SLA: A Time for New Initiatives

CI Division formed, fundraising goal set, certification coming

by Susan DiMattia & Lynn Blumenstein -- Library Journal, 7/15/2004

Several initiatives were announced at the Special Libraries Association (d.b.a. SLA) conference, June 4–9, at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville. "SLA has moved out of a period of uncertainty," Executive Director Janice Lachance told members.

A petition drive resulted in formation of a Competitive Intelligence (CI) Division from the former CI Section of the Leadership and Management Division. The board encouraged the member-driven Division Cabinet to explore creation of two new divisions, one for government agencies and issues and one for medical/health sciences information professionals.

Lachance, who is nearing her first anniversary with SLA, surprised even some leaders when she announced a campaign to raise $1 million for professional development initiatives—a goal that could be reached in a year if each of the approximately 12,000 members of SLA gives $84.

She called an emerging certification program the foundation of SLA's professional development strategy. In addition, SLA will partner with Learn.com to develop an e-learning center, to debut in June 2005.

SLA will do market analysis of other countries to determine new opportunities. A new chapter in Australia and New Zealand was authorized.

Incoming president Ethel Salonen, in her inaugural remarks, encouraged members to market themselves and "Be the Brand." She was heard several times during the conference advising people that she does not intend to use "the L word" at all in the coming year.

The 3,839 registrants included 1670 paid members and 1240 paid exhibitors. There were 981 nonpaying participants, such as speakers and exhibits-only passes. Those numbers compare with 4,057 paid participants and exhibitors in New York City in 2003. The conference in New York City drew 2,361 nonpaying participants.

The exhibit hall was relatively active, particularly during the generous "exhibits only" time slots each day. SLA tried a new and costly tactic to attract people to the exhibit floor. At several appointed times during the day, a winner was chosen by lottery and awarded $1500 in cash.

"Outsourcing Selective Library Functions," a paid lunch session offered by the SLA Business and Finance Division, delivered the anticipated controversy. Duncan McKenzie of PepsiCo explained how a staff of two manages information services for 90,000 employees worldwide—by outsourcing almost everything regardless of increased cost.

McKenzie's staff of nine was laid off ten years ago; now he manages the vendors who handle subscriptions, cataloging, document delivery, interlibrary loan, and searching. Additionally, he and one staffer handle internal publications, CI reports, and consultative work. He admits that these efforts cost more than hiring internal staff, but PepsiCo prefers this setup.

A team from Lehman Bros. delivered a candid progress report on its efforts to "offshore" selected research duties to staff in India. During summer 2003, the company entered into a pilot program with an Indian vendor, enabled the vendor with company technology and subscriptions to databases, and assigned 250 research requests.

The Indian researchers initially did not do quality work, acknowledged Chip Lyons of the Business Information Services (BIS) team. So BIS created detailed tip sheets, held weekly meetings with vendors, and brought an Indian representative to New York for training.

Ultimately, Lehman determined that specialized rather than general functions would be best offshored. Now the offshore staff use a template to create Company Profiles, a one-page overview of statistics, news, and insights into private and public companies.

Lyons said that there was "so much support" it was easier to get buy-in for this project than for domestic outsourcing—but he wouldn't comment on whether the pilot was more cost effective.