This is a busy time of year for library association conferences, and that means that I have been busy, too. Since the first of the year, I have been to SLA’s Leadership Summit, ALA’s Midwinter Meeting, and the IFLA Presidential Meeting. Together, these gatherings left me with several impressions.
First, librarians and knowledge and information professionals around the world are facing similar challenges and are working for the same basic goal: to make knowledge available so that it can be used to build a better world. The developing world, in particular, views knowledge in much the same way as did SLA’s founders: as a driver of desperately needed growth, creator of wealth, and catalyst for employment.
In a worldwide economic crisis, effectively amassing, analyzing, and disseminating information demands persistence, creativity and cooperation among knowledge and information professionals. That last concept, cooperation, is at the forefront in face-to-face meetings, where there are plenty of opportunities for formal and informal discussion and problem solving.
I imagine that professionals of every kind benefit from conferences, but in few professions are conferences quite as essential to growth as they seem to be for librarians and knowledge and information pros. Put a group of you in a room and there is an undeniable chemistry and the beginnings of productive relationships that often last decades.
If you were not able to join us at SLA’s Leadership Summit, be sure to check out the presentations. I am looking forward more than ever to SLA 2010 in New Orleans and hope you are, too.
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