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 and/or association:
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)
“The spiritual kinship between Lincoln and Whitman was founded upon their Americanism, their essential Westernism. Whitman had grown up without much formal education; Lincoln had scarcely any education. One had become the notable poet of the day; one the orator of the Gettsyburg Address. It was inevitable that Whitman as a poet should turn with a feeling of kinship to Lincoln, and even without any association or contact feel that Lincoln was his.”
—Edgar Lee Masters (1869–1950)