Shape up your Web presence - Special Libraries Association

Information Outlook, June, 1999 by Anne K. Abate

Several months ago, I started on a project to locate, visit, and evaluate the web pages of all chapters of the Special Libraries Association. This project was an effort to determine the health of the SLA chapters based entirely upon their web presence. The results of this world tour assisted me in learning more about the fifty-six chapters of SEA as presented to members and outsiders on the web.

The web presence of SLA is strong. The majority of the chapters have web pages that they use to convey information to their members and to the public. Some chapters are doing some extremely innovative things on their web pages.

First, some statistics on the SEA chapter web presence: Forty-five of the fifty-six chapters have a web page. Two more chapters are planning on developing their web page soon (a few more have appointed committees to work on the project). That means eighty percent of the SEA chapters will have a presence on the World Wide Web this year. All of these pages are linked from the main SEA page. If you want to do some exploring for yourself, you can start at: http://www.sla.org/membership/maps/coff.html. All of the chapter pages are just a couple of links away from here.

There are some interesting things to learn in this tour of the web pages of the Chapters. Some of these ideas could easily be incorporated into your own web page design efforts. Of course, there are many common elements of the chapter web pages. Most include a list of officers and committee chairs. Some provide contact information for these individuals. Many chapters are including a link to their recent or past bulletins or newsletters. Some provide meeting minutes or reports from recent meetings. A few chapters have been fortunate enough to have members in the news so they have included speeches from outstanding members or feature articles on their members. Many chapters are beginning to put their procedure manuals on the web.

SLA Chapters on the Web

Here are some of the more interesting things chapters have included that you may want to investigate:

The Arizona Chapter includes links to the web pages of their members (http://www.sla.org/chapter/caz/mempages.html). The Florida and Caribbean Chapter does this as well (http://www.sla.org/chapter/cfc/members/indiv_pages.htm). This is a great way to illustrate the diversity of SLA membership.

The European Chapter is so proud of their hoard members, they provide pictures of them on their page (http://www.sla.org/chapter/ceur/board/board.htm). It is difficult for a larger organization to provide a more personal touch for its members over the web. This is a good start.

Does your organization have a logo? The Maryland Chapter sponsored a logo contest last year (http://www.sla.org/chapter/cmd/). Contests and surveys really help to get your membership involved in the content and development of the web page.

The North Carolina Chapter has included a consolidated calendar on their web site (http://ils.unc.edu/ncsla/nchome.html). They incorporate the dates from the local library school along with their own events and SLA association events. It's one stop shopping for the meeting planners in North Carolina.

Have you ever wondered which local chapter of an organization you are supposed to join? The San Andreas Chapter provides a map of their area and the areas of surrounding chapters (http://www.sanandreas~sla.org/sa/sa~index.htm). No more guessing! They also provide some other interesting graphics from this link including a graph of membership growth over the last fifteen years.

The Central Ohio Chapter has included a partial membership directory on their site (members names may be withheld from the online directory upon request) (http://www.sla.org/chapter/ccno/directory.htm). This is a great way to help the members of the organization keep in touch with one another.

Have you ever wanted a personal invitation from the president of the organization? The Southern California Chapter includes an audio message from their president (http://www.sla.org/chapter/cor/). They are also doing some other exciting things that are worth checking out.

The Toronto Chapter web page is another one to watch (http://www.sla.org/chapter/ctor/index.html). They are making new announcements about their web page every week. One great place to check out is their Librarian's Resource Centre (http://www.sla.org/chapter/ctor/toolbox/resource/index.html). It provides a broad collection of resources to assist in research.

The Western Michigan Chapter includes their "Web Site of the Week" on their page (http://www.msu.edu/user/wmichsla/). This is an example of an organization helping the members to explore the web.

If you want to volunteer to help out the Sierra Nevada Chapter, their volunteer form is available online (http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/~ibray/Sierra.htm). They even provide suggestions of the committees that currently need help.

The Eastern Canada Chapter has provided the first bilingual web presence of the Chapters (http://www.sla.org/chapter/cecn/). Bien fait!