1. What is the SLA Alignment Project and how did it come about?
SLA and its members have long worked together to communicate their value to their organizations, and the need to do so is more urgent than ever in the current economic environment. The Alignment Project is the most comprehensive effort in SLA's history to bring clarity to the core identity of information professionals and the association that represents them. It includes in-depth research with a broad range of both organizational leaders and librarians and information professionals on the value that information professionals bring to the workplace and the language that best describes that value. It also provides critical guidance on steps that information professionals can take to align their activities to their organization's goals and bring further value to their positions.
The project is funded by profits invested after the sale of SLA's previous headquarters building. For more information about the steps taken to date, see the Alignment Project Timeline.
2. Why is Alignment so important?
In an age where everyone has access to search engines and databases, it is critical to define the unique contributions that special librarians and information professionals make to the success of their organizations. Particularly in today's economy, we all need to articulate our value in language that leaders can relate to, no matter where we work, for a simple reason: They control our budgets. We also need to take steps to align our activities with our organization's priorities to ensure that we can play an ever-more-significant role in our organization's success in the future.
3. Why must we change the name of the association?
A century ago, John Cotton Dana wrote that the name Special Libraries Association, "was chosen with some hesitation, and rather in default of a better." When SLA undertook the Alignment Project, a name change was not in our plans. However, the research has made it abundantly clear that we must consider one. After four phases of research, the terms "special library" and "special librarian" were the lowest-ranking concepts we tested. They are neither viewed favorably nor understood by those who make the decisions about the future of our profession; in fact, they were not viewed favorably by the librarians and information professionals included in the research. (Complete Research Results)
4. The name change seems to be the first Alignment initiative out of the gate - why? Why not an initiative to promote our value?
The first and most important initiative promoting the value of information professionals is the knowledge contained in the research findings, which were shared with members in January. The impetus to change the name has sprung from those members who have studied the findings and have concluded that our name is an obstacle to SLA's efforts to demonstrate the value of information professionals.
In fact, we are no longer an association of "special libraries" as more than 50 percent of our members do not work in a "library." We will never be able to reflect all these names and changes but we can put forth a name that reflects the value and professionalism we bring to our organizations, regardless of what we call ourselves now or in the future. SLA President-elect Anne Caputo has said, "I think John Cotton Dana would be pleased to know we are evolving and focusing on what is really important-how we provide strategically important information, content and knowledge that make our organizations competitive and successful."
5. Where do we go from here?
A team of Alignment Ambassadors representing almost every chapter, division and caucus has been through training on how to "talk Alignment," and they are working hard to help members absorb the research and answer their questions. Their job is to continue the dialog and help us all learn how to "talk Alignment" and identify ways we can use these findings to better align our efforts with those of our organizations and effectively demonstrate our purpose and value.
Jill Stand, who is heading this effort, has said, "...it is up to each individual member to decide for her/himself what is possible--by working together, learning from one another's experiences and speaking with a unified voice in language that has been tested and honed for each audience. I honestly believe we can make a difference--many already have and the current issue of Information Outlook includes stories of five who have done just that."
This week, we also posted to the SLA blog the first in a series of steps you can take right now to increase your value in the workplace.
6. This Alignment Project and name change is furthering the perception that being a librarian is a bad thing, or that this effort is intended to take away that identity from those who are very proud of it. The alignment of the profession will de-value the MLS/MLIS degree that we work so hard to get!
The proposal is to change the name of the association, not the profession. SLA members have more than 2,000 job titles, and most of them do not contain the word librarian. Your degree is an important qualification, but it does not define your future or the direction you choose for your career. A number of our members in academia have given up the word librarian as a title, and many library education programs are changing their names and leaving out library to reflect a much broader skill set that is now required of information professionals. SLA has not required a library degree for members for many years, and an increasing number of people working in the information profession have degrees in fields other than library or information science. Those with degrees in information science do not call themselves information scientists. But the alignment research has clearly demonstrated the greatest challenge posed by SLA's name: people, most importantly the decision makers who decide who gets hired or where budget dollars are allocated, do not understand what it means.
Our founders began a new organization one century ago because traditional library associations did not represent the interests of the emerging "special librarians"--the people who departed from established job descriptions to focus on building the knowledge that organizations required to be successful.
Janice Lachance, SLA's CEO, points out that she is proud of and worked hard to get a law degree and, further, to take and pass the bar exam. Her educational background has gotten her to the place she is today, and it is an important qualification for the position she now has. However, she is the organization's CEO, not attorney.
The association that represents American physicians is the American Medical Association; the one that represents American attorneys is the American Bar Association.
7. Is the alignment research being funded by member dues? Is this why we recently had a dues increase?
No. The Alignment Project is funded from long-term investments made with the profits of the sale of SLA's previous headquarters building.
8. Why doesn't SLA place advertising targeted at business executives to show them the value of information professionals, as many members have suggested?
We would love to! But to be effective, such an ad campaign is far outside of the financial reach of the association. We have been fortunate that Dow Jones has placed some very valuable advertising in the Wall Street Journal on our behalf. As helpful as those ads have been, SLA would need to purchase advertising in major international business publications, on associated Web sites, and in other media several times a year for several years to affect the way executives view information professionals. The cost of placing a single full-page ad four times a year in one of the major international business magazines ranges from US$ 464,000 to about US $658,000, and this does not include the cost of developing the advertising. We would need to budget a minimum of US$ 1,000,000 each year to maintain even a very modest campaign.
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