This is going to be pretty general on the work end of things, since I prefer to err on the side of not saying too much rather than saying too much about work.
I’ve been to two industry conferences, co-written a research report (and I’m helping gather data for another one), helped build and maintain some online databases and now I’m catching up on contact and document management activities as well. I’ve also done ad hoc research for colleagues for articles, on behalf of clients, etc..
We’re tech-friendly, within the limits of a parent company IT department that’s (rightly) concerned about security. I try to keep an eye out for new information sources.
One thing I wrestle with is the extent to which formal processes and task-specific software is required for document management for companies of 10 people or less. I’ll have to see if anyone in SLA’s KM division has thoughts on that.
SLA – some progress on the blog – we’ve got a lot of people reading, mainly because their email addresses are signed up to read blog updates. I may have gotten an advertiser for the blog, we’ll see.
Other than that, constant process issues with the blog and the perennial joys of travel in the Bay Area without a car mean I participate very little in local SLA Chapter activities and don’t have much ability to change that. Which is a shame, as we’ve had (and will have) some great programs.
I was also infuriated (not an exaggeration – I left the meeting as soon as was politic after that) by one person at a joint chapter meeting who felt the need to lecture my generation on ethics. Our president and others are working on student outreach, so hopefully that was an isolated crank.
So late 2009-2010 may be the year I drop some of my associations, we’ll see. I feel more connection to and interest in national SLA and divisions. I’m years behind on the SLA IT Blogging Division blog, local Solo Librarians meetings run up against the travel issue and AIIP I only kept membership because I was nervous about how my job was going.
Despite the fact that most people seem to be working in different types of libraries from me and it seems like people have Google and Twitter fetishes at times, LSW is probably the ‘association’ I feel closest to.
Posted by Steven Kaye
Posted by Steven Kaye
Posted by Steven Kaye