SLA Blogs - Mega-Feed

Overall impression from SC SLA meeting was a very skeptic attitude of the proposed name change. Good discussion though. #slaname

jeremygsnell (Jeremy G Snell) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:06:38 -0800

Overall impression from SC SLA meeting was a very skeptic attitude of the proposed name change. Good discussion though. #slaname

RT @jcrosby4: RT @jeiseman: Respectfully, why I voted Yes: http://bit.ly/1JOmqC #slaname I think your post sums up the intentions of th ...

CindyARomaine (Cindy Romaine) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:04:14 -0800

RT @jcrosby4: RT @jeiseman: Respectfully, why I voted Yes: http://bit.ly/1JOmqC #slaname I think your post sums up the intentions of th ...

Glad Gloria Zamora directly answered tough questions re SLA name change @ORSLA event. Some people changed their 'no' to 'maybe.' #slaname

r33c3 (Reece Dano) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:13:56 -0800

Glad Gloria Zamora directly answered tough questions re SLA name change @ORSLA event. Some people changed their 'no' to 'maybe.' #slaname

EDUCATION LIBRARIES, Winter 2009 Issue Now…

Jacqueline Snider — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:47:21 -0800

EDUCATION LIBRARIES, Winter 2009 Issue Now Available

The Winter 2009 issue of Education Libraries, a peer-reviewed journal from SLA's Education Division, is now available via the URLs below.

Published since 1975, the journal made to the move online format in 2005. Please keep in mind that we are always looking for submissions and book reviewers.

All the best,

Jacqueline Snider

Education Libraries, Co-editor

jisnider53@gmail.com

Links:

http://units.sla.org/division/ded/educationlibraries/32-2.pdf

http://units.sla.org/division/ded/education_libraries.html

School Librarian/Educational Media Specialist

Liz Arnold — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:02:18 -0800

Summary Information:
Employer: Newark City School District
Position Type: Teaching
Categories: Library Media Specialist
School / Org: Various
Location: New Jersey
FTE: 1.0
No. of Positions: 1
Reference #: EAN 990016
Posting Date: Saturday, 21 November 2009
Closing Date: Open Until Filled

Details:
Job Title: School Librarian/Ed Media Spec

Location: Various

Qualifications :
1. Bachelor¿s Degree from an accredited college or university.
2. New Jersey Department of Education Permanent Teaching Certificate
3. New Jersey Department of Education Educational Media Specialist/ School Librarian Certificate
4. Letters of recommendation which should include one (1) from current principal or supervisor.

General Description: To select, order and organize print and non-print materials for the library media center that will reinforce the curriculum: to instruct students in the use of the library as a source of knowledge, enjoyment and inspiration, and to work with teachers in the development of library media programs to satisfy their classroom needs.

Responsibilities
1. To instruct students in the use of the library media center and help them select print and non-print
materials that relate to their interests and to the curriculum.
2. To plan, schedule, manage and evaluate the library media center operations.
3. To select, order and organize the library media center¿s print and non-print materials.
4. To maintain and report at required intervals accurate statistical data; and generate as required library media orders and professional reports.
5. To provide reference service, prepare bibliographies and develop curriculum support materials for
the teaching and administrative staff.
6. To encourage and motivate students and teachers to appreciate books and reading through
storytelling, book talks and reading guidance.
7. To assist with staff development through in-service workshops or other techniques to familiarize
the teaching staff with the materials in the media center.
8. To involve the teaching staff in continued utilization of the media center so that it becomes
an integral part of the regular school program.
9. To develop a program for students and teachers of operational skills for the audiovisual equipment
in the school.
10. To coordinate and cooperate with the Audiovisual Center and community resources such as the
Newark Public Library, the Newark Museum, the New Jersey Historical Society; etc.

SALARY, EMPLOYMENT PERIOD AND UNION AFFILIATION

B.A. Degree - $44,500 - $77,827
M.A. Degree - $46,000 - $80,594
M.A. + 30 credits - $47,500 - $83,375
Ten Months
Newark Teachers' Union (N.T.U.)

If you are interested in submitting your application to this position click go to See: http://jobsearch.educationamerica.net/index.phtml?a=v&j=578600. You must register with Eduation America Network to complete the application process. Registration is free and only takes a few minutes. You will be asked to verify you email address. Once your email address is verified and you complete the registration process you will be able to apply to this and other jobs posted on Education America Network.

The job posting above from Newark City School District may require certification levels, qualifications or eligibility requirements for being employed in the United States or the state of New Jersey. Please read the postings carefully! DO NOT apply or send unsolicited resumes if you do not meet the requirements listed by Newark City School District in their postings.

Check out "Twinterview" by @eclasper. Twitter--What a great way to generate ideas. #slaname http://bit.ly/8Hk7B0

novusJ (Jackie Dunbar) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:25:20 -0800

Check out "Twinterview" by @eclasper. Twitter--What a great way to generate ideas. #slaname http://bit.ly/8Hk7B0

Check out "TWinterview" by @eclasper. Twitter--What a great way to generate ideas. #slaname http://bit.ly/8Hk7B0

novusJ (Jackie Dunbar) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:18:37 -0800

Check out "TWinterview" by @eclasper. Twitter--What a great way to generate ideas. #slaname http://bit.ly/8Hk7B0

It's happened to me, too! RT @diylibrarian: An anecdote relevant to #slaname http://tinyurl.com/yl7n2d9

cajunmoon (Bryan S. Young) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:44:03 -0800

It's happened to me, too! RT @diylibrarian: An anecdote relevant to #slaname http://tinyurl.com/yl7n2d9

RT @jeiseman: Respectfully, why I voted Yes: http://bit.ly/1JOmqC #slaname

caraschatz (Cara Schatz) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:25:48 -0800

RT @jeiseman: Respectfully, why I voted Yes: http://bit.ly/1JOmqC #slaname

Recruit-a –Member Campaign

Vicki Valleroy — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:06:00 -0800

A reminder of SLA’s current Recruit-a–Member Campaign. If you value your SLA Membership – let your colleagues know, recruit them into SLA, and you may win a free registration for SLA 2001 in New Orleans! That will be the Grand Prize for most new members recruited. However, even one new member brought in brings you a President’s Club lapel pin and membership in the President’s Club. Your recruits have a chance to win a $50 (US) gift card and you get one of those too for every ten members you recruit! And the chapter and division with the most new members joining through this campaign also get a free conference registration, as do the chapters and divisions showing the highest percentage of growth. Lots of winner!

Things you need to know:
· Only SLA members may participate as recruiters
· Your name must appear on the new member’s application
· Deadline for receipt of applications and dues is 31 December 2009
· Prizes will be announced and awarded no later than 2 February 2010

SLA proposed name change

Vicki Valleroy — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:26:00 -0800

President of the NJ Chapter of SLA, Eric Schwartz, compiled a list of signed opinions, mostly on blogs, by members debating, supporting or opposing the SLA name change to the Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals.

Thanks and Kudos!

Vicki Valleroy — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:23:00 -0800

Thanks and kudos to all who made the 2009 SLA PNW Chapter’s Holiday/Centennial Celebration a success! Thanks to our sponsors: Reprints Desk, Lexis-Nexis, Morningstar Document Research, and Thomson Reuters. Thanks to the Centennial Celebration Committee and Chris Mulready for hosting the event. For those not able to attend, photos of the archival display on our chapter that the Centennial Celebration Committee put together will be posted to our web site soon. And special thanks to Gloria Zamora, Cindy Romaine, and Dan Trefethen who led the lively discussion on the SLA Alignment Project and the SLA proposed name change!

Vicki Valleroy
President, SLA PNW Chapter

RT @novusJ: SLA name change. Members brainstorm and debate their brand. Follow discussion. #slaname

JoeDunbar (JoeDunbar) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:58:56 -0800

RT @novusJ: SLA name change. Members brainstorm and debate their brand. Follow discussion. #slaname

Won't be deciding point, but honestly worried about schism in membership. RT @yankeeincanada What keeps you up at night re #slaname

annenb (Anne Barker) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:37:43 -0800

Won't be deciding point, but honestly worried about schism in membership. RT @yankeeincanada What keeps you up at night re #slaname

@ArikJohnson @SCInfoSearch @emily_rushing Might be... I like it, but seems to be trying to fit an acronym again. #slaname

jriversmn (Jan Rivers) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:37:58 -0800

@ArikJohnson @SCInfoSearch @emily_rushing Might be... I like it, but seems to be trying to fit an acronym again. #slaname

SLA name change. Members brainstorm and debate their brand. Follow discussion. #slaname

novusJ (Jackie Dunbar) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:15:10 -0800

SLA name change. Members brainstorm and debate their brand. Follow discussion. #slaname

An anecdote relevant to #slaname http://tinyurl.com/yl7n2d9

diylibrarian (Tara Murray) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:11:00 -0800

An anecdote relevant to #slaname http://tinyurl.com/yl7n2d9

@SCInfoSearch @emily_rushing @jriversmn "Association of Professional Research & Information Libraries" (APRIL) - too contrived? #slaname

arikjohnson (Arik Johnson) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:23:28 -0800

@SCInfoSearch @emily_rushing @jriversmn "Association of Professional Research & Information Libraries" (APRIL) - too contrived? #slaname

fascinating #slaname discussions on SLA-CDC (DC chapter of SLA; 2nd largest after NY?) listerv; no public archive alas...

ontemi (ontemi) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:51:03 -0800

fascinating #slaname discussions on SLA-CDC (DC chapter of SLA; 2nd largest after NY?) listerv; no public archive alas...

@yankeeincanada The disconnect b/w final choices posed and rest of research. Seems too contrived to get specific result. #slaname

iBraryGuy (John DiGilio) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:55:55 -0800

@yankeeincanada The disconnect b/w final choices posed and rest of research. Seems too contrived to get specific result. #slaname

Library Sales Manager

Liz Arnold — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:48:30 -0800

About the Job

SAGE Publications, a leading academic and professional publisher of books, journals, and electronic media, located in Thousand Oaks, California, with offices in London, India, Singapore, and Washington DC, is currently seeking a Library Sales Manager to handle North East territory.

Overview:

Through its multiple product offerings, from journals to online reference tools, SAGE promotes the engaged scholarship that is at the heart of any healthy society. Comprised of people with high integrity standards and a passion for exceeding our customers’ expectations, SAGE aims to be the world’s leading independent publisher- the natural choice for our chosen markets. SAGE’s Library Sales Manager plays a critical role introducing our customers to our core content and promoting business relationships that reinforce SAGE’s leading position within the marketplace.

The primary purpose of the SAGE Library Sales Manager (LSM) position is to meet or exceed sales objectives by promoting and selling SAGE online products (including, but not limited to SAGE Full-Text Collections, SAGE Premier and SAGE Reference Online) and related products through professional sales techniques and long-term customer relationships.

The Library Sales Manager (LSM) is to play a key role in implementing a sales strategy for SAGE journals. Primary responsibilities will include negotiating agreements with major consortia or multi-site institutions; key account management; and attendance at conferences and conventions. Additonal responsibilities include managing the customer’s service experience with SAGE. The LSM will have a minimum of 5 years experience in academic journal sales and/or full text databases, strong negotiating skills together with commercial awareness, demonstrated account management skills and high levels of consistent sales achievement. The LSM will need to have a high-level of initiative and self-motivation, as well as ability to both lead and work as part of a team. Excellent communication and project management skills are essential. Extensive travel is required.

Essential Job Functions & Responsibilities:

Selling Product

1. Consortia and multi-site deals: 30%

2. Direct sales to instituitions: 30%

3. Working from office on proposals and phone/e-mail sales: 40%

Time Management

1. Work a 40+-hour, five-day week.

2. Travel 60% - 70% of the time.

3. Travel on weekends as necessary.

4. Do necessary overnight travel.

5. Be able to prioritize deals

Self-Organization

1. Plan each day, week, month and quarter.

2. Plan each call, client meeting, presentation, etc.

3. Dress appropriately while with a client.

4. Maintain a neat automobile.

5. Present a professional image at all times.

6. After each call or meeting enter information into sales force automation tool or system as soon as possible.

Administrative

1. Maintain prospect information in sales force automation tool.

2. Submit expense reports in a timely manner.

3. Comply with all company policies and operate within the expense budget.

4. Submit defined reports as requested in a timely manner.

5. Make all travel arrangements.

6. Follow contractual agreements through the negotiation process including final execution.

Company Relations

1. Work with, develop positive relationships with, communicate with, and coordinate activities with other employees in Marketing, Product Support, Customer Care, Finance and other departments as needed.

2. Communicate effectively; cooperate with fellow salespeople and management.

Qualifications & Education:

At least 5 year sales experience in academic publishing with experience at a major publisher of scholarly journals.

Experience with CRM management tool, preferably salesforce.com

Proficient with MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. MS Access experience desirable.

Language - Reasoning - Analytical - & Mathematical Skills:

Excellent verbal, presentation, and written communication skills.

Basic financial modeling skills to generate profitable deal structures.

Foreign language skills desirable

Exposure to legal and contractual language generated from clients and sales partners

Qualified candidates kindly apply online at www.sagepublications.com/careers . No calls Please.

Collections Maintenance Coordinator, Part Time, New York

Liz Arnold — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:38:02 -0800

Part time 20-30 hrs. per week

Up to 10 months/year

Bern Dibner Library at Polytechnic Institute of NYU is seeking an energetic individual to assist us in the following areas:

1. Service desk operations

2. Day-to-day stacks maintenance

3. Scheduling, training and supervision of students

4. Inventory and records maintenance

5. Scanning and poster printing activities

The successful candidate for this position will be an energetic, resourceful, detail oriented, people person who is flexible and a problem solver.

Bachelors Degree required.

Please submit application to:

Jana Richman

Director of Library Services

Bern Dibner Library of Science and Technology

Polytechnic Institute of NYU

5 MetroTech Center

Brooklyn NY 11201

jrichman@poly.edu

Fax: 718.260.3756

Enterprise Portal Content Manager, New York

Liz Arnold — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:29:45 -0800

Job ID: 6227497
Position Title: Enterprise Portal Content Manager
Company Name: White & Case
Practice Area: Other
Location(s): New York, New York, 10001, United States
Posted: November 18, 2009
Job Function: Information Technology
Entry Level: No
Job Type: Full-Time

Job Description:

White & Case LLP is a leading global law firm with lawyers in 34 offices in 23 countries. Among the first US-based law firms to establish a truly global presence, we provide counsel and representation in virtually every area of law that affects cross-border business. Our clients value both the breadth of our global network and depth of our US, English and local law capabilities in each of our regions and rely on us for their complex cross-border transactions, arbitration and litigation provided by our global practices.

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Enterprise Portal Content Manager will define, implement and oversee all aspects of content management processes relating to the Firm’s Enterprise Portal, known as Connect. This will require close collaboration with business users and service providers throughout the Firm to conduct an assessment of the current situation, identify and categorize relevant business requirements, develop a future vision and timeline for Connect that aligns with the Firm’s overarching Knowledge Programs, prepare and present specifications to the Firm’s technology team and relevant vendors to define and implement improvements in the platform, work with business users and content providers to develop and manage needed content processes, governance and workflows, and supervise an existing team of Connect content editors. Perform other duties as required by management. This position may involve domestic and international travel.

Job Requirements:

• 1 - 5 years of business analysis in a law or professional services environment. 1 - 5 years interfacing with technical teams in the areas of software and systems development. 2+ years experience in using a content management system
• Significant experience deploying new systems and technologies directly accessible by the user community
• Technical competency:
SharePoint 2003 or 2007 WSS/MOSS (.NET development not mandatory)
Significant experience implementing Intranet, internet and extranet related systems and technologies
Enterprise search system such as Recommind (preferred), FAST, Autonomy
Working knowledge of various technologies used within the Firm -- Advantages are exposure and experience with -- iManage DMS, Elite, Compulaw, InterAction, MS Office Suite, MS Project
Possesses understanding in the areas of knowledge management, enterprise search, legal process workflow, law firm business processes, intranets & portals, content management systems, basic database principles
oUnderstands Internet, Intranet, Extranet and client/server architectures
• Excellent problem solving skills
• Effective interpersonal skills and the ability to interact with people at all levels
• Pragmatic, self-motivated, flexible and good team worker

We offer a competitive salary, an outstanding benefits package, a professional work environment and opportunities for professional growth. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer, M/F/D/V.
See: http://www.iltanet.org/ServicesCategory/JobBank/EnterprisePortalContentManager-NY.aspx

Call for Volunteers

Linda Broussard — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:25:07 -0800

It could not be easier. President-Elect Anne Caputo has made it easy for every member to see the opportunities for leadership in the association and submit their name if interested. Chapter and Division leaders, in particular, may be looking for their next leadership role. Learn what opportunities are available and complete the simple form. This is a multipurpose form. You can promote it to all of your members to volunteer for your chapter, division, section or caucus; we'll refer those back to you.

And, the SLA Nominating Committee is looking for your input for candidates to consider for nomination to the SLA Board of Directors. You can note on the above form or drop a note directly to Nominating Committee Chair Jan Chindlund or any of the committee members.

Google Scholar Adds Some US Case Law

peggygarvin — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:35:59 -0800

On 17 November 2009, the Official Google Blog announced that a set of U.S. judicial opinions has been added to the Google Scholar database. From the blog post, Finding the laws that govern us:

You can find these opinions by searching for cases (like Planned Parenthood v. Casey), or by topics (like desegregation) or other queries that you are interested in. For example, go to Google Scholar, click on the "Legal opinions and journals" radio button, and try the query separate but equal. Your search results will include links to cases familiar to many of us in the U.S. such as Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education, which explore the acceptablity of "separate but equal" facilities for citizens at two different points in the history of the U.S. But your results will also include opinions from cases that you might be less familiar with, but which have played an important role.

The legal research site LLRX.com has posted an aricle on the topic: Bridging the Digital Divide: A New Vendor in Town? Google Scholar Now Includes Case Law, by John J. DiGilio, 18 November 2009. DiGilio discusses the value and the limitations of the current Google Scholar case law set.

In related news, the folks behind the AltLaw "free legal search engine" website announced on 19 November 2009 that "we will continue to maintain the web site and search service for a few months, but we will not be adding new features or new content. AltLaw.org, in its current form, will shut down in early 2010." From the announcement:

Everything we have done or planned to do with AltLaw, Google has does better. What else would you expect? Search is their core business; they have hundreds of brilliant engineers, a vast computing infrastructure, and billions of dollars invested in it.
While we could see this as the 800-pound gorilla stomping on our pet project, the truth is that we -- a small academic group within Columbia Law School -- were never really equipped to handle the challenges of building and maintaining a state-of-the-art search engine. When we started out, three years ago, our goal was to make primary legal research freely available to the public. In that, we have succeeded: primary legal research is freely available to the public, not only from Google, but from several start-ups and non-profits.

Google's blog announcement acknowledged AltLaw, among others:

We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the work of several pioneers, who have worked on making it possible for an average citizen to educate herself about the laws of the land: Tom Bruce (Cornell LII), Jerry Dupont (LLMC), Graham Greenleaf and Andrew Mowbray (AustLII), Carl Malamud (Public.Resource.Org), Daniel Poulin (LexUM), Tim Stanley (Justia), Joe Ury (BAILII), Tim Wu (AltLaw) and many others.

UK Opens Up Ordnance Survey Data

peggygarvin — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:47:34 -0800

The Guardian's Free Our Data campaign announced a major victory in the 19 November 2009 article OS mapping data: a new landscape unfolds. The article heralds "the announcement by the government that it intends to make Ordnance Survey maps free for use online by any organisation – including commercial ones – at resolutions more detailed than commercial 1:25,000 Landranger maps from April next year."

Britain's government information re-use policy is not directly comparable to that of the US. The Ordnance Survey (OS), Great Britain's national mapping agency, is not funded by taxpayer dollars; however, licensing of mapping information to government has made up a large share of OS income.

From the Guardian article:

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, who was recruited by the prime minister in June to help open up government data, said that the revised terms for use of OS maps would also remove the "derived data" problem, under which OS claims full copyright on any intellectual property that is created with reference to an OS map.

A 2008 government-commissioned study, Models of Public Sector Information via Trading Funds, had estimated that the commercial benefits of free access to OS data would outweigh by far the income to be lost by OS.

The OS commented on the pending change in a 17 November 2009 press release, Mapping the future of Ordnance Survey.

Update: A reader has commented with additional information. Click on the 'Comment' link below. The CLG press release to which the commenter refers is Re-mapping the future for Ordnance Survey - making public data public, 17 November 2009. Thank you, James C.

Systems/Online Library Director

Liz Arnold — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:44:34 -0800

Location: Clifton, NJ
Category: Admin - Libraries
Application Due: Open Until Filled
Type: Full Time

Berkeley College seeks a librarian experienced with course management and integrated library systems.

This position will manage, maintain, and troubleshoot access to a variety of library electronic resources and utilities; provide leadership and direction in the design, development and implementation of the libraries web presence; participate in the development and/or selection of technologies designed to enhance the user experience; serve as the Online Campus Library Director, coordinating the delivery of services to the Online Campus community.

Qualifications: Must hold an MLS/ MLIS or equivalent degree from an ALA accredited institution; minimum of 2 years professional library experience which includes working with an ILS, course management system such as Blackboard and a broad range of web technology; experienced in information literacy competency standards for higher education; knowledge of and interest in emerging technologies and professional development opportunities; the ability to work both independently and within a collaborative, multi-campus environment; willingness to work a flexible schedule; must possess excellent writing skills in combination with effective organizational, analytical and problem solving skills in a technological environment.
Application Information
Contact: Marlene Doty
Director, Library Services
Berkeley College
Email Address: md@berkeleycollege.edu

Information Professional Consultant - Northeast Region

Liz Arnold — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:59:24 -0800

Company: Reed Elsevier
Location: NA-United States-New York Division: LexisNexis

Description

This position exists to drive LexisNexis Library Research Solutions within an existing territory that will result in increased revenue, new customer acquisitions and expanded market share. It is expected the IPC position will insure and grow this revenue stream via expert deployment of resources and spearhead the penetration of LexisNexis Library Research Solutions in the Academic, Public and Government library vertical. In addition, this position will establish and maintain excellent customer relationships at all levels, conduct product demonstrations and help direct resources to our customers in order to provide superior service and drive revenue. This is a home based position supporting the Northeast region.

Accountabilities
1. Provide high level consultative services to corporate librarians, law librarians and informational professional customers to ensure maximized use and understanding of LN services and products especially as it relates to content management, advanced research and indexing.. (Includes application based presentations, consultative sales calls with acct. managers, seminars and demonstrations of LN products and services, etc.).
2. Work closely with the Account team (RSM, sales reps, and other consultants) to target and pursue customers to improve revenue growth, stem competition and further entrench LN within the customer account.
3. Conduct seminars and presentations to customer user groups, associations, and trade shows to help promote LN in the marketplace and educate the market on our products and services.
4. Provide ongoing education to Account Teams on the use and benefit of corporate research products and services and Content Management solutions.
5. Propose and coordinate the implementation of new and customized applications of LN products and services and Professional Consulting Services to lead to greater revenue.
6. Collect and provide feature and function requirements from customers and work with internal product and content development to ensure customers needs are identified for new product offerings.
7. Assist Account Team in selling LN products and services to customers who have significant information departments or libraries.
8. Evaluates trends for information professional practice. Make recommendations how the company can best position itself to meet existing and future customer needs.
9. Active participation in professional librarian organizations outside LN for networking and information gathering opportunities
10. Other duties as assigned

Qualifications

1. Masters of Library Science degree or equivalent experience

2. 3-5 years of experience in a business environment. Sales, consulting or training experience or experience in an organization with direct customer contact is a plus

3. Practice experience and expertise in corporation or law library is preferred

4. Strong oral and written communication skills as well as presentation skills

5. Understanding and expertise in Windows XP, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Word, and the Internet

6. Strong time management, organizational and territory management skills

7. Deep understanding of Strategic Selling, Value selling, Team Selling, and CRM systems (Siebel is preferred)

8. Experience working in a highly complex matrixed corporate environment9. In depth industry knowledge and the ability to quickly develop an in depth understanding of LN products and services

LexisNexis is a leading global provider of business information solutions to professionals in a variety of areas, including: legal, corporate, government, law enforcement, tax, accounting, academic, and risk and compliance assessment. LexisNexis helps customers achieve their goals in more than 100 countries, across six continents, with over 18,000 employees. Regardless of your location, you'll work together with your colleagues as one team - a unified network of professionals who share a passion for solving problems, realizing results, and pushing the boundaries of what knowledge can do.

Information Literacy Librarian (Assistant/Associate Professor CCNY), NY

Liz Arnold — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:58:05 -0800

The City College of the City of New York Library is
seeking a creative, enthusiastic, and service-oriented
librarian to create and coordinate an Information Literacy
program which will supplement the library's existing
bibliographic instruction program for our five libraries.
The individual must be able to collaborate with faculty in
integrating the program into the College's curriculum. An
ability to develop and implement an electronic outcomes
assessment plan is essential; provide reference services
as needed; responsible for collection development in one
or more subject areas. The Information Literacy Librarian
will report to the Chief of User Services and will have
other related duties assigned by the Chief Librarian.
Evening/weekend schedule may be required.

QUALIFICATIONS
ALA accredited MLS and second master's or Ph.D. required
for hiring. A minimum of three years of relevant
experience in an academic library. Demonstrated
pedagogical skill and innovative teaching methods,
facility with PowerPoint and Blackboard. Good planning,
administrative and communication skills, an ability to
work well with the public, and a flexible approach.

Appointment to the Associate Professor rank with a minimum
of six years of relevant experience in an academic library
may be possible for the appropriate candidate.

COMPENSATION
$42,873 - $68,024 Commensurate with qualifications and
experience.

BENEFITS
CUNY offers a comprehensive benefits package to employees
and eligible dependents based on job title and
classification. Employees are also offered pension and
Tax-Deferred Savings Plans. Part-time employees must meet
a weekly or semester work hour criteria to be eligible for
health benefits. Health benefits are also extended to
retirees who meet the eligibility criteria.

HOW TO APPLY
To apply please log on to www.cuny.edu. Navigate to
Careers at CUNY and then log into the applicant tracking
program Careers at CUNYFirst and apply online by clicking
"Apply Now" and following the instructions.

In addition, to be considered for this position, you must
send via e mail a CV and three letters of recommendation
to: epdeleon@ccny.cuny.edu
Please include in the subject line of the email
"Information Literacy Librarian Search."

CLOSING DATE
Open until filled with review of resumes to begin 12/1/09.

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
The City University of New York is an Equal Opportunity
Employer which complies with all applicable laws and
regulations, and encourages inclusive excellence in its
employment practices.

Should You Wait Until You Are 50 to Start Getting Routine Mammograms? Should You Stop Breast Self-Examinations as Well? A Growing Controversy Over New Guidelines from the US Preventive Services Task Force

SLA-Divisions — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:19:16 -0800

The US Preventive Services Task Force is an ad hoc voluntary group of medical experts periodically assigned by the US Department of Health & Human Services to offer advice and guidelines on best practices on some topic in preventive medicine and public health.

They are known for their willingness to bring science to discussion tables where emotions have hitherto held sway. Such appears to be the case with new guidelines which they have announced with regard to the age of onset and frequency of routine mammography.

These guidelines, published and discussed in the most recent Annals of Internal Medicine, (cited below under US Preventive Services Task Force, 2009, and accompanying commentaries, and the many citations within all this material, basically say the following:

1. The prior recommendation (US Preventive Services Task Force, 2002) of annual mammographies starting at age 40 as a means of screening for breast cancer was somewhat ambivalent in terms of the concreteness of its statistical basis and its science, and that the doubters about starting them too soon and having them too often, were probably right all along. In their collective, and necessarily hindsight opinion, those millions of unnecessary mammographies did more harm to more patients that did not have breast cancer than they did good for the statistically far fewer patients whose breast cancers were detected.

2. The principal harms that occurred were fourfold. First, there were many more unnecessary follow-up mammographies that disclosed no new cancers. Second, there were vastly more breast biopsies (and repeat breast biopsies) , painful and expensive procedures that turned out not to have identified an any malignancy. Third, many marginally malignant, or extremely slow-growing cancers, and even altogether non-malignant growths were mistakenly and/or over-aggressively treated. These treatments, along with the biopsies, opened the door to surgical misadventures, infections, and ironically, unintended initiation of new tumors through some of the paradoxical side-effects of radiation and chemotherapeutics. Fourth, a great many women were needlessly worried about having a life-threatening disease, when, in fact, they did not.

3. Routine breast self examinations for lumps, and even the administration of examinations by trained doctors and nurses in office settings, while not of themselves having side-effects other than inducing worry, have led to too many biopsies with a potential for adverse side-effects, while disclosing few genuine tumors in individuals relative to the harm collectively caused by teaching and encouraging this procedure. Inevitably, many patients, nurses, and physicians, will, in fact, find lumps, which almost inevitably leads to subsequent, and overwhelmingly unnecessary, biopsies.

4. There is now more scientifically reliable, statistical evidence that mammograms starting at age fifty, and repeated every other year, will likely detect, more predictably, lumps and cancers that are actually serious enough actually to warrant biopsy and appropriately aggressive treatment. The risks of false-positives are significantly reduced by waiting until this age range, and the every other year interval further reduces that risk.

5. This advisory of waiting to age 50, and having every other year intervals, is in no way intended for those with a strong personal case history of breast pathology, or who have predisposing factors such as known familial breast cancer genetic markers.

There is no evidence that these medical and scientific advisors of the 2009 US Preventive Services Task Force, which included nine men and seven women at the time the recommendation was finalized, were in the pay of insurance companies that wanted to deny coverage for annual mammograms, or, as has been alleged, they were part of some scheme, inevitable under current proposals for health care reform, to ration health care.

Nonetheless, they, and their recommendations have been thoroughly pilloried.

And the Secretary of Health & Human Services, Kathleen Sibelius, whose agency requested this very analysis, has beaten a hasty retreat, giving the appearance of leaving her honest analysts out there hanging defenselessly (See Sack & Kolata, cited below).

Nonetheless, some gutsy support for the new recommendations can be found in the press. See Controversy over mammograms (2009), Fink (2009) and Rifkin (2009) cited below.

And at least one breast cancer survivor (Collins, 2009) finds this and other blue-ribbon panel medical advisory flip-flops oddly amusing, once one has gotten past the uglier parts of chemotherapy or radiation.

Who Disagrees with Their Expert Opinion? Other Expert Bodies & A Lot Of Breast Cancer Survivors

· The American Cancer Society (see American Cancer Society, 2009, cited below)

· The American Society of Breast Disease (see Lebovic, 2009, cited below)

· The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (see American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 2009, cited below)

· The American College of Radiology (see American College of Radiology, 2009, cited below).

· The American Society of Clinical Oncology is less stark in its disagreement, but it clearly thinks that the new recommendations are throwing the baby out with the bath water (see American Society of Clinical Oncology, 2009, cited below).

· So do a great many women whose lives have been saved by early mammography and breast self-examinations. See the following cited below: Kearns, (2009); Leveen (2009); Sperber (2009), Swersky (2009).

Is Past Experience with Older Diagnostic Technology & Means of Image & Biopsy Interpretation Necessarily the Best Guideline for a Forward-Looking Recommendation?

A key question that is not being asked today, is: Whether our retrospective statistical look at false positives caused by the mammographic equipment and older biopsy methods used in the recent past, and the ways of interpreting the resulting mammograms and tissues excised, will continue to lead to false positives, needless follow-up biopsies, and overtreatment in the years to come?

The advisory as it stands now seems to rule out significant changes in the technology and interpretation of mammograms and biopsies, but any biomedical librarian worth his or her salt will be able to identify a substantial number of papers dealing with new pieces of medical imaging equipment, new combinations of medical imaging equipment and means of taking biopsies, and new algorithms for scanning and interpreting the resulting mammograms and biopsies, that have been tested and shown to reduce significantly, false positives (Chan et al, 2008; Chawla et al, 2009; Eliahou et al, 2009; Freixenet et al, 2009; Leff et al, 2008; Llado et al, 2009; Peters et al, 2009; Pfleiderer et al, 2009; Potente et al, 2009; Rojas Dominguez & Nandi, 2008; Salem et al, 2009 ).

It might be a good idea to rule out their promise of something better and far more accurate, before ruling out routine annual mammograms for women at 40, with biopsies as needed in the judgment of the physician and patient.

Tony Stankus, FSLA, tstankus@uark.edu Life Sciences Librarian, Science Coordinator & Professor,

University of Arkansas Libraries MULN 223 E

365 North McIlroy Avenue

Fayetteville, AR 72701-4002

Voice: 479-575-4301

Fax: 479-575-4592

American Cancer Society. (2009). The American Cancer Society responds to USPSTF Mammography Guidelines. The American Cancer Society guidelines will not change; annual mammography recommended for women 40 and over. http://www.cancer.org/docroot/MED/content/MED_2_1x_American_Cancer_Society_Responds_to_Changes_to_USPSTF_Mammography_Guidelines.asp

American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2009. Response of the American College Of Obstetricians And Gynecologists to new breast cancer screening recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force , 2009) http://www.acog.org/from_home/Misc/uspstfResponse.cfm

American College of Radiology. (2009). USPSTF Mammography Recommendations Will Result in Countless Unnecessary Breast Cancer Deaths Each Year. http://www.acr.org/HomePageCategories/News/ACRNewsCenter/USPSTFMammoRecs.aspx

American Society of Clinical Oncology. (2009). Expert Perspective from ASCO on Mammography Screening for Breast Cancer. http://www.cancer.net/patient/Cancer+News+and+Meetings/Expert+Perspective+on+Cancer+News/Expert+Perspective+from+ASCO+on+Mammography+Screening+for+Breast+Cancer

Belluck, P. (Wednesday, November 18, 2009.) Responding to new mammogram guidelines: Many physicians aren’t ready to recommend change. New York Times, 159, (54,863), p.A1, continued on p.A22.

Berg, W. A., Blume, J. D., Cormack, J. B., Mendelson, E. B., Lehrer, D., Böhm-Vélez, M., et al. (2008). Combined screening with ultrasound and mammography vs. mammography alone in women at elevated risk of breast cancer. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 299(18), 2151-2163.

Brett, J., Bankhead, C., Henderson, B., Watson, E. & Austoker, J. (2005). The psychological impact of mammographic screening. A sustematic review. Psychooncology, 14: 917-938.

Brewer, N.YT., Salz, T., & Lillie, S.E. (2007). Systemastic review: Long term effects of false-positive mammograms. Annals of Internal Medicine, 146, 502-510.

Chan, H., Wei, J., Zhang, Y., Helvie, M. A., Moore, R. H., Sahiner, B., et al. (2008). Computer-aided detection of masses in digital tomosynthesis mammography: Comparison of three approaches. Medical Physics, 35(9), 4087-4095.

Chawla, A. S., Saunders, R. S., Singh, S., Lo, J. Y., & Samei, E. (2009). Towards optimized acquisition scheme for multiprojection correlation imaging of breast cancer. Academic Radiology, 16(4), 456-463.

Collins, G. (November 19, 2009). The breast brouhaha. New York Times, 159, (54, 864), p. A27.

Controversy over mammograms. (Friday, November 20, 2009). New York Times, 159, (54, 865), p. A30.

Day, N.E. (2005). Overdiagnosis and breast cancer screening. Breast Cancer Research, 7, 228-229.

De Koning, H.J., Draisma, G., Fracheboud, J. & De Bruijn, A. (2006). Overdiagnosis and over treatment of breast cancer: Microsimulation modelling estimates based on observed screen and clinical data. Breast Cancer Research, 7, 285-265.

Duffy, S.W., Agbaje, O., Tabar, L., Vitak, B., Bjurstam, N., Bjorneld, L. et al. (2005). Overdiagnosis and overtreatment of breast cancer: Estimates of overdiagnosis from two tirals of ammographic screening for breast cancer. Breast Cancer Research, 7, 258-265.

Eliahou, R., Sella, T., Allweis, T., Samet, Y., Libson, E., & Sklair-Levy, M. (2009). Magnetic resonance-guided interventional procedures of the breast: Initial experience. The Israel Medical Association Journal: IMAJ, 11(5), 275-279.

Fink, R. (Wednesday, November 18, 2009). The controversy over mammograms: Letter to the editor. New York Times, 159, (54,863), p.A30.

Freixenet, J., Oliver, A., Martí, R., Lladó, X., Pont, J., Pérez, E., et al. (2008). Eigendetection of masses considering false positive reduction and breast density information. Medical Physics, 35(5), 1840-1853.

John, E.M.. Phipps, A.I., Knight, J.A., Milne, R.L., Dite, G.S. Hopper, J.L., et al. (2005). Medical radiation exposure of mammographic screening: Findings from the Breast Cancer Family Registry. International Journal of Cancer, 121, 386-394.

Kearns, J.M. (Wednesday, November 18, 2009). The controversy over mammograms: Letter to the editor. New York Times, 159, (54,863), p.A30.

Kelikowske, K. (2009). Evidence-based breast cancer prevention: The importance of individual risk. Annals of Internal Medicine, 151, 750-752.

Kirschner, E. (Wednesday, November 18, 2009). The controversy over mammograms: Letter to the editor. New York Times, 159, (54,863), p.A30.

Kolata, G. (Tuesday, November 17, 2009). New guidelines suggest fewer mammograms. New York Times, 159, (54,862), p.A1, continued on p.A17.

Kolata, G. (Friday, Novemebr 20, 2009). Mammogram debate took group off guard. New York Times, 159, p.A22.

Kosters, J.P., & Gotzsche, P.C. (2003). Regular self-examination or clinical examination for early detection of breast cancer? Cochrane Databse Systematic Reviews, CD003373.

Lam, W. W. M., Chan, C. P., Chan, C. F., Mak, C. C. C., Chan, C. F., Chong, K. W. H., et al. (2008). Factors affecting the palpability of breast lesion by self-examination. Singapore Medical Journal, 49(3), 228-232.

Lebovic, G. (Wednesday, November 18, 2009). The controversy over mammograms: Letter to the editor. New York Times, 159, (54,863), p.A30.

Leff, D. R., Warren, O. J., Enfield, L. C., Gibson, A., Athanasiou, T., Patten, D. K., et al. (2008). Diffuse optical imaging of the healthy and diseased breast: A systematic review. Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, 108(1), 9-22.

Leung, G. M., Woo, P. P. S., Cowling, B. J., Tsang, C. S. H., Cheung, A. N. Y., Ngan, H. Y. S., et al. (2008). Who receives, benefits from, and is harmed, by cervical and breast cancer screening among Hong Kong Chinese? Journal of Public Health (Oxford, England), 30(3), 282-292.

Leveen, A. (Wednesday, November 18, 2009). The controversy over mammograms: Letter to the editor. New York Times, 159, (54,863), p.A30.

Lladó, X., Oliver, A., Freixenet, J., Martí, R., & Martí, J. (2009). A textural approach for mass false positive reduction in mammography. Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics: The Official Journal of the Computerized Medical Imaging Society, 33(6), 415-422.

Mandelblatt, J.S. et al. (2009). Clinical guidelines: Effects of ammography screening under different screening schedules: Model estimates of potential benefits and harms. Annals of Internal Medicine, 151, 738-747.

Moss, S. (2005). Overdiagnosis and overtreatment of breast cancer: Overdiagnosis in randomized control trials of breast cancer screening. Breast Cancer Research, 7, 230-234.

Nelson, H.D., Tyne, K., Naik, A., Bougatsos, C., Chan, B. & Humphrey, L. (2009). Screening for for breast cancer: An Update for the US Preventive Services Task Fioorce. Annals of Internal Medicine, 151, (10), 727-737.

Olsen, A.H., Agbaje, O.F., Myles, J.P., Lynge, E. & Duffy, S.W. (2006). Overdiagnosis, sojourn time, and sensititivity in the Copenhagen mammography screening program. Breast Journal, 12,338-342.

Paci, E., Miccenesi, G., Puliti, D., Baldazzi, P., DeLisi, V., Falcini, F., et al. (2006). Estimate of overdiagnosis of breast cancer due to mammography after adjustment for lead time. A service screening study in Italy. Breast Cancer Research, 8, R68.

Peters, N. H. G. M., Meeuwis, C., Bakker, C. J. G., Mali, W. P. T. M., Fernandez-Gallardo, A., van Hillegersberg, R., et al. (2009). Feasibility of MRI-guided large-core-needle biopsy of suspiscious breast lesions at 3 T. European Radiology, 19(7), 1639-1644.

Pfleiderer, S. O. R., Brunzlow, H., Schulz-Wendtland, R., Pamilo, M., Vag, T., Camara, O., et al. (2009). Two-year follow-up of stereotactically guided 9-G breast biopsy: A multicenter evaluation of a self-contained vacuum-assisted device. Clinical Imaging, 33(5), 343-347.

Potente, G., Messineo, D., Maggi, C., & Savelli, S. (2009). Practical application of contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance mammography [CE-MRM] by an algorithm combining morphological and enhancement patterns. Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics: The Official Journal of the Computerized Medical Imaging Society, 33(2), 83-90.

Rabin, R.C. (Tuesday, November 17, 2009). New guidelines on breast cancer draw opposition. New York Times, 159, (54,862), p.D5.

Rakha, E. A., El-Sayed, M., Reed, J., Lee, A. H. S., Evans, A. J., & Ellis, I. O. (2009). Screen-detected breast lesions with malignant needle core biopsy diagnoses and no malignancy identified in subsequent surgical excision specimens (potential false-positive diagnosis). European Journal of Cancer (Oxford, England: 1990), 45(7), 1162-1167.

Rifkin, W. (Wednesday, November 18, 2009). The controversy over mammograms: Letter to the editor. New York Times, 159, (54,863), p.A30.

Rojas Domínguez, A., & Nandi, A. K. (2008). Detection of masses in mammograms via statistically based enhancement, multilevel-thresholding segmentation, and region selection. Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics: The Official Journal of the Computerized Medical Imaging Society, 32(4), 304-315.

Sack, K. (Friday, November 20, 2009). A medical culture clash. New York Times, 159, (54, 865), p.A1, continued on p.A22.

Sack, K. & Kolata, G. (Thursday, November 19, 2009). Breast cancer screening policy won’t change, US officials say. New York Times, 159, (54, 864), p. A1, continued on p.A3.

Salem, C., Sakr, R., Chopier, J., Marsault, C., Uzan, S., & Daraï, E. (2009). Accuracy of stereotactic vacuum-assisted breast biopsy with a 10-gauge hand-held system. Breast (Edinburgh, Scotland), 18(3), 178-182.

Seifi, A., Axelrod, H., Nascimento, T., Salam, Z., Karimi, S., Avestimehr, S., et al. (2009). Migration of guidewire after surgical breast biopsy: An unusual case report. Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology, 32(5), 1087-1090.

Sergentanis, T. N., Zagouri, F., Domeyer, P., Giannakopoulou, G., Tsigris, C., Bramis, J., et al. (2009). Biopsy method: A major predictor of adherence after benign breast biopsy? AJR.American Journal of Roentgenology, 193(5), W452-7.

Sperber, R. (Wednesday, November 18, 2009). The controversy over mammograms: Letter to the editor. New York Times, 159, (54,863), p.A30.

Steinhauer, J. (Wednesday, November 18, 2009). Responding to new mammogram guidelines: Women’s general approach to personal health prevails. New York Times, 159, (54.863), p.A1, continued on p.A22.

Swersky, B. (Wednesday, November 18, 2009). The controversy over mammograms: Letter to the editor. New York Times, 159, (54,863), p.A30.

Tu, S.P., Reisch, L.M., Taplin, S.H., Kreuter, W. & Elmore, J.G. (2006). Breast self-examination: Self-reported frequency, quality, and associated outcomes. Journal of Cancer Education, 21, 175-181.

US Preventive Services Task Force. (2009). Screening for breast cancer: US Preventive Task Force Recommendation Statement. Annals of Internal Medicine, 151, (10), 716-726.

Yen, M.F., Tabar, L., Vitak, B., Smith, R.A., Chen, H.H. & Duffy, S.W. (2003). Quantifying the potentialproblem of overdiagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ in breast cancer screening. European Journal of Cancer, 39, 1746-1754.

Zackrisson, S., Andersson, I., Janzon, L., Manjer, J. & Garne, J.P. (2006). Rate of overdaignosis of breast cancer 15 years after [the] end of Malmo mammographic screening tiral: Follow-up study. BMJ (British Medical Journal) , 332, 689-692.

Changing the way we state our business

Jamal — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:09:00 -0800

My latest LMD post is now available:
http://sla-divisions.typepad.com/sla_lmd/

Check it out when you can!

Jamal

Alignment Portal Share Forum now active

clw — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:56:16 -0800

If you are interested in knowing more about the Alignment Project, especially now as we are asked to vote on the Association's new name, please visit the Alignment Portal, now in operation.

The portal allows the sharing of thoughts and feedback in one central location, on all parts of the Alignment Project.

Registration is necessary in order to comment.

As for the vote, please remember that the vote on the proposed new name ends December 9th, 2009.

Making volunteering in SLA easy

clw — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:29:18 -0800

SLA is calling for people to get involved!

SLA members have received yesterday or thereabouts an email from President-Elect Anne Caputo bringing to your attention an online form to communicate your willingness to serve. The form is easy is use, wether you are interested in a committee, council or unit (chapter, division, caucus) position. Here is the list of association-wide committees and councils.

Committees:

Bylaws
Cataloging
Association Governance
Diversity Leadership Development Program
Research and Development
Technical Standards

Advisory Councils:

Emergency Preparedness and Recovery
First Five Years
Information Ethics
Information Outlook
Professional Development
Public Policy
Public Relations
Student and Academic Affairs
Virtual Worlds

RMSLA chapter Alignment meetings

krainwatr — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:05:51 -0800

Our chapter is hosting a series of meetings to discuss the SLA Alignment initiative and the proposed name change. The meetings will be informal discussions of the questions you have about the alignment initiative.

South

November 30^th, 6:00 p.m.

Parker Library

Room A

10851 S. Crossroads Drive, Parker, 80134

http://www.douglascountylibraries.org/Locations/ParkerLibrary

R.S.V.P by noon, November 30^th.

North

December 1st, 12:00 (noon)

The Huckleberry Restaurant

700 Main Street, Louisville, 80027

Menu: http://www.thehuckleberry.com/menu_lunch.aspx

Please R.S.V.P by noon, November 30^th, I need to give an exact count to the restaurant the day before.

Downtown

December 2^nd, 12:00 (noon)

Dixon’s Downtown Grill

16^th Street and Wazee, Downtown Denver

Easily accessible via Light Rail and the 16^th Mall Shuttle

Menu: http://www.dixonsrestaurant.com/lunch_dinner.htm

Dixons will only write one check per table, with an 18% gratuity.

Please bring CASH to make it easier on us all ; )

R.S.V.P by noon, November 27^th.

West

December 4^th, 11:45 a.m.

Red Rocks Grille, in the Sheraton Denver West Hotel

360 Union Blvd, Lakewood, 80228

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/property/area/map.html?propertyID=883

The restaurant is easily accessible from 6th Avenue

The Lunch Buffet is $11.95 and includes a nice selection of soups and salads, meat, fish, pasta, vegetables, and desserts.

R.S.V.P by noon, December 3rd.

R.S.V.P for the meeting you wish to attend to:

Kathleen Rainwater
krainwatr@hotmail.com

Columbia University Launches Updated Copyright Website

Doug Newcomb — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:41:16 -0800

The Copyright Advisory Office of Columbia University in New York City has launched a fully revised and updated website of copyright issues and information. The new website offers expanded pages on copyright ownership, fair use, publication agreements, the Google Books settlement, and more.

Read: Press Release

Go to: Website

Library Director - Clinton Community College - Plattsburgh, NY

Karlen Chase — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:30:41 -0800

Second Life - Learn All About It!

Barbara Vick — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:44:00 -0800

Introduction to Second Life Part 1: Curious as to what Second Life is all about? Want to know how you can get started? Want to find out more about what SLA is up to in this 3D virtual world? In Part 1, you'll learn about virtual worlds and SLA initiatives in virtual worlds. You'll also get the detail you need to get started using Second Life.

Upcoming Sessions:

Thursday, 3 December, 2:00 p.m. ET

Introduction to Second Life Part 2: This session will take place in Second Life and will require that you get your Second Life avatar (www.secondlife.com). This is an in-world workshop to help you get up to speed on how to use the Second Life environment. We will take a look at the SLA space in Second Life and will discuss how to make friends, teleporting a person, creating a home location and landmark, camera controls, taking snapshots and profiles.

Upcoming Sessions:

Thursday, 10 December, 11:00 a.m. ET

Learn more & register

Cataloging Librarian (Books)

Liz Arnold — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:35:46 -0800

Baker & Taylor, Bridgewater, New Jersey

As an employee of the world's largest book and entertainment distributor, you could be at the forefront of turning a book into bestseller, supplying the world's leading libraries and educational institutions, making a movie release an instant classic, a new music artist an overnight sensation or videogame everyone's "must have."

We are looking for a talented Cataloging Librarian for our Bridgewater, NJ team.

Essential Duties:

The Cataloging Librarian is responsible for the online creation of original and adaptive Library of Congress and B&T Enhanced MARC cataloging records for books and media.

· Create original and adaptive LC cataloging records, using Unabridged Dewey and Library of Congress classification with Library of Congress subject headings according to AACR2 rules and in MARC format

· Create Enhanced MARC cataloging records online using Abridged Dewey classification, Sears subject headings, and MARC format

· Format and utilize publisher- and/or LC-supplied information to generate pre-publication cataloging records according to national standards and B&T conventions to support review source and special list cataloging activities, as needed

· Examine item-in-hand or pre-publication material and write brief objective descriptive summaries (annotations)

· Update pre-publication records with item-in-hand, as needed; correct errors

Experience/Education Requirements:

· 1-2 years practical cataloging experience in a library or business environment, or recent MLS graduate with cataloging coursework.

· Knowledge of publishers/publishing a plus

· Master's degree (MLS) in Library Science

· Extensive knowledge in MARC records, integrated library systems and operations.

· Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.

· Detail oriented, strong PC skills and familiarity with online systems

PLEASE FORWARD RESUMES AND SALARY REQUIREMENTS TO: hrstaffing@baker-taylor.com

About Us:

Baker & Taylor was founded in 1828 originally as a bindery and subscription book publisher; we are now the world's largest book and entertainment distributor. Combined with our family of companies: Baker & Taylor Marketing Services, YBP Library Services, J.A. Majors and Advantage Publishers Group, we are at the forefront of academic excellence, we help turn books into bestsellers, make movie releases an instant classic, new music artists an overnight sensation and videogames a "must have. To learn more about Baker & Taylor, please visit our website at www.baker-taylor.com.

Baker & Taylor, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer offering a drug and smoke free environment.

Business and Economics Librarian

Liz Arnold — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:31:18 -0800

Institution: The College of New Jersey
Location: Ewing, NJ
Category: Admin - Libraries
Admin - Economic and Business Development

Posted: 11/18/2009
Application Due: 11/30/2009
Type: Part-Time/Adjunct

The Library at The College of New Jersey invites applications for a part-time (0.75FTE), non-tenure-track position as Business and Economics Librarian for the Spring, 2010 semester.

Summary of Responsibilities: The successful candidate will be responsible for providing library services to students and faculty, particularly in the School of Business. Services include subject-specialized and general reference, user education and collection development. Reports to the Dean of the Library. Specific Duties and Responsibilities: Department Liaison: Serves as Liaison to the Departments of Accounting and Information Systems, Economics, Finance & International Business, and Management, Marketing & Interdisciplinary Business.

Reference: Provides in-depth reference service to students and faculty in the School of Business. Provides general reference service in collaboration with the other public service librarians.

Education: Offers course-related and resource-specific instructional programs targeting students and faculty in the School of Business. Provides individual and small-group consultation/instruction regarding electronic and print business resources available to faculty and students. May participate in general information literacy program.

Collection Development: Coordinates collection development for all business disciplines and Economics; works closely with faculty in the School of Business to select library materials to support new and ongoing courses.

Applicants must have an ALA-accredited Masters degree; significant experience using business resources; facility with electronic and traditional information resources; excellent interpersonal, oral and written communication skills. Initiative, flexibility and a strong service orientation are essential. Preferred qualifications include an educational background in business, economics, or a related discipline; familiarity with government resources; experience in general reference.

Contact Information
To apply, please email cover letter, resume, and names and contact information (including email addresses) of three professional references to: Dean Taras Pavlovsky at pavlovsk@tcnj.edu. Application materials must be received by November 30th in order to receive full consideration.
Application Information
Postal Address: Dean Taras Pavlovsky
Library
The College of New Jersey
PO Box 7718
Ewing, NJ 08628-0718

Email Address: pavlovsk@tcnj.edu

Deputy Director for Public Service, New York

Liz Arnold — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:28:38 -0800

New York Public Library, New York, NY
The New York Public Library seeks a Deputy Director to work with our public service staff.

The person we seek will be responsible for partnering with the VP for Public Service to:

• Assist in the budgeting, planning and financial management for over 1300 staff and 88 locations
• Work with the public service management team on the administration and implementation of Library policies
• Work with the public service management team to help develop and support our virtual presence and implement cutting edge technology
• Work with staff to build and enhance relationships with local communities, elected officials, trustees and donors
• Partner with public service management team and library managers to coach, develop and manage a staff of approximately 1300
• Actively participate on internal committees and project teams to ensure that the public service perspective, needs and interests are represented
• Expertise in developing and leading operations that result in continuous improvement and efficiencies
• Assist in the coaching and development of public service management team
• Provide leadership for the public service staff

Qualifications
• MLS degree from an ALA accredited library education program
• 6+ years of experience working in a large, multi location urban library environment
• Minimum of five years in a supervisory/management role
• Hands on experience with budgeting, financial and strategic planning
• Track record of success in applying new technology to library systems and services
• Ability to be proactive in decision making and is level headed in a crisis
• Experience working with municipal and state governments
• Strong customer service orientation • Exceptional communicator with a successful track record in engaging diverse populations
• Highly organized with an ability to handle multiple, highly visible projects concurrently
• Experience leading large scale organizational change
• Strong technology skills including the use of Web 2.0 applications to drive the mission of the Library
See: http://jobs-nypl.icims.com/jobs/5883/job

How a Name Change Could Spell Success

Jill Strand — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:04:41 -0800

"I am not opposed to a name change. It may be necessary, but it will never be sufficient on its own. If we change our name and change nothing else, it will be simply cosmetics. We need an attitudinal change that results in changes in the way we perceive our profession and our role."

- Eugenie Prime, from a conversation with SLA President Elect-Elect Cindy Romaine

One thing that seems to be missing from the discussion about the proposed name change is a vision of how the Association and all of its members might move forward with a new name. As Eugenie Prime says, a name change alone isn't enough. We will need action behind it to demonstrate our value even as we are describing it. We'll also need to focus some of these efforts outside of the profession. In other words, we need to spend less time preaching to the choir and look at how we can help the rest of the world understand all we have to offer no matter where we work or the specific role we play.

This doesn't mean that the Association cares more about the views of others over those of its own members. Nor does it leave out certain groups of librarians so much as it seeks to be more inclusive of all of our members. Instead, Alignment challenges us to raise awareness about how much the librarian role has grown.

The name "Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals" focuses on what we do and deliver rather than where we work or what we're called. As such it has the potential to be our common denominator, where we overlap and where similar professionals might feel comfortable joining us. We've already benefited from a diverse membership that includes specialties such as knowledge management, competitive intelligence, Web 2.0 and other social technologies (just to name just a few.)

So whatever your initial thoughts or feelings about the name, I ask you to at least consider how it could succeed and your role in that process. Envision what it would look like for you and your unique role in your organization and industry. What could you and your co-workers or fellow division members come up with to communicate the value behind the name? How could the language and tools already available in the Alignment research help you do that?

A new name is not a magic wand that will suddenly earn us more respect and money. Yet combined with the right messages tailored to our individual organizations, leaders and industries, it could be a powerful tool in helping those outside of the profession understand just how much we bring to the table.

Changing the way we state our business

Jamal Cromity — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:36:11 -0800

Ha...now that I have your attention (398 views last month…Awesome!)

Many great leaders have noted, “…change generally does not happen without some struggle…”

Now that voting is underway and members have the right to make a decision on whether they are for or against the name change, I just hope we can all get along…LOL

But seriously, whether the name Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals is selected or not, we will still need to move forward with change. Reflecting on the next steps of the association and the changes to come, I really would like us to change the way we state our business. Here are some of the things I would like to see the association improve...

· Using the website, brochures, and other collateral do a better job of explaining what the association represents. For example, on the main page of the website provide a concise statement that says,

“The Association represents librarians and information professionals who work in large and small corporations, information centers, knowledge management services, professional online information services, consultants’ services, government Institutions, law firms, specialist agencies, organizations, departments, and much more.”

I am sorry but the statement, ” Through innovative learning, successful networking…” does not tell me anything about the members of the association.

· If SLA remains the name or not, provide a definition of “Special”. For example, accompanied with imagery we could say…

“The term "Special" refers to the specialized or specialist services that librarians and information professionals provide to the businesses, institutions, organizations they work for and help strategically improve decision making in an effort to generate or retain revenue through knowledge management and/or dissemination of information which may include information collecting, gathering, administrating, managing, referring, researching, analyzing, collaborating, marketing, web designing/developing, implementation, purchasing, and testing.”

· Concisely and with imagery, state who we serve. For example, we could say we serve…

o Members

o Businesses that employee librarians and information professionals

· Clearly state what we offer to our members:

o Knowledge Sharing

o Continued Education through course work, e.g. UClick

o Information Standards & Certifications regarding:

§ Collecting, gathering, administrating, managing, marketing, referring, researching, analyzing, collaborating, web designing/development, implementation, and/or testing.

o A conducive atmosphere for networking

o Job Referrals (Full time and Temporary Projects)

o Annual Salary Survey; Publications (i.e. Information Outlook, E-Newsletters)

· Finally, clearly state what we offer to businesses we serve:

o Venues for…

§ Lead generating

§ Advertising

§ Business and Product promotions

o Referral Services

o Employment Advertising

SLA Makes It Easier to Volunteer

Eric Schwarz - EricTheLibrarian.com — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:20:39 -0800

SLA President-elect Anne Caputo has launched a 2010 Call for Volunteers, that makes it very easy to see and apply for volunteer opportunities using a Web-based form. They new volunteer form (linked from Anne's letter to members) will help you find opportunities you may not know existed, apply in one place without worrying about whom to contact, and focus your thoughts on why and how you'd like to get involved. (Don't worry: It's a short form, not a job application.)

For example, SLA currently is looking for volunteers to serve on the following association-wide groups:

Committees:

Bylaws
Cataloging
Association Governance
Diversity Leadership Development Program
Research and Development
Technical Standards

Advisory Councils:

Emergency Preparedness and Recovery
First Five Years
Information Ethics
Information Outlook
Professional Development
Public Policy
Public Relations
Student and Academic Affairs
Virtual Worlds

(I had heard of most of them, but not all of them!)

Also, volunteers for opportunities other than committees and councils will be forwarded to the appropriate division, chapter, caucus or nominating committee without any vetting by Anne or the advisory group members.

If you're interested in volunteering with the New Jersey Chapter, you could fill out the online form, or just ask me or 2010 President Sandra Baker. We'd be happy to welcome you. Two opportunities that come to mind are: Membership (welcoming new members and pointing people in the right direction when they have questions about their membership) and Program Planning for our chapter's 75-year anniversary.

Eric Schwarz
NJSLA President

Learning about the SLA Alignment via Second Life

SLA-Divisions — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:58:14 -0800

Last night, November 17, 2009, several members of the SLA Public Relations Advisory Council participated in a session in Second Life. It was an excellent session covering the amazing work going on around the SLA Alignment project. They provided background and purpose of the Alignment and their own stories and thoughts about the project.

I learned a lot about the Alignment efforts and also was able to directly talk with speakers - it was great! I am so thankful for the work they are doing and the ways in which they are connecting with members to participate in this effort.

If you are not aware of the SLA Alignment project, please check the wiki site and get involved, participate and engage with this effort: http://wiki.sla.org/display/align/SLA+Alignment+Wiki

Thank you to Cindy Hill for moderating and Jill Strand, Libby Trudell, David Shumaker and Cara Schatz for all the information and insights they shared with us last night!

From the Archives ... A Chapter Program on Public Relations, 1950

David Cappoli — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 01:34:00 -0800

With SLA celebrating its centennial in 2009, the Southern California Chapter will periodically feature historical material from its rich archives.

From the original photo caption: The head table at a meeting of the Special Libraries Association, Southern California Chapter, which took place May 26, 1950 in Los Angeles and was keyed to the theme of Public Relations. Edward F. Baumer (standing, third from left), Director of Information and Research, Prudential Insurance Company, Western Home Office in Los Angeles, addressed S.L.A. on "What's Ahead in Public Relations?"

Others standing, from left to right: Guy Marion, Manager, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce Research Department, and one of SLA's original "Founding Fathers"; Harold Hamill, City Librarian, Los Angeles Public Library, and Chairman of the Public Relations Committee of the American Library Association; and, Dr. Robert Dockson, Economist, Prudential.

Seated left to right: Mrs. Baumer; Sherry Taylor, Librarian, Prudential and newly-elected Director of Public Relations of SLA's Southern California Chapter; Kathleen Edwards, Librarian, Farmers Insurance Group and the new Chapter President; Constance Martois, Librarian, Municipal Reference Library and immediate Past President; Mrs. Dockson; Margaret Cressaty, Librarian, College of Osteopathic Surgeons and Physicians and SLA Member-at-Large; and, Mrs. Marion.

Canadian Sunshine

peggygarvin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:59:01 -0800

In the US, advocacy for open government information comes from nonprofit organizations like the Sunlight Foundation and OpenTheGovernment.org. In the UK, they have FreeOurData and mySociety.org.

In Canada, the nonprofit VisibleGovernment.ca states its mission as improving "civic participation and government accountability in Canada by promoting online tools for government transparency". VisibleGovernment runs a low-volume blog and an active VisibleGovernment Google group. The website features VisibleGovernment projects like Disclosed.ca, a searchable database of past government contract information.

We came, we saw, we sorted: Volunteer work party at Central Library brought out the best

Daria DeCooman — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:24:47 -0800

On Saturday, November 14, two dozen SLA-SD members and friends descended on the San Diego Public Library's Central Library. There, we helped with two projects owned by the library's California Room, whose collection pertains to California history.

Info pros Bee Bornheimer, Robin Dodds, Melinda Hansen, Vani Inampudi (pushing the cart in the photo here), Marita Johnson, Peggy Makie, Sabrina Nespeca, Camerin Poulson, Melanie Quinn, Jennifer Snapp-Cook and Kate Vigderson all pitched in and gave the effort their all.

These intrepid volunteers helped sort and sleeve several boxes of historic photographs and helped box and sleeve several drawers of San Diego postcards. SLA-SD President Cindy Shamel also participated.

Prior to getting started on our work, we all enjoyed a tour of the California Room and the library's Wangenheim Room, which contains a collection of rare books, manuscripts and artifacts illustrating the development of the book through the ages.

Special Collections Supervisor Rick Crawford, a member of the California Room staff, provided an orientation to the California Room. Also he kindly made the volunteer opportunity possible and guided participants through the work needing doing.

The volunteer work party was staged as a way to give back to the California Room, whose staff help provide access to the SLA-SD chapter archives which are housed in the Central Library.

At the end of day, when the working and networking came to a close, all agreed that the event had been productive and lots of fun. Most importantly, Rick expressed appreciation for the group having put in place the first steps toward making the postcard and photo collections accessible to the public.

Anyone interested in volunteering for the California Room can contact Rick at rcrawford[AT]sandiego.gov.

Anyone interested in participating in future SLA-SD volunteer work parties just needs to stay tuned to this blog. Given the good results from this year's work party at the downtown San Diego Public Library, another work party on behalf of the California Room may be in the works for 2010.

See photos taken by SLA-SD President Cindy Shamel.

See photos taken by SLA-SD Archivist Daria DeCooman.

Commitment

SLA Blogger — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:09:41 -0800

by Dan Trefethen

I posted something to the Solo Librarians discussion list that got me thinking about commitment.

It is true what they say, until you have made a commitment to something, you will remain troubled in your mind, vacillating over the decision and not wanting to settle down.

On the Solo list, I made the glib connection between the Board of Directors committing to the evidence-based name that tested best, Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals, and my decision to marry the woman I did. At least I thought it was a bit glib, then I thought "wait a minute. There's truth here."

In both cases, we used the best evidence there was at the time. We didn't know if somewhere, somehow, there might be a more perfect choice than the one before us. But based on what was before us, we had to decide to commit - or not to commit.

Once we committed, our minds became clear. We grew more confident in our choice. The confidence grew from living with the result (in my case, literally) and realizing that once you make the commitment, you are ready to make your new reality.

My friends, the evidence is before us. The SLA Board of Directors committed to presenting you with the name that tested best following two years of research. This name is a bold choice, and (like love) can be startling when you come to realize that you are considering spending your life with it. But the evidence is firm. It is a name that resonates with our values, and if we commit to it and make it our own, we will be prepared to make our new reality in the 21st century.

As time goes by, you will say as I do now about my 1977 wedding - "there really wasn't any other choice for me to make. This was clearly the direction I had to go."

Just don't show this to my wife. She'll get all mushy on me.

Clarification on SLA Name Change Proposal and Acronyms

Eric Schwarz - EricTheLibrarian.com — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:56:07 -0800

From SLA President Gloria Zamora:

The Board has received a lot of feedback from leadership and alignment ambassadors, and we have heard the membership on the issue of the acronym.

We have decided that we will use the full name, Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals, at every opportunity to introduce the association. There is discussion on alternative abbreviations whose URLs were purchased just for this kind of situation. HQ Staff and the Board of Directors have not used the acronym since the end of the first week of discussion and I believe we will seek alternatives to use should the name pass. The vote is on the full name of the association and there is no acronym on the ballot.

Please inform your members and please remember to vote. [Editor's Note: Voting runs through Dec. 9.]

Thanks so much for this and all your work.

Sincerely,
Gloria

iSchool Chat report: Knowledge Management

Ashley Conaway — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:01:41 -0800

The KM Chat held on October 29th at the iSchool was a huge success. The two speakers were Wilda Newman and Susan Fifer Canby, both of whom have made great contributions to our profession. Wilda Newman worked for many years at APL and was a key figure in introducing KM practices there; she currently teaches KM at Catholic University and consults on KM issues as well. Susan Fifer Canby is the VP of Libraries and Information Services at the National Geographic Society.

Both of them were great and conveyed their experiences and their "knowledge" to a group of about 30 students, faculty and some MIM (Masters in Information Management) students who attended for the first time. The MIM students do not receive an MLS degree and usually have careers in more IT oriented positions.

Both Chatters answered questions on a wide variety of topics that included differences in definitions among data, information and knowledge and helped demonstrate what can be accomplished with KM as well as what they have implemented. They may have convinced a few in the audience that perhaps this was an area to be investigated more thoroughly -- as well as the benefits of belonging to SLA, of course! It was a very interesting chat.

The success of the Chat was due in no small measure to the efforts and hard work of Jamie Peacock and Kate Lanahan, Chairs of the SLA Student Group, who posted the Chat on the NIng, put up flyers to advertise it, got responses from this large number of attendees, arranged for the refreshments and welcomed the speakers. The new venue for the Chat, near the lounge, was well thought out with a "Chat in the round" feel where the speakers were part of the audience. Thanks to them and any others who helped with setting up and clearing up. And thanks to Trudi Hahn, faculty liaison to SLA, who was also in attandance. Kudos to all.

--Judy Tapiero

RL Librarian Chats will start up again

Pat Alderman — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:05:00 -0800

I have offered to revive the RL Librarian Chat series and the first event has been scheduled. I would gladly accept other ideas for speakers.

One change is that both ACRL and LLAMA have offered their support and the ability to advertise through their communication channels. I hope it may convince others that Second Life has opportunities that they are missing and/or at least give them a reason to give SL a try. Since ACRL and LLAMA both have lots of members in SL, I will also be experimenting with different ways to share transcripts or videos after the events.

It is my first attempt to run and organize an event in SL, so let me know if I am doing anything wrong, or if I miss part of the established process. I have placed the event on the calendar already.

Location: Info Island - Auditorium
Date: December 9th (tentative 2nd Wednesday of every month)
Time: 5pm (SL)

RL Librarian Chat: A monthly discussion series that features real life librarians talking about their RL jobs. Cosponsored by ACRL and LLAMA. The discussion series is being revived after a short hiatus.

Speaker:
Brian Gray (Brian Garfield in SL) is the Head of Reference & Engineering Librarian at the Kelvin Smith Library, Case Western Reserve University. He will discuss his role as a "college-based" librarian in the School of Engineering. He will also talk about the new roles the library has taken in outreach and integration into various roles at the university, including partnerships related to research areas defined by the university's strategic plan. He is a also the webmaster for LLAMA and teaches web 2.0 and technology courses for Kent State University School of Library & Information Science. Discussion could take many directions depending on the participants.

Brian Gray (Brian Garfield in SL)
mindspiral@gmail.com
bcg8@case.edu

Brian C. Gray, MLIS
Head of Reference
Librarian - Engineering, Math, & Statistics
Email: brian.c.gray@case.edu
Blog: http://blog.case.edu/bcg8/
Kelvin Smith Library 201-L or Nord Hall 509/510

Case Western Reserve University
Kelvin Smith Library
11055 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44106-7151
Phone: (216) 368-8685
Fax: (216) 368-3669

Library Buzz Panel: Are LIS Programs on Target for Today’s Workplace?

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:17:51 -0800

Presented by: Dr. Andrew Wertheimer, Ben Hoganson, and Chris Nelson
Moderated by: Cindy Hill
Produced by: MLIS students at the University of Hawaii, sponsored by SLA in Virtual Worlds

When: November 19th, 2009 - 6pm PT/SLT
Where: Info Island Auditorium (Second Life)
SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/62/114/33
NOTE: This session is in Second Life, please get a Second Life avatar and the client software here: http://www.secondlife.com

Summary: LIS graduates find themselves working in a variety of rapidly changing workplaces; changing technology and changing roles in the workplace and in society. Join us as we meet with a panel representing current LIS students, recent LIS graduates entering the work force, LIS professors, and working Librarians to discuss the role of LIS education in this dynamic field. We will be discussing how or if LIS programs are adapting to meet the needs of the workplace, what people learned or wish they had learned, continuing education, and whether or not an LIS degree is valuable to today's workplace.

Dr. Wertheimer is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Hawaii Manoa and has experience working in public and academic libraries and an archive.

Ben Hoganson is a graduate of the MLIS program at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and is currently working as an Information Research Specialist with the Idaho National Laboratory.

Chris Nelson is currently studying Library and Information Science at San Jose State University.

Cindy Hill is the owner of Hill Information Consulting Group and received her MLIS from San Jose State University.

Questions to be addressed:

1.Do you think what you learned in Library School prepares you to be a librarian?
2.What did you learn that you don't think you'll need (or haven’t needed) and conversely, what didn't you learn that you wish you had?
3.Should an MLIS degree be required to be a librarian?
4.Should librarians have a positive requirement for CE or certification?
5.What do you think is necessary for those just entering the library/information profession?
6.What is going on in LIS programs today that is addressing these changes?

The Library Buzz sessions are sponsored by the SLA in Virtual Worlds Advisory Council in partnership with the Alliance Virtual Library (AVL).

-Scott Brown

Library Buzz Panel: Are LIS Programs on Target for Today’s Workplace?

SLA-Divisions — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:17:51 -0800

1.Do you think what you learned in Library School prepares you to be a librarian?
2.What did you learn that you don't think you'll need (or haven’t needed) and conversely, what didn't you learn that you wish you had?
3.Should an MLIS degree be required to be a librarian?
4.Should librarians have a positive requirement for CE or certification?
5.What do you think is necessary for those just entering the library/information profession?
6.What is going on in LIS programs today that is addressing these changes?

The Library Buzz sessions are sponsored by the SLA in Virtual Worlds Advisory Council in partnership with the Alliance Virtual Library (AVL).

-Scott Brown

Podcast on one to use Second Life and the Medical Profession

Pat Alderman — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:32:24 -0800

The Australian Broadcasting Corporations' Future Tense http://www.abc.net.au/rn/futuretense/)put out a podcast about Second Life and Medicine. http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/2009/10/fte_20091015.mp3 The 20-30 minute podcast discusses how SL might be used to help patients understand what to expect with a medical procedure or treatment.

The Intelligence of Pigs

SLA-Divisions — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:07:28 -0800

Some readers may be surprised to find the intelligence of pigs saluted in a November 10, 2009, New York Times column by Natalie Angier. She based her work largely on a new paper (Broom, Sena & Moynihan) in the Anglo-American journal, Animal Behaviour (note the British spelling) and her column is an example of a well-researched popularization that all of us (myself included) should try to emulate for both accuracy and interest.

The key finding is that pigs who are exposed to mirrors for as few as five hours prior to a subsequent test, learn the concept that mirrors are not windows, showing the pig another pig behind a pane of glass, but rather are reflections of themselves, and of their surroundings.

The key test in the study was the placement of a bowl of food in a location in a maze-like room with compartments. This prize was reflected in a mirror that was at the end of a straight corridor within the maze, but the bowl itself was not actually in the straight path ahead, but rather off at an angle that could not be seen directly, only through viewing the mirror. Absent the mirror, there was no visual evidence of food.

All but one of the pigs who had prior mirror exposure rather quickly figured out that one did not go behind the mirror, to find the bowl of food, but rather they proceeded in the direction indicated by their understanding of from where the reflection was coming.

The potential confounding factor of the pig following the scent of the food was handled by having the ambient air circulate rather vigorously throughout the room using a fan, spreading the tell-tale aroma around as evenly as possible.

One pig, was, well, a bit slow, and did not ever seem to get the hang of it.

Nature vs. Nurture in Pig Intelligence & Teat Ownership

In the genetics vs. nurture controversy on intelligence in the animal kingdom, there is evidence for both sides as being influential among pigs. Certain breeds are demonstrably more intelligent than others. Duroc breed pigs, for example, have unambiguously tested smarter than Hampshires, and the consensus belief in the swine community is that breed is predictive of half of the individual differences among pigs in unrelated intelligence.

The other half has to do with nutrition. Pigs that establish “ownership” of a particular nipple on a sow, often have a significant advantage in weight gain, over those who lose out in the initial milk allotment, even if those denied piglets ultimately get subsequent access to a nipple, and can feed afterwards. Tests of identically aged piglets, show that those that weighed more tested better in more complicated mazes, a standard measure used in many animal intelligence tests.

More recent studies indicate that the presence or greater concentration of sialic acid in the sow’s milk is strongly related to the development of the pig brain, and the teat-owning piglet apparently gets more milk or perhaps more concentrated sialic acid.

Learning & Socialization

Pigs have a highly developed social structure and their young clearly learn primarily from their sow mother first, and then from age-matching piglets. In Europe where many pigs have been released to the wild in order to regenerate and sustain wild boar populations -----they interbreed readily ----- the death of a sow even when the piglets are past weaning presents problems, because the sow teaches more than just simple foraging. They teach a measure of cooperation, and family bonding.

Tests show that pigs in captivity can detect which are their littermates just by looking, in the equivalent of a small police lineup, even after separation and the masking of any telltale scents, or communicating calls or sounds. In other words, they retain a visual memory of their family group. Their recall can be reinforced with food rewards to optimize performance in some measures of litter mate identification, such as speed of recognition. In other words, pigs can sharpen their native memory through focus on task they eventually recognize as being rewarding. They are quite educable on the whole.

Tests also show that pigs remember where food is stored, even if hidden. In instances where there are multiple locations of hidden stored foods from which to choose, they first retrieve the food that they like the most, or which has the greatest abundance.

According to Angier, previous studies have shown that some pigs deceive their fellow pigs, by holding out on knowledge of where the choicest cache is hidden, and instead, lead them to a less desirable alternate, so as to reserve the best for themselves. This sort of deviousness is also, alack, another pretty good indicator of pig intelligence.

Tony Stankus, FSLA, tstankus@uark.edu

Life Sciences Librarian, Science Coordinator & Professor

University of Arkansas Libraries MULN 223 E

365 North McIlroy Avenue

Fayetteville AR 72701-4002

Voice: 479-575-4031

Fax: 479-575-4592

Angier, N. (2009). Pigs prove smart, if not vain. New York Times, (Tuesday, November 10, 2009), p.D1, D3.

Bing, W., Bing, Y., Karim, M., HongHua, H., Yun, S., McGreevy, P., et al. (2007). Dietary sialic acid supplementation improves learning and memory in piglets. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 85(2), 561-569.

Broom, D.M., Sena, H., & Moynihan, K.L. (2009). Pigs learn what a mirror image represents and use it to obtain information. Animal Behaviour, 78, 1037-1041

Croney, C. (2000, August). Cognitive abilities of domestic pigs (Sus scrofa). Dissertation Abstracts International, 61, 598p.

de Jonge, F., Ooms, M., Kuurman, W., Maes, J., & Spruijt, B. (2008). Are pigs sensitive to variability in food rewards?. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 114 (1), 93-104.

Drummond, H. (2006). Dominance in vertebrate broods and litters. Quarterly Review of Biology, 81(1), 3-32.

Grobbe, M., & Spek, G. J. (2009). Didactics for fauna managers, or how to teach wild boar to remain wild. / didactiek voor faunabeheerders, of hoe leer je wilde zwijnen wild te blijven. Vakblad Natuur Bos Landschap, 6(2), 24-25.

Held, S., Baumgartner, J., KilBride, A., Byrne, R., & Mendl, M. (2005). Foraging behaviour in domestic pigs (Sus scrota): Remembering and prioritizing food sites of different value. Animal Cognition, 8(2), 114-121.

Held, S., Mendl, M., Devereux, C., & Byrne, R. (2001). Studies in social cognition: From primates to pigs. Animal Welfare, 10, 209-SS217.

Jansen, J., Bolhuis, J., Schouten, W., Spruijt, B., & Wiegant, V. (2009). Spatial learning in pigs: Effects of environmental enrichment and individual characteristics on behaviour and performance. Animal Cognition, 12 (2), 303-315.

Jensen, P. (2009). In Jensen P. (Ed.), The ethology of domestic animals: An introductory text, modular texts. Wallingford; UK: CABI.

Kratzer, D. D. (1969). Effects of age on avoidance learning in pigs. Journal of Animal Science, 28, 175-179.

Kratzer, D. D. (1971). Learning in farm animals. Journal of Animal Science, 32, 1268-1273.

Marchant, J., Whittaker, X., & Broom, D. (2001). Vocalisations of the adult female domestic pig during a standard human approach test and their relationships with behavioural and heart rate measures. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 72(1), 23-39.

McLeman, M. A., Mendl, M. T., Jones, R. B., & Wathes, C. M. (2008). Social discrimination of familiar conspecifics by juvenile pigs, Sus scrofa: Development of a non-invasive method to study the transmission of unimodal and bimodal cues between live stimuli. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 115(3), 123-137.

Nielsen, T., Kornum, B., Moustgaard, A., Gade, A., Lind, N., & Knudsen, G. (2009). A novel spatial delayed non-match to sample (DNMS) task in the Göttingen minipig. Behavioural Brain Research, 196(1), 93-98.

New Jersey (and New York) Librarians Introduced to GLBT Issues Caucus

Eric Schwarz - EricTheLibrarian.com — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:32:46 -0800

I had the chance to introduce our SLA caucus to 45 librarians and library staff, at the Serving New Jersey's GLBT Community conference last month. The presentations and a summary have now been posted on the INFOLINK site, and my humble presentation also is linked below. Thanks to conference organizer Allan M. Kleiman for finding me and inviting me to participate, coordinator Mi-Sun Lyu at INFOLINK, and to our own Richard Hulser for the historical information and advice on the caucus.

As Special Librarians (or Strategic Knowledge Professionals), many of us don't often get a chance to serve GLBT-identified populations. However, I hope you find the presentations by our public library colleagues in New Jersey useful in your professional and personal lives. (There are some great resource and reading lists, for example.)

You'll see me in my purple jacket, along with the incomparable Enola Romano and Leslie Kahn, in one of the photos on the INFOLINK page.

Eric Schwarz (EricTheLibrarian.com)

View more presentations from ericschwarz.

Check Your Emails for an Invitation to Vote for Chair-Elect

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:07:38 -0800

The Board proposes the following candidate for CI Division offices:

Chair-Elect: Toni Wilson (Jan-Dec 2010)

Toni Wilson's Bio:

Toni Wilson is an independent competitive intelligence practitioner, as founder and principal consultant with MarketSmart Research Services LLC. Prior to establishing the company in 2000, Toni was a CI manager at LexisNexis, a leading information services company, for nearly 12 years. It was during her time there that she began developing in-depth knowledge of information sources and research tools and techniques, which has grown into an unparalleled level of expertise.

Toni has been a member and volunteer leader with the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) for 16 years. She served as a member of SCIP’s board of directors from 2000 to 2003, led the Southwest Ohio SCIP chapter for a collective nine years, and served on SCIP’s annual conference planning committee for three consecutive years. In 1999, Toni received the SCIP Catalyst Award and, in 2008, she received SCIP’s Faye Brill Award – both in recognition of her ongoing commitment to the CI profession and to the goals of the association.

Toni was a founding member of SCIP’s Women’s Leadership Council and one of its first co-chairs. She enjoys writing a regular column for CI Magazine and has contributed to several CI Foundation publications. Toni makes regular presentations regarding competitive intelligence collection and analysis and CI program processes, and regularly mentors new and aspiring CI professionals, sharing her passion for and knowledge of the CI profession with them.

Voting Instructions:

The online election is now open and will remain open until November 24, 2009.

The results will be posted to the CI Division list and published in an upcoming Intelligence Insights.

This invitation is being sent to all CI Division members, who are the only ones eligible to vote, so check your email for your personal invitation (and please do not forward your invitation to anyone else).

The survey security has been set so that each recipient of the invitation can vote only once, and the information linking voter identity to a particular vote has been suppressed.

Thanks for voting!

Victor Camlek CI Division Chair

Check Your Emails for an Invitation to Vote for Chair-Elect

SLA-Divisions — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:07:38 -0800

The Board proposes the following candidate for CI Division offices:

Chair-Elect: Toni Wilson (Jan-Dec 2010)

Toni Wilson's Bio:

Voting Instructions:

The online election is now open and will remain open until November 24, 2009.

The results will be posted to the CI Division list and published in an upcoming Intelligence Insights.

The survey security has been set so that each recipient of the invitation can vote only once, and the information linking voter identity to a particular vote has been suppressed.

Thanks for voting!

Victor Camlek CI Division Chair

SLA Alignment Project Chat in Second Life: Tomorrow!

Cara Schatz — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:56:14 -0800

Presented by Jill Strand , Libby Trudell, David Shumaker, Cara Schatz
When: November 17 2009 - 5pm PT/SLT
Where: Info Island Auditorium, Second Life
SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/62/114/33
NOTE: This session is in Second Life, please get a Second Life avatar and the client software here: http://www.secondlife.com There will be avatars in SL to greet you.

Have you been wanting to find time to understand the research process and results underlying the SLA Alignment Project? Take the opportunity to meet members of the SLA Public Relations Advisory Council in Second Life and get a guided tour of the alignment portal, plus a look at some of the information in the Alignment wiki. Find out more about these available tools, and how they will help us in communicating our value as information professionals within our organizations.

The sessions is sponsored by the SLA in Virtual Worlds Advisory Council in partnership with the Alliance Virtual Library (AVL).

"An Historic Vote for a Second Century" Guest Blog from 2009 President Gloria Zamora

Cara Schatz — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:16:56 -0800

Today is the beginning of an historic vote for SLA. Today we vote on a proposed new name, the Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals. I thank all of you who have reviewed the alignment information, and I urge those who have not yet had an opportunity to do so to take a look at the alignment portal on the SLA Web site and review the information about the alignment project and the name research.

I have had an opportunity to speak with many of our members during the past two years about SLA’s alignment project. In the past two months I have visited eight chapters to speak specifically about the name. I have also received thousands of e-mails and have tried to be responsive to many of these. I have listened to both those opposed and those in favor. I am not surprised that the passions run high on both sides.

After a recent talk on the alignment, the first question went not to me but to the corporate sponsor of the event. The question was, how did they react to the alignment findings and the name? The first said he, “could not do his job without the help of the information professionals" who, in their company, are intentionally titled researchers and not librarians. The other said that when he presents his strategic plan on which tradeshows his organization should allocate funds for exhibiting, he never uses Special Libraries Association, but rather “a business information show.” He does this because his employers do not understand the word ‘special’ and they are seeking a broader audience of information providers, not specifically librarians.

One long-time member recently summed up her reason for voting yes for the Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals. She said that when she first heard the name she was not sure about it, and maybe a little on the negative side, but after she considered the research she realized that this was not about her, and it was not about any one of us individually. It was about all of us in this profession and most importantly about the future.

That was a powerful observation for me. This is not about what any of us individually call ourselves. This association is big enough to advocate for all members and prospective members, all who use a range of diverse titles. In fact, that is what we have been doing for 100 years; advocating for information professionals.

We have talked about the skills that we have and how valuable we are to our institutions. But we continually struggle with the same two words, “special” and “libraries.” Some seem to think if we would just work harder at this, rather than spending money on research and time on trying to change our name, that somehow those people out there, those making decisions on our future, will suddenly understand and see the light.

Some members tell me that their management “gets it” and are very supportive of libraries and librarians. They see the value and that is great. Unfortunately, as we have seen from the number of institution closings and layoffs, that is not the reality for many of our members. My own institution, Sandia National Laboratories, decided to close its library two years ago because “everything is available on the internet and on the desktop.” Sadly, too many times this has been the reality. The person bridging the gap between information and knowledge and delivery of knowledge services in person, and to the desktop, is left out.

We have been told that this association is giving up on librarians. That is very far from the truth. In fact, we want to be successful in our advocacy of our members and describe the value that they provide to the institutions they serve, whether they are physically located in a library or are embedded within an organization, whether they are called librarians or knowledge managers. We want to place the emphasis on the people and their vast skills, and not on the location. We are an association of professionals, not an association of institutions.

Some have said they do not like the word strategic and that they are not strategic. My answer there is that we must be strategic and understand the strategic goals of our institutions and we must align our work with those goals to make the institution successful. This includes the people providing research services, as well as catalogers and IT professionals. If we fully understand the strategic direction of our organizations, we are able to contribute to their success.

Others have said they don’t like the word knowledge because we supply information that others turn into knowledge. I say why not have an aspirational goal? Why don’t WE strive to provide the added value that turns information into knowledge? Decision makers value the analysis that we provide. I believe it is essential that we use the skills we have to add value to the information we collect. Let me return to John Cotton Dana and his own words,

It seems evident enough from all that has been said, that the old type of library must modify itself in accordance with the new needs which the evolution of knowledge and the growth of print has created.

John Cotton Dana, 100 years ago, referred to knowledge and not information. For years, SLA used the tagline “putting knowledge to work,” not putting information to work. With our proposed name we are continuing on this path, striving to provide knowledge. We are taking a risk here. We are putting ourselves on the line and proclaiming that we are the key to the future and that any successful organization must have knowledge professionals on their staff.

There have been questions about the research and the process for choosing a name. I can assure you that the Board and staff have tried at every opportunity to be open in our communications. Our members and other information professionals were part of the research from the very beginning and have taken part in every phase. There have been numerous opportunities for input since the first results were communicated in June 2008 at the SLA Annual Conference, all the way through the past weeks.

You elect a Board to represent you, to make decisions that they believe are in the best interest of the association. This Board has taken that responsibility very seriously. The needs of our members and of the knowledge profession overall have been uppermost in our minds.

I was told that I should be neutral in this name discussion. I believe that would be abdicating my responsibility as a Board member. You, as members, need to know where your elected officials stand on this issue. And where we stand is united in our support of this name and the direction it sets for the future. I am encouraging you to vote yes on the proposed name, the Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals. Although the name is a small part of the overall alignment project, it is a very visible part. It will allow us to move forward and become a larger, diverse organization of knowledge professionals; an organization that does not leave librarians behind in any way but opens us to new ideas and experiences and gives us a better opportunity to convey the added value that we provide in our work. Let’s take this risk. I believe it is worth it, and I believe we can live up to this name.

Seth Godin, author of the book Tribes and the 2008 SLA Annual Conference keynote speaker says, to be successful:

"We cannot support the status quo, we need to move forward"

and

"Growth and success are linked to breaking the old rules"

I say we need to break some of the old rules and move forward to our second century with the Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals.

The Alignment Tribe President Gloria Zamora talks about building the "Align in '09" tribe.

For more videos about the alignment project visit SLA-TV!

Clarification and Perspective on Name Change by Ruth Wolfish

SLA Blogger — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:10:29 -0800

A few points to consider regarding the vote to change the name of SLA to Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals

Voting will take place today (16 November) through 9 December
The vote is YES or NO to change the name from SLA to Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals.
The vote is on the full name, there is not an acronym.
If we do not change our name now, another name will not be submitted.

I have been a professional Librarian for over twenty years in a multitude of positions. I have been called: Account Manager, Reference Librarian, Manager of Education & Training, E-journals Coordinator, Electronic Content Coordinator, and Client Services Manager. Regardless of my title, I have always been a librarian, that is, I’ve always been someone who manages and supports strategic knowledge.

I have also had several titles within SLA such as Pres. Elect, President, Division member, and Chapter Cabinet Chair Elect. Regardless of my titles, I’ve always been a dedicated member. However I have seen our organization’s members struggle to find jobs in the midst of a period when strategic knowledge is critical and we have precisely the necessary skills. I have also watched our chapters struggle to grow their member base and leaders. Let’s expand our tent to include all Strategic Knowledge professionals.

The latter will bring additional support to our chapters, more ideas to our conference program, and more jobs to our members. I have been told many times in my career “You don’t look like a Librarian”. What does someone who knows how to quickly find the exact answers to questions that are being asked "look like?"

Stop Dancing with a 'Default' Name & Partner up with a New One! by Ty Webb

SLA Blogger — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:29:59 -0800

One hundred years ago, John Cotton Dana admitted that our name was chosen "in default of a better." Even though we have talked about changing it ever since then, we continued to use it. The idea of changing it was scary, so we kept on going. Well, let's stop our 100-yr-old superstitious dance with a "default" name and partner up with a new one!

We've talked about it forever. It's been a constant undercurrent that frequently comes to the surface. I remember discussions in the '80s, and again in the '90s, and then in 2003 when the membership actually voted to change the name, but did not select a replacement. Now, it has not only come to the surface, it has become a flood, a whirlpool, with members actively voicing their feelings on both sides.

That's good. Our organization is important to us. We are emotionally attached to it, and heavily invested in it. The association has given us innumerable opportunities for professional development, for furthering our careers, for building our network and for making life-long friends. We are loyal to our association, and we know we can rely on it to give us what we need to have a successful, satisfying career.

To help you with your career, members of your Board have been working on the alignment project for several years. New members have joined the Board as you elected them; others have left as their terms expired. All of them have worked hard on the alignment project in order to improve the recognition of the value you contribute toward the success of your employers.

The research results give us data that we can build on for years to come. The association will take it one step at a time, and the first step is to consider changing our name to something that resonates with our current members, future members, employers, and vendor partners. Using the research results in combination with due diligence, we have a potential new name for our beloved association. It is your choice whether we continue to use the name that is familiar to us, even though it was "in default of a better," or if we enter our second century with a "better." A name based on research.

We all have personal stories about the challenge of explaining what it is that we do. And we've all seen the light bulb come on as the person we're talking to really gets it... One time stands out in my memory.

My library was newly assigned to report to the VP of Marketing. In my first meeting with him, he apologized right up front and said he didn't really understand what it was that the Library did...

My response was, "We provide the strategic information that you and your colleagues need in order to make better business decisions."

Well, the light bulb came on! I could see it in his face... He SAW THE LIGHT!

My title was changed to Manager, Strategic Information. One librarian who worked with Marketing and Business Development became the Information Specialist, and another, who worked with Research & Development and Product Development, became the Information Scientist. A third staff member opted to retain the title of Librarian. Her responsibilities were primarily in acquisitions and collection development.

The term library is respected, but it brings to mind a stereotype. What we do, the services we provide, and the value we contribute, all go far beyond that stereotype. Let's start our second century with a name that is "better!" Let’s stop our old superstitious dance and start a new dance with a new partner -- a new name.

Vote YES on Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals by Daniel Lee

SLA Blogger — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:18:50 -0800

The proposal to change our name has encouraged debate and deliberation in all corners of this association. It has also forced us to focus our attention on the results of the Alignment Project, an effort to adapt to a changing world in which we are not alone. This proposal has been 100 years in the making and now is the time for us to make a decision.

Vote YES to Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals.

This is my first year as a Director on the Board of Directors and I voted in favor of the motion to put the proposed name to a vote because:

* as a member you have the right to cast your vote to make this momentous decision;
* "change the name" has been a constant refrain for many years;
* the proposed name is based on solid research, conducted in good faith; and
* the proposed name reflects a direction many members have told me they want to go in.

Personally, I believe in this association's diversity and see it as a strength. I also believe it's what sets us apart from other associations. That is why I have spent my own money to be a member for eight years.

Diversity of opinion begets perspective and I need multiple perspectives reflected in the association I choose to belong to so I can grow and prosper as a professional in this increasingly complex world we operate in.

The name Special Libraries Association narrows that potential for perspective and Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals broadens it.

Vote YES to Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals - vote yes, vote early and vote often!

The Polls are Open!

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:12:06 -0800

The SLA Board of Directors is excited to propose that SLA change its name to the Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals. All SLA members are encouraged to voice their opinion on this proposal by casting an electronic vote in a special referendum that will begin on 16 November and end 9 December. The result will be announced on 10 December.

Vote here.

The Polls are Open!

SLA-Divisions — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:12:06 -0800

Vote here.

Reminder--Library Buzz Session Are LIS Programs on Target for Today’s Workplace? on Thu, Nov 18 at 6 SLT

Pat Alderman — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:11:55 -0800

Library Buzz Panel: Are LIS Programs on Target for Today’s Workplace?

Presented by: Dr. Andrew Wertheimer, Ben Hoganson, and Chris Nelson

Moderated by: Cindy Hill

Produced by: MLIS students at the University of Hawaii, sponsored by SLA in Virtual Worlds

When: November 19th, 2009 - 6pm PT/SLT
Where: Info Island Auditorium
SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/62/114/33
NOTE: This session is in Second Life, please get a Second Life avatar and the client software here: http://www.secondlife.com

Summary: LIS graduates find themselves working in a variety of rapidly changing workplaces; changing technology and changing roles in the workplace and in society. Join us as we meet with a panel representing current LIS students, recent LIS graduates entering the work force, LIS professors, and working Librarians to discuss the role of LIS education in this dynamic field. We will be discussing how or if LIS programs are adapting to meet the needs of the workplace, what people learned or wish they had learned, continuing education, and whether or not an LIS degree is valuable to today's workplace.

Dr. Wertheimer is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Hawaii Manoa and has experience working in public and academic libraries and an archive.

Ben Hoganson is a graduate of the MLIS program at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and is currently working as an Information Research Specialist with the Idaho National Laboratory.

Chris Nelson is currently studying Library and Information Science at San Jose State University.

Cindy Hill is the owner of Hill Information Consulting Group and received her MLIS from San Jose State University.

Questions to be addressed:

1.Do you think what you learned in Library School prepares you to be a librarian?
2.What did you learn that you don't think you'll need (or haven’t needed) and conversely, what didn't you learn that you wish you had?
3.Should an MLIS degree be required to be a librarian?
4.Should librarians have a positive requirement for CE or certification?
5.What do you think is necessary for those just entering the library/information profession?
6.What is going on in LIS programs today that is addressing these changes?

The Library Buzz sessions are sponsored by the SLA in Virtual Worlds Advisory Council in partnership with the Alliance Virtual Library (AVL).

Knowledge Management (KM) Certificates Program

Barbara Vick — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:30:00 -0800

SLA's Click University Knowledge Management Certificates Program in partnership with SMR International is offered in response to the changing needs of organizations to better harness and manage the use and application of proprietary and industry information and to support enterprise-wide contextual decision-making, research and innovation. The Knowledge Management (KM) Certificates Program consists of three different levels of curriculum, enabling information professionals and other knowledge workers to choose courses based on their specific function within their organizations. 2010 course descriptions and dates are now available at Click U.

Learn more

The New execuBook: "Fierce Leadership" by Susan Scott

Barbara Vick — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:25:59 -0800

What's wrong with hiring people for their smarts - for academic pedigrees, high IQs or text scores?

What many leaders don't realize is that increasing a company's smarts by 25% won't translate into revenue growth of 25%. Not even close. Just as important as skill and intellect is the ability to connect emotionally with customers. So it's important to hire for smart plus heart - for qualities such as warmth and personality as well as brainpower.

In this execuBook, author Susan Scott explains why hiring for smarts is just one of several worst best practices that not only fail to resolve the problems they're meant to resolve, but actually escalate problems, compromise results, derail effectiveness and drive away talented employees and profitable customers.

This summary offers a bold alternative to conventional management practices. It will be of interest to human resources professionals and other business managers.

If you want to read the full summary please log into your execuBooks account at http://www.aheadspace.com/login.cfm. Don't have an account? Visit Click U to get one.

Recap and Resources from NJSLA's Discussion of the Proposed SLA Name Change

Eric Schwarz - EricTheLibrarian.com — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:07:17 -0800

New Jersey SLA members had a chance to hear about SLA's Alignment Project, and the potential name change, via a teleconference and in-person meeting held Wednesday, Nov. 11. Members are voting on changing the name of the association, to the Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals, via electronic balloting to be held today (Nov. 16) through Dec. 9.

At the Nov. 11 meeting we had five people participating in person in Somerville and seven on the phone, including association President Gloria Zamora and Jill Strand, chair of the SLA Public Relations Advisory Council. As other chapters have done during the name change discussions, we surveyed the meeting participants about their job titles. Fewer than half of the participants had the name "library" or "librarian" in their job titles.

The fact that the name Special Libraries Association may exclude some members and vendors who otherwise would join, is one reason behind the name change proposal. Gloria and Jill reviewed the research and process behind the proposal, which is well documented on the SLA's Alignment Project wiki. A new site launched last week points to blog posts on the Alignment Project and the name change. These posts examine each of the words in the proposed name, what the association means to each person. Though not everyone agrees that Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals is the best potential name, or that SLA should change its name, there is a general consensus that the Alignment Project is a worthwhile examination of the association and the profession.

Others have said it more eloquently or with more detail, but here's my opinion: I'm voting yes on the new name, because it's more inclusive and aspirational, opening up a "bigger tent" for the association and challenging us to be strategic partners with our clients. Also, though the terms "libraries" and "librarians" are well-regarded, the term "special libraries" is not well understood outside or sometimes within the profession. This has been recognized for many years, even from the association's founding in 1909, so it's time to move forward with a name that better reflects the values and strengths of our members today. The name Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals is a positive step in that direction.

Eric Schwarz
NJSLA President

After the meeting, Jill sent this note with additional resources:

Thanks again for letting us join you tonight and for all your thoughtful comments and questions. Below are some of the resources I mentioned that can help to either get you started or answer your questions. If you have more, please feel free to reach out - there are plenty of us here to help: Eric as your Alignment Ambassador, myself, SLA Leadership or SLA PR Director Cara Schatz.

SLA Blog post with first steps you can take to make the Alignment findings work for you.
An overview of how the Alignment research was conducted and who was included.

Additional links with more detail on Alignment Project, research and more:

SLA Alignment Portal: Excellent and easy summary of Alignment research.
Aligning the Profession for the Future: Executive Summary with Links to Resources.
SLA Steps for Alignment Process.
Alignment Ambassador Q & A.

NCSLA Annual Officers' Installation Dinner, Holiday Gala...Thursday, December 03, 2009 6:30 – 9:30 p.m.

Jamal — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 11:42:00 -0800

NCSLA Annual Officers' Installation Dinner, Holiday Gala, and Awards Ceremony
Thursday, December 03, 20096:30 – 9:30 p.m.

Biaggi's Ristorante Italiano
1060 Darrington Drive
Cary, NC 27513 919-468-7229

6:30 to 7:00 Registration / Networking
7:00 to 8:45 Family Style Dinner & Awards Presentations
8:45 - 9:30Officers Inauguration and Closing

Dress for the occasion and join us for a fun-filled evening. Spouses/significant others are welcome to attend as guest. However, please register your guest as there is a 60 person maximum.

Register Now!

Free Online Gov 2.0 Conference

peggygarvin — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:40:25 -0800

O'Reilly Media Inc. is sponsoring a free, online Government 2.0 conference on 10 December 2009.The O'Reilly Gov 2.0 Online Conference, Winter 2009 will feature the five most popular presentations from the O'Reilly/TechWeb Gov 2.0 Expo held in September 2009 in Washington, DC.

The Gov 2.0 online conference has a half-day agenda, from 9:30am to 12:30pm US Pacific Standard Time (noon-3:30pm US Eastern Standard Time). Although the conference is free, you must register. For details, see:

F/T - Researcher - eMarketer

SLA-NY Chapter Events — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:35:00 -0800

Marketer, a privately-held company in New York City, is seeking a Researcher with a background and an active interest in market research, online marketing, and digital media.

The chosen candidate will aid in the collection, filtering and organization of data and information from print and electronic sources for the purpose of disseminating relevant news within the organization, producing editorial content and addressing information requests.

He/She will also research and write original content covering the marketing and media landscape in markets worldwide. This role also requires close collaboration with our team of content producers (researchers, analysts, editors) to further develop eMarketer’s content strategy and focus.

Our ideal researcher will be motivated and detail-oriented, and should have substantial interest in the Internet and online marketing. This position requires strong writing and self-editing skills, as well as a general facility with writing about numbers. A Bachelors Degree is required, market analysis experience preferred.

eMarketer provides the "Digital Intelligence" that businesspeople, marketers and advertisers need to make more accurate, informed and timely digital marketing and media decisions. eMarketer aggregates and analyzes information from more than 3,000 sources worldwide and offers companies an information portal to analyst reports, charts, articles, interviews, videos, and the most comprehensive database of online marketing statistics in the world. The company also makes a selected number of articles available on an ad-supported Website and daily newsletter.

Local candidates only, no relocation (Greater New York City Area).

Please forward cover letter and resume to Yael Marmon at ymarmon@emarketer.com

No Phone Calls

Revised Google Book Settlement Filed

Doug Newcomb — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:56:30 -0800

On Friday 13 November 2009,Google, the Authors Guild, and the Association of American Publishers released their Amended Settlement Agreement and a motion for preliminary approval of the amended settlement.

The modified agreement, among many things, provides more flexibility offering discounts on electronic books as well as promising to make it easier for others to access and resell digital books covered in the settlement. Google hopes the series of new provisions will help keep the deal alive. The parties' motion also seeks Court approval of a Supplemental Notice which, if approved, will be sent out in early December 2009.

Read: Redline version of the Amended Settlement Agreement

Revised Google Books Search Settlement Filed

peggygarvin — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:29:07 -0800

Parties submitted a revised class action settlement 13 November 2009 in The Authors Guild Inc. et al. v. Google Inc., otherwise known as the Google Book Search Settlement. The settlement was filed so late on Friday night that comprehensive reviews and analysis are still being written. For now, here are some good summaries:

Amended Settlement Filed in Authors Guild v. Google, from the Authors Guild website

Modifications to the Google Book Settlement, from Google Public Policy blog (links to amended settlement agreement [PDF])

Revised Google Book Settlement Filed & Live Blogging the Press Call, from Search Engine Land

Open Book Settlement Revised: Open Book Alliance pans it as a mere 'nip and tuck', from ZDNet's Between the Lines blog

Is the Google Books Settlement Worth the Wait?, from Open Book Alliance website

SLA is a member of the Open Book Alliance.

Google's official site for settlement news and documents is www.googlebooksettlement.com. More information should be posted there in the near future.

After all these years: YES! by Susan Fifer Canby

SLA Blogger — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:41:23 -0800

Dear friends and colleagues: I have been a member of SLA for my entire 35-year career at the National Geographic Society. I have seen and been part of so much change at the Geographic and in our profession. It has been an exciting time. I was so pleased to be elected to the SLA Board to help our organization make changes that I believe will serve us for the future. Please indulge me in a few stories that inform my decision about the alignment process and why I will vote YES.

I remember when I began reporting ten years ago to the CFO at the Geographic, one of the first questions he had for me was "Do you want to change your title or your division's - to take the "L" word out?" He is a strategic thinker and he was giving me an opportunity to realign. I said no. I felt strongly then, as I do now, that being a librarian is an honorable and strategic profession - one that helps society and organizations make better decisions - and I still thought that it was possible to persuade others to think in our terms.

For years I had heard "well you're not a typical librarian Susan" (of course we all know that in fact I was -- they just didn't understand what we did). But there was a sea change a few years ago when I realized that my Geographic colleagues and friends outside our field would regularly interrupt me when I would introduce myself as a special librarian. I FINALLY get it. They totally never understood the "special" and thought the "librarian" was not descriptive enough so they used phrases like -- "master of the information universe," "knowledge maven," "change-agent" -- this is not meant to make you think I'm full of myself -- it is meant to share with you that I believe we need to start listening to the C-suite as well as our customers, as the research suggests -- and re-align.

I appreciated very much the breadth and quality of the research done that recommended the alignment process as well as a new name: Association of Strategic Knowledge Professionals. It affirmed many of the words as well as concepts I had been hearing and some of the re-alignment recommendations that we had begun at the Geographic.

Anything new is awkward and feels strange at first -- particularly because we all have so much passion around our profession. I hope you will vote YES to enable SLA to align not only its mission and future, but also its name to reflect the professional organization that will inspire us and the next generation to be the knowledge professionals that Society and our organizations so needs. Best to you all. Susan

How SLA members were involved in Alignment research

janicelachance — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:25:59 -0800

I think it is very important to emphasize that SLA members and other information professionals have been included in every single phase of the Alignment Project. In the first, benchmark survey, more than one-third (34 percent) of respondents were information professionals. In the language exploration phase of the research, we held five separate focus groups for information pros in cooperation with SLA chapters in Vancouver, Seattle (two sessions, one just for students), Los Angeles and D.C., each with 25 to 30 participants. SLA members took part in both of the dial testing sessions, which took place in Toronto and D.C. Finally, members were involved in selecting the names that were tested, and information professionals were included in the separate online survey done to determine the name that is ultimately being submitted to membership for a vote. Additionally, at both the 2008 and 2009 Leadership Summits, we conducted roundtable discussions, each involving about 250 members, and input from them was incorporated into the project. In all, well over a thousand SLA members and information professionals were involved directly in the research, and many more than that have been indirectly involved.

We did this because our goal right from the start was to find ways to communicate that made sense to both our members and to the people who hire them, fire them, and ultimately decide whether there is a place in their organizations for them. Our members have told us for many years that they need help in demonstrating their value so that they will be paid what they are worth and permitted to advance.

We do think that SLA has much to offer people in allied professions—in fact, we already have a considerable number of members who are trained in market research, Web development, content management, competitive intelligence, and other closely related areas. They join because they recognize the value of librarians, and they have knowledge that benefits us, too. If changing our name makes SLA more attractive to this audience, it will only enhance the learning opportunities for members. But that is not our primary goal.

SLA has always been, and will always be, primarily an organization of librarians. Nobody is trying to change that or to diminish the title or training of librarians. We are simply trying to use research—in which SLA members were directly involved--to find ways to communicate your value. Period.

Members were highly instrumental in developing the new name we are proposing, and they are completely in control of whether or not it is adopted. A majority vote is required by law to change our articles of incorporation, and every member gets to vote. You will be asked to vote on the full name and not on an abbreviation or acronym. We set up numerous forums for discussion, and both sides have been extremely vocal. I encourage you to join the discussion if you have not already and most of all, to vote.

SLA's Proposed Name Change: Voting Starts Next Week!

SLA-Divisions — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:15:00 -0800

Before you vote, please think about...by Cindy Romaine 2010 President-Elect

Cara Schatz — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 07:13:50 -0800

After we’ve had this big, beefy conversation about our name--about our identity really--we can’t put the genie back in the bottle, close Pandora’s box, or put the toothpaste back into the tube (choose your metaphor).

Collectively, we’ve aired out our concerns from every perspective and because of that we’re all looking at S-L-A differently. It’s like the cup of coffee you left on the counter in the morning, when you pick it up in the afternoon—it’s different. What is that film on it? And why does it taste so tannic? It was fine a little while ago, but time passed, and something changed.

Even if you really like the name SLA, you’ve got to admit, it looks different on this side of the discussion.

Change Adoption

I feel that we are widely spread out on the change adoption curve. In fact, if we were a Boy Scout troop hiking on a trail, the front of the pack probably would not be able to see the back of the pack. And the back of the pack is having a hard time hearing what the front of the pack is saying. But we’re all going forward. And if we don’t change now it’s a lost opportunity.

Lost opportunity

Guy St. Clair, author of SLA at 100: From Working with Knowledge to Building the Knowledge Culture, has this to say regarding SLA’s reluctance to change:

Both in the book and in the presentations, one of the points I found myself making related to how close – as an association of professional knowledge workers – SLA came to taking a leadership position only to step back when confronted with the challenges the proposed change would require. Indeed, it was sometimes quite disheartening to research a topic and learn how people so talented and so smart – when they really needed to exercise their leadership – were not able to do so

I’m put in mind of these several situations, what I’ve come to think of as SLA’s missed opportunities, as we engage in our discussions about the name of the association. I can’t help but wonder if once again we are going to not recognize a very special opportunity that is right in front of us.

Noble Call vs Expanded Opportunities

I can’t speak for the Board, but I know that people in leadership have your best interests at heart. They genuinely want you to succeed and are trying to balance the noble calling of librarianship with the fact that in many instances it is limiting in terms of salaries, job opportunities, and business priorities.
SLA leadership has been studying, contemplating, and reflecting on the issue of our name/positioning/branding for a very long time.

We know there is controversy and doubt. From the Alignment Project research we have compelling evidence that the words “special libraries” do not get you what you told leadership that you want. We have all the proof we can muster—for some of you the next step is an intuitive leap.

As you can see from the following quote, by Roger Martin author of The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the New Competitive Advantage, we are not alone in the challenges we face.

By pushing the principles of scientific management too far, corporations are short-circuiting their own futures, says Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management. "The enemy of innovation is the phrase 'prove it,'" Martin says.

Vote yes for our association’s future. Let's make the most of this momentous opportunity. We'll be positioning ourselves for value and growth with the name the Association of Strategic Knowledge Professionals.

New Member Profile: Jane Minotti

SLA-Divisions — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:33:07 -0800

From the Desk of the President

Ashley Conaway — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:52:11 -0800

Hello on this soggy Friday!

This is a quick note about recent chapter activities... just incase you were wondering what some of your colleagues have been up to ....

1. Earlier this month our chapter coordinated its last Chat of the Fall semester with the iSchool SLA Student Group. The professional colleagues who "chatted" with students were from local medical & health care information services. Our thanks to them for participating in this well attended, dynamic chat!

M.J. Tooey, Associate Vice President, Academic Affairs
Executive Director, Health Sciences and Human Services Library
University of Maryland, Baltimore
Janice Kelly, Executive Director
NN/LM SE/A Region
University of Maryland, Baltimore
Joyce Backus, Deputy Chief
Public Services Division
National Library Of Medicine

If you would like to participate in a Chat session next semester, please contact Judy Tapiero. judith@theorganizedlibrary.com.

2. If you know colleagues who would benefit from our Chapter's resources and network, and would add to it as well, please invite them to become a member! Our chapter is offering very nice cash rewards plus an opportunity to get a free year of membership for chapter members who participate in our Member-Get-A-Member Campaign. Additional information, our new Chapter brochure, and membership forms can be found at http://units.sla.org/chapter/cmd/getamember09.htm

3. Registration is now open for our December 8th Holiday Cheers program. Our speakers will be Janice Lachance, SLA CEO; Anne Caputo, SLA 2010 President; and Susan Fifer Canby, SLA 2009 Chapter Cabinet Chair. The Inn at Brookeville Farms is the venue and a hearty sideboard of delectable goodies awaits us. For details and to register go to http://units.sla.org/chapter/cmd/holiday09.htm (By the way, the URL in the snail mail flyer works. If you experienced problems, try it again!)

4. Monday, November 16 marks the opening of the e-vote for changing the name of SLA. You'll be getting instructions and additional information in your e-mailbox. If you want to get a head start, here's the link to the e-vote instructions and poll link. http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/governance/namechange/evote.cfm

If you have any questions about the name vote, the alignment research or the voting process, please do not hesitate to contact our chapter's Alignment Ambassadors, Sean Henry or myself.

5. Welcome new Executive Board members. Their terms begin January 1, 2010.

Ashley Conaway, President-Elect
Ed Metz, Treasurer
Rene Stein, Director
Tami Smith, Director

We could use some volunteers! Our chapter has become a dynamic network of colleagues spread from the Eastern Shore to the Western mountains of Maryland. Organizing programs and working together is easier when we have committee volunteers who live/work in different parts of the state. Please lend a hand and help our chapter with its activities. Contact me for additional information or touch base with Sean Henry, our new President as of January 1, 2010. shenry@frostburg.edu Over the next few weeks he'll be looking for volunteers to Chair and work on committees.

That's it for now. I'm looking forward to greeting you at our Holiday Cheers program! Register soon so you'll have a ticket. Seating is limited.

Have a great weekend!

Chris

ROI in Corporate Libraries - Great Library Buzz Session!

SLA-Divisions — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:04:16 -0800

This past Tuesday night, November 10th, 2009, SLA hosted a Library Buzz session on ROI in Corporate Libraries. Springer discussed the research they conducted in partnership with Outsell Inc. The research included 4 libraries / information centers and the results from Sun Microsystems were included in this session - it was a great session and you can review the slides here: Download Springer-ROIinCorporateLibraries.

George Scotti, Springer Channel Marketing and Account Development, presented and will be providing us with the full whitepaper when it's complete.

Here are some pictures of the event - thanks to all those that attended!

Is ACTA on an Overreaching Copyright World Tour?

Doug Newcomb — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:45:23 -0800

The Washington Post article "Copyright overreach takes a world tour" by Rob Pegoraro does a good job of summarizing many concerns on how the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) may (or may not) affect the citizenry of the U.S. ACTA represents an attempt by the United States and other countries to set common rules for violations of intellectual-property laws.

Read: Washington Post article

Read: Letter to President Obama

NJ SLA Holiday Party and Annual Business Meeting--December 15th

SLA-Divisions — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:32:47 -0800

Tuesday, December 15th
The Rutgers Club
199 College Avenue
New Brunswick
5:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

The NJ Chapter gratefully acknowledges the support of PRO LiBRA for this event

Please join us for food, drink, and fun with your colleagues at this Rutgers' landmark. The Holiday Party will include the presentation of three awards: The President's Award, Member of the Year Award, and the Frank H. Spaulding Student Scholarship, and you will also be meeting the new Chapter Board.

We will continue the tradition of our White Elephant Gift Exchange

and

This year we will be collecting donations for the Franklin Township Food Bank in Somerset, NJ

To thank members for their participation throughout the year, registration is only $10 for members, students and retirees; or $15 for other guests.

Link to online registration

Download the flier

SLA Alignment Project Chat in Second Life - Nov 17 at 5pm SLT/PT

Pat Alderman — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:21:59 -0800

SLA Alignment Project Chat in Second Life

November 17, 2009
5pm SLT (PT)

Get a Second Life avatar and download the software (free) here: http://www.secondlife.com

Location: Info Island Auditorium

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/112/106/33

Join several folks involved in the SLA Alignment project for a lively discussion: Jill Strand, Libby Trudell, David Shumaker, Cara Schatz

Have you been wanting to find time to understand the research process and results underlying the SLA Alignment Project? Take the opportunity to meet members of the SLA Public Relations Advisory Council in Second Life and get a guided tour of the alignment portal, plus a look at some of the information in the Alignment wiki. Find out more about these available tools, and how they will help us in communicating our value as information professionals within our organizations.

More: http://wiki.sla.org/display/SLASECONDLIFE/Upcoming+Events

Head, Reference and Web Services Section, National Library of Medicine

Tamika — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:10:00 -0800

Head, Reference and Web Services Section, National Library of Medicine ($102,721-133,543)Join the management team at the National Library of Medicine (NLM) in Bethesda, Maryland. We're part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and located just outside Washington, D.C.We are looking for a manager with experience managing library web and information services providing health information to a variety of clients to serve as the Head of the Reference and Web Services Section.The Head of Reference and Web Services directs a staff of 20, as well as contract staff, responsible for 1) Managing and implementing improvements for MedlinePlus.gov, a national health information resource for the public, patients, families and professionals; 2) Providing centralized reference, customer service, and referrals for all of NLM's products; 3) Supporting and improving NLM websites and related technologies; 4) Providing and managing electronic and print reading room collections; and 5) Carrying out these programs in coordination with other government agencies, national organizations, libraries, and international organizations.Join the federal government and receive great benefits while contributing to NLM's mission, to provide biomedical information to users throughout the United States and the world.If you have never worked for the U.S. government, follow the instructions and use USAJobs to apply to announcement number HHS/NIH-2010-0301. If you currently or have previously worked for the government, you can apply to announcement number HHS/NIH-2010-0303. Salary range is $102,721-$133,543 USD per year and you must be a US citizen to apply. Posting closes at midnight, Eastern Standard Time, Wednesday, December 2, 2009.Questions? Contact Susan Burns at burnss@mail.nih.gov or 301-496-3661

Let's Move Forward and Vote YES! by Deb Hunt

SLA Blogger — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:57:58 -0800

In my 30+ years in this profession, I’ve worked in academic, special and government libraries, as an independent information professional and for profit and not-for-profit organizations.

As someone who provides strategic knowledge to clients to enable them to make informed decisions that positively affect their bottom line, I know the value of aligning my work with their needs and objectives. But, even when I was in academia and not-for-profit organizations, it was just as important to align with my users’ needs. Being proactive and showing them the benefits of what I could do for them and then actually doing it, allowed them to act on the information I had provided. Armed with this knowledge, whether for writing a dissertation proposal or doing due diligence research for a grant, they were able to move ahead with the strategic information they needed to be successful.

Research based on vetted information is the work we do. The Alignment results are based on sound principles of research. We can no longer ignore nor wish that the Alignment research would go away. Instead of looking back to the past, let’s look to the future and all the doors this will open to us as we move into our second hundred years. Voting for the new name in no way lessens the legacy of where we’ve been.

The Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals has a nice ring to it. Let’s move forward and vote “yes” on the new name.

Change Has Come! by Nettie Seaberry

SLA Blogger — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:51:52 -0800

I joined the Special Libraries Association shortly after graduating with my brand new MLS. I was told by my supervisor that I should join an organization where I could cultivate professional relationships overtime with people in my field. It was the best advice I’d received, and SLA has been my primary association since day one.

I’ve held several jobs along my professional journey and have always noted that I’ve had to explain what the Special Libraries Association was/is; and then what SLA was/is. Watching the expressions at times of upper management, students, and strangers who didn’t know there was an organization for librarians; didn’t understand what the “special” meant in the name, which meant explaining that librarians appeared in places other than public libraries. And, being even more surprised to learn that I was a librarian. I wear that title proudly, always have. Yet I found it interesting that I’ve always had to explain the name of the association. Even John Cotton Dana, who founded SLA a century ago, wrote, "The name Special Libraries was chosen with some hesitation, or rather in default of a better…

Throughout my affiliation with this organization I’ve had the good fortune of developing life long friendships, and met wonderful mentors, supportive colleagues and just plain good folks. I’ve had the opportunity to serve this association in a number of capacities. Learning along the way, that we professionals are strategically placed in all aspects of business, law, education, science, the arts, medicine, for profit, not-for-profit, non-profit, local, regional and global. We are entrenched in main stream society.

As a board candidate, I prepared a small speech and in it I wrote, “Change is not easy, yet things will always change. We don’t have a choice about that, but we have a choice about how we react, and as a leader whether or not we choose to create change. In truth, change can be a wonderful gift. It can unlock doors to growth and excitement in three areas, your personal, professional and organizational life.”

I hadn’t expected that those words would ring truer today, with an important decision we are being asked to make. To move this dynamic association into the next century with a defining name change that encompasses who we are. We are librarians, information professionals, knowledge managers, and any other moniker you choose for yourself. The first one hundred years have served us well, but we have a responsibility to lead the way for the next phase of this association. We have heard our members, we’ve taken your comments seriously, we have responded, and now, I hope you will consider casting your vote favorably, for the Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals.

Vote is About More Than Just a "Name" Change by Liz Blankson-Hemans

SLA Blogger — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:43:17 -0800

As we count down towards the big vote on our Association name change next week, I am moved to put this question out to members, as they ponder which way to vote on the proposed name – Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals.

Regardless of your current feeling or point of view about the name, I think the question we should ask ourselves before we cast our vote is: Is the proposed name (imperfect or not) easier to explain to our public and stakeholders than “Special Libraries Association”?

When we think about the people or groups we need to convince about the value we bring to our organizations, or even so that they “get” what we do in the first place, including (but not limited) to the following:

• Organizational executives (including finance managers or budget holders)
• Executive stakeholders (those at the strategic level, who determine the direction of the organization)
• Patrons and clients whom we engage with on a daily basis (those on whose behalf we seek or process information for strategic decision-making, thereby turning it into “knowledge”)
• Partners and suppliers (including vendors, from whom as an Association, we depend on for sponsorships),

How many of them are limited to engaging exclusively (or want to) with libraries and librarians, and how many are trying to utilize knowledge at large, in a strategic way? How many want to engage with broader cross-sections in order to stimulate “growth” – the key object of all organizations? I am sure that all of them want to do the latter – broaden their scope and market.

Notice how many times the word “strategic” and “knowledge” occurs in the list of those we need to influence? This is not coincidental. It is imperative, as the Alignment research has shown, for us to be using language that resonates with these same groups of people. And by the way, these categories are not just applicable to the “corporate” world, as some have argued. In academic and public organizations, these same categories of people rule – they may not be called the same thing, but they have the same role, which is to decide future direction, prove return on investment for funding support services in their institutions (including libraries and information centres, or whatever you happen to call your department).

If you haven’t guessed by now, I’m in favour of the name change. Not because I believe it is the most perfect name (is there such a thing?), but because I believe it is miles better at conveying what our Association is about, as we begin to implement the findings of the Alignment research. I believe it is much better at conveying what the Association stands for today, and why I belong to it, than “Special Libraries Association” ever did for me.

I am a Librarian by profession, and proud of the fact, but, except for a short spell in my early career, when I was an “assistant librarian” and then a “library manager”, I have not had the “L” word in my job title. When I was known as a Librarian, it didn’t take me and my colleagues long to realize that we needed to change the name of our department to Information or Research Centre – anything but library, because it was severely limiting our influence within our organization.

“Librarian” was not a dirty word; it was just a limiting one. Even when we volunteered or put ourselves forward to do more strategic and analytical research for my organization (incidentally, a law firm, where it is claimed the word “librarian” resonates very well), they said to us – “Oh, librarians don’t do that”! Only when we changed our designations to “information officers” did our Business Development teams not only seek our help, but literally run after us, to do research for them.

Even my own family limited the scope of their thinking because of the “L” word. As I progressed in my career – moving sectors, presenting, being invited to speak at and traveling to conferences – they would say to me “how come you are doing these things, I thought you were just a librarian?”

For me, Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals is also more “aspirational”, more inclusive in allowing all who work with or manage information, be they librarians, archivists, documentalists, researchers or analysts, able to think that this could be an Association they could belong to. Too often, when I have suggested to colleagues like this that they might like to join SLA, they have said to me “but I am not a librarian”. For all of us, I am sure; we all want to manage information as a strategic asset for our organizations, so I believe this name is a much better option.

I am not advocating by any means that you be ashamed of, or hide the fact that you are a librarian, just that by adopting this new name, you potentially open yourself up to more opportunity, and you can call yourself a librarian when it helps your case – such as proving that you can index, search effectively or understand taxonomy. But it also means that you can call yourself so many more names, or be associated with so many more strategic activities.

As you prepare to cast your votes next week, most of all, I urge you not to lose the chance to take this historic opportunity to reinvent our Association for the next century, simply because you don’t like the acronym that has been a part of the name change discussion. As has been reiterated several times, a vote on “the” or an acronym is not part of ballot. To vote against the name change for this reason alone, would be to “not see the wood, for the trees”, as the English say, and would be such a missed opportunity that would not present itself again for a very long time.

Please think about all these points as you prepare to cast your vote, and vote “yes”, as I will be doing.

Why This Is the Right Name

janicelachance — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:19:49 -0800

I have written and spoken extensively about why SLA should change its name. Now I want to tell you why I think the Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals is the right name.

As SLA's chief executive officer for more than six years, I have traveled all over the world to speak to groups of librarians, business people, government officials, nonprofit executives and many more about SLA's work and the critical role our members play in their organizations. I have watched focus groups, chatted with seatmates on endless plane rides and during countless conferences, and exchanged thoughts with the people I worked with when I served as the Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

In nearly all of these encounters, I surprise people. Why? Because I tell them things that they do not know. For example:

Our members work for some of the world's most successful organizations-universities, major corporations, government agencies, healthcare groups and many more.
Our members' skills include the ability to verify, consolidate and analyze information, turning it into actionable knowledge that organizations use to make better decisions.
In addition to their expertise in organizing, categorizing, cataloging, classifying, and disseminating information, many of our members are proficient in new and emerging communications technologies, knowledge management, competitive intelligence and other practical uses of information.
Our members play a critical role in our universities, helping students and professors find the best ways to conduct research, deal with intellectual property issues, incorporate digital content into instruction and more.
Most of our members hold advanced degrees in library or information science; many hold advanced degrees in law, education, business and science.

Information professionals are a bit like full-featured "smart phones" that people are using only to make phone calls!

Recently, I have begun to tell people I meet that I work for a group of professionals involved in strategic knowledge--people who use their training in library and information science and similar areas to get organizations the information they need to be successful. It works; they understand. Why? Because it is true--and it is not new.

The very first sentence of SLA's Competencies for Information Professionals in the 21st Century--last revised in 2003--reads:

An Information Professional ("IP") strategically uses information in his/her job to advance the mission of the organization.

In other words--you are strategic knowledge professionals, just as physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, and therapists are all health care professionals.

The special librarians and information professionals I know are among the brightest, hardest working people I have ever known--people who make the organizations smart enough to hire them equipped to be more effective in today's world. You have been hiding behind stacks of books for far too long; you are worth more than you make, and your contributions are not as widely recognized as they should be.

If there was another name for SLA that would appeal to every member, I believe it would have been identified some time over the past one hundred years. And even if it had, we might still be searching--not for a name we all like, but a name that conveys the value of special librarians and information professionals to the people who hire them. Because the buck stops there.

When you cast your vote on the proposed name change, I ask you to consider not whether you like the name Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals, but whether it does a better job than SLA in conveying your value to organizations that hire people like you.

2010 Click U Certificate Programs

Barbara Vick — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:16:00 -0800

Click U's 2009 Certificate Program courses are now registering. Begin planning to expand your expertise and achieve your professional development objectives by participating in one or more of them. Program participants can take courses à la carte or pursue a complete certificate. Courses begin in January 2010!

Competitive Intelligence Certificates Program

Certificate in Copyright Management

Knowledge Management Certificates Program

San Andreas Holiday Party and Annual Business Meeting

San Andreas Webmaster — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:46:00 -0800

San Andreas Holiday Party and Annual Business Meeting

Tuesday, December 8, 2009 Why not mix a little business with our pleasure! The December 8th meeting will be mostly fun and celebratory. In fact, most of the business will be a celebration too. A key element of the annual business meeting is acknowledging accomplishments and performers. We’ll be awarding the Mark Bear Award and the Lucy Steelman Award, http://www.san-andreas-sla.org/archives/awards.html, as well as various others. Please be there to add to the applause. And maybe you deserve something too. Been naughty? Been nice? It’s up to you to decide. But if you’ve been very, very good, perhaps you will want to buy yourself a little tidbit for your jewelry box. My favorite jeweler, Adina Magill, will be showing her wares during the networking portion of the evening. So you can get a little Holiday shopping taken care of too! It’s a pleasure doing business with Adina. Our speaker will be Roy Tennant. Roy Tennant /is a Senior Program Officer for OCLC Research. /He is the owner of Web4Lib and XML4Lib electronic discussion lists, and the creator and editor of Current Cites, a current awareness newsletter published every month since 1990. His books include Technology in Libraries: Essays in Honor of Anne Grodzins Lipow (2008), Managing the Digital Library (2004), XML in Libraries (2002), Practical HTML: A Self-Paced Tutorial (1996), and Crossing the Internet Threshold: An Instructional Handbook (1993). Roy also wrote a monthly column on digital libraries for Library Journal for a decade and has written numerous articles in other professional journals. In 2003, he received the American Library Association's LITA/Library Hi Tech Award for Excellence in Communication for Continuing Education. Yes, Roy is a genius. But this won’t be dry. He is also funny and fun. NEW: To streamline and semi-automate registration, we are directing attendees to register online. After completing the online form, please send a check to the Registrar. See below for the steps for registration. Event: San Andreas Chapter Holiday Party and Annual Business Meeting Speaker topic: Digital Libraries and Web 2.0 Speaker: Roy Tennant

Where: Macarthur Park Restaurant, Palo Alto When: Tuesday, December 8 5:30 - 8:30 p.m.

Cost: SLA Member - $25 ; Non-member or guest - $35 ; Retired or unemployed SLA member or SLIS student - $15

Last day to register: Monday, November 30, 2009

Sponsor: IEEE MacArthur Park Restaurant
27 University Ave
Palo Alto, CA 94301-2324 http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&source=hp&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=0,0,10407288919018868415&fb=1&hq=macarthur+park&hnear=palo+alto&gl=us&daddr=27+University+Ave,+Palo+Alto,+CA+94301-2324&geocode=16496652705966709226,37.442870,-122.165297&ei=nBbqStb8II-0sgPVk5XZCA&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=directions-to&resnum=1&ved=0CA4QngIwAA MacArthur Park is in easy walking distance from the Palo Alto Caltrain station.

For those who will arrive by car, parking is available in the adjacent lot or behind the Sheraton Hotel.

NEW: REGISTRATION STEPS 1. Check the calendar, making sure the date is not past the November 30th deadline.
2. Go to SurveyMonkey and register for this event. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=WkyGNLKYpVPZ8S0Z_2fpzUkw_3d_3d
3. Write a check for the appropriate amount, payable to “San Andreas Chapter of SLA."
4. Put the check in an envelope, stamp and mail it to: SLA Reservations
c/o AIM Library & Information Staffing
P.O. Box 391210
Mountain View, CA 94039-1210 5. When the Registrar receives your check, she will send you a confirmation email. Thanks to IEEE for sponsoring this San Andreas Chapter event.

-- Helen Josephine
Head Librarian
Engineering Library
Terman Engineering Center
380 Panama Mall
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-4029
650-725-1012

SLA Rhode Island Fall Program

SLA-Divisions — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:42:32 -0800

SLA RI Chapter Fall Event

5:30 PM Wednesday November 18, 2009

GSLIS Student Poster Presentations

Please join the Special Libraries Association Rhode Island Chapter, GSLIS, and the GSLIS/URI Student Group of SLA in celebrating the posters of students in the Fall 2009 Special Libraries course, instructed by Alex Caracuzzo. Network among your present and future colleagues and also engage the upcoming librarians about their posters.

PROGRAM

5:30-7:00 PM registration, networking, set up posters, light refreshments

7:00 PM Brief remarks Director of GSLIS and Professor Gale Eaton and Professor Alex Carcuzzo

7:00-8:00 PM Poster session

University of Rhode Island, Robert L. Carothers Library and Learning Commons, Galanti Lounge (third floor). Directions at http://www.uri.edu/home/visitors/Map/kingston_direction.html. Visitor permits are not needed after 6 PM and gates through the Chaffee lot should be open to get to the parking lot next to the Library.

Cost:

Members: $15.00

GSLIS students with reservation or bring ID for registration: No charge

Nonmembers: $20.00
Non-GSLIS Students, retirees and in between jobs: $10.00

Please reserve your spot by November 13 mailing the form below or emailing lapedersen2@cox.net

A check made out to SLA RI Chapter mailed to Lee Pedersen, 9 Oaklawn Road, North Smithfield, RI 02896 is preferred. However, payment at registration will be accepted. Walk-ins without a reservation, even if GSLIS students, make it difficult for the chapter to provide sufficient food and beverages.

Any questions? Email Lee at lapedersen2@cox.net or call 401-580-3807.

________________________________________________________________________

Reservation for SLA RI, GSLIS, URI/GSLIS SLA Student Group Nov. 18, 2009 Event

Name (s)______________________________________

Amount ________________

SLA Rhode Island Fall NewsBrief

SLA-Divisions — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:35:54 -0800

This isn't how I did it last issue, but here it is:

Download Fall 2009 newsletter

Beyond California: States in Peril

peggygarvin — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:06:12 -0800

The Pew Center on the States released a report today on the financial condition of the U.S. state governments. Beyond California: States in Peril scores the 50 states on the "six factors that contributed substantially to California’s ongoing fiscal woes: (1) high foreclosure rates; (2) increasing joblessness; (3) loss of state revenues; (4) the relative size of budget gaps; (5) legal obstacles to balanced budget—specifically, a supermajority requirement for some or all tax increases or budget bills; and (6) poor money-management practices."

The States to Watch section identifies nine states that "share important characteristics with California, but ... are not necessarily destined to follow in the Golden State’s footsteps": Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. The report also features a 50 state scorecard [PDF].

Download the full report [PDF].

Jan. 27-30: Leadership Summit

SLA-Divisions — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:02:37 -0800

Welcome to St. Louis. We know you'll enjoy our city, as well as the Leadership Summit!

Don't miss the welcome reception on Thursday, Jan. 28, 5:30 - 7:30 in Busch Stadium's Champion's Club Room!

Check out the St. Louis Metro Area Chapter's wiki for information on:

Getting to St. Louis
Dine Arounds
Welcome Reception (at Busch Stadium!)
Things to do and see, what to expect in St. Louis, and more!

The welcome reception would not be possible without the generous support of our sponsors:

Gold Level:

Silver Level:

BNA
Innovative Interfaces Inc.
International Language Center/Brunetti Language School
Springer
SRI Consulting
Thomson Reuters Professional
Wiley

Bronze Level:

EBSCO
Houchen Bindery
Knovel
MLNC
OVID
SMR International
Wolters Kluwer Law & Business
World Perspectives, Inc.

Door Prize Sponsors:

International Language Center/Brunetti Language school

CRS Report on Fossil Fuel Basics

peggygarvin — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:43:53 -0800

A new report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) explains the terminology, measurements, and status of U.S. fossil fuel resources. The 28 October 2009 report, U.S. Fossil Fuel Resources: Terminology, Reporting, and Summary [PDF], supplies essential background information for those of us who do not work with energy information full-time. (Since CRS does not provide reports directly to the public, the report comes to us courtesy of the FAS Project on Government Secrecy.)

From the report's introduction:

This report describes the characteristics of fossil fuels that make it necessary to use precise terminology, summarizes the major terms and their meanings, and provides a brief summary of U.S. endowment of fossil fuels and the relationship between the U.S. fossil fuel energy endowment and those of other nations.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) also provides introductory material on its feature website Energy Explained. The site covers the basics for renewable resources, nuclear energy, and secondary resources (electricity, hydrogen) as well as fossil fuels.

"I Like Change" by Kate Arnold

SLA Blogger — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:19:48 -0800

I’ve been a SLA member for 10 years now and it’s provided me with a superb network, learning opportunities, many new friends, a few challenges and some fun. In those 10 years I’ve had six different jobs in four different sectors all have enabled me to use the skills I learned at library school but none of the job titles has included "Librarian."

I like change and think it’s time for SLA to change, and to change using an evidence base of solid research. I am in favour of the new name ‘Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals’. We have plenty of reliable research to show us how this name will resonate with our employers, acknowledge the benefits and value of our work and speak to a wider potential membership.

As a member of the SLA Board since 2006 I’ve been involved in all the stages of the alignment project. Although initially skeptical about how the research would unfold I was pleasantly surprised by some of the findings. In particular that knowledge is the bridge between information and action. I believe this perfectly describes one of our core characteristics as a profession and I’m pleased to see it in the new name.

Voting on the new name opens next week so don’t miss the opportunity to cast your vote and help the association move into its second century with a more fitting name.

Thoughts on a New Name from Tom Rink

SLA Blogger — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:10:53 -0800

So, What About The Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals?

I am strategic. I am knowledge(able). I am professional.

For most of my library career, I've been searching for my niche. Where is the best fit for me? The easy answer . . . the Special Libraries Association. But I hope you noticed my use of the term "best" fit because even SLA wasn't a "perfect" fit -- a fit of function for sure (Solo Librarianship) which at the time was enough.

Here I was, a solo "librarian" in a very "specialized," very non-traditional setting with virtually no peers in the industry, let alone within my organization. I was a librarian, a researcher, an analyst, a strategic planner, a knowledge worker, an archivist, a police officer . . . I was the go-to guy. When anyone on the department needed information, they came to (or called upon) me. I was the resource. My label/title was not important.

What was important was my service attitude, my professional demeanor, my "knowledge" of the organization, my sharing of the information (pushing the information to those who need it), my synthesis and analysis of the information into brief executive summaries, and my input during every phase of the "strategic" planning process; I was providing something of value to my organization. The name of the Association was not important. The value from the Association was (learning, advocacy, networking).

While I was doing some things that could be characterized as your stereotypical "librarian" tasks, the majority of my assignments fell into the realm of being "strategic" and forward thinking. The term "librarian" did not do me justice (no pun intended) . . . I was really doing so much more.

No one wants to reach that point where they are "taken for granted," but stereotypes can be very hard to break. Thanks to the Alignment Project (and the advocacy and forward thinking of our Association), we now have the tools and the language to effect change in not only how we are perceived, but also in how we are able to communicate our value to those who need to hear it; those who have taken us for granted for far too long.

I really like the strength of the words that make up this proposed new name: strategic, knowledge, professional -- I'm all of these things (most, if not all, librarians/information professionals will be as well). This does not mean that I've ceased being a librarian or an information professional, but rather that I'm expanding the vocabulary that I use to describe myself, my role/function, and my value to the organization.

I am strategic. I am knowledge(able). I am professional.

The Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals . . . cast your vote November 16th through December 9th.

Getting in the Way by Anne Caputo, President-Elect

SLA Blogger — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:27:45 -0800

Two events happened to me in quick succession recently that illustrated in a very concrete reasons we need to vote for a name change:

1) I sat next to a lawyer and researcher at a recent conference on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act who told me she admired the NY Chapter of SLA so much, attended some of their programs, and wished she too could be a member of our association. ‘Why you CAN!’ I replied. Puzzled, she said, ‘But isn’t it for librarians only?’ This story has a happy ending because we had this conversation. She returned to New York and joined our association the next week. But her parting remark to me gave me pause. She said ‘Your name gets in the way.’ I believe there are many more professional researchers out there who could and should belong to our association. If our name gets in the way it’s hard to find them.

2) At a recent career fair at my local university, one where I teach as a lecturer and have done so for 10 years, the table staffed by student members of SLA was not attracting much attention, while the other professional associations represented did a brisk business. I asked the dean why she thought SLA’s table had so little traffic. She said she thought the students – LIS students at that – did not understand what a special library was. She said, ‘Your name gets in the way.’

Let’s vote for a name that allows us to define ourselves. Knowledge professionals are: librarians, researchers, information professionals, competitive intelligence specialists, taxonomists and many other knowledge intensive workers. That’s what we are so let’s choose an inclusive name that attracts and supports us.

Anne Caputo, President-Elect

Alignment & Name Change Research: Who Was Surveyed and How

Jill Strand — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:03:38 -0800

Would you do your job without trying to understand the views of your clients, students, faculty, engineers, patrons or information end-users? Of course not and neither would SLA. In trying to learn how best to position information professionals, the Association and the profession, SLA sought to understand the needs and perceptions of both info pros (us) and our clients / patrons.

In short, the Alignment Project set out to learn:

How librarians and information professionals view their own jobs
How those jobs are viewed by executives
Which activities performed by info pros are valued most
What language can be used to effectively communicate the value info pros bring to their employers

Key Finding: Corporate executives acknowledge the value and importance of good information. To resonate with this critical audience, information professionals must make the connection between their product and their company's strategic goals. Executives want more than information--they want to know how that information will create competitive advantage and benefit the bottom line. Before you decide that this doesn't apply to you, continue reading to learn about the phases of the Alignment Project and which sectors were included in the research and testing - you may be surprised:

Phase I – Define: Before any new research was initiated, a wealth of existing research and surveys were reviewed to identify strategic issues and knowledge gaps:

Task Force Reports
Alliance and Partners Task ForceChapter Modeling Report
Executive Growth, New Visions, Professional Value, Recognition, Research Now, and Branding)
SLA Member Profiles (Source: Information Outlook)
Board of Director Profiles (Source: Information Outlook)
Exhibitor Surveys (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007)
Attendee Surveys (2005, 2006, 2007)
Information Outlook Surveys (2004 & 2005)
Peer-Reviewed Journal Survey and Follow-up Survey (2004)
Board Survey (2003)
Member Survey (2002, 2006)

Next came an International Online Survey designed by Outsell and Fleishman-Hillard in collaboration with SLA. Survey participants included SLA senior staff, board members, and Association members from various backgrounds categorized by geography, vertical, function and sector. It was designed to take no more than 20 minutes to complete, and contained approximately 30 questions. The survey was fielded from August 13, 2008 to September 11, 2008. A total of 846 responses were received, which represents the findings at a confidence level of 95% +/- 3.4%.

Who participated in the survey?

Geography
US - 40%,
UK - 23%
Canada - 22%
Australia - 15%

Job Function
Info Pros, 34%
C-level execs, 19%
IT, 13%
HR, 12%
Marketing, 12%
Strategy, 11%

Sector
Corporate, 74%
Academic, 12%
Government, 8%
Health Care, 6%

For a more detailed breakdown by industry, see the Alignment Ambassador Q&A on the Alignment wiki at: http://wiki.sla.org/download/attachments/33587698/Alignment+Ambassador+QandA.doc

Phase II - Translate:

International Language Analysis - A qualitative analysis of recurring key words, phrases and themes that emerged from the international online survey were further tested to gauge impact on respondents. All terms were measured on a language matrix which categorized terms by “most liked” and “least liked”.

International Dial Testing – Deeper qualitative analysis of key words, phrases and themes identified during Phases I and II, including “librarian”, “Special Libraries”, “SLA” “information” “knowledge” and others were tested in dial sessions. Sessions included 25 – 30 participants each and were designed to capture audience reaction to specific words and phrases. Audience was comprised of two main categories:

C-suite executives which included manager level or above. Most C-suite participants were at the VP level or higher.
Information professionals which included SLA members and potential members based on their job functions.

Who participated in the dial testing sessions and name focus groups?

Geography

US, 50%

UK, 50%

Function
Info Pros, 50%
C-level execs, 50%

Perspective of a Member in Academia

"I agree with you to this extent: it is clear that the Alignment research tried to target “managers who might hire us” -- after all, that’s the group (along with the managers who did hire us and to whom we’re responsible) that we need to communicate with and explain our value to. The alignment project is very much about helping members find the language to communicate with those individuals.

On the other hand, I don’t agree that the alignment research excluded the academic sector. I think SLA is very concerned with addressing the needs of members in academe and in government along with the for-profit and nonprofit corporate sectors."

- David Shumaker, clinical associate professor in the School of Library and Information Science at Catholic University and recipient of the the 2009 Rose L. Vormelker Award

Member-Get-a-Member - We all Win

Ashley Conaway — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:18:31 -0800

Dear colleagues,

You and I have an exciting opportunity to enhance the breadth and depth of talent in the Maryland Chapter, and win prizes in the process. You know the value of SLA membership. Now it’s time to let your colleagues know.

In coordination with the SLA Member-Get-A-Member campaign, the Maryland Chapter is providing added encouragement and incentives. For each person you recruit to join our Chapter, and who submits their membership form by December 15^th, you receive $10 and your name is entered into our Grand Prize drawing for a one year membership in SLA, worth up to $200.

Every new chapter member will also be entered in another drawing, for a $50 prize or a free ticket to a Maryland Chapter 2010 event, worth up to $35. This can be a current SLA member who adds our Chapter to their membership.

SLA is offering other incentives as well.

For more information about the Maryland Chapter Member-Get-A-Member campaign, please go to http://units.sla.org/chapter/cmd/getamember09.htm. There you will find all the details, with forms expedited for Maryland Chapter membership, an online form to enter your name and the person(s) you recruit, links to the SLA campaign information and more.

With your help, the Maryland Chapter will continue to provide excellent networking and professional growth opportunities, shared by a wider circle of colleagues.

Please contact me with any questions or comments.

Susan Fingerman

Maryland Chapter Membership Chair

More Thoughts About Our Name by Terri Brooks

Cara Schatz — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:40:32 -0800

I’ve been a member of SLA and the DC Chapter for 30 years. I’m currently serving as Chair of the Bu siness & Finance Division, and I am a member of LMD, IT, CI, and Advertising & Marketing. For many good reasons, I retired from Investment Company Institute last month, but I’m NOT retiring from SLA. This “job change” to full time volunteer status has allowed me more time to think about this name change initiative.

Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals. I’m in favor of change, and I’m a huge fan of the Alignment Project. I am in agreement with many of our SLA colleagues that it might not be the perfect name for us, but I have a strong belief in the value of the research that Fleishman-Hillard conducted for us.

The words in this proposed name tested far better than did Special Libraries Association, far better than many other suggested choices. That’s important to me ~ listening to what our stakeholders and our clients/customers have to say.

Others have commented on the specific words. We are Strategic to our organizations, but if You do not perceive yourself as such, you’d better get that way soon, or your position will likely be vulnerable to elimination, and you along with it. Professionals. It’s a much bigger and stronger word than some of the alternatives ~ analysts, workers, specialists ~ and more inclusive than managers, directors, engineers, or scientists.

Less has been said about Knowledge, and most of it negative, in my reading of the postings. A good friend and I were struggling over this word, but somehow he stumbled upon a book that convinced us both that it’s the right word for us. Love is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends by Tim Sanders, Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo! His second chapter is entitled KNOWLEDGE. He starts out by saying, “The first step in cultivating value is to make sure you possess knowledge.”

He then lays out “a practical four-step program designed to make knowledge work for you: (1) aggregation, (2) encoding, (3) processing, and (4) application.” He’s talking about what we do everyday! One last quote: “Knowledge gives you insight…and leads you to better strategies and clearer vision.” Wow!

I’m strongly opposed to the suggested acronym or shortened version (ASK Pros), for all of the reasons that have been previously expressed by many members. But I’ve been assured that this no longer part of this debate. Also off the table at this point is any further suggestion or opinion of what would be a better name. As members of the SLA Boardhave pointed out to us, there are many legal considerations involved in choosing a name, and both Fleishman-Hillard and our legal counsel had to take those into consideration.

This discussion leads me to recall a lesson I learned years ago when I worked for a subsidiary of GTE Corporation, now Verizon. Now, wasn’t that a change of names that the world had to get used to?! In countless meetings with top management, we were told that our status in the organization was not about us. We were third in priority after our Shareholders who were Number 1, and our Customers at Number 2. We were required to work hard to satisfy them. Can the same be applied to our attitudes about this proposed change of name ~ that it matters less what we think about it than how those whom we serve react to it?

Another thought. It’s been easy and natural to ask “Are you going to the SLA Meeting next week?” or “Will you be attending the SLA Conference this year?” ASKP works just as well ~ easy letters that roll off the tongue. “I’m eager to see you at the ASKP Conference in New Orleans in June!”

Spotlight on Board Members Julie Eskritt and Karen Mackey

Kristine Spanier — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:40:26 -0800

A huge (and slightly belated) thank you to Julie and Karen for putting together such a wonderful Professional Development program for us last month. Meg Smith from The Washington Post proved to be a powerful speaker with incredible stories as well as great online social networking search strategies to show us. Thanks also to Donaldson for hosting us.

REMINDER: SLA-SD Networking Happy Hour on November 12th

Elizabeth Grossman — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:38:23 -0800

Come join your fellow information professionals/librarians/strategic knowledge professionals for an evening of networking and spirits on Thursday, Nov. 12th at 5:30 at Chevy’s in Mission Valley.

There’s no need to RSVP; just show up. We hope to see you there!

Posted by Elizabeth Grossman, SLA-SD Membership Chair

Librarian's Toolbox: Increase Your Web Presence

SLA-Divisions — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:51:02 -0800

Unit Annual Report Deadline 7 December 2009

Linda Broussard — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:34:24 -0800

All units (chapters, divisions and caucuses) are required to complete an Annual Report to ensure compliance with the Internal Revenue Service and other regulatory bodies, and to enhance the operational efficiency of each unit's operations. Monday, 7 December 2009 is the deadline to submit this request to SLA Headquarters, Leadership Central. This report, in addition to the Annual Financial Statement (due each 31 January) for chapters and divisions, is required to be completed and submitted within three months of the report's due date. Any unit that does not submit this report will forfeit the annual allotment and be subject to dissolution. The reporting forms are located on SurveyMonkey. If access to SurveyMonkey is not available, the form can be downloaded and completed. For your convenience, the forms are listed below. In mid-December, we will post a link to the results of each of the surveys to the leadership discussion list. From there, you can print a copy of your report if you did not keep one; you should also review the composite results as a benchmark of where your unit is in relation to others. Reviewing the results may give your new Board ideas for programming, recruitment, communication, fundraising and other aspects of unit management. For all other inquiries, contact Linda Broussard or telephone +1.703.647.4938.

Chapter Annual Report Form - preferred submission via SurveyMonkey (in Microsoft Word)
Division Annual Report Form - preferred submission via SurveyMonkey (in Microsoft Word)
Caucus Annual Report Form - preferred submission via SurveyMonkey (in Microsoft Word)

Following are the links to the 2008 annual survey in case you need to reference: Chapter, Division, or Caucus.

Dec. 10: Annual Holiday Happening!

SLA-Divisions — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:17:47 -0800

11th Annual Holiday Happening

Please join us as we invite the library organizations and students from the St. Louis Metro area to celebrate anther successful year. We will again have Will Soll, Eden Theological Seminary Library Interim Director, as a special guest to provide musical entertainment and fun for the evening. This year’s silent auction will benefit chapter programming. We’ve got some great items to bid on, so bring your checkbook!

Mark your calendars now.

Please thank our generous sponsor, Dow Jones and Company:

When:
Thursday, December 10, 2009

Where:
Eden Seminary Schroer Commons
475 East Lockwood, Webster Groves MO 63119
http://www.eden.edu/Campus/Maps%20and%20Directions.aspx

Time:
5:30-6:30 pm Networking and cash bar ($4 Drink Tickets)

6:30-7:30 pm Buffet Dinner.

Spinach salad with dried cranberries, beef tenderloin with white wine leek sauce, salmon with ginger and scallions, potatoes gratin, seasonal vegetables and bread pudding with crème anglaise sauce. Vegetarian option available, please indicate with your RSVP.

7:30-8:00 pm After Dinner Entertainment by Will Soll

8:00-8:30 Awards, Announcements and Silent Auction Wrap Up

Cost:
Members/Non-Members: $26 / SLA Retiree Members/Students: $22

Reservations:
Must be received by Thursday, December 3, 2009, to Renee Gorrell at rgorrell@bjc.org. Please clearly indicate your institution affiliation for your name tag.

Questions:
Contact Patrick Hendershot at 314-654-3368 or Patrick.Hendershot@Covidien.com

Printable Reservation Form

CRS Congressional Printing Report

peggygarvin — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:54:29 -0800

Thanks to FGI for this one.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) issued a new report, Congressional Printing: Background and Issues for Congress [PDF], on 5 November 2009. Since CRS does not provide reports directly to the public, this one comes to us courtesy of the FAS Project on Government Secrecy.

The report includes a wealth of background information and statistics on the production and distribution of legislative documents. It also discusses policy. From the report:

...Some have argued that eliminating paper versions of some congressional documents, and relying instead on electronic versions, could result in further cost and resource savings, and might provide environmental benefits. At the same time, however, current law regarding document production, authentication, and preservation, as well as some user demand, require a number of paper-based documents to be produced and distributed as part of the official record of congressional proceedings. As a result of requirements for both electronic and paper-based versions of congressional documents, GPO oversees an information distribution process that produces and distributes most of the congressional information for which it is responsible in both electronic and printed forms.
...This process provides the necessary information and appropriate formats for Congress to carry out and document its activities, but it may also result in some unwanted printed copies of congressional documents being delivered to congressional users who prefer to access those resources electronically. More broadly, the transition to electronic distribution of materials may raise questions about the capacity of congressional authorities to effectively oversee GPO’s management and distribution responsibilities regarding congressional information under current law and congressional practices. [emphasis added]

Policy options suggested in the report include: maintain the status quo; conduct studies; and consider legislation to amend current printing authorizations to reflect current printing practices.

San Diego Chapter Annual Business Meeting and Holiday Celebration

Cynthia Shamel — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0800

Register today for this innovative Chapter event. This year we will combine the Annual Business Meeting with our Holiday Celebration. The meeting will be short, including the installation of officers for 2010, awards and recognitions for 2009, and announcement of the 2009 San Diego Chapter Scholarship award winner. The short business agenda leaves lots of time for socializing and celebrating.

Thursday, December 3, 2009
6:30 - 8:30 pm
Sammy's Woodfired Pizza (click for Mapquest map)
Grossmont Trolley Center, La Mesa

The cost is $20 for members and guests or $15 for students and members currently unemployed. This includes dinner and soft drinks. The deadline to register is Monday, November 30. Your early registration is a tremendous help to the event planners and the Hospitality Chair. The first 25 people to register through PayPal will be automatically entered into a drawing to win Greg Notess' book Teaching Web Search Skills: Techniques and Strategies of Top Trainers (retail value $29.95) donated by Cindy Shamel. Use this handy credit card option or contact Vani Inampudi.

Are You Paid What You Are Worth?

Doug Newcomb — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:24:28 -0800

How does your salary compare to that of other information professionals who perform the same functions? Find answers in SLA's 2009 Annual Salary Survey, now available for purchase.

A Web-based salary questionnaire was distributed in July and August 2009 to SLA members in the United States, Canada, and Europe, resulting in a 31.5% response rate. Reports have been generated for the United States and Canada. There were not enough data, however, to warrant a report for European salaries.

The Salary Survey format has been modified from past years. Many SLA members had requested access only to information specific to their primary job function or industry. Consequently, the 2009 Salary Survey is available in a Primary Job Function mini-report format, with 17 mini-reports for the U.S. and six for Canada. Each mini-report is available for sale individually, enabling members to get specific information they seek for as little as US$ 12.95. The Salary Calculator is also now available for separate purchase, allowing SLA members to get an instant look at average salaries meeting certain criteria for only US$ 9.95.

The Comprehensive Report comprises the 17 U.S. and six Canada mini-reports based on the SLA Annual Salary Survey that was conducted during July and August 2009. The Comprehensive Report also includes access to the SLA online calculator.

Why Are We Here and What Are We Trying to Accomplish?

Jill Strand — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:04:29 -0800

This is frequent question asked by David Shumaker, a fellow member on the PR Advisory Council. David is a clinical associate professor in the School of Library and Information Science at Catholic University and this year’s recipient of the Rose Vormelker Award. He usually poses this question just when we need to stop what we’re doing, take a step back and re-focus on our original goals.

So why is the association pursuing a name change and what do they hope to accomplish? If we can take a step back from our own thoughts about the name, we are reminded that the association's job is to promote and advocate for its members and for the profession we practice. This job includes looking down the road and anticipating the needs of the marketplace as well as the membership. As advocates for the information profession, their challenge is to look to the future, investigate what these changes mean for us as individual members and the profession as a whole.

Another mentor of mine is Dr. James Matarazzo, Dean, Emeritus and Professor at Simmons College in Boston who has long been studying how special libraries are valued by their organizations. His research and writings have always inspired me to be mindful of how my role and library are perceived and to make sure I knew how to keep it relevant to the organizations goals. Part of doing this means understanding how my direct managers and organizational leaders think and the language that will best convey the library's value to them.

Alignment Key Finding: Information professionals should promote rather than defend value-driven benefits. Language that points out the value of information professionals - rather than language that emphasizes the shortcomings of "do it yourself" research - is more effective. Much as you may be tempted to tell them, your customers do not want to hear that the information they put together using standard search engines is a waste of time. However, they may be receptive to learning about the additional tools you have mastered that will enrich and expand upon their findings, and the professional network available to you as an information pro.

Do leaders and managers survive and thrive by describing their operational job functions or by defining how they contribute to their organization's strategy and success? The Alignment research revealed that value-driven language versus functional language is more effective in communicating the important role and value of information professionals to key audiences.

“Information” while accurate, is a functional, static descriptor. When static information is connected to the concept of “knowledge”, it becomes a richer and actionable concept that more effectively communicates the value that information professionals provide. Testing further revealed that “knowledge” more effectively positioned the association more broadly now and well into the future. Key audiences of this testing included corporate, academic, health care and government sectiors as well as employers or potential empoyers of information professionals. For a full breakdown of the demographics, job functions and sectors tested, see page 2 of “Alignment Ambassador Q&A” on the Alignment Wiki at http://wiki.sla.org/download/attachments/33587698/Alignment+Ambassador+QandA.doc.

Before coming to a decision based on one word or acronym, at least consider the true meaning behind all the words in the proposed name: *Thanks to Stephen Abram for finding these definitions.

Strategic - "Highly important to or an integral part of a strategy or plan of action."
Knowledge - "The sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered or learned."
Professional - "A skilled practitioner; an expert."

Even if there are times when you don't feel particularly strategic, knowledgeable or professional, it doesn't matter because whatever your role, organization you work in or industry you serve, you are all of these things. For instance, a government librarian provides knowledge that helps lawmakers or agency leaders make better strategic decisions. Or as David Martin, President of the Iowa Chapter who works in the Pomerantz Business Library at the University of Iowa recently wrote to me in an email:

“I am an academic librarian and I think almost every academic library in the country has an “ask a librarian” link or something like that. Why would we do that? We want our users/customers to ask us. Why? Because we have the knowledge that will save them time (and money in some cases) to get the information that they need to complete whatever project they are working on (a paper, a research article, a class presentation, looking for a job). That to me is strategic - so the idea of a strategic knowledge professional makes some sense to me.

We also use our knowledge to teach our users to find information on their own; we teach them and share our knowledge so they can learn, find, discover, think, and use it. If that is not strategic then I’m not sure what is. We have librarians on our campus now who do not work in a specific library physical place - they are “embedded” in the department or college and do all the things they used to do - answer reference questions, make collection decisions, teach classes and small groups, interact with their users. Back in 2003, I voted to change our name. This new name might not be the one that I would pick yet I think it does reflect a future direction that we can build on.”

Wouldn't it be great if everyone understood that “strategic knowledge professional” applied to all librarians working their magic in non-traditional settings in non-traditional ways? We have a solid and respected history as librarians and could have an even more solid future together as strategic knowledge professionals.

A CI Perspective on the SLA Name Change

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:08:39 -0800

There has been quite a bit of back-and-forth - and some unpleasantness, to use a euphemism - specifically about the SLA name change. The primary focus of the back-and-forth (in a variety of venues) has been the name. The proposed switch is:

From: Special Libraries Association (SLA)

To: Association of Strategic Knowledge Professionals (ASKPro)

I know several people especially don't like the acronym. True, the opportunities for mispronunciation are many. Say it aloud a few times and you'll get what I mean.

I'm not going to address the acronym here. But I will address the name, as a pathway to discussing the larger issue of the SLA Alignment Project. Keep in mind, this is my own personal perspective - others have certainly stated a lot of this much more eloquently.

As has been pointed out before (and which frankly caught me by surprise), John Cotton Dana, the founder of SLA, never intended for "Special Libraries Association" to be a long-term name for the association. He pretty specifically said it was a placeholder until something better came along.

So even the founder of the association wasn't very satisfied with it, at the very start of the organization. Which is some indication to me that 1) the "name thing" is an issue that is not new to the association; and 2) capturing the essence of what the association is about in the name was difficult then, and it's probably even more difficult now.

All of which means, to me, there will be no perfect name.

Which is OK. Part of the recent discussion in relation to the new name has been around how, all this time, we've also had to explain what SLA meant.

With the name "Association of Strategic Knowledge Professionals", we're still going to have to do some explaining, folks. We will ALWAYS have to do some explaining about what we do. Competitive intelligence professionals have this same experience - in fact in late summer, a lengthy discussion related to this topic arose on the Competitive Intelligence Ning community. Almost every organization has to do some explaining about what their name means - unless they're Coca-Cola or McDonalds.

When I was with Sun Microsystems' SunLibrary team - when we were still called SunLibrary - we went through a discussion about changing our name to something that didn't include "library" in it. At the time, I argued that "library" was a good thing, because people at least had SOME idea of what we did - even if we still had to explain that we were really much MORE than a library. We integrated into teams, we helped develop information strategies, we did competitive work, we contributed to sales deals, we did training - we did a lot of stuff not traditionally associated with a "library".

The point is, even though we were a "library", we STILL had to explain what we did, to lay out all the "extra" stuff we were capable of delivering to the organization and the value we provided. When we explained this, lightbulbs went on for people - they got it, and they did truly value what we provided. During this naming discussion for us, what I came to realize is that, no matter what you're called, you're going to have to explain what you do - and it's actually to your advantage to have the opportunity to explain what you do. You're going to have to do it, so why not take the opportunity to create a champion for the value you provide?

So to me, the name is really not that important. Association of Strategic Knowledge Professionals is actually much broader and more encompassing of what we do, and creates an overarching concept that "traditional" librarians (are there "traditional" librarians left?), competitive intelligence professionals and other knowledge workers can embrace. I think there is a TON of experience, knowledge and energy that we can leverage by broadening the scope of the association to include a variety of knowledge professionals. The benefit directly to the CI Division, to be able to draw in "non-librarian" folks and people who understand and complement what we do, is potentially very great.

Beyond the name, I think the Alignment Project information is the truly valuable piece coming out of the research. This research helps us have that discussion about what we do, when we have to explain what we do. The nice thing is, you can take what works for you, and leave the rest.

I do believe the Alignment Project is driving the association to think differently - to think more broadly about all the skills and value we add as information professionals. And I think this is a good thing. The encouraging thing about John Cotton Dana's comments so long ago about the association name indicates a flexibility in thinking about the name and thinking about what we do. It indicates a willingness to change. I think a willingness to change is the first and foremost skill that effective information professionals embrace - not just for our survival, but for our personal and professional growth.

What do you think?

Scott Brown, Past Chair, CI Division, SLA

A CI Perspective on the SLA Name Change

SLA-Divisions — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:08:39 -0800

From: Special Libraries Association (SLA)

To: Association of Strategic Knowledge Professionals (ASKPro)

I know several people especially don't like the acronym. True, the opportunities for mispronunciation are many. Say it aloud a few times and you'll get what I mean.

All of which means, to me, there will be no perfect name.

Which is OK. Part of the recent discussion in relation to the new name has been around how, all this time, we've also had to explain what SLA meant.

What do you think?

Scott Brown, Past Chair, CI Division, SLA

Copyright and Licensing Job Listings

Barbara Vick — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:51:25 -0800

The blog www.copyrightanswers.blogspot.com, written by Lesley Ellen Harris, now lists job openings in copyright and licensing. Many of these listings are for non-lawyers and particularly librarians. Of course, those with a Certificate in Copyright Management will have an excellent resume to share with a prospective employer!

The New execuBook: "The Charisma Effect" by Andrew Leigh

Barbara Vick — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:05:36 -0800

Is charisma something that can be learned, or is it an attribute that only a lucky few are born with?

While the conventional view is that only a few extraordinary people posses charisma, the author of this execuBook, Andrew Leigh, says each of us can - to a degree - develop our own Charisma Effect.

This involves the ability to use all aspects of our unique personality to influence the people we deal with emotionally, physically and intellectually, and to address their specific thoughts, attitudes and behaviors. Leigh explains how charisma can be developed through an A-B-C framework: Aim, Be yourself and Chemistry.

This summary is a how-to guide to developing personal charisma. It will be of interest to anyone who wishes to be more effective at influencing others.

If you want to read the full summary please log into your execuBooks account at http://www.aheadspace.com/login.cfm. Don't have an account? Visit Click U to get one.

Onsite KM Certificates Courses in January 2010

Barbara Vick — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:44:00 -0800

Take an opportunity to enhance your professional development and expertise -- register for one or both of the upcoming courses of Click U’s Knowledge Management Certificates program. Courses will be held at SLA's Leadership Summit in St. Louis, MO USA on 26 and 27 January 2010. Course enrollment is limited to 30 participants.

KMKS01 Fundamentals of Knowledge Management and Knowledge Services
Tuesday, 26 January 2010 [8:00am - 5:00pm]
Instructors: Guy St. Clair & Dale R. Stanley

KMKS03 The Knowledge Audit
Wednesday, 27 January 2010 [8:00am - 5:00pm]
Instructors: Guy St. Clair & Dale R. Stanley

Updated Digitization Document Released

peggygarvin — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:08:14 -0800

The U.S. Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative (FADGI) group has released an updated version of their guidance document Digitization Activities - Project Planning and Management Outline [PDF].The November 2009 version from FADGI's still image subgroup is marked version 1.0. FADGI's description of the report:

The aim of this document is to define activities relating to the digitization of original cultural materials, and to outline general steps for planning and management of this process. The activities described in this document address library/archival issues, imaging and conversion work, and IT infrastructure issues in particular, and were identified using project management outlines from several organizations with significant experience working with cultural materials. This document defines "digitization" as a complete process, and covers all project components from content selection through delivery of digitized objects into a repository environment.

FADGI, as decribed on its website, is "a collaborative effort by federal agencies formed as a group in 2007 to define common guidelines, methods, and practices to digitize historical content in a sustainable manner."

Manager Library/Information Science - Bausch & Lomb - Rochester, NY

Karlen Chase — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:42:38 -0800

Reminder: Name Change Discussion by Teleconference and in Somerville (Wednesday, Nov. 11)

Eric Schwarz - EricTheLibrarian.com — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:42:30 -0800

The New Jersey Chapter will discuss SLA's name change proposal at a meeting to be held Wednesday, Nov. 11, in person (in Somerville) and by teleconference. Ruth Wolfish, SLA's Chapter Cabinet Chair-Elect and NJSLA President Emerita, will join us for the discussion.

Schedule:

6:30 p.m.: Greetings and light refreshments in Somerville.
7 p.m.: Teleconference.
8 p.m.: In-person discussion continues in Somerville.

The event is free, whether in person or by phone, but you must register online. (Once you complete the registration, you'll see the call-in phone numbers and an option to add the event to your Outlook calendar. If you have trouble registering or need the phone number or location again, please contact Eric Schwarz.

New Jersey/New York members have two other chances to discuss the proposed name change. The other sessions will be held Thursday, Nov. 12, in New York City and Monday, Nov. 16, in Princeton. For more details please see the previous NJSLA Bulletin post.

As a reminder, members will vote on the proposed name Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals via electronic ballot from 16 November through 9 December. The result will be announced on 10 December. Complete information is online.

Free 'Career Transition' Special Interest Group Starting in New York City

Eric Schwarz - EricTheLibrarian.com — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:56:39 -0800

METRO (Metropolitan New York Library Council) has formed a Special Interest Group devoted to Career Transition.

From Susan Gormley:

Please join fellow library and information colleagues in this newly formed SIG to manage your current and future career needs. METRO’s SIGs are free to all!

Date: Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Venue: METRO’s office, 57 East 11th Street, 4th Floor
Time: 5:30 – 7:00 PM

METRO is responding to the needs of information professionals as they plan for current and future career needs. This a great opportunity to network with colleagues from public libraries, academic and university libraries, archives, and special collections.

Please bring your ideas, suggestions and recommendations to this meeting as future programs will be generated by you and your ideas!

Proposed Agenda:

5:30 – 6:00 PM: Sign-in and Networking

6:00 – 7:00 PM: Topics for Future Programs

Topics to Consider:

Resume Writing and Interviewing Skills
Cataloging Trends
Competitive Intelligence
Reference Services
Social Networking

METRO's SIGs are free to all interested individuals.

Convener for the METRO Career Transition SIG is Susan Gormley, sgormley@hotmail.com. Please forward your RSVP to Susan.

COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE BEING ELIMINATED

Linda Broussard — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:47:27 -0800

Effective 31 January 2010, SLA ’s Communities of Practice (COP) will be retired. Wiki’s will replace COP’s. If your unit has a COP and does not already have a Wiki, please e-mail Chief Technology Officer Quan Logan with a request for a Wiki and the preferred name of your Wiki. It is suggested that you use “ SLA _____ Division/Chapter/Committee”. In other words, SLA Unit Name.

In order to prepare you for this transition SLA is offering a series of Click U courses on Wiki’s as outlined in the SLA Leadership Connections article SLA Wikis - Learn to Use This Tool for Your Units. Karen Huffman is presenting these courses.

Then retrieve any documents you currently wish to save and post to your Wiki.

Suggested timeline:

Immediately – request a Wiki, if needed
November and December – take the Wiki training offered in Click U
November – January – transition all COP’s to Wiki’s
31 January – COP closed and no longer accessible

P/T - Ref Librarian - CUNY College of S.I.

SLA-NY Chapter Events — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:11:00 -0800

College of Staten Island/CUNY

Reference Librarian - Part-time The College of Staten Island, a senior college of the City University of New York, seeks a daytime (afternoons and/or evenings) adjunct reference

librarian for 15-20 hours per week during the Spring 2010 semester, and for anticipated additional hours in Summer 2010. The librarian must have a strong public service orientation and an ability to respond to the reference needs of both students and faculty. Responsibilities: Provide comprehensive reference, research, and referral service in a team based, client centered environment. Teach and assist users in identifying, locating, and interpreting sources of information, irrespective of format. Assist with Library projects, assignments, and initiatives as designated.

Required Qualifications: Master's degree from an ALA-accredited program. Demonstrated experience in a library reference setting. Excellent interpersonal and communication skills. Salary depending on qualifications, begins at $38.91 per hour.

Starting date: January 28, 2010 Please send a cover letter, resume and three names of references to:Prof. Wilma L. Jones, Chief Librarian

Library, 1L-109C

College of Staten Island/CUNY

2800 Victory Boulevard

Staten Island, NY 10314 E-mail: Library@mail.csi.cuny.eduFax: 718-982-4002 For more information about the College of Staten Island Library: Http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/

Originally posted on a library school listserv

F/T - Arhcives Project Mgr - Amer Jewish Joint Distribution

SLA-NY Chapter Events — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:08:00 -0800

Job opening: Archives Project Manager, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee

**About the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Inc.:**
By partnering with local municipalities and organizations around the
world, JDC provides critical and innovative services such as relief and
welfare, Jewish education, community and leadership development, and
non-sectarian aid for the world's most vulnerable populations in over 70
countries.

*POSITION TITLE: *Archives Project Manager**

*DEPARTMENT: *Archives**

*REPORTS TO: *Assistant Executive Vice-President,
Director of Archives**

*STATUS: *Full-time Regular Professional**

*_I. ESSENTIAL FUNCTION_*

Manages all activities related to the digitization of material and data
from the JDC Archives in New York and Israel.

* *

*_II. PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES_*

* Prepare and disseminate written reports to project donors and
departmental staff, including plans, timelines and progress reports.
* Manage $1,000,000+ budget – strategically plan project development
and allocation of monies.
* Research and select subcontractors to deliver aspects of project
related to document digitization, including scanning/imaging,
indexing, and software construction.
* Negotiate and manage legal and fiscal contracts with
subcontractors and external companies in conjunction with Asst.
EVP/Director of Archives
* Manage subcontractor activities with regular communication and
monitor quality/quantity of output. Function as the first-line
trouble-shooter on issues with vendors.
* Manage all vendor payments and incoming project donations in
coordination with Accounting Department.
* Coordinate with Director of Archives the workflow of departmental
staff regarding database usage, scanning, and electronic cataloguing.
* Encode archive catalogues in machine readable format, in basic
XML, EAD XML, or any format compatible with archive software system.
* Prepare documents and microfilm for shipping. Monitor outgoing and
incoming deliveries by tracking inventory.

*_II. SECONDARY RESPONSIBILITIES_*

* Coordinate and plan activities related to digitization or
computerization of the archives, including but not limited to
long-term electronic storage of data and initiatives to track
researcher information in an electronic format.
* Coordinate with Director of Archives the planning for public
outreach and educational projects using archival materials.

* Keep current on the development of best practices in text
digitization by monitoring literature in the archives and
information management fields.
* Research current trends in use of archival repositories and the
needs of academic and genealogical researchers.
* Attend conferences and archival training courses to keep abreast
of industry standards, techniques and practices.
* Cultivate relationships with current and potential donors to the
archives digitization.
* Cultivate and manage relationships with for-profit companies who
partner with JDC on archival digitization.
* Supervise library interns and automation of the library.
* Supervise records management intern together with Asst.
EVP/Director of Archives.

*_III. JOB SKILLS AND EDUCATION_*

* Ability to work closely with senior level professionals, donors
and lay leaders.
* Capable of acting in a diplomatic and tactful manner.
* Customer service and management skills essential.
* Ability to develop and monitor workflows and project schedules.
Ability to set reasonable deadlines and deliver on time.
* High comfort level and experience working with technology,
including database systems, document processing and imaging, and
XML markup.
* Strong report writing skills required. Platform skills desired.
* B.A. required, Masters in Library and Information Science or
Archival Studies preferred.
* 3-5 years previous work experience.

*NOTES:* Local Residents Preferred (No Relo).
Additional Salary Information: Medical, Dental, Life, Vision Plans, 20
vacation and 20 sick days per year, pension plan, Transitcheks program,
excellent corporate culture.

Responses with salary requirements should be sent to
robin.salsberg@jdcny.org .

Originally posted on a library school listserv

P/T - Researcher/Info Specialist - NYPost

SLA-NY Chapter Events — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:06:00 -0800

THE NEW YORK POST - Part time flexible Researcher/Information Specialist
or Library School student

The New York Post is seeking a Part Time Information Specialist and/or
Library school student. This professional will provide timely responses
to reporters queries on a wide range of news topics. Candidates must be
willing to work a flexible schedule - including late evenings and
weekend shifts.

Qualified candidates must be able to work independently and handle
multiple and varied research assignments quickly and accurately.
Requirements include Bachelor's degree and demonstrable knowledge of
Lexis/Nexis, Factiva, and Internet use, excellent communication skills,
attention to detail, and a willingness to work in a fast-paced
environment.

NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE. E-mail your cover letter and resume to
lharris@nypost.com

The New York Post is an equal opportunity employer.

Originally posted on a library school listserv.

SLA Supports PATRIOT Amendments Act of 2009

Doug Newcomb — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:42:14 -0800

On 4 November 2009, SLA, AALL, and MLA sent a letter to U.S. House of Representatives John Conyers, Jerrold Nadler and Bobby Scott to express support for H.R. 3845, the USA PATRIOT Amendments Act of 2009. This important legislation would protect the privacy of library users by raising the standard for Section 215, the so-called “library provision” of the USA PATRIOT Act.

Read Letter.

Taking Care of Business in China and India

Cynthia Shamel — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:06:42 -0800

Attendees at the Thursday, November 5 program enjoyed meeting with colleagues and learning about the multitude of resources for business research related to China and India. The info packed PowerPoint presentations are linked here, along with a Word doc. of URLs for the China resources discussed. Thanks to all of our presenters.

--Victoria Chu, China Studies Librarian, International Relations and Pacific Studies Library, UCSD Download ChineseURLs Download ChineseBusiness

--Dolly Goulart, Manager, Library & Information Services, Qualcomm, presented by Vani Inampudi. Download IndiaBusiness

--Bobbi Weaver, Foreign & International Law Reference Librarian, California Western School of Law Download ChinaIndia Legal

Request a Visit in 2010 from SLA's President or President-Elect

Linda Broussard — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:54:35 -0800

2010 President Anne Caputo

Each year SLA's president and president-elect visit members at chapter events. If you would like to request a visit by either 2010 President Anne Caputo or President-Elect Cindy Romaine, complete a chapter visit request form prior to 15 January 2010. All requests will be reviewed by the Chapter Cabinet Officers in light of the SLA budget and the presidents' schedules. Please do not contact the presidents directly unless your chapter is seeking to fund the visit totally.

2010 President-Elect Cindy Romaine

Guide to Google Wave

stacey.greenwell — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:50:20 -0800

Do you have a Google Wave account but feel like you are waving to yourself? That's how I felt until I checked out The Complete Guide to Google Wave by Gina Trapani with Adam Pash.

Not looking for a user manual but just wondering what the fuss is all about? Take a look at 7 Things You Should Know about Google Wave from the popular EDUCAUSE "7 things" series.

SLA NAME CHANGE INITIATIVE: A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE

SLA-Divisions — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:02:45 -0800

This year marks my 40th as a librarian. During that span, I’ve worked in international, federal, bi-state government; quasi-government; academic; solo; company; and public libraries—and have volunteered in el-hi school libraries.

Subject areas with which I’ve dealt include business, transportation, engineering, defense, law, political science, trade, news, and labor. My job descriptions have covered reference, technical services, cataloging, collection development, abstracting, indexing, thesaurus construction, database creation and maintenance, head librarian, information specialist, researcher, webmaster, senior communications advisor, and a myriad of other electronic applications (e-alerts, digital business cards, etc.).

Except for 10 years as a part-time public librarian while my daughters were young, I have been a devoted member of SLA through it all…And I’ve been explaining our profession and SLA throughout.

Of course, I no longer work in a library. Ours was closed and the collection donated to a university that is a depository of ours. The august library school I attended—the first founded by Melville Dewey, where I took the inaugural course in “Computers in Librarianship” in 1969—vanished in the ‘80s. A few years ago, it was reinvented as the Center for Advanced Information Management. And way back in 1975, I converted a library into an information center. All of which only illustrates that times change; life moves on; so must we all, lest we be eclipsed.

Regardless of where we work or our specific position or title, as information professionals we provide strategic knowledge. We facilitate informed decision-making, whether for a scholar, a researcher, an executive, or an official.

That is the essence of “strategic knowledge”—a term demonstrated by the extensive research to resonate most effectively with our clients/patrons and employers. Our professional identities compel us to value and respect research.

To serve and sustain our profession, our association, and its individual members most effectively, we must align ourselves for the challenges of the 21st century. For many years, members have overwhelmingly indicated a desire for a new name; and now we have the research to enable us to move forward with a change. The details of the Alignment Project have been publicized for more than a year and available to members and the public.

The selection of Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals comes directly from the research results.

Whether the association’s name is changed this year or not, we must proceed to align ourselves and our organization for the new century.

Still, I urge you to vote (November 16 – December 9) in favor of the name change. Broaden your perspective. Look to the future.

Ann Sweeney
Division Cabinet Chair-Elect; Chair, International Relations Section, Social Science Division
[Senior Communications Advisor: Electronic Publications
European Union - European Commission Delegation
2300 M Street, NW, 3rd Floor
Washington, DC 20037
(202) 862-9546
Fax: (202-429-1766
Email: ann.sweeney@ec.europa.eu
Website: http://www.eurunion.org]

Organizations Write President Obama Regarding ACTA

Doug Newcomb — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:52:17 -0800

Several organizations, including SLA, sent a letter on 5 November 2009 to President Obama expressing concerns about the lack of transparency and openness surrounding the negotiations on a new Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (“ACTA”). In the letter, the organizations applaud President Obama’s promise of a more transparent, collaborative and participatory government. However, multiple aspects of ACTA fail to meet Open Government Initiative standards.

Read Letter

SLA Name Change Initiative: A Personal Perspective by Ann Sweeney

SLA Blogger — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:34:28 -0800

Subject areas with which I’ve dealt include business, transportation, engineering, defense, law, political science, trade, news, and labor. My job descriptions have covered reference, technical services, cataloging, collection development, abstracting, indexing, thesaurus construction, database creation and maintenance, head librarian, information specialist, researcher, webmaster, senior communications advisor, and a myriad of other electronic applications (e-alerts, digital business cards, etc.).

Except for 10 years as a part-time public librarian while my daughters were young, I have been a devoted member of SLA through it all…And I’ve been explaining our profession and SLA throughout.

Of course, I no longer work in a library. Ours was closed and the collection donated to a university that is a depository of ours. The august library school I attended—the first founded by Melville Dewey, where I took the inaugural course in “Computers in Librarianship” in 1969—vanished in the ‘80s. A few years ago, it was reinvented as the Center for Advanced Information Management. And way back in 1975, I converted a library into an information center. All of which only illustrates that times change; life moves on; so must we all, lest we be eclipsed.

Regardless of where we work or our specific position or title, as information professionals we provide strategic knowledge. We facilitate informed decision-making, whether for a scholar, a researcher, an executive, or an official.

That is the essence of “strategic knowledge”—a term demonstrated by the extensive research to resonate most effectively with our clients/patrons and employers. Our professional identities compel us to value and respect research.

To serve and sustain our profession, our association, and its individual members most effectively, we must align ourselves for the challenges of the 21st century. For many years, members have overwhelmingly indicated a desire for a new name; and now we have the research to enable us to move forward with a change. The details of the Alignment Project have been publicized for more than a year and available to members and the public.

The selection of Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals comes directly from the research results.

Whether the association’s name is changed this year or not, we must proceed to align ourselves and our organization for the new century.

Still, I urge you to vote (November 16 – December 9) in favor of the name change. Broaden your perspective. Look to the future.

Ann Sweeney
Division Cabinet Chair-Elect; Chair, International Relations Section, Social Science Division
Senior Communications Advisor: Electronic Publications
European Union - European Commission Delegation
ann.sweeney@ec.europa.eu

Job Opportunity - Marshall University: Cataloging andDigital Services Librarian

Chris Mulready — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:25:00 -0800

Application Procedure: Send letter of application, resume, a copy of official transcripts, and letters from a minimum of three professional references to: IT Admin (Catalog & Digital Services Librarian Search), 304 Drinko Library, Marshall University, One John Marshall Drive, Huntington, WV 25755 or itrecruiting@marshall.edu.

Application Deadline: Position is open until filled.

Job Opportunity - E-Resources Librarian

Chris Mulready — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:22:00 -0800

http://www.appstate.edu Review of completed applications will begin November 16, 2009, and will continue until the position is filled. Send a complete application, including a cover letter addressing the required qualifications, a full vita of educational and relevant experience, and the name, address, email, and telephone number of three to five persons who are knowledgeable about your qualifications for this position to:
Dr. Mary Reichel
Attn: E-Resources Librarian Search
Belk Library and Information Commons
218 College Street
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC 28608
or electronically to Sherrye Perry at perrysj@appstate.edu.

UNCW Wilmington - ElectronicResources/Serials Librarian

Chris Mulready — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:18:00 -0800

Vacancy #10E025
Position #6568
To apply, please complete the online application process available on the Web at http://consensus.uncw.edu. A letter of interest, vitae and contact information for three professional references must be attached to the online application - not e-mailed, mailed, or faxed.