SLA Academic Keeps Growing

So it's been three years since we began the petition drive for the SLA Academic Division. The division was officially formed in January 2009. We had our first round of programs at the 2009 SLA Annual Conference despite having any funds, and already we were 225 members strong. In 2010, we had our first "real" set of conference programs with several standing-room-only sessions, a spotlight session, and a Sunday night dance party. In 2011, we launched our open access, peer-reviewed journal, Practical Academic Librarianship: the International Journal of the SLA Academic Division. Last month at the SLA Annual Conference, we had a number of outstanding programs (check out our Twitter feed for details) and a spotlight session, not to mention the must-attend Karaoke Night. I am thrilled at all of this progress and that three years later the division is at 525 members and growing.

A huge thanks to everyone who made SLA Academic possible and keeps moving us forward--you guys are the best!

Call for Papers for SLA Academic's Journal

I am so delighted that the SLA Academic division is seeking articles for its inaugural issue of its open access, peer reviewed journal: Practical Academic Librarianship: The International Journal of the SLA Academic Division.

For more information, check out this post for details.

SLA Academic's First Programs

SLA Academic Division Roudtable / Unconference
Originally uploaded by kendrak

Last week at the SLA Annual Conference, the Academic division held its first roundtable/unconference meeting and its first annual business meeting. I was thrilled beyond words to see more than 50 academic librarians gathered for a lively unconference discussion. I participated in the commons table, of course, and gained several new commons contacts I probably would not have met otherwise. Special thanks to Amy, Kendra, and Meg for leading an outstanding series of discussions.

More than 30 SLA members attended the first annual business meeting of the division. It was so exciting to make history, and at the centennial conference, no less! As we had very little in the way of official business, we used the meeting as an open forum for ideas regarding the future of the division. I think just about everyone there wanted to join a committee or take a leadership role, so I know I will be leaving the division in good hands. At 225 members and counting, I think we are well on our way to establishing a valuable community for academic librarians.

New Blog of Interest to Academic Librarians

I know many of us probably subscribe to about all we can handle right now (how often do you "mark all as read"?) but here's one more blog for the mix:

The SLA Academic blog is the blog of the new SLA Academic Division. While the blog will serve as a newsletter of the division with some posts about division activities, it will also include commentary and links of interest relevant to academic librarians from any subject discipline. With authors from a wide range of libraries around the world, this is one worth adding to your reader.

Why you should elect me to the SLA Board of Directors

I am delighted to be running for the SLA Board of Directors position of Division Cabinet Chair-Elect. While I am also an ALA member like most of my commons colleagues, I have considered SLA my professional home since getting involved in 2001. Getting involved is one way of putting it; when I attended my very first Kentucky Chapter event (I will never forget it as they served mimosas--what a classy organization, I thought) I was immediately tasked with editing the chapter Bulletin. At my first Information Technology Division meeting, I took on the responsibility of Membership and Awards Chair for one of SLA's largest divisions.

From there, I have served in numerous leadership roles, mostly division or Annual Conference-focused:

2009, Candidate for Board of Directors, Division Cabinet Chair-Elect
2009, Inducted into the Fellows of SLA
2009-10, Member, 2010 Annual Conference Advisory Council
2009, Chair, Academic Division
2009, Co-Chair, Centennial Commission Website Subcommittee
2007-09, Member, Centennial Commission and Annual Conference Advisory Council
2008, Member, Second Life Task Force
2008, Past Chair, Information Technology Division
2008, Award Recpient, Outstanding Chapter Member Award, Kentucky Chapter
2007, Chair, Information Technology Division
2007-08, Chair, Virtual Presence, Kentucky Chapter
2006, Chair-Elect, Information Technology Division
2006, Award Recipient, Professional Award, Kentucky Chapter
2005-06, Member, Technology Review Advisory Group
2004-05, Secretary, Kentucky Chapter
2004-05, Program Planner, Information Technology Division
2002-04, Chair, Membership Services and Awards, Information Technology Division
2002-04, Editor, Chapter Bulletin, Kentucky Chapter

So why should you vote for me for SLA Division Cabinet Chair-Elect?

I have participated in annual conference planning on some level since 2004. For those of you who are familiar with the legendary IT Division Dance Party, I helped IT program planner Heather Kotula with the division's first dance party back at the Nashville conference. Truly I learned from the master of conference planning as we had an excellent conference in Toronto in 2005 when I took the lead. As Chair of the IT Division, I had the opportunity to mentor several program planners over the next few years. From there I became involved in annual conference planning at the association level, serving on two conference committees back-to-back. Some of the SLA staff have joked that I could probably recite what is said at the planners meetings as I've attended them for the last five years.

I took on the task of launching a new division focused on those who work in academic libraries. For many of us, it is impossible to attend multiple conferences to get all of the information we need. SLA excels in subject-specific programming and is an outstanding organization for networking and building leadership skills. Several of us realized that we could create a division of SLA which would welcome academics from all subject specialties and focus on issues that affect us all: information literacy, working with faculty, promotion/tenure, and so forth. The process of launching this division was not without controversy and became downright unpleasant at times. Despite that, we succeeded and this year I am serving as SLA Academic's first Chair.

I am your go-to technology person. Whether I am pulled from a conference session to fix someone's malfunctioning laptop or I get a phone call to advise on a blog-or-wiki dilemma, I am frequently asked to advise on technology issues. I launched SLA's original Facebook presence back in summer 2006. At that time, it was a novelty to find a colleague on Facebook; there certainly weren't many of us there, and there certainly weren't many (any?) library organizations using Facebook. For any group I work with, I am often the blog/wiki/web/Google Docs/IM/Facebook/Second Life/you-get-the-idea expert tasked with developing and maintating a presence for the group. For those of you who have met me in person, you know that what comes with that is great enthusiasm and encouragement and a desire to help you learn how to use that particular technology tool. In fact, helping people learn how to use technology has been my job for many years.

I continue learning and building my leadership skills. In 2005 I was chosen to participate in Circles of Power, a year-long leadership program for women faculty at the University of Kentucky. This was a somewhat intimidating experience for me as I was an untenured librarian working with a bunch of tentured teaching faculty and researchers. I learned a great deal about myself that year and have moved on to take a number of leadership roles on campus. This year I was awarded the Lorie Edwards Scholarship to participate in the Frye Leadership Institute, an intensive leadership program for aspiring library and technology leaders in higher education. I will literally be returning from my two week residency experience before heading out to the SLA Annual Conference. These leadership training opportunities must be worthwhile, as just yesterday I learned that I am the recipient of the NextGen Librarian Award for Leadership.

I want to give back to this association which has given me so much. I have learned so much from my time in SLA. I have developed new skills and gained life-long friendships. I have access to an incredibly talented network of experts who are just a phone call away. From the Centennial Celebration to the alignment project, this is such an exciting time to be involved in SLA. With the alignment, SLA has the opportunity to develop our vision for the future, and I want to be a part of that. Let me work for you as we create the future of SLA.

UPDATE: Read Q&A with the candidates on SLA's Candidates Corner.

SLA Academic Division is Official

I'm so pleased that the official announcement of the new Academic Division of SLA went out this week. What better time to launch a new division of an association than in the first week of its centennial year. I'm excited about leading this new division and will be working with a great team to get us off the ground. We still need more volunteers, so contact me if you are interested.

You might wonder why a "special" association needs an "academic" division. There are many reasons; one is that this will give all academic librarian members, regardless of subject discipline or specialty, an opportunity for networking and programming that is of a broader nature. We'll provide a forum for discussing topics such as building faculty relationships, supporting student retention goals, developing information literacy programs, re-evaluating the reference desk model, navigating the promotion/tenure path, and more.

While I belong to ALA and have attended a number of those conferences, I see my professional home as SLA. I started out in a non-traditional IT role and found SLA to be a good fit. In SLA, I continue find the very subject-specific programming valuable and the incredible networking and leadership opportunities essential. From my chapter to my primary division to the entire association, I find being involved in SLA rewarding and feel it has greatly benefitted my career. Academic librarians out there, I encourage you to take a second look at SLA. Even though you may not consider yourself or your environment to be "special," I bet SLA still has something to offer you.

Potential Academic Division of SLA

For the past few years, I've talked with colleagues at SLA conference about how great it would be if the conference had programming focused on academic library/campus issues. SLA is great because of its subject-specialized programming. I know I personally have learned a great deal from sessions on science resources, competitive intelligence tools, advanced searching techniques, and so forth. Wouldn't SLA be the perfect conference if in addition to the already excellent programming, leadership, and networking opportunities, academic librarians could also get those things we need about marketing our services more effectively to faculty, creating better instruction sessions for undergraduates, navigating the promotion/tenure process, building partnerships on campus, developing a learning commons, and so on. The possibilities are endless!

After talking with a few more people at the leadership summit earlier this year, I decided to pursue the idea of launching a new division and began the process shortly before the SLA Annual Conference in Seattle. I spent much of my time in Seattle in meetings, but I did manage to pull together 62 signatures very quickly at the conference. This afternoon, with the support and assistance of the division cabinet chairs and SLA HQ, I launched an online petition to gain the needed 100 total signatures. I'm delighted that within less than two hours, 24 more members have signed the petition. Even more exciting, 16 of the 24 indicated an interest in serving in an officer or committee capacity.

If you are willing to pay $18 to join an Academic Division of SLA and you are a current SLA member, you can sign the petition. I know there are some SLA members who are concerned about the formation of such a division, and I also know there are many who support it. I've already received multiple letters of support this afternoon. The Academic Division will bring more value to SLA membership, and it will be an excellent second (or third or fourth...) division for many of us. This is a great opportunity to build a new division, one that many of us feel SLA members need. Contact me if you are interested in getting involved.