News Division Program for the
Special Libraries Association Annual Conference 2005

June 4 - 9, 2005 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

More information about the conference, including information about hotels and online registration, is available on the Special Libraries Association Web site Toronto 2005. SLA offers special registration deals, like a discount for early registration, a special price for attending on one day, and automatic SLA membership for nonmembers paying the complete nonmember price for the conference.

If you have questions about the News Division activities available during the SLA Annual Conference, please contact Denise Jones, chair-elect of the News Division. She is in charge of conference programming this year. Her e-mail address is djones@newsobserver.com.

More information about News Division offerings at the conference will appear on this page as information about them becomes available.

A .pdf version of the News Division activities is available in the Winter 2005 News Library News.

The News Division Suite is in the Fairmont Royal York Hotel, 100 Front Street West. No room number is yet available, but the confirmation information we have on hand says it is a Frontenac Suite. The suite will be open Saturday, Sunday, and Monday nights. Please join us! (News Division members: don't forget to pay your suite fees!)

Room numbers refer to rooms in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre unless otherwise noted.

A few people may be blogging the conference on NewsliBlog, the News Division's weblog.

Activities by Date

Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday

Additional Information

News Division Suite
General Toronto Information
What to Wear
What to Attend

Saturday, June 4

2:00-5:00 p.m.
Tour of the Toronto Star Library

Moderator: Joan Sweeney Marsh
Location: Toronto Star
(SLA has in error that this event requires a ticket.)

Tours will begin at 2:00, 3:00, and 4:00. Please be in Toronto Star lobby 5 minutes before the tour.

To sign-up:
If you plan to attend the tour at the Toronto Star please email Peggy Mackenzie at pmackenzie@thestar.ca to let her know you will be coming.

Directions:
The address of the Toronto Star Newspaper is 1 Yonge Street.

From Fairmont Royal York Hotel: Exit the Royal York Hotel on Front Street. Turn left (east) on Front Street and walk to Yonge Street. Turn right (south) on Yonge Street until you hit Queens Quay. If you head any more south you will end up in Lake Ontario. The Star is on the northeast corner of Yonge and Queens Quay. It is about a 10-15 minute walk.
Map via MapQuest

7:00-11:00 p.m.
Networking in Suite

Location: Fairmont Royal York Hotel
Sponsor: LexisNexis

Sunday, June 5

From professional development coordinator Jim Hunter's e-mail to Newslib:

8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
CE: Blogging for News: Creating and managing weblogs and newsfeeds

Blogging for News presents the phenomenon of weblogs and newsfeeds in a practical and understandable way to librarians and news researchers who are unfamiliar with the potential of this powerful communications tool. The presentations will focus on how the technology works; it's interactive advantages; and how weblogs feed content to one another. Class size is limited to 25 because we want to make the class as interactive and (we hope) as hands-on as possible. If demand warrants, we may do 2 classes.

Blogging For News should be very informative, challenging and fun. Jessica Baumgart, the News Division webmeister and Blogger Extrordinaire is organizing and teaching the course. Liz Donovan of The Miami Herald will present. Both have experience blogging on multiple blogs. Donovan blogs on The Miami Herald's public Web site.
Ticketed Event: Ticket # 255: $199 for members and $299 for nonmembers
Location: 206D
**Note:** This class is sold out.

1:00-4:00 p.m.
CE: Design for News: A live tour of five newsroom intranets

Design For News will explore five newsroom intranets using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to gain real time access to these websites. Library managers of the presentation websites will offer a description and explanation of the hardware and software that supports the Intranet and discuss design and usability issues as well as the degree of difficulty involved in creating high-powered Intranets. Each Intranet Webmaster will discuss the technology used, development cycle and plans for future development.

As of today, I have two newspapers signed up and will be looking for additional media sites. Intranets are the most powerful content distribution platforms we have -this course will be a look at the state of the art. I will also ask for extenisive documentation, PPTs and screenshots so we can update the Intranet content area on the news Division website. Class size 50. If anyone has any questions or comments please direct them to me, I would love to hear them.
Ticketed Event: Ticket # 380: $199 for members and $299 for nonmembers
Location: 201A

2:30 p.m.
LexisNexis presentation

LexisNexis will present a program on their newest product offerings in the division suite. "Come learn how to optimize your Content Management System with LexisNexis Integration Solutions. Come hear how Taxonomy Integration can enhance your organization's archiving & retrieval systems." All Division members are welcome.
Location: Fairmont Royal York Hotel

7:00-11:00 p.m.
Networking in Suite

The open house begins at 7:00pm... But come early! Heritage Microfilm representatives will be available to discuss their NewspaperARCHIVE.com products and services, starting at 6:00. They will also begin collecting contact information for the 10:00 FREE DIGITIZATION Drawing. The winning Newspaper will receive free digitization and hosting of their entire microfilm and/or PDF archive.
Location: Fairmont Royal York Hotel
Sponsor: Heritage Microfilm

Monday, June 6

7:30-9:00 a.m.
Vendor roundtable - public record vendors

A chance to meet and talk with the public records vendors. How is the data compiled? Where does it come from? How do vendors ensure accuracy - or do they? What is credit header data? What's on the horizon for privacy concerns?
Moderator: Leigh Poitinger, San Jose Mercury News
Speakers: Bill Bear, Director of Marketing for ChoicePoint PRG; Chuck Backus, VP of Product Management for LexisNexis; Doug Roesemann, President of the ReferenceUSA Division of InfoUSA.
Location: 104C

11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Mary Ellen Bates - The Next Information Revolution, and Our Role as Revolutionaries
Looking ahead at the impact of technology and the web on our profession and how we can thrive on this change and turn challenging situations into new opportunities for professional growth.
Speaker: Mary Ellen Bates
Location: 104D
Sponsor: Heritage Microfilm

3:30-5:00 p.m.
News Division business meeting

Location: 104A-B

7:00-11:00 p.m.
Silent Auction and Networking in Suite

Location: Fairmont Royal York Hotel
Sponsor: Proquest

Tuesday, June 7

7:30-9:00 a.m.
Top Ten Tips: Ten ideas to make your library more effective.

Great ideas that your colleagues have used to improve their libraries. Ten of the best are shared with you.
Moderator: Judy Grimsley
Location: 204
Sponsor: Factiva

11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Managing Copyright and Leveraging Revenue in Your News Organization

A panel of seasoned copyright experts (not lawyers) will discuss copyright issues including encouraging your newsroom to follow good copyright practices, managing reprint permissions and developing revenue from the repurposing editorial content. If your news organization assumes you are an expert on copyright issues - come join the conversation.
Moderator: Kathy Foley
Speakers: Sharon Clairmont, Orange County Register; Ginny Everett, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Peter Simmons, The New York Times
Location: 206D
Sponsors: Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. and Dialog

1:30-3:00 p.m.
Gary Price - Searcher extraordinaire

Gary's latest discoveries in web searching.
Speaker: Well, Gary Price, of course!
Location: 106
Sponsor: RefUSA, Division of infoUSA

3:30 p.m.
Board meeting in Suite.

Location: Fairmont Royal York Hotel

6:00 p.m.
Awards Banquet

Location: Casa Loma
Ticketed Event #600 and #601 Price: $15/transportation; $85/banquet
Sponsor: ProQuest
Here's Barbara Semonche's page on the banquet, complete with an MP3 of Richard Geiger's song. Lyrics are on NewsliBlog.

Wednesday, June 8

7:00-8:30 a.m.
Ratios, Percentages and Statistics! Oh my!

Do you have trouble balancing your checkbook? Does looking at Census data give you a headache? You're not alone. As a librarian or information provider you may have assumed that you were done with math when you were done with school. But in a news organization, math skills are more important than ever. Researchers need to know how to calculate ratios and percentages and work with statistics. Come learn (or re-learn) these skills and more, then go back and teach your reporters!
Moderator: Megan Gallup
Speakers: Stephen Doig, Arizona State University Cronkite School of Journalism; John Martin, St. Petersburg Times
Location: 104B
Sponsor: LexisNexis

11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Enter the Matrix: Social Network Analysis

Learn how matrices and graphs can be used to unlock seemingly invisible relationships between people, companies, and even terrorist organizations. Learn the concepts and techniques behind SNA. What type of questions should be asked? What type of software should you use? Join panelists as they explain how to create your own ėmatrix revolution.î
Moderator: Kathryn Pease
Speakers: Jaimi Dowell, Investigative Reporters and Editors; Brant Houston, Investigative Reporters and Editors
Location: 104B
Sponsor: LexisNexis

1:30-3:00 p.m.
The Urge to Merge

Consolidation of Graduate Library Schools and Schools of Communication, Information Technology, and other disciplines has become a fact of academic life in the 21st Century. Often as a result of these mergers, graduate library programs and journalism schools coexist under the same academic umbrella, a development that should benefit News Division member libraries. Have these mergers helped to build a better-skilled, more news-library-ready MLS holder? If not, have library programs merely become the "silent partner" of the new model graduate programs?
Moderator: Shira Kavon
Speakers: Michael Koeing, Palmer School of Information Science of Long Island University; David Spencer, University of Western Ontario; Kathleen Hansen, University of Minnesota School of Journalism
Location: 104D

3:30-5:00 p.m.
Research Management Trends: Getting ahead of the questions

What happens when you combine research management software including virtual reference applications and, knowledge management techniques to order and respond to the conflicting demands of newsroom research projects? What best practices are colleagues employing to facilitate knowledge sharing among de-centralized research staff? Is the investment worth it? The speakers for this session will attempt share techniques, evaluations of software and provide time for best practice sharing among the attendees.
Moderator: Donna Scheeder
Location: 104D
Sponsor: EOS International

7:00 p.m.-
Before dinner four Toronto librarians have offered to accompany a few ėdinner buddyî groups to dinner at restaurants near The 360 and then guide you from dinner to The 360 for an evening of rockin'.

Four restaurants have been selected and details are below. Dinner will be Dutch-treat and restaurant reservations will be made based on how many sign up with each group. Sign-up with the designated guide, meet at the restaurant at 7:00 and then join everyone after dinner, at 8:30-9:00, at The 360 for the Wild Librarians Wingding.

The restaurants are all on Queen St., which is only five blocks and an easy walk from the convention center.

8:30 p.m.-
Toronto's best Media Band, The Globe and Mail's Executive Garage Band, will be performing at The 360 in downtown Toronto. Doors will open at 8:30 and there is no cover charge. View the flyer.

Thursday, June 9

11:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Sold Out
Lunch on the 10th floor of the CBC Building, the speaker will be Evan Solomon, co-host of CBC News Sunday and host of Hot Type, a book show in which he interviews fiction and non-fiction writers. Lunch will be followed by tours of CBC libraries. This tour will be handled by the News Division and pre-registration is required. Lunch and tour will be limited to 50 people and cost will be $20.

From Michele Melady via Newslib: "If you wish to attend the lunch and tour of the CBC Libraries taking place at the SLA Conference on Thurs. June 9 from 11:30 a.m - 2:00 p.m., please send an email to Michele_Melady@cbc.ca.

The first 50 respondents will be placed on the guest list. One name per email please. No telephone registration please. I will reply to the successful registrants with an email confirming that they are on the guest list and supplying payment instructions. Cost will be $25.00 Cdn / $20.00 USD."
Moderator: Michele Melady, CBC
Speaker: Evan Solomon
Location: CBC
Ticketed Event: $20
Sold out!

If you have questions about the News Division activities available during the SLA Annual Conference, please contact Denise Jones, chair-elect of the News Division. She is in charge of conference programming this year. Her e-mail address is djones@newsobserver.com


General Information About Toronto

SLA recommends visiting the official site of Tourism Toronto for information about the city.

What to Wear

Some good advice for almost any SLA conference is to wear comfortable walking shoes and bring leg and/or foot lotion for sore muscles. It's also a good idea to bring a sweater or jacket for cold lecture halls. How people dress varies. Business casual is the median. Some people choose to wear formal business attire; and, there are always people in shorts and jeans, too. People usually dress up for some of the fancier activities, like the Opening Gala and the News Division Awards Banquet. Some events state the dress code.

What to Attend

Go to anything that interests you. The majority of the sessions are open to anyone, regardless of division, caucus, or chapter affiliation. If an event is only for people from a certain division, caucus, or chapter, it will almost always say so.

Walk through the exhibit hall at least once. Some conference-goers plan several hours in their schedule to visit the vendors. Vendors help defray the cost of the conferences and many support SLA activities outside of the conference, so visiting their booths lets them know that their presence is appreciated. It's also a great opportunity to learn about products and professional development resources.

The vendors often have free goodies, like pens, highlighters, and sticko-notes, that are good to grab. Some libraries get their year's supply of pens in the exhibit hall. Some people recommend bringing an extra shipping box to send stuff back to the office or home after the conference because it's easy to get overloaded with free stuff and conference handouts. Sharing conference goodies with coworkers can be a great way to earn brownie points.


Conferences
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Last Updated: 07/28/05
Amy Disch
newsdivisionweb@yahoo.com