two cash awards again this year:
Selection criteria include:
An essay describing the applicant’s interest in special librarianship and professional goals, including anticipated contribution to the profession (two – three pages, 1,000 – 2,000 words)
Letter of academic or professional recommendation
Membership in the Washington, D.C. Chapter of SLA (If you aren’t a DC/SLA member yet, SLA student dues are only $40 per year. Join today at http://www.sla.org/content/membership/joinsla/index.cfm. Remember to choose the Washington, D.C. Chapter on your SLA membership form.)
Enrolled or accepted in an ALA-accredited Library Science program
As chair of the 2010 Awards Committee, it is my honor to announce that the winner of the $1,500 SLA Conference Stipend Award is Michael Chesnes, a reference librarian at NASA Goddard Library. Michael has been active in the DC Chapter and SLA. He served as the Chapter Cataloging Committee Chair, organizing three Dine-Arounds and one program for the group. The Physics-Astronomy-Math Division (PAM) benefited from his talents as he assisted and later took over as full editor of the PAM Bulletin. Michael's latest accomplishment was his selection to share his poster, "A Year of Mobile Librarianship at NASA Goddard," at the SLA "All Sciences Poster Session" in New Orleans.
Michael and his colleagues (also SLA members) planned and executed the project that placed reference librarians at several locations throughout the Goddard campus. The project succeeded in increasing the number of reference questions, as well as serving patrons who had stopped coming to the physical library. As Michael explained in his stipend application, "The project fulfills two of the Poster Session's three broad themes. It is a project that expresses a new strategic alignment for Library services within our parent organization and it created a new tool for information literacy, user instruction, and e-learning."
Michael's leadership and innovative spirit made him an ideal choice for the 2010 SLA Conference Stipend award. If you are going to the SLA Conference, be sure to visit him at the Poster Session on June 15. And, watch for more on Michael's conference experience in a future issue of Chapter Notes.
