Welcome to another exciting year with the Special Libraries Association Toronto Chapter.

I’ve always been a strong believer in professional associations. These social networks, particularly the SLA, are a catalyst for the successful information professional. They allow their members to connect, share ideas, and hone their skills. They compliment our professional positions, and ensure a broad and rich perspective of our vocation as a whole. Most importantly, they are an excellent resource to help us express our passion for our work and cultivate this passion among others.

It is with great pleasure that I introduce to you your 2012 executive board.

Kimberly Silk – President Elect
Jennifer Burns – Past President
Heather Brunstad – Treasurer
Erin McDonald – Secretary
Greg Barber – Technology Director
Christine de Luca – Membership Chair
Katya Pereyaslavska – Programming Director
Melanie Brown – Partner Relations Director
Stacey Piesner – First Five Years Director

I would also like to take this opportunity to share some some of the underlying themes behind our goals:

Enhance the Chapter’s Online Visibility and Enhance Communications

Whether our members work in the downtown Toronto, or hours away from the city, they look to the Chapter’s online resources to stay connected. Technology Director Greg Barber, and his team, will strategize ways to expand the abilities of our amazing new website. (A special thank you to the extraordinary efforts Daniel Lee and his team for launching this last year.) We will also increase outreach through a strong social media presence. Our executive, and hopefully all of our membership, will make a point of using our Twitter feed to communicate items of interest to the chapter. We will also grow our LinkedIn and Facebook communities, allowing members to connect with the diversity within our association. Be sure to follow and mention the SLA Toronto Chapter on Twitter @slaToronto.

Another objective in 2012 is to add a little pizzazz to our Chapter’s newsletter, The Courier. As you can see, the new editors are already well on their way achieving that goal.

Building Relationships with Members, Partners, and Other Associations

Relationships are the heartbeat of the chapter. That is why it is important to maintain and grow our membership core, our partnerships, and our connections with other associations.

We will secure and develop partnerships, while maintaining those valuable relationships we already have. These relationships help keep partners connected to hundreds of their core clients. Their presence also helps SLA Toronto continue to deliver quality programming to our constituents.

Since we are so lucky to be geographically situated with in a diverse and thriving city, we’ve been able to partner with other associations. In 2011, SLA Toronto partnered with the Toronto Health Libraries Association, the Toronto Special Libraries and Information Services (T-SLIS) Network, and the Faculty of Information’s Alumni Association. This year we have already branched out and co-marketed an event with Toronto’s Strategic Competitive Intelligence Professionals and with T-SLIS.

Finally, we will grow our membership. So many professionals will be able to connect, learn, and grow with the Special Libraries Association.

Programming

Programming has always been a pillar within the SLA Toronto Chapter. We’ve also discovered, through membership survey analysis, that a variety of events are wanted by members. Skills development is an important element of programming. Off to a strong start in January, we were invited to a session hosted by SCIP, Dr. Craig Fleisher’s Using KITs +1 in Boosing Your Organization’s Analytical Fitness. In February, the Chapter partnered with Springer and brought an exciting halfway workshop on eContent success to Toronto, which featured Mary Ellen Bates as the keynote speaker. We also have Ulla De Stricker on board for a Career development series targeted at New Information Professionals, and run by our New Information Professionals coordinator Bernadette Rocca.

Also important to our membership is ideas sharing. Our programming will include tours of libraries and other events that will foster discussion. A month and a half ago members of SLA Toronto and T-SLIS warmed the front room of the Dora Keogh Irish Pub for a salon like discussion on ebooks and libraries. In addition to the development, it is also important to connect with colleagues. The networking and socializing touchstones of our Chapter will also be strong this year.

The executive board, the advisory board, and by extension all members of SLA Toronto, are engaged, dynamic, and passionate advocates for our profession. In 2012 the SLA Toronto Chapter will continue this role, as a dynamic network and resource, making us stronger, together.

— Laura Warner
SLA Toronto’s President

In addition to the recurring columns, this issue also introduces SLA Toronto’s 2012 Executive Board, and Laura Warner outlines her goals for the year in the President’s Letter. Peter de Jager has contributed an article outlining his top six “don’ts” that contribute to successful presentations. SLA Toronto’s very own Programming Director, Katya Pereyaslavska, and her partner in crime, Stephen Spong, detail the origins of the Toronto Desk Set—a grass-roots organization of information professionals with an alternative view on networking. Plus, SLA-Toronto/T-SLIS Blue Winter Article Club Night attendee, Eric Smith, has provided a review of the event and a summary of the engaging discussions that developed throughout the night.

Conference season is fast approaching and we’ve got the evidence! This issue contains two conference announcements: the first is the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) 2012 Conference taking place in Toronto the second week of May, and the second is the 2012 Special Libraries Association Annual Conference taking place in Chicago the third week of July.

We hope you enjoy this issue and The Courier’s new look. Submissions are always welcome. Please send your comments, ideas, or suggestions to:

Kelly Butler
kelly (at) kllybtlr (dot) com

Yannet Lathrop
yannet_l (at) yahoo (dot) com

In addition to reconnecting with old friends, making new connections, and planning world domination, we had a chance to get to know our SLA Board and to discuss their vision and strategy for 2012. Even though we all voted back in the fall, you may wish to remind yourself of who’s who on the SLA Board of Directors. Take a look at. Having spent a few days with all these fine people, I encourage you to contact them with any ideas you may have for the association.

One interesting resource I learned about while at Leadership Summit was the SLA Leadership Connections blog. One part of this blog I find really useful is the Chapter Idea Bank where chapter members from all over the world add their ideas for sharing. This is definitely a resource I’m going to check out!

One of the most exciting and inspiring announcements to come out of Leadership Summit were the 2012 Rising Stars. Information professionals working on Wall Street, at a leading classical music publisher, at National Public Radio, and in support of the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of International Information Programs have been named 2012 Rising Stars of the Special Libraries Association (SLA). To get to know them, visit here. The Rising Stars will be recognized and awarded at the 2012 SLA Annual Conference this coming July.

— Kim Silk
SLA Toronto’s President-Elect

Sharon Bailey, Toronto
Alisha Barron, Toronto
Julia Chun, Toronto
Isabelle Duford, Montreal
Brooke Gardhouse, Toronto
Eva Gavaris, Toronto
Sandra Geddes, Toronto
Maggie Kawalerczak, Toronto
Makeda Marc-Ali, Toronto
Geoffrey Milos, Toronto
Patrick Mooney, Toronto
Simone O’Byrne, Toronto
Melissa Pengilly, Toronto
Katherine Schmidt, Toronto
Susan Shepley, Mississauga
Koren Siddles, Hamilton
Matthew Singleton, Toronto
Heather Smierciak, Toronto
Laurie Stoddard, Pembroke
Mimi Szeto, Toronto
Samantha Tator, Toronto
Emily Vella, Toronto
Vicky Zazulak, St. Catharines

I look forward to meeting each of you at an upcoming SLA Toronto event!

— Christine DeLuca
SLA Toronto’s Membership Director

This marks long-time editor Frances Wong’s last People on the Move column. We would like to thank Frances for her amazing work on the column over the years ans wish her the best in all her future endeavors.

We’d also like to welcome Kim Stymest as the new column editor. Kim graduated in 2010 from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information and has been working in academic and special/government library settings since. She has experience editing the Faculty of Information Quarterly during “library school,” co-wrote an article with Kate Petch that was in the Summer 2011 issue of the Courier, and writes for her personal blog. She is looking forward to working on the People on the Move column and picking up where Frances left off after her significant contributions to the column and newsletter.

People on the Move is a regular column highlighting the achievements of our members and helping us all keep in touch. Please share your career changes, retirements, life changes, or volunteer work with column editor Kim Stymest.

Laura is a Media Librarian in the Content Management department at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Since graduation with her MLIS and MPA degrees from Dalhousie in 2007 she has held several positions within CBC’s Libraries and Archives. She has also been the Business and Economics Liaison Librarian with Wilfrid Laurier University. Laura has been actively volunteering with the SLA Toronto Chapter since 2008 when she took on the role of New Information Professionals Program Coordinator and in 2010 she took on the responsibility of Technology Director. Laura also loves blogging, reading, cycling, but most of all raising her three-year-old daughter.

President-Elect | Kimberly Silk

Kim has over fifteen years of digital media experience and is actively engaged in the interactive media, library and education industries. Since 2008 she has been the Data Librarian at the Martin Prosperity Institute, a think-tank at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. Between 2001 and 2009 her consultancy, BrightSail, served a variety of clients including corporate, academic, government, and non-profit organizations. Kim has a particular passion for digital collections and online communities. As a librarian, she prides herself on understanding how to provide the right information to the right audience at the right time, with a focus on providing a positive and rewarding user experience. Kim believes in giving back to the profession, and is actively involved in several professional associations; she was President of the Faculty of Information Alumni Association (2009-2011) is a member of the Canadian Library Association’s T-SLIS network, and is President-Elect of the Toronto Chapter of SLA. Kim’s research interests include emerging technologies in libraries and education, managing digital collections, and applying social media principles to knowledge management. She is also keenly interested in pushing the boundaries of what it means to be a librarian and a leader in the 21st century. Kim earned her M.L.S. (Library Science) from the University of Toronto, and a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Waterloo.

Past President | Jennifer Burns

Jennifer is a Collection Development Manager (Western Canada) for YBP Library Services, a Baker and Taylor company. Prior to joining YBP in September 2009, Jennifer worked as an Information Specialist at BMO Financial Group’s Institute for Learning, providing reference services in support of learning and development at the Bank of Montreal.  She holds a Master’s degree in Information Studies from the University of Toronto. Jennifer has been a member of the Toronto Chapter since 2004. She lives in Toronto with her husband Philip and tabby cats Harry and Meep.

Treasurer | Heather Brunstad

Heather has worked in both academic and public libraries but has found her niche in special libraries and currently holds the position of Manager of Bibliographic and Permissions Services at Access Copyright. Heather is a solutions-oriented Library and Information Management Specialist with strong leadership experience excelling in the fields of technology, research, and information organization. Heather has been a volunteer with the SLA Toronto Chapter since 2003 in the following positions: Student Rep, Registrar, Programming Director, and Treasurer.  Heather is a graduate of the MLIS program at the University of Western Ontario.

Secretary | Erin McDonald

Erin graduated from the University of Western Ontario’s MLIS program (FIMS) in 2010. While at FIMS, Erin resurrected and chaired the FIMS SLA Student Group. She began her information career at PwC as a co-op student in Knowledge Management Operations, and has since had roles in expertise location and social media at the firm. After graduation Erin began to get more involved with SLA Toronto, including a recent stint as a speaker at the Enterprise Social Media event. Erin is currently the Knowledge Manager for Internal Firm Services at PwC and is studying Project Management at the University of Toronto. In her spare time Erin enjoys gaming and baking, and currently lives in Toronto with her fiancé, Patrick and their two rabbits, Moose and Margaret.

Technology Director | Greg Barber

Greg has more than twenty years of experience providing library and research services to engineering, business, government, and academic clients in Ottawa, Calgary, and Toronto. Presently, Greg is an Information Specialist at Rotman Information Solutions, the fee-based research arm of the Business Information Centre, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Greg has an MLIS from the University of Western Ontario and a BA in English from Wilfrid Laurier University.

Membership Director | Christine DeLuca

Christine currently holds the position of Law Librarian/Intelligence Analyst at Bennett Jones LLP where she answers a variety of research questions and provides support in respect to practice planning and competitive intelligence. In the past, Christine worked at Bora Laskin Law Library and participated in a practicum placement at the Library of Parliament in Ottawa. She is a recent Master of Information graduate from the University of Toronto. An active member of the SLA Toronto Chapter since 2010, Christine may have helped you register at events last year as a chapter registrar.

Programming Director | Katya Pereyaslavska

Currently a Media Librarian at CBC and a Reference Intern at the Dorothy H. Hoover OCADU Library, Katya Pereyaslavska is the co-founder of the Toronto Desk Set —a local organization of information professionals with an alternative view on networking. While her professional experience has been quite diverse and includes internships at the University of Chicago, Harvard, and the Art Gallery of Ontario Libraries, the common thread that connects the variety of positions that she has held is her dedication to the advancement of librarianship—be it through library promotions through social media, effective reference and cataloguing services, or publications. Having published her first peer-reviewed work in Art Documentation in the Spring of 2011, Katya has published extensively in The Courier and other Library Association Journals. She also runs her blog called The Socialite Librarian.

Partner Relations Director | Melaine Brown

Melanie is an information professional at the forefront of using knowledge and information in active and forward-thinking ways to facilitate good decision-making as a competitive advantage. She was the Senior Information Specialist, Sidney Liswood Library, at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Ontario and is currently the Manager, Digital Research of the ThinkFOOD! Information Café at Maple Leaf Foods in Mississauga, Ontario. Melanie has written scientific articles, co-authored clinical papers, presented at numerous conferences across North America, lectured at universities and colleges, and hosted a health sciences radio show in London, Ontario. She has Bachelor of Health Science and Master of Library Information Science degrees from the University of Western Ontario and an executive marketing leadership certificate from Schulich School of Business at York university. She served a term as the president of the Ontario Health Libraries Association. Melanie has a passion for food, wine, and travel and currently lives in Toronto, Ontario.

First Five Years Director | Stacey Piesner

Stacey is a Research Specialist in National Tax Research Services at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Prior to joining PwC Stacey worked as a Information Consultant in Business Information at KPMG and as a Research Specialist at the Canada Revenue Agency. She holds a Master’s degree in Information Studies from the University of Toronto and an Honours Bachelor of Science from the University of Guelph. Stacey has been a member of the Toronto Chapter since 2006 serving as the co-chair of the SLA Toronto Student Group, then taking on the role of New Information Professionals Program Coordinator in 2010, and has now moved into the First Five Years Director position. In her spare time, Stacey enjoys reading, watching movies, and travelling.

Kelly is a recent graduate of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information (2011) with a focus on media and research librarianship and government information. She is currently working as a Virtual Reference Intern with Knowledge Ontario’s askON and a Media Library Assistant in the Image Research Library at the Canadian Broadcasting Company. Previously, she served as Library Intern and TIFF Transportation and Transcription Coordinator for CTV’s etalk, and a Library Assistant in the Special Collections and Archives Department of the University of St. Michael’s College John M. Kelly Library. Originally from Prince Edward Island, Kelly received her undergraduate degree in anthropology from the University of Prince Edward Island and worked with a number of non-profit organisations including AIDS PEI and the PEI Council of People with Disabilities.

Yannet Lathrop

Yannet is a graduate from the Faculty of Information (University of Toronto), where she also works as a researcher. Previously, she served as Digitization Associate and Cataloguer for the John M. Kelly Library (University of St. Michael’s College), and as Project Manager for the Parson’s Institute for Information Mapping (NY), where she managed the production of a political mapping tool. Yannet has a particular interest in government librarianship, as a result of her Political Science background and her work with government documents and information resources during internships in the U.S. Congress and the Ontario Legislature. In addition to her editorial duties for SLA Toronto, she is currently serving as Director of Membership for SLA’s Government Information Division (DGI).

While the giving of presentations is hardly what one would consider a critical skill, it is never-the-less guaranteed to do far more to advance, or halt, your career than all your hard earned in-depth knowledge of whatever area you’ve specialized in over the years.

Teaching how to give a great presentation is beyond the scope of the space available, so I’ll take the cheap and easy road and merely point out what not to do, in order to give a good presentation. It’s a foregone conclusion that if you’re giving a slide presentation, then you’ll choose to use something like Microsoft’s PowerPoint. With that assumption in place, here’s a half dozen JRTAs (Just remember this advice.).

#1 “I know you can’t read this but!”

Sit through any ten presentations and I’ll lay even money that nine of those presenters will put up a slide so incredibly complex, detailed, and convoluted, it is impossible to read, never mind decipher. As they place this marvelous creation in front of you, they’ll say “I know you can’t read this, but…”

Question to the expert? If you know we can’t read it…why are you showing it to us? Putting aside all pretense of being “politically correct”, this is the number one stupid, idiotic, bizarre (I mentioned stupid? right) mistake made by speakers.

Suggestion? Don’t put up slides you know people can’t read.

#2 You’re the presenter, not Powerpoint.

Do not place all the content of your presentation on the slides, leave most of it for yourself to present. Use the slides merely as reminders of what you have to communicate. Slides are useful and effective when used to present graphical information, but useless when used to convey passion and enthusiasm for your subject.

Suggestion? To find out if your slides contain too much of your presentation, practice your presentation without using the slides.

#3 The audience isn’t illiterate.

Ahem, here’s a hint. The audience can read your slide—faster than you can voice the words. By the time you read the first sentence, they’ve read the entire slide and are bored to tears waiting for you to catch up.

Suggestion? Don’t deliberately bore your audience, they don’t appreciate it.

#4 Can they read it at the back?

Fact: Nobody can read 12pt font from the back of the room… If the audience cannot read your slides, then you’re not communicating, you’re annoying them again. This would not be necessary to point out, except that most presentations are not legible from the back of the room.

Suggestion? Use nothing less than 24pt on your slides, 30pt is even better.

#5 Can they read it anywhere?

There is a very good reason why ink is black and paper is white…the high contrast between the two colours makes it easy to read the printed word. This isn’t news. Someone by the name of Gutenberg knew this a long time ago, but somehow far too many presenters have forgotten this bit of wisdom.

Suggestion? Don’t use yellow text on a white background, or black text on a dark blue background.

#6 You have a finite amount of time, use it wisely.

Let’s all admit it from the start: we’re all geniuses, with egos large enough to shame the Sun, and more to say than will fit into the time allotted. Tough. You’re given 45 minutes. Choose the most important things out of everything you know and tailor the presentation to flow smoothly for those 45 minutes. Yes. Yes. I know, you have so much to say yada, yada, yada…but, you only have 45 minutes so adjust accordingly.

Example? In this column I have only about 700 words to play with; out of a long list of possible JRTAs I selected the most important six. Presentations are nothing but articles penned by breath.

Suggestion? Don’t speak past your time…  I’m up next!

— Peter de Jager
Keynote Speaker, Futurist, and Consultant

Visit him at www.technobility.com or e-mail him at pdejager@technobility.com.

Running wild with ideas about a Desk Set Conference in 2020 and all the opportunities it would offer professionals locally (such as networking while having bundles of fun) we cast our net and created the TO Desk Set Facebook page and Twitter accounts in late June. Hungry for more, we also began to experiment with a number of website hosts and soon thereafter registered the domain www.torontodeskset.org. Creating the website definitely made us feel more “official” and as soon as we returned to Toronto in August we had our first ever event at the Only Café—a local “dive-y” bar/café in the East End. This night was about “testing the waters” and assessing our potential membership. Luring professionals with the promise of an exciting raffle while trying to break even on the cost of promotional material like flyers and, of course, our wonderful prizes, the night was an unequivocal success with new and more established professionals bonding over library issues with a pint or a cup of tea in hand. And there was certainly much to discuss! From sharing their experiences in library advocacy and management to just chatting about work opportunities and the current job market, the night flew by. This was also a wonderful opportunity to connect people we already knew but also meet a few new faces—some of which have become permanent features at subsequent events.

With a newly-acquired confidence, we have since held a multitude of events including the well-remembered Christmas social at the cozy Swirl Wine Bar on Queen Street East, where board games, wine, and locally-made artisanal rillettes proved to make a wonderful combination! As it also happened, the bar was holding a book swap that night so everyone was encouraged to bring their oldies and swap for some newbies to read on a cold winter night. That night in particular was remembered for its fierce December wind chill of -29, which made the attendance all the more impressive!

This past March we hosted a pub quiz curated by Jonathan Bengtson, the soon-to-be University Librarian at the University of Victoria. It was a night to remember as Jonathan’s creative and challenging questions tested the hard-core librarian in all of us. The librarian organization acronym section proved to be one of the biggest challenges for everyone, as groups struggled to come up with answers. The final winners were awarded a custom-designed Toronto Desk Set Tote, with the commemorative date of the event, filled with goodies.

In our quest to partake in social programs and raise awareness to support local organizations, we organized a fundraiser through the Stephen Lewis organization by daring librarians to talk about the concept of “shushing” and how it played within librarian and library stereotypes while addressing its underlying issues. Interviewing any librarians who would be willing to talk about shushing as well as encouraging them to demonstrate their versions of keeping the room quiet, we trawled the city for “shushers” or, as in most cases, we soon found out, “anti-shushers”—that is to say, librarians who resented the notion altogether in preference of using more polite silent finger to the lips or a direct glance methods.

All in all, the Toronto Desk Set has slowly gained recognition among local professionals who have emailed us from as far as Saskatchewan, northern Ontario, and BC, to new Facebook members and Twitter followers. We also attracted some press attention in an article about the TO Desk Set in the Quill and Quire. Our ambition for the future? Simple—to continue dispelling negative stereotypes by helping to make the information professional field more dynamic and exciting. We are also committed to continuing our engagement with the community at large by taking on valuable causes in support of local social programs and literacy awareness.

What has the Toronto Desk Set done for us as the founders? Many things. For one, as fresh graduates from the University of Toronto’s iSchool, we have been able to effortlessly liaise with professionals, making valuable connections as well as lasting friendships. It has also given us something meaningful to talk about when chatting to hiring committees, both locally and abroad. The funny and great thing about the Toronto Desk Set is that we do not consider ourselves a competition for local professional organizations such as SLA or CLA chapters but rather a social “supplement” to them. Having recently entered into a cross-promotions agreement with SLA, we have successfully collaborated on events such as the “Blog-Around” where Katya and Laura Warner (a librarian from CBC) led a discussion with a large group of professionals about the merits of personal as well as institutional blogging, as well as with respect to social media in general. It was a well-received event which was marked by active discussions about the notions of online privacy as well as a discussion about useful tools for beginners.

The Toronto Desk Set’s Facebook and Twitter accounts have also proven to be excellent platforms to promote new and exciting local events (be it farmers markets or gallery performances) as well as, of course, important developments in the field of information such as the recent issues with regard to copyright, upcoming conferences, and links to exciting publications. Our Facebook membership has been steadily on the rise ever since we started, particularly spiking after each event that we hold. One of our events was actually held in Brooklyn where we met with the original New York Desk Set—a team of energetic librarians who are crazy passionate about all things “librarian-y” and totally willing to geek out over issues pertaining to classification while enjoying an adult beverage (or two). The Chicago and the New York Desk Sets still continue to inspire us to do more and achieve more with our local organization. From holding a Biblioball or a Bibliobash to doing the Librarian Zombie walk outside of Rob Fords’ office, the opportunities are truly endless! Ideas are always welcome so please drop us a line at torontodeskset@gmail.com or Tweet/Facebook us—we would love to hear from you!

— Katya Pereyaslavska 
SLA-Toronto’s Programming Director, Media Librarian at CBC, & Reference Intern at Dorothy H. Hoover OCADU Library

— Stephen Spong 
Reference Librarian, Osgoode Hall Law School Library

The articles that inspired the discussion were taken from Slate.com and the New York Times. The first, “Don’t Support Your Local Bookseller: Buying books on Amazon is better for authors, better for the economy, and better for you” dominated the discussion, and celebrates Amazon.com’s dedication to providing affordable books. The author argues that this provides more opportunity for reading to occur, and that it’s an improvement on local bookstores whose stock is often limited or available at higher costs. This generated a wide variety of responses, and was the most controversial topic of the night.

The second article, “Publishers vs. Libraries: An E-Book Tug-of-War”, from the New York Times, outlined the struggle between libraries and publishers over the lending of e-books, with publishers fearing that easy lending will lead to a drastic loss in profits. Due to the ease of use, trips to the library aren’t required, and publishers fear that there is less of an incentive for e-book readers to choose to purchase items over downloading them from the library. Several large publishing companies have combated this by refusing to lend their material or by limiting library-lending licenses to a certain number of copies, while smaller publishers generally give libraries the rights to lend their items. As this is a relatively recent concern, libraries and publishers continue to search for equally acceptable solutions.

Those in attendance were quick to personalize the discussion. One attendee shared her search to find an e-book provider that stocked the books her clients requested. Another pointed out the similarities between the community building services offered by local bookstores and those offered by libraries such as author readings and book clubs. While a number of attendees chimed in to talk about the wide variety of books to purchase online versus their local bookstore, many mentioned that as voracious young readers they would have loved an Amazon.com-like service to make books more readily available. Not surprisingly, many of those in attendance were in favor of giving readers greater opportunity to access books, whether through lower prices or in a library setting.

The first Blue Winter Article Club was a successful social evening for SLA members. Any opportunity to connect with other librarians is a welcome one, especially during the winter months, an
d as the night drifted to a close and the attendees set out back into the rain there was a palpable sense of community on the journey home.

— Erica Smith
Index & References Officer, Hansard Reporting & Interpretations Services, Legislative Assembly of Ontario

This year, the CALL 2012 Conference will be held in our own city, Toronto!  The Canadian Association of Law Libraries may be legal in name, but our Conference has sessions planned that are geared to help information professionals in many capacities.

The theme this year is Towering Opportunities/Possibilités Immenses and we hope that you will find that the program will provide you with opportunities to learn and enhance your reputation as a towering figure of information in your organization. (Perhaps  that might be too flowery but the conference is in May.) The program has been designed to help you and your organization in the struggle with the towering bits & bytes of information as well as other challenges in today’s information environment.

 You are welcome to visit the conference website.

Please check out our Social Events page as well to help you with networking opportunities and renewing acquaintances with librarians and other professionals from across Canada.

Information about our Pre-Conference Workshop: Advocacy 101 is available on the website as well as Transportation, Accommodations and some FAQs to help you with your conference planning this May! Though you don’t have far to travel, you may find some helpful information on the website.

Early Bird Registration Deadline is Friday, March 16 so book early and save!

Announcements can be followed on Twitter @CALL2012ACBD.

Why attend SLA Annual Conference? Because SLA offers the best opportunities for education, networking, and leadership. The take-aways from the SLA conference will add value to you as an information professional, provide you with resources to enhance your job performance, and ensure that you are ready to meet the challenges of the future.

The conference runs for five days. Saturday and Sunday are the days when the Continuing Education (CE) courses are held, the division boards meet, and the INFO/EXPO opens to conference attendees. It is also an excellent time for networking, whether informally in the INFO/EXPO hall, or over coffee or lunch or at one of the many open houses that take place each evening. The official conference opening will take place on Sunday afternoon with a keynote speaker and remarks by SLA president Brent Mai. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are packed with educational sessions that are put on by the divisions. While there isn’t space to list all of them I would like to highlight a few as follows:

• The Wikileaks Controversy
• The New Knowledge Services: Next Steps for Career Professionals
• Transitioning into Management and Leadership
• Meaningful Measures: How do Buyers and Sellers Show ROI?
• Updates from the World of Cloud Computing
• Reinventing Library Skills
• From Info Pro to Info Hero: Five Easy Ways to Turn Information into Insight
• Knowledge is Power: Medical Librarians and KM
• Tales from the Trenches: Contract Negotiation is not for the Faint of Heart
• Librarian as Entrepreneur: Adding Value and Contributing to Your Organization’s Bottom Line Through Marketing Initiatives
• Favourite CI Analytic Tools that Deliver Value
• Skeptical Knowledge Seeking: Business Research in the Age of “Truthiness”
• Suddenly Solo: What To Do When It’s Suddenly Just You
• Competitive Intelligence: Identifying, Managing, Disseminating and Leveraging Reliable, Current, Actionable Knowledge
• Techzones, which are programs which explore the latest technologies and help SLA members to develop their skills in this area

One way to capitalize on networking and education, as well as good food at a reasonable cost, is to attend one of the breakfast meetings. The cost is usually quite reasonable and the events include a speaker as well as the chance to meet colleagues with similar interests.

Conference registration includes access to all non-ticketed events (which includes most of the educational sessions, the INFO/EXPO, and the opening and closing sessions) and most of the open houses. There are additional fees for Continuing Education programs, ticketed meal events and tours, although these prices are usually quite reasonable.

The Toronto Chapter usually sends a strong contingent to the conference and we want to encourage everyone to make plans to attend this year. Whether it is your first SLA conference or you are a veteran you will find something to make the trip worthwhile.

Registration opens on February 27th and the early bird rates will be in effect until early May. Don’t delay—register today and we will look forward to welcoming you to Chicago in July!

— Martha Foote
Toronto Chapter, Legal Division, Leadership & Management Division

Dear Colleagues:

It’s hard to believe it’s already that time again: another year is drawing to a close at SLA Toronto.  The Annual General Meeting, sponsored by the Wall Street Journal for the second year running, was held on Wednesday, November 9 at the Delta Chelsea Hotel in Toronto. It was a joyous occasion.  We welcomed incoming Chapter President Laura Warner and the 2012 Board, recognized Daniel Lee’s tremendous contributions to our Chapter with the Member of the Year award, and celebrated the spoken word with a poetry slam, courtesy of the Toronto Poetry Project. My sincere thanks to Gayle Gossen, Pam Casey, Elysia Guzik and Bernadette Roca, who planned and organized this event, and to all who turned out on a windy, rainy November evening to celebrate with us!   

 I’d like to take this opportunity to reflect on the Chapter’s successes in 2011, and on the steps we’ve taken towards future-readiness.  Despite the current economic climate, Pam Casey, our Partner Relations Director, came in over her goal for sponsorship contributions this year. This enabled us to host events like the Canadian Reception at the SLA Annual Conference with the generous support of our partners at CEDROM-SNi; the upcoming annual Holiday Social on December 13 at the Arts and Letters Club, sponsored by CEDROM and Akendi; and the biannual Volunteer Appreciation Night, which was made possible by Thomson Reuters. With FPinfomart’s investment in the future of our Chapter via the Student to Conference Award, we were able to send two students, Janina Mueller and Yannet Lathrop to the Annual Conference.

 Another future-ready theme in 2011 was communication.  With Daniel Lee’s leadership on Operation Vitality, an ambitious initiative to update allSLAwebsites, a beautiful new online home was created for SLA Toronto.  Daniel, Heather Ritchie, Heather Postill, Britta Jessen and incoming 2012 President-Elect Kim Silk are to be commended for their hard work in getting toronto.sla.org up and running. Our new site has simplified content management, and supports event registration, advertising, images, RSS feeds, a lifestream, and Delicious bookmarks. We’ll continue to refine the user experience in 2012.  Meanwhile, you can still follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, link to us on LinkedIn, and communicate with hundreds of information professionals on the SLA Toronto Discussion List.

 Finally, this year was a fantastic year for events. Elysia Guzik, our 2011 Programming Director, really has a talent for getting people together and making things happen. Elysia coordinated presentations on topics like knowledge management and genealogical research; tours of the Maple Leaf Foods library, the H. N. Pullar Library at the Textile Museum of Canada, and the OCAD Learning Zone; and panels on subjects like media monitoring and library marketing. The Volunteer Appreciation Event, hosted by Laura Warner at Southern Accent, was a big hit; and SLA Toronto closed L’espresso at the annual Summer Social, which was organized by incoming 2012 Technology Director, Greg Barber.  We also explored opportunities for experiential learning events – watch this space!  And of course, 2011 would not have been complete without the Canadian Reception at the Annual Conference, which the three Canadian SLA Chapters take in turn to host every year.  2011 was our year and we put on a great reception for over 150 delegates from across Canada, the US and around the world at this year’s conference in Philadelphia.  

 2011 was a resounding success because of the hard work and dedication of the Executive and Advisory Boards. Their efforts and talents enrich the life of our Chapter and provide a strong foundation on which to build the future.  I’d like to acknowledge the 2011 Executive, whose commitment and enthusiasm made this an unforgettable year:

-        Laura Warner, President-Elect

-        Emmeline Hobbs, Secretary

-        Heather Brunstad, Treasurer

-        Kim Silk, Technology Director

-        Shelley McBride, Membership Director

-        Elysia Guzik, Programming Director

-        Shannon Skelton, First Five Years Director

-        Pam Casey, Partner Relations Director

-        Claire Lysnes, Past President

I am also extremely grateful to our members for their active participation and continued support of our Chapter. We couldn’t do it without you!   

 It has been an honour to serve as your President in 2011.  Thank you. I wish you all the best in the coming year.  Have a wonderful holiday and see you in 2012!

All the best,

Jennifer Burns

2011 President, SLA Toronto Chapter

This issue includes reports from recent SLA Toronto events including the September Dine-Around on copyright, the Solos’ session on RDA and  the Student Group’s tour of the CBC Libraries and Archives.

Additionally, Katya Pereyaslavska and Shireen Harbin have written an article about the creative way their library at OCAD collected overdue fines while supporting an organization in need.  And, Zachary Osborne’s article outlines his investigation into measuring the impact of his organization’s  publications.

All the best for a very happy holiday season!

Sandra Craig

Bruce Harpham

How can librarians increase the profitability of their libraries? How can they improve students’ understanding of the scientific research process? How can they increase diversity among library staff?

Every year, SLA members share their answers to these and other questions challenging the special library field. They do so by writing research papers and presenting them at the SLA Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO. The contributed paper sessions are among the most revealing and rewarding conference activities because they provide a glimpse into the issues, trends and initiatives that drive our profession and our future.  Read More

 Membership Rewards

When you recruit a new member, you both can win!

Tell your friends and colleagues about your meaningful SLA experience, and invite them to join and reap the benefits of SLA membership.  New members and recruiters are eligible to win prizes and recognition. Recruit by 1 December for prize eligibility.  Read More

  2011 Board of Directors Results

 Meet the incoming 2012 SLA Board of Directors. Learn more about your future leaders.  Read More

 Vengeful Librarians

Librarians find things better than anyone, people should know this by now. It certainly seems that the United States CIA has caught on.

In a recent Associated Press exclusive, a team known as “vengeful librarians” are described as using Twitter, Facebook, the Web, and their natural sleuthing abilities to provide intelligence that is sought-after by the highest levels in Washington, D.C. Read More

Amanda Adams, North Bay
Trevor Balla, Toronto
Reena Besa, Thorold
Joanna Bielecki, Mississauga
Juliya Borie, Toronto
Brian Chenoweth, Kingston
Jiancheng Dai, Maple   
Eva Fischer, London
Erin Gendron, Courtice
Erica Lenton, Ottawa   
Melissa Man, Toronto
Anna Mathew, Toronto
Barbara McDonald, Dundas       
Emily McHugh, Montreal
Katya Pereyaslavska, Toronto
Jamien Sandhu, Toronto 
Stephen Spong, Toronto 
Samantha Thompson, Mississauga
Lindsay Timmins, Toronto
Kelley Wadson,  Toronto

I look forward to meeting each of you at an upcoming SLA Toronto event!

An organization’s publications (e.g. reports, conference proceedings, authored works, etc.) are a good starting place where impact can be measured, and in organizations where an information professional is employed, the work is cut out for them. Tracking and measuring the impact of your organization’s output is a clear-cut way to demonstrate your value, contribute to department goals, and generate useful statistics that will benefit your employer.

I work as the librarian at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), a think tank that produces a wide variety of publications, from policy briefs to books. Earlier this year, I began to investigate tools to help measure the impact that CIGI’s publications have in academic, policy, and government literature. My objective was to determine where, and how often CIGI’s publications are demonstrating influence. CIGI’s primary stated mission is to “influence policy makers”, so an understanding of whether or not its publications are being read, cited, and shared, is an important step to fulfilling this goal.

Many information professionals will be familiar with the concept of citation analysis, and its application in the activities of scholarly research. Citation analysis is a method of bibliometrics that attempts to gauge the impact of an author’s work through the frequency of being cited in other works. The process of citing acknowledges previous works, and debatably, implies that a work is significant. The practice of measuring the number of cites is predominantly of interest to authors and stakeholders in the sciences, and some in economics, but is helpful in other fields as well. Citation analysis is also prevalent (and of greater interest) in academic environments where an author’s published research enhances their clout, and professional profile.

Because of its wide acceptance in academic settings, many of the tools available to analyze citations do not incorporate “non-scholarly” literature (often termed “grey literature” e.g. working papers), since they do not undergo the same scholarly publishing process. The majority of grey literature is not indexed in proprietary or free citation databases, because it is not controlled by commercial publishing. Consequently, the trickiest aspect of measuring the impact of grey literature is that citation indexes will often not include the publications you seek to evaluate.

With these obstacles is mind, I began my attempt to track mentions of CIGI’s publications in other published works. For CIGI’s purposes, I was most concerned with identifying a citation tool that indexes grey literature, and other “non-academic” materials in the social sciences. I wanted to test many products to determine which would be most useful. Throughout my investigation of possible options, I compiled a list of tools for conducting citation analysis, some are fee-based and others are free:

Thomson Reuter’s Web of Science/Knowledge: (http://thomsonreuters.com/products_services/science/science_products/a-z/web_of_science/) (subscription required)

Web of Science (WoS) is the premier citation index and includes an extensive range of very impressive analysis tools. With a lofty price tag, not every organization will be able to afford this product (and unfortunately, they do not offer a non-profit rate). The indexed content is drawn almost exclusively from scholarly journals and conference proceedings, and its historical coverage is unmatched. Free 30-day trials are available, and you can select from seven subject database packages based on subject area. Thomson Reuters also provides access to “Highly Cited Research” (http://www.highlycited.com), a free resource to identify highly cited authors and works. WoS is tremendously useful for tracking cites in academic journals, but quite disappointing for measuring citations from grey literature.

Elsevier’s Scopus: http://www.scopus.com/home.url (subscription required)

Scopus is a slightly less expensive alternative to Web of Science, and boasts having “the largest abstract and citation database of research literature and quality web sources.” Scopus has a free author/organization lookup tool, which I highly recommend testing. This will give you an idea of your organization’s cited works in the Scopus indexed content. Similar to WoS, grey literature is relatively absent from this database.

Google Scholar: (http://scholar.google.ca/) (free)

Using the advanced Google Scholar search option, you can perform searches by author name, or by affiliated organization to retrieve articles where either are mentioned or cited. This can be tricky however, as it is not possible to narrow search results to the bibliography or footnotes. Your search results might include many unwanted items. That said, Google does a much better job than WoS or Scopus of retrieving obscure and grey literature citation mentions.

Publish or Perish: (http://www.harzing.com/pop.htm) (free)

Public or Perish (PoP) uses Google Scholar citations, and runs as standalone software that links to the web. You must first download PoP, then perform your citation queries to retrieve the analysis of an author or publisher’s works. It is less accurate than the fee-based products like Scopus or WoS, but PoP is also quite straightforward about its shortcomings. PoP performs much better than Google on the web, and as a free software, is worthwhile and effective.

CiteSeerX: (http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/) (free)

CiteSeerX focuses on (but is not limited to) literature in the areas of computer and information-science. As an index database, CiteSeerX is unique for adding complex metadata to its contents, which enable a greater capacity for linking documents, and locating related materials. Documents are automatically harvested from the web, so indexed content is continuously up-to-date. Try this tool in combination with others, as depending on the field of your organization and its outputs, CiteSeerX’s subject specificity might not track your publications.

Scirus: (http://www.scirus.com/) (free)

Scirus is a science-specific index database encompassing a very wide range of web pages, government resources, academic articles, and special information sources (e.g. patent data from LexisNexis, technical reports from NASA, institutional digital repositories, etc.).  Scirus’ capabilities rival some fee-based indexes, and it also includes an impressive range of non-scholarly grey literature content.

RePEc: (http://repec.org/) (free)

Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) is a database of over one million items, largely in the social sciences, economics, finance, and computer sciences. The items in RePEc are unpublished papers, non-commercially published materials, and also pre-published versions of academic articles. RePEc is useful for many types of organizations that produce literature because it encourages free and open dissemination of these materials throughout a variety of outlets. It works by users (e.g. authors of works, or information professionals on behalf on their organization) uploading publications and providing the metadata and bibliographic information. To perform citation analyses, RePEc has an embedded system for tracking these uploaded items. With this, you can quantify how often your publications are downloaded, cited, and shared. RePEc is also a collaborative effort with many other repositories, such as EconLit, EDIRC, and IDEAS.

After testing these tools, I am still in the process of determining the best solution for measuring the impact of CIGI’s publications. Although I have not arrived at a solid recommendation for my own organization, I have found that using a combination of these tools can produce a rough picture of the impact of your organization’s publications. Optimistically, there are ongoing developments in this field, such as Google Scholar Citations (http://scholar.google.ca/intl/en/scholar/citations.html), and Open Grey (www.opengrey.eu), and the maturation of these products will benefit the efforts of citation analysis for grey literature.

If your organization produces publications for stakeholders or a general audience, consider tracking cites through the abovementioned means. It will strengthen your value to the organization, and provide them with a quantifiable source of evidence-based measurement for organizational outputs.

Listed below are additional sources that review and compare citation analysis tools:

Badia, Giovanna. “Google Scholar out-performs many subscription databases when keyword searching.” Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, Vol. 5, No. 3, 2010: 39-41. Available from https://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/EBLIP/article/view/8543

Bosman, J., et al. “Scopus reviewed and compared.” Utrecht University Library, 2006. Available from http://igitur-archive.library.uu.nl/DARLIN/2006-1220-200432/Scopus%20doorgelicht%20&%20vergeleken%20-%20translated.pdf

Connor, E. “Searching for science: a descriptive comparison of CiteSeer, FirstGov for Science, and Scirus.” Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2005: 35-47.

Pauly, D. And Stergiou K. I. “Equivalence of results from two citation analyses: Thomson ISI’s Citation Index and Google’s Scholar service.” Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics, December 22, 2005: 33-35.  Available from http://www.int-res.com/articles/esep/2005/E65.pdf

Science Intelligence and InfoPros. “Google Scholar Vs Web of Science: McDonalds Vs a Gourmet restaurant?!” December 7, 2010. Available from http://scienceintelligence.wordpress.com/2010/12/07/google-scholar-vs-web-of-science-macdonalds-vs-a-gourmet-restaurant/

Zachary Osborne is the Research Librarian at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) in Waterloo, Ontario. His current research interests include trends in grey literature, emerging information technologies, and information-seeking behaviours. He can be contacted by email at zosborne@cigionline.org, on Twitter at @zackosborne, and his blog can be read at http://zacharyosborne.wordpress.com.

 The discussion proved to be lively and spirited, with participants discussing a panoply of issues and ideas drawn from the Access Copyright dispute, as well as on the future of copyright and on the evolution ideas of authorship and copyright – especially since the days of Napster. This was also reflected in discussion over generational differences of opinion, with younger users – and this demographic is highly reflective of most current undergraduate students – having a significantly different outlook and opinions on copyright from older users. There was also discussion on the proposed amendments to the Canadian Copyright Act – which have since been re-tabled, after having died on the order paper in the spring – which has the potential to simultaneously expand and restrict copyright in the field of academia.

 Although there were no hard-and-fast conclusions at the end of the evening, the sharing of opinions and ideas, many of which were markedly divergent, ultimately built a stronger understanding of the challenges that face those who deal with contemporary copyright issues. As many institutions attempt to navigate the choppy waters out of the old Access Copyright tariff system status quo and into the brave new world of open access and fair dealing, these discussions will undoubtedly become increasingly urgent and important, with the outcome having the potential to shape the future of Canadian copyright. While there are many players in this particular dance, it should fall to librarians and information professionals to lead the way.

We were thrilled to have Mark Rose (Information Services Manager at the Intergovernmental Committee on Urban and Regional Research) present. Mark is an extremely busy solo librarian with a remarkable passion for cataloguing and technology, among other things. He is one of few Toronto librarians who tested converting his library catalogue records to conform with RDA. I would like to express my big thanks for all the efforts, sleepless nights and countless corrections Mark built into this session.

Mark first gave us some background information on AACR2’s demise and how RDA came about. He reviewed the core concepts, principles and elements of RDA – a standard designed for digital world. RDA is based on two models: FRBR (Functional requirements for Bibliographic Records) and FRAD (Functional Requirements for Authority Data). A number of examples of how the new rules deviate from AACR2 included a long list; I’ll name just a few here: vocabulary changes; entity-relationship database model; enter as found; and, removal of abbreviations. Various FRBR types of “entities” as well as different content, media and carrier types were also covered.

The lessons learned following Mark’s “uncompleted” catalogue conversion project, offered some really valuable observations:

• Library system vendors don’t provide much support for the conversion and a few are only starting to look   into it (you will need lots of time and money to set aside for conversion)
• Benefits of new rules for the end users are difficult to assess/measure

• Return on investment for making the conversion is still unclear

• Bibliographic records will be longer (space may be an issue for fields and database size)

• The standard seems to work well in theory, but in practice remains to be seen

• Must think how the OPAC could be modified to make use of the new fields and relationships

The time and space limitations didn’t allow for showing record examples side by side (the presentation could easily hit over 50 slides), so our speaker recommended the best RDA training modules and comparison presentations (to which an addendum was made via email).

For anyone planning an RDA conversion, the summary of required changes (slides 29-30) provides a great starting point. That is where you get an idea about a potential impact on your library. Don’t forget the RDA toolkit and regular free workshops: RDA Essentials. Add to that the selection of RDA resources and you are good to go. If you are just starting to catalogue your collection from a scratch, you should be exploring the RDA rules to ensure standards compliance in the future.

Mark’s presentation (Google docs) is posted on the Toronto Solos’ wiki (login required) and LinkedIn group discussion. Brenda Wong blogged about the workshop at: http://brendawoa.wordpress.com/2011/11/08/rda-overview/.

The recent Library of Congress announcements show how RDA issues could be evolving for a very long time. Stay tuned.

Amra Porobic, M.L.S., is Manager of Library Services for the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC). Prior to taking on the position of the Chair of the Toronto Chapter Solo Subgroup in May 2008, Amra co-chaired the group with Jasmina Landekic from 2000-2001. Amra has been a solo librarian since the onset of her IBC career in 1998. A member of TALL, AIIM, and ARMA, she can be reached at aporobic@ibc.ca, or via LinkedIn http://ca.linkedin.com/in/porobica where she manages the Solo group discussions.

IBC has been sponsoring Solo events since 2008.

The tour started off in the bowels of the CBC building, where we were guided through the various vaults and storage facilities for the Video Archives. Our first stop was the VTR library, which house literally shelves upon shelves of tapes. The CBC estimates that this area holds approximately 190,000 tapes. The primary goal of the Video Archives is to have a copy of each program the CBC has played a role in producing. This creates the need for specialized archive facilities and media content management systems. Part of the process consists of giving each tape its own unique ID and bar code, making these resources easy to retrieve and reshelve for CBC staff.

The next stop on the tour took us to the chilly Film Vault, where 115,000 cans of film are kept at 4°C. This is an extraordinary amount of film, as the CBC calculates that this amount of film would “span the distance from St. John’s, N.L., to Victoria, B.C., three times over” (CBC, 2011). We also saw the CBC’s StoragTek 5L8500 robotic system in action. This fully automated machine is part of the CBC’s DIVA archives solution for managing their media assets.

After exploring the various archives of the CBC, we then toured the newly integrated Reference Library at the CBC. This area includes not only the main Reference Library, but also the Visual Research Desk, and Music Library. We learned that reference librarians at the CBC are responsible for a variety of exciting and ever-changing research tasks. This can include providing answers to basic ready-reference questions, performing detailed research on companies and individuals, and also fact-checking during live TV programs and reporting back to producers and TV personalities via earpiece. Overall, the skills required of a media Reference Librarian include savvy research skills and an ability to meet the consistently shorter timelines of reporters and producers. For example, while CBC Reference Librarians used to have a couple days to fact check a story for producers, they may now have less than an hour to find and verify information. Understandably, this makes for an intense work environment, but the reference librarians at the CBC thrive in this type of break-neck atmosphere.

Geoffrey and Laura also took our group to see the Image Research library. We learned from the staff working at this library that researching and navigating copyright law is an important skill set for image librarians. In order to clear the use of photos and artwork in CBC TV shows and news broadcasts, image librarians need to track down the artist and obtain their permission. If they are unable to track the artist down or if they use an image taken from a database that did not record the proper citation information, the CBC will sometimes be sued by artists and end up paying significantly more for the right to use the image or artwork. Ultimately, speedy research skills and extensive knowledge of copyright issues is a must-have for image librarians.

Finally, we finished off the tour by going to the top floor of the CBC and saw the crew for Cover Me Canada preparing the set for filming. Some of the SLA:TSG members were excited to see the spot where Jordan Knight (of New Kids on the Block fame) sits during taping. After thanking Laura and Geoffrey for taking the time to put together such a fantastic tour, we took the elevator down to the main floor of the CBC and spotted Margaret Atwood entering the CBC. An honest-to-goodness Canadian celebrity sighting proved to be a fantastic finale to the SLA:TSG’s tour of the CBC Libraries and Archives.

Bibliography:

Canada Broadcasting Corporation (2011). Virtual tour: A visit to the archives. Retrieved from http://archives.cbc.ca/info/archives/archives_en_02.asp?IDLan=1

Front Porch Digital (2011). SAMMA robot. Retrieved from http://fpdigital.com/Solutions/Migrate/Default.aspx?mrsc=Overview

Stephanie Quail is the co-chair of the SLA:TSG and is in her second year of graduate studies at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information. If you have any tour suggestions for the SLA:TSG, please send an email to sla.tsg.1@gmail.com

 The premise of this campaign was simple. For each non-perishable food item donated, patrons would receive two dollars off their overdue fines to a maximum of twenty dollars. Donations unrelated to fines were also encouraged. Operating under the catchy headline “Food 4 Fines” and equipped with an attractive orange bucket, customized buttons featuring a logo designed in-house, and social media tools, between October 3^rd and October 15^th Library staff campaigned for food donations in return for clearing library fines. 

With Facebook and Twitter accounts dedicated specifically to Food 4 Fines, as well as targeted e-mail notifications to staff, students and faculty through partnership with the Student Union, we began to distribute promotional material a few weeks ahead of the scheduled event. Posters featuring the catchy logo created by our very own Learning Zone Librarian, Marta Chudolinska, were also prepared ahead of the event. The posters were put up in key areas on campus and in the library and Learning Zone spaces. The logo was included on all communications – a quick way to promote instant recognition of Food 4 Fines-related advertising. Having prepared our plan of action, we wore our buttons and held our collective breath on the first day of the event. Would the event prove to be successful? Would users be interested in participating? Were we wasting our time?

 Food 4 Fines turned out to be bigger and more successful than we could have imagined! Bags and bags of donations were brought to the Library containing pasta, pickles, soups and even cat food (our patrons are so thoughtful!). Each donation was rewarded with a button and, in some cases, a completely clean record (so those patrons who had been hiding from the Library because of fines could now confidently stride in, head held high, and peruse for research material).

 While there may be budgetary concerns for some libraries, we found that many patrons continued to pay their fines in addition to bringing in donations. We also received much positive feedback from the community. Students were thrilled to participate in this initiative, oftentimes commenting on how much they admired the creative aspect of it. Some Library staff wore buttons to organizational meetings, prompting questions from staff and faculty and praise upon hearing the purpose behind the event. Word of mouth promotions proved to be the most winning form of advertising. The most successful endeavour was phoning people on the overdue list to notify or remind them of their overdue fines and let them know the event was happening. This resulted in a rush of donations, as soon as the following day.  This event fostered teamwork and creativity in staff as everyone brainstormed and shared ideas to maintain or improve service during the event. The ultimate measure of success was that the food drive resulted in so much food donated to the Starving Artist Pantry that the Student Union asked when we would do it again!

 This is just one example of how libraries can engage in their communities and support organizations in need.  After all, nurturing intellectual freedom requires not only healthy minds, but nourished bodies.  Libraries can opt to support local or national organizations, dedicating their time to supporting food banks, women’s shelters, youth in need and new immigrant communities. The possibilities are truly endless and it only really takes a creative approach, willing and supportive administration and a strong team spirit!

 Katya Pereyaslavska (M.F.A., M.I.) is a recent iSchool graduate from the University of Toronto currently assisting with the provision of Reference Services at the Dorothy. H. Hoover Library at the Ontario College of Art and Design University. She has worked in a variety of library settings as a Foreign Language Rare Book Cataloguer (AGO Library), Slavic Studies Reference Assistant (PJRC, Robarts Library), a Library Intern at both, the Davis Centre at Harvard University and the Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago. Her professional experience has been quite diverse, the common thread that connects the variety of positions she has held is her dedication to the advancement of the field of librarianship – be it through promotions, effective reference and cataloguing services or publications. She is. also the co-founder of the Toronto Desk Set, a local organization for librarians and information professionals passionate about our field (www.torontodeskset.org). As a dedicated blogger, I co-run a food blog (http://foodsluts.tumblr.com) and also run my own blog (http://socialitelibrarian.blogspot.com/)

 Shireen Harbin (B.Sc.N., Library Technician) is a recent graduate of Seneca College’s Library and Information Technician program with a certificate in Archival and Records Management Practices from George Brown College and a background in Nursing. She currently provides circulation services at Dorothy H. Hoover Library, Ontario College of Art and Design University, and is interested in reference service, collection development, promotions, and archival practices.

Library and information centres are constantly asked to prove their value to their parent organisations.  By applying evidence-based methods to create your Library’s information products, finding aids, websites, mobile sites or mobile apps, as well as services, your users and stakeholders’ goals are able to be met in ways that best serve their needs.  When products and services fulfill stakeholder and users’ goals very well, the Library’s value is indisputable.  Akendi can also work with you to create metrics and performance measures to illustrate exactly how and where your Library is adding value.

Akendi’s process is a rigorous, repeatable research and design process – Human Experience Design. We use scientific and systematic steps involving you, your users and your stakeholders – at the right time, in the right amount.

Cindy Beggs
Partner, Director of Experience Research
225 Richmond Street West, Suite 402
Toronto, ON M5V 1W2
Tel: (866) 565.1660
Email: cindy@akendi.com
Web: www.akendi.ca

I don’t know about you, but I still function on an academic calendar, and for me, September marks the real “new year” and an excellent opportunity to pause and take stock of the progress we’ve made so far. As this is the Summer issue of The Courier, it’s the perfect time to look back at the activities and accomplishments of the Toronto Chapter and its members over the past few months.

In May, President-Elect Laura Warner hosted the bi-annual Volunteer Appreciation Event, which would not have been possible without the generous sponsorship of our partner, Thomson Reuters. The event, a cocktail reception at the Cajun-inspired Southern Accent in Mirvish Village, took place on the evening of May 31st and celebrated the contributions of over 40 SLA volunteers. It was a great success and a terrific way to kick off summer!

The SLA Annual Conference took place in Philadelphia from June 12-15th. Several SLA Toronto members were recognized at this year’s conference for their contributions to the SLA community. Melanie Browne, co-Chair of the Toronto West Subgroup, received the award for Best Contributed Paper. Her paper, “Communicating Value Through Strategic Alignment” has been published in the July/August 2011 issue of Information Outlook and is a great example of the power of strategic alignment.

Martha Foote, who currently serves as Awards Chair for the Toronto Chapter and who chaired the Contributed Papers at this year’s conference, received an SLA Presidential Citation at the joint Chapter Cabinet and Division Cabinet meeting. The citations are granted to SLA members for a notable or important contribution during the previous year that enhanced the Association or furthered its goals and objectives. Daniel Lee, a Past-President of the Toronto Chapter and member of the SLA Board, was also recognized for his leadership on Operation Vitality, which has revitalized the unit websites. Please join me in congratulating and thanking Melanie, Martha and Daniel.

The Toronto Chapter also hosted the annual Canadian Reception at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown on June 13th, together with our friends and partners CEDROM-SNi, whose generosity made this event a resounding success. Joining me to represent the Toronto Chapter was President-Elect Laura Warner, Programming Director Elysia Guzik, Partner Relations Director Pam Casey, Secretary Emmeline Hobbs, and Technology Director Kim Silk. The event was attended by over 150 delegates. The Canadians turned out en masse, and we were joined by many of our friends from the United States and from around the world, as well as SLA CEO Janice LaChance and 2011 President-Elect Brent Mai.

And finally, on August 25th, Greg Barber hosted the annual Summer Social on the patio at L’espresso, on what turned out to be a glorious late-summer evening. Given that August is traditionally prime vacation-time, the strong turnout was impressive – the patio got very crowded very quickly! It was a great opportunity to meet new and prospective members, chat with friends, and enjoy one of the last long summer evenings. I think we will all miss those! (We won’t, however, miss the wasps who were attracted to the berries in the delicious house sangria!)

In closing, I’d also like to take this opportunity to share some of my reflections on the 2011 Conference. The mood at the conference was optimistic, positive, hopeful, and forward-looking. The Pennsylvania Convention Center hummed with activity from dawn to dusk. In most of the sessions I attended, the words “resilience” and “flexibility” cropped up. They are words I have used frequently myself when talking about our profession. Hearing them so often at the conference prompted me to really think about these related concepts, and what the qualities of flexibility and resilience mean to me.

I define resilience as the ability to rebound after a setback. Flexibility is about being able to roll with the punches, adapt to new situations, and to consider other points of view, even if (maybe especially if) you disagree. While I believe that we all have the capacity for increased flexibility and resilience, in times of uncertainty, our natural reaction is a primitive, instinctive one that biologists have dubbed “fight or flight.”

Fight or flight has ensured the survival of many species, ours included, for millennia. But mere survival is no way to live! Flexibility and resilience are the keys to moving from surviving to thriving. They are qualities that need to be cultivated. They need to be nurtured and encouraged. They need to be modeled. What I took away from this summer’s conference is that we need to create a culture of resilience and flexibility, every day, in the present, so that we can build a successful future together.

All the best for the “new year”,

 In addition to our regular contributors, Stella Palikarova has provided a summary of the May dine-around where e-books were discussed. Also in this issue are articles by Jane Dysart and Laura Warner about the SLA Conference in June.  In July, Darinka Tomic attended one of the Marshall McLuhan events  honouring his life and work.  In her article she shares her experience at the session and her thoughts on the future of communication.  And, Kate Petch and Kim Stymest present their survey results about professional development among students at the iSchool.

We hope you enjoy this issue. 

 Submissions to the Courier are welcome at any time.  Please send your comments, ideas or suggestions directly to us.

Sandra Craig
sandracraig@rogers.com

Bruce Harpham
Bruce.harpham@gmail

Research is Alive and Well in SLA
Financial constraints may have put SLA research grants on hold, but not research itself. For proof, check out the contributed papers that were presented at SLA 2011 in Philadelphia.

The papers addressed a variety of topics, with titles ranging from “Libraries and Cloud Computing” to “Leading Future-Focused Scenario Planning Efforts in Knowledge Organizations.” A paper titled “Communicating Value through Strategic Alignment,” submitted by Melanie Browne of Maple Lead Foods in Toronto, was named the best contributed paper and is published in the July/August issue of Information Outlook.

To read contributed papers from past SLA conferences, click on “Events” on the menu bar of SLA’s Website, then click on “Conference Presentations.”

SLA Future Ready Video
In case you missed this Future Ready video at SLA’s 2011 Annual Conference, which debuted in front of an audience of 3,000-plus, you can view it for the first time (or take a second look) on SLA’s YouTube channel.
Read More

SLA 2011 Candidates
Be sure to follow the SLA Blog for ongoing Q & A with candidate for Big SLA 2011 executive.

Heather Buchansky, Toronto
Traceyann Crawford, Brampton
Erika Dickenson, Toronto
Katherine Johnson, Toronto
Angie McHodgkins, Toronto
Doris Nussbaumer, Halifax
Elizabeth O’Brien, Toronto
Allison Pedler, Toronto
Eric Reinberg, Concord
Pamela Saliba, London
Alison Walker, Toronto

I look forward to meeting each of you at an upcoming SLA Toronto event!

People on the Move is a regular column highlighting the achievements of our members and helping us all keep in touch. Please share your career changes, retirements, life changes, volunteer work.
Submit your news to Frances Wong at FWong@blgcanada.com.

Discovering Emerging Industry Trends and Technologies
Attending seminars is an excellent way to educate oneself on emerging trends, ideas and technologies. A great example was Connie Crosby’s Session on Collaboration Tools and Practices. SLA Toronto’s very own Connie led an exciting seminar on the theories of collaboration and suggested methods and technologies to use when getting people to successfully and efficiently work together. Other interesting sessions included 60 Apps in 60 Minutes and 60 Sites in 60 Minutes. Both staple sessions were great for keeping professionals in the know, through micro presentations of – obviously- 60 useful sites.

Knowledge and Skill Development
Conferences can also serve as a sort of intensive skill development boot camp. Many of the sessions one can choose from are also excellent how-to seminars. One sitting I found particularly educational was Breathing New Life Into Your Newsletter and Online Presence. The session was kicked off by a journalist and editor, rather than a librarian. A refreshing perspective from someone outside our profession is always greatly valued, especially given the topic. True to his journalistic style, he gave us the five-W low down of newsletter and website publishing. Who is reading your material? What is your publication? (An educational tool? A marketing tool?) When do you schedule publications? Where are people reading this? And, of course, why are they reading it? Tapping into the knowledge and skills of others helps us remove those “daily blinders” and opens us up to a whole new world of possibilities.

Personal and Professional Development
Acquiring new skills and information to bring back to your local chapter and office is great, but you also owe it to yourself to take the time to personally develop. This is the perfect environment to take an introspective analysis of your accomplishments and your future aspirations. Seminars that were helpful for this objective included Alternative Use of the Library Degree, Using Social Media in the Workplace and SLA Career Connection Seminar: Reinvigorate Your Resumé. Whether you’re looking for work or a career change, it’s a great idea to take an inventory of your accomplishments and update the materials you use to market yourself. While the creative juices are flowing, why not re-brand yourself all together? Since I always want to know how to market myself and my skills, I attended Elevator Speeches: How to Develop Them, hosted by the famous Mary-Ellen Bates and Toronto’s talented Gayle Gossen. Mary-Ellen and Gayle engaged us in fascinating practices on how to grab the attention of those you meet and keep them wanting more. This becomes your secret weapon the next time someone says: “but you don’t look like a librarian”. With a new elevator speech, they won’t know what hit them.

Networking and Bonding
Of course conferences are great for networking. Thousands of interesting information professionals all under one roof, all eager to talk about what they do and hear your story as well. There are also an abundance of social events, made especially for mingling, such as the Canadian Reception and other evening hootenannies. If formalities are more your thing, there are the business meetings – SLA Chapter Cabinet Meeting and the SLA Joint Cabinet Meeting – to engage with new professionals. However, meeting new people can happen at any point during your voyage. Like finding a kindred librarian while waiting in the Air Canada customer service line after your initial flight was cancelled (details need their own separate article). Just goes to show you, you should always have your trusty business card on hand.

While we become preoccupied with making new connections, we should not neglect building on our established connections. Back at the ranch, when I’m burdened with an insane work/life balancing act I don’t always have time to truly get to know my SLA counterparts, so I enjoyed several meals with local Toronto professionals and colleagues. I also had the pleasure of rooming with SLA Toronto Chapter President Jennifer Burns. (Who is an excellent roommate if I may add.)
Attending a conference can be like going on a second (or third or fourth or so on) honeymoon with your professional self. Like John Lennon’s lyrics, it’s just like starting over. Surrounded by educational tools, new vendor products and new ideas, it was a wonderful retreat to fall in love with your exciting, provocative and ever changing profession.

Laura Warner has been an active SLA member since 2007. Since moving to Toronto that same year she has held various positions with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. This year she attended the SLA conference in Philadelphia representing the Toronto Chapter as their President-Elect.

Kinder, gentler libraries are dead, and there will be winners and losers. The winners have solid strategies and action plans that support and align with a bigger and comprehensive community. They are so embedded in their communities that funding and resources are not issues. These successful libraries have a strong voice in their community. Currently, there are some good examples (see our recent article on innovative services in libraries). However, my vision is even bigger, put partnerships and collaborative projects together with other cultural and ICT communities. More on that when I have more time!

In other words, successful libraries with strong community voices have

* built solid relationships with all the movers and shakers in their communities — the politicians, the major for-profit and not-for-profit organizations,

* formed strong partnerships with key players in their communities whether they are publishers, other community/cultural organizations or companies,

* taken a stand with other community organizations and exclaimed in a loud voice how much they impact their community in positive ways

On the other hand, the losers are those who take a narrow view and use their voice not in a collaborative, positive way but in a derisive way that shows little tolerance for the community at large. e.g. join a union which precludes them from teaching when literacy is a most critical community goal or scream at publishers about ebook publishing/lending instead of thinking critically and problem solving with them.

As Thomas Friedman of the New York Times & author, The World is Flat & Hot, Flat & Crowded 2.0, said at the SLA conference in Philadelphia,

*we can’t just do the job, we have to continuously reinvent it — inspire, incent & innovate

* average is dead; we all have to find our “extra” — find it, develop it, exploit it

*critical and reasoned thinking is the key to employment now and even more so in the future

*the importance of right side brain thinking is increasing — synthesis, creative, storytelling

* we have to sort the signals from the noise

* we have to use different frameworks to think afresh

* anything can be done from anywhere, and will be (flat world), so for competitive advantage you need to use your imagination and spark ideas — the world will be either high or low imagination enabled

It’s a competitive world and libraries can no long be kind and gentle, or they will be dead.

Our survey collected both quantitative and qualitative data from Master of Information students, and was created to answer two broad questions:
1. What professional activities students had undertaken in the summer between the first and second year of their Master of Information (MI); and
2. What professional development opportunities do they desire from the Faculty?
What we found was interesting: the diversification of the field of Information Professionals is also happening on the student level. The clearest indication of this was seen through changes in students’ career choices.

Little change was noted in the 2008 study between student’s career choices before and after the summer (graph not shown – changes in survey questions made the data difficult to compare). 2009 reflected a majority of students shifting their career goals from academic librarianship to special librarianship. This shift continued in 2010, but was less dramatic than in the previous year.

The most significant shift from 2008 to 2009 regarding summer employment was found in the category of “Other” work experience, where the majority of students reported working for the summer of 2009. While “Other” work remained high in the summer of 2010, library work in “Academic” saw a resurgence. All such responses were found to be related to fields under the umbrella of Information Studies. Some of these work environments included: international organizations; non-profit organizations; and various museum positions. Most notably, however, was a dramatic increase in students’ summer employment in areas of research analysis.

Rates of job satisfaction remain high; though not as high as in 2008 or 2009: 71% of students were satisfied, or very satisfied with their summer work experiences in 2010, compared to over 80% in both previous studies.

We believe that some of this satisfaction is directly related to steps that are being taken by professionals in the field, and that facilitating student opportunities during the summer months can open their eyes to the wealth of possibilities in the information field. Other steps that professionals can take include offering practicum placements for students, participating in iSchool professional development events (e.g. guest lectures, Job Shadowing, Ask an Alum, etc.), and generally, being open to talking to students at social events. These opportunities were noted by students in the survey, and were highly valued.

From 2008 to 2010, this project has noted a large majority of students finding well paying work in fields of interest, with high levels of job satisfaction. These promising results suggest that information organizations are doing well matching students with their desired areas of work; nonetheless there is potential for more challenging, meaningful work for students.

We believe that the increase in career goal changes, coinciding with the increase in “Other” work opportunities, is reflective of the growing diversity of job prospects in the information profession and in the diversity of student interests coming into the Faculty of Information.

The Faculty of Information has continued to increase the professional development opportunities available to students since the beginning of this study in 2008. Let’s meet the students half way.

Kate Petch is a Media Librarian at the CBC. She graduated from the University of Toronto’s iSchool in 2010 with a Master of Information Studies. She can be contacted at katherinepetch@gmail.com.

Kim Stymest is the Information Specialist at the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade. She graduated with a Master of Information Studies from the University of Toronto’s iSchool in 2010. She can be contacted at kstymest@gmail.com

“Le Papillion on the Park” seemed the perfect place to kick off spring with a lively discussion of e-books, e-book readers—their potentials and potential pitfalls! Cozying up to one of the tables set up for our SLA group in the back area of this quaint French restaurant on Eastern Avenue, I thought to myself: hasn’t this topic been sickeningly over-debated? What is there possibly left to say about e-book readers? But my sense of paranoia soon lifted as the fruity mixed cocktails began to circulate and we dug into the tasty, hot crepes that are a signature of “Le Papillion”. One dine-arounder was quick to whip out her quilted, stylishly clad Kindle and espouse its remarkable merits: the battery life lasts forever, you can read an insanely long book without having to feel like you are carrying a brick in your backpack, downloading from e-book stores is a breeze! She also informed us where to find cheap and stylish covers: Etsy. Still, other SLA members expressed a concern for the “dying book” in print and echoed what I’ve long heard to be the frustration of public libraries in having limited digital copies and licensing agreements to certain e-pubs. Does the e-pub necessarily signal death to cozy, snuggly paperbacks and the musky scent of bound leather?

Still, the benefits of e-book readers cannot be dismissed. I noted my own interest in this booming technology: for many readers, e.g. those with physical disabilities, e-book readers represent a new and exciting accessibility tool—a next phase in the disintermediary movement begun by the advent of the Internet. Ironically, however, e-book readers may just as easily contribute to an existing digital divide.

In this electronic age, where readers find themselves inundated with information and have easy access to digital downloads in the form of music, video, and text publications that can be quickly transferred from your PC to your portable device, who needs libraries or librarians anymore? Is it possible that such e-reader technology as the Kindle are only going to provide further munitions to those political forces that want to shut down or privatize our public libraries? If so, then devices like the Kindle, may come to be less representative of freedom for the reader than of a handicap. These would be interesting topics to expand upon at a future SLA dining event.

 The first known theory of communication goes back to Ancient Greece. Aristotle, disciple of Plato, came from the great school of Athens known for its peripatetic style where the dialogue was the main form of building and creating knowledge both in oral and written form. When a speaker was ready to convey the speech (message) he was at the centre of the communication process with the intention to influence or persuade the (passive) listeners. However, most important was the content of the speech.

 Illustration: Plato and Aristotle from the fresco of Vatican Palace, by Raphael Sanzio in 1509, decorating the private library of the pope, the Stanza della Segnatura. Plato points to heaven while Aristotle points to earth – symbols of their teachings.

 Source: Socrates (2005)

 The Aristotle model of communication remained highly effective and applicable particularly among scholars for over 23 centuries. Although many changes happened with the development of technology – the invention of telegraph or radio, for example – that greatly improved the communication process, there were not any significantly new theoretical models of communication theory until Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver published “The Mathematical Theory of Communication” in 1949. This theory was a prototype of “a model which reduces communication to a process of ‘transmitting information” (Chandler, 1994).

  Illustration:Schematic diagram of a general communication system. Also known as mathematical (information) model of communication.

Source: Shannon & Weaver (1949)

In its core this model presents the transmission of the electrical impulse from one point to another. However, its mathematical logic was quickly spread to social sciences and humanities. The message at the receiving end might not be exactly the same as when the transmission started due to obstacles (noise) in the process. This was very much appealing to non-exact sciences. Although empirical in its essence, this model was missing error correction or feedback.

 Perhaps, after the invention of the telephone, there was no more fascinating communication device than the personal computer. Among those who envisioned its potential in shaping global communication was Marshall McLuhan, born in Edmontonin 1911. Marshall McLuhan’s work was rather observational and reflective. It is said that when working on his theses in Cambridge, England, he was influenced by the works of English philosopher Francis Bacon, a well known empiricist.  McLuhan refused to recognize theory as the method of his thinking and preferred throwing probes to his listeners (McLuhan, 2008). His published pieces though reflect an undertone of a theoretical approach to understanding communication.

 Resembling the peripatetic style of ancient times, we gathered on the 21^st of July to mark the Marshall McLuhan centenary. The former coach house, which became a home for the newly established (in 1963) University of Toronto Centre for Culture and Technology in 1968, has not changed much. This place, where McLuhan held his rhetoric Monday evening seminars, brought back vivid memories to his former students and gave a rare opportunity for us who signed in for the DesignMeets session to connect to what it might have felt like.

 The interior walls of the Coach House, painted in white, carried the art works of Robert Bean who has been commissioned to create a site-specific exhibition for the CONTACT festival. The exhibition was organized with McLuhan100, the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology of the Faculty of Information Coach House Institute, University of Toronto.

The “Illuminated Manuscripts”, a selection of photographs depicting communication technologies of the past, exhibited alongside video projection of 100 of McLuhan’s original manuscripts from Library and Archives Canada, made a perfect backdrop for the celebration of what would have been McLuhan’s 100^th birthday. The birthday cake and drinks made it real.

Illustration: McLuhan Program in Culture & Technology – the Coach House – at 39a Queen’s Park Crescent E, Toronto.

 Photo by: D.T.

 The DesignMeets McLuhan + You was one of many festivities that took place to honour the life and reflect on the work of a remarkable Canadian thinker. This event on the hottest day of July was special in many aspects.

 Upon registration, each guest was given a McLuhan Probe to reflect upon and present at the Coach House as an opportunity to initiate a discussion with the group. The Probe I received was: “Today computers hold out the promise of a means of instant translation of any code or language into any other code or language” (McLuhan et al., 2003, p. 112-113).

 It felt like providence.

Frequently, I have thought about language as a set or system of codes. It made me understand better the theory of literature during my studies back in Belgrade and helped me in reading.  Today, we have Google Translate which is becoming an extremely reliable tool that provides “instant translation”.  What cannot be ignored, or treated as a side effect of social networking technology, is the fast development of a new system of codes – a new language used and understood predominantly by youngsters whose lives depend on gadgets like smart phones and electronic tablets of all sorts. Will this rather spontaneous development that came as a desire to pass on information using fewer characters (codes) like in Twitter in the fastest possible way, spending the shortest amount of time, lead us to develop a unique set of codes for all humans to use and understand without a need for translation or interpretation?

 Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase: the medium is the message. The concept, often misunderstood when created some 40 years ago, seems so obvious now. It appears that we are closer then ever to identifying ourselves with the medium – emphasizing the instrumental aspect of communication. However, we have to keep in mind that the Turing test has not yet proved the supremacy of computers over humans (Turing, 1950).

 We live in an electronic era and our modern communication devices are based on this technology. The explosion of electronic publishing requires e-readers that are becoming better, more affordable and easier to use as we speak.

 And, as we are getting used to reading Tolstoy or Shakespeare on the newest Kindle, Kobo or Sony reader, Stephen Hawking is thinking about how to transfer the message from our planet Earth into space and communicate with aliens. Perhaps, it won’t take long before we talk about a different set of codes, a completely new language to develop and learn in order to communicate with the universe.

 References

Chandler, D. (1994). The transmission model of communication. Retrieved from http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/trans.html

McLuhan, E. (2008). Marshall McLuhan’s theory of communication: The Yegg. Global Media Journal — Canadian Edition, 1(1), 25-43. Retrieved from http://www.gmj.uottawa.ca/0801/inaugural_mcluhan.pdf

McLuhan, M., Carson, D., McLuhan, E., Kuhns, W., & Cohen, M. (2003). The book of probes: Marshall McLuhan, David Carson. Corte Madera, CA: Gingko Press.

Shannon, C. E., & Weaver, W. (1949). The mathematical theory of communication. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Socrates, S. (2005). Raphael’s School of Athens. Retrieved from http://www.ancientsites.com/aw/Article/555679

Turing, A. M. (1950). Computing machinery and intelligence. Mind, 59, 433-460. Retrieved from http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/TuringArticle.html

  Recent research interests of Darinka Tomic are in effects of modern technology on the development of communication theories. She holds degrees in theory of literature from University of Belgrade and library and information science from University of Western Ontario. Darinka works with iDivision of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and can be reached at darinkatomic@gmail.com

Dear Colleagues:

Spring is finally upon us here in Toronto after a lingering winter and what feels like months of rain. When the trees are leafing, the robins are singing, and the tulips are tulipping, my mind naturally turns to thoughts of renewal and regeneration, and also to conferences! Spring is conference season and I have the badge-holders to prove it. By the end of May, I will have travelled from Halifax to Victoria to work the tradeshows at library conferences across Canada. I’ll have seen the sun rise on both coasts, driven through the Canadian Rockies, and enjoyed the long twilight of a spring evening on the Prairies. I’ll treasure those memories then next time I set my alarm for 3.45 AM to catch an early flight!

When you stop and think about it, there is something inspiring about people putting aside their daily lives for a few days to meet with colleagues from across the country, converging on cities which, until that moment, had often just been dots on a map, unknown and unvisited by the delegates. There’s a whole process around getting to know a new city that is just fascinating. In peeling away the layers of unfamiliarity and adjusting to the rhythms and routines of life in new, albeit temporary, surroundings, I learn new things about myself, and when I return home, I see my life and my work in Toronto with new eyes. And of course, whenever I’ve pitched my metaphorical tent in the Exhibits Hall at a conference, I’ve met interesting people from around the world. In doing so, I’ve increased my knowledge of both my chosen profession as a librarian, and also of the new path I’m forging as a vendor.

One day, I’ll write an exposé about my other life as a “booth babe”, but on June 12th, I head to Philadelphia for the 2011 SLA Conference as a delegate, a completely different experience. I’m really excited about this year’s conference and I hope to see many of you there. Thomas L. Friedman, the author of The World is Flat and Hot, Flat and Crowded will give the opening keynote address on Sunday, June 12th at 6PM and it’s sure to be thought- and (my personal favourite!) debate-provoking.

SLA’s 2011 theme is “Future-Ready” and if there was ever a time to be future-ready, that time is now. Whatever you call yourself – librarian, knowledge manager, information professional, strategic knowledge professional, information specialist, consultant – the name of the game is Change, and the pace is Fast. Like flying across the Rockies, sometimes, it can be a bumpy ride. Have courage and know that we are all on this journey together. True, the goal of every journey is to get from point A to point B. However, the space in between provides many opportunities for learning and for discoveries that enrich our lives and the lives of the people around us. The destination is important, and results are important, but so is the process. Sometimes, it’s all about the journey.

At this year’s conference, you can book an appointment with a career coach (why not?!), be a tourist for an afternoon, give back to the community by donating to the Dress for Success service project, and of course participate in a variety of sessions. Check out the convenient online Conference Preview to plan your experience. You’ll find everything from Building Targeted Social Communities (p. 21) to e-Commerce Taxonomies (p. 18), to the KM Café (p. 17), to the Realities of a Successful Job Search (p. 22). I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind you to stop by the tradeshow to talk to your sales representatives and to thank the sponsors of this year’s conference. The conference will conclude with a closing keynote address by James Kane, who spoke from the heart at the 2010 Leadership Summit on the topic of loyalty.

Does this sound like a hectic schedule? Well, one of the keys to personal and professional success is knowing when to relax and recharge, and the Toronto Chapter has got you covered. Thanks to the generous sponsorship of our partner, CEDROM-SNi, we’re hosting the 2011 Canadian Reception at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown on Monday, June 13th at 5.30PM in Salon G. Tickets are $5 and are on sale via the Conference Scheduler. Please join me, President-Elect Laura Warner, Programming Director Elysia Guzik, Technology Director Kim Silk, our two FPinfomart Student to Conference winners Yannet Lathrop and Janina Mueller, representatives from CEDROM-SNi, and friends and colleagues from across Canada and around the world for a glass of wine and some hors d’oeuvres before you head out to explore the many fine restaurants in Philadelphia.

Do you have what it takes to make flexibility, resilience, and continuous learning a lifestyle? I think you do, and I want to learn from you, so pack your bags and hit the road! Let’s meet in Philadelphia at the SLA 2011 Annual Conference!

Zachary Osborne contributed an article which highlights some of the sessions he attended at the OLA SuperConference earlier this year.  He also provides insight into how important it is to learn from and share with our fellow librarians in academic, school and public libraries.  Also in this issue is a thought provoking piece by Katya Pereyaslavska.  In her article, Katya contemplates how to provide virtual reference services to the artistic community.

Congratulations to Yannet Lathrop and Janina Mueller who are the FPinfomart Student-to-Conference Award winners this year!  Their winning statements are also included in this issue.

We hope you enjoy this issue. Submissions are always welcome.  Please send comments, ideas or suggestions directly to us.

Sandra Craig

Bruce Harpham

Have you noticed that all of the talk about the future is really about today?

That’s as it should be, according to Peter Drucker, the famed management consultant who coined the term “knowledge worker.” The opening keynote speaker at SLA’s 2002 Annual Conference and the author of nearly 40 books, Drucker had this to say about preparing for the future: “The purpose of the work on making the future is not to decide what should be done tomorrow, but what should be done today to have a tomorrow.” Read More

SLA Loyalty Survey Launched

The survey which will launch the beginning of the SLA 12-month Loyalty Program Pilot Project was sent to all members today.  This survey will assist James Kane in selecting a chapter(s) where he will audit and assess that Chapter’s current relationships, consult with and train Chapter leadership, and develop and implement loyalty strategies for that selected Chapter. Read More

2011 Leadership Development Institute – Sunday, 12 June

If you’re an SLA leader, I know you’ve made your plans to attend the 2011 Leadership Development Institute on Sunday, 12 June.  Are there others in your chapter or division who may have time on their schedule?  Encourage them to attend the Leadership Development Institute to get the insider’s scoop on SLA.  It might peak their interest in becoming tomorrow’s leader, a first step in succession planning. Read More 

Why SLA?

Read SLA board candidates respond to why they first joined the association on the SLA Blog.

Yannet and Janina were selected by the Executive Board of SLA Toronto on the basis of their résumés and the quality of their statements on what they expect to gain from the conference experience.

Yannet graduated from the New School for Social Research in New York, with a Master of Philosophy in Political Science. This spring, she graduates with her Master of Information Studies degree from the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto. In addition to her studies this year, Yannet worked as an Editorial Assistant with Professor Andrew Clement at the Faculty of Information and as a Special Librarian at Comparative Education Services at the University of Toronto.

Janine graduated from the University of Sussex with a Master of Arts in Social and Political Thought. This spring, she graduates with her Master of Information Studies degree from the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto. In addition to her studies this year, Janine worked as a Reference Assistant at York University’s Scott Library and as a Practicum Assistant at the Canadian Centre for Epigraphic Documents.

Statement by Yannet Lathrop

I write to apply for the 2011 FPinfomart Student-to-Conference Award. While networking and resume building are often-cited as two of the most important benefits of conference participation for new LIS professionals, I believe the SLA Annual Conferences offer new professionals more substantive opportunities—namely, the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the state of the special librarianship, and its strengths, challenges and controversies, thereby helping new professionals integrate themselves into the field and make lasting contributions therein. In what follows, I will explain my goals and expectations for attending the 2011 Annual SLA Conference.

I am currently a second-year LIS student at the University of Toronto, focusing on the subfield of special ibrarianship. I am a member of the SLA Toronto Student chapter, and a student liaison for CASLIS-Toronto. I currently volunteer as a reference and collection development librarian at the Hart House Library, and serve as publications assistant for Professor Andrew Clement (Faculty of Information). As well, I recently concluded a position as a special librarian for Comparative Education Services (CES) of the University of Toronto.

My focus on special librarianship will allow me to receive maximum benefit from attending the SLA Annual Conference, as I will have a strong background in the subfield. I believe the conference will grant me the opportunity to witness the Special Libraries profession in action, outside the structured environments of the library and the LIS classroom. Gaining a knowledge of how special library professionals organize, conduct and govern their profession across institutional boundaries will be beneficial in establishing myself in this important subfield of librarianship.

Participation in this conference will also permit me to develop a deeper understanding of professional leadership, and its application to special librarianship. How are leaders in the subfield chosen? What are their responsibilities? How do they help develop and advance special librarianship? How do they interact with other LIS professionals? I believe that my participation in the conference will help me develop an understanding of these questions.

Prior to my LIS studies, I earned an M.Phil in Political Science and held positions as an intern for a U.S. Congressman, a project manager for the Parsons Institute for Information Mapping, and a publications intern for a trade union. I am currently finishing an internship at the Library of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

I have a strong desire to integrate my background in Political Science with my future career in special librarianship. I hope that by attending this conference, I can develop a strategy for achieving this career goal. Specifically, I hope to attend presentations related to, or by, SLA’s Government Information Division, in order to develop an understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing government librarianship, as well as the prospects within it for new professionals.

As I am devoted to special librarianship, I expect that my participation in this conference will help me develop skills and knowledge that I will build on over the course of my career, during which I hope to make a lasting contribution to the advancement of the field.

Sincerely,
Yannet Lathrop

Statement by Janina Mueller

I am writing to apply for the FPinfomart Student-to-Conference Award to attend the SLA 2011 Annual Conference in Philadelphia. This conference is an excellent opportunity for me to learn more about success stories, current developments and challenges in the working world of information professionals. By attending this conference, I hope to learn about the diverse work that SLA members from all over North America do, and I hope to share their knowledge and insights with other information professionals and students here in Toronto.

Last summer I interned at a small, specialised library at the United Nation’s headquarters in New York City. Unfortunately, this library laid off its full-time librarian a number of years ago. By working there, I came to realize the importance of advocacy work in all libraries. Librarians should strive to demonstrate the importance of their services to all members of an organization. Only if they assert their importance, align their goals with that of the organization and work closely with decision-makers can they survive even through economically difficult times.

Over the past months, I have had the chance to learn from a number of highly successful and inspiring information professionals here in Toronto. Field visits in Vicki Whitmell’s graduate course ‘Management of Corporate and other Special Information Centers’ have given me the opportunity to speak to a wide variety of information professionals, to learn concretely about how they assert themselves and how they have positioned themselves inside an organization. In Kimberley Silk’s iSchool Institute class ‘Entering the new Information Economy,’ I further had the chance to network with information professionals from around the GTA and to get inspired by their stories.

As a result of these experiences, I am thrilled to enter the information profession as a full-time worker upon completion of my studies. I am looking forward to continuing to learn from information professionals from all over the world, and to give back to this community of professionals that has inspired me and infused me with enthusiasm.

This award is an ideal way for me to achieve these goals. As such, I would feel privileged were I to get the opportunity to attend this year’s SLA conference in Philadelphia, and to celebrate special librarianship with professionals from all over North America. Attending this conference and serving on the executive board of the SLA Toronto Chapter next year would enable me to learn and to simultaneously contribute to the community of information professionals. 2011 is an exciting and challenging time to be graduating with a Master’s of Information degree, but as this year’s SLA conference program shows, our opportunities are wide-ranging and plentiful.

I thank you in advance for your consideration, and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,
Janina Mueller

Kelly Butler, Toronto
Eric Chor, Toronto
Lisa Dauvin Leggett, Toronto
Jaclyn Derlatka, Whitby
Paul Fong, Thornhill
David Legierski, London
Chloe Lei, Toronto
Baruch Lipinsky, Toronto
Jessica Luet, Ajax
Quenby Mahood, Toronto
Danielle Manning, Toronto
Sean McCoy, Woodstock
Catharine McLandress, London
Gail Morgenstern, Toronto
Janina Mueller, Toronto
Kaitlin Perri, Moncton
Lisa Pooley, Waterloo
Lisa Portelli, Burlington
Victoria Powell-Kapos, Toronto
Patricia Presti, Rockwood
Shannon Sobota, Ajax
Solaiman Talut, Toronto
Kathryn Tippell, Toronto
Ryan Watson, Whitby

I look forward to meeting each of you at an upcoming SLA Toronto event!

In mid-April, Emmeline Hobbs took on the new and exciting role of Director, Knowledge Services at Navigator Ltd.  Emmeline is now a solo, embedded in all aspects of knowledge and research management at Navigator. She moves on from her role as a Business Information Analyst at Deloitte where she worked for just over two years providing firm-wide research to clients across Canada. Prior to that, she worked at the Toronto Star Reference Library. For a second year running, she also continues to fulfill the role of Secretary for the SLA Toronto Chapter. Her new contact is ehobbs@navltd.com. You can also follow her on Twitter – @emmelinehobbs.  

People on the Move is  a regular column highlighting the achievements of our members and helping us all keep in touch.  Please share your career changes, retirements, life changes, volunteer work.  

Submit your news to Frances Wong at FWong@blgcanada.com.

Virtual reference has increasingly gained popularity and entered our lives through services like Ask Ontario (http://askon.ca/), the Library of Congress and OCLC joint venture called Question Point ((http://questionpoint.org/), and California Public Libraries’ service called AskNow (http://www.asknow.org/), among many others. Having been a devoted askOn volunteer for nearly two years, I can fully attest to the highly addictive but nevertheless super successful features of the service. Serving over twenty academic institution and dozens of public libraries, it’s become an essential feature in the provision of reference services both for students who live far from campus but need help, or libraries which are understaffed and appreciate the extra “man power” so to speak, in the person of askOn volunteers.

The major issue I have personally and professionally struggled with is the question of boundaries and innovation – tailoring, if you will – of services such as askOn to a unique artistic community. Having experienced the amazingly inspiring energy of the OCADU students firsthand (as a former reference assistant at the Dorothy H. Hoover Library) and having contemplated on how one could more creatively implement a virtual reference service in a small academic artistic community whose needs and interests are unique insofar as traditional academia goes, I have perused websites, looked at different virtual reference models and conducted an in-depth literature review.

The questions that I found myself asking were the following:

1. What do students need?

This seems like a fairly straightforward question in a more traditional library setting; however, when it comes to a wonderfully passionate artistic community willing to explore, discover and experiment, this question becomes more complex. Are students looking to just write a paper or gain an experience of learning and by that I mean seeking out more unique and creative ways to find and absorb information without destroying its essence, which could provide creativity or inspiration? I found myself saying ‘yes’ to the latter. Future great artists and designers are enrolled in their programs not to make money but to follow their passion for creating so how can a library, through the virtual reference service, supplement that need?

2. How far are librarians prepared to go to complement student needs?

Let’s face it, librarians already do a LOT and shy of putting on library performance pieces and playing violins while tackling reference queries (all solid ideas, by the way!), sometimes there is very little more that budgetary or staff restrictions can really make happen. So how can we take a basic idea of a real-time chat and morph it into a creative service which will help students explore ideas, get inspired and build a beautiful world?

While struggling with this concept my eye rested on a recent email from the Ontario Library Association (OLA) Superconference Human Library project. The Human Library Project (http://humanlibrary.org/) has been an immense success but it was OLA that really introduced the concept of implementing this idea within a single pool of professionals – librarians. What is to say that an art library could not tackle a similar venture but employing technologies which would allow students to connect to artists from around the world and not only likely secure mentors for life but brainstorm on ideas, inspire each other and exchange experience for some fresh perspective?

I bounced this idea back and forth from one professional to another to try and figure out whether this made any sense to any of my colleagues in the field of art librarianship or was instead complete lunacy. While still a rough sketch of an idea but an exciting one nonetheless, the following are a few things that would need to be considered if one were to initiate a project of this nature:

Definition: Experimental Virtual Human Library – ask an artist or a designer a question. It could be a new person every time with a small biography posted on the library site, advising students as to the schedule and the persons who will be “on duty”. 

The incentive for attracting high profile professionals and encouraging student participation: tradeoff – experience for naiveté and fresh perspective.

Staffing and hours: Artists or designers as available – that might mean only a few hours per week or even per month or more regular schedules, depending on how successful the recruitment might be.

Video chat or Skype: Is there an issue with using technology? One on one interaction might be lost unless it’s a video chat – how important is the medium of communication?

Environmental scanning: A library might consider conducting a campus-wide survey to gather data as to whether this project would be of interest and would be useful for faculty to incorporate into the curriculum.

Criteria for qualifying: Who is an ‘artist’? Do they need to come with an impressive portfolio in order to qualify for this project? Is it possible to let students decide the “credibility” of a given artist or designer or should there be a screening process?

Advertising channels: Creating a consortium of small art libraries sharing artist contacts and project feedback might allow for a more successful implementation.

Virtual reference is a vital tool for small special libraries which lack the staffing and resources to provide immaculately tailored services to students. This would be an initiative that would be able to take this concept and tweak it, creating a hybrid of virtual reference and the human library project, with a dash of apprenticeship for good measure. For many students, it would be an opportunity to gain valuable experience that they might not otherwise be able to, and that, in and of itself, is more than enough justification to pursue this initiative. While this is intended as a trial balloon for art librarianship, it is applicable to many specialized fields, be it law, business, or any other fields that have a highly individualized focus. 

References:

Lankes, R. David, Virtual reference service: from competencies to assessment (New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2008).

Radford, Marie L., and Lankes, R. David, Reference renaissance: current and future trends (New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, c2010).

Ronan, Jana Smith, Chat reference: a guide to live virtual reference services (Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited, 2003).

Personal discussions with:

Jan Dawson, Ask Ontario

Marta Chudolinska, Learning Zone Librarian, OCADU

Information and Knowledge Professional’s Career Handbook

Subtitled “Define and Create Your Success,” this recent and welcome addition to the collection of LIS career books is a delightfully personal compendium of advice from two of the profession’s most respected and experienced practitioners: Ulla de Stricker and Jill Hurst-Wahl. Both have worked in a wide variety of information roles throughout their careers, and bring that breadth of experience (and lessons learned) to the handbook.

In fifteen chapters, the authors provide detailed, practical career advice that comes across as a cross between coaching, mentoring, and okay, (in the nicest possible way), a bit of nagging. But it’s clear that their goal is to help readers avoid career potholes if possible. To that end, the tone and format is strongly prescriptive, letting readers know in no uncertain terms how certain situations should be handled in order to help ensure career success.

Numerous insights about the profession are interwoven throughout, for example:

When you choose a profession that isn’t instantly and universally recognized for its work and value (the way, say, veterinarians’ and engineers’ professions are), you set yourself up for a fair amount of future work some professionals don’t typically have to do – justifying your value and making the case why you should be hired or your department’s budget sustained or increased.

Chapter topics include overviews of the profession (including its challenges and opportunities), self-assessment and career fit, professional branding, job-hunting, navigating workplace politics, becoming a manager, salary issues, and mentoring, among other topics. “Career snapshots” for 15 practitioners provide real-life career stories (and advice), and the final chapter features the two authors’ individual career stories.

Reading The Information and Knowledge Professional’s Handbook is like hanging out with two really smart, experienced, and wise mentors who aren’t going to sugarcoat any of their advice – because they know you really need the real deal. The information they provide is practical, actionable, and from this professional’s experience, spot on. A recommended addition to the literature of LIS career development.

The Information and Knowledge Professional’s Career Handbook: Define and Create Your Success. By Ulla de Stricker and Jill Hurst-Wahl. Chandos Information Professional Series, 2011. 283p. ISBN 978-1-84334-608-1. 

Excerpt from Kim Dority’s  blog posting on May 15, 2011.

The Ontario Library Association’s annual Super Conference takes place each Winter at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. This past January I attended the Super Conference with the hopes of reconnecting and networking with colleagues, liaising with vendors, and most importantly, learning from the experiences of other librarians. 

Traditionally and informally, the OLA Super Conference is more or less a platform for library technicians, academic, school, and public librarians. There seem to be few special librarians in attendance at OLA. This year I pondered if librarians from special libraries could benefit from what the Super Conference has to offer. Coincidentally, the theme of this year’s conference was “The Power of C – Collaboration!” OLA President Mary Ann Mavrinac writes, “Collaboration makes us smarter. The power of collaboration is a catalyst for community engagement, communication, cooperation, connectivity, conversations, crowdsourcing, collectivism and collegiality” and further, “helps us make better choices for communal and collateral benefit” (http://www.accessola.com/superconference2011). I felt energized by this message of teamwork and camaraderie, and think that despite differences in the users we serve, that both groups can take away valuable and transferable lessons from each other’s major conferences. 

When the Super Conference session schedule was released, I read some abstracts out of curiosity for what might be available. To my surprise, more than a handful stood out as innovative, interesting, and helpful in the context of my library’s current projects and workflow. Fully aware that I’m not the ideal audience for this conference, I registered reluctantly but excitedly. 

Below are some sessions from the 2011 Super Conference that I enjoyed: 

“Library Mashups: Exploring new ways to deliver library data” presented by Nicole Engard (Bywater Solutions): Highlighted various examples of how your library can incorporate the API (Application Programming Interface) from your current subscriptions (e.g. The New York Times) and embed that code within your library’s OPAC or website. Hypothetically then, you can present your users with seamless and immediate access to the latest content related to your organization’s focus. Additionally, introduce things like Google maps and other applications to your Library’s web page. 

“Using Open Source Software in a shared integrated library system” presented by A. Rivers-Moore (Hanover PL), S. Leighton, (Grand Valley PL), W. Allen (Grey Highlands PL), and R. Dotten (Shelburne PL): Explored the challenges and successes of implementing the open source ILS, Koha. My library uses a number of open source platforms, Koha in particular. As the only librarian (and one with amateur open source abilities) it was a terrific opportunity to speak to others in the same situation about some of the obstacles and rewards involved in introducing free and open source software. 

“Next generation workflows for next generation libraries” presented by Karen Calhoun (OCLC) and Rick Anderson (University of Utah): This session focused on changing attitudes and practices in service-delivery and collection development. Among many topics, the presenters advocated for acquisition models based on demonstrable need, the eradication of large scale interlibrary loan, document delivery and single-article purchasing in lieu of massive title or publisher-based serials subscriptions. 

Overall, I was thoroughly impressed by the diversity and depth of most sessions, though disappointed by the elementary coverage of some others. I heartedly recommend browsing the list of sessions for the 2012 Super Conference. You may be surprised at what you find! As the leaders of access and information management within our organizations, we should actively keep abreast developments, technologies and projects throughout the wider profession of librarianship in order to anticipate and meet the needs of our users. There is much to be learned from our librarian relatives in the academic, school and public environments, and there is much that we can teach them as well. 

Zachary Osborne is the Research Librarian at The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) in Waterloo, Ontario. His current research interests include the impact of grey literature, citation analysis tools and trends, data literacy and access. He can be contacted at zosborne@cigionline.org, and his blog can be read at http://zacharyosborne.wordpress.com.

Send your job hunting queries and quandaries to pattyplacement@gmail.com             

   _________________________________________________________________

Dear Patty Placement,

I’m getting mixed messages about cover letters.  What’s your take?  

Signed,

To Cover, or Not to Cover

Dear To Cover,

Like many things about job hunting what kind of cover letter to write depends a great deal on the sector you are applying to.  Historically, library hiring managers like cover letters because (when well written) they highlight your talents and experiences relative to a specific position.  They can also serve as an example of your written communication skills.  However, in some sectors they are almost completely ignored by hiring managers.  Increasingly in larger company settings your initial cover letter and résumé will be vetted by a computer, not a person, so the key ingredient to your cover letter is matching the terminology used in your writing to that of the job description and company culture.  Some companies are fine with a simple email cover note and a well tailored attached résumé.  So… the bottom line…. do your research, find out as much as you can about that company and sector and when in doubt I would ere on the side of a succinct and tailored cover letter – absolutely no more than one page, but also make sure that your résumé can stand well on it’s own.

Good luck!

Patty

                                   _________________________________________________________________

Dear Patty Placement,

I have been unemployed for over 6 months.  I have stayed engaged with volunteer work and the occasional contract.  What else can I do to keep my skills sharp and improve my chances of finding work?  I’m starting to lose hope!

Surviving on Macaroni

Dear SOM,

There are so many options available to you, I’m not really sure where to start… so I think I’ll give you my own personal opinion.  It’s not the only advice available… but you can find all the other ideas elsewhere.  

Answer these question for yourself – what am I really interested in?  How can I turn this interest into a specialization?  Take my friend Todd for example.  Todd is really interested in model trains and years ago he started writing short blog posts about model trains.  Today he makes a living writing articles for magazines, catalog descriptions for model train manufacturing companies, and sells his own newsletter on the topic.   Or Geneva…. When Geneva was unemployed she starting volunteering with senior citizens and discovered that many of them wanted to learn how to use the Internet.  She learned everything she could about seniors’ learning styles and internet use and training for seniors and started giving workshops.  Before long she was doing private consulting and now she is doing her PhD on the topic and is busy giving lectures and presentations at gerontology and learning conferences.  

Many years ago I wanted to work in the international development sector, so I gave up my boring bank job and took a part-time administrative job with a very small development agency.  They were implementing a new database system that I didn’t know anything about.  I found another similar organization that was already using that system and in my spare time I volunteered there so that I could learn about the database system and more about the sector.  Eventually that organization needed a full-time librarian…. Guess who landed the job?

Essentially, focus your volunteer efforts on an area that you are interested in and in which you can learn new skills.  Even if you don’t end up with a job… at least you’ll be enjoying your efforts and I believe that eventually your efforts will pay off!

Good luck,

Patty

Dear Colleagues:

As I write this letter, I am 30,000 feet somewhere above the Canadian Prairies, on my way to visit some colleagues and friends at libraries in British Columbia.  I spend approximately 50% of my time on the road, and I absolutely love it. I especially love flying. True, there are parts of it I don’t love, like delays (I’m an ENTJ) and turbulence (I’m a big chicken) and the logic-defying world of airport security (See: ENTJ). But I do love the block of uninterrupted time that air travel affords me. Up in the air, I can live in the moment and turn my attention to planning and thinking.  Although I fly Economy class, the bubble of space between my office and a library visit created by a transcontinental flight is positively luxurious.

Last fall, I used that space to think about our Chapter and our Association. SLA President Cindy Romaine’s theme for 2011 is “Future-Ready” – and by the way, please check out the Future Ready 365 blog. There will be a new post every day; I’ve subscribed to the RSS feed so I don’t miss a single one.

I’d like to take this opportunity to share our Chapter’s future-ready 2011 goals with you:      

• Strengthen existing partner relations and cultivate new relationships to ensure both the financial viability of the Chapter and the delivery of programming that is meaningful and relevant to our members. To this end, I have promoted the position of Partner Relations Chair, which was an Advisory Board role, to the Executive level, giving Partner Relations a seat at the table.  Pam Casey is our 2011 Partner Relations Director. She heads up a committee consisting of two talented Toronto Chapter members, Robert Ambra and Eliana Trinastic.

The current social and economic climate is extremely challenging, both for information professionals and for our partners. Rapid change requires us to do more and be more, with fewer essential resources like time, money, and energy at our disposal. I believe that if we work together, we and our partners will be successful in accomplishing our goals. 

• Enhance communication with our membership, prospective members, the Association, and our partners by using the functionality afforded by the refreshed Chapter website.  This doesn’t mean that other communication channels like the Discussion List, The Courier and our social media presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are going away. Au contraire!  Daniel Lee, a Past-President of the Chapter and 2009-2011 SLA Director, together with a dedicated project team including Toronto Chapter members Heather Ritchie, Britta Jessen,  and the 2011 Technology Director Kim Silk, have worked very hard to convert our current website into its soon-to-be-launched, WordPress-powered self. Our new site will bring all of our resources and services together into one easy-to-use, flexible, and – if I have your permission to geek out a little – beautiful online home. In the meantime and afterward, I will continue to employ my well-honed librarian’s skills to facilitate the flow of information between our Chapter, other units in the Association, and what Ulla de Stricker, Cabinet Chair Elect in 2011, affectionately calls “Big SLA”, the Association itself.    
• Continue to deliver programming that meets our members’ professional development and social needs, builds community, and fosters a culture of learning and knowledge-sharing. Our programming is really the heart of our Chapter. Our events create a space for our members to learn, to participate, to network, and also to socialize and have some fun.  The joint holiday social with CASLIS, TALL and FIAA at the Hard Rock Café on November 30^th was a big hit.  Elysia Guzik is the 2011 Programming Director and she has just facilitated our first event of the year, Leveraging Social Media Tools for Knowledge Management, which took place over the lunch hour on January 31^st at the offices of PwC.

Our goals for programming in 2011 includes introducing some new types of events. Watch this space for details! Also in 2011, we have a wonderful opportunity to connect with our colleagues both in Canada and from all over the world: the Toronto Chapter is hosting the Canadian Reception at the 2011 Conference, with our partner CEDROM-SNi.

Because I spend a significant amount of time away from Toronto, I will be unable to attend all of our Chapter events this year. This is a pity, because not only do I always have a wonderful time learning new thing and meeting members of our Chapter, but because it means I am less available to the membership. Last year, the Board had a frank conversation about our own attendance at Chapter events.  We don’t have an office where you can drop in and talk to us. We don’t have office hours. Effectively, the only scheduled time when the membership can interact with us is at a Chapter event. 

My current role with YBP provides me with an excellent opportunity to create my own “office hours”.  True, I am on the road 50% of the time.  But the other 50% of the time, I’m here in Toronto, working from my home.  So, I’m extending an invitation to you: if you have a question or a concern about SLA or if you just want to talk shop for awhile, send me an email at jen.ann.burns@gmail.com.  Let’s make plans to meet over coffee some afternoon.

This is your Chapter: let’s talk.  

This issue introduces the new executive board for 2011 and chapter president, Jennifer Burns, outlines her goals for this year.  In addition to our regular columns, Katya Pereyaslavska and Stephen Spong describe how they used Zotero to manage a challenging weeding project at the Hart House Library. Amra Porobic provides a summary of the interesting events held last year by the Solos Group and Peter de Jager offers useful insights into a variety of personality traits.

We hope you enjoy this issue.  Submissions to the Courier are always welcome.  Please send comments, ideas or suggestions directly to us.

Bruce Harpham
Bruce.harpham@gmail.com

Sandra Craig
sandracraig@rogers.com

President-Elect: Laura Warner
Laura graduated with her MLIS and MPA degrees from Dalhousie in 2007. Soon after that she migrated to Toronto , where she launched her career in the information profession. Since then, she has held positions as a Reference Librarian with the CBC Reference Library, a Business and Economics Librarian with Wilfrid Laurier University Library and currently holds the position of Music Librarian with the CBC Music Library. Laura has also been actively volunteering with the SLA Toronto Chapter since 2008 when she took on the role of New Information Professionals Program Coordinator. In 2010 she took on the responsibility of Technology Director and now holds the position of President-Elect.

Programme Director: Elysia Guzik
Elysia is a recent Master of Information Studies grad (University of Toronto, June 2010), currently working at Egon Zehnder International Inc. as Research Analyst. Prior to Egon Zehnder, Elysia worked part-time as Co-op Student, Records & Information Management Office at OMERS Administration Corporation where she supported the implementation of the Records & Information Management program across OMERS business areas. While at the Faculty of Information, she completed practicum placements at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP and Our Ontario. This year, Elysia is thrilled to be part of SLA Toronto’s Executive Board in her role as Programming Director. She is excited about planning events that cater to the diverse professional interests of the chapter’s members. In her spare time, Elysia likes to read, practice yoga, explore Toronto’s arts & culture scene, and try out new recipes for delicious vegetarian dishes.

Partner Relations Director: Pam Casey
Pam is the current Partner Relations Director but previously has been in the roles of Membership Chair, President-Elect and President.  Pam has also participated on the 2010 Annual conference committee with SLA.  During the day, Pam, a certified technical trainer, is the President of Information Now, an information consultancy providing Information Management and training solutions.

Pam is a graduate of the Library and Information Technician program of Sheridan College.  She holds a professional CTT⁺ designation from CompTIA.  In addition, she holds a Social Service Worker diploma from Mohawk College.  Pam is an active member in many library and related associations including SLA, Company of Women, and OALT/ABO.  Pam enjoys gardening and golfing in her spare time.

First Five Years Director:  Shannon McMillan
Shannon is a recent graduate of the Master of Information Studies program at the University of Toronto.  In her time at the University of Toronto, Shannon served as the co-chair of the SLA Toronto Student Group and was the 2010 FPinformart Student-to-Conference award recipient.  She also spent time working at the Criminology Information Service and Library at the University of Toronto.  More recently, Shannon has worked at Access Copyright as a research assistant and cataloguing associate.  She is currently on the hunt for her next exciting career opportunity in special librariesMembership Director: Shelley McBride
Shelley has worked as a librarian at Canada Business Ontario, Industry Canada in Toronto since 2002.  A ‘solo’ librarian since 2006, she provides reference / research and collection management services, and is a member of the national Canada Business Information Specialists Committee.

Prior to joining Industry Canada, Shelley was the business librarian at Richmond Hill Public Library.  She is a graduate of the University of Toronto.

Secretary: Emmeline Hobbs
As she enters her second year as part of the SLA Executive Board, Emmeline is excited to be part of this year’s team. Emmeline started her professional life at the Toronto Star Reference Library after graduating from FIS in 2008.  She is now well established in her role as a Business Information Analyst at Deloitte, where she has been for over two years, answering a myriad of reference questions and providing training and support within the firm. Emmeline loves high-end coffee, public radio, and the colour yellow.

Past President: Claire Lysnes

Treasurer: Heather Brunstad
Heather has worked in both academic and public libraries but has found her niche in special libraries and currently holds the position of Manager of Bibliographic and Permissions Services at Access Copyright.  Heather is a solutions-oriented Library and Information Management Specialist with strong leadership experience excelling in the fields of technology, research and information organization.  Heather has been a volunteer with the SLA Toronto Chapter since 2003 in the following positions: Student Rep, Registrar, Programming Director and Treasurer.  Heather Brunstad is a graduate of the MLIS program at the University of Western Ontario.

Technology Director: Kimberly Silk
Kimberly Silk has over fifteen years of digital media experience and is actively engaged in the interactive media, library and education industries. She is currently the Data Librarian at the Martin Prosperity Institute, a think-tank at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. In addition to her passion for digital collections and online communities, Kim believes in giving back to the profession. She is actively involved in several professional associations; she is President of the Faculty of Information Alumni Association for 2009-2011, and is Technology Director and an Alignment Ambassador for the Toronto chapter of SLA. Kim’s research interests include municipal Open Data projects, and social media principles to knowledge management.  She is also keenly interested in pushing the boundaries of what it means to be a librarian in the 21^st century. Kim earned her M.L.S. (Library Science) from the University of Toronto, and a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Waterloo.

Planned as part of the SLA 2011 Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO, the Need to Know Forum (N2K) is a first-time event. It’s a unique outreach to non-SLA members and offers the opportunity to learn about the value of access to authoritative information.

Through a series of eight sessions and a networking lunch we’ll discuss how best-in-class information solutions help organizations be more competitive, avoid lawsuits, improve internal collaboration and increase innovation. Read More

Holding Our Future in their Hands
Will smartphones–or, more precisely, the applications (apps) designed for them–make librarians extinct? That outcome may seem far-fetched, but information professionals may need to re-think what they do if they want to thrive in a mobile world.

That’s the message from Tom Boone, a reference librarian, professor, and blogger, writing in the January/February issue of Information Outlook. His article, “Ensuring the Visibility of Librarians,” minces no words about the threat posed by mobile applications:

Within the typical smartphone ecosystem, a rise in the number of mobile apps will result in a decrease in the visibility of librarians. Once a vendor develops a mobile app, library patrons will download the app onto their phones. Having done this, they will now only need to select an icon on their phone’s desktop to access the database. This will effectively eliminate any library branding from the user experience. Read More

Announcing New Web Hosting for Units
SLA’s newest unit service announced at Leadership Summit, code-named Operation Vitality, will cost units $40/year. It will be deducted from the annual dues allotment. In this first year, the early adopters who are operational at allotment disbursement will have the amount deducted from the allotments issued this year. All others will be invoiced at start-up. Read More

Submit Your Post To SLA Future Ready 365
What is Future Ready? It’s an attitude of being more adaptable,  flexible, and confident in utilizing the skills of the information & knowledge professional.

It’s a strategic shift toward being more effective at aligning with emerging and robust opportunities in the information industry and beyond.

It’s a focus on preparing ourselves for emerging opportunities in the information industry through:

1. Collaboration to accelerate the availability of useful information
2. An adaptable skill set that anticipates and responds to the evolving marketplace 
3. Alignment with the language and values of the community you serve 
4. Building a community that connects stakeholders in mutually beneficial relationships

Read More

Jeannie An, Oakville
Victoria Baranow, Toronto
Jackie Beaudrie, Toronto       
KeJo Buchanan, Brampton
Louise Donnelly, Mississauga   
Krista Godfrey, Hamilton
Gabriella Goldberg, Toronto
Lori Hallahan, Barrie  
Yasmin Hartung, Toronto
Roxana Henriquez, Toronto
Adrian Ho, London      
Helena Klimchuk, Toronto
Suzanne LeBlanc, Toronto
Jennifer Lee, Toronto
Karen Lee, Toronto
Coralee Leroux, Toronto
Marilyn Nazar, Toronto
Stacey Nordlund, Toronto
Katherine Pancuska, Toronto
Dawn Pearcey, Toronto
Jana Purmalis, Toronto
Stephanie Quail, Toronto
Bernadette Roca, Thornhill
Erica Smith, Toronto
Lynette Terrill, Toronto
Howard Wong, Toronto

I look forward to meeting each of you at an upcoming SLA Toronto event!

As of January 2011, Brenda Taylor is working 3 days per week as Librarian, Knowledge Management Lord Cultural Resources a consulting company that helps plan and implement cultural places, programs, and resources around the world.  Brenda also continues to volunteer at the Textile Museum of Canada’s H. N. Pullar Library.  She can be reached at: btaylor@lord.ca or via LinkedIn: http://ca.linkedin.com/pub/brenda-taylor/0/8b1/3a6.

Elysia Guzik started at Egon Zehnder International in April 2010 as Records Management Analyst, and has recently (January 2011) moved into her new role as Research Analyst. As Research Analyst, she conducts business research and analysis for business development projects and executive search assignments. She also maintains responsibility for records management.  Prior to Egon Zehnder, Elysia was a full-time Master of Information Studies student (graduated in June 2010) and worked part-time as Co-op Student, Records & Information Management Office at OMERS Administration Corporation where she supported the implementation of the Records & Information management program across OMERS business areas. While at the Faculty of Information, she completed practicum placements at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP and Our Ontario.  She can be reached at: elysia.guzik@ezi.net.

In January 2011, Maile Reeves started work as a Research Officer in the Division of University Advancement at the University of Toronto. Past jobs include Corporate Librarian at Southam Inc., Manager of Collections Development at the Peterborough Public Library, and Legal Research & Information Specialist at SOCAN. She comes to UofT from a hospital foundation, where she worked as a Researcher.

After founding the company 20 years ago, Jane Cooney has sold Books for Business and has left the company though she remains on as a director.  The business will stay in its current location on Adelaide Street West under the leadership of the new owner, Sean Neville. She is now “retired” and looking forward to having more time to do the things that she enjoys like staying fit, improving her French, learning to play the piano, reading all the great novels, skiing, skating, golfing, spending more time with her 96 year old mother, and traveling! Also, she plans to fit in cleaning out closets and re-doing her garden somewhere in there.

 People on the Move will be a regular column highlighting the achievements of our members and help keep us all in touch.  Please share your career changes, retirements, life changes, volunteer work.

Submit your news to Frances Wong at FWong@blgcanada.com.

The overall participation was 17 people per event (in 2009 it was 14), with the record attendance set at the Spring session (22). The “success” factors were:

• Workshop format (informative and well prepared presentation)
• Teleconferencing option (thanks to the Insurance Bureau of Canada)
• The dates are carefully planned to meet the needs of the majority
• Timely promotion of events on SLA-Tor listserv, Chapter Events page, LinkedIn Solo Group, Facebook and Toronto solos email distribution list.

The Winter ’10 event (February 4, 2010) featured the topic of Preserving organizational memory. Solos often influence the specific content organization within their institutions in one way or another. They sometimes play a big role in ECM/KM initiatives. Several models for preserving organizational memory were discussed: content management solutions (such as OpenText Livelink, Interwoven, Records Manager Express, Document One, InMagic Presto, products by Abby, Autonomy, Oracle, IBM, Hyland Mimosa); institutional repositories (often include special collections, involve digitization projects); experts databases (who knows what, questions answered); communities of practice; storytelling (applicable to cultural knowledge, includes social media); and mentorships. Most of the discussion was around some concrete examples from solos’ experience.

Advanced Web Search Strategies (May 4, 2010) was the theme of our Spring workshop. The presentation was based on a SLA Click U webinar (Google & Friends / Greg Notess, 2009), and updated with the relevant content from Gwen Harris’ Web Search Guide (WSG). The purpose of this workshop was to help solos learn a few new things about web searching and to encourage them to explore free webinars available under Click U on sla.org. However, most of this content becomes very quickly out of date, so it’s essential to keep up with the changes – Gwen’s WSG is a great tool just for that. The presentation lasted 55 minutes and was very well received.

Lastly, the Fall workshop (Marketing Library / Information Centre Services) offered an overview of current trends in this area: why we need to market, challenges, platforms used, what works, what does not, and interpersonal tactics. Solos often keep a “low profile” and neglect this aspect of their professional work. In economically challenging times, they need to practice good marketing skills more than ever. The discussion was full of tips and techniques from a solo perspective. The presentation, along with the selective bibliography on marketing (all prepared by Amra) was shared on Solos’ wiki, LinkedIn and by email.

During these sessions, we also kept members informed about the ongoing events at the association level (Leadership Summit, SLA Alignment project, pre-conference planning, chapter events, etc.).

Other topics of discussion sometimes included “Solo asks” question and the report on the LinkedIn activity.

LinkedIn Toronto Solos Group was initiated in summer 2010 and currently has 35 members. It is used to inform members about the issues relevant to the meetings and to conduct surveys. Unfortunately, many institutions forbid the use of social media and many solos do not have a personal LinkedIn profile. This is why the activity level is still very low and discussions posted by the administrator (me again) get very limited attention.

Solos’ wiki (requires SLA wiki login) is still the official page of our Group where all the material can be located and progress of activities tracked (maintained by chair). This is where minutes from the meetings, presentations and handouts can be found. I welcome any suggestions about potential content and format improvements of these pages.

I hope to make our 2011 events more interactive and fun.

*2010 is Amra’s 2^nd full year in serving the role of the Solo Group Coordinator.

Hart House Library, nestled away in a quiet corner of the University of Toronto’s Hart House, is a unique and very special collection. Established in 1919 by the Massey family, the library has served a diverse community over the past ninety-two years, reflecting the changing faces of Hart House. Currently, the library, which would fit right in at Hogwarts, holds some 5,000 volumes on its intricately carved and stained-wood shelves; however, it is only now that a proper weeding project has been initiated with the help of twenty student volunteers.

The most difficult aspect of this project is to actually get started on it or, perhaps more accurately, deciding how it should be initiated and how to implement it most effectively. What is to be done with all the past donations comprising of outdated textbooks and poorly-maintained cheap editions of Huckleberry Finn? Should they be assessed or should we just create a “sale truck” where volumes in question can be sold off to raise funds for the library? Are they worth anything? Should they be donated instead? Where do we even start?! These questions and more make laying the groundwork a delicate operation.

While attempting to come to terms with this conundrum, we came upon Zotero, which offered the solution we were looking for. Available as a small, free download, Zotero – a plug-in for Firefox, rather than a stand-alone program – allows one to extract and edit library records from any catalogue record viewed in the browser – from WorldCat, public and academic libraries and even Library Thing where the Hart House Library recently uploaded its catalogue.

Having offered several training sessions and sent out links to online tutorials, the next step was dividing volunteers into teams responsible for specific sections of the library. From there, we have created subject-specific folders corresponding with the appropriate section of the library, and then each one has subfolders named “replace”, “deaccession” and “not found.” This allows for a simple, methodical approach.

The “replace” folder is intended to include classics and must-haves for our library that are currently in poor condition or outdated. Due to the increasingly high cost of book repairs and our modest budget, the library cannot afford to replace all books which are in poor condition. Our aim is to be able to buy newer and more attractive hardcover volumes to replace shabby and overused paperbacks, instead of spending a fortune on repairs. However, before any volumes from this folder are replaced, we shall run the list by a rare book specialist to advise us as to whether it might contain any valuable items in which case we might decide to splurge on repairs or donate these volumes to the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto.

The “deaccession” folder will contain books that are obviously in need of weeding because they are old textbooks or items that do not fit well into the overall character of the collection. The drafting of newly updated Collection Development and Mission Statement documents that were subsequently distributed to the volunteers provides a clear framework within which to work. More often than not assigning sections based on individual background and expertise allows for a more critical approach to weeding as well as encouraging students to actively participate in compiling lists of contributions for acquisitions.

The Hart House Library is currently in the process of working through the sections and waiting for the folders to be filled with lists of books. The wonderful thing about Zotero is that it actually allows for the exporting of content to spreadsheets as well as for the editing of imported records to change publishing information and add notes on anything (which is especially useful for condition reports). This will prove to be quite useful when studying this part of our collection and making joint decisions with administration. Although the library is small, this makes the project all the more manageable, as well as a fantastic training ground for our volunteer-based staff of library students.

———————————————————————–

Dear Patty Placement,

I really want to find work in a different industry, but I am worried that without any actual experience in that industry I will never get an interview.  Help please.

Signed,

Need-a-change

Dear Need-a-change,

In a tight job market it often feels that it is impossible to move from one sector to another.  Whether looking for a professional position for the first time; or trying to make a major change, there are a number of things you can do to better position yourself:

Ask people in your targeted area for information interviews.  DO NOT expect these meetings to lead to a job; but simply treat them as an opportunity to learn as much as you can about this new sector.

Take workshops or courses that will familiarize you with the sector, the terminology, and the culture.

Research and write articles about this sector or an important issue affecting it.  Self publish in your own blog; submit to professional newsletters; comment on other existing blogs.

Depending on the sector; there may be possibilities to volunteer in the industry/sector.

Consider applying for and accepting a more junior level position in this sector.  Change sometimes requires sacrifice… but if it is where you really want to be… it will be worth whatever sacrifice you have to make.

Concentrate on articulating your transferable skills in language familiar to your new sector.  It is not enough to say you have these skills; you must demonstrate them.  Invaluable transferable skills include:  customer service skills (from waiting tables to reference services… ALL jobs that deal with the public require customer service skills and are transferable); communication skills; research and searching skills, and organizational skills.

Good luck!
Patty

Dear Patty,

Is it really necessary to send a follow up note after an interview?  It just seems like such a waste of time.  I mean, they either liked me or they didn’t, right?

Signed,

TWIWOT (Thinks Writing is Waste of Time)

Dear TWIWOT:

Of course it’s not necessary to send a follow up note… unless you want the job!  It’s a competitive world out there and anything you can do to ‘set yourself apart’ is going to help.  That said, the ‘art’ of the follow up note is subtle.  Here are a few Do’s and Don’ts:

DO send a note (either an email or a handwritten note) within 48 hours.  If it arrives much later than that, it may be too late to have any impact.

DO write individual notes to each person who interviewed you. Try to personalize each note a little; they can essentially be the same… but should vary a bit, if for no other reason than in case recipients compare notes.

DON’T review at length all of your wonderful qualifications.  Be brief and to the point.  Thank them for the opportunity; reiterate how much you enjoyed and appreciated their time; emphasize why you are especially interested and maybe add one point or comment or perhaps a link to a relevant and current resource that adds to the discussion you had.

DO try and match the tone of your note with the culture and tone of the company.  For example, if the interviewer told you to “Call me Sue” during the interview, then address your note “Dear Sue”,  otherwise stick with the more appropriate “ Dear Ms. Smith”.   How ‘assertive tolerant’ is this company?  Some companies are much more comfortable with hard-core assertiveness than others.  A sales company might even expect you to sell yourself aggressively with repeated emails and telephone calls; while another job setting might find that behaviour too aggressive.  Pay attention to the culture of the company and act accordingly.  If you’re not sure …. ask your friends and colleagues for their opinions on the culture of that company.

DON’T burn any bridges if you aren’t offered the job.  Try and bring the interviewer(s) into your network, possibly even asking them for referrals to other contacts.  I once had an applicant tell me it was ‘my loss’ when we did not offer her the position.  However, our selected candidate had to back out of the position at the last moment and you can be sure we did not call back THAT applicant!  Whose loss was it now?

 Good luck,
Patty

The juxtaposition of my ‘creatively organized’ (or if you prefer my ’chaotically cluttered’) desk and how people perceived me highlighted a potential pitfall of any personality test. By their nature, these tools attach labels to personality characteristics, often suggesting that some traits are strengths while others are weaknesses. They do little to explore how individuals utilize the labeled attributes.

Consider the term ‘Lazy’, I’ve always considered the term a succinct decription of a tendancy to exert the least amount of effort to achieve a maximum output, but ever since Pope Gregory the Great (6th Century) formalized the list of seven deadly sins, we’ve wrongly judged and reviled laziness.

Here’s the truth about sloth; all progress is due to the lazy. Laziness is what compels us to seek out the easiest way to do something. If not for laziness, we wouldn’t have the lever, the plough or the bulldozer. The underlying philosophy of laziness is that there is always an easier way to do something, that to expend more energy than necessary is a criminal waste of resources. Laziness is the root cause of progress, and the doting parent of efficiency.

Here are some other personality traits, not from any personality test I’m aware of, but they’re commonly, if secretly used, when we think of our peers, superiors and yes, even our employees: those fickle, opinionated, uncertain, pessimistic, simple minded, clock watching indviduals!

Before you go searching for these folks with the intent of firing them, keep in mind they are sometimes the keystones of your organization. Remove them, and you remove the glue holding your organization together. These are the useful people upon which every organization knowingly or unknowingly depends. Treat them well; they’re the unsung heroes of your success.

The Fickle: A politician can commit no greater crime today than to change their mind. When they do, we label them as “wishy- washy”. That’s a perverse label for someone with the integrity to contradict a past belief when they find evidence to the contrary. Far from being wishy-washy, those who publicly retract past beliefs are our champions of integrity. Their only other option is to hold to past beliefs, even when they have proof they were wrong.

The Opinionated:  People with opinions are people who choose to think. When they then voice those opinions, they serve as the checks and balances of our organizations. In a society structured as a hierarchy, opinionated people are necessary if we desire all levels to get involved in the decision making process. Without opinionated people, all thought, regardless of quality, would trickle down from above, unchallenged by those who work directly with our customers.                                                    

The Uncertain: Certainty is highly overrated; it erects fortifications against prudence. The Captain of the Titanic was certain the ship was unsinkable; the CEO of Enron was certain he’d get away with unethical behaviour; and teenagers are certain they’re invulnerable. True certainty is a rare, almost nonexistent commodity. More valuable to us is a healthy dose of uncertainty spiked with the harsh tang of skepticism. Uncertainty focuses us on the task, certainty breeds complacency.

The Pessimistic:  This outlook is second cousin to uncertainty, it takes the view that not only might things go wrong, they will go wrong sooner or later and we must accordingly plan for disaster. If we always see the glass as half-empty then we’re focused on improving the situation, usually by ordering another pint. The half-full glass is more likely to elicit nothing more than a burp of contentment. We can make most things better, but only if we’re unsatisfied with our lot. Discontent is the disenfranchised mother of invention; necessity is only a pretender to the throne.

The Simple Minded: Life isn’t complex. We eat (and we do the opposite of eating – this is after all – a family article), we sleep and do things to make eating, and safe places to sleep, possible. The rest of the time we seek happiness. We can avoid most people problems by following the Golden Rule. Most of the remaining problems are avoided by paying attention to the task at hand and avoiding shortcuts. And the few problems remaining are solved with creativity, determination and patience… which for some are forms of happiness. Bottom line? Life is good.

The Clock Watcher: Time moves faster than we think. Dates on the calendar are closer than they appear. Doing it now, is nearly always better than waiting until tomorrow. Those who pay attention to the swift passage of time are those who keep us on time. Their efforts are seldom appreciated. Everyone hates to be nagged, especially those who need the nagging, who would be late if not nagged, who would never complete a task if not nagged. Nags keep the world turning, without them we’d all be still asleep.

I started writing this with tongue firmly implanted in cheek, intending to have some fun by finding value within commonly perceived negative labels. It turns out that humour was an unexpected path to some usefulness and insight. 

© 2011, Peter de Jager – Peter is a Keynote speaker on the subject of Change Management – He is all of the above and more besides. He’s a worry wart and overly critical (of his own work) – you can read more of that work at www.technobility.com and contact him directly via pdejager@technobility.com

By the time this fall issue of the Courier is published, my term as President of the Chapter will be nearly concluded, and thus it seems like an appropriate moment to reflect upon the goals I set for myself and the Chapter this year:

Disseminating the work of the SLA First Five Years Advisory Council to the Chapter through the establishment of the ‘First Five Years’ Director position on the Executive Board and the resurrection of the UWO FIMS student group, chaired by Erin McDonald.

The UWO FIMS student group said goodbye to Erin upon her graduation and welcomed two new students as co-chairs: Beth McIntosh and Andrew Nelson. We welcome them and will continue to support both UWO and U of T student groups through our First Five Years Director, Shannon McMillan, who took over the position from Gillian McArthur (nee Horwood) in early fall. The First Five Years Advisory Council has released a series of webcasts relevant to those in the early years of their career and Shannon will be promoting these to the Chapter soon.

Broadening our current subgroup offerings (New Information Professionals and Solos) by bringing back the Toronto West Subgroup, with Mike Meth and Mindy Thuna as the new co-chairs.

Mike and Mindy engaged our members working and living in west GTA with the revival of the Toronto West Subgroup. Their first event was held in June and they are planning a few more for late fall and early winter. Unfortunately, Mindy will be leaving her role and so we are looking for a Chapter member to chair the group along with Mike. If interested, please contact Mike at Michael.meth@utoronto.ca.

Continuing to share and encourage uptake of the results of the SLA Alignment Project.

We were lucky to have Rebecca Jones, SLA Fellow, and Kim Silk, President of the U of T Faculty of Information Alumni Association take on the role of Alignment Ambassadors for our Chapter this year. Although things were a bit quiet on the Alignment front earlier in the year, Rebecca and Kim held a session to inform our membership of how they can apply the Alignment research and principles to their own careers and Kim reported on Alignment Project progress at the Chapter’s Post-Conference Wrap-Up event. The Alignment Project is currently focusing on drafting a revised Mission, Vision and Values Statement for SLA. Have your say on these topics and win prizes at http://www.slaalignmentportal.org.

Refreshing our Chapter website to make it a little more contemporary, while moving toward a seamless user experience across our web 2.0 & social media technologies.

Chapter members, Daniel Lee, Heather Ritchie and Britta Jessen have spearheaded a SLA-wide initiative to improve the association’s website technology and build a community of practice for SLA webmasters. In early 2011, SLA will begin offering a new web hosting service for all SLA chapters and divisions. Using WordPress technology, branded themes that have been designed specifically for SLA will be part of a stable and inexpensive hosting package, one that offers 24/7 technical support, a common content management system, and a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Toronto has been selected as one of the ‘early adopter’ units, which means we will be one of the first Chapters to utilize this new technology for our website. Stay tuned for more!

Enhancing the SLA Toronto event offerings through continued partnership & cross-pollination with such groups as CASLIS, Knowledge Workers Toronto, and the U of T Faculty of Information Alumni Association; and continuing to deliver programming of interest to SLA Toronto Chapter members, including the continuation of the Career Series with Ulla de Stricker.

SLA Toronto had a year full of great events from our first ever Carswell sponsored Member Appreciation Social to our Haunted Halloween Walking Tour! Our New Information Professionals and Solo Librarian groups were active and our capable Programming Director, Heather Brunstad, and her fearless team were able to organize everything from library tours to joint events with other local organizations such as CASLIS and Knowledge Workers Toronto! Thanks to Greg Barber for organizing our well attended Summer Social; Gayle Gossen for planning what is sure to be another great AGM (sponsored by The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones); and to our many Chapter members who, through hosting Dine-Around Series, generated conversation about the trends, opportunities and challenges facing our profession.

Finally, one of my unspoken goals for 2010 was to shore up the Chapter’s financial situation, a tough challenge in this lingering depressed financial climate. However, we were able to accomplish this through tremendous support from our sponsors:

• CEDROM-SNi and LexisNexis who are sponsoring our Holiday Social with CASLIS, TALL and the Faculty of Information Alumni Association. CEDROM-SNi was also the sponsor of our Post-Conference Wrap-Up session.
• FPinfomart who continued their support of the Student to Conference Award for the third year in a row.
• Carswell who helped us put on a great Spring Social, well attended and enjoyed by all.
• The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones who are generously contributing to the Chapter’s Annual General Meeting.

I would like to thank these partners for their contributions to the Chapter, which were so instrumental in helping us reach and support our members in their chosen profession. I am also grateful to Pam Casey for the countless hours she spent identifying opportunities and fostering relationships as Partner Relations Chair.

2010 was a successful year for the Chapter not because of my efforts but because of the commitment and passion of the Executive Board, the Advisory Board and our volunteers. I was lucky to have such dedicated, enthusiastic individuals working alongside me, and the benefit to the Chapter has been obvious. I would also like to convey my gratitude to our members for actively participating in the Chapter and for giving us your support in our efforts to deliver a valuable membership experience to you.

Let’s congratulate incoming President, Jennifer Burns, for filling her 2011 Executive Board. It has been an honour and pleasure for me to have served as Chapter President in 2010 and I wish Jen and her team the best of success in the coming year. Joy Shanfield, our Nominations Chair, and Jen will present the 2011 slate of nominees for acclamation at the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones sponsored Annual General Meeting on November 17th.

On behalf of the Chapter’s Executive Board, let me wish you and your family and friends a very merry holiday season! Please join us for the AGM and for the CEDROM-SNi and LexisNexis sponsored SLA, CASLIS, TALL and Faculty of Information Alumni Association Holiday Social on November 30th. Hope to see you there!

This fall the Dine-Around Series continued to generate lively discussions. Elysia Guzik reports on the October dinner where conversation ranged from the relevance of a physical library space to ebooks. The discussion raised many questions which could become dine-around topics in the New Year. Ebooks were also the topic of discussion at a technolgy conference attended by Martha Murphy. Martha shares with us information on a session she facilitated which examined how Ontario government libraries are using social media and ebooks to enhance their services and collections.

This issue also introduces a new column directed at job seekers. Send your queries and quandaries to pattyplacement@gmail.com and Patty will provice you with helpful advice.

We wish you a very happy holiday season. Before celebrating the holidays, be sure to read Laura Warner’s amusing and useful article on surviving office holiday parties!

We hope you enjoy this issue. Submissions to the Courier are welcome at any time. Please send comments, ideas or suggestions directly to us.

Bruce Harpham

Bruce.harpham@gmail.com

Sandra Craig

sandracraig@rogers.com

2010 election for the Board of Directors of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) drew a record turnout, as more than 27 percent of members helped elect five new members to the organization’s governing body.

When the polls closed at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time on 29 September, the election results were announced as follows:

• President-Elect: Brent Mai
• Chapter Cabinet Chair-Elect: Ulla de Stricker
• Division Cabinet Chair-Elect: Richard Huffine
• Directors: Jill Hurst-Wahl and Sara Tompson

The five newly elected board members will begin their terms on the SLA Board of Directors on 1 January 2011 and will participate in their first board meeting during the association’s annual Leadership Summit later that month in Washington, D.C. Read more

Call for Nominations: 2011 Rising Stars and Fellows of SLA

It is that time of year again…. Nominations for the 2011 Class of Rising Stars and Fellows are now open!

Time to start thinking about which of your SLA friends have worked hard, consistently provided strong leadership, or gone above and beyond the call of duty on behalf of the association. Nominations will close on December 1, 2010. Directions and forms are available here. Read more

What’s Your vision for SLA?

Where does SLA need to be in 5, 10, or even 20 years if it wants to make a difference for librarians and information professionals?

Starting October 26, you can help us answer that question. Below is a draft vision statement, which is meant to be a forward-looking expression of SLA’s long-term goals:

To lead the information profession into the future by promoting its members as invaluable assets to their organizations. We will continually empower our members to be knowledge leaders who actively contribute to, and drive the success of, their organizations.

Do you think this statement accurately portrays the future direction of SLA? Let us know in one (or both) of the following ways:

Instant poll: Answer the vision-focused poll question to the right of this blog post. A new question will be posted next week, so be sure to visit this site again.

Comment: Share your thoughts about the draft vision statement by leaving a comment on this blog.

Comments and poll answers about the vision statement will be accepted for two weeks. All comments and poll results will be collected and used to guide the development of the final vision statement. Read more

One Year and Growing – Taxonomy Division Celebrates

The Taxonomy Division is celebrating its first anniversary. A year has already gone by and so much has been accomplished reports Chair Marjorie Hlava. Highlights include:

• Over 200 members and growing
• Sponsored/Co-sponsored more than 10 taxonomy-related sessions at the SLA 2010 Annual Conference in New Orleans. And, there were additional topics on taxonomy as well.
• At least two programs are planned on taxonomies on the 2011 program.
• Established a webinar series for Division members.

Designed exclusively for SLA Taxonomy members, the division has had two webinars already: one by Christine Conners and one by Marjorie Hlava. Additional webinars are scheduled:

Oct. 26 – 1 p.m. EDT Wendi Pohs will speak on Taxonomy Mapping

Nov. 18 – 1 p.m. EST Marti Heyman will speak about Taxonomies: Build vs. Buy

Visit the wiki for details as they emerge. Read more.

A Gracious Farewell To A Lifelong Member

Dorothy Beckemeyer Skau (“Becky”), a cherished and lifelong member of SLA, passed away on October 14, 2010. She left behind a legacy of dedication to the association, both on the national and chapter level, and a lifetime of commitment to the library field.

Becky’s life is characterized by valued contribution to numerous associations, groups, and institutions, and her professional and personal legacy is appreciated by all those fortunate enough to have come into contact with her. Her story as a librarian coincides with the story of the Southern Regional Research Center Library of the United States Department of Agriculture. She helped found the library in 1939, and was a librarian there until her retirement.

Becky joined SLA in 1944, and over the past 60-plus years she never ceased to give back to the association community. She has held office as the president of her Louisiana Chapter, and has served on the national board of directors. She was awarded the Oberly Memorial Award by the American Library Association for a four volume compilation she co-authored on the chemistry and technology of tung products. She was a lifelong member of the St. Paul Lutheran Church.

For a full story of her accomplishments and recognitions, and information on making contributions in her honor, click here.

On behalf of the SLA community, we’d like to offer our supreme gratitude. Farewell, Becky.

Julie Anderson, Toronto

Jenice Batiforra, Toronto

Jessica Darling, Toronto

Jessica Derreck, Toronto

Alice Desrocher, Toronto

Candice Fong, Toronto

Samhita Gupta, Brampton

Mary Hanson, Toronto

Aarash Kalra, Toronto

Shannon Latham, Toronto

Yannet Lathrop, Toronto

Andrew McAlorum, Toronto

Beth McIntosh, St. Marys

Tomasz Mrozewski, Toronto

Andrew Nelson, London

Maile Reeves, Aurora

Amalia Roskies, Toronto

Adrianne Sarich, London

Lina Traboulsi, Toronto

Le Dieu Tran, Markham

Candy Yip, Mississauga

I look forward to meeting each of you at an upcoming SLA Toronto event!

People on the Move is a regular column highlighting the achievements of our members and helping us all keep in touch. Please share your career changes, retirements, life changes, volunteer work.

Send your job hunting queries and quandaries to pattyplacement@gmail.com

Dear Patty Placement,

Now that everyone is submitting their applications electronically, is it okay to submit an unsigned cover letter? How would I put a signature on my cover letter if I don’t have a scanner?

Signed,

No sig No scan

Dear No sig No scan,

I’m not really sure how much it matters if you submit an unsigned cover letter. However, I think it looks more complete and professional if your letter is signed and at the very least it shows potential employers that you are technologically savvy enough to figure out how to do it.

Personally, I don’t scan every cover letter I write. I took a black marker and signed on a piece of white paper and then scanned it so that I have it stored as a jpg. If you don’t have a scanner you can get someone else to do this for you and just email it to you or put it on a memory stick. Then, you will always have it and can simply insert it into practically any document you want.

Good luck!

Patty

Dear Patty,

Should I send my applications as word files or pdf files? I don’t have Acrobat on my computer and can’t afford to buy it. Please advise.

Signed,

Pondering pdfs

Dear Pondering,

I prefer sending pdf files as they will always look to the receiver the same as they look to you. With Word, I have had the bad luck of having my carefully formatted CV turn out all messed up when it was opened in a different version of Word.
Most versions of Word have the option to either save as pdf or export as pdf. Alternatively… there are places on the internet where you can get documents converted to pdf for free. (Try freepdfconvert.com or expresspdf.com)

Good luck!

Patty

There are some of us who may go to great lengths to avoid what we fear to be the stuffiest social event of the year. Many others dutifully make the effort, but with the enthusiasm of an 8-year-old on their way to Saturday morning piano lessons. However, with the right attitude, this night could actually not only be tolerable, but one of the best this year. If I could present a little bit of motivation, and mix it with a few professional tips, hopefully you will have one less reason to fret this winter.

Celebrate Yourself

Depending on your event it will most likely be populated with clients, potential clients, managers, or faculty members. Suddenly everyone you have been trying to have a conversation with all year is now right in front of you and in a good mood. Yes, an open bar and a few twinkly lights can transform any otherwise hurried professional into a right jolly old elf. If you have been trying to highlight your newest accomplishments to a preoccupied manager; if your ideal thesis advisor, who has an aversion to email, is now back from sabbatical; or if have been relentlessly trying to prove how intelligent, interesting and forward thinking librarians/information professional are to your otherwise sheltered colleagues; then tonight the world is your oyster. With a little preparation, you can pull off the perfect showcasing of yourself. So have that business card, CV, website, elevator speech and wardrobe updated and polished. When things reconvene in January your talents may be needed for an upcoming project.

Do Not Leave Your Manners at the Coat Check

Lydia Ramsey, business etiquette guru and the author of Manners that Sell: Adding the Polish That Builds Profits, warns that the biggest and most common mistake professionals make is that they fail to realize that the office party is still a business event. True, it is a much more relaxed and festive atmosphere, but the rules of etiquette still apply. A few helpful hints should begin with a reminder that simple manners and smiling are essential. A little pleasantness will go a long way (well they will at least keep you out of trouble). To uphold this, be sure to limit your beverage intake to one to two glasses, depending on how well you hold your liquor. Also, be sure you mix and mingle a bit. Your best friend is awesome, but do not attach yourself to them the entire evening. Finally, the most mind bending dilemma of all cocktail parties: the plate of food in one hand and drink in the other. I struggled with this conundrum for years — perilously balancing a glass of wine atop a plate of shrimp so I could squeeze in a hand-shake – until it occurred to me: choose one or the other. I would suggest working through a plate of food first, so you’re A) not hungry and B) you have a cushion to “absorb” that cocktail afterwards.

Why Not Enjoy The Evening?

I know this is totally out there, but why not have fun for goodness sake? Yes I did just stress how important this event is, but acting dignified and having a good time are not mutually exclusive. Think of it this way, it’s one of the few parties of the season that you are not expected to cook, clean, and/or decorate. There will be no nosey or overbearing relatives present (unless you’re in the family business) so things are quite relaxed compared to the other parties you’ll be attending this month. Get dressed up, feel good about yourself and have some fun. If you act enthusiastic, you’ll be enthusiastic.

If You’re Still Not Having Fun: Yes You Can Go Now

If the season is just too overwhelming, or if you are just not enjoying the evening despite your best efforts, there is no sense in torturing yourself. If you’ve been there for two hours and made a few connections, nobody will notice if you slip out a little early.
Yes, you do have to talk to the boss, so that they know that you were there, but since s/he will be in such high demand that night, it doesn’t have to be a prolonged experience. If this is done, you can make a clean getaway. If you’re nervous about whether you’ll make it to this point, psyche yourself up with some personal indulgences. Try a rewarding system: promise yourself new shoes, a movie, or a drink with friends on the way home, the motivation should keep you poised for the duration of your stay.

Hopefully you’ll try seeing professional functions in a more positive light. If you need to practice your enthusiasm, come out to the SLA/CASLIS/TALL/FIAA Holiday Social on November 30th. You won’t have to do the dishes and if your boss isn’t there you can even up your drink limit, but just by one (we do have standards).

Happy Holidays!

Laura Warner is a graduate of Dalhousie University’s School of Information Management. She has held various positions including, Media Librarian and Business and Economics Librarian. This year her office party will be in the CBC Music Library and she will enjoy every moment of it, without embarrassing herself.

The relevance of a physical library space is particularly timely, in light of a recent article in SLA’s monthly publication, Information Outlook, highlighting a study conducted by the not-for-profit organization ITHAKA which concluded that faculty in the United States are using libraries less often to carry out their research activities (see http://ithaka.org/ and http://www.sla.org/io/2010/07/889.cfm for more details). Even learning styles are evolving according to our increasing use of technology in daily life. SLA members at the dine-around referred to an article about electronic book formats inspiring children to read (http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/868327–do-e-books-spur-kids-to-read ), and considered the implications that this trend could have for specialized libraries. What does this all mean for our profession, and for the organizations in which we work? Only future conversations can tell. Where these conversations take place — in a physical library or an online forum — is up to you.

From left: Katya Pereyaslavska, Sergey Nekrasov, Mohammad (Mumtaz) Ahmad, Elysia Guzik, and Shannon McMillan.

References

___. 2010. Info news: Faculty using libraries less often to conduct research. Information Outlook, 14(5): 6.
2010.

ITHAKA home page, http://ithaka.org

Reuters. September 29, 2010. Do e-books spur kids to read?. Toronto Star, http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/868327–do-e-books-spur-kids-to-read#article

• Gabrielle Gaedecke – Ontario Agency for Health Promotion and Protection (OAHPP)
• Heath Finley – Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR)
• Mercedes Lee – Ontario Legislative Library

Gabrielle and Heath discussed how government libraries utilize social media to assist their users with policy development, communication and information gathering as well as the implications for records management. Mercedes gave an overview of the eReader pilot project at the Legislative Library and the marketplace for the eReader along with the outlook for eBooks products.

The session lasted ninety minutes and I don’t want to overwhelm you with details. Therefore, I have loaded the presentation to Slideshare for those of you who are really keen … grab a coffee and block off an hour to go through the slides … are you ready to be inspired?! http://www.slideshare.net/MMURPHY18/showcase-2010-social-media-and-ereadersebooks

Ms. Gaedecke – Presentation

Gabrielle provided a synopsis of the social media tools that are currently used by the libraries i.e. Twitter, blogs, YouTube, Facebook and RSS feeds. At the OAHPP Library social media such as Twitter and blogs are used for tracking illness, epidemiological tracing and monitoring issues of the day (e.g.) wind turbines, salty diets, and outbreaks. The MNR Library uses the tools to collaborate on policy development, monitor Twitter, Blogs, RSS feeds for disasters (floods, forest fires) and keep up to date on current scientific research and developments. The Library at the Ontario Fire Marshal keeps current on fire incidents across the province and Canada by subscribing to over fifty RSS feeds, using Twitter, blogs and Facebook to monitor community response to fire incidents, and YouTube postings of fire scenes assists fire investigations. The Finance Library engages Twitter, Facebook and blogs to track trends and monitor public opinion and to help convey the Ministry’s message. The Finance Library has been quite busy tracking the public’s response to the HST via social media channels. Government libraries play a large role in delivering real-time “unfiltered news” to their colleagues.

Mr. Finley – Presentation

Heath presented the challenges imposed on records management and security that social media brings to an organization. While social media applications are popular and provide a unique way for the Government to interact with the public and be more transparent and accountable, the new technology does raise IT and security concerns to the organization. Large organizations are somewhat apprehensive about security of third party websites whose servers reside outside Canada. Threats through viruses and hacking, protection of privacy and controlling privacy breaches are all issues when content resides on third party websites. Retention of information becomes an issue when libraries are obliged to archive information on Government websites. Are libraries obligated to archive material on a third party site used by the Ontario Government? These issues are not new to government. We can use the implementation of web-based mail systems as an example, but our need for high security and protection has changed.

Heath argued that social media is a contradiction of terms — is it really open and social? Social media defies records management. Who owns the content? How are records defined? How do we capture, retain and preserve information? How does existing legislation apply? How can we make it searchable for our libraries? How can one schedule something that is not necessarily complete at a particular point in time? The problem of excessive, never ending content becomes an issue. How can one filter out what is important in an environment in which thirteen hours of content are uploaded to YouTube every sixty seconds and millions of Tweets are posted each day?

Ms. Lee – Presentation

Mercedes discussed her experiences at leading an eReader pilot project at the Legislative Library and astonished us with how quickly the market evolves for the eReader/eBook. eReaders are one of the hottest devices in the market place today. The Legislative Library purchased an Amazon Kindle and a Sony eReader. They uploaded them with content and invited staff to evaluate the eReaders and thereafter complete a survey. As a result of the feedback they received, the Library will move forward by focusing on supplying e-content to their clients (eBooks, ePUB, PDF material). Other issues to be dealt with include copyright, privacy, ongoing acquisition of materials (hardcopy versus electronic), lending out eReaders, licensing issues, creating a “tech collection” and identifying sources of “free content.” Mercedes also provided a summation of vendors supplying e-content: MyLibrary, NetLibrary, Ebrary, Canadian Electronic Library, and public libraries. Mercedes gave an overview of some popular readers — Chapters Kobos, Sony eReader, and the Amazon Kindle. She compared each of them with regards to price, storage, format, functional design etc. The new Apple iPad was identified as perhaps the “death knell for eReaders” as it provides the user with much more than just the “reading capabilities” — it is a tablet computer with “eReader functionality”.

Martha Murphy is the Librarian at the Fire Sciences Library and Audio-Visual Resource Centre, Ontario Fire Marshal, Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services. Martha is an emerging technology enthusiast with a passion for Web 2.0 and libraries. She can be contacted at martha.murphy@ontario.ca. Connect via LinkedIn http://ca.linkedin.com/in/marthamurphy

The premise of the Desk Set Dare is simple: to talk about the concept of shushing in the context of libraries. Equipped with notepads and cameras, our mission in October and November is to interview as many librarians as possible. These interviews will take place over the coming weeks in conjunction with National Library Month. This Dare is intended to question the traditional librarian stereotypes and challenge the accepted notion of libraries as quiet spaces (an issue which is increasingly being brought up for debate, both within the general public and within the field of librarianship). In a direct homage to the B.C. group of librarians, we would like to examine a negative librarian stereotype in a new positive light by creating a public forum about the concept of shushing.

We want you to tell us what you think about how the concept of ‘shushing’ plays into negative stereotypes of the ‘traditional librarian’. It’s daring to talk about this negative stereotype and explore it in a positive light!

Our team is asking for pledges in support of our DARE. All donations go directly to the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

Participating librarians (with their permission) will be featured on the Toronto Desk Set website (torontodeskset.org).

Who: Library managers leading employees in new initiatives

When: Wednesday, February 2, 2011 1.00 p.m. – 4.00 p.m.

Where: Intercontinental Hotel, Toronto

As part of OLA’s pre-conference offerings, Kestrel Info Services and Mentor Group Training present a half-day program providing insight and strategies for achieving employee commitment to change. There will be opportunities throughout the afternoon for participants to discuss the challenges they face, share experiences and learn from the experiences of public and private sector organizations. Register on the OLA Super Conference website.

We also have a custom-designed version of Eureka.cc for academic and public libraries. Find out more at www.eureka.cc

David Marceau

Account manager

CEDROM-SNi

120 Eglinton Avenue East #1000

Toronto, ON M4P 1E2

Tel: (416) 260-2369

Email: david.marceau@cedrom-sni.com

Web: www.eureka.cc

I can hardly believe it — as I write this, summer is half over. It always goes too fast. The SLA Toronto Executive and Advisory Boards are on break for the summer but before we know it, September will be here and SLA Toronto will be all abuzz with activity again.

The summer kicked off in a big way with the 2010 SLA Annual Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, June 13 through 16. What a wonderful city in which to network with friends and brush up on one’s professional development. Approximately 30 members of the Toronto chapter were able to attend the conference in person, and I hope they were able to make it to the Canadian Reception hosted this year by the Eastern Canada Chapter with the generous sponsorship of CEDROM-SNi. Overlooking the skyline of the French Quarter, the reception was great fun with Louis-Rene Dessureault from CEDROM-SNi entertaining the crowd as always, and wonderful prizes being given away by our sponsor. The Eastern Canada Chapter certainly did a wonderful job pulling the reception together!

Following Conference, the Chapter was able to pack in two more events before everyone departed on their summer holidays. On June 29, the Chapter held a Post-Conference Panel Session. Long time Chapter members, Ulla de Stricker (coincidentally running for Chapter Cabinet Chair Elect) and Kim Silk (one of our two Alignment Ambassadors), reflected upon their conference experiences, while first time conference attendees Emmeline Hobbs (SLA Toronto Executive Board member) and Elyzia Guzik (one of our Student-to-Conference award winners!) shared what it was like to be new at conference.

On July 7, Heather Brunstad organized a CopyRight 101 workshop at her work, Access Copyright. Kindly lead by in-house Legal Counsel, Erin Finlay, the session piqued the interest of those attending and roused some friendly debate around copying and sharing of digital media, and how the evolution of physical to digital medium has impacted copyright practices over the years. To me this was SLA Toronto’s most interesting session of the year, especially as it is such a hot topic at this time within the music and film industries.

So what’s coming in the fall you ask? We have already started to line up an engaging schedule of events from a Knowledge Management session early in the fall to our Annual General Meeting and Holiday Social on November 17 and December 8, respectively. I am also happy to announce that this year we are partnering with the Toronto Association of Law Libraries (TALL) for the Holiday Social — the more the merrier! Check out the SLA Toronto events page regularly for updates as we plan the fall schedule: http://units.sla.org/chapter/ctor/events/default.asp

Oh! And don’t miss our Summer Social, which is scheduled for Thursday, August 26. Notices will be going out to the Chapter Discussion List in early August.

Well, enjoy the rest of the summer and stay cool!

In addition to our regular columns, Kimberly Silk provides notes from her favourite session at the 2010 SLA Conference in June. Katya Pereyaslavska and Stephen Spong report on their experiences during their internships this summer at the University of Chicago. Laura Warner has been investigating Twitter and shares ideas on how it can be used to benefit our profession, and Peter de Jager provides insights into the usefulness of meetings. Also, Zachary Osborne reflects on the dilemma of subject specialization for reference and research librarians, continuing the discussion of this fascinating issue that Katya Pereyaslavska began in the last issue of the Courier.

We hope you enjoy this issue. Submissions to the Courier are welcome at any time. Please send comments, ideas or suggestions directly to us.

Sandra Craig

Sandra_craig@rogers.com

Bruce Harpham

Bruce.harpham@gmail.com

Janice R. Lachance, SLA CEO

If you could not join us in New Orleans for SLA 2010, you missed something special. Attendees told me repeatedly how impressed they were with the learning opportunities in important areas such as mobile technology, new media, global information issues, search technologies and taxonomy. This was truly a content-rich conference with lots of learning to take back to the workplace.

If you did attend –physically or virtually (more about that below) –I encourage you to report on what you learned to your management, even if it is not required. Doing so will encourage management support for your association activities. It will also serve as a reminder of just how critical continuous professional development is to you and all information and knowledge professionals so that you can stay ahead of the learning curve in a constantly evolving field. Read more.

Board of Directors Election

The SLA e-vote system for the Board of Directors Election will open at midnight EDT on 8 September 2010. Polls close 29 September 2010 at 5:00 p.m. EDT

The candidates for the 2011 SLA Board of Directors are:

President-Elect:

Brent Mai and David Stern

Chapter Cabinet Chair-Elect

James Manasco and Ulla de Stricker

Division Cabinet Chair-Elect

Scott Brown and Richard Huffine

Director

Nerida Hart, Jill Hurst-Wahl, P.K. Jain and Sara Tompson

Visit the 2011 Board Candidates page to see candidates’ biographies. Read more.

SLA 2010 Attendees Help New Orleans and Haiti with Haiti Reads Book Drive

French-Creole Children’s Books Purchased in New Orleans for New Library in Port-au-Prince

Attendees at SLA 2010, held June 12-16 in New Orleans, supported the Haiti Reads library project with a book and fund-raising drive. More than 3,400 special librarians, knowledge professionals and information industry representatives attended the conference in New Orleans. Attendees purchased children’s classics in New Orleans area bookstores that carry French and Creole titles to send to Haiti Reads and its new library.

In Fall 2009, Haiti Reads established a community library in the Delmas 24 neighborhood in Port-au-Prince. While the building remains standing after the devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010, it has been declared “unsafe”, and the Haiti Reads library needs to relocate. The books collected during SLA 2010 in New Orleans will be delivered once Haiti Reads is able to secure new facilities. Read more.

Organizations Urge Supreme Court to Preserve First Sale Doctrine for Imports

SLA joined several other organizations in filing an amicus (friend of the court) brief with the Supreme Court asking it to reverse a decision that Costco was infringing upon copyright by selling genuine Omega watches without the watchmaker’s permission.

Omega sued Costco for selling genuine Omega watches at a discount, basing their claim on the idea that a small, copyrighted design stamped on the back of the watch was being infringed upon when Costco sold the watches. Ordinarily, copyright law’s first sale doctrine holds that the owner of a copy of a work can distribute it as he or she likes. However, Omega claimed that this limitation on copyright did not apply because the watches were not made in the United States. Read more.

SLA First Five Years Council Offers Four Practical Online Programs

Cara Schatz, Director, Public Relations

The SLA First Five Years Advisory Council is pleased to announce the launch of free-of-charge networking programs and tutorials. These programs are especially valuable to SLA members who are coming right out of school, looking for a career change or trying to get a job in the current market.

Now available are four online programs:

• Salary Negotiation recorded by Jack Chapman
• What is a Special Library? Recorded by Lorette Weldon
• Locating Open Positions recorded by Anne Caputo
• Networking recording by Cindy Hill

Visit the “First Five Years” Web page to listen to these seasoned professionals and the sound advice contained in the programs. Check back often for new programs throughout the year! Read more.

Lisa Archibald, Toronto

Kimberly Christmas, Toronto

Sarah Gillard, Toronto

Carmen Lee, Toronto

Christina Liggins, Toronto

Judith Majonis, Toronto

Pamela McBride, Toronto

Susan McGarvey, Bolton

Gail Morgenstern, Toronto

Stephen O’Connor, Toronto

Kim Rawluk, Toronto

Kay Samuels, Toronto

Sonia Solomon, Toronto

Stephen Spong, Toronto

Emily Stephens, Oakville

Katherine To, Thornhill

Natalie Williams, Toronto

Alex Wong, Toronto

I look forward to meeting each of you at an upcoming SLA Toronto event!

Carolyne Sidey (formerly Manager of the Library at the Xerox Research Centre of Canada in Mississauga) has accepted the position of Manager at the Library Resource Centre at ArcelorMittal Dofasco in Hamilton replacing Linda Pauloski who retired recently. Along with the change in position she has finally (after 18 years) taken her married name. Carolyne Sidey is now Carolyne Darimont. She can be reached at Carolyne.Darimont@arcelormittal.com (905 548 7200 x 2794) or Carolyne.Darimont@gmail.com Carolyne is also the Secretary for the SLA Solo Librarians Division and is on the Solo planning committee for the Philadelphia 2011 Annual Conference.

People on the Move is a regular column highlighting the achievements of our members and helping us all keep in touch. Please share your career changes, retirements, life changes, volunteer work.

Submit your news to Frances Wong at FWong@blgcanada.com.

This year’s panellists were Monica Ertel of Bain & Company, James King of the National Institutes of Health library, and our very own Rebecca Jones of Dysart & Jones Associates. While Monica represented the corporate library of the future, James provided perspectives on government libraries, and Rebecca shared her thoughts on academic libraries. Donna Scheeder of the Congressional Research Service moderated questions from the audience and responses from the panellists.

Reviewing my notes, I recall that there were many questions and responses that captured my attention; unfortunately I wasn’t able to produce a complete transcript of the session, but this article describes what is, for me, the “really good stuff”. By sharing my notes with you, I invite everyone to continue to engage in this important conversation about the evolution of our profession.

Question 1: In your library of the future, what skill sets and aptitudes are you looking for when hiring?

Our corporate environment looks for information professionals that are bright and in love with the search. A positive, customer service focus is a must; while an accredited M.L.S. is not necessary, we require our staff to have a strong research background. We prefer resumes that include the candidate’s social media coordinates. Like Monica, the staff we hire don’t require an M.L.S.; more importantly, we’re looking for people who are self-starters, are self-motivated, and aren’t afraid to fail, all of these attitudes being critically important in a government environment.

At my university, my title is Dean of Library and Learning Engagement. My staff members are known more commonly as Informationists, reflecting the wide range of responsibilities they have in terms of professional strategic information management. Informationists go beyond support and coordination roles — they understand and participate in the research process, and focus on collaboration. They have subject matter expertise from the undergraduate and graduate levels, and all of them have expertise in digital content.

Question 2: Should all information professionals have technology expertise?

In a government setting, technical expertise is important but it can’t be technology for technology’s sake. We require a broad knowledge of how to take advantage of technology without being dependent on the IT department.

In academics, it’s important to be wary of death by opportunity. It’s better to focus on specific tactics, such as how to integrate content into a learning management system (LMS). Our staff members require some specialization but cannot be an expert on everything.

Question 3: Please provide some perspectives on the strategic focus in your organization.

We define success by being an integral part of the successful project teams. Unlike government environments of the past we are not auxiliary. The focus on virtual services has changed our policies, and as a result we no longer measure success in terms of the number of reference questions received. Instead we measure frequency of usage, speed of response and how often the reference we provide is included in policy and law.

Our academic plan has changed in recent years to avoid focusing on all our facilities; instead, we identify the departments that are critical to meeting the goals of the university. We pay attention to the emerging leaders and rising stars, and we collaborate with those people. We constantly ensure that everything we do is aligned with the goals of the university. Our academic plan includes a focus on mobile access, since most faculty and students demand to work from anywhere.

Question 4: Please describe your organizational structure.

Our corporate organization is much more fluid than in the past; our information professionals support a region, not just a project. No one has a single boss to report to; rather, everyone reports to administrative leaders as well as to functional areas. We all have multiple points of accountability.

Our team of academic informationists are organized into matrixed teams, in a circular rather than a hierarchical structure.

Question 5: What are your thoughts on “library as place”?

Space taken up by our corporate collection is put to better use when it’s used to create areas for training, quiet work and group collaborations. We make sure people with mobile devices have the access they need. With a focus on embedded information professionals, we’re moving towards “hot desks” and “hotelling”, getting away from assigned offices. Prusak’s landmark article, “Blow up the Corporate Library”, has informed a lot of our thinking on this.

References:

Davenport, Thomas H. and Lawrence Prusak. 1993. Blow Up The Corporate Library. International Journal of Information Management 13, no. 6: 405-412.

To Tell the Truth. (2010, July 22). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved July 28, 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Tell_the_Truth.

Kimberly Silk is the Data Librarian at the Martin Prosperity Institute, a think-tank at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. Kim has a particular passion for digital collections and online communities. In recent years she has taken a special interest in mentoring new info pro’s and pushing the boundaries of the information profession. Kim earned her M.L.S. from the University of Toronto in 1998. She can be contacted at Kimberly.Silk@gmail.com.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is, essentially, a microblogging push technology. It lets users send and receive short (140 characters maximum) messages called Tweets via the Twitter site, SMS, email, IM or other Twitter clients. After registering with Twitter you can choose to “follow” others, to automatically receive their updated messages, and vice versa, others can follow your Tweets.

Now, like many of the social networking tools out there, Twitter has a strong following of recreational users. However, while the many tweets are just prattle, this new information tool has proven itself to be very useful for numerous corporations and individuals.

The Information Professional and Twitter

Self Promotion: We all know that we must go where our clients are and if they use Twitter, this is one more way to remind them of your products and services.

Client Updates: The social web is an easy way to update clients on new resources, changes and other news.

Private Messages: Say you are a Solo Librarian or you do not always physically meet with your colleagues, Twitter may be a helpful little tool to use for some brainstorming.

Keeping Updated: Major media outlets like the CBC, CNN and the BBC all use Twitter feeds. You can keep abreast of business news, current affairs and other areas of interest.

Following Conferences: Cannot make an SLA conference? Or do the sessions you want to attend overlap? Try following colleagues who are in the center of the action.

Reference Medium: Need a quick question answered? You can post your request and have a number of tested and true friends and colleagues come to your rescue.

Some Noteworthy Tweeters:

The Globe and Mail: http://twitter.com/GLOBEANDMAIL

The Toronto Star: http://twitter.com/torontostar

Toronto Public Library: http://twitter.com/torontolibrary

The CBC News: http://twitter.com/cbcnews

Sun Microsystems’ Library: http://twitter.com/libraryresearch

Be sure to check out SLA Toronto on Twitter: http://twitter.com/slatoronto

Happy Tweeting!

Laura Warner is an information professional, blogger, writer and recovering technophobe, living in Toronto. She graduated from Dalhousie University with graduate degrees in library and information management and public administration. Since then, she has held positions in the CBC Reference Library, Wilfrid Laurier University Library and is currently based in the CBC Music Library. Laura is also the Technology Director of SLA Toronto. She can be reached at Laura.Warner@cbc.ca

One ancient example still motivates me in this area today. In the 1980s I was a member of ICE, the ‘Information Centre Exchange’, a relatively small association (300 members) of Information Centre Managers. At the time, IC managers were responsible for introducing Personal Computers into the corporate environment. We were at the bleeding edge of the PC revolution and every day we stumbled across challenging new problems.

Any one of these problems could easily consume anywhere from one to one hundred hours of frustrating time, energy and resources. We were all dealing with new technology, and we were all dealing with complicated change management issues, as all our employee were being pushed to use the new tools.

What to do? One choice open to all of us was to roll up our sleeves and get to work. Tackling each problem, one at a time and eventually getting through the problem queues that were longer than we had hours in the month. To say that we had more work than we could handle was an understatement of the highest order.

Another choice was to allocate one day each month and head to downtown Toronto and meet up with about 100-150 of the 300 ICE members. Taking time off to go to a meeting when we didn’t have enough time to do what was on our plate? What a radical concept.

The ICE meetings started in the morning, and for about an hour or so the agenda was typical association filler – they presented us with a variety of agenda items, from the usual association news, to presentations from both practitioners and vendors. … with no disrespect to the speakers (after all I am one) … Ho Hum.

What happened next was the reason for attending. Something we called the ‘Round Table’. Nothing fancy here. We went around the room and if you had a pressing problem, you described it to the group and connected with others who were dealing with the same issue, or even better, someone who had solved the problem currently draining your resources. This continued until everyone in the room had presented all the problems they’d arrived with.

I’m lazy. It’s my belief that re-inventing the wheel is a capital offence. It’s a waste of my employers time, and more importantly, my time, to try to solve something on my own, that someone else has already solved. I made a point of exploiting this willingness to share to the very limits of propriety. In my defence? I supplied answers to problems presented to the group about 10 times more often than anyone else in the organization.

While ICE no longer exists, the need to collaborate with our peers hasn’t gone away. The old adage “Birds of a feather flock together” is as true today as it was when our associations were initiated. People associate with their peers to exchange information; to meet and talk with like minded people; to commiserate together; to “merely” socialize; to seek the recognition of their peers; to solve problems in common, etc.

Even with the internet none of this has changed. We’re social animals and will always flock together for the above reasons. Today, tomorrow or a thousand years from now, we will still associate with our peers.

It doesn’t matter what we do for a living, from being a hard core techie, to a middle manager in any organization, to being a politician at any level of government — this holds true. The problems we face are not unique to us. Our peers from coast to coast to coast have these problems in common — and trying to solve them all by our lonesome is an extremely inefficient approach.

Associations exist for every possible human endeavour. If you’ve got a job title, or a special interest, then chances are better than good that on Wednesday night somewhere, there are 30-60 of your peers in a room, feasting on something that tastes sort of like chicken, getting ready to share their experiences and in doing so, greatly decrease their workload. Not all associations are as effective as they could be in sharing ideas and solutions, but that’s not an insurmountable problem. Associations become exactly what the members want them to become.

Of course today there are alternatives to actually meeting together (the chicken is never a draw), if you really can’t get to a meeting, Then get on a few (dozen?) online discussion groups, forums, listservs … and you’ll see a more up-to-date version of the ICE round table. Post a query to the online discussion group and receive answers from around the world. Even if your query results in no good solutions, at the very least you’ll receive new perspectives on the problem.

© 2010, Peter de Jager. Some truth in advertising here — as a speaker he relies on meetings for his living — that said? You don’t have to listen to him speak — you can just eat the thing that tastes like chicken. Contact him at pdejager@technobility.com

At the University of Chicago, everyone seems to have one or two “Obama” stories and almost everyone who works here claims to live “just a few doors over” from his residence near campus. Of course, many of the staff at D’Angelo Law Library actually worked with Obama when he was an instructor at the law school between 1992 and 2004 before he “hit it big” and did, in fact, know him. Others simply enjoy basking in the reflecting glow of Obama’s U of C legacy.

But we digress — this story really needs a proper context. A year ago, upon learning of our acceptance to the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, we decided that we needed an “American experience” and even though we had no clue what any of this librarian “stuff” was really about yet, we launched a massive international “networking attack” in hopes of securing internships this summer somewhere “sexy.” Chicago was an excellent choice insofar as it offered both of us something that we were looking for. Aside from the obvious prestige of its name, we were able to secure a position with a specialist in our respective fields of interest: Slavic (Katya) and law librarianship (Stephen). The following will offer brief individual reports on our placements, our responsibilities and overall experiences in professional development.

Katya Pereyaslavska

Internship under June Pachuta Farris

Bibliographer for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies

Bibliographer for General Linguistics

Slavic & East European Collection,

University of Chicago

Being absolutely clueless about Slavic librarianship and what it actually entailed, I jumped into my internship feet first, eager to sponge up as much information and useful skills as my modestly-proportioned brain would permit.

Now, over a month later with only two and a half weeks to go, I find it difficult to believe that I actually do not “work here”! June has constantly been giving me useful information, bringing me to staff meetings, challenging me with new acquisitions proposal lists, preparing an exhibit to showcase one aspect of the Slavic collection and working with mad transliteration projects. I always feel quite wild-eyed when I leave our meetings and remain constantly in doubt that I even have the capacity to absorb even half of the information she projects my way. Having a few of my instructors advise me that she is truly one of the best in her field, I live to be the testament to her professionalism and dedication to the field of Slavic librarianship, constantly in quiet envy of her extensive Dostoyevsky bibliographies!

Having a solid knowledge of Russian and Ukrainian languages has certainly made my undertakings and transliteration projects much easier than they otherwise would have been. But then again, after my work with Ukrainian transliteration I still find myself misspelling “Chicaho” (God help me!). Having said that, I strongly believe that knowledge of foreign languages should be made an essential component to the study of librarianship. Master’s degrees in our field should require a successful graduate to pass an exam in a language other than English. This knowledge would not only add one more feather in an applicant’s proverbial cap, but certainly enable better library service to the multicultural community of the 21st century.

Having familiarized myself with the Library of Congress Ukrainian and Russian transliteration tables and permanently traumatized myself with the occasional Tatar and Hungarian transliterations, I spent a few weeks compiling Library Guides. While a fun project at the onset, the lack of active links, messy and often ‘sketchy’ websites, and lack of proper English translations proved it to be a difficult undertaking. In fact, I am amazed there isn’t a full-time librarian whose sole responsibilities revolve around the creation and maintenance of library guides.

Putting in 30 hours a week working with specific deadlines, an array of projects and readings, staff meetings and scheduled mini trainings sessions with Acquisitions, Cataloguing department, and a few fascinating specialists has made this for an exceedingly busy internship. Having said that, I am still amazed at just how accommodating the University of Chicago has been! Thanks to Jane Ciacci, the Staff & Organization Development Librarian, whose dedication to sort out exceedingly boring and mundane government documents and paperwork was invaluable to me. Furthermore, upon arrival, we were able to get a wonderful tour of the library and warm introductions to all the staff! Being a Canadian ex-pat, Jane was eager to get first-hand accounts on relevant gossip in politics and of course, the much dreaded Toronto G20 Summit!

Meeting a few Canuck Expats and (somehow not surprisingly) University of Toronto graduates, was rather illuminating and surreal at the same time as we talked about the G20, the Ontario earthquake, and the power outage on the weekend of July 3. In turn, we learned about their lives in Chicago, pros and cons to living abroad and inspiring stories about their personal professional developments! Chris Cronin, the Director of Metadata & Cataloging Services, was a particular inspiration as a fairly recent iSchool graduate whose motivation and drive have landed him in administration only 8 years after graduating from the University of Toronto.

I was also able to take a day off work and visit the Urbana-Illinois University of Illinois campus (a two hour drive south of Chicago) and tour the Slavic library. During my visit, I met Helen Sullivan who is a very skilled Slavic reference professional, and who was able to impart a few words of wisdom with regard to her profession.

Working side by side with the exceedingly accomplished Sandra Levy, Associate Slavic Librarian, who trained me about Slavic Exchanges, and Katerina Vankcova, Assistant to the Slavic Bibliographer, whose general pragmatism and weather reports saw me through some of the more challenging projects, have been some of the highlights of my time at the Slavic Collection. I will be looking at my time in Chicago with exceeding fondness and miss my busy Breughel “beehive” populated with a remarkable team of very knowledgeable “bees.”

Stephen Spong

Internship under Judith Wright

Associate Dean for Library and Information Services and Lecturer in Law

D’Angelo Library

University of Chicago Law School

The field of legal librarianship is a complicated one, especially in terms of qualifications, as many Canadian legal librarians do not have law degrees, while many American ones do. As a Canadian with a JD from Osgoode Hall Law School now working on my MI at the University of Toronto’s iSchool, this paradoxical status quo held a great deal of significance for me. It only seemed reasonable that the summer between my first and second year at the University of Toronto’s iSchool should be spent gaining the American experience that is so valuable the world over.

Katya and I began to think about this early, starting to make contacts with librarians across the country, noting a few favourite locales and universities, including Chicago, where we had visited and enjoyed tremendously the year previously. Given that my interests lay in legal librarianship, one could hardly hope to do much better than the D’Angelo Law Library, which is one of the country’s best law libraries in one of the country’s best law schools (and it has obvious cachet due to one of its most famous former instructors). With this in mind, I contacted Judith Wright, the Director of the library and Associate Dean of the law school, to ask about opportunities for the summer. Judith was exceedingly receptive and helpful, making what could and might otherwise be an extremely difficult process into a straightforward and pleasant one.

It was made clear from the outset that while the library has a well-developed history of interns, there was no set programme, per se. It was the responsibility of the intern to devise and execute an appropriate agenda for the duration of the internship. That being said, the sky was the limit in terms of the sorts of opportunities that were available within the confines of not only D’Angelo, but the University of Chicago and beyond. The University of Chicago library system is enormously different from the system that I have become accustomed to at the University of Toronto, as it is highly centralized. This allowed for myriad opportunities to speak with and learn from librarians throughout the University of Chicago library system.

In addition to my experience at D’Angelo and the University of Chicago, I was given the opportunity to visit the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana law library, Northwestern University law library, and to partake in a Chicago-based law librarian conference on collection development policy at the John Marshall Law School in downtown Chicago. All of it was highly educational and interesting, but none of this would have been possible without the amazing guidance and support provided by Judith and the rest of the D’Angelo administration and staff.

When I arrived on my first day, I sat down with Lorna Tang, the head of the Technical Services division, and Sheri Lewis, the head of Public Services, to hash out a provisional list of prospective objectives and achievements that would form a guide for the way in which I would conduct the internship. While we both agreed at the time that to complete all of the tasks would be almost impossible, the final aim would be to do as many as possible. This list became an invaluable gauge of my experience, and as I checked off items, it only increased my sense of accomplishment.

The tasks included learning and devising online LibGuides, learning the American formats of Westlaw and Quicklaw, assisting with collection development assessments, writing reports on collection analysis, working with both circulation and reference staff, sitting in on a variety of staff meetings both at D’Angelo and the University of Chicago to learn about administration at multiple levels, and other tasks such as faculty requests, catalogue searches, and collection shifting. It was exhausting, but rewarding. I managed to not only get experience with American law, but with Canadian and international and foreign law, which would not have been possible without the assistance of Lyonette Louis-Jacques and Bill Schwesig, who were pillars of support as well as enormously patient with an eager, yet somewhat wet-behind-the-ears intern, who wanted to do everything, but knew he could only do almost everything!

The experiences of both Katya and myself were nothing short of incredible. Not only did we get the chance to work with some of the very best in our respective fields of librarianship, we managed to do so at a first-rate university in a world-class city. It was an experience that we shall not soon forget.

I am quite interested in this “debate”, for I have often thought that being a “subject expert” is what made excellent librarians (among other qualities, of course). The abilities to discover, interpret, evaluate, acquire, and recommend relevant information resources are what reference and research librarians are trained to do, and fundamentally, it is what sets us apart from other research professionals. I respect any librarian with a subject-specific affiliation (i.e. a second Masters degree), because they are familiar with appropriate thesaurus terms for specific databases, have seasoned knowledge of research trends, and overall, have a uniquely sophisticated understanding of a subject area. Having experience and background in a particular field can increase the quality of reference and research by being value-added, intellectual, rigorous, and more thorough. In the previous issue of The Courier, Pereyaslavska expressed her uncertainties about being too specialized, revealing that perhaps some academic reference departments prefer a generalist librarian. She wrote that “I have been repeatedly advised by a number of academic librarians that my graduate background is too specialized to provide proper breadth for reference services, which may be expected at a general academic reference desk. Have I shot myself in the foot by acquiring my M.A., and do I really know too much about too little?”

In response to Pereyaslavska’s doubts, I respectfully and encouragingly disagree. At many large academic institutions, librarians work together to staff a general reference desk, responding to a broad range of reference inquiries. While a librarian assists an undergraduate student with research for their paper on a Feminist critique of The Watchmen, the graduate student next in line might require in-depth reference assistance in locating rare British Parliamentary Papers. Having an advanced-subject expertise in one field should not limit your approach and response to reference questions outside your specialization. Obtaining graduate-level education on top of the practical education of an MISt/MLIS can position someone far better for academic librarianship. In practice, specialists have more experience executing varying levels of academic research, and have had greater exposure to academic processes. In addition, there is more to academic librarianship than assisting at an information desk. Collection development and information literacy are two tasks that, when performed by a librarian with related subject-specialization, are inherently and exponentially improved.

Moreover, attitudes toward generalists and subject specialists can differ from one academic library to the next. Some will value that their librarians hold a second Masters degree in the subject for which they have liaison responsibilities, while others might appreciate a general and holistic approach to academic research subjects and processes. It comes down to workplace culture (Mayer & Terrill, 2005): the librarians at University X may value professional development opportunities, workshops, courses, learning from each other, and long-term exposure to providing reference to obtain a level of “expert generalism”. University Z might require that their librarians hold a second masters degree. I do not think that Pereyaslavska has shot herself in the foot. There is a great interest (and need) for librarians with higher and specialized education. They can often be found in management roles, and at well established academic institutions.

Qualities that make a formidable generalist librarian include being adaptive, resourceful, a quick learner and creative problem-solver. So far, my honours Bachelor of Arts in history and sociology, in combination with formal library training have made me a skilled reference and research librarian. Although not a specialist (yet?) and therefore a generalist, I am one who recognizes the need for both, and a mixture of each. As a librarian, I plan to pursue professional development initiatives, and to continuously expand my knowledge and abilities. With increasing experience and training, it is my aspiration to grow into the type of librarian that exceeds the generalist, but does not quite meet the specialist… Something which Smith and Oliva (2010) have termed a “renaissance librarian”. A renaissance librarian is someone with accomplishments in diverse areas, who possesses knowledge in many subjects. They achieve this through “broadening their intellectual horizons by cross training informally with each other and obtaining formal training from their colleagues and from outside resources.” They attend and participate at conferences, pursue professional instruction courses, read professional literature, and collaborate with team members (p.144). Renaissance librarianship is the way for me.

References

Mayer, J. & L. J. Terrill. “Academic librarians’ attitudes about advanced-subject degrees.” College & Research Libraries, vol. 66, no. 1, January 2005: pp. 59-73.

Pereyaslavska, K. “How much is too much and how little is not enough.” The Courier, vol. 47, no. 3, Spring 2010. Retrieved June 29, 2010 from http://units.sla.org/chapter/ctor/newsletter/courier.asp?eid=24&aid=269

Smith, D. A. & V. T. Oliva. “Becoming a renaissance reference librarian in academe: attitudes toward generalist and subject specific reference and related profession development.” Reference Services Review, vol. 38, no. 1, 2010: pp. 125-151.

Zachary Osborne is the Collections Librarian at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Ontario. He graduated from the University of Toronto’s iSchool in 2009 with a Master of Information Studies, and has an Honours BA from Acadia University. He can be contacted at zosborne@cigionline.org, and his blog can be found at http://zacharyosborne.wordpress.com.

Happy Spring! It is hard to believe we are already in the second quarter of the year. Before I get into things, I need to thank my Executive Board. These talented professionals have devoted their precious free time to the Chapter and its endeavors and I think we have seen some great progress and leadership as a result. I am grateful for their support, innovative ideas, and ability to guide the Advisory Board. Thank you, ladies!

Let me highlight a few of our accomplishments to date:

• The Solos and New Information Professionals groups are continuing to find a sizable audience, with several meetings hosted already this year. The Toronto West group is finding its footing, having issued a survey to the membership to determine the needs of our members working or living in the west end of Toronto. Look for them to start programming events soon.
• We had our first Social of the year, generously sponsored by Carswell, on May 19 and this year we are taking a bit of a different approach by using the occasion to welcome new members who joined the Chapter in the past year. Would you believe there are over 90 new members?! New members will be personally greeted at the event and introduced around, while all members will receive a complimentary drink.
• Our Alignment Ambassadors continue to ‘spread the word’, with Kim Silk and Rebecca Jones hosting an Alignment Session at Kim’s work, the Martin Prosperity Institute at MARS. Look for Kim and Rebecca to continue the Alignment discussions after conference in our new
• Dine-Around series! Stealing a successful idea from the SLA Leadership Summit, our dine-arounds bring a small group of members together over food and good conversation focused on a relevant and timely issue of interest to information professionals.
• Joint-events with CASLIS Toronto and Knowledge Workers Toronto encouraging networking across the broader Toronto information professional community.
• The University of Western Ontario SLA Student Group has fully taken off under the leadership of Erin McDonald, with lots of interest from the student body and interesting events exposing students to the different career opportunities available to them upon graduation.
• Shelley McBride, our Membership Director, has helped to introduce some new benefits to the membership, including electronic access to the 2009 Salary Survey. She is also leading a campaign to reach out to non-members of the Discussion List to encourage them to join SLA.

I would like to do one last reminder to members to inform me if they will be attending the 2010 SLA Annual Conference in New Orleans from June 14-16. Visit the SLA 2010 conference page for more details about the conference. I am pulling together a list of Toronto Chapter members in order to share with those who are attending. Hope to see you there, and don’t forget to purchase a ticket for the Canadian Reception, hosted by the Eastern Canada Chapter!

SLA Toronto would like to acknowledge the generous support from our Partners, without which many of our events and programs would not be possible. This year, our sponsors are CEDROM-SNi, FPinfomart, and Carswell.

FPinfomart is sponsoring the 2010 Student-to-Conference Award and I am proud to announce Elysia Guzik and Shannon McMillan as this year’s award recipients! Elysia and Shannon were selected by the Executive Board on the strength of their resumes and submitted statements about what they expect to gain from attending conference. Both will receive $1,500 grants to attend the SLA Annual Conference in New Orleans this June. Please look for their winning essays in this issue of the Courier, and join me in congratulating Elysia and Shannon!

Please see the Partners page of the SLA Toronto Chapter website for more information about these partners and the resources and services they offer, and consider them as you are reassessing your organization’s services and subscriptions. Look also for the Vendor’s Corner article from Carswell in this issue of the Courier. Thank you to Pam Casey, our Partner Relations Chair, for ensuring our Partners receive the full benefits of their relationship with the Chapter.

Another congratulation is in order for our Alignment Ambassador, Rebecca Jones, who has been named a SLA Fellow, in recognition of exemplifying leadership in her career as an information professional. We are so excited for you, Rebecca!

I look forward to seeing you, our member, at an upcoming SLA Toronto event and to getting to know you better. Note that the Chapter takes a break over the summer months, but please do keep your ideas and feedback coming, and stay tuned for details of the summer social.

This issue also benefits from a number of first time contributors ranging from student members to librarians. The winners of the 2010 FPinfomart Student-to-Conference Award, Elysia Guzik and Shannon McMillan, have included their statements in this issue. Katya Pereyaslayska and Sandy Iverson both explore the topic of education from different angles. Dana Craig and Peter Duerr of York University explain how GIS technologies can be used to cope with disasters and emergencies. The breadth and variety of these contributions should make for a very stimulating read.

Please enjoy the issue and keep sending in the great contributions!

Sandra Craig

sandracraig@rogers.com

Bruce Harpham

Bruce.harpham@gmail.com

Today, social media makes it easy for us to exchange information and create knowledge with fellow professionals, regardless of time zones and borders. It can supplement face-to-face conversation, but it is not a replacement for it. Once a year, the SLA conference gives us an opportunity to have those conversations and to connect with colleagues from around the world. This year’s conference takes place in New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz, a musical form that delights in innovation. It is also a city that has faced challenges unthinkable to most of us, in the years following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The tenacity and courage of the people of New Orleans as they rebuild their city in the face of so much adversity is both humbling and inspirational. To this end, SLA is offering three volunteer opportunities, with Habitat for Humanity and Second Harvest, for delegates who want to make a hands-on contribution to the rebuilding effort.

Please consider participating in this year’s conference in New Orleans. It’s an unparalleled opportunity to connect, create, and transform.

Cherry Blossom Time

Janice R. Lachance, SLA CEO

Some of our best ideas are not home grown. Take the cherry blossom trees that are nearing their glorious full bloom here in the U.S. Capital. While it is hard to imagine Washington without them, the first 3,000 trees were planted only 98 years ago, a gift from the mayor of Tokyo. It began a tradition of horticultural and cultural exchanges between the U.S. and Japan that is celebrated each year during the Cherry Blossom Festival. The annual spectacle not only lifts Washington’s spirits — it adds an estimated $126 million a year to the area’s economy.

The exchange of ideas among information and knowledge professionals around the world through SLA holds the same kind of promise. One of my favorite stories comes from one of our members in the upper Midwest who was desperately searching for an outdated engineering standard for her supervisor. After exhausting all her usual free and even paid sources, she posted the request on an SLA listserv — and received the document within two hours from an information professional in Reykjavik, Iceland. She was a hero to her organization, but her secret was having the foresight to join an association that brought her close to her colleagues locally, but gave her access to a world full of colleagues who she could count on. Read more.

SLA Toronto’s Rebecca Jones Named to 2010 Class of SLA Fellows

Five leading information professionals (drum roll, please…..) –Rebecca Jones, Dee Magnoni, James Manasco, Jill Strand and Libby Trudell — have been named as the 2010 Class of SLA Fellows.

“The SLA Fellows are a group of professionals of unrivaled intelligence and dedication, and I am confident that each of these individuals will continue to be an important asset to this organization and the profession,” said SLA President Anne Caputo. “I congratulate and thank them for their service to SLA thus far, and I look forward to seeing what they do with their talent and drive as they move into the next leg of their SLA journey.” Read more.

SLA Toronto’s Ulla de Stricker running for Chapter Cabinet Chair-Elect

The SLA Nominating Committee has identified ten candidates for election to the 2011 SLA Board of Directors. The committee is responsible for soliciting names of potential candidates from the membership and putting together a slate of candidates that has exceptional talent, is professionally diverse, and provides regionally balanced representation.
Read more.

SLA Announces 2010 Rising Star Award Recipients

A coordinator of digital publishing initiatives, a content development officer for education communities, a digitization facilitator for the Smithsonian, an embedded librarian in a design firm, and a patent application researcher are among the five early-career professionals from three countries named as recipients of the 2010 SLA Rising Star Award, given by SLA and sponsor J. J. Keller & Associates, Inc.®. Read more.

Zamora and Caputo Commend SLA Public Relations Advisory Council Members

On Thursday January 27, Anne Caputo, 2010 president and Gloria Zamora, 2010 past-president presented the members of the 2009 Public Relations Advisory Council (PRAC) with a 2009 Presidential Citation for their work with the alignment ambassadors. Read more.

Jennifer Abbott, Toronto

Daniel Afzal, Toronto

Mohammad Ahmad, Toronto

Zena Applebaum, Toronto

Lesley Baynes, Ottawa

Jiancheng Dai, Etobicoke

Marjan Farahbaksh, Toronto

Jackie Flowers, Hamilton

Jared Hildebrandt, Toronto

Anete Ivsina, Toronto

Kinga Iwanski, Hamilton

Eva Jansen, Toronto

David Johnston, London

Merritt Kalagian, Wainfleet

Aaron Katzsch, Scarborough

Christina Kim, Toronto

Jennifer Maddock, Toronto

Serge Nekrasov, Toronto

Irina Ovis, Richmond Hill

Katherine Petch, Toronto

Shannon Polk, Ottawa

Amanda Robinson, Montreal

Geeta Thachil, Toronto

Heather Thornton, London

Melissa Troemel, Toronto

Jacqueline Whyte Appleby, Toronto

Amy Widdifield, Kitchener

Shiyi Xie, London

I look forward to meeting each of you at an upcoming SLA Toronto event!

Elysia and Shannon were selected by the Executive Board of SLA Toronto on the basis of their résumés and the quality of their statements on what they expect to gain from the conference experience.

Elysia graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University with a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours in Anthropology and Religion & Culture. This spring, she graduates with her Master of Information Studies (MISt) degree from the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto. In addition to her studies, Elysia has worked as a co-op student at the Records & Information Management Office of OMERS, and completed practicum placements at Our Ontario, and Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP.

Shannon graduated from the University of Guelph with a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours in Criminal Justice and Public Policy, and Political Science. This spring, she graduates with her Master of Information Studies (MISt) degree at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto. In addition to her studies, Shannon acted as Co-Chair of the SLA Toronto Student Group at the University of Toronto for the past year. Shannon has also worked with the following organizations: Access Copyright as a Research Assistant, U of T Criminology Information Service and Library as a Graduate Assistant Library Technician, and the Ontario Securities Commission on a practicum placement.

Statement by Elysia Guzik

I am writing to apply for the FPinfomart Student-to-Conference Award to attend the SLA 2010 Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO in New Orleans. As a soon-to-be-graduate of the Master of Information Studies program at the University of Toronto, I am excited about the many opportunities that SLA provides for students to get involved in the profession. I joined the Special Libraries Association last spring after attending an inspiring panel discussion organized by the Toronto Student Group (SLA-TSG) and Toronto Association of Law Libraries (TALL) Student Representative, which hosted professionals — namely, Alison Colvin, Eileen Lewis, Jennifer Toews, Sophia Apostol, and Jennifer Zhang — who have followed “alternative information career paths”. Since joining, I have been fortunate to attend additional Toronto Chapter SLA events, including Ulla de Stricker’s Career Development Series discussion about “fit” and “understanding your career type”, the Annual General Meeting, and the SLA/ CASLIS/ Faculty of Information Alumni Association Holiday Social. The knowledge and passion that SLA members bring to the table(s) at these events is truly invaluable, and they have fun while sharing it with one another. I have also recently joined the Toronto Chapter’s volunteer team of Event Registrars, and trust that my involvement in this role over the coming months will be a rewarding experience.

With that said, I am looking to expand my insights into the profession’s challenges and advantages by networking with members of the international SLA community, and the Annual Conference provides the perfect opportunity to do so. I have been fortunate to have attended two conferences this year — Information Without Borders (a student-run interdisciplinary conference at Dalhousie University) and the Ontario Library Association (OLA)’s Super Conference. While both of these events were superbly organized and included presentations from professionals and students from across North America, the SLA Annual Conference will allow me to explore my particular interest in special librarianship and to meet SLA members from around the world.

Attendance at the SLA Annual Conference will allow me to contribute to the profession in a number of ways. First of all, the FPinfomart Student-to-Conference Award opens the door to serving on the Executive or Advisory Board of the Toronto Chapter during the 2011 Chapter year. Furthermore, the diverse knowledge gained from attending sessions such as Eileen Abels’ “Introduction to Business Research”, Jennifer Boettcher’s “Industry Research”, Jane Dysart’s “Strategy Renewal”, Rebecca Jones’ “Library of the Future”, and Joshua Walters’ “Social Technologies for Collaboration”, among many others, will not only contribute to professional settings to which I may belong, but will also provide a foundation for developing my own ideas and professional publications. And of course, the networking opportunities at the conference are endless! Meeting new colleagues can only set the profession forward in a positive direction, and I certainly look forward to contributing in this way.

Statement by Shannon McMillan

I am writing to apply for the FPinformart Student-to-Conference Award being graciously offered by FPinformart and the SLA Toronto Chapter. As a soon to be graduating student from the Masters of Information Studies program at the University of Toronto, I think this award provides a wonderful opportunity to network with countless other information professionals already working in the field. In the time I have spent at the i-School I have become more and more convinced that special libraries are where I want to be. I love how special libraries provide me the opportunity to be a librarian in a non-traditional library environment. I truly feel that the career opportunities in special libraries are endless and there really is something for everyone.

Spending the last year as a co-chair of the SLA Toronto Student Group, one of the most valuable lessons I have learned from all the SLA Toronto Chapter members is the importance of networking. A good network is a truly invaluable resource especially for someone like me trying to get their start in the information profession. From this conference experience I hope to not only better my networking skills but to expand my budding network. I am also extremely excited by the opportunity to network with librarians from across the globe and get a better understanding of what is happening in special libraries outside of Canada.

I also feel this conference would provide me a great opportunity to further my professional development. This conference will allow me to get a better understanding of where SLA is headed and where I, as a new information professional, fit in this journey. I think this conference will be an eye-opening experience to see the true scale of opportunities available to new information professionals.

This conference will provide me an outstanding chance to expand my learning and education outside of the classroom via the many sessions and continuing education opportunities available. Given that the location of the conference this year is New Orleans, this brings a unique opportunity to not only continue my learning about special libraries but also to take some time out and learn about how the people of this vibrant city are still working to put their lives back together after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. When I received a recent email about opportunities for conference attendees to help out on a Habitat for Humanity or Second Harvest project, it made me truly proud to be part of a community of librarians that are invested in giving back to the community.

I have greatly enjoyed my time working with SLA Toronto Student Group and would love to have the opportunity to play a role in the Toronto Chapter in 2011. I hope to be selected for the FPinformart Student-to-Conference Award and to be able to take advantage of the countless networking, professional development and learning experiences being offered at both the 2010 SLA Annual Conference and as a member of the Toronto chapter.

This spring, SLA Toronto introduced the Dine-Around series. The first one was held on April 29th and the second one on May 13th. The following reports, by the event hosts, reflect how the dine-around series successfully combine good food with stimulating conversation!

April 29th Dine-Around

By Martha Foote

SLA Toronto’s innovative “Dine-Arounds” got off to a fine start in April when six chapter members met at Le Papillon on Front Street for a discussion about “Personal Information Management: Does Information Technology Enhance Our Lives? The attendees were Martha Foote, a past president of the chapter, Claire Lysnes, current president, Alexei Poretski, Katya Pereyaslavska, Stephen Spong and Genny Jon. We dined on superb Quebecois fare and discussed how technology affects our personal and working lives. The discussion was enriched by having representatives of different generations present. Newer librarians are more likely to have been introduced to technology at an earlier age than their more seasoned colleagues and have a different perspective on the benefits and detriments of technological applications.

Conversational items included the technologies that we use every day, the applications of new technologies such as Twitter, the cost of acquiring all the new technologies (including the so-called must-have iPad), and which are truly critical to our daily lives. The dine-arounds are a great way to network with colleagues, explore topics of mutual interest and explore Toronto’s vibrant restaurant scene.

May 13th Dine-Around

By Katya Pereyaslavska and Stephen Spong

On May 13, several SLA members gathered at a Toronto restaurant as part of a new “Dine-Around” initiative, whereby members meet over dinner and discuss significant issues facing librarianship in the 21st century. Toronto-based SLA members Katya Pereyaslavska, Stephen Spong, Gillian McArthur, Elysia Guzik, George Serhijczuk and Melanie Browne met at Allen’s to discuss the idea of “over-qualification” in the job market, and what it means for information professionals, students, and recent graduates. It is an issue that has enormous resonance in an increasingly crowded and competitive job market, so the conversation was lively, diverse and extremely interesting. The evening started with a brief discussion on the subject of the previous “Dine-Around” discussion ” the role of information in our daily lives” to ‘warm up’ the conversation, which then led into a full-scale discussion of the topic at hand, which took on an informal, conversational format which proved to be tremendously enjoyable. While, at the end of the evening, there was no universal consensus for an issue that defies conventional, straightforward answers or solutions, it is safe to say that everybody had a wonderful and informative evening that will hopefully serve as a harbinger for further successful “Dine-Arounds” in the future!

Copyright Sessions

Canadian Copyright Law is the topic of the next SLA Click U online course — begins 26 April 2010. See www.clickuniversity.com or email clicku@sla.org. Also take a look at the upcoming online course on on Global Copyright Issues (CCM 300).

Attending New Orleans ? Don’t miss your opportunity for a free consultation on copyright — June 14 in the Expo Hall. Also, Managing Copyright Issues Seminar on June 12; and Copyright Education Seminar on June 13. I’ll be travelling from Annapolis for the SLA conference and hope to see some of you there!

The developer and instructor of these copyright programs is Toronto born and educated at Osgoode Hall Law School . She is the author of the book, Canadian Copyright Law. Her weblog includes much content on Canadian copyright law.

Lesley Ellen Harris

lesley@copyrightlaws.com

See my new weblog: http://copyrightlaws.com

It goes by a couple of names: autocomplete for when the search engine presents possible phrase combinations, and autosuggest where the search engine goes further to show related topics or even the answer. Either way, this is possibly the best affordance added to web search since the simple query box.

All search engines use their logs of search queries to produce the phrase combinations. Google and Bing will also personalize the list based on the user’s recent search history. Bing will modify further according to hot trends or news. Google responds to some trigger words to show the answer.

Bing’s suggestions show in a sizable window with controls at the bottom to turn autosuggest off. It will use your search history to mark queries that you have already tried in a different colour (works in Internet Explorer). Bing will also adjust the list to give attention to breaking news. In a search for new york news, Bing included hockeybuzz.com because it had news about the New York Islanders NHL team.

Trending topics is another consideration. When Goldman Sachs was making headlines in mid-April 2010 Bing’s suggestions were SEC, fraud, conviction buy list, careers, mutual funds — we could almost see the whole story through autosuggest. (Bing’s posts on autosuggest.)

Yahoo’s Search Assist has autocomplete in the search suggestions, and autosuggest in the Explore Concepts. Yahoo Search has a talent for context. It will show the first word you type in a variety of contexts. In this example, inform is part of health information, information technology etc , and as more words are added, the query suggestions will narrow.

We see it again with goldman — it begins with goldman sachs and emma goldman, and when we add the word sachs, Yahoo shows choices for careers, bonus, stock price, fraud.

Yahoo does further analysis of queries and content to offer concepts to explore — a form of autosuggest.

Users can control use and display of search suggestions by clicking on Settings in the Search Assist area.

Yahoo states that it does not use personal search history, but you do need to be logged into your account to maintain your preferred settings.

Google Suggest is the smartest. Its algorithms will figure in popularity of searches, the user’s search history, the location of the searcher, and the types of words being entered.

• It localizes the search suggestions to your area — type in dentists and Google will list queries with communities near you. In the United States it localizes to the metro area.
• It will show matches from your Google bookmarks and search history.
• It builds on the previous search to show more search suggestions as you compose a new query.
• It can surmise intent. Type in Canadian — Google Suggest shows the Canadian-US exchange rate. Add Tire for Canadian Tire, Google Suggest gives the url for canadiantire.ca.

There are other answers — Toronto weather brings up a four-day forecast. Other shortcuts that are now part of Google Suggest include flight status, local time, area codes, package tracking in the US, definitions, calculator, currency and unit conversions.

What Do You Suggest? is a tool developed by Simon Every to explore patterns. We as searchers can use it to visually explore the Google Suggest pathways.

Not surprisingly, Google Suggest has been the source of great humour as well. Simply entering “should I” can populate a hilarious, though somewhat angst tinged, list of questions. Google had some fun itself in the 2010 Super Bowl ad that began with impress a French girl. There have been parodies since. Watch them all at “Google’s Super Bowl ad good, parodies even better”. http://tnw.to/15eVx

One downside to search suggestions is that the presence of the desired combination of words doesn’t mean it will lead to good results. It could be someone else’s dead end that we are following. And to some users, the suggestions may add to the noise and clutter. Search engines do provide a means for disabling the function.

But in most queries, search suggestions guide us in refining the query and getting to the answer faster. It’s instant and unobtrusive. We just need to stop for a split second to look over the suggestions.

Gwen Harris Information Services

Information Consultant and Internet Specialist

E-Mail: goharris@websearchguide.ca

Web-Based Courses about Searching the Web: http://www.websearchguide.ca

Yes, we have air travel, even more than most people believe or can imagine. At any moment in time, there are more than 1,000,000 people in the air. That’s a small city in flight. Yet it’s not the flying car vision of the past. That vision was one of the personal flying car. An advance that would replace the all too familiar automobile. It was of the average citizen of the street, flying in ordered flowing streams to work and picking up the groceries. That hasn’t happened. Sadly(?), it will never happen.

That’s a strong statement, audacious, even pretentious, yet I believe it to be true. The ‘flying car’ vision is an example of a “poorly coupled” prediction. There’s no path from today that we can travel, to arrive at this envisioned tomorrow. Between today and the tomorrow of our dreams, lie insurmountable obstacles which are an integral part of who we are.

Most people would suggest the reason we don’t have flying cars has something to do with technology. They’re only half right. Technology only limits what is possible; human nature limits what we attempt.

Drive the main highways of a major city at the height of rush hour. Note the irrational stop and go, the swerving, the rampant inattention to a life and death activity, the growing trend of road rage, the madness of hurtling steel leviathans, the honking of horns, and the unexpected rushes of adrenaline. Now imagine this maelstrom a thousand feet above your home… every hour – of every day.

“But!” the objections are shouted from the back row, “It doesn’t have to be that way! Technology has solutions! Guidance and control systems can solve all those problems. Anti-collision devices can make accidents impossible.” Etc. etc.

Let’s assume the technologists are right. Let’s pretend for the sake of argument that all of the above is true. Even with all this as a given, will we ever see flying cars replace the automobile? Not a chance – for several different reasons.

The first? No community would allow a flow stream over their backyard. NIMBY (not in my backyard) would quickly change to NIMAS… Not in my air space. Second? A flow stream would have to be placed over a non-residential corridor… and it would have to be significantly wider than existing highways. Flying cars a thousand feet up need a lot more space for emergency landings than do Ford pickup trucks. Simple real estate economics makes mass consumer use of personal flying cars impossible.

There’s another mundane, yet insurmountable reason. How would we take that huge step from being land bound to being airborne? Regardless of assurances that flying your own car would be as safe as driving, how do we get to the point where enough people believe this to be true, for us to allow a single, never mind tens of thousands of flying cars to swoop and swerve like swallows downtown during normal business hours?

This is the “poor coupling” of the flying car prediction. Between the reality of today and our vision of tomorrow, there is a chasm we have to cross. One we can’t traverse with little steps. Those steps are not technological ones, but ones of belief, trust and even a minimal level of acceptance.

In science fiction, we’re allowed one, even two, suspensions of disbelief. In real life, the first one you come across when analyzing a prediction… destroys its validity.

© 2010 Peter de Jager — Peter is a keynote speaker on the subject of Change… sometimes he explores those things that drive change. You can read more of how work at www.technobility.com

Understanding our customer is a key tenet in sales, marketing and information provision. It is also key in designing effective learning programs. Our attempts to provide valuable learning opportunities will be improved if we take the time to understand common characteristics of adult learners and how they tend to learn.

Start with what they know

Adults bring to the learning environment their own rich experiences. As teachers we are well advised to respect this rich resource and integrate the student’s life and work experiences into the learning. This means taking a minute to get to know your students and what they might bring to the table.

Remember that, by and large, adults have a purpose for their learning and generally they are motivated learners. But again, it is important to find out what their purpose is and design our instruction accordingly. Too often we decide what we are going to teach based on what WE think they should learn, rather than on what THEY want (or are currently willing) to learn.

Focus on the practical

Adult learners tend to be impatient with unfocused rambling. Their time is precious and they prefer to be focused; cover the material quickly and thoroughly; and as much as possible EXPERIENCE their learning. They often do not need to understand the concepts before they will take the risk of using skills.

Let the student(s) guide the learning. Adult learners are generally not afraid to ask questions. As questions arise you will have opportunities to explain underlying concepts important to the skills you are teaching. Teaching these as they arise from student’s questions will contextualize their learning which is extremely important for the adult learner.

Create positive learning environment

Adults regard the learning process as a social process and will respond better in a non-formal social environment. Create a respectful professional environment that acknowledges each learner as a successful individual who brings valued experience to the learning experience.

Teacher vs Facilitator

Attempting to simply transmit information to our ‘students’ will often have very mixed results. I’m sure we have all had the unfortunate experience of seeing our audience’s eyes glaze over, or even worse, close completely. As noted earlier, adults learn best when they are treated as active participants in their own learning. The role that we should assume is one of facilitating the learning process.

Establish Context

Learners need to clearly see how the learning will affect them in a very concrete way. A good way to start a session is through story-telling; question asking; and social interaction. You might tell a story that illustrates why they might find the information/skill you are teaching useful.

Flexibility

Be prepared to change and adapt on the ‘fly’. You may have prepared a presentation or written a curriculum and are proud of how organized you are… you are planning on presenting point A, followed by point B, and then point C. However, putting your student(s) in charge of their own learning means finding out what they are interested in knowing; what they know already and what questions they have. It may be that they already understand point A and aren’t interested in point C… but have a lot of questions about point B. Be prepared to reorganize and be responsive to where your students are at. If they show interest in a particular point or area… spend more time on that point.

Facilitate Information Exchange

Encourage learner participation by asking questions and encouraging the exchange of information and experience. Engaging the learner in the learning experience acknowledges their individuality, illustrates respect for their experience, creates a more social environment, and it makes life easier for you!

Sandy Iverson is a consultant, researcher and educator based in Toronto. She holds graduate degrees in information science and adult education and is currently undertaking research on information literacy with senior citizens. She can be reached at sandy@sandyiverson.info

New technologies have greatly increased our ability to understand, analyze and prepare for disasters, and Geographic Information System (GIS) is a perfect example of this. GIS is software that manages, analyses and displays geographic information and it has become a very important tool in disaster management. GIS provides tools that allow you to identify risks and potential threats and offers the capability of mapping and visualizing geographic information. GIS uses geospatial data and it is becoming more and more recognized as an important and vital component of our geographic understanding. GIS and geospatial data are complex and costly products, however in the last 10-15 years, they have become more accessible and available, especially in educational institutions such as York University. ESRI is a prominent software development and services company, which provides GIS software and management applications. Below are three examples of how ESRI, GIS and geospatial data are used in emergency preparedness and disaster management.

Manitoba’s Red River is well known for its floods and the vast damages that take place every time the overflow happens. Major and very damaging floods took place in 1950, 1997 and 2009. GIS has been used, and continues to be used, to manage the overflow of the Red River. Knowing the flooding possibilities of the river, measurements were put in place to minimize the potential damages. Collaborative work takes place continuously between a number of players including ESRI Canada and the Office of Disaster Management in Manitoba that put together geospatial data, satellite imagery, topography and real-time weather data in order to develop decision-making and problem-solving tools to be used in case of flooding. New developments in GIS data, its collection, storing and sharing make collaborative planning possible.

Hurricane Katrina was a terrible natural disaster that had a devastating impact. After the hurricane, many facts about the preparedness of the rescue mission become known to the public and many opinions were formed about its shortcomings. One factor in the poor management of the response units came from the fact that more damage was being done by the very people that were there to help. Waterlines were poorly managed and more flooding was caused by the rescuers when they were hitting and breaking water pipelines. The rescue units became much more efficient after the city provided them with GIS based maps indicating the right locations of fire hydrants, valves and waterlines. The delay come from the fact that data was not accessible to the right people, making data sharing and data accuracy key points in preparedness.

One last example of note is the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti. After the tremor, GIS was used to assist in identifying areas of extreme danger based on analysis of the geography of the area before and after the earthquake. The software was used to identify the impact of the rescue infrastructure put in place. These included best routes for mobile medical units, hospital placement, population density, areas suitable for food and water distribution which was crucial in decision making processes. ESRI generated maps dealing with the earthquake and the recovery process which they shared with the media and the public supporting an open access environment. GIS was also used to analyze potential damage consequences.
GIS will continue to be an important tool in managing natural and man-made disasters. New developments in sharing geospatial data, such as major servers and educational institutions making data available to researchers, will make disaster management more convenient. The following diagram represents the hopeful future of data sharing and disaster management.

The importance of disaster and emergency management has been recognized by York University which is offering the only Master of Arts in Disaster and Emergency Management program in Ontario. There are only two such programs in Canada and their design meets the need for knowledgeable, skilled professionals in this important field. In most cases, the aftermath of a disaster is reactive. Professionals in the field of Disaster and Emergency Management are entrusted with the hard task of anticipating a man-made or natural disaster and know what to do in order to ameliorate the consequences. Today we have a better understanding of disasters and their emotional, physical and economical costs, and a manageable disaster should follow the diagram below where the disaster is just one point in a perpetual disaster and emergency management schema.

York University also has an Emergency Preparedness Program (EPP) which “is based on the 4 principles of emergency management as established by Emergency Management Ontario. The 4 principles include mitigation/prevention, preparedness, response and recovery” (http://www.yorku.ca/epp/overview.htm). This program deals with emergency planning for York’s two campuses and it focuses on drafting emergency plans, public awareness and carrying out education, training and exercises dealing with various possible emergencies. In a short interview with Kathy Branton, Manager, Emergency Preparedness Program, we touched on the many programs taking place at York that are part of the university’s plan. There is the Emergency Response Warden Program which has as its main mandate the safe and timely evacuation of students, faculty, staff and visitors in case of an emergency or drill. The wardens are volunteers from the York community and they undergo comprehensive training and refresher training on an annual basis to keep current with new practices and policies. York’s EPP has also developed extensive training materials freely available on their website such as “Get ready at home”, “Get ready at work”, “Get ready in class”, “Get ready in the car”, “Get ready on public transit” and they provide links to valuable information such as Emergency Preparedness Guide for People with Disabilities /Special Needs. Their website contains up-to-date information about pertinent events such as H1N1 Influenza and is a great source of information.

References:

ESRI (2010). Emergency/Disaster Management. Retrieved April 27, 2010 from
http://www.esri.com/industries/public_safety/business/disaster.html

ESRI (January 20, 2010). ESRI Assists Haiti Earthquake Response. Retrieved April 27, 2010 from http://www.esri.com/news/releases/10_1qtr/haiti.html

ESRI Canada. Case Study Visualization and Analysis Tool
Mitigates Risk to Manitoba Residents. Retrieved April 27, 2010 from http://www.esricanada.com/documents/EC1_0017_0906_7A_ManitobaFlood%283%29.pdf

GIS Development. GIS approach for disaster management through awareness – an overview. Retrieved April 27, 2010 from http://www.gisdevelopment.net/application/natural_hazards/overview/nho0012.htm

Recovering from Katrina (November-December 2009). Government Engineering. Retrieved April 27, 2010 from http://www.govengr.com/ArticlesNov09/Katrina.pdf

York University (2010). Emergency Preparedness Program. Retrieved April 27, 2010 from http://www.yorku.ca/epp/index.htm

York University (2010). Graduate Program in Disaster and Emergency Management. Retrieved April 27, 2010 from http://www.yorku.ca/graddem/

Dana Craig graduated in 2009 from the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto and is currently working at York University in the Map Library and Library Accessibility Services. Dana’s interests include GIS and adapting visual media, as well as making adaptive technologies more accessible.

Peter Duerr has an Honours BA, Major – English Literature, from York University and a MLS from the University of Western Ontario. He has worked at the NYPL in Manhattan; NRPL in Suburban NY; Algonquin College and the Office of the Auditor General in Ottawa. Currently he is working at York University and his responsibilities include: Domestic Government Documents, Disaster Management, and he assisted with Women Studies as a sabbatical replacement. Peter’s interests include Victoriana, Environmental studies and reducing carbon footprint.

Despite my rather shameless “flaunting” of my extensive graduate education, I have been repeatedly advised by a number of academic librarians that my graduate background is too specialized to provide proper breadth for reference services, which may be expected at a general academic reference desk. Have I shot myself in the foot by acquiring my M.A., and do I really know too much about too little?

Academic librarianship and its increasing lean towards ideas of “over-qualification” has been the subject of much debate among information professionals. Do we raise our own bar by setting higher stakes on higher education? Is one M.A. enough to succeed in an academic environment? And why just worry about the academic environment when Bay Street legal librarians might one day follow the American model and be encouraged to acquire legal degrees in order to be considered as “fully qualified” to shelve their multiple copies of the McGill Guide to Uniform Legal Citation? Why stop there and not complete a Ph.D. to really make sure you are qualified to do your job? An important distinction must be made at this point. While academic libraries may be more likely to require an additional graduate degree or research and publications, do those expectations make sense for librarians working at working at major law firms McCarthy Tétrault or Blakes? According to the American Association of Law Libraries, 30% of legal librarians actually hold JD or LLB degrees, while 20% of job openings actually specify this as a requirement. Some jobs will require the graduate degree in library science but state a preference for the law degree as well.

Furthermore, when looking at a library association guide for aspiring library managers and directors, obtaining a second graduate degree or at the very least a teaching certificate is encouraged. My question is where does the credential fueled competition for jobs stop? Having seriously considered pursuing my doctorate in Soviet art history a year ago, should I regret the decision to “abort” my Cold War-era obsession and instead hop on the overcrowded Dewey wagon?

An article from the Chronicles of Education (June 1, 2008), titled “Subject Experts Need not Apply” by Todd Gilman, explores the dilemma of specialization. While the author wholeheartedly supports specialization, especially where it comes to academic libraries, they note on a recent trend where library job postings may sometimes include advanced graduate degrees under the “preferred” section of the listing, which indicates that hiring institutions will settle for less. Gilman argues that fresh graduates who hold MLIS degrees are often selected over those who have more extensive education and therefore might expect a more competitive salary. Devaluation of specialization is happening on a number of levels, whether in academia or in the public or private library sectors. Gilman calls these practices “petty, inflexible, and anti-intellectual,” pointing out the potential detrimental effects on libraries that either do not employ or significantly decrease the number of specialized staff who are properly qualified.

While the question of expertise and additional graduate experience typically comes down to finances, employers should not forget that acquiring all of this “expertise” through multiple graduate degrees is also a costly time and financial proposition for the individual. I believe that when hiring a more ‘seasoned’ graduate student, the library does not only gain a new employee who is more qualified to discuss Pieter Breughel and his ‘bee’ metaphors representing the rebuilding of Europe torn apart by religious strife, but also a more dedicated staff member who would be better equipped to deal with internal politics as well as be less likely to “jump ship” due to costly monthly loan payments.

On-the-job training, as opposed to conceptual university-based education is still a discussion which raises a degree of tension which persists throughout many library schools and spills over into the professional field of librarianship. This tension emanates from taking a practical field and turning it into theory without incorporating enough elements of practical field experience into the school curriculum. Library schools in Britain actually require one to complete a library internship before entering a classroom, thus putting practical experience ahead of theory in library and information professional education. The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP, http://www.cilip.org.uk), which has a reciprocal agreement with the ALA in North America, suggests that in order to apply to the majority of accredited programs listed on its site, the applicant must demonstrate previous library work experience.

I have wondered whether it is this tension between the practical and the theoretical in the field of librarianship which is causing us to constantly reassess our practice and steer towards higher education and specialization streams in order to justify our presence behind that elusive reference desk? Having said that, we are bound to make the older generation of baby boomers somewhat nervous with our overly ambitious qualifications and our information professional “jargon” In fact, our multiple graduate degrees may simply illuminate our inability to dedicate oneself to one field.

Katya Pereyaslavska, MA (Fine Art History), is currently a graduate student at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto. She is the Curator of the Hart House Library, works as an intern librarian for the AskON service and blogs at http://socialitelibrarian.blogspot.com/.

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Let me start off with presenting the Chapter’s 2010 Executive Board, elected at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on November 18, 2009 and having assumed office on January 1, 2010:

President-Elect — Jennifer Burns

Secretary — Emmeline Hobbs

Treasurer — Jan Dawson

Technology Director — Laura Warner

Membership Director — Shelley McBride

Programming Director — Heather Brunstad

First Five Years Director — Gillian Horwood

Past-President (ex officio on the Board) — Joy Shanfield

I am confident the group of individuals above will lead the Chapter to great success in 2010 and I thank them in advance for their commitment and enthusiasm.

Reporting to the Chapter Executive, the Advisory Board is responsible for executing the Chapter’s events, initiatives and day-to-day activities. I also thank in advance these dedicated volunteers for their contributions to the Chapter. Please see the SLA Toronto Chapter website for a full list of these volunteers, and a link to the Chapter reporting structure.

Finally, I would like to extend my gratitude to Past President Joy Shanfield and her Executive Board for their tremendous efforts on behalf of the Chapter in the Association’s celebrated centennial year.

2010 Goals

The goals I have set out for myself as President include:

• Disseminating the work of the SLA First Five Years Advisory Council to the Chapter through the establishment of the ‘First Five Years’ Director position on the Executive Board and the resurrection of the UWO FIMS student group, chaired by Erin McDonald.
• Broadening our current subgroup offerings (New Information Professionals and Solos) by bringing back the Toronto West Subgroup, with Mike Meth and Mindy Thuna as the new co-chairs. Look for them to connect with, and host a few events geared at, our members in West Toronto and the west GTA over the course of the year.
• Continuing to share and encourage uptake of the results of the SLA Alignment Project.
• Refreshing our Chapter website to make it a little more contemporary, while moving toward a seamless user experience across our web 2.0 & social media technologies.
• Enhancing the SLA Toronto event offerings through continued partnership & cross-pollination with such groups as CASLIS, Knowledge Workers Toronto, and the U of T Faculty of Information Alumni Association; and continuing to deliver programming of interest to SLA Toronto Chapter members, including the continuation of the Career Series with Ulla de Stricker (also our Career Guidance Chair). We hope to partner with other SLA Chapters for this series designed to help new graduates, new information professionals, and other members needing practical career advice. Please stay tuned for upcoming Events by checking out the Events section of our website or adding the RSS feed to your reader.

I am looking forward to a great year with SLA Toronto and to delivering value to our members through our planned programming and initiatives. Please remember — your feedback and volunteer efforts help us improve our offerings and are always welcomed.

We hope you enjoy this issue. Submissions to the Courier are welcome at any time. Please send comments, ideas or suggestions directly to us.

Sandra Craig

sandracraig@rogers.com

Bruce Harpham

Bruce.harpham@gmail.com

Prior to taking on leadership of the SLA Toronto Chapter as President in 2010, Claire (MISt, 2004) served as the New Information Professionals Program Coordinator, Membership Chair, and President-Elect in successive order since 2005. She is also Past President of the Faculty of Information Alumni Association (FIAA) at the University of Toronto.

Employed as Portal Manager with the Knowledge Management Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers Canada for over three years, Claire manages the PwC Canada B2B intranet, which services over 5,000 partners and staff, as well oversees several knowledge management related projects. She holds both the Project Management Professional (PMP) and Certified Usability Analyst (CUA) designations.

Claire is looking forward to leading the Chapter and connecting with its members throughout 2010. She can be reached at clysnes@gmail.com.

President-Elect – Jennifer Burns

Jennifer is Collection Development Manager, Western Canada for Baker & Taylor’s YBP Library Services, a global provider of books and technical services to academic, research and special libraries. Prior to joining YBP in September 2009, Jennifer worked as an Information Specialist at BMO Financial Group’s Institute for Learning, providing reference services in support of learning and development at the Bank of Montreal. She holds a Master’s degree in Information Studies from the University of Toronto, and a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Concordia University. Jennifer has been a member of the Toronto Chapter since 2004, serving as a co-editor of The Courier in 2008 and the 2009 Membership Chair. In February 2009, the Toronto Chapter sponsored Jennifer’s participation in the tenth Northern Exposure to Leadership Institute in Emerald Lake, British Columbia.

Secretary – Emmeline Hobbs

Emmeline, sitting on the executive board for the first time, is looking forward to the year ahead. A recent graduate from the University of Toronto, she began her foray into the real library world while working at the Toronto Star Library for six months upon graduation. She now finds herself happily working in Business Information Services at Deloitte where she provides research and support across the Canadian firm.

Treasurer – Jan Dawson

Jan is Project Coordinator and Virtual Reference Librarian for Ask Ontario (www.askon.ca). In 2010, she will be giving a pre-conference workshop on Virtual Reference and speaking about VoIP reference at OLA’s super conference at the end of February, giving an Education Institute workshop at the end of March, and speaking about VoIP reference at Computers in Libraries conference in Arlington, VA.

Technology Directory – Laura Warner

Laura graduated with her MLIS and MPA degrees from Dalhousie in 2007. Soon after that she relocated to Toronto, where she launched her career in the information profession. Her first professional position was with the CBC where she worked as a reference librarian. Today Laura is the Business and Economics Reference and Collections librarian at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo. Her primary responsibilities include providing research assistance and reference services to students, providing instructional seminars and teaching, and serving as a link for any collections issues.

Laura has been actively volunteering with the SLA since 2008 when she took on the role of New Information Professionals Program Coordinator. She has also volunteered for literacy programs with the Toronto Public Library.

Her outside interests involve reading, photography, languages, travelling and being with her friends, husband and one year old daughter.

Membership Director – Shelley McBride

Shelley has worked as a librarian at the Canada-Ontario Business Service Centre, Industry Canada in Toronto since 2002. A ‘solo’ librarian since 2006, she provides reference/research and collection management services, and is a member of the national Canada Business Information Specialists Committee.

Prior to joining Industry Canada, Shelley was the business librarian at Richmond Hill Public Library. She is a graduate of the University of Toronto.

Programming Director – Heather Brunstad

Heather is a graduate of the MLIS program at the University of Western Ontario. Heather has worked in both academic and public libraries but has found her niche in special libraries and currently holds the position of Manager of Bibliographic and Permissions Services at Access Copyright. Heather is a solutions-oriented Library and Information Management Specialist with strong leadership experience excelling in the fields of technology, research and information organization. Heather has been a volunteer with the SLA Toronto Chapter since 2003.

First Five Years Director – Gillian Horwood

Gillian is the Research Librarian at the Devon Group, a government and public relations firm in downtown Toronto. She also has experience working in medical education, corporate and media libraries. Gillian is a recent graduate of the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto.

Past-President – Joy Shanfield

Shortly after getting her MLS degree from the Graduate School of Library (and Information) Science at McGill University, Joy left Montreal with her family to relocate in Toronto, where she has worked ‘happily ever after’ in a variety of library settings.
Currently, Joy is working in Library Services at Toronto Rehab, a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Toronto. Within her group of seven information professionals (4 librarians, 3 library technicians), she is the Information Resources Specialist providing a full range of special library services to staff, students and volunteers at two of the hospital’s five Toronto sites. Joy is a cataloguing enthusiast and has enjoyed successive special projects to add selected card catalogue holdings retrospectively to an ILS (integrated library system), and then to convert the ILS holdings to a more rigorous cataloguing standard for inclusion in the University of Toronto Libraries’ SIRSI catalogue system.

Just before joining Toronto Rehab in 2002, Joy set up a new library for a property and casualty insurance industry association. Prior to that, she was employed for fourteen years in several multi-sized health- and insurance-related libraries in the Ontario government. Joy served a term in 1990-1991 as Chair of the Ontario Government Libraries Council, and acquired complementary public library sector experience during her 10-year involvement with the Town of Markham Public Library Board.

Joy has been active with the Toronto Chapter since 2002, participating on the Advisory Board as a member of the Programming Committee and Registrar, and filling the Executive Board positions of Secretary, Treasurer, President-Elect and President.
Her outside interests include reading and collecting mystery fiction, traveling with her husband and friends, investigating and using technologies that organize collections (her family ‘collects’ things), being with and photographing her two wonderful grandchildren

Dear friends and colleagues in SLA,

It is difficult to find the words to convey what an opportunity and responsibility serving this association has been. My predecessors know exactly what I am talking about. I would like to share some observations with you.

My year has focused on the alignment with the phase “Align in ’09.” And you know I have been citing Seth Godin’s, latest book, Tribes. I think his description of a tribe as a “movement waiting to happen” describes SLA from its inception in 1909 right to our present alignment project. Building a tribe involves leaders connecting people to an idea and those people communicating the idea to create the tribe. The Board and staff, with the help of a dedicated group of alignment ambassadors, have been leading the alignment tribe and gaining recruits. All of the research is available on the Web site for our members to use, and SLA is rolling out tools to help you use this information to sell your valuable services. The alignment project is vitally important to the future of our profession. Read more

To Your Success

Janice R. Lachance, SLA CEO

The dictionary says that an association is “an organization of persons having a common interest.” At SLA for the past one hundred years, that common interest has been your professional success.

SLA will begin a new century with a firm foundation on which to build new and better opportunities for librarians and information and knowledge professionals. Technology gives us the means to exchange ideas and information on a massive scale, and I am confident that we have only seen the tip of the collaborative iceburg. It also makes learning easier and more convenient than ever before. The Alignment research gives us solid guidance on how to position our industry in the marketplace. Read more

SLA Name Will Stay: Alignment of Association to Continue

Voting in record numbers, SLA members failed to approve a proposal to change the organization’s name to the Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals. 50 percent of those members eligible to vote participated in the referendum, with 2071 voting yes and 3225 voting no.

“The active discussions, online and in local meetings, are a testament to the passion and commitment that knowledge and information professionals feel towards their association and their profession,” said Gloria Zamora, SLA 2009 President. “This level of engagement will help make SLA and its members more effective advocates for the information profession in the years ahead.” Read more

The SLA Big Easy: SLA 2010 Annual Conference and INFO-EXPO!

The Big Easy’s convivial environs are the perfect backdrop for the 2010 SLA Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO. You’ll enjoy endless opportunities to network with information professionals from around the world . . . Participate in a dizzying array of professional development sessions featuring illustrious thought leaders . . . Listen to captivating keynote speakers who will spark your imagination and color your conversation . . . And chat with exhibitors from top product and service providers and learn what’s hot and what’s essential.

Lagniappe (that’s New Orleans-speak for something extra; pronounced “LAN-yap”): New Orleans has some of the best bargains among major conference cities, with great prices on hotel rooms and world-class cuisine. This is one conference you can’t afford to miss!

Join SLA 13-16 June 2010 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in captivating New Orleans for the 2010 SLA Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO. The early-bird deadline (2 April 2010) is fast approaching, so register today!

Janice Lachance Honored with 2009 Dialog Member Achievement Award

The award is bestowed on an SLA member for raising visibility, awareness and appreciation of the information profession or the association at large. Lachance was honored for her six years as SLA’s leader and representative and her work to enhance the profile of the association and the information profession.

“Janice has elevated the status of SLA and the profession in general and has served us extremely well as a global ambassador,” says 2010 SLA President Anne Caputo. “I am so pleased to be able to recognize her achievements with this honor, and I know that she will continue to live up to the spirit of this award for many years to come.” Read more

Volunteer for 2010 Leadership Opportunities, Strengthen SLA for the Future

For the last two years, Presidents Stephen Abram and Gloria Zamora have used the volunteer database to allow all SLA members the opportunity to express their interests in serving the association. It has proved to be a great success and brought many new faces to the forefront of SLA.

Because the appointment of committee and council members is one of 2010 SLA President Anne Caputo’s major responsibilities and highest priorities, she wants to build on this initial success and encourage even more use of the volunteer database for the divisions, chapters, caucuses, board of directors, committees and councils. She will also use this system to populate workgroups or special task forces that may be formed during 2010. Read more

Heather Dimson, Toronto

Stephanie Hughes-Naherne, Toronto

Megumi Ishibashi, Toronto

Sarah Jones, Toronto

Corrina Mason, Toronto

Rebecca Northcott, Toronto

Teresa Rodak, Toronto

I look forward to meeting you all at an upcoming SLA Toronto event!

Date: Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Speaker: Kelly Lyons, Associate Professor at the University of Toronto iSchool

Time: 5:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Location: The Hospital for Sick Children, Room 1250, Black Wing, 555 University Avenue

Cost: SLA/CASLIS Members: $20.00; Non-members: $30.00;

SLA/CASLIS Student Members: free; Student/Retired/Unemployed: $10.00

Event and registration information at: http://www.caslistoronto.on.ca/

PLEASE NOTE: Even though registration for this event is being handled by CASLIS Toronto, SLA Toronto members will also enjoy the “Member” rate for this event. When registering online, simply check off “Member” if you belong to either organization. Furthermore, both CLA and SLA students are welcome to attend the event free-of-charge, simply check off “CLA student” when registering online.

Dealing with Information Overload (joint event with Knowledge Workers Toronto)

Date: Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

Speaker: Karl Dawson

Time: 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. (Registration: 6:30-7:00 pm)

Location: Verity, 111d Queen Street East, Toronto Room (on 2nd Floor)

Cost: $25.00 for all attendees

Event and registration information at: http://units.sla.org/chapter/ctor/events/default.asp?eid=279

People on the Move will be a regular column highlighting the achievements of our members and help keep us all in touch. Please share your career changes, retirements, life changes, volunteer work.

Submit your news to Frances Wong at Fwong@blgcanada.com.

What’s the catch? Firstly, we have to know to click on ‘Show Options’ under the Google logo to see the page, and we have to want to do it. Unfortunately, Google does not let us personalize the interface to make Show Options the default. Secondly, the new options require that we think more critically about search objectives. But it doesn’t have to be difficult. Here are five questions that Show Options can help us with.

1. What kinds of Web content should I be considering?

Google Web search will bring back blended results — some images and video along with web pages. But it’s hit or miss. Far better to make our own selections by using the Show Options to select results from Images, Videos, News, Blogs, Books, Forums, or Updates. Choosing one of these will lead to another set of options tailored to that content type.

Selecting Images can often find the perfect page on a topic. For example, if you find a good diagram of the invisible web, you will likely find a cogent description of its characteristics.

A video might turn up that is an excerpt from a conference, a university lecture, or a short demo of a product or process. There is hardly a topic today that doesn’t have video coverage.

Google Book search is so good now that running a search at Google and filtering by Books will find the books and specific pages. We see this in “climate change in the canadian arctic”.

Updates is a new content type that means “Real Time”. These results are hits from Twitter, FriendFeed and some other social media. Even if you think your topic is not time sensitive, this content type could yield gold — as it did for me on the Canadian-arctic-climate-change search with an article about coal mining on Ellesmere Island.

2. Is there a time dimension? Do I need very recent material or more historical?

We’ll be disappointed in historical because dates are still horrendously unreliable on the Web, but Google is good at identifying the recently posted items. If your question is currently topical, check “latest” results to see news, blog entries, and some real-time postings.

But if you are looking for a perspective of the topic over time, use Google’s Timeline. This is roughly based on dates mentioned in the articles including publication dates from journals. I adore this view. It shows me that, in 1990 Canadian researchers were studying data from the Pliocene era of a warmer Arctic. Date range can be adjusted

3. Am I shopping? Does this question have a product angle?

If so, select ‘More shopping sites’, and benefit from the price information and more reviews. In Canada, this shows well on ipod nano, but not as well on iPad (yet).

4. Have I done this search before?

If you use Google’s search history to keep a record of searches you ran and results that you viewed, Show Options will let you see pages you have already visited, or better yet, look at only pages you have not visited. This is a time saver.

5. Is this a research topic where I will need more information about the page to judge whether it is suitable?

‘Page Previews’ to the rescue — the excerpts with bolded terms are longer, and often include a large thumbnail of the page that can convey a sense of the type and quality of the site.

Another option is to ‘View Images from the page’ where one or two images from the page accompany the standard Google snippet: the images can help in quickly assessing the relevance of that result for your information need.

These are the main five ways to use the new options. You may think of more. Google is continually adding new options. Watch for changes and try them out to check if there is another view you can add to your search practice. But above all, get into the habit of using Show Options: they make us look at search results differently.

Author’s Note: In May 2010, Google redesigned its search display to show on the main page the options for exploring and refining results described in this article. Those changes in display are described in http://www.websearchguide.ca/netblog/archives/009590.html.

Gwen Harris Information Services

Information Consultant and Internet Specialist

E-Mail: goharris@websearchguide.ca

Web-Based Courses about Searching the Web: http://www.websearchguide.ca

What holds us back from applying our considerable intelligence to the issue of Managing Change, is that we’ve fallen prey to a flock of myths regarding the Change process. Ironically, these myths fly in the face of what we know personally to be true about how we as individuals react and cope with Change … but we ignore what we know and apply these myths to the behaviours we see around us. The result? A whole lot of fuzzy thinking regarding this very human activity of ‘Responding to Change’

1. People Resist Change.
Sorry, but no they don’t. People continually seek out drastic changes to their lives and voluntarily embrace them. Proof? Are you married? Have kids? Ever sought a new position? Learned a new language? All of these are huge Changes that we all embrace willingly every day.

2. People do however resist being forced to Change.
This is the key. Understand this, and you’re 90% of the way towards being able to better manage this thing called Change. If I tell YOU that from now on you have to do something differently … then you’ll want to know WHY this Change is necessary before you agree to Change. Here’s a news flash … You’re not that different from everyone else. We ALL need a reason to Change and will rightly resist anyone who tries to force a Change down our throats.

3. Resistance to enforced/mandated/dictated is ‘bad’.
This is perhaps, the most destructive belief held by management today. Resistance to forced Change is not only ‘not bad’ – in this age of rapid Change, it’s absolutely vital that we do NOT Change every time someone comes up with a new idea. Instead we should strive to put in place, strong barriers to unnecessary Change which only allow necessary Changes to pass through.

4. Resistance to Change is all about the Fear of Uncertainty.
Not entirely true. Reducing uncertainty about the Future is a central strategy in any Change Management project, but it is not, by any stretch of the imagination, the only obstacle to Change.

5. Past success is the greatest obstacle to future Change.
This should be obvious, but it isn’t usually taken into account. If you’ve been successful for the past ten years in a particular manner, you should be very wary of anyone suggesting a ‘new’ way of doing things. Would it really make sense to change a winning strategy just ‘because’ someone suggested, without hard proof or evidence, that you should?

6. Getting people to ‘Buy into’ a Change is the problem.
Exactly right, but not in the way most people read that statement. ‘Buy in’ suggests that management has defined the Change necessary (ie. the solution) and now are trying to convince, persuade, cajole people into adopting this new direction. Why is this bad strategy? Because management typically makes no effort to describe the problem the proposed Change is supposed to fix. Management is trying to sell a solution to a problem that people are often not even aware of. Is it any wonder they resist?

7. Don’t sell Solutions … define problems instead.
If someone is aware of a problem and then asked what they could do to solve it, then they own the solution and will, if given the chance, go to great lengths to implement it. This is called ‘getting their involvement’. It is the simplest, easiest method by which to make change happen in your organization. If Change is necessary, let them decide what needs to be done and then get out of their way.

8. How they respond to Change, is also how you respond to Change.
That’s the real secret behind knowing how to manage Change. Do you respond better to being told to Change, or when people ask you to suggest solutions to a real problem? When learning something new do you perform perfectly from the start? Or is there an inevitable learning curve … where you make lots of mistakes at first, and get better as time goes on? When placed into a brand new position, with lots to learn … are you filled with self confidence? Or is there a little voice in your head that has you wondering if you’ll ever regain your normal level of competency?

To better Manage Change in your organization, first look within. You’ll be surprised at the answers you’ll find.

© 2010, Peter de Jager. Peter is a Keynote Speaker, Consultant and Writer. Contact him at Pdejager@technobility.com or via www.technobility.com

Our core competency is as a technology company. Over the past few of years, we’ve dug down to our roots and invested in our technology based upon feedback from the market, surveys done by the industry and intelligence from our clients. What we’ve heard is that what the market really wants is ONE scalable, shareable interface that delivers on our clients’ information management problems. Our clients have told us that their key business problems include organizing, integrating, managing, retrieving and disseminating information — both internal and external — to the right people at the right time ***VIA THE RIGHT CHANNEL*** — whether that be on your blackberry, published to your intranet or as an RSS feed. We have not only created a technical solution to this problem, but we have created a whole service team around helping our clients make sure that they solve their information problems and implement tools that will provide their organization with the solution. We still offer content as part of our service – but we are not limited by this content. We can integrate any content our clients have under license or that they have internally that they need to manage.

Exhaustive News Coverage…

We now have apx 3,500 full-text news sources online — from newspapers to journals to blogs! So, get a perspective beyond newspapers! We know that more and more communications and information professionals rely upon “social network” sources for news as well as traditional news services. To that end, we have been adding selected media “destination” websites and blogs to our service. If you know of a key website or blog that we should add, let us know — we can add it! (One of the many benefits of owning our own technology — we can make the changes we need to make to give our clients the service THEY want!)

More Types of Content…

Are you looking for information on private companies? We have over 450,000 corporate records — mostly for private companies — from suppliers throughout North America and Europe! Or do you need an indepth biographical record on a personality? We have over 130,000 biographical records — including the Canadian Who’s Who!

Exclusive Sources…

We’ve long been known for exclusivity with the French-language newspapers from GESCA (La Presse, Le Droit, Le Soleil, etc) as well as the renowned Le Devoir. Now with our partnership with Transcontinental, we offer exclusivity not only on Les Affaires but also their other newspapers including Charlottetown Guardian, St Johns Telegram, etc. We also have exclusive deals with the Alberta Newspaper Group (Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, etc), Thunder Bay Chronicle, Halifax Chronicle Herald and the Yellowknifer (including their other Northern Canada titles).

And Great New Features…

And now … streaming TV! We capture more than 80 TV stations from across Canada and serve them up in a searchable format — so if one of your executives or your clients appeared on television, you will be able to see almost immediately HOW IT REALLY PLAYED. Finally, later this year, we will be integrating a media analysis dashboard to enable you to track not just the output of your communications campaigns but to measure the OUTCOME. And because we’re building this analysis technology ourselves, we know it will be BEST OF BREED — so if you’ve seen other information analysis products and have been dissatisfied, keep watch for this development!

About CEDROM-Sni

Canadian-owned and operated for more than 20 years, CEDROM-SNi is a leading distributor of online news and business information. We created Eureka.cc, a user-friendly information management tool for finding, organizing, and sharing strategic information within organizations. Our company’s multidisciplinary team designs and markets innovative and effective technology solutions adapted to customer needs.

As a content aggregator, we offer a suite of services that enable access to more than 3,500 news and business publications primarily from North America and Europe. Our archives — comprising a repository for more than 90 million documents — are updated daily with almost 80,000 new articles that can be set up to automatically generate e-mail or intranet alerts based on pre-established profiles.

CEDROM-Sni is headquartered in Montreal with offices in Ottawa, Toronto, Quebec, Halifax and Paris, France with 100+ people on staff. The Company was founded in 1989 and entered into a partnership with Transcontinental Inc. in 1996.
For more information: 416-260-2369

The last time I penned my column, I began by lamenting the unseasonable summer weather (cool and rainy) in Toronto, and I now mark the all-too-rapid passage of time by commenting once again on the weather. Toronto went on to enjoy an unusual ‘Summer in September’ (hot and dry), and I personally went on a brief vacation to marvel at the brilliantly colored foliage that presented itself in early October (captured visually, and by digital camera, in upstate New York).

A busy time for Toronto Chapter and for the Association
Most significantly, it has been an extremely busy time for both the Toronto Chapter and our parent association, SLA, since the last Courier issue.

For Toronto Chapter -
The Chapter hosted a slew of well-attended, successful events. Recent events include:

• A joint Summer Pub Night (networking event) with CASLIS Toronto, Aug. 25;
• The continuation of the Career Development series presented by Ulla de Stricker, with the presentation of Self Promotion, No Cringe (number 3 of 5) on Sept. 8, and Dealing with People (number 4) on Oct. 6;
• A Fall ’09 meeting of the Solo Librarians or Solos (Chapter subgroup), Sept. 22;
• An AGO Library Tour at the Art Gallery of Ontario on Sept. 29;
• An event titled Knowledge Management and Social Networking, Oct. 1;
• An Autumn Social gathering of the New Information Professionals (NIP) (Chapter subgroup), Oct. 22.

Still to come in the remaining months of the year are the following additional events:-

• The final session in the Career Development series, Looking Professional, with Ulla de Stricker and Rani Pooran, Nov. 10;
• The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Chapter, followed by a wine tasting, Nov. 18;
• The traditional Joint Holiday Social, celebrated this year jointly with the members of CASLIS Toronto and FIAA (the Faculty of Information Alumni Association), Dec. 2.

For the Association -
The Association ratcheted up the level of activity for all its members and units with their October 14 announcement of the new name that is being proposed to replace Special Libraries Association (abbreviated to the short form or acronym SLA). I am sure that you are all aware of the proposed new name by now, thanks to the high level of responses and member reactions that circulated afterwards. Stated here ‘for the record’, the proposed new name is:
Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals (abbreviated to the short form or acronym – ASKPro)

I personally commend the Association, its Board of Directors, and staff on this choice, and for their procedures in selecting the name and rolling out the change proposal. For the record, I am solidly behind the adoption of the new name because I believe in the power of the words in the phrase, and because I have great confidence in the Alignment research processes that have brought these words to the fore. As explained to the leadership group on several occasions, some words and phrases ‘resonate with C-level executives’ (CEOs, etc.), while others, such as ‘special libraries’ and ‘special librarians’ simply do not. Words that do not resonate with executives that fund our activities may be worse than neutral (unremarkable), may in fact be open to questions of relevance, and may actually work to the detriment of our profession’s image.

While on this topic, we are happy to announce that the Chapter recently appointed Rebecca Jones and Kim Silk as our ‘Alignment Ambassadors’. Welcome, Rebecca and Kim, and thank you both for taking on this important role. Chapter members, please watch for the publicity and insights that they will be providing on all aspects of Alignment, including the name change proposal. They also plan to have one or more Chapter events at which we can come together, learn from one another, and express our unique opinions.

You may be thinking … what can I do now? I would suggest that you explore the Alignment research on the Portal that has been created, and familiarize yourself with member reactions to the proposed name change via the wiki, blog, Facebook fan page, and Twitter space that have all been set up to handle this flood of communication. Once you are fully informed, you will certainly want to exercise your right to vote on the name change during the time period allocated for e-voting, November 16 to December 9, 2009.

Recap of my year as Chapter President, and the fulfillment of my goals

My Presidency’s historical theme -
As Chapter President in 2009, I had the unique opportunity to devise programming that was linked in with the larger SLA Centennial Celebration that was launched in January, and to explore the part that Toronto Chapter has played within this history for the 69 years of our own existence (1940-2009). For programming with a historical twist, we had a very successful official SLA Presidential Visit from Gloria Zamora in May, coupled with a Gala Centennial Dinner. At the Gala, Gloria addressed attending members, invited guests, and thirty-two past Chapter Presidents with a forward-looking talk about the next 100 years. Her passion that the future should be built upon the foundation provided by the Alignment Project findings was most evident. We looked back by displaying archival photographs of Chapter Presidents, members and area special libraries, as well as specially compiled listings of awards bestowed on Chapter members throughout our history.

I am currently completing a Timeline of Toronto Chapter historical milestones, and it will be shared with Chapter members, and provided to headquarters for their records. Pulling this material together gave me a great deal of insight into how the Chapter’s volunteers have fulfilled their roles over time, and how Chapter Presidents (my predecessors) acted and spoke ‘presidentially’. A side benefit has been to bring much better organization to the Chapter Archives that unfortunately had to be moved several times within the last few years. We will likely reach out to members once we have firmly identified gaps within our collection of unbound newsletter issues, print Directories of Toronto Area Special Libraries, etc. There are also some clues that can be followed to locate missing material, as some external organizations (e.g., CLA) may have been provided with copies of our Chapter materials for retention at their locales.

My overall objective was to provide relevant programming to meet members’ needs during these challenging times.

The first goal I set for myself was to deliver a year of varied and interesting Chapter event programming, and it was accomplished through the following individual events or event themes:

• The official visit from SLA President Gloria Zamora in May that culminated in our Gala Centennial Dinner, with its historical theme (above).
• The unique series of 5 events on Career Development delivered by Ulla de Stricker, a past Chapter President and the current Career Guidance Chair – most helpful to members, students, and non-members alike in these difficult economic times.
• The augmentation of our customary two seasonal networking occasions that are enjoyed jointly with CASLIS Toronto and other associations (August, December), by adding two additional Networking Nights for our members in February and April. These were valued by attendees seeking to become better known, and to get to know us better.
• A repeat of previously successful event themes, the Best of the Web (June) and Knowledge Management (October), the latter coupled this time with a Social Networking component. We had wonderful turnouts for both, and received enthusiastic feedback on the value of these educational events.
• An assortment of other events, including a hosted Click U Live (May), a year-end Annual General Meeting with entertainment (November), and a library tour at Art Gallery of Ontario (September).
• Two special events, a Reception to welcome Dean Seamus Ross to the position he took up in January at Faculty of Information, University of Toronto (March), and a biennial Volunteer Appreciation Event, at which we feted and thanked the invited 2008 and 2009 Chapter volunteers (June).
• Chapter subgroups meetings for their members, the Solos (in February, April, and September), and the New Information Professionals (NIP) (in June and October).

My second goal was to explore ways to bring more members into event planning roles. This year’s events were organized by a variety of volunteers from all levels of the Chapter reporting structure – the Executive Board, Advisory Board, Expertise Pool, and Volunteer Pool. Quite a few of them were first-time participants in the Chapter’s event programming activities.

At this time, I would like to thank those volunteers who organized events in the second half of 2009. (Organizers of events in the first half of the year were thanked in an earlier newsletter.) My sincere thanks go to following volunteer organizers:

• Greg Barber, for the Summer Pub Night;
• Pam Casey, for the Career Development series, sessions three through five;
• Kathryn FitzGerald, for the AGO Library Tour;
• Claire Lysnes, for the Knowledge Management and Social Networking event;
• Gayle Gossen, for the AGM and wine tasting;
• Sandra Craig, for the Joint Holiday Social;
• Amra Porobic, for continued Solos meetings;
• Laura Warner, for continued NIP social events.

Heather Wilson, also a past Chapter President, volunteered to assist me in my efforts to involve more volunteers in event planning by offering to create a Checklist of Event Planning tasks and timelines. We were jointly of the opinion that such a document would reduce the ‘mystique’ around ‘event planning’ concepts, and would serve as a ‘blueprint’ for our event planning volunteers. The Checklist should contribute to helping members of the Volunteer Pool overcome any reluctance they might have in taking on aspects of planning and running Chapter events. Heather did extensive research into Checklists that had been prepared by other associations and organizations, and also drew on her own considerable expertise with our Chapter’s event planning processes. Sandra Craig, Heather and I are now finalizing this document, and will make it available to next year’s Volunteers.

While we were engaged in this Checklist exercise, we also looked critically at the way in which we are currently organized to deliver programs to members. We all agreed that, for a number of years, too few members and volunteers have been carrying responsibility for event planning. I am personally delighted that President-Elect Claire Lynses has decided to increase the number of positions on the Executive and Advisory boards for 2010 that will share in the roles and responsibilities for the event planning and implementation. After all, our events are the most visible local service that we provide to members, and former surveys indicate that they have always placed a high value on relevant and stimulating event programs.

My third personal goal was to embark on the creation of a new Strategic Plan for Toronto Chapter -
When I set this goal, I erroneously assumed that there was no plan in place. I have since learned that Toronto Chapter created a number of strategic plans between its first one in 1984, called the ‘Long Range Plan’, and the latest one, the ‘Strategic Plan 2002.’ When we created and issued a full membership survey this fall, we took the very important first step in reviewing and refreshing the Chapter’s Strategic Plan. We are only now beginning to analyze the member survey response data and comments, so it will fall to the 2010 Executive Board to carry this initiative further. I speak for myself and for Jennifer Burns, Membership Chair, in thanking the members who responded to the survey, and contributed to shaping future Chapter activities.

Other indicators of a successful Chapter year

• Our membership numbers increased from 386 at the end of 2008 to 419 (my latest figures), and this is largely attributable to the fine job done by Membership Chair Jennifer Burns in reaching out to new members, and following up on lapsed ones.
• We supported our members during the economic downturn by providing more networking opportunities, by offering the career development series of events, and by providing information interviews to members who were seeking employment. Members also continued to avail themselves of ‘career’ the one-on-one career offered by the Career Guidance Chair, Ulla de Stricker. We approved one request for financial assistance with membership dues, and we publicized the policy of the reduced dues for lower income earners introduced by the Association this year.
• We strengthened our relationship with the iSchool (at Faculty of Information, University of Toronto), by holding a reception for Dean Ross; by contributing to iSchool events (the graduate conference Housing Memory, March 13-14, and the Management of Corporate and other Special Information Centres course exhibition, in its 6th year and now called iConnect @ iSchool, April 7, 2009); and by showing renewed support for the activities and needs of the SLA Toronto Student Group.
• We renewed our connections with the Faculty of Information and Media Studies (FIMS), University of Western Ontario (UWO), by inviting Dean Thomas Carmichael to the meeting of the two Deans with visiting SLA President Gloria Zamora, and to the Gala dinner that followed. We initiated a discussion with Dean Carmichael about re-establishing an SLA student group at his campus.
• We endorsed a member’s application to the highly-regarded leadership training institute, Northern Exposure to Leadership Institute (NELI), and funded the travel of our candidate, Jennifer Burns, to Western Canada when she was accepted to attend.
• With our Chapter Partner, FPinfomart, we co-sponsored awards that enabled two students to attend the SLA 2009 Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO in Washington, DC in June. The winning applicants, Kate MacDonald and Bruce Harpham, were selected by the Executive Board on the basis of the written statements and résumés that they submitted.
• We provided a year of free SLA student-level membership to the students who led their cohort in the overall course of study (Matthew Blacquiere at Seneca College, Library and Information Technician (LIT) program, and Christine Beamish, at the University of Western Ontario, FIMS), or in a special libraries course (Yvonne (Eve) Leung at the University of Toronto, iSchool, the Kathleen Reeves Memorial Award). We publicized their names at the Gala Dinner earlier in the year, and also invited them to be our guests at the forthcoming AGM.
• Executive member Claire Lysnes served on the headquarters-level Chapter Assessment Committee that surveyed the need to change the names of some SLA Chapters (geographical units).
• Immediate Past President Daniel Lee served on the Association’s Board of Directors, a position to which he was elected in 2008, while serving as our Chapter President.

Other volunteers to note
In June, Robert (Rob) Ambra and Shannon McMillan were named co-Chairs of the SLA Toronto Student Group for the academic year 2009-2010.

In the late summer, Julia Brewster resigned her position as Chapter Secretary with great reluctance after she accepted an employment opportunity in Western Canada and relocated to Calgary, Alberta. Jan Moffatt, the Chapter Secretary on the 2008 executive board, has consented to take up the vacant board position for the remainder of 2009.

Claire Lysnes is to be commended for filling all positions for the Executive Board 2010, and most of the Advisory Board ones by the early date she was striving for, and allowing the maximum amount of time in which to call for additional Nominations from members. She worked hand-in-hand with Daniel Lee, in his capacity as Nominations Chair. They also put a great deal of thought into re-working the reporting structure of the Chapter, expanding the number of positions on the Board, particularly those contributing to event planning (discussed above), and presenting these changes to the board for approval. Because no further nominations were received in the allotted nominations period, Claire and Daniel’s slate of nominees for 2010 will be acclaimed at the AGM.

To the current volunteers who have not ‘re-upped’ for board positions in 2010 (e.g., Laura Knapp – Partner Relations Chair, Michael MacSween – iSchool Student Liaison, Juanita Richardson – Awards Chair, and Heather Ritchie – Webmaster), I convey a special thank you for serving well in 2009! Other volunteers are staying on in their positions or taking on the fresh challenge of new ones.

Another Chapter Award winner!
We are very proud of Claire Lysnes (President-Elect) for the recognition she received for committed volunteerism to the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto. On September 14, 2009, the University of Toronto President, Dr. David Naylor, and Chancellor David Peterson presented the University of Toronto’s Arbor Award to Claire, for the duties and responsibilities that she assumed within the volunteer association FIAA (Faculty of Information Alumni Association) over a five-year period since she graduated from the FIS (former name) program of study.

Claire was lauded for the many fine qualities that she brought to various roles and initiatives for the alumni association. The selection committee mentioned the fact that she was simultaneously volunteering for another association, the SLA Toronto Chapter. Claire’s past efforts have certainly contributed to our group’s successes in a major way.

A wonderful accomplishment, and congratulations, Claire!

But for the contribution of our esteemed Chapter Partners …
The accomplishments of 2009 were in large measure made possible by the generosity of our 2009 Chapter Partners, CEDROM-SNi, Grey House Publishing Canada, and FPinfomart. We thank them most sincerely for enabling our major events, and for contributing in a major way to providing an SLA conference experience to the deserving winners of our Students-to-Conference award competition.

CEDROM-SNi

• The Official Presidential Visit, May
• The Gala Centennial Dinner, May
• The Annual General Meeting (AGM) and wine tasting, November
• The Joint Holiday Social, December

Grey House Publishing Canada

The Career Development Series of Events provided by Ulla de Stricker
Five topics, six sessions, in the months of March, April, May, September, October, and November

FPinfomart

The FPinfomart Students-to-Conference Awards

I am reminding our members and readers to think of our sponsors when the time comes to renew or refresh services in your workplaces. The Partner web sites addresses are shown above. The Chapter web site and issues of The Courier provide additional lead-ins to their product lines and services.

From 2009, Onward to 2010
In conclusion, it has been an honor and a pleasure for me to have served as Chapter President in 2009, a year very deserving of the phrase ‘we live in interesting times.’ The Centennial Celebration, the call to Align in ’09, the proposed new name for the association, and the precarious (but improving) worldwide financial and economic situation come readily to mind. These ‘externals’ have shaped the Toronto Chapter year, and given us all a unique focus and a keen sense of purpose.

By and large, however, we have continued to strive for the goals that have persisted over our Chapter’s history – to provide the members with networking and educational opportunities, to exercise prudent management of Chapter finances, and to find a sense of fulfillment through volunteering among peers to support and strengthen the information professionals who align with us. (The latter sentiment can be translated to: I’m happy to have been a part of this ‘Gaggle of Librarians’ – with credit to Stephen Abram’s Facebook and blog, circa May 14, 2009!)

Thank you, one and all, for working with me this year to fulfill my goals as President. I end by wishing Claire and her incoming volunteers every success next year. I am confident that they will take on new, unique challenges and handle them superbly!

Joy Shanfield, MLS
President, SLA Toronto Chapter

A reminder to our readers that submissions to the Courier are welcomed from our members on a variety of topics including (but not limited to) book reviews, technology tips, conference experiences or personal reflections about the profession. Please feel encouraged to submit articles which you think would be of interest to the chapter, but please note that the editors of the Courier reserve the right to accept, decline and/or edit submissions and to decide in which issue approved submissions are printed.

As we both move into new positions with SLA Toronto in 2010, this is our last issue as co-editors. The new editors are Bruce Harpham and Sandra Craig. We look forward to their first issue in Winter 2010.

Enjoy what remains of the fall season and this issue of the Courier!

As you may know, SLA members will be asked to voice their opinion on this proposal by casting an electronic vote in a special referendum that will begin on 16 November and end 9 December. The result will be announced on 10 December. The SLA Toronto Chapter strongly urges all of its members to vote after equipping themselves with knowledge and information about the Alignment Project from the sources below. Please note that the scope of the vote will not extend to an acronym of the proposed name.

The Toronto Chapter’s Alignment Ambassadors are Rebecca Jones (Rebecca@dysartjones.com) and Kim Silk (kim.silk@rotman.utoronto.ca). Please feel free to reach out to them (or to the Chapter Discussion List) to ask questions, voice concerns, and share your thoughts on the Alignment Project and the proposed association name change. In addition, we welcome you to join Rebecca and Kim for an in-person and webinar roundtable discussion on this topic, which will take place on November 25th at 5:30 p.m. Please watch the website and the Chapter Discussion List for further details.

You can find many details on the Alignment Project here:
Alignment Portal – An overview of how the project started, who was interviewed & how, and research findings.
Alignment Wiki – A central storing place for presentations, member discussion on the name change, and other Alignment tools.
Alignment Project – For earlier presentations and information about the Alignment since the initiative was first announced.
SLA Name Change Wiki – SLA members are having a lively discussion on the subject of changing the association’s name to better reflect the value information professionals add to their organizations. Add your voice to the conversation.

Other updates about the Alignment Project:

How We Got Here… from Gloria Zamora, SLA President
At the January 2009 Leadership Summit, SLA CEO Janice Lachance and I presented the results of two years of extensive alignment research. Following that meeting we continued refining the direction of the alignment project and made great strides in communicating information and research findings to all SLA members.

Over the last year, as more members reviewed this alignment information, they started recognizing that the time has come to go down the name change road once more. Janice Lachance and I announced at this year’s SLA 2009 Annual Conference that, based on the findings of the alignment research, the Board of Directors had voted to pursue a name change for SLA.

Read more.

Naming Research Results Posted

A lot of members have asked about the research done in arriving at the proposed new name Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals.

We have just posted a PowerPoint summary of that research conducted with corporate, academic, healthcare and government professionals as well as information technology, human resources, marketing, strategic planning and information professionals across all sectors.

Read more.

Name Change Discussion Forum
There has been a whole lot of great discussion happening around the association in various forums. Many have asked about a central place where all of these thoughts can be shared amongst all of the members.

I do want to encourage everyone to keep talking and voicing their opinions and comments. Please take some time to read the research in the Alignment Portal, and once you have, share your thoughts in any number of forums.

Read more.

2010 SLA Board of Directors Election Results
When the polls closed, 2802 SLA members had cast their ballots and participated in the election. The results are finalized and the winners are:

2010 SLA President- Elect (three-year term on board): Cindy Romaine, Romainiacs Intelligence Services, Beaverton, Oregon

2010 Treasurer (three-year term on board):
Dan Trefethen, Boeing, Seattle, Washington

2010 Division Cabinet Chair-Elect (three-year term on board):
Mary Ellen Bates, Bates Information Services, Inc., Niwot, Colorado

2010 Chapter Cabinet Chair-Elect (three-year term on board):
Liz Blankson-Hemans, Dialog, London

Romaine and the other newly-elected board members will begin their terms on the SLA Board of Directors on January 1, 2010, and participate in their first board meeting during the association’s Annual Leadership Summit later that month in St. Louis.

Learn more about the elected board members.

Read more.

2009 Fellows of SLA

“The SLA Fellows are an unrivaled group of intelligent and dedicated professionals. I am confident that these five SLA members will continue to be important assets to this organization and the profession,” said SLA President Gloria Zamora. “I congratulate and thank them for their service to SLA thus far, and I look forward to seeing what they do with their talent and drive as they move into the next leg of their SLA journey.”

The honor of Fellow of SLA is given annually to SLA members to recognize leadership in their career as information professionals or librarians. Fellowship in SLA is bestowed on mid-career professionals in recognition of past, present and future service to the association and the profession.

The 2009 Fellows are:

• Ellie Briscoe
• Stacey Greenwell
• Nancy Minter
• Pam Rollo
• Tony Stankus

Nominations for 2010 are OPEN for Fellows and Rising Stars! Nominate someone in your chapter or division today!

Read more about the 2009 Fellows.

Recruitment Campaign On!
Who knows the value of SLA membership better than you? There has never been a time when SLA has delivered so much value to its members. There has never been a time when members have needed their association more to prove their value to their employers, keep their skills on the cutting edge, or possibly have a network to assist in securing their next position. Encourage all of your members to invite someone they know to the next chapter meeting or a work colleague to experience a Click U course along with them. It will give them an opportunity to share first-hand what SLA means to them and provide an opportunity to invite them to join SLA. Or it’s as simple as sending an e-mail.
The Recruit-a-Member campaign is on until 31 December. All the information and tools needed are available on the SLA website. Bulletin editors or web masters can download an ad from the Bulletin Editors Electronic Resource Center.

Read more.

The SLA Big Easy
For a genuine New Orleans experience, SLA 2010 will feature two local keynoters. Come hear a spirited discussion between Democratic strategist, commentator, and “Ragin’ Cajun” James Carville and his equally sharp-witted wife, Republican Mary Matalin, also a strategist, author and commentator. If you have seen them on CNN, you know that you can expect to see some sparks fly!

Register today for SLA 2010.

2010 Call for Papers: “Entering SLA’s Next Century: Let the Good Times Roll”
SLA Contributed Papers

An opportunity to share your knowledge! How are you putting your hard work into action? How are you using the long-planned, expertly-vetted, SME-approved technologies in your library? How are your users responding to these new services?

If you have a success story to tell your colleagues, we would love to hear it! SLA is now accepting proposals for papers to be presented at its 2010 Annual Conference in the “Southern and Soulful City” of New Orleans, Louisiana, with the theme “Entering SLA’s Next Century: Let the Good Times Roll!” Accepted papers will also be published on the SLA website.

Every SLA member is eligible and encouraged to apply. Proposals will be evaluated by a panel of SLA members in a blind review, and the best will be selected for development into full papers, which are due 7 May 2010.

Read more.

Creating the Future – SLA Leadership Summit 2010
If you’re a leader, you simply must attend the upcoming summit. You’ll learn practical skills to grow in your leadership role in SLA or other volunteer organizations…

Read more and register.

SLA Now Has a Taxonomy Division!
“SLA members demonstrate expertise across a very broad spectrum of industries and disciplines, and the profession is rapidly growing to include an even wider range of career tracks,” said SLA Chief Executive Officer Janice R. Lachance. “With so many of our current members asking for the creation of a taxonomy division, it is clear that info pros are providing these type of value-added services to their employers, making information easier and faster to find, saving users valuable time, and ultimately contributing to cost-savings and a healthy bottom-line.”

The leadership of this new division will be:

Chair: Margie Hlava, Access Innovations, Inc.
Chair-Elect: Hannah Rubin, Library of Congress
Secretary: Mary Chitty, Cambridge Healthtech,
Treasurer: Janice Keeler, NERA Economic Consulting

Read more.

SLA Joins Alliance Calling for Investigation into Google Books Settlement
SLA has signed on to join the newly formed Open Book Alliance which seeks resolution on issues of copyright, access, anti-trust and privacy in the Google Books Settlement case.

The formation of this unique alliance bringing together SLA with non-profits, library groups, corporations, and other consumer groups to call for a detailed investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice into the Google Books Settlement is being widely reported by the news media today.

Read more.

Is There Room on Your Resume for Additional Expertise?
As an SLA member you have access to hundreds of video tutorials to broaden your skills and test the waters of new technologies. Create Excel charts like a pro, discover Photoshop, master your Mac, or even explore your film making abilities. You’ll be amazed at how much is at your fingertips. Your SLA membership is all you need to get started. Ready to jump in? Simply:

• Go to www.sla.org/innovate and log in to the SLA website with your SLA member information
• Click “Atomic Learning” link to see your access info for the learning site. (appears on the lower right corner)
• Go to the Atomic Learning page and log in using the access info displayed.

Need help? Contact membership@sla.org or +1.703.647-4900.

SLA Centennial Flickr group

We now have over 1000 images in the group.

While we are building an impressive collection of images, most were taken within the last 2-3 years. We would particularly like to see older photos from chapter events and conferences of years past. We realize that many of those images would need to be scanned, but imagine what a nice addition those images would be to your unit’s website or digital archives. Please consider looking through your old photos and scanning them for our Centennial celebration.

To submit photos, you have two options:

Send an email to: slawebsite@gmail.com
Subject line: Flickr photos
Submit the photos as attachments

Or if you have a Flickr account, you can share your photos with the group that way. All (appropriate) images are welcome. The more, the merrier! Please remember to tag your photos with “sla100″.

See our Flickr group and more on the Centennial website.

I look forward to meeting you all at an upcoming SLA Toronto event!