Please join me in congratulating our Sci-Tech Divison Award Winners.  This year we have the pleasure of awarding two Bonnie Hilditch  International Librarian Awards ($1500 each) in conjunction with the Engineering Division.  Our award winner last year was not able to attend the conference, so this year we were able to provide funding for two awards.  For the 2013 Diane K. Foster International Library Student Travel Award , we partnered with the SLA Asia  Chapter to identify a promising new SLA student member who could not otherwise afford to attend the SLA conference.  We offer a $2000 reimbursement award toward the travel expenses and registration fee for the award winner. Our annual Sci-Tech Division Achievement Award  ($1000) is the highest annual award presented by the Science-Technology Division and is reserved members of the Sci-Tech Division whose professional work is marked by distinction and dedication to scientific and technical librarianship. The S. Kirk Cabeen Travel Stipend Award is offered to a library school student or first time conference attendee. This $1000 award is to be used toward expenses of attending the SLA Annual Conference.

2013 Bonnie Hilditch International Librarian Award winners

Dr. Susmita Chakraborty , Assistant Librarian at the Bengal Engineering and Science University in Shibpur, India. Dr. Chakraborty earned her PhD in Medical Informatics from Jadavpur University in 2007 and received her MLS Gold Medalist degree from Calcutta University in 1994.  She has earned additional advanced degrees in Digital Library Management, Information Science, Computer Science and English Literature.Dr. Chakraborty is currently serving as Director of the SLA Asian Chapter.

Mr. Parveen Babbar, Assistant Librarian in the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)in New Delhi, India. Mr. Babbar received his MLIS Gold Medalist degree from Delhi University and is currently pursuing a Ph.D in LIS and Masters of Computer Applications. He is involved in implementing a broader range of services and activities within the Asian Chapter, organizing seminars, training, networking, employment outreach and distributing information on Asian special libraries.

2013 Diane K. Foster International Library Student Travel Award

Maria Cecilia Ingusan-Ayson , librarian at the Filipinas Heritage Library (Ayala Foundation, Inc.), Makati City, Philippines. Maria received her MLIS, Archives track with cognates in Museum Studies at the University of the Philippines – Diliman School of Library and Information Studies.She also received her Bachelor of Library and Information Science at the Diliman Institute of Library and Information Science.

 Some of her responsibilities at the Filipinas Heritage Library include:  Acquisitions and reference, cataloging and archiving; website administration and content provider; special projects researcher and conference coordinator.  Maria is also a frequent speaker at local library conference and served on the conference committee of the First and Second LibraryLink conference held at the Filipinas Heritage Library.

2013 Sci-Tech Division Achievement Award

Joseph Kraus, Collections and Electronic Resources Librarian at the University of Denver. Joe received his MLIS from the University of Maryland College Park. Since 1994, he has been active in both the Sci-Tech Division and the Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics Division of SLA.  Some of the positions he has held in the Sci-Tech Division include:

• Vendor Relations and Recommended Practices editor, 2012
• Sci-Tech Division Chair and Program Planner, 2011
• Member of the Strategic Planning Committee, 2010
• Secretary of Sci-Tech, 2003-2005
• Contributed Papers Chair, 2002
• Webmaster, 1996-2000 (He was the first webmaster for the Division)

He is very interested in the topics of scientific information seeking, unconferences, and scholarly communication.

2013 S. Kirk Cabeen Student Travel Award

Timothy L. Gallati. Tim is expected to receive his MLIS in 2013 from the University of California at Los Angeles.  His current G.P.A. is 4.0.  He received the Library and Information Studies Alumni Association Fellowship for 2011-2012 and the Andrew H. Horn Award; Dean’s Scholar. Since June 2012 Tim has been employed by Qualcomm in San Diego where his duties include leading the usability team to address issues with the Magazine and Journal link resolvers; conducting competitive intelligence research to facilitate effective company investment strategies; and analyzing and reporting on library usage statistics pertaining to link resolvers and database resources.

A special note of thanks to the Awards Committee, chaired by Sheila Rosenthal and to the vendors who helped to sponsor the awards.

Bonnie Hilditch International Librarian Award—Annual Reviews

Diane K. Foster International Student Travel Award—EOS and Elsevier

Science-Technology Division Achievement Award—ASTM

S. Kirk Cabeen Travel Stipend—SPIE

Helen Josephine

2103 Chair

Jeremy Cusker
Cornell University Library

Abby Bedford , the Editor of SciTech News has selected Jeremy Cusker, Senior Assistant Librarian, Engineering Library, Cornell University to work with her on the design and editing of SciTech News beginning with Volume 67, issue 2.

Jeremy brings his experience with InDesign software, his previous editing and writing skills and his interest in the science divisions of SLA to this position.  Jeremy is a new member of the SciTech Division (since 2011) and will be participating in programs of both the Chemistry and Engineering Divisions at the San Diego Conference.

SciTech News or STN for short, is the official bulletin for the Chemistry, Engineering and Science-Technology Divisions and the Aerospace Section of the Engineering Division and the Materials Research and Manufacturing Section of the Chemistry Division.  STN is produced using The Berkeley Electronic Press open access publishing platform and housed at Jefferson Digital Commons, a service of Thomas Jefferson University’s Academic & Instructional Support & Resources Department.

Greetings Colleagues:  Three and half days of  meetings in Dallas at the 2013 Leadership Summit started with the planning kick-off for the 2014 Vancouver conference, followed by reports on the state of the association and concluded with Division and Chapter Cabinet meetings.

2014 Vancouver Conference Planning

The theme of the Vancouver Conference (June 8-10, 2014) as announced by our first non-North American President, Kate Arnold is Beyond Borders.  The Annual Conference Advisory Council is making some changes in the format of the program schedule to allow for more varied time slots 60, 90, 120 minute sessions as well as “Quick Take” 15 minute slots for hot topics.  Three themes have been announced for further exploration by all divisions in spotlight sessions, Sunday: Embedded  Information Services, Monday: Digital Content and Big Data, Tuesday: Leadership in the Human Age.

Nevenka Zdravkovska, as Chair-elect, is the lead for conference programming for our division and your ideas and suggestions for topics are welcome.  In addition, if you work in the Vancouver area, your local expertise is valuable to us.  The Sci-Tech division holds our Newcomers Lunch off-site and we would also like to host a tour on Wednesday, the last day of the conference.  As in the past we are partnering with the Engineering Division, and the other “science divisions” on joint programs and the All Sciences Poster Session and Reception.  Contact Nevenka (nevenka at umd dot edu) if you would like to help with planning programs, have an idea for a program or can help with local arrangements.

State of the Association

The sessions on Thursday and Friday morning were a series of  report outs to the division and chapter leadership on the state of the association.  We heard financial reports, PR reports, membership reports and conference planning reports.  Headquarter staff reported on improvements to the website and Information Outlook.  The new website will go live in March and has several features that will make it easier for members to connect with each other and to find out information about the association.  In particular, an association-wide calendar of events that all divisions and chapters can use to post events is a welcome improvement.  This calendar will allow all of us to find out about programming offered by other divisions and chapters so that we can take advantage of webinars, develop programming ideas and partner on presentations.  The new formation for Information Outlook was also highlighted. Starting with the first issue in  2013, Information Outlook is now produced in digital format.  Take a look at the inaugural issue and all of the options available to you. SLA members will receive an e-mail notification when a new issue is published. Links to each issue will be included in the notification and on SLA’s Website.

John Digilio the SLA Treasurer assured us in his report that the association will break–even in 2012 and that revenues and expenditures in 2013 are projected to also be in balance in 2013. He reminded us that we are one association and that the fiscal accountability of each division and chapter is critical to our financial health.  The Annual Conference provides 63% of the overall annual revenue of the association with 21% provided by member dues. Growth in revenue for the association is needed and membership continues to decline. Both of these issues were areas of concern for Headquarters staff and the other members of the SLA Board.  Recruitment and retention of new members is an issue that all of the divisions and chapters were asked to set as a goal for 2013.

The slides of John’s presentation  and the other presentations from the 2013 Leadership Summit are available here: (member login required for access) http://www.sla.org/content/resources/leadcenter/LeadershipSummit/13leadsummit/slides.cfm

President Deb Hunt and the Strategic Agenda

Throughout the Leadership Summit, Deb Hunt repeated the five strategic agenda areas that all divisions and chapters should embrace and incorporate into their action plans for 2013.  These are:

1. Strengthen and improve the Annual Conference as a source of revenue for the association and as a source of professional development and continuing education for our members.
2. Provide more professional development opportunities for our members throughout the year using local, regional, national, international and virtual events and venues.
3. Creating richer volunteer experience to develop in-demand skills.
4. Opening new markets through collaboration.
5. Growth through diversity of professional activity.

Our division’s communication activists, the members of the PR Committee and the Communications Committee will be working with me to help promote and implement discussion on the SLA Strategic Agenda.

Division Cabinet and Joint Cabinet Sessions

No new business was undertaken in either Division Cabinet or the Joint Cabinet Sessions.  Awards were given to the CI Division, the Taxonomy Division and the Solo Division for adding the most new members in 2012.  Several Divisions reported on the success of webinars as professional development opportunities for their members throughout the year. If you have ideas for webinar topics that would be of interest to Sci-Tech Division members, please send them to me.  I would like to plan one or two professional development webinars in 2013, send me a note (helenj at Stanford dot edu) if you are interested in helping.

2013 San Diego Conference

The Leadership Summit concluded with a message from Deb Hunt encouraging us to attend the conference in San Diego.  Deb is sponsoring a contest for member recruitment with the winners joining her for lunch at the beautiful Hotel Coronado on the beach in San Diego.  Details on the contest will be available soon.

If you have any questions or comments about the Leadership Summit, please contact me.

See you in San Diego,
Helen Josephine
2013 Chair
Science-Technology Division

[Note: the deadline has been extended to March 31, 2011]

The Sci-Tech Achievement Award is the highest annual award presented by the Science-Technology Division and is reserved for those recipients whose professional work is marked by distinction and dedication to scientific and technical librarianship. The purpose of the award is to recognize those Division members who have made outstanding contributions to the Division and/or to the literature of science and technology librarianship in the past 1 to 5 years.

The $750 award is presented annually, with a corresponding scroll describing the reason for the award. The Science-Technology Division Awards Committee reserves the right to withhold the award if a sufficient number of appropriate candidates are not nominated.

ELIGIBILITY: Be a current member of the SLA and have been a member of the Science-Technology Division for at least three years; be working currently in a library, information center, library school or other information capacity.

NOMINATIONS: Self-nominations are encouraged.

TO NOMINATE/APPLY: Include a list of accomplishments and activities over the past 1 to 5 years. The materials should be double-spaced. (750 words or less) Neatness, spelling and grammar will be considered in the judging. Supporting documentation, although not mandatory, may include a current curriculum vita OR resume for the candidate, significant publications, supporting letters, etc.

DEADLINE FOR NOMINATIONS: March 1, 2011.

Note: the deadline has been extended to March 31, 2011

Please send all nominations and accompanying materials to:

Sheila Rosenthal, Chair of the Sci-Tech Awards Committee

slr@sei.cmu.edu

The Bonnie Hilditch International Librarian Award, sponsored by the Science-Technology and Engineering Divisions, is presented to a librarian outside of the United States and Canada. The purpose of the award is to provide an opportunity for a librarian outside of the United States and Canada to attend the annual Special Libraries Association (SLA) conference.

The award will cover conference registration, lodging and airfare, up to and not exceeding US $2,000. The SLA annual conference will be held in Philadelphia, PA. USA, June 12-15, 2011.

The Awards Committee reserves the right to withhold the award if a sufficient number of appropriate candidates are not nominated.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Be a current member of SLA, preference given to members of the SLA Science-Technology and/or Engineering Division.
• Candidate should reside and work outside of the United States and Canada and be working currently in a library, information center, library school or other information capacity, preferably either in the science and technology and/or engineering area.
• Submission should be in English.

NOMINATIONS:
Self-nominations are encouraged. Send an online statement including information on the candidate’s professional career, professional activities or offices held, special projects or services, publications, and any other related functions that qualify the person for the award.

Documentation must include a current curriculum vita OR resume for the candidate, significant publications, supporting letters, etc. Please inform the committee if you are currently applying for other SLA awards.
DEADLINE FOR NOMINATIONS: February 18, 2011. Nominations and all accompanying materials should be sent to Sheila Rosenthal, Chair of the Sci-Tech Division Awards Committee, at the following email address: slr@sei.cmu.edu

APPLICATION PROCEDURES:
1. The winner will be responsible for making all necessary travel arrangements (passports, visas, etc.) for a visit to the U.S. as well as for conference attendance.
2. Include a current resume and relevant materials as outlined in the criteria for the award.

POST AWARD REQUIREMENTS:
1. Recipient will write a brief article (approximately 1,000 words) on the conference experience for the November 2011 SciTech News.
2. Recipient will be asked to serve on the Science-Technology and Engineering Division Awards Committee the following year in order to provide for the continuity and enthusiasm of this award.

NOTIFICATION:
1. Applicants will receive notification of award status by early March 2011. The award check will be sent to the recipient as soon as the receipts are received by the Awards Chairperson.
2. The recipient’s names will be posted to the Science-Technology and Engineering Division’s Web sites.
3. The announcement and introduction of the recipient will take place at both the Science-Technology Division’s and the Engineering Division’s Annual Business Meetings/breakfasts.
E-mail nominations and materials preferred.