This month’s theme is “learning & growing”.  There are a number of ways we as information professionals can discuss and even illustrate our growth.  Consider making a post today that talks about a resource or service that helps you professionally.

In addition, there are some great conversations taking place via LinkedIn Groups.  Why not weigh in…

Group: Special Libraries Association
Discussion: My background is in math, science, and software engineering.

Group: Special Libraries Association
Discussion: In the latest issue of Information Outlook, Seth Godin provacatively states that we need more incompetent librarians. He says that competence is the enemy of change. Does he have a point?

Group: SLA Europe and Leadership & Management Division of SLA
Discussion: Just curious, how often would you say that you engage in conversations via LinkedIn, i.e. once a week, twice a week, none, etc.?

The SLA Leadership Summit took place last month in Atlanta, GA.  Our division was well represented and a majority of time was devoted to planning for the next two SLA Annual Conferences in Chicago and San Diego respectively.  Our conference plans for Chicago are firmly in place with outstanding programs due to the hard work and creativity of all our excellent planners.  We have a plethora of fascinating sessions planned and are ending the July 2012 conference in style  with an architectural boat tour of the city in the evening.  The tickets will sell out fast, so if you are planning to attend that particular event be certain to buy those tickets early!  Hoping to see you there.

In looking ahead to 2013 and San Diego, the conference theme for next year is Connect, Collaborate, Strategize. If you have specific program ideas in mind please contact James Manasco who is our planner for next year. We have some programs in mind and always welcome your ideas. Who knows, maybe we will have a program at the San Diego Zoo!

There are changes in store for the length of the 2013 conference which will have a decided impact on our program planning.  At the Leadership Summit, we heard that the schedule has been refocused after extensive discussions with conference attendees, leadership and suggestions from the SLA CE task force.  Our conference begins on June 9 and is completed by June 11, 2013.  The Opening General Session will begin on Sunday, June 9 at 9:00am and the exhibits will open later that morning.  There are four 120 minute time slots available for division planners to provide more advanced programming.  In this current economic climate, the benefits of a shorter conference will be tangible with more collaboration among division planners and cost savings for SLA. Programs will be planned for Sunday, June 9 through Tuesday, June 11 and Wednesday, June 12 is reserved for tours.

In terms of highlights, attendees at the Leadership Summit heard about the Loyalty Project from James Kane again.  He is an expert on the science of what builds loyalty.  Mr. Kane has a global reputation and he talked about the composition of organizations like SLA.  One of the most interesting statistics he cited was that in any given chapter of SLA there are about 20% of people who are actively engaged.  What about the rest?  Sucessful organizations create trust, belonging and purpose.  He also asked the following question:

” If SLA developed an app would it be on your front page or on page five?”

In summary, the other interesting highlight was hearing about a new book titled, Quiet : The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain.  This title was voted the among the Amazon Best Books of the Month for January 2012.  She looks at introverts from a psychological research point of view as well as brain chemistry.  The author began her career as a corporate attorney on Wall Street and is also an introvert.  Her new book specifically addresses the challenges of introverts in the workplace and in families.  I am either checking it out from our collection or downloading this title next on my Kindle!

The past twelve months were filled with a myriad of activities for LMD.  From a successful annual conference in Philadelphia with very popular programs to  virtual professional development opportunities in 2011 our division leadership team is working to bring the content requested by our membership.   The programming for Chicago is in place with many activities planned for the annual conference in 2012.  These are some of the highlights:

Two of our sessions at annual conference are designated as Spotlight Sessions:

1. Meaningful Measures: How Do Buyers and Sellers Show ROI?

2. Reinventing Library Skills

The range of other conference sessions is diverse from contract negotiation to marketing plus an architectural boat tour of Chicago and an open house.  There is something for everyone so make your plans soon to attend the SLA Annual Conference in 2012!  Our elections were held and new officers will be joining the leadership team next year.

We are on board with virtual professional development and hosted sessions in 2011 featuring Cindy Hill on Sept 22 and Matt Reis on Managing Conflicts on Oct 20.

Our new year starts off right with a  virtual session on Jan. 12, 2012 with Bethan Ruddock on Alternative Careers.  Wishing you a joyous holiday season!

Rebecca B. Vargha
Chair LMD 2012

I’ve been reading the book One Person/Multiple Careers: A New Model for Work/Life Success this past week. Then I found out that this month’s SLA LMD theme is work/life balance. What a coincidence. Speaking of books and work/life balance, here are two books that I recommend:

One Person/Multiple Careers: A New Model for Work/Life Success by Marci Alboher

The Other 8 Hours: Maximize Your Free Time to Create New Wealth & Purpose by Robert Pagliarini

What books about work/life balance do you recommend?

Lisa Chow is a 2011 SLA Rising Star and the current DBIO Medical Section Chair. She blogs at People Interact about usability, user experience, unconferences, interactions and all things people. Find out more at http://bit.ly/lisachow.

Jamal Cromity & Ulla de Stricker

New Review of Information Networking (NRIN), Taylor & FrancisVolume 16, Issue 2, 2011 
pages 167-184

 Abstract

Our article acknowledges technologies and enterprise solutions as common tools for knowledge management deployed to help foster collaboration. Though the tools are made widely available by forward-thinking executives, and though there is a torrent of knowledge management thought as evidenced in the sample literature, knowledge workers continue to have difficulties transitioning to acting out the commonly accepted philosophy of sharing knowledge. The focus of our comments is a review to highlight some of the primary technical and behavior barriers hindering the use of collaborative technology….

For more go to:

http://jvenupub.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/silo-persistence-its-not-the-technology-its-the-culture/

Re-post from Jvenu.com …

Re-post from:

http://wp.me/p1ofc7-cZ/

There is no doubt that our world has lost one of the most creative leaders, who was also one of the most technologically and business savvy people of our time. Steve Jobs was an inspiration to many and I for one hope and pray we are able to find and celebrate such brilliant leaders in life as we do in death…

Read more

It’s time to focus on LMD’s leadership for the next year.  We’re excited and fortunate to have leaders in our division running for Chair-Elect and Treasurer. Voting is now open for the following SLA LMD Candidates for 2012:
•       Chair-elect: Amy Affelt
•       Treasurer: Doris Helfer

On October 5, you should have received a SurveyMonkey ballot via email (if you have provided SLA headquarters with your email and have not opted out of SurveyMonkey). You have until Tuesday, October 11, 5 p.m. ET (GMT -5) to vote.

Respectfully submitted,

Deborah Hunt
Principal, Information Edge
dhunt@information-edge.com
+1 510.506.1541

Rebecca Jones
Dysart & Jones Associates
rebecca@dysartjones.com
905.731.5836

As a new information professional, I’ve been asked “How do you develop or gain leadership skills when you’re not in a leadership position?” As Donald H. McGannon said, “Leadership is action, not position.” It’s about what you do.

There are many opportunities to lead without title. Here are some of my experiences and suggestions:

1. Get involved with planning and coordinating events. 
It can be an existing event or something new. Two colleagues and I put together the Library Workers’ Skill Share event last year.

2. Take on a leadership role in an association like SLA on student, local and national levels. 
I was involved with SLA@Pratt, a student chapter of SLA and am currently serving as the SLA DBIO Medical Section Chair.

3. Propose ideas and take the lead on them.
This doesn’t necessarily have to be the workplace. It can be internships, volunteer positions, proposal for a conference program or poster session, etc. I have pitched ideas and worked on various projects (unconferences, pilot of a reference service model, etc.) in the past few years.

I’ve had the opportunity to facilitate roundtable discussions on the topic of leadership. Below are links to the handouts. I hope they’re sources of inspiration and ideas.

• Changing Stewardship: What can different generations of librarians teach each other?
• Being An Audacious Leader When Introducing Change

Henry Mintzberg said, “Leadership, like swimming, cannot be learned by reading about it.” So go ahead, dive in and lead.

What are your tips and suggestions for leadership development?

Lisa Chow is a 2011 SLA Rising Star and the current DBIO Medical Section Chair. She blogs at People Interact about usability, user experience, unconferences, interactions and all things people. Find out more at http://bit.ly/lisachow. 

There is a lot to reflect on as my 5-year anniversary in this career approaches. Librarianship has turned out to be a career of change for me already. When I first started at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, I was primarily a research librarian with scheduled hours at a reference desk. Now, only a few short years later, I’ve ventured into the realm of knowledge management – working on our content management and enterprise search teams, developing internal communities of practice, and more.

I’m very grateful that I stumbled into a profession with such a variety of applications and an ongoing opportunity to learn new things and gain new skills. I’ve met so many librarians and information professionals whose jobs have changed dramatically over the years, whether intentionally or not, but almost all of them have embraced it. It’s amazing to meet someone that has worked in a grade school library, a corporation, and a university all in the same profession.

I look forward to what the future of my career might bring. No matter what, I know that it’ll involve some degree of change, and I welcome that.

Ashley M. Conaway
Maryland Chapter 2011 President
2011 Rising Star Award Recipient

Challenges of Buying and Selling Content in 2011: A Report by Valerie Ryder

It was standing room only at the Tuesday, June 14^th session sponsored by the Leadership and Management Division, Content Buying Section at the SLA 2011 Conference that highlighted “Challenges of Buying and Selling Content in 2011”.  A panel of buyers and sellers discussed issues facing both sides of the content acquisition process in a debate style presentation that was skillfully moderated and involved the audience in the lively dialogue.

Topics and discussion ranged over a variety of “hot spots” in the content landscape.

Ensuring that terms of use regarding content are respected and abided by outsourcing firms or consultants

One solution was to establish a three-way license agreement among the content provider, the content buying organization and the outsourcing firm or consultant.  Another solution was to ensure that the contract with the outsourcing firm included actions and penalties to cover violations by the outsourcing staff.  Another issue that surfaced was the requirement to ensure that the outsourcing firm purged all data that was obtained from content providers when an outsourcing contract ended.  A related issue was to require precautions to be taken by the outsourcing firm to ensure that data obtained from content providers was used only on projects performed for the content buying organization.  Concerns were expressed that some offshore outsourcing contractors state that they can provide equivalent content, often at much lower prices, to replace the licensed content required for projects.  Content buyers as well as content providers expressed the need to ensure that the equivalent content was indeed equal to the licensed content and to determine that the source for the equivalent content was legitimate.  Some content buyers require that the outsourcing firm provide them with copies of their contracts with the content providers as proof of the content that will be used on their projects.

Vendor enhancements to their products

Content buyers took issue with the practice of added features resulting in additional cost for the product, especially when they were not involved in requesting or prioritizing the new features.  Content providers often request direct access to end-users to give them a better view of what users need.  Content providers lamented the decrease in interactions with end-users over time.  They expressed the concern that product development often misses the mark when intermediaries interpret end-user needs on features needed because they are too remote from the end-users.  Content buyers countered with the viewpoint that end-users always like new features without considering the value of the new feature or the increased price.  Panelists debated the question of who pays for the new features – the buyers or the sellers, as a cost of staying competitive in the marketplace.  The example was given that executives are high on using their iPads but does the vendor add the cost of an iPad app to an existing contract for content?  A balance must be reached between vendors wanting end-users to critique new features during development with a content buying organization’s requirement to control access to end-users by vendors.  Both sides of the debate agreed that effective product development involving end-users must be based on mutual trust and respect between buyers and sellers.

Price increases

Content buyers expressed the need to keep price increases within certain percentage range to abide by their budget constraints.  Content providers countered with the viewpoint that market demand dictates price increases.  Some content buyers are willing to consider price increases if there is more transparency in the factors used to determine the price increase.  One content provider expressed the opinion that conversations about price increases took place during the Great Recession that would never have occurred in the past.  Some content buyers suggested the approach that content providers keep their prices flat to enable content buyers to be able to renew their contracts because if they drop the content then they learn to do without that content and will not re-subscribe when budgets are increased.  Some content providers expressed their need to make up for past years of flat pricing in their revenue stream.  The discussion around usage-based pricing elicited the analogy of the “crack model” – get them hooked and then raise the price.

Usage data

Practices of certain content providers not to provide usage data were soundly criticized by content buyers.  Some content buyers include clauses in their contracts that require the provision of usage data and specify the level of data detail.  Content sellers promoted the view that buyers need to consider the value of the content used, not just the volume of usage.  Content providers also use data to determine which content to keep or discontinue so they track usage at the data element level.

Decision-making in the buying process

Content sellers lamented the change that has occurred in the last 4 – 8 years where the decision-making has shifted from the information professional to the purchasing, legal or market data group in an organization.  This shift has introduced a lack of transparency in the negotiations process as a group of people make the decision rather than one person.  Content sellers feel that this shift has driven up their costs in the selling process.  Part of their dilemma is that the sourcing person does not know their product nor its value to the content buying organization.  Content sellers must find a champion within organization because end-users can influence a decision but not make the buying commitment.

The moderated debate format ensured that many viewpoints were expressed, discussion was lively and appropriate amount of time was spent on each of the topics.

Valerie Ryder, Director of Information Strategy
Wolper Subscription Services