Letters To The Editor

Information Outlook

Information Outlook is absolutely marvelous! I was a bit skeptical at first--I am not the sort of person who likes change in any way. The new publication has a wonderful look and feel. I think it really seems like it comes from the association. I particularly like the cover of the new issue and the multi-lingual summaries at the end.

Anne K. Abate

Dear Editor:

When I arrived home from work today, there waiting for me was a copy of the new publication. It looks great and I am really anxious to get into it. Although I have always liked Special Libraries, I am pleasantly pleased to find Information Outlook more inviting. I did not think a change of format could make such a difference. I am also enjoying the last issue of Special Libraries. The old advertisements and the old articles are very interesting and at times amusing. Well done!

Janet Hall

Dear Editor:

Congratulations on the first issue of Information Outlook. I was so impressed with the cover; the dark background set off beautifully our new logo (which I love) and the earth. Hats off to the designer who kept things so uncluttered which allowed us to concentrate on the concept of a new era and to easily read what was "inside this issue."

For whatever reason, I actually wanted to sit down and read this magazine-- something I never did before. Let's continue to have more interviews with people like Eugenie Prime--she got my thinking wheels in motion! "Knowledge Navigation, or, Why I Taught Tango Lessons" proved once again that creativity is always an asset.

Mary Louise de Sarran

Competencies for Special Librarians

Your article on "Competencies for Special Librarians of the 21st Century" in the November issue of SpeciaList is excellent. It captures a thoughtful listing of critical success factors for the special librarian.

In the "Professional Competencies" section, it touched on our core competencies as librarians/information scientists. It also included important services we do and should provide plus guidance on actions we should be taking to manage our organizations effectively so as to obtain and retain the understanding and hence support of our top management.

In the "Personal Competencies" section, the focus was appropriately on those skills and attributes we need to develop to be effective and successful as individuals. I would encourage the evolution of this thinking to focus on the core competencies of librarians/information scientists in the context provided by C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel in their landmark 1992 Harvard Business Review article (C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel, "The Core Competence of the Corporation," Harvard Business Review, vol. 68, no. 3, 1990. pp. 79- 91).

In your article, these items reflect some of the core competencies of librarians/information scientists.

1.1 The special librarian has expert knowledge of the content of information resources, including the ability to critically evaluate and filter them.
1.2 The special librarian has specialized subject knowledge appropriate to the business of the organization or client.

• Ability to conceptualize information
• Knowledge of internal and external information resources
• Understanding of information resource management
• Ability to synthesize and tailor information

I think that item 1.1 in your study is related to our second and third stated core competency and that item 1.2 is related to our fourth core competency. Our skills need to change over time to respond to changes in our world like those that computer technology bring, but our core competencies, those underlying capabilities that distinguish us as library and information science professionals, should and do remain fairly stable over time.

For increased explanation and expansion on these core competencies, please see our article published in the Bulletin of the American Society for formation Science, vol.22, no. 2, December/January 1996, pp. 11-15.

I would hope that this could begin to engender a discussion in our core competencies and why they are so critical for effectiveness and maybe even survival in the information age.

Rita Seelig Ayers

SLA's New Logo

Barbara Dance

Dear Editor:

In my opinion, the new SLA logo is worthless. It could be anything, thus negating its value as a symbol. The SLA press release states, "The sphere represents our multi-dimensional profession, conveying strength, continuity, and global reach. We are very excited about the new image this logo will project." How does it do this?

While the shading conveys the image of a sphere, I fail to see the jump to "strength, continuity, and global reach." I can presume the white image on the sphere is a stylized "S" and not the symbol for a hurricane, but how does that link the viewer to the Special Libraries Association?

Symbols must fit into a common iconography to have meaning. The new logo is arbitrary; by breaking completely with tradition and communal iconography, it has lost its power to convey any meaning. The new logo projects nothing more than a graphic designer's esthetic whim. How disappointing that an organization representing information professionals has fallen victim to the information equivalent of the emperor's new clothes.

Scott Marsalis

Information Malpractice

I was glad to see Special Libraries address the issue of information malpractice again. However, it can only be considered malpractice by the author not to cite Anne Mintz anywhere in the article. You may not be aware that Ms. Mintz wrote the seminal article on the subject and it was reprinted in a book published by SLA.

It is disheartening to note that Ms. Mintz was not given proper credit. I hope that you will find some way to rectify this omission in what purported to be an article reviewing the important literature.

Ruth A. Pagell

The Author Responds:

I would like to thank Ms. Pagell for her comments. Ms. Pagell writes that my article was a review of the important literature. That was not my intention. If it had been, I certainly would have included Anne Mintz's article. My abstract states that the article "serves as a review of current thoughts and trends." Rather than preparing a historical review of the literature, I concentrated on legal definitions and actual court decisions. In acknowledgment to Ms. Mintz, her article served as a springboard to my desire to explore this topic. Although I did not quote her work directly in the article, it was very influential in my research.

Karl Cremieux

Information Outlook Table of Contents