Winter 2009 KLA newsletter

Winter 2009 Newsletter hits the stands!

Can you believe it?

I can’t.

and better yet, a new one is coming out right after conference.

Woo-hoo!  Conference registration is now open.  Please visit the KLA conference website at
http://www.kansaslibraryassociation.org/displayconvention.cfm
to register early for the conference.  Click on Register for Conference and pay by credit card or print an invoice to send with a check.  Both KLA and MPLA members will sign in with their username (firstnamelastname with no spaces) and
password kla (default password which you will be prompted to change).
Non-members will create their own username and password for registration purposes only.
Regular registration rates run through March 6, 2009.  After March 7th registration increases.
KLA or MPLA member $100
Non-member $140
Students, Friends, Trustees $40

Conference highlights:
Keynote Speaker Will Manley, longtime Will’s World & Manley Arts
columnist
Keynote Speaker Brad Meltzer, #1 bestselling author
KLA Luncheon Speaker Roland Smith, award winning YA author
CULS Luncheon Speaker Lori Goetsch, ACRL Vice President
Library Celebration Luncheon FoKL/KLTA
State Librarian’s Luncheon
Pre-Conference Speaker Warren Graham, Black Belt Librarian
KLA/MPLA Awards Banquet
100+ enlightening sessions to choose from!

Be sure to join us for a fabulous joint conference in Wichita April 1-3, 2009!

If you have trouble with registration, please contact Carolyn at
kslibassoc@yahoo.com or Laura at llove@kckpl.lib.ks.us

Call for Chapters

CALL FOR CHAPTERS
Proposal Submission Deadline: October 30, 2008
Full Chapter Deadline: February 15, 2009

Book: “Recruitment, Development, and Retention of Information Professionals: Trends in Human Resources and Knowledge Management”
A book edited by: Elisabeth Pankl, Danielle Theiss-White, and Mary C. Bushing

Introduction
With the projected retirement openings in the field of information science and management and the ever growing need for knowledge management, the need for a viable workforce is more pressing than ever before.  Our handbook will provide both information professionals and their organizations with the skills and knowledge necessary to strengthen and develop the profession.

Objectives of the book
Our objective is to inform and to expand the current literature on the career development of information professionals by bringing together the expertise of practicing information professionals in the 21st century. This handbook will bring together this disparate yet exciting and vibrant profession by sharing how various information professionals encourage the recruitment, retention and career development of individuals within their organizations whether at a single workplace or on a regional, state, or national level. Thus, this handbook will provide a toolkit for employers, new information professionals, and information organizations.

The target audience
The prospective audience of our proposed text is composed of several distinct groups. Perhaps the most important group is the future information professionals. This group will benefit immensely from the information, real-life experiences, advice, and future developments detailed in the book. Another important group is the employers of information professionals. Employers will be able to use the information in the book to design and implement recruitment, development, and retention policies and procedures that further both the success and longevity of the profession and their own organizations. A third, but not final, group is the teachers and trainers of information professionals. All quality professional training incorporates not only the technical skills required for employment and advancement, but also the myriad of affective elements that shape one’s professional career.

Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
· Retention and/or recruitment research and/or practices and the information professional
· Retention and/or recruitment research and/or practices and diversity in the workplace or profession
· Mentoring policies, programs, procedures, and outcomes from an individual, organizational, regional, state, or national level
· Mentor/mentee relationships
· Mentoring in the professions/peer mentoring
· State, Regional, National leadership programs and outcomes
· Succession leadership planning
· Trends in Human Resources and the information professional/personnel management
· Career development guidance
· Organizational culture/group dynamics
· Orientation programs
· Continuing education/training/in-service education
· Librarianship as a profession
· MLS/MLIS/Library Media Specialist/Library Certification education programs
· Regional, state, and/or national information professional associations and their involvement with career development, recruitment to the profession, and retention

Submission Procedure
Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit a 2-5 page proposal clearly explaining the objectives and concerns of the proposed chapter by October 30, 2008. The status of submitted proposals will be communicated by November 15, 2008.  At that time, the authors of accepted proposals will be provided with chapter organizational guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by February 15, 2009. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. The book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group, Inc.), www.igi-global.com, publisher of the “Information Science Reference” (formally Idea Group Reference) and “Medical Information Science Reference” imprints.

Inquiries and Submissions can be forwarded electronically (Word document) to:
recruitment-development-retention@googlegroups.com

Elisabeth Pankl
Humanities Librarian and Assistant Professor
K-State Libraries
epankl@ksu.edu

Danielle Theiss-White
General Reference Coordinator and Assistant Professor
K-State Libraries
dtheiss@ksu.edu

Learning about Advocacy

The CULS Summer Institute has come and gone, but hopefully the spirit will live on as we go out to advocate in creative ways for libraries and librarians in Kansas.

Sheryl Stanley provided a great start to the day and got everyone talking about how we communicate, what we could do differently, and what we’re doing right.  Considering recent news about possible budget cuts, figuring out how to get our message across to those who hold the money is really important!

Considering that librarians like to talk, discuss, hash over, and generally share, the afternoon took on more of an unconference feel with break-out session topics being left up to the attendees.  And there was some great discussion about how to advocate better within our universities/colleges, conflict resolution, and whatever else came to mind.  (There was even a discussion about different catalog overlays between sessions.  You just never know what’s going to be talked about when librarians get together.  *wink*)

An idea that I’d like CULS and KLA to explore further is resource sharing.  But I’m not talking about physical or virtual resources like books and databases.  I’m thinking more along the lines of knowledge/experience sharing.  With travel budgets getting slashed (or disappearing entirely), it would be great if those of us still able to get to conferences and workshops would share what we learn with other librarians around the state.  For you tenture-track people, this falls nicely under “service to profession”.  I’ve got some ideas rolling around in my head on how we could do something like this.

Anyway, if you weren’t there, you missed a great day!  We even had someone travel all the way from Salt Lake City.  Here are pictures:  (Just click and you can see all of them.)

Summer Institute wiki

Unofficial minutes of the July 24th meeting.

{{these minutes are solely my interpretation of events and in no way are meant to be a reflection of the official minutes. These thoughts are approved only by me, and are not approved by any KLA member or employee.}}

Well we had an eventful meeting yesterday. Granted it was closer to a UFC cage match than most KLA meetings, but it had the distinction of being one I won’t soon forget.

We went around and introduced ourselves, where we work, and something about our favorite pet. I think it was Denise Smith who had the best story, something like out of the saddest Disney film you ever watched. A dead pig, a dead sheep, a run over puppy, all in about the span of a week! Poor Denise.

During the member and guest comments we were treated to the song “You really got me” by the son of Andrew Evans. I expect that at some point that kid is gonna be a rock/jazz/blues/classical star.

Then we went through the normal submitting of minutes and reports from the previous year. The report that really caught my attention was the one by Richard Brookman the chair of the Young Adult Roundtable. He has some exciting stuff prepared for his roundtable and for the KLA at large. Keep an eye on Richard, that cat seems to be able to get things going at full speed.

Next up was the ratification of presidential appointees. That was quickly done, with yours truly being name the publications/KLA newsletter chair. Andrew Evans and I are going to get together in some fashion and try to kick out a normal style newsletter sometime here in the near future. (Bet you didn’t know that, huh, Andrew?)

Well, then started 2 ½ hours of what I would call the worst case of civility in a KLA council meeting I have ever witnessed. Basically one section of KLA had sent a representative to the meeting to argue that sections case about what they consider to be an unfair dues structure. The section feels that they are being unfairly picked on by the new proposed due structure, and the Executive Council of the KLA feels that they are received a dues break that no other section in KLA is given. Seems simple enough doesn’t it? Well it did at first.

My problem was not with the problem that this section had, but with the way the representative bullied and badgered people on the council. I lost track of how many times this person tried to derail someone’s comments by making some snarky witticism that only appeared to bemuse himself.

It is at this point in my remarks about the meeting that I should say that Roger Carswell is now one of my favorite people. With calmness and intelligence he was able to tone down the elevated emotions….but only for a bit.

Motions were suggested; amendments to resolutions proposed….and 2 hours later things were so confusing to me at this point that on both votes relating to this I voted ‘abstain’. I could not in my mind justifying voting for or against something that no longer made sense to me.

Civility never goes out of style! And with class and grace Laura Loveless was able to handle what I thought was unacceptable behavior. I felt bad for the gentleman who sat next to this agitated section officer. I know we all hear the term ‘guilt by association’ all too often, but in this case, it personally made me sad. To his credit this person did ask the agitated person to calm down a bit, but to no avail.

I don’t feel that either side walked away thinking they had won this battle, if anything it was a skirmish that will inevitably be repeated.

The best thing about the meeting was that it ended.

So what are your thoughts? Where Were you at the meeting? Do you feel I got things all wrong? Or slightly wrong?

KLA membership!

Time to Re-UP people! And here are some choice words to persuade.
You got some more ideas? Bring it. You got a gripe you want to clear up, let me know!

KLA Vision Statement
Dynamic libraries and librarians serving all Kansans.

KLA Mission Statement
The Kansas Library Association is the common bond, public voice, and
collective power for the Kansas library community.

Library Organizations

One of the best ways to navigate the leadership opportunities in the field of librarianship is to become a member of a professional organization. There are quite a few out there in library land.

My tips on professional organization participation:
1. Join only one or two in the beginning.
2. Only say yes if you mean it.
3. Only volunteer if you have the time.
4. Show up early and stay late to meetings. Leaders are often picked when there are only a couple of people in the room.
5. Share your experience and knowledge with the organization. Often we think “What can this group do for me?”, when we might ought to think “What can I do for this group?”
6. If staying overnight at a conference, tag along with a dinner party. Let people start to recognize your face.
7. Be pushy, but not obnoxious.
8. Saying “Hello” always brings a smile.
9. Have fun.
10. Have fun. (Yeah, I know it’s real gimmicky to repeat number 9 again, but hey the Beatles wrote a whole song repeating that number!)

How to tell someone they sound racist

Greetings from the KLA President

Welcome to a new KLA year! It is both an honor and a pleasure to serve as President of the Kansas Library Association. Kansas has a wonderful community of Librarians, Friends and Trustees. Whether academic, public, school, special libray, Friend or Trustee, many of our concerns are the same. I look forward to working with everyone in order to grow our association and improve member services.

Yes, that means I’ll be calling on many of you for assistance!

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to represent you and KLA for the next year. KLA is YOUR association. Let’s make it a better association together.

Laura Loveless

llove@kckpl.lib.ks.us

Library Society of the World has fresh, new website!

In a perfect world in which we were all superheroes, I would like to think of myself as the Green Arrow and my pal Joshua Neff as Batman. If you are not familiar with the Joshua Neff, he is a pretty awesome librarian kickin’ it over at the Johnson County Library. He is on their top-notch web development team and he has been a part of kicking out some pretty good websites.

Today Joshua released the awesome news that there is a new ‘Library Society of the World’ webpage:

http://thelsw.org/

What is the ‘LSW’? Well, check out this blurb from their homepage:

“By joining the Society, you are joining a world-spanning group of library professionals and library advocates, dedicated to furthering the role of librarians, archivists, information professionals, and information educators through communication and collaboration. The LSW is about people, not buildings (although some of us think architecture is sexy). It’s about friendship, not organization. It’s about creating and fostering opportunities, not building barriers and divisions.”

Keep an eye on this site. Expect great things to come from this endeavor.

Late Breaking News! (update)

From what I hear the School of Library and Information Management at Emporia State University has made it through the accreditation process and will be having the ‘Conditional’ removed from its accreditation status.

If you consider yourself a Hornet, or a SLIMster this is truly an awesome day!

Hats off to all the hard work the administration, faculty, GA’s, and students at SLIM performed to get this painful thorn removed from the sides of us students. For me personally, it means not having to explain exactly what all this meant to us as students. Not that it ever meant that my pending MLS (one month 5 days, but who’s counting) would have been bunk, but it definitely was like a little black storm cloud hanging on the horizon.

Kudos to SLIM!

I am sure there will be an official release at some point in the future, and if there is anything I have gotten wrong I apologize ahead of time.

This story to be updated as need.

*********************************************************************

Update:

SLIM has now sent out this message:

Kansas MLS Students:

Dean Gwen Alexander announced today that we have been informed by ALA that SLIM has been removed from Conditional Accreditation.  The next ALA review will be held in spring 2015.

This is wonderful news, and we especially wish to thank all SLIM students, alums, and friends for your efforts and support.

Cheers!  Candy
Candace Boardman
Director, Kansas MLS Program
School of Library and Information Management
Emporia State University
Emporia, KS  66801
800-552-4770
620-341-5233 Fax
http://slim.emporia.edu