Headquartered in Alexander , VA , Special Libraries Association (SLA) represents the interests of thousands of information professionals in over 70 countries . Special librarians are information resource experts who collect, analyze, evaluate, package, and disseminate information to facilitate accurate decision-making in corporate, academic, and government settings.
Held June 11-13 at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore , Maryland USA , the 2006 SLA Annual Conference was the organizations ninety-seventh. Its purpose is to create an environment for networking, communication, learning and other developmental opportunities for information professionals
The Thomson Scientific and Dialog Presence
For many years, Thomson Scientific and Dialog (as well as other Thomson businesses), have been major exhibitors at the SLA meeting. Having been aligned with Thomson Scientific in early 2005, this year marked the first time that Dialog and Thomson Scientific were integrated—including joint ads in the SLA conference program; coordinated direct mail campaigns; cooperative participation on panels, workshops, dozens of sponsorships; and a co-sponsored gala reception. All designed to increase the visibility of each business and continue support of the association.
To accommodate for their new alignment, and increased size, Thomson Scientific and Dialog made a cohesive and striking presence with a 20 x 20 island booth, housed in a 40 x 40 space. The booth was adorned with large, colorful helium balloons and featured large plasma screens that displayed the offerings of both organizations.
Visitors to the booth could obtain information and demos of a variety of information solutions, including ISI Web of KnowledgeSM—which facilitates discovery by offering seamless navigation to the highest quality journal, patent and life sciences content, evaluation tools, and Web content; Dialog—which offers organizations the ability to precisely retrieve data from more than 1.4 billion unique records of key information; Thomson PharmaSM— the innovative dynamic information solution for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries; Techstreet—which offers Web-based access to industry standards and specifications information from more than 350 standards developing organizations worldwide; and the Thomson ResearchSoft bibliographic management products, EndNote®, Reference Manager®, RefVizTM, and WriteNoteTM.
The organizations also took advantage of this year’s annual meeting to make the following exciting announcements:
- a new robust suite of authorship search tools to simplify the tasks of identifying authors and assessing their works
- the new EndNote Web being offered free to ISI Web of Knowledge and EndNote desktop customers
- the addition of backfiles to BIOSIS and Zoological Record archives, dating back to 1926 and 1864 respectively
- the introduction of EndNote X, which offers expanded PDF management, increased flexibility in viewing, searching and handling reference information
Of Special Note
Libby Trudell , Dialog senior vice president, Information Professional Market Development, was installed to the SLA Board of Directors during the conference. Trudell will serve as Chapter Cabinet Chair-Elect in 2006-2007, and as Chapter Cabinet Chair in 2007-2008.
Dialog's Bonnie Snow, Director, content Specialist was honored as the Distinguished Member of SLA's Pharmaceutical and Health Technology Division.
Events and Presentations
On opening day (Sunday, June 11 th), Thomson Scientific, Dialog, and other Thomson businesses sponsored a networking reception on the tradeshow floor. In addition to being served beer, wine, and hors d’oeuvres, attendees had the opportunity to win $100 American Express gift cards from several vendors. Thomson Scientific and Dialog awarded two gift cards.
In keeping with its long-standing tradition, on Monday Dialog introduced the four 2006 North American winners of its annual Quantum 2 InfoStars Awards. The awards are given to information professionals whose creativity and innovation are an inspiration to others.
This year's winners were announced during a special Champagne reception in the Thomson Scientific/Dialog booth. They included:
Ginger R. DeMille , senior patent information specialist, ASRC Aerospace Corporation for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, was praised for her creativity, initiative, and communication skills as an effective spokesperson, searcher and trainer.
Dr. Thomas J. Froehlich, director, Information Architecture and Knowledge Management Program at Kent State University, was recognized for his vision to foresee the value of an interdisciplinary program encompassing three specific emerging disciplines.
Karen O. Lehman , team leader, Electronic Information Center 3600 for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, was honored for her enthusiastic and inspirational leadership, which has allowed her to create a high-performing team that increased their search requests by 350 percent since 2000.
Kelley Martin , law librarian for Sterne Kessler Goldstein & Fox, was honored for her leadership in single-handedly managing the information needs of her organization and empowering her broad audience to use strategic electronic resources on desktops through the firm.
At SLA , Thomson Scientific and Dialog are well-known for hosting lavish receptions to show appreciation to its customers for their continued support. This year’s gala was held at the National Aquarium in Baltimore .
The Aquarium was conceived and championed in the mid-1970s by Mayor William Donald Schaefer and Commissioner of Housing and Community Development Robert C. Embry. In 1976, Baltimore City residents voted for the Aquarium, and in November 1979 the United States Congress voted it a "National" Aquarium. The Grand Opening was on August 8, 1981 .
During the reception, the DJ entertained the estimated 1,400 quests with popular music past and present. In addition to dancing, attendees enjoyed delicious food, refreshing beverages, and had full access to all Aquarium exhibitions.
The 2006 also saw the continuation of another Dialog tradition of announcing the recipient of Roger K. Summit Scholarship for the Americas . Before announcing this year’s recipient, Vin Caraher, president and CEO of Thomson Scientific; Dave Brown , executive vice president & general manager of Dialog; and Roger K. Summit , Dialog founder and Chairman Emeritus addressed the crowd and thanked customers for support.
After much anticipation, Dave Brown announced that Jamie Emery , a graduate student at Simmons College in Boston , was the recipient of the 2006 Roger K. Summit Scholarship for North America . The US$5,000 award will help Emery to continue to pursue his Master of Science degree in Library and Information Science.
The visibly appreciative Emery commented that he was “very honored to be selected as the 2006 recipient of the Roger K. Summit Scholarship.” “Initially interested in academic libraries, I am also drawn to the ethos of public librarianship, and am intrigued by the work of corporate librarians, as well, which is why I chose to pursue my degree from Simmons ,” concluded Emery.
A fter the presentation, the dancing and dining continued. At the end of the evening, in keeping with yet another long-standing tradition, each quest received a commemorative ceramic tile.
From the exhibits to the workshops and presentations to the reception, the SLA annual meeting continues to be a conference Thomson Scientific will support for the building of relations, sharing of knowledge, and camaraderie.
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