Innovations in Technology Award
Innovations in Technology Award

J.J. Keller Innovations in Technology Award
Granted to an SLA member in good standing for innovative use and application of technology in a special library setting. Recipients of this award receive a cash award in the amount of US$ 1000.

Criteria:

  • Must be an innovative project (Innovation definition: "a creation (a new device or process) resulting from study and experimentation").
  • Must be led by or heavily involving a SLA member.
  • Should be an example of how librarians/information professionals effectively and efficiently serve as the human connection between technology, the information, and the user experience. 
  • Should be a model of applying Section D "Applying Information Tools & Technologies" to Sections B "Managing Information Resources" and/or Section C "Managing Information Services" of the SLA Professional Competencies.

To submit your nomination for an outstanding candidate, please use this form or e-mail the completed form with supporting materials directly to cara@sla.org.  Incomplete nominations will not be considered.

All nominations must be received by midnight (Eastern Time) on March 31, 2009

2008 Recipient of the Innovations in Technology Award

Sabrina I. Pacifici
www.LLRX.com and www.beSpacific.com

Want the whole story?
Watch a short video about Sabrina and learn why she is the 2008 recipient of the Innovations in Technology Award, Sponsored by J.J. Keller

Sabrina I. Pacifici, an SLA member since 1987, is a founding member of the SLA Legal Division. She began her professional career in 1979 in Washington, DC, and has worked in special libraries in DC for almost 30 years. Sabrina has been an active member of the online legal community since its inception. During her 20 year tenure as the director of library and research services for a global 10 law firm, Sabrina's pioneering Internet work resulted in one of the first law firm enterprise-wide research intranets, called the InfoWeb. She was also one of the first law librarians to develop and maintain multiple topical blogs on the corporate enterprise. In addition, her legal technology accomplishments include: Developer, Web Manager and Publisher of CyberLaw@Sidley, which was awarded 5 stars for excellence in The Best and Worst Legal Sites on the Web (2001 & 2004 editions), and was recognized as Web Site of the Week, December 6, 1999 by the Legal Times of Washington.

In addition, since 2005, Sabrina has been an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland Center for Information Policy and E-Government Center. In May 2006, Sabrina joined the Washington Bureau of the New York Times, where she continued her work in the areas of legal and legislative research, knowledge management initiatives, and enterprise blogging. She received credit for her research and reporting on 13 articles. In July 2007, she became library director at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in Washington, DC, where her work focuses on law, financial and banking issues.

During her non-job time (the phrase "free time" would be a misnomer), Sabrina created the journal PLL Perspectives in 1989, and served as its only editor and publisher until 1996. She then turned her focus, while not at work, to web publishing, and developed one of the first webzines targeted to the law/special librarian and legal research community. Debuting in November 1996, LLRX.com was quickly established as a reliable "go-to" online resource for researchers to leverage the expanding content of the World Wide Web. With Sabrina as the sole Editor, Publisher and Web Manager, the site has consistently been recognized as a publisher of comprehensive, meticulously documented, non-partisan reviews, guides and content-rich resources and commentary on web-related current awareness issues, applications, tools, services, links and related information invaluable to legal researchers.

LLRX.com is firmly established as the premier free, independent, one person produced Web journal dedicated to providing legal, library, IT/IS, public interest, academic, marketing and administrative professionals with the most up-to-date information on a wide range of Internet research and technology-related issues, applications, resources and tools. With more than 130,000 unique readers each month, LLRX is now in its 12th year of continuous publication, as a solo, independent enterprise. LLRX uses Open Source technology to publish and distribute content to readers from all continents around the globe.

LLRX.com works with nationally recognized law/special librarians, attorneys, information technology specialists and legal technology consultants to produce the site's well-documented, up-to-the-minute columns, feature articles, topical research guides, and legal-tech and library related news resources. LLRX.com also publishes a free (opt-in) monthly e-mail update to alert readers to the topics and authors featured in each new online issue. LLRX.com was recognized with a five star award in The Best and Worst Legal Sites on the Web (2001 & 2004 editions). In 2003, the site was honored as one of The 10 Best Sites of the Decade, in Law Technology News.

Sabrina is also the creator, editor and author of the blog, beSpacific, which launched on January 4, 2003 with an archived searchable database of over 500 postings, beSpacific is a free, factual current awareness research blog focused on reliable, comprehensive law and technology related documents, updated daily. Deep links located via Sabrina's expert, thorough research take readers directly to a wide range of timely federal and state agency, academic, and corporate press releases, court opinions, topical surveys, reports and a plethora of government documents that are the subject of current news. beSpacific has in excess of 16,000 postings, all tagged and accessible via the site's searchable knowledge database. The site has approximately 10,000 daily readers.

beSpacific was recognized as the Best Overall Legal Blog of 2004; the Best Legal Support Blog of 2005, and Best Law Librarian Blog 2005, and received the American Association of Law Libraries Excellence in Marketing Award for Best Use of Technology in 2006.

Sabrina has authored many articles on legal technology topics, and delivered more than 300 presentations at professional conferences and seminars nationwide. She was named one of Library Journal's (LJ's) Movers & Shakers 2006, and profiled in the American Bar Association (ABA) Law Practice Magazine, December 2006 issue. By her own admission, she does not sleep much, but feels her "free time" is indubitably well spent. Her loyal dogs, collies Leo and Bruno, are proud of their human companion and keep her company while she is blogging, often until midnight, with the caveat that they always make sure to beat her to bed, even if only by minutes.

Law/special library director, legal technologist, website and intranet manager, blogger, teacher, and all-round technology enthusiast, Sabrina looks forward to what the next 30 years will bring in the arenas of new technologies, research, teaching and training, and building communities of knowledge and collaboration in the continually expanding and challenging world of libraries. She is passionate about her work, is thrilled with the entrepreneurial spirit, energy and expertise of her colleagues, and it darn proud of her profession. According to Sabrina, "Librarians ROCK!"

Past Recipients of the Innovations in Technology Award

Dianne Francis (1992)
Roxanna Frost (1992)
Karen Bleakey (1993)
George Schlukbier (1996)
Laurie E. Stackpole (1997)
Andrew Breeding (1998)
Deborah Kegel (2000)
Katherine Whitley (2000)
Susan Fifer Canby (2001)
Gary Price (2002)
Nina L. Platt and Faegre & Benson Library Services (2003)
Brandy King (2005) 
Defense Technical Information Center (2005)
R. James King (2006)
Karen Huffman (2007)

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