April 2006 - SLA Connections - Special Libraries Association

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April 2006 - SLA Connections

Welcome to SLA Connections, your source for news and information from the information profession and industry.

Public Relations for the Info Pro
Back in January at the SLA Leadership Summit, members of the Association’s Public Relations Committee presented a brief overview of the new SLA PR Toolkit. This document replaced an aging handbook designed to train unit leaders on effective management of media relations and publicity campaigns. But the toolkit is designed so well that it can be utilized by just about anyone in the SLA community in order to make public relations a successful effort.

The PR Toolkit is now the centerpiece of the Association’s message to members on what has historically been called “International Special Librarian’s Day” – an event that is currently on hiatus and scheduled to be restructured for 2007. I’ll get back to that in a moment.

Why all the talk about public relations? SLA Headquarters staff and members of the Association’s Board of Directors have listened to your calls for more effective advocacy on behalf of the profession, its value proposition, and its values in the information society. They believe that the future of SLA resides not simply in connecting people and information, but also in promoting your value and values to the world. Embracing the PR Toolkit as a personal resource in this effort will help us to advance this cause in very meaningful ways.

This Thursday, 6 April, we mark ISLD not through a publicity campaign like we have in the past, but by sharing information you can use on many levels. I hope all SLA members will host events or join together to raise a glass in celebration of the contributions made by information professionals to commerce and society. This year, let’s also think about how we can work individually and together to advance the profession through public outreach, storytelling, sharing successes, and building the case for inextricable linkage between organizational goals and effective information management.

On the Road Again
I’ve spent a fair amount of time at SLA Headquarters recently, but I did join SLA President Pam Rollo to represent you and the Association at the European Business Information Conference in Milan. SLA served as a sponsor for the event, which was attended by a great group of European info pros and information industry representatives. It was an excellent opportunity to draw prospective members closer to SLA.

Just prior to my trip to Milan, I moderated a panel discussion on government e-competencies at the U.S. Federal Libraries and Information Center Committee’s Annual Forum. Around the same time, many of our staff at headquarters participated in the 2006 Computers in Libraries event in Washington, DC. We recruited a few new members and even signed up a couple of new exhibitors for SLA 2006 in Baltimore!

Janice’s List
Now, Discover Your Strengths, by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton, Ph.D. (Free Press, 2001). This book has been around for awhile, but the quality of the message resonates even among today’s glut of career- and leadership-oriented books. Buckingham and Clifton suggest that focusing on your strengths, rather than analyzing your weaknesses, is the pathway to greater success in life and career. They describe the 34 positive personality themes that exist in successful people and offer a Web-based questionnaire for readers to discover one’s own top 5 inborn talents. Read the introduction courtesy of Amazon.com.

Burning Question
We talk a lot in this community about marketing your services and promoting your value. But is successful value in an organization really about marketing and promotion? What successes can you share that have saved your job, protected your value, or advanced your career? I’d like to hear from you on this! Email me at janice@sla.org.

Consider This
“If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us. The free mind is not a barking dog, to be tethered on a ten-foot chain.”
Adlai Stevenson, in an address to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1952.

Outside the Box Image

Six Jobs That Won’t Exist in 2016
In a humorous look at the future of work in the global economy, the editors of Fast Company offer this candid but humorous online slideshow about the jobs and organizational roles that they believe are headed for buggy-whip status… Read more.

Does Information Translate to Learning?
Jack Welch, retired CEO of General Electric, is known for proudly referring to GE as a “learning company.” The question for information professionals is how might information management lend to, or drive, the evolution of their organizations into learning communities? Harvard’s Working Knowledge offers this excerpt from the book Workforce Crisis, in which Ken Dychtwald, Tamara J. Erickson, and Robert Morison suggest that learning has advanced from “nice to have” to a business essential. Read more.

Universities to Examine Internet Credibility
A new project at the University of Washington in collaboration with Syracuse University is aimed at addressing what is perhaps the most difficult problem in evaluating information gathered on the Internet: credibility. Read more.

Army Knowledge Online Advances Info Sharing
In the April 2006 issue of Information Outlook, SLA member Edwin Burgess is featured for his work in the U.S. Army library system. Here’s another look at information and knowledge sharing in the U.S. Army, provided by Line56.com.

Focus on Innovation:
FlashBrainer Engages Senses in Ideation Process
FlashBrainer inspires you to develop ideas using music, questions, "what" words, "how" words, quotes and images. It is based upon Gerald Haman's award-winning KnowBrainer tool - a fan deck of keywords, quotes and thought-provoking images that is now used in over 120 Fortune 500 companies and by innovators in 26 countries. Read more.

CNet’s Esther Dyson Headlining E-Content Conference
Dyson, who manages CNet’s Release 1.0 electronic newsletter, will keynote the opening day of Buying and Selling eContent, an executive conference organized by Information Today, Inc. You can listen to a podcast of an interview with Dyson conducted by Michelle Manafy, editor of EContent Magazine, as a prelude to her speech at the event. Read more.

SLA is the Learning Partner for Buying and Selling eContent, taking place 9-11 April, in Scottsdale, Arizona (note the ad in this edition of SLA Connections). A special discounted rate of USD 995.00 is being offered to SLA members only for this event, which brings together representatives of information industry companies and purchasers of electronic content to discuss their current and future needs. If you have questions, please contact John Crosby at SLA Headquarters.

Cool Site: Liber8
This site is an economic information portal designed by the librarians at the United States Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis with university and government document librarians, students, and the general public in mind. Much of the information is made available through links to other government Web sites, but Liber8 offers a great starting point for economic research.

Inside the Box Image

Celebrate ISLD with a Focus on Public Relations
While International Special Librarians Day (ISLD) is officially on hiatus, we know that many of you will celebrate the day (6 April) in your own unique way. The SLA Public Relations Committee, which is reviewing the future of the event, offers this suggestion: Make ISLD a focus on building stronger, more effective public and media outreach programs for you, your organization, your SLA chapter or division, or for the profession at large. Here are some tools for making that happen. Read more.

SLA Election Yields More Professional Diversity
A new crop of leaders was elected to the SLA Board of Directors in March. What’s most interesting is that those elected this year work for a range of organizations: two work for corporate organizations, two work as consultants, one works for a government agency, and one works for a university. Such broad representation means that SLA clearly focuses on the information profession broadly.

SLA 2005 Financial Update
SLA Headquarters had previously reported that we ended 2005 with a slight surplus. Our auditors are now in the process of reviewing our financial performance for 2005, and we will be sharing the results of that audit as soon as it is completed.

For 2006, financial performance has generally exceeded the goals set by the Board of Directors. In particular, exhibition sales for the Info-Expo at SLA 2006 have already generated over USD 1.3 million in revenue– 8 percent over our goal for the year. Registration sales for SLA 2006 continue at a good pace – slightly under totals from this point last year, but well ahead of the previous year. Advertising sales for Information Outlook are performing just under budget with bookings for future issues climbing at a steady pace. Click University course registrations have been slow, with Click U. Live! programming meeting sales goals. New member recruitment has been excellent thus far in 2006, with 547 new members enrolled in the first three months of the year.

Member Service Focus—SLA Competitive Intelligence Division
As an SLA member, you have an opportunity to connect with people, information, and opportunities in the field of competitive intelligence through the SLA division of the same name.

All SLA members may join the CI Division and gain access to their closed discussion list or online community, but anyone in the SLA membership may also access Intelligence Insights, one of the best SLA unit newsletters out there. What’s more is that, by joining the division, you gain direct access to contacts in the practice who can serve as mentors, provide benchmarking for your own practice, or provide support in your job and your professional growth.

For more information, check out the CI Division Online.

Register for SLA 2006 Now and Save Up To $100
SLA Annual Conference registration is off to a gallop. Take advantage of some great savings opportunities while you still can!

SLA 2006 promises to be one of the largest, most well-attended SLA events in years. That may be due to the strong programming and keynote speakers -- Gwen Ifill of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal. Also, Baltimore, with its Inner Harbor, is a great conference town, with lots of attractions and diversions.

SLA 2006 is set for 11-14 June in Baltimore, Maryland. This year’s theme is “Baltimore—Where Tradition and Transformation Converge.” By registering prior to 1 May, SLA members can save US$50. Non-members can save $250 on registration costs by joining SLA now. Register online at www.sla.org/baltimore2006.

Recognize the Best in Student Involvement
The SLA Student and Academic Relations Committee (SARC) wishes to recognize the best SLA student groups and honor SLA chapters and divisions that have provided outstanding programming, services and financial support to SLA student groups in their area. If you would like to nominate an SLA student group, chapter or division for the 2006 SLA Student and Academic Relations Merit Awards, which will be awarded at SLA 2006 in Baltimore, please submit nominations by 6 May. The factors for consideration are:

Outstanding leadership
Innovative programming
Creative use of electronic resources signal their contributions toward increased membership and expanded professional development from June through May of the current SLA membership year.

For more information contact Jill Calabria at SLA Headquarters – jcalabria@sla.org or +1.703.647.4926.

Click University

April 2006
Topic: The Impact of IP on Digitization Projects

12 April 2006
Part I - Digitization Project Management in a Nutshell

26 April 2006
Part II - Managing Intellectual Property Issues Within the Digitization Project

Presenters: Jill Hurst-Wahl, Hurst Associates Ltd.
K. Matthew Dames, Seso Group LLC

CEO Remarks on WSIS Now Available on Click University
SLA Chief Executive Officer Janice Lachance addressed a recent meeting of the Association’s Washington, DC, Chapter, speaking about her experiences at the Tunis phase of the World Summit on the Information Society. SLA members can now view and listen to her remarks on Click University at no charge. Go to www.clickuniversity.com for more details.

Lesley Ellen Harris' Winter/Spring 2006 Schedule of Courses
Lesley Ellen Harris is a copyright, licensing, and e-commerce lawyer/consultant who works on legal, business, and strategic issues in the publishing, content, entertainment, Internet, and information industries. Lesley's clients range from individuals to governments, associations, unions, and corporations. She also works with libraries, archives, museums and educational institutions. Now you can learn directly from Lesley Ellen through Click University. Read more.

The Big Finish