Just what is a free agent? In sporting parlance, it is a skilled athlete who has the luxury of selling his talents to the highest bidder. In business vernacular, it is someone who lives outside of the traditional "big corporation," selling a skill or product to businesses or the public as whole. Author Dan Pink detailed the phenomena of free agency in his recent book Free Agent Nation, studying all levels of free agents, from high-powered consultants to "mom and pop" shop owners. Pink took some time to sit down with Jeff De Cagna to talk about free agency and what it means to information professionals.

Roberta Shaffer likes challenges. Throughout her career she has taken on difficult or new positions and started change. This happened at Coke, The Library of Congress, the governments of Portugal and Israel and, most recently, at The University of Texas. Now, settled into to her newest role as executive director at SLA, Shaffer talks about where she has been and where the association is going.

Librarians are masters of their own domain. They can easily make decisions about reference and directional services, resource allocations, long range planning, facility optimization, and other things within their sphere. Yet, tightening budgets are forcing many companies to evaluate their libraries. To survive these inspections, a library must be able to prove its value to those in the outside world. Kathleen Begley Powe and Dr. Daniel Plung take a look at five internal and external principles libraries that must guide libraries.