Karen Bleakley for Division Cabinet Chair-elect
Karen Bleakley is Manager, Knowledge Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (1998- present)
Past Employment: Assistant Manager, Reference Librarian, Price Waterhouse (1993-98); Reference Librarian, KPMG, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (1989-93).
SLA Member Since: 1988
Education: B.A. (Psychology) McGill University, Montreal; MLIS, McGill University, Montreal; Certificate in Computer-Based Information Systems (M.I.S.), McGill University, Montreal.
SLA Chapter Activities: Eastern Canada Chapter; Secretary (1993-94); Chair/member of the Continuing Education, Nominating, Technology, Public Relations committees; SLA Student Group President, McGill University
SLA Division Activities: Information Technology Division: Chair (1998-2001), Program planner 1995 Annual Conference, Montreal, Chair, Information Systems Section (1997-98); also member of the Advertising & Marketing, Business & Finance, Library Management, Transportation, Communications Divisions.
SLA Association-Level Activities: Member, Simplification Task Force (2000- present), Member, Information Today Award Committee (1996-98).
Other Professional Activities: Society for Competitive Intelligence Professionals, member (1998-present); guest speaker, McGill University library school; Curriculum Advisory Committee member for Montreal-area library technician program.
Awards & Honors: SLA Meckler Award for Innovations in Technology (1993); SLA Eastern Canada Chapter Award--highest standing in Special Libraries course (1989); McGill University Janet Agnew Scholarship (1988).
Publications: Regular contributor to SLA newsletters and bulletins (ECC and ITE), Library Hi-Tech News, Business Information Review, Journal les Affaires (Quebec business newspaper).
On the Questions:
What are the keys to the growth of the information profession, its stature and its image?
Probably the primary key to growth is partnerships. The information profession must establish partnerships with corollary professions and become more inclusive. Partnering with professionals from other disciplines such as computer science, business and education would have the effect of infusing our profession with fresh ideas while growing the profession as a whole. Partnerships could be as simple as joint conference sessions or other educational opportunities. Partnering would also be a key to enhancing the image of the profession. Other professionals would come to know and better understand the information profession thereby helping to update the image of the traditional library and librarian.
What is your vision for the association during your time in office, and what legacy would you like to leave behind? What is your strategy to implement this vision?
I would like to see more active participation SLA members. In order for this to happen, individual members must better understand the association, and come to feel that this is really their association. All too often, at both the chapter and division level it is left for the same few people to keep doing all the work. While these people are greatly appreciated and needed, there is also a need to train the next generation of information professionals to run this association. I know that there are incredibly talented SLA members who have yet to volunteer their time and share their expertise with SLA. The goal is to reach out to these people and help them see how enriching it is to work with other SLA members on committees or projects. The best strategy is communication. We all need to "talk up" SLA to our colleagues, to mentor new information profesionals and to get people excited about the profession and the association.
Explain a career-related accomplishment and how its outcome will relate to your success on the board of directors.
My firm recently merged with another to become the world's largest professional services organization. During this process I successfully combined two corporate libraries. This entailed discussion with the firm's new leadership about our services, why they were important and why the new firm needed to keep them. It was a delicate balancing act to keep everyone's best interests in sight as we built the new service. The role of Division Cabinet Chair is to act as a liason between the division and association leadership. The Chair must keep both the interests of the division and of the association leaders in sight and be able to strike a balance between them. SLA is a very dynamic and global organization. The Division Cabinet Chair must be adept at communicating with people from a variety of professional milieus and from a multitude of regions. I think my experience managing the aforementioned merger will accelerate my effectiveness in this role.
RSS
Feedback form
