Alexandria, Virginia USA, 23 November 2005 — The Special Libraries Association (SLA) is extending the membership benefits of dozens of members around the world who have been adversely affected by recent natural disasters of global magnitude.

The one-year extensions are being provided gratis and without request or application to SLA members living and working in U.S. Gulf Coast areas devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in August and September 2005 and those impacted by the Southeast Asia tsunami of December 2004. Benefits will also be extended for members suffering due to the Pakistani earthquake of October 2005. SLA hasn’t yet been able to determine the number of members affected by the massive earthquake there.

“We have members who have suffered horrific, cataclysmic disaster,” said SLA President Pam Rollo. “They are working to rebuild the most fundamental parts of their lives. They are not positioned to access or utilize the SLA benefits they paid for, nor is that their priority. Extending their SLA memberships symbolically extends a hand of friendship, hope, and support from their professional colleagues. But also, it’s only fair—these members are not positioned to utilize their benefits now, so their SLA member services will be waiting for them when their lives return closer to normal,” she said.

Immediately following the Southeast Asia tsunami, SLA established a task force to help information professionals worldwide with disaster relief and recovery. The task force, called the Information Professionals’ Alliance on Natural Disasters and Accidents (IPANDA), expanded its work and continues to maintain the IPANDAnet Weblog to deliver disaster-specific news and information (http://slablogger.typepad.com/ipandanet/).

SLA also maintains an up-to-date Web Portal with information resources focused on disaster planning and recovery (http://www.sla.org/content/resources/infoportals/memorial911.cfm).

The SLA Career Center available on the Web site provides a host of free services for members, including a global job bank. (http://sla.jobcontrolcenter.com/)

About SLA
The Special Libraries Association (SLA) is a nonprofit global organization for innovative information professionals and their strategic partners. SLA serves more than 11,000 members in 83 countries in the information profession, including corporate, academic, and government information specialists. SLA promotes and strengthens its members through learning, advocacy, and networking initiatives. For more information, visit www.sla.org.