Greetings all,
I just returned from the 2009 SLA Annual Conference in Washington, DC! What better time to attend than during SLA's Centennial Celebration! For me the highlights were the Opening Session with former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell discussing his views on leadership and the importance of information technology; the receptions and other networking events; the Centennial Leadership Celebration at the Library of Congress; and the Closing Session with Judy Woodruff moderating a panel discussion on the state of information gathering.
At the Joint Chapter and Division meeting, the Chapter Cabinet Chair related that many chapter programs are focusing on topics to help members during this economic downturn. Despite the economy, SLA membership has increased with the strong interest from our international members. In fact, there were over 30 countries represented by SLA attendees. But membership retention rate is only 70%. SLA Headquarters indicated that they will be disseminating membership reports soon. Please note that due to the low level of interest, the Communities of Practice sites will be going away by December 31, 2009. Other news includes the creation of the new Academic Division and discussions on forming a Taxonomy Division.
The major topic of discussion at the Closing Session/Membership Meeting was SLA’s Alignment research. What can be expected? A name change for SLA that will better reflect the value we add to our organizations, especially to people outside of our profession. Other announcements included SLA’s new video channel SLA-TV, and the Beta version of the new Alignment Information Portal.
Also reported was the trend of chapters using blogs instead of newsletters to keep members up-to-date. Kudos to our web master Andy Szydlowski for setting up the SLA PNW’s Blog site! This is our space to actively share news and stay connected.
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