If You Work with Information, You’re Home
Ever drive by a condominium or housing development and see a billboard that says, “If you lived here, you’d be home now”?
That’s what SLA is for those who work with information—those who find it, organize it, collect it, curate it, make it accessible to others, extract meaning from it, visualize it, and share it. If you work with information, SLA is your home.
So if you’re a researcher and archivist at a museum, as Carrie Wardzinski is, SLA is your home. Carrie (at far right in the photo, taken at the SLA 2020 Annual Conference in Cleveland) found her first library job through SLA and has built up a network of friends and mentors she relies upon for advice.
“I’ve gotten to know more people through SLA and learned about a lot of different avenues and possibilities,” she said in an interview in SLA’s online magazine, Information Outlook. “Just working with people and getting encouragement—people like Tom Nielsen and Mary Talley, and people within the Pittsburgh Chapter like Eve Weider and Ryan Splenda, who’s one of my best friends—that’s all been really important to me. So it started out as a way for me to network, but then these people also became friends and mentors. That’s something I don’t want to give up at this point.”
Or if, like Deb Rash, you’re the kind of person who enjoys an information challenge—one day helping an advertising agency conduct market intelligence on a client’s competitor, the next day providing a medical device manufacturer with patent information for a new product—SLA is your home.
“I was consistently excited about what I got to do every day,” Deb wrote in Information Outlook about her many years running an information consulting firm. “And I was equally lucky that I was able to share that enthusiasm with others in SLA. The power of SLA for me has been in providing a network, early leadership opportunities, and, later, mentoring opportunities.”
Or if you’re a knowledge manager for a law firm, as Marie Cannon is, SLA is your home.
“I can’t emphasize enough the value of meeting other people in the industry who have such different backgrounds from my own and have a wealth of experience to learn from,” she told Information Outlook. “In fact, speaking of new people, I met my current manager, Rachel Andrews, at an SLA event. So when I went to interview for the job, she knew I was involved in SLA, and she knew I was interested in the profession and in my own professional development. And I think that definitely gave me a helping hand when I went for the interview. That’s the power of SLA networking!”
Carrie, Deb and Marie are three of roughly 3,500 information professionals who call SLA home. Find your home in SLA and start building relationships, learning new skills, and advancing your career.
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