President’s Update – April/May 2014

SLA Europe DigiComms

I have thoroughly enjoyed my first 3 plus months as President of SLA Europe. The SLA Board and Committee members continue to put in many volunteer hours to ensure our chapter remains active and relevant. SLA Europe continues to receive global recognition for its efforts and for its members.

The accolades over the past three months include:

  • Sam Wiggins, our President Elect, winning a Rising Star Award at the SLA Leadership Conference in January
  • Niamh Tumelty winning the Science-Technology and Engineering Division Bonnie Hilditch International Librarian Award for 2014.
  • Marie Cannon winning the Legal Division travel grant award to attend the SLA Conference
  • Our Chapter credited with the Outstanding Chapter Technology Programming Award by the SLA IT Division.

Speaking of technology, were you aware SLA Europe Podcasts are now available via iTunes? You can now subscribe to the podcasts and they will automatically get delivered to your device.

One of the activities the SLA Europe spearheads is our annual Early Career Conference Awards when we team up with SLA Divisions to provide an opportunity for a young information professional to attend the annual SLA Conference. We had a record number of applications this year and the quality of the nominations were simply amazing. The winners this year are:

  • Michelle Bond – Academic Division
  • Rosie Hare – Leadership & Management Division
  • Lindsay Robinson – Legal Division

I personally look forward to spending time with these future leaders in Vancouver. Several of us on the Board will be lobbying other SLA Divisions to add their division to this excellent programme for 2015.

We collaborated with Perfect Information for their PI Conference on 7 – 9 May. PI once again generously donated a delegate place to an SLA Europe member. Sarah Wolfenden who is a previous Early Career Conference Awards winner, attended the PI Conference this year as the SLA Europe/PI Conference Award winner and presented a workshop on Customer Service Excellence Awards.

Speaking of collaboration, we continue to work with other industry organisations on seminars relevant to current and future members. In April we co-promoted with BIALL and CLSIG the Graduate Open Day. We are also planning a Copyright Event with the CLA for later this year.

We continue to promote events for our members outside of London. We had our first Irish event on 7 May in Dublin, Ireland on New Professionals Guide to Knowledge Management in Legal Services. Thanks to Lauren Lawler for getting this session organised. We also held events in Edinburgh and Manchester in the first quarter with an event in Paris planned for September.

Without our sponsors, we would not be able to afford to run many of our seminars and events. The Board and I would like to thank Acquire Media, SWET’s, Springer and Alacra for their assistance in funding SLA Europe activities during the first quarter- their sponsorship is much appreciated!

I am always seeking feedback from our members. Please let me know your thoughts and suggestions at president@sla-europe.org.

Finally, I look forward to spending time with some of you at the SLA Conference in June or at the ever popular SLA Summer Soiree in July.

Donald Roll
SLA Europe President 2014

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