NJSLA Blog

Celebrate with NJSLA! 2011 Holiday Party & Business Meeting - Wed, Dec 7th

SLA New Jersey Chapter presents:

2011 Holiday Party and Annual Meeting

Register Online at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/njslaholiday2011

View & print the flyer (PDF)

When: Wednesday, December 7th

Time: 5:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Cost: $20

Where: Hilton Garden Inn - Bridgewater, 500 Promenade Boulevard, Bridgewater, NJ 08807

View Directions & Map at: http://tinyurl.com/hiltonbridgewater

RSVP requested by Thursday, Dec. 1st

Join us in wrapping up the year and come hear about our plans for 2012!

Enjoy our popular "Gloria Dinerman Memorial White Elephant Auction". Remember that great gift you picked up at the White Elephant Auction last year?!? Here’s your chance to let someone else share in the joy of receiving that certain something special! Please bring an inexpensive wrapped gift (something that has been lying around which you’ve been wanting to pass off on someone else OR an inexpensive gift OR EVEN that precious item you ended up with last year!)

Thanks to our Platinum-level sponsor Wolters-Kluwer Health | Ovid

Register Online at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/njslaholiday2011

 

Photos Posted from NJSLA Holiday Party and Annual Meeting

NJSLA's Holiday Party and Annual Meeting on Dec. 15 featured a review of the year's events and accomplishments, the recognition of several award winners, and the confirmation of the new President-Elect.

Claudia Barnes Cuca accepted a Member of the Year Award, which was given as a surprise at the meeting at Willie's Taverne in Bedminster. The other award winners could not attend:

• Barbara Burton, co-Member of the Year. Barbara also was honored as co-Member of the Year in 2009.
• Janet Weiss, recipient of the President's Award.
• Margaret Rose O'Keefe, Frank H. Spaulding Student Scholarship winner.

Ben Beit-Zuri will be the SLA New Jersey Chapter's President-Elect in 2011. His election was confirmed at the meeting following online voting.

The party also featured the Gloria Dinerman Memorial White Elephant Gift Exchange. Gloria, a longtime NJSLA member, passed away in 2010. Attendees had the opportunity to honor her memory with a donation to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Check out and tag the photos on Facebook or Google Picasa (open in a new window or see slideshow below).

 

2011 NJSLA Board Elections

The 2011 NJSLA Board Elections have opened and ballots have been emailed to all Chapter members.  If you are a member of NJSLA and have not received a ballot, please email us at [email protected]

 

Hi from NJSLA's new Director of Communications

Hi, Everyone -

If it isn't obvious to you yet, I've never blogged before. Is it like writing an email for work or dashing of a letter to a friend? Or is it more like a personal diary that you all get to sneek a peek at?  Either way there's a first time for everything, so here goes....

I'm really excited about my new role as NJSLA Director of Communications this year. The Board met last night and everyone seems to be really interested in getting our member communications going in some great projects for 2010.

Whether in face-to-face meetings, NJSLA's Blog (thanks Eric!), revamping the NJSLA website (thanks Kate!), resuscitating our newsletter, NJSLA's Bulletin (thanks Sandra!), or improving our NJSLA listserv,  we are all excited about getting to know our members better and getting everyone more involved.

• Are you good at Publisher and love choosing just the right font? You can volunteer for our new Newsletter Committee.
• Are you up on the latest Website Designs and love content management? You can volunteer for our Website Redesign Committee.
• Do you like to blog about library topics? You can volunteer to be a blog editor and get your voice out there.

One of the greatest things about NJSLA is getting to know each other and building our human networks which ultimately will help us find jobs, find resources, find answers, make friends and most importantly have a good time.

If you're interested in helping with any of our Communications efforts this year, feel free to drop me a line.

Talk to you soon,

--Cheryl

NJSLA Welcomes 2010 Officers

The New Jersey Chapter of SLA congratulates and welcomes our new officers for 2010 (biographies below):

President-Elect 2010 (President 2011, Past President 2012): Sherry Markowitz
Secretary (2010-11): Suzanne Lipman
Director of Communications (2010-11): Cheryl Erenberg
Treasurer (2010-11): Sonal Shukla (serving a second two-year term)

There were no eligible write-in candidates. (Chapter practices require nomination by at least 10 members for each write-in nomination.)

The chapter had 275 members eligible to vote, and 68 participated (turnout of 24.7 percent). Ballots were open from Oct. 31 through Nov. 20.

The officers will be welcomed at our chapter's Annual Meeting and Holiday Party on Dec. 15 in New Brunswick (sponsored by PRO LiBRA).

Sherry Markowitz (President-Elect) is an alert editor in the Market Insights group of AT&T.  Sherry has been at AT&T for over 35 years. She received her M.L.S from Rutgers in 1987 and started her library career then. Prior to that, she was a manager in other parts of AT&T. Sherry has been a member of SLA since 1989. Positions held with the NJSLA chapter include Public Relations Committee, Treasurer, and Secretary.

Suzanne Lipman (Secretary) is currently employed as an information specialist at Medco in northern New Jersey where she performs literature searches, fields reference questions, and coordinates document delivery. Suzanne has taught online as an adjunct instructor for library and information science graduate students at Syracuse University. She received her Bachelor's degree in English from Rutgers University and her Master's degree in Library and Information Science from Drexel University where she was inducted into the Beta Phi Mu honor society.

Cheryl Erenberg (Director of Communications) graduated from Rutgers University in 1999 with a Masters of Library Science. In the past ten years, she has worked in a variety of special library settings including corporate, association, and hospital information centers. Her knack for technology, web development,  and content management are complemented by her experience in client-facing reference, research, and training activities. Her dedication to delivering client-focused products and services earn ed her the 2006 B.E.S.T. Award from Atlantic Health for excellence in customer service. Cheryl has been a member of the New Jersey Chapter of SLA since 1999 and has served as Bulletin Editor (2003–2004) and Business Manager (2001-2003).  She also was the recipient of the New Jersey Chapter's President’s Award in 2004. Cheryl is active in several other library associations and has co-authored two posters on medical librarianship.

Sonal Shukla (Treasurer) has held positions in the field of library and information science for more than 15 years. Currently, she is the Director of the Information Resource Center at Embryon Inc. (an Advanced Health Media Company). In her role as the Director, she is in charge of developing, maintaining, and promoting the Virtual Information Resource Center, a web-based biomedical library. She also assists in strategic planning and marketing the Information Resource Center’s capabilities to the employees. Sonal has held positions in nonprofit as well as corporate settings, providing with her diverse experience in the field of library and information science. Prior to her job at Embryon, Sonal worked at i3 Research (a United Health Group Company) as Manager of Library and Information Services.  Earlier in her career, Sonal worked in the medical libraries at various hospitals and medical centers.

Sonal has worked as NJSLA Treasurer from 2007-2009 and as a Membership Secretary of Health Sciences Libraries of NJ from 1995-1997. Sonal received her MLS from Rutgers University and Bachelor’s Degree from University of Mumbai. She has completed 18 credits in Graduate Program of Biomedical Informatics at UMDNJ. Sonal also has a Diploma in Advertising and Marketing.  Her hobbies include reading and Hindustani classical music.

Voting Opens Oct. 31 for NJSLA Officer Candidates

The nominating committee and officers of the New Jersey Chapter of SLA (NJSLA) are excited to offer our candidates for election to office for the year 2010.

The offices of Secretary, Treasurer and Director of Communications are all two-year terms, for January 2010 through December 2011. SLA, like ALA and some other organizations, has a three-year term for chapter and unit leaders. So, whoever is elected President will serve 2010 as President-Elect, 2011 as President and 2012 as Past President.

The election will run from Oct. 31 through Nov. 20, 2009. All votes must be cast or received by 11:59 p.m. on Nov. 20.

All New Jersey Chapter members as of Oct. 28 are eligible to vote, with the exception of organizational and honorary members. Of our 275 eligible members, 254 are being asked to vote online using the SLA’s survey solution from the company SurveyMonkey. (This is also the method we use for event registration.) That survey will go out shortly after midnight Oct. 31. Another 21 members do not have an email address on file with SLA or have opted out of SurveyMonkey emails. They will be mailed ballots on Oct. 31.

Here is a list of the declared candidates (Choose one person for each office):

    * For President-Elect 2010 (President 2011, Past President 2012): Sherry Markowitz.
    * For Secretary (2010-11): Suzanne Lipman.
    * For Director of Communications (2010-11): Cheryl Erenberg and Erica Friedman.
    * For Treasurer (2010-11): Sonal Shukla.

Biographical and contact information on all candidates is at http://sla-divisions.typepad.com/njsla/njsla-2010-board-election.html. That page also includes voting instructions. Election results will be released on or about Nov. 23. In the event of a tie for any office, a run-off will be held at the Annual Meeting and Holiday Party on Dec. 15 in New Brunswick.

This note will be sent as a courtesy to our chapter's listserv. However, since the email list is open to anyone, there is no correlation between members of that list and eligible voters. In the unlikely event that you do not receive a ballot, but you are eligible to vote, you may contact [email protected] for assistance.

I'd like to thank the candidates and the nominating committee (Liz Arnold, Sandra Baker and Kris Fitzpatrick) for their hard work and dedication.

Eric Schwarz
NJSLA President, 2009

Elections Coming Up; Please Check Your Email Address on File With SLA

As you know, SLA has an important name change vote coming up, starting Nov. 16.

New Jersey Chapter members have another SLA choice to make: for chapter officers, with electronic ballots opening on or about Oct. 31. Previously, we have conducted voting in person at the annual meeting in December. To enable everyone to participate, and because we'll have a contested election, we're using electronic voting this year.

We will be using a list of email addresses of chapter members on file as of Oct. 27. So please check and update your address as needed by Monday, Oct. 26. Checking your address now will also ensure that you get your name change ballot by email.

Forgot your SLA login? Use the password reset link at http://www.sla.org/cvweb/index.cfm or contact Paula Diaz. See http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/contactus/index.cfm#member

Eric Schwarz
NJSLA President

Reminder Regarding Nominations: Please Email Us (Again) With Your Interest

We're still seeking nominations for the NJSLA Executive Board for next year. The open positions are president-elect, secretary, treasurer and director of communications.

If you emailed njslaelect09 AT optimum.net please do so again (with a copy to eric AT ericthelibrarian.com.) Because of my error, some emails sent to that address were deleted. I apologize for the inconvenience, and hope that interested candidates will email us again.

Thanks, Eric Schwarz
NJSLA President

NJSLA Seeking Nominees for President-Elect and Executive Board

Your New Jersey Chapter of the SLA is seeking candidates for President-Elect, Secretary, Treasurer and Director of Communications for next year.

This is a great opportunity to learn about SLA, network, develop leadership skills and serve your fellow information professionals. The election or affirmation of officers will be held at the chapter's annual meeting and holiday party, Tuesday, Dec. 15. (Information on that event will be posted soon.) If there is a contested election, then electronic ballots will be distributed on or about Oct. 31.

The offices of Secretary, Treasurer and Director of Communications are all two-year terms, for January 2010 through December 2011. SLA, like ALA and some other organizations, has a three-year term for chapter and unit leaders. So, whoever is elected President in December will serve 2010 as President-Elect, 2011 as President and 2012 as Past President.

The official descriptions of each office are in our Chapter Practices document at http://tinyurl.com/l4npyp. In addition to the officers’ roles as members of the chapter’s Executive Board, here are some of the most important roles for each officer:

President-Elect

• Chairs programming committee.
• Learns about chapter and SLA operations in anticipation of his or her year as president.
• Attends the SLA’s Leadership Summit (St. Louis in January 2010) and Annual Conference (New Orleans in June 2010). (The chapter provides financial support for most or all of these expenses if not reimbursed by the president-elect's employer.)
• Attends all chapter meetings and substitutes for the chapter president when necessary.

Secretary

• Records and distributes minutes of the chapter's business meetings.
• Conducts official correspondence and maintains a file of current records as requested by the chapter president.

Treasurer

• Maintains all financial records of the chapter and submits required reports to the association office.
• Collects, deposits and expends funds as requested and authorized by the president.
• Arranges for the president to have signing authority.
• Reports the fiscal condition of the chapter to the executive board.
• Helps prepare budget and monitors chapter fund-raising activities.
  

Director of Communications

• Responsible for content review, fiscal accountability, and responsiveness to the Chapter membership of Chapter electronic and written communications.
• Advises president and board on communications efforts, including listserv, bulletin and Web sites including chapter blog.

 
If you’re interested in serving in any of these offices, if you would like to nominate a fellow member, or if you have any questions about the chapter or these positions, please email the Nominations Committee at njslaelect09 AT optimum.net or email me directly at eric AT ericthelibrarian.com. Please indicate your interest by Sept. 30, so we have a chance to discuss the positions and post biographical information and photos of each candidate.

 

Eric Schwarz
NJSLA 2009 President