Over at the Special Libraries Association blog, the board candidates are being asked questions about the info profession. The first question asked us for the two most
significant issues facing SLA and the information profession. Mine are:
1. Our ability to adapt
rapidly to changing environments.
The pace of innovation seems to
be following Moore’s Law and accelerating at an exponential rate. What were
best practices five years ago no longer address the complex information
retrieval and management issues info pros face. SLA has done an amazing job of developing new
and innovative ways to provide continuing education and professional
development to members. I will continue to explore new ways that our
professional skills can best be leveraged within our organizations, and to work
to get those skills honed through SLA professional development avenues.
When I think of the enormous
changes our profession experienced with the emergence of the web, and then the
explosion of new ways of creating information and networks on the collaborative
web, I can’t help but wonder what the next game-changer will be. I will work to
have SLA lead by example in continuing to provide early warning of the next
revolutionary changes in the infosphere.
2. Our ability to surface who
we are and what we do.
One of Arthur C. Clarke’s laws of prediction was Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Our challenge is that any sufficiently advanced info pro is equally indistinguishable from magic, and that means that our organizations often aren’t able to understand what goes on behind the scenes. Information happens, and most people don’t stop to wonder how.
We have to see ourselves from the outside, and find ways to
articulate the value we do provide. The SLA Alignment Project is an
exciting initiative to learn how best to discuss the “value, benefit and impact provided to [our]
organizations.” I will work to look at the value, benefit and impact
SLA provides to our members, so that we as an organization can lead by example
as we recruit new members who value what we offer.
Mary Ellen Bates
Candidate for Division Cabinet Chair-elect
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