San Andreas Chapter

The Hollywood Librarian to be Screened July 9th

"What this movie is really about is the survival of civilization" -- Racine Journal Times

Save the date! July 9th will be movie night in the San Andreas Chapter. We plan to order pizzas, relax with colleagues and view the long-anticipated film, The Hollywood Librarian. Venue and registration information will be announced shortly. Meanwhile, here's a teaser -- a synopsis from the film's website:

   "Ann Seidl's The Hollywood Librarian is an engaging, often humorous look at the disparity between the simplistic depictions of bun-wearing, finger-shushing, spinster librarians served up in Hollywood feature films and the far more complex reality of today's savvy information navigators--of both genders, with or without tattoos and/or piercings." -- Randy Pitman, Video Librarian Magazine.

Details to follow.

Your Invitation to Informal "Neighborhood Dinners" in June & July

Our week of San Andreas Chapter Neighborhood Dinners is coming, June 24 - July 1. Your SLA colleagues are organizing eight different dining experiences, and invite you to join them! We hope you will participate in these informal get-togethers, and take this opportunity to network, share knowledge, and have a little fun with your colleagues in SLA.

If you are going to Washington DC for the annual conference, please plan to return to the Bay Area and share your impressions with your colleagues at a n'hood dinner.

Sign-up is easy. Review our eight Neighborhood Dinner options, choose a venue, then send an email to the Host to let her know you will be there. The Host will contact the venue to make a reservation -- be sure to sign-up by the date indicated for the Dinner you wish to attend. Stay in touch with your host, and let her know if your plans change.

San Francisco Bay Region Chapter members -- you are also welcome.

Click here for a detailed listing of your dining options. Meanwhile -- a summary, for your delectation:

    Los Altos - Wednesday, June 24 - Potluck @ Cindy's house
    Hosted by Cindy Hill

    Monterey - Wednesday, June 24 - Epsilon (Greek & Seafood)
    Hosted by Ann Jacobson

    Hayward (East Bay) - Thursday, June 25 - Bijou (Contemporary French/California cuisine)
    Hosted by Leslie Fisher

    Menlo Park - Friday, June 26 - Café Baronne (Coffee, sandwiches & salads)
    Hosted by Helen Losch

    Palo Alto - Monday,  June 29 - Jade Palace (Chinese haute cuisine)
    Hosted by Mary Beth Train

    Redwood City - Tuesday June 30 - Citrine Bistro (Global cuisine)
    Host by Helen Losch

    San Mateo - Wednesday, July 1 - Kingfish (New Orleans cuisine)
    Hosted by Leslie Fisher

And by decree, we've added July 7th to our week of San Andreas Chapter Neighborhood Dinners (talk about a long tail!):

    Newark - Tuesday, July 7 - BJ’s Restaurant Brewhouse (American food)

Ah, summer! Long days. The annual SLA conference. San Andreas Chapter neighborhood dinners. See you there.

Patricia Parsons
Jean Bedord
Chapter Program Directors

San Andreas Team Building – Wine Tasting and Blending

On Saturday May 16th Chapter members with guests in tow convened in Livermore for our annual wine tasting activity.  This year we had a special twist to the event.  We were “trained” as wine blenders!

It was a beautiful spring day and almost a little too hot in Livermore.  But that made our foray into the thick stucco winery of Tenuta Vineyards even more welcoming. 

The coolness of the tasting room was refreshing.  The warmth of the pourers was engaging.  We hung out awhile sipping and chatting while we waited for everyone to show. 

Tenuta is a very friendly winery, with art on the walls, tables to sit at--in and outside--even a sofa “U” for more intimate gatherings.

When we left the tasting room, we ambled through the production area of the winery.  It’s a very compact operation for the third largest producer in the Livermore Valley.  On the day of our tasting the wine making operation was quiet.  The crush is months away in the fall, of course.  Just weeks ago, when I was at Tenuta making arrangements for the event, the operations floor was heavily occupied by a bottling project.  It looked to me like three or four families were collaborating on the process of fill, cork and label. There were even small kids involved.  They were having a blast.

Our tour guide and host, Rich, showed us around the operations floor, sprinkling wine facts and Livermore history throughout the tour;   and eventually we made our way into the cellar.  Now we were really in a cool spot.  And it was chilly too.

The first thing we did to prepare for our blending routine was to blind taste three wines.  Most of us were chagrinned to find we did not recognize these varietals by taste alone.  But we did have fun trying.

Next we divided up into three teams of six each, and we named ourselves respectively, SLA Primo Vino, Vino Ragazze, and the Wine Devils.  All teams were given a bottle each of Syrah, Cabernet and .Merlot.  We had our pipettes, blending flasks and spit buckets at a separate table for each of the teams.  And we were off!

It wasn’t really a race, of course.  It took us a good while of trial and error blending to come to consensus on a top selection.  Each member of each team was given an opportunity to try a blend.  Each member of each team tasted and voted on each blend via the “all in favor” method. 

I know that sounds like a lot of wine tasting.  But we were regaled with many delicious noshes throughout the blending project--savory and sweet, fruits, nuts, sausage, cheese and spreads. 

At least an hour and a half later Rich told each team to bottle its chosen blend and had us re-convene in the sofa “U”.  We handed off our bottled blend as we proceeded out of the cellar.  While our group spent the next 20 minutes or so gabbing and laughing, Rich set up a blind tasting of all three winning blends.  We were in for a final competition.

We had our final taste-off in the “U” and each participant jotted down their favorite blend onto a piece of paper.  The ballot check was dramatic.  The count was almost a tie for two of the blends.  But the Wine Devils prevailed in the end!  Participants were offered the chance to buy a bottle of the winning blend to take home.  Ten bottles of Wine Devil delight went home with happy blenders that day. 

While Rich was blending and bottling the home-bound blends, dessert arrived.  Most of us hung around for awhile for the last sweet nosh and to drink plenty of water.  Slowly participants started drifting back to their cars for the road home.   It was hard to leave the site of such a fine team building event and the chance to play wine maker for a day.

Leslie Fisher
Leslie.Fisher@gilead.com

photos from the event:

 

SLA WEST COAST CHAPTERS RECEPTION

The SLA WEST COAST CHAPTERS RECEPTION is only a week away!

For those attending the SLA Annual Conference in Washington, DC, be sure to attend your chapters' reception.

   Monday, June 15, 2009
   5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

   National Press Club
   529 14th Street, NW
   Washington, DC 20045
   http://www.press.org/directions.cfm  (less than a mile from the convention center and conference hotels)

The reception will be held in the First Amendment Lounge.  Enter the Press Club on 14th St., and take the elevator to the 13th Floor.

This reception wouldn't be possible without the generous support of our sponsors:

      IEEE
      INFOTRIEVE
      EOS INTERNATIONAL
      REPRINTS DESK
      CYBERTOOLS FOR LIBRARIES
      DIALOG
      OVID TECHNOLOGIES

Download West Coast Chapters Reception invitation for all this info and our sponsors' logos in beautiful color!

The San Diego Chapter is organizing this year's reception. Please direct questions to Kathy Quinn, quinn.kathy@yahoo,com, 619-825-5014.

Solo Librarians Meeting on July 15th

The Solo Librarians of the San Andreas Chapter of SLA invite you to join them at their next meeting on Wednesday, July 15th. Anyone with an interest in libraries is welcome, including students and recent grads of the MLIS programs.

Carol Chatfield will be hosting the meeting at 6 P.M. on Wednesday, July 15th at The Career Development Center, 563 Salvatierra Walk, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.  Carol has provided detailed information about the location and parking below.

Carol will give a tour of the Career Resource Library at the Career Development Center. We will also have a panel of librarians that attended SLA 2009 in Washington DC to share their impressions and experiences.

You are welcome to bring a snack or dinner to the meeting.  There is a kitchen with water, ice, and a soda machine ($1.25/bottle) next door to the conference room.

Those who are planning to attend need to contact Sonia Dorfman by July 10th at sdorfman@neuropace.com or (650) 237-2784.

Sonia Dorfman
Eric Kristofferson
San Andreas Solo Librarians

-------------------------------------------------

The Career Development Center at Stanford University is located in the Student Services Building at:
563 Salvatierra Walk
Stanford University
Stanford, CA  94305
http://www.mapquest.com/mq/5-IX2x
(Please note that our building is incorrectly labeled Student Services Center on this Mapquest map.)

Parking is available across the street (Campus Drive East) from the building.  The parking lot can be seen on the Mapquest map, just above and to the left of the words, "Gould Center."  Parking is free after 4:00 pm.  

TIP for Driving Directions:  The best online mapping service for finding our building is Mapquest.com.  And I really recommend BEFORE starting out that you run a "get directions" from your starting address to the Career Development Center’s address; the Stanford campus is large and can be confusing!

Registration for June 4 Career Agility Program

Join your San Andreas colleagues for a breakfast program on Thursday, June 4th at Exponent in Menlo Park.

Career Agility: Working with an Agency

Speakers:  Linda McKell and Sarah Vogel, moderator Cindy Hill

Explore alternatives to working in a salaried position for a company.  What are the opportunities, the pros and cons?  What is the current situation?  How do you get projects?  And how do you market yourself?

Our speakers on this panel provide perspectives from both the contractor and agency viewpoint.  After several layoffs at local pharmaceutical companies, Sarah Vogel, independent Information Research Consultant, became an independent contractor.  Linda McKell is the founder and owner of AIM Library & Information Management ("AIM").

Cindy Hill, our moderator, is the founder and president of Hill Information Consulting Group.  She was previously Vice President, Information Management Service, with Outsell, Inc., a research and advisory firm focused on the publishing, information, and education industries.  Prior to that, she had been the manager of Sun's Digital Libraries and Research Group.

Lee Pharis has graciously agreed to host us at Exponent in Menlo Park on June 4. Exponent is located off Marsh Road on the Bay side of 101. A buffet continental breakfast will be served in our meeting room prior to the program. We are starting this one early and plan to end by 10 am, for a minimal impact on your work day.

Agenda:  

    7:45 - 8:15 a.m.  Registration & Continental Breakfast

    8:15 - 9:45 a.m.  Program

    9:45 - 10:00 a.m.  Q&A

Cost:   $12 for members; $16 for non-members and guests; $8 for student/unemployed members

Location:   Exponent  -- 149 Commonwealth Drive, Menlo Park, CA 94025

Parking:  Free parking is available at Exponent.

DEADLINE:  Make sure your registration form (below) and check are received by Tuesday, June 2. 

Patricia Parsons

Jean Bedord

Program Directors, San Andreas SLA

Keep an eye on SLA and related events in the Bay Area -- check out the "San Andreas Events" Google calendar. Click on the link in the top right corner of the Chapter blog webpage:

http://sla-divisions.typepad.com/sanandreas/ or  http://www.san-andreas-sla.org

 ----------------

Send your check payable to "San Andreas Chapter of SLA" and the registration form below to:

SLA Reservations

c/o AIM Library & Information Staffing 

P.O. Box 391210

Mountain View, CA 94039-1210

 

Name: _____________________________________________

 

Telephone: _________________________________________

 

E-Mail: _____________________________________________

 

Employer/Affiliation: ___________________________________

 

SLA Member (@$12): ____   Non Member/Guest (@$16): ____

 

Student//Unemployed Member (@$8): _____

 

Check enclosed for:  ____________

 

Please make check payable to San Andreas Chapter of SLA

 

DEADLINE: Make sure your registration & check are received by Tuesday, June 2

 

100 Members for 100 Years! The San Francisco-San Andreas Joint Chapter Meeting

The May 21st joint meeting of the San Andreas and San Francisco SLA Chapters was a great success, with 100 members attending from both chapters at the San Francisco Airport Commission Aviation Library & Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum.

San Andreas Chapter President Leslie Fisher noted the fortuitous number of attendees, thanked DIALOG for sponsoring the event and Ken Haycock, Professor and Director of the School of Library and Information Science at San jose State University, for the 100^th anniversary cake, and observed a number of anniversaries or near anniversaries. 2009 is the 85th anniversary of the founding of the San Francisco Chapter as well as the 100th anniversary of the founding of SLA, and 2010 will be the 30th anniversary of the founding of the San Andreas Chapter, which split off from the San Francisco Chapter in 1980.  She also thanked the Communications Committee for their efforts so far.  Leslie also noted that there is a second Career Agility event the morning of June 4^th.

Sandy Malloy, the president of the San Francisco Chapter, thanked the San Andreas Chapter, and Leslie in particular, for putting on the event. The next event for the San Francisco Chapter is Maplight at the UC Berkeley faculty club.

Next up was Cindy Romaine of Romainiacs Intelligence Research, who is running for President-Elect of SLA International. Cindy pointed out we are part of a noble profession--at a time when people don’t trust public institutions, they do trust libraries. US News & World Report listed librarians as one of the top jobs of the future.  SLA can soak up 20 times the anxiety going on in the profession, like chamois (a prop Cindy had) can soak up 20 times its weight in water. She also compared us to the Verizon guy, people coming (rappelling) to each others’ service and providing a strong and robust network. The next step for the profession:  we have to get future-ready. Cindy asked what are the tools, constructs, competencies we need and mentioned that she uses and has accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

After a brief interlude for anniversary cake, a panel moderated by Bill Fisher and consisting of Richard Geiger, Cindy Hill, Libby Trudell and Deb Hunt gave their quick thoughts on where the profession was headed and engaged the audience. Themes included user focus, differing generational attitudes towards privacy, staying current on new technologies and how librarians should brand themselves. Part of the panel discussion included presenting videos from the Strategic Alignment Project. SLA members and, in at least one case, a professional actress read statements and the reactions of information users (C-level executives) and information providers were tracked in real-time.

Questions posed by Chapter members included how to convey our value to middle management who might oversee expenses but not directly use our services or see the value we provide, different terms for the people we work for (collaborators, decision makers and team members were all proposed) and a lively discussion of differing generational attitudes towards privacy and how to reach out to younger people and how to be more inclusive.

Photos are forthcoming!

Deb Hunt threw out a challenge to all of us to try out at least one of the following services by June 1, saying, "You'll be glad you invested the time in yourself and added new skills to your toolbox."

SLA wiki home:  http://wiki.sla.org/dashboard.action

(be sure to create a log in that will be good for all wiki pages)

23 Things:  http://tinyurl.com/ok4k5v

Innovation Lab (which includes links to all the spaces below):  http://www.sla.org/innovate/

Atomic Learning

http://www.sla.org/innovate/atomic.cfm

Enter the user name: slastudent and the password: slastudent

Leadership & Management and KM Library:  http://sla.learn.com/learncenter.asp?page=202

execuBooks:  http://sla.learn.com/learncenter.asp?page=156

Deborah Hunt

Exploratorium http://www.exploratorium.edu

 dhunt@exploratorium.edu

Steven Kaye

Novarica

box_nine@ix.netcom.com

Neighborhood Dinners Coming June 24 - July 1

Please mark the timeframe June 24 - July 1 on your calendars and plan to attend an informal San Andreas SLA neighborhood dinner.

Better yet, offer to host or organize a dinner. The goal is to gather informal groups of SLA members to share a meal, and make it "nearby" no matter where you live or work -- South Bay, South South Bay, East Bay, Peninsula, Mid-Peninsula, Monterey, etc. If you have a favorite restuarant near your home or office, why not share it with your fellow SLAers? If you're finding the locations of our regular programs are inconvenient, this is your chance to bring us to your neighborhood!

Are you going to Washington DC for the Annual Conference? Please plan to return to the Bay Area and share your impressions and new knowledge with your colleagues at a neighborhood dinner.

If you're willing to host a Neighborhood Dinner, please send us an email. And let us know if you have questions. 

Patricia Parsons

patricia.p63@gmail.com

Jean Bedord

Jean@bedord.com

Chapter Program Directors

Career Agility Series Breakfast Program June 4

Plans for the next San Andreas Chapter breakfast program, our second event in the Career Agility series, are coming together. 

Please save the date, Thursday June 4th.  Join us for a continental breakfast and a presentation about tools and strategies for Career Agility. We'll be hearing about different employment options. Our speakers are Linda McKell, the founder and owner of Advanced Information Management, and Sarah Vogel, Information Research Consultant. Lee Pharis will be hosting us at Exponent in Menlo Park. As with the previous Career Agility programs, we expect to start this one early and end by 10 am, for a minimal impact on your work day.

Details will be available soon.

Joint Chapters Event, May 21 at SFO

Registration Open: Joint Chapters Event, May 21 at SFO

San Andreas and San Francisco Bay Region SLA Present:
Honoring the SLA Anniversary: Casting Our Thoughts Toward Another Century

Our Panel:  Bill Fisher, Cindy Hill, Richard Geiger, Libby Trudell and Deb Hunt
Time:  5:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Location:  San Francisco Airport Commission Aviation Library & Museum
Cost:  $25 Members, $15 Retired/Unemployed Members, $30 Nonmembers, $15 Students

This program is about trying to envision the future through the eyes of information users, whose direct access to digital information sources is much broader than any of us could have envisioned 15 years ago. And it will only keep expanding. How will we change ourselves and how will we develop a new generation of information professionals to address the opportunities?

How do we, as information professionals, leverage our skills and expertise to bring value-added deliverables to our users so that we are seen as integral to the organization, contributing positively to its bottom line? How do we communicate our value to the stakeholders in our organizations?

How can SLA support its members in moving forward, staying contemporary and yet bridging the sometimes gap between historical and still valuable assets and the drive to embrace and adapt to new technologies and generational shift? How do we stay current as a value proposition to our organizations?

Please join a stellar group of leaders in SLA and in their greater professional lives. Bill Fisher, Cindy Hill, Richard Geiger, Libby Trudell and Deb Hunt will comprise a panel of professionals to help us focus and steer a group-wide exploration of the challenges and opportunities ahead of us as we step from a celebration of the first hundred years of SLA into the dawn of a new century.

SPEAKER BIOS:

* Bill Fisher is a past President of SLA (2002-03). He is an SLA Fellow (awarded 1998) and a recipient of the SLA John Cotton Dana Award (2008). Bill also has served as Chapter Cabinet Chair from 1994-95 and is Chair-Elect of the Leadership & Management Division. Bill served as the President of San Andreas Chapter from 1996-97 and President of the Southern California Chapter from 1986-87. He has served on numerous other committees and task forces and is currently serving on the Centennial Commission.

Bill is currently a professor at the School of Library & Information Science at San Jose State University. He has taught 25 years in the library/information science programs at UCLA and SJSU.

* Cindy Hill is an SLA Fellow (awarded 2001). She is a past President of SLA (2003-04), an SLA Director (1997-2000), SLA Secretary (1998-2000), and Metals & Materials Division Chair (1990-99). Cindy  is a longtime and active member of the San Andreas and San Francisco Chapters. She was President of the San Andreas Chapter from 1984-85. Her very first volunteer role was as a member of the San Francisco Chapter’s program committee (the San Andreas chapter didn’t yet exist). 

Cindy has worked as an information professional in a variety of industries including environmental, engineering consulting, executive recruiting and high-technology. Cindy’s two most recent positions include Vice President of Outsell’s Information Management Service, and prior to that, leading Sun's Digital Libraries & Research team. She has her own consulting firm, Hill Information Consulting Group..

* Richard Geiger is the 2009 recipient of the SLA John Cotton Dana Award, to be officially presented at the SLA Annual Conference in June.  He is an SLA Fellow (awarded 2004). Richard served two terms on the SLA Board of Directors -- as Director (1993-96) and as Treasurer (2000-03).  Richard was Chair of the SLA News Division from 1988-89, and served as San Francisco Bay Region Chapter President from 1991-92. He has served on numerous SLA committees and chaired many of them.

Richard’s long career as a news librarian included stints as Library Manager at the San Jose Mercury-News and Library Director of the San Francisco Chronicle.

* Libby Trudell served on the SLA Board of Directors as Chapter Cabinet Chair (2006-08), as a member of the SLA Nominating Committee (2003-04) and is currently on the SLA Public Relations Advisory Council. She has been Section Chair and Strategic Planning Chair for the Information Technology Division (1997-98). She served as President of the San Andreas Chapter of SLA (2003-04) and is currently the chapter’s Public Relations Chair. Previously, she was active in the Library Information Technology Division of ALA, and was a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Library Automation.

Libby is currently responsible for global marketing, pricing and customer service for Dialog. This role includes oversight for the Quantum2 leadership development program for information professionals and for Dialog’s Graduate Education Program. Prior to joining Dialog, she worked in several consortia serving the library community, handling customer support, training and marketing for electronic information services including OCLC, RLIN, and a variety of library automation products

* Deb Hunt currently serves on the SLA Board of Directors. She has been a member of the Special Libraries Association since 1982 and served as President of the San Francisco Bay Region Chapter from 2004-05. Deb Hunt is the mastermind and chief engineer behind SLA’s “23 Things.” http://wiki.sla.org/display/23Things/Welcome+to+23+Things%21. She is a past president (twice) of BayNet, the San Francisco Bay Area Library and Information Network, and is active in the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP), serving on the Board of Directors from 2001-03.

Deb Hunt is currently the Director of the Exploratorium Learning Commons, which melds the best of the Exploratorium’s library resources with current and future technologies. She is currently co-chairing the Exploratorium’s Information Infrastructure Initiative to design and implement knowledge services museum-wide to achieve performance excellence of internal staff and their interactions with external clients. She is also an independent information professional and Principal of Information Edge, http://www.information-edge.com.

VENUE:

* Our venue will be the wonderful aviation library and museum at SFO. The facility is modeled on the passenger waiting room of the 1937 San Francisco Airport Administration Building. Its mission is to increase public awareness of the important achievements in air transport by preserving, interpreting, and sharing the history of commercial aviation. The San Francisco Airport Commission has expressed its belief that, "in order to prepare for the future, we must preserve the past." Plan to arrive at 5:30 to register and take in the exhibits and library before dinner.

MENU:

* Hors d'oeuvres buffet -- tomato basil bruschetta, cheese and spinach puff pastry, mixed green salad, penne pasta with creamy tomato vodka sauce, lemon chicken, brownies, beverages

TRANSPORTATION:

* Driving:  http://www.sfoarts.org/about/directions.html

* Parking:  SLA will be able to validate your parking receipt, but must purchase the validation stickers in advance. Please indicate on the registration form if you plan to park in the airport ramp, and bring the parking ticket with you to the event to be validated.

* BART:  The SFO station is at the International Terminal. Enter through the glass doors straight ahead of you. Walk past the bank of elevators, then the exhibit cases, all  on your right. Follow signs to the SFO Library which is on the far side of the terminal near Virgin Atlantic’s First Class lounge.

DEADLINE:  Make sure your registration form & check are received by Thursday, May 14th.

Thanks to Dialog, whose generous donation has helped make this event possible. If you aren't familiar with the products and services of Dialog, you might want to take a look now: http://www.dialog.com/

Leslie Fisher
2009 President, San Andreas Chapter SLA
---------------------------------------

To register, download, print and mail this May 21 registration form with your check to:

  SLA Reservations
  c/o AIM Library & Information Staffing (AIM)
  P.O. Box 391210
  Mountain View, CA 94039-1210

Name: ___________________________________________________

Telephone: ________________________________________________

E-Mail: ___________________________________________________

Employer/Affiliation: _________________________________________

SLA Member (@$25) ____   Retired/unemployed Member (@$15) ____

Non Member/Guest (@$30):  ____    Student (@$15): _____

Cuisine for this event will consist of a generous hors d'oeuvres buffet.

Please check here ____ if you will be driving to the venue.

Check (payable to San Andeas Chapter of SLA) enclosed for:  ____________

DEADLINE: Make sure your registration & check are received by Thursday, May 14th.