Biomedical and Life Sciences Division
By Annie Malley
The Philadelphia Conference was exciting for the Biomedical and Life Sciences Division (BIO). The Division organized a variety of interesting programs, CE courses and tours. Sunday morning included a Vendor Roundtable, with speakers from CSA, EBSCO, HighWire Press and ISI. Monday was an extremely busy day of programs. Michele Tennant, Incoming Chair of the Division spoke about Molecular Biology Resources with Larry Suva, a professor at University of Pennsylvania. The annual Winner's Circle of Best Science Web Sites was extremely popular with speakers Laura Barnes (Illinois Waste Management and Research Center), Jonathen Nabe (SUNY at Stony Brook) and Marilyn Dunker (Procter and Gamble). When Scientific Research and Ethics Collide was an extremely interesting program with Pulitzer Prize winning author Deborah Blum, David Magnus (University of Pennsylvania), and Doris Goldstein (National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature). The programs on Tuesday included The Transformation of Health Care in the Information Age, with speakers Paul Kleeber (Allina Health Systems), John Mack (Internet Healthcare) and Wendy Wilson (Priority Healthcare). E-Materials: Barriers to Revolutionizing Scientific Information was another extremely popular program. Speakers included Julia Blixrud (SPARC), David Stern (Yale University), Jacqueline Trolley (ISI), and Vicky Reich (HighWire Press). The Getting Published Roundtable included speakers Sue Easun (Scarecrow Press), Diane Schmidt (University of Illinois), Ruth K. Seidman (Science and Technology Libraries), and Tony Stankus (College of the Holy Cross). Museum Collection and Natural History Data on the World Wide Web was with Stephanie Haas (University of Florida) and Meredith Lane (Academy of Natural Sciences).

Wednesday's programs included the Contributed Papers Session which focused upon the Publishing Revolution. David Goodman (Princeton University Library) and Edith Starbuck and Jane Thompson (University of Cincinnati) presented papers. The final program was held in the Library of the Academy of Natural Sciences. Ted Daeschler discussed Philadelphia as the Birthplace of American Paleontology and Eileen Mathias discussed the Library's imaging project. Philadelphia was a great conference and we're sure our members cannot wait for San Antonio.

Chemistry Division
By Tina Chrzastowski
For its millennial program, the Chemistry Division sponsored and co-sponsored a number of informative and relevant programs for its membership and for other mostly science-oriented audiences. The meeting started with a very special celebration, the dedication of the Chemical Heritage Foundation's (CHF) newly renovated Othmer Library, located in the historic district of Philadelphia. Our hosts at CHF provided a wonderful program, a beautiful site, and an elegant buffet. Many attendees enjoyed the collection containing rare books, monographs, archival items, and photographs, all pertaining to the history of chemical sciences and industries, that were seen during the guided tours of the library. On Sunday evening, the Chemistry Division, along with three other science divisions, were invited to attend a reception sponsored by the American Chemical Society and Chemical Abstracts. Invitees were treated to a dessert and tea buffet, a special acknowledgment and a cake honored Organic Letters, and an ACS journal celebrating a successful first year.

Two Chemistry Division board meetings were held as well as the annual business meeting and breakfast sponsored by the Royal Society of Chemistry. A very successful and well-attended Continuing Education program, Chemistry and Chemical Librarianship for the Non-Chemists was held Sunday morning. Attendee "favorite" programs were again held in Philadelphia, the Winner's Circle of Best Science Web Sites, and the popular Vendor Update. The update hosted six vendors who, each in ten minutes or less, informed the audience about new features and product innovations. Two programs that foster communication and camaraderie, the Academic Science Librarians' Roundtable, and the Corporate Chemistry Librarians' Roundtable, were also among this year's programs. In addition, the Chemistry Division co-sponsored five other programs, ranging from electronic materials to women in the history of science to developing science librarians. All totaled, the Philadelphia program once again was planned to meet the diversity of the needs expressed by our membership.

Education Division
By Jacqueline Snider
Our twenty-fiftth anniversary was celebrated at an open house on June 13 complete with cake and sweets. To continue with festive news, the Division's Award for Professional Excellence was awarded to Janet Williams, Library Director, Educational Testing Service.

The Education Division's programs covered a wide variety. In "Growing Information Access", Chris Dunn, Director, Collections/Technical Services, National Library of Education, and David Lankes, Director, ERIC Clearinghouse on Information and Technology at Syracuse University, provided us with updates of NLE and ERIC. M. Suzanne Brown and Janeen LaSee-Willemssen continued their comparison of ERIC and Education Index presented last year in Minneapolis. This time "ERIC Redux" centered on indexing contributed by the various ERIC Clearinghouses, and on the inclusion of book reviews in both databases.

Dean David Fenske described the College of Information Science and Technology program at Drexel University. At "Library Education in 2000," he talked about the importance of technology, the recruitment of minority students, and the future direction of the profession. Our programming slate ended with "Selling the Association to Employers" presented by Olga Wise and Ann Abate. This was a ‘must attend' to find out from SLA veterans how to win support from your boss to get the most out of our vital organization.

Environment and Resource Management Division
By Diane Sotak
The action started with a pleasant business breakfast meeting where division awards were the highlight. Mary Ann Mahoney received the Outstanding Member Award for her many contributions, including acting as chair and Environment and Resource Management (ERM) news editor to the division over the past eleven years. The Outstanding Sponsor Award went to the American Chemical Society for its tradition of hosting us at its annual reception, as well as supporting our programs.

Energized by breakfast, members were off to sample a variety of ERM programs over the next few days. The Winner's Circle of Best Science Web Sites is still a popular way to find out about top web sites and this time there were almost enough handouts for all attendees! The International Roundtable program on the Millennium Assessment brought us up-to-date on a cooperative effort to gather data on the world's ecosystems in order to develop a framework of action. The Toxicology Roundtable followed this with experts from NLM, EPA, and CCOHS discussing the status and ongoing development of the important toxicology databases that their agencies offer. The next day brought the informal and valuable exchange of information at the State Environmental Librarian's Roundtable and a lovely reception with other sci-tech divisions at the Seaport Museum. Wednesday was a big day where members had the chance to be inspired by Robert Kennedy Jr.'s passionate eloquence on stewardship of the environment and his involvement with the citizen group, Riverkeeper, which uses the legal system to hold polluters accountable. ERM activities ended with a well-attended field trip to the new EPA Region 3 Library.

Geography & Map Division
By John Anderson
The Geography & Map Division (DGM) hosted a successful and diverse program at the annual conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Monday DGM began their program with a presentation on the business uses of GIS by Roberta Brody and George Fagan. This program was co-sponsored with the Insurance and Employee Benefits Division. In the afternoon program, co-sponsored with the Petroleum and Energy Resources Division and the Natural History Caucus, David Soller demonstrated the USGS National Geologic Database of maps produced by federal and state agencies. This database can be accessed at: http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/ngmdb/.

On Tuesday, the DGM program featured a presentation by Curtis Loy describing the National Ocean Service's historical nautical charts scanning project. The images can be viewed at: http://chartmaker.ncd.noaa.gov/ocs/text/MAP-COLL.HTM. The afternoon's program included David McQuillan's IFLA in Bangkok report followed by the division's Contributed Papers session with presentations by Helen Jane Armstrong, Mary Galneder, Joanne Perry, and Daniel Seldin. The day ended with an open house at the Philadelphia Print Shop.

Wednesday's program started with John Hebert and Anthony Mullan of the Library of Congress giving an enthusiastic and inspirational talk on Spanish and Portuguese manuscript maps. The afternoon program featured the government mapping update with representatives from four federal agencies (Shawn Garren, CIA; Lynne Tobin, NIMA; Beth Duff, USGS; and Timothy Trainor, UCensus) presenting their agencies' recent mapping efforts. Wednesday evening's field trip included taking division members to the Map Room at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

In addition to the program, the Division honored our outstanding member, Dr. HelenJane Armstrong for her lifelong devotion to the map library profession. Further, DGM members were very proud to watch division member Dorothy McGarry's induction into the SLA Hall of Fame.

Information Technology Division
By Karen Bleakley
The Information Technology Division had a great annual conference. Our programs were well attended, as usual, and we got positive feedback from attendees that the programs were of good quality. For the second year in a row we presented the Dead Technologies, Hot Technologies, Choosing and Using Internet Search Engines, and New Web Order programs. These programs are designed to provide attendees with an yearly update about what changed in the prior twelve months and what's coming up in the next twelve months. Other programs included Metadata for Libraries: The OCLC; CORC Environment; Interdependence of California Special Libraries with the Library of California; You Want Me to Do What?: The Skills You Need Today to Enhance Your Career, and E-Materials: Barriers to Revolutionizing Scientific Information. We co-sponsored, with the Futurists Caucus, a highly entertaining session called A Look Forward from a Voice of Our Past, in which an actor portraying Benjamin Franklin, an early futurist if ever there was one, spoke about his life and times. We also presented a Scenario Planning Workshop in which participants learned about scenario planning and learned to identify some future scenarios common to special libraries and to begin to apply the process to their own situations. Our Open House/Hospitality Suites were popular as always, especially Sunday night when authors Mary Ellen Bates and Reva Basch were available to autograph copies of their most recent books, Research for Dummies, 2nd Edition, and Super Searchers Do Business: The Online Secrets of Top Business. We also gave away a Bose radio that evening. This year there were more "goodies" given away in the Suites. ITE held two board meetings and an annual business luncheon during the conference. These meetings gave us a chance to conduct division business face-to-face for a change. We may be the technology division but we still like to meet and mingle wherever possible! Be on the lookout for announcements about ITE's fiftieth anniversary bash in San Antonio.

Insurance and Employee Benefits Division
By Jeanette Bergeron
Speakers for the IEB Division addressed standing-room-only audiences. The management team of the Business Information Center of Arthur Andersen in New York—Lucy Lettis (SLA board director), Andrew Gazzale, and Marie Tirados—shared the secrets of their success in marketing, customer service, business alignment, and managing change. Stephen Bajjaly from the University of South Carolina College of Library and Information Science introduced extensible markup language (XML) and gave a primer on markup languages and their role in e-commerce (www.libsci.sc.edu/stephen). Roberta Brody, Queens College, and George Fagan, Route Smart, discussed managing spatial information with geographic information systems, including the technology behind Yahoo maps, national newspaper deliveries, and priceline.com. The Division held a successful CE course Insurance and Employee Benefit Research Sources and Strategies taught by Roberta Brody, Barbie Keiser, Gail Buchholz, Pat Toups, and Pat Krajnak. IEB member Roger Smithies participated in a joint program series on Canadian research sources. IEB members held a Town Hall meeting on the association name, job titles, and services needed from the association and division.

NILS Publishing once again treated division members to the "best of all SLA business meeting lunches" at the Down Town Club overlooking Independence Hall, starring Benjamin Franklin and a fife and drum corps. The luncheon recognized retirees Oriole Anderson and Amy Wang, student scholarship winner Ron Haislip, more than twenty first-time attendees, and the winner of the Division's highest award, the Cox Award, Sylvia Justice. All members received a souvenir membership booklet, directory, and miniature liberty bell. A new membership pin was unveiled for the occasion. Brenda Stenger was installed as 2000-2001 Chair.

Other IEB events included a reception hosted by BNA Inc. at the historic Union League featuring Philly cheesesteaks; a breakfast hosted by A.M. Best with an omelet station and buffet; a student reception hosted by LOMA Information Center; and an international member reception hosted by Sheshunoff with chocolate liberty bells for everyone and a registered drawing of items from New Zealand.

IEB members ended the conference with a tour of the American College in Bryn Mawr, PA, hosted by Judith Hill and featuring visits to the library, archives, and arboretum, and an address by Edward Graves on banking and insurance after the Glass-Steagall Act.

In other business, the Division announced plans for a new publication, the Insurance Research Publications Index, and developed an annual spending plan, three-year planning strategy, and conference programming for San Antonio.

Legal Division
By Larry Guthrie
The Legal Division is reporting a very successful conference: spotlighting a speech by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. covered on Fox and ABC evening news, generously crediting the SLA Conference; a co-sponsored program on International Conflict Resolution which the Supreme Court of South Carolina approved for Continuing Legal Education credit; a timely presentation by Jeralyn Merritt on Defending the Unpopular Defendant which gave a human face to death row prisoners. She shared her web site www.crimelynx.com and research strategies; and a cooperative reciprocal program with the American Association of Law Libraries.

Representatives from Australian, British and Irish, and Canadian associations of law librarians were present representing the formal liaisons with each organization. Programs focussed on global librarian advocacy, prominence, continuing education, networking, and cooperation with other SLA divisions.

Among the twenty-two well-attended division programs were a superb Hospitality Suite; Tax, Court Roundtables; Ice Cream Social; Emerging Technology Breakfast; Annual Business Luncheon and Board Meeting; Distance Learning; Alternative Workstyles; Dispute Resolution in the Workplace; Librarians in the Boardroom; Leadership Tea; A Taste of Philadelphia; Networking Breakfast; Marketing and Auditing Your Library; Cherokee Justice and the Great Plains Tomorrow; Gumshoe Librarians; Working With AALL; Copyright Update; The Rittenhouse Hotel Reception; The Role of Information in Our Environmental Destiny; Hot Technologies; Training Materials on the Intranet; Sixty Sites in Sixty Minutes; an Intellectual Property Law Update Breakfast; and Legal Research for Non-Law Librarians. These and other co-sponsored programs were successfully presented and well-attended thanks to speakers, sponsors, volunteers, and SLA headquarters staff.

Museums, Arts and Humanities Division
by Kathleen Haley
On Sunday the Museums, Arts and Humanities Division held its annual William B. Neff Memorial Scholarship Dinner. This year's dinner was held at the Masonic Temple of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Pennsylvania, who donated the use of the facility, the services of a tour guide, and had the library and museum kept open for us as well. The dinner, plus associated donations, earned $718.09 for the scholarship fund. The MAHD Board voted in its Sunday meeting to increase the stipend for this scholarship to up to $1000 towards defraying the expenses of a student member attending the SLA annual conference. The Neff dinner was followed by Sunday MAHDness, which this year attracted about 30 people. Our panelists were Barbara Anderson, Richard Hulser and Susanne Phelps, who spoke about what membership in MAHD has meant to them. The session was moderated by MAHD's (then) Chair-Elect John Leide.

On Monday MAHD had scheduled "divisional exhibit no-conflict time" to coincide with the exhibit hall opening ceremonies, and the annual Book and Author Luncheon. This year's speaker was Nina Auerbach, author of Our Vampires, Ourselves, who discussed her current work on ghosts. The official attendance figure for that event was eighty people.

On Tuesday, the division held its Annual Business Meeting and Breakfast. In response to a proposal from the floor at the Business Meeting, the MAHD Board voted on Wednesday to make a $1000 contribution to the Global 2000 fellowship program.

MAHD also held two educational sessions on Tuesday. The first was Special Projects in Special Librarianship, co-sponsored with the Food, Agriculture & Nutrition division, which featured a discussion of projects in South America and Asia. The second program, Museum Collection and Natural History Data on the World Wide Web, was co-sponsored with the Biomedical & Life Sciences Division and the Natural History Caucus and dealt with initiatives currently under way to computerize and network information about biological and natural history data and collections.

MAHD co-sponsored two educational programs on Wednesday. Effective Use of Interns and Volunteers in Your Library, co-sponsored with the Solo Division, featured a panel discussion of the difficulties, rewards, and (most of all) the planning involved in effectively using interns and volunteers. This was followed by Old is Hot! Antiques and Collectibles: The Fine Art of Collecting, co-sponsored by the Retired Members Caucus and the Legal Division, offered presentations by an E-Bay seller and a vice-president of Sotheby's.

On the lighter side, MAHD co-sponsored a tour on Thursday to the Winterthur and Brandywine River museums with the Social Science Division, as well as co-sponsoring open houses with the Education and Social Science divisions on Sunday and Tuesday nights.

News Division
by Debra Bade
A CE course on computer-assisted reporting kicked off the main events for News Division members attending the Philadelphia conference. Specific CAR tools and techniques were demonstrated and the use of statistical analysis in news stories was examined. This numbers theme was also reflected at the Annual Luncheon by mathematician John Allen Paulos of Temple University who entertained attendees with a discussion of the good and bad ways in which numbers and statistics are used by media organizations. Sessions on ethics, political news research, new technology, and news content on the web offered practical advice and information for news researchers. Each year, one of the most inspirational sessions is always the Freedom Forum Luncheon--and that was true again this year as we listened to Zimbabwe Standard editor Mark Chavunduka's moving thoughts about his imprisonment and upcoming trial for publishing stories about a government coup. Wednesday of conference week was a day entirely devoted to management and leadership topics and included sessions on interviewing and hiring issues, managing end-user access to research tools, and management case studies. In addition, we were joined by author and speaker Kare Anderson who inspired members with a keynote presentation offering advice on how to better communicate what we can do and in the process become more highly valued within our organizations. During our Awards Banquet at the Down Town Club, News Division member Sandy Hall was recognized with the Kwapil Award, the Division's highest honor, while Bob Jansen and Linda Henderson received the Henebry Award, and Ginny Everett, the Shoemaker Award.

For complete details on News Division programs and to access session handouts and outlines please be sure to visit our web site at: http://metalab.unc.edu/slanews/conferences/sla2000/index.htm.

Petroleum and Energy Resources Division
By Pam Weaver
The Petroleum and Energy Resources Division (PER) presented a full slate of programs at the Annual Conference. For early birds, PER presented our three traditional "coffee" programs, starting at 7:30 each morning. Monday morning Mary Berger, Engineering Information (EI), gave an overview of EI services available to the energy industry and plans for enhancing the Engineering Village. On Tuesday, Don Wulfinghoff, Wulfinghoff Energy Services Inc., gave an overview of the Energy Conservation movement and where to locate information on energy conservation. Wednesday morning Chris Dobson and Carolyn Ernst, F1 Services Inc., presented a summary of when, why, and how to use temporary librarians.

PER co-sponsored three other programs. On Monday, PER and the Geography and Map Division co-sponsored a session on the National Geographic Map Database. David Sollers, USGS, shared the three phases of the program: (1) map catalog, (2) standards development, and (3) an online, living database. Tuesday, along with the Solo Division, PER sponsored Vendor Negotiations. Gina McCue, SilverPlatter, and Ellen Wells, NPS Pharmaceuticals, discussed the topic from their respective viewpoints. PER concluded the conference on Wednesday co-sponsoring a session which updated the status of the NTIS. Wally Finch, NTIS, presented an overview of how NTIS was founded, why it has been in the media, and its plans for the future.

In addition to the above comprehensive programming, PER also co-sponsored the All-Sciences Reception and a field trip to ISI.

Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics Division
By Molly White
The Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics (PAM) Division offered stimulating programs, open houses and breakfasts, and a first-ever PAM CE course. PAM holds a series of subject and vendor roundtables each year that focus on core disciplines, and all the sessions were excellent. The Vendor Roundtable held a philosophical discussion on issues facing librarians, faculty, and societies regarding scholarly information. Other highlights include a presentation on Cornell's Project Euclid at the Mathematics Roundtable, and the Astronomy Roundtable's mix of presentations on new astronomical research facilities with practical issues of daily concern.

Sethanne Howard, an astronomer at the NSF, gave a fascinating talk, "The History of Women in Science." Other historical threads running through the conference included a talk by Joe Anderson of the AIP Center for the History of Physics at the Physics Roundtable, and a presentation by two original ENIAC computer programmers at the Computer Science Roundtable, a program co-sponsored with the Sci-Tech Division. Another co-sponsored program was presented on the education, placement, development, and mentoring of science librarians.

PAM welcomed its second International Membership Awardee to the conference, Nancy Gomez from Universidad de Buenos Aires, who attended courtesy of a travel grant from the Geelong East (Australia) Rotary Club. Ms. Gomez presented a talk on the state of science libraries in her country. Several other international members attended the meeting. PAM Division Award winner Prof. Maurice Bruynhooge arrived from Belgium to accept the honor and also spoke at the Mathematics Roundtable about the efforts of his colleagues to contain the subscription price of their journal.

PAM members networked and enjoyed themselves at two open houses, two breakfasts, and relaxed in the suite during daytime hours, all courtesy of division sponsors. SLA honored two PAM members. Dorothy McGarry was inducted into the SLA Hall of Fame, and Deborah Kegel received the Innovations in Technology Award.

Science-Technology Division
By Ann Koopman
SciTech Division took the opportunity of its 2000 program to look at past, present and future of library work. A rare opportunity to hear some oral history was provided by 2 of the original programmers of the ENIAC computer, at the Computer Sciences Literature Round Table. Kay Mauchly Antonelli and Jean Bartik reminded a rapt audience that "computer" used to be their job titles. As another retrospective program, SciTech partnered with PAM, Chemistry and Women's Issues Caucus on the "History of Women in Science." Astronomer Sethanne Howard reviewed 4000 years of women's accomplishments in the scientific arena, punctuating her remarks with a pungent sense of humor. The

Distributed SciTech Librarian: Models for Remote Information Services presented practical work accomplished by SciTech librarians to bring diverse types of information to remote users. Topics included 1) a topical information web designed to support coursework, research and information literacy in the environmental sciences, 2) an in-house database system developed to provide library data (such as reference FAQs, new books, faculty interests, uncataloged publications) to all users regardless of location, and 3) the menu of Web-based products designed by the Department of Energy to put government-supported research results directly into the hands (or hard disks) of consumers and industry.

Looking into the future, SciTech was joined by many other divisions in presenting E-Materials: Barriers to Revolutionizing Scientific Information. Representatives of ISI, SPARC and HighWire Press spoke about the challenges they are facing in translating print products to electronic form. Librarian David Stern congratulated the publishers on what has been accomplished to date, but also challenged them with a review librarians' concerns and vision of what we want to see in future products. Wednesday and Thursday tours of the ISI facility at which materials are digitized for inclusion in its indexes provided a opportunity for practical extension of the discussion.

When Scientific Research and Ethics Collide: Exploring Scientific Controversies, a session SciTech cosponsored with BIO, FAN and Education divisions, addressed ethical considerations in genetics, psychological experimentation, use of animals in experiments, and the fundamental issues of what our society is willing to do in the name of scientific progress. Pulitzer Prize winning author Deborah Blum and bioethicist David Magnus raised the questions, but it remains to be seen how society will develop answers.

Attendance at SciTech's new programs on citation management software (a CE course and a vendor update) indicated a nerve had been struck. Information professionals who are trying to cope with ever-increasing quantities of bibliographic data are extremely interested in products designed to support this either for our own work or on behalf of the research populations we support. Finally, the all-sciences, all-technologies reception was great fun. Independence Seaport Museum exhibits were open to the over 200 people attending the reception, followed by special access to a World War II submarine and Commodore Dewey's flagship.

Social Science Division
by Hetty Barthel
The breadth of social science programming extended from programs such as Census 2000, on the role of information in international conflict management to a well-attended "conversation" with PBS notable Jim Lehrer.

The International Reception and Tea is always one of the highlights for all conference attendees. Held in the Crystal Tearoom of the Wanamaker Building, the elegant affair was capped off by the presentation of the European Librarian of the Year Award to William Hann, managing editor of Freepint.com, "a community of 30,000 business information searchers around the world." http://www.freepint.co.uk

Among the fourteen programs offered at the Philadelphia conference were Meet the Social Science Division - member/panelists Linda Richer, Cybele Merrick, Suzanne Cole; Census 2000 - New Information for the New Millenium; Archives in the 21st Century - Not just a time capsule; From Dependence to Independence - Meeting the needs of the disabled; How Congress Really Works; International Conflict Resolution - Challenges and strategies; Making Connections - Information providers and community economic development. Evening open houses were enjoyed with Education Division

Social Science Division sponsored three well-known authors. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, author of Everything You Think You Know About Politics…And Why You're Wrong, spoke on this timely topic at a luncheon. A search-able CD-ROM of Presidential campaign speeches, ads and debates (1952-1966), compiled by
The Annenberg School for Communication, is available for $10 (check to Social Science Division) from Mike Kolakowski, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20540-7470.

Jim Kunstler, author of Geography from Nowhere and other books, prominent lecturer on the New Urbanism, enthralled a large enthusiastic crowd. Jim Lehrer struck just the right balance between personal reminiscences, political commentary and life as a writer.

Two tours extended the scope of programs offered by Social Science Division. Jamie Pearlstein, coordinator of the public art program in Philadelphia, led a walking tour of the inner city public art sites. On Thursday a bus full of librarians visited libraries at Winterthur and Brandywine River Museum.

A hearty thanks to all the planners

Solo Librarians Division
The Solo Librarians Division had a full slate of programs at the SLA Annual Conference in Philadelphia. A CE Course on Time Management, Planning and Prioritization for the Solo Librarian, taught by Judith Siess, was well attended. The Solo Division web site, http://www.sla.org/division/dsol/ will post the presentations for as many programs as possible.

Solos had a chance to socialize at a welcome reception on Sunday where we put faces to names that were familiar from our listserv, SOLOLIB-L. We also enjoyed ourselves at the No-Host Dinner that the Philadelphia chapter organized, and at our breakfast meetings and Business Luncheon. The Conference ended with a Field Trip to the Amish Country. The SLA Conference gives the far-flung Solos a chance to get together and we took advantage of the opportunity to network and to learn from each other.

Transportation Division
By Mary Silva
Government Transportation Research Information Committee Program--A forum for discussion of practical issues and resources of importance to state, provincial, and other government related transportation libraries. Conducting the Reference Interview by E-Mail and the Internet (Co-Sponsors: BF, TRN) Covered the systematic ways of approaching e-mail reference, potential problems, and the use of forms.

Sources of Information in Transportation Live!--A presentation by a panel of key resources in six areas of transportation. A preview of the Transportation Division's planned publication Sources of Information in Transportation. The Current Status of National Transportation Programs Representatives from the Federal Highway Administration, Federal Transit Administration, and the Transportation Research Board gave a status report on current and future plans for library related projects in their agencies.

Selecting a WebPAC (Co-Sponsors: SOL, TRN)--Three panelists spoke on the criteria and the lessons learned in selecting a WebPAC.

International Transportation and Information: Reports from the Field--Several initiatives involving international transportation information and resources were presented.

The conference ended with a field trip to the Hagley Museum and included a library tour. (Co-Sponsors: ITE, ST, TRN)

At the Business Meeting, Laura Whayne from the University of Kentucky became Chair and Mary Ellen Tucker from the University of North Carolina was elected Chair-Elect. Bob Sweet will continue as Secretary/Treasurer. A new edition of Sources of Information in Transportation is planned and work will begin this coming year. This is an annotated bibliography of print and electronic sources in about twelve areas of transportation that will be published in an electronic format. Solicitation for compilers was made.

CAUCUS REPORTS

Association Information Services Caucus
Web Development Case Studies was the subject of the panel discussion held by the Association Information Services Caucus and the Library Management Division. The presentations included discussions of the common challenges in web development--staffing, funding, planning ahead, vendor relationships, as well as others. There were approximately ninety information professionals in the audience and they kept the speakers fairly busy with questions. The need for organizations to specifically articulate what they want their web sites to provide, and then plan logically for that goal, seemed to be a common thread running through the discussion during the presentations and also during the reception immediately following the panel discussion. Thank you to Lexis/Nexis for sponsoring both events again this year.

Baseball Caucus
By Tony Landolt
Tug McGraw, former Philadelphia Phillies' relief pitcher, was the guest speaker at the Baseball Caucus meeting, held Monday, June 12, at the Annual Conference. Infotrieve, Inc., was the generous sponsor for this extremely successful program. The room was full and all in attendance were enthralled to hear McGraw talk about his twenty-year career in baseball. He described how he was selected to tryout for the Major Leagues, his part in the Phillies' World Series Victory in 1980, and other entertaining anecdotal stories. He also spoke at length about his vision to incorporate baseball and baseball stadiums into school curricula in order to help motivate children. McGraw also announced his recently published book entitled, Was it as Good for You! The book describes his personal experiences in baseball along with comments from Phillies' fans.

Despite overcast skies and a light drizzle, approximately thirty Baseball Caucus members and friends attended the Phillies' vs. Marlins night game at Veteran's Stadium on Wednesday, June 14.

In addition to arranging for Tug McGraw's appearance and purchasing tickets for the baseball game, Caucus convenor Tony Landolt also arranged a tour of the Baseball Hall of Fame and Library. A small group including Tony Landolt, immediate SLA past president Suzi Hayes, incoming San Francisco Bay Region Chapter President Marlene Vogelsang and screenwriter/lawyer Rick Minkoff travelled north to Cooperstown, NY. Their visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame was highlighted by a visit with Jim Gates, Director of the Hall of Fame Library and Archives. Gates runs a fascinating library and research center with a staff of fourteen that responds to over 65,000 requests each year. His personally guided tour of the library and archives was a fabulous glimpse of the history and memorabilia of baseball.

Retired Members Caucus
By Catherine "Kitty" Scott and Roger Haley
Old Is Hot! Antiques and Collectibles: The Fine Art of Collecting was a program that lived up to expectations. This popular topic, organized by the Caucus and cosponsored by Museums, Arts and Humanities and Legal Divisions, drew an enthusiastic audience of almost 200. Speakers were Ken Graitzer, from the Fisher Fine Arts Library of the University of Pennsylvania, and Angela Hudson, Senior Vice-President of Sotheby's of New York.

An experienced spokesperson, Angela Hudson has been with Sotheby's over 20 years. She played a role in the recent sale of Van Gogh's "Irises," which sold for $53.9 million. A fascinating video illustrated her lecture about the basics of collecting valuable objects; criteria include authenticity, rarity, condition, provenance, fashion, size, historical importance and quality. Among the landmark Sotheby's sales, she showed slides from the Duke and Duchess of Windsor's estate sale and the Jackie Kennedy Onassis auction.

The Retired Members Caucus cosponsored another successful program with the Legal Division entitled "Alternative Workstyles: It's a New World of Work The speakers examined trends in telecommuting, flexible work schedules and part-time work; they stressed the need to create proposals for working in these alternative methods.