Wilda Newman retired from the Johns Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory in 2001 after 35 years, concluding her career there as Information Resources Manager with the Business and Information Services Department. Prior to that as Technical Program Manager of computer systems, she was fully responsible for the first automation of APL's Administrative Services Department, and took those systems through three subsequent generations of hardware and software. Previous to that she had 16 years in the technical reference library at APL in various areas of reference and management. After retiring, she then founded the Knowledge Associates Resources, LLC and began consulting and teaching a graduate course in Knowledge Management (KM).
As a high school student in Elizabethton, TN, Wilda worked in the library and handled the circulation, shelving, and other tasks as requested. Her first paid position in a library was as a support staff member, working with translations and bibliographies. The office included one full time translator for Russian, German, and French, and a full time bibliographer.
Wilda attended graduate school at Catholic Univerity of America, in Washington, D.C., where she now teaches a course in KM each year in the School of Library and Information Science graduate program. She was inducted into the SLA Hall of Fame in 2004, an award given in recognition of her extensive professional work with the Special Libraries Association, including three years as a Director on the SLA Board (1998-2001). She was named a SLA Fellow in 1997, an award that acknowledges leadership and outstanding contributions to the association. She served as Chair, SLA Nominating Committee from June 2005 to June 2007 (SLA governance transition term). Wilda has been a member of SLA since 1972.
Wilda's hobbies include gardening and landscaping, reading, food and wine, and travel. She has also written extensively, and her works include a book, book chapters, and more than 40 articles. She has also conduted workshops, given seminars, and conference presentations, nationally and internationally, and reviews pre-publication books and articles. Notably, her work in KM has been presented at conferences, including the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), and has been published in two publications. She has been involved with IFLA since her first election to the standing committee in 1989, where she served two four-year terms, followed by election to the Standing Committee on Library Theory and Research for an additional eight years. Wilda is now serving her second four-year term on the Standing Committee on Social Science Libraries, where she serves as Information Coordinator and editor of the newsletter, and also as the moderator for the IFLA-SOC-LIB list serv. She has been a member of IFLA for 20 years, never missing an annual conference anywhere in the world!
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