SLA Announces Changes to the 2002 Annual Conference Schedule
by Nikki Poling
Nikki Poling is the assistant editor of Information Outlook.
LA Update
SLA's 2002 Annual Conference in Los Angeles is just around the corner and the association has announced a number of last minute events. With June rapidly approaching, Information Outlook brings you the following updates and sneak peeks of scheduled events.
Hot Topic Series
Alison J. Head to Speak About Usability Study of Corporate Intranets
Are corporate intranets providing the information users are seeking? Alison J. Head has conducted a study to answer this query. "On-the-Job Research: How Usable are Corporate Intranets?" by Head (with Shannon Staley) presents 32 findings and makes 24 recommendations as to how companies can construct their intranets with a more "usable design." Head conducted her study in the summer of 2001 amongst seven different companies: Bechtel, Chevron, Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, Gale Group, Gilead Sciences, Sun Microsystems and Synopsys.
She was curious to know, "What do people need in their everyday joband is it available, or can they find it?"
When the results were in, she found that more than half of the study participants could not find information on their corporate intranets, as assigned to them in their hypothetical "tasks." Head explained that although contact information ranked as the most sought after item on a company's intranet, often that information was spread outwith a user having to search for the name of the contact in one place and number or address in another.
During the Hot Topic presentation, Head will discuss the study, in which managers, administrative assistants, librarians and market researches were monitored to document how well corporate intranets function to answer frequently asked research questions.
"Intranets are evolved, but not as evolved as we think," said Head.
Head is the founder and principal of Alison J. Head & Associates, a usability consulting firm in Sonoma, California. Her clients include Hewlett Packard and Sun Microsystems. She is the former director of information management for the Press Democrat and has taught at San Jose State University's School of Library and Information Studies for nine years. Head has a Ph.D. and a MLS from U.C. Berkeley and was a visiting scholar at Stanford University, where she studied human-computer interaction. She is also the author of Design Wise: A Guide for Evaluating the Interface Design of Information Resources.
Hot Topic Series
Life After Enron: Lessons Librarians Can Apply to Survive in Today's Turbulent Workplace, a presentation by Morris Blatt
Recent corporate accounting and financial reporting developments (e.g., Enron, Suprema Specialties) necessitate a pressing need for data gatherers to read between the lines (in order to evaluate the information provided versus their true value) and insure their clients get correct information in response to their requests. Regardless of what you think you know, retrieved information can be deceiving and/or misleading. Data that is gathered and passed on to clients cannot be blindly accepted as being accurate. It needs to be questioned, evaluated and validated. An information professional's integrity and image are based upon answering client's requests correctly and in a timely manner.
The information professional's role is of the utmost importance to their organization (be it academia, government or private sector). Potentially incorrect, non-evaluated and non-validated data can lead to an information professional's downfall.
This Hot Topic session will cover data sources, potential data pitfalls, data interpretation and ways of recognizing and resolving the problems they pose. Attending this session will improve the information professional's data integrity and analysis, thereby increasing their credibility, performance, image and client satisfaction.
This event is a follow-up to Morris Blatt's, "Accuracy vs. Precision in Secondary Data Sourcing," a presentation at last year's SLA conference in San Antonio.
Morris Blatt is president of On Trac Solutions, a training and consulting company specializing in competitive intelligence, data acquisition and strategic planning. He has 30 years experience and his clients include everything from start-up businesses to $40 billion companies. Blatt served for two years as the strategic planning officer for SLA's New Jersey Chapter, as well as serving on the steering committee for SLA's Northeast Regional Meeting. Currently he is an editorial review board member for Competitive Intelligence Review and an advisory board member of Frost & Sullivan's Competitive Intelligence Conferences. He was a review committee member of the 2001 National Online Meeting.
Virtual Association Series
Due to budget cuts, a lack of free time or travel restrictions, SLA understands that not all members can make the hike to LA. And since users are becoming more comfortable with learning at their desktops, it seems the perfect time for the association to engage their latest learning toolthe Virtual Association Series. Created to meet the changing needs of SLA members, the series also relegates more freedom to the presenters.
There will be three virtual presentations taking place in LA this June, all of which will be available throughout the United States and Canada. Each seminar can be viewed from a desktop or a pre-selected site within the Los Angeles Convention Center. The presentations utilize BrainShark, a system that incorporates audio conferencing and PowerPoint technology. The Virtual Association Series will include the following scheduled presentations:
Return on Information Investment: Quantifying Your Value in the Organization
*(tentative title)*
Speaker: Jan Sykes, Information Management Services
Time: Monday, June 10, 11:30 a.m. 1:00 p.m. (PST)
Technology Disaster Recovery
Invited Speaker: David Ives, NELINET, Inc.
Time: Tuesday, June 11, 9:30 a.m. 11:00 a.m. (PST)
Information Audit
*(tentative title)*
Speaker: Sue Henczel, CAVAL Collaborative Solutions, CAVAL Limited
Time: Wednesday, June 12, 12:00 p.m. 1:30 p.m. (PST)
If you are unable to attend any of these live sessions, a V-Pak can be purchased within two weeks of any live session. The V-Pack includes an instruction sheet to access the PowerPoint slides, a hard copy of the handouts and an audiotape of the session. Attendees planning to participate in virtual presentations on-site in Los Angeles will not be charged; however, if you are logging on to see a presentation off-site, you will be charged in accordance to rates used for the SLA Strategic Learning Team's "Virtual Seminars." For more information, contact the Strategic Learning Team at (202) 939-3679 or SLA's Knowledge Exchange at (202) 939-3639. You'll be glad you did!
Strategic Learning
Career Connection
Looking for a new job? Are you an employer searching for new talent? Consider dropping by SLA's Career Connection (formerly Employment Clearinghouse) during the 2002 annual conference in Los Angeles. Career Connections links employers to talented professionals, by providing live interviews at the conference. You can conduct job interviews in Los Angeles from Sunday, June 9, through Wednesday, June 12. To learn more about the available opportunities through Career Connection, visit
www.sla.org/content/jobs/connection.cfm or call the Strategic Learning Team at 202-939-3627.
Strategic Learning CE Courses
With more than 50 continuous education courses (CE) scheduled for the annual conference, there is certain to be a course to meet every information professional's needs. Whether you need to obtain knowledge on a specialized topic or fine-tune your skills, this year's CE courses offer a rainbow of possibilities and are created to meet your division level. To find out more, e-mail learning@sla.org, visit www.sla.org (keyword search: CE courses) or call the Strategic Learning Team at 202-939-3627.
CE courses offer a rainbow of possibilities and are created to meet your division level. 
NOTE: In reference to the April Information Outlook feature, "Organizing Corporate Knowledge: The Ever-Changing Role of Cataloging and Classification," a corresponding seminar about cataloging will be featured at SLA's 2002 Annual Conference in Los Angeles. The program, which will be held Monday, June 10 from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m., is titled "Changes to AACR2 and Their Impacts on Cataloging."
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