SLA: Uncertainty Breeds Determination

Under active discussion and planning for three years, the proposal to give the Special Libraries Association (SLA) a new name disintegrated in less than five minutes at SLA's June conference in New York City, unable to get the votes it needed. So a new branding initiative using the longstanding name will move forward. A new executive director took her place, but the "place" of SLA headquarters is yet to be determined. SLA membership has been rebuilt to 12,250. After SLA treasurer Richard Geiger characterized it as an "economically challenged" year, SLA's FY02 closed with a surplus, thanks in part to cost cuts at headquarters. All of this uncertainty and achievement greeted the approximately 6500 people who registered for SLA's 94th annual conference, "Putting Knowledge to Work," June 7–12.

Seasoned veterans and people new to the information professions, many at SLA face uncertain times professionally, as organizations cut staff, budgets, and sometimes whole libraries. Most registrants came for the networking and continuing education opportunities.

The conference committee and the local arrangements contingent from the New York Chapter provided a positive experience despite inevitable glitches. The signs at the New York Hilton made it difficult to find SLA events. Exhibits, located on three floors, ranged from spacious to cramped. Efforts to lure people to the upper floors with free coffee and massages didn't quiet the disgruntled exhibitors. A "ticket" fee of $5 was tacked on to a few sessions, without explanation.

Famous speakers keynoted each day, each assigned a "track" topic. Pulitzer Prize–winning author David McCullough filled the Hilton's Grand Ballroom. "You're my heroes," he said, adding that the public should think of a library as a place of learning and knowledge and "as a place where there are librarians." With drama and humor, McCullough described his early attraction to research in college. "I discovered what I wanted to do with my life in a library." The Future Directions track, designed to "stretch" participants' thinking, featured familiar futurist Stuart Brand.

At the Closing General Session, a standing ovation greeted Madeleine Albright, 64th U.S. Secretary of State and highest-ranking woman in the Clinton administration. She pointed out that similarities between both the information industry and government are influenced by globalization and fragmentation and warned that technology by itself is no substitute for leadership. "The gadgetry that will truly determine the future is the human mind." She then encouraged the librarians to promote information technology as a changemaker and a platform of progress.

Just a day before the conference, the SLA Board of Directors signed a contract with its long-awaited executive director. Janice Lachance, a lawyer and consultant who served from 1997 to 2001 as director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, was introduced at many sessions. She replaces Roberta Shaffer, who resigned in February 2002 after only five months in office, and Interim Director Lynn Smith. Lachance's political connections in Washington, DC, were obvious when keynoter Albright congratulated SLA on the appointment, relating how the two of them had often collaborated on staffing issues during the Clinton years.

The board approved the sale of SLA's historic headquarters building in Washington, to be replaced by leased or purchased space. Real estate consultants expect that the building—too large for SLA and too costly to mantain—can bring about $8 million. There is limited parking, staff is spread over three floors, and technology connections are inadequate, inhibiting effective daily operations. SLA's new space will be in a central business district in Washington or Alexandria, VA.

An updated list of competencies was accepted by the board. The first edition, completed in 1996, has been widely used for writing job descriptions, making a case for salary increases, creating plans of study in graduate programs, and demonstrating the value of information professionals. The latest document expands the already unwieldy number of specific competencies outlined in the original, but it is better organized and presented. It defines an information professional as one who "strategically uses information in his/her job to advance the mission of the organization…through the development, deployment, and management of information resources and services." Information professionals include, but are not limited to, librarians, knowledge managers, chief information officers, web developers, information brokers, and consultants.

Major competencies include managing information organizations, information resources, and information services and applying information tools and technologies. Personal competencies include being strong communicators, demonstrating the added value of their contributions, and remaining flexible and positive in an ever-changing environment. Two core competencies anchor all the others:

• Information professionals contribute to the knowledge base of the profession by sharing best practices and experiences and continue to learn about information products, services, and management practices.
• Information professionals commit to professional excellence and ethics and to the values and principles of the profession.

The complete document is at www.sla.org, under "Resources at a Glance."

A record number of members and nonmembers, nearly 1000, stayed after Albright's address to witness the historic vote on the SLA name change at the conclusion of the Closing General Session. The two choices presented were SLA (simple initials) and Information Professionals International (IPI).

Impassioned and articulate statements were made for both. One pro-IPI speaker urged the group to recognize that organizations pay information technology people more than librarians. "We ought to give ourselves a name that will help with salaries," she said. Others said a new name would make SLA more inclusive, focusing on the competencies of members who are the providers of valuable content rather than just libraries as place. To attract new professionals entering nontraditional segments of the profession, it was argued that a name without the word library is essential. SLA is too difficult to explain, but IPI will be understood by society, said another.

Someone else asked, "How many 'librarians' do you know who have been promoted to top positions such as managing director, and what message does the name of your professional association give to your management?" While one person, supporting the name SLA, said people know what a librarian is, another said that her mother introduced her as an information professional because that is a term she is seeing in the business literature. A member from outside North America noted that SLA has not promoted itself as global, despite several years of giving lip service to the concept, so he had a problem with the name IPI. One woman said she was uncomfortable with removing the word library or librarian and wondered whether SLA would alienate the rest of the profession by taking that step. Another said, "We're all proud of what we do, and I'm proud to have fought to keep the word librarian in my title."

In the first two votes IPI garnered a majority. A third vote, requiring two-thirds to change the name in the SLA bylaws, failed. Of 890 votes cast, 594 would have been needed, but only 521 were in favor of the change. For lack of 73 votes the name change was stopped. Preliminary surveys indicated that nearly 75 percent of SLA members in the for-profit sector favor a change. The New York outcome came as a shock to them. Either the support was insufficient to get a two-thirds total, or many people had left the room by the time the final vote was taken.

With the 94-year-old name, SLA staff and leadership will immediately begin a branding initiative to communicate to decision-makers the value that SLA members bring to their organizations.

Incoming SLA president Cindy Hill commented that the initiative would have been undertaken regardless of the vote. "The name Special Libraries Association is a highly recognized and respected brand name in the information industry. It stands for professional excellence, ethics, and best practices in the management of knowledge-based organizations," Hill continued. "Keeping our name allows us to build on our heritage over the past century, while keeping our focus on the expanding information economy of the 21st."