Press Release – for immediate release 

We are pleased to announce that a generous and active emerging leader has won the first SLA Europe Conference Award, co-sponsored by the Leadership and Management Division.

Anneli Sarkanen works as Information Officer at Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP, where she is highly regarded by the lawyers she works for. Among Anneli’s innovations has been the introduction of an internal wiki which is used as a communication tool, a knowledge repository and to facilitate project management within the Field Fisher Waterhouse Library and Information Services team.

Anneli is also an active member of the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL), and currently serves as Vice-chair of their PR & Promotions Committee.  Recommending Anneli, a former colleague stated that Anneli would be ‘an excellent ambassador for the information profession in London and the UK’.

The award covers Anneli’s expenses for attendance at the SLA Conference in Chicago, 15-18 July 2012. The award will be formally presented by the Award sponsor Dow Jones at the International Reception on 16th July.

In addition, the SLA Europe board and Conference Award judging panel are pleased to be able to recognise Helen Westwood as a shortlisted candidate. Helen is Subject Librarian for Cass Business School at City University, where she has developed a range of information literacy resources, been instrumental in the success of the Cass Library’s social media engagement, and consistently receives excellent feedback from colleagues and students. Helen has been awarded a year’s membership of SLA.

The SLA Europe Conference Award, offered for the first time this year, is an opportunity for an outstanding information professional to attend the SLA Conference.  Co-sponsored by the Leadership and Management Division, and generously supported by Dow Jones, the Conference Award offers the successful applicant an expenses-paid trip to the conference, along with the opportunity after the conference to get involved with the work of SLA Europe and the Leadership and Management Division (LMD).

The Conference Award replaces the SLA Europe Information Professional Award, which has been awarded to a number of successful and illustrious professionals since its inception (as the European Special Librarian of the Year, or ESLY) in 1994.

About SLA
The Special Libraries Association is a non-profit global organisation for innovative information professionals and their strategic partners. Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, USA, the SLA represents over 12000 information professionals in 83 countries, including corporate, academic and government information specialists. http://www.sla.org

About SLA Europe
SLA Europe provides information professionals in Europe with unique networking and learning opportunities through regular seminars, social events, and its website and blog. The group recognises outstanding achievement in the information profession with its annual SLA Europe Conference Award. SLA Europe also engages with young information professionals through its Early Career Conference Awards (ECCA) http://www.sla-europe.org

Dow Jones & Company is a News Corporation company. (NASDAQ: NWS) (NASDAQ: NWSA) (ASX: NWS) (ASX: NWSLV) Dow Jones is a leading provider of global business news and information services. Its Consumer Media Group publishes The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, MarketWatch and the Far Eastern Economic Review. Its Enterprise Media Group includes; Dow Jones Business & Relationship Intelligence, Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones Factiva, Dow Jones Client Solutions, Dow Jones Indexes and Dow Jones Financial Information Services. Its Local Media Group operates community-based information franchises. Dow Jones owns 50 percent of SmartMoney and provides news content to radio stations in the U.S.