SLA Information Technology Division Blog

Have you used SLA's Online Libraries?

At the Leadership Summit in January, many of us were surprised to hear about the number of books available to SLA members -- for free -- through the SLA Online Libraries.  The Online Libraries are part of Click U and where formerly called the Leadership & Management Library.  Hundreds of books and reports are here for you to use.  Key subject areas include leadership, entrepreneurship, strategic planning, KM case studies, organizational behavior, personnel management, project management and risk management.  Here is are a few titles:

• Personal Web Usage in the Workplace: A Guide to Effective Human Resources Management
• Transforming Training : A Guide to Creating a Flexible Learning Environment: the Rise of the Learning Architects
• Managing Intellectual Assets in the Digital Age
• Organizational Learning Cycle : How We Can Learn Collectively

If you haven't taken a look at this resource, please do.  You may be pleasantly surprised at what you'll find. 

Click U is located under Professional Development on the SLA homepage.

Presentations from the Leadership Summit

Presentations from the Leadership Summit are online here.  In an effort to be more green, we are going to see more SLA conference presentations available online rather than being handed paper during a session.  Hopefully, at the Annual Conference, the presentations will be online prior to a session, so people can download, follow along, and make notes.

SLA members received discounted registration fee for Information Today conferences

In case you didn't see the email:

SLA has partnered with Information Today to offer members exclusive discounts on two upcoming conferences: Computers in Libraries, 7-9 April in Arlington, Virginia, and Buying & Selling eContent, 13-15 April in Scottsdale, Arizona.

SLA members will receive more than half off the regular price for Computers in Libraries. When you register here, you will pay the reduced rate of US$ 219 for the full, three-day conference. The conference theme, Innovative Change: Integrating High Tech With High Touch , focuses on how libraries excel when they focus as much on client needs as on innovations in technology.

As a Learning Partner for Information Today's ninth annual Buying & Selling eContent conference, SLA has negotiated an exclusive member discount of US$ 600 off the standard registration rate. When you register as an SLA member, you will pay only US$ 995.

Have you checked out Click U recently?

At the Leadership Summit, we were reminded of the resources available to SLA members.  Most of us had not noticed the breadth of content available.  Yes, we see the emails, but did we really read them? 

One resource that has much more in it than I knew was Click U. Click U offers live interactive sessions as well as session replays (in case you couldn't attend when they are live).  In addition, there are Click U sessions (workshops) at the annual conference.

Here are some of the upcoming Click U events:

• 20 February 2008, Introduction to Institutional Data Repositories
• 5 March 2008, Creating Indexes on Web Sites and Intranets
• 9 April 2008, Electronic Collection Development Part 1: E-library Collection Planning
• 23 April 2008, Electronic Collection Development Part 2: E-library Collection Strategies, Organization, and Maintenance
• 21 May 2008, Social Networking Tools Inside the Organization

Every month, there is a course of the month that is offered for free.  Until March 14, the course is Providing Effective Feedback.  The two courses that will be offered after that are:

• Presentation Skills
• Managing a Virtual Office

So schedule time to check out Click U and take a course.  Remember...it is one of your member benefits.

News from the Leadership Summit

This morning, Stephen Abram announced that the Association will be a place for our members to learn and experiment with Web 2.0 tools.  And we'll have an opportunity to all do the SLA implementation of 23 Things.

If that is not enough, we're also going to get members involved in Second Life (and effort that I'm heading). 

Why is the Association doing this?   These types of tools are not going away and our clients are using them.  It is in our best interest to understand these tools, so that when our organizations adopt them, we aren't playing catch-up.

Thinking specifically of Second Life, there are 8 year old kids using virtual worlds as well as corporations (for training as well as virtual trade shows).  With more than 50 virtual worlds already in existence, this technology is here to stay.  That are even library science programs that are using virtual worlds (e.g., Sloodle).  Although virtual worlds are not for everyone, I do believe we all should experience them, so we can talk intelligently about them.

Look for more information about all this in the coming months and get ready to participate.  The time commitment will be manageable (~15 minutes a day).  I hope that members of the IT Division will jump in, participate, and help others. Many of these tools are already familiar to us, so we may be able to act as mentors to those who are just learning the tools.

SARC IV: The Surreal Landscape, Feb. 27-29, Florida

For those who are looking for an educational opportunity AND a break from cold weather, you might want to consider this SLA regional conference.

~ The Surreal Landscape ~
Information Professionals Mastering the Challenges
of Time & Space
SARC IV
February 27-29, 2008
Hilton St. Petersburg Carillon Park
St. Petersburg, FL

The Florida and Caribbean Chapter, SLA welcomes you to Florida in February!   SARC IV, The Surreal Landscape, kicks off Wednesday, February 27, 2008 with an opening reception held on the patio outside our meeting rooms at the Carillon Park Hilton in scenic St. Petersburg, Florida.  Sessions begin Thursday morning, February 28 with Stephan Abram, SLA's President, giving the opening keynote address and continuing with Graham Farmelo bringing us the Friday keynote address.   Sessions will tackle and discuss the challenges facing information professionals in the 21st Century.  Join us on Thursday evening,  to continue our surreal discussion with a tour of the Salvador Dali Museum. 

Visit the SARC IV website for program, registration, hotel, and vendor information.  Early Bird Registration ends soon (January 15, 2008)

Come join your colleagues in St. Petersburg!   

Other speakers and panels include:

• Ruth Fuller--Collaboration – Erasing the Lines in the Sand for effective information gathering and resource sharing
• Robert Weigner--Digital-Only ‘Libraries’ and the Services to Support Them
• Robert Hudson -- Electronic Legal Information
• Paulette Hassier--Collaboration between business, science, profit/non-profit and information  professionals-breaking the barriers
• Ilene Strongin-Gary--Adopting DSpace for a Corporation
• Jeffrey Wolfe--NASA Libraries and Inmagic
• Marcia Abrams (Cadence Group) -The Lost Art of Interviewing: How to Hire without Regret
• Catherine Lavalle-Welch--Live Library Instruction for Distance Learners
• Dale Prince-I only wiki socially: Using social networking tools to inform, entice, and adjoin
• Robert Stengard-Olliges--Booming Biotech: Are  Libraries Ready?
• Diane Austin - Information Architecture
• Graham Farmello - The Library: the Biographer’s greatest asset and greatest threat
• Barbie Keiser/Ulla Strickler-Mars and Venus for Information Professionals:  Are your stakeholders hearing the message you intended to send?
• Rebecca Vargha-Core Competencies for Information Professionals of the 21st Century
• Stephen Abram-- Specials on the Edge

Panel Discussions:

CHANGED-CREATING NEW LIBRARIES FROM SCRATCH AND GOING DIGITAL-- Barbara Shearer, FSU Medical Library (moderator); Inez Dinwoodie, MITRE Corporation;  Deborah K. Balsamo, EPA National Library Network)

SECONDLIFE IN THE LIBRARY AND INSTRUCTION WORLD -Panel Moderator:  Nancy Kellett, Dirac Science Library FSU (moderator); Joe Clark, Center for Teaching and Learning, FSU; Meg Kribble, Nova Southeastern Law School; Andrew Sanderbeck, People Connect Institute

Google Book Search Tips: A University of Michigan University Library Handout

©ollectanea wrote a nice blog post about this five-page handout noting that her eyes glazed over after a while.  (And if that happens to a librarian, what will happen when a user reads it?)  Looking at the positive aspects of the handout, Georgia Harper wrote:

...the document is really helpful as it shows in detail what features the book search provides, how to use it to best advantage, and if you're at UMich, how to double-check your results against Michigan's catalog, Mirlyn. I want to say right now that I think this is a really good thing. I've heard so many people say things that indicate that there's a lot of misunderstanding about what Google Book Search does and how it works. So clearly, this is needed and kudos to UMich for doing it...

Although this handout was created specifically for UMich, it would be useful to others who are using Google Book Search, which seems to need a lot of explanation for something that seems so simple.