Last Friday, June 26, 2009, SLA CEO Janice Lachance (Harper Aldrin in Second Life) and SLA President Gloria Zamora (Roberta Zsun in Second Life) met with other SLA members in Second Life to talk about the DC conference.
Janice saw
Janice said she would like to see more info pros investing in their
careers. To keep your skills current, it's very important to stay in touch with the profession and
with great networking opportunities. We all know times are tough. If your employer isn’t able to fund your conference attendance, start
thinking now about conference next year in New Orleans – apply for stipends, scholarships, line
up roommates, etc. Janice also reminded participants that if you make under $18,000 a year, you can get a
$35 membership to SLA.
Gloria and Janice also shared about SLA's Alignment project. To date, the Alignment project has provided research into terminology, ideas and concepts to help promote and sell the value of information professionals. (Janice says she understood the need to have the hard research for info pros.)
Sydney Delphin (aka Cindy Hill), Roberta Zsun (aka Gloria Zamora), and Harper Aldrin (aka Janice Lachance) in Second Life
SLA's current name and terminology implies a place, and doesn’t reflect the value of information professionals to the organization. Janice compares the current terminology to what she sees, which is highly-skilled information professionals and valuable contributions to organizations and employers. Over several tests, the current name has no relevance to employers and decision makers, even customers – they don’t understand what a special library is.
The research is geared to speak to those outside of the information profession. Through the Alignment project site, SLA is making this information available to help info pros. Student members can take advantage of this as well; as Janice says, “we’ve written your resume” – provided phrasing, terminology and concepts that you can share with interviewers, hiring people and decision makers. SLA will provide presentations and other tools to help info pros communicate ideas into the organization and workplace in early July.
A name change for SLA will also be coming. The name change process will follow the same procedures as the research: going out to test words and concepts with C-level executives and decision makers, and testing these inside and outside of the information profession. That information will go into the name change process. Gloria would like to see the 2009 Centennial year end with a name change. You'll see more information on this process and a vote coming out later this fall.
Once the name change happens, then the process of using that information and setting strategic direction will start. The name change is a small part of where the association is going in the future. The whole process is really about explaining the value of information professionals; SLA is not just about reference, but the value added to everything that info pros do. Information professionals and information organizations are about much more than the place “library”. Many special librarians don’t work in a library. Janice believes that every organization should have an info pro, whether they have a library or not.
This doesn’t change using the word “library” among colleagues. This is more about bringing visibility to the skills and value we bring. For example, Janice is trained as a lawyer, but goes by the title of CEO. This title doesn’t reflect all of her abilities as a lawyer. In conducting the research, it was discovered that the SLA database has over 2000 job titles – a sign that info pros are struggling with what to call themselves to demonstrate the value they bring to the org. The term special library has no meaning, or negative meaning, representing a place that the organization no longer needs.
Gloria and Janice said they need members involved in both the alignment and the name change process. SLA will call for alignment ambassadors to help communicate all of this out and is hoping to have people in Second Life involved as ambassadors. In the next few weeks, you'll start to see presentations that distill the research findings. These can be shared across your units. The ambassadors will be on board in the next couple of weeks as well – if you are interested in becoming an Alignment ambassador, please get in touch with Janice at Janice@sla.org.
SLA is already looking into Second Life possibilities for the New Orleans
conference, and for the Leadership Summit. Stay tuned - much more happening in this space soon! Scott Brown (aka Steven Source in Second Life)
