Sci-Tech News - Issue #2 Online

The second online issue of Sci-Tech News—the official bulletin of the SLA Chemistry, Engineering, & Sci-Tech Divisions—is now available: http://www.sla.org/scitechnews.

Included in this issue:

• Message from the Chemistry Division Chair, with profiles on new members Hope Leman and Khue Duong. Hope also contributed another article and (yes!) poetry.
• Message from the MRM Section Chair.
• Bob Buchanan’s ‘Beyond the Chemistry Web’
• Conference report from the American Chemical Society Meeting, held this spring in San Francisco.
  

The next one will focus on the upcoming conference, with an August 1 deadline for all submissions. I’m sending out a call later today for conference reporters.

• If you would like to contribute an article for this next issue, including a report from another conference you’re attending this summer, please contact Kiem Ta (kiem.ta@okstate.edu) and me.
• If you want to be included in the next Membership Corner section, please contact Dana Roth (dzrlib@library.caltech.edu).
  

Chemistry Division Breakfasts at SLA Conference

If you're attending SLA this year in New Orleans, don't forget to order your breakfast tickets.

ROUNDTABLES - Join your DCHE colleagues for breakfast, networking and a spirited discussion on current topics and concerns.

• Academic Roundtable Breakfast (Monday, 6/14, 7:30-9:30am, $10, Ticket #400)
  --Sponsored by ACS Publications
  --Moderated by Ben Wagner and Luti Salisbury
  
  
• Corporate Roundtable Breakfast (Wednesday, 6/16, 7:30-9:30am, $10, Ticket #700)
  --Sponsored by GLTaC, Inc.
  --Moderated by Theo Jones-Quartey

BUSINESS MEETING - Networking breakfast and reports from the Executive and Advisory Board about DCHE activities. It's a chance to talk to Board members about getting involved in the Division. We'll also honor this year's Sparks Award winner.

• Chemistry Division Breakfast & Business Meeting (Tuesday, 6/15, 7:30-9:30am, $15, Ticket #500)
  --Sponsored by ACS Publications
  --Moderated by Teri Vogel
  

Nominations Announced

The SLA Chemistry Division’s Nominations Committee is pleased to announce their candidates for Treasurer and Chair-Elect (terms starting in 2011).

Chair-elect: Marie Fraties-Block

Treasurer: Yan He

To suggest additional candidates, send a petition with the names of 10 members along with the written consent of the proposed candidates to either Luray M. Minkiewicz, Cathy DiPalma or Mary Ann Mahoney by May 25.

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Marie Fraties-Block
Marie is currently the senior librarian for BASF Corporation and has been employed there since 1990. Previously she was employed at Bon Secours Hospital in Grosse Pointe, MI as the medical librarian. Marie received an MLS from the University of Pittsburgh and a B. A. from Central Michigan University.

Marie has been a member of SLA since 1992. As a Chemistry Division member she was the co-chair of the 2007 conference planning committee and was part of the 2008 nominating committee. In addition, Marie will participate at the 2010 annual conference at a panelist for the session on “Resources for Polymer Information” Marie has been involved with the SLA Michigan Chapter for many years and most recently as the Hospitality Committee Chair.

Marie notes that she takes the opportunity to attend SLA’s annual conferences because she gains practical work-related information, connects with informative and influential people, and develops lasting business contacts.

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Yan He

Yan obtained her B.S. in Chemistry from Beijing Normal University and M.S. in Organic Chemistry from Peking University in China. After she came to the states, she finished all PhD coursework in Organic Chemistry at University of Minnesota (Twin Cities) and she obtained her M.L.S. with Chemical Information Specialization from the School of Library and Information Science at Indiana University (Bloomington) in 2006. Yan was the winner of the SLA Chemistry Division Marion E. Sparks Award for Professional Development in 2006. Yan has been the Science Reference Librarian and Chemistry and Mathematics Bibliographer at the Blommer Science Library of Georgetown University since 2007. She has coordinated several recent SLA Chemistry Division No-Host Dinner events at the SLA Annual Conferences.

Sci-Tech News - Now Online

Sci-Tech News, the official bulletin for the Sci-Tech, Chemistry and Engineering Divisions has relaunched as an online newsletter. The first issue can be viewed here.

From the Chemistry Division:

• News from the Chair, Chair-Elect and MRM Section Chair, along with a preview of the DCHE schedule at the conference.
  
• Bob Buchanan's Beyond the Chemistry Web

For the rest of 2010, we will use Sci-Tech News as our main newsletter, to see if it can (and should) replace our DCHE newsletter.

We are always looking for contributions to the newsletter. It can be about technology, chemical information, a report from a conference, or something going on in your library you want to share. If you're interested in submitting an article, please contact Kiem Ta (kiem.ta@okstate.edu). The deadline for the next issue is April 1.

Assessing Collections & Information Resources in Science & Technology (Call for Presentations)

CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS - Assessing Collections & Information Resources in Science & Technology
co-sponsored by ACS CINF and SLA Chemistry Division

240th ACS National Meeting & Exposition
Boston, Massachusetts, August 22-26, 2010
CINF Division

Collections and resources for scientific information are changing rapidly in format and accessibility, budget pressures are forcing hard decisions. How can information professionals assess the utility of collections for their clientele? Do you monitor usage statistics or other measures? How do they influence your decision making for managing budgets and services? How do different stakeholders utilize information about usage? We are interested in presentations from librarians, publishers and other information professionals on best practices for tackling this kaleidoscope of issues.

Topics might include:

• how libraries use usage stats
• how to compare similar resources to each other (such as Reaxys & SciFinder)
• journals / ebooks / databases - different resources, different stats
• how can compare different publishers (standardization)
• how publishers use data
• technical issues around stats
• how to use stats on cancellations?
• qualitative information methodologies (ex. Focus groups)

Abstracts may be submitted via: http://abstracts.acs.org
Submissions will be accepted through March 28, 2010.

Please contact: Leah Solla (leah.solla@cornell.edu) or Erja Kajosalo (kajosalo@mit.edu) for more information.

Call for Posters: 2010 Conference

All Sciences Poster Session - June 15, 2010 (Tuesday) - SLA Conference, New Orleans

SESSION CO-SPONSORS:
Biomedical & Life Sciences, Chemistry, Engineering, Food Agriculture and Nutrition, Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics, and Science-Technology Divisions, Special Libraries Association

CALL FOR POSTERS:
Is your library or knowledge center engaged in a new or innovative project that builds on a new strategic alignment, develops or adapts a novel operational model to reframe services, or synthesizes creative approaches to achieve scientific information or visual fluency in your group or organization?

Please consider sharing the results of your efforts at the upcoming All-Sciences Poster Session on Tuesday, June 15, 2010, at the Annual SLA Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. We are looking for poster submissions that explore any of these themes [more information about these poster themes are at the end of this post].:

• New Strategic Alignments
• Survival and Success Beyond an Economic Recession
• Information Literacy, User Instruction and E-Learning in the Sciences During and Beyond an Economic Recession: New Methods, New Participants, New Tools

Your poster presentation could help your colleagues immeasurably as we all seek to cultivate or enhance scientists' knowledge management skills and to demonstrate the value of our services to our parent organizations or potential clients. The poster session provides an informal and lively venue for sharing your innovative ideas on an important topic.

ELIGIBILITY:
Any SLA member is welcome to submit an abstract. In the event that a greater number of submissions are received than can be accommodated, members of the sponsoring science divisions will be given first preference.

GUIDELINES and LAYOUT:
Guidelines for materials and layout of poster presentations are available on the SLA Chemistry Division website at http://www.sla.org/division/dche/poster.html.

SUBMISSION of ABSTRACT:

• DEADLINE is March 15, 2010
• Please submit your name, institution, email address, poster title, and description (250 words or less) by email to Bill Armstrong at notwwa@lsu.edu
  

NOTIFICATION of ACCEPTANCE:
All applicants will be notified re: poster proposal acceptance on or before April 1, 2010.

QUESTIONS:
Contact Bill Armstrong (notwwa@lsu.edu) and/or Irene Laursen (irenelaursen@ymail.com)

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POSTER THEMES

1. NEW STRATEGIC ALIGNMENTS
In the currently recovering global economy, new cooperative arrangements are emerging to help our parent organizations or our core units--libraries, information centers, knowledge bases--adjust to rapidly evolving economic conditions. These developments may include new consortial initiatives, redesign of specific sectors of the workforce, outreach to new constituencies, innovative alliances between academe and the for-profit sector, or other collaborative scientific ventures. Come share pivotal steps of the process, changes in responsibilities or reporting relationships, and lessons learned from the success or failure of these ventures in the sciences.

2. SURVIVAL AND SUCCESS BEYOND AN ECONOMIC RECESSION
How do we promote, preserve, and redesign our research and analytical services in 2010 and beyond ? Let's look at how new operational models (scientific, technical, engineering, and medical e-book vendors, formal and informal modes of scientific communication, intergovernmental initiatives) are evolving, what we can do to improve them, and projections for academe, business, and industry in the scientific environment.

3. INFORMATION LITERACY, USER INSTRUCTION, AND E-LEARNING IN THE SCIENCES DURING AND BEYOND THE RECESSION: NEW METHODS, NEW PARTICIPANTS, NEW TOOLS

a. New tools and techniques for the interdisciplinary scientific information professional dealing with electronic management of citations, data, structures, graphical analysis, mapping, and/or presentations. Including innovative uses of social networking applications.

b. Electronic demos, tutorials, games in the sciences
Who produces them (publisher, in-house development) Who uses them? How are they funded, developed, publicized, marketed, and evaluated? What is their useful lifetime?

c. Scientific Information Fluency
What successes or failures have you encountered in teaching patrons – faculty, students, researchers, etc. – new ways of handling information in an all-electronic workflow, from the literature search to the discovery and publication process?

2010 Chemistry Division CE Courses

Will you be at the Special Libraries Association 101^st annual conference in New Orleans this June? Please consider attending the SLA Chemistry Division’s Continuing Education courses on June 12-13. These highly-regarded courses provide essential hands-on learning on the fundamentals of chemistry and chemical information, and are taught by experts in their field. Full course details are provided below. Both courses provide discounted rates for SLA student members.

SLA 2010 conference registration is now open at http://s36.a2zinc.net/clients/sla/sla2010/public/enter.aspx. CE course tickets can be purchased during the registration process.

Note: you are NOT required to attend the conference in order to come to a CE course. Contact Ted Baldwin for details.

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Chemistry for the Non-Chemist Librarian

Date: Saturday, June 12, 2010, 8am-5pm

Ticket # 130 : $299 members / $399 non-members / $149 student members (limit 5)

Instructors: Bartow Culp (Purdue U.), Judith Currano (U. of Pennsylvania)

Description: It is necessary that any information scientist with responsibilities for providing chemistry reference services understand the structure and language of chemistry. This course takes a hands-on approach to introduce learners to the five major divisions of chemistry, their basic principles, and the intellectual tools that chemists need to do their work. It will be composed of three basic sections, an introduction to chemistry as a science, basic concepts and research questions in chemistry and strategies for effective communication with chemists, and the ways in which chemists' research needs dictate their information needs. SPECIAL NOTE: Student Member Rate = $149.

Chemical Information Sources, Request, and References

Date: Sunday, June 13, 2010, 8am-12noon

Ticket # 305 : $199 members / $299 non-members / $99 student members (limit 5)

Instructors: Judith Currano (U. of Pennsylvania), Dawn French (Millennium Inorganic Chemicals)

Description: The course takes a hands-on approach to introduce learners to the types of questions that chemical researchers ask and reference sources that can be used to answer them. It will provide an overview of the structure of the chemical literature, types of reference sources in the chemical sciences, unique access points for chemical information, and strategies for an effective search. Informal lectures, interspersed with hands-on reference questions, will compare and describe the major chemical information resources. SPECIAL NOTE: Student Member Rate = $99.

DCHE Executive Board for 2010

The DCHE Executive Board for 2010. The Advisory Board & Committee members will be posted later this month.

Chair:
Teri Vogel, UC San Diego

Chair-Elect:
Bill Armstrong, Louisiana State University

Past-Chair:
Luray Minkiewicz, E I DuPont De Nemours Co

Secretary (2010-2011):
Lee Pedersen, Brown University

Treasurer (2009-2010):
Bob Buchanan, Auburn University

2010 Sparks Award for Professional Development

2010 Marion E. Sparks Award for Professional Development

The Chemistry Division of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) is sponsoring a student/new member travel award to defray the costs of attending the 2010 SLA Annual Meeting June 13-16 in New Orleans, LA. The award is intended to encourage the professional development of student members and new members of the Chemistry Division and encourage their participation in Chemistry Division activities.

TRAVEL AWARD: $1,500 stipend to attend the 2010 SLA Annual Conference. The winner will also receive a certificate of achievement and will be introduced at the Chemistry Division Business Meeting & Breakfast.

ELIGIBILITY: All student members of the SLA Chemistry Division and all new members of the SLA Chemistry Division (individuals who have joined since January 2009) are eligible. All applicants must have joined the SLA Chemistry Division by February 16, 2010. See below for how to join.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE:
Please submit the following:
-A brief essay that: a) clearly articulates your objectives for professional development; and b) indicates what you hope to gain from attending the SLA Annual Meeting. Maximum length: 2 pages.
-Resumé
-Names of two references.
-Brief budget (expected expenses for registration, airfare, lodging, food and/or continuing education course).
Registration in a Chemistry Division or other Continuing Education (CE) course is recommended, but not required.

DEADLINE: All applications for the award must be received by March 1, 2010 (all applicants must have joined the SLA Chemistry Division by February 16, 2010). The winner will be notified March 15, 2010. Essays will be judged by the SLA Chemistry Division Awards Committee.

SUBMIT APPLICATION VIA EMAIL TO:
Cory Craig
University of California, Davis
Physical Sciences & Engineering Library
One Shields Avenue
Davis, California 95616-8676 cjcraig@ucdavis.edu

SLA CHEMISTRY DIVISION SPARKS AWARD: http://www.sla.org/division/dche/sparks.htm

HISTORY: The award is named to honor Marion E. Sparks, a chemistry librarian at the University of Illinois from 1913 until her death in 1929. Ms. Sparks contributed a great deal to the field of chemical information, her achievements include teaching courses on chemical information, and authoring and publishing what is argued to be the first book to formally address chemical literature and library instruction.

Want to join the Chemistry Division of SLA?
Not a member of SLA? Use this link to join SLA: http://www.sla.org/content/membership/joinsla/index.cfm
When you join SLA, you can also join one division for free, additional divisions are $18/year.

Already an SLA member? To join the Chemistry Division either: 1) Download the SLA Change/Add Units form: http://www.sla.org/content/membership/unitchange.cfm and fax or mail it to SLA. Or 2) Call 1-703-647-4936 and pay with a credit card. When you join SLA, you can also join one division for free, additional divisions are $18/year.

The Vote Is In: SLA will remain SLA

With 50 percent of eligible members voting, the proposal to change our name from Special Libraries Association to Association for Strategic Information Professionals was rejected.

YES: 2071
NO: 3225

"Our name will remain," [SLA 2009 President Gloria] Zamora continued, "but we will go forward with developing opportunities for our members to use the Alignment findings to demonstrate their contributions to the organizations that employ them."

"Information and knowledge professionals are critical assets to the organizations that employ them, yet their contributions and capabilities are too often underestimated," said SLA CEO Janice R. Lachance. "The findings of the Alignment Project research will guide SLA in developing services and programs that will more successfully position these professionals in the marketplace and attract the recognition and compensation they deserve."