SLA 2005 Leadership Summit Candidate Speech
Cindy Romaine, Candidate for Director
I would like to make three points about membership, membership and membership.
1) The mindset of a new “20-something member” is quite remarkable. For them:
- They have always been able to get research information anytime, anywhere
- They have always been able to get their news from USA Today and CNN1
- There has always been online searching, and online has always meant the Internet
- Google has always been part of their college research
- The compact disc was introduced when they were one year old1
- Pubmed’s coverage is more than twice their lifetime
Our leadership must keep the mentality of new information professionals in mind in order to speak to the whole membership. SLA has adapted to each new generation, and I am committed to being a part of that continuing evolution.
2) To guide the changes that will surely come, I intend to look to our past and reflect on how we can bring forward to make our future more meaningful and relevant. The problems of the past—inaccessibility and a dearth of information—are the complete opposite of current problems—a glut of information and the need to organize for accessibility. By collaborating and asking questions of each other, we can continue to progress.
3) While we tend to specialize, we still have a set of core values that enable us to talk to each other. Think of a daisy with each petal as an individual specialization. In the middle is an intersection where our core values lie. These core values are unchanging, regardless of the specialization or era—such as a focus on the customer, providing services to unique clients, customizing resources, and adapting to future needs. Specialization is where the information industry is experiencing the most change, but our core values are enduring.
As a Director I would use my strengths to take on these issues. Our daily challenges may continue to evolve, but our core values must remain rock solid.
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1 Beloit College releases the mindset list for the class of 2007
http://www.beloit.edu/~pubaff/releases/2003/03mindsetlist.html
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