71st IFLA General Conference and Council
Oslo, Norway
14 – 18 August 2005
Catch a falling star!
This year’s World Library and Information Congress was hosted by Oslo, a
cosmopolitan city beautifully situated at the head of Oslo Fjord and surrounded
by forested ridges. After a spectacular ceremony attended by the King of Norway,
the Congress was officially opened for its first day of conference sessions.
Thomson Scientific was pleased to welcome many familiar faces to our stand on
the exhibition floor, and we were very sorry to disappoint those who arrived after
we had given away the last of our immensely popular “Twinkling Thomson stars”
— over 300 were handed out in 30 minutes!
Dining by candlelight
The famous Mirror Room in Oslo’s Grand Hotel — venue for the Nobel
dinner — formed a magnificent backdrop for our Customer Appreciation Dinner.
After a busy first day at the conference and exhibition, 80 VIP guests from
Scandinavia and elsewhere relaxed with wine and conversation in a room lit by
candles and magnificent glass light fittings. Thomson provided a sumptuous Norwegian
buffet, piled high with seafood, local meats and salads. The fine desserts were
particularly noteworthy, requiring at least two (or more) trips to the buffet
to truly appreciate the selection!
Conversations flowed all evening between old and new acquaintances, with interchanges
of ideas across cultures. Many customers commented how refreshing it was to
attend a company-sponsored event that involved no sales push — simply
a networking opportunity in wonderful surroundings.
Sally Curtis, Head of EMEA Sales, commented “We were particularly pleased
to welcome representatives of the Bibsam, Finelib and ABM consortia. We thank
them for taking the time to attend and hope they enjoyed the evening”.
During the evening, Signy Karlsen from ABM, Norway said this was the “best
Thomson reception she’d ever attended” — and we at Thomson
can only agree!
Measuring journal performance in the 21st century
Over the following two days, conference attendees had two opportunities to
hear from Jeff Clovis, Director of Customer Education and Support.
Tuesday’s presentation focused on ISI
Web of KnowledgeSM, showing
how we implement and tie together the unique links within Thomson Scientific
data, and data from those resources we play host to. ISI Web of Knowledge
has been designed to provide the richest possible experience for the user. This
includes not only the unique data that is available, but the manner in which
this data is presented and quite simply, the way in which the ISI Web of
Knowledge platform works. It is designed to leverage the synergies between
databases, not simply host and provide cross-search of multiple databases. Unique
data and functionality is the combination that provides an incredibly powerful
research tool. This is the source of the strength and popularity of ISI
Web of Knowledge among the research community in both academic and corporate
environments.
Wednesday's presentation on Measuring Journal Performance in the 21st
Century highlighted the use of Journal Citation Reports®
(JCR®) and Essential Science IndicatorsSM
by librarians both for collections development, and for management of collections.
Jeff also introduced our new
360º utilization tool, being developed in collaboration with academic
institutions worldwide to provide a complete picture of journal use at an institution,
and to track the impact of specific researchers. This new tool for collections
management will bring together usage data, JCR data and Web of
Science® usage data for the institution, along with data
on the library’s collections.
Keeping you up to date
If you missed these presentations, or were unable to catch up with our latest
news on our exhibition stand, why not sign up for free KnowledgeLink
e-mail newsletter? This will bring you regular updates and insightful articles
on hot information topics in our industry.
Customer Appreciation Dinner - Photo Gallery
Click each miniature to enlarge.
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 Elisabeth Lundgren, Boras Culture Department'))
 Marianne Norlander, Sweden'))
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Martyn Wade, National Library of Scotland; Biddy Fisher, Sheffield Hallam University'))
