Philadelphia played host June 10–15 to some 7,400 corporate, sci-tech, law, museum, and other special librarians at the 91st annual conference of the Special Libraries Association. The conference theme, “Independence to Interdependence,” called for new ways to manage and disseminate knowledge.
Eschewing a traditional keynote speaker, SLA’s general session offered a different approach: Terry Gross, host of National Public Radio’s Fresh Air, conducted a live interview with David Talbot, founder and editor of Salon online magazine. Talbot, who recently had to lay off 15 employees (including his wife), said he still intends to keep Salon a forum for tough investigative journalism and serious cultural criticism. “If you don’t take risks,” he said, “there’s no reason to come into existence.”
SLA is taking a hard look at its own structure this year: At its winter meeting it set up task forces to look at the association’s image, membership composition, and partnerships with other organizations. Incoming President Donna Scheeder, deputy assistant director of LC’s Congressional Research Service, reminded attendees at the annual business meeting that “Special librarianship was born in answer to the print explosion…. For SLA, change is our tradition; now we must face the challenges of the information revolution.”
A full report on the conference is scheduled for the August American Libraries.
Posted June 19, 2000.