Laura Williams is currently working in the library at the University of Huddersfield as Reading List and Collection Development Librarian for The Business School. Laura is currently the SLA Europe Early Careers and Awards Chair.
Next summer might seem a long way off but it is not too soon to start thinking about securing funding to attend the 2016 SLA Annual Conference. Travelling to Philadelphia for the conference may seem like an impossible dream for Europe based SLA members; however awards and bursaries make the trip a possibility.
The SLA Europe Awards team are working hard to organise another round of Early Career Conference Award opportunities for new professionals to attend the annual conference. However award opportunities are not just for new professionals, there are travel bursaries and awards for people at all stages in their career.
The SLA Science-Technology and Engineering Divisions are currently accepting applications for the Bonnie Hilditch International Bibliotekar Award. SLA Europe member Laura Woods won this award last year, which enabled her to attend the annual conference. Laura wrote a blog post on her own blog Organisering Chaos, sharing her thoughts this award and strongly encourages people to apply. The Bonnie Hilditch International Librarian Award is aimed at librarians outside of the United States and Canada working in a Science, Technology or Engineering related role.
SLA Europe will share news other conference award or bursary opportunities which are open to Europe members as we find them so look out for more in lead up to conference 2016.