Em: 17 June 2009 Remarks – SLA 2009 – Special Libraries Association
Uma citação curiosa:
One of the great rarities in the collection of the New York Public Library is a small copper sphere–one of the first globes ever made. About five hundred years old, it depicts the newly discovered Americas for the very first time.
The cartographer did not, however, have the full picture. So to indicate parts of the planet that remained unknown, he–or she–engraved the Latin words "Hic Sunt Dracones"–"Here Be Dragons."
Dragons and other monsters were the shorthand used by cartographers to show the most frightening places of all: those that were unknown.
And that phrase–Here Be Dragons–is an apt metaphor for voyages into uncharted waters. It is also a fitting reminder of the advantages of knowing our course.
Nunca tinha visto profissionais de informação comparados com “dragon slayers”! Mas gostei!
Mais à frente, já na área definitivamente séria do discurso:
I think that John Cotton Dana would be thrilled, don’t you? He always described the name Special Libraries Association as something he used, "lacking a better alternative."
serve como introdução, ou pelo menos como invocação do fundador da associação, para apadrinhar:
And you have told us over and over again that one of your greatest challenges is our name–SLA. It is a name that we hold dear, but a name that has little meaning outside the profession . . . a name that research shows us does not capture your contributions, your aspirations, your future. I assure you: we did not enter the Alignment Project looking for a name change.