Nominations for the International Membership Award are now being accepted by the Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics (PAM) Division of the Special Libraries Association (SLA). The SLA-PAM Division will present this award to a librarian from the developing world; it provides a two-year SLA membership, for the years 2011 and 2012. For complete information, please visit the following web page:

http://units.sla.org/division/dpam/manual/awards/pamimadetails.html

Please submit nominations to the chair of the International Relations Committee (IRC) of the PAM Division (address below) by November 1, 2010. The award will be announced in December 2010. Thank you.

Objective:
The purpose of the award is to provide an opportunity for librarians from the developing world to be an active member of SLA and of SLA-PAM.

Components:

• The award will provide SLA membership, including PAM Division affiliation, for a period of two years.
• The award recipient will serve as a member of PAM’s International Relations Committee (IRC) during the term of the award.
• SLA-PAM will fund the award recipient’s attendance at SLA’s annual conference during the first year of the award, including travel costs, lodging, conference registration, and related expenses. Please note: travel to the conference is contingent on several factors including procurement of a visa to travel to the United States: This is the award recipient’s responsibility.
• The award recipient will prepare a short report on the state of scientific information/libraries in his/her country, to be presented to the membership at the annual SLA conference either in person or in writing.
• The award recipient will also prepare a final report reflecting on his/her experience with PAM and providing recommendations for future improvements to the award program; this report is to be sent before the end of the second year of the award to the PAM Executive Board and PAM IRC.

Qualifications:

• The nominee must reside and work in a developing country and have basic English skills.
• The nominee must be working currently in a library, information center, library school or other information-related capacity, in one of the subject areas related to science and technology. Priority will be given to applicants working in Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics areas.
• The nominee will not have had a previous opportunity to become actively involved in SLA, such as by attending an SLA conference or other professional library association meetings in the U.S.

Nomination Process:
Self nominations are encouraged. Nomination documentation should include the following:

• A letter highlighting the candidate’s professional career and qualification and explaining why this person should be granted the award.
• The candidate’s current professional resume.
• Contact information for the nominee: name, position, business address, and (if possible) email address.

Nominations are to be submitted by 1 November, 2010, to the PAM IRC chair, and the award recipient will be announced in December. Selection will be made by the PAM Executive Board in consultation with the PAM IRC Chair/Co-Chair.

Please submit nominations to:

Kiem-Dung Ta
Chair, SLA-PAM International Relations Committee
Oklahoma State University
Edmon Low Library, #306
Stillwater, OK 74078
Phone: (405) 744-9743 | Fax: (405) 744-7579 |
Email: kiem.ta@okstate.edu

I am preparing to give a talk at the joint AAAS/AAPT meeting in Chicago next month on the topic Social Networking for New and Cross-over Physics Teachers. At Cornell our Vice Provost for Outreach has made it a priority to reach out to the wider education community. I have several projects designed for use by science teachers at all levels.

My first step in preparing a talk was a literature review. I came across the TappedIn system. The more I learn, the better I like it. I wondered if anyone out there has had experience with it.

Pat

The Prez of SLA is singing (kinda) at Internet Librarian. Note, this has some rated R language in the verbiage.

Sending out any paper mail? Use the SLA centennial celebration stamp. Thanks to Mary Ellen Bates for finding this.

Just finished “first sweep” of INFO-EXPO. This seems to me the first time I’ve seen in the conf program an index of “giveaways” where that means raffle items. My “game” this time is not to pick up anything bigger than the palm of my hand, and no pens, unless it’s something new. Congrats to Annual Reviews, Inc on their ChicoBags as “green” takeaways.

Try Steelhead Diner, near Pike Pl Mkt.

Great food.

I have become very interested in the interconnections between librarians, library societies and other professional organizations. I would like to meet with others who are intereted in this topic.

Pat Viele

I lurk on the information literacy-l listserv. This material was mentioned, and I thought it might be of interest to others.

Pat

Hi All- we just got a few spam comments so I turned on comment moderation. Comments are encouraged and I’ll approve them quickly. Please e-mail me if you have any questions or need help – cpikas {at} gmail {dot} com or the e-mail address listed in the PAM member directory.

There was a good turnout for this session. I was sitting next to Jane Kinney Meyers, who won an SLA award yesterday for her work creating the Lubuto Library Project.

The IMA winner, Shahid Saroya, gave an interesting presentation on his institution and the HEC National Digital Library in Pakistan.

Evivva Weinraub from Yale spoke on the OARE project, providing free access to research in the environment for developing countries.

Daviees Menefe from Elsevier talked about their involvement in the HINARI (health research), AGORA (agricultural research) & OARE projects.