Podcasts from SLA 2008

Here are the podcasts of a few sessions from the SLA 2008 Annual Conference. Speakers and facilitators volunteered to have their remarks recorded. While questions were not included in the recording, you will hear the answers to queries from the audience.

Please note: These podcasts are MP3 files; you must have an MP3 player program installed on your machince to hear the recordings. The sound quality varies from one recording to another. In some cases, sound quality varies within a recording.

Book Group 2008

Thanks to all 22 members who participated in this year's Book Group discussion! The book chosen this year, "The Bookman's Wake" by John Dunning, veered off into the world of fiction, and was enjoyed by everyone. Dinner at Von's Grand City Cafe was also darned tasty!

I hope to see even more of you join me next year in Washington DC. The book has already been chosen... but you'll have to wait until next spring to find out what it is! :-D

Astronomy Roundtable

(Thanks once more to everyone who showed up bright and early Wednesday morning for the Astronomy Roundtable after partying the night before at the IT/PAM/LMD dance party!)

The AstroRT this year was, unexpectedly, standing room only. Apologies to folks who had to stand or sit on the floor; we thought seating for 48 would be enough and will plan better next year! Also thanks to my co-moderator Michael Blake; ya did good for first time outta the slot, dude!

Our speakers this year shared a lot of information with us, and I'd like to thank them all again for coming!

• Kerry Kroffe, from IOP Publishing, reviewed the publishing contract for the AAS journals and outlined what IOP had to do in a short amount of time to get the Astronomical Journal switched over and ready to go by January 2008. The Astrophysical Journal transition is currently in process, and many exciting things are planned for the future (VO tables, 30-day turnaround between acceptance and web publishing, and Object/Feature linking).
• Chris Biemesderfer, from the American Astronomical Society, picked up from where Kerry left off and shared some information about other things to come from AAS (data cubes, digital printing, and print on demand options, along with print bundling and regional delivery options).
• Karrie Berglund, representing the International Planetarium Society, shared a brief history of the IPS and discussed collaboration options between IPS and SLA/PAM. If you have any ideas or are interested in collaborating, please let her know.
• Donna Thompson gave us the latest information from the Astrophysics Data System (which I kept referring to as "service", eek!), including information about the CrossRef collaboration and the rescanning project for older journals.

We had a few brief announcements, then a round-the-room introduction; then the roundtable closed and became a networking and discussion opportunity. Thanks again to everyone who attended!

PAM Annual Business Meeting

Just finished up at the business meeting and networking breakfast; it's always good to see old friends and meet new ones! (Welcome again to all our new members.) After a round of committee reports, Travis Warwick presented Martha Tucker with the PAM Achievement Award; congratulations, Martha! (Details and photos will be posted on the PAM site.)

Thanks to our IMA winner, Mandy Taha, we all - as in the entire membership present - gathered for a group photo. There were so many of us we'll have to do a little stitching together of the photos into one picture! Watch this space for a posting :-) and thanks to Monica Ladwig for juggling the cameras and taking our photos.

Just a reminder, the Division Suite has been changed from 2602 to 2502 over in the Sheraton; the Daily Retreat opens in just a few minutes! See you there.

Leadership Development Institute

Sally and I are sitting in for Parker and Zari at the Leadership Development Institute; SLA is really doing some neat things with the Innovation Laboratory (I'm a lab rat!) and various innovation activities. I had no idea so much was available in the Lab - I highly recommend everyone take a visit and check it out. I think I'll be participating in the 23Things project myself.

The catchphrase from this session so far is from Stephen Abram's welcome: "Make things happen." Yes!

Early Bird Dinner

Well done, Martha! The Early Bird dinner at Madoka on Bainbridge Island was attended by 40 members of the division, who carried on in the main dining room and kept Doug the server on his toes. Dinner was very good - and very nicely presented - and the ferry ride was a ton of fun. (Says the person who lives in the desert!)

Cheers to Martha Tucker for doing all the arranging for this great event. Pics will come soon!

Twit, Twit, Twitter Away at SLA

Do you Twitter? If so, be sure to follow the SLA2008 twitter feed! The SLA Innovations Laboratory is encouraging conference-goers to twitter the conference. Read the details over at Daniel Lee's blog.

SLA08 PAM Book Group

This year we're taking a step away from scientific non-fiction and are reading "The Bookman's Wake", by John Dunning. We'll be getting together Monday night, the 16th, from 6-7:30pm to discuss over dinner (location still TBD but it'll be near the conference center, so we can all get back for the Open House!). I hope you can join us!

Edited April 22: We'll be meeting at Von's Grand City Café, in the Roosevelt Hotel. Please contact Ruth for a copy of the prix fixé menu to make your dinner choice!