Sunday, June 9th                    11:15 am – 1:45 pm     

CONSULTING SECTION SESSION: Consulting: Managing the Expectation, Rebecca Jones, Dysart & Jones

Successful consulting is all about managing the expectations – yours and theirs. Come discuss with Rebecca what you need to know about managing the engagement and benefit from what she has learned in over 20 years of consulting.

Sunday, June 9th                    1:30 pm – 3:00 pm     

Leadership Roles in KM: Grabbing New Opportunities! Ramin Assa Booz, Allen Hamilton, Knowledge Management Manager; Denise Chochrek, Frito Lay, Senior Knowledge Analyst; Jane Dysart, Dysart & Jones; Deborah Keller, Department of Homeland Security; Nancy Lewis, DuPont

As David Weinberger points out in his new book, Too Big to Know, organizations today need to recognize the power of difference (fruitful disagreement), public learning (leaving tracks for others to follow & conversations to engage in), filtering information on the way and out (taxonomies and finding places for inclusion while embracing messiness) and opening a window so that the expert really is in the room. Our speakers discuss new opportunities for using our skills in different and exciting ways.

Sunday, June 9th                    3:30 pm – 5 pm    

SPOTLIGHT SESSION: The Experts Are In! – One-Off Career Advice, Stephen Abram, Gale Cengage;  David Cappoli, UCLA School of Law; Anne Caputo, Anne Caputo Consulting; Ann Cullen,  Emory University;  Susan DiMattia; Jane Dysart, Dysart & Jones; Bill Fisher, San Jose State;  Richard Hulser, Natural History Museum Los Angeles County; Deborah Hunt, Information Edge; Jill Hurst-Wahl, Syracuse University;  Juanita Richardson Dysart & Jones Associates; Thomas Rink, Northeastern State University; Ethel Salonen, The MITRE Corporation; Donna Scheeder, Library Of Congress;  Jan Sykes, Info Mgmt Svcs Inc; Rebecca Vargha Univ. of North Carolina School of Library and Information Science; Ulla de Stricker, de Stricker Associates

Do you have a vexing workplace issue and are not sure where to turn?  Are you facing a career decision and would like some advice from senior SLA members who have “been there?” Using a speed dating format, you will have the opportunity to run your challenge past some of SLA’s most knowledgeable and experienced members as they act as a sounding board and give you their take on your situation. This is not resume review or assistance with a job search, but rather a chance to pose that question you were afraid to ask and get an answer from some of the most seasoned professionals in our industry. 

Monday, June 10th                 8:00 am – 9:30 am     

BUSINESS MEETING: Leadership and Management Division Business Meeting and Breakfast

Amy Affelt, Compass Lexecon, Director of Database Research

Join division chair Amy Affelt and the LMD board for a review of the events of the past year and a look at the future. The Karen J. Switt Award will be presented.

 Monday, June 10th                 8:00 am – 9:30 am     

CONTENT BUYERS SECTION SESSION: Content Buying Hot Topics for 2013, Robin Neidorf, FreePint Director of Research; Bill Noorlander, BST America

The session has 3 parts – panelist presentation, attendee ‘round table’ discussion, Q&A * The two panelists will provide an overview of the Content Buying issues and challenges for 2013; * Attendees will have the opportunity to discuss their own challenges, issues and possible solutions on dealing with the challenges of content buying in 2013

Monday, June 10th                 10:00 am – 11:30 am

Leadership: A Commanding Officer’s Viewpoint, Winton Smith Captain, United States Navy

Come hear the Commanding Officer of Naval Base San Diego, Captain Winton Smith, talk about his leadership experiences and how his lessons-learned and insights can benefit information professionals. Welcome Aboard!

Co-Sponsored with the Military Division

Monday, June 10th                 10:00 am – 11:30 am

SPOTLIGHT SESSION: Organizing Knowledge, Patrick Lambe, Straits Knowledge

Internationally known, Founder, Straits Knowledge, and Author, Organising Knowledge: Taxonomies, Knowledge and Organisational Effectiveness, shares insights on the roles that taxonomies can play in knowledge and information management. Patrick looks at a variety of ways in which taxonomies can underpin other important knowledge management applications, such as content management systems, records management systems, search, data warehouses, etc.

Monday, June 10th                 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm     

MARKETING SECTION SESSION:You Built It. They Didn’t Come. Now What? Communications for Managing Change, Joleen Schultz Joleen, Schultz & Associates

Think about it. We ask people to modify how they request our services. We launch new web site interfaces. We replace familiar databases with other resources. We introduce new services. We enhance our abilities to add insights to our research. Information and knowledge services are either initiating change themselves, or they are being changed by external forces. And you’re at the epicenter. You’ve embraced the changes but how do you get everyone else on board? Change management communications calls for understanding how people change and how communications can affect change. Join us for lunch as our speakers discuss how communications are developed to modify habits, perceptions and processes related to changes in information services. Key communications components will be outlined and best practices will be shared.

Monday, June 10th                 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm     

LMD and KMD Open House

Join your SLA colleagues from the Leadership & Management Division and the Knowledge Management Division for a networking reception that will be second to none! Let’s stay classy, San Diego!

Tuesday, June 11th            10:00 am – 12:00 pm     

Disaster Planning for Information Professionals, Tahirih Fusscas; Tim Siftar, Drexel University Libraries; Dan Wilson, University of Virginia

SLA’s members are experts in information sharing environments and structures. They excel in setting up collaborative systems. They are more likely to occupy a neutral role within their organization as an unbiased provider of quality external information. Come learn how you can be indispensable to your organization when disaster happens! It’s no longer “if,” but “when.” Think Hurricane Sandy, the Derecho, and the mid-Atllantic earthquake. Focus will be on lessons learned by affected libraries and information centers as well as guidelines for effective disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. Using social media during and after an incident will also be discussed.

Tuesday, June 11th                       2:00 pm –3:30 pm      

Leading from the Library: How Can I Be a Leader When ________________? Ulla de Stricker,  de Stricker Associates; Gloria Zamora

In this interactive session, a panel of three SLA leaders will offer their practical experience to help you overcome leadership challenges you face in your work.  Attendees will have two minutes to explain their leadership challenge and our panel will have five minutes to respond.  This session will be facilitated and attendees are encouraged to share and participate.  During the last ten minutes attendees will have a chance to identify and share the “golden nuggets” they will takeaway from this session.

For anyone thinking of establishing a consulting business…

There’s no sense in reinventing the wheel or making beginner’s mistakes when it comes to YOUR livelihood.  Invest three hours and $50 on May 2 at this workshop in Indianapolis to get your business off to a good start.

Hit the ground running with Pam’s and Ulla’s down-to-earth guidance and expert advice.  Come get the definitive overview of the myriad details you must decide about.  Learn about the practical arrangements you must put in place. Discuss the personal challenges you are likely to encounter.  Take away “been there, done that” insights to save you time and effort and minimize risk.

Ulla DeStricker and Pam Casey are experienced independent information professionals who are known for their engaging, positive, and effective – not to mention honest! – presentation style. Both Ulla and Pam are also well-known SLA members.

Check it out and register at http://www.aiip.org/WorkshopCaseyDeStrickerEntrepreneurship.  Any questions?  Send a note to ulla@destricker.com and pamcasey@informationnow.ca.

Joint LMD-Consulting Section & Pharma & Health Technology Division Breakfast Session: SLA 2011. A Report by Jan Sykes. 

Speaker: Mary Ellen Bates

Sponsorship from Sage. There were approximately 30 persons in attendance.

Mary Ellen Bates, in a presentation entitled: “Pack Your Parachute:  Transitioning from the Library to an Independent Information Professional” discussed the skill set needed by persons interested in becoming information entrepreneurs including:

·         Tolerance for risk and ambiguity

·         Business owner perspective instead of employee mindset 

·         Client-focus

·         Strategic thinking

·         Self-discipline

Mary Ellen noted that she learned to be an independent information professional while working in a Fortune 500 company and she still draws on things learned earlier in her career: research skills, importance of a network of colleagues and the ability to identify opportunities to add value. She has developed business skills, such as the ability to close a sale, to talk comfortably about money and to look at herself as a brand and a business. She did not minimize the challenges of finding clients, managing cash flow, overcoming the imposter syndrome, keeping motivated and managing her time effectively. The serious, practical questions asked during the Q&A time suggest a number of persons are considering the pros/cons of ‘packing their parachute’

Are you or do you know someone who is a consultant, who might become a consultant and or who may be in a position to hire consultants, please complete our brief (6 questions) survey about SLA’s CONSULT Directory at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CONSULTdirectory.

Jan Sykes & Lorri Zipperer, LMD Consulting Section Co-Chairs

Hi Everyone,

For sometime now, I have been looking for a central place that I can post and store links to my articles. In addition, I wanted to find a way to harness the knowledge of others while helping a large number of professionals learn more about new technology and social media.  In my spare time (i.e. generally evenings and weekends  ) I committed time to develop a new company called Jvenu, LLC. The mission of Jvenu is to become a trusted source for information and consulting. It  is a company that publishes analyses about  technology and social tools having an impact on the information industry. Advertising, consulting, and workshops are offered to enhance users experience with various popular web applications.

For more information you can visit Jvenu at www.jvenu.com. Subscribe to the blog!.

You can also follow all weekly post at:

Don’t forget to check out my official launch post at Jvenu Publishing.

Members of the LMD Consulting Section represent services such as information brokering, strategy consulting and technical consulting. This includes consultants within an organization, and those serving external clients.

The Consulting Section maintains the CONSULT Online as a directory of SLA members who are library consultants. A search on this database is free and is available to members and nonmembers interested in locating a consultant who may assist, on a normal commercial basis, with such areas as library management, technical services, and subject specialty.

If you are someone who is a consultant, who might become a consultant and or who may be in a position to hire consultants, please complete our brief survey

Help us by sharing this survey with others who may be interested.

Jan Sykes & Lorri Zipperer
- LMD Consulting Section co-chairs

Example for Marketing category — Originally posted to IMPACT by Jill Hurst-Wahl on June 26, 2010 at 01:44 PM

At the SLA Annual Conference in New Orleans, I moderated the session “The Consultant’s Toolkit: Tips, Techniques and Words of Wisdom” for the Consultants Section of the Leadership and Management Division.  On the panel for the session were:

• Deborah Wynot
• Jan Sykes
• Marcy Phelps
• Margaret (Marge) King

In the audience were ~60 people, with ~30% already working as consultants, ~40% who were thinking about consulting as a career, and the remainder there to pick up tidbits that might help them deal with consultants. Some lessons from the panel:

• When beginning a consulting business, it is important to have an lawyer, banker and accountant as advisors.  If you also include an insurance agent, you then have your BAIL team (banker, accountant, insurer, and lawyer).
• A lawyer and accountant can advise you on the best form for your business, e.g., corporation, S-corp, limited liability partnership or sole proprietorship. (more info)
• An information consultant does not have high start-up costs.  Often you can get started after designating some space in your home, acquiring basic office furniture, and a computer.
• While start-up costs are low, it can take months or years for a consulting practice to find a rhythm and to have steadier cash flow.
• Marketing is always important, even when you have many projects.
• It is important to have enough financial resources to survive periods of low income.  You’ll also need to have money to live off of at the start of your business, since it is generally unlikely to have a paying client immediately.
• Don’t invest in a lot of marketing material.  While an expensive brochure sounds great, most find it unnecessary to invest in a lot of them.
• Setting your fee structure means understanding your costs (all of them).  You also need to know what your market will bear.  Mary Ellen Bates’ book Building and Running a Successful Research Business: A Guide for the Independent Information Professional, Second Edition contains useful information that will help you with this task.
• Understand what type of work you want to do as well as the type of work that you do not want to do.
• For work that is outside of your scope, hire someone else to handle it.  It could be a contractor or part-time employee.
• Being a consultant can mean working all the time, since you’re your own boss and there is always something to do.  It is important to create time away from work.
• The number of projects/clients you can handle at one time will vary.
• Your consulting practice/focus will change over time and that’s okay.
• It is important to interact with other consultants and learn from them.  There seems to be a growing number of consultants in SLA.  There is also the Association of Independent Information Professionals.  Jan Sykes noted that the Consulting Section is going to work on a consultants directory for SLA.

The group told many stories to illustrate the points above as well as the other things discussed.  Consultants in the audience provided good information, too.  The questions raised by the audience were very useful. Interestingly, after the session, I had two people tell me that they learned that they did not have the moxie to be a consultant and thanked me for helping them learn that!

The above was adapted from a blog post in Digitization 101.

At the SLA Annual Conference in New Orleans, I moderated the session "The Consultant's Toolkit: Tips, Techniques and Words of Wisdom" for the Consultants Section of the Leadership and Management Division.  On the panel for the session were:

• Deborah Wynot
• Jan Sykes
• Marcy Phelps 
• Margaret (Marge) King

In the audience were ~60 people, with ~30% already working as consultants, ~40% who were thinking about consulting as a career, and the remainder there to pick up tidbits that might help them deal with consultants.
Some lessons from the panel:

• When beginning a consulting business, it is important to have an lawyer, banker and accountant as advisors.  If you also include an insurance agent, you then have your BAIL team (banker, accountant, insurer, and lawyer).
• A lawyer and accountant can advise you on the best form for your business, e.g., corporation, S-corp, limited liability partnership or sole proprietorship. (more info)
• An information consultant does not have high start-up costs.  Often you can get started after designating some space in your home, acquiring basic office furniture, and a computer.
• While start-up costs are low, it can take months or years for a consulting practice to find a rhythm and to have steadier cash flow.  
• Marketing is always important, even when you have many projects.
• It is important to have enough financial resources to survive periods of low income.  You'll also need to have money to live off of at the start of your business, since it is generally unlikely to have a paying client immediately.
• Don't invest in a lot of marketing material.  While an expensive brochure sounds great, most find it unnecessary to invest in a lot of them.
• Setting your fee structure means understanding your costs (all of them).  You also need to know what your market will bear.  Mary Ellen Bates' book Building and Running a Successful Research Business: A Guide for the Independent Information Professional, Second Edition contains useful information that will help you with this task.
• Understand what type of work you want to do as well as the type of work that you do not want to do.  
• For work that is outside of your scope, hire someone else to handle it.  It could be a contractor or part-time employee.
• Being a consultant can mean working all the time, since you're your own boss and there is always something to do.  It is important to create time away from work.
• The number of projects/clients you can handle at one time will vary.  
• Your consulting practice/focus will change over time and that's okay.
• It is important to interact with other consultants and learn from them.  There seems to be a growing number of consultants in SLA.  There is also the Association of Independent Information Professionals.  Jan Sykes noted that the Consulting Section is going to work on a consultants directory for SLA.

The group told many stories to illustrate the points above as well as the other things discussed.  Consultants in the audience provided good information, too.  The questions raised by the audience were very useful.
Interestingly, after the session, I had two people tell me that they learned that they did not have the moxie to be a consultant and thanked me for helping them learn that!

The above was adapted from a blog post in Digitization 101.

Consultants Section event – Monday, June 14 10:00-11:30am
Convention Center, Room 203

A panel, members of the Leadership and Management Division’s Consulting Section and the Association of Independent Information Professionals, will share their knowledge and answer questions from the audience. This session will be a must for anyone who is considering starting a consulting practice as well as those who are experienced consultants, because there is always more to learn. (Consultants Section)

Moderated By: Jill Hurst-Wahl, Hurst Associates, Ltd. & Syracuse University

Speaker(s):
Jan Sykes, Information Management Services, Inc.

Marcy Phelps, Phelps Research

Margaret King, InfoRich Group, Inc.
Deborah Wynot, Library Consultants, L.L.C.

All LMD Programs on spreadsheet & 2-page handout available on LMD wiki
Or see page 38 of the SLA 2010 Conference Guide

- Patricia Cia, Director,
Leadership & Management Division

SLA has recently partnered with the Association of Independent
Information Professionals (AIIP) to offer reciprocal discounts on
new-member membership fees and on the organizations' upcoming
conferences.   This is a limited time offer. Please click here http://www.sla.org/content/membership/mbrbenefits/aiip/index.cfm
for details.

These two associations share many common interests as well as members in common. This is a unique opportunity to take advantage of the benefits of AIIP membership if you are not already a member.