I was recently honored to deliver a paper at the Kanazawa Institute of Technology (KIT) Library Roundtable in Japan. The KIT Roundtable has its roots in the aftermath of WWII, when the Library of Congress helped to rebuild the Japan’s National Diet Library. The Japanese were so grateful they decided to endow an annual exchange of ideas between librarians from Japan and the United States.
This conference was structured like no other I have ever attended. It was a two-day event, and all of five speakers presented their papers on the first day. (I was asked to speak about The Role of Special Librarians in Organizational e-Learning.) The second day was devoted entirely to questions the members of the audience submitted at the end of the first day. We received 95 questions! The moderators divided them into subject areas, and you won’t be surprised to hear that a number of the questions could have come from information professionals anywhere in the world.
Like many of you, Japanese information professionals are working hard to demonstrate value and remain relevant to their employers. They are actively seeking additional ways – beyond the traditional duties of a special librarian – to align themselves with their organization’s mission and goals.
They asked many questions about how they could expand their role into capturing knowledge for their organization, how they could implement e-learning strategies to upgrade the skills of their co-workers, and how they could help their colleagues throughout their organizations become information literate.
There was lots of discussion about the benefits of distance learning versus face-to-face learning, with an understanding that both are necessary and beneficial.
The underlying values the attendees articulated throughout the conference were a reflection of SLA’s Alignment Project – position yourself at the center of your organization’s goals and mission and know your customer.
By the way, they love SLA’s Competencies for Information Professionals of the 21st Century document; many said that they have used it to map their careers and continuing education. Take another look at it if you haven’t in a while.
This conference was structured like no other I have ever attended. It was a two-day event, and all of five speakers presented their papers on the first day. (I was asked to speak about The Role of Special Librarians in Organizational e-Learning.) The second day was devoted entirely to questions the members of the audience submitted at the end of the first day. We received 95 questions! The moderators divided them into subject areas, and you won’t be surprised to hear that a number of the questions could have come from information professionals anywhere in the world.
Like many of you, Japanese information professionals are working hard to demonstrate value and remain relevant to their employers. They are actively seeking additional ways – beyond the traditional duties of a special librarian – to align themselves with their organization’s mission and goals.
They asked many questions about how they could expand their role into capturing knowledge for their organization, how they could implement e-learning strategies to upgrade the skills of their co-workers, and how they could help their colleagues throughout their organizations become information literate.
There was lots of discussion about the benefits of distance learning versus face-to-face learning, with an understanding that both are necessary and beneficial.
The underlying values the attendees articulated throughout the conference were a reflection of SLA’s Alignment Project – position yourself at the center of your organization’s goals and mission and know your customer.
By the way, they love SLA’s Competencies for Information Professionals of the 21st Century document; many said that they have used it to map their careers and continuing education. Take another look at it if you haven’t in a while.
