SLA Social Science Division Blog

SLA NAME CHANGE INITIATIVE: A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE

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]

New Member Update

Welcome to our newest members who joined DSOC or a DSOC section in July through October! We are very glad to have you and look forward to hearing from you during the year.

Keshia Garnett, Wheeling IL
Kim Stucko, Croton NY
Craig Haggit, Lancaster PA
Annie Kuebler, Philadelphia PA
Lauren Walker, Ann Arbor MI
Tommie Conrad, Irvine  KY
Peter Droese, Boston MA
Celia Davis, Oakland CA
Corinthia Price, Copiague NY
Barbara Beverley, Schenectady NY
Gretchen Sauvey, Washington DC
Jennifer Warner, Boston MA
Elizabeth Lerner, Cambridge MA
Katherine Litwin, Chicago IL
Jason Rowlett,  Santa Clara CA
Tari Nelson-Zagar, Seattle WA
Nicole Norris, Raleigh NC
Leo Hollenbeck, Windsor Mill MD
Virginia Richards, Washington DC
Emma Curtis, New York NY
Ganaganur MaNjunath, Mumbai, India
Roni Glover, Houston TX
Kristin Rousseau Latham , Phoenix AZ
Prabhash Rath,  Pune, India
Asha Gadre,  Pune, India
Nanaji Shewale,  Pune, India
Sage Hulsebus,  Silver Spring MD
David Martin,  Iowa City IA

blog post submitted by Marilyn Bromley

SLA Name Change Discussion

As you've probably heard by now, the proposed name for us to vote on is Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals, or ASKPro.  What do you think of it?  Comment here!

Also, a reminder that you can follow the discussion about the name change and hear other people's opinions at http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23slaname, even if you don't have a Twitter account. 

Some reactions:

Thought-provoking:

• mebs The SLA name change is a challenge for us to walk our talk. Can we see ourselves as strategic players w/in our org?
• FactixResearch Does "strategic" really add anything to proposed SLA name change? Assn of Knowledge Pros stands well on its own. 

Disappointed:

• annenb Sounds like they just took a bunch of high-scoring words and tossed them together. Doesn't flow. Really not thrilled with ASKPro
• gregorymelody Membership dues increase + name change = dropped membership

Amusing:

• wanderingjess The ASKPro is starting to sound like something you'd buy from a late night infomercial.
• EmZeeGee Proposal for #slaname: the Association for Librarians Like Me.

SLA Alignment Update: A Name Has Been Chosen!

This just in from SLA President Gloria Zamora:

The Board earlier today voted on a new name for the association!  It will be presented to the entire membership next week along with details about the voting process.  All members will get a chance to vote on the name before the end of the year.

DSOC Member named SLA Fellow

Congratulations to Nancy Minter for being named a 2009 SLA Fellow! Gloria Zamora, SLA President, noted that SLA Fellows are an unrivaled group of dedicated and intelligent professionals.  The honor of SLA Fellow is given annually to SLA members to recognize leadership in their career as information professionals or librarians. Fellowship in SLA is bestowed on mid-career professionals in recognition of past, present and future service to the association and the profession.

Nancy Minter has been an active member of both the Social Science Division and the Washington, D.C., Chapter of SLA for more than 20 years.  At the chapter level, Minter served as president-elect, president, and past president (1998-2001) and was instrumental in developing new sponsorship policies and mentoring programs.  She has also held the positions of nominating chair and awards chair, and she received the chapter’s Board of Directors Award in both 1995 and 1997. Minter served as chair-elect, chair, and past chair of the Social Science Division (2003-2005) and as annual conference program planner (2000-2002), and she received a Planners Recognition Award in 2001.  Minter also served as membership chair (2003) and public relations chair (1997-2001).  For her services to the division, the association, and the profession, she was named recipient of the 2007 Thomson-Gale Murray Wortzel Award presented by the Social Science Division. She is currently on the 2010 Annual Conference Program Advisory Council and is the director of Library and Information Services at The Urban Institute in Washington, D.C.

The other 2009 SLA Fellows are Ellie Briscoe, Stacey Greenwell, Pam Rollo and Tony Stankus.

 

All about succession planning in libraries: summary of SLA program

Note: Special thanks to our sponsors, Basch Subscriptions, Inc., InfoCurrent, and Taylor & Francis.

Well, surely by now you have heard about the oncoming wave of Baby Boomer retirees in libraries and elsewhere in the workplaces of America, a shaky economy notwithstanding.  Because of this phenomenon, the Social Science Division, along with the Military Libraries and Government Information Divisions, addressed issues of succession planning in libraries at the SLA Annual Conference in Washington, DC. , on Monday, June 15, 2009 from 1:30 to 5:00 pm, in a double session.   As you probably know, succession planning is not only about finding a qualified person to replace someone who has retired. That would be too simple.  It is about a complex web of personnel and management issues including restructuring and downsizing or rightsizing, strategic planning for new directions, retention and recruitment, training and mentoring, and knowledge transfer. This program was presented in two parts, the first being a case study of an actual succession plan implemented for the libraries of the U.S. Department of Justice; and  the second part, a panel discussion touching on a few drivers of successful succession planning. This is a summary of Part Two. For the Part Two panel presentations, three experts, one from government, one from academia, and one from public libraries, tackled different aspects of this growing field:

1.Debbie Schachter, Director of Technology & Collection Management at Vancouver Public Library, and President of SLA’s Western Canada Chapter, focused on the importance of good retention strategies in the process.  Expectations of younger workers are different than those of previous generations, she explained, and need to be taken into account by management.  We can improve our retention of rising stars by mentoring and coaching them, assisting them in connecting with the organization’s mission and culture, and developing potential roles for them within the larger organization. Focus on what is meaningful to workers at various career stages, she said.

Succession Planning in Libraries: Debbie Schacter Presentation

View more presentations from brandyking.

2.       Lesley Farmer, PhD., Professor, University of California at Long Beach, also discussed retention strategies for successful succession planning but focused on the early years of a librarian’s career path, with examples from an academic library setting. She emphasized the need for clarity and good communication especially in a new hire’s first year on the job, and the importance of patience and sensitivity to changing needs and expectations. She offered concrete suggestions for professional development of newer librarians.

Succession Planning in Libraries: Lesley Farmer Presentation

View more presentations from brandyking.

3.       Michele Masias, a law librarian at the U.S. Department of Justice, took a different tactic by speaking about Federal librarian recruitment programs.  When she first approached me with her topic ,which was not strictly on target, I thought “why not?” thinking that it would offer practical advice and hope to many job seekers in our profession.  And yes, the U.S. government is a good place to work!  She opened her presentation with this:  By the year 2012, one-third of the federal workforce will be eligible to retire.  Currently on 1/4 of the federal employee workforce is under the age 40. And it became even more alarming or promising, depending on your perspective:  In some agencies, such as HUD, Transportation, OPM, almost 50% of the workforce will be eligible to retire in 2012. Making the scenario even more dire, nearly two-thirds of career executives and almost half of other supervisors can retire from all across government.

Then she gamely explained the onerous application processes and various programs for those brave enough to apply for Federal job openings!  Michele has taught numerous classes and seminars on the subject and is a happy to answer questions about federal employment. My thanks to all our panelists. Lesley was with us remotely due to unforeseen circumstances at home and we thank her for “being there.” Succession planning is a large subject worthy of further study and discussion.  Many of the fortunate among us, myself included, have made graceful exits and retired from our information positions at various organizations.  After hearing our experts at this program session, it is clear that a new wave of professionals is rising.

Succession Planning in Libraries: Michele Masias Presentation

View more presentations from brandyking.

SLA 2010 New Orleans registration

I have just learned that the full conference registration for SLA 2010 in New Orleans has gone up to $445.  For those of you able to register early, you can save $50 by registering before Sept 4, this Friday.  I don't know if there will be any further discounts like there were this year.

Also, there is a map of the NO hotels on this page on the SLA website
http://www.sla.org/content/Events/conference/ac2010/travel/index.cfm

Housing opens January 2010.

Your Turn: Comment on the Alignment Project

Wondering what the whole Alignment-discussion is about? You’re not alone! See a very nice overview at Positioning Info Pros for the Future.pdf- then leave your comments on this blog and let other Division members know what you think – is this long overdue? Or so much hot air? Or something in between?

Blog post submitted by Kadri Kalikorm-Rhodes

SLA Alignment: 3 Words to Describe Your Job

As one of the SLA Alignment Ambassadors for DSOC, I thought I'd post about an interesting challenge I just came across.  I'm not sure how many of you are Tweeting these days, but you can follow the conversation about the SLA Name Change there by searching for #slaname. 

Right now there's an interesting conversation happening.  The challenge is to describe what you do at your job in just 3 words.  Can you do it? 

My response (EyreAffair): Collect, Translate, Redistribute

Comment here on the DSOC blog, or comment on Twitter and include #slaname in your Tweet! 

Message from your Chair

End of summer greetings to all of you!  It’s hard for me to believe that our centennial annual conference took place over two months ago, but what a great conference it was! Thankfully, here in Washington, DC, temperatures were delightful this June and the conference itself proceeded flawlessly.  For highlights of our conference offerings take a look at our blog postings and check out our website.  We have posted as many of the slide presentations as possible and continue to add them.  If you have a summary of a favorite session or conference experience to share, please post it to the blog.  We all know that it takes an inordinate amount of teamwork and sustained effort to produce successful program sessions and exciting social and educational events year after year. Therefore, I would be remiss if I did not mention a few division members to thank for the success of this year’s conference.

To our program planner(s):  Thank you Tara Murray, our indefatigable and innovative program planner for your work throughout the year. You leave us all in awe. Thanks also for another fantastic Poster Session and Open House!  Also, thanks to Lyle Minter for serving as “apprentice” to Tara and for being our program planner for next year’s conference in New Orleans.  I know that Lyle has lots of exciting ideas for 2010 which he will be sharing with you in the coming weeks. For those of you who represented the Social Science Division as planners, speakers, panelists, organizers, moderators and evaluators, I send my deepest thanks and appreciation.  You know who you are!  I hope that all attendees enjoyed the conference and found it to be worthwhile. I include Tara’s brief listing of our conference programs (pdf),  http://sla.dsoc.googlepages.com/SLA2009DSOCScheduleJune10.pdf

To our tour organizers: Thanks go to Elana Broch for arranging an unforgettable tour of the U.S. Holocaust Museum and Memorial.  The librarians and archivists there left attendees speechless in amazement. To Vanette Schwartz and members of the Geography and Map Section, thank you for the multiple tours at National Geographic and the Library of Congress.  All were well attended and received.

To our fundraising chairs and committee members:  Linda Richer, Nancy Minter, and Greta Ober-Beauchesne, we are most grateful to the three of you because funding is critical to our success and 2009 was a particularly challenging year in which to get financial support! To Ann Sweeney, thanks once more for securing funds for another fabulous International Reception which this time took us literally out of the country, well to the Zambian Embassy in DC, that is! A list of all our generous vendor sponsors is posted on our website, http://sla.dsoc.googlepages.com/home2  , and we are very grateful to all of them!

To our nominating committee: Chaired by Heidi Yacker, with Nancy Minter and Linda Richer. Thank you for a terrific job.  The outstanding nominee for DSOC’s 2010 Chair-Elect is Tara Murray.  Tara is the Information Core Director of the Population Research Center at Pennsylvania State University. She has been an indispensable member of our division for several years.  As part of her work as program planner, she created a detailed wiki to help us track session details including speaker information, projected costs, funding and sponsorships. This tool has been extremely helpful to the Board for budgeting and planning purposes. Tara has been tireless in organizing, moderating, and evaluating programs for DSOC and has networked extensively with other divisions and several chapters to develop shared sessions and coordinate efforts.  Tara also serves as DSOC’s contributor to SLA’s divisional wiki, and was instrumental in the development of our blog and website.  Congratulations, Tara! We look forward to working with you in your new role!

To our awards committee: Chaired by Heidi Yacker, the team included Jan Watterworth and Greta Ober-Beauchesne. Thank you all.  See our outstanding award winners below.

To our award winners: Congratulations go to Ann Sweeney on being the fifth recipient of the Gale Group Murray Wortzel Award. The award is named in honor of Mr. Murray Wortzel, a distinguished member of DSOC who set the standard for exemplary service to the division and to SLA.  The award is presented biennially to a member of the division who has made similar notable contributions. It includes a stipend of $1,000 from the sponsor.  Ann has served us as Chair (2002-2003), International Relations Section Chair, Public Relations Committee Chair, organizer/presenter/moderator at numerous conference programs, and organizer of the always popular International Reception since 1999. For the Association, Ann currently serves as Division Cabinet Chair-elect (2009), Chair of the Annual Conference Advisory Council, member of the Leadership Summit Planning Team, and member of the Committee on Divisional Structure. She has also been active with the Legal and the Transportation Divisions, the International Information Exchange Caucus, and the Washington, DC Chapter of SLA. I cannot think of anyone more deserving of this award than Ann. Thank you and congratulations from all of us!

From our Poster Session and Open House, the winners are:

1^st place to Jane Kinney Meyers for Lubuto: Excellent Special Libraries for African Street Children. The Lubuto Library project is an initiative, in cooperation with local governments, which provides library services, literacy skills, targeted programs and educational growth opportunities for vulnerable sub-Saharan African children.

Runners up are:

Jacy Bell for Information Accessibility and the Disability Community

Cheryl Klimaszewski for Putting a Face on the Information Divide: A Look at Two Romanian Villages

Congratulations to all three of you! We are grateful to everyone who submitted a poster this year. The winner receives a one-year membership to SLA.

 

SLA Fellows: Over the years our division has had the honor of having several members named as Fellows of SLA. Fellowship is bestowed on mid-career SLA members in recognition of past, present and future service to the association and profession. This year is no exception. Nancy Minter has been named a Fellow for her outstanding and longstanding contributions including serving as DSOC chair, fundraiser extraordinaire, program planner, program moderator, program speaker, Washington, DC Chapter President, member of SLA’s Public Relations Committee, and winner of the 2007 Murray Wortzel Award. Note: this is a partial list of her accomplishments. Congratulations, Nancy! We are all very thankful to you and proud that you are being recognized as a Fellow.

 

To DSOC Board Members:  Of course, as Chair, I cannot lead without the Board and it has been a privilege to work with such dedicated people.  For starters, I wish to thank our Past Chair, Heidi Yacker, for her advice and support throughout the year.  I especially want to thank her for organizing the new members’ reception at the conference this year.  She chose the lovely, historic Henley Park Hotel for a beautifully catered afternoon tea and wine reception.  Heidi also served us as Nominating Committee Chair and as Awards Chair this year and did a splendid job at both! Thank you for everything.

 

Also, I am very happy to be working with Marilyn Bromley, our Chair-elect.  She has been instrumental in helping us hold our first two group telephone meetings this spring: on April 9, the Strategic Planning Committee had a tele- meeting to work on our division’s strategic plan draft and on April 23^rdwe were able to bring the Board into our strategic planning discussions. These meeting were productive and fun. Thank you, Marilyn! Also as our current Membership Chair, Marilyn is welcoming new members and finding ways to get them hooked on DSOC including plans to better promote our sections.  Also, you may know Marilyn from her conference tweets on Twitter.  Actually, she began tweeting during the Leadership Summit in January and continued at Annual Conference. DSOC tweets are linked on our website’s home page, if you are not a subscriber.

 

To our Secretary and Treasurer: I thank you, Jan Watterworth, for keeping the division in the black. You are a most excellent financial watchdog. And you are fun to work with. I will try to keep us within our budget for the rest of the year! And yes, I will send you the reports from our business and board meetings soon. There are details and more details to share and report!

 

To our Section Chairs:  You all deserve a round of applause!  Here are the names of these hardworking members:

 

Geography and Map section - Vanette Schwartz

International Relations - Ann Sweeney

Non-profits - Nancy Minter

Public Policy - Elana Broch

Labor Issues - Larry Guthrie

 

And last, but not least, where would we be without our Archivist, Beth Hansen and our Communications Coordinators? Lost, that is for sure.  First, Beth, we missed you in DC but hope you will be back to join us in New Orleans. Thank you for taking care of our records and our history!

 

For communications, I wish to thank Elaine Lasda-Bergman, our Blog Coordinator, for her tireless work in managing our beautiful Blog. Since its debut in January, it has become a vital tool for all of us. As months pass it becomes more evident how useful the blog is for tracking our accomplishments and news. I encourage all of you to send your posts and comments to the blog. Elaine manages and classifies the postings for us.

 

I thank our Webmaster, Brandy King, for her ongoing work on our website. Brandy has done an excellent job in keeping it up to date which is no small feat. She has worked closely with Tara and Marilyn to enhance the site by adding a Twitter feed which is mostly active during conferences.  By the way, Cameron (Brandy’s baby son) is adorable and I think he quite enjoyed his first DSOC annual meeting. We certainly enjoyed meeting him!

 

I also thank Tara, again, for taking on a new role as Wiki Coordinator this year. She has added DSOC activities to SLA’s divisional wiki.

 

Finally, to Kadri Kallikorm-Rhodes, our stalwart Discussion List Owner, thank you for keeping us all up-to-date on the bigger SLA picture via email. It continues to be relevant and convenient.

 

As they say, it takes a village.

 

What’s coming for the remainder of 2009 and beyond:  We are finishing our Strategic Plan for 2009 – 2011 and I will share it with you soon. We will hold at least one more tele-meeting for the Board. 

 

We are planning another fantastic annual conference for 2010 in New Orleans. By the way, it is not too early to register, believe it or not! There is even an early bird discount already in place:

http://www.sla.org/content/Events/conference/ac2010/registration/index.cfm

 

We are participating in SLA’s Alignment Project with guidance from our two ambassadors, Brandy King and Kadri Kallikorm-Rhodes.  To learn more about the Alignment Project, check out their fantastic wiki:

http://wiki.sla.org/display/align/SLA+Alignment+Wiki

 

 

SLA Board elections are being held September  9  – October 1, 2009. Be sure to vote.

http://slablogger.typepad.com/sla_blog/board-candidates-corner/

 

We will stay involved and committed to the division, to SLA and to the profession.

 

Cheers!

 

P.S. I am always happy to hear from you personally by email or phone.

 

Iris W. Anderson

2009 Chair

Social Science Division

iris.anderson@comcast.net

301-598-0392