SLA 2011 Schedule of Events

Here is a list of the News Division programs at the 2011 SLA Conference in Philadelphia. For more information about the conference, check out the Conference Planner on the SLA website.

Saturday, June 11
2:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Tour of the Philadelphia Inquirer

Sunday, June 12
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
News Division Executive Board Meeting

7:00 PM - 10:00 PM
News Division Open House and Silent Auction

Monday, June 13
7:30 AM - 9:00 AM
The Useful Archive
Speakers: Ed Summers, Information Technology Specialist, Library of Congress, and Derek Willis, Researcher, The New York Times
The Linked Data movement is an effort by W3C, the Library of Congress, and others to link heretofore unconnected data and make it findable on the Semantic Web. The session panelists will explain the purposes and goals of linked data, how it works, and how it can make your archives more useful for internal users and external information seekers.

10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Intentional Misinformation on the Internet
Speakers: Anne Mintz, DeskSet Intelligence, and Elizabeth Edwards, Independent
This session will focus on consequential examples of intentional misinformation and remedies for those who are caught unawares.

2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
News Division Business Meeting

7:00 PM - 10:00 PM
News Division Awards Reception

Tuesday, June 14
8:00 AM - 9:30 AM
Researching Privately Held Companies: Information Sources and Techniques That Work
Speakers: August Jackson, Market Intelligence Analyst and Project Manager, Verizon
A key issue facing information and CI professionals is obtaining information on privately held companies. Attendees will learn how to solve one of their biggest information challenges.

12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Taxonomies and News
Speakers: Keith DeWeese, Director, Information and Semantics Management, Tribune Company, and Seth Earley, CEO, Earley & Associates, Inc.
The panel will focus on the automated indexing of news content in the context of ontology development and with taxonomy, controlled vocabulary management, and algorithms/logic/axioms implicit.

Wednesday, June 15
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
"Opening" the Special Library: Open Source, Open Content, Open Data and More
Speakers: Mike Linksvayer, Vice President, Creative Commons, and Amanda Hickman
This session will feature an interactive discussion of the merits and drawbacks of implementing and using these new technologies and protocols. Is “open” reliable, authenticated and trustworthy? Are management and IT on board? The session will include a demonstration by DocumentCloud, an open source document repository/OCR resource for journalists and others working with primary documents.

12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Mining Public Records
Speakers: Bridget Gilhool, Head Librarian, Antitrust Library, U.S. Department of Justice, and Jennifer McMahan, U.S. Department of Justice
Moderator: Marie Kaddell, LexisNexis
This program will cover sites and strategies useful in public records research. We will demonstrate creative ways to use (mostly) free sites on the Web to find location and real property data, birth/death and marriage/divorce records, company affiliations, professional licenses, court records, and more.

--Julie Domel

Visiting the City of Brotherly Love

To help conference-goers prepare for their trip to Philadelphia, News Library News offers a few resources.

"The City of Brotherly Love" was founded by William Penn in 1682, so named because of the easy exchange with the Swedish settlers and others already occupying the land granted to him. Penn had become a Quaker, much to his father's dismay, and hoped to find a place where all could live in peace.

Philadelphia holds an important place in our nation's history. It was where:

• The Continental Congress met


• The Declaration of Independence was signed


• George Washington was elected our first president


• The first mint was located


• The Bank of North America was established

The city also served as our nation's capital until 1800 -- when it was the largest city in the U.S. -- and is where the famous Liberty Bell is located.

Get in touch with the history of Philadelphia with ushistory.org from the Independence Hall Association. At PhillyHistory.org, you can view historic images from the city's photo archive with contributions from several archives and libraries.

The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia is "a civic project to increase understanding of one of America’s greatest cities." The site contains a collection of essays on topics about the history and culture of the city.

The official visitor site can help you find things to do and see during your free bits of time away from the conference.

In addition to the information found on the Convention and Visitors Bureau's site, they also offer an online version -- and a downloadable one for the iPad -- of their Visitors' Guide.

The Philadelphia Inquirer's philly.com offers their own Guide to Philly.

If anyone has any suggestions of not-to-be-missed attractions, restaurants or other places of interest, please leave them in the comments.

--Julie Domel

Aside Bar -- From the Editor

At this time last year, I was pouring over the SLA conference materials and debating which sessions to attend (little did I know what additional obstacles would soon come my way). In New Orleans, we decided to move News Library News over to a blog format, and this year's conference marks the first one we will be tackling that way.

While I wish I could be there with all of you in Philadelphia, I want to try some new things to bring a little bit of the conference to those of us who are unable to attend. I have three volunteers (and would be happy to have more) who will be our eyes and ears at the sessions and events. We will also be thrilled to post any slides or other materials from moderators, presenters and panelists (so send those files and links!). Or you can send us a photo or two from your adventures.

In the coming days we'll be bringing you some additional materials to help you plan your schedule of events -- or perhaps just a list to drool over for those of us attending in spirit.

If you can't make it to Philly, don't lose hope. Summer is a great time to take a moment to learn something new. Perhaps things slow down -- even a little bit -- in your library for you to peruse some new websites; learn how to use something more efficiently, like a new formula in Excel or the search language in your archive system; or a new skill, e.g., a programming language or wiki coding.

Even if vacationing co-workers or unsure interns keep the pace fast, take the time anyway. Just like we all need a vacation from the daily grind to keep us fresh, your brain may like the "fresh air" of something new.

--Julie Domel