Minnesota Chapter

Congratulations President's Award winner Molly Dinneen

Molly Dinneen received SLA-MN’s 2012 President’s Award for Lifetime Achievement during last week’s Night of Honors.

Molly, who serves as the chapter’s loyalty adviser, is a senior scientist at General Mills Inc. where she has worked 14 years.

Conceived in 2007, the award has only been given to three other esteemed members: Jerry Baldwin in 2007, Virginia Ferestad in 2008 and Jim Tchobanoff in 2010. The President’s Award honors a member for their significant achievement over the course of a career that includes being:

• A longstanding active member
• One who is dedicated to the chapter, SLA and furthering the profession
• Someone who demonstrates leadership, excellence and service
• A professional known for notable innovations in the workplace
• One who provides mentoring to encourage others in the profession
• And whose activities bring recognition and acclaim to the chapter

Molly joined SLA and the Minnesota Chapter in 1997. She has chaired international relations, membership, professional development and most recently she’s been our strategic planning director from 2010-2012. In addition, Molly was awarded the chapter’s 2006 Innovation in Action Award.

Molly went beyond the call of duty as our strategic planning director. It’s because of Molly the chapter was among a handful of units selected to participate in SLA’s Loyalty Project. As a result, the chapter’s leadership and board structure was evaluated, re-envisioned and realigned. Molly led these efforts, representing the chapter at the national level, designing and making presentations, conducting interviews, providing analysis, offering recommendations and working towards a consensus.

Molly’s manager Fred Hulting, knowledge services leader and statistician, attended the Feb. 21 ceremony where he also saw coworker Noelle Lowrie win the Innovation in Action Award.

Congratulations to our 2012 award winners! Learn more about the chapter’s awards at http://units.sla.org/chapter/cmn/awards/PALA.htm.

Congratulations to Noelle Lowrie, our 2012 SLA Minnesota Innovation in Action award winner!

Congratulations to Noelle Lowrie, our 2012 SLA Minnesota Innovation in Action award winner!  Noelle works as a Global Patent Research Leader at General Mills.  In her work with the vendor Innova Market Insights, she identified a major need brought about by the lack of ability to truly and effectively be able to link a patent to a commercialized product.  Innova Market Insights is a Netherland’s-based company that produces a  proprietary food database which is primarily an online new product development tracking tool, using a network of international field research to report on new food and drink launches from around the world. 

 

Through Noelle’s work with the Innova and her close relationship with the owner, Luann Williams, she recommended a major change to the product to allow it to link commercialized products to patents.  Innova took this recommendation and has since begun to add this capability to their resource.  This project was the result of clear communication and collaboration between vendor and customer and now helps to empower researchers in the food industry to make powerful connections with data to assist them in their daily work. 

Congratulations Noelle!

Get $1,000 for SLA Annual Conference; apply by March 11

Early-bird registration is open for the SLA Annual Conference and applications are being accepted for the SLA-MN conference grant through Monday, March 11.

This is your chance to get a lot of bang from your Minnesota Chapter affiliation. The grant provides a nonstudent chapter member with financial need up to $1,000 to attend the June 9-11 conference and Info-Expo in San Diego.

A winner will be announced Monday, March 25, in time to take advantage of early-bird registration that ends Friday, April 12. Conference  information and registration is at http://bit.ly/XQlFIj.     

Eligibility:

1. Applicants may not be current students, as they would be eligible for the student group scholarship.
2. Applicants should be current SLA members with a Minnesota Chapter affiliation.
3. Applicant must demonstrate that attending the conference would be a financial burden otherwise.
4. Applicant must agree to share their experience with chapter members using the chapter’s social media channels, website and/or newsletter.
5. Applicant must be able to serve on the awards committee for the entire year following receipt of the award.

Judging criteria:

1. The award will be given to the person in need of financial support who best demonstrates how they would benefit from attending the conference.
2. Preference will be given to applicants who have demonstrated a history of involvement in the chapter and in the field of special librarianship.
3. The award will not be granted if no applicant adequately expresses their interest and need.

Application process:

Applications should be emailed to Dru Frykberg (dru.frykberg@state.mn.us) on or by Monday, March 11. In 500 words or less, please describe how you would benefit from the conference and demonstrate your financial need.