Fast on the heels of my last post, which asked what your summer reading plans are, is an announcement from the Leadership & Management Division about a new SLA Reading Club.
The Reading Club blog is a great place to get ideas, make suggestions, discuss, and contribute! Contact Alex Grigg at agrigg (at) lexmark (dot) com if you want to write posts for the blog...or just comment on posts others have written. Visit the blog for the whole scoop.
More specifically, what are you reading?
In summer (at least it's summer in my part of the globe), we all seem to have more down time to explore our personal interests, but we can also use that time to catch up on professional reading.
Besides info industry magazines and journals (have you read this Computers in Libraries article on Twitter?), what will you be reading this summer?
My plan is to take a look at Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations and read my signed copy of Neil deGrasse Tyson's The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet (actually, I think I want to read all of Tyson's books, but I'm getting ahead of myself).
So, what will *you* be reading this summer (or winter, if that's your current season)?
If you aren't wholly satisfied with your Twitter experience, you might need a tool or two to make your life complete. Take a look at the Ultimate List of Twitter Tools from the Social Media Guide.
Fifty Best Blogs for Law Librarians. You be the judge.
What is Web 3.0 exactly? Here are a few explanations.
GovFresh is a mega-feed of U.S. government updates from various 2.0 tools.
Stuff...need some? Need to get rid of some? Try takemeimfree.com or Freecycle.
SLA's Education Division has done great work in the new issue of its peer-reviewed journal, Education Libraries.
In honor of SLA's Centennial, the Summer 2009 issue takes a look back at a few different libraries. Read about Bowling Green State University's Popular Culture Library digitization project, the collection at the Educational Testing Service, and the history Wayne State's Education Library, among other articles and reviews.
The next issue will focus on "new approaches" for information specialists and for libraries...looking forward to it!
SLA 2009 may be over, but the information exchange lives on!
First, check out the tweets. Daniel Lee (@yankeeincanada), who spearheaded the @sla2009 effort, has captured all the SLA 2009-related tweets in one place...all 3,600+ of them! Even if you know nothing about Twitter, you'll be able to read about the sessions and link to presentations and other news.
More and more conference handouts are being posted to the conference site. If you were a speaker, please share your slides here! Contact events@sla.org to get your presentations posted.
And don't forget SLA Blog, where members contributed their videos, photos, and comments about the conference. Lots to read there, too!
In an ongoing effort to help information professionals navigate a challenging and uncertain economy, SLA will be publishing a salary survey of its U.S., Canadian, and European members later this year. Although a salary survey was not originally planned for 2009 due to budget constraints, we are offering this essential information to our members to demonstrate the exceptional value of SLA membership.
In a departure from previous years, salary data will primarily be presented in an online salary calculator. This tool allows multiple data categories to be combined to help you determine salaries in different scenarios. The calculator will be available at under $10 for survey participants and at a reduced price for other members. Sets of tables for specific functions will also be made available in PDF when the full results are available.
Please look for the survey questionnaire in your e-mail inbox during the week of 22 June. Results of the survey will be available in September.
Well, maybe not champagne and caviar, but your name will be in lights in the blogosphere*!
We're looking for people who would like to post on SLA Blog about SLA 2009. Write about your conversations, observations, the unconference experience, your impressions of D.C., what you ate at that fab reception last night. And, of course, the sessions! There are more details on SLA Blog.
So, if you've ever wanted to blog and didn't have the opportunity, now's your chance! Contact me at csosnowski (at) sla (dot) org to get signed up. One post or ten, we'd love for you to contribute.
*Pick up your Blogger ribbon at the Information Booth, and I'll be sure to ask for your autograph.
Here are a few resources that will help you make the most of your conference experience. Even if you can't make it to D.C., you can still feel a part of the action.
Conference wiki
Created by the D.C. Chapter, this site is where you'll find the inside scoop on restaurants, local attractions, and wi-fi hotspots. And, take virtual tours of area libraries, including those of the Smithsonian Institution and the National Library of Medicine. It's searchable!
Conference handouts
Handouts will be posted here before and after the conference.
Unconference wiki
There will be seven unconference sessions during SLA 2009, on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at various points throughout those days. Some have assigned topics, and some are "free for all." Check the wiki before, during, and after the conference for materials.
SLA Blog
Shamless plug for our own SLA Blog, where staff and members will be posting about their favorite sessions, conversations, and social activities. Contact me at csosnowski (at) sla (dot) org to blog on SLA Blog!
Twitter
If you haven't heard, @sla2009 is the Twitter account for the conference. If you tweet, don't forget to include the hashtag #sla2009 so that followers of @sla2009 will see your updates.
See you there!
DeepDyve, a new "research engine" that hits the deep Web. Enter your complex search here.
Analyze the flow of news with Media Cloud, from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard.
Get blog and other Web site updates in your e-mail inbox. FeedMyInbox...no feed reader required! (Thanks to member Brandy King for this tip.)
Need resumé help? Mashable presents ten tools that help you create and refine your resumé using the social Web.
A new tool has entered the search arena, and you've probably heard of it by now. Wolfram|Alpha, a "computational knowledge engine," aims to bring you more data, the more hidden of what's out in the universe.
As I attempted a test run, I received the message the "current maximum load" had been reached, but I encourage you to take a look and see what you think.
The folks who bring us ResourceShelf created a user guide for our searching pleasure.
Reviews and more information from Search Engine Land, PC World, Lifehacker, and Digits. See what the tweeps are saying on Twitter.
Oral History Project
The "Voices of SLA: an International Oral History" is an initiative
of the Fellows of SLA in partnership with the SLA Centennial Commission. To
learn more or to volunteer and/or to offer suggestions, go
here.
