News Division Publications Annual Report
Elisabeth L. Donovan
Publications Director
Special Libraries Association Annual Conference 2004

2003 was a year of changes for the News Division's publications.

At the annual meeting at the New York SLA conference, members agreed to a proposal to make the News Library News an online-only publication. Starting with the summer issue, the newsletter is published in PDF format and made available on the News Division's Web site. When a new issue comes out, members are informed by a message to the Newslib listserv. A couple members who don't have Web access still get a printed copy of the PDF in the mail.

News Library News editor Ron Larson has kept up the high standards and quality of the publication . Contributing columnists and writers have informed us of new trends in news librarianship and research, and on what's happening with our colleagues. Ron's done a great job of recruiting articles and keeping the publication on track. Ron says: "Besides the change to online, NLN has been fairly constant. No changes or additions over the past year. My job was made very easy by all of the wonderful contributors who always said yes when I called and to our graphic layout person, Cheri Dantin."

The News Division Web site has had a great run under editor Jessica ("j") Baumgart. She's recruited lots of volunteers to keep up the 'orphan' pages and several pages have been totally updated over the last year. j has done an amazing job of getting conference information and other breaking news online in record time.

The Web site is now also supplemented by a Weblog (http://newslib.blogspot.com), where news from members, whether directly or passed on thru the listserv, can be posted and archived for quick reference. The site also has links to news librarian bloggers, and now has comments, a search, and an Atom feed for those who want to get the updates thru a news reader. Right now Liz Donovan and Jessica Baumgart are the primary editors/contributors. But new administrators can be added to the blog, and any news division member who wants to post to the blog can be signed up. We've gotten a few extra posters at times, and hope to get blog posts about the SLA conference during the conference.

Support for the Website continues to come from UNC's Ibiblio and we are very grateful.


Special Libraries Association 2004 Annual Conference
SLA News Division Home

Last Updated: 11/23/04
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