SLA Europe Students

Who better to advise on the value of SLA to students than our inaugural winner of the SLA Europe Student Conference Award 2007, 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 Newsletters

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.

Awards

SLA Europe Student Conference Award
An all-expenses-paid award given to a Master's-level LIS graduate student for first-time attendance at an SLA annual conference. In 2007, the inaugural year of the award, it was given jointly by SLA Europe and the Business & Finance (B&F) Division of SLA, to Verena Till, a Library and Information Management student at Stuttgart Media University, Germany. More information.

SLA Europe Student Conference Awards 2008
We are pleased to announce that we will be able to send four students to the SLA annual conference in Seattle, Washington in June 2008 thanks to
co-sponsorship of two awards by B&F, and one student co-sponsored with SLA Europe by the Insurance and Employee Benefits (IEB) and Science and Technology (Sci-Tech) Divisions.

Verena Till - 2007 award winner
Verena was chosen as our inaugural winner by a Committee composed of selected SLA Europe and B&F Board members.

She attended the Conference in Denver, Colorado, in June 2007, where she formally received her award at the B&F Awards Ceremony. Verena will provide a report on her experiences for publication this Autumn in the SLA Europe Newsletter and the Business & Finance Bulletin.

SLA Europe Board’s intention is to continue to sponsor this award in 2008 with B&F, when the 2007 Award winner will serve on the judging panel. The creation of the award is part of SLA Europe’s student initiative to attract new student members and encourage membership of the information profession.

Press release in English (pdf) and German (pdf).

You can also read about the award in our Newsletter (pdf).

The award is generously sponsored by Books 24x7

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

More details about the prize winners and their research will be posted here soon.

The 2007 Dissertation awards, along with their advisors were:
R achel Adams (Sheffield University). Advisor: Sheila Corrall
Victoria Louise Bird (Loughborough).Advisor: Derek P. Stephens
Ben Bose (Brighton University). Advisor: Peter Enser
Tanya O’Rourke (London Metropolitan University). Advisor: Catherine Kelly

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 Newsletter. The first interview with Tanya O’Rourke can be found in the 2006-3 issue of the Newsletter, pp. 3 and 5.

In conjunction with the December 2006 graduation ceremonies in each programme, President Rachel Kolsky travelled to Sheffield and Board Member and SLA Main Board Director, Kate Arnold, went to Loughborough to present the award in person to Rachel Adams and Vicky Bird respectively. Members of the SLA Europe Board also participated in a careers’ symposium panel at University College, London in late 2006 held for the LIS students.

SLA Europe will continue to sponsor the award for the next four years (2007-2010). The faculty in each programme will continue to be responsible for selecting a prize winner from their programme. 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. If this venture proves successful over the five-year test period, other LIS programmes invited to participate.

Reaching Out to LIS Students and Faculty
I n 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 Newsletter, 2006-2 pp. 5 and 7)

SLA Europe Dissertation Awards 2007
F rom these initial contacts, a great many ideas surfaced, one of which, Dissertation Prizes were thought to be so effective by the Board in raising the profile of SLA Europe, they were introduced immediately with 4 schools.

In autumn 2006, SLA Europe announced a new ₤100 prize and a certificate for the best Masters’ dissertation in collaboration with schools at Brighton, London Metropolitan, Loughborough and Sheffield. Each prize on each on the four LIS courses was based on a written dissertation on a subject relating to the field of special librarianship. The faculty in each programme selected the prize winner in their programme.

SLA European Student Award to Attend SLA Annual Conference
In collaboration with the SLA Business & Finance (B&F) Committee, SLA Europe launched a second new award in 2006. It provides an opportunity for one LIS Masters’ student, who has never attended an SLA annual conference and is currently enrolled in an LIS programme during the academic year 2006-2007, to attend the June 2007 SLA annual conference in Denver, Colorado. All costs will be paid (travel, lodging, conference registration, related expenses, and registration for one Business & Finance Continuing Education course of the winner’s choice during the Conference).

An SLA Board Member will be the main contact person during and following the Conference and the 2006/7 European Information Professional of the Year will brief the winner, prior to June 2007, on the experience of attending an SLA Conference. The award winner is expected to maintain contact with the SLA Europe Board during the award year.

The winner will be selected in February 2007 by a committee composed of selected SLA Europe Board members and B&F Committee members. An announcement will appear in the SLA Europe Newsletter as well as in the LIS press. A report on the Conference by the winner will appear in both the SLA Europe Newsletter and the Business & Finance Bulletin in the autumn of 2007. For information on eligibility and application procedures for the 2006 award, see [link].

The SLA Europe Board’s intention is to continue to sponsor this award in 2008 with B&F. Should we do so, the 2007 award winner will serve on the judging panel for 2008. Eligibility and application procedures for the 2008 award will widely publicised and details will be available through a link from this website.

Other Activities
T he 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.

Barbara Robinson - Awards Chair