A Recap of PT/SLA's 40th Anniversary Celebration

(Held Thursday, May 10, 2007, at the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, N.J.)

By Michelle M. Volesko Brewer, Chapter President

Photos by Kadri Kallikorm-Rhodes

    The following is a President's message/meeting wrap-up, briefly highlighting Mr. Abram's talk with links to some resources, as well as one more round of thank you's.

    Thank you to all PT/SLA members attending the 40th Anniversary Gala event last night [May 10] at the beautiful Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton. Your attendance made the meeting a huge success, we had nearly 100 members and sponsors. It was a thrill to see so many retired colleagues too!

    A. Our speaker Stephen Abram spoke about A Tech Forecast: Library 2.0 in the Real World. Mr. Abram was amazing; entertaining and insightful. He also gave generously of his time and met with the PT/SLA Board for an hour prior to the meeting and provided insights into recruitment and retention issues for special librarians. Mr. Abram met with SCILS students and professors May 11.

    His main messages the audience last night was that librarians' priorities have changed. If our decision makers think our library 'business' is books, we need to re-educate them. Our roles is about ANSWERS, and managing the quality of the questions and the user experience with them. We are the learning link between information and knowledge for each and every patron. Web 2.0 and the Library 2.0 are here. He gave us 10 key strategies and tips for use in this bold new world and challenged us to go where the patrons are -- in Second Life, Ning, MySpace to name a few.

    Stephen tells us that SLA is planning tools to help us communicate and influence those we serve with these new priorities in mind. He mentioned psychographic behaviors of our users a lot, and I can't pretend to have absorbed it all... but I do know Stephen and SLA are working towards that end, and helping us, on the front lines. For a starting point on psychographics, see the pages at Answers.com and Wikipedia.org.

 

    I thought you would also be interested to know:

 

    B. A special thank you to our long-standing members of PT/SLA for 25 or more years. Many came to the meeting and are recognized here: Maxine Goldsmith, Janet Weiss, Valerie Tucci, Kathy Anderegg, Nelly Silva, Margaret Bennett, Helen Lee, Yvonne Smith, Joyce Russell, June Bente. Apologies if we forgot anyone, dumpster-diving into the SLA database is not an exact science.

    C. Once more, many thanks to our sponsors of the 40th Anniversary:

    The three Dinner Sponsors:

    Apologies if I missed a name!

    D. 40th Anniversary Committee Chair: Susan Moss!! A special thank you to Susan Moss, Chair of the 40th Anniversary Committee. Susan is the amazing librarian who pulled this all together with effortlessness, doing yeoman's work and with much grace. Thank you Susan for leading this event.

    E. 40th Anniversary Committee:

    Thank you to committee members. It was through your efforts it all got done and together we coordinated and communicated more than 500 e-mails (no exaggeration), planned printed and mailed invitations, collected registration, made lists, paid bills, created lovely special badges, selected and carted centerpieces to the Grounds, researched and found the string quartet, solicited and worked with vendors, printed posters, programs, archival displays, obtained PR in newspapers, coordinated caterers, menus and photographs. Whew!

 

    F. Thanks also to:

 

    G. Congratulations to Rebecca A. Dean, recipient of the 2007 Rosemary Allen Little Award! It was presented to Rebecca by Claire R. McInerney, Director, Information Technology and Informatics Program, SCILS, Rutgers. Our special guest John Little, Rosemary's husband, attended. It was an honor to have Mr. Little at our gala and especially to be with us as we presented this award in honor of his wife and our beloved colleague.

    PT/SLA wishes Rebecca much success in special librarianship.

    H. A toast to PT/SLA with words from Margaret Mead: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens [or librarians] can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Please raise your glass with me for toast to PT/SLA for making a difference in special librarianship for everyone in our Chapter for 40 years.

Michelle M. Volesko Brewer
Dir. Lib. & Corp. Info. Svcs.
New Jersey Hospital Association
Voice: 609-275-4230; Fax: 609-275-4107
Email: Work mbrewer@njha.com

Revised June 9, 2007