Did you know it's the 100th anniversary of the Special Libraries Association?! I admit that I didn't realize SLA had been around for so long. Some background info:
SLA was founded in 1909 by a group of librarians who thought that libraries serving business, government, social agencies, and parts of the academic community were different from other libraries. These "special"--or more aptly, "specialized"--libraries at first were distinguished by being subject collections with a specialized clientele, but gradually it was recognized that their chief characteristic was that they existed to serve the organization of which they were a part. Their purpose was not education per se but the delivery of practical, focused, and even filtered information to the executives and other clients within their organizations. Specialist librarians, who have come to be called "information professionals," have a unique relationship as collaborators with their users.
Over the past one hundred years, SLA members have been working on
the technological edge, moving into knowledge services, and adapting to
new roles to keep up with the times. We are entrepreneurial--we embrace
change and use our knowledge and vision to further the goals of our
organizations. Corporate information professionals synthesize strategic
information to help executives make the decisions necessary for
business to thrive. Government info pros organize and deliver
information for congressional, parliamentary, judicial, and executive
leaders to make policy decisions. Academic special librarians organize,
digitize, and deliver research information so professors and students
can advance knowledge.
From http://www.sla.org/content/Events/centennial/centennialmessage.cfm
SLA has created an area just to celebrate libraries and SLA. There's information on a video contest, commentary about the future of the profession, 100 Innovations that Have Changed Librarianship, and much more.
