2010 Special Libraries Association Conference Report

Information professionals interested in taxonomies now have another conference, besides Information Today’s Taxonomy Boot Camp, that has numerous taxonomy sessions. This is the annual conference, usually in June, of the professional association SLA (Special Libraries Association). I attended this year’s conference for the first time, which was held in New Orleans, June 13-16, and was quite impressed with its taxonomy-focused sessions and networking opportunities.

Although there is no professional association dedicated just to taxonomists, the new Taxonomy Division of SLA has begun to change that. SLA is the leading international association of library and information professionals working corporate settings, government, nonprofits, and educational institutions with specialized research and information management needs. Until recently, its Knowledge Management Division came closest to serving the interests of taxonomists, but since August 2009, those engaged in taxonomy work now have their own group within the association. The SLA annual conference in June this year was thus the first that the Taxonomy Division was able to sponsor sessions, and it did in a big way. In the past, SLA included only a pre-conference workshop and perhaps a single session on taxonomies, but this time the two and a half days of regular sessions was filled with taxonomy-related programs in every time-slot and one time with conflicting taxonomy sessions.

Taxonomy sessions included a full-day pre-conference workshop (called a continuing education course), a hands-on (each participant at a computer) technology workshop on taxonomy and SharePoint offered on three separate occasions, a roundtable discussion on taxonomy software, and eight regular 90-minute sessions, featuring either single presenters or panels. An additional SLA-wide (not Taxonomy Division) “hot topic” session was also on taxonomies: “Does Taxonomy Matter in a New World of Search and Discovery.” Session topics included the business case for taxonomies, taxonomies and knowledge management, taxonomies in new information technologies, taxonomy development and subject expertise, content management and taxonomies, and an introduction to taxonomies.

Taxonomy session speakers included some familiar faces from Taxonomy Boot Camp among others who have done considerable work with “thesauri” rather than “taxonomies.” Patrick Lambe, who had given a popular session about taxonomists, based on his survey of the profession, at last year’s Taxonomy Boot Camp, gave both a more sobering picture of knowledge managers (good new for those of us who call ourselves taxonomists instead) in one session and a very interesting analysis of the relationships between knowledge management and taxonomies in a second presentation.

The taxonomy software roundtable was a small enough group of under 20 participants that each attendee could explain their taxonomy software use (or non-use). Issues raised included desirable features, support for the standards, integration and interoperable import/export formats, auto-classification, taxonomies in SharePoint, software-as-a-service offerings, and build vs. buy for software. A show of hands in several sessions indicated that SharePoint is a platform which many of these information professionals must support with taxonomies and metadata strategies.

There were additional networking opportunities through the Taxonomy Division business meeting which included roundtable discussions and the after-hours Taxonomy Division open house reception. Taxonomy Division networking wasn’t so much of taxonomy consultants positioning themselves before enterprise information/content managers. (I was probably the only taxonomy consultant there.) Rather, attendees are primarily information professionals (the vast majority of whom have MLS/MLIS degrees) sharing tips on how to do their work better. There was definitely a collegial atmosphere. Some information professionals/librarians are the sole person in their profession in their organization, such as the sole taxonomist, and they especially appreciate the support of the professional association.

The Taxonomy Division sessions offered the intimacy of smaller sessions and a smaller networking group within a much larger conference and all the conference had to offer. Sessions tended to have 50-70 attendees, with the exception of the larger spotlight sessions, which were also video-streamed to members who did not attend the conference. The conference as a whole had over 3000 attendees, and its exhibit is considered one of the best of all trade shows. There are too many simultaneous sessions to count, and it can be overwhelming for the unfocused attendee; but for taxonomists, we get our sessions plus all the receptions and special events to choose from. Some of the catered receptions are included in the registration, while other events (tours, a river cruise, and dinners out at local restaurants) are optional extras. Live entertainment (New Orleans jazz, of course) at one event and a late-night dance party were also part of the program.

Vendors play an important role at SLA. In addition to 243 exhibitors, conference programming and receptions are also subsidized by vendor sponsors, which keeps registration costs down. Many vendors develop and use taxonomies as part of the products/services (Dow Jones, Proquest, Dialog, Ebsco, Cengage Learning, Elsevier, etc.). Vendors of taxonomy management tools, however, are relatively absent, with the exception of Access Innovations/Data Harmony, which has been involved with SLA for many years. Perhaps as the word gets out about the new Taxonomy Division, other taxonomy product and service vendors will also take a more active role in SLA conferences. See you in June 2011 in Philadelphia?