The SLA Rising Star Award is presented annually to recognize a new member who shows exceptional promise of leadership and contribution to the association and profession.
The award will be presented to an outstanding SLA member who has one to five years of professional experience as an information professional. To be eligible, nominees must be SLA members for five years or less.
Nominees must meet one or more of the following criteria:
- Outstanding work and professional activities on behalf of SLA
- Develop notable innovations on the job
- Actively participate in SLA units and association programs
Promote the visibility of SLA or the value of information professionals
No more than five SLA Rising Star Awards will be awarded by SLA annually. Recipients will receive complimentary registration for the SLA Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO in the year in which they receive the award.
Nominations for the 2010 SLA Rising Star, sponsored by J.J. Keller, award are now open! Nomination forms available here.
Want the whole story?
Please visit SLA's online video network, SLA-TV, to watch a brief video on the 2009 SLA Rising Star award recipients.
2009 Recipients of the SLA Rising Star Award
Michelle Dollinger is the 2009 president of the SLA New York Chapter and has been a member of SLA since 2004. According to Dollinger, through her term as president, her aim is "to increase the visibility of information professionals both within their companies and to the general public." As chapter president, Dollinger has initiated an employment task force to address the needs of out-of-work members and has created a module on the chapter's Web site members can use to provide feedback to leadership. She is a frequent speaker at venues including the Pratt Institute, networking events and other professional associations.
Dollinger is currently working as the global intranet manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York City. She is responsible for the information architecture, usability and content management of the global portal. Prior to that, she was with the Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, where she researched health and environmental topics for business development, editorial and product testing, and she served as a research assistant at The New York Times. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from Buffalo State College in 1996 and her Master of Science degree in library and information studies from Pratt Institute in 2006.
Julie Fleischhackerhas been a member of SLA since 2006, and she currently serves as the secretary on the Minnesota Chapter Executive Board. As a student, she served as a board member for the College of St. Catherine's SLA Student Group.
Fleischhacker works for General Mills, Inc. (GM), in Minneapolis as the Digital Asset Librarian. In this new position, Fleischhacker manages the taxonomy and meta data strategy for the digital library. Fleischhacker previously was the technical librarian serving the Research & Development Team at GM, where she was responsible for collection and electronic resources management and the implementation of new technologies to the growing global workforce. She recently completed a pilot program on the use of Amazon Kindles as delivery devices for dissemination of technical data and information.
Fleischhacker's employer wrote in support of her nomination, "Her development of the Kindle offering showcases Julie's capacity for innovation. The successful pilot was not only well-received by the research and development community, but yielded valuable learning that will drive our continued efforts to make content more widely available. Julie is considered a 'rising star' here at General Mills, as she exhibits the capacity for collaboration and innovation that is essential for a successful professional."
Fleischhacker received her Master of Science degree in library and information science degree from Dominican University in 2007 and a Bachelor of Science degree in family and consumer science from the College of St. Catherine in 2005.
Margaret Ostrander has been an SLA member since 2006 and is currently serving on the Minnesota Chapter Board of Directors. As a student, she served as a treasurer and board member for the College of St. Catherine's SLA Student Group.
According to her nominators, Ostrander is an information professional who enjoys connecting people with information through innovative uses of technology. In her role as Web communications specialist on the Intranet Portal Team
at Thomson Reuters, Ostrander provides consultative, strategic support so that employees across the organization can effectively leverage the corporate intranet portal, blogs and wikis to meet critical business needs. She is currently leading a major project to overhaul of the company's intranet and search capabilities.
Ostrander's employer wrote in support of her nomination, "Within just several months on the job, Margaret became our in-house expert on collaboration tools and wikis. She not only provides high level training and support for our customers, but also delivers solid research and recommendations for future enhancements and drives the implementation of those enhancements. We now have over 1,000 wiki spaces, in large part due to Margaret's creative and focused efforts to promote and improve the platform."
Ostrander earned a Master of Science degree in library and information science from Dominican University in 2008 and a Bachelor of Arts degree in women's studies with a minor in Chicano studies from the University of Minnesota in 2001.
Abby Thorne, a Kentucky Chapter member since 2004, is currently serving as a director-at-large of the chapter's board of directors and was instrumental in developing the chapter's first strategic plan. She also volunteers as a bulletin co-editor for the chapter newsletter. Thorne is a member of the Food, Agriculture, and Nutrition Division (FAN), serving on its Board of Directors, chairing the division's Public Relations Committee, and acting as its webmaster. In 2007 she received the New Professional Travel Grant from FAN.
According to one nominator, "Ms. Thorne's organizational skills and dedication to professional development belie her short tenure as an SLA member. There are lifetime members of SLA who never reach this level of commitment and accomplishment."
Thorne is a public services librarian at the Learning Resource Center at Bluegrass Community & Technical College (BCTC) in Lexington, Ky. Previously she was the technology training assistant and project coordinator for the Agricultural Experiment Station Historical Archives at the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Agriculture. She served as a project coordinator, special projects technician, and library intern for various UK Libraries. She is particularly interested in reference, instruction, and technology in science and medical libraries.
Thorne received a Bachelor of Science degree in agricultural education, communications, and leadership in 2004 and a Master of Science degree in library science in 2005, both from the University of Kentucky.
Norah Xiao
Since 2005, Norah Xiao has been a member of SLA participating in the Chemistry Division, Toronto Chapter and the Southern California Chapter. Currently, she is serving as the SLA Chemistry Division - America Chemical Society liaison, working to link the two biggest chemistry information users' associations in the world.
Xiao works for the University of Southern California (USC) Libraries as the science and engineering librarian, conducting outreach, teaching and training, collection development, reference and research services. According to Xiao, her work at USC allows her to be innovative in her delivery of services. "I am proactively seeking out creative ways to leverage new technologies in order to enhance users' connection to our libraries' services and resources," said Xiao.
Previously, Xiao worked part-time at the Engineering and Computer Science Library of University of Toronto and the Information Center of National Bank Financial in Toronto. Xiao was awarded the 2009 ACRL National Conference Librarian Scholarship, an award granted to early career academic librarians to acknowledge their excellent professional growth. She has also authored several journal articles for Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship.
Xiao earned a Master of Science degree in information studies from the University of Toronto in 2007 and a Master of Science degree in chemistry from Queen's University in 2004. She received her Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Peking University in 2001.
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