Happy New Year, members and readers.

Welcome to the current Chapter operating year with this first issue of The Courier for 2009. For the record, the Toronto Chapter is now in its 70th year of operations (1940-2009), while our parent association SLA (Special Libraries Association) just kicked off a much-anticipated, year-long celebration of their Centennial or 100th Anniversary year (1909-2009). Commemorating the SLA anniversary began in mid-January with the annual Leadership Summit gathering, this year in Savannah, GA.

As 2008 drew to a close and the SLA Centennial year began (and with it, my role as your local Chapter President), I began looking through my saved collection of past Courier issues, print copies that happened to begin with the issues that went to press during the Chapter’s fiftieth Anniversary year, 1990-1991. Most of the issues bore the familiar green masthead, and all of them had those telltale signs of having been sent by ‘snail- mail’ – yellowing scotch tape securing folded sheets, and adhesive address labels. It was a fascinating read that enabled me to place on a time line the contributions of the many Chapter leaders and volunteers who preceded me, and to recall the ones that I knew and the ones that I knew of (by reputation). I was struck by the amazing changes caused by emerging ‘Net technologies over the last two decades, changes to both the way in which information professionals were working, and the way in which the Chapter was operated. The issues for the Anniversary year were distinguished by the rendition of the familiar masthead in a rich gold colour.

Many ideas flooded into my brain from that reading. Soon afterwards I travelled to Savannah to represent the Chapter at the annual SLA Leadership Summit, where my brain received more stimulation when I interacted in sessions and socialized one-on-one with leaders from other Units (chapters, divisions, caucuses, etc), leaders operating at the Association level, and the Association’s talented and productive staff. The agenda for leadership development was excellent this year, and the excitement of the special year was palpable.

Once back at work after Summit, I was happy to get down to business and to chair the first Executive Board meeting for 2009 in the week following. It is with great pleasure that I list here for you the members of the Toronto Chapter’s current Executive Board. We were elected at the Chapter’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) held November 12, 2008, and assumed office on January 1, 2009.

President – Joy Shanfield

President-Elect – Claire Lysnes

Secretary – Julia Brewster

Treasurer – Jan Dawson

Director – Britta Jessen Charbonneau

Membership Chair – Jennifer Burns

Event Coordinator – Sandra Craig

Past-President (ex officio on the Board) – Daniel Lee

Some of the talented people listed above have already made earned a place within the history of the Chapter and Association – fast workers! We were excited to learn that Jennifer Burns was accepted to attend the next NELI (Northern Exposure to Leadership Institute), a gathering of information professionals near the beginning of their careers who show promise of becoming leaders in the field. It will take place in western Canada in approximately five weeks’ time, and the Toronto Chapter is extremely pleased to sponsor Jennifer’s participation there. She follows in the footsteps of earlier Chapter attendees, among them David Hook, Tracey Palmer, Daniel Lee and Claire Lysnes.

Daniel, who is currently serving as an elected Director on the Association’s Board of Directors, won more recognition at the international level when he received an SLA Presidential Citation for bringing Twitter to the 2008 annual conference in Seattle, and for his timely creation of training instructions for conference attendees.

The Chapter’s Advisory Board works alongside the Executive Board, reporting to its individual members, and performing the varied roles that go on, some ‘behind the scenes’, throughout each Chapter operating year. A full list of these volunteers appears on the web page’s “About us – Advisory Board” section.

A warm welcome goes out to these volunteers who have joined the Advisory Board ranks recently: as Courier Co-Editor – Gillian Horwood, for Registration – Sophia Apostol and Shelley McBride, for Archives – Jan Moffatt and Brenda Wong, and as Solos Chair – Amra Porobic. We are equally proud and appreciative of the work that the continuing Advisory Board members are doing, and consider ourselves fortunate that they continue to provide us with their time, effort, and far from inconsequential expertise. Thanks to the following (please see the web page listing for their specific roles): Laura Warner, Heather Postill, Heather Brunstad, Mei Tan, Kathy Coorsh, Ulla de Stricker, Heather Ritchie, Tylene Reaume, Pam Casey, Laura Anderson, Michael MacSween, Andrea Gagliardi, Carolyn Lindsay, and Helen Katz. Our thanks and appreciations go as well to Laura Knapp and Gayle Gossen for their past contributions in Advisory Board positions.

Our Past Presidents form an Expertise Pool (instituted in 2005), and current leaders are able to draw on their experience and wisdom throughout their terms of office. I have already been helped and encouraged by these generous people, and I am most grateful to the following members for their personal support or their willingness to take on continuing or ad hoc roles in my year: Daniel Lee, Pam Casey, Martha Foote, Laura Knapp, Gayle Gossen, Ulla de Stricker, and Heather Wilson.

I wish to thank Daniel Lee for the outstanding contributions that he and his team made to the Chapter operations last year. The year will be remembered for: the introduction of the Student Sponsorship Fund and the member contributions to it that enabled students to attend the year’s Chapter events free of charge; the attraction of nine corporate Partners, most of them first-time contributors, whose generosity helped to cover a significant proportion of the cost of running the year’s events; and the attraction of a high number of first-time volunteers to every level of Chapter operations (the Boards and Volunteer Pool). As well, a full array of Awards was given by the Chapter to members, in recognition of professional or academic accomplishments, or success in an award competition.

My Goals as President

One of my three personal goals as President this year is to strengthen the contributions that our ‘ad hoc’ volunteers make when they rise to our call and do specific things that we assign to them. We have called this reservoir of talent our Volunteer Pool since approximately 2005. If we can strengthen the training and personal support that we give to these volunteers who are typically unfamiliar with our expectations and our ways of operating, and if we can provide them with a richer, fuller experience in working with us, we will succeed in helping them progress to more challenging roles on our Boards.

Another of my personal goals is to provide varied events that reflect the needs and interests of as many members as possible. I will also strive this year for some unique events that relate to the association’s Centennial year, some that will look back and celebrate our contributions as a Chapter to the association’s first hundred years, and others that will look ahead to ‘vision’ and what the next hundred years may bring to the information profession.

We recently announced the Gala Centennial Dinner that is planned for May 14, 2009, so mark your calendars. Martha Foote, a Chapter Past President, is in charge of organizing the event, and it promises to be very special. Martha and her helpers are working to locate and invite former Chapter Presidents to be part of the celebration, and firming up soon-to-be-announced details about the Gala’s entertainment. Stay tuned!

We are also close to announcing a series of events on aspects of career development. It will feature Ulla de Stricker, a Chapter Past President who continues to serve on our Advisory Board as Career Guidance Chair. It is being organized by another Chapter Past President, Pam Casey. Ulla enjoys a reputation for her incisive thinking and is known far beyond our Chapter for her contributions to the profession. This series is designed to help new graduates and other members who may be facing uncertain times in their careers due to the economic downturn that has much of the world in its grip.

We have many other exciting ideas for events in 2009, such as continuations of previous successful themes like Best of the Web, and Knowledge Management, and new ones such as a Theatre Night, a Visioning the Future event, and Networking Nights. We are hard at work lining up participants and will place dates for these on the events calendar as soon as possible.

Just to remind you, our active subgroups New Information Professionals and Solos will also plan and provide events in the coming year. To stay informed as dates for Chapter and group events are determined, check the Events section of our web page, or add this RSS feed to your reader:

SLA Toronto Upcoming Events RSS Feed

My third personal goal is to update the Chapter’s most recent Strategic Plan that served as a blueprint for Chapter goals and priorities in 2002-2005. We will strike a Committee later this spring, and if the call for volunteers strikes a chord with you, then please join us in this endeavour. It will be easier for leaders to assign priorities each year, and to align these with the overall direction approved for the Chapter when we have a Strategic Plan in place, and the buy-in of our membership for it.

More congratulations

To the best of our knowledge, the Chapter has one illustrious graduate of the SLA training course 23 Things that was inspired by our own Stephen Abram. I refer to Carolyne Sidey, from Xerox Research Centre Canada, in Mississauga ON. She is one of only 29 SLA members who completed the course by the deadline December 15, 2008, and she was one of 23 draw winners announced at the recent Leadership Summit. Congratulations, Carolyne.

Some new themes and announcements were made by the Association at the Leadership Summit that took place January 14 to 17, 2009. Here are a few examples; however, I urge you to go to www.sla.org to read more about the year to come from an Association-wide perspective.

• In this time of economic uncertainly, the Association declared that they would operate with austerity, and they indicated some of the ways in which their spending this year would be different. For example, the annual salary survey of members will not take place in 2009.
• To help members to cope and thrive in a bad economy, the Association has changed the pricing of Click U Live online sessions and replays to free of charge for members. Their new tier of membership fee for lower earning members, announced earlier, will also benefit members who are not employed in full time positions.
• The research phase of the Association’s Alignment project ‘Positioning SLA for the Future’ has just concluded (the work of consultants Fleishman-Hillard, Andy Hines of Social Technologies, and Outsell, Inc). The awaited words and phrases that they prepared for our use in expressing our value to top level executives will be on the web site shortly. We had a peek at them during the Summit, and they are strong and appropriate.

Included in this issue of Courier is a reprint of one of the ‘Historical Highlights’ articles written about SLA Toronto Chapter by a member, the one that describes the decade 1970-1980. Enjoy it – it’s a fine example of the facts that intrigued me as I read through back issues of one of our most valued services to members, our newsletter.

I hope to hear from you if you have feedback to provide on how the Chapter is doing in delivering meaningful services to you, or if you wish to volunteer to help our committed team in carrying out our objectives for the year.

Joy Shanfield, MLS
President, SLA Toronto Chapter

Welcome to the first Courier of 2009.

Although the snow may be piling up outside, SLA Toronto is gearing up for another great year. In addition to our new executive, this year we welcome aboard a new Courier editor – Gillian Horwood. Gillian is a second-year MISt. student at the University of Toronto.

In this issue our new president, Joy Shanfield, introduces the 2009 executive and her own goals for this year. We’re also thrilled to present Gayle Gossen’s article on her trip to India and visit with the SLA Asian Chapter.

Did you know ‘The Courier’ is 35 years old this year? See the “From the Archives” feature this month to find out more about the unknown source of the name The Courier and other interesting facts like the salaries of the day, the fluctuations of Chapter membership, fundraising strategies, and the start-up of DIALOG training sessions. It’s a great look back!

There are many people involved in pulling together each issue of the Courier; we couldn’t do it without your submissions. We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the ongoing contributions of Frances Wong and Laura Warner. If you are interested in being a regular contributor, or even just an occasional one, let us know. Share your experiences with your colleagues. Contact us directly anytime for more information.

Enjoy!!

Gillian Horwood
gillian.horwood @ utoronto.ca

Heather Postill
hpostill @ sympatico.ca

SLA Adds New Dues Tier for Info Pros Making Less than $18K

With many facing lay-offs and cutbacks, SLA members are able to rely on their professional association to provide assistance in tough times.

SLA has added a third tier of membership dues for the full member class of membership. Dues for members with incomes of less than US$18,000 annually are now reduced to US$35 annually. Association members who fall into this category, including those who are unemployed, will have full access to all of SLA’s members-only services, including professional development, the SLA Career Center and networking opportunities. This initiative is an immediate response to the global economic crisis and will allow more members from around the globe to participate in the full range of SLA’s benefits. This dues structure will make membership in SLA affordable for members working in any economy, as well as those who are students, unemployed, part-time workers or retired.

“Members need the support of their association more than ever if they lose their jobs,” said SLA CEO Janice R. Lachance. “Our new dues structure will allow them to keep their professional skills and networks intact as well as provide them with the members-only SLA tools and resources the association provides to enhance their professional skills or find new employment. Being an SLA member even allows info pros to have access to discounts on health insurance as well as tuition at library and information schools.”

Read the press release.

Click University Offers Free Online Courses to Help Members Thrive in Bad Economy

Effective January 15, 2009, Click University will offer free online courses as an exclusive benefit to SLA members.
The free programming encompasses all non-certificate online courses that are part of SLA’s Click University, including Click U Live! monthly webinars, Click U Live! recorded sessions, and self-paced courses. Also available to members without charge are execuBooks, recorded Annual Conference continuing education courses, 23 Things, the SLA Innovation Lab and SLA Leadership Training. Courses offered through Click U at the SLA Annual Conference and through the Click U Certificate Programs will remain as fee-based offerings.

“During bad economic times, it is especially important that our members continue to master new information and technology to stay competitive,” said SLA CEO Janice R. Lachance.

All professional development programs from SLA are offered under the auspices of Click U, which is beginning its fifth full year as an exclusive member benefit. Click U provides 24-hour access to learning opportunities and includes training on general business skills as well as SLA-produced courses tailored to the needs of information professionals.

“If we want employers to have a competitive edge, information professionals must stay sharp and be innovative, and that means continuous learning,” Lachance continued. “SLA provides these tools for success through Click U, and offering them as a benefit of membership will make them accessible to all of our members, regardless of their economic circumstances.”

Following a unanimous approval vote by the 2009 SLA Board of Directors on Wednesday, 2009 SLA President Gloria Zamora announced this decision to an appreciative audience and thunderous applause from 250 SLA leaders during this morning’s opening address of the SLA Leadership Summit. Zamora said, “I know you are thinking that it is counter-intuitive to be turning away revenue during a sagging economy, however increasing the value of SLA membership during this period of global economic turmoil should have an immediate and positive impact on our members. By including portions of Click U as part of your membership, we are providing you with a tool which enables you to enrich your marketable skills and become a more valuable asset to your employers.”

Beginning on January 22, SLA members will also be able to access everything within Click U using a single sign-in on the SLA home page, making access to the first and only online learning community focusing on continuing professional education for knowledge professionals fast, free and easy.

U.S. General Colin L. Powell to Deliver Opening Keynote Address at SLA 2009

“General Powell is one of the most recognizable figures on the world stage today” notes SLA’s CEO Janice R. Lachance. “His unparalleled experiences at the highest levels of the military, diplomatic and philanthropic spheres surely equip him with unique insights into the importance of information and international cooperation that will resonate with our members. SLA is honored to welcome a leader of such stature and accomplishment to our conference at this important time for our profession and for our association.”

Read the press release.

Learn more about SLA2009

SLA 2009 Conference Stimulus Plan – Part 2

Register online before 31 January 2009 and you’ll save US$ 45 off the Member Early Bird rate. Online registration is now open. Make your plans now to register early. Use the discount code below when you register online.

Stimulus Plan Discount Code: SLA1909

See SLA website for stipulations, registration costs and further details.

SLA 2010 Call for Presentations

The Special Libraries Association is pleased to announce its 2010 Annual Conference and INFO-EXPO, to be held 13-16 June in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. The theme of the conference is “Entering SLA’s Next Century: Let the Good Times Roll.”

It’s no secret that today’s changing technology and more demanding management expectations require information professionals to demonstrate a positive impact on their organizations. You have to be a great researcher and manager, but you also have to help your organization put knowledge to work as a strategic asset — across the enterprise, day in and day out.

What should I know about the SLA Annual Conference and INFO-EXPO?

The SLA Annual Conference and INFO-EXPO is the premier networking and educational event for information professionals. The conference takes place over four days, with additional days for continuing education and local tourism. For more information, visit the conference Web site

What should I know about conference planning?

The SLA Annual Conference is planned on an 18-month timeline. The Annual Conference Advisory Council sets the parameters of conference programming, including (but not limited to) schedule, keynotes, time blocks, and theme. In addition to this council, divisions and caucuses devise the educational sessions that are put on Monday through Wednesday of the conference. If you are a member of SLA, you should approach your unit chair or unit planner with your conference programming idea before submitting it to SLA headquarters. Proposals submitted directly to SLA headquarters will be forwarded to the appropriate unit(s). Continuing education courses may be organized either through divisions or through SLA headquarters.

What types of submissions are you looking for?

* Presentations *

Educational sessions are held Monday through Wednesday of the conference. Sessions may be 60, 90, or 120 minutes in length. Presentation ideas should be submitted to the unit chair or unit planner. These presentations can be panels, lectures, roundtables or any learning format that you think would be appropriate.

* Contributed Papers *

An opportunity to share your knowledge! Are you using your expert knowledge and talents to shape the future? Do you have a vision of what the future will look like? Are others inspired by your ideas, innovations, and passion? How is your workplace preparing for the future? Do you have valuable insight from lessons learned that could help other information professionals? If so, here is your opportunity to engage in scholarship and share that knowledge with your peers.
Accepted papers will also be published on the SLA Web site and in Information Outlook. Proposal forms are located at http://www.sla.org/content/Events/conference/ac2009/Conference/callforpapers/

We are still accepting contributed papers for our 2009 conference, so feel free to submit a proposal for consideration for this June.

* Continuing Education Courses *

By submitting a CE course proposal, you demonstrate your commitment to helping information professionals become indispensable through learning and help broaden our growing understanding of library and information profession practice in the 21st century. Courses are offered on Saturday and Sunday, 12-13 June. Courses may be half-day or whole-day, and are open to both members and non-members. Continuing education courses may be organized either through divisions or through SLA headquarters. Proposal forms can be found at http://www.sla.org/content/learn/callcourses.cfm

UPDATE:

Deadlines

* 14 January 2009: SLA unit conference planners will meet at Leadership Summit to begin the 2010 planning process and brainstorm program ideas/collaborations.

* 15 May 2009: Proposals are due to unit planners by this date. Conference proposals not submitted at the SLA unit level must be turned into Kristin Foldvik, SLA’s events director, at kfoldvik@sla.org. (Only authors of accepted proposals will be notified.)

* 3 August 2009: Final presentation descriptions are due to the Annual Conference Advisory Council by SLA units.
We look forward to hearing your ideas. If you have any questions, please contact Kristin Foldvik, SLA’s director of events, at kfoldvik@sla.org.

EXTENDED DEADLINE: SLA Centennial Video Contest

The founders of SLA had a vision for how to fill the networking and educational needs of special librarians. With the forming of SLA in 1909, these fabled past leaders created an amazing professional association. For 100 years SLA has grown and transformed itself, and the association that started as one idea, by one person, now serves a global market of over 11,000 information professionals, librarians, and their partners.

Do you have an inspired vision of how SLA’s members will change in 25, 50, or even 100 years? Can you peer into the future and see SLA’s leaders of tomorrow? What will the next 100 years look like for SLA and the profession?
Celebrate SLA’s Centennial with your video representation of SLA’s information professional of the future! The deadline is now closed but stayed tuned for the winners.

View the Promotional Video on YouTube

SLA Bylaws Poll Results (Posted as of November 25, 2008)

The polls are closed, and we have the results of your voting on changes to the SLA Bylaws affecting the composition of our Board of Directors. An overwhelming 93 percent of you approved the changes.

By adding the positions of past chairs of the chapter and division cabinets to the board, individuals elected to a cabinet post will now serve on the board for three years instead of two. This will give the board and SLA the benefit of their wisdom a little longer. To keep the board from enlarging and costing the association more, the number of “additional directors”–essentially at-large seats–will be reduced from six to four.

These are, of course, not monumental changes, but I am hopeful that they will increase the board’s capacity for and success with the kinds of complex, long-term projects that will help SLA implement the knowledge we are gaining through the Alignment Project and beyond. Thanks to all of you who took the time to familiarize yourselves with the issues and turned out to vote.

Gloria Zamora, 2009 SLA President

SLA Granted Observer Status in WIPO

We are delighted to let you know that SLA has been granted observer status to meetings of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). WIPO, an agency of the United Nations, was established in 1967, “to promote the protection of IP (intellectual property) throughout the world through cooperation among states and in collaboration with other international organizations.” Among its most important roles is developing international standards for intellectual property agreements.

This approval of WIPO observer status for SLA culminates a long effort spearheaded by Public Policy staff members Doug Newcomb and Natalie Gozzard.

WIPO currently has 184 “member states” and performs much of its work through committees. Observer status gives SLA the right to attend committee meetings and bring forward to the member states considerations voiced by SLA and its members. Among the “hot topics” now under consideration are the parameters of intellectual property laws regarding traditional knowledge and cultural expression.

WIPO observer status is an important, prestigious recognition of SLA as a global organization with an important voice in intellectual property and provides an additional forum for advocacy.

SLA Board of Directors Votes for Creation of SLA Academic Division

The 2008 SLA Board of Directors voted in December to approve the formation of the Academic Division of SLA. As of 1 January 2009 this division is now officially accepting members. To join the Academic Division of SLA, go to the online membership form and add this division to your membership. To join SLA and the Academic Division, fill out the membership form.

The scope of the Division is to focus on topics of interest to academic librarians from all subject disciplines. This division is committed to improving the quality of teaching and research at academic institutions by promoting collaborative opportunities between information professionals and the larger academic community. While other divisions are concerned with specific subject areas, the Academic Division covers topics of a general nature relevant to all academic librarians from all subject disciplines.

The proposed executive board is comprised of the following members:
Chair – Stacey Greenwell, University of Kentucky Libraries

Chair-Elect – Anna Burke, Babson College

Secretary – Christian Miller, Cornell University

Treasurer – Leoma Dunn, Thomas More College

More information on the scope of the Academic Division

Review the board documents in full

New Year, New Members!

Please join me in welcoming the following new members who joined our Chapter between September and November 2008.

I look forward to meeting you all at an upcoming SLA Toronto event!

Jennifer Burns
SLA Toronto Chapter Membership Chair

Here are some of the upcoming events presented by SLA Toronto Chapter. See the Toronto chapter website for details.

SLA Certificate in Copyright Management

January 6th is the first of the 7 course SLA Certificate in Copyright Management. Each of the courses may be taken separately or you can register for them all within a 2 year period and receive the SLA Certificate in Copyright Management. The first 5 courses are online and the remaining 2 at conference in DC in June. Canadian lawyer Lesley Ellen Harris (author of the book “Canadian Copyright Law”) developed and teaches the program and has added an 8th course for Canadian librarians just on Canadian copyright law. See Click University for details about the program and visit Lesley’s site.

SLA Toronto Gala Centennial Dinner

The Special Libraries Association is celebrating a special anniversary this year. 2009 marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of SLA. Our profession has evolved in unexpected ways since John Cotton Dana became our first president, and I am sure you will agree that this is an event worth celebrating.

To honour this important anniversary, the Toronto chapter is holding a Gala Centennial Dinner on Thursday, May 14 in the Music Room at Hart House. We are still firming up the plans, but the evening will include a cocktail reception, a three course dinner and entertainment.

More information, including ticket prices and registration, will be available on the listserv, the chapter web site and in the next issue of the Courier. In the meantime, please mark this date on your calendar and plan to attend. It promises to be a memorable evening as we network with colleagues and celebrate SLA’s past and future successes!

SLA Annual Conference

June 14, 2009

Washington, DC

Happy New Year!

Here’s a quick recap of what SLA Toronto’s New Information Professionals (NIP) group has done in 2008.

Throughout the year we held two socials and one “speed networking” event. A winter social was held at the Bedford Academy and a well attended summer social followed at the Duke of York.

The third event, while an experiment of sorts, was a great success! In November a number of participants met at the Bedford Academy’s Games Room for a chance to interact with a panel of dynamic information professionals and librarians. Each participant spent five minutes in a one-on-one conversation with a panellist before being cued to move on to another five minute meeting. The concept was much like speed-dating, but instead of finding love, participants found knowledge, insight into different careers, new alliances and much more. Afterwards the group was free to mingle and catch up with some of their new acquaintances while enjoying refreshments.

The response to the event was overwhelming; we were sold out and thus a little cozy in the smaller venue. When we hold the 2009 speed-networking event, we will ensure that we have a larger space, allowing even more to participate in the event.

Stay tuned for Speed Networking 2009 and other up-and-coming NIP events.

If you know of any new professionals or students who might benefit from the SLA and from the NIP group, please pass along this information. All are more than welcome.

I’m looking forward to catching up with everyone in 2009.

Laura Warner is a graduate of Dalhousie University’s MLIS/MPA program and is a Reference Librarian for the CBC.

SLA Toronto is pleased to announce its sponsorship of Jennifer Burns for the upcoming tenth Northern Exposure to Leadership Institute, to be held February 26th to March 3rd, 2009 in Emerald Lake, British Columbia. Sponsorship includes a $1500 grant from the Chapter to cover the registration fee and offset transportation costs to and from Calgary, Alberta. The Chapter requires that the nominees meet the criteria established by the Institute as well as be a member of the Toronto Chapter. In her application, Jen spoke extensively of her vision of the future of the library profession, which the SLA Toronto Chapter Executive Board felt was much in line with the intent and spirit of NELI. As a condition of her sponsorship, Jen has agreed to serve on the Executive Board of the Chapter as the 2009 Membership Chair as well as report on the experience of attending in the Courier. You may also know Jen as the past co-editor of the Courier, or from her work as Supervisor of the Resource Centre at the Bank of Montreal. Please join SLA Toronto in congratulating Jen!

is the new Project Coordinator for Ask Ontario (askON.ca), a free virtual reference service for all Ontarians. Jan is also the SLA Toronto Chapter Treasurer for 2009.

Jan Dawson

joined Deloitte & Touche LLP in December as Senior Analyst, National Independence & Risk Management. She was previously a Research Specialist with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Toronto. Her direct number is 416-874-3759 and her email is maslad@deloitte.ca

Mari-Beth Slade

People on the Move will be a regular column highlighting the achievements of our members and help keep us all in touch. Please share your career changes, retirements, life changes, or volunteer work.

Submit your news to Frances Wong at Fwong @ blgcanada.com.

Figure 1 Speakers’ panel at the Conference

The unexpected opportunity to travel to New Delhi, India exceeded any previous travel I have done through my participation with SLA. The twice-annual trips to the Leadership Summit and Annual Conference had become, after 7 years, a regular part of my schedule. The SLA Asian Chapter was looking for speakers and the Business and Finance Division, for whom I was an Executive Board member, supported their request by sponsoring me to travel to New Delhi to speak at the conference. The Asian Chapter has many Business and Finance members.

I was excited at the prospect of traveling to India and planned to arrive in the country 10 days prior to the conference with my husband to see more of the country than New Delhi and to possibly understand more about the people and culture I would be addressing.

Flights to India invariably arrive around midnight so it is essential to have a hotel room booked in Delhi. There are 2 kinds of hotels throughout India and especially in Delhi – $100 per night (or less!) and $300 – $1800/per night. The first category has its discomforts with short, narrow beds, unreliable plumbing and sanitation and security risks. I did locate a hotel in the $200/night range but it was in a suburb far south in New Delhi and wouldn’t be convenient for the conference.

It was difficult to decide where to go. Goa was a strong pull with its stunning beaches. India is a diverse country of 3.2 million square km (about 1/3 the size of the US) with varied terrain (I could visit snow capped mountains or hot beaches, a desert and every other climate in between), 28 states, 15 official languages and more than 4 religions. Each state has defining food and culture and historic places to travel to. 8 days was not much time.

I finally decided on Rajasthan. It was close to Delhi and transport to and from and within suited our schedule. We could have taken a tour with a firm but opted instead to create our own tour and travel via plane and train. The rail system in India is a fantastic and inexpensive way to travel, if you can decipher the schedule and routes and purchase your tickets from the unreliable website. (You can also locate an internal travel agent to purchase your tickets for an additional fee). If you do take the train, plan to be fed repeatedly!

Figure 2 Commemorating the first special library in Udaipur’s City Palace

We flew to Udaipur which is a lake city and my favourite city of the trip. The City Palace recognized where the first special library was created! Rajasthan is a desert climate and lakes are only achieved by damming the small rivers, which the Maharajas were happy to do. We saw this again in Jaipur. The lake and city palace were beautiful but water conservation was very important in this city of 900,000 people. Because much of India lacks running water in their homes, city populations rely heavily on these lakes for bathing and laundry. Strategically placed wells provide water for areas further back from the waterfront. Udaipur was a great city to start to get a feel for India and the constant crush of noise, people and traffic that would grow as each of the cities we visited grew progressively bigger.

Travel in India does not follow the rigourous schedule we abide by in North America. The airlines will hold the flight for late passengers and it is common for trains to be running hours behind schedule. We realized that is best to show up close to the time of departure to reduce your waiting time. No Indian flight or train during our vacation departed on time. Travel by car is also very different. More than one vehicle can occupy a traffic lane, roundabouts are commonly used instead of traffic lights and highways share trucks, cars, rickshaws, bikes and animal-pulled carts.

I found India to be truly overwhelming to all of my senses. Because of the sacred cows roaming the streets, coal powered electricity and poor sanitation, the air quality is lower than we are used to in Toronto. There is much to take in visually including the colourful saris, historic temples, the retail and people. We managed to take 1200+ photos in 2 weeks because there is so much to see. We took a cooking class and learned about taste. There is nowhere in Toronto to get such fresh (and inexpensive!) Indian food, although the food here is very authentic.

We moved on to Jodhpur which is 3 times the size of Udaipur and dominated by a fort that protected the Maharaja in times of war. The audio tour at the fort was probably the best I have ever heard. Jodhpur’s market was the biggest and busiest and is known for its spice selection. Within the city walls Jodhpur is dominated by cows and the open sewers can make foot travel through the city unpleasant. Jodhpur also contains a large military base as it is close to Pakistan and you can see the guns aimed at Pakistan from the airport.

Our train to Jaipur was canceled without reason so we had to hire a driver. I had heard the textile shopping and markets in Jaipur were not to be missed and that is correct. Jaipur is a 5-hour train ride from Delhi and I would recommend everyone to go there. We stayed in a beautiful haveli (small hotel/inn) in a suburb away from the city gates that I would recommend to anyone. After many nights, we finally had a good night’s sleep and reliable plumbing.

And then it was time to return to Delhi via train for the conference. The conference was the International Conference of Asian Special Libraries in partnership with SLA, the Society for Library Professionals and Indian Association of Special Libraries and Information Centre’s (IASLIC). The Asian Chapter has close to 100 members from all over Asia including India, Pakistan, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and China. There are also members from the US, Canada, Germany and Australia. Approximately 40 members come from India so it seemed fitting to hold the conference in New Delhi. The Chapter has plans for expansion and hopes to grow to 250 members by 2010. Considering the geographic size and diversity in language and religion, the chapter has committed to ambitious outreach programs that include holding one event in each Asian country, regardless of the number of members. The Chapter also plans to take an advocacy approach to promote information professionals in government and corporations.

The conference schedule came out about a month before the conference and I learned one of the differences between a conference in North America and a conference in India. In my North American experience, speakers were allotted the entire 90 minutes of the session while in India a speaker was allotted 20 – 25 minutes with the remaining time devoted to presentations by the authors of the session’s contributed papers allowing for greater recognition and a stronger academic focus.

The conference opened with a keynote address from fellow Canadian/Toronto Chapter member and SLA President, Stephen Abram. Other than my husband, this was the first contact I had had in over a week with someone from my own culture. He urged conference delegates to dream big and think beyond boundaries to grow and find inspiration. It was a perfect kick-off and delegates dispersed to their sessions.

I enjoyed learning about the issues of being information professionals in India. The Indian Library Association has been lobbying for a census of libraries because no one knows exactly how many libraries there are. This simple fact leads to further challenges including preserving manuscripts and other important documents from this ancient culture, a practice only relatively recently begun. Many of Gandhi’s original writings were not preserved. Other manuscripts and documents continue to be lost or damaged in libraries without standard classification systems, disaster planning or preservation policies. Prior to 2003 when a national policy was initiated, collections from only approximately 50 libraries were preserved. They add approximately 20 additional collections per year through state of the art technology but they require the library’s permission and some libraries do not grant permission.

Before each speaker begins to speak, they thank and speak highly of all the co-presenters that share the session with them. However, the session likely will start 30 minutes or more past its allotted time in the schedule and the speakers always speak much longer than scheduled. On my way to the conference from my hotel, I learned that the taxi driver would happily charge me more because I am a foreigner but would just as happily share fascinating details of buildings and landmarks along the way.

My first session occurred on the second day and although I have spoken at countless conferences and professional events, I was nervous about the appropriateness of my messages, my ability to communicate it clearly in my Canadian accent and terminology and a host of other small anxieties. Such nervousness was small in comparison to the terrorist events in Mumbai on the first evening of the conference.

The nation was collectively shocked and many of the speakers the next day referenced their dismay over the events. Friends and family back home began reaching out to us in Delhi with expressions of concern over our safety. I was happy for the hotel’s high-speed internet access to reassure everyone via quick email and Facebook status updates that we were all secure in Delhi. We were all still uncomfortable and our hearts certainly went out to those affected in Mumbai.

On a lighter note, I was also amused to find that some conference practices bridge culture. The temptation to skip out of conference sessions to take advantage of networking or social opportunities or visit the local attractions appears to be standard east and west. Business cards are essential in all new introductions. Meals and breaks are slow to wind down. The exhibitors still wish for more traffic and spend session time chatting among themselves or catching up on work.

The conference wrapped with a final session and formal summary of the events and sessions that had occurred over the 3 days. Outside near the Exhibit Hall the photographers who had been taking pictures throughout the 3 days were selling photos and most delegates were crowding around locating pictures of themselves and friends. These photos made nice mementos of the conference and many were purchased as gifts and exchanged with one another. (See these photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/view?q=ICoASL&psc=G&filter=1#)

I would never finish learning about culture because it is so different between cities and states and India is a country where opposites co-exist in perfect harmony. Indian people are friendly and curious about foreigners. They have a deep national pride. My husband and I were repeatedly asked to pose for pictures and a newspaper about foreign travel had interviewed him in Delhi. It is safe to travel and we rarely feared for our safety. Women are best to remain in pants or ankle-length skirts and avoid tight clothing. People will stare at you.

We truly saved our best travel experience for last. After the conference and the day before our flights left (at 2am local time!) we went to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal. It is the most beautiful structure I have ever seen and a visit is quite powerful. Although there is a daily morning high-speed train from Delhi, we opted to hire a driver to take us to Agra (200kms but 6 hours on Indian highways) the night before so that we could experience sunrise on the Taj Mahal and watch it change colours. We were there for 3 hours. It was also helpful to visit the Taj Mahal before the daily high-speed train dropped hundreds of people off in Agra. We noticed the crowd swell visibly with the arrival of the train.

After that it was time for the 6-hour return trip to Delhi and the airport. When I arrived in Zurich for my connection to Toronto I relished the clean tap water and reliable bathroom facilities but already noticed that people were harried and smiled less frequently. And there was snow. I knew I still had a long flight ahead of me but I had many memories to keep me company along the way.

Gayle Gossen is a Toronto Chapter Member and Chair-Elect, Business and Finance Division.

The following article is reprinted from The Courier, Volume 27, No. 4, February 1990

The highlight of the early 1970s was the holding of the SLA Annual Conference in Toronto. Although this was held in 1974, plans and arrangements were already underway in 1971. A dinner meeting in 1973 featured the topic: “Reflections of Conference Attendees” or “Organizing a Memorable S.L.A. Conference.” This had panelists describing their reactions, both positive and negative, to previous SLA conferences they had attended.

Nearly 50 Toronto Chapter SLAers went to the 64th Annual Conference in Pittsburgh, in June 1973, “to see how a conference was done.” Canadians were well in the limelight as Gilles Frappier, Library of Parliament, Ottawa, was installed as the first Canadian President. Miriam Tees of the Royal Bank of Canada, Montreal, concluded her three-year term as Secretary, Board of Directors. Dean Tudor of Toronto was awarded the $250 H.W. Wilson Company prize for the best paper in Special Libraries 1972.

The logo chosen for the 65th Conference featured the new Toronto City Hall, with the words “Toronto” above, and “Meeting Place 1974″ below. It appeared on the buttons worn by Toronto chapter delegates to Pittsburgh, where it was a great hit.

There appeared to be a desperate need for a published index to Canadian business literature. In several issues members wrote suggesting that until such an index was compiled, librarians should share their in-house indexing of commonly consulted periodicals.

There was also an attempt in 1973 to compile a union list of serials received in Toronto special libraries. Surprisingly there was very little response to the project.

Getting people to return their name tags after a meeting is not a new problem. There was a request in the October 1973 Bulletin begging those people who had forgotten to leave their name tags after the last meeting, to ‘PLEASE’ bring it with them to the next.

In 1974 the Toronto Chapter ranked seventh in size out of forty-four chapters of SLA.

A salary survey of North American special librarians, undertaken in the summer of ’73 showed that the average salary in Canada was $12,700, but that women made only 75% of what men made. Toronto was shown close to the bottom of the wretchedly low scale.

The March 1974 meeting was a Toronto Chapter first: a Flea Market was held in order to swell the coffers. Between 6:30 and 10:00pm, approximately 150 members and friends bought over $600 worth of books, plants, doughnuts, “antiques”, and other goodies. Apparently it was a lot of fun and almost everything was sold.

The 1974 issues of the Toronto Chapter Bulletin are entitled the Courier, but I could not find any mention of a decision to use that name. The 1973 and 1974 issues are filled with ideas and plans for the conference to be held in Toronto in June 1974. The minutes indicate endless hours of organizing under the leadership of Barbara Weatherhead. The theme, programmes and arrangements are included in the Annual Report issue of the Courier published in June 1974, which is the last bulletin for that chapter year. I was looking forward to reading about the success of the conference in the following edition, and was most disappointed to discover no mention of it.

The newsletters published in 1974/1975 consisted of a single 8 x 12″ sheet of paper folded in half and printed on both sides. A message from the Editor states: “Yes, this really [is] the Courier. Our new format graphically reflects the Chapter’s financial position.” Obviously, running a Conference puts a financial drain on a chapter. The Toronto Chapter was left with a post-conference debt of approximately $1770. Souvenir plastic pen sets which were obtained to raise funds did not sell well at the Conference and made up a large part of that debt. Possible means of raising money was the topic of discussion at every Chapter Executive meeting throughout the year.

A post-conference year is often difficult for the host chapter. It is an anti-climatic year as members are tired after working so hard. 1975 was such a year for the Toronto Chapter. They started with high aspirations but did not achieve all their aims. As the president reported in her annual report: “We have not progressed with the union list of serials, we did not do much to promote special librarianship among potential employers, nor did we mount a special task force on women in special librarianship” (although a chapter meeting on the subject was held). They did, however, promote liaison with other library groups, and tried somewhat unsuccessfully to liaise with students.

In January 1976 US libraries were dealing with the serious implications of the revised copyright law Bill S22 and going through much of the same discussion as we in Canada are now doing. Toronto Chapter representatives at the mid-winter in 1976 were involved in these discussions, particularly on section 108 of the Bill which prohibits certain common photocopying practices in libraries.

By the end of the 1975/76 year the Chapter was back on a good solid financial footing. This was achieved by making meetings pay for themselves and the free production of the Courier by Gulf Oil Canada and the Dunlop Research Center. The St. Louis Chapter purchased 62 of the pen sets at the reduced price of $1.00 each, which was helpful in getting rid of them. It was a busy year with 8 general membership meetings, 7 Executive Board meetings, 8 issues of the Courier and a supplement to the 6th edition of the Toronto Chapter Directory. Membership stood at 369. During the year, the President-Elect had to resign due to ill-health, and the Treasurer left to live in Vancouver, both of which placed some extra burden on the Executive.

In October 1976, a jointly sponsored workshop was held with CAIS, CASLIS, OLA, and the U of T FLS Alumni Association. The purpose was to help Toronto librarians prepare to respond to the forthcoming Canadian government working paper on copyright revision. It was a great success with a turnout of about two hundred and fifty people and made of profit of approximately $1750.

In 1977 the seventh edition of the Directory of Special Libraries in the Toronto Area was published. This edition had to be compiled two years ahead of schedule because the sixth edition and supplement was completely sold out. An update was planned for 1978.

At the end of the 1977-78 chapter year the membership hovered around 400.

DIALOG offered their first training session in Toronto on November 1 and 2, 1978. At the beginning of the Chapter year the Executive Committee discussed the policy for advertising in the Courier. An evaluation of the space and revenue required as well as standard prices for advertisements in similar publications was undertaken.

Finding topics to provide a stimulating Continuing Education programme continued to be a challenge. There was also the problem of ensuring that programmes were not duplicating those being organized by other library associations. A procedures manual was initiated during this year and it contained summaries and descriptions of each position.

The annual report issue of the Courier contains the statements of candidates for elected positions on the Executive, as well as the ballots to be mailed in. For the first time we find some advertising in this issue. Two very successful continuing education seminars were held in 1978-79. A management seminar was given by Herbert White and the second seminar was on collection weeding. Attendance at the first was 52 and a profit of $1,378 was realized, and at the second 125 people attended and 35 had to be turned away due to lack of space, with an equally large profit being made.

As early as January 1980, some people met to discuss the possibility of forming an online users group. The end of the decade saw the Chapter in a financially sound position with $10,300 in the bank accounts. There was a 10% increase in membership over the 1979-80 year. The programs were well organized and interesting and averaged 100 members per meeting. Chapter meetings and workshops were promoted in a number of publications. There was significant interest in Special Libraries since 74 prospective members were sent application forms and also received copies of the Courier. The 8th edition of the Directory of Special Libraries in the Toronto Area was published and became a good source of revenue. It was a most promising end to the decade and members approached the 1980s with enthusiasm.

Janine Miller

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I have been watching Silobreaker ever since it launched in beta back in 2006. It was cool back then, and it’s even more interesting now, in its “official” version.

In essence, the web site provides ways to monitor and search news, through a number of specific filters or across the board, and offers data visualization tools to help understand emerging trends. I have been impressed at how well Silobreaker handles multiple types of content and provides surprisingly good analysis. Note that Silobreaker focuses exclusively on current news and events. The content comes from news, blog, transcript and multimedia sources that cover everything from the latest developments in science and technology to the gaming industry and the world’s environmental hot spots.

If all you want is news filtered by general topic, just head over to any of the search engines’ news aggregation sites. What Silobreaker does is attempt to break down the virtual “silos” of information (both within organizations and simply in our personal news gathering) to enable you to get a wider perspective on current events. It accomplishes this in several ways; first, the home page contains news snippets from around the world and several data visualization tools to help you understand the latest trends. Silobreaker also offers vertical news portals for dozens of global topics, ranging from terrorism to business mergers, neuroscience and the Middle East. There are also customized pages with information on the global hot spots related to human rights issues, natural disasters, bribery, and so on. Silobreaker also organizes specialized trend analyses related to media coverage of the US elections, avian flu and other current topics.

What Silobreaker does particularly well is provide you with visual displays of information, which enable you to spot trends or relationships that might not be initially obvious. Say, for example, you want to find out about transgenic research. Start with what Silobreaker calls the “360° search”, which looks across its indexes, including fields for entities (people, companies, locations, organizations, industries and keywords), news stories, YouTube videos, blog postings and articles.

The search results page is a bit info-dense for this Baby Boomer’s eyes, but ah… the data viz tools make my heart swoon. In my transgenics search results, I have several boxed graphics showing the relative volume of articles, blog postings, and audio or video content over the past month that mentioned the word, a map of the world highlighting areas that are particular hot-spots for transgenic research, the relative frequency of various related words (in this instance, “biotechnology” and “protein”), and even several pithy quotes from retrieved articles.

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For the search on transgenics, for example, I could learn that Barcelona has been a hot spot for transgenics research, that I should remember to use “plant biotechnology” as a synonym for “transgenic”, that three major players are Monsanto, GTC Biotherapeutics and Syngenta, and that both Alzheimer’s researchers and crop scientists are looking into transgenics. All this without having to open a single document; when I moused over any of the nodes in the network, I saw the context in which the node word(s) appeared in the retrieved news items. I even have a list along the side of the grid, indicating the most common names, companies, concepts and so on within the retrieved search set.

Give this news engine a try and let me know what you think.

This tip is reproduced with permission from Bates Information Services.