Impact: SLA Leadership & Management Division Blog

We Have Moved ... update your Readers & Bookmarks

The new place to be for LMD is lmd.sla.org

You can receive updates on LMD posts by subscribing to the new RSS feed or even subscribe to the feed via email. Please update your blog readers and bookmarks. Thanks to Karen Kreizman Reczek, LMD Director for the announcement below:

Leadership and Management Division Launches New Web Site

The Leadership and Management Division (LMD) of Special Libraries Association (SLA) announces the launch of their new web site, at http://lmd.sla.org.  The site integrates and provides improved access to all major LMD resources including the IMPACT blog, and the Reading Club blog, an LMD Centennial Initiative.

lmd.sla.org also includes specific areas for the Division’s Content Buyers, Consulting, and Marketing Sections. You can also find information on the Division’s history, the current Board and details on LMD’s awards and past award winners.  Be sure to check out the exciting line up of continuing education courses, programming sessions and networking events LMD has planned for the SLA Annual Conference in Philadelphia at:  http://lmd.sla.org/2011/03/sla-2011-philadelphia/

LMD’s new website is part of Operation Vitality from SLA. In 2010, LMD was one of the SLA units who self-identified as an early adopter to start using the new WordPress service. Based on the feedback from this pilot, the service and the theme will be adjusted and rolled out to the whole Association in early 2011.  For more information on Operation Vitality, see:

http://futureready365.sla.org/01/20/get-ready-for-the-future-with-operation-vitality/

For more information on LMD’s new web site, please contact Patricia Cia at: pcia@langara.bc.ca

SLA LMD Call for Nominations for Chair-Elect

Nominations Deadline is April 15, 2011

Nominations are being sought for Chair-Elect on the LMD Executive Board for our 2012 elections.

Please consider nominating someone you know in LMD or yourself. Why? Well, because this is fabulous leadership experience, in a safe environment, and the networking is fabulous. Getting involved in SLA leadership and in the Division provides professional and peer relationships that broaden your technical and interpersonal skills, challenge you, enrich your life, and bring you life-long friendships.

The Chair-Elect is a three-year position as part of the LMD Executive Board. The Chair-Elect automatically moves to be Chair the following year and to Past Chair the third year.

To make a nomination please contact the Nominating Committee:
Deb Hunt, dhunt@information-edge.com or Rebecca Jones, rebecca@dysartjones.com.

We look forward to hearing from you!

CONSULT Online Survey

Members of the LMD Consulting Section represent services such as information brokering, strategy consulting and technical consulting. This includes consultants within an organization, and those serving external clients.

The Consulting Section maintains the CONSULT Online as a directory of SLA members who are library consultants. A search on this database is free and is available to members and nonmembers interested in locating a consultant who may assist, on a normal commercial basis, with such areas as library management, technical services, and subject specialty.

If you are someone who is a consultant, who might become a consultant and or who may be in a position to hire consultants, please complete our brief survey

Help us by sharing this survey with others who may be interested.

Jan Sykes & Lorri Zipperer
- LMD Consulting Section co-chairs

Nominate an SLA LMD member for an award

It’s that time of year again when we look to the members of the Division to nominate potential recipients of the Karen J. Switt Award and the Distinguished Member Award.

The Karen J. Switt Award recognizes a member’s significant contribution to, and leadership in, information management during the past five years.

The Distinguished. Member Award is for service to the Division and is intended for someone nearing retirement for their contribution to the Division over a long period of time.

For further details about the awards, please refer to our division’s wiki at http://wiki.sla.org/display/SLALMD/Awards.

To nominate someone for either award, please send an email to either of the Awards Committee co-chairs, Carol Ginsburg  (Carol.Ginsburg@bstamerica.com) or Stephen Kochoff (stak.kochoff@gmail.com)  by March 25, 2011.

Past awardees include:

2010 - Libby Trudell
2009 - Deb Hunt
2008 - Cindy Hill
. . . and more

Many thanks for your support in recognizing our division stars.

Leadership Transcends Libraries

Leadership as a concept is often misunderstood.  This is the case not only in libraries but, in all situations.  People often equate leadership with power, a huge mistake and probably the worst you can make. 

For those of you who know me, you know that by profession I am an academic library director and that my other passion is natural horsemanship.  I am always seeking never ending self improvement, especially in leadership, in all areas of my life. My study of leadership easily crosses over from professional librarian to horse woman (and back again) but, the concepts are really the same! I have often taken pieces of knowledge from both areas of my life and found that the concepts were easily applied. It is interesting when one tries to understand and communicate with horses that this relationship transcends on how we interact with humans in all kinds of situations as well. I guess I'd like to believe that if I (a predator) can successfully communicate and partner with a horse (a prey animal), that I can just as successfully find a way to communicate and lead those working for me. 

I participate in leadership seminars and courses all of the time too and as I mentioned, I strive for continual improvement in all aspects of my life, a life-long project I suppose, and a truly good use of my time. Currently, I am using the FISH! Philosophy with my faculty and staff (and doing a self-study, Leader Fish for myself). It is fun! And, they seem encouraged, interested, and enjoying it--and it truly compliments my professional life and horse journey. The whole idea stems around four principles: Be There, Play, Make Their Day, Choose Your Attitude!

Rather than rewrite what I've written before about leadership, replacing the word "horse" with "person" - or something like that, I'd like to take the approach of just directing you to a blog post I wrote back in December 2009 on my personal blog, Natural Horse Lover called, Leadership with Our Horses  and be sure to watch the video if you'd like a good laugh. (Please note, that if you search the blog, there is a lot more on the blog about leadership and other topics that transcend horsemanship if you want to read more.)  

I challenge you to consider some of these ideas and morph your own ideas about leadership into something that is not just another power struggle between people (horses or whatever else in your life) but something that helps develop a positive partnership that fosters success, with a great leader at the helm. This is the place where one's dignity remains in tact, everyone is productive, and true leadership shines.  

Following the theme

OK everyone,  lets start posting!

This month's theme is "Leadership". Ask yourself this question, are you positioning yourself to be a leader?  If you are not, what steps can you take to inject yourself into a leadership role? Planning is all apart of the process to becoming a leader.  In the library and information retrieval professional, planning is sometimes the major difference between the great leaders and those who just skate by.

LMD Board for 2011

Congratulations to Dee Magnoni who has assumed the reins as Chair of the Leadership & Management Division. There are some new and some returning faces who will help make our division have a successful 2011. More details and contact at 2011 LMD Board.

Executive Board Members: Chair - Dee Magnoni ; Past Chair - Bill Fisher ; Chair-elect -Rebecca Vargha ; Secretary - Ethel Salonen ; Treasurer - Joel Berger ; Director - Karen Reczek

 Section Chairs: Consulting Section - Jan Sykes, Lorri Zipperer ; Marketing Section - Barbie Keiser, Bethann Ruddock ; Content Buying - Barbara Hirsch, Stephanie Schubert

Conference Team: 2011 Conference Program Planning - Hope Tillman, Betty Jo Hibberd ; 2012 Conference Program Planning - Martha Foote, Joel Berger ; 2012 Vendor Partnering - Doris Helfer

 Advisory Council: Strategic Planning - Bill Fisher ; Awards - Steve Kochoff, Carol Ginsburg ; Nominating - Deb Hunt ; Membership - Michelle Young ; Professional Development - Beth Hatcher ; Social Networking Lead- Jamal Cromity ; List Owner - Connie Crosby ; Wiki/Web - Patricia Cia

We thank Bill Fisher for his leadership and guidance in 2010 as well as all the 2010 LMD board who volunteered their time and expertise, especially the 2010 (New Orleans) Program Planning team (Cindy Hill, Mimi Calter, Pat Currie Blume, Beth Hatcher, Cynthia Eastman (Hospitality))!

 - Patricia Cia

Hi everyone,

Long time no read, no write :-)....

Vision and the future....Everyone knows how important it is to stay up with technology and sources on the web. Recently, I have been doing tons of research on tablet (e.g. iPad) and touch screen computers. Stay tune for my article to come on how this latest technology affects research among other things.

LMD 2011 Election

Voting is now open for the following SLA LMD Candidates for 2011:

Chair-elect: Rebecca Vargha

Rebecca B. Vargha is Librarian, School of Information and Library Science (SILS) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has held that position since 2001 and is also an adjunct faculty member at SILS. Prior to her tenure at SILS, Rebecca Vargha held several positions at large corporations and organizations in North Carolina. These include Senior Research Specialist in Information Research at Nortel Networks, Research and Information Analyst and Library Coordinator at SAS Institute, and Associate Librarian at the National Humanities Center.

She is a long-standing member of SLA and held various committee posts over more than two decades, including serving on the SLA Board of Directors, Division Cabinet Chair and Chair-elect and President of the North Carolina Chapter as well as Chair of the Museums, Arts and Humanities Division.

Rebecca B. Vargha is a recent past president (2008) of SLA. She is a regular international conference speaker sharing her knowledge and expertise with diverse audiences in the field of library and information science. In 2009, she served on the LMD Nominating Committee and currently serves on the LMD Advisory Council as Partner Relations Chair

Director: Karen Reczek

Karen Reczek is currently in transition. Previously, Karen was Sr. Manager, Information Resources Center at Bureau Veritas (BV) for 14 years where she managed the corporate information center, including the competitive intelligence and knowledge management functions. Prior to joining BV, Karen worked for Bristol-Myers Squibb for 8 years. Karen has been a very active member of SLA since 1989.

She was a founding member and first Chair of both the Knowledge Management and Competitive Intelligence Divisions. She also served as Chair of the Pharmaceutical and Health Technology Division and as President of the Upstate NY Chapter. Karen has held many elected and appointed positions at the SLA International level, including serving a term on the SLA Board of Directors, Chair of the 2006 Annual Conference Advisory Council, and as a member of the Centennial Commission.

Karen is an adjunct faculty at the University at Buffalo, serves as the SLA Student Group Faculty Advisory, and is the current Chair of the LIS Advisory Board.

Please vote by October 15th, 5pm EST by completing this survey.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/938TD57

Respectfully submitted,

Carol L Ginsburg FSLA
Managing Director
BST America

Jennifer Brank
Assistant Library Director
Duane Morris LLP

execuBook: The Five Futures Glasses (an SLA member benefit)

For any information professional interested in bringing the ideas of futures and trends to their workplace, this execuBook is worth a look. Author, Pero Micic, describes a model of seeing and understanding the future in The Five Futures Glasses: How to See and Understand More of the Future with the Eltville Model. 

Free access to execuBooks through aheadSpace is a benefit of your SLA membership. execuBooks are 15-minute summaries of business books published and delivered every week via email. execuBooks can be read on your computer in html or PDF versions and on your PDA, mobile or BlackBerry. You can sign up for your free subscription at http://www.sla.org/content/learn/members/execubooks/index.cfm

This book doesn't claim that the future is knowable, but it attempts to provide a framework for managing it. The author offers five techniques for viewing and addressing different aspects of the future: assumption analysis, surprise analysis, opportunity development, vision development and strategy development.

The summary provides "a way of thinking about the future to make it more easily understood. It will be of interest to business leaders and others with responsibility for planning and strategy."