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M E E T I N G O U R M E M B E R SAmy Disch's excellent Nashville adventure
In March I was thrilled to find out that I was the recipient of the Vormelker-Thomas Student Award, an annual honor presented by SLA's News Division to a graduate student interested in pursuing a career in news librarianship. The award included a $1500 stipend which enabled me to attend SLA's annual conference in Nashville in June. My first conference was an unforgettable experience, filled with informative presentations, loads of freebies from the exhibit hall and endless opportunities for networking. I feel so fortunate to have been able to attend this event while still a student and I look forward to attending many more conferences in the course of my professional career. The majority of sessions I attended were sponsored by the News Division and focused on issues currently being dealt with by news librarians, including the creation and development of content for newsroom intranets, integrating news librarians into the process of computer-assisted reporting, newspaper microfilm digitization and proving the library's value to the newsroom. My favorite sessions were "Extreme Searching" with the wonderful Gary Price and the general closing session talk of Bill Ivey. Given that my undergraduate studies focused on film history and that I have a love for classic films, I was in complete agreement with Ivey's message that we must take steps to preserve the early movies, television shows and radio programs that comprise an important part of our cultural heritage. The exhibit hall proved a bit overwhelming, so I mainly spent time observing (and entering my name into various drawings for more goodies) while walking around the exhibit hall. I did however spend some time visiting the booths the UW-Madison's Engineering Library, the Library of Congress and the National Library of Medicine. The latter particularly interested me because I will be using many of the NLM's resources in a bibliographic instruction practicum this fall at the UW-Madison's Ebling Library. The Gaylord Opryland Hotel, where the conference was held, was like its own world, complete with restaurants, shops, gardens and waterfalls. Literally anything I needed was available there. I did venture outside the hotel a few times during my stay. Monday evening I attended the News Division's awards banquet at the Belle Meade Plantation and Wednesday night was spent at a reception at the First Amendment Center located on the Vanderbilt University campus. I remained in Nashville until Thursday to take advantage of one of the offered optional tours and had a wonderful time touring the home and exploring the gardens at the Hermitage, the estate of the seventh President of the United States, Andrew Jackson. Undoubtedly the best part of the conference was meeting my fellow SLA members. Everyone was so welcoming and very willing to answer questions and share their insights with me. These conversations benefited me more than I can say. The conference proved to be an incredibly valuable experience. I was
able to meet information professionals from a variety of backgrounds,
got to know my fellow News Division members better and gained new perspectives
on many of the issues facing special libraries and information centers.
I'm already looking forward to next year in Toronto. 
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