The Move to an Online Who's Who
by Richard Geiger
There have been many rumors about the discontinuation of Who's Who in Special Libraries and I want to take an opportunity to address these in this edition of Money Matters.
Two of the most frequent questions we have recently heard are "Why aren't we printing the Who's Who anymore?" and "Why are you taking away a valuable member benefit?" There are indeed some changes coming forth in relation to Who's Who but it is important to note that we are not taking away the Who's Who. We are simply changing the delivery mechanism.
The move to an online Who's Who has been in the works since 1999. In 2000, the board of directors approved this change as part of the association's long-range financial plan. This is just one small part of a plan that will ensure the association's overall health in the future. When factoring in all of the resources devoted to the print directory, including staff time, overhead, production costs, postage, etc., the program cost just shy of $200,000 to produce in 2001. While this may not seem like much, when calculated on a per member cost it is quite expensive13 percent of your dues went to this publication. In addition to the financial considerations, the Who's Who was substantially incorrect before it ever left the printer. To put this in perspective, with nearly 13,000 members, substantial numbers of changes happen every day to the membership database. With the hundreds of changes that take place during an average month, the Who's Who that was printed in October using September data was terribly out of date by the time it reached the members.
The finance committee, board and staff realize that in order to provide superior service to the membership, the association needs to provide current information that is available upon demand, in a usable format and at no extra cost to members. Thus the Who's Who online was developed. In our conversations with the membership, we have come to realize that the online version, if it were to replace the printed version, needed to have improved functionality. That is what we are providing.
A newly revised online version has been developed by staff and consultants and tested by members. This improved version provides all the functionality currently available in the print version as well as the following added capabilities: (1) improved speed when performing searches; (2) advanced search capabilities by various fields (name, company, location, unit, leadership position, etc.); and (3) multiple print and export features in user-friendly formats (PDF, Excel and CSV). These features enable members to create and utilize directories that are relevant to their individual preferences.
I ask for your indulgence in giving the online Who's Who a try and I suspect that you will be pleasantly surprised with the outcome. For those members who cannot or will not take advantage of the Who's Who online, a spiral-bound publication will be produced once a year for purchase.
For more information, contact Richard Geiger, SLA Treasurer (geigerr@sfgate.com).
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