A Magazine to Call Your Own

Three months ago, SLA members were asked to share their impressions of Information Outlook in an online survey. Roughly 86 percent of respondents "strongly" or "somewhat" agreed that the magazine is a valuable benefit of SLA membership, and approximately 60 percent rated it a "primary" or "leading" source of information about the profession.

These results are generally encouraging. But encouraging isn't good enough--not when librarians and info pros have plenty of other resources to turn to for information about knowledge management, social media, copyright, and other topics that are relevant to their jobs.

So, how can SLA change Information Outlook so it better meets your needs? By letting you help determine its content--not just what it says, but who says it.

For example, the theme of the April/May issue (as suggested by the Information Outlook Advisory Council, or IOAC) is 'Social Networking." The IOAC has already approved a proposal for an article that will discuss how a university is using social networking tools to promote some of its courses and research. The article will describe the tools the university is using and discuss the successes and shortcomings of each, the barriers to using them, and plans for future use.

What other social networking topics would you like to read about in the April/May issue? Can you recommend any subject matter experts who can write about these topics? Please be as specific as you can, and feel free to comment on others' proposals as well as providing your own suggestions.

If this approach works well for the April/May issue, I'll continue to use it for future issues of the magazine. I'll also keep you posted about Information Outlook 2.0--a project spearheaded by the IOAC to create a magazine that will encourage member involvement at all stages of the publication process.

Here's your opportunity to make Information Outlook a magazine you can call your own. Suggestions, anyone? 

Comments

[woodsiegirl.wordpress.com]

Hope I'm not too late to comment on this - have been away for a few weeks, just catching up on my RSS feeds. I also hope I'm actually commenting in the right place - you don't specify in your post how you actually want people to submit their ideas for Information Outlook, so I'm guessing you just want blog comments, but it's not incredibly clear!

My only suggestion for the magazine is a fairly simple one. As a new professional - I completed my MSc last month, and am in my first professional post - I would like to see more in IO that is relevant to someone in my position. Most articles seem to be aimed at information professionals in management positions, which, while interesting, is of little relevance to myself and other new professionals. The theme of your September 2009 issue was ostensibly "the new librarian", but I could only see two articles which addressed the potential of newcomers to the profession (both were at the back of the magazine).

It would be good to see more written about the challenges that new professionals face, as well as the skills we can offer. It is difficult from my position to see how I can actually progress my career to the point where I am in a position to put into practice some of the excellent ideas and advice usually featured in IO. Something to bridge the gap would be welcome.

Have you considered soliciting articles from new professionals within SLA? I could see that as something that, for example, the First Five Years Advisory Council would be ideally placed to organise.

Laura (SLA Europe member)