Leaders, unite!

Posted on February 11, 2013 by cyndera

What a great Leadership Summit in Dallas, TX! I attended last year’s summit in Atlanta, and I have to admit that, looking back, I was a bit overwhelmed. This year though I knew a little better what was going on, and I learned a lot! Listening to fellow librarians, the SLA board and staff was truly inspiring and eye-opening.

The news that we all were most excited about was the upcoming launch of the new SLA web site (thanks for the picture, Chris). It has a wonderfully clean look … way to go, HQ!

Despite the great weather in Dallas, we spent most of our time in conference rooms; but I haven’t heard anybody complain about it. The sessions were too interesting to do so. True to our current challenges, we heard and talked a lot about budget, membership retention and engagement, developing leadership skills etc. It’s a great experience to learn from other professionals, and in turn to share my own knowledge (which is, compared to others, very limited).

My favorite session was held by Jeffra Bussman (Physics, Astronomy and Mathematics Division) and Valerie Ryder (Philadelphia Chapter), who presented their division’s/chapter’s brand new strategic plans. Thanks to their hard work, other divisions (like mine) don’t have to reinvent the wheel but can use these documents as template to create their own plans for the future. Thanks, ladies and everyone involved in this effort!

Thanks to the following people to share their stories about how their involvement in SLA helped them in their careers as leaders: Richard Huffine, Ulla de Stricker, Sara Tompson, Stacey Greenwell and Tom Rink (the “guncarryinglibrarian” … gotta love this guy even if you are (like me) not a fan of guns).

Finally, this year’s Fellows and Rising Stars were announced by President Deb Hunt:

2013 Fellows: David Cappoli, Dennie Heye, Martha Foote, Mary Talley, Rebecca Vargha
2013 Rising Stars: Alyson Avery, Kendra Levine, Amy Sarola, Rachel Bates Wilfahrt, Aileen Marshall.

Thanks to all who made this summit a great experience! See you all in San Diego! And for those who can’t wait, check out this awesome kick-off video:

Last but not least a big thank you to all our sponsors, who made the summit possible!

Pen & Paper

Posted on February 9, 2013 by cyndera

I had an awesome time in Dallas, TX, attending the SLA Leadership Summit 2013. Aside from seeing old friends and making new ones (hi, Jason!), we were predominantly busy listening to great speakers or discussing topics at out tables. Thanks, Tom Rink, for making our table the best in the room!
We learned a lot during the past three days -well, at least I did- but at some point I came to a surprising realization: Despite the fact that I had my iPad with me (and you all know I LOVE mu iPad), I found myself using notepads and those bright orange hotel pens during every meeting. It did not really dawn on me until I got to the airport and started reading one of the books I won at a raffle, titled “Boring Meetings Suck. According to the author, the most used items in meetings are not the newest high-tech gadgets but the good old flip chart and marker, pens, and paper. And it’s true! It’s so much more fun to write things down, cross them out, and ornate your notes with a doodle or two … depending on the quality, they might even show up on the Twitter feed. Mine never make it there, I am bad at this.
So, in the end I guess that sometimes simple tools is really all we need

See you in San Diego; maybe I can learn to doodle until then and share my artwork with you. At the very least you’ll get a good laugh out of it!

SLA Leadership Summit 2012 in Atlanta, GA

Posted on January 29, 2012 by cyndera

The 2012 SLA Leadership Summit is over, and I returned to DC with a lot of good ideas, advice, and business cards. As the current chair-elect of the Government Information Division, this event was a must for me, and it proved to be extremely helpful. We heard awesome speeches by several members of the community, including topics such as engaging remote members, programming, community outreach, etc.
I look forward to working with our current chair, Kim Schultz, as well as our past chair Marie Kaddell. I know that both ladies will help be getting used to and comfortable with being a leader, and I am sure I will learn a lot from them as well as from leaders of other divisions and chapters. I owe my thanks and gratitude to Mary Talley, past president of the DC Chapter, for her confidence in me, as well as Vic, Chris, James, and others.

As chair-elect I am in charge of planning the DGI program for the SLA annual conference in 2013.
If you have any ideas for sessions or know somebody who would make a great speaker, let me know! Contact me via the “Contact Me” button or send me an email to Aileen.Marshall.ctr(at)dot.gov

Last but not least, here are some pictures from Atlanta, mostly from the aquarium. This as the first time I have seen whale sharks and manta rays. Truly magnificent animals!

Today in History

Posted on October 4, 2011 by cyndera

Coming up with good Tweets and FB posts for work can be a challenge at times, especially if one has to pay attention not only to the social media etiquette but also to a federal agency’s social media policy.

The National Transportation Library’s collection includes a wonderful book called “The American Book of Days”, by Jane M. Hatch, and I use it quite often to see if any of those dates are related to transportation issues. I also found out that my birthday, April 10, marks the birthday of William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army. He was born in 1829 in Nottingham, England (Robin Hood anyone?).

Today, while hunting for good tweeting and posting material, I came across the web site “This Day in History“, and found out that today, back in 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite.

While that is somewhat transportation-related I thought it was more appropriate to leave this topic to NASA and check for something more down to earth.

So, this day in Transportation History, President A. Lincoln observed the first balloon demonstration near Washington, DC (1861) and in 1992 a cargo plane crashed into an apartment building near an airport in Amsterdam, Holland. The first occurrence is obviously a happier event; however, the NTL has an online special collection of historial aircraft accident reports, which are quite interesting. You can find them on the Special Collections page, along with some other interesting resources.

And going back to my tweets and posts: Last week my co-worker and I held a presentation about Federal Libraries and Social Media at the Library of Congress. Our Power Point presentation will be online shortly. We’ve gotten great feedback so far, so I hope that you’ll enjoy the presentation.

FLICC/FEDLINK Presentation

Posted on September 2, 2011 by cyndera

My colleague Rosalind Romain (law librarian here at NTL) and I will be presenting at a workshop facilitated by the Institute for Library Technicians, held at the Library of Congress September 29 & 30. Our presentation will focus on library technology and social media.

From the announcement:

This two-day institute, the newest offering in FLICC’s series
for federal library technicians, will begin to prepare new and seasoned technicians for the expanded roles library technicians are filling as the architecture of our libraries is changing.
In line with FLICC’s recently released “Competencies for Librarians”, this training program will feature those skills that federal library technicians need to meet the challenges of the latest trends in federal libraries.

The program will feature:

~ ROI for libraries and library technicians
~ Managing A Library: A Technicians Prospective
~ Disaster Preparedness
~ Budgeting for Federal Libraries
~ Library Technology Management and Social Media
~ Library Para-Professionalism
~ HR Competencies Assessment
~ Competencies for a Competitive Advantage

Speakers will be representing a variety of federal agencies including
the Departments of the Interior, Justice and Transportation, Law Library of Congress, Army Counterintelligence Center and the Library of Congress.

Librarians having fun at SLA

Posted on July 7, 2011 by cyndera

How to write (another) scholarship-winning essay

Posted on June 28, 2011 by cyndera

Well, this one is a few months old … this student stipend was given out by the SLA Business & Finance Division in March to attend the 2011 SLA Annual Conference in Philly, which I truly enjoyed. So, after everything is said and done, here is the essay that seemed to have impressed the scholarship committee

What skills must the new information professional possess?
Aileen Marshall, 2011

After graduating in May this year, it is my goal to work in the field of business/competitive intelligence. It is thanks to Dr. Kendra Albright, instructor for business librarianship at USC, that I became interested in this field. Since taking her class she has become my mentor, and I enjoy discussing current and future issues of business librarianship with her. This semester I am helping her develop her next class, which will focus on competitive intelligence and business research. The class will not only introduce appropriate research methods and resources but will also discuss the skills that a business librarian should possess in order to excel in their work and be an asset to any company or organization.
There are, of course, the obvious skills: ability to conduct reference interviews, to choose the most appropriate resource and search strategy, to compile the information into the end-result. a
But I think that there is a skill set that, especially in light of the budget cuts, is becoming more and more important to be Future Ready: Customer service, and everything that this term incorporates. Information professionals are service providers, no matter what environment they work in. It is important to be approachable: smile at your clients, and give them the feeling that they and their needs are important. They have to be comfortable in order to open up and ask for information, and more importantly give enough details for you to understand what they really want. During the reference interview make sure that you listen well and not simply assume you know what the client wants. Engage him or her, make them part of the search process, if they are waiting for a result. If you are working on a more complex research task, it is important not only to consult the usual sources (company web sites, databases, government agencies such as the SEC) but also more non-traditional sources such as open-source information and social media. The latter has become more and more important for company research, and used properly it can be a valuable tool. I mention this because of the most important skills information professionals can and should possess is open-mindedness. Don’t get stuck in your ways. Value trusted sources but don’t be afraid to branch out: Be creative!
Another skill I believe to be one of the most important ones is the ability and willingness to advocate for our profession. Don’t let anybody take you for granted, or worse, tell you that librarians and information professionals are obsolete and that everything can be googled nowadays. By involving your clients in your research they will learn that what we do is not nearly as simple as some people make it out to be. Make it your mission to teach something every day, whether it is telling a client about a great resource, about the internet and the difference between what they see and the deep web, or about the astronomical amount of information that is out there. Let them know that you are the person that sifts through, compiles, indexes, and makes it available to staff and clients in a clean, concise format.
Show passion for what you do. It is easy if you love what you do and if you are proud to be an information professional, a librarian. I know I certainly am.

2011 Digital Citizen Satisfaction Summit

Posted on May 17, 2011 by cyndera

I was fortunate to attend the summit at the Ronald Reagan Building and Trade Center . This annual Summit, a full day of educational presentations, case studies and panels to help people who manage websites and emerging digital channels in government and non-profit organizations. The amazing speakers (the best of all Todd Park, Chief Technology Officer, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) presented and discussed their strategies for collecting data and acting on citizen and constituent feedback to further organizational goals, and meet administrative initiatives. This was a free event, limited to government and nonprofit employees, or contractors working directly on government or nonprofit websites.

The most important message that all the speakers agreed on was that today’s citizens are multi-channel users, which means that the government will have to utilize these channels to reach as many citizens as possible. Another message that I will take to heart was said by Larry Fred, President and CEO, ForeSee Results: You can’t manage what you don’t measure. Numbers are important. They show you were you succeed and deliver great service, and they point out areas where your web site or service needs improvement.

We also learned about how web sites should be designed to provide the most usability, as well as great navigation and content. My favorite part was to learn about “screen real estate”, white noise on web sites, links, contrast, etc.

On my way home I went through my notes and was happy with what I got out of the summit. Oh, and plenty of good food was included, too!

ALA Saturday- Slowly falling apart

Posted on June 27, 2010 by cyndera

My first Saturday session was one the best ones so far. Hosted by the RUSA/MARS Committee, four speakers talked about ways they implemented mobile technology into their services to cater to users on the go.

Most of the ideas revolved around the problem on what libraries should focus on when building their Web presence for mobile devices. Users who use library services this way usually look for quick information such as opening hours, phone numbers, locations, etc., whereas catalog and database access is still limited.

Some thought was also given to the way data is pulled from the regular Web page to the mobile page, and how the latter should be coded. Images and unnecessary HTML code should be cut out so the mobile page displays well across a broad variety of platforms (iPhone, Android).

Interactive pages that display which libraries are currently open, how many computers are available in the computer lab and so on is also interesting to think about, as well as the idea to use QR codes, which can be scanned with cell phones to retrieve information.

Oh, and another highlight, of course, was Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse with one of my professors.

If you will excuse me now, I need to shop for new feet and possibly a new shoulder.

Friday @ALA

Posted on June 25, 2010 by cyndera

Went to my first program this morning: Careers in Federal Libraries … conveniently located at the Library of Congress. So I got to check out my internship-place at the same time.

The workshop featured librarians from different types of federal libraries and agencies, which explained mainly what their department does, how to get into a federal library etc. They have some nice fellowship programs etc. that I will check out.
My next session will be tonight. Well, it will be a Meet and Greet Happy Hour held by MARS/BRASS. Should be interesting. I get to meet my intern-supervisor as well.
Right now I am at the convention center. Exhibits are not open yet, so I will check those out tomorrow. Right now I am just giving my feet a rest and trying to figure out how I can stuff all my things into one bag instead of carrying two or more. I also have to head to Metro Center since I forgot my Smart Card. DUH.

Librarian Extrovertinaire

Category Archives: Conferences & Summits