ARE YOU ANTICIPATING DRAMATIC CHANGES AND DEVELOPMENTS IN THE INFORMATION INDUSTRY?

Do you want to learn about the importance of interdependence in the new millennium?

Prepare yourself to contribute to a global economy driven by information,
and attend the...

Independence to Interdependence: The Next Phase in the Information Revolution

Philadelphia in the year 2000 is where our past and future converge for the 91st Annual Conference of the Special Libraries Association. In our many and varied roles as information professionals, we have a unique relationship with history. Not only have we experienced firsthand the changes wrought by the information revolution, particularly in the past century, but we are pursuing new ways to harness information and communications technology not only to access and present the knowledge which fuels that information economy, but also to preserve it for the future. In effect, at the dawn of the next millennium, we are helping to create tomorrow's history today.

Nowhere is the growth and maturity of the information revolution more evident than in its movement toward interdependence. Within our organizations, we are applying technological solutions which eclipse physical and geographical boundaries to bring together internally and externally generated information for our own users. Within our professional sphere, interdependence manifests itself as we recognize the benefits of interacting at many levels with fellow information professionals to contribute to a world economy driven by information. On a larger scale, communications advances of the twentieth century, beginning with audio and video transmissions and culminating in the interconnectivity afforded by a worldwide computer network, have propelled the information revolution and changing the world. In the twenty-first century, we can expect that the rapid flow of information will continue to highlight interdependence--among people, communities, organizations, governments, and throughout the world. As information professionals, we truly are in the vanguard in this next phase of the information revolution.

The theme of this conference, Independence to Interdependence: The Next Phase in the Information Revolution, to be held in a pivotal year, thus recognizes the dynamic and evolutionary nature of the phenomenon known as the "information revolution" and looks forward to the next stage in its development. Those changes will affect all of us, but we will also be in a unique position to affect those changes.

2000 Philadelphia Conference Program Committee
Lynne McCay, Chair
Ethel Salonen, Deputy Chair
Linda Morgan Davis
Rod MacNeil
Lucy Rowland

The above paragraph has been developed by the 2000 Conference Program Committee to give members and interested others an idea of their reasoning in the selection of the Conference theme: Independence to Interdependence: The Next Phase in the Information Revolution. Over the next few months, the SLA Conference Program Committee along with the help and cooperation of the SLA division program planners will begin to develop the program content of this Annual Conference.

STAY INFORMED!
Interested members and other attendees are requested to visit this site from time to time to receive updates of the program development and activities as they unfold.

Remember, mark your calendar now for June 10-15, 2000. Don't be left out! Plan to attend the Philadelphia Annual Conference. Join fellow information professionals as we create history!