After all these years: YES! by Susan Fifer Canby

Dear friends and colleagues:  I have been a member of SLA for my entire 35-year career at the National Geographic Society.  I have seen and been part of so much change at the Geographic and in our profession. It has been an exciting time. I was so pleased to be elected to the SLA Board to help our organization make changes that I believe will serve us for the future.  Please indulge me in a few stories that inform my decision about the alignment process and why I will vote YES.

I remember when I began reporting ten years ago to the CFO at the Geographic, one of the first questions he had for me was "Do you want to change your title or your division's - to take the "L" word out?"  He is a strategic thinker and he was giving me an opportunity to realign. I said no. I felt strongly then, as I do now, that being a librarian is an honorable and strategic profession - one that helps society and organizations make better decisions - and I still thought that it was possible to persuade others to think in our terms.

For years I had heard "well you're not a typical librarian Susan" (of course we all know that in fact I was -- they just didn't understand what we did). But there was a sea change a few years ago when  I realized that my Geographic colleagues and friends outside our field would regularly interrupt me when I would introduce myself as a special librarian.  I FINALLY get it. They totally never understood the "special" and thought the "librarian" was not descriptive enough so they used phrases like -- "master of the information universe," "knowledge maven," "change-agent" --  this is not meant to make you think I'm full of myself -- it is meant to share with you that I believe we need to start listening to the C-suite as well as our customers, as the research suggests -- and re-align.

I appreciated very much the breadth and quality of the research done that recommended the alignment process as well as a new name: Association of Strategic Knowledge Professionals.  It affirmed many of the words as well as concepts I had been hearing and some of the re-alignment recommendations that we had begun at the Geographic.

Anything new is awkward and feels strange at first -- particularly because we all have so much passion around our profession.  I hope you will vote YES to enable SLA to align not only its mission and future, but also its name to reflect the professional organization that will inspire us and the next generation to be the knowledge professionals that Society and our organizations so needs.  Best to you all. Susan

Comments

[Andrew Garrett]

The great dilemma about the name change debate / decision is how does SLA link its past (an honourable 100 history as the Special Libraries Association) with the present and the future with a name that portrays what it does or represents - hence I understand the reasons for the proposed new name: "Association of Strategic Knowledge Professionals".

I have a suggestion: why not have the SLA name somewhere on the letterhead (or as a footnote: formerly SLA / Specialist Libraries Association). In addition within the SLA / Association of Strategic Knowledge Professionals set up an SLA Foundation with a central role (education issues, scholarships, librarianship issues etc).

It would be a shame if the name were to completely disappear without trace. As we say in England, "don't throw the baby out with the bath water - or maybe we should say instead of baby "the person of wisdom""!