The SLA Board recently adopted a very ambitious strategic agenda with five elements that will guide decision making by the Association’s leaders. These five strategic agenda elements are: (1) annual conference, (2) professional development, (3) creating a richer volunteer experience, (4) opening new markets, and (5) growth through diversity. By adopting this strategic agenda, SLA leaders are prepared and resolved to make decisions, solve problems, forge judgment, and plan forward.

In this Future Ready 365 Blog Post, we’re examining strategic agenda Item 4: “opening new markets.” Each element of a strategic agenda must support the organization’s mission and be results-focused. This one certainly is. Part of SLA’s mission is to strengthen its members through learning and networking initiatives. One of SLA’s historical strengths has been its ability to bring together its membership around learning opportunities and networking initiatives, whether locally, regionally or internationally based. For a number of years SLA leaders have envisioned the need to “build a bigger tent” in order to expand these opportunities and initiatives – that is, to welcome members whose role in the information industry may not be defined as traditional or whose world view may be different from that of North America. And expansion of membership is definitely something that is measurable. As your 2012 President, I have a personal stake in the success of this one, because in my vision for SLA’s future, I forecast a membership increase of 15%.

During 2012, your Association leaders will be looking at a number of issues that put focus on this vision by looking at both internal and external factors that either promote or inhibit the opening of new markets. We will examine the impact of our current fiscal structure, our governance structure, our geographic structure, our marketing structure, our technology structure, and our collaborative structure on our ability to accomplish this goal. What does our current internal and unit-related fiscal structure do to further this goal? Is our current governance structure flexible enough to work in new markets? As an international organization, are we maximizing contemporary geographic organizational structures to best serve our members and those yet to join SLA? Will our current marketing efforts reach these new markets? Are we maximizing new technologies to reach and serve these new markets? Can we leverage collaboration among SLA’s current units and with external groups and organizations to maximize our support for members in these new markets?

These are but a few of the questions that will be examined as we envision SLA’s future through the lens of strategic agenda Item 4: “Opening New Markets.”

Brent Mai is SLA’s President, 2012.

By Lyndsay Rees-Jones, Europe Chapter, Knowledge Management and Leadership & Management Divisions

Since 2008 I have talked to a significant number of future librarians. I ran the Membership Support unit for CILIP with my colleague Kathy Ennis until restructuring closed the unit in October 2010. We visited LIS students at UK Universities and ran 2-3 hour professionalism sessions. Our aim was to help them short-cut our collective 50yr+ career journeys, passing on advice and experience that had proved its worth. Key points to take away were:

• Don’t undervalue what you know.
• Banish the words just and easy from your professional vocabulary.
• Reflect. Reflect. Reflect. Remember when you have learned something new, and acknowledge the difference it has made to you.
• Use our professional language with pride. Don’t dumb down.
• Consider the sort of professional that you want to be, and remember that our skills have value in every sector and every country.

So in the spirit of being Future Ready, here is a bit of personal reflection based on my career so far….

Cash’s (UK) Ltd – weaving company – particularly famous for their name tapes (think school uniforms). Unable to find a library post straight after graduating I became a management trainee. Brilliant fun, being responsible for weaving clothing labels and patches. I learned that the workplace can be a bitchy environment, as well as a political one. that I was good at representing the business at trade fares. That I was able to manage a big workload.

GEC Electrical Projects (which became subsumed into the Alstom giant as Cegelec Projects and what remains is now called Converteam ). My first professional post was as the solo Librarian and Information Office for four companies on a site with roughly 6000 employees. I learned that there was such a thing as a solo professional, and that it was a tremendously challenging yet exhilarating role. That I loved being totally in control: if I got it right it was all down to me; whereas if I got it wrong that was usually only because I felt less than professionally perfect, whereas the client was perfectly happy. That I was a good organiser, efficient and effective researcher, and that my information skills earned me respect from the engineers, accountants, surveyors, developers etc that were my clients. Gaining my Chartership added to my status.

Trioka Contracts Ltd – developed, set up and ran (part-time) a service for a contract interior design company. What fun I had playing with carpet samples, lighting catalogues and tiles. I learned that I needn’t be too precious about cataloguing and classifications. Up until this point I had been something of a perfectionist, adept at using UDC/Dewey, and suddenly it was obvious that this was overkill and I could create my own scheme! That my skills were valued and produced real business benefit.

National Grid Co Plc – I took over running the library and information service for the electrical transmitting utility, immediately following its relocation to Coventry from London. I inherited one member of staff (non-professional) giving us the grand total of 2 people to meet information needs previously managed by 5 full timers. What fun! I learned that thinking differently is a vital skill and having no baggage is a real bonus. That there is such a thing as internal consultancy. That you can be upwardly bullied, and there are people who can help and advise. That it was crucial that I was “out and about,” as a visual manifestation of the LIS service. That KM was growing in importance.

Library Association – which became CILIP in 2002 (after unifying with the Institute of Information Scientists). During my 13+ years at the UK professional body, I was variously a Professional Advisor, Special Libraries and Information Services; Workplace and Solo Advisor; Workforce Development Advisor; and Senior Advisor. Membership Support Unit. I learned that membership organisations are complex entities. That activists are important people who need adequate support. That there is real hope for the profession in the hands of the next generation. That I was a good advisor, who was at my best when sharing my own experiences.

Overall lessons learned so far…Some of the lessons were uncomfortable or painful to learn – it’s not nice being bullied by a subordinate for instance! Other lessons were real eureka moments that provided me with insight into things such as office politics and organisational insecurity. These in turn helped me adapt my delivery and communication styles, so that I could be more effective and face less antagonism or blocks. If I had indeed learnt these during my initial library studies, would I have been as effective? Or was experiencing the lessons first hand, crucial to my personal and professional development?

I suspect that the real answer is a half-way house. I hadn’t know there was such a thing as a solo professional when I graduated, and yet spent my practitioner career being one. Thankfully I accidentally found this route, as it enabled me to discover my professional persona. It also ensured that I developed skills right across the board (from shelf-dusting and inter-library loans, to strategic planning and budget management), so made me much more effective as a professional advisor. I had actually “been there and done that” more often than not. My next steps are to develop my business (Real Time Release ©) as a creative transitioner – supporting people as they move towards a more rewarding life. By reflecting on my experience to date, I think I’ve got lots to offer.

Happy futures.

Lyndsay Rees-Jones is the Owner of Real-Time-Release. She is has been an active member of SLA Europe for many years, and is currently serving as the Awards Chair.

WE WANT YOU! Participate in the SLA Strategic Vision Project

SLA President Cindy Romaine has tasked members of the Board of Directors with developing a strategic roadmap for the association. The “Strategic Vision Project” has as its goal to provide direction and a strategic vision for SLA through 2014. The Board has been divided into three topic-related sub-groups:

• Skills & Membership Sub-Group: What skills do association current and future members need, and how best can we assist them in acquiring these? How can we build and retain association membership?
• Collaboration & Community Sub-Group: Are there other associations, groups, and projects with which SLA can collaborate to achieve a new goal, which we could not create individually?
• Alignment & Services Sub-Group: How can we incorporate the SLA Alignment Project research and strategies into association and member performance? What services can the association provide to facilitate this?

So, we would like to pick your collective and individual brains. What advice and/or suggestions do you have on these themes? Kindly post here—or contact any or all Board members. The Board will continue discussing this at its June meetings in Philadelphia.

Thanks!

Ann Sweeney, Ulla de Stricker, & Sara Tompson

Over the past 18 years, Ann Sweeney has served the European Union Delegation as Librarian, Webmaster, and now Senior Information & Communication Officer: Electronic Publications. Ann’s 40+ years’ career as a librarian spans positions at the Columbia University Graduate Business Library, the US Defense Intelligence Agency, the Port Authority of NY & NJ, the National Academy of Sciences, and public libraries.
Ann is active in SLA: having held multiple leadership positions over the years including Social Science Division past Chair, and current International Relations Section Chair. She received the 2006 Member Achievement Award, the DSOC 2009 Gale Group Murray Wortzel Award, and has organized the Annual Conference’s International Reception for more than a decade. Outside of SLA, she provided guidance on EU materials for the American Society of International Law’s Electronic Information System for International Law (EISIL) Editorial Review Group, and is a frequent speaker at TRB, the World Bank/IMF Joint Library, Georgetown University Law Library, and similar venues.

Ulla de Stricker is an Information and Knowledge Management Consultant helping clients address challenges and opportunities of discovering and capturing information objects and protecting and leveraging organizational memory. She is a well known speaker at professional events and frequent contributor to the professional literature. Her website www.destricker.com provides additional information and access to her KM blog.

Sara Tompson is serving as a Director on the SLA Board from 2011-2013.  She is a member of the SLA Finance Committee, and the Board liaison to all the California chapters, the Rio Grande, NM chapter, the SciTech Division, the Research & Development Committee and the Professional Development Council.  Currently finishing up a three year administrative appointment as a Library Associate Dean at the University of Southern California, Tompson will become the USC Libraries Head of Instruction and Orientation on July 1, 2011.  In her spare time she is an instrument rated private pilot, and enjoys flying her husband and friends around beautiful California.

by Richard Hulser, Southern California Chapter, Museums, Arts & Humanities Division

I started out a blog submission talking about how success in explaining and showing value of information services in an organization can be achieved one conversation at a time. While formulating this submission, I had an experience that I thought should supercede that one, namely an understanding of the value of our professional affiliations and memberships by graduate students and new professionals. If they don’t feel an association is worth their time and money for enhancing their career, how can we expect them to see our association as a resource to help them on the job and in their future growth?

I recently had a lengthy, lively discussion about the value of membership in SLA and other professional information organizations with a graduate student. His comments included:

• “I am told to join a professional library association because I won’t get a job unless I do – I think that is extortion.” He asked “would you hire me if I wasn’t a member of SLA or another organization?” First I said “no” which he of course said “See!!” Then I clarified by saying I would have a concern as to WHY he didn’t join any association as that would signal to me he may be a good worker but maybe not a longer term contributor to the profession, so I would need to understand more about that. Well, we had quite a lively and noisy interaction over that one!!
• “Don’t the associations understand that I have a choice in investment between education and other things such as eventually buying a home?”  That ”because I chose education, I will be paying back a huge debt for a long period of time and maybe never be able to buy a home? How can membership in an association help with that?”
• “Why are there so many student groups for a relatively small cohort — can’t there be one student group that can be affiliated with multiple associations? It seems the same 20 people out of 100 belong to the various student groups and the rest of the students see no value in joining any of them.”
• “Our student group does regular service in prison libraries and other socially conscious activities that were started BY students, not the library school faculty or professional associations. What are associations doing like this? Why should we join an association to conform to what they are already doing when we, the students, are doing more for society than those associations?” I indicated an example of how SLA had a full day of service in New Orleans and he said “big deal, one day — we do ongoing service!” Oooh, boy, we had more lively discussion on this one too!!
• “Isn’t it time for ALA, SLA, ASIS&T and all to think about merging and working together for the good of the profession instead of being splintered like they have been for so long? Is there any reason why these groups should still be separate?”
• There were some more, but I lost track!!

Anyway, after agreeing to start the conversation over and hear out each side, we ultimately centered around this point that we both agreed was valid:

* It is clear the professional associations, the professionals in those associations, and professors in library schools (and their equivalent) are not conveying the value gained from membership and active participation.

In speaking with a professor at a major library school, she agreed that more and more library schools have instructors who are not in the library profession and/or who don’t belong to a professional organization, so they have no context or experience to convey about the value of associations to their students. As a result, students don’t know much if anything about associations and do not join or actively participate in them.

So here is the challenge. What are the key values of a professional association that will ring true to the current graduate student and new information professional? This is not about who or what is right or wrong, but rather being able to articulate the value and help our new colleagues be “Future Ready.”

Richard Hulser is chief librarian at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and chair-elect of SLA Museum, Arts & Humanities Division.