THE BULLETIN - Business & Finance Division - Special Libraries ...

B&F Bulletin
One special social event I attended was the SLA
Texas Chapter reception, held Monday night at
Rialto Café on Sixteenth Street. It was a great venue
and since I was on the planning committee, it was
nice to see people from the Lone Star State with
whom I had worked virtually in putting this
reception together.
I attended the opening session on Sunday and the
closing session on Wednesday, and listened with great
interest to both speakers, Al Gore and Scott Adams. I
was very impressed with Al Gore, in particular—while
I know many politicians have a cursory knowledge
about many subjects, he appeared to have a wider
depth of knowledge on libraries than I would have
originally thought.
One thing that made the conference great was the
host city of Denver, Colorado. What a wonderful
city in which to hold a conference! Everything
seemed to be near each other—the Hyatt Hotel being
so close to the Colorado Convention Center, which
was close to the Sixteenth Street Mall with lots of
eating and shopping options. And speaking of
shopping, the only shopping I thought was truly
fitting for a library conference was a stop at the
famous Tattered Cover Book Store, conveniently
located in the historic LoDo District.
One other great thing about having the conference in
Denver was that it happened to take place the same
weekend as the Capitol Hill People’s Fair, located near
the State Capitol Building. What an interesting array of
food and art booths for people watching! What I
particularly appreciated was that it was a nice diversion
for a couple of hours on Sunday.
One thing I’ll take from this conference was the
chance to look outside the box. It was interesting to
see what works in other libraries and information
centers and how their solutions to similar problems
can be addressed. What a refreshing way of looking at
things! I certainly came back to Houston energized,
not only about my new job opportunity but also at
being involved with SLA at both the state and
national levels.
In conclusion, this conference could not have come at a
better time—right on the heels of a new job, it gave me
an opportunity to become totally immersed with
potential resources I’ll likely be using in the future. It
also gave me an opportunity to widen the lens through
which I view the corporate library world. I truly
welcome the many challenges that await me in the
months to come and again, I am most appreciative of
the Business & Finance Division for helping to make
this opportunity for me to attend the 2007 SLA Annual
Conference happen. I’ll look forward to seeing
everyone again—and taking on a more active role—in
Seattle in 2008!
Lisa Ryan is the Associate Librarian at Christie’s, the
auction house. She graduated with a Master’s of Science in
Library and Information Science from Pratt Institute and a
Bachelor of Science degree from Fashion Institute of
Technology, State University of New York. Lisa was
instrumental in establishing SLA @ Pratt, the SLA student
group at Pratt Institute and received the SLA New York
2006 Distinguished Service Award in recognition of this
accomplishment. She was also the recipient of the George
Simor Merit Award in Archival Management at Pratt
Institute in 2006. She used the professional grant to attend
this year’s conference to further her professional
development. Without this award, she would not have been
able to attend.
Thank You.
First, I would like to thank the Business and Finance
Awards Committee for taking the time to evaluate
my application and grant me the stipend. I really do
appreciate the time you took to volunteer and serve
on this committee. I would especially like to thank
Awilda Reyes for her leadership of this committee.
Second, I would like to thank my fellow SLA
Business & Finance Division members for your
continued support of the grant program for both
students and professionals. Third, I want to thank my
fellow Business & Finance New York Chapter
colleagues who provided me with support while I
was a student and continue to provide me support as
a professional.
Previous Conferences
As a student I had attended and volunteered at the
2003 New York and 2006 Baltimore conferences.
The Denver SLA 2007 conference was my first
conference to attend as an employed information
professional. At the New York and Baltimore
conferences I had a less focused itinerary. I was a
student and had the luxury of treating the conference
like a tasting platter. I attended a variety of sessions
and talked to vendors. There were always more
sessions I wanted to attend than I had time for and I
never was able to find out about all of the vendor’s
products I was interested in.=
Spring 2007 16