The Business & Finance Division of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) proudly announces the following recipients of its 2013 recognition awards.

DISTINGUISHED LEADERSHIP & SERVICE AWARD
sponsored by EvaluatePharma

Praveen Kumar Jain
Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi, India

Dr. P.K. Jain is a recognized leader in the library community in India. He has published extensively, has presented numerous papers at conferences and has served the SLA Asian Chapter in several offices, including as its President. He has recruited many librarians in Asia to join SLA, the Asian Chapter, and the Business & Finance Division. During his tenure as Membership Chair, the Chapter more than tripled its membership, adding more than 150 members. Among the many programs and conferences he has taken a leadership role in organizing are the three International Conferences of Asian Special Libraries that have been held to date, in India, Japan, and the Philippines.

ACHIEVEMENT IN ACADEMIC BUSINESS LIBRARIANSHIP AWARD
sponsored by Business Expert Press

Kara Moore
Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

In her five years as the Career Resource Librarian at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, Kara Moore has transformed the Career Resource Center into a full-service library and has added two librarians to her team. As an embedded librarian within Kellogg’s Career Management Center, Kara works closely with career coaches and MBA students on their job searches. In this role she has created video tutorials on a variety of research tools that are heavily used by students, and she has developed research guides that are the most heavily trafficked area of the Career Management Center’s website. Kara is deeply involved in the librarian community as well and has been a repeat presenter at the College and University Business Libraries Section’s poster session and breakfast.

AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN BUSINESS LIBRARIANSHIP
sponsored by Bloomberg Law/Bloomberg BNA

Debal Kar
Ambedkar University

In addition to his many contributions to the broader profession, in the eight years that Dr. Debal Kar has been a member of SLA, its Asian Chapter and the Business & Finance Division, his service to our organization has been exemplary. He has served as the Asian Chapter’s Membership Chair for three years, as its Secretary, President-Elect, and President. He has been a tireless advocate for SLA not only in India but throughout the Asian region, taking leadership roles in organizing numerous conferences and programs and promoting a variety of initiatives that have added substantially to our membership and advanced the reach of our organization among information professionals in Asia.

IMPACT AWARD
sponsored by Wolper Information Services

Ozzie Meza
Allstate Insurance Company

Ozzie Meza designed and implemented a knowledge management function to support executive recruitment at Allstate Insurance. This function proved to be so successful that Allstate committed to supporting Ozzie in expanding it beyond the executive level to support of all teams recruiting talent into the company. The current knowledge management team now includes four researchers under Ozzie’s leadership in what is Allstate’s first Human Resources-specific Information Center and has resulted in substantial savings from the reduced need of leveraging external search firms and heightened level of understanding of the talent landscape. In the words of Allstate’s Director of Talent Acquisition, “these business outcomes were the direct result of Ozzie’s passion, expertise and leadership.”

DISTINGUISHED MEMBER AWARD

Tariq Ashraf
University of Delhi, India

During his career of more than 25 years, Dr. Tariq Ashraf has held increasingly responsible positions at India’s top business schools, including the IILM Institute, the Fortune Institute of International Business, the Indian Institute of Management, as well as his current institution, the University of Delhi, where he is Deputy University Librarian. He has contributed extensively to the profession through authoring and editing eleven books and numerous articles, through collaborating with colleagues in SLA and in the Management Libraries Network (MANLIBNET), an association of business libraries in India of which Dr. Ashraf is a founding member. Among other activities, Dr. Ashraf has had a leadership role in organizing many of MANLIBNET’s conferences, and he is currently editor of its Journal of Library Management.

The presentation of these awards, as well as the Business & Finance Division’s other awards, will occur on Saturday, 8 June at 8:00 p.m. at the SLA 2013 Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO, in San Diego, California, USA.

Many thanks to Bloomberg Law/Bloomberg BNA, Business Expert Press, EvaluatePharma, and Wolper Information Services for their sponsorship.

Contact:

Christopher Hoeppner, Chair, Awards Committee
SLA Business & Finance Division
Tel: 773.325.7852
choeppne@depaul.edu

Karen MacDonald, Chair
SLA Business & Finance Division
Tel: 330.672.1683
kmacdon4@kent.edu

The Business & Finance Division of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) proudly announces the recipients of the 2013 travel awards, grants and stipends to attend the SLA Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO in San Diego, California, USA.

INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL AWARD

Cecilia Justino is currently participating in the Internship Program at the Felipe Herrera Library of the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C. In 2008, Cecilia graduated from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima, Peru, with a Bachelor’s degree in Library and Information Science. She is now pursuing a Master’s degree in Information and Knowledge Management at the Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier III, in Montpellier, France. Cecilia has experience working in the libraries of international organizations, including the International Labour Organization and the World Health Organization, as well as in academic and corporate libraries. She is also a volunteer at the Professional Librarians’ Association of Peru. Cecilia is a member of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA).

The International Travel Award is generously supported by Emerging Markets Information Service (EMIS).

EARLY CAREER AWARDS

The Business & Finance Division/SLA Asian Chapter Early Career Award and the Business & Finance Division/SLA Europe Early Career Award are given to a member from each chapter who is a librarian in the early years of his or her career. These awards provide funding that enables the recipients to attend the SLA Annual Conference.

The winner of the Business & Finance Division/SLA Asian Chapter Early Career Award for 2013 is Milind Patil. Milind earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in library and information science from Mumbai University and Alagappa University and has worked in a number of academic libraries. Since 2007 he has worked as a librarian at Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, where his duties include acquiring and classifying materials and providing reference and other information services to library users.

The winner of the Business & Finance Division/SLA Europe Early Career Award is Laura Williams. Laura has worked as an information professional in the media sector since graduating from Sheffield University in 2011 with an MA in Librarianship. Laura is currently working in the media library at ITV as a Media Logistics Coordinator responsible for delivering program content on tape across the organization for broadcast.

PROFESSIONAL GRANTS AND STUDENT STIPENDS

Each year the Business & Finance Division presents a number of professional grant awards and student stipends. Each of the awards consists of $1,500 for a B&F member to attend the SLA Annual Conference. The student recipients work as proctors, helping with the CE courses offered by the division during the conference. This year’s winners are named below.

Professional Grant Recipients

• KC Hudson, Jensen Beach, Florida, USA
• Margaret A. Smith, Staten Island, New York, USA
• Helen Sobolik, J.P. Morgan Business Research Center, New York, New York, USA

Student Stipend

• I-Ju Chen, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. Graduation date: May 2013

Please join us at our Business & Finance Division Awards Reception on Saturday, 8 June at 8:00 p.m. Attendees will have the opportunity to speak with the winners of the awards immediately following the awards presentation.

Many thanks to Emerging Markets Information Service (EMIS) for their sponsorship of the SLA Business & Finance Division’s 2013 International Travel Award.

Contact:

Christopher Hoeppner, Chair, Awards Committee
SLA Business & Finance Division
Tel: 773.325.7852
choeppne@depaul.edu

Karen MacDonald, Chair
SLA Business & Finance Division
Tel: 330.672.1683
kmacdon4@kent.edu

Webinar: Hit One Out of the Park in San Diego
23 May 2013 – 9AM PST
REGISTER TODAY!

As librarians gain increased professional experience, it’s not unusual for them to become responsible for other decisions concerning software, licenses, content, and other business services. This isn’t a skill covered in the graduate education. Learn how to approach those meetings outside your professional experience and ensure that you securing the right information to support these new decisions.

In the March/April 2012 issue of Information Outlook magazine published by Special Libraries Association, Mike Gruenberg wrote an article describing how the salesperson and the information professional each needed to prepare for the sales call. Since then, that article has been widely read, has been translated into Japanese and was well received by salespeople and librarians alike.

The course that will be presented in San Diego expands on how a better understanding of the buying and selling process benefits both the information professional and the salesperson. When both parties are better prepared for their meetings, they achieve a higher level of communication which results in meetings that produce results. No one has time for pointless meetings. For when both parties understand each other’s goals and objectives, barriers to a successful completion of mutual interest will be eliminated.

This course will benefit all information professionals by helping them to better understand the sales process, be completely prepared for their meetings with salespeople, and result save time and money while at the same time achieving their professional objectives. Mike will talk about what happens before, during, and after the sales meeting and how each party needs to be ready for the next negotiation. By understanding the sales process, the information professional can apply those principles and procedures to their work at their respective organizations.

Mike will also spend time discussing the skills needed for successful negotiations. Matt Dunie, former President of CSA/ProQuest, will join Mike me in presenting this module. Their combined years of experience in selling and negotiating will make for valuable tips and lessons in addition to giving participants valuable tips that they can use in their next vendor negotiation.

Preparing for, Planning, and Managing a Sales Call
Presented by: Mike Gruenberg, Gruenberg Consulting, LLC
Date: Saturday, June 8, 2013
Time: 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Ticket prices (members/students-retired/non-members): $199/$99/$299

Register NOW!

Current professional position

Associate Professor, Business and Economics Reference Librarian at the University of Denver University Libraries.

Involvement with CUBL

I have been a member of CUBL since it was in its latter stages of being a roundtable, and then when it became a section of the Business & Finance Division as a result of the efforts of Brent Mai, who later went on to become SLA president.

Education

MLS, University of Arizona, School of Library Science
MBA, New Mexico State University
BBA, New Mexico State University, economics major

Why did you choose the SLA CUBL section?

I am a librarian in an academic library, so joining CUBL was a logical choice for me.

How has the CUBL section helped you professionally?

In addition to offering networking opportunities with other academic librarians, I have found that participants in the annual breakfast panel and poster session provide valuable information about relevant topics, including information literacy, outreach, scholarly research, faculty status, delivering information to their constituency, and dealing with new challenges. I have learned something from each of these CUBL sponsored sessions.

Why would you recommend the CUBL section to others?

Participating in CUBL activities is a good way to learn what other business librarians in academia are experiencing and to find out how they are dealing with changes, both in the type of services they provide and in adjusting their jobs to meet new challenges. In addition, CUBL offers opportunities for professional development (I have presented a poster as well as participated in a breakfast panel at SLA annual conferences) and of course meeting other librarians with the same interests. For these reasons I would also recommend CUBL to other academic librarians.

If so, please consider volunteering to participate in the Feedback Pack!

The First Five Years Advisory Council is currently recruiting participants for the Feedback Pack: a group of conference attendees who will provide feedback about their conference experience in a focus group session that will be held the evening of Tuesday, June 11, 2013 (the last day of conference programming).

To be a member of the Feedback Pack, you must be:

• An early career professional (fewer than 5 years since graduating from an LIS or equivalent program)
• Attending the SLA Annual Conference in San Diego this year
• Able to participate in 1-2 conference calls before the conference
• Willing to attend a variety of programs and activities throughout the conference
• Able to participate in the 2-hour focus group session from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 11

What’s in it for participants apart from the gratification that will come from improving the SLA conference? Dinner will be provided to Feedback Pack members at the focus group session on Tuesday evening and Feedback Pack members who complete all of the group activities will be sent a $100 American Express gift card after the conference. In addition, a $100 discount off of the 2014 full conference registration price will be given to participants who complete the program.

We are looking for a diverse group of people to represent the wide-ranging interests and professional responsibilities of the SLA membership. If you are interested in making your opinions heard, please fill out the quick survey

by 19 April 2013.

The Business & Finance Division Executive Board has been discussing plans to reduce expenses to ensure our long-term longevity without compromising the high-quality programs which our members have come to expect. Our most immediate and noticeable action has been to cancel the Winter issue of the Bulletin. This one measure alone goes a long way toward matching our revenue with expenses. In addition, the annual bibliography of Business & Finance authors will be solely published on the B&F Division website. It will not be available in print format.

Other, less popular strategies are also being discussed. Future plans may include reducing the number of open houses at the Annual Conference, changing our open bar custom with a switch to drink tickets or cash bar, and reducing the overall number of professional and student travel stipends.

The Executive Board welcomes your comments and suggestions. You may direct them to Karen MacDonald, Chair of the Business & Finance Division, at kmacdon4@kent.edu.

Conference Buddy

As a profession we will gather soon at our 2013 SLA Annual Conference to learn from each other, to network and to meet others. This is a perfect time to consider participating in our Conference Buddy Program, which pairs an experienced conference attendee with a new attendee. These pairs can attend events together, introduce new people to each other, and provide tips on how to best utilize the conference. It is a short time commitment and provides a positive conference experience for participants.

Just Lunch!

Throughout the year we offer the Just Lunch! Program, which is for a person who needs to talk to someone more experienced about a specific topic or issue. This too is a short-term commitment where the pairs meet or email each other once or twice.

Sound interesting? We’re looking for B&F members who are interested in becoming mentors or who would like to have a mentor. To get started, fill out the application on our mentoring page. Questions can be sent to Breezy Silver, Mentoring Chair, at silverbr@msu.edu.

¹ MENTOR: Expanding the world of quality mentoring.. (n.d.). MENTOR. Retrieved January 11, 2013, from http://www.mentoring.org/about_mentor/value_of_mentoring

Dazzle with design: Five ways to make your research more visual
Wednesday, March 27, 2013 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM EDT
Today’s pace requires you to do more with less — less time, less staff, and less resources — and then you send your research to a client who gives it less attention. When value must come in less than 140 characters, a picture really is worth a thousand words. In our time-strapped, increasingly visual world, good design can be used to captivate your audience by offering memorable visuals and making insight immediate, rather than three paragraphs down.

Preparing for, Planning, and Managing the Sales Call
Wednesday, April 3, 2013 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM EDT
Mike Gruenberg, a long-time SLA member and sales executive with 35 years of experience, currently advises a number of clients on how better preparation for the sales call and greater understanding of the negotiations process benefits both parties so that the appropriate products are bought at a reasonable price. Through Mike’s experience in selling successfully to libraries throughout the world, his session will review the expectations of both the librarian and the salesperson. He will impart knowledge necessary for information professionals to have a greater understanding of the sales process and how that knowledge will lead to being fully prepared for a successful sales call. The session will also include a segment devoted to negotiation skills for librarians.

For information about the half-day courses that will be offered at the conference, see the 2013 CE Courses page.

If you have questions or would like more information, contact Jeff Graveline, Director / Continuing Education, at jgraveli@uab.edu.

In this call for posters, the Business and Finance Division of SLA is providing an opportunity for business librarians to share ideas and develop research collaborations. We are looking for case studies or practical applications on a wide range of issues including:

• Standards and competencies for business information librarians
• Pedagogic approaches to business information education
• Assessment of learning outcomes
• Integrating business information with the curriculum
• Librarian / faculty collaboration
• New technologies for teaching business information topics
• Business information education in multi-disciplinary contexts
• Professional development for business librarians
• Promoting business information research services

Help your colleagues learn from your work, both successful and unsuccessful.

Share the results of your efforts at the upcoming poster session at SLA in San Diego, June 2013.

This session is sponsored by the Business & Finance Division.

Guidelines for materials and layout of poster presentations are available on the SLA Poster Guidelines page. Templates for creating conference posters can be found on the FSU Libraries website.

The deadline for abstract submissions is April 15, 2013. Please submit your name, institution, fax, email address, poster title, and description (250 words or less) by email, fax, or surface mail to Trip Wyckoff at the address given below.

Any SLA Member is welcome to submit an abstract for consideration. In the event that a greater number of submissions are received than can be accommodated, members of the Business & Finance Division will be given preference. Not a member of the SLA Business & Finance Division? Join today!

All applicants will be notified no later than April 30, 2013 as to whether or not their proposal has been accepted. If you have any questions about this session, contact:

Trip Wyckoff, MLIS
Business Subject Specialist
Florida State University, Strozier Library, Room 0027-E
PO Box 302047
Tallahassee, FL 32306-2047
USA
Tel. (850) 645-1475
Email: twyckoff@fsu.edu