about what “special” pro-jects or initiatives other information professionals are currently working on. I can honestly say that there was always a small was a take-away from al-most every session I visit-ed. The American West Chapters Reception at the Newberry Library was a great success. A jazz pia-nist provided ambience for the approximately 122 guests. (cont. page 2)

Carla Hernandez

President, SLA-SD

Chernan-

dez1@san.rr.com

Summer Thoughts….. I just recently returned from - Chicago, Chica-go, that toddlin’ town…. – host city of this year’s SLA Annual Conference. It was a full three days (four, if you add the CE courses), of whirlwind vendor visits and presentations, sessions and roundtables, division meetings and evening socials. Buzzwords like knowledge manage-ment, competitive intelli-gence, semantic web, innovation, collaborative insights, enterprise search filled the SLA Conference tag cloud.

From Guy Kawasaki’s rousing opening presentation to SLA’s Annual Business Meet-ing at the close of the conference, there was something for every-one. The online Con-ference Planner was a great organization tool; I just was a little too zealous when marking my favorites and so I usually found myself having to make some very last minute deci-sions about which ses-sion to attend because I had overbooked. A Pharma Chatter ses-sion was high on my list (understandably), but I enjoyed some CI and KM presentations. I even took in a taxono-my session. It’s always interesting to hear

President’s Corner

What’s Inside

SLA Chicago

Member Profile

Fall Seminar

Upcoming Events

About SLA

Summer 2012 Volume 3, Issue 3

SLA San Diego Newsletter

President’s Corner (continued)

Page 2 Volume 3, Issue 3

In the Annual Business Meeting, President Brent Mai reported on progress made in The roll-out of Future Now – Operation Agility – the adoption and use

of a common web/blog site technology platform by all Chapters/Divisions

Annual Conference - economic challenges and membership feedback drives conference planning changes for 2013

Spotlight on Professional Development – programs and Click-U offer-ings consolidated and stream-lined

Overhaul of SLA.org website - revamp to begin this year Newsflash! Conference attendance numbers just in – there was a 20% increase in paid full attendance registrants over last year’s conference par-ticipation in Philadelphia. Total attendance (including exhibitors) was down from last year – 3463 vs. 4301. Our small San Diego Chapter contingency (joined by a few Southern Cal chapter members) did a great job in planting the seed for next year. The flames been lit - basically they’ve passed the torch and it’s begun its journey from the Windy City to America’s Fin-est City. (Kinda goes with the Olympic theme, don’t you think?) My head’s still filled with images of Chicago from conference attendance two weeks ago, but the buzz has already started about next year’s annual conference right here in our own backyard. An announcement came out only a few days ago from one of the Division Cabinet Chairs to “plan now for San Diego 2013!” Read the blog an-nouncement here. So mark your calendars – June 9-11, 2013. There’ll be plenty of volunteer opportunities where you can get involved. Not only to help with conference, but you can help by volunteering to fill a leader-ship position or committee chair for our chapter. We are looking for Treas-urer, President-Elect and several committee chairs for 2013. Please con-tact me if you are interested or would like more information. Cheers and enjoy the rest of your summer!

Page 3 Volume 3, Issue 3

Impressions from Chicago

We asked several of our SLA-SD chapter members to report back—in words and in pictures—on their im-pressions of the SLA Annual Confer-ence in Chicago. Enjoy!

Opening session speaker Guy Kawasaki encouraged us to Enchant our Custom-ers. I need to be conscious of speed bumps as I go about my work day and think “What can I do to remove this ob-stacle to information and services for my customers?” More information: http://www.guykawasaki.com/enchantment/audio-video/ -Beth Autin, Manager , Library Services & Information Management Hologic Gen-Probe

Overall the attendance seemed down, especially the exhibit hall. I really enjoyed the opening keynote speaker, Guy Kawasaki and recom-mend his book Enchantment. While manning the San Diego chapter hospitality booth, I talked with a lot of conference attendees who were excited about San Diego next year. -Kim Bevis

Chicago, great city, good food, heat, humidity, conference hall with beautiful view of the lake, good ex-hibit hall, great new vendors at the tabletop exhibits (Word Analytics, Privco, Plum Analytics were notable for me), great colleagues, sessions – some good/some a little stuck in the past, networking, amazing amount of interest in San Diego for 2013. -Britt Mueller, Director, Qualcomm Library & Information Services

San Diego Chapter in Chicago

Page 4 Volume 3, Issue 3

Kathy Quinn SLA 2013 Local Arrangements Committee Fifteen members of the San Diego Chapter and three from the Southern California Chapter worked at our hospitality booth for the SLA 2013 Annual Conference at this year’s conference in Chicago. The booth volunteers were:

Thanks to Cindy Shamel for organizing the booth staffing schedule, which was no small task! SLA headquarters had tasked us with “enticing people to come to next year’s annual conference in San Diego.” Really, how much enticing do people need to come to our beautiful city?!

To draw people to our booth, we had brochures and guides about San Diego and its major attractions, San Diego-themed raffle baskets, candy from a Los Angeles-based company, and a give-away. The give-away, a mini flip-flop eraser from Oriental Trading Compa-ny, was a big hit, and we gave away 1,000 of them.

Beth Autin Deborah Kegel Susan Shepherd

Kim Bevis Talitha Matlin Nancy Stimson

Harold Colson Merrie Monteagudo Bobbi Weaver

Donna Dutton

Britt Mueller Jean Crampon (SoCal Chapter)

Lisa Foster Kathy Quinn Debbie Hartzman (SoCal)

Carla Hernandez Cindy Shamel Bill Lee (SoCal)

Carla Hernandez and Nancy Stimson hold down the fort at the SLA-SD hospitality booth.

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San Diego Chapter in Chicago

Bobbi Weaver took on the Herculean task of putting together raffle baskets, from start to finish. A special thanks to Bobbi and to the Chapter members who donated items. The basket themes were: Filmed in San Diego – four DVDs Made in San Diego – four bars of Natural Selections soaps and a bag of

Chuao chocolates Rescued in San Diego – items from Friends of Cats and Solid Gold pet

food company Written in San Diego – five books by four authors Written in San Diego – four books by one author

Each basket also included a $10 San Diego-themed Starbucks card. The raffle baskets drew people’s attention to our booth. They also helped raise money to defray the costs associated with being the host chapter, and we came away with a profit of almost $200.

A big THANK YOU to all who contributed to the success of our hospitality booth. I’m so excited about showing off our beautiful city and vibrant SLA chapter next year.

Harold Colson, Talitha Matlin, Nancy Stimson, and Lisa Foster show off enticing raffle prizes

SLA-SD Member Profile

Page 6 Volume 3, Issue 3

Patrick Flanigan Librarian, Cataloger/ILL Richard T. Liddicoat Gemological Library and Information Center GIA World Headquarters patrick.flanigan@gia.edu http://www.linkedin.com/pub/patrick-flanigan/19/1/696 How did you decide to go in to this field? It took me about 22 years to decide actually. When I was a freshman at San Diego State Uni-versity I needed a job, and ended up shelving books at the library. I worked there until I graduated, so for 5 years I moved a lot of books. When I graduated the library skills that I absorbed at SDSU were in more demand. I needed a day job in order to play in a post punk band at night so I took a job cataloging books at National University Library for about 8 years. Other li-brarians suggested getting an MLS, but I didn’t consider it as a career as I was more focused on my creative efforts. I learned HTML and other internet skills while at National University Library and eventually left for the then booming Internet In-dustry. 10 years and a few jobs later I was helping a library redesign their website and began talking “library” to the librarian and came to the realization that I actually liked my time spent working in libraries. I remember telling her that “I never felt as smart as when I was working in a library”, because I was learning something every day. It was then that I knew I needed to pursue a career as a librarian. I enjoy dis-covering, classifying, problem solving, and helping others find things they like, or might be interested in. It wasn’t your usual path, but I’m glad I made the decision. When and how did you first become involved in SLA? While working toward my Masters in Library and Information Science at the Univer-sity of Missouri I took a class in Special Libraries and loved it. We visited all kinds of cool special libraries in the St. Louis area and you could see how helpful an or-ganization like SLA was to them. I was able to get a student membership and have been a member ever since. Special libraries are always challenged with lim-ited resources so the ability to network with others is very important. Special Li-brarians often have to wear many hats which fits me perfectly. When you need support or advice, or just need to know what is going on in other libraries, SLA is a great resource. The creativity, networking, and resourcefulness of the librarians in special libraries remind me of my days of being in bands in the underground music scenes. Once I took that class in Special Libraries I knew this was a challenge I wanted. What kind of work are you doing now? What do you like (or dislike) about it? At the moment my library work mostly involves cataloging books, maps, and vari-ous library materials as well as performing Inter Library Loan, research, and track-

Patrick’s knit cap keeps him warm while working in the GIA’s climate controlled archives.

Page 7 Volume 3, Issue 3

San Diego Chapter in Chicago

ing developments in the library industry. We have some digitization projects in the works so I’m excited to be involved in those as I really like digitization and using technology to improve access for users. I’m also involved in our organi-zations’ Web Transformation Project where I get to utilize my experience in the Internet industry along with my education in Information Science. I think the thing that I like the most is being involved in many ongoing projects that in-volve working with outside departments where I can utilize all of the skills I have acquired over the years to help our organization. By being involved in these projects I am able to raise awareness of our library as well as learn the needs of others in the organization and how best the library can meet those needs. I really like the challenges I get in trying to find information for our us-ers. I knew nothing about gemology and the only diamond I knew before work-ing at GIA was the baseball “diamond”, so it has been fun learning something new. How would you personally like to impact the library and information pro-fession? One thing I really liked when I was in my master’s program I was that I was able to help other library students because I had worked in libraries before. I feel that I’m lucky to have such a wealth of experience and to have worked in the field pre and post internet. Being a library veteran I want to continue to help other librarians or library students whenever possible. I’m planning to start a blog called “Nevermind the Librarian…” where I can share the general knowledge of libraries I’ve acquired over the years. I’d also like to help in cor-recting some of the common misconceptions regarding libraries such as “digital will replace everything” or that “all librarians love books”. I used to be called the “punk rock librarian” which I thought was silly at the time, but I kind of like it now as I think it fits. I have a punk rock way of looking at things com-bined with a library way of looking at things and I feel they actually comple-ment each other. Whether it is inside or outside of my organization I want to increase awareness that librarians do more than guard books and tell you when they’re overdue. People sometimes ask me how I found something they had a struggle finding, or how I found a resource they didn’t know about, and I just tell them “I’m a librarian, this is what we do”. What do you like to do outside of professional activities / interests?

My problem is I like to do too much. I still create and record music. I have an

unhealthy obsession with following Arsenal (English Football) and the Los An-

geles Dodgers. I like travelling to ballparks and have been to 34 so far. I enjoy

biking, hiking, playing soccer, darts, cartooning, and being a music, beer, and

film snob. However I mostly enjoy having adventures with my 2 kids.

Get to know your peers! Each quarter, the SLA-SD Newsletter features a Member Profile as a way of allowing us all to get to know each other a little better. Know someone who would make for an interesting profile? Let us know! Email Bee (bee.bornheimer@gmail.com) or Maria (maria.c.fitz@gmail.com) with suggestions.

Featured Event

Page 8 Volume 3, Issue 3

Save the Date! Fall Seminar in the Works for October 5 Proposals are currently under review for our upcoming SLA-SD Fall Seminar, planned for Friday, October 5th. The theme of this year’s Fall Seminar will be “Spotlight on the User.” Event: SLA-SD Fall Seminar Date: Friday, October 5, 2012 Location: Marina Village Conference Center, San Diego, CA. Theme: Spotlight on the User: Enhancing Value through User-Centric Design and Innovation Keynote speaker: Gretchen McNeely, MLIS

About Gretchen McNeely Gretchen is a user-experience (UX) specialist in the business world and a dynamic speaker who was a fea-tured panelist for the UX Caucus session at the SLA 2012 Conference in Chicago. She is currently a Senior Content Strategist at BLDG25 and an independent UX and research consultant. On her LinkedIn profile, Gretchen says: “With nineteen years of experience in wide-ranging business environ-ments, I am a UX research / content strategy / writing

hybrid who works effectively across design and communication environments. I can also probably make you laugh.” Her extensive resume includes Senior In-formation Specialist at Ziba Design, Managing Director of Zephyr Information Services, and improvisational comedy performer at ComedySportz Port-land. Gretchen will give us an overview, tools, and specific case studies to

Other Upcoming Conferences of Interest September 13 – 14, 2012 : Web Search University 2012, Washington, DC (http://www.websearchu.com/2012/) October 16 – 17, 2012: Taxonomy Boot Camp 2012, Washington, DC (http://www.taxonomybootcamp.com/2012/) October 22-24, 2012: Internet Librarian, Monterey, CA (http://infotoday.com/il2012/) October 30 – 31, 2012: Internet Librarian International 2012, London UK (http://www.internet-librarian.com/2012/) April 8 – 10, 2013: Computers in Libraries 2013, Washington, DC (http://www.infotoday.com/cil2013/)

Volume 3, Issue 3

Page 9 Page 9

About SLA San Diego

The Special Libraries Association (SLA) is a nonprofit global organization for innovative information professionals and their strategic partners. SLA serves about 10,000 members in 75 countries in the information profes-sion, including corporate, academic, and government information special-ists. SLA promotes and strengthens its members through learning, advo-cacy, and networking initiatives. The San Diego Chapter is one of 58 regional chapters of the Special Libraries Association (SLA). We are an organization of over 100 information professionals in the San Diego area. SLA web site: http://www.sla.org/

Get Involved

There are numerous ways for you (yes, YOU) get involved in the SLA-San Diego Chapter starting right now!

Be part of the local “Hospitality Team” welcoming SLA members to SLA 2013 in San Diego! Contact Kathy Quinn (quinn.kathy@yahoo.com) or Carla Hernandez (chernandez1@san.rr.com)

Consider volunteering for a board position for next year!

For more on the kinds of positions on the SLA-SD board, visit our blog. Email Carla Hernandez (chernandez1@san.rr.com) for more information on volunteering for a position.

Write a short piece for either the blog or the newsletter!

Share some wisdom, curiosity, or experience with your peers. All SLA-SD members are encouraged to contribute to both the newsletter and the chapter blog.

For information about contributing to the newsletter, con-tact bee.bornheimer@gmail.com

For information on posting to the blog, contatct sta-cywile@yahoo.com