Swets’ Second Annual 2009 Charleston Conference Scholarship Awarded to Deborah Blecic

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Runnemede, New Jersey

October 22, 2009

Swets’ Second Annual 2009 Charleston Conference Scholarship Awarded to Deborah Blecic

Swets is pleased to award the second annual 2009 Swets’ Charleston Scholarship to Deborah Blecic, Bibliographer for the Life and Health Sciences and Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago Library (Chicago, Illinois). Deborah was awarded the scholarship to attend the Conference taking place November 4 through 7, in Charleston, South Carolina.

Deborah’s winning essay entitled, “eBooks: One-Click Access for our Users,” envisions a dynamic eBooks portal, combining a searchable catalog, alphabetic list and federated search component, all dedicated to eBooks and available from a seamless Web interface. Combining the library’s various subscriptions and purchases together, patrons would have instant access to this eBooks portal through the library homepage. Deborah foresees this eBooks interface speaking to the needs of the library’s end-users and their ability to find and search eBooks no matter what underlying issues exist with catalog records. Search functionality within this Web portal would be possible by title, title keyword, author, ISBN, publisher and year of publication. Deborah believes a tool such as this would allow her end-users to find eBooks quickly and efficiently.

A committee made up of Katina Strauch, Head of Collection Development, College of Charleston, Chuck Hamaker, Associate University Librarian for Collections & Technical Services, University of North Carolina: Wilmington and Christine Stamison, Senior Customer Relations Manager, Swets, collaboratively worked together to choose the winning composition.

The committee members picked Deborah’s essay because she clearly explained an excellent proposed eBook service that would be beneficial to the library community at large. In addition, Deborah identified this solution would contain an eBook federated search component, an ideal service that has not been created within the current information marketplace but would be meaningful and align with the rising popularity of electronic content.

“On behalf of the Swets Charleston Scholarship committee, we sincerely congratulate
Deborah on her winnings,” states Christine Stamison, Swets Senior Customer Relations Manager. “This is the second annual Charleston Scholarship Swets has awarded – one of the many ways Swets supports information professionals by showing appreciation for the library community. The scholarship initiative allows librarians the chance to actively voice valid ideas and concerns through expressive, informative writing. Swets recognizes the inherent value in attending events such as the Charleston Conference, a great opportunity to discuss and share key issues occurring within the library profession nationwide.”

In addition to the scholarship program, Swets will attend the Conference and participate in one of the Conference’s Concurrent sessions, Juried Product Development sessions as well as a Vendor Chat session. Christine Stamison, Swets Senior Customer Relations Manager, will speak on a panel along with other panelists entitled, “Usage Statistics: The Perks, Perils and Pitfalls.” This panel will examine usage statistics and the COUNTER Code of Practice. Sri Rajan, Swets Electronic Products Manager, and Daniel Belda, Swets Innovation and Development Manager, will also contribute to one of the Juried Product Development sessions taking place at the Conference.

About the Conference
The Charleston Conference is an annual gathering of librarians, publishers,
electronic resource managers, consultants, and vendors of library materials in
Charleston, South Carolina, each November to discuss issues of importance. It is
designed to be a collegial gathering of individuals from different areas who discuss
the same issues in a non-threatening, friendly, and highly informal environment.
Beginning in 1980, the Charleston Conference has grown from 20 participants to
over 1,100 in 2008.

About Swets
Swets is the world's leading subscription services company. We build on more than
105 years of experience to maximize the return on investments in time and money
for clients and publishers in today's complex information marketplace. With clients in
over 160 countries and more than twenty offices around the world, Swets is a true
“long tail” powerhouse that provides the most comprehensive and sophisticated ecommerce platform currently available in its field.

Swets has been included in E-Content Magazine's “100 Companies that Matter Most
in the Digital Content Industry” for the past five years, and is consistently featured
in the top 25% of FEM Business' “Top 500 Companies in The Netherlands”. We are
the only subscription services company that is ISO 9001:2008 certified on a global
basis for 10 years running--a testament to our stringent operation and client service
procedures.

Media Contact
Damian Leslie
External Communications Executive
Swets
Heereweg 347 B, 2161 CA Lisse
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 252 435 189
Fax: +31 252 415 888
Email: dleslie@nl.swets.com
www.swets.com