Silicon Valley Chapter | SLA

Neighborhood Dinners in July - come and meet your neighbors!

Neighborhood Meetings 2007 - July 9-12

Please join one of our Neighborhood Meeting hosts for an evening of networking, held the same week as the Solos Librarians meeting on July 11th. Our hosts have selected a venue where you may share dinner (dutch treat) and lively conversation in a pleasant atmosphere. These meetings are also opportunities to talk with attendees of SLA Annual 2007 in Denver - find out more about Al Gore and/or Scott Adams, the Synergy Session, or the latest from Chapter Cabinet. Come to meet your colleagues in this more intimate dinner setting. With dutch treat, you pay-as-go and select what-you-want. (Suggested expectation for the cost of your dinner is $20-25.) Expand your network as you share your thoughts on personal, professional and/or social topics. Enjoy!!

Meeting restaurants have been selected throughout the Chapter region from mid-peninsula to Santa Clara. Meeting dates are variable also, from Monday through Thursday July 9th-12th. We hope that one (or more !) of the following Neighborhood Meetings fits in your calendar.

Please contact the host listed directly to RSVP for a meeting dinner.

Monday, 7/9 - Lisa Sammon ([email protected]) - Piatti, 3905 Rivermark Plaza, Santa Clara, CA - this dinner has been canceled
Monday, 7/9 - Lee Pharis ([email protected]) - Claim Jumper, 43330 Pacific Commons Blvd, Fremont
Tuesday, 7/10 - Cindy Hill ([email protected]) - Potluck at her home in Los Altos Hills
Thursday, 7/12 - Helen Losch ([email protected]) - PF Chang's, Stanford Shopping Center, 900 Stanford Shopping Center, Palo Alto

Scitopia at SLA Denver

Big announcement and buzz at SLA Denver about Scitopia.org .  A FREE federated vertical search portal for 15 professional scholarly societies (Acoustical Society of America, American Geophysical Union, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, American Institute of Physics, American Physical Society, American Society of Civil Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Vacuum Society, The Electrochemical Society, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Institute of Physics Publishing, Optical Society of America, Society of Automotive Engineers, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics  and SPIE).  More professional scholarly societies will be joining this venture.

Content sources include:

• three million articles and conference proceedings
• 50 million patents from the world's major patent offices
• full-text documents from the US Dept of Energy Information Bridge site

The developers of this project are continuing to evolve search tools and functions.  They welcome your comments and feedback. www.scitopia.org

Helen Josephine can be reached at [email protected]

Solo Librarians Meeting on July 11th

The Solo Librarians of the San Andreas Chapter of SLA invite you to join them for their next meeting on July 11th. Anyone with an interest in small libraries is welcome, including students and recent grads of the MLIS programs.

Sonia Dorfman will be hosting the meeting at 6 P.M. on Wednesday, July 11th at Neuropace, 1375 Shorebird Way, Mt. View. Below is a map link.

We will have a panel of librarians that attended SLA 2007 in Denver to share their impressions and “best” experiences.

We will be serving a light meal prior to the presentation.

It is also likely that the San Andreas chapter will be having a series of neighborhood dinners on the days surrounding the 11th. Their topics will also be the Denver meeting.

Those who are planning to attend need to contact Eric Kristofferson by July 9th.

Contact Eric at [email protected]  or (408) 522-6697.

Eric Kristofferson
Patricia Parsons
San Andreas Solo Librarians

President’s Message: Mid Year Report - Chapter Activities January 2007-May 2007

By Helen Josephine, President, San Andreas Chapter

As I head off for the SLA conference and the Leadership meetings, I am reviewing our chapter accomplishments for the first half of the year. Immediately following the Leadership Summit in January 2007, the San Andreas and San Francisco Chapters held their annual joint board planning meeting to review co-sponsored projects including the turnover of the Jobline and joint dinner programs. Lorna Beich from the San Andreas Chapter is now head of the Jobline Committee, and she has created new processes (6 week postings) and a clean new format for the job announcements. The annual joint program meeting with the San Francisco chapter was held at the San Francisco Airport Museum on February 22 and featured Mia Garlick, General Counsel of Creative Commons. Other joint programs may also be held this year. (Below: Joe Langdon and Helen Losch enjoying the Leadership Summit in Reno.)

February was the debut of the new San Andreas Chapter blog. After researching available blog software and the use of blogs by other SLA chapters, Mary-Lynn Bragg and Claudia Cohen launched the new San Andreas Chapter blog as the main communication channel for our members. A Blog Party was held March 28 to introduce the technology to our members and discuss the difference between the Chapter Listserv and the blog for announcements and chapter information. Michael Sippey, VP of Professional Products at Six Apart, makers of TypePad, Movable Type, LiveJournal and Vox was the featured speaker at the Blog Party. The Board approved both a photo policy and a copyright policy in conjunction with the development of the blog as our primary information channel. Thanks to all the chapter members who have contributed content to the blog, including reports on our programs, book reviews and news items of interest. The Blog Committee, Claudia Cohen, Wynne Dobyns, and Sandy Tao have done a great job of keeping the content fresh and well edited. (Below: Mary-Lynn Bragg speaking at the Blog Party.)

Bio: Helen Josephine - President

Helen Josephine joined Stanford University Libraries & Academic Information Resources (SULAIR) as Head Librarian for Engineering in March 2007. Helen has more than 25 years experience as an information professional, including six years at Intel, where she was Manager of the Information Management Group and a member of the library management team responsible for long-term library services strategy and program planning. Prior to joining Intel, Helen served as Account Development Manager for the Corporate Division of the Gale Group, Business and Collection Development Librarian at Menlo College, Manager of the External Services Program at the University of Hawaii, Manager of FIRST (Fee-based Information and Research Services Team) at Arizona State University, and Director of Research for Information on Demand in Berkeley.

Helen has an MLS from the University of California, Berkeley. She is currently serving as President of the San Andreas chapter of SLA and was the Program Director for 2003-2005, and a member of SLA since 1999. She has also been active in many regional, state and national library groups, including the Arizona Online Users Group, California Academic and Research Libraries, and ALA. Helen also served as editor of RQ (official publication of the Reference and Adult Services Division of ALA) from 1978-1979.

Membership Recruiting — What’s in a Name?

By Helen Josephine, President, San Andreas Chapter

Over the past few years our chapter membership has declined. Think about recruiting a colleague or recent graduate, and remind them to join the San Andreas Chapter. I was talking with a new member recently and he mentioned that he had joined the San Francisco Chapter thinking that was the only chapter in the area. WRONG! Perhaps it is time to consider changing the name of the Chapter to better reflect our geographic location. As a tagline to our blog we have added a phrase that indicates our membership includes information professionals from Silicon Valley, Santa Cruz and Monterey. I would like to hear your comments and thoughts about changing the name of the Chapter from San Andreas Chapter to Silicon Valley Chapter. I will be investigating the mechanics of this process, but I want to hear your comments and concerns.

Helen Josephine can be reached at [email protected]