Folks, there’s still time to sign up for Not the CIA: Competitive Intelligence and Analysis in the Real World, the spring conference of the Upstate New York Chapter of SLA.
Not only will the conference be covering great material that’s rarely emphasized in a library context, but it’ll also be held at the Corning Museum of Glass, which is pretty damned spectacular.
Details and the link to the registration form can be found here. Hope to see you there!
Just what it says in the title, folks: registration is still open for The Librarian’s Toolbox: Reopened!, the fall conference of the Upstate New York Chapter of SLA. We’ve got some excellent presentations and posters lined up, and I think it’s going to be a helluva good day for libraryfolk who attend. It’s also being held at the Craftsman Inn in Fayettesville, NY, just outside of Syracuse, and that’s a great venue.
Details and the link to the registration form can be found here. Hope to see you there!
Please submit your proposals, folks! The deadline in September 3.
The Upstate Chapter of the Special Libraries Association invites you to submit a proposal for our fall conference that will be held in Syracuse on Friday, November 8, 2013. We are reprising one of our most successful conferences in the past few years – The Librarian’s Toolbox: Reopened!
We are inviting proposals for presentations of either 15 or 30 minutes, or posters, showcasing innovative or cutting edge tools: software, hardware, services or techniques.
Examples of topics might include software, strategies or practices you have developed or worked with that support your colleagues or constituents. This could include:
· Productivity software
· Collaborative tools
· Innovative technique
In your proposal, please provide the following:
· Title of proposal
· Indicate whether this is a poster or a 15 or 30 minute presentation
· Abstract or brief description of about 100-300 words
· Your name, title, and affiliation (employer or school)
· Contact information (email address)
Submission of proposals:
Please submit your proposal via our web form no later than September 3, 2013. Selected presenters will be notified no later than September 9, 2013 (the date registration opens).
See you in November!
Linda, UNYSLA President-Elect, on behalf of the UNYSLA Board
I’m coming up for air, baby.
It’s a sign of just what this semester’s been like that it’s taken me a full month to post about my recent election as President-Elect of the Upstate New York Chapter of the special Libraries Association. (In case they haven’t updated it by the time you click: yes, the election is actually done.) My term doesn’t officially start until January, but I’m already getting down to business: specifically, making arrangements to travel to the SLA Leadership Summit in Atlanta in January, and finding space and speakers for the April Chapter meetings.
Prez-elect is a one year gig, but it also involves spending 2013 as President, and 2014 as Past President. I’m looking forward to this; my involvement in UNYSLA, taken with my place on the SLA Academic Division Board, indicates that I made the right call backing SLA with my membership dues. I have a feeling the next three years will be highly educational, and not just because I’m on board for three straight Leadership Summits.
This year’s Summit comes hard on the heels of the week I’ll spend out in Trumansburg, NY, for a Cornell-sponsored leadership shindig. I’m a bit apprehensive about that one: not just because of an additional hour’s drive every day in central NY in January, but also because it’ll involve things like my first real 360-degree eval. I tapped about thirty folks for that one, so it should be interesting.
The whole thing’s gotten me thinking about leadership in libraries again, and specifically leadership in my current position. I’m worried that some or all of this stuff will end up conflating leadership with management, and while I’m sure my managerial skills could use work I’d prefer these events give me what it says on the tin. I’m the head of digital projects group, chair of a committee, I push the occasional project, et cetera and so forth… but I’m not sure that makes me a leader, though. Not sure these events will clear up the ambiguity, either.
But I guess we can hope, yeah?
In any case, I’m off on Winter Break starting tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully, enough stuff will be squared away that I won’t have to bring nearly as much work home as I did over Thanksgiving. But even if I do, I still can’t feel other than blessed: 2011’s been a rough year for many, and I seem to be coming out of it with more than I probably deserve.
Happy holidays, all. And if, as seems likely, I don’t post again in the next week, Happy 2012.
I really thought I’d have time to write up that reflective post on CiL 2011, but apparently time did not stop while I was in DC. Terribly inconsiderate, and it made for a crazy week.
In any case, I’ve got another opportunity to do the public speaking thing this Friday, April 8, at the UNYSLA‘s “Toot Your Own Horn: Measuring & Meeting Your Objectives” event. Here’s the blurb for my bit:
Plural of Anecdote: Assessing the Success of a Digital Repository
Anyone who’s taken a stats class — and plenty of other folks besides — knows the danger of relying on unsupported anecdotal evidence. Yet the data available to us through our myriad assessment tools often proves ineffective or disconnected without the context provided by a strong narrative. This session will discuss how the Web & Digital Projects Group at Cornell University’s Catherwood Library seeks to find a balance, using stories and data analysis to not only assess the success of DigitalCommons@ILR and their other projects, but also define what success means for those projects.
Honestly, you should just click through and read the description of the whole event: listening to Jill Hurst-Wahl speak is always worth it, and while I’m not as familiar with his work it sounds like Sean Branagan should bring a lot to the table as well.
So if you can make the trip, I’m betting it’ll be worth your while to do so. Hope to see you there!
The Nascent Librarian 