SLA Blog

Why a Name Change is Worth the Risk Right Now

SLA was the first association I joined in library school, despite not having yet decided what kind of librarian - academic, corporate or other - I wanted to be.   To learn more about the different opportunities and where my skills would best fit, I asked SLA members about what it was like to work in their libraries.  A comment from one of the first librarians I met has always stuck with me:  When asked about the most challenging part of her job, the director of a large advertising firm library gave a big sigh and said,  "Always having to define and defend the value of what we do and how it helps the organization succeed."  This was early in 2000.

Viewpoint of an International Chapter

"I think because SLA is a 100-year-old organization, members in the US and Canada are more emotionally attached to the name.  Change is always painful and risky but at the same time we cannot progress if we do not change with the times.  Members of the Asian Chapter don't seem to have the same attachment to the current name which makes me think that the new name will be accepted with an open mind around the globe.  We will come out in a true sense as a global organization of information and strategic knowledge professionals in the next few years."  -- Sushma Amora, Asian Chapter.

Nearly a decade later many of us continue to experience similar struggles.  The difference now is that SLA has responded by investing careful thought, planning time and resources into learning how we can better communicate our value.  The next steps will involve tailoring messages that address our different roles and target them to the variety of organizations and industries we serve. 

"I haven't failed.  I've just discovered 1000 ways not to make a light bulb." - Thomas Edison

A name change wouldn't be easy but then what worthwhile effort every is?  We've been incredibly fortunate to have enjoyed 100 proud years of the Special Libraries Association.  This history gives us a strong foundation for embarking on another 100 years of success.  We've always been an association of professionals on the cutting edge of change, able to adapt to and adopt the latest methods and technologies so we can provide the best service for our organizations.  And that is what we need to do now - adapt to the challenges presented by a new economy in this new century do that we can continue to succeed and help those who will follow us in the profession to do the same. 

How the Fairfield County, CT Chapter is already finding new energy through Alignment:

"We see this Alignment and name change discussion as a way of re-energizing our members and giving the Chapter a second chance, regardless of the result of the name change vote. Alignment gives us solid research results on which to base programming to encourage members to put those results to work for them.  We have decided to track down and invite former members to our next meeting in order to show them what SLA is up to these days, in case irrelevance was one reason for their departure. The new developments might just be what it takes to bring them back.

 

In the meantime, after months of having several 'holes' in the leadership roster to move the Chapter forward in 2010, we have two volunteers for President and President-Elect.  Both are new SLA members. I can’t tell you how great it is for me to have the old feeling of excitement and commitment flowing again." -- Susan Di Mattia, President, Fairfield County Chapter

Whatever you decision about the name, please consider the research findings and how it affect not just you but all members of the Association.  Because regardless of which name we move forward with, we'll all have a lot of work to do to move forward together.

EDUCATION LIBRARIES, Winter 2009 Issue Now Available

The Winter 2009 issue of Education Libraries, a peer-reviewed journal from SLA's Education Division, is now available via the URLs below.
Published since 1975, the journal made to the move online format in 2005. Please keep in mind that we are always looking for submissions and book reviewers.
All the best,
Jacqueline Snider
Education Libraries, Co-editor
jisnider53@gmail.com
Links:

http://units.sla.org/division/ded/educationlibraries/32-2.pdf

http://units.sla.org/division/ded/education_libraries.html

How a Name Change Could Spell Success

"I am not opposed to a name change. It may be necessary, but it will never be sufficient on its own. If we change our name and change nothing else, it will be simply cosmetics. We need an attitudinal change that results in changes in the way we perceive our profession and our role."

 

- Eugenie Prime, from a conversation with SLA President Elect-Elect Cindy Romaine

One thing that seems to be missing from the discussion about the proposed name change is a vision of how the Association and all of its members might move forward with a new name.  As Eugenie Prime says, a name change alone isn't enough.  We will need action behind it to demonstrate our value even as we are describing it.  We'll also need to focus some of these efforts outside of the profession.  In other words, we need to spend less time preaching to the choir and look at how we can help the rest of the world understand all we have to offer no matter where we work or the specific role we play.
 

This doesn't mean that the Association cares more about the views of others over those of its own members.  Nor does it leave out certain groups of librarians so much as it seeks to be more inclusive of all of our members.  Instead, Alignment challenges us to raise awareness about how much the librarian role has grown.  
 

The name "Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals" focuses on what we do and deliver rather than where we work or what we're called.  As such it has the potential to be our common denominator, where we overlap and where similar professionals might feel comfortable joining us.  We've already benefited from a diverse membership that includes specialties such as knowledge management, competitive intelligence,  Web 2.0 and other social technologies (just to name just a few.)
 

So whatever your initial thoughts or feelings about the name, I ask you to at least consider how it could succeed and your role in that process.  Envision what it would look like for you and your unique role in your organization and industry.  What could you and your co-workers or fellow division members come up with to communicate the value behind the name?  How could the language and tools already available in the Alignment research help you do that?  
 

A new name is not a magic wand that will suddenly earn us more respect and money.  Yet combined with the right messages tailored to our individual organizations, leaders and industries, it could be a powerful tool in helping those outside of the profession understand just how much we bring to the table.

Commitment

by Dan Trefethen

I posted something to the Solo Librarians discussion list that got me thinking about commitment.

It is true what they say, until you have made a commitment to something, you will remain troubled in your mind, vacillating over the decision and not wanting to settle down.

On the Solo list, I made the glib connection between the Board of Directors committing to the evidence-based name that tested best, Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals, and my decision to marry the woman I did.  At least I thought it was a bit glib, then I thought "wait a minute.  There's truth here."

In both cases, we used the best evidence there was at the time.  We didn't know if somewhere, somehow, there might be a more perfect choice than the one before us.  But based on what was before us, we had to decide to commit - or not to commit. 

Once we committed, our minds became clear.  We grew more confident in our choice.  The confidence grew from living with the result (in my case, literally) and realizing that once you make the commitment, you are ready to make your new reality.

My friends, the evidence is before us.  The SLA Board of Directors committed to presenting you with the name that tested best following two years of research.  This name is a bold choice, and (like love) can be startling when you come to realize that you are considering spending your life with it.  But the evidence is firm.  It is a name that resonates with our values, and if we commit to it and make it our own, we will be prepared to make our new reality in the 21st century. 

As time goes by, you will say as I do now about my 1977 wedding - "there really wasn't any other choice for me to make.  This was clearly the direction I had to go."

Just don't show this to my wife.  She'll get all mushy on me.

SLA Alignment Project Chat in Second Life: Tomorrow!

Presented by Jill Strand , Libby Trudell, David Shumaker, Cara Schatz
When: November 17 2009 - 5pm PT/SLT
Where: Info Island Auditorium, Second Life
SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/62/114/33
NOTE: This session is in Second Life, please get a Second Life avatar and the client software here: http://www.secondlife.com There will be avatars in SL to greet you.

Have you been wanting to find time to understand the research process and results underlying the SLA Alignment Project? Take the opportunity to meet members of the SLA Public Relations Advisory Council in Second Life and get a guided tour of the alignment portal, plus a look at some of the information in the Alignment wiki. Find out more about these available tools, and how they will help us in communicating our value as information professionals within our organizations.

The sessions is sponsored by the SLA in Virtual Worlds Advisory Council in partnership with the Alliance Virtual Library (AVL).

Clarification and Perspective on Name Change by Ruth Wolfish

A few points to consider regarding the vote to change the name of SLA to Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals

• Voting will take place today (16 November) through 9 December  
• The vote is YES or NO to change the name from SLA to Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals.
• The vote is on the full name, there is not an acronym.
• If we do not change our name now, another name will not be submitted.

I have been a professional Librarian for over twenty years in a multitude of positions. I have been called: Account Manager, Reference Librarian, Manager of Education & Training, E-journals Coordinator, Electronic Content Coordinator, and Client Services Manager.  Regardless of my title, I have always been a librarian, that is, I’ve always been someone who manages and supports strategic knowledge.

I have also had several titles within SLA such as Pres. Elect, President, Division member, and Chapter Cabinet Chair Elect. Regardless of my titles, I’ve always been a dedicated member. However I have seen our organization’s members struggle to find jobs in the midst of a period when strategic knowledge is critical and we have precisely the necessary skills.  I have also watched our chapters struggle to grow their member base and leaders. Let’s expand our tent to include all Strategic Knowledge professionals.

The latter will bring additional support to our chapters, more ideas to our conference program, and more jobs to our members. I have been told many times in my career “You don’t look like a Librarian”.  What does someone who knows how to quickly find the exact answers to questions that are being asked "look like?"

Stop Dancing with a 'Default' Name & Partner up with a New One! by Ty Webb

One hundred years ago, John Cotton Dana admitted that our name was chosen "in default of a better."  Even though we have talked about changing it ever since then, we continued to use it. The idea of changing it was scary, so we kept on going. Well, let's stop our 100-yr-old superstitious dance with a "default" name and partner up with a new one!
 
We've talked about it forever. It's been a constant undercurrent that frequently comes to the surface.  I remember discussions in the '80s, and again in the '90s, and then in 2003 when the membership actually voted to change the name, but did not select a replacement. Now, it has not only come to the surface, it has become a flood, a whirlpool, with members actively voicing their feelings on both sides.
 
That's good. Our organization is important to us.  We are emotionally attached to it, and heavily invested in it.  The association has given us innumerable opportunities for professional development, for furthering our careers, for building our network and for making life-long friends. We are loyal to our association, and we know we can rely on it to give us what we need to have a successful, satisfying career. 
 
To help you with your career, members of your Board have been working on the alignment project for several years. New members have joined the Board as you elected them; others have left as their terms expired. All of them have worked hard on the alignment project in order to improve the recognition of the value you contribute toward the success of your employers.
 
The research results give us data that we can build on for years to come. The association will take it one step at a time, and the first step is to consider changing our name to something that resonates with our  current members, future members, employers, and vendor partners.  Using the research results in combination with due diligence, we have a potential new name for our beloved association.  It is your choice whether we continue to use the name that is familiar to us, even though it was "in default of a better," or if we enter our second century with a "better." A name based on research.
 
We all have personal stories about the challenge of explaining what it is that we do. And we've all seen the light bulb come on as the person we're talking to really gets it... One time stands out in my memory.
 
My library was newly assigned to report to the VP of Marketing.  In my first meeting with him, he apologized right up front and said he didn't really understand what it was that the Library did...
 
My response was, "We provide the strategic information that you and your colleagues need in order to make better business decisions."
 
Well, the light bulb came on!  I could see it in his face... He SAW THE LIGHT!
 
My title was changed to Manager, Strategic Information.  One librarian who worked with Marketing and Business Development became the Information Specialist, and another, who worked with Research & Development and Product Development, became the Information Scientist.  A third staff member opted to retain the title of Librarian. Her responsibilities were primarily in acquisitions and collection development.
 
The term library is respected, but it brings to mind a stereotype. What we do, the services we provide, and the value we contribute, all go far beyond that stereotype.  Let's start our second century with a name that is "better!" Let’s stop our old superstitious dance and start a new dance with a new partner -- a new name.

Vote YES on Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals by Daniel Lee

The proposal to change our name has encouraged debate and deliberation in all corners of this association.  It has also forced us to focus our attention on the results of the Alignment Project, an effort to adapt to a changing world in which we are not alone. This proposal has been 100 years in the making and now is the time for us to make a decision. 

Vote YES to Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals.

This is my first year as a Director on the Board of Directors and I voted in favor of the motion to put the proposed name to a vote because:

* as a member you have the right to cast your vote to make this momentous decision;
* "change the name" has been a constant refrain for many years;
* the proposed name is based on solid research, conducted in good faith; and
* the proposed name reflects a direction many members have told me they want to go in.

Personally, I believe in this association's diversity and see it as a strength.  I also believe it's what sets us apart from other associations. That is why I have spent my own money to be a member for eight years.

Diversity of opinion begets perspective and I need multiple perspectives reflected in the association I choose to belong to so I can grow and prosper as a professional in this increasingly complex world we operate in.

The name Special Libraries Association narrows that potential for perspective and Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals broadens it.

Vote YES to Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals - vote yes, vote early and vote often!

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

Before you vote, please think about...by Cindy Romaine 2010 President-Elect

After we’ve had this big, beefy conversation about our name--about our identity really--we can’t put the genie back in the bottle, close Pandora’s box, or put the toothpaste back into the tube (choose your metaphor).

Collectively, we’ve aired out our concerns from every perspective and because of that we’re all looking at S-L-A differently. It’s like the cup of coffee you left on the counter in the morning, when you pick it up in the afternoon—it’s different. What is that film on it? And why does it taste so tannic? It was fine a little while ago, but time passed, and something changed.

Even if you really like the name SLA, you’ve got to admit, it looks different on this side of the discussion.

Change Adoption

I feel that we are widely spread out on the change adoption curve. In fact, if we were a Boy Scout troop hiking on a trail, the front of the pack probably would not be able to see the back of the pack. And the back of the pack is having a hard time hearing what the front of the pack is saying. But we’re all going forward. And if we don’t change now it’s a lost opportunity.

Lost opportunity

Guy St. Clair, author of SLA at 100: From Working with Knowledge to Building the Knowledge Culture, has this to say regarding SLA’s reluctance to change:

Both in the book and in the presentations, one of the points I found myself making related to how close – as an association of professional knowledge workers – SLA came to taking a leadership position only to step back when confronted with the challenges the proposed change would require. Indeed, it was sometimes quite disheartening to research a topic and learn how people so talented and so smart – when they really needed to exercise their leadership – were not able to do so

I’m put in mind of these several situations, what I’ve come to think of as SLA’s missed opportunities, as we engage in our discussions about the name of the association. I can’t help but wonder if once again we are going to not recognize a very special opportunity that is right in front of us.

Noble Call vs Expanded Opportunities

I can’t speak for the Board, but I know that people in leadership have your best interests at heart. They genuinely want you to succeed and are trying to balance the noble calling of librarianship with the fact that in many instances it is limiting in terms of salaries, job opportunities, and business priorities.
SLA leadership has been studying, contemplating, and reflecting on the issue of our name/positioning/branding for a very long time.

We know there is controversy and doubt. From the Alignment Project research we have compelling evidence that the words “special libraries” do not get you what you told leadership that you want. We have all the proof we can muster—for some of you the next step is an intuitive leap.

As you can see from the following quote, by Roger Martin author of The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the New Competitive Advantage, we are not alone in the challenges we face. 

By pushing the principles of scientific management too far, corporations are short-circuiting their own futures, says Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management. "The enemy of innovation is the phrase 'prove it,'" Martin says.

Vote yes for our association’s future. Let's make the most of this momentous opportunity. We'll be positioning ourselves for value and growth with the name the Association of Strategic Knowledge Professionals.