SLA Information Technology Division Blog

Align in '09 and name change

If you were at the Annual Conference (and even if you weren't), you have heard on the alignment research project that SLA has been working on for a few years now.

One thing that was announced at the conference related to the project is that the name of the association is scoring low points in terms of acceptance and recognition. So, the discussion about a potential name change is starting again. You are invited to participate.

On Twitter, you can use the hashtag #slaname. If you think 140 characters is not enough, you can also use a wiki set up especially for that purpose.

To learn more about Align in '09, stay put for an alignment project portal on the SLA website, coming real soon. You can already find info at http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/alignment/index.cfm.

Tomorrow, June 26, Janice LaChance and Gloria Zamora will also talk about Align in '09 in Second Life, at 8 a.m. SLT at SLA's site (SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cybrary%20City%20II/59/100/22) in Second Life.

IT does B&F

No matter where you turn, there are members of the IT Division around you! Below are photos of a few at the Business & Finance Division Open House on Saturday. Thanks to B&F for getting the conference started "on the right foot"!

Zemanta - New Must Have Plugin!

Yesterday I went to Pres4Lib and during the break out on Creative Commons content, we learned about Zemanta from John LeMasney. Zemanta is a plugin for FF that integrates itself into your blog posting and emails and maybe more – and it finds content based on what you’re writing about for you to add to enhance your writing.

Finding content was never this easy

No matter what you’re writing about: books, music, or how to save the planet, we have highly relevant content to enrich your posts.

Images from Flickr, Wikipedia, Getty and other great sources

So, I installed it and started writing an email to a friend about how excited my pups were that they were coming on the trip with us – and guess what? Zemanta found pictures of Coda & Beau for me to insert into my email!!! Check it out:

This is just the coolest app ever and I can’t believe I haven’t heard of it before today!!

Technorati Tags: pres4lib, zemanta

A bit of Division history

30 years ago this year, in 1979, the Division changed its name from its original name, the Documentation Division, to its current name, the Information Technology Division.

That's just one tidbit you will be able to learn if you catch the new IT Division timeline created for the 100th anniversary of SLA. The timeline, a Flash video, will be  presented at our Business Meeting on June 16th and other events at #sla2009. It will also be available on the Division website as well as a new Division history.

The new history and the flash video are the accomplishments of PR Chair, Libby Trudell, and Adam Hudson, helped by David Ware, our webmaster.

Taxonomy and Meta Data Division Proposed: Planning Meeting at SLA Set for Sunday, June 14

Please note, the IT Division Executive Board has not been contacted to reconcile scope notes. Neither has the IT Division passed a motion supporting this potential new Division. IT members interested in taxonomy are nevertheless welcome to attend, of course.

________________________________

From Margie Hlava and Janice Keeler:

... We are already working with the IT and KM Divisions to reconcile some known overlaps in scope notes, but if any other divisions have any issues, we need to know ASAP. Leadership – please distribute this note to your units to let them know of the proposed new division and also to tell people they are welcome to join us in Washington DC to discuss taxonomy and meta data
issues and the proposed new division.

Scope Note and Business Case for the New Division: The business case for the new division is attached and posted on the SLA wiki site.

The proposed scope note is: The Taxonomy and Meta Data Division (TMD) addresses meta data contained in taxonomies, thesauri, authority files, and other controlled vocabularies.  Areas of interest include:

• Standards, governance and management issues for all types of controlled vocabularies

• Issues associated with the creation, capture, delivery, structure, and use (such as in search) of controlled vocabularies and meta data for all information object types.

• Trends such as the development of the semantic web, ontologies, folksonomies and other tagging methodologies.

Meetings in Washington, DC, June 14: We are having a meeting for anybody interested in taxonomy on Sunday, June 14, from 3-5 p.m. in Room 145B of the convention center.  This session is not part of the official program, and will not show up in the online planner. 

Agenda:

• organizational issues related to the attempt to form a new division

• discussion of taxonomy issues of interest to participants

Assuming we can reconcile all overlapping scope note issues with other divisions, we will send out a petition to form the new division via SurveyMonkey shortly after the conference. If anybody wants to discuss this with us before or during the conference, please contact us.

Regards,
Margie Hlava, mhlava@accessinn.com 505-975-5578 cell
Janice Keeler, janice.keeler@nera.com, 312-573-2813 (work),
773-251-9373 (cell). I’ll be in Washington as of June 12.

Mystery Night - June 14

ITE is happy to have two popular mystery writers as guests at this year's mystery event on Sunday night, June 14, at the Grand Ballroom Central.  There will be games and prizes as well as the opportunity to meet two Ellens -- Ellen Byerrum and Ellen Crosby.  Check out the websites of the authors visiting our ITE suite on Sunday night. 

 

http://www.ellenbyerrum.com/

 

http://www.ellencrosby.com/

 

When appearing together they are often known as Ellen and the other Ellen -- although we've yet to find out which is which.  Both are great fun -- so drop by for a chat. 

Going to the annual conference? Here's your final check list.

With less than one week for the annual conference, here are a few things for you to double-check before the madness begins.  Pack:

• A list (on paper or in your head) if the information you want to gather while at the conference.  If you know this upfront, it will help to focus you during the event.
• 50 - 75 of your business cards.  Even though we are very web 2.0, we all still value a good business card.
• Comfortable walking shoes. Whether you're in business or comfortable attire, you're feet need to be happy.
• Whatever electronic equipment you'll want to have AND the appropriate power cords.
• A USB drive, just because it may come in handy for exchanging information with others. 
• Two of the following -- a marked-up copy of the conference program, a printed copy of your schedule,  or a digital copy of your schedule.  Don't just rely on one copy.
• A printed copy of your hotel reservation information so you can show it to the desk clerk if there are any problems. 
• Information on how you're getting from the airport to the hotel or from the train station to your hotel or....  Have that information handy, so you look less like a tourist.
• Minimal amount of reading material, since you're going to return with more reading material than you arrived with.  (And anyway, you're going to spend your evening attending open houses and networking, right?!)
• Lightweight clothes, since D.C. can be hot and humid.  Daytime temperatures will be in the 80s with temperatures at night in the 60s and 70s (Fahrenheit). [forecast]
• An over-shirt or lightweight jacket to wear indoors, since convention centers always seem to blast their air conditioning.
• An extra $5.00 USD for the Metro.  This may not make sense, but if you use the Metro (subway) and don't have enough fair on your Metro card, you'll not be able to get out!  The add-fare machine can take $1s and $5s, but not $20s and not debit/credit cards.
• Your 2007 SLA water bottle, so you can stay hydrated in the hot and humid D.C. weather.

BTW the one thing that I bring to conferences now is my own badge holder.  If you're picky about the type of badge holder that you'll have to hang around your head or clip on your clothes, bring your own.

If you are speaking at the conference and will be using a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation, bring multiple copies (one on your laptop and  one on a USB drive), email a copy to yourself and put a copy in SlideShare (tag it with sla2009).  While this may seem like overkill, this should assure that you'll actually have a copy to use if a disaster should strike. 

Also if you planned on meeting up with someone at the conference, don't leave it to chance.  Email them now to see if you can meet.  Since everyone's schedule is going to be full, suggest meeting at an open house for a few minutes.  If you want to be a real instigator, email everyone that you want to see and tell them a particular session or open house that you're going to be at and invite them to join you!

Finally, while I'm sure you have your own "I'm going to be away" routine for home and office, add to that routine some water cooler conversations with your colleagues about the SLA conference and why you're attending.  Make sure they understand the benefit to them and to your workplace.

Okay, that's it.  See you in D.C.!

Bloggers Get Together at @SLA2009

It's that time of year again! Time for the SLA Bloggers group to get together!  Here are the details:

Time : Monday June 15th from 5-7(ish) pm
Details : Reservation made for 12 people (but I expect it to be people rolling in and out like last year) 
Where : Matchbox Bistro Chinatown (http://www.matchboxdc.com)
Host : Nicole C. Engard - Blogging Section Chair
What : Dutch treat happy hour/dinner

If you'd like join us, please drop an email to Nicole () so that she can get a general head count and see if she needs to book another table.

It's that time of year again! Time for the SLA Bloggers group to get together!  Here are the details:

Time : Monday June 15th from 5-7(ish) pm
Details : Reservation made for 12 people (but I expect it to be people rolling in and out like last year) 
Where : Matchbox Bistro Chinatown (http://www.matchboxdc.com)
Host : Nicole C. Engard - Blogging Section Chair
What : Dutch treat happy hour/dinner

If you'd like join us, please drop an email to Nicole () so that she can get a general head count and see if she needs to book another table.

Registration is going well for SLA 2009

Kristin Foldvik twitted this morning that registration for the Centennial Conference is looking strong, currently ahead of SLA 2007 and SLA 2008. What great news!

We're looking forward to see you in DC!

IT Division program at SLA 2009

All the IT program goodness for #sla2009 in one spot: http://units.sla.org/division/dite/2009/index.html.

Including the now-famous Tuesday night Dance Party!