Patty Hearst SLA
what does SLA stand for
what does SLA stand for
The SLA was formed through contacts made by a study group, coordinated by a University of California, Berkeley professor. Its purpose was the tutelage of black inmates, and over time the ethos became increasingly radicalized. Eventually, black convicts came to be viewed as heroic political prisoners, victimized by a racist American society. On March 5, 1973, Donald DeFreeze escaped from prison. Radical penal activists and future SLA members Russell Little and William Wolfe took DeFreeze to Patricia Soltysik's house. The SLA was led by DeFreeze, who, after a prison acquaintance named Wheeler left, was the only African American in the group. By the time the group became active, most of the members of the tiny group were women, some of whom have, like Soltysik and her roommate Nancy Ling Perry, been described as in lesbian relationships. The members included William and Emily Harris and Angela Atwood. DeFreeze was suspected by many of being a government provocateur, but his race and prison time gave him unquestioned authority in the SLA. He also had sexual dominion over women in the group. They acquired resources by robbing homes in the Bay Area. The first proposed operation, assassinating the head of the state penitentiaries, was cancelled because of possible repercussions for inmates; instead, Marcus Foster, a black educator regarded by the SLA as a fascist who had brought police onto school campuses, was targeted and killed. DeFreeze's estimation of the military strength of the then dozen-strong SLA group was hyperbolic, and he gave himself a concomitantly grandiose title of 'field marshal'. Soltysik is believed to have created much of the SLA ideological material, which stated the organization was opposed to "racism, sexism, agism [sic], fascism, individualism, competitiveness, possessiveness and all other institutions that have made or sustained capitalism". CANNOTANSWER
Its purpose was the tutelage of black inmates, and over time the ethos became increasingly radicalized.
Patricia Campbell Hearst (born February 20, 1954) is an American author and actress, and granddaughter of American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. She first became known for the events following her 1974 kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army. She was found and arrested 19 months after being abducted, by which time she was a fugitive wanted for serious crimes committed with members of the group. She was held in custody, and there was speculation before trial that her family's resources would enable her to avoid time in prison.

At her trial, the prosecution suggested that Hearst had joined the Symbionese Liberation Army of her own volition. However, she testified that she had been raped and threatened with death while held captive. In 1976, she was convicted for the crime of bank robbery and sentenced to 35 years in prison, later reduced to 7 years. Her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter, and she was later pardoned by President Bill Clinton.

Background

Family
Hearst's grandfather, William Randolph Hearst, created the largest newspaper, magazine, newsreel, and movie business in the world. Her great-grandmother was philanthropist Phoebe Hearst. The family was associated with immense political influence and a position of anti-Communism since before World War II.

Early life and education
Patricia Hearst, who prefers to be called "Patricia" rather than "Patty", was born on February 20, 1954, in San Francisco, California, the third of five daughters of Randolph Apperson Hearst and Catherine Wood Campbell. She grew up primarily in Hillsborough, and attended its Crystal Springs School for Girls and the Santa Catalina School in Monterey. She attended Menlo College in Atherton, California, before transferring to the University of California, Berkeley.

Hearst's father was only one of a number of heirs, and did not have control of the Hearst interests, so her parents did not consider it necessary to take measures for their children's personal security. At the time of her abduction, Hearst was a sophomore at Berkeley, studying art history. She lived with her fiancé, Steven Weed, in an apartment in Berkeley.

Kidnapping
On February 4, 1974, 19-year-old Hearst was kidnapped from her Berkeley apartment. An urban guerrilla left-wing group, called the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), claimed responsibility for the abduction.

Motives
Hearst's kidnapping was partly opportunistic, as she happened to live near the SLA hideout. According to testimony at trial, the group's main intention was to leverage the Hearst family's political influence to free two SLA members who had been arrested for Marcus Foster's killing. Faced with the failure to free the imprisoned men, the SLA demanded that the captive's family distribute $70 worth of food to every needy Californian – an operation that would cost an estimated $400 million. In response, Hearst's father took out a loan and arranged the immediate donation of $2 million worth of food to the poor of the Bay Area, in an operation called "People in Need." After the distribution descended into chaos, the SLA refused to release Hearst.

Hearst's account
According to Hearst's later testimony, she was held for a week in a closet, blindfolded and with her hands tied, during which time SLA founder and leader Cinque (Donald DeFreeze) repeatedly threatened her with death. She was let out for meals and blindfolded, and subsequently began to join in the political discussions. She was given a flashlight for reading and SLA political tracts to memorize. Hearst was confined in the closet for weeks, after which she said, "DeFreeze told me that the war council had decided or was thinking about killing me or me staying with them, and that I better start thinking about that as a possibility." Hearst said, "I accommodated my thoughts to coincide with theirs." In a different account, Hearst said she had been offered the choice of being released or joining the SLA.

When asked for her decision, Hearst said she wanted to stay and fight with the SLA. The blindfold was removed, allowing her to see her captors for the first time. After this she was given daily lessons on her duties, especially weapon drills. Angela Atwood told Hearst that the others thought she should know what sexual freedom was like in the unit; according to her lawyer, Hearst was allegedly raped by William "Willie" Wolfe and later by DeFreeze.

Announcement
On April 3, 1974, two months after she was abducted, Hearst announced on an audiotape that she had joined the SLA and taken the name "Tania" (inspired by the nom de guerre of Haydée Tamara Bunke Bider, Che Guevara's comrade).

SLA member

Bank robbery

On April 15, 1974, Hearst was recorded on surveillance video wielding an M1 carbine while robbing the Sunset District branch of the Hibernia Bank at 1450 Noriega Street in San Francisco. Hearst identified under her pseudonym of "Tania", yelling, "I'm Tania. Up, up, up against the wall, mother fuckers". Two men entered the bank while the robbery was occurring and were shot and wounded. According to testimony at her trial, a witness thought that Hearst had been several paces behind the others when running to the getaway car.

Attorney General William B. Saxbe said that Hearst was a "common criminal" and "not a reluctant participant" in the bank robbery. James L. Browning Jr. said that her participation in the robbery may have been voluntary, contrasting with an earlier comment in which he said that she might have been coerced into taking part. The FBI agent heading the investigation said that SLA members were photographed pointing guns at Hearst during the robbery. A grand jury indicted her in June 1974 for the robbery.

Rescue of Harris
On May 16, 1974, the manager at Mel's Sporting Goods in Inglewood, California observed a minor theft by William Harris, who had been shopping with his wife Emily while Hearst waited across the road in a van. The manager and an employee followed Harris out and confronted him. There was a scuffle and the manager restrained Harris, when a pistol fell out of Harris' waistband. Hearst discharged the entire magazine of an automatic carbine into the overhead storefront, causing the manager to dive behind a lightpost. He tried to shoot back, but Hearst began aiming closer.

Fugitive
Hearst and the Harris couple hijacked two cars and abducted the owners. One was a young man who found Hearst so personable that he was reluctant to report the incident. He testified at the trial to her discussing the effectiveness of cyanide-tipped bullets and repeatedly asking if he was okay. Police had surrounded the main base of the SLA before the three returned, so they hid elsewhere. The six SLA members inside the hideout died, some in a gunfight with police and others in a resulting fire. It was initially thought that Hearst had also died during the confrontation. A warrant was then issued for Hearst's arrest for several felonies, including two counts of kidnapping.

Emily Harris went to a Berkeley rally to commemorate the deaths of Angela Atwood and other founding members of the SLA who had died during the police siege. Harris recognized Atwood's acquaintance Kathy Soliah among the radicals whom she'd known from civil rights groups. Soliah introduced the three fugitives to Jack Scott, an athletics reformer and radical, and he agreed to provide help and money.

Involvement in later SLA crimes
Hearst helped make improvised explosive devices. These were used in two unsuccessful attempts to kill police officers during August 1975, and one of the devices failed to detonate. Marked money found in the apartment when she was arrested linked Hearst to the SLA armed robbery of Crocker National Bank in Carmichael, California; she was the getaway car driver for the robbery. Myrna Opsahl, who was at the bank making a deposit, was shot dead by a masked Emily Harris. Hearst was potentially at risk for felony murder charges and could testify as a witness against Harris for a capital offense.

Legal consequences

On September 18, 1975, Hearst was arrested in a San Francisco apartment with Wendy Yoshimura, another SLA member, by San Francisco Police Inspector Timothy F. Casey and his partner, Police Officer Laurence R. Pasero, and FBI Special Agent Thomas J. Padden and his partners, FBI agents Jason Moulton, Frank Doyle, Jr., Larry Lawler, Monte Hall, Dick Vitamonte, Leo Brenneissen, and Ray Campos. While being booked into jail, Hearst listed her occupation as "Urban Guerilla" and asked her attorney to relay the following message: "Tell everybody that I'm smiling, that I feel free and strong and I send my greetings and love to all the sisters and brothers out there."

Brainwashing claims
At the time of her arrest, Hearst's weight had dropped to 87 pounds (40 kg), and she was described by psychologist Margaret Singer in October 1975 as "a low-IQ, low-affect zombie". Shortly after her arrest, signs of trauma were recorded: her IQ was measured as 112, whereas it had previously been 130; there were huge gaps in her memory regarding her pre-Tania life; she was smoking heavily and had nightmares. Without a mental illness or defect, a person is considered to be fully responsible for any criminal action not done under duress, which is defined as a clear and present threat of death or serious injury. For Hearst to secure an acquittal on the grounds of having been brainwashed would have been completely unprecedented.

Psychiatrist Louis Jolyon West, a professor at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), was appointed by the court in his capacity as a brainwashing expert and worked without a fee. After the trial, he wrote a newspaper article asking President Carter to release Hearst from prison.
 
Hearst wrote in her memoir, Every Secret Thing (1982), "I spent fifteen hours going over my SLA experiences with Robert Jay Lifton of Yale University. Lifton, author of several books on coercive persuasion and thought reform, [...] pronounced me a 'classic case' which met all the psychological criteria of a coerced prisoner of war. [...] If I had reacted differently, that would have been suspect, he said."
 
After some weeks, Hearst repudiated her SLA allegiance.

Her first lawyer, Terence Hallinan, had advised Hearst not to talk to anyone, including psychiatrists. He advocated a defense of involuntary intoxication: that the SLA had given her drugs that affected her judgment and recollection.

He was replaced by attorney F. Lee Bailey, who asserted a defense of coercion or duress affecting intent at the time of the offense. This was similar to the brainwashing defense which Hallinan had warned was not a defense in law. Hearst gave long interviews to various psychiatrists.

Trial
Hearst alone was arraigned for the Hibernia Bank robbery; the trial commenced on January 15, 1976. Judge Oliver Jesse Carter ruled that Hearst's taped and written statements after the bank robbery, while she was a fugitive with the SLA members, were voluntary. He did not allow expert testimony that stylistic analysis indicated the "Tania" statements and writing were not wholly composed by Hearst. He permitted the prosecution to introduce statements and actions Hearst made long after the Hibernia robbery, as evidence of her state of mind at the time of the robbery. Judge Carter also allowed into evidence a recording made by jail authorities of a friend's jail visit with Hearst, in which Hearst used profanities and spoke of her radical and feminist beliefs, but he did not allow tapes of psychiatrist Louis Jolyon West's interviews of Hearst to be heard by the jury. Judge Carter was described as "resting his eyes" during testimony favorable to the defense by West and others.

According to Hearst's testimony, her captors had demanded she appear enthusiastic during the robbery and warned she would pay with her life for any mistake. Her defense lawyer F. Lee Bailey provided photographs showing that SLA members, including Camilla Hall, had pointed guns at Hearst during the robbery. In reference to the shooting at Mel's Sporting Goods Store and her decision to not escape, Hearst testified that she was instructed throughout her captivity on what to do in an emergency. She said one class in particular had a situation similar to the store manager's detention of the Harrises. Hearst testified that "when it happened I didn't even think. I just did it, and if I had not done it and if they had been able to get away they would have killed me."

Testifying for the prosecution, Dr. Harry Kozol said Hearst had been "a rebel in search of a cause", and her participation in the Hibernia robbery had been "an act of free will." Prosecutor James L. Browning Jr. asked the other psychiatrist testifying for the prosecution, Dr. Joel Fort, if Hearst was in fear of death or great bodily injury during the robbery, to which he answered, "No", but Bailey angrily objected. Fort assessed Hearst as amoral, and said she had voluntarily had sex with Wolfe and DeFreeze, which Hearst denied both in court and outside. Prosecutor Browning tried to show that writings by Hearst indicated her testimony had misrepresented her interactions with Wolfe. She said she had been writing the SLA version of events and had been punched in the face by William Harris when she refused to be more effusive about what she regarded as sexual abuse by Wolfe. Judge Carter allowed testimony from the prosecution psychiatrists about Hearst's early sexual experiences, although these had occurred years before her kidnapping and the bank robbery.

In court, Hearst made a poor impression and appeared lethargic. An Associated Press report attributed this state to drugs she was given by jail doctors. Bailey was strongly criticized for his decision to put Hearst on the stand, then having her repeatedly decline to answer questions. According to Alan Dershowitz, Bailey was wrong-footed by the judge, who had appeared to indicate she would have Fifth Amendment privilege: the jury would not be present for some of her testimony, or would be instructed not to draw inferences, on matters subsequent to the Hibernian Bank charges for which she was being tried, but he changed his mind.

After a few months, Hearst provided information to the authorities, not under oath (sworn testimony could have been used to convict her) of SLA activities. A bomb exploded at Hearst Castle in February 1976. After Hearst testified that Wolfe had raped her, Emily Harris gave a magazine interview from jail alleging that Hearst's keeping a trinket given to her by Wolfe was an indication that she had been in a romantic relationship with him. Hearst said she had kept the stone carving because she thought it was a Pre-Columbian artifact of archeological significance. The prosecutor James L. Browning Jr. used Harris' interpretation of the item, and some jurors later said they regarded the carving, which Browning waved in front of them, as powerful evidence that Hearst was lying.

Closing arguments
In a closing prosecution statement that hardly acknowledged that Hearst had been kidnapped and held captive, prosecutor Browning suggested that Hearst had taken part in the bank robbery without coercion. Browning, who later became a judge, also suggested to the jury that as the female SLA members were feminists, they would not have allowed Hearst to be raped.

In her autobiography, Hearst expressed disappointment with what she saw as Bailey's lack of focus in the crucial end stage of her trial; she described him as having the appearance of someone with a hangover, and spilling water down the front of his pants while making a "disjointed" closing argument. Bailey's final statement to the court was, "But simple application of the rules, I think, will yield one decent result, and, that is, there is not anything close to proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Patty Hearst wanted to be a bank robber. What you know, and you know in your hearts to be true is beyond dispute. There was talk about her dying, and she wanted to survive."

Conviction and sentencing

On March 20, 1976, Hearst was convicted of bank robbery and using a firearm during the commission of a felony. She was given the maximum sentence possible of 35 years' imprisonment, pending a reduction at final sentence hearing, which Carter declined to specify.

Because Judge Carter had died, Judge William Horsley Orrick Jr. determined Hearst's sentence. He gave her seven years imprisonment, commenting that "rebellious young people who, for whatever reason become revolutionaries, and voluntarily commit criminal acts will be punished".

Prison life
Hearst suffered a collapsed lung in prison, the beginning of a series of medical problems, and she underwent emergency surgery. This prevented her from appearing to testify against the Harrises on 11 charges, including robbery, kidnapping, and assault; she was also arraigned for those charges. She was held in solitary confinement for security reasons; she was granted bail for an appeal hearing in November 1976 on the condition that she was protected on bond. Her father hired dozens of bodyguards.

Superior Court judge Talbot Callister gave her probation on the sporting goods store charge when she pleaded no contest, saying that he believed that she had been subject to coercion amounting to torture. California Attorney General Evelle J. Younger said that, if there was a double standard for the wealthy, it was the opposite of what was generally believed and that Hearst had received a stiffer sentence than a person of lesser means might have. He said that she had no legal brainwashing defense, but pointed out that the events had started with her being kidnapped.

Hearst's bail was revoked in May 1978 when appeals failed, and the Supreme Court declined to hear her case. The prison took no special security measures for her safety until she found a dead rat on her bunk on the day when William and Emily Harris were arraigned for her abduction. The Harrises were convicted on a simple kidnapping charge, as opposed to the more serious kidnapping for ransom or kidnapping with bodily injury, and they were released after serving a total of eight years each.

Representative Leo Ryan was collecting signatures on a petition for Hearst's release several weeks before he was murdered while visiting the Jonestown settlement in Guyana. Actor John Wayne spoke after the Jonestown cult deaths, pointing out that people had accepted that Jim Jones had brainwashed 900 individuals into mass suicide but would not accept that the Symbionese Liberation Army could have brainwashed a kidnapped teenage girl.

Commutation, release, and pardon
President Jimmy Carter commuted Hearst's federal sentence to the 22 months served, freeing her eight months before she was eligible for her first parole hearing. Her release (on February 1, 1979) was under stringent conditions, and she remained on probation for the state sentence on the sporting goods store plea. She recovered full civil rights when President Bill Clinton granted her a pardon on January 20, 2001, his last day in office.

Life after release
Two months after her release from prison, Hearst married Bernard Lee Shaw (1945–2013), a policeman who was part of her security detail during her time on bail. They had two children, Gillian and Lydia Hearst-Shaw. Hearst became involved in a foundation helping children with AIDS, and is active in other charities and fund-raising activities.

Media and other activities
Hearst published the memoir Every Secret Thing, co-written with Alvin Moscow, in 1981. Her accounts resulted in authorities considering bringing new charges against her. She was interviewed in 2009 on NBC and said that the prosecutor had suggested that she had been in a consensual relationship with Wolfe. She described that as "outrageous" and an insult to rape victims.

Hearst produced a special for the Travel Channel titled Secrets of San Simeon with Patricia Hearst, in which she took viewers inside her grandfather's mansion Hearst Castle, providing unprecedented access to the property.

She has appeared in feature films for director John Waters, who cast her in Cry-Baby (1990), Serial Mom (1994), Pecker (1998), Cecil B. DeMented (2000) and A Dirty Shame (2004). She collaborated with Cordelia Frances Biddle on writing the novel Murder at San Simeon (Scribner, 1996), based upon the death of Thomas H. Ince on her grandfather's yacht. She also appeared in the episode "Lord of the Pi's" in season 3 of Veronica Mars. The character was the heiress of a fictionalized Hearst family, loosely based on aspects of her life. Hearst also made a cameo in Pauly Shore's film Bio-Dome (1996).  She was also a guest caller on the TV series Frasier on season 1 episode 23 Frasier Crane's Day Off (1994), as Janice.

Hearst has participated with her dogs in dog shows, and her Shih Tzu Rocket won the "Toy" group at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden on February 16, 2015. At the 2017 show, Hearst's French bulldog Tuggy won Best of Breed, and Rubi won Best of Opposite Sex.

Films about Hearst's SLA period

 Abduction (1975)
 Patty (1976)
 Tanya (1976)
The Ordeal of Patty Hearst (1979)
 Captive (1986)
Patty Hearst (1988)
Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst (2004)
The Radical Story of Patty Hearst (2018)
Drunk History: The Kidnapping of Patty Hearst (2019)
American Woman (2019)

In popular culture 
 American singer-songwriter Patti Smith's re-imagined 1974 cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Joe" is a meditation on Patty Hearst's involvement with the Symbionese Liberation Army. The single was Smith's first appearance on a record.
 American singer-songwriter, Warren Zevon, mentions Patty Hearst in a song he co-wrote with David Lindell, "Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner" which was included on Zevon's 1978 album "Excitable Boy".
 American author Stephen King states, in his non-fiction book Danse Macabre (1981), that Patty Hearst's case was among the sources of inspiration for his novel The Stand (1978).
 The title of the American band Camper van Beethoven's album Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart (1988) is taken from the lyrics to the album's penultimate song, 'Tania,' a "darkly witty paean to Patty Hearst."
American singer songwriter Jimmy Urine of the band Mindless Self Indulgence wrote the electronic song "Patty Hearst" as the 7th song on his 2017 solo album "The Secret Cinematic Sounds of Jimmy Urine".
 The Law & Order episode "Hot Pursuit" is based on the Patty Hearst case.
In Marvel Television's Jessica Jones, a reference to Patty's conviction is made in reference to another character committing crimes whilst abducted.

See also
 American Woman
 Brainwashing
 List of kidnappings
 List of solved missing person cases
 Stockholm syndrome
 List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the president of the United States

Notes

References

Cited texts

External links

View from inside car of Mel's Sporting Goods where a robbery involving Patty Hearst took place, Inglewood, California, 1976. Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

1954 births
20th-century American trials
Actresses from San Francisco
American film actresses
American memoirists
American people taken hostage
American television actresses
Dog breeders
Formerly missing people
Patty
Hostage taking in the United States
Kidnapped American people
Kidnappings in the United States
Living people
Menlo College alumni
Missing person cases in California
People from Hillsborough, California
Recipients of American presidential pardons
Symbionese Liberation Army
University of California, Berkeley alumni
American women memoirists
Special Libraries Association (SLA) is an international professional association for library and information professionals working in business, government, law, finance, non-profit, and academic organizations and institutions.

History
The Special Libraries Association was founded in 1909 in the United States by a group of librarians working in specialized settings, led by John Cotton Dana, who served as the first president of SLA from 1909 to 1911. In the years prior to SLA's founding Dana and other librarians saw an increasing demand for the types of materials that specialized libraries could provide, and recognized that as information professionals working in such settings responded to the demands of their jobs they were creating a new kind of librarianship. Also, many of them were working as professional librarians but largely without the professional support enjoyed by other librarians and professionals.  The group sought to address their common problems by banding together. Their goal, as stated in the first issue of Special Libraries, was to "unite in co-operation all small libraries throughout the country; financial, commercial, scientific, industrial; and special departments of state, college and general libraries; and, in fact, all libraries devoted to special purposes and serving a limited clientage."

The SLA is now an international organization with members in over 75 countries and is organized by 55 regional Chapters. Additionally, the SLA also has a number of Divisions devoted to specific topic areas. Many Divisions also include Sections for sub-specialties. The current Divisions include: Academic; Biomedical & Life Sciences; Business & Finance; Chemistry; Competitive Intelligence; Education; Engineering; Environment & Resource Management; Food, Agriculture & Nutrition; Government Information; Information Technology; Insurance & Employee Benefits; Knowledge Management; Legal; Leadership & Management; Military Libraries; Museums, Arts & Humanities; News; Petroleum & Energy Resources; Pharmaceutical & Health Technology; Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics; Science-Technology; Social Science; Solo Librarians; Taxonomy; and Transportation.

Naming controversy 
From the time of the founding of the SLA there has been some controversy surrounding the terminology used in the name Special Libraries Association.  At the time of SLAs founding there was an almost immediate backlash against the term special library or special librarian.  For some, the term was too specific in that it had been used on a limited basis to that time to define reference collections which were limited or narrow in some way. For others, the term was too broad, focusing on a general type of collection rather than the work that the special librarian does. John Cotton Dana himself acknowledged the inadequacy of the name in the years following SLA's founding but noted the term was chosen by default as no other term would be as accurate yet encompassing. This debate continues today among organization members and official name changes were considered in 1982, 2003, and 2009 but they were eventually voted down by the membership.

Membership
SLA membership is open to any person or organization.  Members pay annual dues to SLA and additional fees for any Chapter, Division, or Caucus memberships they wish to obtain.  
Members of SLA typically possess a master's degree in library or information science and may have an advanced degree in a related field such as law, medicine or engineering.  While special libraries include law libraries, news libraries, corporate libraries, museum libraries, medical libraries, and transportation libraries, many information professionals today do not actually work in a library setting. They actively apply their specialized skills to support the information needs of their organizations. SLA members fill many non-traditional librarian roles such as corporate competitive intelligence analyst, researcher, or information specialist.  Given the rapid adoption of information technologies for selecting, analyzing, managing, storing, and delivering information and knowledge, the average SLA member might be performing a range of services and employing a diverse mix of skills related to, but not exclusive of, library science.  In fact, it is likely a special librarian does not work in a library, but rather an information center or resource center.

Governing structure
The SLA is governed by a board of directors who are elected by the membership according to the parameters set out in the SLA's bylaws. The board of directors is responsible for the overall direction and management of the SLA and selects the organization's officers.  The board of directors is led by a president who is elected for a one-year term. An executive director selected by the board oversees the day-to-day management and functions of SLA. SLA Welcomed Amy Lestition Burke, CAE, as its executive director in May 2016. Burke had been serving SLA as vice president of success since 1 March, when SLA entered into an agreement with association management company MCI USA (formerly Coulter Companies) to manage its operations.

Each of the regional Chapters and topical Divisions of SLA also elects officers and conducts meetings in a similar fashion to SLA.  Members are entitled to vote in board elections for each Chapter or Division in which they pay dues.

Committees & councils 
Committees and Councils are established by the board of directors in order to coordinate its activities relating to achieving the goals and objectives of the association. 
 Annual Conference Advisory Council
 Awards and Honors Committee
 Joint Governance and Bylaws Committee
 Emergency Preparedness & Recovery Advisory Council
 Finance Committee
 Industry Partners Alliance
 Information Outlook Advisory Council
 Membership Advisory Council
 Nominating Committee	Online Content Advisory Council
 Professional Development Advisory Council
 Public Relations Advisory Council
 Students and New Professionals Advisory Council
 Student Groups
 Technology Advisory Council
 Transition CommitteeTransition Committee

Activities

SLA activities include conferences, professional education, networking, and advocacy. The SLA Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO, usually held in the summer, includes education programs, networking events, and information exhibits.  The SLA 2017 Annual Conference took place in Phoenix. The SLA 2018 Annual Conference was held 9–13 June 2018, in Baltimore, Maryland.  The SLA 2019 Annual Conference is scheduled to be held 13–18 June in Cleveland, Ohio.

Awards
The SLA presents several awards, some on an annual basis.

Fellowship in SLA is bestowed on active, mid-career SLA members in recognition of past, present and future service to the association and the profession. Fellows are called upon and expected to advise the association's board of directors, prepare necessary documentation, and alert the membership to issues and trends warranting action.  No more than five SLA members can be selected as a Fellow in any given year. Individuals receiving this honor are able to use the title Fellow of the Special Libraries Association. (Members who are currently serving on the SLA Board of Directors are ineligible for designation as Fellows.)

John Cotton Dana Award is the SLA's top honor and is awarded to an individual in recognition of a lifetime of achievement and exceptional service to the SLA. (This should not be confused with the John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award, awarded by the American Library Association.)

Presidential Citations are given to SLA members for important or notable contributions advancing the SLA's goal or objectives during the previous year.  The Presidential Citations are given at the pleasure of the SLA President.

Rose L. Vormelker Award is given to a mid-career SLA member who actively teaches or mentors students or working professionals.

SLA Hall of Fame is presented to an SLA member near the end of their professional career in recognition of service and contributions to the SLA and its goal and objectives.

James M. Matarazzo Rising Star Award is presented annually to up to five new SLA members who have been members for no more than five years and show exceptional promise of leadership and contribution to the association and profession.

Nominees must meet at least one of the following criteria:

 Performed outstanding work and professional activities on behalf of SLA
 Developed notable innovations on the job
 Actively participated in SLA units and association programs
 Promoted the visibility of SLA or the value of information professionals

Recipients receive complimentary registration for the SLA Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO in the year in which they receive the award.

SLA Committee/Council/Unit Recognition Programs and SAAAC Merit Awards are presented by the SLA Student and Academic Affairs Advisory Council (SAAAC) in recognition of the active development and participation of student members through their involvement in SLA Student Group activities. Through these awards the SAAAC recognizes and honors SLA Student Groups whose outstanding leadership, innovative programming, or creative use of electronic resources contribute to increased membership and expanded professional development. SAAAC awards are made based on documented quantitative and qualitative evidence pertaining to one or more of the following award criteria:
 Increased student group membership
 Expanded professional development opportunities (both formal and informal)
 Heightened profile of the SLA Student Group within their own school, on their own campus, or in the professional community
 Success in bringing educators and practicing special librarians together
 Increased or enhanced profile of special librarianship and/or SLA within the academic or broader community

Several other awards are given out at the Chapter and Division level as well at the SLA Annual Conference.

Publications
Special Libraries (1910-1996), a journal containing articles and columns on cataloging and indexing, book reviews, and information about the Special Library Association.

Information Outlook (1997-2020), formerly Special Libraries, a bimonthly online professional/trade magazine. Publication ceased with the March-April 2020 issue.

References

External links
Official website
Special Libraries archive at SJSU ScholarWorks
Information Outlook archive at SJSU ScholarWorks

Library-related professional associations
Organizations based in Alexandria, Virginia
Organizations established in 1909 Bandwidth Guaranteed Polling (BGP) in computing and telecommunications is a dynamic bandwidth allocation algorithm for Ethernet passive optical networks designed by Maode Ma et al. at the National University of Singapore. This is an instance of an algorithm that allocates bandwidth based on fixed weights.

BGP divides a window of time into fixed-sized slots, a number of which are allocated to each Optical Network Unit (ONU). The number allocated depends upon the ONU customer's service level agreement (SLA). If an ONU does not wish to use its entire allocated time slot, it may inform the OLT about this. The OLT may then decide to reallocate the remaining time slot to another ONU which does not have an SLA.

The BGP algorithm may not be entirely compatible with the MPCP standard. This is because the MPCP does not provide any way for the ONU to inform the OLT about the fraction of the time slot that it wishes to use.

References
M. Ma, Y. Zhu, T. H. Cheng, "Bandwidth Guaranteed Polling MAC Protocol for Ethernet Passive Optical Networks", INFOCOM 2003.

Network performance