SLA and Professional Growth

Chris Zammarelli, Candidate for the SLA Board of Directors

How has your work with SLA over the years helped you grow in the profession?

I've spent most of my time in SLA working on behalf of the Government Information Division, which has taught me a lot of valuable lessons about collaboration, leadership, and communication. Some of those lessons were learned the hard way, such as think and proofread before you hit send. Other lessons were easier to take in, such as organizing the efforts of DGI members to build the division's social media presence and the previous iteration of DGI's website.

I joined SLA before I had my degree, and even though I had been working in libraries for a number of years before then, I still had a lot to learn about the profession and about professionalism. As much as I learned about the profession in library school, I learned more about professionalism from SLA. That's how I got the skills I needed to progress and thrive as a librarian.