Competitive Intelligence for Every Library

25Oct09

SLA 2009 Conference Round-up I first heard the term Competitive Intelligence a couple of years ago. I wondered what it meant. Competitive intelligence can be defined as the process of gathering information from a variety of sources, then the data is analyzed and applied to a specific industry, organization, or project (“Competitive Intelligence and Government […]

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Tags: business intelligence, competitive intelligence, conferences, SLA2009

Sharepoint with Taxonomy

06Sep09

SLA 2009 Conference Round-up I have been exposed to a Sharepoint demo in its incubation stage before being rolled out.  My intention is to understand more about the nuts and bolts of how it worked going into the SLA Tech Zone workshop. We got to run through some exercises at the Taxonomy and SharePoint session.  […]

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Tags: SharePoint, SLA2009, Technology

New techniques for old habits

20Aug09

Brenda and I have been taking a writing break, getting in our vacation time. Summer’s almost over, though, and it’s time to get back to work. I’ve had a whole series of experiences happen that are sort of connected. Have you been following the anonymous blogger story? Well, I was asked to find the decision […]

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Tags: Marketing, SLA2009, Social Media, Twitter

Creating Groupies*

10Jul09

SLA 2009 Conference Round-up *How to add value, make yourself irreplaceable & beat the pants off Google With a title like that, how could I not attend? And presenter Mary Ellen Bates came with an impeccable pedigree and recommendation by my colleague, Emma Wood.   (Emma commented on a different Bates presentation at SLA, “Painless (No, […]

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Tags: Marketing, SLA2009

Play=Work

07Jul09

SLA 2009 Conference Round-up Too often we get wrapped up in work and forget the joy of work. Stephen Abram challenged a group of librarians to incorporate playing into our work day at the conference session, “Play: Creative Tools for the Technical Librarian.” He said that he was almost 50 years old before he gave […]

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Tags: creativity, playing, SLA2009, Stephen Abram

Colin Powell’s Speech

06Jul09

SLA 2009 Conference Round-up Former General Colin Powell gave a rousing and humourous keynote speech at the Special Libraries Association conference last month. Powell needs no introduction having served a long term in the United States military, as well as being a former U.S. Secretary of State. I hesitated in writing about his speech as […]

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Tags: Colin Powell, Keynote speaker, SLA2009, Social Media

Climbing the ladder when there’s no ladder to climb

02Jul09

SLA 2009 Conference Round-up How do you get more responsibility, more money, more respect, when there’s nowhere for you to go in your organization? This title alone intrigued me, and made me stay even though technical difficulties at the beginning made for a rocky start. Three librarians shared their professional stories to explain how they […]

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Tags: Professional Development, SLA2009

Mish mash

20Jun09

I am gettng acclimatized after being away at SLA 2009 conference. Overall it was a great learning opportunity. I went to sessions about Sharepoint, food safety, and competitive intelligence to name a few. The open houses at hospitality suites were also a unstructured informal way to meet fellow information professionals. Highly recommended. A government librarian […]

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Tags: conferences, Networking, SLA2009

Day One of SLA2009

15Jun09

And now the education begins! After 2 days in Washingston visiting the sites, going to the open houses, and taking in the International Spy Museum (a must if you have an interest in espionage, corporate or otherwise!), I’ve started attending the information sessions. I started out with ROI 2.0 for Corporate Libraries. After a promising […]

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Tags: Networking, Professional Associations, Professional Development, SLA2009

SLA 2009!

14Jun09

Well it’s here! Both Brenda and I are in Washington, D.C. at SLA2009! What a fabulous city! We’ve already been to our first open house (Business and Finance, sponsored by BNA – thanks so much!). We met up with colleagues to have dinner at a wonderful French restaurant (Bistro du coin), and are slowly figuring […]

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Tags: Professional Associations, SLA2009, Training video tutorial