DSOL Conference Blog

Hildy's SLA Sunday

The latest from our Chair...

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Here I am at SLA 2009 already feeling tired and the conference kicked off officially just a few hours ago! My first time rental car was really nice and comfortable ride. The first 2 hours was just terrific, but through a series of unfortunate events I did not get to DC until 12:30 a.m.! After I checked in I headed out to return the car, but had a hard time finding the after hours drop off and was finally in my room at 4:00 a.m. After a live chat and shooting off an angry e-mail to the rental car company, I slept for one hour before I had to get ready for our CE course

 

I am happy to report that Liz Blankson-Hemans from Dialog was a smashing success! The feedback has been very positive and we really thank Liz and Dialog for sponsoring this course. I needed to stick around to make sure all went smoothly, but unfortunately was too tired to do much more than sit outside and wait for our coffee break and and then for Rene, our Past Chair to bring me more coffee! Thank you, Rene!!!

 

I did finally get some sleep last night and got up early to head off to SLA's Leadership Development Institute. After Solos had our board meeting and I was so happy to see some new faces in the group. You will all here more about what was discussed later on. I felt like it was quite successful and a lot was accomplished. Thank you to all members who attended and an extra special thank you to those who volunteered to work on the 2010 conference! We have a great team and the spirit of "Working Together For Those Working Alone" was quite evident.

 

As you may have heard Gen Colin Powell was the keynote speaker. He was smart, funny and, I never thought I would say this, but quite adorable. :)

 

Well, now I have to finish my presentation for tomorrow's Solo Spotlight session co-sponsored with Transportation. Someone asked me if I work well under pressure. Well, yes, I have to since I am a procrastinator when it comes to my own projects! I'm really looking forward to it, but I admit I am a little nervous because this will be the largest group I ever addressed. I'll let you know how it all goes!

 

Hildy

 

It begins!

The latest from our Chair...

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1:05 p.m. EST

I feel really excited about this year and I can’t wait to meet so many new people. I am still home, but headed down to DC from NYC within the hour. I realized today that this is the first time I ever rented a car and I felt like I was 18 being handed the keys to my Mom’s car for the first time! My car is a 1988 Honda with 140,000+ miles and dead at the moment and so what a thrill it is to ride in something without rust! I’m off to a very late start—perils of being on my own timetable, but hope to hit the Renaissance before dark. I’ll be seeing one or 2 Solos tonight, but I better make it an early night to make sure everything is set for our 8am CE course, taught by our very own Liz from Dialog.

More soon!

Hildy

Conference Handouts

Save a tree - bring a flash drive and download conference handouts directly to your computer!  They can be accessed at http://www.sla.org/content/Events/conference/ac2009/Conference/handouts/index.cfm.

--Julie

Orchestrating a No-Host Dinner

There are a number of things to consider when putting together a no-host dinner event:

• how much money do you want to spend?

• what kind of food are you interested in?

• do you want an environment that promotes sharing?

• can you get there easily?

• does the restaurant take credit cards?

• can the restaurant split the bill?

• does the restaurant take/require reservations?

• what time does the restaurant close?

There are a number of websites out there that will help you figure out the answers to these questions:

The DC/Baltimore Chowhound Board

DC Yelp

The Washington Post's Restaurant Guide

The New York Times' DC Restaurant Guide

DC MenuPages

Once you've picked a place, a time to eat, and a desired group size, get the word out!  Tell other Solos in person at conference events, tweet with #dsol, send a message to the listserv, or reply to this blog posting.  Pick a very specific place to meet up beforehand, and consider how long it will take you to get from that spot to the restaurant.  If you have reservations, try to get there 10 minutes before your reservation time.  At the very worst, you'll be forced to hang out and have a drink before your table is ready. :)

Let the group know if you discover something great!

--Julie

Latest and Greatest List of Solo Division Conference Sessions

Straight from the fabulously put together latest edition of Flying Solo...

Saturday 6/13

8:00AM-12:00PM: CE: Best Practices for Information Services: Achieving Operational Excellence (Conv. Ctr. 305)

Sunday 6/14

12:00PM-1:30PM: Solo Librarians Divison Board of Directors (Conv. Ctr. 205)

Monday 6/15

9:00AM-10:30AM: Diversity in Leadership: Generation X - The Changing Paradigm in a Knowledge-Based Society (Conv. Ctr. 144A)

1:30PM-3:30PM: SPOTLIGHT SESSION - How Do You Move Up the Ladder If There Is No Ladder to Climb? (Conv. Ctr. 145A)

3:30PM-5:00PM: The New Face of the Special Librarian: Embedded Librarians (Conv. Ctr. 143C)

8:00PM-10:00PM: Solo Librarians Division Open House (Renaissance Washington DC Hotel, Congressional Hall C)

Tuesday 6/16

7:00AM-8:30AM: Annual Diversity Leadership Development Breakfast (Ticket 700, Conv. Ctr. 202B)

11:30AM-1:00PM: Solo Librarians Division Business Meeting Luncheon (Ticket 810, Conv. Ctr. 149)

1:30PM-3:00PM: Preparedness for Info Pros: Lessons Learned from Recent Disasters (Conv. Ctr. 141)

8:00PM-10:00PM: Government Information, Petroleum & Energy Resources, and Solo Librarians Division Open House (Sewall Belmont House, 144 Constitution Ave. NE)

Wednesday 6/17

8:30AM-10:00AM: Spotlight Session - Creating Groupies: How to Add Value, Make Yourself Irreplaceable, & Beat the Pants Off of Google (Conv. Ctr. 145A)

Annual Diversity Leadership Development Breakfast

Information courtesy of Jeanne Miller...

The Solo Division will be co-sponsoring the Annual Diversity Leadership Development Breakfast on Tuesday, June 16th, from 7:00 to 8:30.  It is ticketed event #700, and costs $25.

The speaker will be Julius Jefferson, Information Research Specialist at the Library of Congress, and the discussion topic will be "An Endangered Species: The Black Male Librarian."  It will be moderated by Lyle Minter of the Library of Congress.

Mr. Jefferson will also be speaking about Gen X and diversity in leadership at the Solo Division's Gerry Hurley Leadership session on Monday at 9:00AM.

Twitter - a sign of the imminent approach of Spring, or a tech tool?

Perhaps in a nod to both the return of birds to northern climes, and the solo librarian's pursuit of being on top of information at any time and in any location, I encourage everyone to investigate Twitter as an option for keeping in touch during our upcoming annual conference (and beyond!).

First, anyone who posts something intended for the Solo community should use the #dsol hash tag.  General SLA conference tweets should use #sla2009.  These will be the search terms that you can use to locate Solo-centric / conference-centric tweets.

Second, anyone who would like to follow / be followed by other Solo Division members, please post your Twitter usernames as a comment to this blog entry.  I have a couple of names on hand from an earlier discussion on the Solo listserv, but would love to see more people on the list.

If the above two paragraphs appear to you to be in a foreign language, please check out Twitter's help site, or post your questions as comments to this blog entry.  :)

--Julie

Full List of Spotlight Sessions

The Conference 09 Connections blog has posted an updated list of all "Spotlight Sessions" being offered at this year's conference, and here they are!

Monday, 15 June 2009

9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
Social Networking: The Essence of Innovation
Presented by: Leadership and Management Division

1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
How Do You Move Up the Ladder If There Is No Ladder to Climb?
Presented by: Solo Librarians Division and Transportation Division

3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
The Library of the Future: Discovery in the Round
Presented by: Education Division and Leadership and Management Division

Tuesday, 16 June 2009

9:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Transformational Leadership: Inspirational Language
Presented by: Leadership and Management Division

11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
SLA at 100: From Putting Knowledge to Work to Building the Knowledge Culture
Presented by: Museums, Arts & Humanities Division and Retired Members Caucus

1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Practical Strategies for Improving ROI
Presented by: Business and Finance Division, Knowledge Management Division, Leadership and Management Division, Legal Division, and Pharmaceutical & Health Technology Division

Wednesday, 17 June 2009

8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
Creating Groupies: How to Add Value, Make Yourself Irreplaceable & Beat the Pants Off Google
Presented by: Legal Division and Solo Librarians Division

Keep an eye on http://slaconnections.typepad.com/conference_blog/ for more general conference information, including a more comprehensive listing of course  / session offerings, which will hopefully show up soon.

--Julie

SLA @ 100 stimulus... fading...

If you haven't yet registered for the upcoming Annual Conference, you only have 2 more days before the $45 stimulus discount disappears forever and ever!  That's right - after January 31, you will be stuck paying the regular old early bird price.  Which is still less expensive than the standard price, but who wouldn't want to save $45?

Head to http://www.sla.org/content/Events/conference/ac2009/registration/index.cfm to register online.  Don't forget to add the Solo Business Meeting and Lunch to your registration, as well as ticket #205 - Best Practices for Information Services: Achieving Operational Excellence with instructor Liz Blankson-Hermans from Dialog, the Division's CE course on Saturday, June 13th, from 8 until 12.

--Julie

Help Capture Our Centennial Celebration on Flickr

Did you know that SLA has a Flickr group for photos of SLA events spanning the last 100 years?  No?  As of this post's writing, there are already three hundred and fifty eight items posted!

If you have photos from any SLA event, whether it's an annual conference, a chapter event, or anything in between, please consider posting it for the group.  If you have a Flickr account, or if you would like to sign up for an account, you can join the group at http://www.flickr.com/groups/sla100/ and post directly (please tag all images with sla100 at the very least, and be sure to add a solo division tag too, if appropriate).  If you would rather not join Flickr, but still have photos to post, send your photos via e-mail to slawebsite <AT> gmail <DOT> com, with a subject of "Flickr photos."  As this is a public group, you do not need to join Flickr in order to see the photos, which are all available at http://www.flickr.com/groups/sla100/.

And, of course, keep it clean, people!  All photos will be reviewed, and deleted if deemed inappropriate.

--Julie