To follow the SLA Leadership Summit on twitter use hashtag #slaleads
The two-day summit offers attendees the opportunity to enhance management and leadership skills that apply to both their careers and to their work within the association. Information professionals will engage in group learning and skill-building exercises designed to push attendee’s thinking and improve their leadership and management skills
As the 2010 Gold Sponsor, Dow Jones is supporting the Keynote Address by Jim Kane. Kane is a loyalty strategist and considered one of the world's leading authorities on building and maintaining loyal business relationships. Dow Jones’ sponsorship also supports other events at the SLA Leadership Summit, including the Board of Directors meeting coffee breaks and Summit Luncheon. Dialog is again supporting the SLA Leadership Breakfast on the second day of the summit.
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?
The SLA Diversity Leadership Development Program (DLDP) Award aims to accelerate the advancement and visibility of members who represent a diverse population of the Association by mentoring them for more leadership opportunities within SLA, to ensure that the Association remains vital, relevant, and representative of its diverse membership.
The DLDP Awardee receives a $1,000 stipend to assist in defraying the cost of attending SLA 2010 in New Orleans, as well as complimentary registration and specific ticketed events as appropriate. Learn more about the DLDP Award today, and nominate yourself, or someone you know. Deadline for applications is 15 February 2010.
The award is bestowed on an SLA member for raising visibility, awareness and appreciation of the information profession or the association at large. Lachance was honored for her six years as SLA's leader and representative and her work to enhance the profile of the association and the information profession.
"Janice has elevated the status of SLA and the profession in general and has served us extremely well as a global ambassador," says 2010 SLA President Anne Caputo. "I am so pleased to be able to recognize her achievements with this honor, and I know that she will continue to live up to the spirit of this award for many years to come."
Lachance is a popular speaker and commentator at information industry events as well as the champion, spokesperson and public face for SLA and its nearly 11,000 members across the globe. Lachance travels extensively to promote the association to library and information groups and educate decision makers, executives and government representatives about the value of information professionals in today's knowledge economy
Need some inspiration? Take a look at the videos about the 2009 recipients on SLA-TV
(Note: Please make a copy of your nomination materials and form before you sumbit the online application. If you do not receive an email confirming your submission within 24 hours of sending in your nomination, please contact Cara Schatz at cara@sla.org to confirm that your submission was received.)
“For thirty years, Barbie Keiser has worked to bring the availability of electronic information sources to corporations, communities and individuals around the globe. Barbie is a particularly good example of what Dow Jones and SLA hope to recognize with this award,” said Anne Caputo, 2010 president of SLA, and executive director at Dow Jones. “She exemplifies leadership by stepping forward readily with expertise, with good sound judgment, and in a way that serves as an example for other people to follow.”
Keiser has developed and implemented information literacy programs with particular emphasis on business information literacy for economic development. Her international activities include information projects on behalf of Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and the United States Information Agency (USIA) and State Department in China, Thailand, Singapore, Latvia, Denmark, Austria, Hungary and Germany.
As a Fulbright Specialist in Slovenia (2004) and Lithuania (2007), Keiser worked with and trained information professionals on developing technology, and in identifying and acquiring electronic resources for their institutions. She is a regular speaker at library and information industry events worldwide and a featured author in business, information, and library publications.
“Barbie is helping to take the kind of high SLA professional standards that we have here in the U.S. and bring them to information professionals around the world,” said Donna Scheeder, a member of the Governing Board of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA).
Keiser serves on the Board of Directors of the World Computer Exchange (WCE), a global education and environment nonprofit that helps connect youth in 67 developing countries to the skills, opportunities and understanding of the Internet while keeping working computers out of landfills. She was instrumental in the creation of a 2006 Memorandum of Understanding between WCE and SLA that prompted many SLA chapters and members to assist in gathering and donating used computers to the organization.
For SLA, Keiser utilizes her international relations skills as the convener for SLA’s International Information Exchange Caucus and has served in leadership roles for various SLA chapters and divisions. Her extensive efforts on SLA’s Information Ethics Initiative led to the creation the SLA Information Ethics Advisory Council, which is working on ethical guidelines for the association and profession. According to Carolyn Sosnowski, the SLA staff advisor to the council, “When you hear Barbie’s name you know things are going to get done.”
Keiser is currently working with the MetroAg Alliance, an organization that brings together a range of stakeholders who are involved in urban agriculture in North America. When Keiser came to MetroAg Alliance, it was a loose informal network of people and organizations that were not using technology or shared information to their best advantage. “There has got to be a better way,” said Keiser, and she began to help them to create a strategy for information creation and sharing, including a virtual clearinghouse and directory.
Keiser has a consulting practice where she works with her clients to help them use information effectively; she is perhaps best known for conducting needs assessments, audits, and opportunity analyses that provide the basis for strategic information planning and staff skill development programs. Keiser received her Master of Science degree in library science from Case Western Reserve University.
As you’re catching up with your emails after the holiday season, I hope that you’ve had a chance to review the invitation for SLA members to participate in the “New Rules of Engagement” study that started last week assembled by Shore Communications Inc (Shore). The “New Rules” study and the report that will be available to members is a new way of looking at how SLA members perceive business information purchasing.
This study uses an advanced technique called narrative research. Instead of asking you to respond to a typical questionnaire or interview guide, narrative research allows you to tell your own brief story about key activities in your business information purchasing processes. You then get to provide information that will enable Shore to organize story responses into meaningful patterns that will reveal key insights that would be hard to reveal using typical pre-formulated survey questions. You can find more information about narrative research here and you can start the process of participating in this study here.
We’d appreciate your participation in this study by the end of this week if possible.
SLA members participating in this study will complete a confidential online survey in which they’ll write one or two short stories about their involvement in executing or influencing purchases of business information products and provide some information that will describe what the story is about from their perspective. It’s easy to complete your part in the study. Qualified SLA members who complete the survey will receive a free copy of a report early in 2010 summarizing the results of the study. Other SLA members will be able to purchase the report at a discount to SLA members only.
This is a unique opportunity to participate in a ground-breaking study that will reveal trends in our field from an altogether new perspective. The survey is available to take now and will be completed in early January 2010. To prepare to participate in this study, please click here for more information.
NEW YORK, Jan. 4, 2010—Dow Jones & Company announced a new organizational structure combining its consumer and enterprise businesses in a unified group serving customers across all platforms and distribution channels.
The new alignment puts key products such as The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires and Factiva in a single operating unit. Read full details.
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