President's Corner: James King By James King, james.king@nih.gov I’m honored to be your 2010 Chapter President! Our awesome chapter members have won numerous awards (58 at last count), started new divisions (including Military Libraries Division and Government Information Division), hosted six annual conferences (including the Centennial Conference last year), and six of our members have advanced to lead our association (including Anne Caputo our current SLA president). Building upon the extensive successes of the past and leaning heavily upon our outstanding team of volunteers, I have high expectations of this being one of the best years for our chapter. Despite our many successes and our enviable position, this isn’t a time to be resting on our laurels. I’ve worked in special libraries in the area for the past 20 years and I’ve seen libraries as well as information centers struggle to adapt to the new digital environment and show value within their organizations, resulting in budget cuts, staff cuts, and closures-even prior to the Great Recession. The SLA Alignment Project helped us see the stakeholders’ and decision makers’ perspectives and how we can begin to reposition ourselves to be strategic in our organizations. Jessica Beauchamp, the 2009 second-vice president, and her team, which included Lorraine Bell, Anne Caputo, Catherine Kitchell, Gail Kouril, Diane Schnurrpusch, and Jean Tatalias, updated the DC SLA Strategic Plan last year. They did a great job creating a vision and a direction for our chapter. I will strive to do them honor by implementing as much of the strategic plan as possible during my year of service. To start off, the new chapter vision states, “The Washington, DC Chapter of the Special Libraries Association is the recognized model of excellence as it prepares knowledge leaders for the future.” This vision is driving everything that the DC SLA Board is working on for our chapter members, and is being carried out through five strategic goals:
January/ February 2010 Volume 71, No. 1 Inside this issue: President’s Corner …..……..1 Chapter Events …..…….......3 Library Related Events …….5 2009 Smashed Records …..10 Taking the Reins …….........15 The Way Forward …...……16 Chapter Heads Updated at SLA Leadership Summit …17 Leaders and Followers Teach Each Other During the Leadership Summit ………18 Q & A with SLA’s President Anne Caputo ………...........19 Lubuto Libraries Transforms Youth Services in Africa …25 Librarians Explore Living in Multiple Worlds ………….27 Chapter Notes Membership Survey Results ….………...28 Backdoor Librarian Seizes Opportunities …...………...29 See our Snow Collage at: http://tinyurl.com/y8ooly6