Jamal Cromity Co-Chair LMD Blog

Leadership, what a great topic of discussion! It is fitting that my first article on the LMD blog  focuses on leadership. No other profession needs leadership more than libraries and the information profession. Faced with an eroding economy, limited funds for resources, and potential employer cutbacks, Librarians and Information Professionals (Info Pros) everywhere must be more focused and intentional to illustrate the value of their respective positions.

 At the January 2009 Leadership Summit held in Savannah, Georgia the need for leadership was made abundantly clear as the executive board of SLA revealed results of the SLA Alignment Project . The purpose of the project was to study the library profession, in effort to bring cohesiveness within positions, to express the core purpose of the vocation, and to enforce more effective communication about the value of SLA and those in the occupation.

From the data gathered in the alignment project, the board requested SLA members use the results as a framework for discussing the inherent value in the profession in a cohesive manner. You can find some valuable information related to the alignment project under the “Inside SLA” link of www.sla.org. One great way for Librarians and Info Pros to position ourselves is by understanding what executives think…

Outsell's report What Executives Think of Information Management

Jamal Cromity is a Product Developer for Dialog LLC. He is the President-Elect of the North Carolina Chapter. Jamal obtained his MLS from NCCU and his MBA from NYIT. He can be reached at  jamal.cromity@dialog.com