SLA Early Career

Who better to advise on the value of SLA to students than our inaugural winner of the SLA Europe Early Career Conference Award, Verena Till.

She has put together some thoughts for you: The Value of Being an SLA Member - from the perspective of a student (pdf)

We produced a Special Student Edition of our Newsletter (pdf). See Newsletter Page for our current and previous SLA Europe News.

Awards

Early Career Conference Awards 2010

The Board of SLA Europe is delighted to announce the two winners of the SLA Europe Early Career Conference Award (ECCA) 2010. The winners, who will attend the annual SLA Conference in New Orleans 13-16 June 2010, are Philip Gatzke and Christopher Rhodes.

Philip Gatzke is currently a student at the University of Brighton, enrolled on the M.Sc. in Information Management, which he will finish in 2010.  Philip joined the University of Brighton following a BA in Media and Information Studies at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, in Germany.

Christopher Rhodes graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2007 with an M.A. Librarianship (distinction). During his time at Sheffield, Christopher was awarded prizes at both departmental and national level.  Christopher currently works at the Statistics Resource Unit, House of Commons Library, and is the National Coordinator for New Professionals, Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals.

The full Press Release is here.

Contact our Early Careers Co-Chairs for further information.

Past Winners

2009 -  Washington (pdf)

Sara Batts, Annie Richens, Bethan Ruddock, Laura Wood

2008 - Seattle (pdf)

Hannah Lewin, Sarah Hammond, Emma Dhesai and Sandy Peterson

2007 - Denver (English pdf / German pdf)

Verena Till


The SLA Europe Dissertation Prize is given to a currently enrolled Masters-level LIS student in the following programmes: Brighton, London Metropolitan, Loughborough and Sheffield universities. Staff at each university select the best dissertation based on research on a subject pertinent to those working in special libraries.

The prize, launched in 2007, includes a certificate and a £100 cheque. The intention is to continue to make these awards to students at the four participating universities until 2011.

Congratulations .... to our Student Dissertation Prize Winners for 2009!

Richard Alleman of London Metropolitan University, Jill Rutt of the University of Sheffield and Hardy Schwamm of Loughborough University


Full details. More on our award winners and their dissertations appear in SLA Europe News.

SLA Europe Dissertation Prize Winners for 2008
Betty Rabar  (London Metropolitan)
Clare Sinclair  (University of Sheffield)
Frances Warrell  (University of Brighton)

SLA Europe Dissertation Prize Winners 2007
Rachel Adams (Sheffield University)
Victoria Louise Bird (Loughborough)
Ben Bose (Brighton University)
Tanya O’Rourke (London Metropolitan University)

Student winners

Left to right: Vicky Bird, Rachel Adams, Tanya O'Rourke, Ben Bose

Interviews with the award winners and summaries of their dissertation findings appear in SLA Europe News.

SLA Europe will continue to sponsor the award through 2011.

The faculty in each programme will continue to be responsible for selecting a prize winner from each of their respective programmes. If there is no dissertation of sufficient quality relating to special librarianship to qualify for the prize, SLA Europe will hold back the award to that programme for that year.

Other SLA Europe Awards:                                                                                 SLA Europe Information Professional

Mentoring

Mentoring can make a difference to a career. Gwenda Sippings, an information consultant with extensive experience of mentoring, has prepared some mentoring guidelines for SLA Europe (pdf) outlining the advantages of being involved in a mentoring programme.

If you have any queries, please contact Liz Blankson-Hemans.

The SLA Chapter Cabinet Ideas Bank Wiki also has a section on Mentoring

Reaching Out to LIS Students and Faculty
In 2006, SLA Europe formed a sub-committee to investigate ways to reach out to current and future Library and Information Science (LIS) Masters’ students and their faculty. Our aim was to make LIS students and their faculty members aware of the benefits of joining SLA and participating in the activities of SLA Europe.

We held a brainstorming meeting in May 2006 in London with faculty from five programmes based relatively close to London. Attending were: John H. Bowman University College, London; Sheila Corrall, University of Sheffield; Juliet Eve, Brighton University; Catherine Kelly, London Metropolitan University; and, Derek P. Stephens, Loughborough University. (See SLA Europe News, 2006-2 p 5 and 7)

Other Activities
The SLA Europe Board had also offered visiting lectures to the schools contacted if there was an opportunity to teach on the more practical aspects of special libraries. Sylvia James, SLA Europe Treasurer and SLA Main Board Treasurer, taught a 3 hour session for Brighton University on Collection Development in Business Libraries in December 2006.

Lyndsay Rees-Jones, Bethan Ruddock - Co-Chairs, Early Career