Special Libraries Association (SLA) is an international professional association for library and information professionals working in business, government, law, finance, non-profit, and academic organizations and institutions.
While special libraries include law libraries, news libraries, corporate libraries, museum libraries, and medical libraries, and transportation libraries, many information professionals today do not actually work in a library setting. They actively apply their specialized skills to support the information needs of their organizations.
SLA was founded in 1909 in the United States. It is now an international organization with over 9,000 members in over 75 countries. SLA is organized by Chapters (geographic) and Divisions (topical) and special interest groups. The association has a CEO (employee of the association) and an elected President (mandate of one year). Janice Lachance has served as CEO since 2003.
Members of SLA typically possess a master's degree in library or information science. Given the rapid adoption of information technologies for selecting, analyzing, managing, storing, and delivering information and knowledge, the average SLA member might be performing a range of services and employing a diverse mix of skills related to, but not exclusive of, library science.
Association activities include conferences, professional education, networking and advocacy.
Read more about Special Libraries Association: Publications
Famous quotes containing the words special, libraries and/or association:
“Those of us who are in this world to educate—to care for—young children have a special calling: a calling that has very little to do with the collection of expensive possessions but has a lot to do with the worth inside of heads and hearts. In fact, that’s our domain: the heads and hearts of the next generation, the thoughts and feelings of the future.”
—Fred M. Rogers, U.S. writer and host of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. “That Which is Essential Is Invisible to the Eye,” Young Children (July 1994)
“riding flatcars to Fresno,
Across the whole country
Steep towns, flat towns, even New York,
And oceans and Europe & libraries & galleries
And the factories they make rubbers in”
—Gary Snyder (b. 1930)
“With all their faults, trade-unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in man, than any other association of men.”
—Clarence Darrow (1857–1938)