SLA Europe has announced the winners of the 2013 Europe Early Career Conference Awards. The ECCAs are sponsored jointly with the Business & Finance, Leadership & Management, Legal, and Pharmaceutical & Health Technology Divisions of SLA to provide valuable opportunities for new professionals to develop and establish themselves within their chosen sector.

Congratulations to the winners, who will attend the SLA Conference & INFO-EXPO in San Diego from 9th-11th June 2013: Penny Andrews, Lizzie Caperon, Lauren Lawler, and Laura Williams!

Lauren Lawler is co-sponsored by the Legal Division (supported by Jones McClure). She is the Assistant Knowledge Services Manager at A&L Goodbody Solicitors in Dublin. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in Library and Information Studies from University College Dublin, and a postgraduate diploma in Public Relations from the Fitzwilliam Institute.

Announcing the winners, SLA Europe President Stephen Phillips said:

“I would like to congratulate Penny, Lizzie, Lauren, and Laura on being selected for our prestigious Early Career Conference Award. With over 30 applications for the four awards, this year’s judging has been very challenging.  For the lucky winners, this award gives them an amazing opportunity to enhance their careers and invest in their future professional development by attending conference and building a network throughout SLA. 

On behalf of SLA Europe and the divisional sponsors, I would like to thank everyone that applied. I would like to extend my thanks to the judges who gave their time to evaluate all the entries. Finally, I would like to thank Lyndsay Rees-Jones and Simon Barron, co-chairs of the SLA Europe Awards Committee. They have done a fantastic job to coordinate and deliver the whole programme. Without their hard work and dedication, none of this would be possible.

I look forward to meeting all the ECCA winners at the SLA Conference in San Diego in June 2013.  I also hope they will help make SLA Europe an even more vibrant community, by becoming involved in our activities in the coming weeks and months.”

Additional information about the other award recipients is available at SLA Europe’s website.

On behalf of the Legal Division, it is with great pleasure to announce the recipients of our 2013 travel grants to the San Diego conference!

• Thomson Reuters Westlaw U.S. Law Librarian New Member Grant – Sonya M. Durney, Business and Government Team Leader at the Portland Public Library in Portland, Maine. Sonya is a member of the New England Chapter.

Sonya Durney is the Business and Government Team Leader at the Portland Public Library in Portland, Maine. She moved to Maine from Boston after completing her MLS at Simmons College in 2010. She currently serves as the Employment Chair for SLA New England. With SLA San Diego being her first conference, she looks forward to networking and learning as much as possible. She also hopes to sneak in a surf session in the warm California water!

• LexisNexis U.S. Law Librarian Veteran Member Grant – Jeffrey M. Nelson, Research Services Manager at Squire Sanders (US) LLP in Miami, Florida. Jeff is a member of the Florida & Caribbean Chapter.

Jeffrey Nelson is the Research Services Manager at the Miami office of Squire Sanders LLP. After accepting his current position less than a year ago, Jeffrey relocated to South Florida from Washington, DC where he had worked in law firms for five years. He currently serves as the South Florida Regional Contact for the SLA Florida & Caribbean Chapter. As a conference first-timer, Jeffrey is looking forward to meeting other SLA members and hopes to gain innovative ideas to share with colleagues at his place of work and in his local library community.

• Non-U.S. Law Librarian Grant – Samuel H. Wiggins, Information Officer at Norton Rose LLP in London, England. Sam is a member of the Europe Chapter.

Sam Wiggins is an Information Officer at Norton Rose LLP in London. Prior to taking up his current role, Sam completed his MA in Librarianship at the University of Sheffield.  He currently serves as the SLA Europe Chapter’s Events Chair, sits on the Chapter’s board, and is the Legal Division’s Ethics Ambassador. Sam also helps to run #uklibchat, a monthly twitter discussion tackling current issues affecting the library and information community. Sam hopes to both bring a UK perspective to the conference, as well as learn about solutions to problems affecting the information industry from North American and international delegates. Sam regularly blogs and tweets in a personal capacity on his thoughts about the issues facing information professionals.

We have a great many extraordinary SLA members, which makes the judges’ job very difficult.

Special thanks to Grants Committee members Jessica King (Pacific Northwest Chapter), Dagfinn Senturia (Rocky Mountain Chapter) and Past Chair Tracy Z. Maleeff (Philadelphia Chapter) for their work on this year’s awards.

Please join me in congratulating our 2013 recipients.

See you in San Diego!

Tricia Thomas
SLA Legal Division Chair

The Legal Division of the Special Libraries Association is offering three travel grants to attend the 2013 SLA Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO in San Diego, California from June 9 – 11, 2013. The deadline for applications is March 8, 2013.

The grant is intended to defray actual expenses but may not be sufficient to meet all expenses of attending the conference. The applicant is advised to plan and budget accordingly. The applicant must be a current member of SLA and the Legal Division, and meet the specific membership length requirements as listed for each award. Current Legal Division Executive Board members are not eligible to apply.

Only actual eligible expenses up to and not exceeding the grant amount will be reimbursed.  Please see the list of reimbursable and non-reimbursable conference expenses listed in this application. Membership will be verified with SLA headquarters. Expenses will be reimbursed to the winner after the conference ends, provided that the obligations and agreements outlined below have been satisfied to the Chair’s approval. SLA Legal Division reserves the right to deny reimbursement of expenses for failure to comply with the conditions stated herein. SLA Legal Division also reserves the right to not issue a travel grant award if there are no applicants or unsatisfactory applications, as determined by the Chair.

The 2013 SLA Legal Division travel grants:

• Thomson Reuters Westlaw U.S. Law Librarian New Member

(Legal Division member for a minimum of 12 months, not exceeding 24 months at the time of application) – USD $1,500

• LexisNexis U.S. Law Librarian Veteran Member

(Legal Division member 24 months or longer) – USD $1,500

• Non-U.S. Law Librarian

(Legal Division member for a minimum of 12 months at the time of application. Must live and work outside of the U.S. and not be a U.S. citizen.) – USD $3,000

The applicant must be a current member of SLA and of the Legal Division. Current Legal Division Executive Board members are not eligible.  Past Executive Board members may apply for travel grants one year after his or her term ended.  Past travel grant winners may apply for another award after five years have passed since his or her last bursary award. Recipients of the SLA Europe Chapter’s ECCA grant may apply for the Legal Division’s Non-U.S. award one year after receiving that bursary.

See the application for full information and details.

For further information please contact:

Tracy Z. Maleeff
SLA Legal Division Grants Committee Chair
Duane Morris LLP
30 South 17th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Phone (215) 979-1726 / Fax (215) 979-1020
E-mail: TZMaleeff@duanemorris.com

SLA Europe is pleased to offer four 2013 Early Career Conference Awards (ECCAs) jointly with the Business & Finance, Leadership & Management, Legal, and Pharmaceutical & Health Technology Divisions of SLA. This year’s Early Career Conference Awards will provide valuable opportunities for new professionals to develop and establish themselves within their chosen sector.

About the Award

The Early Career Conference Award (ECCA) was established in 2007. The purpose of the award is to provide the opportunity for those at the start of their career to attend the SLA Annual Conference, and benefit from the networking opportunities that SLA and SLA Europe provide.

The Awards:

The Awards allow winners to attend the 2013 SLA Annual Conference and INFO-EXPO in San Diego, 9 – 11 June 2013.

Each Award is worth about $4000. It covers the full cost of Conference registration, hotel lodging, economy return airfare to San Diego, and meals and appropriate incidental expenses.

Award winners will be assigned to one of the four SLA Divisions co-sponsoring the Award and will be paired with a mentor from that SLA Division. Their mentor will brief them before the Conference, give guidance during the Conference, and maintain a link to the Division following the Conference.

Apply by February 15, 2013. See the application guidelines for further information.

Contact: Simon Barron and Lyndsay Rees-Jones, our Early Careers Co-Chairs, for further information.

Previous ECCA Winners

2012 – Chicago

Simon Barron graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2010 with an MA in Library and Information Management. Following work for Nord Anglia Education as an Assistant Librarian at the Army Foundation College’s library for Junior Soldiers, Simon took up the role of E-resources Co-ordinator at Durham University Library. Simon was co-sponsored by the Science-Technology Division (the Diane K Foster International Student Travel Award)

Marie Cannon is currently enrolled on the MA Library and Information Studies course at University College London, and works as a Library Assistant at London Business School. Prior to this, Marie worked as a Graduate Library Assistant at Norton Rose LLP. Marie was co-sponsored by the Legal Division (supported by Jones McClure).

Ruth Jenkins is currently enrolled on the MA Librarianship course at the University of Sheffield, following a graduate traineeship at the Bodleian Social Science Library at the University of Oxford. Ruth has also worked as a library assistant in a public library and Devon School Library Service. Ruth was co-sponsored by the Business and Finance Division.

Giles Lloyd-Brown is a Senior Library Assistant at Cardiff University Health Library. He graduated from the University of Aberystwyth in 2012 with an MScEcon in Information and Library Studies, where his dissertation was on the influence of web 2.0 on academic library OPACs. Giles is currently undertaking CILIP Chartership. Giles was co-sponsored by the Pharmaceutical and Health Technology Division.

Sarah Wolfenden graduated from University College London with an MA in Library and Information Studies in 2008. Since then, she has worked as Higher Education Advisor at Kingston College, overseeing the running of the Higher Education Centre which caters for approximately 1800 students. Sarah was co-sponsored by the Leadership & Management Division.

2011 – Philadelphia

Chris Cooper is an Information Specialist at the Peninsula Technology Assessment Group, where he specialises in health technology assessments. Chris graduated from University College London in 2009 with an MA in Information Studies, and is currently undertaking a PhD at King’s College London. Chris was co-sponsored by the Pharmaceutical & Health Technology Division.

Natalia Madjarevic graduated from University College London in 2009 with an MA in Library and Information Studies. Prior to this, Natalia did a traineeship at The Guardian & The Observer Research and Information Department. She currently works at Queen Mary University of London as Information Assistant – Electronic Services. Natalia was co-sponsored by the Business & Finance Division.

Ned Potter works in the field of digitisation at the University of Leeds. Ned graduated from the University of Northumbria in 2009 with an MSc in Information and Library Management. Ned is professionally very active, and is the founder of the LIS New Professionals Network (LISNPN). Ned was co-sponsored by the Leadership & Management Division.

Samuel Wiggins is currently enrolled on the MA Librarianship course at the University of Sheffield, where he plans to write his dissertation on ‘the effect of pay-wall and changing business models on information management in legal firms’. Before starting his MA, Samuel was a graduate trainee at Norton Rose LLP. Samuel was co-sponsored by the Legal Division.

2010 – New Orleans
Philip Gatzke and Chris Rhodes

2009 – Washington
Sara Batts, Annie Richens, Bethan Ruddock, Laura Woods

2008 – Seattle
Hannah Lewin, Sarah Hammond, Emma Dhesi and Sandy Peterson

2007 – Denver (English pdf / German pdf)
Verena Till