Making News
Minnesota Chapter Presents the Quality in Action Award
The Minnesota Chapter of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) has presented its Quality in Action Award for 2000 to Ann Becker, Library Director, American Express Financial Advisors. This annual award is given in recognition of a significant quality improvement initiative that improves services to clients, advances the organization's mission and goals, and enhances the information process through chapter activities. Becker is recognized for her outstanding accomplishment in developing a competency-based performance evaluation process, which includes goal setting for the information professional. She provided insight to both management and the human resource department by identifying the skills necessary to better serve customers in the AEFA corporate library. Potentially, other managers could use a similar tool to identify competencies for their employees for a more measurable and meaningful appraisal process throughout the corporation.
Seabrooks Guest Lecturer at Michigan Chapter Gathering
The Michigan chapter of the Special Libraries Association was fortunate to have Nettie Seabrooks, chief operating officer and chief of staff of the city of Detroit, as guest lecturer on September 13, 2000, at Wayne State University in Detroit. Seabrooks began her career as a chemical librarian at the Detroit Public Library in the late 1950's. After teaching library science at Tennessee State University for four years, she returned to Detroit and joined General Motors in 1962, where she held a number of library positions throughout the organization. Her success in the government research services unit led GM management to appoint her director of government relations for North American Operations. In 1994, Seabrooks was appointed deputy mayor. Seabrooks (a past chapter member) attributed her inspiring career trajectory to her view she was an integral, contributing member of an organization, rather than as simply a librarian who worked for a corporation. Her experience is an example of the information professional with a varied, rewarding—and unexpected—career path.
Information Professionals Gain Insight at Workshop in Romania
Library and Information Science faculty and library professionals from Wayne State University (including past President Judy Field), Oakland Community College, and the University of Texas at Austin conducted a four-day workshop at the Central University Library in Timi@oara (Romania), 7-10 August 2000. The theme of the workshop was User Needs and Information Literacy at the Cusp of the Millennium and the presentations focused on customer-oriented library services, developing reference collections, information resources in electronic format, access to information resources, implementation of library automated systems, marketing of library services, and characteristics of various categories of information users at a time when traditional formats compete with electronic resources. Seventy-five Romanian librarians from academic, public, and school libraries attended the workshop. The Romanian version of the lectures was printed in a volume available on site. The texts will become required reading for the students at the School of Library and Information Science, University of Timi@oara, established a year ago, in 1999.
Berger Elected to ALA Board
Illinois and Washington, DC, chapter member Carol A. Berger, also president of C. Berger Group, Inc., the Midwest's largest library personnel and information management service firm, was elected as member at large director of the ILEX section of the Association of Special and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA) Division of ALA. Berger's election was announced at the ALA annual conference in Chicago, IL, USA this year.
SLA Launches Virtual SLA
The Special Libraries Association (SLA) announces the launch of Virtual SLA, its new interactive web site, at www.sla.org. This new, online community features a cleaner, more functional look and incredibly user-friendly access to news and data for the information profession. SLA members played a key role in the development and approval of Virtual SLA, providing valuable feedback to the association's design team. The membership sought simplicity, user-friendliness, and improved organization of content, all of which are hallmarks of Virtual SLA. The home page of Virtual SLA contains a new side navigation bar and top menu bar, which include enhanced search capabilities and a site map. The administration of the new web site allows for efficient content management, formatting and standard metadata. With a burgeoning demand for more resources and tools for the information profession in the online world, organization of content became a critical need for the Association. The release of Virtual SLA signals a giant step in fulfilling that need. SLA Executive Director David R. Bender, Ph.D., commented that "SLA has taken yet another bold step forward in meeting the needs of the membership by developing a web-based environment for learning, sharing and real-time interaction."
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