Thomson Scientific at the ALA Midwinter 'Rodeo'
Rodney Yancey
Thomson Scientific
February 2005
Touting a Western theme, the 2006 ALA Midwinter Meeting was held in January in San Antonio, Texas USA. Thomson Scientific fully embraced the theme for its activities and announcements during this key meeting — which are summarized here for those who were unable to attend.
The Venue
The 2006 ALA Midwinter Meeting was held January 20-25 at the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center (HBGCC) in San Antonio , Texas USA . Nestled in the heart of historic downtown San Antonio along the banks of the famed River Walk , HBGCC plays host to more than 300 events each year with over 750,000 convention delegates from around the world.
The convention center is named after veteran U.S. Congressman, Henry B. Gonzalez, who is credited with having paved the way for other Hispanics to succeed in politics by becoming the first Mexic an-American in modern times to be elected to the Texas State Senate.
The Meeting
As in previous years, Thomson Scientific planned several announcements and activities for this meeting including a breakfast workshop, an entertaining corporate reception, and in-booth promotions.
In keeping with the western theme of the meeting, visitors to the Thomson Scientific booth were first greeted by an unexpected addition to the booth personnel. Complete with Stetson and chaps, cow poke Duane 'rustled up' and entertained conference attendees; doled out pens and souvenirs, and directed customers to Thomson Scientific staff, who were on hand to demo the suite of databases within ISI Web of Knowledge SM (Web of Science ®, Journal Citation Reports ® , BIOSIS Previews® , and Derwent Innovations IndexSM to name a few); as well as Thomson ResearchSoft bibliographic management products: EndNote®, ProCite®, Reference Manager® , RefVizTM and WriteNoteTM .
Introducing Journal Use Reports
At a presentation held Friday, January 20th , Jim Pringle, Vice President of Development at Thomson Scientific, offered an enthusiastic capacity crowd a glimpse into the new Journal Use Reports . Developed in partnership with top institutions including Dartmouth College, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, Drexel University, and University of Melbourne, these journal utilization metrics offer librarians a new means to measure the value of their journal collections based on a combination of citation and usage data.
The Thomson Scientific Roundup
The next night, Saturday, January 21, Thomson Scientific hosted its now much anticipated corporate 'Roundup'. This year, the affair was held at the Buckhorn Saloon and Museum. Credited to be the location where Teddy Roosevelt recruited Rough Riders, and rumored to be where Pancho Villa planned the Mexican Revolution, the Buckhorn maintains many of its original furnishings, including the 120-year-old main bar. And the Buckhorn's award-winning museum is home to an amazing collection of mounted animals: bears, dears, steer, elk, snakes, horns, fins, feathers, and the Hall of Texas History Wax Museum.
While marveling at the museum's awesome collection of 'critters', the hundreds of attendees enjoyed a wide variety of delicious food and beverage selections, while being entertained by a local country trio. At the end of the evening, in keeping with a long standing tradition, each guest received a commemorative ceramic tile.
On Sunday, Thomson Scientific hosted a workshop entitled, 'ISI Web of Knowledge : A Commitment to Innovation'. Paneled by a host of Thomson Scientific staff (Jeff Dougherty, Jim Pringle, Renny Guida, and Nancy Matus), the highlight of the workshop was the announcement of the development of EndNote Web . EndNote Web provides a full range of bibliographic management on the Web. Users can import and edit references via a personal Web account and use these references to cite in papers and create bibliographies. EndNote Web searches ISI Web of Knowledge, PubMed and hundreds of online library catalogs to help users build their personal reference collections easily. As with Journal Use Reports , the announcement of EndNote Web was greeted with a great deal of expectant eagerness and attention.
About ALA
Originally founded in 1876 in Philadelphia and now headquartered in Chicago , the American Library Association (ALA) is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 64,000 members.
The Midwinter meeting is of particular importance to Thomson Scientific. With an estimated attendance between 8,000 and 10,000, the meeting provides a great opportunity to meet face to face with both existing clients and new customers.