Blogging the SLA convention:
Information Today announces they will be covering the convention in their InfoToday Blog. Postings have started already.
Jessica Baumgart says she will be blogging the convention, here and in her own blog. I will also be posting when I can. I'll bring my camera so may be able to post some photos (via Bloggerbot) too. Anyone else want to join in? Just send me an email to edonovan -- at -- gmail.com and I'll invite you to set up your own login. Hope to see some of you in Nashville!

Boston Herald Features John Cronin's Kwapil Award

Today's Boston Herald published an article about their chief librarian, John Cronin, receiving the Special Libraries Association News Division's Joseph E. Kwapil Memorial Award, the division's highest honor.

Update on Webcast test:
From Carolyn Edds:

This is a reminder about the Webcast test to be held this Wednesday from 1:15 to 2:30 CST. The address for the Webcast (both test and live version) will be http://stream.ire.org:8080/ramgen/encoder/slanews.rm

The test is for you. If you plan to listen to this session on Wednesday, June 9, try to tune in this Wednesday to see if you can hear everything fine. If you experience any technical difficulties, contact your IT department to resolve them.

Conference Web feed test:
Via IRE's Carolyn Edds, info on one of the most popular sessions to be held in Nashville, available in audio on the Web:

Once again, Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) is proud to offer its Web streaming services to the SLA News Division to Webcast a session during the annual SLA conference. The session to be Webcast is:

Wednesday, June 9, 1:15 to 2:30 p.m.
Extreme Searching (Practitioner's Toolkit).
Speaker: Gary Price
Looking for web search tricks that will wow the newsroom? Trying to fine-tune your knowledge of searching on the web? Come hear the expert talk about what's new and share tips and tricks that you can bring back.
Sponsor: RefUSA

We will run a test of the Webcast next Wednesday, May 26th, from 1:15 to 2:30 p.m. This is Central Standard Time. For those that plan to tune in during the conference, this will give you an opportunity to check your computer setup to see if everything works correctly. I will send out the URL for the test and another reminder next week.

New design for NewsliBlog:
Jessica found a problem with the permalinks, not long after I attempted to enable Comments in the blog. I had a lot of trouble with it, but as long as I was tweaking the template, figured it was time to try one of the new snazzy Blogger designs. Finally (it took a bit of work) it all seems to be working. How do you like it? -- Liz

Spring 2004 News Library News (.pdf)
The Spring 2004 News Library News is now available on the News Division Web site. It includes features on Nashville, the division's award winners, and a profile of The Tennessean in preparation for the 2004 Special Libraries Association Annual Conference. The essay Vormelker-Thomas Student Award recipient Amy Disch submitted with her application, about recruiting news librarians, is also in this issue. Leigh Montgomery reports on the Poynter Seminar about the future of news libraries.

--Jessica Baumgart, SLA News Division Webmaster

Researcher credit:
In the Christian Science Monitor, A Portrait of Who They Were, on military casualties, with credit to Leigh Montgomery and Alan Messmer of the library staff. It's not unusual for newspapers to credit researchers any more, but in this case the staff was cited for statistical analysis of casualty data.

(Added May 14: Leigh Montgomery lists some of the resources they used in this compilation in the Liblog on the Monitor's Web site.)

-- Liz Donovan

Researcher credits:
Via Margot Williams, news of two major researcher credits in the May 2 Washington Post:

Bobbye Pratt got a byline on a story about the hunt for a student 50 years after Brown v Board of
Education, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59895-2004May1.html.

Margot also got a byline for her contributions to the Guantanamo project,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58702-2004May1.html, including a database she compiled of the names of the detainees:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/guantanamo_names.html.
Great work.

-- Liz Donovan

Info about Nashville and Belle Meade Plantation
The March 2004 Sky magazine explores Nashville, site of the Special Libraries Association 2004 Annual Conference. About Belle Meade Plantation, location for the SLA News Division Awards Banquet, it says, "The ornate Victorian interiors at Belle Meade, once a renowned thoroughbred stud farm, are filled with memorabilia dedicated to its most famous resident, Iroquois, who in 1881 became the first American-bred horse ever to win England’s Epsom Derby. You can see paintings of the four-legged champ, his trophies and a macabre, though fascinating, Tiffany inkwell made of silver and his hooves. But that didn’t spell an end to Iroquois’ legacy. Among his descendants are some 52 Kentucky Derby winners, including Secretariat; and each May he is remembered when Nashville hosts the Iroquois Steeplechase."

--Jessica Baumgart