The Environment and Resource Management Division encompasses all aspects of the environmental and resource sciences including forestry, mining, toxicology, pollution management, environmental impact science, public, occupational, and environmental health, water resources, environmental law and policy, and more.
The Division promotes the exchange of information and ideas about trends and advances in information storage, retrieval, analysis and dissemination, collection services and management in these fields to support research, education, public service, and commercial endeavors.
We will explore researching emerging issues, using climate change as an example. Climatic change affects many professions served by special librarians. It is a relatively new topic, but it already has an extensive and varied resource base. Our speakers will address how they, in their varying fields of research, approach this seemingly common topic in different ways. Aspects of climate change intersect each speaker's specialty (e.g., energy, pollution, water and regulations), but some aspects affect only specific fields. We will take examples from each to explore techniques and resources that aid in researching the changing emerging issue of climate change, and draw out common approaches for tackling similarly complex emerging research challenges.
Moderator: Mary Maguire, director of library services, World Resources Institute
Speakers: Shari Clayman, internet reference librarian, ARSC Primus (at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency); Lynn Kysh, information services librarian, University of Southern California, Norris Medical Library; Janet Nicula, librarian emerita, U.S. Joint Forces Staff College; Sharon Smith, market research & analytics, AIG.
Environment and Resource Management Division(ERMD) - Executive Board Meeting Minutes
New Orleans
Sunday June 13, 2010 1pm
ATTENDING
Dean Walton, Michael Sholinbeck, Cynthia Eastman, Beth Wohlgemuth, Alice Solyma, Linda Zellmer
LAST ANNUAL MEETING MINUTES
The Board approved minutes from the last meeting.
TREASURERS REPORT
We reviewed the Treasurer's report and discussed this following:
Balance was $13,255 but it is now $10,966
Expenses = 11,364 expenses
Revenue = 9075
We have a $2289 shortfall.
We need to explore if this is a trend?
We need to confirm dues allocations and when we get this.
ARCHIVES
Michael Sholinbeck agreed to become new Archivist. Alice to contact Deidre - she will ship items to Michael. He will go through them and scan them for inclusion on the wiki.
SPONSORS
Sponsors for this year:
Ebsco
IEEE
FutureScience
Annual Reviews
Nature
BNA
PHILADELPHIA JUNE 2011
Programs for Philadelphia were discussed:
Lightening talks - café style - for Toxicology roundtable
Forestry session possibility - Judy Blankeberg - Alice to check on this
GOVERNING DOCUMENTS ON WIKI
Our Governing Docs/By Laws are no on the wiki.
Liz to update Chair-Elect document and send to Dean for approval
MEMBERSHIP
Liz to contact Talia to get this back on track. We discussed ways for outreach to get new members. Liz to get list of who attended the conference in New Orleans.
DIRECTOR REPORTS
2nd year Director - Outstanding member award
1st year Director - Student Essay award
NEWSLETTER
Bobbi would like to get more member involvement in the articles.
LISTSERV
Linda Z. agreed to take on the oversight role.
WIKI LAUNCH FOLLOWUP
We need to retire the old website.
Beth to check that all old newsletters are on there.
Liz to check on how new newsletters will get on there.
Do we need to contact SLA about the old website?
We agreed that we need more announcements of wiki
Email will be sent by Dean
Put something in the newsletter.
Open to all - publicly visible now - confirm if closed or open
Need a wiki "gnome" - to watch it occasionally
OTHER ITEMS
Bobbi will send along Phila travel tips since she is from the area.
Liz to send email for suggestions for Phila program.
Submitted by Liz Wallach, 5/13/11
New Orleans
Chair Dean Walton opened the meeting by announcing the sponsors for the sessions that are were organized by DERM. They include Ebsco, Annual Reviews, IEEE, Nature Publishing Group, Future in Science and BNA. He encouraged members to thank them when they visit their booths.
The minutes from the 2009 membership meeting were reviewed, amended, and approved as amended.
Dean summarized the sessions that were being sponsored by the Environment and Resource Management Division. They include a talk on Open Source Technology for Libraries, a session on Green Chemistry for the Toxicology Round Table, a session on the Impact of Storms on Coastal Cities and a session on Measuring Large Scale Environmental Change.
Dean introduced Liz Wallace, the incoming chair of DERM. She described the sessions that were being planned for Philadelphia. They include a session that will be co-sponsored on the Vivo project and 3 sessions that we will be sponsoring, including the Toxicology Round Table, Forestry and a session on BioFuels.
Dean summarized the results of the brainstorming session from last year's meeting. One of the things that had been discussed was the development of a Wiki. He stated that the Division now has a wiki that has been set up to inform people about the Division and provide information that might be of interest to DERM members. The Board voted to make the wiki our new web site, replacing the former web site, which was somewhat static. All DERM members will be able to add content to the wiki. In addition, we will begin to use Delicious as a source of information and links to subject information on the wiki. The system was set up by Michael Sholinbeck. Dean described that a set of subject links that have been developed on the BP oil spill. The work has been highlighted by the SLA administration and is number 5 on the Google list related to library resources on oil spills.
Dean presented the Treasurers report in the absence of Treasurer Judy Volstad who could not attend the meeting. Last year we spent a little more than we took in. Last year we had $13,255, but are now at $10,966. We will be working to find more sponsors for programs. The officers and board were also introduced.
Officer vacancies were announced, they include a Chair, First Year Director, Secretary and a chair for the Toxicology Round Table will be needed. Dean also thanked the Board members for their help during the year.
Beth Wohlgemuth announced two awards.
The student award, recognizing a student who has an interest in pursuing a career as an information professional in environment and natural resources. The student award was received by Cynthia Cohen, who is attending library school at San Jose State University. She has an undergraduate degree is in natural resource management from University of California at Berkeley and a Masters degree in English. She is working for an environmental consulting firm, where she is building their first corporate library. She is a certified arborist and has worked as a volunteer for the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service and Los Angeles County arboretum. Cynthia has published an article titled "The Unique Representation of Trees in the Lord of the Rings."
Beth also announced and presented the Outstanding Member Award to Barbi Kaiser. Barbie has been an active ERMD member for a number of years and has served in a number of roles, most recently as Ethics Ambassador. She proposed a session on Social Responsibility: Ethics at Work, identifying five speakers for the session (at no cost to the Division) who spoke on government information, journalism and agriculture, and moderated the session. She also reported on her work as Ethics Ambassador at the 2009 Business and Board meetings, which summarizing the results of the ethics survey of the membership. She also was on the committee that proposed the green conference initiative to the SLA Board. The committee developed a list of recommendations for members, vendors and staff. She has also worked with other SLA groups. She was awarded the Dow Jones Leadership Award in 2009 for her work with the international information literacy programs and the computers for developing countries program. Her work on the SLA Information Ethics Initiative led to the establishment of the SLA Information Ethics Advisory Council, which is working on ethical guidelines for the Association and the profession. She serves on the Board of Directors of the World Computer Exchange that helps connect people to skills, opportunities and understanding of the Internet while keeping computers out of landfills.
The Board Proctor was also introduced before the meeting was adjourned.
Dean introduced our speaker, Tina Marquardt, who has been active in working to provide information after Katrina through the Beacon of Hope Resource Center, an organization that developed to help provide information to people who wanted to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina.
Submitted by Linda Zellmer, Secretary
Early bird registration is now open for the Annual Conference in Philadelphia (early bird ends April 8 when the price jumps up considerably).
Please note that we will be having a different format for our Business Meeting. On Monday 6/13 at 4 p.m., we will have a networking happy hour before the business meeting. There is no need to purchase a ticket; invitations will go out to all division members.
2) CLEANUP OF DIVISION LISTSERV
We will be doing a review of the members of our Division Listserv to ensure that this is a members only list. Note that we also have a second listserv that has no restrictions on membership. See our wiki for details on both lists: http://wiki.sla.org/display/SLADERM/ERMD+Discussion+Lists
3) STUDENT AWARD DEADLINE EXTENDED
We have sent out notices for our Student Award a little late this year so we have extended the deadline to May 1. Please forward on the information to any interested students.
Last but not least, we send our best wishes and thoughts to our fellow division member, Kevin Adams, in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Liz +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Liz Wallach, Special Projects Manager, BNA, 1801 S. Bell St., Office 8111, Arlington, VA 22202 703-341-3754
The ERMD Student Award recognizes a student who is especially interested in pursuing a career as an information professional dealing with environment and resource management issues. The award is $500.00, plus a $750 reimbursement award if the student comes to the SLA annual meeting in Philadelphia. The student must be enrolled in an ALA accredited master's degree program. This award is meant to promote both current and future involvement in and commitment to the library and information science profession prior to, during, and after the master's program.
To be considered for the award, a student must be an SLA member and write a 300-500 word essay describing his or her interest in the issues facing information professionals in the environment and natural resources fields. Essays should be labeled with the student's name, contact information, and educational institution. Deadline for receiving submissions is May 1, 2011. Please send submissions via email to Liz Wallach at lwallach@bna.com. The award will be presented at the SLA Annual Conference in June. The winner is encouraged, but not required, to attend the annual conference.
New SLA project - migration of all division websites to Wordpress - "Operation Vitality"
Daniel Lee, SLA Director, briefed the summit attendees about a new SLA HQ project: to migrate all unit websites to Wordpress. A main goals is for all SLA unit websites to have uniform branding, using the same standardized templates in Wordpress (although there will be many options for customization). Daniel has a great write up on next steps in the FutureReady blog: http://futureready365.sla.org/01/20/id=806
As you know, we migrated the old ERMD website to a wiki last year; so now our information is well positioned to migrate to Wordpress. Our Webmaster, Bob Teeter, will lead the project. More in the Winter ERMD newsletter. Daniel's PowerPoint is found with the Summit handouts - see above URL - the last item under Thur January 20.
Financial picture given by SLA Treasurer Dan Trefethen at Summit
Dan Trefethen gave a well received speech about the state of SLA finances. I will give more details in the next division newsletter but the speech aimed to show what SLA has been doing to stop the budget deficit in recent years. He also impressed on attendees the importance of members helping the association in it's time of need. I'll give more information in the upcoming newsletter. For a sneak peek, see Dan's PowerPoint in the Summit handouts URL above - it's the second link under Thur January 20.
Winter newsletter deadline coming up - Feb 18
Bobbi Weaver, our newsletter editor, has announced the next deadline as Feb. 18. Please think about contributing an article or item for the newsletter. We'd like to hear from more of our members. No requirement of length - just something of interest to our members. Feel free to reach out to her (or me) with any thoughts.
As always, feel free to email or call me with any questions or comments.
Liz Wallach, Special Projects Manager, BNA, 703-341-3754 lwallach@bna.com
My tenure as Chair has officially begin and believe it or not, the planning for the Chicago 2012 conference begins next week at the SLA Leadership Summit here in D.C.
Dean Walton (our past chair) and Michael Sholinbeck (our past-past chair) have been helping me immensely with the transition to this new "job". We have been discussing goals and priorities for the division for 2011. I will share more on that in future emails. (Many thanks to both of them for sharing their wealth of experience.)
I hope to send regular communication by this listserv and on the wiki (http://wiki.sla.org/display/SLADERM/ERMD+Wiki+Home+Page) to keep people informed about what is going on in our division. I promise to keep them short and on point because we are all inundated with emails and our time is valuable.
1) Chicago 2012 - Any ideas?
Plans for Chicago programs will now get underway. We are looking to get more of the members involved in the planning so that we can represent our group - and also eliminate the burden on any one person. If you have any ideas for sessions, please feel free to contact me. Or if you would like to be involved in planning one session. I promise that we can work with everyone's time constraints - we are all in the same boat.
2) Your division needs you
I'd like to get more of our members involved in the ongoing division business. We have jobs of all sizes - small, medium, big. I know we can find a fit for you - and you can get some valuable professional development experience for your resume. Feel free to contact me. I'll get more specific on what we need in future communications.
3) Connecting to more members
Dean Walton and myself will be attending the annual Leadership Summit. If any other members are attending, please let me know.
And June in Philadelphia will be here before we know it. I know that not everyone can attend the annual conference but I'd like to meet as many of you as possible in person. We have a division happy hour/business meeting planned for Monday June 13 at 4 p.m.. We'll find other ways to connect with the membership in a long distance way.
I will send another email after the Summit to giving you a briefing. Thanks for your time.
This year's annual conference is June 12-15, 2011 in Philadelphia. Registration information should be sent in the new year.
NEW TIME AND FORMAT FOR BUSINESS MEETING - Monday June 13, 2011 4:00-5:30pm
We will have our ERMD Business Meeting combined with a Networking Happy Hour on Monday afternoon. Come to hear about division business and give input on future sessions and governance. Drinks and light appetizers will be provided.
FORESTRY ROUNDTABLE - Monday June 13, 2011 10:00-11:30 am
Our Forestry Section is organizing a program on Evidence-based forestry. Julie Blankenburg and Alice Solyma are coordinating.
BIOFUELS SESSION - Wednesday June 15, 2011 10:00-11:30am
We are the lead sponsor for this session with 5 co-sponsors: DFAN, DPER, DTRAN, DBIO, DCHEM.
COLLABORATION AND VIVO PROJECT UPDATE SESSION - Monday June 13, 2011 2:00-3:30pm
We are a co-sponsor for this session that DFAN is leading, along with 3 other co-sponsors: DST, DCHEM, DAC.
EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING - Sunday June 12,2011 1:00-2:30pm
Board and committee members will discuss division business before the conference starts.
ERMD is working hard to collect some of the best data links concerning the B.P. Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Spill off the coast of Louisiana. Please check our links on the right hand side of this page.
2010 Environment and Resource Management Meeting Schedule for New Orleans
Sunday June 13th
Environment & Resource Management Division Board of Directors Meeting (closed)
1:00-2:30 p.m.
Monday June 14th
ERMD Business Meeting
Speaker: Tina Marquardt, Beacon of Hope
7:30-9:30 a.m. (Open to the public, ticket required for breakfast)
Monday June 14th
Open Source Technology for Libraries
Speaker: Nicole Engard, ByWater Solutions
2:00-3:30 p.m. Room 232
Tuesday June 15th
Toxicology Round Table
Speakers:
Kurt Birdwhistell, Loyola University
William Rhodes, Monsanto Corp.
10:00-11:30 a.m.
Wednesday June 16th
The Impact of Storms on Coastal Cities
Speakers:
Ivor van Heerden, Coastal researcher and author &
Stephen Nelson, Chair, Earth and Environmental Studies Dept., Tulane University
7:30- 9:30 a.m., Room 210
Wednesday June 16th
Measuring Large-Scale Environmental Change
Speakers:
David Gisclair, Technical Assistance Program Director Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator's Office
Stuart Hinson, (sitting in for Jay Lawrimore), NOAA Climatic Data Center
10:00-11:30 a.m., Room 210
February 17, 2009. We added a new feature to EPA's [MyEnvironment] application that allows the public to drop pushpins on their local map to show where there are inspiring environmental activities happening. I am very excited about this new feature as it is my personal first foray into crowdsourcing - or leveraging citizen science. It is also an example of VGI - a new term I learned two weeks ago at the ESRI Federal User Conference. VGI stands for "volunteer geographic information". The idea is that instead of spending lots of resources building geographic information databases - we instead create a web-based application that lets the public build it for us. Sounds like Wikipedia, huh? Well that's just it - except for mapping folks.
As for the new feature, we are asking people to tell us what local activities they might be engaged in personally, or know about that are happening in their neighborhood. In particular we are interested in good-for-the-environment activities - such as river cleanups, e-cycling, volunteer monitoring, local meetings or classes on environmental subjects, etc. We call the feature "environmental shout outs" borrowing the popular term for giving someone kudos or recognition for something. And so far the shout outs are trickling in - some great ones where folks are announcing that they bought themselves composters, news of all-green salons, some just giving shout outs to Planet Earth!
MyEnvironment still also offers a good primer for folks trying to learn more about the relative health of their environs. By keying in a geography, such as zipcode or local waterbody, folks can learn the local forecast for air quality, UV index, radon levels and more about where the regulated facilities are, and whether the EPA has tested for and found a variety of pollutants in their local waterways. We are hoping that the shout outs will give them some balance in reporting - while there may be a number of regulated facilities around them - which may or may not be in compliance - at least the Boy Scouts are helping to clean up the river!
I invite you to visit the site, add a shout out, and let me know what you think (balassiano.kim@epa.gov). And of course to direct people there who are looking for environmental information about where they live, recreate, or go to school.
Note: If you use Del.icio.us (delicious.com) and come across something you would like to share with the division, please tag with SLAERMD and it will appear here. Sites related to the BP oil spill should also be tagged with BP, oil, etc.
