Will you be in Philadelphia? If you are, please make some time to stop by the Transportation Division’s sponsors’ booths in the exhibit hall. (Before you do, check out this blog post about tips for talking to vendors.)

Let them know how much you (we) appreciate their support. These partnerships are what make it possible for us to host sessions, hold our business meeting, and get together for socializing and networking at our yearly reception.

Here’s whom to see and where to go:

• OCLC – booth 1028 – sponsoring GTRIC (Sunday, 6/12, 8:00 am – 3:30 pm, Convention Center Room 103A)
• J.J. Keller & Associates, Inc. – booth 1423 – sponsoring Mary Ellen Bates’ session, “OMG, the Millennials are Coming!” (Monday, 6/13, 2:00 – 3:30 pm, Convention Center Room 114)
• ASCE – booth 701 – sponsoring our annual business meeting and luncheon (Tuesday, 6/14, 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm, Convention Center Room 110AB)
• Dialog – booth 900 – sponsoring the Transportation Division networking reception (Tuesday, 6/14, 6:30 – 8:30 pm, William Penn Room, McCormick and Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant, 1 South Broad St.)

GTRIC
(Government Transportation Research Information Committee)
Transportation Division – Sunday, June 12, 2011 – 8:00 am to 3:30 pm
Convention Center Room 103A
At the SLA Annual Conference, Philadelphia
Agenda

Casual networking breakfast - 8:00 – 8:30 am

• 8:30 – 8:40 -  Welcome:  (John Cherney, Chair-Transportation  Division)
• 8:40 – 9:40 – Introduction/overview/round robin/library updates (Sheila Hatchell, Director, Minnesota DOT Library, GTRIC Moderator and Chair – elect, Transportation Division)
• 9:40 – 10:00 – New Transportation Division Web site update/goals – (Kendra Levine, UC- Berkeley and Chair Elect-Elect, Transportation Division)

Break – 10:00 – 10:15 am

• 10:15 – 10:35 – New Library Connectivity and Development Pooled Fund, TPF-5(237) - overview/update – (A.J. Million, Missouri DOT Library and Maggie Sacco, HSInFocus Library Consultants)
• 10:35 – 11:30 – NTKN (National Transportation Knowledge Network) update and open forum (Amanda Wilson, United States DOT Library/all)

Lunch – 11:30 am – 12:15 pm

• 12:15 – 12:55 – Use of eReaders:  MnDOT Library’s experience using Kindles (Karen Neinstadt, Minnesota DOT Library)
• 12:55 – 1:35 – Transportation Librarian Roundtables: a look back at their effectiveness/topical analysis (Bob Cullen, American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO))

Break – 1:35 – 1:45 pm

• 1:45 – 2:20 Organizing a local history collection in your library: the Iowa DOT experience (Hank Zaletel, Head Librarian, Iowa DOT/Iowa State University Transportation Research Institute)
• 2:20 – 2:40 – Gift Management for Transportation Libraries  – Summary – (Roberto Sarmiento, Northwestern Transportation Library)
• 2:40 – 3:30 – Use of Archon for Encoded Archival Description to describe archives, historical materials, gray literature, and gifts.  (Paul Burley, Technical Services, Northwestern Transportation Library)

Adjourn – 3:30 pm

This Thursday, June 9th at 2:00pm Eastern, the Transportation Librarians Roundtable will feature a report and update of the efforts of the NTKN Cooperative Cataloging group.

To participate, access the following web site: http://fhwa.acrobat.com/translibrarian.
Phone number (for audio portion): 1-570-310-0170 ; pass code: 958303

To help ensure that your system is properly configured for participation in the web conference, please use the following link to test your setup: http://admin.acrobat.com/common/help/en/support/meeting_test.htm.

Printer-friendly format
Reminder:  The session,  Energy Issues in Libraries (Wed. June 15, 10:00 – 11:30 am) has been cancelled by the Environment and Resource Management Division.

Saturday, June 11

• Transportation Division no-host dinner
  6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
  Portofino Restaurant
  1227 S. Walnut St.
  Philadelphia, PA  19107
  215-923-8208
  Reservation under ‘SLA Transportation’
  Contact:  Sabina Tannenbaum (w) 215-641-8833, (cell) 215-837-8652 and email (preferred) stannenbaum@ltk.com

 Sunday, June 12 

• GTRIC Roundtable
  8:00 am – 3:30 pm
  Convention Center Room 103A
  Breakfast/informal networking from 8:00-8:30 am
  Program starts at 8:30 am (final session agenda forthcoming shortly).
  Lunch will be served at 11:30 am

 Monday, June 13 

• Transportation Division Board Meeting
  8:00 am – 9:30 am
  Convention Center Room 300
   
• OMG: The Millennials Are Coming!
  2:00 – 3:30 pm
  Convention Center Room 114
  Co-hosted with Education Division and the Retired Members Caucus.
  Speaker: Mary Ellen Bates, Owner, Bates Information Services, Inc.
  Abstract:  Mary Ellen Bates presents another one of her ever-popular sessions, this one focusing on the digital perspective of Generation M as they enter the workforce, bringing with them different ways of working and different expectations. “Older” workers are accustomed to working face to face, not with those who communicate primarily by texting. Let’s see what we can learn from each other.
• Success Stories of Solos
  4:00 – 5:30 pm
  Convention Center Room 104B
  Co-hosted with Solo Librarians Division
  Speakers: 
  Eileen Boswell (from our Transportation Division!), Information Specialist, Community Transportation Association of America
  Beth Maser, Senior Director Professional Services, LAC Group
  Lee Ann Benkert, Resource Center Manager, National Security Space Institute.
  Moderator:  Susan Morley, Manager, Information and Knowledge Management.
  Abstract:  Success is measured in a variety of ways. In a reception-style atmosphere, participants will share their stories of solo librarianship success. Come find out how others have broken down walls and created innovative services, and share your own story!  Attendee participation is encouraged.

 Tuesday, June 14 

• Transportation Division Business Meeting and Luncheon
  12:00 – 1:30 pm
  Convention Center Room 110AB
• Transportation Division Networking Reception
  6:30 – 8:30 pm
  William Penn Room
  McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant
  1 South Broad Street
  Philadelphia, PA 19107
  *Please note that the SLA online scheduler incorrectly states our time for this event as 7:00-10:00 pm

Wednesday, June 15

This session has been cancelled by the Environment and Resource Management Division

•  Energy Issues in Libraries: Biofuels and Other Alternative Energies
  10:00 – 11:30 am
  Convention Center Room 106A
  Co-hosted with Environment & Resource Management Division,
  Biomedical & Life Sciences Division, Chemistry Division, Food, Agriculture & Nutrition Division and Petroleum & Energy Resources Division
  Abstract:  Learn more about biofuels and alternative energies as we discuss major initiatives and state and federal regulatory efforts. We’ll also explore how libraries can be prepared to handle questions on these hot topics. 



• Field Trip to the Arcadia Fine Arts Library at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
  12:00 – 1:30 pm
  Arcadia Fine Arts Library
  Samuel M. V. Hamilton Building, third floor
  128 North Broad Street
  215-972-2030
  Speaker:  Brian Duffy, Head Librarian
  Abstract:  Visit includes a tour of the library’s new space, information about digitization activities via their scanner station and slide collection, and a look at their online digitization project, ARTstor. The library is one block from the convention center.  Please contact John Cherney (608-320-4531 or john.cherney@dot.wi.gov) ahead of time if you plan on attending to give Brian a head count for the tour.  We will meet at the Registration Center in the Pennsylvania Convention Center. 

Have you received your new issues of Public Roads yet? In the the May/June 2011 issue is a fantastic article from Transportation Division member Jennifer Boteler entitled “Masters of Information”. The article highlights several ways the transportation library community is an important arm of transportation research, collaborating across organizations and disciplines. Great work, Jennifer!

On April 20, Barbara Post of the Transportation Research Board was presented with the 2010 Raymond Von Dran Memorial Award by the School of Library and Information Science at the Catholic University of America. The award is given once annually to a CUA/SLIS alum who exemplifies Von Dran’s qualities of innovation, collaboration, and leadership.

Barbara Post has been a librarian with TRB for almost 30 years. She oversees the TRB library and the bibliographic database, Transportation Research Information Service (TRIS), a database of over 730,000 bibliographic records of transportation research, which makes it the largest transportation research database in the world. Barbara has been instrumental in innovations to keep TRIS relevant and to expand its accessibility, functionality and content from an era when all TRIS searches were done by TRB staff on a proprietary system, to an era when TRB forged relationships with commercial vendors to provide remote access, to the emergence of the World Wide Web as a platform for the delivery of the first publicly accessible version of TRIS. She has also collaborated with transportation libraries in Sweden, the Netherlands, Canada and Australia to share their records with TRIS.

Barbara is an active member of the Transportation Division of SLA, in particular, the annual Government Transportation Research Information Committee’s (G-TRIC) program at SLA’s annual conference. Her innovation, collaboration, and leadership are evidenced in the many ways she has contributed to the world of transportation research, and by the many people in transportation librarianship she has influenced, mentored, and inspired.

With Barbara at the ceremony were three of the seven people who nominated her for this award: Jessica Fomalont of TRB, Nelda Bravo of the Federal Highway Administration, and Eileen Boswell of the Community Transportation Association of America.

Left to right, Jessica Fomalont, Barbara Post, Nelda Bravo, Eileen Boswell
(Originally posted by Eileen Boswell)

Dear colleagues,

I’m excited and honored to be chair of the SLA Transportation Division for 2010, following in the footsteps of Rita Evans, our new past chair. Thank you, Rita, for your excellent leadership of the Division; you are a true role model!

A few initiatives the Board and I hope to focus on this year include:
1) A new award for Division members, to be unveiled at the SLA Annual Conference in June
2) The development of a strategic plan for the Division
3) Membership growth

The SLA Annual Conference will be June 12-16 in New Orleans, Louisiana. I encourage all of you to attend. Registration is now open at http://www.sla.org/content/Events/conference/ac2010/index.cfm; register by April 2 for the best rate.

Highlights of the conference include:

* All-day networking and learning from each other at GTRIC, on Sunday June 13
* Keynote speeches by James Carville & Mary Matalin, and a provocative talk by Nicholas Carr of the Harvard Business Review on why IT is no longer relevant
* Educational sessions to help you refresh your professional skills
* Dinners and receptions for fun and socializing
* Continuing from last year’s conference: Unconferences and free wi-fi

I just returned from the Leadership Summit in St. Louis, Missouri. It was so motivating to learn more about SLA, the benefits the Association provides, and its future direction. Did you know that most of the resources in  Click University are free to members? Topics range from search strategies to web site management tips to career development tips.  SLA also offers free access to book summaries from execuBooks, so we can all stay up-to-date on the latest business and management books. Not to mention the resources of the Career Center, Information Outlook magazine, discounts on other library association memberships and conferences, and outstanding networking opportunities. Check it out at www.sla.org.

If you have questions or suggestions, or if you’d like an opportunity to become more involved in the Division, please call or e-mail me.

Regards,

Arlene

Arlene Mathison, Chair
Transportation Division, SLA

Director of Digital Information and Library Services
Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota
mathi032@umn.edu
612-624-3646

(Originally posted by Arlene Mathison)

A.J. Million recently blogged the value of transportation libraries, updating ROI work that had been done in the 2003 MnDOT report. Check it out!

(Originally posted by Kendra K. Levine)