A product that you might want to consider using for finding a collection of construction codes and standards is  MADCAD.com.  This online subscription service provides content from major content providers in one, searchable online database, saving time. I’ve found that Madcad.comis a great online resource.

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For any information professional interested in bringing the ideas of futures and trends to their workplace, this execuBook is worth a look. Author, Pero Micic, describes a model of seeing and understanding the future in The Five Futures Glasses: How to See and Understand More of the Future with the Eltville Model. 

Free access to execuBooks through aheadSpace is a benefit of your SLA membership. execuBooks are 15-minute summaries of business books published and delivered every week via email. execuBooks can be read on your computer in html or PDF versions and on your PDA, mobile or BlackBerry. You can sign up for your free subscription at http://www.sla.org/content/learn/members/execubooks/index.cfm

This book doesn't claim that the future is knowable, but it attempts to provide a framework for managing it. The author offers five techniques for viewing and addressing different aspects of the future: assumption analysis, surprise analysis, opportunity development, vision development and strategy development.

The summary provides "a way of thinking about the future to make it more easily understood. It will be of interest to business leaders and others with responsibility for planning and strategy."

In the second issue of Information Outlook in 2009, Stephen Abram wrote an article entitled "Start Now: 30 Days to Prepare for Your Next Position".  One piece of advice is to update your resume.  As you do that, consider whether the resume format you've been using is appropriate for you now.  Most people create resumes where everything is in chronological order.  While that's nice, it may not highlight your skills and accomplishments in the way a functional resume would.  A functional resume works very well for those people who are looking to do something completely different and need to demonstrate that they have the correct skills to do it.

Here are a few more tips on resumes and cover letters:

• The cover letter should be customized and highlight information about you in relation to the job for which you are applying.  If your cover letter reads like a "stock" cover letter, the hiring manager may think that you're not really interested in the position.
• Generally cover letters are one page in length, but a two-page cover letter is not unheard of.  If your cover letter is more than one page, make sure that it is warranted.
• If you're serious about wanting the position, do a little search before you write the cover letter.  It may help you customize the cover letter even further and will demonstrate that the organization and position are of interest to you.
• Everyone has different advice on the length of a resume.  A resume of 2-3 pages will likely suffice. If you want a longer resume, consider first if there is someway of shortening it while keeping the most pertinent information.
• If you are applying for an academic position (e.g., professor), then your curriculum vitae may be extremely long (and appropriate). 
• If you are unsure how long your resume should be, consult with a few colleagues especially those who have recently hired staff or been on search committees.
• Be aware of the language you use in both your cover letter and resume.  For example, use action verbs.  Jargon and buzz words can be appropriate, if the reader will understand them.  For example, medical jargon might not be understood in a law firm.
• Be sure to talk about the positives in your career that will be meaningful to your potential employer.  This might not be the size of your library, but rather the organizational money saved, contracts won, products brought to market faster (and a lower cost) — in other words, the impact of the work you have done.
• Even on resumes that are submitted electronically, headers and footers can be helpful since the resume (and cover letter) may be printed.  If the hiring manager is printing several, that additional information will help the person keep the correct ones together.

SLA has resources on its web site (for members only) that can be very helpful to you.  These include:

• Career Planning and Competencies
• Opinions and Perceptions of the Library Profession
• Mentoring
• Salary Surveys
• Information Industry Job Resources
• Federal Job Resources
• Miscellaneous Internet Job Resources

Finally, if you are not job hunting, you should still be keeping your resume up-to-date.   An investment of just 15 minutes can help you keep your resume polished and ready in case you need it.

Hi all, I have sent this message to the LMD discussion list as well. If you didn’t see it, perhaps you should check out the Discussion list link below. 

Thank you to those who have contributed to Impact and our Discussion list. Keep the stories, tips and questions coming.

A friendly reminder of all the great communication tools we have as Leadership & Management division members!

Impact: SLA Leadership & Management Division Blog ** You are here!

• SLA LMD’s newsletter and blog for sharing leadership and management experience, tips and resources among members
• You can comment on any of the stories. If you want to contribute articles, you need to advise Christina of your Typepad id.

LMD Wiki

• We are currently developing the Wiki more fully.  Be patient with us as many of the links continue to point to our web site.
• We have set up conversations to continue discussions started at the 2008 conference in Seattle. Feel free to go to these pages and contribute to the conversation
  • Perspectives of New and Senior Info Pros
  • Senior Management Perspectives wiki
  • Content Buyers Conversations
• Do you have content ideas or features you would like to see on our wiki? Now is the time to let me know!

LMD Web site

• Current "home" for LMD business, sponsor information, conference activities and more

LMD Discussion List – Subscribe today. This is how we contact you for feedback or advise you of LMD business

• Sign in with the email you use to subscribe to this discussion list
• Web interfact includes archive of all postings and is searchable too so you no longer need to keep all those messages

Thank you for listening and I look forward to hearing from you,
Patricia

I know…Blog Day was yesterday (Aug. 31), but this is a holiday weekend, so…Happy Labor Day (in North America) and happy belated Blog Day!  Here are five blogs that I’ve found that might interest you:

1. Sterling Performance — Part of BNET and written in the UK, this blog is about leadership. Recent posts include Time to Hurry Up?, Why Everything’s Urgent Now, and For Compelling Visions, Keep it Simple.
2. The View from Harvard Business — This is also part of BNET.  Recent posts include Entrepreneurs Should Love a Recession, A Few Productivity Tips From Lifehacker’s Gina Trapani and Avoiding Tainted Love: How Pixar Builds Sustainable Creativity.
3. Drew’s Marketing Minute –Based in Iowa, recent posts include Marketing through the eyes of Harry Potter, Where should you spend your marketing budget in ’09? and Why do you exist?
4. The Berkun Blog — Written by Scott Berkun, recent blog posts include How do you teach leadership in high school?, More on learning from mistakes and How not to set goals: Steve Ballmer, a case study.
5. TEDBlog — TED’s tagline is "Ideas Worth Spreading." The blog is a mix of text and video.  Recent posts include The making of an activist: Ory Okolloh, How kids teach themselves: Sugata Mitra and Psychology’s final frontier: Staying sane in space.

By the way, if you have come across a blog that we all should know about — or remind of a blog that we should be reading — please leave a comment! 

Technorati tag: BlogDay2008

Impact’s theme this month is leadership & management. Do you have a
favourite book related to this theme? Personal reflection? Please share!

During the perspectives of new information professionals session at SLA, Daniel, Stacey and I all identified project management as a necessary skill in our careers. It’s been interesting talking to others about this — it sounds like this isn’t a skill being taught in most information schools. Personally, I had a great management course that laid the foundations for me, including setting a vision and goals for a project, developing a project plan, and budgeting time and resources. I had the advantage of writing process documentation for a major web development firm in Vancouver during my MLIS, which gave me in-depth knowledge of one project management process. Since then, it’s all been hands-on. I’ve thought about PMI certification, but haven’t pursued it so far.

Do you use project management tools in your work? If so, how did you learn them? Have you found any good courses or books you would recommend?

In case you didn’t see this on the Click U blog, I’ve copied it below.

At the Annual Conference, Ulla de Stricker spent time talking to people about her new book,  Business Cases for Info Pros: Here’s Why, Here’s How.  Released by Information Today (and also available through Amazon), the book "explains why, when, and how a formal business case can
be used as an effective tool for gaining support for information-based
projects."

In thinking about this book, I wondered…Who else in the Leadership & Management Division has written a book recently?  And who has had an article published recently?  (Let’s say in the last 12 months)  Please leave a comment and let us know. These are important accomplishments, so toot your horn!

The theme for this month in the LMD Blog is "Books & Authors."  I’m a non-book-reading-librarian and — yes — we’re a rare breed.  So, when a book captures me enough to actually read it, it’s big news!  While in Seattle, I had the good fortune to hear Chris Carlsson speak at Elliott Bay Book Co.  Carlsson spoke about his latest book, Nowtopia: How Pirate Programmers, Outlaw Bicyclists, and Vacant-Lot Gardeners are Inventing the Future Today!  mmm…pirate programmers (e.g., those writing open source software) and vacant lot gardeners in the same book?   I was intrigued and am now halfway through the book. 

The product description says (in Amazon):

As capitalism continues to corral every square inch of the globe
into its logic of money and markets, new practices are emerging through
which people are taking back their time and technological know-how. In
small, under-the-radar ways, they are making life better right now,
simultaneously building the foundation-technically and socially-for a
genuine movement of liberation from market life.

Nowtopia
uncovers the resistance of a slowly recomposing working class in
America. Rarely defining themselves by what they do for a living,
people from all walks of life are doing incredible amounts of labor in
their "non-work" time, creating immediate practical improvements in
daily life. The social networks they create, and the practical
experience of cooperating outside of economic regulation, become a
breeding ground for new strategies to confront the commodification to
which capitalism reduces us all.

As I heard him speak about people using their non-work time to create "community property" (my words) that benefit many people, I immediately thought of the work people are doing in Second Life to create places, products and services that are available to everyone.  In Second Life, people feel free to share what they know, as well as their skills, to build what is needed and valued.  (For some, that is a stark contrast to what they do in their real jobs.) 

As an association, many of us give of our time and talents to create what others need.  In some cases, we create what is needed ourselves because no one else will do it for us.  And we do these creations for the good of the community (the association).  In this regard, we are part of a larger do-it-yourself movement, which is most visible in home improvement stores, but is perhaps most effective in more community-based projects such as cooperatively developing software, creating community-based libraries outside of the normal bureaucracy, and developing ways for people to share resources (e.g., community gardens).

Carlsson does — I think — a thorough job documenting the history of this movement (or movements).  He provides both a macro and micro view of what has and is occurring.  More importantly, he allows us to see that some of the rogue stuff we do (e.g., creating unsanctioned library services in places where none had existed before) is more important than we might think.

BTW I’d like to thank Continental Airlines for canceling my one flight, so that I had to stay in Seattle longer than expected.  That allowed me to hear Chris Carlsson.  Funny how things work out!

Last year, I worked with the Central New York Library Resources Council to create a Mentoring Toolkit for its members.  The toolkit is also available for others to use.  In the toolkit are the following documents:

• What Is Mentoring?
• Common Questions From Mentors
• Common Questions From Mentees
• Mentoring Memo Of Understanding
• Mentoring Activities

In addition, several resources were purchased for their members to use.  All are available through your local library or for purchase through a bookstore.

One thing that really stood out to me, as we researched mentoring, is that the ball is in the mentee’s court.  The mentee — the one being mentored — is the person who should ask for mentor, who should schedule the meetings, and who should be in the driver’s seat.  That does not always occur.  Often a mentee will look to the mentor to drive the relationship, which is not that person’s role. 

While working on this, I was also mentoring someone and I found myself changing the relationship.   I decided that  I would be there when the mentee needed me, but that it wasn’t my role to lead the relationship.  If a mentee is serious about being mentored, and if the relationship is set up properly, then the mentee should feel comfortable being in the lead.

I hope you’ll take a look at the resources.  They were constructed for use by library staff members in a wide range of libraries — libraries just like yours.