Several members of SLA-Iowa attended the SLA Annual Conference in Philadelphia, June 12-15. Three of these attendees agreed to share some of their conference experiences and thoughts. Jennifer Hermsen, Kemin Industries, was a first time attendee. Dave Martin, University of Iowa’s Pomerantz Business Library, and Dana Smith, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., are both former presidents of the SLA-Iowa Chapter and previous conference attendees.
Hermsen stated that she enjoyed the opening ceremony with Thomas Friedman and that it was very inspiring. His focus on globalization and education were based on two sections of his latest book. She also enjoyed a session given by Larry Prusak of Columbia University in which he stressed one needs both knowledge and judgment to be successful. “His examples were humbling and gave me much to think about.” Martin liked several conference speakers, including keynote Thomas Friedman and Bruce Rosenstein, a biographer of Peter Drucker. His most memorable conference speaker was Gene Lanzillo, a crime scene investigator for the FBI, who presented a session entitled “Crime Scene Investigation Philadelhpia: Foresnic Science Explained.” One of the conference attendees posed as a dead body and the speaker showed photographs to the rest of the audience and asked for clues. He showed the audience that television crime scene investigation is not always based on reality.
All three SLA-Iowa attendees gained insight into new technology products at presentations and the INFO-EXPO vendor fair. Hermsen stated that she was delighted to find a company called "In-Magic" whose products include an on-line social library solution. It is a product she had been searching for and she looks forward to finding out more in the coming months. Smith’s product review interest for the conference was in the area of discovery tools to make more of his library content visible. He mentions that he “found very interesting developments in the discovery tool area which might remove some of the silo-like flavor of our web page content offerings. I was also looking for capabilities in this area to take our content and make if fully mobile. Smart device applications and iPad integration were important features and I found most major content providers had made good progress in this direction.” Dual presentations attended by Martin - “Using Social Media in the Workplace” and “60 Apps in 60 Minutes” - have him quipping that, “It appears I need a smarter phone.”
All three attendees also valued the networking opportunity the national conference provided. Smith stated that he always enjoys listening to colleagues reflect on how they do something well (or not) at their respective locations. He also mentioned that he had an opportunity to talk directly with Lesley Ellen Harris, author of the regular copyright piece in SLA’s “Information Outlook” publication concerning a specific copyright question. Lesley was definitely helpful and happy to be of assistance but Martin was unable to get the magic, one determination response from her that he was seeking. Hermsen was pleased to meet others who performed similar job functions and was exceptionally pleased to meet other solo-librarians. Martin attended the Midwest Chapters Reception – partly sponsored by SLA-Iowa – and felt that it was a successful event.
These three SLA-Iowa members felt attending the annual conference in Philadelphia was enjoyable and beneficial. They look forward to sharing their experiences with other SLA-Iowa members at upcoming events and hope to attend the 2012 conference to be held in Chicago.
Written by Jamie Hosek
