Candidate for Director
LaJean Humphries
Thank you for the honor of appearing before you today. I was thrilled and truly honored to be asked to run for the position of Director. I have enjoyed meeting and getting to know so many of you this week. I have especially enjoyed getting to know the other candidates for Director. Regardless of the outcome, I believe it will be a “win-win” for the membership as we have an excellent slate of candidates for this position.
I would like to thank the Oregon Chapter for their enthusiastic support and for giving me the opportunity to serve and develop my leadership skills as President-elect and Chapter President. Oregon has a unique team leadership structure and I have also served as Professional Development Team Leader for a number of years. I still work with that team on usually at least one program per year.
I am one of those librarians who came later to the profession after over a dozen years of social work experience. I have also worked in school, public, academic, and special libraries and gained a breadth of experience. I have been the Library Manager at Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt for 15 years. In addition to administration and management, I am responsible for research and reference and much of the firm intranet which I helped develop. I also teach informally and one-on-one as well as teach formal state bar accredited continuing legal education classes in research and Internet use.
I believe that mentorship is a very important part of librarianship. I have been fortunate to benefit from the mentorship of several supportive, patient, wise, and excellent, experienced librarians. I would not be where I am today without their support. In recent years I have received great satisfaction from mentoring librarians new to the profession. I believe that SLA can and should do more to help match mentors and mentees and to help support the mentoring relationship.
Yesterday afternoon in the “Triple Whammy” session we talked a lot about communication, change, and conflict. I believe we need to focus on the truly critical issues facing the profession. How we frame those issues will determine how we resolve them. Earlier this year, I read a story about a young priest who asked his bishop if it was okay to smoke while praying. “Absolutely not!” he was told. Later he observed an older priest puffing on a cigarette while praying. He told the older priest, “I don’t understand. I was told it was forbidden to smoke while praying.”
“That’s strange,” the older priest said. “I asked the bishop if it was okay to pray while smoking and I was told it was okay to pray at any time.”
As this old joke shows, we must communicate clearly and focus on the truly important issues to make the right decisions for the association. I will do this as Director.
I am passionate about life-long learning. We are so lucky to be in a profession where we can learn and grow every day. I am committed to continuous learning for all our members. However, as important as passion is, compassion is equally important at a personal, professional, and association level. I will bring passion and compassion to the position of Director if elected. Thank you for your consideration.
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