The election votes for the 2013 Sci-Tech Division Chair-Elect and Treasurer positions are in and counted.

Sci-Tech Division’s New Chair-Elect is Nevenka Zdravkovska (currently serving as our Treasurer) and our New Treasurer is Thea Allen!  Both positions will begin in January 2013.

Many thanks to all candidates for volunteering to run in the election for Chair-Elect and Treasurer.  The level of commitment and enthusiasm embodied in all candidates are key to keeping the Sci-Tech Division relevant and valuable to our membership and to SLA.

The Sci-Tech Division Nominations and Elections Committee is very excited to present to the you the candidates who have stepped up to run for Chair-Elect and Treasurer (starting in 2013).  Get to know these candidates and thank them for offering to run for these important and critical leadership positions within our Division.  We have fantastic, smart, generous leaders within our ranks and these 4 candidates are ready and willing to continue to support our Division.

What’s next?  Additional nominations will be accepted during the Division Business Meeting during the SLA Annual Conference (July 16, 2012).  Electronic voting will begin in September with more details to come.  The voting instructions will be sent to Division members via email.

Have questions?  Contact any members of the 2012 Nominations and Elections Committee:

Candidate for Chair-Elect:

The Chair-Elect will serve a three-year term as Chair-Elect/Chair/Past-Chair from January 2013 through December 2015. The fi rst year, the Chair-Elect oversees programming planning for the 2014 annual conference. The second year, the Chair leads the Board and makes committee
appointments. The third year, the Past-Chair is responsible for governing documents.

Nevenka Zdravkovska

Nevenka Zdravkovska has been working at the University of Maryland since 2006 as the Head of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Library (EPSL). Prior to joining the University of Maryland, she was with Georgetown University since 1998 as Science Reference Librarian at the Blommer Science Library. For two years (1996-1998) Nevenka was the Reference Librarian at the Jefferson Lab in Newport News, VA.
Active in SLA since 2006, Nevenka is the current Treasurer of both the Science-Technology Division (DST) and the Maryland Chapter, and has been Chair of the International Committee of DST for five years.  As Chair of the International Committee she was instrumental in establishing a joint international student travel award where DST teams with various SLA chapters each year to help library/information studies graduate students outside of North America  attend SLA annual conferences. Nevenka was member of the DST Vendor Relations Committee when the Committee received recognition from the Division. Nevenka has wide-ranging experience in committee work, strategy, programming and event planning. If given the honor to serve the Science-Technology Division as Chair-Elect Nevenka looks forward to planning exciting, stimulating and informative programs and networking events for the Division, and increasing membership.

Nevenka has a Bachelor of Science in Physics and a Masters in Library Science.

Candidates for Treasurer (last name alphabetical order):

The Division Treasurer serves a two year term, January 2013 to December 2014.

Thea Allen

Thea Allen is the Interlibrary Loan/Cataloging Librarian at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Library in Research Triangle Park, NC. She has been an active member in SLA since graduating from UNC SILS in 2007 in the Science-Technology Division, Environment and Resource Management Division (ERMD), and with the North Carolina Chapter. In Sci-Tech, Thea has served as the Chair of the Student Relations Committee since 2008 and has been a member of the Annual Conference Planning Committee for the past two years. She also served from 2007-2009 as the Treasurer of the Environment and Resource Management Division, and is currently the First-Year Director of the North Carolina Chapter of
SLA. She is interested in continuing to stay active and involved in SLA and Sci-Tech. She believes that her past experience as Treasurer of ERMD will be beneficial in taking on this role within Sci-Tech and is looking forward to serving and helping out the Division.

Becky Miller

Becky is currently the Electronic Resources & Instruction Librarian at Touro University California, where she is a liaison to the Pharmacy, Public Health, and Physician Assistant programs. Prior to her current position, she worked on the Health and Environmental Research Online database project at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Previously, she spent more than a decade working as a biologist, with a specialty in botany and wetlands. While taking classes towards her MLIS, she discovered SLA through an email advertising the Sci-Tech Student Membership contest – she entered the contest, and she’s been an SLA Sci-Tech Division member ever since. In 2009 Becky won a student stipend to attend her first SLA annual meeting, where she had the opportunity to meet other Sci-Tech members and was asked to join the Student Relations Committee (SRC). She has been an active member of the SRC and helped start the Conference Buddy program, which she now coordinates. She has also written articles for chapter and division newsletters, planned and attended neighborhood dinners, and presented a poster at the All Sciences Poster Session. Serving as Treasurer of the Sci-Tech Division would give her an opportunity to contribute to the Division in a different way and learn new skills. She has been treasurer of two co-op houses, and is actively involved with budgeting at her library.

Sheila Rosenthal

Sheila Rosenthal is currently a Senior Librarian and member of the Library Faculty at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). She also serves as Manager of Library Services at the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Library, where she has been employed for the past twenty five years. In June 2002, Sheila received the University Libraries’ Faculty Achievement Award for Excellence in Customer Satisfaction.  In 2005, Sheila joined and became a very active member of the FFRDC (Federally Funded Research and Development Centers) RCIM (Research Center Information Managers) Group which allows her to network and bond with Library Directors at many of the FFRDCs that have important and influential relationships with the SEI.

Sheila is also very active in the Special Libraries Association (SLA), as the current Chair of the Awards Committee for the Science-Technology Division, a position she has held since 2007. Award winners have included applicants from within the United States as well as two International Awards. Recipients of these International Awards have included members of the Asian, European, and Australia/New Zealand Chapters within SLA. This year she has applied for the position of Treasurer for the Science-Technology Division. She is interested in this position as a way of becoming more active within the Division although she still greatly enjoys chairing the Awards Committee. Her position as Awards Chair increased her involvement with the SLA Asian Chapter and in March 2012 she was invited to their LIPS 2012 conference in New Delhi, India, to submit and present a paper (“Institutional Research Data Collection Methodologies and Tools: Library Request System and Citation Analysis”) and to chair one of their conference sessions.  In 2010, Sheila co-authored a book chapter (“Life as a Corporate Librarian at the Software Engineering Institute”) for Best Practices for Corporate Libraries, edited by Marjorie J. Porter and Sigrid E. Kelsey.

It’s that time of year and the Sci-Tech Division is looking for a few good people – well, we’re always on the lookout for lots of good people. But these volunteers will be filling two major jobs within the Division – Chair-Elect and Secretary. The Chair Elect is really a three year commitment – the first year, the chair elect will work on planning the next year’s Divisions activities at the annual conference and start really learning the ropes. The next year, he/she will serve as chair and the final year, they will work with the governing documents of the Division. Anyone who has served as chair knows the amount of the work and dedication that it takes to keep things moving forward throughout your term but at the same time it is an extremely rewarding activity. You’ll meet new people both in the Division and throughout the wider SLA, you’ll learn how to do lots of new things, and I feel, have a good time and equally important, feel good about helping. There is some financial help from the Division for travel.

The Secretary position is a two year term. You will need to take minutes at the Business Meeting and the Board Meeting at the annual conference as well as take minutes for Board meetings that take place at other times.

I realize that not everyone is in a position where they can dedicate this much time and energy to the Sci-Tech Division, but if you are, please volunteer (or we’ll come looking!). Remember, the Sci-Tech Division is only as good as the people who help.

For more details and/or to volunteer for either position, please contact Pam Enrici (past-past chair of Sci-Tech and Chair of the Nominating Committee). I can be reached at 218-726-8586 or you can e-mail me at penrici@d.umn.edu. Feel free to contact others on the committee, Christine Whitaker (Christine.Whitaker@uscmed.sc.edu), Anna Ren (annawu@northwestern.edu), Debal Kar (dckar@teri.res.in), and Nancy Wilmes (n.wilmes@wayne.edu) or talk to our current Chair, Joe Kraus (joseph.kraus@du.edu).