Come join the Sierra Nevada Chapter of the Special Libraries Association Happy Hour.

Friday, February 17th at 5:00 (or whenever you can make it) at River City Brewing in Downtown Plaza.

SLA members and non-members are welcome to attend.

This is a perfect opportunity for library school students and new chapter members to meet other librarians in the Sacramento area.

This should be a fun and relaxed atmosphere but we hope it will offer an effective way to make new contacts while building existing relationships.

Bring your business cards!

No Host Bar.

Please let us know if you plan to come so we have an idea of how many people to expect.

We hope to see you there!

Map and Directions | RSVP

If you are interested in a position on the SLA – Sierra Nevada Chapter board in 2012, please let us know! We are looking for volunteers to help with our event planning, publicity and executive board governance.

Positions include:

• Chapter President-elect (serves three years: 1 year as president-elect, 1 year as president, and 1 year as past-president. Responsible for calling executive board meetings, planning programs and making sure the chapter stays on track).
• Secretary (1 year term) (responsible for taking executive board meeting minutes and recording decisions)
• Education and workshop director (1 year term) (responsible for planning educational events)
• Publicity and publications (1 year term) (responsible for publicizing chapter events through mailing lists and our blog, and coordinating blog posts)
• Web/blog manager (1 year term) (responsible for maintaining our wordpress site)
• Membership/networking (1 year term) (responsible for helping recruit members)
• Career guidance (1 year term) (responsible for maintaining job listings and helping with student outreach)
• Chapter archivist (responsible for making sure chapter records are archived)

All terms begin on January 1, 2012, and all board members need to be members of SLA. If you are interested in any of these, or if you are interested in helping out with other aspects of the chapter, please let us know! If you are interested in volunteering but are not sure what role would fit best feel free to ask for more information.  And, if you want to help out without being an officer we also always need ideas and help with events, as well as blog post/newsletter authors.

For more information about the chapter, please see http://sierranevada.sla.org.

If you have questions or would like to volunteer please reply by Wednesday, Dec. 21 to Phoebe Ayers, psayers@ucdavis.edu

Do you know someone who has made a difference in our local chapter? Nominate them for chapter Member of the Year! This award is to honor a member of the Sierra Nevada-SLA chapter who has made a continuing contribution to the chapter, the Special Libraries Association, and the profession — someone who has gone “above and beyond” in their local service. Any person who has been a member of the Sierra Nevada Chapter for the past three years is eligible.

To nominate an individual for this award, please write a brief nomination statement outlining their contributions to the chapter and/or SLA, and send to Phoebe Ayers, psayers@ucdavis.edu by Monday, November 28. The winner will be announced at the Winter membership meeting. Nominations will be reviewed by Phoebe Ayers (current chapter president), Kelly Frietas (past-president) and BJ Combs (incoming president); if you have any questions please contact Phoebe Ayers.

Thursday November 10, 2011 – Thursday November 10, 2011

111 "I" Street

Map and Directions | Register

Description:

Save the date for an exclusive show and tell of the California Railroad Museum Library with the Sierra Nevada SLA chapter!

Where: Old Sacramento, 111 “I” Street
When: Thursday, November 10th at 6 PM
Cost: $5 SLA members/retired, $10 non-members, $2 students/between jobs

Join fellow local librarians for a tour of this unique library, which provides insight into how railroads provided the connective infrastructure for the development of the United States for over a century, much like the Internet provides a connective infrastructure for information today.

When the California State Railroad Museum opened in 1981 the founders realized that a thoughtfully assembled collection of published, manuscript, and pictorial materials would not only enhance the museum's services but also support its conservation and education programs. With this goal in mind, as railroad equipment and artifacts were gathered for study and exhibit, collections staff also acquired documentary materials to form the nucleus of the California State Railroad Museum Library.

This library’s collection focuses on the history of railroads and railroading in California and the adjacent states from the 1850s to the present. Collections also cover selected railroad topics throughout North America, including Canada, Mexico, and Central America. There is a strong emphasis is on acquiring materials relating to the social, economic, political, cultural, technological and environmental impacts that the industry has had, and continues to have, on the region.

Reference sources include a wide range of books, periodicals, railroad association and union publications, ephemera, government documents, and trade catalogues. The Library also collects manuscript materials and corporate records, photographs, maps and engineering drawings. The Library responds to approximately 5,000 requests each year. Our patrons include historians, genealogists, fiction writers, students of all ages, picture researchers, film makers, modelers, and members of the legal and environment-related professions.

The tour will be followed by an optional no-host dinner at Ten22, one of the nearby restaurants in Old Sacramento (see http://ten22oldsac.com/).

Register

Hello, all!

The SNC newsletter has been superseded by this blog. Anything that would have been included in the newsletter will henceforth be included and disseminated here.

Please feel free to post anything that occurs to you. We won’t monitor members’ and friends’ admissions, so go ahead and post anything you think might be appropriate for this community. Thanks!

Buzz Haughton

“Future Ready” presented by Cindy Romaine, SLA President on May 4, 2011
Report written by B.J. Combs, SLA-SNC Vice President-President Elect

Cindy began her presentation stating that changes in lives and careers are necessary irregardless of the economy. She referred to five macro trends in SLA and felt that she would add one more, “the pace of change.” She emphasized that we must take advantage of new technologies, be adaptable, flexible and resilient as she reviewed five “future-ready” trends.

1. Alignment – She emphatically urged the group to look at the “SLA Alignment Project”. Two important points she noted was to use the language and values of the customers we serve and to make clients future ready by focusing on continued learning and value added intelligence
2. Collaboration – Look at and be aware of trends (she cited an example Coca Cola / South America and Water Rights). She pointed out the importance of bringing in other groups into the problem solving process to expand possibilities
3. Adaptable Skills – Unpackaging – look at repackaging of one’s professional skills as an example of personal resilience. Cindy also emphasized sustainability – not by maximizing outcomes but by looking to optimize them.
4. Community – Lead with social well being.
5. Good Enough – not always striving for perfection in all things but to prioritize what is really important.

She strongly suggested checking out a new book by Guy Kawasaki “Enchantment.”

Cindy also referred to several articles worth quick read.  One is a Fast Company article, which is a book except from “Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard” by Chip Heath. It focuses on cloning success rather than focusing on efforts expended on searching for solutions.

She also mentioned a Harvard Business Review – “Sustainable Imperative” which should be available at your public or academic library.

Another interesting link pointed out by Cindy is a presentation by Google Executive Eric Schmidt on the McKinsey Website . The McKinsey Quarterly is a free online publication – but requires a user registration to access full articles and the video at the link above. There are many interesting articles to be found there.

Most of all during her presentation Cindy kept referring back to the “SLA Future Ready Toolkit” – for taking alignment into action – available to SLA members.

Wednesday May 4, 2011 – Wednesday May 4, 2011

3301 Folsom Boulevard

Map and Directions | Register

Description:

Please join the Sierra Nevada chapter of the Special Libraries Association for

an evening with Cindy Romaine, SLA President

• Wednesday, May 4, 2011
• 6:00pm (for networking); 6:30pm-8:30pm (dinner and program)
• 33rd Street Bistro, Sacramento CA (3301 Folsom Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95816)

Cindy is the principle of Romainiacs Intelligence Research in Portland, Oregon and is the 2011 President of the Special Libraries Association. She will speak on being “future ready”: what it means to adopt an attitude of being adaptable, flexible, and confident in utilizing the skills of the information and knowledge professional. Cindy will discuss becoming Future Ready by adopting strategies that will prepare us for emerging opportunities in the information industry. She’ll discuss examples and bright spots.

Don’t miss this chance to network with our association president and your local colleagues over dinner!

• Dinner will be the “Bistro Buffet”, including garden salad, lemon herb grilled chicken, eggplant ratatouille with pasta, and chef’s potato and vegetables, soft drinks, tea and coffee service.
• Price: $35 SLA members, $45 non-members, $30 students/retired.
• Register no later than Friday, April 29. Space is limited!

To register: Please fill out the registration form or RSVP to Phoebe Ayers, psayers@ucdavis.edu or 530-752-9948. You can pay by check, cash or PayPal. To pay by check, make your check payable to “Special Libraries Association” and send to Phoebe Ayers at Physical Sciences & Engineering Library, UC Davis, Davis CA 95616. To pay by PayPal, fill out the registration form.

Register

In addition to the videos of our career day session at Drexel last week, check out the D.C.-area SLA chapter blog for some answers to that question. They are hosting a series called “A Diverse Universe” featuring profiles of some of their members. Check it out!

The Careers in Special Libraries program was a big success! Thank you so much to our panelists and to Toni Carbo and Drexel for hosting us.  The panel session and Q&A was recorded for those who couldn’t make it.

Click to watch video of the Careers in Special Libraries program

We are in the process of changing from our existing website:

http://units.sla.org/chapter/csrn/

to this more modern WordPress site! Please pardon the dust while we migrate!