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The FreePint Bar is generously sponsored by Dow Jones Factiva.
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| Start New | Message Index | Flat View |
| Fourth FreePint Daily Dispatch from SLA, New York |
| Author: | Annabel Colley |
| Date: | Thursday, 12th Jun 2003 14:55 |
| Views: | 3,521 (excluding Digests and RSS feeds) |
| Category: | FreePint | | URL: | http://www.freepint.com/go/b24124 |
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Dispatch Number Four from New York -- Annabel Colley
Special Libraries Association Conference
Supported by Factiva, a Dow Jones & Reuters Company
FreePint has members in over 200 Countries and I used this fact as an opportunity to ask today’s keynote speaker Madeleine Albright her views on the role of the Internet in globalisation.
Globalisations was today’s conference theme. With the SLA promising to try and be more inclusive to members outside of North America, it was a day of thought provoking sessions – especially for those of us in the European Chapter. FreePint have found the camaraderie and support of UK members in the European chapter here in New York particularly helpful.
FORMER US SECRETARY OF STATE MADELEINE ALBRIGHT KEYNOTE SPEECH, A THOUGHT PROVOKING BREATH OF FRESH AIR
Factiva sponsored Dr Albright who gave a refreshing speech to an enthusiastic audience and standing ovation. In a Q&A session, she responded to specific questions from the press.
When I quizzed her on the role of the Internet in breaking down international cultural barriers, she responded that it was key, and cited Pew Research Center’s “Views of a Changing World 2003”, a global study of 16,000 people in 20 countries, found at <http://www.people-press.org>">http://www.people-press.org">http://www.people-press.org>.
She spoke of the international fear and loathing of the USA and when Clare Hart, Factiva’s CEO, asked her what she thought could be done to change this, she said that it was vital the USA prevented putting out the sense that US security is the ONLY important security. She also called for more education about the Muslim world: “We have to understand that our power is based on something other than the military . . . The challenge is how to make ourselves secure without terrifying everyone else”.
On weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the role of intelligence services and misinformation, she said:
“We never had any doubt that Saddam Hussein had used weapons of mass destruction against his own people”, and added that those who saw the intelligence had every reason to believe that he had the weapons. She said that it was now time for a congressional investigation.
Picking up on a theme running earlier in this conference, Albright spoke of the important role information professionals played in educating people about a range of sources of intelligence and information.
“If there is only ever one source of information then you are in trouble”.
On her handling of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, she said that a personal highlight was seeing Slobodan Milosevic in the Hague.
NEW YORK HAPPENINGS
Following dinner with Gary Price tonight, we were walking through Times Square exactly at the right time to see Factiva’s soaring illuminated advert appear high above us on the Reuters building. “Inspiring Business Decisions”, Factiva’s corporate slogan, bathed the whole of Times Square in lime-green light and certainly was a magnificent sight. Photographic proof to follow shortly.
CONFERENCE ROUND-UP
In the wrap-up session, delegates liked the fact that each day had a theme. This meant that one-day delegates could attend one, two or all three days and experience a keynote along with a range of sessions within the theme of the day. They would however have liked have heard more on best practice from around the world.
First timers were asked for their opinions of the conference. An information architect suggested closer ties between information conferences and those of other disciplines within the new media world. There is currently little to no overlap and much new work is being done in isolation.
At an international information exchange breakfast, there was a call for a contingent within the SLA’s executive level that would have responsibility for global programming.
SEEN AND HEARD
As re-branding (or not!) seems to be order of the day, we let on that we ourselves are about to change our logo and the result was a rush on our dwindling supplies of old-style beermats (coasters), with some delegates even asking for mats to be signed by William Hann.
More member participation. Lindsay Rhys-Jones of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) in the UK, and Kate Arnold, President of the European Chapter, asked delegates in their session on advocacy-pay, status and skills of librarians, to write down on luggage labels one thing that they would do for the SLA. Lindsay plans to collate all these and follow up with a few phone calls to check up if people have done as promised!
Cindy Hill, incoming president of SLA, reacted to the branding vote: “The name Special Libraries Association is a highly recognised and respected brand name in the information industry. It stands for professional excellence, ethics and best practice in the management of knowledge-based organisations.” This was of course the official line. I managed to catch up with Cindy, Bill Fisher (out-going president) and Janice LaChance (SLA’s incoming Executive Director) after the official press briefing and will be giving you their unofficial responses and shortly in the FreePint Newsletter. I also have some interesting insights into their professional roles as well as a number of in-depth interviews.
Annabel Colley
New York
Next Dispatch (photos): http://www.freepint.com/portal/events/
Dispatch Index: http://www.freepint.com/go/b24333
Previous Dispatch (3): http://www.freepint.com/go/b24115
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| Start New | |
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Author |
Date |
ID |
 | Fourth FreePint Daily Dispatch from SLA, New York | | Dispatch Number Four from New York -- Annabel Colley
Special Libraries Association Conference
Supported by Factiva, a Dow Jones & ... |
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Annabel Colley |
12/06/03 14:55 |
24124 |
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falhlax olak |
13/06/03 11:49 |
24132 |
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