Ha…now that I have your attention (398 views last month…Awesome!)

Many great leaders have noted, “…change generally does not happen without some struggle…”

Now that voting is underway and members have the right to make a decision on whether they are for or against the name change, I just hope we can all get along…LOL

But seriously, whether the name Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals is selected or not, we will still need to move forward with change.  Reflecting on the next steps of the association and the changes to come, I really would like us to change the way we state our business.  Here are some of the things I would like to see the association improve…

· Using the website, brochures, and other collateral do a better job of explaining what the association represents.  For example, on the main page of the website provide a concise statement that says,

“The Association represents librarians and information professionals who work in large and small corporations, information centers, knowledge management services, professional online information services, consultants’ services, government Institutions, law firms, specialist agencies, organizations, departments, and much more.”

· If SLA remains the name or not, provide a definition of “Special”.  For example, accompanied with imagery we could say…

· Concisely and with imagery, state who we serve.  For example, we could say we serve…

o   Members

o   Businesses that employee librarians and information professionals

· Clearly state what we offer to our members:

o   Knowledge Sharing

o   Continued Education through course work, e.g. UClick

o   Information Standards & Certifications regarding:

§  Collecting, gathering, administrating, managing, marketing, referring, researching, analyzing, collaborating, web designing/development, implementation, and/or testing.

o   A conducive atmosphere for networking

o   Job Referrals (Full time and Temporary Projects)

o   Annual Salary Survey; Publications (i.e. Information Outlook, E-Newsletters)

· Finally, clearly state what we offer to businesses we serve:

o   Venues for…

§   Lead generating

§  Advertising

§  Business and Product promotions

o   Referral Services

o   Employment Advertising

Session Handouts

Several of the LMD sessions were "experiential" such as the one on Dynamic Communication, and so did not have handouts or presentation slides. However, some of the events have been reported in blogs including here in Impact (Conference Category). Feel free to contribute your impressions!

Available presentations, handouts or speaker notes are also housed on the SLA 2009 Conference Handouts page (and the LMD website) and include:

Monday

Social Networking: the Essence of Innovation(PDF, large file) / Jay Liebowitz

To stimulate innovation, people need to reach out beyond their own area.
Social networking research highlights the importance of carefully
constructing one's social networks to best leverage knowledge
internally and externally. Organizations should aim to provide enabling
mechanisms to stimulate knowledge discovery. Leibowitz discussed how
social networking can lead to innovation, based on his book "Social
Networking: The Essence of Innovation"

LMD Business Luncheon Presentation – No Excuses (PDF) / Stephen Abram

As part of the the LMD business meeting, Stephen Abram, the globe-trotting
past-president of SLA shared stories about innovative leaders from
around the world, focusing on their strategies and successes, and
illustrating how we can learn from the practices of others. Abram's
goal is to inspire us to become innovative leaders.

Tuesday

Critical Thinking (PDF) / Rebecca Jones, Dee Wallace

Critical thinking is a key competency for all information professionals. It
leads to results such as sharper competitive intelligence products,
clearer, more persuasive proposals and udget justifications, more
effective problem solving, and better taxonomies. How we can improve
our critical thinking skills and engage them in our work?

*** Thank you to our Partners and LMD Members

Patricia Cia is Coordinator, Technical Services & LIbrary
Systems at Langara College. She is a LMD Director and Member of the
Centennial Commission. Patricia can be reached at pcia@langara.bc.ca

[I had orginally posted this to the LMD Wiki thinking you all might be happier posting there, but LMD's blog - Impact is the happening place, so ...]

Thinking on Your Feet: Dynamic Communication

First LMD session of the conference began bright and early at 7 am on Monday and was a perfect start for me. Greg Hohn, from Transactors Improv, began the session by having us participate in
the Clam & Dragon exercise to wake us up (it worked). He went on to
show us how to open ourselves to dynamic communication. Take-aways for
me include:

• It is okay to be embarrassed – rarely fatal
• Important to be intellectually and emotionally flexible
• Plan for events but you don't need to stick with those plans (again, be flexible)
• Put
  yourself in the other person's shoes and communicate in ways that your
  listener understands, not necessarily how you feel comfortable (tap
  into their self-interest)
• 75% of communication is via body language and tone of voice
• Confidence
  often deserts you when you need it most. Take stock of how you sound,
  stand, talk, move when you are most confident and then practice so that
  you can emulate those behaviours when you need to fake confidence.  If
  you look and sound confident, people will treat you that way — will
  start a positive feedback loop
• Don't forget to breathe! Slow
  down, the slower you breathe, the more oxygen your system gets and it
  also helps to project confidence.

Although I didn't actively volunteer for going to the front, I
admire those who took a chance and helped us learn. My question is, how
would you describe e-mail and the microwave to Rip Van Winkle who had been asleep since 1809??

 - Patricia

Now it is your turn…

This year the Leadership & Management Division helped sponsor Laura Woods, a winner of the SLA Europe Early Career Conference Award (ECCA). Laura Woods is a student at City University in London and will earn her MSc Library and Information Studies
in 2009. She works part-time in the evening at the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn and will shortly  begin working at the law firm, Davies Arnold Cooper.

In order to enhance Laura's experience at the SLA 2009 Annual Conference, Sylvia Piggott volunteered, on behalf of LMD, to mentor and guide Laura. Thank you Sylvia, we knew would be a great. When Betty Jo presented the award at the LMD Business Luncheon in Washington, she asked only that Laura take full advantage of what the conference offers and to report back to us on her experience.

Report from SLA 2009 Conference

When I applied for the ECCA, back in December, I must admit that I didn’t really think anything would come of it. I applied with my usual philosophy of “it couldn’t hurt to try” in my mind, so when I got the email informing me that I’d been selected as one of the ECCA winners I was absolutely shocked and delighted!

The five-and-a-bit days I spent in Washington DC were a whirlwind of activity. It felt like I’d only just arrived when I was boarding the plane to fly back home! The entire experience was packed with so many opportunities for learning and networking that the time flew by. It probably took me a day or so after I’d got home to synthesise everything I’d learned and experienced while I was there: I’d started keeping a blog shortly before the conference, and I found this a really useful tool for organising my thoughts.

The opening of the conference on Sunday was a fantastic insight into the kind of work that SLA does. I was fortunate to be able to attend the Fellows meeting before the opening ceremony – my Leadership and Management Division mentor, Sylvia Piggott, very kindly invited me along – and it was fascinating to be able to observe the issues discussed around the Alignment project and the plans for next year’s conference.

I was really impressed by the obvious talent and commitment to the profession displayed by the many award winners honoured during the opening session, and it was wonderful to see their hard work being recognised by SLA. General Colin Powell’s keynote speech was quite an eye-opener: I hadn’t expected him to be such an entertaining speaker. He spoke about the value of information and information professionals, and his own dedication to ensuring that his staff had the tools they needed to remain effective in the information age (for example, buying 44,251 new computers for the State Department).

Over the next few days, I attended a number of informative and inspiring sessions. Of particular interest to me were several sessions on effective communicating and presenting –I am aware this is a weak point of mine, so I learned some very valuable techniques from these sessions. I found Sharol Parish’s session, “Speak as if Your Career Depends On It”, especially useful – I took away a lot of very practical tips on body language, articulation, posture, etc. that I was able to put into practice straight away.

I also very much enjoyed Mary Ellen Bates’ presentation on “Creating Groupies: How to Add Value, Make Yourself Indispensable and Beat the Pants off Google” (with a title like that, how could any librarian resist?). The talk was filled with good, practical advice, backed up with some interesting statistics from the SLA Alignment research (for example, the information professional’s role of conducting research on behalf of users is much less valued by clients than info pros believed it to be: our clients actually place more value on making information available to the desktop and creating a culture of knowledge sharing).

The various receptions and networking events throughout the conference were a great way to get chatting to people I probably wouldn’t have spoken to otherwise. The First-Timers event was a fantastic ice-breaker, and it was wonderful to talk to some other non-North American SLA members at the International Reception on the Monday. I made some great contacts at all of the Division Open Houses I went to – I had to learn very quickly to get over my British reserve and just introduce myself to people I didn’t know! It was terrifying at first, but well worth the effort.

This has been an incredible experience: I cannot thank SLA Europe and the Leadership and Management Division enough for making this possible. I returned from the conference feeling inspired by all of the interesting, committed, talented information professionals I had met, and enthusiastic about beginning my career in information. I am so glad to have seen all of the work that SLA does for its members, and look forward to a long and rewarding association with the organisation.

I am so grateful to have discovered the Leadership and Management Division, and am sure that it will be a resource I can continue to turn to throughout my career. I would advise anyone with an interest in leadership and management issues in library and information services to join LMD – I was so inspired by the ideas that came out of the LMD-run sessions I attended, as well as the LMD business meeting luncheon. I have been following the LMD division’s blog for some time, and always find the thoughts of the blog contributors to be thought-provoking. I am looking forward to seeing how this blog develops, as well as how it integrates with the other social networking tools the division is using (such as the Facebook group).

Laura Woods

Patricia Cia asked that people post here what we may have posted about the conference elsewhere.  Below are links to blog posts I did about the conference.  What struck me about the conference?

• 5,856 attendees from 30 countries.  The largest number of conference attendees in six years.  In a down economy, it was heartening to see that people valued coming to the conference and found ways to make it happen.
• Excellent keynote speakers who understood and talked about the value of information. It was thrilling to see the diversity among our keynotes speakers!
• Sessions where I learned from the presenters as well as from the audience.
• Great conversations during the unconference sessions.  I helped to facilitate unconference session #3 and was very pleased with the interaction. (notes)  Attendees really valued time for conversations like this.
• A wonderful location near historic places and beautiful architecture. 
• Realization that we all need to understand the Alignment Project and its results.  The results are meant to help us as librarians and information professionals to position ourselves as well as position the Association.  As part of the Association’s repositioning, a name change will again be proposed.  The potential name change idea when immediately into the spotlight and may have forced other aspects of the Alignment Project into the shadows.  Gloria Zamora and Janice LaChance announced at the SLA Second Life Unconference session on Thursday that a vote is anticipated before year’s end.  (Note from the in-world unconference session will be posted here.)

The 2010 annual conference will be in New Orleans on June 13 – 16.  Start planning now to be there!

Related blog posts:

• Remember to look up
• We tweet, therefore, we are!
• Soaking Up vs. Giving Back
• What a week!
• Wikis, Tweets, and Blogs, Oh My!
• Google bashing? No, but some truth-telling.
  
• Funding for the Future: Preserving the Past

Richard Hulser of R. P. Hulser Associates moderated a lively discussion between:

• Chris Olson, Chris Olson & Associates
• Jill Hurst-Wahl, Hurst Associates, Ltd.
• Ulla de Stricker, de Stricker Associates & Author, Business Cases for Info Pros: Here's Why, Here's How
• Jim Tchobanoff, Tchobanoff Research & Consulting

The group discussed how they started their businesses (and why), things they had learned along the way, and tips/techniques they wanted others to know. Not only did the audience learn from the panelists, but the panelists also learned from each other!

From left to right: Richard Hulser, Chris Olson, Ulla de Stricker, Jim Tchobanoff, and Jill Hurst-Wahl.  Photos taken on Jim's camera and used with permission.

See http://destrickerblog.typepad.com/ for my comments on Colin Powell's speech at SLA.  General Powell gets it.

Some thoughts from SLA …

Opening General Session with Colin Powell:  "It's not the same …"

Thinking on Your Feet:  Dynamic Communication with Greg Hohn:  "BE the ball!"

Social Networking: The Essence of Innovation with Jay Liebowitz:  "Innovation is the killer app for corporations."

LMD Business Luncheon with Stephen Abram:  "No excuses …"

Library of the Future:  Discovery in the Round with Stephen Abram, Richard Hulser, Cindy Hill and Linda Stoddart:  "The who based their business model on retrieval will be screwed when information doubles every 15 seconds!"

Creative Practices:  Discovery in the Round with Gary Price, Cindy Romaine and Mary Schwartz:  "Fail harder!"

Transformational Leadership: Inspirational Language with Steve Denning:  "Get their attention – then elicit desire – then give reasons."

Critical Thinking with Rebecca Jones and Deb Wallace:  "Just do it … and repeat."

-Juanita – Past-Chair, Leadership & Management Division

Well SLA 2009 in Washington DC is over. We learned,shared, networked, conducted business, and partied!  I hope you had the opportunity to attend the conference and have come home revitalized and full of enthusiasm (well, maybe after a bit of a rest in your own bed).

If you have blogged (such as on the SLA Blog), posted reviews or commentaries elsewhere, maybe you could share your links (especially for the LMD sessions) or if you would like to a report on LMD sessions here, feel free to do so [not already an Impact contributor, contact Jamal Cromity, or add comments to the LMD Conference Reports wiki page.

This year, the Leadership & Management Division helped co-sponsor with SLA Europe, a new-to-the-profession person. Laura Woods was at the LMD Business Luncheon and she attended some of the other LMD sessions. Laura has posted her impressions and take-aways on her blog. Thank you to Sylvia Piggot for being our liaison and guide for Laura.

It was a pleasure to see so many of you enjoying the conference!
 - Patricia

p.s. I have added a report to the LMD wiki page on "Communicating Dynamically" to get that venue started for those that feel more comfortable there.

Patricia Cia, LMD Director and Member of the
Centennial Commission. She is Coordinator, Technical Services & LIbrary
Systems at Langara College. Patricia can be reached at pcia@langara.bc.ca