Information Center Connections

Procrastination is not inevitable

Hmm...hard to believe it.  But that's what Amy Gallo has to say in the HBR blog post "Stop Procrastinating...Now."

We are all victims/willing participants in the procrastination game.  I do my best cleaning (desk, laundry, house) when I'm avoiding an even less desirable task. 

So, what does Ms. Gallo suggest?  Just a few strategies to help us make progress and feel good:

1.  Figure out why.  Two ideas here...it's something we don't like to do, or something we don't know how to do.  Personally, this won't help me get the job done, but it might work for some.

2.  Set deadlines.  Break the task into steps.  I can relate to this one.  I'm a list maker.  I get a huge feeling of accomplishment if I can cross something off a list.  Perhaps create a morning list, one for the day, or one for the week...whatever makes sense for your work flow or project.  Don't be discouraged by having to add things to your list...just keep working and crossing things off.  And accept that the list will never be complete.

3.  Increase the rewards.  Create little incentives like snack breaks, walks around the block, listening to music.  Did I mention snacks?

4.  Involve others.  Gallo mentions going to colleagues for advice, input.  Here, my suggestion is that if you own up to something externally you are more likely to do it.  Can't complete that paragraph about a new info center service?  Ask a colleague to review it.  Hate to exercise?  Walk with a friend. 

5.  Habit habit habit.  Take control of the situation, think about it, make an effort to do the job.  Focus.  Creating new patterns helps us move away from the mind games we play.  True accomplishment is much more rewarding than even a neat desk.

Now, get to work.  Open that e-mail you've been avoiding.  Get working on that budget. Then pat yourself on the back.

How do YOU handle procrastination?  Do you celebrate it?  Or have you conquered it?

Skills we all need

On the heels of SLA 2011, I discovered this series of posts from the Atlantic on critical skills for the future workforce.  The Institute for the Future outlined these ten competencies in Future Work Skills 2020. 

1.  Sense-making...aka "critical thinking."  Humans have this ability over computers, which are ubiquitous but without the ability to understand meaning and delve deeper.

2.  Social intelligence.  Connecting and interacting and the development of relationships with appropriate responses.

3.  Novel and adaptive thinking.  Haven't information professionals been called upon to be flexible?  We need to go where the need for our expertise and experience is apparent.  And we also need to create opportunities and offer services even where it is not.

4.  Cross-cultural competency.  The ability to work within diversity across ethnicities, experience, skills.

5.  Computational thinking.  What value can be added to data to make it useful?  It's no longer just research...it's analysis.

6.  New media literacy.  Communication and information sharing in all directions.  Utter engagement.  Many of us are here, but we can always do better to integrate new tools into our processes and services.

7.  Transdisciplinarity.  Gone are the days of one specialty and one employer.  Our skills and understanding must continue to evolve to keep pace with the changes in technology, disciplines, and industries.  Mashups at the career level, really.

8.  Design mindset.  How do you get there from here?  Develop tasks and construct plans to get your information center or information business where it needs to go.  There are no rules.

9.  Cognitive load management.  Information overload.  What's critical to your and to your clients and what's noise?  Filter, then filter some more.   

10.  Virtual collaboration.  Activities and processes have moved from that brick building over there to, well, everywhere and anywhere.  It's more than just e-mail...it's maintaining operations and services across walls and borders.

Do you have these skills?  If not, how will you get them?  SLA Webinars and conference CEs are two ways to keep your skills sharp and growing.  What is happening in your SLA chapter?  Take advantage of local programs to network, exchange ideas, and learn through virtual and onsite professional development programs. 

If you do have these skills...share them with others.  Help bring the profession forward for future success.

The challenges of prison librarianship

Avi Steinberg has written Running the Books, which describes his experiences running a prison library in Suffolk County, New York.  Read more on Amazon.

You know you're curious about it!

Avi was recently interviewed on NPR's "Talk of the Nation."  The NPR site also has an excerpt from the first chapter.

Sounds interesting, and challenging.  Some of the most popular genres in the collection?  Astrology and real estate.

Ethics and critical thinking

As the deadline for SLA 2010 advance registration approaches (fees go up on May 8th!), I hope you are thinking about what sessions and CE courses will inspire your day-to-day work, build upon your existing knowledge, and enhance your resume. I'd like to recommend one course in particular, "Information Ethics and Critical Thinking for Info Pros." We know information ethics are important, but how many of us know how to handle a sticky situation in the workplace?

SLA's Information Ethics Advisory Council has been working on guidelines for professional ethics for SLA members. The need to reach SLA members at the instructional level became apparent to the council's co-chairs, LIS professors and ethics experts Toni Carbo and Tom Froehlich, and a CE course at the upcoming conference was planned to complement SLA's recent work in the ethics arena. 

In this full-day course, offered on Saturday, 12 June, the instructors will introduce the principles of information ethics to participants and foster discussion about ethical challenges and the resolution of issues. Toni and Tom will use lectures, case study examination, and small group discussions to explore information ethics as it relates to privacy, intellectual property, freedom of expression, and the proliferation of newer techologies and the information explosion. 

The knowledge you take away from this course will help make you better-prepared to navigate ethical issues, and set you on a course to thinking critically about the difficult situations we are increasingly facing in the information setting.

A full list of SLA-sponsored CE courses can be found on the Click U Web site. Register for CE courses today, as classes are filling up! Please send any questions to clicku@sla.org.

We look foward to seeing you in New Orleans at SLA 2010!

Are you continuing your education?

Have you thought about your skills and knowledge lately?

SLA 2010 offers many opportunities to improve your skills and expand your knowledge. In addition to the CE courses offered by SLA's divisions, SLA HQ offers additional courses that have a broad appeal to members and non-members alike.

Want to learn more about social networking? Copyright? Coaching? Federated search?  It's all there.

Please review the course offerings and register for one (or more!) today. The full descriptions are available in the online planner, and you can sign up through the conference registration page.

Certificate program courses are also being held during the conference.  Descriptions and registration forms can be found on the Click University Web site.

Questions?  E-mail me at clicku@sla.org.  See you in New Orleans!

Special price for the 2008 Salary Survey

Did you know that...

...new for the 2008 SLA Salary Survey was a chapter just for CI and Research responsibilities?

...almost 25% of your U.S.-based SLA colleagues that responded to the survey identified themselves as administrators or managers?

...the median salary for U.S. federal government employees who responded to the survey was $79,000?

...with the purchase of the print/PDF salary survey you receive access to the online calculator, with which you can combine more than one data set?

...now through September 15th, the 2008 SLA Salary Survey is available at the special price of $34.95 for members?

Take this opportunity to find out what you're worth!

The rankings...

U.S. News & World Report has released its ratings of various graduate school programs, including schools of library and information studies (that's us!).

Unless you're a premium online edition subscriber (or buy access to the ratings), the information on the site is not too detailed, but a perusal of the rankings may be all you're curious about.

What I like about the ratings...they also rank program specialties.  So, you can see the top 5 programs for archives and preservation, digital librarianship, health librarianship, information systems, law librarianship, school library media, and children's/youth services.

What's on top?  A shared #1 spot for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and UNC-Chapel Hill.

How were the programs ranked?  Surveys were sent to key people in each of the LIS schools, with a 56% response rate.  In total, 50 programs were included on the list.

So, what do you think?  Are these ratings important?  Important to all information professionals or just to individuals looking to enter a program?  Are the ratings valid?  As Jerry Seinfeld said in the "World's Greatest Dad" episode, "I don't know how official any of these rankings really are."  Maybe it's what you need and are trying to accomplish that count the most.

Online course on evidence-based practice

UNC's School of Information and Library Science is offering a course in evidence-based librarianship in the Spring 2009 semester.  The course, "Evidence-based Library and Information Practice," will be offered online, and Joanne Gard Marshall and Carol Perryman are the instructors.

For a full description of the course, visit the SILS website.

More about evidence-based practice for librarians can be found in the LIS Research portal on SLA's website.