Welcome to the spring 2013 edition of The Courier. While winter and spring have been battling it out on the weather front here in Toronto, your SLA Toronto Chapter has been working hard to deliver programs that have been wonderfully popular.

Our chapter is very fortunate to count practitioners with specialized knowledge as members, including our own Michael McCaffrey. Mike teaches at the iSchool at the University of Toronto, focusing on the unique challenges of data, statistics, and government documents. Last year, Mike presented two workshops on data and government documents to sold-out crowds; this spring, Mike hosted his Statistics Bootcamp Part I on international statistics, and Part II on Canadian and American statistics.

The SLA 2013 Annual Conference begins this weekend! I hope I will see many of you at the conference in San Diego June 9 to 11, where the weather is guaranteed to be beach-friendly. This year the Canadian Reception—THE party to see and be seen—is hosted by our friends at the SLA Eastern Canada Chapter and generously sponsored by Eureka.cc. Don’t forget to register online to attend. Toronto always represents at the annual conference, and I look forward to seeing many of you in San Diego.

Speaking of San Diego, congratulations to Caroline Chung, winner of the 2013 SLA Toronto Student-to-Conference award. Caroline will receive a $1,500 grant to attend the SLA Annual Conference in San Diego, California. Caroline is a Master of Library & Information Science candidate from the Faculty of Information & Media Studies (FIMS) at Western University. She also currently serves as the Secretary of the SLA Student Chapter at FIMS. For those of you attending conference, please be sure to introduce yourself to Caroline and show her around the SLA conference scene in a weeks’ time.

The SLA Toronto Post-Conference Dinner is the perfect way to reconnect with your buddies after the conference, and for those who couldn’t attend to hear all about the hot topics. You’ll hear more soon about this fun event, which will top-off the conference season.

During 2012, Toronto chapter Archivist Pam Casey did a phenomenal job of reorganizing our Chapter Archives, moving our materials to a secure and accessible storage facility, and scanning a great deal of our material so that it can be properly preserved. At the end of 2012, Pam decided to pass on the Archivist baton; I am thrilled to announce that Stacey Nordlund is our new Chapter Archivist. Stacey is a Reference Librarian at the Toronto Public Library, working in the Canadiana department at the North York Central Library. Welcome, Stacey!

Save the Date for a Presidential Visit!

SLA President Deb Hunt will be visiting us in Toronto the week of September 23rd. Your SLA executive team is working away on various events designed to introduce Deb to our beautiful city. We will soon be announcing the date for a Gala Dinner that week. Stay tuned!

All the best,

— Kim Silk
SLA Toronto’s President

As mentioned in the President’s Letter and Board Watch column, the SLA 2013 Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO is just around the corner. If you’re off to San Diego, be sure to pass on a congrats to the following Toronto members: Martha Foote, who is being recognized as an SLA Fellow; Susan Morley, recipient of the 2013 SLA Engineering of the Year award; and Caroline Chung, this year’s Student-to-Conference award winner. Caroline’s award-winning submission is included in this issue as well.

There have been a number of great events organized over the past couple months, including (but certainly not limited to!) the Professional Development Series with Ulla de Stricker and the Statistics Bootcamp with Mike McCaffrey. Bernadette Roca and Katie Thomas have submitted a recap of these fantastic and informative events.

There are a number of upcoming events in the SLA Toronto calendar, such as the Canadian Business Information 101 workshop on June 18th, and an Article Club meet-up on June 25th . If you are planning to attend any of these events, please consider sharing your experiences in The Courier. Submissions to the newsletter are welcome at any time, as are comments and queries. Please send them to:

Kelly Butler
kelly (at) kllybtlr (dot) com

Heather Buchansky
heather (dot) buchansky (at) gmail (dot) com

Honouring Our Outstanding Colleagues

The following information professionals will be recognized at the SLA 2013 Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO for their outstanding professional achievements and association contributions:

John Cotton Dana Award — Dan Trefethen
SLA Hall of Fame Inductees — Gloria Zamora & Agnes Mattis
Rose L. Vormelker Award — Pam Rollo & Dee Magnoni
ProQuest Dialog Member Achievement Award — Jill Strand
SLA Fellows — David Cappoli, Dennie Heye, Martha Foote, Mary Talley, & Rebecca Vargha
SLA Rising Stars — Alyson Avery, Kendra K. Levine, Aileen Marshall, Amy Sarola, & Rachel Bates Wilfahrt

The above recipients will be recognized at the Sunday General Session & Awards Presentation, which kicks off the 2013 Annual Conference on June 9^th.

Additionally, Susan Morely, Manager, Information & Knowledge Management of CSA Group and a fellow Toronto Chapter member, is the recipient of the 2013 SLA Engineering Librarian of the Year Award. Susan will be receiving her award at the Annual Conference Engineering Division Luncheon & Business Meeting on Monday, June 10 at 12:00pm.

2014 SLA Board of Directors Nominations

The Special Libraries Association’s Nominating Committee has identified 10 candidates to stand for election for 5 positions on the 2014 SLA Board of Directors. SLA members will be able to speak with the candidates at the annual conference on Monday, June 10, from 2-3pm in the INFO-EXPO Hall. The election will be held electronically in mid-September 2013. The 10 candidates running for election are:

For President-Elect — Leslie Reynolds & Jill Strand
For Chapter Cabinet Chair-Elect — James King & Valerie Ryder
For Division Cabinet Chair-Elect — Pamela Enrici & Juliane Schneider
For Director (2 positions) — Tony Landolt, Moy McIntosh, Valerie Perry, & Bethan Ruddock

More information about SLA’s governance practices and leadership can be found on the SLA Governance website.

San Diego Connections

The annual conference is in sunny San Diego this year, so aside from all the networking and professional development opportunities, you can also enjoy some great weather, beaches, and even a world famous zoo. To plan for San Diego, start by visiting the conference website, and don’t forget to follow the conference and your colleagues on Twitter.

Still not sold on attending annual conference this year? Watch this great video from SLA about why attending the 2013 San Diego conference is a great investment in you.

— Erin McDonald
SLA Toronto’s President-Elect

Afra Bolefski, Kitchener
Amy Graziani, Mississauga
Andrea Battiston, Toronto
Ashok Arokiaswamy, Toronto
Brian Rooney, London
Catherine MacGregor, Toronto
Christina Mills, Toronto
Claudette Moïse, Ottawa
Darrell Joyce, Oakville
Elaine MacBeth, Oakville
Emily Porta, Toronto
Gillian Eguaras, Mississauga
Holly Inglis, Toronto
Janet Hatcher, Toronto
Jeswyn Pinto, Toronto
Katherine Robson, Toronto
Laura Chuang, Toronto
Madhusudan Ichhpuniani, Mississauga
Mandy Koronia, Toronto
Margaret Cameron, Toronto
Mary Jane Kearns Padgett, Hamilton
Michelle Gerrits, Sarnia
Takako Nomura, Toronto
Vanessa Lawrence, Belle Ewart
Wendy Traas, Toronto
William MacKenzie, Mississauga

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

— Christine DeLuca
SLA Toronto’s Membership Director

Lindsay Timmins is now Director of Book Bank Operations at The Children’s Book Bank. Previously she was Outreach and Communication Coordinator. You can reach Lindsay at timmins (dot) lindsay (at) gmail (dot) com or lindsay (dot) timmins (at) childrensbookbank (dot) com.

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.

Don’t forget to join us on June 10th at Lou & Mickey’s for an all-inclusive evening that will possibly be the best reception of the Conference!

To register follow this link.

For more information on the Eureka.cc solution, visit www.eureka.cc or contact us by email info (dot) canada (at) cedrom-sni (dot) com or by phone at 1-800-563-5665.

Caroline was selected by the Executive Board of SLA Toronto on the basis of her résumé and the quality of her statement on what she expected to gain from the conference experience.

Caroline finished her last semester of the Master of Library & Information Science at Western University in April 2013. During this semester, she was Secretary of the UWO SLA Student Chapter. Previously, she completed an Honours Bachelor of Arts in English and Book & Media Studies at Trinity College, University of Toronto.

Statement by Caroline Chung

I am currently in my final semester of the Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) program at Western University (UWO). When I entered the program in September of 2011, I was focused on working in the traditional settings of either the public or academic library. These were the library careers I was familiar with, and they were also the careers that a lot of courses within the program emphasized. However, after successfully applying for a co-op placement with the Knowledge Management (KM) team at PwC Canada in Toronto, my choice of career path was re-directed. I really enjoyed the placement, and realized that this was the type of environment I would prefer to work in. Knowing that other members of the KM team at PwC were involved with SLA, I joined the UWO SLA student group as secretary upon returning to London in January.

My interest in attending the 2013 SLA Conference therefore stems from my desire to learn more about the multifaceted area of special librarianship — this conference would be an incredible eye-opener! Having entered the MLIS program directly from my undergraduate degree, there are many aspects of this dynamic field that my classes have not covered in depth, and that I have not yet had the chance to explore on my own. I believe the conference would greatly increase my awareness and understanding of issues, challenges, and developments in the field. I can already see that there are a number of sessions that would be very useful, including “Content and Interfaces: What’s New?,” “eBooks and How They Affect Special Libraries,” “Big Data, Big Challenges,” and “Leadership Roles in KM: Grabbing New Opportunities.” Attending the conference sessions would also provide exposure to many topics that I am not yet aware of. Essentially, this would be my first professional conference experience, and it would be an amazing first step in my professional development and education.

I would also like to attend this conference for the networking opportunities. I have learnt a lot through the connections I was fortunate to make while on my co-op placement, and even through the UWO SLA student members that I have met during this semester. There are many professionals and established practitioners in the field that I could learn even more from, especially at a conference such as this. Listening to and meeting with professionals from beyond Canada would also be a great learning opportunity.

Aside from attending the conference itself, I would appreciate the award for the position with either the Executive or Advisory Boards of the “dynamic and active” SLA Toronto chapter. I would really like to learn more about the work the SLA Toronto chapter does, and become more involved. As a soon-to-be graduate, I believe it is very important to be involved with professional organizations, and it would be very encouraging to receive this award and a board position.

— Caroline Chung

In the first part of the session, Mike provided an introduction to statistics and the best international government organization (IGO) sources to use when researching a topic.

In a nutshell, statistics help us to make sense of our world and enable us to predict. Starting off with the micro or raw data (e.g. Canadians who approve of Jean Chretien as Prime Minister and Canadians who believe in Santa Claus), someone can use various mathematical tallies and tabulations to create statistics that are meaningful for analysis (e.g. 35% of Canadians approve of Jean Chretien and believe in Santa Claus). Mike likens statistics to “facts numerically presented.”

Why then the question “Who cares?” It may not be immediately obvious where to go to locate, for example, cheddar cheese production by month in the United States. However, asking “Who cares” helps to narrow in on a source. It makes sense that the U.S. Department of Agriculture would compile this data.

With respect to data collection, there are three main bodies that collect micro data: government, IGOs, and the private sector.

In the second part of the session, Mike looked at where to locate sources for international statistics.

In his words, there are four “biggies:” the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United Nations (UN), the World Bank, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). These may seem daunting, but hey shouldn’t be. Just remember the 90:10 rule: 90% of your reference questions can be answered by 10% of your sources.

Where to locate IGO sources? For a nice overview, Mike suggested the UN System of Organizations and the Northwestern University Library.

Proprietary fee-based databases should also be considered. Proquest Statistical Insight and Thomson Reuters Datastream are both good choices.

Lastly, stay current! With statistics, as with anything, you’ll lose it if you don’t use it. Mike is a huge fan of auditing courses, and at the UofT iSchool there is lots of choice. You can choose from data, business, government information, international information, or U.S. government information courses. Continuing education is another option for staying up to date. Consider both online or in-class offerings.

And if you want to find out how Mike “…managed to work #SantaClaus #JeanChretien and #Gilligan”* into Statistics Bootcamp Part I, it is best to attend another one of his workshops, or take a look at the slides from his sessions.

— Katie Thomas
Information Professional
@LegalLibrary

*Tweet: extract of tweet by @mjmccaffrey 9 April 2014

We launched this series of workshops in April 2012 with the intention of reaching out to new information
professionals, recent graduates, and current students, to give them an arsenal of tools they could use in their early professional lives. We wanted to arm attendees with the information they would need to successfully land, retain, and succeed in jobs, and develop their careers—especially in a difficult job market and an uncertain economic environment.

Ulla delivered five outstanding workshops, covering everything from writing modern cover letters and branding your professional self to being strategic in dealing with difficult colleagues and presenting yourself in a professional manner. She shared her insider expertise and gave practical, savvy advice on grabbing the attention of potential employers, pitfalls to avoid when writing resumes and cover letters, interview techniques and tips, essential business writing skills, time management, and self-management. In one inspired moment, I remember going home after Ulla’s cover letter workshop to rework cover letters I had written in the past, while having no intention of applying for a job!

I feel very fortunate to have worked with Ulla to bring about this series over the past 12 months. It was a truly rewarding experience, and being able to attend the entire series of workshops was the icing on the cake. Ulla’s workshops gave me invaluable insight into aspects of career development and professional conduct I’m positive will benefit me for the rest of my professional life.

Don’t take my word for it, though. Here’s what some other attendees had to say:

“After the informative session and with Ulla’s help, I edited my resume and cover letter. I got an interview as a result and now I have a permanent position. That’s amazing, especially for a new grad!”

“I love the topics, which are timeless and always relevant. I appreciate Ulla’s modern approach and tips on how to approach tasks that are often perceived as daunting and onerous. As an added perk, Ulla is incredibly generous with her time and will review anything you send her after attending a workshop.”

“The presentation was superb. The content was valuable information that I utilize constantly.”

“Ulla’s presentation style is very engaging. Don’t expect to be a passive attendee. She gets you thinking and involved in the topic at hand.”

“Ulla is passionate in the field of info and associated topics and has been committed to contribute to her profession as well as individuals who need her.”

— Bernadette Roca
SLA Toronto’s Programming Director and Records Management Consultant at NetDexterity

Welcome to the winter 2013 edition of The Courier newsletter. It is my great pleasure to serve as your SLA Toronto Chapter president this year, and l am looking forward to working with many of you to continue building our very strong chapter.

One of the reasons SLA Toronto is such a strong chapter is the passion our members have for their profession and collaboration with their colleagues. I’m very lucky to be surrounded by highly talented and motivated people. It is with great pleasure that I introduce to you the 2013 Executive Board:

Erin McDonald – President-Elect
Laura Warner – Past President
Melanie Browne – Treasurer
Helen Kula – Secretary
Stephanie Quail – Technology Director
Christine DeLuca – Membership Director
Bernadette Roca – Programming Director
Kim Stymest – Partner Relations Director
Stacey Piesner – First Five Years Director

My goal for 2013 is to continue to grow the Special Libraries Association, and the best way for me to accomplish that goal is to focus on growing the Toronto Chapter. This means broadening our membership to include those who work in the information profession, but have a wide range of education and experience that may not necessarily include a degree in library science. While many of us are librarians, some of our colleagues also have complementary expertise in knowledge management, competitive intelligence, fundraising, prospect research, records management, GIS and data management, and a wide variety of information services. To this end, I will focus on building partnerships with complementary associations outside of the library profession, and offer programming to attract new members to SLA. Currently, SLA Toronto partners effectively with other library associations and groups–expanding beyond “libraryland” will benefit SLA and our new partners, resulting in a stronger information management community overall.

Growth through diversification is one of the key strategies for SLA this year. In early February during the Leadership Summit, SLA President Deb Hunt announced the “Get on the Beach” recruitment campaign. This campaign is designed to increase the size of the SLA membership by encouraging current members to recruit one or more new members. Members who recruit at least one new member are entered into a draw to win lunch on the beach in San Diego with Deb and a Visa gift card. To learn more about how to “Get on the Beach,” check out the SLA Blog.

We learned at Leadership Summit that the SLA 2013 Conference Planning committee has some wonderful things in store for us in San Diego this June. SLA Toronto has historically represented our city well and I look forward to seeing many of you in sunny San Diego in just a few months. It is a wonderful event to look forward to as Toronto creeps toward spring weather!

All the best,

— Kim Silk
SLA Toronto’s President

Included in this issue is a report from Amra Porobic, chair of SLA Toronto Solo Librarians’ subgroup, which provides an overview of all the insightful discussions, meetings, and resources available to Toronto solos that came about in 2012. Be sure to check out the SLA wiki to view the presentations mentioned by Amra as well—the wiki is a veritable wealth of knowledge!

As always, many thanks to our contributors for their articles. We genuinely hope you enjoy this issue. Submissions to The Courier are always welcome; please send comments, ideas, or suggestions directly to:

Kelly Butler
kelly (at) kllybtlr (dot) com

Heather Buchansky
heather (dot) buchansky (at) gmail.com

Kim Silk and I had the honour of attending the 2013 SLA Leadership Summit in Dallas, Texas at the beginning of February. It was a wonderful few days spent reconnecting and sharing with SLA colleagues from across the globe, and in particular the SLA Board of Directors. You can catch up on the Twitter conversations and updates from the Leadership Summit using the hashtag #slaleads.

One of the most important topics of conversation at this year’s Leadership Summit was the five-point plan the Board of Directors has developed for 2013. This plan focuses on conference, professional development, volunteering, collaboration, and growth through diversification. Another exciting topic at the Leadership Summit was the unveiling of a new SLA.org website. This new site will be launched soon, with an improved user experience and design. We were impressed and are excited to see the new site in action—we think you will be too!

This year’s Rising Stars and Fellows were announced during the Leadership Summit. An extra special mention goes to Toronto’s own Martha Foote, who was named as a Fellow this year. Thank you for your time and contributions to SLA, Martha—congratulations!

2013 Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO

The SLA 2013 Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO will take place in sunny San Diego, California  June 9 -11. I strongly encourage you to attend; the Annual Conference is an incredible opportunity for professional development and networking, and is a great opportunity to invest in yourself and in your career. To find out more about the conference visit the conference website, and remember to mark your calendar to attend in June!

— Erin McDonald
SLA Toronto’s President-Elect

Alexandra Kwan, Toronto
Allison Li, Toronto
Alyssa Bigelow, Toronto
Andrew Hinton, Richmond, BC
Annmarie Uleryk, Mississauga
Ashley Beausoleil, Windsor
Brittany Medeiros, Toronto
Carey Toane, Toronto
Caroline Chung, Oakville
Conrad Ng, Toronto
Courtenay Telford
D. Grant Campbell, London
Elizabeth Mens, Toronto
Francine Berish, Richmond Hill
George Hawtin, Ajax
Helen Horrocks, Eden Mills
Imthiyaz Hameed, Toronto
Janet Mensah, Toronto
Jessica Samuels, Stouffville
Katie Thomas, Toronto
Kim Pham, Toronto
Lola Rudin, Toronto
Mari Vihuri, Toronto
Meghana Jakate, Toronto
Melissa Bruno, Toronto
Nabeela Zafar, Toronto
Natalie Donohue, Toronto
Pam Murray, Toronto
Varsha Prakash, Brampton

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

— Christine DeLuca
SLA Toronto’s Membership Director

Michael Meth is the new Director of the OISE Library at the University of Toronto. Until recently, Michael was the Director of the Li Koon Chun Finance Learning Centre, where he played a key role in the Centre’s development. It is now a flourishing and integral part of academic life at U of T Mississauga. He can still be reached at michael (dot) meth (at) utoronto (dot) ca.

Stacey Redick has moved to the Washington, D.C. area, where she continues to search for cultural heritage opportunities. Looking to expand her network in her new area, Stacey would like to keep in touch, and can be reached at stacey (dot) redick (at) gmail (dot) com.

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.

I grew up in India in the 1970s. At that time, our local lending library was a hole-in-the-wall enterprise sandwiched between shops on the main street. We paid a fee to belong and were charged per book borrowed. Despite the limited choice of used popular adventure, mystery, and comic books, my siblings and I were eager patrons.

The MCubed Library

Imagine my delight when I discovered on the ground floor of the building where my sister lives a lively story session held in a bright, inviting, cheerful place—what looked like a children’s library! I subsequently learned that this very new venture, the MCubed Library, opened September 30, 2011.

The inspiration for a public library such as this was conceived by Vibha Kamat, a local French teacher, during a visit to the USA in 2004. Several attempts to locate affordable space in expensive Mumbai ended in disappointment, and she almost gave up. Kamat discovered the current location in 2006. At this time it seemed perfect, but unfortunately did not work out as the space was occupied by the non-profit Maharashtra Mitra Mandal (MMM) Library. The purpose of the MMM Library was to promote Maharashtran culture, but with a very limited budget its offerings were meagre. In 2010, Vibha and her friend Vaishali Shinde tried again. They offered a proposal to the MMM committee to maintain the library for two years without funding or staffing from the MMM. This time, they were successful.

They began soliciting funds and setting up the library with the help of another friend, Sonal Bimal. Friends and family were tapped for donations of books and money, and the space was decorated in keeping with its new purpose. Response to solicitations was generous—over 2,000 books, 2.5 lakh rupees ($4,400 CDN), library software, equipment, and furniture donations helped the MCubed Library get started. On the first anniversary of its inauguration, MCubed Library expanded its collection and created an adult section. The library now has over 10,000 books and one can usually find a few university students enjoying the peace and quiet of the library to study. However, there currently appears to be little interest in the adult books. This may be because there are other options for borrowing adult books. For example, adults can subscribe to The British Council Library and Librarywala which allows them to search the catalogues and order books to be delivered to their home. In addition, the American Library’s collection, housed at the US Consulate in Mumbai, is freely available to all Indian citizens.

MCubed Library aims to be self-sustaining. Patrons pay annual or semi-annual membership fees to borrow books from the library, but children who attend the local government school from “modest backgrounds” can join for free.  Currently MCubed Library has approximately 900 members. Costs are kept low by employing creative solutions to administer, maintain, and decorate the library. There are two paid librarians, a helper, a gardener, and cleaning lady on staff, all other services are provided by volunteers. The three founding members are actively involved in selecting books for the library and organizing cultural programming on a purely voluntary basis. Sharmila Kamat, an educational consultant, and Rajani Kothare, from the MMM, also provide invaluable support to the library’s cultural and educational programming. There is no formal collection development policy, but the range of resources is broad, and books are available in English, Hindi, and Marathi. Donated books that are not selected for the MCubed Library are sent to local school libraries.

There is no plan to offer computers or e-readers at MCubed Library—books remain their focus. The library also thrives as a social space, bringing children and adults to the library to attend art and craft workshops, book clubs, creative writing workshops, language courses, and movie screenings. I attended a showing of Louis Malle’s Au Revoir Les Enfants one evening, which was followed by a lively discussion on the state of social and political consciousness in Germany and India with guest speaker Georg Heinzen, writer of the German film Gran Paradiso, who was in Mumbai at the time for a Indo-German script writing workshop.

MCubed Library encourages donations of time and talent, as well as cash and sponsorships of memberships and book purchases. They can be contacted at http://mcubedlibrary.com/reachus.php.

The Learning Resource Center, Indian School of Business

The other library I had the opportunity to visit was the Learning Resource Centre (LRC) situated at the heart of the beautiful Indian School of Business (ISB) campus in Hyderabad. I had no prior experience of Indian academic libraries, having only studied in the US and Canada, but was very impressed by the LRC and its services.

Photo Courtesy of ISB

In an open and elegantly designed space, the LRC stacks, reading spaces, and meeting rooms are placed on the outer periphery of stairs that spiral up to higher floors around a central atrium. As one would expect of a library connected to an internationally high-ranking academic insitution, the LRC has specialized databases, excellent electronic, print and career resources, and audio-visual material. It also has an excellent knowledge management system, and uses the technology efficiently to ensure its collection is relevant to the teaching, research, and learning communities, by reaching out to researchers, professors, and students to understand  their information needs.

The LRC appears to be in tune with its community of users, employing a number of ways to keep in touch. For example, the LRC is given a list of all visiting faculty and new classes of students. Every visiting faculty member and every new student receives a welcome email shortly upon their arrival to campus, describing LRC services and inviting them to the LRC to explore the available resources. If the library does not record any activity from a member of the community within a certain period of time, the member will receive a follow-up message inquiring if LRC services are meeting their needs or if they have any suggestions. Course guides are made available to students listing new resources and information relevant to courses and projects. These guides not only list titles and call numbers of resources, they also point to the physical location and stack number for items—a helpful little detail.  The LRC is open from 8am to 2am daily, and during exams stays open until 4am.

“Global InfoWatch” is a specialized information product created by the LRC in 2008, which provides a monthly update on the latest trends in various industry sectors, current happenings in business schools across the globe, and recent articles on management. The Placement Guide and Industry Watch, under the umbrella of Global InfoWatch, are useful to students interviewing for jobs, as they provide relevant and updated company overviews, the latest news, financial statements, analysis reports, and direct links to career opportunities at companies recruiting on campus. These products are accessible to the community from a single platform that individual users can personalize to meet their specific needs.

The LRC takes an active role in knowledge management and archiving of important knowledge resources and intellectual capital created at the school including: research reports, working papers, projects, articles and cases by students and faculty; news items related to ISB and visting lecturers; and yearbooks covering every graduating class.

There are also services offered to families of the ISB community. ISB has many visiting faculty and students living on campus. As ISB believes that families play a significant role in the professional growth of students, faculty, and staff, the LRC has an extensive collection of popular non-academic literature, best-sellers, comic books, biographies, magazines, and DVDs  for families to borrow. The LRC also lends board games and electronic games. The library doesn’t simply cater to entertainment and literacy, it also has a set of umbrellas that can be signed out in inclement weather! Ramesh Kotnana, the librarian who took the time to show me around the LRC, said these resources are appreciated and well used.

The LRC collects and analyses different types of data to help evaluate and improve its services. Some methods are simple and low tech, but effective: a librarian supervising a floor is required to record the number of users on the floor every hour and the knowledge management system collects lots of useful data, like circulation records, that allow analysis of the resources and types of resources signed out most often.

In Conclusion…

I was very privileged to have the opportunity to visit and view the inner workings of both the MCubed Library in Mumbai and the LRC in Hyderabad.

In the LRC, I was impressed to see the strong integration of the library with its community of users and the innovative and creative ways the LRC carried out its mission. The LRC’s commitment to service and the quality of its resources seems exceptional by any standards.

In MCubed Library, the passion and dedication of the founding members, the support of the MMM Library partners, the enthusiasm of community volunteers, and generous donations to this project have resulted in a well-needed and well-used public library space in this suburban neighbourhood. The only other resource like it appear to be the Hippocampus library system, founded in 2003, by Umesh Malhotra,. Situated in Bangalore and Chennai, Hippocampus is growing its services and its reach. Like the MCubed Library, it is subscription-based, has a public library focus with literacy programs, and a program to encourage access to books for underprivileged children.

A paper published in 2008 by Zahid Asraf Wani on the Development of Public Libraries in India[1] reported that there are, “twenty-eight states and seven union territories in India, each with its own public library system and pattern of financial assistance. Twelve of the states have enacted library legislation and the rest are providing public library service without legislation.” Amazing… but where? I will have search them out on my next visit to India. Asraf Wani concludes that public libraries in India are “doors to learning,” and a massive investment in public libraries is needed to make them “true information resource centres for the layman.”

The state public library systems could take note of successful ventures like MCubed Library and Hippocampus, and dedicate resources, support existing efforts, and provide more public libraries like these in India.

— Crystal Sharp, MA, MLIS
CD Sharp Information Systems, Ltd.

My private tour began with a quick look at the old card catalogue that has been put out to pasture in a very long hallway. Some of the card entries went back almost a century, and many of the cards were handwritten in a surprisingly legible script.

There are two acres (!!!) of maps in the collection, which consists of everything from atlases to globes and flat sheets to topographical and three-dimensional maps for the blind. According to the figures on their website, the Geography & Map Division has over 5.5 million maps, 80,000 atlases and 500 globes, which they have been actively collecting for over 200 years.

The maps consist of a variety of material such as paper, plastic, clothing—including bras—and a chocolate map of the Grand Canyon. During the French-Indian war of the mid-eighteenth century and the American War of Independence, maps were carved on scrimshaw powder horns. In the same period, travelling teachers kept miniature globes in their pockets, which were often the only introduction to the wider world their students would see.

There are maps of imaginary places like Middle Earth and Treasure Island, and even maps of Toronto (which, the author can assure the reader, is not imaginary).

Later in the day we joined the public tour of the main Library of Congress building, which is quite impressive.

The public tour concentrated on the symbology of the building’s architectural and design features, however what I really wanted to see and learn more about the collections themselves. We did get a quick look from a viewing gallery of the main reading room, which was comprised of a multitude of alcoves of floor-to-ceiling books and looked incredibly enticing.

The Library of Congress offers free lectures, concerts, and access to the facility. It has over 3,000 employees with a collection based on copyright deposits and houses original documents such as one of only three perfect copies of the Gutenberg Bible, and the American Declaration of Independence. In recent years, these historical documents have been scanned and made accessible online to the public via Library of Congress’ Digital Collections.

— Gillian Clinton
Principal of Clinton Research – Gillian is an engineer, librarian, and information specialist who likes to travel and take photos of library edifices. She has been principal of Clinton Research for over 20 years and can be contacted at clintonresearch (at) sympatico (dot) ca or www.clintonresearch.ca.

Webinar technology is BIG for solos. About twenty percent of meeting and workshop registrants cancel at the last minute, and many can’t attend meetings because of their location. With the webinar option there is no excuse! Although webinar technology can create hiccups and require extra preparation, it DOES help keep attendance numbers up, averaging fifteen attendees per workshop.

Guest speakers are another refreshing enhancement. High calibre presenters such as Connie Crosby and Martha Murphy were truly valuable and extremely appreciated by solos.

Featured themes were: “The Corporate Library in Turbulent Times” (February 14, 2012), “LibGuides for solos” (May 15, 2012), and “Communities of Practice and solos” (September 25, 2012).

“The Corporate Library in Turbulent Times” consisted of a panel discussion following a similar talk at the 2011 SLA Annual Conference presentation, which was bursting with practical tips, lively stories, and questions to consider, such as:

• How do we spot warning signs of trouble like reorganization, loss of clients, or high turnover?
• How do we recognize and deal with potential triggers of further turbulence, such as a new supervisor, moving, or new technology?
• How might libraries be affected by loss of space, resources, downsizing, or going virtual?
• What new roles could your position morph into or take on—social media, web content management, records management, editing, marketing?

The crucial point is how to defend your value in tough times. Some points to consider:

• Play different roles for different customers
• Evaluate your services using impact analysis
• Recognize when an area of service must be dropped out
• Bridge the gap between knowing what you do and understanding what your clients value
• Know the “what-if” scenarios, in case the worst happens:
  • Document everything that you do
  • Keep records accessible (bookmarks, contacts, personal files, passwords)
  • Decide in advance what you are willing, or unwilling, to do
  • Find mentors, and
  • Don’t take it personally

The “LibGuides for sols” workshop had the largest participation level thanks to presenters Martha Murphy, from Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal, and Joanna Bielecki, from Toronto Health Economics and Technology Assessment Collaborative. The workshop covered the functionality and features of LibGuides, as well as business requirements and implementation issues.

LibGuides is a fee-based Web 2.0 application, built for libraries to facilitate sharing knowledge. The platform can be used for subject and research guides, information portals, training and instructional sites, and bibliographies. It is predominantly used in the academic environment, but numerous special libraries are implementing this product into their corporate intranets. Interactivity, control and privacy features, ease of use, and analytics are the main characteristics that make this product stand out from wikis and traditional sites. The LibGuides, created by Martha for the family of libraries within Ontario Workplace Tribunals and the Office of the Fire Marshal, exemplify the added value they bring to organizations.

If you want to know if LibGuides are right for your organization, view Martha’s presentation, and don’t miss the resources listed at the end of Part 1!*

“Communities of Practice” (CoPs) “are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.” — Etienne Wenger

Thanks to Connie Crosby, this workshop was an interactive and energizing session that brought a sense of belonging and connected us all. We realized that, for all these years, Toronto Solo support group has been a living model of an autonomous and informal Community of Practice. We do what all CoPs do: share information, techniques, and resources; explore common issues and ideas; and act as a sounding board for each other. We document our knowledge on the wiki in the form of presentations, handouts, and minutes.

There are many examples of Communities of Practice in the workplace: working groups, work teams, and project teams. Pay special attention to these communities as they can maximize your value in the organization. If you are isolated and without peers in your institution, CoPs can help you survive—this is why the discussion on how to build and cultivate CoPs inside our organizations was extremely helpful.

I am looking forward to more practical, informative, and engaging sessions in the year ahead.

Please contact me if you have ideas for upcoming topics or are interested in co-chairing solo events. Solos usually meet at lunchtime at the Insurance Bureau of Canada (777 Bay Street).

— Amra Porobic
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 (at) ibc (dot) ca, or via LinkedIn where she manages the Solo Group discussions. 

*IBC has been sponsoring Solo events since 2008.

*Presentations and materials from the first two events are posted on SLA wiki (found through the links: SLA Solo Division –Toronto Chapter Solos). Connie’s presentation can be obtained from Amra.

Welcome to the 2012 fall edition of The Courier newsletter. I hope you are having a busy and happy autumn. It’s hard to believe that another year is coming to a close.

Looking back to the beginning of 2012—which seems like just yesterday—there were three things I wanted to contribute to the Toronto Chapter. I hoped to help build relationships, to keep our programming strong and diverse, and to enhance our online communications outlets.

Our Chapter’s strength lies in our many relationships—relationships with partners, with other associations, with students, and with our members. The Chapter has built a strong alliance with its partners over the years and in 2012 added 67 new members to the circle. On behalf of SLA Toronto, I would like to recognize our sponsors and thank them for their tremendous support:

• Access Copyright,  Dysart & Jones,  Eureka.CC, and Ovid who are sponsoring our Holiday Social with the Toronto Special Libraries and Information Services (TSLIS), the Faculty of Information Alumni Association (FIAA), and the Toronto Health Libraries Association (THLA). Recently, Eureka.CC hosted a fantastic event launching their new product Eureka.cc Analytik.
• Infomart, who continued their support of the Student-to- Conference Award for the fifth year in a row.
• Carswell, who helped us put on a very successful Membership Appreciation event in May.
• Springer, who hosted an exciting eContent Workshop featuring Mary Ellen Bates.
• Access Copyright, who generously contributed to this year’s Annual General Meeting

Partnering with other associations has also strengthened our Chapter’s programming and network. This year we will have joint-hosted two events with the Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals. We organized informative and engaging Articles Clubs with the TSLIS network. TSLIS and FIAA are once again co-hosting the Holiday Party with SLA Toronto, and we are excited that THLA has joined the event as well.

The SLA Toronto Chapter also ensures that it provides the network and support to students and recent graduates. New Information Professionals have been busy this year attending valuable professional development sessions under the sage design of Ulla de Stricker. A special thank you to Bernadette Roca for all her work coordinating these workshops. This fall, the SLA Toronto Student Group toured the CBC Libraries and Archives space. To keep connected with members outside the GTA boundaries, Kim Silk, Erin MacDonald, and myself also paid a visit to the University of Western Ontario’s SLA Student Group.
To keep our relationship with our mid-career professionals strong, we listened and responded to the programming requests of our constituents. In 2012 we had a diverse, exciting schedule of events, including a balanced mix of workshops, speakers, professional development, salon-like discussions, and networking receptions. This summer saw many SLA Toronto members at the 2012 conference in Chicago. The post-conference dinner at Vagabondo in July, coordinated by Samhita Gupta, brought together conference attendees and other SLA Toronto members to discuss the highlights of Chicago 2012. To wrap up the summer, the Chapter came together again with TSLIS for the annual Summer Social at L’Espresso.

The fall professional development programming series kicked off on September 9; Rob Weisberg from Access Copyright presented at a very well attended Copyright Concepts session. The session was followed by an impromptu tour of the Martin Prosperity Institute by Kate Johnson. On September 20, Ulla de Stricker graciously donated her time to straighten out our job applications in her Cover Letter Workshop.

October was another full month. Ulla continued her professional development sessions in October and will do the same in November. The ever popular SLA-TSLIS Articles Club took place on October 3. On October 9,  Michel Bernaiche  presented on Effective CI Units to SLA Toronto, SLA Western Canada, and SCIP. A tour of the RBC Corporate Archive Tour and Talk was held October 16. I commend our outstanding programming director, Bernadette Roca, for executing such an ambitious schedule with such grace and efficiency. Thank you to everyone who made the Annual General Meeting on November 6 a success. A special kudos to Gayle Kosokowsky for securing the lovely venue —The Faculty Club at the University of Toronto — and a very entertaining guest, corporate magician Anthony Linden.

And one more date to mark on your calendar for 2012 — our Joint Holiday Social is on December 6 at the Arts and Letters Club, with our partners for the evening, Access Copyright, Dysart & Jones, Eureka.CC, and Ovid.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge all those who enhanced our online resources. Our discussion list, social media outlets, website, and The Courier newsletter are our main means of communication with our Chapter. I would like to thank Kelly Butler, Yannet Lathrop, Samhita Gupta, and Heather Buchansky on their phenomenal contribution to The Courier newsletter. Also to all of those who have contributed images and articles this year. On the social networking front—SLA Toronto’s social networks continues to grow with 359 members in our LinkedIn group, 168 ‘Likes’ of Facebook, and a whopping 642 followers on Twitter. Thanks to our social media coordinator, Tylene Reaume, for her timely posts and tweets. A shout out to Melissa Pengilly for designing the new SLA Toronto logo on our social media outlets. Finally, a special kudos to Terri Zimmer for her efficiency and hard work as chapter webmaster this year.

A sincere thank you to everyone for lending their time, efforts, and talents to the Chapter in 2012. We had an amazing executive and an equally compelling advisory board. I am especially grateful for all of their resolve and unprecedented support. I am truly lucky to have had the opportunity to contribute to this amazing Chapter in so many capacities. The SLA Toronto network has added enriched and enhanced my career. I hope to keep paying this gift forward for many years to come.

Looking forward to raising a glass with you at the Holiday Social!

— Laura Warner
SLA Toronto’s President

As Laura noted in her President’s Letter, the SLA Toronto Chapter had a number of events—engaging article clubs, post-SLA conference dinners, and the summer social—to wrap up another eventful summer season.

A key event from this summer—beyond the Chapter, but affecting all information professionals—was the change in Canada’s Copyright Act. Lesley Ellen Harris offers an informative recap on these issues and changes.

And while the SLA Annual Conference may seem like a distant memory, articles from the Infomart Student-to-Conference award winners Heather Buchansky and Stacey Nordlund recap their experiences and share some insights and information on their time spent in Chicago.

The SLA Toronto Chapter calendar has a lot of events and workshops to note during the next couple months—article clubs, resume workshops, and, of course, the holiday social! If you are planning to attend any of these events, please consider sharing your experiences in The Courier. Submissions to the newsletter are welcome at any time, as are comments and queries. Please send them to:

Kelly Butler
kelly (at) kllybtlr (dot) com

Heather Buchansky
heather (dot) buchansky (at) gmail.com

With autumn comes election season—and while our colleagues in the U.S. ponder who they will choose for their president for the next four years, SLA has chosen its executive slate for 2013. Congratulations to the elected Board of Directors for 2013:

President-Elect: Kate Arnold
Treasurer: John DiGilio
Chapter Cabinet Chair-Elect: Kama Siegel
Division Cabinet Chair-Elect: Tara Murray

To learn more about our elected directors visit the SLA website.

The four new board members will begin their terms on January 1, 2013, and will meet in-person at the SLA Leadership Summit from February 6-9, 2013, in Dallas, Texas. They will join eleven current members of the SLA Board of Directors whose terms continue through 2013.

SLA TORONTO 2013 BOARD ANNOUNCED

At the Toronto Chapter level, I would like to express my excitement for our own 2013 slate of elected directors:

President: Kimberly Silk
President-Elect: Erin McDonald
Past President: Laura Warner
Treasurer: Melanie Browne
Secretary: Helen Kula
Technology Director: Greg Barber
Membership Director: Christina DeLuca
Programming Director: Bernadette Roca
Partner Relations Director: Kim Stymest
First 5 Years Director: Stacey Piesner

I’m very much looking forward to working with this team. On Tuesday, November 6 at the Toronto Chapter Annual General Meeting, the elected slate was acclaimed.

LEADERSHIP SUMMIT DATES AND LOCATION ANNOUNCED

As noted above, the dates and location for the SLA Annual Leadership Summit have been set:

SLA Leadership Summit 2013
February 6-9, 2013
Crowne Plaza Dallas Downtown Hotel
Dallas, Texas

Leadership Summit isn’t just for current SLA members in Chapter or Division leadership roles­—it’s for any SLA member with an interest in leadership and in contributing to the future of the association. I attended my first Leadership Summit in 2012 and loved it. Smaller and more focused than the SLA Annual Conference, the Leadership Summit attracts leaders from everywhere in the association, resulting in high-quality, intensive, invigorating, and inspiring conversations about how to continue to build SLA into the association members want and need. If you’re interested in developing your leadership skills and getting more involved in the association, please join Erin McDonald and I in Dallas this February. If you have any questions about the leadership summit, please ask!

— Kimberly Silk
SLA Toronto’s President-Elect

Anca Iancu, Toronto
Mariam Hasan, Toronto
Gayle Jessop, Waterloo
Amy Poon, Brampton
Melissa Fraser, Ottawa
Cathy Mark, Toronto
Lindsay Gibb, Toronto
Margot Brown, Toronto
Alexandra Taylor, Toronto

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

— Christine DeLuca
SLA Toronto’s Membership Director

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.

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Emerald is a global publisher. More than 4,500 organizations around the world are Emerald customers, including leading universities and business schools, government departments, and publicly listed companies. In 2011, this translated into Emerald articles and chapters being downloaded and read in research and study more than 23 million times. As an international publisher Emerald has representation in Africa, Australasia, Brazil, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Dubai, Germany, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Taiwan, the USA, with headquarters located in Bingley, UK.

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Here is a summary of Canadian copyright this summer:

• On June 29, 2012, the Copyright Modernization Act, Bill C-11, received Royal Assent. After 15 years and many failed attempts, significant legislative changes were made to the Canadian Copyright Act. The Act will likely come into effect this fall upon an Order in Council.
• Bill C-11contains several important and relevant provisions for SLA members. Some of the amendments relevant to special libraries are:
  • permitting education-related uses of content;
  • allowing libraries, archives and museums to digitize and copyright material in an alternative format if danger of the original format becoming obsolete;
  • amending the existing statutory damages so that there is a distinction between commercial and non-commercial infringement;
  • the expansion of fair dealing to include education, parody, and satire.
• These amendments make Canada eligible to join the two digital copyright treaties, the Copyright Treaty and the Performance and Phonograms Treaty, bringing Canada’s copyright laws in alignment with many of the country’s trading partners. These Internet treaties are under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organization.
• On July 12, 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada issued five decisions relating to Copyright Board tariffs governing photocopying of textbooks, music downloading and streaming, and other uses of copyright-protected content.

The legislative changes and court decisions are widespread and complex. Librarians, educators, lawyers, and others are currently reading and rereading the cases and legislation and determining the effects on their uses of content. With this whirlwind of activity and changes to Canadian copyright law, CCM 201: Canadian Copyright Law Principles has been revised and this survey course now includes discussion of these changes.

Further information on Canadian copyright law is at www.copyrightlaws.com. The Click U/Copyrightlaws.com online course on Canadian Copyright Law is from October 11-November 5, 2012.  Contact clicku@sla.org for more information.  You can also follow Lesley on Twitter @copyrightlaws.

— Lesley Ellen Harris
Certificate in Copyright Management instructor and author of Canadian Copyright Law

In mid-July, thousands of Information Professionals descended upon Chicago for the annual SLA Conference. Thanks to the generous student grant from Infomart, I was among the crowd piling into McCormick Place, excited and eager to take in my first international professional conference. I had used the online conference planner to select the morning and afternoon sessions, as well as evening receptions. Many of my take-aways from the conference were found in the enormous Info-Expo, jammed packed with vendors showcasing innovative and creative solutions for info professionals, or in the websites mentioned in the workshops. The sites ranged from professional to simple pleasures, but left me wanting to check them out upon my return home.

The first speech, and site, was from Guy Kawasaki, former chief evangelist of Apple Computer Inc. Guy kicked off the conference as the guest speaker of Sunday’s general session. His talk on the art of enchantment was a charming introduction to the conference. His slideshow offered up ten tips on this art and how to influence individuals. Guy is co-founder of Alltop.com, which tries to, “collect the headlines of the latest stories from the best sites and blogs that cover a topic,” about all topics from acupuncture to zombies, or simply ‘Alltop’.

Two of the most anticipated sessions, with standing room only, were ‘60 Sites in 60 Minutes’ and its counterpart ‘60 Apps in 60 Minutes.’ The presenters for each hour-long talk scrolled through 60 useful, interesting, entertaining websites and smartphone apps for work and play. These sessions made an appearance the previous year’s SLA conference in Philadelphia, and promise to be back for 2013 in San Diego with some new material.

Another session dealing more with personal branding was Mary-Ellen Bates’ ‘Marketing For the Rest of Us: A Guide for Introverts.’ Mary-Ellen, an expert in customized information research and President of Bates Information Service, also dispenses interesting and informative posts on her ‘Librarian of Fortune’ blog.

I played it safe for the first couple days of the conference, heading to sessions that were either linked to my current field of librarianship (academic), or general sessions on marketing and social media. For the last session, I ventured outside my work realm and attended ‘Competitive Intelligence: Identifying, Managing, Disseminating and Leveraging Reliable, Current, Actionable Knowledge,’ by Sabrina Pacifici, founder of LLRX.com. This website lists a wide range of Internet research resources and tools. Competitive intelligence was an area I know very little about, but was keen to learn what it entailed. Sabrina’s CI’s Selective Resource Guide has a list of both free and fee-based (good info costs!) websites and databases, which is a digestible introduction into the field.

After four days of conferencing, networking, and taking in sights and tastes of Chicago (Art Institute! Deep Dish Pizza!), I also had a list of websites to bookmark, as souvenirs to remember SLA 2012 Annual Conference.

— Heather Buchansky

Stacey Nordlund: My SLA 2012 Experience

In July, I had the distinct pleasure of attending the SLA 2012 Annual Conference as one of the two recipients of the Infomart Student-to-Conference Award. As a new MLIS graduate, this was my first time attending the SLA Conference. I prepped by following the suggestions outlined in ‘Tips for First Time Attendees’ on the SLA Conference website. The tips there are useful for any first-time conference-goer and well worth a look—even if you’re an experienced conference attendee, there’s always something new to learn.

I began my trip by exploring the city. First, a visit to the Art Institute of Chicago, followed up by a stroll through Millennium Park. I concluded my pre-conference activities with the highly recommended Chicago Architecture Foundation River Cruise, an absolute must for architecture and/or history buffs. The 90-minute cruise provided a scintillating overview of the construction of Chicago over the last century. I was thrilled for the opportunity to view Goldberg’s Marina City and River City in person.

The next day, the conference kicked off. First up for me was the ‘SLA Fellows and First-Timers Meet’ session. This was a great introduction to the conference; as an added bonus, one of the first people I met was, coincidentally, from Toronto. This was followed by the opening session, with speaker Guy Kawasaki, and then began the fun challenge of whittling down my preferred program sessions to a reasonable number. The popular ‘60 Sites in 60 Minutes’ and ‘60 Apps in 60 Minutes’ were fast-paced and a fun way to learn about new and interesting resources.

As a new Information Professional, however, I was most interested in the career-related sessions to help me get a sense of the different types of information environments in which to work, and to learn about adapting library skills to non-library environments. Sessions like ‘Seeing Your Career From the Outside, In,’ moderated by Jane Dysart; Richard Hulser and Deborah Hunt’s session ‘Reinventing Library Skills;’ and Diane M. Goldstein’s ‘Your Resume as a Marketing Tool: Make it Count!’ were filled with great ideas and new insights. Finally, I was particularly glad for the opportunity to see Peter Morville speak in person about the importance of developing search engines using basic design principles at his session ‘Enterprise Search: An Information Architect’s Perspective.’

I knew Chicago in July would be hot. But the word ‘hot’ doesn’t adequately describe the intense heat that slammed me every time I set foot outdoors. I planned accordingly (as best as one can plan for such discomfort!), and promptly scurried from hotel to shuttle to McCormickPlace , and (of course!) to social events. I mapped out my schedule and route ahead of time so as not to risk melting outdoors. After all, not even ridiculously high temperatures would keep me away from the Chocolate Reception at the beautiful Newberry Library.

Other social events, including the Karaoke Party, Canadian Reception (with my fellow SLA Toronto folks!), and, of course, the fabulous IT Division and Dow Jones Dance Party, were a great way to meet new people and have some fun after sitting in program sessions all day. And, did I mention the Chocolate Reception? Tasty, delectable treats combined with the opportunity to network with other information professionals? Win-win. In addition, as a recent graduate of the San José State University MLIS program, I enjoyed the rare opportunity to connect face-to-face with faculty, staff, alumni, and current students from SJSU’s School of Library and Information Science at both the American West Reception and SJSU SLIS Lunch Reception.

To sum up SLA 2012 in a word = Awesome. My sincerest thanks to both SLA Toronto Chapter and Infomart for extending this amazing opportunity. I’m already looking forward to next year’s conference; plus, San Diego will feel downright cool after Chicago. See you there!

— Stacey Nordlund
Stacey holds a B.Sc in Psychology from the University of Toronto and graduated with her MLIS from San José State University in Spring 2012. She lives in Toronto and works as a reference librarian for the Toronto Public Library, specializing in local history and genealogy, and is a volunteer for askOntario’s chat research service.

Fortunately for us, Laura Warner (SLA Toronto Chapter President and Media Librarian in Content Management at CBC) helped us organize another successful tour! We’d like to thank all the wonderful librarians who made the 2012 SLA-TSG CBC Tour another entertaining and informative outing for the lucky iSchool students!

A big thank you to:

Geoffrey Hopkinson (Director of Content Management, Special Programming and Partnerships at CBC)
Lorne Shapiro (Media Librarian, Music Library)
Michele Melady (Manager of Reference, Reference Library)
Janet Muise and Brenda Carroll (Media Librarians, Image Research Library)
Jacqueline Lee (Media Centre Coordinator, Visual Resources) and Rebecca Effrat (Media Librarian, Visual Resources)
Dan Dimopoulos (Media Librarian, Film Library)
Susan Savva (Library Coordinator, Video Tape Recording Library)
Brian Knott (Project Manager, Deep Archive)
Laura Warner, of course!

We learned many exciting facts about the many roles librarians and information professionals play behind the scenes of one of Canada’s most important entertainment and news sources, the CBC!

There are several libraries in the CBC building in Toronto and we were fortunate enough to visit many of them with our guides, Laura Warner and Geoffrey Hopkinson.

The main CBC library space on the second floor used to be a dedicated music library, but now encompasses the reference, music, content management, and visual resources libraries. Librarians and archivists assist production with research, provide information support, archive and catalogue the programs produced daily, and meet all other information needs of the CBC.

We were divided into two groups for the tour and my group’s first visit was to the CBC film library with Dan Dimopoulos. The high-tech film preservation storage facilities house approximately 100,000 film reels dating from 1952 to the late 1980s. The film library houses a large cultural legacy of Canadian television. Film was the medium of choice at the inception of the CBC Television in 1952, but the focus is now on preserving the picture and audio tracks found on the deteriorating film reels. For preservation purposes, most film reels have now been switched to storage canisters that are plastic and “breathable” to avoid acidic buildup. The canisters are different colours for easy identification while the immense storage facility is climate controlled at 3-4°C and 25% relative humidity to combat vinegar syndrome. The storage facility is so precisely designed for preservation that any new film could be preserved for 300 years in that (close to freezing!) vault.

In 1998, a $51 million dollar preservation project was approved by the Board of Directors to be shared by both CBC’s French and English services. The first priority was to preserve the film, including transferring material from film to digital beta and making duplicate tape copies for safekeeping. Much of the material on film has already been transferred to tape.

We journeyed from the past to the present with Brian Knott as we visited the CBC tape library, which holds approximately 180,000 tapes on digital beta tape and SX tape, including HDCam, and HDSR. A lot of tapes hold material transferred from film. The tape library uses a random warehouse-shelving model, which is of interest to us fledgling library students since it means that the tapes are not shelved or stored in numeric sequence. Each shelf has a barcode and each tape has a barcode. When shelving, the barcode on the shelf where the tape is placed and the barcode on the tape are scanned. The information is automatically uploaded into the computer so that there is an up-to-the-minute update on the location of the tape. Considering the size of the tape library, this model is incredibly efficient and no shelf reading is required!

Next, we caught a glimpse of the future with the DIVA Deep Archive. As CBC transitions to fully digital workflows with shooting and editing of materials that are file-based (no longer on tapes or film), the Deep Archive stores materials in digital formats. The Linear Tape-Open (LTO) magnetic tape data storage cartridges are much more affordable compared to film or tape and the LTO5 model can store up to 1.5TB or 66 hours of HD footage on a cartridge akin to the size of a CD case (remember CDs? – exact dimensions are 102.0 × 105.4 × 21.5 mm). All newly shot footage is archived as files (yes, like those on our computers) and all files can be retrieved from the Deep Archive with a fully automated system so that producers and reporters can edit the shoot material and write their scripts right at their computers with instant access to footage literally at their fingertips. The LTO cartridges are stored in the archive and the whole thing is only about 20 feet long and already holds 5 years of files with space to spare! The battle to find shelf space for new tapes is no longer an issue.

After visiting the past (film), present (tape), and future (fully digitized world and workflow) of CBC, we went to see Jacqueline Lee and Rebecca Effrat, librarians embedded in the CBC newsroom. The visual resources librarians all participate in both cataloging and reference (research desk) duties and they explained that knowing both positions helps them perform better at both sets of tasks (one catalogues better if one understands how one usually performs research, and one can research better if one understands how materials are catalogued). These embedded librarians circulate approximately 500-600 tapes every week (both tape and digital files) as materials are requested. They also digitize approximately 60 hours of tape per day. In the past, librarians were at the end of the media production process, in charge of only organizing finished products. Nowadays, the librarians are involved from the early stages and help research, provide access to materials, anticipate information needs by preemptively digitizing visuals, and providing a folder structure with materials relating to important daily news items (think complex LibGuides updated daily!), set up naming conventions, and work closely with producers so files can be found, used, and stored in manners that facilitate future retrieval.

We left the newsroom and went back to visit Michele Melady in the main library space where she explained that CBC Toronto staffs five reference librarians. These five librarians are on shift from 8am-8pm and fulfill the research needs for all CBC offices across Canada! The reference librarians provide informational research services to journalists and producers working in all the different divisions (radio, television, and online). The CBC reference librarians engage in chase producing (e.g.,locating experts, victims, supporters of a cause, for interviews and opinions), ensure materials offer balanced perspectives, as well as find and check facts for all topics. They obtain documents and statistics that are difficult to locate using commercial databases like Factiva, LexisNexis, and Eureka. Reference librarians also produce subject packages providing background and pertinent information on various topics. They answer reference questions over the phone, in person, and via email, with email making up 90% of the reference requests. The reference library also plays an archival role for CBC history with a collections development policy of purchasing materials about the CBC or written by CBC employees; therefore, the reference library holds documents dating back to 1936 from the founding of the Corporation.

Sharing a space with the reference library in the redesigned area is the CBC music library where we met Lorne Shapiro. Whereas CDs used to fill the walls and shelves, only the year’s most recent music is now kept physically in CDs running along the length of one side of the library walls. Most music is now available through the Virtual Music Library (VML) accessible to CBC offices across the nation. The music library still holds a collection of print reference materials related to music and a collection of scores. The vinyl collection has not been fully digitized yet due to cost, but is made available on the VML by demand (oh yes, the music desk deals with reference requests from specific songs and scores to sound effects!) A new Media Asset Management System is underway to make all library and archival materials available with appropriate metadata so music, video, and other files can be accessed “self-serve” by CBC staff.

Last but not least, we glimpsed at the wonderful treasures at the photo and image library with Janet Muise and Brenda Carroll. All the images found in the library serve to inform graphic design, costumes, and set decorations. The library encompasses royalty free stock footage of graphics etc. on CDs, historical photos (such as images from CBC productions), and digital images purchased for use by all departments (the last need arose with digital graphics design starting in the 1990s). Janet and Brenda are also in charge of assisting staff with obtaining materials from other companies, as well as reference requests for images (always ensuring that copyright is carefully considered and researched for each image used). The library has a still photo collection of approximately 1.5 million images (all CBC-owned material) datingback to 1936, with the inception of CBC radio. Most of these prints, negatives, and slides are in the process of being digitized and catalogued for the web and are available online at the CBC Still Photo Collection.

The CBC libraries and archives is a unique environment, as it demonstrates the variety of roles, duties, and responsibilities Information Professionals occupy in special libraries, as well as in the archives. I agree with my fellow iSchoolers who said the CBC libraries opened their eyes to the possibilities beyond academic and public libraries. It is also especially valuable for us as students to see how the research, interpersonal, and technical skills (everything from reference, collections development, preservation issues, and cataloging) from our courses translates and can be applied to so many types of information work in such an interesting, vibrant environment. It was inspiring to see the solutions CBC is employing to solve preservation and storage issues as well as the innovative technologies used for research, cataloging, and to provide efficient access to information.

We learned so much thanks to all the librarians who opened their doors and shared their expertise and experiences with us. Thank you!

— Farah Chung
Reference Intern at Dorothy H. Hoover Library at the Ontario College of Art & Design

Welcome to our summer edition of The Courier. My warmest wishes for you, your friends, and your families this season as you enjoy some well deserved down time.

The 2012 SLA Conference and Info-Expo took place in Chicago, Illinois July 15 to 18. As per usual, there was a strong cohort from Toronto’s Chapter present. Chicago was an exciting city to reunite with colleagues and make new connections. Kudos are due to Richard Matiachuk and our colleagues in SLA Western Canada for hosting a fantastic Canadian Reception. On behalf of the Toronto attendees, a warm thank you to the SLA’s partner CEDROM SNI for their generous participation in the event.

It was wonderful to meet and chat with this year’s Infomart Student-to-Conference winners Heather Buchansky and Stacey Nordlund. Thank you again to our generous and dynamic sponsors at Infomart. Don’t forget to check out Infomart’s blog for interesting posts on content management as well as a few guest posts from our members.

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce a couple of new members of the executive and advisory boards.

In June 2012, Bernadette Roca assumed the position of Programming Director. Bernadette is a recent graduate of the University of Toronto’s iSchool and is currently a media librarian at CBC and a records management consultant. Previously, Bernadette was the Toronto Chapter’s New Information Professional Coordinator, coordinating a series of professional development sessions led by Ulla de Stricker. Bernadette’s dedication, talent, and enthusiasm will be a substantial asset to the Toronto Chapter this fall.

Taking Bernadette’s place as New Information Professional Coordinator on the advisory board is Samhita Gupta. Samhita is a member of the 2012 iSchool graduating class and has recently completed a practicum with the Bora Laskin Law Library.

We are thrilled to welcome both Bernadette and Samhita into their new roles.

Also on the list of announcements, Melissa Pengilly —SLA Toronto’s in-house creative designer extraordinaire—has fashioned a new Facebook logo for the Chapter. Check it out and be sure to like SLA Toronto on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @slatoronto.

We recently wrapped up an exciting spring programming line up. The Chapter’s Toronto West and Solo Groups were also busy with a speed networking event and a LibGuides webinar, respectively. On June 12 the Chapter hosted a webinar introducing 2012 SLA Presdident-Elect candidates Kate Arnold and Juanita Richardson. June also focused on skills development with a Legal Research workshop hosted by Wendy Reynolds of the Ontario Legislative Library, followed by a session on Government Documents hosted by the University of Toronto’s Mike McCaffrey.

The Chapter is working on an exciting programming docket for the fall. A few highlights include the Summer Social on August 23, the Annual General Meeting will take place on November 6, and the Joint Holiday Social is scheduled for December 6. I’m also excited to announce that in addition to the Faculty of Information’s Alumni Association and the Toronto Special Libraries and Information Services Network, we will be teaming up with the Toronto Health Libraries Association for the holiday festivities. The more the merrier!

In true fall fashion we will also have a number of seminars scheduled. Access Copyright’s Rob Weisberg, Manager of Corporate and Government Licensing, is leading a seminar in the fall titled: Critical Copyright Issues For Corporate Librarians And Information Professionals. On October 9, SLA Toronto is once again teaming up with the Strategic and Competitive Information Professionals (SCIP) for a session on What Makes a CI Unit Work with Michel Bernaiche. Bernaiche is the current director of Program Development at Aurora WDC.

Please watch your email and the Chapter’s Events page for further programming announcements. Also, we want to ensure that our programming is meeting the needs of our membership. If you have any ideas for the winter and into 2013, we welcome your input. We hope to reunite with many members and welcome the new ones after the summer cools off.

See you in September!

— Laura Warner
SLA Toronto’s President

In addition to the recurring columns, this issue also formally introduces Bernadette Roca as SLA Toronto’s new Programming Director. Kate Johnson shares the tips & tricks divulged by Wendy Reynolds during the Legal Searching for the Non-Legal Librarian session and Ricardo Laskaris reports on the 2012 ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim. Our People on the Move editor, Kim Symest, was extra busy this issue—four SLA Toronto members, including herself, accepted new positions or have take their careers in new directions.

At the end of May the lovely and talented Yannet Lathrop accepted a position in Michigan and resigned as Co-Editor of The Courier. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Yannet for all her amazing work and wish her the best of luck in her new position and new home!

I’d also like to thank Samhita Gupta, who graciously agreed to assist with the editing of this issue. Her talent and commitment made this issue all the better!

I hope you enjoy this issue of The Courier. Please remember, submissions are always welcome. You can send your comments, ideas, and/or suggestions to:

Kelly Butler
kelly [at] kllybtlr [dot] com

I’ve just returned from SLA 2012, which was held in beautiful Chicago from July 15 to 18. I was joined by a very strong Canadian contingent this year, with over forty SLA Toronto members attending, plus many of our colleagues from the SLA Eastern Canada and Western Canada chapters. In fact, despite concerns that conference attendance would be lower this year due to being held in July as opposed to June, early counts indicate that attendance exceeded SLA 2011 in Philadelphia. I will share the final attendance numbers with the chapter when SLA HQ releases them.

To get a sense of the various conversations that occurred via Twitter, search for the #slachicago hashtag.

SLA President, Laura Warner, and I attended various leadership meetings during the conference and learned how SLA continues to tweak the conference experience to meet member expectations. One change that has been made for SLA 2013 in San Diego next summer (June 9—11 for those who like to plan ahead) is that the conference will run for two days instead of three. This change is in response to members who have been unable to attend conference due to financial constraints; shortening the conference by one day will mean significant savings in meal and hotel costs. The goal is to enable as many members to attend the conference as possible. As those of you who were in Chicago last week or have attended the annual conference in the past know, it’s a wonderful event that everyone should have the opportunity to experience.

Looking Forward

Finally, it’s that time of year when your President-Elect begins to plan in earnest for her presidential year. SLA Toronto chapter members with ideas and suggestions for 2013 should get in touch with me to share your thoughts. I’m easy to reach by email. I have found being part of the SLA leadership team this past year to be stimulating, fascinating, and a great deal of fun! I encourage all members to consider taking on a leadership position, whether within this chapter or a division. If you’d like to learn about how SLA governance works, I’m more than happy to share what I know.

Enjoy the remainder of the summer!

— Kimberly Silk
SLA Toronto’s President-Elect

Vickie Albrecht, Winnipeg
Pamela Bakker, Toronto
Roxana Carapet, Etobicoke
Tyler Chenosky, London
Margaret Collins, Toronto
Silvia Fernandes, Etobicoke
Kelly Elliott, St. Catharines
Kara Griffin, Toronto
Eve Leung, Toronto
Min Li, Toronto
Ross Newton, Toronto
Anne Northcott, Ottawa
Ed Sangalang, Toronto
Jessica Shiers, Toronto
Stephanie Winston, Thornhill

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

— Christine DeLuca
SLA Toronto’s Membership Director

Effie Patelos has accepted a one-year research leave replacement position with the University of Toronto. As the Architecture Librarian, she will be responsible for directing and managing the services, resources, and staff of the Shore and Moffat Library at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. Previous to this new position, Effie worked at the University of Concordia as a Reference and Instruction Librarian. In this position she acted as coordinator of an innovative for-credit information literacy lab designed to teach struggling students the research and critical thinking skills required to succeed in university. Although Effie is sad to bid farewell to the beautiful city of Montreal and the incredible librarians and staff at Concordia University Libraries, she is excited to work in her subject area of expertise—developed during her previous career as an architect. She also looks forward to applying what she has learned about designing and delivering information literacy to support students studying in the specialized fields of architecture and landscape design. She can be reached by email at effie.patelos [at] daniels.utoronto [dot] ca, or by phone at the library (416) 978-6787.

Sally Press—formerly of MMM Group—joined Coffey Geotechnics, a specialist geotechnical engineering company, in September 2011. Her role as Library Services Manager for the Canadian Offices involves collaborating with librarians in the Australian offices to build up the library and information service for the company’s Canadian office. She is based in Etobicoke, Ontario and can be reached at sally_press [at] coffey [dot] com.

On May 1, Kim Stymest began a three-year contract as a Business Librarian with the Peter F. Bronfman Business Library at York University. She is incredibly excited by the opportunity and looks forward to the coming academic year and all that it brings in a new environment. She has already met a number of truly great students and looks forward to more! Kim can be reached at stymest [at] yorku [dot] ca.

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.

Bernadette Roca is currently a Media Librarian at CBC and a Records Management Consultant with Knowledge-Able. Bernadette has worked in a variety of library and archive settings, including stints at Sunnybrook Hospital, York University, and the University of California, Los Angeles. She earned her MISt from the University of Toronto, her MA in English from University College London, and her BA in English from UCLA. Bernadette has been actively involved in the SLA’s Toronto Chapter, holding positions as Registrar and New Information Professionals Coordinator before taking on the role of Programming Director. She is keenly interested in the ways the role of information professional is changing in the “information age” and the influence of postmodernism on archival practice and librarianship. In her spare time, Bernadette loves reading, traveling, food, attending concerts, and crafting.

Resources

e-Laws provides access to official copies and current consolidations of Ontario’s public statutes and regulations. It is updated continually but it includes only statutes enacted and regulations filed on or after January 1, 2000. Private statutes are not available in consolidated form.

Under the Bills & Lawmaking heading on the Ontario Legislative Assembly website one can search the past and present parliaments and bills, both public and private. There are also handy PDF refreshers explaining “How Bills become Law”.

CanLII, or Canadian Legal Information Institute, is a non-profit organization managed by the Federation of Law Societies of Canada. Its goal is to make Canadian law accessible for free on the Internet. CanLII provides access to court judgments, tribunal decisions, statutes, and regulations from all Canadian jurisdictions.

Statues and regulations can also be located using commercial resources, such as Quicklaw and WestLaw.

Researching Tips & Tricks

Reynolds recommends starting research with secondary sources to understand the context and significance of laws. To best support clients, researchers need to identify three things:

1) Jurisdiction (Federal? Provincial?)
2) Dates (Does the client need the most current amendments? The status during a specific year?)
3) “Currency is key” (Are all amendments in force? Was the law overturned?)

Continued Learning

Reynolds also concentrated on resources we could use to extend our understanding of legal research.

The Law Society of Upper Canada regulates, licenses, and disciplines Ontario’s 41,000 lawyers and 2,700 licensed paralegals. The Law Society’s Great Library has a bevy of legal research tools including video tutorial, how-to guides, and annotated links to other resources found under Research Guides.

YouTube is a great resource for online tutorials on commercial databases. QuickLaw from Lexis Nexis Canada and WestLaw from Carswell, Thomson Reuters both have YouTube channels.

— Kate Johnson
SLA Toronto Registrar, Information & Library Intern at The Martin Prosperity Institute and founder of TOR Info Events Google Calendar

The exhibit floor featured the usual variety of vendors and stage presentations and, of course, the stalwart Oscar T. Robot. I had no room for books in my luggage and don’t do any of the purchasing for my library, so didn’t find much relevance there.

The most entertaining session I attended was a free-for-all about librarian stereotypes that devolved into a heated debate over the merits of the TV show “What Not To Wear”. The most interesting session, led by Marliese Thomas, was on how libraries can overcome internal stereotypes between departments (e.g. between Reference and Technical Services) in order to improve communication. Marliese’s slides can be found here.

I met a longtime Disneyland employee on the bus who shared some of its “secrets.” According to him, the park receives a full facelift every night: every scrap is separated and recycled, tall trees are replanted with short ones to make the buildings look newer (with the tall ones being relocated), every discarded piece of gum is frozen with liquid nitrogen and smashed with a hammer, and every flower that isn’t blooming is replaced with one that is—which is about a fifth of all flowers in the park. They also have their own fire and police departments, and perform sweeps around the park to keep away homeless people and other “undesirables” who might tarnish the Disney image. In case you don’t believe that, I heard the same from one of the bus drivers.

J.R. Martinez’s closed the conference, speaking motivationally about his recovery after being blown up in a Humvee in Iraq. For better or worse, his biggest claim to fame is being the 2011 winner of “Dancing With The Stars.” He spoke on the importance of using one’s inner competencies to adapt to and overcome life’s obstacles. His first book, Full of Heart: My Story of Survival, Strength, and Spirit, co-written with Alexandra Rockey Fleming, will be published this October by Hyperion.

— Ricardo Laskaris
Reference Assistant at York University’s Steacie Science and Engineering Library

Welcome to our Spring edition of The Courier. The warmer weather is here and so are conferences and convocations. An essence of renewal and growth is in the air. New professionals are entering the industry. Those already established are likely packing suitcases en route to a convention centre. The SLA Toronto Chapter supports everyone and their goals regardless of their plans for this season.

The Toronto Chapter has had an exciting and diverse line up this Spring. Article Clubs, co-hosted with TSLIS, have been an ongoing success. What is an article club? It’s like a book club, but (obviously) shorter. It couples a salon-like discussion with a debate on topics relevant to our profession. The sessions also provide a welcoming social environment for those new to the association to meet people and be heard.

On April 17th SLA Toronto hosted a tour of the newly renovated CBC Libraries and Archives. The group toured the main library space including music, reference, and visual resource services. They also took a tour through the deep archive and the newsroom. After a Peter Mansbridge sighting in the newsroom, the tour wrapped up with a discussion of media librarianship.

As for professional development programming, Ulla DeStricker has led a series of workshops for students and for practicing professionals. Ulla’s student workshops were hosted at the iSchool during the winter months. Her workshops for professionals—on branding and writing—took place on April 26th and May 17th, respectively. This series would not have been possible without the hard work of Bernadette Rocca, SLA Toronto’s New Information Professionals Program Coordinator.

Our Membership Chair, Christine DeLuca, organized a Membership Appreciation Event. With the generous sponsorship of Carswell, Toronto Chapter members were personally invited to enjoy an evening of hors d’oeuvres and fellowship at the Pogue Mahone on May 24th. Not a member yet? Feel free to contact Christine and she would be happy to discuss all the excellent benefits of an SLA membership.

Coming up in the later spring, the Toronto West Subgroup is hosting a speed-networking event at MapleLeaf Foods on June 11th. June also offers opportunities to brush up on your research skills before the summer holidays kick in. On June 12th Wendy Reynolds, with the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, will host a Legal Searching for the None Legal Librarian workshop, followed by a quick tour of the Ontario Legislature. To complement this session Mike McCaffrey will hold a Government Documents session later that month.

Also on the theme of member appreciation, I would like to welcome some new additions to the Toronto Executive and Advisory Boards:

Rob Ambra and Crystal Smith have joined our Partner Relations Committee.

Graham Lavender and Patricia Aspinwall have joined our Volunteer Pool.

The board is also happy to announce that Infomart has once again graciously sponsored two students to attend the SLA conference in Chicago this July. Thanks to Infomart’s partnership, Heather Buchansky and Stacey Nordlund will have an invaluable experience, which they will share through an article in The Courier’s Fall issue.

Speaking of the conference, please join president-elect Kim Silk, the Infomart Student-to-Conference winners Heather Buchansky and Stacey Nordlund, myself, and other members of the SLA executive in Chicago this July. Be sure to swing by the Canadian Reception hosted again by our generous partners, CEDROM. Looking forward to seeing you there!

— Laura Warner
SLA Toronto’s President

We received a tonne of great submissions for this issues, including one from SLA Toronto’s President Laura Warner sharing the insight and wisdom of her many conference experiences in hopes of helping members attending conferences get the most out of their investment.

This issue features a brand new recurring column, Partner’s Corner. This column will highlight updates or recent news from SLA Toronto’s partners, helping our membership get to know our partners better. We are also featuring Heather Buchansky and Stacey Nordlund’s winning statements for the Informart Student-to-Conference award. Congratulations to Heather and Stacey and we look forward to reading about their conference experiences in the Fall issue.

iSchool student, Sarah Farrukh, contributed an article describing her experiences job shadowing with Ulla de Stricker. Christina Kim offers a look at MaRS Discovery District’s Startup Library, which she helped develop. Stephen Spong details recent changes in Canadian copyright law and their effect on academic libraries. Katya Pereyaslavska attended the Art Libraries Society of North America annual conference and reported back on the sessions she found most interesting. Plus, SLA Toronto/TSLIS Green Article Club host, Jessica Darling, reviews the event and offers a summary of the discussion. Finally, Ricardo Laskaris provided a sampling of the questions he asked at the SLA Toronto & Toronto Desk Set’s April Pub Quiz.

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

2013 SLA Board Candidates Announced

SLA President-Elect Deb Hunt recently announced the eight fellow SLA members who have agreed to stand for office on the SLA Board for 2013. You will be voting for your preferred candidate this coming fall, so be sure to learn about these outstanding professionals by reviewing their bios posted on SLA’s website and for their posts on the SLA Blog where they will be answering key candidate questions. The first question asks about non-traditional career paths and each candidate offers their advice and perspective to both new and established professionals.

You also can easily follow and interact with the candidates via Twitter.

For President-Elect Kate Arnold and Juanita Richardson (Past-President of SLA Toronto!!!)
For Chapter Cabinet Chair-Elect Joy Banks and Kama Siegel
 For Division Cabinet Chair-Elect Stacey Greenwell and Tara Murray
For Treasurer John DiGiglio and David Stern

An easy and painless way to keep up-to-date is to subscribe to the RSS feed for the SLA blog—just fill in your email address to the right navigation bar.

Travel Awards Make Chicago Easy

With the 2012 SLA Annual Conference coming up in Chicago this July, there have been lots of travel grants being awarded to members. I’d like to recognize our colleague, Amanda Adams from Nipissing Law Library in North Bay, who has been awarded the Wolters Kluwer Law & Business Non-U.S. Law Librarian Travel Grant Award by the SLA Legal Division. Congratulations to Amanda, and see you in Chicago!

Tuesday at the SLA Conference is Leadership Focused!

Learn more about the many leadership opportunities within SLA by attending the leadership meetings on the afternoon of Tuesday July 17th. See the SLA 2012 Conference Planner for times and locations.

Trip Planning using Pinterest

For those going to SLA 2012 in Chicago, take a look at the Pinterest board of Favourite Chicago Places & Spaces put together by the Social Science division.

Keep in mind that Advance registration for the SLA 2012 Annual Conference is open until Friday, June 29th.

All the best,

— Kim Silk
SLA Toronto’s President-Elect

Adrienne Van Halem, Toronto
Alexandria Stalteri, Toronto
C. Jennifer Lee, Toronto
Christine Hintzen, Mississauga
Crystal Smith, Oakville
Danielle Lee-Muma, London
Daphne Horn, Toronto
Erica Hendry, Toronto
Katherine Cuyler, Toronto
Laurie Karnis, Montreal
Marisa Maharaj, Toronto
Mauri Rosenstock, Toronto
Megan Leslie, London
Melissa Bird, Toronto
Milena Todosijevic , Toronto
Natalie Boon, Toronto
Phil Richards, Toronto
Roberta De Gregorio, Toronto
Sarah Bonato, Toronto
Sarah Farrukh, North York

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

— Christine DeLuca
SLA Toronto’s Membership Director

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.

What do you call us? FPinfomart? FP Infomart or just Infomart? Our brand has evolved several times over the years. Depending on when and how you first came to know us, you may think of us in different ways.

If you’re a user of our service, you’ve already seen a new logo at the top of our product site, the relocation of our blog, and changes to our email addresses. We’ve gone back to our roots—Infomart. (You may have noticed we switched our Twitter handle from @FPinfomart to @infomart several months ago in preparation for this change). We will continue to offer the same suite of media monitoring and Financial Post Data that you rely on. Cosmetic and functional changes to the Infomart product will roll out in future, but for today, it is only the brand that has changed.

We’re pretty excited around here—this is the first in a series of fantastic changes to come. We think the new brand is a better representation of our core strengths, and an excellent description of what we do.

Other big things are under way at Infomart. We’ve got amazing product upgrades in the pipeline. Our recent rebranding is just the first step in a transformation that will take Infomart to the next level as a media monitoring, intelligence, and analytics platform. We’re building the tools to make daily work for our core audiences (of which SLA members are a critical part) easier, faster, and exciting.

If you have any questions about our new brand, please don’t hesitate to:

Call us at 1 .800 .661 .7678 or 416 .442 .2121
Email us at contactus@infomart.com
Tweet us at @infomart
Read our blog at www.infomart.com/blog
Fax us at 416 .442 .2968.

We look forward to having you along for the ride with us and hope to hear from you!

— Jennifer Stein
Infomart Product Manager, B2B

Heather and Stacey 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.

Heather will graduate with a Master of Information from the Univerisity of Toronto’s Faculty of Information this June. During her time at U of T, she worked as a Student Library Assistant at Robarts Library in Reference and Research Services, the Harry R. Abbott Dentistry Library, and was Professional Development co-chair for two years on the Master of Information Student Council. Heather also holds a teaching degree, and taught overseas before embarking in the field of librarianship.

Stacey has a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Toronto, and graduated this Spring with her Master of Library and Information Science from the School of Library and Information Science, San José State University. At convocation, Stacey was student speaker and was named recipient of the Ken Haycock Award for Exceptional Professional Promise. In addition to her studies this year, Stacey served as Editor-in-Chief of the Student Research Journal, a scholarly student-governed publication of San José State University, and also worked virtually as an Embedded Librarian at San José State University’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library.

Statement by Heather Buchansky’s

I am writing to apply for the FP Infomart Student-to-Conference Award for 2012. I believe professional development cannot start soon enough, and I have made an effort, since attending the University of Toronto’s iSchool, to get involved in councils and associations to increase my skill set as I embark on a new career path. I have been a co-chair of the Professional Development Committee on the Master of Information Student Council for the last two years. In this role, I organized events such as the clubs and association open house; resume critiques; interview workshops; and the annual Employer Showcase, bringing over 20 organizations to the iSchool for students to learn about the varied paths in the information profession. This year, I am also an executive member of the Special Libraries Association Toronto Student Group. Through these volunteer experiences, I visited a wide variety of special libraries, spoke with a number of individuals in the field, and have come to realize the importance of networking and getting involved. Attending the 2012 SLA Conference in Chicago would allow me to continue my professional development, as well as expand my network, which I see as an integral part of being in the information field.

During my time at the iSchool, I worked on projects as a practicum student at two diverse placements: PwC and MaRS Discovery District. I saw firsthand the rewards and unique challenges involved in working in a special and corporate library. These placements also introduced me to other areas of the profession I am interested in exploring, including knowledge management and competitive intelligence. The SLA Annual Conference offers a range of presentations regarding these topics, and it would be an excellent opportunity to hear firsthand from practitioners about what is currently happening, and be “future ready,” as is the theme of the conference.

Since this conference brings together a large number of individuals in the library and information field from all over the world, it would be extremely beneficial to be a delegate and network with other information professionals, both new and seasoned, about their roles in special libraries, and learn about the challenges and opportunities taking place in the field. I am also interested in attending the INFO-EXPO to see the variety of specialized products available, and have a better insight into the current and future trends and technology available from vendors and information providers.

However, my main goal for wanting to attend the SLA Annual Conference is to experience, and gain more understanding of, all that is going on in the information profession on a global level, through the presentations, networking, and social events. It would be a privilege to have the opportunity to attend an international conference focusing on my new career in special libraries.

Thank you for your consideration,
Heather Buchansky

Statement by Stacey Nordlund

Dear SLA Toronto Executive Board,

I am writing to submit my name for consideration for the Infomart Student-to-Conference award to attend the 2012 SLA Annual Conference in Chicago. As a student in the online Master of Library and Information Science program at San José State University (SJSU), I am gaining experience in what I deem the key elements of the future of librarianship: global research conducted by virtual teams, a focus on emerging technologies, and the organization and use of information in a changing knowledge economy. As I near the end of my academic career and prepare to enter the profession, my keen interest in forging a non-traditional path as an information professional has been cemented.

I am presently in my final semester of the MLIS program with a focus on information organization, and information intermediation and instruction. After taking a course in Special Libraries and Information Centers in 2010, I became interested in nontraditional information settings. I am a member of our newly-formed SLA Student Chapter at SJSU, as well as a member of SLA Toronto Chapter.

Regardless of the type of environment in which I may practice, the core principles that define my professional identity provide me with a solid foundation to guide my practice as an information professional (see Figure 1). My educational experience in the SJSU School of Library and Information Science MLIS program has provided me with transferable skills that may be applied to any information environment, whether a special library, specialized academic library, or even an organization without a library. However, much of the knowledge I have gained has been based in theory, and I look forward to immersing myself in a professional environment to learn directly from practitioners. For this reason, I believe that attending the SLA Annual Conference will allow me to further develop my knowledge, enhance my professional network, learn more about the profession, and perhaps more importantly, help me determine ways to give back to the profession of which I am thrilled to be a member.

Figure 1

In particular, I am eager to experience the unique opportunity to network with information professionals who function in a variety of specialized settings across the globe. One of my core professional values is collaboration; I would relish the prospect of connecting with future colleagues and developing contacts with the diverse pool of SLA members for future career development and learning opportunities, and to determine how I may best contribute to the organization.

If I am selected for the Infomart Student-to-Conference award to attend the 2012 SLA Annual Conference, I would have the chance to initiate my future involvement in SLA. I am interested in contributing to the SLA community, and in particular would welcome a position on the SLA Toronto Chapter Executive or Advisory Board. As a newinformation professional, this experience would certainly be invaluable. I look forward to participating in the conference and contributing to the future development of the information profession.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
Stacey Nordlund

Since attending my first professional conference in 2005, I instantly became enthralled with these occasions. From attending about a conference a year since—and thanks to a few tips from trusted colleagues—I find that I get more value out of conferences with every season. Because attending a conference is usually a significant venture, one wants to make sure they get their best return on investment. Below is a list of best practices for optimizing one’s conference experience.

Research the program inside and out. Spend a significant amount of time prior to the conference preparing for what sessions you want to attend. The best way to ensure you get a learning experience is to attend sessions you know very little about. Remember, sometimes the sessions can be quite popular, so be sure to get there early.

Research what speakers you want to meet and contact them in advance. By targeting the leading thinkers in the profession you will make even stronger connections. Also remember to read their stuff—blogs, twitter feeds, publications—prior to your conversation.

Also research the trade show floor plan. Make appointments in advance with the exhibitors you’d like to meet. Being able to prepare for a conversation, amidst the busyness, will give the dialogue more substance. Find out if the vendors you already subscribe to are attending the conference so you can touch base in person. It’s good to maintain that personal aspect to the relationship.

If you are new to conferences, secure a conference mentor. Your mentor should be someone who is established in the association, who can introduce you to the who’s who of the information world, and provide you with more great conference tips. A lot of conferences do have a mentoring program set up. If not, ask a manager if they can recommend someone who is attending the conference and doesn’t mind showing you around.

The location of your accommodations will make the trip much more enjoyable.  For financial reasons, particularly as a student, in the past I decided to stay off route, way off route. Typically in a 1.5 star motel, which I shared with four other student attendees (I think we may have violated a fire code!).I would painfully rise up hours before the breakfast session and take a rather uncomfortable bus ride down to the convention centre. Rather one goes than not, but my best experiences were when I stayed at the designated conference hotel. It will be much easier for you. Sometimes the lack of stress is worth the money. It will also expand your networking opportunities because you’d be meeting another attendee every time you got into the elevator.

If you pack anything, pack your business cards. Bring lots of cards, circulate them, and collect them from others. After you’ve collected a business card from another individual, write down on the back of it where you met them and what you chatted about. This will be helpful when you follow up and make the connection via LinkedIn. If you don’t have your own business cards, make your own. There are a lot of great printing companies that will let you design and order cards online for a relatively low cost.

Dress to impress, but don’t overdo it. Occasionally there will be conference attendees who either over do it or under do it. To be safe, I would recommend packing business casual attire. Always be mindful of the industry standards, which may vary between a more academic focused conference and a corporate one. Unless you’re giving a presentation you can forgo the power suits (you may be mistaken for a vendor). At the same time you want to ensure you look professional for your colleagues and show that you respect your industry. Pack items that make you look presentable, comfortable, and memorable.

Attend association meetings and speak up. Making comments during sessions or at the annual general meeting will put a face to your name. Yes, it is nerve racking to put yourself out there in front of everyone, but people are very respectful of it. After the meeting, people will know—and remember—that you were there.

Add a vacation day or two to your schedule pre or post conference. Since you’re already there, this is a great opportunity to take in a few extra days and explore the attractions. Especially if the conference is held somewhere really cool, like, lets say…Chicago.

Get your social media act in gear. Mention your conference attendance on your LinkedIn and Facebook pages. Also make sure your pages are up to date and polished in case anyone follows up with you later. Find out the conference hashtag on Twitter so that you can contribute your thoughts and experiences to those following the action.

This top ten list is only the tip of the iceberg. There are plenty of fantastic trade publications, blogs, and websites that offer fantastic conference tips. So you’ll have some homework to do. Whether you are a first time conference goer, or a full-blown conferenceaholic, have a wonderful season!

— Laura Warner
SLA Toronto’s President and Media Librarian at the Canadian Broadcasting Company

As a first-year student focusing on the knowledge management path, my career at the iSchool so far had involved courses on the management of information organizations, records management, and organizational information behaviors and knowledge creation. These courses were invaluable in giving me a means of identifying information silos in organizations as well as tools to remedy them. I started developing an interest in information consulting and the process of the information audit, which led me to the opportunity to “follow” Ulla as she carried out a project for a client (with the client’s permission and a non-disclosure agreement Ulla provided for me to sign). The project was typical of the work she does, in that its focus was determining the way in which the organization would provide access to professional and scientific information for its knowledge workers and leverage information professionals’ skills in supporting collaboration between knowledge workers.

Ulla explained to me the steps she was going to undertake, showed me the instrument she would use in obtaining the views of staff members identified for her to interview, and shared the evolution of the project as she gathered factual information (e.g. measures of current practices) and subjective views from client employees. She walked me through her experience during the interviews and then through her findings and recommendations reports, clarifying the reasons for their structure and content and emphasizing the need to understand the mindset of current and potential future readers. I could trace the links from hearing about “what was said” to “what Ulla would recommend.”

I was able to directly connect what I was learning in the iSchool program with what she shared, and my meetings with Ulla added healthy doses of reality checks.

For me, the biggest reality check was this: even in organizations whose mission depends on quality information access and research, the opinion may prevail that “all subject matter experts are qualified researchers” and “everything anybody needs is available on the internet for free.” I draw the conclusion that in today’s economy, organizations with little or no obvious information-specific component in their mandate would be tempted not to invest in professional information services.

I also learned that the value of an information service must be stated in as concrete and quantitative terms as possible. An information audit like Ulla’s must elicit the link between knowledge, information, and knowledge worker productivity by framing questions such as: “If you did not have access to [the information content and librarian support in question], what would be the impact on your work?” For example, statistics about kinds and numbers of articles retrieved by knowledge workers—while by no means persuasive by themselves—are necessary in demonstrating to upper management that appropriate information services are integral to knowledge workers’ day-to-day activities.

Further reflection on these matters made me even more aware that ongoing advocacy and awareness-raising about information services is not an optional matter. Events such as budgeting exercises may trigger reviews of information services, but there is a need for vigilance. Knowledge workers are busy and may fall into “poor habits”—they need to be constantly shown how valuable “real” information services are.

Although the professors in my program continuously caution us about the need for ongoing advocacy for the role of information professionals, being in school inevitably means being in a highly “information friendly” environment. We are told advocacy is part of being an information professional, but in a bubble such as this, we are rarely put on the spot to have to defend our skills and our services against budget cuts. Job shadowing with Ulla on her project brought me face-to-face with the need for future librarians to shed light on the value of their work and on the direct link between their efforts and the organization’s ability to realize its stated strategic goals.

The lesson is clear: the time to start advocating is now. Don’t just be good at what you do. Make sure others see it—and be sure they tell the ones who manage budgets “access to appropriate professional information is a non-negotiable.”

— Sarah Farrukh
iSchool Student, sarahfarrukh.com

As MaRS Market Intelligence nears its 6^th anniversary, we have been rethinking the ways in which we deliver services to our clients. We have seen an increase in the number of clients and questions that we cater to because of an extension of our services to the entire province of Ontario. We have also witnessed the startup landscape grow more complex for budding entrepreneurs due to more sophisticated competition and niche markets. MaRS Market Intelligence has responded to these changes by developing new ways of helping our clients intelligently navigate the information landscape.

We also noticed that entrepreneurs approached us with similar information needs and asked many of the same questions. To both address these concerns and to extend our services in order to serve our clients better, MaRS Market Intelligence created the Startup Library. Developed for entrepreneurs to help them search less and do more, clients are empowered by the Startup Library to locate information efficiently when answering common market research questions, and to help their understanding of the startup ecosystem. The Startup Library is a curated collection of links to public domain resources from the government, private, and non-profit sectors.

The MaRS Market Intelligence team designed the Startup Library to be a practical guide to the best of the Web for online and mobile startups. It allows entrepreneurs to focus their market information searches on only the most relevant and useful sources. As of the official launch (January 12, 2012), it comprises:

• ‘how-do-I’ guides for commonly-asked market research questions, which include identifying competitors and finding Canadian and US market data
• annotated links to quality online content across a broad range of online and mobile topics. These include accelerators and incubators, business models, lean startups, and funding
• feeds from a shared repository of bookmarks selected by MaRS Market Intelligence’s research experts

This resource is itself a startup—it was launched with plans to add additional content over the next year, and to expand it to other sectors, Life Science and Cleantech—so stay tuned.

Screen capture of Startup Library:

— Christina Kim, BSc, MISt
Information Specialist, Gerstein Science Information Centre – MaRS Discovery District

While the minutiae of the disagreements are too lengthy (and polarizing) to discuss at any great length in this space, it essentially revolved, as most great conflicts do, around money. In a move that many (myself included) felt was somewhat counterintuitive, Access Copyright wanted to substantially increase the fees paid by institutions to allow access to copyrighted material for staff, faculty, and students. Furthermore, they wanted to increase their ability to monitor use and address misconduct. Not surprisingly, the institutions balked, and thus was the beginning of a long standoff, with many users being caught in the middle. Many—indeed, most—colleges and universities exercised the option to “opt out” of an interim tariff that was established. This created further issues, as it was truly unchartered territory for most institutions. However, this past April, the Association of Universities and Colleges Canada (AUCC) finally relented, accepting a new structure that would effectively bump the per student cost for licensing to $26 a head, from what had previously been $4 a head. Although this is a reduction from the initial threat of a $45 a head cost, it still looks like something of a pyrrhic victory. While it is now up to each institution to elect for the new agreement, it is hard to see many demurring. As the old idiom goes, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. This is the nutshell, but it is not difficult to find a wealth of articles and information on the whole saga with a quick Google search, or to just check out a few particularly excellent blogs written by Michael Geist, Howard Knopf, or Ariel Katz.

Where I feel that the move by Access Copyright was counterintuitive was that they seem to be swimming very much against the tide of copyright and intellectual property in the digital age. Indeed, their actions seem to me to be akin to the actions of the record industry when Napster burst on to the scene—forever changing the way that people acquired and consumed music, for better or for worse. In that case, the industry put its collective heads in the sand and acted as if it was business as usual. When they did finally address change, it was through such ridiculous actions as suing Boston University student Joel Tenenbaum for illegally downloading 31 songs—and seeking damages of $675,000 (which was eventually overturned on appeal). Rather than working with and attempting to marshal change, the industry allowed itself to be run over by it and rendered effectively irrelevant. The publishing industry has learned from those mistakes. With the rise of tablets and eReaders, it has attempted to adapt and adjust—if not always smoothly and seamlessly, it has certainly shown a greater willingness to attempt to keep up with technological change.

By attempting to aggressively maintain the status quo by increasing fees dramatically, Access Copyright has not done enough to address the fact that the means of information dissemination and consumption have changed dramatically in the past decade, with no sign of slow-down on the horizon. Open access is increasingly becoming the watchword for academic material. While at Harvard University Law School for an internship in February 2011, I spent a day with Michelle Pearse, who is their Research Librarian for Open Access Initiative and Scholarly Communication. We spent much of the time discussing the fact that Harvard was seizing the initiative and encouraging faculty to contribute their scholarship and research to open access, which they were facilitating with their “Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard” (or DASH) database. On April 17 of this year, the Harvard Faculty Advisory Council circulated a memo stating that the current pricing model is unsustainable, and that it cannot afford to continue paying the fees for journal subscriptions, which are increasingly spiralling upwards. Add this to the quickly blossoming boycott of Elsevier by academics worldwide, and you have a status quo that is looking increasingly buffeted by the winds of change.

There are also the much-heralded changes to Canadian copyright legislation in Bill C-11, which are, at the time of this writing, still working their way through the legislative maze in Ottawa, but should pass this summer. For academic institutions, a crucial element of the new legislation is the proposed insertion of an educational fair dealing exception, which would, in theory, give more latitude to educational institutions with respect to copying on campus. There are also a number of cases before the Supreme Court that could also have strong implications for Canadian copyright, including one against Access Copyright from the Alberta Ministry of Education on the definition of fair dealing.

In short, change is in the air, with the traditional strictures of copyright suffering some growing pains. Thus, the decision to implement the new agreement with Access Copyright until the end of 2015 is incomprehensible, insofar as making a long-term commitment to a model that is almost certainly due for the dustbin of history. Access Copyright and the AUCC appear to be kicking the can down the road waiting to see what the implications of the revised landscape will be. Considering the rapid pace of change to date, I think that it would be a mug’s game to make any concrete predictions; however, it is certain that it will likely be markedly different from the current model. Given the dizzying nature of the changes, one can only be hopeful that, at the very least, it will be more stable and amenable to long-term planning. In the meantime—hold on to your hats. It’s going to be a wild ride.

— Stephen Spong
Reference Librarian, Osgoode Hall Law School Library & Member of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries Copyright Committee

The first article up for discussion was Lori Morrison’s 5 Reasons We Really Need Librarians and Information Professionals in the Internet Age. The general consensus was that yes, we do have an important role to play, even as online activity rises. However, that didn’t mean the article was taken at face value. There was a general sentiment that while the author’s reasons were important — that librarians play an important role in providing access to quality online information, and the preservation of digital heritage — there were certainly some things that were overlooked, including the need for librarians to advocate for their services, to be champions of widespread open access, and to celebrate their unique skill set.

There was also much discussion about ‘librarian’ as a label. Some suggested that we need to embrace the term ‘librarian’ and rebrand it to evoke a specific skills set, rather than use it as a catch all label that often tries to include too much. A favourite term of the night, “intelligence professional,” was meant to convey librarians are more than information professionals; they don’t simply retrieve information, but are often required to analyze, actualize, and package information in a meaningful way.

To wrap up the discussion of the first article, everyone contributed ideas about what libraries could be doing to make themselves more valuable to those outside the profession. We know why we are useful, but it’s time others did as well. Some of the key ideas were:

1. Time to start functioning as a business. There is a bottom line libraries must face: we can no longer simply operate on the good will and belief that libraries contribute to the greater good, and hope that others will see their value. We must operate as a business and emphasize the services we provide to our clients.
2. Position ourselves as experts. We should present ourselves as experts, not just facilitators of access. Celebrate the reality that vendors restrict access to materials and position ourselves as the experts in delivering that access.
3. Advocate. Librarians must advocate to their shareholders; it is critical we know who they are and what roles they play. Libraries need to align the partnership with shareholders and keep lines of communication open.
4. Rebrand. Instead of continually creating new titles that are increasingly vague, perhaps choose a professional label, such as librarian, and stick with it. The label should have a specific and relevant meaning to those outside the profession. Just as the legal profession has many different types of lawyers, librarians should embrace a similar strategy.
5. Assessment of libraries. Libraries should take stock of what value they bring to their community; instead of tossing around numbers of titles held and circulation stats, it may be necessary to dig deeper and highlight specific examples of how resources are used. Publicizing the impact of closed libraries on communities would highlight the value libraries bring to the community. General statements are often made about how libraries make better communities, but it’s time we had specific examples.

These suggestions are not easily put into action, but it’s important to have an eye to the future and begin to make changes now, as some libraries have begun to do. Change needs to start somewhere.

Following that lengthy discussion, we briefly discussed the second article by Mark Changizi, The Problem With the Web and E-Books is That There’s No Space for Them. Published little over a year ago, it is a good lesson in how much things can change over the course of a year. As a non-eBook reader myself, I felt that many of the arguments from the article rang true:  eBook reading lacks spatial cues to aid in memory, and books are more conducive to quick searching. However, it was clear that regular tablet users did not agree—in fact, they felt navigating eBooks was faster and easier than searching for information in a print source. The general consensus from the discussion was that there are appropriate tools for specific jobs, and eBooks have their place. It just goes to show that, given time, the brain can adapt to changing resources.

Overall the evening was full of lively discussion, diverse opinions, and constructive feedback from all who attended.

— Jessica Darling
Research Librarian, Devon Group and University of Toronto iSchool alumnus

Cataloguing the Web

During the March 31^st morning session, “Future of Art Bibliography,” Chris Sala, a Librarian from Columbia University, talked about the increasing interest in “capturing the web” by cataloguing websites. She addressed the biggest challenge we were all thinking about—dead links—and talked about the equally important issue of copyright when it comes to securing the permission to catalogue an independent website. The entire notion of cataloguing websites is utterly novel to me, and it certainly made me think more about the nature and the format of information that users already require.

Information in the 21^st Century

The April 1^st morning session, “Collecting to Serve the Needs of the 21^st Century Art Patron,” featured an engaging speaker named Greg Alberts from Hol Art Books. He introduced the audience to “interactive e-books” with new and exciting features such as maps, active links to online exhibits, audio, thesaurus, and other multimedia components like videos. My mind was racing as I listened. Imagine the possibilities for interactive artist books, special features that would and could help students with disabilities, and more! I was simply blown away! The very nature of experiencing information is changing rapidly and is affecting all of our senses, thus creative a more balanced fuller experience of engaging with a novel or a short story.

Into the Future: Creativity and Leadership

From format of information to the physical format of a new library space, I was thrilled to support my colleague at the Ontario College of Art and Design University’s (OCADU) Librarian, Daniel Payne. Daniel’s presentation was part of the April 1^st morning agenda under the heading, “Provoking Change: Creativity, Leadership, and Planning for the Future.” His discussion focused on OCADU’s Dorothy H. Hoover Library’s emerging learning environment—the “Learning Zone.” This Learning Zone is an experimental space for students to explore exciting workshops, like the dish exchange programme; offer physical space to initiatives, like its home-grown “grOCAD” with its aims to add a “green” touch to spaces; and even display student and staff artwork. Daniel talked about creating an emotional engagement with a given space with an emphasis on accommodating the emerging user needs. He took a fresh and innovative approach to examining the relationship of space with its users and how the physical space can help to foster creativity in a new and meaningful way.

Lastly, as a part of the same session, we heard from Shelley Archibald and Fiacre O’Duinn, from the Burlington and the Hamilton public libraries, respectively, who chatted about their involvement with the TED X project. Their very passionate presentations focused on the need to motivate original thought leadership in the field of Librarianship. They talked about the need of librarians to branch out beyond their professional organizations (and “safety networks”) and to interact with the world at large in a more active way, promoting the cross-pollination of ideas. Confidence, imagination, and originality were cited as key leadership qualities which are necessary to take Librarianship into the future. Without risk or daring to try new approaches, they doomed Librarianship to dying or fading away as it becomes less relevant and more ineffectual in the fast-evolving world of the 21^st century.

Motivated by the general positive energy of the conference, I wanted to do more for ARLIS. I have been quite active in ARLIS for over three years as a local fundraiser, and have helped our chapter secure the gold affiliate title through our conference sponsorship (the only chapter to have had this designation this year). I have also served as a student representative, who actively promoted membership and helped to organize social events. As it happens, the perfect opportunity to do more for ARLIS presented itself during this very conference when I was drafted to join the ARLIS/NA Development Committee, which oversees the organizational fundraising initiatives. Now as a formal member, my task is to share my personal knowledge and experience of fundraising for the local chapter, and to think freely and creatively within the organization which fosters individualism and originality of thought to help it achieve its goals of financial prosperity and foster stronger bonds with its brilliant membership.

— Katya Pereyaslavska

Ricardo’s questions touched on a number of LIS topics, including special collections, young adult, “top tens,” authors and their works, the history of information storage, “pot luck,” and information crimes. Below is a sample of some of the questions (and answers) Ricardo prepared for the Pub Quiz:

• In 1999, Nancy Stouffer brought a lawsuit against JK Rowling alleging that Harry Potter was too similar to what character she had written? Answer: Larry Potter

• The 2005 movie adaptation of this Ann Brashares novel stars Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera, and Blake Lively. The first line of the novel is, “Once upon a time there was a pair of pants.” Answer: The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants

• In any order, for one point each, name the Top Ten web sites of 2011, as ranked by Google (not including Google or Google branded sites). Answers: Facebook.com, YouTube.com, Yahoo.com, Live.com, Wikipedia.org, MSN.com, Blogspot.com, Baidu.com, Bing.com, Microsoft.com

• What form of information storage was used in the 19th Century as a control device for Jacquard looms, and later calculating and tabulating machines? Answer: Punch cards

• What children’s story gained attention in 2001 after U.S. President George W. Bush continued reading the book with an elementary school class for seven minutes after being informed of the September 11 attacks? Answer: The Pet Goat

• This method of improving human memory relies on the memorization of spatial relationships to establish, order, and recall other memories. A traditional example involves imagining yourself walking through your house and assigning to different objects or rooms in your house the things you want to remember. What is this called? Answer: The Method of Loci OR Memory Palace OR Journey Method

• Intentionally writing a check for a value greater than the account balance from an account in one bank, then writing a check from another account in another bank, also with non-sufficient funds, with the second check serving to cover the non-existent funds from the first account. Answer: Cheque kiting OR Paper hanging OR Playing the float

— Yannet Lathrop

Researcher, IXmaps, University of Toronto & Director of Membership, Government Information Division of SLA

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.

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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