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Rebecca Jones posted this in Lib, IM, KM on May 1st, 2012 Juanita Richardson, new associate to Dysart & Jones Associates, is candidate for SLA Presidency. Kudos to SLA for running q & a’s to help the membership get to know more about the wonderful slate of candidates.
SLA: When did you first join SLA? What made you decide to join then, and why do you still belong today?
Juanita Richardson with two SLA Past Presidents, Jane Dysart & Stephen Abram, at OLA Superconference
Juanita:
I joined SLA in 1988 when I landed my first job as Assistant Librarian at ScotiaMcLeod (an investment bank) on the advice of my boss, mentor and friend, Angie Devlin. I had been aware of SLA but, being new to Toronto at that time, didn’t realize how strong the SLA community was here. I was – if you can believe it – a very shy young librarian and Angie convinced me that reaching out to the SLA community would be a great way to develop professionally and personally. How right she was! REASON #1: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT.
In less than a year, I was asked to take on my first “task” within the chapter: I was responsible for thanking our speakers at one of the chapter meetings. The speakers that evening included Stephen Abram, Rebecca Jones and Deirdre Grimes. I don’t remember what they talked about but I certainly remember how nervous I was. I had never done any public speaking before! I had already written out my little thank you speech – completely unrelated to anything
Continue reading Juanita Richardson: Q&A’s for SLA President Candidate
Rebecca Jones posted this in Leadership on April 30th, 2012 I recently met Graham Lavender, a recent MLIS graduate seeking employment in the GTA. Many colleagues ask me “what’s the caliber of the new grads?” My response? “Awesome.” These new grads are ‘out there’ — networking, taking extra courses to further their insights, gaining experience with different types of positions, and writing. And, most importantly, they are contributing to and participating in professional associations. Like so many of us, they recognize that CLA, OLA, SLA and many other library associations are OUR associations: they are foundation for networking, advocating, learning, and, as Graham writes here, leadership development.
Graham is a talented writer, and I thank him for letting us share his thoughts on leadership development through our professional associations. For more writing by Graham, check out his blog at grahamlavender.com. Here he reflects on his involvement with associations in Montreal, where he worked for two and a half years as a liaison librarian at McGill.
By Graham Lavendar
For many, library school is a time of heady optimism and ambition. Students graduate with the desire to land a job and immediately set to work improving their new library, armed with a post-graduate degree’s worth of theory and best practices. Unfortunately, most entry-level librarian positions do not include leadership as a core duty, and this can leave new professionals feeling impotent and unappreciated. Why should someone with twenty or thirty years of real world experience (in addition to an MLIS and possibly numerous publications and other scholarly work) be given leadership roles over
Continue reading Leadership Development Through Professional Associations
Rebecca Jones posted this in Conferences on April 11th, 2012 Juanita is a candidate for the SLA Presidency. The candidates responding to questions that will better acquaint the membership with the candidate’s perspectives and opinions.
SLA 2012 Leadership Summit: Liz, Juanita, Gloria & Allison
SLA: Question: What sort of advice would you give to professionals, both newly minted and more seasoned professionals, who might be interested in nontraditional career paths?
Juanita:There is no such thing as a non-traditional career path. Our background and training have provided us with the skill set to select, acquire, organize, manage and share information. While these skills are fundamental to a traditional library environment, they are also fundamental to any organization where data / information / intelligence / knowledge is at the hub of that organization’s business. And in this knowledge economy – and in the face of the information explosion that is the Internet, more and more organizations have come to recognize the importance of information.
The pace of change combined with a sophisticated technical infrastructure to manage information has reached a stage where NOT having staff in place to manage not just the technology (the “pipes”) but the actual content, the data, the intelligence, the “water” means that that organization is not capitalizing on the one quality that can differentiate one company, one university, one country from another: our intellectual capital.
This is our moment. The time is now to expand beyond our traditional environments and take on new challenging roles in career paths that are, in fact, the exact right fit for us.
Continue reading “Traditional” Career? What’s That?
Juanita posted this in Organizations on February 13th, 2012 At the recent SLA Leadership Summit, James Kane – considered to be the world’s foremost expert on what makes an individual truly “loyal” to a product, brand or, in this case, association – made a very interesting remark about love. He pointed out that the 43% of members who are “Predisposed” to SLA (more on that in a moment) is our biggest association blind spot: because we think they love us … but they don’t.
Working with SLA, James has undertaken the Loyalty Project to ascertain how SLA members fit on a scale of relationship levels and what percentage of the members are “loyal”. Based upon a statistically significant survey, the following profiles SLA’s relationship levels with members today:
Relationship Level Survey says Definition LOYAL 6% Members who are committed to SLA. They perceive that their relationship with SLA makes their lives better, easier, happier. PREDISPOSED 43% Members who are satisfied with their relationship with SLA – they are happy with the status quo and will stay as long as it’s comfortable. However, if the association changes, these members will need to re-evaluate their relationship with the association. TRANSACTIONAL 45% Members who receive value for the money they spend on the association services. Their reason for belonging is purely based upon receiving a specific product or service – be that discounted conference registration, member rates for meetings, etc – for the money paid. ANTAGONISTIC 6% Members who actively or passively do not support the association. They may continue
Continue reading SLA: What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Rebecca Jones posted this in Conferences, Lib, IM, KM on June 8th, 2011 This blog post is being posted to Future Ready 365 today. Are you a future ready information professional?
A few weeks ago Jane Dysart, Kim Silk and I were fortunate to hear Daniel Pink talk at the Rotman School of Management Life-Long Learning Conference for Leaders, ‘How to Get Your Business Back to Reality.” His latest book, Drive, bases “the surprising things that motivate us” on 40 years of human motivation research (here’s a pdf summary of Drive). It wasn’t his discussion about what does or doesn’t motivate us that caught my attention, although that is fascinating and worth a blog post(!); it was his discussion about the need for organizations to challenge and re-think base assumptions on which they are building their strategies.
I’m increasingly concerned that that the library sector and information profession must do just that: challenge, re-frame and quite possibly re-think our base assumptions and the practices and approaches built on those assumptions. Pink re labels assumptions “orthodoxies”. Labelling and viewing what we, as a sector and profession view to be truths as “orthodoxies” rather than assumptions forces us to see the deep-rooted concreteness of these “truths”. It is these deep roots that make it somewhat painful to question the validity of these orthodoxies today and, more importantly, tomorrow and into the future.
I laugh, both because laughter is healthy and because for a profession that has an orthodoxy (yes, a truth – an assumption!) of finding and delivering answers to any question, we aren’t
Continue reading Curious Enough to Question “Orthodoxies”
Fantastic SLA PH&T Division conference at the Hilton Bonnet Creek in Orlando, began with Kevin Davies, Chief Editor Bio-IT World and author of The $1,000 Genome (Free Press 2010). He’s an unbelievably engaging, articulate, funny & informed speaker. And he explored the revolution in DNA sequencing technologies, personal genomics and the evolving environment of personalized medicine. Yep. Personalized medicine. Today, for $200, you can spit in a cup & have your DNA screened; this isn’t the detailed DNA sequencing that identifies EVERYTHING about your physiological make-up, but it can identify significant abnormalities in your DNA — such as a man whose screening revealed he had advanced prostate cancer with NO symptoms. Talk about customized — he was able to take the results to his doctor and steps were taken (surgery, cancer treatment) to save his life. As the price point of DNA sequencing continues to drop, how will people handle this information? what’s the impact on the medical system? on the insurance system? Certainly DNA sequencing will help with drug develop, patient stratification and tailoring treatment; it will also raise huge questions regarding how organizations and insurers handle this information. Davies ended with the premise of “the 15 minute genome by 2014″.
Yo. That’s a premise. Holding much promise & peril. Every evolution, revolution & innovation brings promise & peril.
And that’s what struck me as I gave a talk about Thinking Strategically & Critically. As we consider & question our assumptions regarding access and resources, we open up possibilities. And, with possibilities —
Continue reading Innovations bring promise & peril
Jane Dysart posted this in Uncategorized on June 25th, 2009 Isn’t it interesting that as the Special Libraries Association, a 11,000+ member organization representing corporate, government, industry, medical, hospital, and legal libraries as well as other specialized libraries residing in larger institutions, discusses once again a possible name change to the 100 year old organization that a there is an organization called The Corporate Library. Out of Portland, ME, The Corporate Library is a 10 year old research firm that tracks corporate governance issues. Huh.
Jane Dysart posted this in Uncategorized on April 22nd, 2009 SLA is 100!
It must have been a very interesting world in 1909. Here are three immediate (to me) organizations celebrating their centennials. The Special Libraries Association, an organization representing 12,000+ librarians with specialized collections and services in corporations (law firms, banks, pharmaceuticals, manufacturers, hospitals, ettc) around the work, celebrates their centennial this year. The Toronto chapter of SLA is having a gala to celebrate next month — I’m very excited about attending. The association’s 100th annual conference is being held in June in DC (where SLA’s HQ has been for many years, including when I was President in 1995/6). Should be a great event starting off with keynote speaker Colin Powell.
And now we are into ice hockey NHL playoffs and the Montreal Canadiens are 100! Check out the many jerseys and logos from their past. I am not a Canadiens fan but I certainly respect their longevity and strength over the years. It will be interesting to see what’s in their future.
Leons is a furniture store in my area and it is 100 years old too. Quite a history. I was most impressed that the current CEO went across Canada celebrating with all the employees. Nice.
Jane Dysart posted this in Conferences on March 27th, 2009 Congratulations to Donna Scheeder on her new appointment as Acting Law Librarian of Congress. The Law Library of Congress is the largest law library in the world with over 50% of its collection in languages other than English. The Legal Reseearch Directorate advises the US Congress on foreign and comparative law. Here’s a recent interview with Donna that Mary Dee Ojala did about the Global Legal Information Network, GLIN, an international co-operative that is headquartered in the Law Library of Congress. The Law Library is the content owner of THOMAS, the database of congressional bills, documents and laws. Staff of the Law Library reading room remain available to Congress whenever they are in session.
Donna is also very active in her Capital Hill community and is currently the Chair of the Eastern Market Community Advisory Committee. The market will be moving back to its historic building in July following rehabilitation after a devastating fire in 2007. Donna will be receiving the Capitol Hill Achievement Award at a dinner benefiting the Capitol Hill Community Foundation on April 22, 2009.
Donna is very active in the library community. She is a past president of the Special Libraries Association, a former member of the Governing Board of International Federation of Libary Association and Institutions (IFLA), and on the advisory committees for Computers in Libraries and Internet Librarian.
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