by Jeanne Miller, Michigan Chapter, Leadership & Management, Solo Librarians Divisions

I love the concept of Future Ready and applaud Cindy for coming up with that theme for her presidential year. I’ve been a librarian for a long time: my library school education pre-dated desktop computers and all that has followed.

I have lived through many iterations of feeling the need to be “future ready.” Each version has been a journey into a new aspect of my career, a new way to leverage the skills I developed in library school, a breath of fresh air in my workaday world. SLA helped me along the way. I went to sessions at SLA conferences, listening to people talk about gopher sites, the internet, and the world wide web – wondering if I really understood what those were and what they would mean for the way I did my work. When I attended a web design class in which the instructor discussed usability issues, I thought “Now here’s a no-brainer. Librarians have always thought about how our users will look for the information they want. This is not a new skill for us!”

But at this point in my life, future-ready also means retirement-ready. As much as I have loved my years as a librarian, I am ready to step into something else…something in the future. What will it be? How will I keep up? Will I still be information-savvy if I’m not in the workplace? How am I going to handle this version of future-ready?

Jeanne Miller received her AMLS in 1975 and has been providing information ever since. Throughout her career she has worked in special libraries in academic settings. Currently she serves as Director of Information Services and Publications for the University of Michigan’s Center for the Education of Women. Jeanne is a past chair of Solo Division of SLA, former caucus convenor of the Women’s Issues Caucus (now dissolved) and has been an SLA member for over 20 years.