New SLA Fellows Span Globe and Work Environments
2015 Class Includes Leaders from Asia and Arabian Gulf Chapters
Alexandria, Virginia, 15 May 2015—The Special Libraries Association represents information professionals and librarians who work in more than 60 countries and a wide variety of work environments, and that diversity is evident in its 2015 class of SLA Fellows.
A law librarian from Philadelphia, a knowledge manager and taxonomist for an economic consulting firm in Chicago, a librarian at a think tank in India, an academic librarian in Qatar, and an author and frequent speaker on information issues will join a select group of SLA members who have been named SLA Fellows, one of the association’s highest honors. The new Fellows—Amy Affelt, P.K. Jain, Janice Keeler, Tracy Z. Maleeff, and Mohamed Mubarak—will be recognized in Boston on June 14 at the opening session of SLA’s 2015 Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO.
Fellowship in SLA is bestowed on active, mid-career information professionals in recognition of past, present and future service to the association and the profession. Fellows are called upon and expected to advise the association’s board of directors and alert the membership to issues and trends warranting action. Individuals receiving the honor may use the title Fellow of the Special Libraries Association. No more than five SLA members can be selected for Fellowship each year.
About Amy Affelt
Amy Affelt is the director of database research worldwide for Compass Lexecon, where she conducts research and analysis and creates knowledge deliverables for economists who testify as expert witnesses in litigation. But she is probably better known as the author of The Accidental Data Scientist: Big Data Applications and Opportunities for Librarians and Information Professionals and as a presenter at information industry meetings such as the SLA Annual Conference, Internet Librarian, and Computers in Libraries. She also writes for Information Outlook, Online Searcher, and other industry publications.
An SLA member since 1992, Amy’s volunteer experience in SLA includes stints as chair of the Leadership & Management Division (in 2013) and the Public Relations Advisory Council (in 2011) and as an Alignment Project Ambassador. She also headed a group of SLA members and staff who developed the Future Ready Toolkit, which drew on the Alignment Project findings and on insights into emerging technology and industry trends.
Amy has been recognized frequently for her leadership of, and contributions to, SLA and the information profession. She received SLA Presidential Citations in 2008 and 2011, the Author Award (in 2010) and the Communications and Marketing Award (in 2011) from the Illinois Chapter, and the Alice Rankin Distinguished Lecturer Award (this year) from the New Jersey Chapter. In 2007, she was named an InfoStar by Thomson Scientific.
About Praveen Jain
Praveen Kumar (P.K.) Jain is a librarian at the Institute of Economic Growth in Delhi, India. A widely traveled and respected researcher in the field of economic librarianship, P.K. has been a driving force in the growth of the SLA Asia Chapter and is a frequent attendee at, and contributor to, SLA meetings at the chapter, regional, and international levels.
Upon joining SLA in 2000, P.K. quickly sought leadership roles in the Asia Chapter, which had been formed the previous year. He served as president in 2002-2003 and has since served as public relations chair, membership chair, and secretary. Thanks partly to his leadership and his tenacious recruiting efforts, the Asia Chapter has enjoyed remarkable growth and currently has more than 200 members.
P.K. has also been active in organizing and managing industry conferences. He organized the first International Conference of Asian Special Libraries, held in India in 2008, and just finished organizing the fourth such conference, which was held in South Korea earlier this year. In addition to organizing conferences, he promotes attendance at them—he has helped create financial awards that make it possible for Asia Chapter members to attend the SLA Annual Conference—and frequently speaks at them as well.
P.K.’s tireless efforts to further the interests of SLA and the information profession have not gone unnoticed. He received a Presidential Citation at the SLA 2009 Annual Conference and the SLA Professional Award in 2008. He also received the Diversity Leadership Development Program Award in 2004.
About Janice Keeler
Janice Keeler is responsible for global knowledge management and taxonomy functions at NERA Economic Consulting in Chicago, where she also manages SharePoint sites for the firm’s various practice areas.
During her 30-plus years as an SLA member, Janice has spent more than 16 years in leadership roles for various units of SLA, including serving as treasurer and president of the Illinois Chapter, chair of the Leadership & Management Division, and treasurer and chair of the Taxonomy Division. She has performed additional volunteer work for the Illinois Chapter, the Information Technology Division, the Knowledge Management Division, and the Taxonomy Division.
Janice has also helped create several new SLA services or units. She chaired the Great Lakes Regional Conference III, for which she received the Illinois Chapter Recognition for Special Achievement in 1995. She founded and organized the Content Buyer’s Roundtable at the SLA Annual Conference for several years, then chaired the committee that created the Content Buying Section of the Leadership & Management Division. She helped write the original scope statement for the Knowledge Management Division and was one of the co-founders of the Taxonomy Division.
At the association level, Janice has written for Information Outlook and has been a speaker and moderator at annual conferences. She served on the Annual Conference Planning Committee in 2001-2003, the Technology Advisory Group in 2005-06, and the Division Structure Task Force in 2009-2010. She was a member of the Conferencing Re-Envisioning Task Force in 2013.
About Tracy Z. Maleeff
Tracy Maleeff is the library resources manager at Duane Morris LLP in Philadelphia, where she has worked since 2008.
Just four years after joining SLA in 2003, Tracy was awarded the Legal Division’s New Member Professional Grant, which served as a springboard to greater involvement in the association. She became chair of the Legal Division in 2012 and served on SLA’s Conferencing Re-Envisioning Task Force in 2013 as chair of the International Subgroup and a member of the Online Subgroup. Her work on the task force helped prepare her for her role as chair of this year’s Annual Conference Advisory Council, which requires overseeing all chapter and division planners, ensuring that session content is relevant and fresh, and using SLA member feedback to improve the conference.
Tracy is currently the U.S. regional representative on the SLA Europe Chapter’s Board of Directors and the ethics ambassador for the SLA Kentucky Chapter. She is active in social media, serving as social media manager for the Leadership & Management Division and as chair of the SLA Online Content Advisory Council. In the latter role, she manages the @SLAhq and @SLAconf accounts and leads the #SLAtalk series of Twitter chats, which address topics such as working effectively with technology, improving the library degree curricula, and proving the value of information services.
In recognition of her many contributions to SLA and the information profession, Tracy was given the inaugural Dow Jones Innovate Award in 2014. That same year, she also received the SLA Legal Division’s Thomson Reuters Westlaw Award for Career Achievement.
About Mohamed Mubarak
The senior librarian at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Doha, Qatar, Mohamed Mubarak has been an energetic and forceful advocate for libraries and SLA since receiving his library degree in 1998.
After attending his first SLA Arabian Gulf Chapter meeting in 2000, Mohamed quickly joined SLA and began networking with other information professionals in academia and the private sector. His then-library director, an SLA member, told him he could acquire valuable leadership skills by volunteering, and he took her message to heart, serving as public relations chair from 2006-2010, then as president of the chapter from 2012-2014.
Mohamed is a strong voice for open access, especially for libraries in the Middle East. Although most libraries in the region subscribe to leading scientific journals, the Arabian Gulf has a low research impact because its scholars tend to publish their work in journals that are not indexed in larger, better-known citation databases. Mohamed advocates for open access to help alleviate that problem and contribute to better research and scholarship in his fast-growing region.
About SLA
The Special Libraries Association (SLA) is a nonprofit international organization for innovative information professionals and their strategic partners. SLA serves information professionals in more than 60 countries and in a range of working environments, including business, academia and government agencies. SLA promotes and strengthens its members through learning, advocacy and networking initiatives. For more information, visit sla.org.
Contact:
Stuart Hales
+1.703.647.4919
shales@sla.org
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