The
SLA Centennial Commission invites you to take part in our year of celebration
as we look back at our past for inspiration and launch ourselves as info-pioneers
shaping our future!
How do you celebrate a 100th birthday? Come to the Centennial Conference of the Special Libraries Association, June 2009, in Washington, DC, and find out! There will be innovative educational sessions and inspiring keynote speakers, and the annual Awards Reception will be held in the glorious Great Hall of the Library of Congress. We will recognize our past and present leaders and energize our star information professionals of the future.
Can't make it to the Conference in Washington, DC? Then take advantage of the year-long celebrations going on in the chapters and regional meetings around the world. There will be multimedia contests for innovative information professionals, a traveling exhibit featuring SLA's past and future, and many other opportunities to celebrate.
SLA was founded in 1909 by a group of librarians who thought that libraries serving business, government, social agencies, and parts of the academic community were different from other libraries. These "special"--or more aptly, "specialized"--libraries at first were distinguished by being subject collections with a specialized clientele, but gradually it was recognized that their chief characteristic was that they existed to serve the organization of which they were a part. Their purpose was not education per se but the delivery of practical, focused, and even filtered information to the executives and other clients within their organizations. Specialist librarians, who have come to be called "information professionals," have a unique relationship as collaborators with their users.
Over the past one hundred years, SLA members have been working on the technological edge, moving into knowledge services, and adapting to new roles to keep up with the times. We are entrepreneurial--we embrace change and use our knowledge and vision to further the goals of our organizations. Corporate information professionals synthesize strategic information to help executives make the decisions necessary for business to thrive. Government info pros organize and deliver information for congressional, parliamentary, judicial, and executive leaders to make policy decisions. Academic special librarians organize, digitize, and deliver research information so professors and students can advance knowledge.
SLA is the principal association for information professionals and their strategic partners throughout the world. Its 11,000 members come from 75 nations. SLA's strengths in serving its membership are in three areas: learning, networking, and advocacy. These are the underpinnings that prompted the info-pioneers of 1909 to come together in a cooperative association, and they are still the fundamental benefits that SLA provides the info-pioneers of the 21st Century. In its Centennial Year, SLA is well-poised to promote and strengthen information professionals for the next one hundred years.
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