SLA Blog

Information sharing

Information sharing.  We do it all the time.  The discussion lists are busy with requests for assistance in finding a citation, an article, or even a place to start for research on an unfamiliar topic.  We strategize about ways to organize and present information, and knowledge, to our clients ways that will be most effective (current awareness services!  mobile updates!  content management systems!).

Now, have you filled out the 2009 Salary Survey questionnaire?  Here's another opportunity to share information with your professional community, and help bolster those requests for salary increases...which might be a tough sell in this economy.  Having data, recent data, to present in a salary negotiation will, ultimately, benefit the membership as a whole...and it'll help *you*, too.

The survey instrument is fairly brief (it will take about 10 minutes of your time), and the results will be available for just $7.95 for participants.  Links to the questionnaire were distributed through e-mail last week, and the results will be available in September.  Please take a few moments to complete the survey, and be sure to click the link at the end for the coupon codes.

For more information about this year's survey, please read this post over on Information Center Connections.  If you have questions, don't hesitate to get in touch with me at csosnowski (at) sla (dot) org.

Costume research? No problem.

The Broadway revival of West Side Story is also a Librarian Story.  Read in this recent New York Times article about how the quest for historically accurate information led to, ahem, a librarian.

In the end, a librarian saved the day, but I was impressed by the diligence of the assistant costume designer who searched from library to library for the information he needed to get Officer Krupke's uniform just right.

All in a day's work.

2008 SLA Research Grant awarded for project on non-traditional roles for information professionals in biomedical research

A 2008 SLA Research Grant has been awarded to Betsy Rolland and Emily Glenn for their research project, "Experimenting Outside the Information Center: Non-Traditional Roles for Information Professionals in Biomedical Research." The study will tackle how the traditional skills of IPs can be put to use inside a biomedical research collaboration in a new way. The results of the study should be transferable from collaborative biomedical research to other types of research, as well as other types of collaborative efforts.

Betsy is Project Manager of the Asia Cohort Consortium at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Emily is Informatics Librarian at the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute. Betsy and Emily will be presenting the results of their research at SLA's 2010 annual conference in New Orleans.

The results of the 2007 SLA Research Grant, "Models of Embedded Librarianship: A Research Project," will be presented by the researchers, David Shumaker and Mary Talley, at SLA's 2009 annual conference on June 16.

Facelifts for special libraries...share your experiences

Posted on behalf of the book's authors. Contact them for more information.

______________________________

Facelifts for Special Libraries: A Practical Guide to Revitalizing Diverse Physical and Digital Spaces (working title*) is a book currently being written to share collective experiences and to give practical advice to busy solo-librarians or special library managers as to how to revitalize their libraries both in the physical and the digital space.

The book aims to cover a variety of areas that could be considered revitalization projects including: renovations or upgrades to physical space with green initiatives, upgrading the library's digital space via open source software or other innovative web-based tools, as well as budgeting, planning, getting support from upper management and working with designers and vendors.

We are gathering information, case studies and interviews with librarians who have completed, are in the process of undertaking a physical or digital renovation project, or who are considering a future renovation or revitalization project in a special library.
 
*Upcoming book authored by three special librarians: Dawn Bassett (Vancouver Aquarium), Brooke Ballantyne Scott (Riverview Hospital and the Forensic Psychiatric Services Commission), and Jenny Fry (formerly of the BC Institute Against Family Violence)
 
Share your experiences

We'd like our book to be as practical a guidebook as possible.
 
Our intention is to incorporate practical real-life examples in our book so if you have a story to share, advice, and/or images to share please post them on the blog or email us and we'll post them for you: http://faceliftsforspeciallibraries.blogspot.com/.
 
For more information, contact us at jbdbookproject@gmail.com.
 
If you know of other librarians who would be interested in this project, please feel free to forward this information to them.
 
Thank you for your valuable input.
 
Brooke Ballantyne Scott
Dawn Bassett
Jenny Fry

2008 SLA Salary Survey results launched

The 2008 SLA Annual Salary Survey and Workplace Study is now available for purchase; a summary of results is available on this page.  The selected results from the SLA Europe members will be available for purchase on Friday.  Update:  The Europe results are now available! 

A new feature in the 2008 salary survey is the inclusion of a section of tables highlighting the salary information for respondents who selected competitive intelligence, business research, online/electronic/literature researcher or research analyst as their primary job responsibility. Nearly 20% of respondents are now in these positions, which reflects the changing roles of SLA members. The median for CI/Research is $69,000 compared with $66,000 for all respondents.

A more detailed analysis will be published in the December Info Management column of Information Outlook.

2008 SLA Research Grant

SLA has posted its 2008 SLA Research Grant guidelines and application materials at www.sla.org/slaresearchgrant.   SLA supports two types of proposals:

• Research projects focused on the needs and concerns of information professionals in special libraries and related venues, with its current focus being on evidence-based practice, as in the Special Libraries Association (SLA) Research Statement, “Putting Our Knowledge to Work” (www.sla.org/researchstatement).  Awards may be granted up to $25,000. 

• Projects which directly benefit the operations of SLA and its units, by furthering the scientific, literary and educational purpose for which the association is organized and operated.  Awards may be granted up to $10,000.

The deadline for applications is Wednesday, October 1st.  An announcement will be made by the middle of January if an appropriate project is funded.

Additional details and application materials are available on SLA’s website at www.sla.org/slaresearchgrant or by contacting: Director, Information Center, Special Libraries Association, 331 S. Patrick Street, Alexandria, VA 22314-3501, USA; E-mail: resources@sla.org.

New Outsell report executive summary available for members

We've just posted the executive summary of Outsell's 2007 Information Management Benchmark:  State of the Function to the Recent Industry Reports section of SLA's website.

What are the trends?  Non-traditional roles and an increase in digital content spending.

Purchasing information is available on Outsell's website. 

In Internet Age, Libraries Still Draw a Crowd

As an avid listener to Jim Lehrer's Newshour when I am working out on my elliptical, and by the way I have lost 21 pounds (weight, not sterling), I was pleased to find the transcript of In Internet Age, Libraries Still Draw a Crowd.  Guest essayist, Julia Keller discussed the recent survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that young adults aged 18 to 30 frequent public libraries more regularly than older people. See Pew report, Online Activities and Pursuits.