Minneapolis played host June 5–10 to some 6,100 corporate, sci-tech, law, museum, and other special librarians at the 90th annual conference of the Special Libraries Association, whose theme “Knowledge Leaders for the New Millennium: Creators of the Information Future” challenged them to take an active role as knowledge technicians.
Speaker Stewart Brand, founder of The Whole Earth Catalog and cochair of the Long Now Foundation, offered his ideas on the future: “Right now we’re in the digital dark ages,” he said. “New generations of software and computer platforms make old data unreadable,” resulting in a “catastrophic data loss with no end in sight.” Brand observed that special librarians are in a unique position to solve such problems, since they work “in institutions where digital continuity problems need to be solved.”
Incoming President Susan DiMattia, editor of Cahners’ Library Hotline, addressed her own future at the SLA business meeting by saying that over the next year she will focus on producing a “values toolkit” to demonstrate to corporate managers “the severe risks and costs of not using special librarians” as information gatekeepers.
A full report on the conference is scheduled for the August issue of American Libraries.
Posted June 21, 1999.