SLA Blog

The Young ... er, New Kids on the Block

In 1988, a retired minister named Robert Fulghum became a minor celebrity of sorts when his book of essays, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, made the New York Times best-seller list (where it stayed for nearly two years). Now, Laura Woods is bidding to follow in Fulghum's footsteps by writing an article for Information Outlook titled "All I Really Need to Know about Being a Librarian I Learned in Library School."

Actually, Laura's already a celebrity within the library world, having received an Early Career Conference Award in 2009 and having been elected to the board of directors of SLA Europe for 2010. But she'll be the first to admit that she still has much to learn about her new profession--and that much of what she's learning is coming from her professional network, including her fellow "young" librarians.

Laura's article, in the July/August issue of Information Outlook, is the first in what I hope will be a series of pieces written by librarians--young and not-so-young alike--who are new to the field. The articles will appear in a column titled "First Read," and they'll offer insights and ideas from the men and women who will shape our profession in the years to come.

Be sure to give Laura's article (its real title is "Networking Groups for New Professionals") a look. And if you're new to the library field and would like to share your thoughts about the profession by writing a "First Read" column, please contact me at shales@sla.org.

Jan Chindlund, 2010 Rose Vormelker Award Recipient

Jan Chindlund, library director of Columbia College Chicago, is the 2010 recipient of the SLA Rose L. Vormelker Award.  Chindlund is being honored for mentoring, inspiring, and guiding information professionals through her work at Columbia College Chicago, McDonald’s Corporation, and the SLA Illinois Chapter and the SLA Business & Finance (B&F) Division.

 She was presented with her award on June 13 during the opening general session of the SLA Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO in New Orleans. To view a video about Chindlund and her achievements, visit the awards channel on SLA-TV. 

The Vormelker Award is presented to an SLA member for exceptional service to the profession through education and mentoring of students and working professionals. The SLA Awards Committee cited Chindlund’s dedication to mentoring and inspiring SLA members, as well as her volunteer work at all levels of the association during more than 23 years of membership. 

“Jan Chindlund represents the finest model of a mentor. Her natural ability to inspire excellence in others reinforces SLA’s long-lasting traditions of stewardship and service to the profession,” said 2010 SLA President Anne Caputo. “She is extremely deserving of this award, and I am so pleased that we are honoring her deep caring and dedication to the future of the information and library profession.”

Prior to joining Columbia College Chicago in 2007, Chindlund managed two special libraries in the Chicago metro area, the McDonald’s Corporation Global Business & Consumer Insight Information Center and the Research Library of Duff & Phelps. She has professionally mentored numerous library practicum students from Dominican University and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and many librarians seeking new directions in their professional careers. She has also been a guest lecturer at Dominican University GSLIS.

“Jan lives the values of the library profession in helping others at all levels. She extends an extra effort to assist everyone from colleagues to clients. But most notably she ‘pays it forward’ by mentoring countless people who want to advance their careers as information and knowledge services professionals,” said SLA Illinois Chapter President Dianna Wiggins. “We’ve got six degrees of Jan Chindlund here in Chicago! She has touched the lives and careers, or in some way influenced or tried to help just about every information professional walking around in our state and especially in our city.”

Chindlund has been actively involved in SLA at the chapter, division, and association levels since 1987. She served as SLA Illinois Chapter president (2003-2004) and as B&F secretary (1994-1996) and director (1998-2000). During her term on the B&F Board of Directors, she worked to develop the B&F Mentoring Initiative.  She also served on the Nominating Committee as chair (2010), on the President’s Task Force on Professional Value (2005-2006), and the Annual Conference Advisory Council (2005 and 2011). She received the Dow Jones Leadership Award in 2000 and was named an SLA Fellow in 2006.

“For me, it is important to help other librarians. Generous time has been spent on me; contacts have been shared as well as insight and perspective. I feel that if I have anything to share with others, I’d like to do that,” said Chindlund. “Receiving this award is a great honor, and I’m humbled to accept it as a representative of all information professionals who have this sharing capacity and pass it on from generation to generation. We are really standing on the shoulders of those who have come before us, and I’m just one of those in that long chain.”

Chindlund holds a Master of Library and Information Science from Dominican University, a Master of Business Administration from Benedictine University, and a bachelor’s degree in education from Wheaton College. 

Knowledge Management Division's New Records Management (RM) Section

SLA Division Cabinet Chairs (Past Division Cabinet Chair Tom Rink, Division Cabinet Chair-Elect Mary Ellen Bates, and Division Cabinet Chair Ann Sweeney) announce the approved formation of the Records Management Section of the Knowledge Management Division. The SLA Board of Directors was informed of this action during its August 12 monthly conference call.

 

 The Knowledge Management Division Chair Karen Huffman coordinated the creation of this new section with the Division Cabinet and presented the petition with more than the required number of division members' signatures to the Division Cabinet Chairs.

 

The new section, to be chaired by Judy Field, has this scope note: The Records Management Section focuses on the characteristics and processes through which organizations manage the full knowledge cycle of records in all formats including the creation, organization, sharing, storing and either preservation or disposal.

If you are currently a member of the Knowledge Management Division, you may add the section at no charge.  To add the Knowledge Management Division to your existing membership, go to the Change/Add Units Form.  If you are not currently an SLA member, please join.

Brent Mai - Candidate for President-Elect - Question #2. What advice would you give someone in their 20's just entering the profession about how to find and keep a fabulous job as a special librarian or information professional?

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics anticipates that the employment of librarians is expected to grow 8 percent over the next decade as private corporations, nonprofit organizations, and consulting firms turn to us for our exceptional research and organizational skills and our knowledge of computer databases and management software.  The Bureau uses the widest possible definition of the term librarian and includes information brokers, systems analysts, database specialists and trainers, webmasters and web developers, and local area network coordinators.  It is in employment for these nontraditional librarians where there will be the fastest growth, so think broadly and creatively about what it is that we do to identify the job opportunities that are available.  Regardless of your age, obtaining that first position can be a challenge.  As your premier professional association, SLA is here to assist you with your search!  SLA’s Information Outlook routinely spotlights members with non-traditional applications of what we do, often in non-traditional work environments.  Fellow members of SLA are also developing a tool kit of employment resources that includes key words and phrases that are being used to describe what it is that we do so well.  Keep an eye out as pieces of the tool kit are released.  When you are new to the profession, nothing substitutes for real world experience when trying to set yourself apart from other job applicants, so while you’re hunting, contact a fellow SLA member and inquire about volunteering in order to gain some experience.

Annual Business Meeting Videos on SLA-TV

If you are interested in watching the 2010 Annual Membership Meeting, held in New Orleans on June 16 during the Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO, the whole meeting is available for viewing on SLA-TV.

If you cannot access the videos, the full text of the remarks delivered during the meeting is available online:

• Janice Lachance, CEO
• Dan Trefethen, SLA Treasurer
• Anne Caputo, 2010 SLA President 

Nerida Hart - Candidate for Director - What advise would you give someone in their 20's just entering the profession about how to find and keep a fabulous job as a special librarian or information professional?

My first advice - network, learn, network even more.

Then be flexible in your approach - being a librarian is not about following the rules. You will need to be innovative and creative as the world is changing at a rate I am not sure any of us can completely comprehend.

What you learn and who you learn from may surprise you. Make the effort to go to events that are outside the scope of your job and talk to anyone and everyone. Don't think about whether or not they are relevant to your job. Sometimes the greatest inspiration comes from outside 'left field'.

If you are inside an organisation in a special library make the effort to talk to colleagues while waiting in line for your coffee. Join the social club and be on organising committees as a volunteer. Yes your job will keep you busy but don't bury yourself away being 'busy'. 'Busy' won't gain you the business intelligence about your clients so you can effectively demonstrate your worth in the organisation. make sure as many colleagues as possible know you and what you do.

And outside your employing organisation join professional associations like SLA. Stretch yourself and become involved in your local knowledge management groups - see who else is in fields which cross over with you and build alliances. We are more powerful toegther than alone.

Be flexible - take opportunities within your organisation to be involved in projects - don't think to yourself this is not relevant to my job - it will be - perhaps not immediately but the relationships you form and what you learn will be important in the future.

And above all - HAVE FUN - working with information and knowledge is fun and the relationships you build and the friends you make will be forever.

Guess Who's Turning 100?

SLA celebrated its centennial in 2009;  our first chapter, Boston, celebrates this year!  President Kris Liberman, President-Elect Nancy Burt and the SLA Boston Centennial Committee invite all SLA members who might be in the Boston area on Tuesday, September 28, 2010, to celebrate this auspicious milestone with them.  They will launch their plans for an exciting future for their members in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

The chapter plans an afternoon and evening series of events that include a vendor fair with cocktails, a program with several special guests, and a spectacular dinner. Keynote speakers will be Janice Lachance, SLA Chief Executive Officer, and Anne Caputo, SLA President for 2010.

In keeping with the forward looking theme of the event, the meeting is being held at the Artists for Humanity, Boston’s first LEED Platinum certified building, a place known for both service to the arts and a strong commitment to sustainability.

For additional information about the event, go to: http://units.sla.org/chapter/cbos/index.html and to register, go to:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/bsla100.  For those attending from out-of-state, the chapter has arranged for local accommodations:  http://units.sla.org/chapter/cbos/hotels.html.

The anniversary of our very first chapter, is cause for all SLA members to celebrate.  If you would like to send a congratulatory note to our very first chapter, please email Nancy at nancy.b.burt@gmail.com.

James E. Manasco-Candidate for Chapter Cabinet Chair-Elect-Question #2: What advice would you give someone in their 20's just entering the profession about how to find and keep a fabulous job as a special librarian or information professional?

When searching for that first job, be ready to relocate, especially if you live near a library school.  Embody self-confidence.  Don't be afraid to develop and demonstrate creativity and initiative.  Your membership in SLA is also essential when you are looking for that first job.  Student membership is economical and the best decision you'll make as a young professional.

I have personally witnessed new professionals being informally interviewed for positions at Annual Conference open houses.  The connections you make through networking with SLA colleagues, at the Annual Conference, Leadership Summit and in the chapters, can give you early notice of jobs that will be available and give you a good contact point for finding out the real skinny on the situation at an organization or business. 

The networking SLA provides can certainly help you land a job, but the continuing education and professional development provided can make sure you keep that job!  The skills you learn and enhance through your activities with SLA make you a more valuable employee and, if you do get downsized, can ensure that your time out of a job is short.

SLA allows you to become the epitome of a value-added professional.  'Nuff said!

Jim Tchobanoff Named 2010 John Cotton Dana Award Recipient

 Jim Tchobanoff, a longtime leader and innovator in the information profession, is the 2010 recipient of the SLA John Cotton Dana Award. 

The prestigious award, named for the founder of SLA, recognizes a lifetime of achievement as well as exceptional service to special librarianship and the information profession. The SLA Awards Committee cited Tchobanoff’s leadership in the profession and volunteer work at all levels of the association during more than 30 years of membership.

“Jim’s colleagues from across the association came out in droves to support his nomination, and I applaud the committee’s choice to honor him with this much-deserved award,” said 2010 SLA President Anne Caputo.

Tchobanoff’s roles in SLA have included serving as president of the Minnesota Chapter (1979-1980), chair of the Food, Agriculture and Nutrition Division (1982-1983), and two terms on the Board of Directors (division cabinet chair 1983-1985 and director 1987-1990). He also chaired the Long Range Planning Committee (1984-1985), the Special Committee on Research (1985-1986), the Bylaws Committee (1994-1996) and the Committee on Committees (1996-2000).  

Tchobanoff received SLA’s President’s Award in 1986 for his work on the Long Range Plan and again in 1988 for his contributions to the President’s Task Force on the Value of the Information Professional.  He was named a Fellow of SLA in 1991.

Former SLA President Stephen Abram commented on Tchobanoff’s work rewriting SLA’s governing documents. “Bylaws could make a grown man cry,” said Abram, “and Jim helped make them simpler. That kind of insight has been very important to SLA moving forward.”

Tchobanoff’s accomplishments include developing SLA’s first long-range strategic plan, creating the scope and research agenda for the association, and leading the membership effort that resulted in the expansion of SLA’s professional development program. The testimonials and letters submitted in support of his nomination make clear, however, that Tchobanoff’s most important contributions to SLA may have been as a diplomat, advisor, and mentor.

“I see in Jim’s interactions, and in the stories he tells, the value in the relationships that he has formed and maintained with SLA members around the world, across committees and companies, divisions and departments,” wrote Deb Rash, 2010 president of the Minnesota Chapter. “I have been immensely impressed with the level of dedication and mentorship that Jim has shown to our chapter, and I know that his level of participation and enthusiasm has spanned his whole career.”

In addition to serving the association, Tchobanoff has repeatedly demonstrated his ability to innovate during his career.  While working at the Pillsbury Company for  24 years, he led various teams that built a document warehouse system, giving researchers access to more than 100,000 internal research documents. He also created an R&D directory of employee expertise to harness Pillsbury’s internal knowledge, and he planned, designed and implemented an electronic project notebook system to help researchers access and share information.

While working in the 1970s at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Medical Library as a senior clinical medical librarian, Tchobanoff, along with Carolyn Anne Reid, Russ Murphy and Gertrude Lamb, Ph.D., implemented the Clinical Medical Librarian Program. The librarians in this program make patient rounds as members of a teaching and patient care team, providing information services to team members. The program was ground-breaking and successfully introduced the concept of embedded medical librarianship to the profession.

Tchobanoff graduated with a bachelor of science degree in chemistry (1968) and master of arts in library science (1971) from the University of Michigan. He currently runs an independent library and information management consulting business in Arden Hills, Minn.

Tchobanoff was presented with his award on June 13 during the opening general session of the SLA Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO in New Orleans. To view a video about Tchobanoff and his achievements, visit the awards channel on SLA-TV. 

SLA Member Discount-Certified Content Rights Manager Seminar Coming to a City Near You

SLA has joined with the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) & LicenseLogic to bring a professional development course to librarians and information professionals entitled the Certified Content Rights Manager (CCRM) course.  The course is an all day event with 6 hours of training and an online exam to follow.  Participants will have one week following the course to take the exam online.

Below are just 3 tips that you will learn on how to manage content rights and deal with copyright issues by taking the Certified Content Rights Manager Seminar and Exam…..

3 Simple Tips for Managing Content Licenses and Dealing with Copyright Issues:

•    Educate employees about the basics of U.S.Copyright Law; explain how statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work infringed could cost the organization a lot of money if found guilty in the court of law.

•    Centralize all license agreements – Easier said than done. But centralizing license agreements provides a better opportunity to evaluate which agreements you continue buying and which license agreements you can discontinue,  potentially saving the organization money from wasteful spending on renewals no longer used.

•     Enforce policies and procedures when discovering unauthorized content within the organization.  Enlist the help of Human Resources in enforcing the organization’s policies on copyright infringement activities.  Without policy internal enforcement the organization can risk liability and conduct needless spending. 

The CCRM has been recently approved for California Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits for 5.5 hours and New York CLE credits for 6 Hours.

Below are some upcoming dates:

Chicago – August 30, 2010
Philadelphia – September 23, 2010
Washington, DC – September 29, 2010
New York City – October 7, 2010
Denver – October 18, 2010
Boston – November 8, 2010
Houston – December 10, 2010

For online offerings or to find out more about LicenseLogic’s other classes, please visit http://www.licenselogic.com.

Who Should Attend: All professionals who purchase, manage or create content and are responsible for ensuring it's used appropriately and that the content rights are maximized at all levels of the organization.

CCRM Information Page and Syllabus