SLA Europe Chapter

What was it like virtually attending SLA 2010?

101 people were virtual attendees at the SLA Conference in June 2010. One of SLA Europe's members has written an informative and entertaining guide to how the virtual conference worked, its good sides and its pitfalls.

You can read Claire's account “The great thing about the virtual conference is that you can do cartwheels in a mini-skirt” on her blog.

Virtual attendance is becoming a viable alternative for those who cannot make a trip to the US. What do you think about it? We would love to know your views.

Are you going to New Orleans?

Plans for SLA's annual conference are at an advanced stage. Will you be in New Orleans? Do let us know if you are!

It's going to be a busy few days, packed with opportunities to learn, network and chat with vendors. So if you're there, be sure to make time for the International events. 

Information Services in Transition: A Global Debate

promises to be a great session as our expert panel from Europe, Australasia and Asia discuss the challenges faced by their information profession as they strive to develop knowledge strategies in their communities.  This promises to be a very lively debate as they share their thoughts on the trends and initiatives evolving around the world.

We know travel budgets are tight, so if you'd struggle to get to Newcastle, let alone New Orleans, there are plenty of ways to catch up with the conference remotely. Follow the buildup and the happenings via Twitter - hashtag is #sla2010. SLA Europe board attendees will be tweeting and blogging where we can.

Check back to this blog (or sign up for our RSS feed, or follow @slaeurope on Twitter) for more updates on conference sessions ...

Online Information

There are various reports about the activities at Online Information being blogged and circulated, so we will be collating them here. Come back to check for more links or keep an eye on our SLA Europe Twitter stream as we update this post.

• VIP have published a review of the European Librarians Theatre sessions.

• Laura gives us a flavour of a day at Online here.

Conference Reports 3 - SLA Conference 2009

The third conference report from the ECCA winners is from Sara.

Sara Batts is Senior Research Librarian at the London office of Reed Smith LLP. This is her second information professional post after completing an MSc Information Science in 2006. Prior to this Sara worked as a conference organiser and an advisor to students applying to university. She is also studying part-time for a research degree.

SLA conference in Washington DC was unlike any other event I have attended.

One key difference was the emphasis on networking. Conference places equal importance on this as the formal presentations – the number of open houses, lunches, breakfasts and ‘connect’ sessions would bear this out.

This is also reflected in the highlights I would pick out of my time in DC. Some are formal sessions, some are not so serious:

• Relying on Westlaw for international news coverage means I have missed America’s finest news source: the Onion. I attended the session with the editor where the paper’s insightful reporting was discussed, and will now ensure that I include Onion stories wherever possible. (Onion editor calls for an end to reading, Tuesday)
• I met with library colleagues from my firm’s US offices. It was a real bonus to be able to put a real person to the blurry intranet photos or an email address. (BNA Breakfast and Legal Division Business Meeting, Monday)
• NASA has a library network: if I ever need a new dream job, I think that could be it. (Mission to Mars: NASA engineers and info pros set sights on red planet, Monday)
• Washington DC is an amazing city, but the monuments look even better at night.
• It is perfectly OK to have a list of reasons for undertaking a higher degree that may not appear to be completely rational (So you want to be a doctor..., Tuesday)·      
  
• Not many Americans understand the point of a decent cup of tea; but that these differences are fun to talk about. I had always wondered why anyone would want to eat something called ‘grits’ or how rice and peas could be exciting, and now I know. (B&F Division Business Meeting & Lunch)

I proctored Sylvia’s global research session on the first Saturday – I now have some helpful insights and tips for the next time I am attempting to establish the corporate structure of a slippery shipping company with a hopeful fee earner looking for shareholders’ details... This was a great opportunity to give something back for the generous award that allowed me to attend the conference. 

The Expo was a fantastic showcase of useful products and services; a chance to increase my awareness of what is on the market that can help in the work I do.

Have I broadened my outlook? Definitely; just being part of all those conversations with a huge range of people – students to Fellows and all kinds of SLA people in between.

The ECCA was an amazing chance, one that I wanted to grab with both hands. I crammed so much into a short space of time. I cannot thank the sponsors and mentors that made it happen enough. It was enormous fun. And along the way, I’ve made some interesting contacts and met some great people from all over the world.

Online Information 2009

SLA Europe are attending and presenting at Online Information in various roles.

Firstly we'll be at stand 750 so do stop by and say hello. If you're not an SLA member, and were a member of CIG or AUKML, we've got a great special offer on the membership fee valid for the duration of the exhibition.

Secondly, SLA Europe is hosting its annual breakfast on 2 December - this hugely popular event is always well attended so if you're coming along, we look forward to meeting you there.

Also, SLA members are participating in a number of sessions throughout the conference. Find the full programme here

We are hosting a series of three lunchtime panel seminars, sponsored by EBSCO.

Tuesday 1st December, 12.30

European Libraries in the Future: comparisons across Europe

Wednesday 2nd December, 13.00

New Roles for Librarians: a country comparison

Thursday 3rd December, 11.30

Services in Libraries Under the Spotlight: country comparisons

All are held in the Gallery Room, First Floor - see the poster (pdf) or our events page for full details.

SLA Europe President Géraldine Clément-Stoneham is chairing one of the sessions. Neil Infield of our Board, Michael Fanning (Country Representative for Germany), Gimena Campos Cervera and Anne Caputo are participating in the sessions which aim to compare practice, roles and strategy for libraries across Europe.

Penny Leach, SLA Europe Secretary, helped with the programming for the free Global Business Information Forum. Several SLA Europe members or sponsors are speaking including Steven Phillips, Morgan Stanley, and Tony Pringle, Bureau van Dijk.

SLA members are speaking as part of the Conference, including:

•  Anne Caputo moderating a session under Track 3 -Towards the Library of the Future

• Gwenda Sippings moderating two sessions under Track 3 Information Professionals Delivering and Demonstrating Value

• Marydee Ojala on Using Social Media for Competitive Intelligence and Evaluating, Recommending and Justifying Web 2.0 Tools

• Lyndsay Rees-Jones on Professionalism in the Digital World and an Information Master Class with Kathy Ennis

• Stephen Abram on The Semantic Web Coming of Age

• Mary Ellen Bates on, amongst other things, Go 2.0 Yourself,  and Turbo Charge Your Web Research (a pre-Conference workshop);

•  Helen Clegg and Susan Montgomery on From Knowledge Management to Knowledge Enablement (using Sharepoint)

•   Ulla de Stricker on Publishers Stepping up to the Challenge. 

 Don't forget that there are reduced rates for attendance for SLA members. And if you're only coming to the exhibition, do come along to stand #750 and say hello!

Conference Reports 7 - Internet Librarian International

Sara also attended ILI 2009 - you can read her review of the event here.

Conference reports 6 - Internet Librarian International

Today's report is from Laura Armiero.

Last year I attended the Spring Event at the American University of Rome and heard about the SLA. I realised the SLA was exactly what I was looking for: an international association of people sharing professional interests and opportunities for networking. I never imagined that, a few months later, I’d have the opportunity to attend the ILI conference in London; I was fortunate enough to win, courtesy of SLA Europe, a free ticket for the ILI2009 conference.

It was the first time I had attended a conference in London. I was very impressed by how many people from different countries there were; and how many non-librarians. What an opportunity to share different points of view! I found that probably I was the only Italian; so I felt responsibility to share with my colleagues at home what had happened at the conference. I was also impressed by the use of laptops and smartphones during the conference and how many people were tweeting during the presentations; could it have been otherwise in a conference for Internet Librarians?

The keynote speeches were opportunities to hear influential opinions from a high level, by important people. The opening one was Cory Doctorow’s “Copyright, Copyleft, Privacy, Librarians and Freedom.” He spoke about the new kind of information on the Internet, how copying is easier and the problems this causes: the need for new rules for copyright and the role of librarians in assuring access to information at a global level. According to Doctorow libraries play an important role in managing information from the Internet, and should be involved in the creation of new rules. They also need to ensure access to information, particularly for poor countries. Access to information means opportunity for economic development. He talked about every kind of information you can find on the Internet, the various media, such as videos, images, multimedia, yet he ended his talk with a declaration of love for books as physical objects representing our own personal stories and knowledge. Cory Doctorow was adamant that books have an emotional value; and this for me was surprising but, at the same time, worthy of reflection.

The conference was divided up into three different streams so I was spoilt for choice: which should I attend? They were all so interesting; I tried to attend as many presentations as I could. I will make some comments about selected presentations I particularly appreciated.

I attended the entire track dedicated to Information Literacy, because this is what I’m currently working on. I particularly enjoyed these sessions because they gave me ideas and suggestions for my job; so I was up-to-date about what colleagues from other countries are doing in this field. I found out about student surveys made by colleagues from Norway and from the UK; applications of Web 2.0 technologies at the University of Leicester and how quickly and efficiently these technologies were used by students themselves at the University of Singapore. I found out about how Web 2.0 technologies help students not used to using Internet at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Finally I learned about programme for Library staff at Imperial College London inspired by the 23 Things.

The second day's keynote, Peter Murray-Rust’s “Challenging Librarians to Face and Create the Future”, brought me to the more familiar field of academic libraries; even if he talked in general about the mission of libraries and the role they will play in the future, most of the examples he made in his talk were from academics. He also spoke against some copyright rules and the current model for publishing scientific research results. He asserted the active role librarians today must have in changing the situation. That confirmed for me what I firmly believe is a topic for discussion in Italy. He strongly affirmed that open source and cooperation are the answer to these problems and that new technology gives us a lot of useful collaborative tools to facilitate this.

At the end of the second conference day, the theme of the closing panel was “Top Technology Trends for Libraries and Information Professionals“; some expert information professionals from different backgrounds shared very briefly their ideas about the top trends for libraries in the future (cooperation, new technologies, OPAC as gaming, return to paper…); I found interesting and, in some cases, even fun.

As an added value of the Conference, I had the opportunity to meet the two SLA Europe members, Sara and Emma; with them I had only had email contact and it was a pleasure for me to meet them and to share our professional experiences. I also met colleagues from other countries, especially from Northern Europe and from the UK.

The fact that throughout the entire conference the importance of the role of libraries in the future and the challenges which face us as librarians filled me with enthusiasm especially as it was affirmed by non librarian people. I met interesting people from different backgrounds and, even if maybe I missed or didn’t understand something, I came back with new ideas and new and useful things I’m sure I will be able to use every day in my job.

Laura obtained her Postgraduate Diploma in Library Science at the Sapienza University of Rome in 1997. She worked as Assistant Librarian at the Faculty of Medicine Library of the University of Bologna in 1989-1990 She worked as Librarian at the Faculty of Architecture of Sapienza University of Rome in 1990-2004. Since 2005, she has been Library Manager at Department of Computer and System Sciences Antonio Ruberti.

Conference Reports 2- SLA Conference June 2009

Another report from DC: this time it's Bethan.

Bethan graduated with and MA in Library and Information Management from MMU in September 2008, following a Graduate Trainee year at the John Rylands Library at the University of Manchester. She currently works as Content Development Officer, Library and Archival Services, at Mimas. Having joined the SLA Europe board in September 2009, Bethan is serving as co-chair of the Early Careers Committee.

Bethan's biog...

I’m writing this account on the anniversary of starting as a graduate trainee at the John Rylands Library at the University of Manchester.  Three years and a library degree later, I’m still at the University of Manchester, now working for Mimas as Content Development Officer, Library and Archival Services. I often find it quite hard to believe that, three years ago, I had never stepped behind a library counter or heard of MARC or EAD; of AACR2 or ISAD (G); of NoWAL or RLUK; of CILIP or SLA. 

These are not randomly-chosen acronyms:  each of them has had an effect on my professional life.  Perhaps the greatest is from SLA; specifically, the SLA Europe Early-Career Conference Awards.  

When, lured by the prospect of attending the SLA conference in Washington, DC, I applied for one of the awards in February 2009, I had no comprehension of what an impact winning one of the awards would have.  From hearing that I had won an award, to leaving for Washington in June, much of my time was taken up in preparation.  Even the preparation was not what I would have expected!  As well as haunting the SLA conference website and preparing for the holiday that would follow the conference, I was getting to know my fellow award-winners by email and twitter, and being inundated with good advice from my mentors.   

We arrived in Washington on the Friday before the conference, and spent the evening getting to know each other and failing abysmally at simple maths.  I had some free time on the Saturday to see Washington, which I foolishly did mainly on foot, in new shoes.   Later on, complete with blisters, we had dinner at Zaytina with the SLA Europe board.  This was the first time I had met any of the board, but I was not surprised to find them a welcoming, lovely bunch – and well-deserving of being mistaken for a table of fashion editors! 

I was very glad that I’d had some time to relax because when the conference started in earnest, there was no time for anything but sessions and networking.  I had been told not to be afraid of taking breaks, which, sound advice that it is, was unfortunately, very difficult to take.  For most of the conference, I wanted to be in at least two places at once, and the thought of actually missing a session or networking event was just unthinkable.   People had said that we would have very full days at the conference, but I hadn’t realised quite how true this was.  I had a couple of days which started with business or networking breakfasts at 7am, then went right through until we stumbled home from more networking events at midnight.  And I enjoyed every single minute of it.

The most intriguing session I attended was Dan Clancy (chief engineer for Google Book search) talking about the Google Book Settlement.  It was fascinating to hear Google’s ethos behind the Google Books digitisation programme, and to discover the main concerns of the librarians in the audience.  The session was arranged late, and was not in the programme – I found out about it through Twitter, an excellent example of the need to keep your ear to the grapevine.  Seasoned conference-goers confided that the most interesting and productive events are often those which are not part of the official programme.  Conferences are starting to exploit this phenomenon through having ‘unconference’ sessions, SLA2009 among them. 

The sessions I attended were interesting and valuable, but my memories of the conference are dominated by the networking events.  These included breakfasts, lunches, dinners, afternoon receptions, evening drinks receptions, and a memorable dance party.  I got to chat to information professionals from all sectors and stages in their careers.  It was very illuminating to speak to MLIS students about the differences between the English and American courses.  I seem to recall that we worked out that there are as many library schools near Detroit as there are in the whole of the UK!  I think that this is indicative of some of the differences in how librarianship as a career is viewed in the two countries. 

My heartfelt thanks go out to SLA Europe and the Insurance and Employee Benefits Division for making this possible, and in particular to Barbara Robinson and Sylvia James for being fantastic mentors.  I’d also like to thank Annie, Laura, and Sara for being great companions, and generally very cool people. I’m honoured to have been asked to take over from Barbara Robinson in 2010 as Chair of the Early Career Committee, so my involvement with the ECCA awards is just beginning! I’m delighted to have the chance to help other people benefit from this amazing opportunity for professional and personal growth.